{"id":2426,"date":"2016-03-08T06:00:12","date_gmt":"2016-03-08T12:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/allisonwatts.com\/?p=2426"},"modified":"2020-08-29T09:09:57","modified_gmt":"2020-08-29T14:09:57","slug":"ep-47-intentionally-intentional-practice-dr-mark-murphy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allisonwatts.com\/ep-47-intentionally-intentional-practice-dr-mark-murphy\/","title":{"rendered":"Ep #47: Being Intentionally Intentional In Your Practice with Dr Mark Murphy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/allisonwatts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Mark-Murphy.jpg\"><img width=\"300\" height=\"300\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-post-2426 wp-image-2310 size-medium\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHdpZHRoPSIzMDAiIGhlaWdodD0iMzAwIj48cmVjdCB3aWR0aD0iMTAwJSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxMDAlIj48YW5pbWF0ZSBhdHRyaWJ1dGVOYW1lPSJmaWxsIiB2YWx1ZXM9InJnYmEoMTUzLDE1MywxNTMsMC41KTtyZ2JhKDE1MywxNTMsMTUzLDAuMSk7cmdiYSgxNTMsMTUzLDE1MywwLjUpIiBkdXI9IjJzIiByZXBlYXRDb3VudD0iaW5kZWZpbml0ZSIgLz48L3JlY3Q+PC9zdmc+\" alt=\"Dr Mark Murphy\" data-public-id=\"Mark-Murphy\/Mark-Murphy.jpg\" data-format=\"jpg\" data-transformations=\"f_auto,q_auto\" data-version=\"1587010417\" data-seo=\"1\" data-size=\"300 300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/transformational-practices-llc\/images\/w_300,h_300,c_scale\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1587010417\/Mark-Murphy\/Mark-Murphy.jpg?_i=AA 300w, https:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/transformational-practices-llc\/images\/w_150,h_150,c_fill,g_auto\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1587010417\/Mark-Murphy\/Mark-Murphy.jpg?_i=AA 150w, https:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/transformational-practices-llc\/images\/w_200,h_200,c_fill,g_auto\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1587010417\/Mark-Murphy\/Mark-Murphy.jpg?_i=AA 200w, https:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/transformational-practices-llc\/images\/w_144,h_144,c_fill,g_auto\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1587010417\/Mark-Murphy\/Mark-Murphy.jpg?_i=AA 144w, https:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/transformational-practices-llc\/images\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1587010417\/Mark-Murphy\/Mark-Murphy.jpg?_i=AA 402w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-delivery=\"upload\" onload=\";window.CLDBind?CLDBind(this):null;\" data-cloudinary=\"lazy\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>On this episode of <em>Practicing with the Masters, <\/em>I am honored to welcome back Dr. Mark Murphy. Mark practices general dentistry on a limited basis and lectures internationally on leadership, practice management, communication, case acceptance, planning, occlusion, and TMD.<\/p>\n<p>Mark is the lead faculty for clinical education at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.microdental.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Micro Dental<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dentaltech.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">DTI, Dental Technologies Incorporated<\/a>. He is also an adjunct professor at the <a href=\"http:\/\/dental.udmercy.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">University Of Detroit Mercy School Of Dentistry<\/a> and on the board of directors for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pankey.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pankey Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Mark is the principle of a web-based application called Funktional Tracker, a behavioral tracking app marketed towards Dentists. Utilizing a combination of daily user inputs and data synchronization with the practice management software, Mark\u2019s app helps Dentists to improve their practices. Small business owners can track and correlate desirable business behaviors in their practice with key performance indicators that measure the success of their practice.<\/p>\n<p>I invited Mark back because after the last time he was on, we felt that there was still so much that we wanted to talk about&#8230; I knew I had to have him back. He joins us to share his incredible knowledge on becoming intentional in all respects to grow your practice and retain your patients.<\/p>\n<h3>What You&#8217;ll Learn From This Episode:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The three things you can do to grow your practice now.<\/li>\n<li>Why your marketing should focus on your existing clients.<\/li>\n<li>How to fix a retention problem to be busier than your wildest dreams.<\/li>\n<li>How to create an intentional matrix to grow your practice.<\/li>\n<li>The tool you already have in your practice that will dramatically increase the rate of dentistry that your patients will say yes to.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Listen To The Full Interview:<\/h3>\n\n<h3>Featured On The Show:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Connect with Dr. Mark Murphy: Funktional Tracker | <a href=\"mailto:MTMurphyDDS@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Email<\/a>\u00a01 | <a href=\"mailto:MarkMurphy@FunktionalTracker.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Email<\/a>\u00a02<\/li>\n<li>Practicing with the Masters Ep #44:\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/allisonwatts.com\/ep-44-ready-transformation-dr-mark-murphy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Being Ready For Transformation with Dr Mark Murphy<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pankey.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pankey Institute<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carestream.com\/default.aspx?LangType=1033\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carestream<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Full Episode Transcript:<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/allisonwatts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/EP047-PWTMTranscript.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img width=\"311\" height=\"77\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-post-2426 wp-image-2277\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHdpZHRoPSIzMTEiIGhlaWdodD0iNzciPjxyZWN0IHdpZHRoPSIxMDAlIiBoZWlnaHQ9IjEwMCUiPjxhbmltYXRlIGF0dHJpYnV0ZU5hbWU9ImZpbGwiIHZhbHVlcz0icmdiYSgxNTMsMTUzLDE1MywwLjUpO3JnYmEoMTUzLDE1MywxNTMsMC4xKTtyZ2JhKDE1MywxNTMsMTUzLDAuNSkiIGR1cj0iMnMiIHJlcGVhdENvdW50PSJpbmRlZmluaXRlIiAvPjwvcmVjdD48L3N2Zz4=\" alt=\"Allison&#039;s-Button\" data-public-id=\"Allisons-Button\/Allisons-Button.jpg\" data-format=\"jpg\" data-transformations=\"f_auto,q_auto\" data-version=\"1587010383\" data-seo=\"1\" data-size=\"311 77\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/transformational-practices-llc\/images\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1587010383\/Allisons-Button\/Allisons-Button.jpg?_i=AA 311w, https:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/transformational-practices-llc\/images\/w_300,h_74,c_scale\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1587010383\/Allisons-Button\/Allisons-Button.jpg?_i=AA 300w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 311px) 100vw, 311px\" data-delivery=\"upload\" onload=\";window.CLDBind?CLDBind(this):null;\" data-cloudinary=\"lazy\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Being Intentionally Intentional In Your Practice with Dr Mark Murphy<\/h3>\n<div id=\"transcript-link-2426\" class=\"sh-link transcript-link sh-hide\"><a href=\"#\" onclick=\"showhide_toggle('transcript', 2426, 'CLICK HERE TO READ THE TRANSCRIPT (10,299 WORDS )', 'Hide The Transcript (10,299 Hide Transcript)'); return false;\" aria-expanded=\"false\"><span id=\"transcript-toggle-2426\">CLICK HERE TO READ THE TRANSCRIPT (10,299 WORDS )<\/span><\/a><\/div><div id=\"transcript-content-2426\" class=\"sh-content transcript-content sh-hide\" style=\"display: none;\"><\/p>\n<p>Welcome to <em>Practicing with the Masters<\/em> for dentists with your host, Dr. Allison Watts. Allison believes that there are four pillars for a successful, fulfilling dental practice: clear leadership, sound business principles, well-developed communication skills, and clinical excellence. Allison enjoys helping dentists and teams excel in all of these areas. Each episode she brings you an inspiring conversation with another leading expert. If you desire to learn and grow and in the process take your practice to the next level, then this is the show for you. Now, here\u2019s your host, Dr. Allison Watts.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Welcome to <em>Practicing with the Masters<\/em> podcast. I\u2019m your host, Allison Watts, and I\u2019m dedicated to bringing you masters in the field of dentistry, leadership, and practice management to help you have a more fulfilling and successful practice and life.<\/p>\n<p>All right, hello everybody. Thank you so much for being here, spending your evening with us. I\u2019m going to go ahead and officially introduce Mark. Some of you guys know him, some of you guys have heard him before on here. Thank you for coming back, Mark.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My pleasure. Thank you for having me.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Always nice to talk to you and always nice to learn from you. Mark Murphy is the lead faculty for clinical education at MicroDental and DTI Dental Technologies Incorporated. He also serves as an adjunct faculty at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Dentistry and the Pankey Institute where he also serves on the board of directors.