Very Clinical: Dr. Tarun Agarwal Thinks You Should Be The Bank

[00:00:01] This is a production of the Very Dental Podcast Network.

[00:00:16] Welcome to the Very Clinical Podcast. In about the time it takes to do an MO on three, we will entertain and amaze you with tips and tricks on regular daily dentistry. Here's Kevin and Zach.

[00:00:28] Very Clinical listeners, welcome back to yet another episode of the podcast. This is Zach Miners coming to you from Kansas City, Missouri, with me as always, my trusty co-host, Dr. Kevin.

[00:00:38] Hair Friar Kevin. How is Cleveland?

[00:00:42] I'm doing great. It just started raining out here, so I don't know what that...

[00:00:45] Is that it? Are you going to lose internet now? Is it over?

[00:00:48] Probably. Oh, well that sucks. Great. All right. You guys will have to carry on without me.

[00:00:52] Super. I won't be missed.

[00:00:54] As promised, we have Dr. Alan Mead all the way from Michigan returning. Alan, what's up?

[00:01:01] Well, nothing is up. Okay.

[00:01:02] Actually, it's sort of rainy here too, a little bit.

[00:01:05] How would you know from the dungeon of your black backslide?

[00:01:08] That's exactly right. I want to know.

[00:01:09] I'm in the Harry Potter.

[00:01:10] I just want everybody to know that Alan is living in the basement.

[00:01:14] I am.

[00:01:15] With a curtain behind him, no less.

[00:01:16] If I pulled the curtain back, it would be ugly.

[00:01:19] Is that where the wizard is?

[00:01:20] The unfinished basement.

[00:01:22] So, yes.

[00:01:24] Also returning, Dr. Tarun Agarwal all the way from North Carolina.

[00:01:28] Tarun, how's it going?

[00:01:29] Good.

[00:01:30] You know, we're dry and alive and that's an amazing thing to be right now.

[00:01:36] If you're tuning into this, Tarun just went through Hurricane Helene, right?

[00:01:41] Helene?

[00:01:42] I didn't even know it was a name storm.

[00:01:44] I sure did.

[00:01:45] Yeah, it was a name storm.

[00:01:47] Yeah.

[00:01:48] All right, Kevin.

[00:01:49] What do we got tonight before we get into the top?

[00:01:51] All right.

[00:01:51] Well, this is going to probably come out around Halloween.

[00:01:55] So, we're just going to go around the horn and let's find out what our favorite Halloween candy.

[00:02:00] Although, Tarun, before you answer this, do you remember when we got Mexican candy?

[00:02:05] Yeah.

[00:02:06] Where were we at?

[00:02:07] We were in Texas.

[00:02:08] That's right.

[00:02:09] That's right.

[00:02:10] Literally, I didn't know such things existed.

[00:02:13] There was a TN, like a legit Hispanic, whatever, I don't want to be canceled, grocery store, okay?

[00:02:23] And they only sold real Mexican candy.

[00:02:27] Like not even like Mexican Snickers, like real Mexican candy that tasted like shit.

[00:02:33] It was so bad.

[00:02:34] Oh, no.

[00:02:35] We brought it back.

[00:02:36] It was Aaron's class in Dallas.

[00:02:38] In Dallas, that's right.

[00:02:39] We brought it because we were running out of snacks or whatever and nobody liked it.

[00:02:44] Oh, okay.

[00:02:44] Did not go well.

[00:02:46] But then again, I am cheap.

[00:02:49] So, I did buy the value pack up a Hispanic.

[00:02:54] Yeah, like 5,000 pieces of corn and no one will eat.

[00:02:58] Oh.

[00:03:00] All right.

[00:03:02] All right.

[00:03:02] Well, anyway, let's go around the horn.

[00:03:04] We'll start with Alan.

[00:03:06] Your favorite Halloween candy when you were a kid.

[00:03:10] Okay.

[00:03:11] Do you guys know what this is?

[00:03:12] These are great for people with dental work.

[00:03:14] Yeah.

[00:03:14] They're the, God, what are they called?

