Page 15 - The Dental Entrepreneur

The Dental Entrepreneur

Please commit these to memory and notice that I have created this list with a descending
order of importance. Number one being the most important and your clinical skills having the
least significance as to your overall outcome as a practicing dentist. This is a well proven fact
and that is either good news or bad news depending on your abilities.

I never cease to be amazed at how two individuals from the same graduation class with
essentially the same education and clinical skills can have such dramatic differences in their
ability to generate income. An individual 5 years out of school may be grossing $200,00 and
struggling day to day while his dental school room mate may be grossing $1,000,000 + with
essentially the same education. The difference here has nothing to do with the “Quality of
Dentistry”. The majority of the time the chief difference is that one individual communicates
more effectively than the other. This is something that comes quite naturally for some people
and it translates very effectively into treatment acceptance and quality relationships with their
patients and staff. If these skills do not come naturally to an individual, they can be learned.
There may be self help programs to help develop those skills. You may also surround yourself
with dynamic personalities that assist you in communicating your goals for your practice and
patients. The key observation is that you must be brutally honest with yourself ,the fact that
you may have displayed promising clinical skills in school will have zero impact in a
marketplace where the consumer is demanding information, genuine communication, and the
feeling that you genuinely care about their needs. The ability to communicate with staff and
patients is skill set one. Technical excellence is a lifelong quest but without communication
skills you may never get the chance to develop them in a meaningful way.

Dr. Rick Kushner, Comfort Dental

I was a student of Dr Rick Kushner’s Lean And Mean Seminars back in the 80’s. Dr Kuschner
is also the founder and CEO of Comfort Dental and currently is a partner in over 200 practices.
Rick is a pioneer and innovator. I don’t think he copied anyone. His instincts for what make
people tick and how to better serve patients is exemplary and he has marketing approaches
that work, are reproducible, and better serve mankind. I invited Dr Kuschner to speak at my
class several years ago. It was a honor that he accepted my invitation and came at his own
expense. He understands the concept of confrontational tolerance very well and his dental
partners are very highly trained in marketing tasks that are initiated and followed thru by them.
They are not allowed to delegate a variety of tasks which I will outline here.

The reason I mention him here in this chapter is that recently he blogged about the 7 crucial
traits that after extensive institutional testing he has identified in a potential successful partner.
He calls them the “sensational seven.” I think these should line up very closely with “should I
open a dental practice” inventory. He has done extensive research to come up with this list.

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