<\/p>\n<p>He practices general dentistry on a limited basis in Rochester, Michigan and lectures internationally on leadership, practice management, communication, case acceptance, planning, occlusion, and TMD.<\/p>\n<p>Mark is also the principal of a web-based application, Funktional Tracker. It is a behavior-tracking app marketed towards dentists who wish to improve their practices. Through a combination of daily user inputs and data synchronization with office management software, the app let\u2019s small practice owners track and correlate desirable behaviors of their staff a.k.a. Key Behavioral Indicators with Key Performance Indicators that measure the success of their practice.<\/p>\n<p>One of Mark\u2019s favorite quotes is, \u201cWhen the student is ready the teacher appears.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Because it\u2019s true.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He believes that when we\u2019re ready in life\u2014yeah it is. When we\u2019re ready in life, no matter how many wonderful people you\u2019re running around, when you are ready, you&#8217;re going to hear things you didn\u2019t know before. That\u2019s when incredible transformation begins and that\u2019s what we\u2019re here for tonight.<\/p>\n<p>Those of you who were here last time, I know we got a lot of good information, and Mark, like I said, I\u2019m really excited that you\u2019ve agreed to come back. I know we enjoyed last time and we got a lot of good info and we also had a lot of great conversation and great questions. I know you and I talked for quite a while after the call.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We did.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We were saying like, \u201cOh my gosh, we didn\u2019t even get to finish.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No, we really didn\u2019t. So that\u2019s why I really appreciate you having me back. Because when you asked if I&#8217;d come back, I said that would be great because it will give me a chance to do what my wife always yells at me about not doing sometimes. That\u2019s when I\u2019m teaching or lecturing, sometimes I get caught up in the 10,000 and 20,000 foot level looking at something and I don\u2019t always finish up talking about what are the specific things you can do to achieve that.<\/p>\n<p>So I felt like when we got done last time, we had some great conversations and a lot of great questions people were coming up with and it led us on some tangents and down some rabbit holes. It was all great stuff. I mean, I loved it. I wouldn\u2019t change it for the world but I felt like we didn\u2019t get a chance to send people home with stuff that they could do Monday morning in their practices to make a difference. So I appreciate that.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah. And you don\u2019t even know this but when I first started doing these calls, I asked every single speaker, and I don\u2019t think I asked you for this. I used to say, \u201cI want everybody to walk away from this call with something actionable, something that they can take back Monday morning and do to change their practice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>You know what, they may have gotten some stuff from that conversation but we weren\u2019t so intentional about it.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Correct.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So you said my favorite quote. Intentional, at least the last couple, three years has probably been my favorite word.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Favorite word.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s my work in progress this year to be more intentional in everything that I do.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Same here.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, so you mentioned to me there\u2019s three things. Right?<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, and that\u2019s a lie because there\u2019s 300 things of course. Or there\u2019s 30 things. But to keep it simple so that in a small amount of time like we have, the question I&#8217;d ask myself, and the question you and I talked about afterwards last time is, what would I send somebody with after this?<\/p>\n<p>Probably one great thing you can do in three different categories. So here\u2019s three things, one from each of the main drivers of practice growth and success and improvement that would allow us to be more successful or a little bit better in our practices, and so I thought that would be a good way of framing it.<\/p>\n<p>Certainly each one we could take off on tangents, go down rabbit holes, but we\u2019ll try not to do that tonight. Instead I would talk about the three things that I would consider doing in a practice if I wanted to improve things.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, perfect.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So the thesis for this is a very important article that I read a long time ago in <em>Harvard<\/em> <em>Business Review.<\/em> It was about banks. It was a case study about banks and how they spent a lot of money on marketing to try and get more new clients. What the case study did is they spent about 25 percent of the original budget, instead of trying to get more new clients, in retaining their existing business.<\/p>\n<p>Then they spent another 25 or 27 percent on trying to sell more to their existing customers. In a bank, that means instead of you just having a checking account, could they come and sell you a savings account? Could they sell you a mortgage? A home equity line of credit? A car loan, etc.<\/p>\n<p>If they just worked on those two things, and quit trying to go out and get more new clients, it turns out the bank grew more than it had ever grown before. I found that fascinating about the banks, but that didn\u2019t interest me. What kept interesting me is it sounded to me like they were talking about dental practices.<\/p>\n<p>Because what I heard in this <em>Harvard Business Review<\/em> article was if we focused on retaining our existing clients and selling them more of the dentistry that they need, that\u2019s a horrible way to say it, selling dentistry. So let\u2019s phrase it as, if I helped more of my patients make better choices about optimal health, and I got to do more of the dentistry that lit my fire and floated my and my team\u2019s boat. Then oh by the way, we might make more money.<\/p>\n<p>So if I kept more of my patients and didn\u2019t have to find as many new patients, and I did all the dentistry that they needed to have done. I got them to want that. I probably wouldn\u2019t need any new patients. I\u2019d probably have so much dentistry to do that I&#8217;d be busy for the next two or three or four years.<\/p>\n<p>That thesis is correct because most practices come to talk to us and say, \u201cMan, I need more patients.\u201d I can only tell you story after story of finding out that somebody is averaging 15 new patients a month, which is 180 per year, which is 360 new patient hygiene visits needed next year and that\u2019s 45 eight-hour days.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Wow.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So I say to them, \u201cSo 15 new patients a month, right?\u201d They go, \u201cYeah.\u201d Well I go, \u201cThat doesn\u2019t make any sense. You need more new patients?\u201d They go, \u201cYeah, I got holes in my schedule. My hygiene is down half the day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I go, \u201cWell how many patients is that a year?\u201d I make them do the math. \u201cThen if they all came in twice, how many is that?\u201d I make them do the math. Then I have them divide it by eight, that\u2019s how many full days of hygiene that should have added to their schedule, 45 eight-hour days to accommodate a 180 new patients if they had a 100 percent retention.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now, nobody has 100 percent retention. But even if you get half of that, and you added 45 four-hour days, 45 half days of hygiene. So I typically say to practices and dentists who tell me they need more new patients, I work them through their own math and I say, \u201cYou know, I don\u2019t think you have a new patient problem. I think you\u2019ve got a retention problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It changes their perspective. They have an almost instantaneous paradigm shift. So the very first thing that I would categorize about the three things is I would say one of the things should be associated with how do we retain more of our existing patients?<\/p>\n<p>Then just like in <em>Harvard Business Review<\/em> article, the second thing I would focus on and say, okay, on those patients that are staying with us and coming in every six months for their cleaning. Am I getting the opportunity to do all the dentistry that they need or are they playing that \u201cI just do what insurance covers\u201d game? If they are, I\u2019m frustrated. And things keep breaking out down in their mouth and they keep having emergencies and I don\u2019t feel satisfied. They don\u2019t feel satisfied. My team doesn\u2019t feel satisfied because they&#8217;re driven by this insurance entitlement mentality.<\/p>\n<p>If the first thing is retaining more of my patients, the second thing is getting them to say yes to more of the dentistry. Then oh by the way, once in a while, yes, once in a while, especially in younger, newer practices, you probably do need a few new patients. Even if you had a solid base of new patients, there\u2019s times when want to grow or you&#8217;re getting closer to transitioning your practice in such a way that you want to bring in an associate. So there\u2019s plenty of times in a practice cycle, in the lifecycle of the practice that you might want more new patients.