[00:03:17] Those little bit of honey.

[00:03:19] They're sugar daddies.

[00:03:20] Oh, sugar daddy.

[00:03:21] Oh, sugar daddy.

[00:03:22] You know what a sugar daddy is?

[00:03:23] Yeah.

[00:03:24] Not that kind of sugar daddy.

[00:03:26] Yeah.

[00:03:26] Candy.

[00:03:27] It's like a caramel.

[00:03:28] They're like, they're sort of like caramel jelly beans.

[00:03:30] And if you did have stickiest caramel.

[00:03:33] Yeah.

[00:03:33] We should each have them in our office to remove like stubborn temperate because they

[00:03:38] are very sticky.

[00:03:38] They are.

[00:03:39] They are so freaking good though.

[00:03:41] And, and kind of rare.

[00:03:43] So yeah, sugar daddies would be my choice.

[00:03:44] I mean, I, I love all kinds of candy, but that seemed to be a very Halloween thing

[00:03:49] to me, a sugar daddy.

[00:03:50] A sugar daddy.

[00:03:50] Is that on a stick?

[00:03:51] Or is that just like.

[00:03:52] No, no.

[00:03:52] Well, there is such a thing that they're like the, the slow poke.

[00:03:56] Oh, slow poke.

[00:03:57] Okay.

[00:03:57] The slow poke is, is like a sugar daddy on a stick.

[00:04:00] Okay.

[00:04:00] But sugar daddies were way more deadly because you could get a handful of them.

[00:04:04] Is it too early for a P Diddy joke?

[00:04:07] I think, I think Alan is just projecting his, his wants in life.

[00:04:11] Yeah.

[00:04:12] Sugar daddy.

[00:04:14] Sugar daddies hit me up.

[00:04:16] Um, TMJ trouble with the sugar daddies.

[00:04:19] You put a, put a mouthful of sugar daddies in there and you could, you could wreck your.

[00:04:23] Oh boy.

[00:04:24] Oh my God.

[00:04:25] All right.

[00:04:25] Probably could.

[00:04:26] All right.

[00:04:27] You're up.

[00:04:28] Uh, well I have so many.

[00:04:30] I, sugar is my, um, vice.

[00:04:33] It's my kryptonite.

[00:04:35] So like my standards are, are Snickers and M&Ms and Reese cups.

[00:04:39] Those three.

[00:04:40] And, but then the, the candy I don't get anymore that I really remember.

[00:04:44] Okay.

[00:04:44] Stop.

[00:04:45] I'm sorry.

[00:04:46] I have to, I just looked it up.

[00:04:47] Sugar daddies are the one on the stick.

[00:04:50] That's what I thought.

[00:04:50] Sugar babies are the little jelly bean thing.

[00:04:53] So they're the same thing, but they're the, so sorry, sugar babies.

[00:04:56] I'm sorry.

[00:04:57] No, no.

[00:04:58] I have to correct myself in real time here.

[00:05:01] It is.

[00:05:02] It is sugar mamas.

[00:05:04] Yeah.

[00:05:04] They make sugar babies.

[00:05:05] Well, I think it's appropriate that sugar daddies have a stick.

[00:05:09] Yeah.

[00:05:12] So, so the two candies that I haven't had that I loved at Halloween were Rolos.

[00:05:19] Those are really good.

[00:05:20] And then there was, I can't remember the name of it, but it's like this caramel with the white thing in the center of it.

[00:05:26] Um, they're just caramels with white things.

[00:05:29] I know.

[00:05:29] I know.

[00:05:30] They're like, they're like, they're like a little, little pinwheel thing.

[00:05:33] Yeah.

[00:05:33] They're so, they're really good.

[00:05:35] They came in little, little wrappers.

[00:05:37] So I remember those.

[00:05:38] Yep.

[00:05:40] All right.

[00:05:40] Yeah.

[00:05:41] Little wrappers.

[00:05:41] Rolo was a good one.

[00:05:42] Cause I haven't thought about Rolo in a long time.

[00:05:44] Um, okay.

