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This Dental Specific Podcast is dedicated to the Dental "Entrepreneur" Michael Dinsio, Founder of Next Level Consultants, delivers #TRUTH when starting up a dental practice. From the very first step to getting the keys of a dental practice, Michael shares his raw & unscripted playbook with you. Not only does this podcast provide you with "What To Do" but more importantly "What Not To Do". With over over 15 years of experience & over 150 past clients, Michael delivers an educational and informative program in a real and genuine way. Start w/ Episode 01 - as we go through a STEP by STEP process.
00:03
That question is so low to John, I don't even know where to start with that question. guess the problem is, and by the way, I love that question. Interesting, interesting. This is an interesting topic. What's the solution here? Show up, understand your part, and just crush it. Pay per click, social media, we can talk about all this stuff, but what really matters is patient experience, that wow factor.
00:34
Startup Unscritped, the questions you have with the truths you need to hear. Now your hosts, Michael D'Incio and Jon Bertagni.
00:48
What is going on people? This is Startup Unscripted Podcast. I'm super jacked about today specifically because today's about equipment and we have an expert that, well really two experts. I'm kind of out of my world today. This is Thanks for introducing us. That's all we needed for me. Hey, I'm getting there. I'm getting there. So I'm just this third guy out today, but John Bertagni, my partner and friend,
01:18
How you doing friend? What's going on? I'm doing great. It's a great day. And yeah, this is a, this is going to be a perfect day because we have, you know, an unleashed partner in this in Matt Zolfo and, know, industry icon, number one, a friend, a confidant, and really someone that has done right by the industry throughout his career. And I think we could say that about all of us.
01:45
but it's a lot easier saying it about someone else like Matt. So we're happy to have him. This is something where we're getting real tangible listeners and viewers. So this is where people are gonna be really excited because this is where they're able to go somewhere, touch, feel, and they can start seeing what their dentistry is gonna be about. this is a great session. Who knows? This could be a series of five. We don't even know what this is gonna turn into.
02:15
It really could be. Matt doesn't like to talk at all. We've got to take it from him. I'll be the quiet one in the group. All right, buddy. Well, thanks for being here. We're so glad to be here. Tell us a little bit about why we chose you because we know these guys don't even know who the hell you are. Gladly. Yeah, no. So by the grace of God, I graduated Baylor in 2004 and was kind of the lab rat or the original
02:44
test case as to whether the dental industry or dealers specifically could hire someone young forward thinking with aggressive with business document versus, you know, a service tech that turned to wrench for 30 years to do business development, sell equipment and sell technology. But started right out of the gates in the North Texas area for Henry Shine. I was there 14 years, did about a little over 850 dental offices and transacted a little over 107 million.
03:12
in value of equipment and technology. not a lot of fun. About a third to a third to 40 % of my business were quote DSOs as we call them. But the majority of my clients were all private practices. The only DSOs I worked with were people that started with one location and ended up with 1530. In some cases, I think my biggest client had 88 before transacting with private equity. So I've been through that process a number of different times and
03:41
help people scale and systemize and optimize their operation to, you know, really focus on patient care so we could focus on practice care and scale and volume and stuff like that. Well, I think it's cool. Like those numbers are astronomical. Number one, kudos to you. But your knowledge is not only going to be based on how to start these things up, how to run them, because you did some accounting pieces and some really cool stuff also along the way to
04:10
to keep businesses going. But then in the end, what it means and you know, what this asset looks like towards the end of the career. So we're going to really focus today, primarily on the startup pieces. But we want people to start having that business acumen and cognition of how to spend their money and be smart about their money. And to be able to say, you know what, sit down, I know this already. I don't trust you anymore. I'm moving to the next guy. Like that's the kind of stuff we want to give.
04:39
to our listeners and viewership. So, We are working through a process here, right, John? So episode seven is really the seventh step to this whole thing. And we started with vision, demographics, real estate, banking, construction, architecture, and now we're landing on the equipment. You can really intermingle design, construction, and equipment. That can all kind of be the same step. Matt, walk us through,
05:09
these, these we're going through the process. So this is kind of like the next step. So when you were an equipment guy and you just threw out your stats, which is crazy how many projects you've been a part of crazy how many John, mean on this app, on this episode, we've got well over a thousand like, well, yeah, it's insane. The numbers. And by the way, the steps were in the seven steps. You can call it seven steps of hell.