<\/p>\n<p>So the three categories that drove me to say three things is, what could we do as the most significant driver of retention in a practice? Then what could we do to improve case acceptance so that we got to do more of the dentistry that our patients needed? Then what can we do to get more new patients?<\/p>\n<p>So those are the three things that I want to talk about. Does that make sense from an organizational standpoint?<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Totally. Yeah, I love that. It\u2019s very clear.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 All right. So with those three topics and the thesis, because we don\u2019t have slides or anything, which I kind of like this format, we don\u2019t have slides. I would ask you to try to remember those three categories and think of it as a matrix. So on the left-hand side of the piece of paper you could have hygiene retention, you could have case acceptance, then you could have new patients. Those would be three things.<\/p>\n<p>Then across the top, as you went from left to right across the page, you could have what are your Key Performance Indicators now? How are you doing now? Then what would you like it to be? What are your goals? Then what are the behaviors you would choose? So what are the Key Behavioral Indicators? What are the tools? What are the things you&#8217;re going to do differently to change those numbers to what you want? Then finally what will that cost?<\/p>\n<p>Now you\u2019ve got a matrix that you can use that\u2019s very intentional about how you want to create more success, more growth, do more of the dentistry you want to have. Help more of patients have healthier mouths. You\u2019ve got a matrix where you can focus on those three driving components.<\/p>\n<p>Then you can measure how successful you are by looking at both the Key Behavioral Indicators and then measuring the behavior, not just the performance. You\u2019ll have Key Behavioral Indicators, you\u2019ll have Key Performance Indicators, you\u2019ll have goals and objectives. Then you\u2019ll figure out if it\u2019s going to cost you some money.<\/p>\n<p>But for example, simply, if you\u2019re see ten new patients a month and your goal is fifteen, what are you going to do to get five more? You&#8217;re going to ask patients for referral. We\u2019ll talk about that. Maybe you&#8217;re going to put an ad in the newspaper. You&#8217;re going to go on TV or the radio. You\u2019re going to go door to door and hand out handouts, I don&#8217;t know.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever you\u2019re going to do, some of those things have budgets and costs, some of them are time intensive, they have different success ratios. If I decide to go on television and in the newspapers, it\u2019s going to cost me a lot of money. If I decide to put out coupons, I might get the wrong kind of patients.<\/p>\n<p>So now you can at least have some fairly objective way to design and then measure those things that you&#8217;re trying to do and accomplish. See we don\u2019t learn that in dental school because in dental school they\u2019re teaching us in four years as much as they can about fixing teeth. We should have really gone to business management school, get an MBA, marketing school, or something like that and it would have changed how we thought about running a practice.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s how I would ask us to think. An easy way to remember that is the terminology in the business world would be conversion, percentage of business, and retention. So the initials would be C, P, and R. Conversion of prospects to new clients. Penetration or percentage of share or percentage of work or percentage of wallet, share of a wallet. There\u2019s a number of different terms. So it\u2019d be a C, P, and R. The P would be, I usually think of it as percentage of business. The percentage of mouth that we get from that patient. How much of the dentistry we get to do.<\/p>\n<p>Then finally, retention. Keeping more of those patients. You can remember CPR as this life-saving acronym but it\u2019s also a life-saving acronym, if you will, for your business. So it\u2019s kind of easy to remember. In our case, it\u2019s hygiene retention is retention, case acceptance is your percentage of work that you get to do, and certainly new patients are conversions from prospects to new clients.<\/p>\n<p>So let\u2019s start with the most important one, that\u2019s hygiene retention. When a friend of mine who did have 15 new patients a month was crying about more new patients and I ran through that math, remarkably he said, \u201cWell I never thought of it that way.\u201d I said, \u201cThat\u2019s great. You know why?\u201d He said, \u201cWhy?\u201d I said, \u201cBecause we went to dental school and not business school.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then I said, \u201cIt sounds like you\u2019ve got more of a retention problem.\u201d Then I waited. Then I waited for him to say, \u201cWhat do we do about that?\u201d Because when the student is ready\u2014thank you for that quote by the way\u2014when the student is ready, the teacher appears. So I can tell him the right answer but it\u2019s more important that he wants to hear the right answer.<\/p>\n<p>So sometimes you have to wait just a second with patients. Sometimes you have to wait with your team. Sometimes you have to wait when you\u2019re teaching a dentist, when I\u2019m teaching out at Pankey or anywhere that I\u2019m lecturing. So sometimes that sort of pause and not saying anything, that uncomfortable little silence is where some of the best learning ever gets a chance to occur.<\/p>\n<p>Then I said to him, \u201cI think you\u2019ve got more of a retention problem.\u201d And I waited. He said, \u201cSo how do you fix that?\u201d I said, \u201cHow awesome.\u201d I said, \u201cWell\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m glad you asked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah. \u201cThank you for asking.\u201d That\u2019s right. \u201cI\u2019m glad you asked.\u201d So I\u2019m not certain how I would solve it, it would depend on how your problem arose and what we could do about it but I go, \u201cFirst I need some more information.\u201d He said, \u201cWhat would you need?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I go, \u201cThank you for asking again.\u201d So I said, \u201cFirst, I\u2019d want to know how you were doing at the single most important thing that drives how you retention.\u201d He said, \u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d I said, \u201cHow many of your patients today when they come in to get their teeth cleaned are leaving with their next hygiene appointment set up, time and date, six months or three months, whatever, the recares.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was great because his eyes dropped and he went, \u201cOh, I don\u2019t think we\u2019re very good at that.\u201d I go, \u201cWell how not very good at that do you think you are?\u201d He goes, \u201cI bet it\u2019s only about maybe 85 percent.\u201d So I had him go back and check. I had him go back to his practice, draw a line down a sheet of paper, look at the first and last months.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s February now, so from the first of January and on the left-hand side of the paper, put a tick mark, go to the first day that you worked in January and put a tick mark on the first day you worked for every patient that came to get their teeth cleaned. Then look them up in the computer to see if they have an appointment, time and date specific setup six months down the road. If they do, put a tick mark on the right-hand side.<\/p>\n<p>Then go to the next day that you worked, tick, tick, tick, tick. How many tick marks on the right? The next day that you worked. Until you get to 100 patient visits on the left-hand side. When you do, stop, and then count up the tick marks for the patients that have an appointment six months out on the right-hand side and that will give you the exact percentage with a pretty large in, 100. The percentage of patients who are leaving with a next hygiene appointment.<\/p>\n<p>Also, in the average practice, when I was with Mercer, I looked at probably, I don&#8217;t know, well over 1,000 practices, data forms. The average practice, hygiene retention, patients leaving with their next hygiene appointment was just under 70 percent. Now the difference between 70 and 90 percent, where it should be, is $50,000 or $60,000 or $70,000 in hygiene services in a dental practice.<\/p>\n<p>And it\u2019s a lot of time, effort, and energy to try and fill those appointments six months down the road when you didn\u2019t fill them today.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So it\u2019s time, it\u2019s effort, it\u2019s energy, it\u2019s the kind of phone calls nobody wants to make trying to fill the schedule. All because we rolled over and played dead sometimes when we said to the patient, \u201cSo is this generally a good time of the day for you? You want to setup your six-month recare?\u201d And I said, \u201cI travel a lot, just send me a card.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Instead of using strong verbal skills and good communication and selling the benefit first, why it\u2019s good for the patient, instead of doing that, we just said, \u201cOkay.