[00:05:45] So out of, uh, necessity to get the most amount of candy, no one liked mounds or almond joy.

[00:05:55] Yeah.

[00:05:56] The coconut.

[00:05:57] And I loved them.

[00:05:59] I was going to say a hundred grand bar or butterfinger baby.

[00:06:04] I was into all, I do love baby Ruth, but baby Ruth is fantastic.

[00:06:07] But I will, I'm a mounds guy.

[00:06:10] I like the coconut.

[00:06:11] That's it.

[00:06:12] That's my thing.

[00:06:12] I was, I was, you know, the fat kid.

[00:06:15] I was not picky.

[00:06:16] So anyone who was getting rid of almond joys and mounds, I took them too.

[00:06:19] Oh yeah.

[00:06:20] That's what I'm saying.

[00:06:20] I would, people would be like, I hate these.

[00:06:22] And I'm sweet more for me.

[00:06:25] Yep.

[00:06:25] Kevin.

[00:06:27] Well, um, you know, the classic Snickers or peanut M and M.

[00:06:31] I already used them.

[00:06:31] I mean, those are a dime a dozen.

[00:06:34] Does anyone remember a marathon bar?

[00:06:36] Yeah.

[00:06:37] Oh, they were in a red package, I believe.

[00:06:38] Right?

[00:06:38] Red package.

[00:06:39] Yeah.

[00:06:39] And, uh, you know, I don't, can you describe a marathon bar?

[00:06:44] I've never seen it in my life.

[00:06:46] A long time.

[00:06:47] Yeah.

[00:06:47] I think.

[00:06:49] Yeah.

[00:06:52] It's a chocolate and caramel.

[00:06:53] I think maybe a little crunch in there.

[00:06:56] Um, I'll send you a link later on, but.

[00:06:58] Uh, I'm sorry.

[00:07:01] So I moved into this new neighborhood and apparently I, what I was already told is that this neighborhood is known for giving out full size candy bars.

[00:07:09] Yeah.

[00:07:10] And I said, you know what?

[00:07:11] Great news.

[00:07:12] I will be sure I'm out of town.

[00:07:15] Lights will be off.

[00:07:16] Exactly.

[00:07:18] I will make myself welcomed and known.

[00:07:21] Okay.

[00:07:21] The person that does that.

[00:07:23] You guys remember the whatchamacallit?

[00:07:25] Oh, those are great.

[00:07:26] Those are pretty good.

[00:07:27] I think there's more air than candy though.

[00:07:30] They for sure were, but they had, I literally was, I don't know why I was doing this, but on YouTube, there's a bunch of classic eighties commercials from.

[00:07:37] Oh, um, uh, what do you call it?

[00:07:39] What's the yellow?

[00:07:40] What's the, uh, Twinkies.

[00:07:41] Twinkies are the best.

[00:07:43] Yeah.

[00:07:43] Yeah.

[00:07:44] Yeah.

[00:07:44] I did not have a sugar daddies or marathon man though on my, uh, bar not marathon man.

[00:07:52] Yeah.

[00:07:52] That's a movie.

[00:07:53] If you find sugar daddies, you'll hate yourself cause your jaw will hurt, but God, they're so good.

[00:07:58] All right.

[00:08:00] Oh man.

[00:08:01] Now I'm hungry for sugar.

[00:08:03] All right.

[00:08:03] Uh, so onto the topic.

[00:08:06] Did, did, did, did, did, did I'm here?

[00:08:09] I'm still here.

[00:08:10] Okay.

[00:08:11] Okay.

[00:08:12] Uh, disappeared.

[00:08:13] He changed his mind and now he's changing his pants.

[00:08:16] All right.

[00:08:16] Now he just had to take off his top.

[00:08:18] Here we go.

[00:08:18] All right.

[00:08:19] Now we're going to get a good show going.

[00:08:21] That's right.

[00:08:22] That's right.

[00:08:23] Okay.

[00:08:24] So, uh, all right.

