Hey, before we jump into today's episode, this is Dr. Stephen Wort from the Full Large Podcast, shared practices podcast on all things full-arch implantology. I wanted to let you know and remind you that we have our second course coming up. It's going to be May 29th through the 30th. That's for the intro to Allinex Level 1. And that's for people who have never done it, never even learned about it. This is the introductory course for you.
We'll go through patient selection, treatment planning, surgery, follow-ups all the way to long-term maintenance. If you are already doing some Allinex and you want to get into the digital realm, we are now offering and launching Intro to Allinex 2. It'll be May 30th to 31st also in Dallas, Texas. We're going to be talking about all the things you need to know for going digital and full arch, 3D printers, scanners, photogrammetry, you name it.
We'll talk through how the treatment planning rationale changes and all the little nuances that you need to pick up if you're going to go digital. So join us in Dallas in May. We look forward to seeing you there. Welcome to another episode of the SPG Pod. I'm your host, Alex Sharpe.
And today I wanted to report on some lessons that I've learned because I view myself in my role as a CEO of the company as the distiller of lessons, the pattern finder of things that we see across the company and what are ways that we can take those lessons and distill those down into actionable next steps that we can apply at all of our practices and hopefully in our lives too. And the impetus for today's episode was an unbelievable meeting that I had with the team at Birmingham DINN plans.
We had a great SPG-focused day last Thursday. And I wanted to recap some of the things that we talked about, some of the things that we learned. And I think there's just a level of simplicity that we can approach our purpose with here at SPG that sometimes gets lost in the shuffle.
And again, it's tough when you're periscoping in and out of the daily routine, the challenging patient management issues that we've run into, and then you're also trying to zoom out and look at how can I improve an aggregate month over month, year over year. So it's challenging to juggle those two frames of reference and lines of sight, but I'll do what I can to help.
And the heuristic or the framework that I came up with, and I can't remember where I got this, but I think it's really helpful, is when we're doing these focus days, when we're looking at how are things going at our individual practice. And you can also zoom out and apply this to the whole company. But the workflow that I found to be really helpful when you overlay it over the content that we covered is number one, we want to connect. Number two, we want to clarify.
And number three, we want to commit. And I've found that that order is really important, not only for how we interact as a company, whether we're talking about centrally with all of our practices or individually at the practice level.
This also applies to talking to patients, because think about it, if we're going to build value for something, if we're going to tell the patients what they stand to gain from working with us, we have to connect, we have to clarify, and then we have to get a commitment from the patient and then also from ourselves to fulfill our end of the bargain. And so I think that's a great way to start this conversation today, because I want to apply, connect, clarify, and commit to that SPG focus day.
And so initially I show up and we had we had Lana there and we had Merritt there from our central team. But then we also had the unbelievable practice team from Birmingham. We had Dr. Beard and then we had Malen, we had Celeste, we had Iliya, and we had Emily. So we had the whole squad there. And what struck me initially about the squad was that there was a unanimity of purpose. I didn't have to come in and help anyone see this is why we do what we do.
There was a lot of implicit understanding of of what SPG's purpose is. And they already had had moved pretty far up the ladder of connecting the dots between their daily activities and us fulfilling our purpose of democratizing the fixed arch. So that was really cool to see. We started off, as I said, with connecting, we talked about personal brags.
Everyone got a little uncomfortable when I when I forced the issue and said, I need each of us to brag about something personally, and I need each of us to brag about something professionally. Because when you frame things that are going well in the brag context, you sometimes share things that you otherwise wouldn't, because when you talk about wins, you stay more superficial.
But when you talk about something that's worth bragging about and you lean into it, then you really are forced to share what do I do better than most other people? What do I bring to the table? What do I contribute? What do what purpose do I serve that that might be different than what other people are able to do? So that was really interesting to hear what everyone's brags were.
