The Team’s Role in Transitioning Your Practice

Episode #400 with Paul Sletten

You've spent a lifetime building a great team. But one day, your time will come to leave them. And if you care about your team, you need to involve them in the transition process. To help you leave your practice in good hands, Kirk Behrendt brings back Paul Sletten from The Sletten Group with expert advice on how and why your team should be involved. Your greatest asset is your team — don't betray them with a sudden exit! To make your transition less difficult and challenging, listen to Episode 400 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

Have a plan — no matter where you are in life.

Link your business plans with your life plans.

Involve your team in the transition process.

Choose an associate that your team loves.

Sell when you are financially healthy.

Be patient. The right buyer is out there.

Quotes:

“Most people focus on — and I've done this myself early in my career — financial things, on steps in a transition, and things like that, timetables. And what you also need to do is you need to coordinate and tie your practice transition plan with your life plan. I've seen people put business plans together, and then have their life plans sabotage the business plan because they were never connected, or never discussed, or never processed. So, the life planning is of huge importance in terms of success in transitions.” (2:26—3:09)

“We’re all in transition all the time, aren't we? I mean, personally, professionally, and everything else. And we need to build skills at becoming successful in transitions. And that absolutely has to involve putting your life plan together.” (3:09—3:27)

“If you're going to go find someone to join the practice, and with you staying, or if you're going to go find someone to take over the practice as you exit, you need to include the team.” (7:05—7:17)

“Which would you rather have, a team that finds out on the day of the closing what a monster event that is, and then have the new owner have to deal with their response? And you're much more likely to lose people doing it that way than you are if you bring them into your confidence and ask them to be confidential with patients, and with everything else, and involve them.” (7:37—8:12)

“You know the old deal, ‘If the doctor’s not there, the practice is worthless and will sell for nothing’? That’s absolutely true, in some cases. But in this case, it wasn't even close to true because the team was there. And the patients stayed. It took four-and-a-half months to sell that practice, which was agonizing because we wanted to do it in two weeks. But it took four-and-a-half months. And after that period of time, the attrition in terms of active patients was something like they lost 11 people, who left the practice. And everyone else stayed. And one of the huge reasons why the doctor who now owns it and is thriving in that practice was chosen is because the team loved him.” (13:19—14:14)

“It’s really almost impossible if the seller comes to the table in a needy financial position to have a win-win outcome, because they have to get every penny out of the sale. And they often drive off the buyer because that clearly is the number-one issue. If the person who’s done a good job with financial planning and been disciplined over their career comes to the table in a very different way, they're going to get the same amount of money at the closing, but they're looking to put it together in a real winning fashion for the successor as well, because that kind of practice is what you call a legacy practice. And that's a practice that can continue serving that community for many, many decades after the exit of the founder.” (15:09—16:07)

“If you have a hierarchical structure with your staff, that’s...