[00:08:25] Tonight's topic, Tarun, we're going to find out whether you have done a one 80 on any particular

[00:08:30] business topic, business of dentistry topic, uh, from the early part of your career to the

[00:08:36] latter part of your career.

[00:08:38] Yeah.

[00:08:39] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:08:40] Um, well, as many things, uh, and I'm going to present one that I don't recommend that

[00:08:47] everybody do, but I want everybody to have their mind open to, and that's learning that's

[00:08:52] becoming the bank for your patients.

[00:08:55] And, um, yep.

[00:08:59] Uh, you know, we're, we're, we're full of gurus that tell us that we don't, we shouldn't be the

[00:09:04] bank ever.

[00:09:06] Uh, or we should, you know, or the, the cheapo dentist and say, I don't want to give the fee

[00:09:10] up for third party financing.

[00:09:12] And they all have their place.

[00:09:13] Uh, but I will tell you the second highest paid profession in dentistry is orthodontists

[00:09:19] and they make their entire business out of being the bank for their patients.

[00:09:23] It's true.

[00:09:24] And so, um, so about, about 12 years into my career, about halfway into my career, I started

[00:09:32] becoming the bank from my, for, you know, I started becoming the bank for my patients

[00:09:37] around a very, very set guidelines.

[00:09:39] Uh, and I, I became the bank for my patients and it has, uh, opened up tremendous opportunity,

[00:09:47] uh, within our practice.

[00:09:48] I mean, tremendous opportunity within our practice.

[00:09:52] So what are some of the guidelines that you would?

[00:09:55] Yeah.

[00:09:55] So, so number one, I don't charge any interest because then I would actually be a bank and

[00:10:00] there's a little bit of lending laws that you have to follow there.

[00:10:02] Uh, number, number one.

[00:10:05] Uh, so the other part of this is I have a low end dollar amount that I'm willing to finance.

[00:10:12] And I have a high end dollar amount that I'm willing to finance.

[00:10:15] Uh, so roughly speaking, let's say $500 on the low end, uh, and maybe say $2,000, $2,500

[00:10:23] on the high end.

[00:10:24] And then, um, I have a short term financing window, uh, meaning I'll be the bank for up

[00:10:32] to six months.

[00:10:33] So either three months or six months, not four months, five months, you know, just either

[00:10:38] three months or six months.

[00:10:40] And the other part of it is I require, I must get a down payment to make the appointment.

[00:10:46] And the down payment on the financing is 25 to 35%.

[00:10:51] And that typically that down payment itself kind of self selects people that would be more

[00:10:58] likely to not pay you.

[00:11:00] And, uh, and in fact, in the last three years, I've kept track of the statistics.

[00:11:05] We have a, about a 7% default rate, but that's not 7% of the total dollar amount financed.

[00:11:13] That's a 7% of, uh, the transactions get, uh, defaulted in our practice over the last three

[00:11:19] years, but that only equates to about 2% of the revenue financed.

[00:11:27] That's, that's, those numbers are shockingly good.

[00:11:29] Yeah.

[00:11:30] Maybe it's where I'm at, but I'm not, I don't believe it's necessarily where I'm at.

[00:11:34] I think one, it's, we require a down payment.

[00:11:37] We have set guidelines and.

[00:11:40] Okay.

[00:11:40] So what's okay.

[00:11:41] What's, what's your typical down payment?

[00:11:44] Like as a percentage, 25% of the, of the fee of the total fee of the fee.

[00:11:50] And you said your high end for financing is what?

[00:11:53] Well, where I'm at today's, I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't

[00:11:57] want to even make mention to where I'm at today, but let's, let's call it, let's call it $3,000.

[00:12:03] The high end would be $3,000.

[00:12:04] Okay.

[00:12:05] Yeah.

[00:12:06] So, so you're going to get, you're going to get, you're going to get 25% of that $3,000.

[00:12:09] So you're going to get $7, $800 that, that typically self-selects a lot of patients.

[00:12:13] Yeah, it does.

[00:12:14] Yeah, it does.

[00:12:15] It absolutely does.

[00:12:16] Does.