And after we connected understanding where each of us is coming from, how much each of us enjoys our role, what we feel like is our highest and best use each and every day, then we spent a lot of time. That's probably the bulk of the meeting on clarifying. Clarifying where we're at, clarifying where we're going, clarifying what success looks like on a per patient per day per month and per year basis.
And the way that I always like to start the clarifying process is by honing in on who that patient's SPG raving fan avatar is. Every practice has one of those avatars. There's one patient that if you could clone that patient, have that patient come in for every consult, every procedure, every delivery, every post-op, you would do it. You'd feel like you're walking on cloud nine if you saw nothing but that patient all day every day.
And so we identified that patient for Birmingham and the patient's first name was Lena. And what was really cool about the timing of this meeting was that this patient had come in the prior week. She'd come in on a phone call. She called the office. The smile consultant from Birmingham Celeste answered the phone and they were able to do a same day consultation with this patient. So that right there encapsulates several of our various commandments at SPG. We want to be available.
We want to offer raving fan service. One of the quotes that were in our notes from, I guess I said it during the meeting, but the best ability is availability. And so when a patient calls, who knows how much activation energy they've had to overcome to pluck up the courage to call? And so what can we do to be the best steward of them having overcome that activation energy? Get them on the schedule as soon as possible. And then same day is the best because they're motivated.
They're not distracted by the thousands of other things that they could be spending their time thinking about or doing in their lives. They're focused on dentistry. They're focused on achieving a solution. And so Celeste did a bang up job of getting that patient in. She comes in. They talk about different options. And that day they got her enrolled in full-arch care. They got her enrolled in an upper all in four, which is amazing. And then she comes in the next week.
The procedure was done the day before the focus day. So the whole team was able to rally around the fulfillment of what the patient signed up for. She comes in wanting an upper all in four. She gets her records made. And she comes in the following week. Does the procedure conversion was done exceptionally well? And patient left smiling ear to ear happy tears talking about how she's going to refer her husband.
She's going to refer three or four people in her friend group that have been all I guess batting around the notion of getting implants because of a certain age and demographic. A lot of these patients flock together. They have common problems that are endemic to their demographic circles. We have an aging population in the US. We have people that have been dintally disenfranchised and have deferred care for decades sometimes. And so these folks talk.
And so when we make an initial splash and deliver an amazing result to someone, all of their friends are going to hear about it. And so the leverage that is available to us when you think about it, of delivering a raving fan result for somebody, then that's potentially five or 10 warm leads that come in the door already expecting greatness, which is amazing. They're already attuned to the possibilities because they've seen the result in their friends.
They've seen how that life has been transformed beyond just teeth. And so those are my favorite types of patients, the ones that come in already having heard the good stuff. And then they've already pushed their own boulder up the hill, so to speak. And all we have to do is say, yeah, that sounds great. You're a candidate for this. Here's the timeline. Here's what you expect. Here's what the financial responsibility is. When do you want to start? And so those are excellent.
And we can't get those types of patients without providing that type of raving fan service. So great job on that one. So we identified that raving fan avatar, that star patient, every practice has at least one. Really, you're going to have more than one, but there's one that just hits you differently. And this patient was top of mind because she'd just come in the day before. And it helped us to understand what is our value proposition?
What about us allowed us to have that impact on this patient? And we kept talking about it. And one thing that came up pretty organically was when patients are signing up for treatment and they're putting their trust in us, they're not just getting the teeth, they're getting the team. So that was a phrase that came up teeth and team there. They're paying for the end result.
The product that they're getting is new teeth, but there's so much more than just the titanium and the zirconia that goes into that end result. As we know, they're not just getting teeth. They're getting chewing ability. They're getting function. They're getting confidence. They're getting aesthetics. They're potentially getting a new job or a new spouse. There's so much that comes from just the teeth. And it's the same for the fulfillment of that product.
They're not just getting the procedure done. They're getting the customized attention provided by our team. And that's something that we really rallied around in Birmingham is that, yeah, you can go elsewhere to get teeth, but where else are you going to get this team? Where else are you going to get this experience? Where else are you going to be able to be a part of the tribe of Birmingham Dintress and implant?
