Dental Practice Curb Appeal

The appearance of your dental practice matters. Learn why curb appeal is important when selling your dental practice.

Matt Scherer: Well. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Matt Chair. I’m with PMA practice transitions, and I cover all of Ohio and western PA, and assist dental professionals in selling and buying practices. And my colleague is…

Joe Gordon: I’m Joe Gordon. I do exactly what Matt does, but I do it for Indiana and Northern Kentucky.

Matt Scherer: Today’s topic is…

Joe Gordon: Today’s topic is curb appeal of the practice that you’re looking to sell.

Matt Scherer: Yes. Why is curb appeal so important, Joe?

Joe Gordon: Well it’s the first impression that anyone gets, when they walk into your practice?

Matt Scherer: That’s right.

Joe Gordon: Whether it’s a patient or a potential buyer of your practice, it’s going to be their initial impression, and it’s going to really set the tone for whatever comes after that.

Matt Scherer:  Absolutely. And here’s a question for all those dentists who own their own practice today. How many of you, when you enter your practice, enter through the rear door of your practice, versus the front door of your practice? Why is that important? Well, if you enter through the front door, you get to see what the patient experience is like entering into your practice. And it gives you a good idea of what your practice looks like from the outside, and what it could potentially look like from the inside. From a buyer’s perspective.

Matt Scherer: Think about it, Joe, if you, if you have a practice that looks rundown from the outside, what are you gonna think about that dentist?

Joe Gordon: You’re not going to think too much about it.

Matt Scherer: Right? You’re going to probably think maybe they do not so high or good dentistry.

Joe Gordon: Absolutely.

Matt Scherer: So it’s important to take a look at your office, walk through the front door of your office, see what the patient sees, and if you can, try to, clean up the clutter, paint, carpet, new carpet, new paint, things like that doesn’t really cost you much. But it can go a long way in the buyer’s mind, because as soon as they walk in and see that I’m going to have to repaint this place, or re carpet it, or whatever the case might be, automatically they’re knocking dollars off the sale price.

Joe Gordon: Oh, absolutely. You know, your reception area, or any of the common areas within your practice, take a look at them. It was probably nice that you sponsored that little league team back in 1984, but we don’t really need that up on the wall anymore. That probably could be replaced with a little something more contemporary, to make it look just a little bit better. Look at your lighting. Again, if it was in 1984, we’ve gone to these things called LEDs now and they make a huge difference, in the appeal of a practice.

Joe Gordon: The same with your exterior. You have exterior lighting, make sure that it works, it’s functional, and it’s appropriate along with your landscaping. Just because you put that Bush in 20 years ago, doesn’t mean it still needs to be there.

Matt Scherer: And or signage, because maybe that to want Bush 20 years ago was this big, and now it’s this big and you can’t see the signage or whatever, whatever else is going on there. So yeah, definitely take a look at that. And if you’re not the person that is good with that type of thing, there’s people that you can hire, to come in and, and kind of interior designers/decorators and help you out. And, and again, this is, we’re not talking high dollar stuff here.

Joe Gordon: No.

Matt Scherer: We’re talking low dollars, for high reward, I would say.

Joe Gordon: Exactly. Even changing counter tops. If they’re the old pink chartreuse color, of the 1970s, let’s get rid of that and throw some stone down there. It doesn’t cost that much, and really makes a pop, when people see it.

Matt Scherer: Yeah, absolutely. And just declutter your office. Everybody’s, you know, you’ve had your house, your office for 30, 40 years, you collect stuff. Look at things, and if you haven’t used them, get rid of them. It’s going to go a long way in the sale of your practice.

Joe Gordon:Giant shredding machines, they’ll bring them to you, and you get rid of all those records in the basement.

Matt Scherer: That’s right. That’s right. So, well that’s all we really have today for curb appeal. Certainly, we can talk probably for another hour about sprucing up your office, and things you could do. But we’d like to leave you with just a short little nugget for you, and hope that you take some of the information that we talked about, and put it to use. And if you like us, and like the segment, please give us a thumbs up, and please share it with your colleagues and your friends. Thank you.