\u201d And we send them a reminder card. Then we\u2019ve got to try to fill that appointment six months down the road. A lot of them slip through the cracks, don\u2019t they? That\u2019s the issue.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That is still happening, huh?<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pardon?<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s still happening today?<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh my god, yes. Absolutely right. Oh yeah. The last few practices we started up as consulting projects, we measured two in the 50s, one in the 70s, we did have one in the 80s, we had about an 82 or an 83. The only practices, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s an exception to what I\u2019m going to say, the only practices I\u2019ve ever measured that were 90 or above are practices that had already heard me speak and began measuring it and changing things about it before we started working with them.<\/p>\n<p>Nobody is in the 90s unless you&#8217;re consciously measuring that and working on it. And here\u2019s another, warn ya. So some of you might be sitting there thinking, \u201cOh, my practice is great. We do that much than that.\u201d Well, I thank you for thinking that. I\u2019m sure you&#8217;re right from a perceptual standpoint but just to appease me, go measure it.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And be prepared to find out that the number that you think it is probably going to be higher than what it really is. That\u2019s okay. In fact, if it is 90 or 95, you probably can\u2019t do much to improve it much more. We get 96s, 98s, but 92, 94, that\u2019s about as high as you&#8217;re going to get it. It\u2019s not worth the time, effort, energy to try and get much higher than that. In fact, if it is 60. If it is 70, celebrate. That\u2019s awesome. Why is that awesome? Think of the potential.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Right? You\u2019re getting by on paying your bills now and if there\u2019s that kind of opportunity and you could find $50,000 or $60,000 or $70,000 worth of hygiene to do, guess what? For every dollar of hygiene that you find, there\u2019s another $2 or $3 of dental work that comes out of those hygiene appointments.<\/p>\n<p>So if you found $50,000 in hygiene opportunity, there\u2019s another $100,000 in dental opportunity. That\u2019s $150,000 delta in terms of what you\u2019ve got now and what you could have down the road. Don\u2019t think of it as money, think of it as that many more patients having a healthier mouth.<\/p>\n<p>That much more dentistry that you get to do that\u2019s fun to do. And, oh by the way, that turns into money. So the money part is just an outcome, a way of measuring, doing the right thing that\u2019s in our patient\u2019s best interest.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So how do we change that? Well when a patient says, \u201cWell gosh, can\u2019t you just send me a reminder card in six months?\u201d What I would coach somebody to say is something like this, I&#8217;d say, first I would go to right to where they are and be present with them in their response. Then I would use some sort of a strong verbal skill, a bridging comment, to take them to an action that I&#8217;d like them to do, that we agree to do together. Then I would offer a solution that makes sense.<\/p>\n<p>So I might say something like, \u201cOh, Allison, I know exactly how you feel. Sometimes I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m doing in six months. But let\u2019s do this, let\u2019s go ahead and set up something in six months but don\u2019t worry about it, if you get near the date and you find you\u2019ve got a scheduling change, you\u2019re going to be out of town, no problem at all. Nothing whatsoever. No sweat. Just give us a call and we can switch that to another day or another time. But it\u2019s way easier to change that appointment when you already have one than if you\u2019re not in the books at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>You know, that sounds like it makes sense. It\u2019s not how we schedule. If somebody calls up, we find them hour. If they have an hour, it doesn\u2019t really make it any easier than finding them a different hour but it sounds like if I have a one hour appointment, I could trade it for another time.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s not like if we have an auction. \u201cYeah, I\u2019ve got a Tuesday at 2:00.\u201d [Speaking like an auctioneer] \u201cI\u2019ve got a Wednesday at 2:00. I\u2019ve got a Wednesday at 2:00, 2:00, 2:00. Do I got a 2:30?\u201d We don\u2019t do that. But it sounds like it makes sense when you say it. And guess what? If you say that 20 times, 18 people go, \u201cOkay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now that\u2019s not the magic. Here\u2019s the magic. The magic is some of those people, not all of them, some of those people, it doesn\u2019t have to be all of them. Just some of them schedule around that for the next six months.<\/p>\n<p>So when Allison is getting out there five months and two weeks and somebody calls you up and says, \u201cHey, I\u2019m going to be out of town next week, can we reschedule?\u201d You go, \u201cThat\u2019d be great. How about Tuesday afternoon?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, I can\u2019t Tuesday.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy not?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have a dental appointment. Could you do Wednesday?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>See, some of those people will put it in their book and if they don\u2019t have that out of town conflict, or something else, they\u2019ll book around it. So now your real schedule when you get out there six months down the road, is fuller than it would have been and more of those patients show up and you get an opportunity to have patients with healthier mouths and you get to do more of the dentistry that they need and everybody wins. That flat out works.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s simple.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah. And the best part is this, if you go back to your practice and you measure that next hygiene percentage like we talked about. Then you walk away and you tell them, \u201cI\u2019m going to measure this again in a month,\u201d and you don\u2019t do any coaching on verbal skills like that. Guess what? It will get better. As soon as people know you&#8217;re measuring it, it will improve. On average about eight points. Then you coach them on some of the verbal skills and it goes up again. Then you continue to coach them and practice that and it continues to go up again.<\/p>\n<p>When the father says, \u201cOh, you know I\u2019ve got three kids in today getting their teeth cleaned. You\u2019ve got to call my wife, she sets up those appointments.\u201d I heard a hygienist say to the father, \u201cI know exactly how you feel. I wouldn\u2019t want my husband making those appointments either but I\u2019ve got a great idea.\u201d She says, \u201cLet\u2019s go ahead and set something up. You take the cards home. Don\u2019t even let them out of your hand. Walk through the door, say to your wife I made you make these and if they work for her, you\u2019re a hero, and if they&#8217;re not, she can call and change them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The prospect of the guy being a hero when he gets home and everything that that might carry with it that for that evening is worth taking a shot. I know, because I\u2019ve been married to my high school sweetheart for 38 years and I would definitely run with that.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s cool.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When we call and confirm patients, we can confirm them with intentionality. We can say something nice on the phone like, \u201cI was just calling to confirm your appointment for Tuesday at 2:00 for your cleaning. See you then. Thank you so much.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Or we could say, \u201cAllison, I was calling to confirm your appointment for Tuesday at 2:00 with Linda. She\u2019s looking forward to seeing you.\u201d Now, that just changed it from another appointment with a procedure attached to it to an appointment with a person. Now I can\u2019t say that unless you know Linda. I can\u2019t say that unless you like Linda. I can\u2019t just say it arbitrarily. It\u2019s not a script. It\u2019s still a thinking-person\u2019s game. But we can do things like that, we can confirm our appointments with cards and letters that we send out.<\/p>\n<p>We used to use handwritten ones, remember that in the old days? I mean, I think for my dad who\u2019s 93, I think I\u2019d still have them handwrite one. I don\u2019t think he wants to get a generic postcard and he certainly doesn\u2019t want an email or a text because he wouldn\u2019t know how to answer that. But if we can individualize the form of communication with each of our patients when we\u2019re confirming their appointments, we\u2019ll stand a better chance of those people coming in.<\/p>\n<p>So see there\u2019s behaviors that we can change and we can measure and track them, that\u2019s the kind of stuff that our software does. And it\u2019s not how you track that\u2019s important. It\u2019s that you track. But if we track these behaviors in real time, the outcomes change and the schedule is fuller and the production is better. Pretty soon I\u2019m not crying about wanting more new patients. That flat out works every single time.