[00:12:16] And the other part of this is, is typically they get booked out a month later anyway.

[00:12:24] So I'll get the second, I'll get the second payment or the first actual payment in addition

[00:12:29] to the down payment before I actually see them.

[00:12:31] And if they happen to not make that first payment, then we won't see them.

[00:12:35] Okay.

[00:12:36] Here's the other thing.

[00:12:37] How do you, how do you take payment?

[00:12:41] Is the payment?

[00:12:42] Credit card automated.

[00:12:43] All automated.

[00:12:44] Like there's no human being.

[00:12:46] Technically it's illegal to store credit card information.

[00:12:48] It's like writing them down.

[00:12:50] But so we have a, it's any, all of our dental and all of our credit card processing companies

[00:12:55] have recurring payments built into the system.

[00:12:58] Yep.

[00:12:59] So you swipe it once and you set it and forget it.

[00:13:01] Okay.

[00:13:02] And then one other thing we've changed over the years is now we run payments.

[00:13:07] We used to tell patients we'll run payment any day they want.

[00:13:09] Now we either run payment on the 15th or the last day of the month.

[00:13:13] Okay.

[00:13:14] And then, so then every, every day on the, every month on the 15th or the 30th, we'll get

[00:13:18] our full batch and we'll know who went through and who didn't go through.

[00:13:21] And again, on average about 7% of our payments get declined.

[00:13:25] Okay.

[00:13:26] About half of those we get rerun on the second time.

[00:13:29] Sure.

[00:13:29] Sure.

[00:13:29] Okay.

[00:13:30] And so, so that the, these things have made it, you know, pretty successful in our practice.

[00:13:35] Yeah.

[00:13:37] And I got to say something, Gary DeWood.

[00:13:40] I, I talked with him a couple of years ago at Spear Summit and he basically, he basically

[00:13:46] said exactly all this same stuff.

[00:13:47] And he also said, he said, look, you know, who's going to pay you in your office.

[00:13:52] You, you know, in, in many cases, I mean, if it's a brand new patient, you might not know,

[00:13:57] but a lot of these, a lot of people, if they've been in your practice for all, you know, you

[00:14:00] know who a good bet is.

[00:14:01] Is that, do you, do you kind of follow that rule or do you offer it up to everyone?

[00:14:04] No, we, we are, we are equal opportunity practice.

[00:14:08] Like, so one of the key tenants in our, in what we teach and what I, what we do at our

[00:14:12] practice is what's called a financial menu.

[00:14:14] Uh, so we give every patient a financial menu and on our financial menu, those options

[00:14:20] exist.

[00:14:20] So, uh, the only qualification they have to have is they have to, we don't take debit cards

[00:14:25] for this.

[00:14:26] We take credit cards for this.

[00:14:27] Okay.

[00:14:28] They have to have a credit card.

[00:14:29] Uh, so if they, if they're capable of getting credit card, they have some level of credit.

[00:14:34] And if they have $800, you know, it's five, $600 available credit to swipe the first down

[00:14:40] payment by and large.

[00:14:42] This is so good.

[00:14:43] This is awesome.

[00:14:44] This is fantastic.

[00:14:45] I think I did a, a podcast many years earlier.

[00:14:48] Early.

[00:14:49] Like it might've been the eighth episode or something.

[00:14:51] Yeah.

[00:14:52] This is still good stuff.

[00:14:54] Like, like Alan, like I've got like in the last 10 years who I have been in the

[00:14:59] bank for probably, Oh my God, $4 million in dentistry, $4 million in patient portion.

[00:15:09] I mean, not, not even all the dentistry.

[00:15:11] Uh, and, and to have a roughly two, three, 4% overall, I don't know the early years, what

[00:15:17] the default rate was.

[00:15:17] I know in the last three years, uh, the actual dollar default rate is around two, two and a

[00:15:21] half percent.

[00:15:23] Uh, you know, that's, that's, uh, it's a no brainer to me.

[00:15:26] It is.

[00:15:27] It's absolutely a no brainer.

[00:15:28] If you, if you can work it out that way, that is fantastic.