05:36
Depending on how you look at this, know, with Dante's Inferno. So let's figure this thing out. That's right. What's the next step? how did you walk these clients through, you know, that initial meeting? What are they expecting on that first meeting with an equipment guy or gal? And you know, what's that problem? What should it be? What can it be? Like, give us the breakdown. Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean,
06:04
Obviously, there's a variety of different ways to buy anything, but particularly pertaining to doing a new office. It was really important to me. I think that the job of any dealer and specifically whether it's a supplier or an equipment guy on the equipment side, my job should be to pull that doctor's dream practice out of their mind and help them execute A, the reason they went to dental school and B, being a small business owner or a large business owner.
06:31
without them making any bonehead business decisions. That doesn't mean it's about me, doesn't mean it's about the dealer. It's really about that relationship and having trust and confidence that the individual you're dealing with has your best interests at heart. So I would literally sit down with people and have that same conversation. Why'd you go to dental school? What do you want to be when you grow up? What do you like about what you do now? What do you not like about what you do? I dealt with people that started practices right out of dental school, literally a couple months out or the
07:01
you know, had already had a family and a couple of kids and, and we're kind of taking that leap from making a couple hundred grand a year to going into debt and not making a couple hundred grand a year. So it's really about, um, I'd tell doctors that, what you need to do is surround yourself with a team of individuals. Um, and I called them the four B's, a bank, a broker, a builder, and a bean counter. And it's, it was essential that those individuals, a had experience in the industry B were dental specific, uh, in that arena.
07:31
And again, see had kind of had your best interests at heart. So first thing I'd do is first and foremost, set a budget, you know, with a dental license and a pulse, and no divorce and no bankruptcy, most of the time you can get half a million bucks, right? And you're going to spend every cop and pick a penny of that. So once the loan approvals in place, I'd establish a budget, we do a project budget, and an equipment budget. You know, little over a second. Yeah, you you what you're doing is
08:00
quarterbacking the whole problem. That's what I did too. And there's there's there's probably a handful of these guys, maybe 20 across the country. And there's maybe 400 equipment reps across the country.
08:16
Some of them don't have the ability to go to a Matt Zulfo and have that quarterback. So I love the fact that you're going through this. I want you to also say like, hey man, if you're in wherever and you don't have someone that has this acumen that's gonna be able to look at a P &L, look at a budget and do this, what should our listeners be thinking about? Yeah, no, I mean, the most important thing is the dealer that you deal with,
08:45
whether it's any of them, Henry Schein, Patterson, Benko, Burkhart, everybody's good. Everybody does a good job. It's really about the individual and their approach. I would encourage people to steer clear of people that are transactional. Like here's a quote, I'll match anything, off we go. You're gonna get that same service post install and in the future. And you're also not really gonna gain any insight on maybe some best practices that you could apply. I used to tell people when I was training at Henry Schein, frankly,
09:14
you know, when I was training other equipment guys, I'd say, frankly, once you've done, you're an expert. You know, once you've done one, you're an expert. I mean, no disrespect to the doctor, but they haven't done this before. So with every additional office, you know, I used to tell people, I'm not that good. I've just seen everything. I'm really not that good. I've just seen everything. I've seen people do it successfully. I've seen people do it unsuccessfully. You know, and just kind of, you know, your dealer or that individual should be able to point you in the right direction based on
09:43
you know what you want to be when you grow up. It's not the least thing that that whole process should be about is the equipment and the type of x ray and the practice management software you buy. mean, that that will have zero impact on your success as a doctor that the physical plant that you create and that you design. And you know what your lease rate is and what the term on your loan is not the interest rate necessarily, but the term on your loan and the way the payments are graduated and
10:10
You know, the demographics that you're looking at, are you in a high growth area or an area that's dying? Not so much about competition, but you know what, what other businesses and what other communities, you know, are coming to that area in the future. Cause you're signing, you know, five or seven or 10 year lease in some cases. And, um, you know, you, you, you will move that down the road, but you kind of need to start with the end in mind per se. Let's, let's stay. I love that, Matt, you can just hear that, right, John and Matt that he's comprehensive.
