In today's episode of The Millionaire Dentist,we talk to Berrien Dental's partners Drs. Todd Christy and Eric Balsis about how they've had excellent growth results via acquisitions, how marketing plays into their overall growth strategy, and what it takes to make a strong long-lasting partnership.
Announcer:
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Millionaire Dentist Podcast brought to you by Four Quadrants Advisory. On this podcast, we break down the world of dentistry, finances, and business practices to help you become the millionaire dentist you deserve to be. Please be advised, we do speak with an honest tongue and may not be safe for work. Now here's your host, Alan Berry.
Alan Berry:
Welcome back to another episode of the Millionaire Dentist Podcast. I'm your host, Alan Berry. And on today's show, we have Dr. Eric Balsis and Dr. Todd Christy from Berrien Dental. They have two practices in Michigan. One's in St. Joseph and the other one is in the neighboring city of Berrien Springs. Thanks guys for being here, really appreciate your time in doing this. So let's get it going.
Alan Berry:
A couple podcasts back, we talked about acquiring other practices to build your reach and to grow as opposed to putting extra money into your marketing budget and trying to grow that way. Well, Dr. Christy, I know you have been a fan of this tactic of growth through acquisition for many years. Would you tell our listeners about your approach and how you handle this strategy to make sure that it's kind of a win-win for all involved?
Dr. Todd Christy:
Yeah, I think growth through acquisition has been a big part of our practice. It started with me when I first acquired it two weeks after I got my license and I acquired my first practice. The acquisitions we've had since then now, I think it's four of them now that we've done for acquiring it, and doing it in so many different ways with finding the right person, finding the right way to make the job and make the deal work, whether it was moving a practice into our facility or acquiring one that had its own facility and doing it that way. We've really been successful in doing that. Each one has gone well. And the nicest thing, because I've always heard through acquisitions is the challenges. How do you manage that relationship afterwards?
Alan Berry:
Oh yeah, that's a good point. Have you ever had a practice deal go sour after the contracts were signed?
Dr. Todd Christy:
I am proud to say that each individual, the dentists that we've worked with before, during and after each sale is still a strong relationship. I've seen it where it's been ugly. We've seen it where they're fighting afterwards about money. At no point has it been because we wanted every acquisition that we've done or I've done, us together have done now too, it's always mutually beneficial. We want to make sure everyone's got to work. It's got to work for everyone in the end and that's when they're going to be happiest and that's when it's going to be the best transition.
Alan Berry:
Dr. Balsis, How do you feel about taking away marketing money and putting it into your acquisition money? Do you feel like your marketing is hurt by it?
Dr. Eric Balsis:
All the money we spend on acquiring practices seems to be worth a million times more than marketing. It's not guaranteed. You got to know what you're doing. And as a dentist, I mean, nobody's just going to come to you based on you acquiring the practice. Best marketing is being a good dentist and having word of mouth, so getting more patients that can get your word out for me is a lot better. I would much rather do zero marketing, all internal. I mean, we have a website. I know we pay for that. That's marketing and all that.
Dr. Todd Christy:
So much of what we do with the marketing though, and I'll say the marketing budget per se, is really internal marketing. I think our website is just to let people know what we're doing. Our Facebook page, our Instagram, those are areas that we're just trying to engage our patients and work with them to be at their top of mind awareness as to what Berrien Dental is.
Alan Berry:
If you would break down your website messaging versus your Facebook messaging.
Dr. Todd Christy:
Our website is more clinical, more dental. Our Facebook is more what the family, what the Bearing Dental family is and showing what's going on. And so we're not running out there and producing big glossy flyers to go out there because we know it doesn't work. As he said, the best thing we can do with our marketing is do our job and do it well, and that people refer their friends and family. That's where almost two thirds of our patients come from referrals from our patients.
Alan Berry:
What's the working relationship between the two of you guys. Do you guys get in arguments?