So that's part of the product because any business, you have three legs to the stool, right? You have marketing. You have sales or in our case, treatment acceptance. And then you have fulfillment of the product. That's any business has those three fundamentals, those three pillars, those three legs of the stool. And so at the office level, we're really focused on those latter two legs. We're focused on treatment acceptance and then fulfillment of the product.
And in our case, the product is the teeth obviously, but I think an under-appreciated part of that product is the experience that folks have while receiving those teeth. And that's going to be variable across practices. That's going to have a lot of different elements to it that are hard to replicate across locations. But think about that for your team. What does that look like? What does that feel like?
What is that experience going to be perceived as by those patients that come through the door when you think about, okay, we're coming into grand rapids, dentures and implants, we're coming into little rock dentures and implants. What is that value proposition? What are they getting by choosing to work with your team specifically? That's a great exercise to do because you may know the answer. You may have that nailed down or that's a great lunchtime exercise to think through as an example.
So again, that's part of clarifying. We're clarifying what is that patient whose life we transformed and then what does that look like? What did we actually do? What do we bring to the table to help transform that life? And then when you think about that specific raving fan avatar, then you're able to say, all right, the potential is there for us to create another raving fan every single consult that comes through the door, which is pretty cool to think about.
Obviously not every single patient is going to accept treatment. Obviously not every single patient is going to be as amazing to work with as that one patient that sticks out for you. But it's a helpful way of viewing those opportunities because truly the opportunity is there every single time. Just like when you play baseball, every pitch is the opportunity to hit a home run. Are you going to hit a home run on every pitch?
No. But over time, you get better at recognizing what type of pitch is the type of pitch that could result in a home run. And those are the types of pitches that you don't want to get away. Those are the ones that stick out. Those are the ones that cause you to lose sleep at night. And that was something that we talked about at the practice too is how certain patients are those ones that were so close. They were financially qualified. They were good clinical candidates for care.
But for whatever reason, they didn't move forward. And those are the ones that sting because that means that generally there is something about what we brought to the table that did not resonate with that patient. We talked at Birmingham about how when people are right on the cusp of saying yes, there's a few things that can contribute to them not saying yes. Money, obvious one. Time, fear of the dentist.
I was on the flight home and I was talking to the person next to me on the flight and we were talking about dentistry and the old joke is, in no other line of work, is it socially permissible for a customer and our case of patient to come in and say, hey, it's nothing personal, but I really hate bakers or I really hate shopkeepers or I really hate filling the blank here. But for whatever reason, it's okay for people to walk in and say, hey, it's nothing personal doc, but I hate the dentist.
I just think that that's interesting. That's emblematic of the fear that people come in with. That's a way that that manifests. But those are the big three, right? Money, fear and time. But I think there's a fourth one. That's the reason why people don't move forward when they're financially qualified. They understand the rudiments of the procedure and they can make it happen time-wise. It's trust. It's hard to put your finger on, but it's trust. Something about the experience.
And this could be marketing phones when they walk into the practice, when they're greeted, when they're seated, when the records are taken, the 3D image is acquired, when they're brought back to the treatment room to have a discussion. Any link in that chain could be responsible for that lapse in trust, which is a little jarring when you think about it.
So many things have to line up the right way in order to achieve a yes, but any one thing could be responsible for the no. And that no isn't always a resounding no. It's not always abundantly clear why they're saying no, but something made them. It could be the way something was explained. It could be that one of the team members accidentally passed judgment on a patient in a way that maybe wasn't the best way to communicate. Who knows what it is.
But just be aware that all those links in the chain have to be rock solid and that trust is sometimes the nefarious cause of people not moving forward. It's the noncommittal. I don't know. I think about it. I got to go talk to my spouse or I got to go check with my bank when in reality they're blaming those other sources of decision making that may not completely be true. So keep that in mind. That was part of our clarifying process.