10:39
he thinks about the big picture. Let's stay on equipment because we the three of us could go off of 100 different tangents, but those are all our other episodes. So we'll be here. We'll be here all freaking day if we're going to talk about all that. But get it. Get more into this transactional. You just said it. The transactional guy. What are some things if we could say this like as delicate as possible, what are some things that
11:07
equipment guys and gals do that smells like transactional. Does that make sense? Here it is. I'll let's let's just go back and forth Matt. I'll say something you say something I'll say something. I love that. Okay. I'll match that price. That's mine. Now you're up Matt.
11:32
My competitor is not reputable. Or as soon as somebody starts talking poorly about somebody else, usually that's a red flag. It should be speaking to what they do well. That's a good one. Give me last look. Give me that last look. I can't, I can't. And then meet with me at the end. Yeah. What was that? Say it again. Go ahead and call everybody else and then meet with me at the end. Yeah. Gotcha. I would say this, you know,
12:01
Um, only giving you something that smells bad, you know, uh, you know, this, this price is only good for this long. Let's get this done right away. Oh, God. That's the worst. I hate that one. Oh my God. Hang on a second. I'm to go on a segue here. It's why you also, you know, I worked for Belmont, right? Um, and it's why you actually want to get close to the manufacturer so you can get
12:31
a little bit of love and leeway. It's not only about the distributor rep, right? But like meet with and shake hands because sometimes that manufacturer's rep is your best ally long-term. that, you know, that upholstery or, you know, this chair cover or whatever it is, is out of warranty. They'll give you the sniff and be like, here you go. It's under warranty. So let's keep on going on stuff to avoid or things that
13:00
if people here get the hell away from them. Well, you guys just mentioned some good one liners. down, you guys go down the path of like, what are some things that they do? Like, I hear a lot about they'll just show one brand, you know, and just go down that path. And I'm gonna be Switzerland here, John, you're my friend and you work for Belmont Phenomenal Company. But if a rep
13:30
only showed Belmont and they were pushing just Belmont super hard. John, is that okay? mean, you'd be like, yeah, that's perfect. No, especially if it's a company that doesn't make sense for them. Mike, you and I talk about this and Matt, you're going to love this, but you buy a house, you're not buying your dream house right out of the gate, right? You're not buying the Lamborghini.
14:00
you know, day one. So let's jump into Toyota or let's jump into something by working with the team, you know, the four B's that makes sense. when I need two cars, maybe you only need one. Yep. Don't outfit the entire office. That's the one. Hey, that laminate color is going to go. We don't know if it's going to be there. So we need to outfit all eight operatories of cabinetry and chairs and whatever it is.
14:29
run the hell out of that guy's office if he says something like that. Yeah, that's crazy. Two things. One, what I used to say to folks is, you know, you're not buying products from me, you're buying your dream practice. So what you know, now the only way I was paid, or we were paid, John, is through them buying the things they needed to buy anyways, through me, right? On the same token, again, you know, there are obviously different qualities of equipment and different qualities of radiography and different quality of handpieces and all that stuff. But
14:56
There's really kind of three main ones. There's good flagship stuff that's going to last probably 30 years that you'll reupholster two or three times and move in between two or three offices over the time horizon of your of your life cycles as a dentist. There's a value line version of that maybe less bells and whistles, call it Acura or Honda or Lexus or Toyota. And then there's cheap shit made by children in China, like literally cheap shit made by children in China. This is all factual.
15:23
And I don't care what you buy as long as you it through me. Like literally, whatever you want. Like people who used to tell me all the time like, I found this on the internet. I'm like, great. Here's what you're getting. We sell that to everybody. Everybody, everybody... This is startup unscripted. I love this. I love this conversation, Matt. By the way, those are the passion. Those are the passion words, right? They're not the swear words. They're passion words. listen, man, this is what we want them to understand, because this stuff
15:53
you know, the good stuff, it will last 20, 30, 40 years. Truly. Absolutely. And that's the thing, it really depends on what the client wants. It'd be like, it would be like a patient, a doctor telling a patient in the chair, who, you know, has something going on on 17. Well, you know, an implant is really the only way to go. Well, an implant is not the only way to go. You can do an implant, we can do a bridge, we do an extraction.