Dr. Eric Balsis:
No, there's not really ever been heated words, arguments. I'm sure, I go home and a little frustrated. Maybe sometimes I'm sure he is too, but practice is making money. A lot of that is due to Four Quadrants. We seem to be doing well. We're acquiring more practices. People for whatever reason, want to come see us, that all leads to a good partnership.
Dr. Todd Christy:
Yep. I think a lot of that with the partnership side of it is we both know what our strengths and our weaknesses are. I know mine. I don't always see the weaknesses. I know what Eric has and he knows himself. And so we've given it to the fact of, you know what, in this part of the practice that's his or this part of the practice is his.
Dr. Todd Christy:
We've worked on a lot of stuff with the whole team. So if somebody needs something, go to Eric or go to me, or go to both of us if it's something else. But when we do, when we make a decision, it's as a united front. There is not ever been anything with any, well, we're doing it just because he said so, or because I said so. It's not that way because we need to be strong together and that's what gives the strengths to our team to get out there and do the right job.
Alan Berry:
Would you guys say that you have similar personalities or different personalities and how does that affect the practice?
Dr. Eric Balsis:
We're very different people. We practice differently, but I think that's why we have some patients that are fine seeing both of us, some that only want to see him, some of them want to see me and it's because of our personalities and the style we practice. So I think it's a great mix of different things.
Dr. Eric Balsis:
And for the most part, we do everything based on what's the best for the patient overall. So if we can both agree that this is what's best for our patients, well then, I mean, it's going to work. I mean, and that's what our practice is about. We're there for the patients first, and if we do what's best and we both agree what's best, like partnership is fine.
Dr. Todd Christy:
Yeah. It's that dynamic because, yeah, there are times as he said, there's a patient here or there, they might respond better to somebody else's. It's no different than working with our hygienists. Some really connect and we want to put them in the position so they're connecting with that person, which connects them to that practice.
Alan Berry:
Gentlemen, I know today you came up to the Four Quadrants headquarters to discuss a new proposal for a new acquisition. Can you tell me a little bit about it?
Dr. Eric Balsis:
This type of acquisition that they're proposing, it's feasible and it goes along with our longterm plan. I mean, we've been looking for an associate for over a year, a couple of years, kind of not super hard-
Dr. Todd Christy:
Is there somebody that's a really top-notch opportunity and then this presents itself and we're like, yeah, that's exactly the kind of person we want to bring in.
Alan Berry:
Dr. Christy, I know that you've been doing these acquisitions for quite a few years now. And when you get into working out the nuances of a deal like this, what do someone like Jason Brogan, what do they bring to the table and how do they help?
Dr. Todd Christy:
Yeah. Jason Brogan help a lot because it's a perspective. It is that 40,000 foot looking down, what do we see? What do they see? What the industry is moving? We know our local, we know our practice, we know our local area. They look at it and say, all right, here's where these numbers can plug in. This is where that person, those individuals, that other team, here's how they can grow and be part of your team. It's just an outside source.
Dr. Todd Christy:
We were solid dentists. We get that. The business owner side is a tough side for dentist in every field. We don't have the expertise of looking saying, here's these areas you've got to cover too. That's what they do. They cover our blind spot every single time for what we may or may not. I know for myself and I know for Eric, we both learned a lot over the years working with them and knowing what questions because they've taught and mentored and said, don't look at this, this and this. And since we've done a couple of acquisitions, we know the questions they're going to ask, and that's why Eric fired off a couple of day. And you get the big smile from across the desk because they get it. Yep, they paid attention to us and that's because we do, because we believe and we want to be successful.
Announcer:
That's all the time we have today. Thank you to our guests for their insight and for sharing some really great information. And thank you to you, the listener, for tuning in. The Millionaire Dentist Podcast is brought to you by Four Quadrants Advisory. To see if they might be a good fit for you and your practice, go on over to fourquadrantsadvisory.com and see why year after year, they retain over 95% of their clients. Thank you again for joining us and we'll see you next time.