And then once we got to the point of understanding that here's what we offer. Here's the type of menu options that we that we can serve people by doing. Then the next part of clarifying was how do we clarify our message to our patients? Because it's really easy to get mired in the typical dental school mindset of I have to list out the entire litany of every conceivable treatment option available because we were rewarded for that and dental school.
And a lot of times at other positions, if you're thinking about our smile consultants, sometimes they were rewarded for that in prior positions because there's value in listing every single rabbit hole that we could go down clinically. But rubber meets the road. Consider what these patients are coming in expecting. They're scared. The time is of the essence. They're already afraid it's going to be super expensive. And the dental IQ in general is going to be lower than what we think it is.
So the more that we can simplify, the better simplification is a virtue in my mind because if we're if we're using too many $5 words to say something that we could say with a bunch of nickel words, we should probably do it.
And so that's a great example of when a patient comes in, the challenge I think is to simplify the best type of care for them, lay it out there, let them chew on it pun intended, let them understand what the timeline is, what the deliverables are, what they stand to gain, and to then walk it back only if we find out that for whatever reason, it's just a no go for right now.
And that was something we talked about in Birmingham because some markets, you're going to have a lot of people that are candidates for instead of double all on four. Maybe it's a per traditional denture, lower snap denture. And then you offer that as a plan B, which is great. You can have a very successful practice by doing that combination of care if that's what patients are going to qualify for nothing wrong with that.
But if you go too far down the rabbit hole of saying, well, it's this much for a two snap versus this much for a four snap, we want to simplify that and just say the snap end denture has four implants, you know, for example. So, you know, the more that we can simplify, the more that we can speak in kindergarten language, the better offer case acceptance is going to be.
Because we can't expect people to have the ball in their court and for us to be able to be good enough at communicating to help people understand that these are the rudiments. These are the differences between an all on four, a snap and a traditional denture. It's just a lot to lay out and expect people to have the burden of decision making fully on their shoulders.
A lot of them can, a lot of patients can, but it's always good to say this is my best recommendation and then answer any and all clarifying questions. Reverse course if it's just not going to be a fit and then you offer plan B and then go forward from there. You'll win more times than you lose. Patients will be served well more times than they won't be. And another thing about the notion of plan B, we talked about scheduling.
We talked about how to craft the schedule in such a way to where everyone's in as good a position as possible as frequently as possible to perform at their peak and to stay in their lane and do what they're best at at the practice level. So we talked about how most of the time if you set the schedule up the right way, then smile consultant's going to do his or her thing, doctor's going to do his or her thing.
Dental assistants are going to be equipped to perform well, but then you always have to have plan B, which means say your eight o'clock consult runs long. Patients asking a lot of questions nine o'clock consult is done with paperwork ready to be seated. Then you have your best case scenario of smile consultant seeking the patient acquiring the image building that rapport. Well, guess what? We can have redundancy.
We can have another team member that's going to be second in line for consultations when and if the smile consultant is running over. You just have to figure out what is that contingency plan. And so obviously not every single consult is going to be perfect because these schedules are going to be dynamic, but you want to have the plan B and by having that plan B having prepared for it, you can breathe a sigh of relief and say, all right, the schedule is going to work itself out.
We have this plan in place for when things run behind because it's life. I think things don't always go perfectly. So let's breathe. Let's let's initiate plan B. Here's the signal. Let's go. So that was another thing that we that we came up with in our meeting. So in closing, we've connected. We've clarified and the now it's time to commit. We align on what a successful month looks like.
You know, for Birmingham, we came up with a number of arches that we'd love to get across the finish line every month. We came up with a revenue number that we love to be able to add to the schedule every month and everyone rallied around it. It was really cool to see because after having connected and clarified, then we were in a position to commit.
The mistake that is easy to make and I've done this more times than I can count is you rush to committing to whatever you're working towards without connecting and clarifying because without connecting and clarifying, you don't have number one, the relationship capital or number two, all of the information to be able to structure that commitment in a way that it actually serves us and that's actionable and that's going to get us to where we want to go.