16:20
and with a space maintainer or you can do nothing. I mean, this is your mouth, right? That's the way that your dealer should be dealing with you. Now, it is important to be dealing with a reputable manufacturer. And you you may be on a plane to Oregon at some point. We used to go to a plane in North Carolina many years ago, but that company is no longer in existence. So that's a good opportunity and a good way to get to know manufacturing and operatory design and your dealer.
16:46
but it should not be the first thing out of the gates. Another big red flag is, hey, you want to get on a plane and go on vacation for three days? There's a lot more planning that needs to happen before you get on a plane and go fly somewhere to learn, right? I mean, should kind of, you know, walk before you run and run before you sprint. Hey, by the way, this was unscripted, but we've talked about that. Like, that should not be the first thing. Correct. I mean, because that's what transpires there.
17:15
is you get caught up in the environment or the love or the kumbaya. That's not what this is about because we don't want to blow budgets. We don't, you I'm going to call it. There's a lot of upselling in those environments by some reps. didn't do that. You didn't do that. Correct. And I think that that's why we, you know, why we are who we are in the industry. Guys, let's get into that.
17:44
This has been a phenomenal start to this episode. Oh, I thought you were done. And I know, and I was just about to say, I can already tell this is a two parter. So we're going to, we're going to start a two part here in a minute. but so let's get into that. The option. So Matt, you were touching on this. I love it. Like I don't think there's any wrong direction. You, you mentioned chill or longevity. It really does come down to vision and the business model. Correct. And so.
18:13
Right. Let's get into that. What are the options and let's not poo poo some of those options like it might actually work out for somebody. I mean, this is why I would start with a budget and I did two budgets. I did a practice budget, which literally broke down this 500 grand between hard costs, soft costs and working capital, hard costs, equipment, technology, computers, lot of Soft cost is construction, working capital is marketing, hiring, ordering your business cards, know,
18:40
signage, signage, all the little stuff you forget about at the end. So you have to know what you're going to allocate to those. There's no wrong way to do it. Maybe you're in a really upscale area with an average income of $275,000. Well, you're probably not going to want to make it look like, you know, sports clips. You might want it look like a little nicer office on the same token. A patient has never walked into a dental office and been like, man, this chair really sucks. Like this thing is uncomfortable. I hate it. They're all
19:18
No one ever knows the names. Exactly. No one knows the names. exactly. And there are chairs that are literally $1,900 with a five year warranty. And there are chairs that are 12 grand with a two year warranty. Right. So it all depends on what the client wants.
19:38
you know, the same thing if you're going to be maybe more community health focused, or you're doing Medicaid, or you're going to do you're going to take every cotton pick and PPO on the planet. Well, if you were fee for service, you wouldn't have to see as many people but you know, with Medicaid in Texas and certainly with you know, managed care in other states, you got if you're going to cut your fee to the 50th or 60th percentile to do the same production, you need to see, you know, about two 300 % more people. So you better have right out of the gates, you know, maybe three dots instead of two.
20:07
Yeah, it's crazy to do any more than two ops initially, maybe a third, because you're not going to be busy full time, you're going to be working two or three days a week in your practice, and then two days somewhere else to pay the bills. That's so good. This is a guy that has sold millions, millions of dollars. 800 projects is what I is what I thought like,
20:37
Well, listen, the why the reason why that works. And the reason why it also worked for me is if you do it right the first time, you're going to get the residual office operatories down the line. Right? People are like, I'm just gonna jam as much as I can right now to get it. And then see you later. You know, sorry. Let's talk about this ops. How many ops? I imagine said two, maybe three. Yes.
21:06
Max. Every single time. Because you're only going to be open a couple days a week. Now you can open, but you're probably going be able to pay the bills, right? So you need to have an associateship in place unless you're independently wealthy or you have an accountant or a financial planner that's accounted for the burn of the first 18 months. And you'll cashflow at about anywhere between 35 to 40 new patients per month. And you can see those two days a week for like four months, you know, four weeks in a month.
21:36
is out of two shares. So at that point, based on how good your associateship is, you have two options, you can add another chair and make the days that you are in your office more productive if you're making two, three $400,000 in associateship position. Or you can tell your owner, listen, I need to scale your boss, I can I need to scale back a day and add a day to my office. Or if you're really exploding, you can be open maybe four days a week and pick up some Fridays somewhere else or do temp work.