[00:15:31] It goes against everything that you hear in dentistry.

[00:15:33] Right.

[00:15:33] And the only caveat I'll give to people on this is, is, uh, is if you don't have money,

[00:15:40] don't finance people.

[00:15:41] So like, you need to, you need to be like a real bank.

[00:15:44] You need to have the 10 grand, 20 grand, whatever you're willing to lend, you need to have it

[00:15:49] set aside.

[00:15:50] Uh, uh, you know, this is not a, this is not a, this is going to save me from ruin.

[00:15:55] And this can, you know, it can backfire on you.

[00:15:58] Uh, but well done.

[00:16:00] Uh, it has been gold for, it has been gold for our practice.

[00:16:04] So a more mature practice in general.

[00:16:06] Well, or just somebody that, you know, honestly, I started in 2012.

[00:16:11] I mean, we had just come out of, you know, the, the, the low time for my practice in terms

[00:16:15] of the recession, but all, I just need a 20 grand that I put aside and that funded

[00:16:21] it.

[00:16:22] And I've never, I've never put more money into that, that 20 grand funding account

[00:16:27] because it's revolving credit.

[00:16:28] These patients pay month after month after month.

[00:16:31] But, but again, you got to follow the rules.

[00:16:34] One, you got to have a reasonable range.

[00:16:36] You got to require a down payment and you got to do short term set finance.

[00:16:40] You can't do 12 months, 18 months, 20.

[00:16:42] Like that's, that's a disaster.

[00:16:45] If you're willing to, as a general dentist, if you're willing to get into longer, medium

[00:16:50] term, to longer term, finally, I think that's a disaster waiting to happen.

[00:16:55] Tarun, a lot of, a lot of practices are starting to add a, you know, fee just like a lot of

[00:17:00] other businesses are fee for credit card use.

[00:17:02] Yeah.

[00:17:03] Is that, is that petty or is that, you've started to incorporate if you're pushing credit

[00:17:08] transactions?

[00:17:11] I consider it cost of doing business.

[00:17:13] Okay.

[00:17:13] Yes.

[00:17:14] Maybe, maybe I'm too, but you know, look, I get it now.

[00:17:18] I mean, we've seen an erosion of our margins in our practice by around 40% of our bottom line,

[00:17:26] bottom line erosion of our margins by around 40% over the last, since the pandemic.

[00:17:32] And so that 3% that I'm paying every month in credit card, I mean, at this point, like

[00:17:39] 80% of our revenue comes from credit card payments, you know?

[00:17:42] And, and so that 3% adds up, you know, you know, you know, in my practice, I probably

[00:17:47] spent, I mean, I probably spent 200 grand in credit card fees last year.

[00:17:52] I bet you did.

[00:17:53] Yeah.

[00:17:53] Right.

[00:17:54] And so, you know, if I can get that, that 150 of that 200 grand back, so I just got to figure

[00:18:01] out a way how to do it.

[00:18:02] And if I could do it pretty easily, if somebody made it easy, I would, I would, I would 100%

[00:18:10] pass along the transaction fee to the patient and not think twice about it, you know, in a

[00:18:15] heartbeat.

[00:18:16] So, Kevin, I, I know, uh, I know you've taken, you know, Tarun's course and you've talked

[00:18:21] to financial menu on our, our podcast before.

[00:18:24] Yeah.

[00:18:24] There are those parameters that Tarun's talking about similar to similar ish to what you do.

[00:18:28] Yeah.

[00:18:29] I'm going to be, uh, real honest with you guys.

[00:18:32] We've played a little loosey goosey with the rules lately, and we've got a little bit

[00:18:37] burned lately.

[00:18:38] So we're tightening up that.

[00:18:39] What's that?

[00:18:40] I hate to hear that.

[00:18:41] That sucks.

[00:18:41] Yeah.

[00:18:42] I mean, it's not that bad.

[00:18:44] Uh, we're, you know, like a lot of things, things get, things are going well for a while

[00:18:50] and, you know, you just sort of want to do someone a favor or extend things out.

