Did you know the technology in your dental practice, or lack of technology, can impact the value of your practice? Dental transition experts Matt and Joe share how it impacts it and what you should be being to prevent it from hurting the value of your dental practice.
Matt Scherer: Hello and welcome. My name is Matt Scherer with PMA Practice Transitions. I assist dental professionals in selling and buying practices in the great state of Ohio and Western PA. And my colleague is …
Joe Gordon: I’m Joe Gordon and I do the same that Matt does, but I do it in Indiana and Northern Kentucky.
Matt Scherer: Awesome. And our subject for today is …
Joe Gordon: Our subject today is technology within your practice or within practice you’re looking to buy or lack thereof.
Matt Scherer: Right. Too often than not, a lot of, I guess older dentists didn’t grow up with the technology and never updated their practice as things evolved. And nowadays, I think in dental schools they are working with a lot more technology. Right? So that’s almost, I don’t want to say non standard of care to not have technology, but that’s what buyers are coming out with is their standard of care, so to speak, as having some technology.
Joe Gordon: Yes. And it’s, we don’t have to be on the cutting edge or the bleeding edge of technology, but there is a baseline standard that we would like to see in practices that are selling. And all it will do is help the value of the practice in the eyes of the buyer that we can make it better for them. A lot of the older dentists also have over staffs that are giving them pushback on going to things like electronic medical records, having computers in each operatory.
Matt Scherer: Or digital x-ray for that matter.
Joe Gordon: Yeah, digital x-rays. There’s no sense these days on if you’re replacing an x-ray not to make it digital. The same with panos. We do the same thing there. It just makes inherent sense to do that. It does take some getting used to, but once it’s done, it is a fabulous step.
Matt Scherer: And you really have to look at when are you planning on retiring? How many years do you have left and what is the return on the investment for that technology? Especially when you’re looking at possibly slowing down. Maybe digital technology makes you a little bit more efficient, so you don’t necessarily lose revenue, but you can slow down because you’re a little bit faster than hand dipping x-rays and all that fun stuff. I think another big one is intraoral cameras.
Joe Gordon: Oh yes, great selling tool. Great way to sell dentistry. Anytime you make a tooth one foot tall and show it to a patient, they’re probably going to agree with whatever you’re saying.
Matt Scherer: So, what we’re trying to say is, technology in a buyer’s eyes is important. We’ve seen it all too many times when a practice doesn’t have technology and a buyer walks through the doors, automatically they’re thinking, “I’m lowering the price.” Even though when we’ve done the valuation on the practice, we’ve taken that into account. So, but you’ve got to be smart about your technology purchases. You’ve got to be able to see a return on the investment. And that return may be a higher sale price potentially. But we’re not saying go out and buy hundreds of thousands of dollars of technology tomorrow. So, just be smart about it. It is important. Buyers see it as important. And you never know, it could make you a little bit more efficient so that you can take some more time off.
Joe Gordon: When you get a practice to sell, Matt, what’s the first thing you do? Where do you go look at that practice?
Matt Scherer: Oh, on the web.
Joe Gordon: Yeah, on the website.
Matt Scherer: Yeah.
Joe Gordon: How many times have you gone out there and looked and there is no website?
Matt Scherer: That’s a great point. You bring up an excellent point. Yes. Do yourself a favor and have a website. If you’re trying to attract patients, which you should be all the way through retirement pretty much, the first place they’re going to look is at the website to see where their nearest dentist is. So yeah, that’s a great point, Joe.
Joe Gordon: We can spend a lot of money on a website or we can spend just the minimal amount and just enough to let everybody know you’re there.
Matt Scherer: Yeah. Having one is so important.
Joe Gordon: Yeah. Without a doubt.
Matt Scherer: Perfect. Well, that wraps our segment up for today and we appreciate you listening. If you like us, please give us the thumbs up and definitely share us with your colleagues and friends. Thanks.
Published by Matthew Scherer on August 30, 2019