22:05
and see more people out of two chairs by adding another day. It's the same capacity, right? I'm gonna put my consultant hat on real quick.
22:17
There is a workflow thing here. There is an argument for three because I don't ever like patients sitting in the waiting room. There you go, John. And so getting patients in the back as soon as possible is always a good thing. We don't want anybody waiting in the waiting room. So that third chair, that overflow chair is, but what are we talking about here per chair? Like how much are we talking about for one extra chair? You can get an operatory for
22:46
nine grand, or you can spend literally 65 grand. A lot of that's going to depend upon the business. I was more of a Honda Corto to camera kind of guy, where, you know, average operatory price, again, part of the country and type of equipment is going to range. But, know, 15 to 25,000 is going to get you something that's unbelievable. And a lot of offices would do chair unit light cabinet in two rooms. And for that, to your point, Michael, maybe do a chair and a nomad or a chair and a light.
23:16
for that overflow so the assistant can come in and take x-rays or an additional assistant can take x-rays, seat the patient, do anything else they need to, chair side, and then when that other room frees up, move them over. Now, you don't wanna short yourself on not having a delivery system in a cabinet if you can afford it, but if you're spending more upper echelon dollars, you're gonna use every bit, or if you decided you wanted to start with cone beam as it's quickly becoming...
23:42
more common, I wouldn't say standard of care, but a lot more common now. I mean, you got to know the terrain before you navigate it. So if you're doing implants, or you're doing surgery, or you're capable of complex endo, know, having that technology is going to make a more diagnostic tool for you, and probably generate more revenue than having another room. So it's a give take, but that should be a conversation that you're having with the person that you're dealing with. So that you know, a you don't blow your budget, and B, you can open and have adequate cash flow and scale and
24:11
and not have any financial issues early on. I love that. brought a, how you're speaking right now is actually talking about integrity based consultative sales, right? It's about integrity. And hopefully there's a radar with our listeners and we're going to give them that radar to be able to see if someone has integrity because that thing of saying, hey, just put a chair there if you're overflow and a light and you can do.
24:40
rechecks or denture checks or whatever it is, and you can move them over. And then you could also, because you have the acumen, or most of these guys have the acumen and gals, hey, please note that you're gonna have to turn that chair over and clean that room so there is some time spent with that. But we did save you that money upfront. I mean, those are the steps that people need to think about as they're going through this process. So I love that. I love the idea that what,
25:09
what our listeners need to do is think about their budget, think about their patient care, especially early on, They need to spend more time with that patient to gain trust. Correct. And sit next to that patient. their schedule, their appointments might be a little bit longer. And that's fine because you have the time to build trust with the patient and build that experience.
25:38
you know, that's gonna be a whole nother session talking about patient experience and you know, but you know, don't. Yeah, no, don't touch on that. You're absolutely right. mean, it's all about I used to tell people you have, you know, again, the pardon me, Mike, this doesn't have Michael's still having a lot to do with equipment. But the equipment is important, but it's not paramount, right? The patient's going to judge the practice, you've got three chances to impact that patient's perception of the quality of care they're getting. First and foremost is the team, the way they're treated.
26:07
cordialness, on time, et cetera, et cetera. Secondly, unfortunately is the facility, right? The building. We all know that there are hole in the wall restaurants out there that serve really great pizza or really great Mexican food, but that's kind of the exception to the rule when you're looking for a new restaurant to go to, And then lastly, the doctor's hands, the way they physically perceive pain or they physically perceive chair side manner and hands. So the equipment in the facility is a very big part of that in terms of aesthetics and comfort and things of that nature, but.
26:37
Most of the practices have an industry, especially if it's new, have a fresh new look to the building and to the facility because it's a brand new construction. it really is more about the operation and not breaking the bank when you open up and having those systems in place for your business so you can scale and increase productivity. What, John, what's interesting, right? It's like I'm sitting back and I'm listening to you guys and equipment and this whole segment is really about equipment.
27:05
And both of you continue to go back to the business. Listeners, isn't that ironic? You have two really good salespeople, equipment people. Let's not even call them sales. Let's call them equipment consultants because ultimately that's what they are. They keep taking you back to the business because it's not about the equipment. It's about the business, the vision, all of that. Matt, you just broke down the three.