One final thing that I want to say is back at the very beginning of the meeting when we were connecting, the common thread that every single team member said was that we're pushing. They didn't use that word, but I'm reading back through everyone's brags and everyone's mindset and everyone's pushing to improve in some way, shape or form professionally, which I found pretty, pretty stellar because, you know, in dentistry, sometimes you get these folks that you work with that are happy, go lucky.
They just want to come in, punch the time card, do their thing, go home, but not not Birmingham. Birmingham, every single person in that office had something they were striving for, something that they were proud of, something that they were able to further their pursuit of by virtue of their daily actions in the practice.
And I thought that was pretty compelling and that's one of the secrets to great teamwork is everyone having their own approach, things that they're optimizing for in their own lives, but finding a way to unify those efforts, kind of like oars on a long ship, where we're all rowing in the same direction. Yes, we have our own objectives and our own goals, but when we unify all of those efforts in one direction, that's when neat stuff happens and I'll brag on the team one more time.
I got a text on the way to the airport afterwards like, hey, we closed, we closed the double in the afternoon using some of the stuff that that we talked about, which to me, it's it just shows that the process that we have, the value that we provide to our patients, there's nothing earth shattering about it. We just have to remember that the workflow is simple, but not easy to follow. And the results speak for themselves.
On last week's central team call, I had I had messaged all of our clinical mentors, I was like, hey, send me some some cases send me some before and afters of patients that you've treated recently. And good Lord, that's that's one of the favorite parts of my job is seeing those people before they received care. And then after the smile gets me the fact that the smile extends to their eyes always gets me.
And knowing that we're able to provide that type of transformative experience at scale is pretty humbling and pretty gratifying. And that's what makes me get out of bed every day. It's it's amazing. And last thing I think I've said in closing three times, but I keep thinking of more stuff to share. So forgive me. I was at the gym this morning and there are three or four people before the workout that we're talking about.
Oh, it's Monday or I got a case of the Mondays or my spouse really hates Mondays or Sunday scariest are pretty rough in our house because we're just dreading Mondays. And I just think that if we're doing things that that give us energy, if we're doing things that are innovating to us, you don't have to have a case of the Sunday scariest or the Mondays.
If we're in the right seat doing the right things, it should be jumping not jumping for joy necessarily, but knowing that we're contributing, knowing that we have a purpose. And sometimes that's the difference. It's not that you're always going to love every minute of every day professionally. But if there's an underpinning of purpose that we know is worth it, then we'll find a way to overcome almost any how, if the why grabs us enough. So that's what I'll leave you with.
Hope everyone has a wonderful week. As always, shoot me a message, send me an email, anything that you want me to cover, anything that's more valuable, any of the topics that you felt like were helpful today that you want me to double or triple down on. Let me know because I want this to serve all of us here at SPG as well as anyone who is in our orbit that is looking to join us in the future or just wants to learn. I'm happy to oblige. So thank you all so much. Have a great week.
Hey, before we jump into today's episode, this is Dr. Steven Wohl from the Full Large podcast, shared practices podcast on all things full-arch implantology. I wanted to let you know and remind you that we have our second course coming up. It's going to be May 29th through the 30th. That's for the intro to all of next level one. And that's for people who have never done it, never even learned about it. This is the introductory course for you.
We'll go through patient selection, treatment planning, surgery, follow-ups all the way to long-term maintenance. If you are already doing some all-in-X and you want to get into the digital realm, we are now offering and launching Intro to All-in-X 2. It'll be May 30th to 31st also in Dallas, Texas. And we're going to be talking about all the things you need to know for going digital and full-arch 3D printers, scanners, photogrammetry, you name it.
We'll talk through how the treatment planning rationale changes and all the little nuances that you need to pick up if you're going to go digital. So join us in Dallas in May. We look forward to seeing you there.