[00:18:55] As soon as you do something nice.

[00:18:57] Correct.

[00:18:58] Well, no good deed.

[00:18:59] It's actually over the past two weeks, we've been, uh, looking at some of our reports and,

[00:19:07] and really tightening things up.

[00:19:08] You know, it's, it's a learning thing, but prior to that playing by the rules, things

[00:19:13] worked great.

[00:19:14] Yeah.

[00:19:15] And, and here's what I'll say is, is, is I consider myself a bank, a lender in a sense.

[00:19:21] So just like the overall market has tightened up, we tightened up our practice, you know,

[00:19:26] so we shrunk our, like I, like what I did instead of shrinking our number, I actually increased

[00:19:32] the number at which we would start financing.

[00:19:34] So it used to be $500.

[00:19:36] Now it's a thousand dollars when I would start financing.

[00:19:40] And that's a little counterintuitive of what people think is like, I look at it.

[00:19:43] If somebody needs to finance two, $300, that's, that is a red flag to me.

[00:19:49] Sure.

[00:19:49] Yeah.

[00:19:49] You know, in of itself.

[00:19:50] So what we did is instead of, instead of dropping my $3,000 down to $2,000, I up my $500 minimum

[00:19:57] to a thousand dollars.

[00:19:58] Uh, because again, back to the down payment, the 250 to $300 down payment would pretty much

[00:20:05] disqualify, uh, you know, that most bad debt, uh, in that scenario.

[00:20:10] But you have to follow the market when, when the real banks, the professionals, when they raise

[00:20:15] rates, when they tighten their strings, you need to tighten yours as well.

[00:20:20] Alan, are you, are you, you do any banking for your practice?

[00:20:24] I really don't.

[00:20:24] I really don't.

[00:20:25] But I, I, I, the thing about it is I think it probably would make sense.

[00:20:28] My, I suspect I would do, um, I would do more quadrants and less singles and stuff

[00:20:35] like that if I, cause in a lot of cases, if they could just make that small, and I

[00:20:41] have a lot of patients that would easily make the down payment.

[00:20:43] I, I, I just haven't, I'm thinking hard about this.

[00:20:46] It would make sense in my practice a lot.

[00:20:47] Well, I can help you with it, Alan, but, and I think you bring up a good point is, is the

[00:20:53] patient financing doesn't really help you unless you change the way you ask patients

[00:20:59] to do dentistry.

[00:21:00] I used to say, change the way you diagnose and people took that the wrong way.

[00:21:04] I don't change my diagnosis.

[00:21:06] I just tell people we work in sections at a time.

[00:21:09] You know, I no longer work in one tooth at a time.

[00:21:12] We work in a section at a time.

[00:21:14] And when they bring up money, I said, I'll, I'll let you do payments so we can do all the

[00:21:18] work the best way possible.

[00:21:19] Yeah.

[00:21:19] And honestly, that in itself is very powerful.

[00:21:22] If, if, if you're going to let them do payments and you're not going to make them through hoops

[00:21:26] and you're not going to charge them interest.

[00:21:28] That's, I mean, honestly, that's in the other two, who wants to deal with it?

[00:21:31] Your, your point about not charging interest.

[00:21:33] Yes.

[00:21:33] You have to, there's a lot of different rules you have to follow, but also who wants to

[00:21:36] frigging deal with that?

[00:21:37] Yeah.

[00:21:38] It makes, it makes a lot of sense.

[00:21:40] We'll make your money off dentistry, not off interest.

[00:21:42] Yeah.

[00:21:43] Right.

[00:21:43] Yeah.

[00:21:44] Yeah.

[00:21:44] But you make, let me, let me, let me change that a little bit.

[00:21:47] Zach.

[00:21:48] Okay.

[00:21:48] Don't make a lot of money off single tooth dentistry, even if it's crowns.

[00:21:51] That's true.

[00:21:52] Yes.

[00:21:52] But we make, we make great money off of adding to the dentistry.

[00:21:56] We make money like McDonald's make their money on fries and Cokes.

[00:22:00] Sure.