27:33
the three big things. But I'm sorry, I to keep it. I got to keep going back because people are listening for equipment. John, we talked. Yeah. What were you going to say? You were sorry, I interrupted you for the first time. was just going to say we got to go back to equipment. So if if we are buying equipment and this is kind of the next segment, if we are buying equipment, what's the equipment you buy that you can get the return in dentistry back?
28:00
You mentioned technology, you sold a lot of technology. So if we're only doing two operatories, maybe we have the budget for some digital stuff that's going to help you sell more dentistry. That's a business concept. So let's have a discussion about that. Well, and I think, Mike, this is when we talked about this, but and Matt, I know you're going to agree, you know, having co diagnosis tools, obviously digital X-ray, that should almost be a standard.
28:30
but maybe secondary monitors, co-diagnosis monitors where the patient could see them. And these interural cameras where they can see what it is. I always go back to the old adage, the guy at the muffler shop is saying, hey, your muffler's cracked, you need a new muffler. Hey, the muffler's cracked, you need a new muffler. Well, until he takes you back there, puts it up on the rack and says, look, there's the crack, guess what? Hey, let's get a new muffler.
29:00
Yeah, no, I mean, to John's point, I mean, what I used to tell people is, you know, I was very technology driven because 15 years ago when I started for almost 20 years ago, when I started doing this, you know, there was still some film out there. So technology was a differentiator. Now it's the industry standard. And the reality of situation is you can't treat what you can't see. So if you you if you're going with a value line sensor or a value line pan, or cheap stuff made by children in China,
29:29
in radiography, you know, you're going to have more radio lucency, your imaging is not going to be as good. And, you know, there are times where you open up and mod ABCDE a filling that you thought was just one of clues will class two, and also just turn into a crown. Now, I'm not saying that that's, know, that's certainly not because the doctor but maybe what you were relying on or the last time an image was taken, depending on when the patient was last in for imaging, and when it's accepted and done can can can result in that.
29:58
To John's point as well, a big part of case acceptance is trust. And a picture in every industry is worth a thousand words. I used to recommend a camera per provider. Every hygienist, every doctor needs a camera. Put a docking cable in every room, plug them in. But of any single thing in a dental office, good high quality inter oral cameras are gonna give you the highest return on investment. I mean, they range from like two grand to...
30:26
five grand for super high end 4k HD type images. And you can buy them for $300 on the internet. But I used to call them disposable cameras. If you want disposable cameras, great. You know, you're to go through just know that we can sell you one per operatory for 300 bucks. But you need to buy a backup because the warranty is one year and you're going to be sending that in two or three times to repair under warranty. Whereas and you're not going to get a loaner whereas you spend a three, three K or five K on a great camera like digital doc or some of the other things out there.
30:55
A, you're going to get better imaging. And B, you'll have this big, beautiful image that the patient can see, which will translate to something that is clearer and that might lend itself to replacing amalgam fillings or replacing microfissures or small little things that you might not see that a patient would kind of question whether or not that needs to be done. So Matt, you brought up some great points. And it really is that foundation of two to three ops to start with.
31:25
because it opens up the opportunity for people to bring in some technology that actually makes sense. The electric handpieces for patient comfort and also integration of endo procedures where you're able to do some more procedures in the practice. There's some other ideas with that, but by not going crazy with your budget on operatories, you're actually able to bring some more technology into play.
31:55
I wouldn't say out of the gate unless you you're buying a practice and this is startup uncensored, but it you know, not putting in a CAD cam and not putting in things that are don't make sense, right? Or looser. Or a looser. Does a handpiece cut a tooth? Yeah. I mean, to be honest, you know, some of the manufacturers might not like this. know, the other than the intro or camera, the number two producing thing in terms of ROI in the practice is going to be imaging.
32:23
I mean, with a digital pan or a CVCT, which you can buy brand new or from an unbelievable company called Renew Digital that buys relatively pre-owned slash year or two old x-rays and installs them with a full service experience just like a dealer does. know, you can, every time you push a button, it's a hundred bucks or 175 bucks. mean, really your cost is the electricity. That's it. So you're actually not doing it. Your assistant's doing it. So it's hands.