<\/p>\n<p>But once you get to about 90 or 92 or 94 percent, quite trying to improve it, that\u2019s about as good as it\u2019s going to get. Nobody can get to 100 percent. I see months where we\u2019ve had a 100 percent. I\u2019ve seen months where we had two or three months in a row of 96, 98, but 92, 94 that\u2019s about the end. There\u2019s always going to be a couple patients. So once you\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What did your friend up scoring? The one that thought he was at 85?<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh, thank you. I didn\u2019t finish that piece.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I think I took you off track because I asked you a question.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So he thought he was 85. He went back, he was 60.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh, wow. Okay.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He told his staff that, he told them he was going to measure it again. They jumped to 75 in one month. Then we coached them and they\u2019ve been at or around 90, 92, sometimes they dip to 85, 87. But they\u2019ve never been below that. That\u2019s a big deal. That\u2019s a big deal.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That is a big deal. That a huge improvement.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So now those patients are coming back in. Your schedule is fuller. Then you want to get better case acceptance and there\u2019s lots of stuff we could talk about in terms of case acceptance. Probably the primary thing I\u2019d really want to talk about but it would take us all evening is talk about how to create real, true curiosity and co-discovery in that new patient experience. So that patients come to want what we know they need.<\/p>\n<p>But that\u2019s, that\u2019s a long discussion. That\u2019s a challenging behavioral discussion. But there\u2019s a tool out there that most of us have in our practices that we could use every single day that we don\u2019t use as often as we could or we should, that makes a huge difference.<\/p>\n<p>I lectured once at the Venetian in Las Vegas. I remember the location, the room, and I was talking about this and I asked the question to them, I said, \u201cSo how many of you have an intraoral camera in your practice?\u201d There was about 600 people there, about 150 practices. Not every hand in the room went up but darn near every hand in the room went up.<\/p>\n<p>I said, \u201cKeep your hands up. Keep your hands up.\u201d Everybody wants to put them down. \u201cKeep your hands up, everybody. Keep your hands up. Close your eyes but keep your hands up.\u201d I said, \u201cIf you use the intraoral camera at least once a day, keep your hands up. If not, put them down.\u201d And I didn\u2019t count because it happened too quickly but I\u2019ll bet that 70 or 80 percent of the hands, maybe more, went down.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Went down, yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now just think about this. We have a tool called an intraoral camera that takes a picture of a tooth and puts it on a 16 or 24 or a 32-inch television screen in front of a patient and most people are visual. They like that visual image.<\/p>\n<p>And we could show them something gnarly in their mouth, something horrible, bloody, puffy gum, or a big old gnarly filling that\u2019s broken down, it\u2019s cracked, or wear facets and craze lines. And we can just stare at it with them and go, \u201cLook at that.\u201d And say, \u201cWhat do you think about that?\u201d I mean, we could do that right? And instead\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, that\u2019s awesome. I love it.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The average person doesn\u2019t even use the intraoral camera once a day.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s because we get busy with other things and yet this tool is laying there. I don\u2019t want to shortchange the idea of the curiosity and co-discovery kind of examination. I&#8217;d love to come back and spend an hour just talking about that sometime. But if you just took an intraoral camera, picked it up, and used it more often, you would sell more dentistry. End of story. Of every practice they\u2019ve ever done it in, if they increased the utilization of the intraoral camera, they increased the amount of dentistry the patients said yes to.<\/p>\n<p>Most practice management consultants would say that you need to use the intraoral camera what percentage of the time would you guess?<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh gosh.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That they would hope for.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 50 percent is the first thing that came into my head.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 50 percent is exactly what I&#8217;d like to see as an end result. Most practice management consultants say on every single patient. I think that\u2019s unrealistic unless you\u2019re looking at my mouth and you\u2019re showing me an area that I\u2019m taking really good care of and your celebrating something, in which, okay maybe you use it on everybody. But I think a worthy goal, if you\u2019re using it once or less a day, is to work towards 50 percent by going in maybe 10 or 15 or 20 percent increments.<\/p>\n<p>So if you&#8217;re using an intraoral camera rarely now and you say, all right, you see eight or ten patients a day in hygiene. We should probably use that 20 percent of the time. 20 percent would be two times out of ten. Two. Then once you started meeting that goal, then I\u2019d say \u201cLet\u2019s go for the moon. Let\u2019s go for three.\u201d When we get to three, I&#8217;d say, \u201cHow about four?\u201d And eventually we&#8217;ll get to half, I&#8217;d probably quit.<\/p>\n<p>But can you imagine the power of showing somebody unhealthy gum tissue and then when they got it and when they said, \u201cMy god, what do you think we should do about that?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThank you. See this little stringy stuff? It\u2019s called floss. Put it in your mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Right?<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Magic. Magic will happen. So it\u2019s getting the patient curious and co-discovering. Certainly it is by using the intraoral camera. My favorite example would be you take a picture of a gnarly old, big old molar with a big ole filling in it, it\u2019s falling apart. It\u2019s huge MOD. You put it up on the screen. You look at the patient, you say, \u201cWell, what do you think?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s not talk about good patients. Good patients, they go running up the learning ladder and they go from on alert, to aware, to interested, to trusting you, to commitment statements. They ask you what do you think you ought to do. Forget about those.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s talk about the patient that\u2019s sighing [makes sighing sound] and they&#8217;re looking away. You go, \u201cHey, what do you think about that?\u201d And he goes, \u201cIs that my tooth?\u201d You go, \u201cNo, you idiot, it\u2019s a picture of your ear. Of course, that\u2019s your tooth. So what do you think about that?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They go, \u201cI don&#8217;t know, what do you think?\u201d Then I would say something smart aleck like, \u201cWell I asked you first.\u201d Once you finally get to engage them in conversation you say, \u201cWhat do you see right there?\u201d They go, \u201cI don\u2019t know, that\u2019s the tooth.\u201d You go, \u201cYeah.\u201d You point to the enamel on the inside and you go, \u201cActually that part of the tooth there is called the enamel. You know anything about the enamel?\u201d They go, \u201cNo.\u201d I go, \u201cThat actually happens to be the hardest material on the body. It\u2019s even harder than bone.\u201d They go, \u201cReally?\u201d I go, \u201cYeah.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then I come over here on the other side and they go, \u201cThat\u2019s that enamel stuff again.\u201d You go, \u201cExactly.\u201d You give them some positive reinforcement. Make them feel like they&#8217;re learning and responding well. \u201cWell what about in between?\u201d They go, \u201cWell, there\u2019s a filling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat kind of filling?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Keep asking questions. Stay in the question, like Mary Osborne has taught us, right?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo it\u2019s a filling. What kind of a filling?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA silver filling\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd what percentage of the tooth do you think it\u2019s filling?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, it\u2019s at least half I guess. Probably about 75 or 80 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then I always say something smart like, \u201cIt\u2019s funny that we call them fillings\u201d and I wait. And they say, \u201cWell why is that?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell because fillings makes it sound like I\u2019m putting it inside of something, like I\u2019m filling a hole. Instead, this filling here is being the tooth. We should it the being, not a filling. You know?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Patients get that. They get that. A filling means I\u2019m filling a hole.