[00:22:00] And I'm not saying we're selling fries and Cokes, but if you can do that crown on number

[00:22:03] 19 and go ahead and do a couple of fillings at the same time, because you can make it affordable

[00:22:08] for your patient.

[00:22:09] Those fillings are almost pure margin because there's no increase in time.

[00:22:13] There's no question about it.

[00:22:14] There, there's definitely some times where I'm sitting there prepping an 18 when, when

[00:22:18] 21 also needs a crown.

[00:22:20] I'm like, God, this is a horrible, like this, this is, this is a bad, this could be that second

[00:22:26] crown would be the, the margin on that second crown is way higher than the one that

[00:22:30] the first one.

[00:22:30] I get it.

[00:22:31] I know the well, I get the well planned appointment, you know, part of the future.

[00:22:35] I give one last caveat on this one.

[00:22:37] If you guys don't mind.

[00:22:38] Please.

[00:22:38] Is, um, so when we started our coaching and mastermind program, I used to teach everybody,

[00:22:44] uh, self financing, uh, in the beginning for the first couple of first couple of sessions.

[00:22:49] And now we don't teach it at all until they earn the right.

[00:22:53] And for us, uh, if you're not good at third party financing, you're probably going to jack

[00:22:59] up self financing.

[00:23:01] And so if you're not a believer in your team doesn't understand how to talk third party

[00:23:06] financing, then I would, I would, I would tell you that you're not, you don't have

[00:23:10] qualified or you haven't earned the right to, to be the bank yourself.

[00:23:14] So, you know, in other words, you're saying you got to get some care credit cases under

[00:23:18] your belt.

[00:23:19] Oh, you've got to get third party financing cases.

[00:23:22] Or, or sorry, sorry.

[00:23:23] I didn't have to be a specific company, but you don't know.

[00:23:25] No, no, but no, but no, Zach and they're a great company.

[00:23:28] Uh, but, but, uh, that shows all of our ages.

[00:23:32] Fair enough.

[00:23:32] Fair enough.

[00:23:34] Fair enough.

[00:23:35] Yeah.

[00:23:35] All right.

[00:23:36] Any final thoughts, Kevin, Alan?

[00:23:39] No, all good stuff.

[00:23:40] I mean, that's, that's a, that's a key point.

[00:23:44] All right.

[00:23:44] Thank you guys.

[00:23:46] I think you should, I think you should also have a bowl of sugar babies in your

[00:23:51] like self five, be the bank and hand out sugar babies.

[00:23:55] How about those lollipops with that?

[00:23:56] A butterscotch lollipop.

[00:23:58] You ever go to the bank and they have all the little lollipops there or somewhere.

[00:24:01] I go through looking for the butterscotch.

[00:24:04] Yeah.

[00:24:05] A bit of honey.

[00:24:06] You guys don't want a bit of honey.

[00:24:07] Now that's a crumb.

[00:24:08] Come on, Zach.

[00:24:09] That's gross.

[00:24:10] You don't like bit of honey?

[00:24:11] No good.

[00:24:11] Oh, wait, wait, wait.

[00:24:12] One last one.

[00:24:13] Have you guys heard of wrap snacks?

[00:24:16] What?

[00:24:16] No.

[00:24:17] Potato chips that are like.

[00:24:19] Potato chips.

[00:24:20] They have the, like on the, yeah.

[00:24:23] Yeah.

[00:24:25] I think, I think that was the, uh, the, um, impetus for the dense fly, Sirona snacks,

[00:24:32] potato chips.

[00:24:33] They mailed out.

[00:24:34] Probably.

[00:24:35] Oh, man.

[00:24:36] That was so bad.

[00:24:38] All right.

[00:24:39] That was, that was our take back.

[00:24:40] Very good.

[00:24:41] Yeah.

[00:24:42] There it is.

[00:24:42] All right.

[00:24:43] Thank you guys for listening.

[00:24:44] Uh, we'll be back, uh, next week and we will see you next Tuesday.

[00:24:49] See ya.

[00:24:49] Bye.