Marketing for the Exceptional Practice

Raleigh April 9, 2011 Marketing for the Exceptional Practice & Mastery over Money Seminar ATTENTION: This is IMPORTANT! As I predicted, the Washington State Dental Plan has just reduced re-imbursement to dentists in their NETWORK by 15%!! If you are in bed with PPO’s and insurance companies, your life is going to get a lot more difficult. Your Financial Freedom, Time Freedom, Control Freedom, Relationship Freedom and Purpose Freedom are in severe jeopardy. What happens to Physicians happens to Dentists 5-10 years later! Dentistry is a very unique and wonderful profession for those who understand how to build an Exceptional Practice. For the ‘herd’ who are too cheap and too fearful to spend the time and money to create a great practice, practice and life isn’t nearly as fulfilling, enjoyable and profitable. When I reached the airport on my way home, I had an e-mail from a Schuster Center alumni of 5 years in Seattle. He said he just had finished his month ever and that his practice overhead was down to 40%! That’s right 40%!! If you doubt me, e-mail me and I’ll forward you his name and e-mail and you can talk with him yourself. mike@cfpd.com In his e-mail he said that the majority (the herd) of dentists in Seattle are in a huge uproar because DELTA DENTAL has just lowered the fees it pays dentists in their plan by 15%! Now, let me share this with you from the Kodak study. If you want a 25% margin of profit, and you lower your fees 15% you have to increase your production 150% to equal the same profit margin you had before. There is simply no way on God’s green earth that this is going to happen. If the majority of dentists weren’t in SURVIVAL before, they will be now. · How can any dentist focus on the best interest of his/her patients when they are barely making enough money to pay their overhead, let alone themselves? · How do you think these dentists ‘feel’ when they go to work every day. · Imagine how a professional, any professional must feel about their practice and their life when all they think about is money. · Imagine how any of us feel when we are always pressed and short of time..trying to do our best, but neither being paid for doing our best nor having the time to do it. · Imagine how a dentist must feel when every patient coming to them is coming to them because they are either ‘in network’ or ‘on their plan!’ o Is this what dentists spent $500,000 on their college and dental school education for and then another $500,000 to open and run a dental practice? · Imagine how a dentist must feel working with ‘strangers’ every day with little or no time to get to know their patients. · Imagine how a dentist must feel when his staff are only interested in the money they make and not interested in the dentist, the quality of care the dentist is trying to deliver. · Imagine how a dentist must feel when every patient will only do what the ‘insurance company’ will pay for and puts off the rest. · Imagine going to work every day and having little or no appreciation, respect either by your patients or your staff. If you are not working ON your PRACTICE and ON YOURSELF to build an exceptional practice, then you are going to get sucked into the abyss of PPO hell. If you are in a rural area, far removed from any big city, and have no factories, no state workers, no teachers unions, no casino workers, then you can neglect to read this memo. If you have been a client of the Schuster Center and already built an exceptional practice, and you are already on the Road (Path) Less Traveled, well, stop and give yourself a pat on the back for following your heart and doing the right thing. Wishing you the best. Mike Schuster