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, that\u2019s not a hole. I&#8217;d be paving a whole road here. It\u2019s not a pothole, it\u2019s different.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So then finally you say, \u201cWhat do you see right here between the tooth and the filling there?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a little space there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, there\u2019s a little crack with some decay in it but that crack keeps getting bigger. You know why?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat did you have for breakfast?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause whatever you had for breakfast is down inside that little crack, we don\u2019t even get to clean it out. There\u2019s bacteria and germs that live down there. So what happens is those bateria and germs, they eat the waffle that you had for breakfast and they poop out acid. Now, when they do that the acid continues to eat away the tooth and eventually that crack is going to get bigger and wider until eventually that tooth breaks and you need a root canal or you lose the tooth all together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Root canal is a powerful word. People don\u2019t want root canals. By the time you say that, they go, \u201cHoly crap.\u201d Then I pat them on the shoulder and say, \u201cSee you in six months.\u201d Well of course not, they stop you and they say, \u201cOh, dude, what are we going to do about that?\u201d No as I much as I just want to tell them that tooth needs a crown, they made me work so hard to get them to want to hear the answer that I\u2019m going to play hard to get.<\/p>\n<p>So when they say, \u201cWell what should we do about that?\u201d I say, \u201cWell, that really depends. Allison, we\u2019ve got a lot of different materials and a lot of different ways we can fix teeth. So I need a little bit more information from you before I can answer your question. First, when we fix that tooth, we can use materials that are going to last several years or we can use materials that might even last you the rest of your lifetime. Do you have a preference?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Well what do you think most people pick? Lifetime.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lifetime. Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah. I go, \u201cThen we also have a choices in materials that are tooth colored, there\u2019s silver metal, or the gold metal, do you have preference there?\u201d Most people choose tooth color.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tooth color.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah. So without ever saying the word \u201ccrown.\u201d Without ever saying the word porcelain, the patient just told me they want a tooth-colored restoration that might even last the rest of their lifetime. And that\u2019s a crown, a porcelain crown.<\/p>\n<p>Now, what I just did is instead of\u2014listen to these words really carefully\u2014instead of telling the patient what they needed, I asked the patient what they wanted. I said to the patient, just like if I was a good marketer and I&#8217;d been to business school instead of dental school, I asked the patient what features, what advantages, and what benefits would you like in the choices of restorative materials that we have.<\/p>\n<p>I didn\u2019t tell them what they needed. I asked them what they wanted. When they described the features, advantages, and benefits that they preferred, then I could match that up by going, \u201cHmm, that sounds like a porcelain crown.\u201d Now we can have a discussion of what that would cost, how they\u2019ll pay for it. But they&#8217;re going to probably find the money because once people want things, they usually figure out a way to pay for them.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why in this country we spend more money on alcohol, tobacco, and gambling than we do on dental care. That\u2019s ridiculous but people want that stuff. People want nicer cars and so they\u2019ll pay for the added value of their next car but try to ask them to do something that\u2019s not covered by dental insurance and they blow a gasket, right?<\/p>\n<p>But that\u2019s because we taught them to think that way. Well guess what. If we taught them to think insurance entitlement, just do what\u2019s covered, and it\u2019s taken us decades, it\u2019s taken us generations to do that. Since 1956, was the first year that we had dental insurance, Washington State Dental Association\u2014Washington State Dental Services\u2014I\u2019m sorry, the first out there. That was 60 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>So we\u2019ve had dental insurance for 60 years. That\u2019s taken us generations of dentists to teach them to be insurance entitlement minded. We can unteach them. Not overnight. Not in three years. But over the next generation or two of dentist-patient relationships, instead of continuing to move towards worse and worse reimbursements and PPOs, we could actually turn that tide by having different kinds of conversations with patients. That would be a fun tangent too to go into, how do we get rid of PPOs?<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That would be a fun tangent, yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh man, I got some ways of looking at that. I&#8217;ve got some calculators that help you figure out what impact it\u2019s having on your practice, what lists you need to be thinking about. Oh, we have some fun stuff to do with that. But, enough said.<\/p>\n<p>So now, I\u2019m trying to stay on track. Now, I\u2019ve got more of my patients are staying at my practice. More of my patients are coming every six months. Now I\u2019m using this tool that I\u2019ve had in my practice for a long time and I\u2019m getting more and more of my patients to say yes. Oh my gosh, I\u2019m having a blast.<\/p>\n<p>Well, I\u2019m a young practice, I\u2019m only working two days a week but at least those two days are full and I still want to grow to three and four days. I want to get out that associateship. I want to get rid of some of these PPOs, whatever it might be. So maybe you do still need some new patients. There\u2019s lots of good ways to get new patients and most of us know about the difference between thinking about internal marketing and external marketing.<\/p>\n<p>I guess I do know quite a bit about external marketing but I\u2019m not very enthused about it or passionate about it. I&#8217;ve seen a few good approaches to external marketing but most of the time I think the things we do, they get lost in some noise. I think with the internet we can differentiate a little bit, you know, with the kind of reviews and the things that we get on that. But it\u2019s hard to differentiate yourself in an external marketing piece. It\u2019s really a lot easier when a patient gets a chance to experience something different.<\/p>\n<p>When they do, they become a very strong missionary for you. I told you that in that banking example, they grew more than they\u2019d ever grown before by just focusing on retentions and percentage of business that they were getting from their banking clients. What I didn\u2019t say is they also got more new customers referred by existing customers than they had in the past because when the customers are so happy that they stay and so happy that they&#8217;re buying other products, they also tell their friends how happy they are.<\/p>\n<p>So the single greatest driver of new patients for most practices when we talk to them is word of mouth referrals from their existing clients. So if that\u2019s true, we should simply push that button. So if the first thing is measuring hygiene next visits, the second thing is using the intraoral camera more, the third thing is I would start to track how often have you asked a patient to send you a friend.<\/p>\n<p>And I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a very high percentage, maybe one out of ten patients a day. Maybe in the huddle you identify one person or two that today you\u2019d think you\u2019d feel comfortable having a conversation with them about referring a new patient.<\/p>\n<p>The time this takes you might go something like this, like maybe they paid you a compliment or maybe you came in to do a hygiene check and you said, \u201cHey Allison, it\u2019s good to see you. How have you been? How\u2019s the husband? How\u2019s the kid? Is everything good?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, great.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHey, by the way, how\u2019s all that dentistry doing that we did for you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, it\u2019s doing great. The teeth feel like my own, the implants. I don&#8217;t even about them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then that\u2019s the opening in the door. So if they paid you a compliment or you went fishing for a compliment. The door\u2019s open and now you can say, \u201cWell Allison, thanks. It\u2019s always nice doing work on people like you. So much more fun. In fact, Allison, can I ask your help with something?\u201d And Allison of course, will say yes because you like her, she likes you. The doctor-patient, you\u2019re comfortable with each other.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, can I ask you something?\u201d She goes, \u201cyeah.