32:51
And again, you can't treat what you can't see. Dentists are not dentists of individual teeth. They're a clinician of the lower half of the skull, starting with condyle, fossa, joints, and all the way down to foramen. you should really, again, I'm not a dentist, and I know different programs treat different things, and some doctors are like, I don't need a pan. But you can catch a carotid artery on a pan. You can catch endo way earlier than it's going to show up on a PA. There's actually more shades of gray in a pan or in a CBCT than there is.
33:20
an interoperable image. That ROI actually makes sense, right? I mean, you do an FMX and get paid for that, or you can do a, you know, a Pano and four byte wings. the ability to do thirds or the ability to do some other things with the Pano, obviously that's going to allow for additional fees and services to be rendered. So you like that sort of product,
33:49
And once again, guys, you don't have to buy a CBCT on day one. You buy a Pano for 30 grand because that's what you need today. And guess what? You will. It's standard of care is hard to talk about, but you're going to have a lot of what you need today. Right. lot of those machines are upgradable down the road. So if you're not doing CBCT or you feel like you can't afford it, you maybe you want a little nicer equipment, but you know,
34:18
I used to sell a ton of lasers when I started and there are a couple people that will throw the kitchen sink at a doctor that can get a loan or two and end up spending $650,000 to $700,000 to start out of an office. But if you look at the tangible return on CAD CAM and really even on digital modeling, can you get an impression without digital modeling? Yeah. mean, do you want to be a digital practitioner? Sure. But what is the opportunity cost of 30 grand and having digital modeling? Right. What's the opportunity cost? It's another off.
34:47
or in some maybe another three ops, you know, if you're buying. Or more importantly, it could be marketing to get butts in the seat, which this is about allocation of monies allowed us to get butts in the seats. That's the true ROI, right? And that word of mouth of the experience, those three things that you talked about, right? The actual physical plant, the actual staff, and then the hands, that's going to get butts in the seat. Ultimately, after you get enough butts in the seat,
35:17
and start getting monies, that's what we have. We have the ability to add an op, digital radiography, going to classes to do implant courses, whatever it might be. So. As you guys continue to nerd out on equipment, let's think about it for a second here. So what we keep talking about is not getting too crazy with the core equipment.
35:42
reallocating those dollars towards equipment that will help you sell dentistry. And that's not a dirty word. And then what John just broke down is, is also taking those extra dollars and getting it to marketing to get the patients in. so this is a business, you guys, this is you take the free money, the money that you've managed well by not over equipping your office. You spend money on marketing to get the people in the door. And then you actually spend money on a
36:11
that helps you sell those people so that they say yes and it's a full circle. So don't spend all your money on the, Matt I love it, that patients don't ever come in and say this chair is uncomfortable. I love that. I love that. Now it needs to be presentable. don't take your equipment as you know, and you want to be dealing with a reputable deal, full service dealer that's going to service it, that's going to warranty it, that's going to install it for free, et cetera, et cetera.
36:41
A patient, on the same token, patient never gets up out of a chair after a procedure and goes, you know what, doctor? The margin on my crown is fantastic. And I'm so glad that you have the best materials in using 3M or Dense Supply. And I'll bet there'll be no cracks or micro leaks in my filling for the next 10 years. Thank you so much for your clinical aptitude. They judge that on the office, on the look of it, the feel of it, and the comfort of it. don't go store low end that they feel like, you know, they're going into a tattoo parlor.
37:09
But you know, want it to be clean and efficient, but presentable obviously as well. Beautiful. I think that's a great, great step. This episode, part one, part two, you know, tune in followers. Thanks so much for all that you are. You participate, you follow us, you subscribe. Matt Zolfo's phenomenal resource for John and I. we're super pleased to have you.
37:34
Hey, stay tuned, we're gonna jump into the next episode here and discuss some of the value add that equipment reps do provide, because we focused a lot on the transactional piece of this today. We talked about budget, talked about the sales process, but the truth is, the white knight can be your equipment rep in this whole project, and I wanna get into a little bit of that in the next episode.
38:01
Thanks for listening. Tune in next week for another truth-filled episode of Startup Unscripted.
38:11
Check out Startup Unscripted on Facebook and YouTube. Click like, subscribe, and interact with Michael and John.