Episode #308: How to Produce 30% More Without Adding Any Hours or Raising Your Fees, with Curtis Marshall

Work smarter, not harder! Increasing your hours isn't the surest way to produce more. And today, Kirk Behrendt brings in Curtis Marshall from Dental Intel to teach you how to produce 30% more in your practice. His secret is the morning huddle, and you can have more production without getting more chairs, working more hours, or raising your fees! For more on how Dental Intel can help you and your team, listen to Episode 308 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

• Working more hours isn't a sure way to increase production.
• Data helps you know where you are so you can move forward in the right direction.
• Morning huddles are the secret to higher production.
• Don't undervalue the huddle, and make sure your team is on board.
• Have good, accurate information.
• Have actionable items and know what to focus on.
• Huddles should be quick — 15 minutes is almost too long.
• Make sure your patients have a future appointment.
• Make sure your patients accept treatment.

Quotes:

• “[You can] produce more without doing what most people tell us, which is, ‘Get more new patients, open more hours, put more chairs in.’ That's typically the answer for producing more, is, ‘Well, you need to work harder,’ and that's not necessarily the truth.” (05:05—05:23)
• “Why is data important in your life? The same answer is what we’re saying for dental practices. The reason why data itself is more important now more than ever is because it’s giving us the true, actual status quo, ‘This is what's happening’ whether you like it or not.” (07:04—07:25)
• “If you don't know where you are today, then you cannot move forward in a timely fashion. That's why data is so important for every dental office in 2021 and in the future.” (07:58—08:11)
• “The more information we get, the easier it is to be more productive. For example, when I was in high school, for weight training, the main thing that they did was said, ‘Go do bench and go do squats. You need to get really good at your bench and get really good at your squats.’ That's how they trained you on how to become better, faster, stronger. Well, now, what they're focusing on is plyometrics. They're focusing on core. They're focusing on the true things, because now they’ve tested and truly found out that it’s not necessarily — even though you want the big guns for the girls — this right here isn't where it’s at. It’s more in the core.” (12:45—13:31)
• “The important information to know [about morning huddles] is, first, make sure everybody’s on board. The team members have got to be on board. Second is having good, accurate information. Lastly, actionable items, what to really focus on.” (15:52—16:07)
• “If I'm having a huddle, the main goal is to do, what? That's probably the biggest thing to realize when looking at the data, or the information, the reports, whatever it is, the discussion. What's the outcome that we’re wanting? Is it just to check off morning huddle? If it’s just to check off morning huddle, you will fail every time.” (21:04—21:27)
• “The morning huddle is not to say, ‘Hey, we need to do better as a company.’ That is a meeting. That’s your weekly, monthly meeting with your office managers. That is not what morning huddle is for. It’s to say, ‘How can I better care for my patients?’ And there's really only one of two ways that we can take better care of our patients when talking about the morning huddle. Number one, making sure that they have a future appointment. Simple, right? Number two, making sure that they accept the treatment that we’re presenting them.” (22:48—23:31)
• “New patients are not rescheduling, and we’re not discussing it. It’s okay that K.C. left without an appointment. My question is why, so that today we don't repeat what we did yesterday. And then, the follow-up is, ‘All right. Sam, the action item is for you to reach out to K.C. and make sure she gets a future appointment.’” (27:54—28:27)
• “If you do nothing else but focus on the patients who left yesterday and broke an appointment from yesterday and fixed that — that is why the morning huddle is so crucial. And you will see more production, 30% more production, than you would've without the morning huddle.” (33:40—34:01)
• “The things we focus on, that's what grows.” (34:16—34:18)
• “Those 24 patients, let's say they all come in. What are the chances, percentage wise, that I'm going to be able to talk with those patients? 100%. If I were to call them on the phone, what are the chances of me talking to them? 20%.” (36:43—37:05)
• “Your team members, when they have this information, are going to bloom. They know what to do if they have this information, but it’s not easily got. You have to spend a lot of extra time to pull those reports and data in order to have that information. But [Dental Intel] gives it to you in a click.” (42:01—42:18)

Snippets:

• Curtis’ background. (03:56—05:23)
• Why data is so important to dental practice owners. (07:01—08:11)
• The secret to producing 30% more. (09:45—14:01)
• Elements of a well-run huddle. (15:51—19:37)
• Where to start. (20:38—21:31)
• How long should huddles be? (22:07—23:31)
• What to talk about in the morning huddle. (23:49—29:21)
• Ensure that every patient leaves with a future appointment. (31:05—34:18)
• Other things to focus on in morning huddles. (35:36—40:11)
• Give your team the opportunity to help you. (41:05—42:18)
• Last thoughts on the morning huddle. (43:47—44:52)
• Curtis’ contact information and Dental Intel. (45:11—45:52)

Reach Out to Curtis:

Dental Intel website: https://www.dentalintel.com/ (Hit the “demo” button and mention Kirk!)

Curtis’ Instagram: @curtisagram https://www.instagram.com/curtisagram/?hl=en

Curtis’ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dcm24

Curtis Marshall Bio:

Nationwide, dentists have allowed Curtis Marshall to utilize his passion and skills to take their practice to the next level. With over 10 years’ experience of marketing and communication and 8 years’ experience of practice management, dental coaching, and operations, dentists love the advantage they get through working with him.

While working in a general practice, Curtis used his expertise with systems and marketing to help a single doctor grow from 20 new patients a month to being a three-doctor practice with 400 new patients a month, and 6 million annually.

Curtis is a fantastic motivator and has helped our company with numerous successful marketing projects.

He is energetic, charismatic, and personal. He is the kind of guy who makes friends wherever he goes.