\u201d I go, \u201cYou know, I\u2019m not trying to be the largest dental practice here in Rochester, Michigan. In fact, if everybody in the area decided to come see me, and that\u2019s like 70,000 or 80,000 people, I couldn\u2019t possibly see them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo whether or I want to or not, I have to be a little selective about who we see and what we do. What I know is that I like working on people like you. So the favor I&#8217;d ask you is if you should happen to think of somebody that you think would be right for our practice\u2026\u201d You reach into your pocket and grab a couple business cards. \u201cWould you give them one of these, one of my cards?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now here\u2019s what\u2019s interesting. When I was at Mercer, we measured that conversation. We had a large number of dentists talk to a large number of pretend patients. We rehearsed that role playing and that conversation. We got done and we asked the dentists after they\u2019d each done about five of those conversations, \u201cHow did that feel?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>About 87, no, about 82 percent of the time, we got something in the answer that said something about it felt like they were begging. Might have been different words but the dentist said, \u201cWell, I don&#8217;t like asking them to take a card, if they\u2019d tell this to friends. I felt like I was begging.\u201d I understand that. Well we also asked the pretend patients how they felt when they heard that conversation. And 87 percent of the time, they said something like, \u201cI felt flattered.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now this is where the rubber hits the road in the psychoanalysis of the dental mind. How in the world could we have had a conversation with a pretend patient where we felt like we were begging and they felt flattered. What is wrong with us? We should be comfortable asking patients who like us to send us to friends.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We didn\u2019t go to how to be a salesman school, how to ask for business, how to close business\u2014we didn\u2019t go to that school. So we\u2019re not usually comfortable having those conversations. But I want to tell you. If you have one of those conversations a day, you\u2019ll get more new patients. And yeah, if you\u2019re asking the right patients you\u2019ll get more of the right kind of patients that you want. It\u2019s phenomenal how that helps grow a practice.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m going to summarize. We talked about a matrix using an acronym CPR. Which talked about conversion, percentage of business, and retention. We said that it\u2019s really important to look at it in reverse order. When we thought about retention, the single most important thing we could do to impact the retention in our practice is to make sure more patients leave with a next hygiene appointment. To measure it. To set goals for improving it. And to change the behaviors that will impact those results. And that won\u2019t cost a dime.<\/p>\n<p>Then we said to improve on the percentage of business we get from each patient, that\u2019s really like improving case acceptance. Most of us already have a tool that we\u2019re just not using. So that won\u2019t cost us anything to improve either. We just have to use it more. If we start to measure how many patients did we see and how many times a day did we use the intraoral camera, we can move that needle too.<\/p>\n<p>Then finally, we see patients who think the world of us all the time. If every once in a while we identified one of them and asked for a referral, we will get more new patients. So with three really simple behaviors that we can change, that we can not only change but then we can measure. That we\u2019re really doing them in a new manner that will impact results that we wanted, we can have a profound impact on the income. We can have a profound on the impact on the type of dentistry we\u2019re doing. We can have a profound impact on the oral health that our patients get to enjoy.<\/p>\n<p>Certainly in each one of those we could talk about many other things that impacted them. But to keep it simple and to give ourselves something we can do in 40 or 45 minutes, here\u2019s three things that are easy. That will help make your practice better. Easy if you do them. The key to doing them is to hold yourself accountable and measure that you\u2019ve changed that behavior. Whether you do that with a pencil and a piece of paper, you put it in an Excel spreadsheet, you celebrate the results. Whether you use software like I\u2019ve got, it doesn\u2019t matter. It\u2019s not how you track, it\u2019s that you track.<\/p>\n<p>Tracking behavioral changes in real time has a profound impact on the successful driving of outcomes in your practice. I am open for questions. And if there aren\u2019t any, I am open for beer and ice cream.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [Laughs] Awesome. You know what I\u2019m going to do? I\u2019m going to open the line and see if anybody has a question. How about that? Let\u2019s see, that\u2019s what I\u2019m feeling inclined to do right now.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 All right. You\u2019re allowed to that.<\/p>\n<p>Kate:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I have a question but I don\u2019t know if you guys can hear me yet.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I can hear you actually, I just unmuted you.<\/p>\n<p>Kate:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Perfect. This is Kate Dahl, a hygienist in Washington State. Hi Mike, I\u2019ve seen you on Facebook. I am going to ask, so I love the intraoral camera and I actually as a hygienist do it at least every exam appointment for the doctor or if I want to show them something hygiene related so I just really like it.<\/p>\n<p>But on our scheduling, I\u2019m at a new practice, I mean, a new-for-me practice, and I want to say the doctor\u2019s owned it four years. She has two practices so she\u2019s commuting all over the state. Poor thing. But I\u2019m new so I don\u2019t want to ruffle any feathers but the one thing that I\u2019m really feeling like we\u2019re failing at, they don\u2019t let me schedule my own appointments.<\/p>\n<p>The front office still insists on doing it but when patients really really like the hygienist, I feel like there\u2019s more of a commitment and I just didn\u2019t know if you had any suggestions over time that I might win them over with letting me help schedule more?<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Great, great question because you didn\u2019t just say there\u2019s a problem. You said there\u2019s a problem and I think I see some avenues for solutions. That\u2019s a really good way of looking at something. So thank you for positioning it that way.<\/p>\n<p>I agree with you totally. I think it\u2019s far more effective if the hygienist manages her own schedule. Both in terms of who she puts in there, how she schedules it, sequencing them. She can put down how much time she needs for everybody. It\u2019s just so much easier to do that without having that next communication step that you have to tell everything to the front administrator and then the administrator has to put that in. And then they&#8217;re sometimes maybe moving a patient that wanted to see you or you wanted to see in another chair. Just so much more efficient to do that in the back. I totally, totally agree.<\/p>\n<p>The challenge you\u2019ve got though is you\u2019ve got an office where it\u2019s being done in the front and you can see the possibility of doing it in the back. What I would look for is symptoms, signs and symptoms, just like we do in patients. Then I would offer tests of corrective actions.<\/p>\n<p>So what I mean by that is if that system is working fantastically, then it\u2019s going to be pretty hard for you to argue your case. If the hygiene schedule is always full, if the administrator role in that office is not stressed by making those appointments, if patients are seemingly happy to be scheduled with whomever they put them with, then you&#8217;re going to have a tough time saying your way is better to any of the other players in the game.<\/p>\n<p>But if any of those areas, and they&#8217;re likely to be deficiencies in those areas, for example the occasionally patient complaint. For example, the administrator saying, \u201cI don\u2019t have time to do all this.\u201d Or you look down the road and today\u2019s schedule was perfectly full and you go six months down the road and it\u2019s half full. Well, that shouldn\u2019t be because today\u2019s appointments should probably be in six months down the road, or close enough to that.<\/p>\n<p>Then you could say, you know, one of the seminars I took, one of the consultants I heard talking, one of the gurus in whatever you wanted to say, suggested that hygienists make their own appointments and it does several things. It takes some of the stress off the admin team from having to do that. It lets the hygienist control her own schedule and manage it. Patients seem to be happier with it. And we\u2019ll have fuller schedules.<\/p>\n<p>Look at how much time, effort, and energy we spend if it\u2019s true, keeping the schedule full when it gets here. I&#8217;d love to have a test where we tried for a few months having the hygienists book their schedules and see if that made an improvement in what the schedules look like six months out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now you\u2019d have a cause and effect, signs and symptoms, treatment recommendation, and everything like to try and solve the problem. It would be hard to argue against giving that a trial.<\/p>\n<p>Kate:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I like it. Do you have anything my doctor can read up on where it does, they get more committed scheduled patients when hygienist schedule or do we have anything like that?