Lessons from Unsuccessful Partnerships

Episode #352 with Paul Sletten

Not having a transition plan is like running laps with no finish line — it’s not fun, and you will plateau quickly. Whether you're looking to transition in the near or far future, today’s guest will help you get started. Kirk Behrendt brings in Paul Sletten from The Sletten Group to share the best planning advice so you can create successful partnerships and have seamless transitions. If you want to transition successfully, listen to Episode 352 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

A successful transition begins with having a plan.

Have a clear timetable for transitioning.

Transition plans are not one-size-fits-all. Don't use your colleagues’ plans.

A practice transition plan and the dentist’s life plan need to be connected.

Know what an ideal candidate profile looks like for a particular role.

Partnerships with family members require twice as much work.

For successful partnerships, commit to communicating well.

Quotes:

“Let's talk about unsuccessful transitions. The biggest reason, by far, is that they don't have a plan. When a practice owner wants to transition a practice, either by adding another dentist at an appropriate time or transitioning out of the practice, everything flows from the plan of the owner. So, if the owner is unsure of how to do it, when to do it, and those kinds of things, then the other doctor who’s under consideration for joining the practice can't make their plans either. So, it’s critically important that the owner have a plan. And so often, they're using their friends or their colleagues’ plan and contracts and haven't thought through their own issues.” (3:07—4:00)

“There's another thing that's really important. And that is, there needs to be a connection between their practice transition plan and their life plans. They have to be connected. They have to be congruent.” (4:01—4:13)

“A lot of times, they just kind of slap [transition plans] together. They meet somebody at a dental meeting, and the person makes a good impression and says, ‘You know, we ought to talk further.” And they do talk a little bit further. And the next thing you know, there's an invitation to come into the practice and get on a path to partnership, at some point. It’s just miraculous if something like that would work. Some do. But the vast majority don't.” (4:18—4:47)

“You have to have a timetable. How many people do we ask, ‘How much longer are you going to practice, and at what pace?’ And the typical answer is five years. And then, you talk to some of them five years later and you ask them the same question, and they say, ‘Five years,’ and so on. And so, what they're doing is they're just running laps with no finish line or no tape at the end. That's not fun. And then, the practice starts to go sour. It begins to plateau. And it can't sustain a plateau, so it begins to go into decline. And now, you're losing value for your practice.” (5:27—6:14)

“If somebody’s in a healthy financial condition, the seller, for example, at a closing table, you've got a really wonderful opportunity to put a win-win outcome together. If somebody comes to a closing table in a needy position, look out, buyer. Because they just absolutely need to sell it, but they also need to stick around and keep working. And that can raise other really nasty issues, because the patients need to start moving over to the new owner so they can pay the overhead expenses and begin to prosper, but they won't do so readily with the old owner in there.” (7:43—8:26)

“It’s so important to do the best match you can. For example, if you own a practice and you are in practice for 35 years and you're ready to transition, you and your team have been teaching your patients what to expect when they come to