Last updated on September 21st, 2019 at 09:24 am
How did you start out?
Arvind: I went to NYU College of Dentistry and graduated in 2002. Right after graduating, I did my residency and then four years of implant training while working as an associate. From there, I opened a few practices with a partner.
Divya: I also went to NYU College of Dentistry and graduated in 2006. After graduating, I was an associate dentist for eight months.
Arvind: In 2004, I purchased an office with a partner. Back then, it seemed to be tradition in that you would purchase your own office as soon as possible and not associate all that long. So, I just went ahead and did it.
In 2005, we bought a second practice — so now we had one in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn. In 2006, we bought our third location very close to the Manhattan location (that’s the practice I still have today). It was a very small office with two operatories. Over time, my partner and I ended up going our separate ways, and I retained the Manhattan office, brought Divya (my wife), on board, and we put our focus there.
How was your practice doing prior to MGE?
Arvind: After several years (by 2009), we were still struggling and barely paying our bills.
We were taking a LOT of insurances and working six days per week. And to make things worse – there were 20 dental offices just on my street! I had trouble with treatment acceptance and I didn’t know what to do or how to do it.
Around that time, I met Rushi Trivedi (another MGE client) and he told me I had two options:
1. He would buy my office and become 51% owner, or
2. I could call MGE and they could help us
A week later, I decided to call and spoke with Dr. Greg Winteregg. I immediately signed up for the MGE Communication & Sales Seminars (ABCs) and came to Seminar B. The ABCs were amazing! Right after the second seminar, or collections immediately doubled!
I then learned how to properly present treatment plans and bring patients uptone and get them to accept treatment — just from the ABCs alone! After the ABCs, I established a proper Sales Line (editor’s note: we cover the basics of Sales Line – the process to follow from a new patient calling in through treatment acceptance and commencing treatment – at the ABC Seminars and detail it fully at the MGE Graduate Sales Team Seminar) in the office and my income virtually doubled overnight!
What prompted you to sign up for the MGE power program?
Arvind: We arrived at our first ABC seminar at 9:00am and by noon that day we signed up for the Power Program. We knew this was what we wanted. I started the courses immediately and the results came fast.
There was a lag before Divya started doing the training herself, due to a few factors including family, and she started training a few years later than me in 2011. So we had two stages of expansion: first quadrupling collections when I did the training with some of our staff, and then doubling again when Divya did the training.
Divya: Organizationally, it puts everything into place. Yes, we did the Sales Seminars, but the MGE Power Program taught us what to do with the whole business —infrastructure, staff management, how everything works together, hiring the right kind of staff, when to know to fix things before they start to fall apart, etc. I didn’t have any administrative skills before MGE; doing the Power Program taught me how to observe and fix things.
Arvind: We started using the org board and managing everything by statistics. This is the best management tool that ever existed I think. If you just use it, it works 100%. These are tools that nobody else ever gives you!
Tell us about your expansion
Divya: I started attending MGE courses regularly in 2011 or 2012 and in 2013, I was there all the time to finish up the Power Program. That April, I had a win that with Arvind out of the office I collected the highest ever in one day! Since that month, our practice has consistently stayed in that range or higher.
I do a lot more admin now than dentistry. I do two days of dentistry and Arvind does two days; we work four days a week total. We now have everything balanced, so we can finish right on time, take that vacation or time off, take more time for family and go out to dinner. Plus, my staff are all on board — we’re all on the same page.
Arvind: Before MGE, I was working 24 days per month and I didn’t have a hygienist. Now, I work 16 days per month making 800% more per month than before, have two hygienists and a full complement of incredible staff.
Before MGE, I had just a simple dental office in New York City, where there are over 10,000 dentists, so it’s not an easy market, but implementing what I learned at MGE made all the difference.
You signed up for DDSSuccess.com, the new mge online training platform. have you been able to make use of this in your office?
Arvind: DDS Success has been a fantastic tool! We signed up this last November and got everybody to watch the initial courses and sales training, and then December was our highest December collections ever! It’s totally because of DDS Success. It got the whole team going.
What advice would you give another dentist?
Arvind: Management skills are something that people don’t have, especially coming out of dental school. Every organization has to have some sort of management and us dentists coming out of school just have no concept, we just know “Okay, I’m a dentist. I have a DDS, so I am able to treat people.” That’s all you know. When it comes to management, it’s a whole new animal altogether. What happens if someone doesn’t come in? What if someone quits on you today? How do you handle these things? What happens if your schedule is completely falling apart? You need to learn how to fix those little holes and that’s what you learn from MGE’s executive training and that’s how we’ve grown our practice by nearly 900%.
If you’ve been doing this for 10 years and are still struggling, it should be a no-brainer to come to MGE. It’s only getting tougher in the future, not easier. It’s only the smart ones who are management trained that are going to succeed. If you haven’t done it already, I don’t know what you’re waiting for. Just do it.