<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t have anything personally in my hand that I could just drop into an attachment on an email and send it to you. But I&#8217;d be willing to bet that if either one of us searched and Googled that right now, we\u2019d find something on it.<\/p>\n<p>Kate:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Whether that came from an RDH journal or whether that came from <em>Dentaltown<\/em> or from <em>Dental Economics<\/em> or something like that, it would surprise the heck out of me if somebody hadn\u2019t addressed that in an article somewhere.<\/p>\n<p>Kate:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, I\u2019ll try it. Thank you.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A good place to go if that doesn\u2019t meet that solution, this is fixing the game a little bit, but if you went and had a conversation with anyone from Schein or Patterson or Burkhart or Benco or any of the dental supply companies, they want to sell equipment, right? They want you to computerize your rooms and to use them for everything.<\/p>\n<p>So I\u2019m willing to bet that any of those people who sell dental practice management software, Carestream, any of them, that they have white papers that say, \u201cIt\u2019s better to have a computer terminal in every room because\u2026\u201d and one of the reasons in the white paper would be it\u2019s better for they hygienist to make their own appointments.<\/p>\n<p>Kate:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Right. And we even have them. That\u2019s what\u2019s pathetic. I do everything on the computer.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, but now you have a white paper that says it\u2019s better for the hygienist to make the appointments. It\u2019s more effective.<\/p>\n<p>Kate:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, yeah. I got you. Okay. I will try.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I do know that at Mercer that was the standard protocol because we\u2019d seen in all our consulting when I was lecturing and consulting with them is that in every practice we always got better results when the hygienist was making the appointments.<\/p>\n<p>Kate:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Right. And one thing is sometimes they go in and there\u2019s lot of mistakes. Whether, let\u2019s say we had a high-maintenance patient that loves me but she\u2019s nitrous and the whole nine yards, well you have to list that or else you look like an idiot when you see someone and you don\u2019t have it out. I just think it\u2019s better for also for patient retention like you&#8217;re saying.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Absolutely right. I can\u2019t think of a single reason not to. I really can\u2019t and yet I work with several practices, in fact, I can tell you right now we work with a couple practices and one of them is a very wonderful practice, great dentist, fantastic dentist, very prestigious practice and everything like that. And I can tell you, this one practice I&#8217;m thinking of, they book all their hygiene up at the front and they&#8217;re very high percentage of it and things like that.<\/p>\n<p>Now they really only have one full-time hygienist so it\u2019s not really like who are they going to get booked with. They have one part-time, one day a week too but so it\u2019s not as big an issue but they do it all at the admin and the hygienist is much older and doesn\u2019t really want to learn computer systems, they don\u2019t want to do that. So there\u2019s all of that kind of cultural things going on in the office. So that probably works for them.<\/p>\n<p>But that\u2019s probably not the norm. The norm today is we should be booking everything in the back, documenting everything in the back \u2026 in the back. We don\u2019t need charts anymore. I mean, it\u2019s a different world. It\u2019s a different world from how we do it.<\/p>\n<p>Kate:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I appreciate your input. I\u2019m going to try it.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, good luck.<\/p>\n<p>Kate:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Because I want help her be more successful. Thank you.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Good, thank you.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thanks, Kate.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cool.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I muted a couple of people because their lines were loud so if you have a question now, I\u2019ll have you push *2.<\/p>\n<p>That was a great suggestion, Mark, to look for signs and symptoms. Man, you&#8217;re just a smart guy.<\/p>\n<p>Mark: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [Laughs]<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We could have several more phone calls if you&#8217;re open to it at some point.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m always happy to do it. I like doing it. It\u2019s funny, you say I\u2019m a smart guy and my wife says, \u201cMan, you\u2019ve done a lot of things wrong and you made them right the next time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well, there you go. That\u2019s why you&#8217;re smart. Well that\u2019s what I mean, you\u2019ve made a lot of mistakes and you\u2019ve figured out how to do it differently. [Laughs]<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For me, a big plus for me is that I worked with my wife and my mother-in-law. My mother-in-law was my office manager for 23 years so I had two people around me, and also my wife\u2019s best friend was my dental assistant. So I had three people around me really that would give me constant feedback, whether I wanted it or not.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They\u2019d be very open and honest and candid with me. So I couldn\u2019t get away with snot. I couldn\u2019t have this big ego. I couldn\u2019t pull any of that crap because I had to be nice to my mother-in-law, I had to be nice to my wife\u2019s best friend, and hell, I wanted to sleep with my wife at the end of the day. So there\u2019s all these motivators for me to listen to them. They had great ideas but I was very fortunate to be in that kind of environment and have an opportunity to get feedback that I was going to have to listen to, not pretend to listen to.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I was lucky.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well you did learn a lot of good stuff from out there too but that\u2019s true.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I did.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You were like a pearl.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was fun.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You were being polished all day, every day.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I guess we don\u2019t have any other questions. I appreciate you keeping it short.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No worries.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I asked Mark to keep it short for you guys tonight and I\u2019ll open the lines.<\/p>\n<p>Mark:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I met that objective.<\/p>\n<p>Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, that was perfect.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks for listening to <em>Practicing with the Masters<\/em> for dentists, with your host, Dr. Allison Watts. For more about how Allison Watts and Transformational Practices can help you create a successful and fulfilling practice and life, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/allisonwatts.com\/category\/podcast\/\">transformationalpractices.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/practicing-with-the-masters\/id947061776\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-post-2426 wp-image-2945 size-full\" src=\"\" alt=\"subscribe-with-itunes-button\" width=\"400\" height=\"136\" \/><\/a> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stitcher.com\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-post-2426 wp-image-2946 size-full\" src=\"\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"159\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On this episode of Practicing with the Masters, I am honored to welcome back Dr. Mark Murphy. Mark practices general dentistry on a limited basis and lectures internationally on leadership, practice management, communication, case acceptance, planning, occlusion, and TMD. Mark is the lead faculty for clinical education at Micro Dental and DTI, Dental Technologies Incorporated. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[303],"tags":[309,305,304,307],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ep #47: Being Intentionally Intentional In Your Practice with Dr Mark Murphy - Helping You Live Your Brightest Life From The Inside Out<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/allisonwatts.com\/ep-47-intentionally-intentional-practice-dr-mark-murphy\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Allison Watts\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"56 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allisonwatts.com\/ep-47-intentionally-intentional-practice-dr-mark-murphy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/allisonwatts.com\/ep-47-intentionally-intentional-practice-dr-mark-murphy\/\",\"name\":\"Ep #47: Being Intentionally Intentional In Your Practice with Dr Mark Murphy - 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