Ms. Cyndee Johnson has helped create successful dental businesses for over twenty years. Her business background and career as a dental hygienist has taken her into classrooms abroad as an educator, throughout the United States as a dental practice management consultant and she has been instrumental in several successful business start-ups. As founder and CEO of scaler2schedule, her sales savvy and concierge approach to the profession of dentistry has scaler2schedule hygienists consistently scheduling thousands of dollars of preventive, restorative and cosmetic dentistry each day!
Cyndee’s favorite quote and why:
“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.” ― Wayne W. Dyer
This quote applies to anything; I use it in my career, I use it with my clients, I use it in life. And interestingly, I had a conversation a couple of weeks ago with a young college student who had expressed this quote to me, and she had had a self-discovery living with her roommate. And she was complaining about how this roommate was leaving the cabinet doors and the cupboard doors open. And she loved this roommate; she was perfect in every way, but this drove her absolutely insane. And she said to me, “Cyndee, I walked into the kitchen one day and I took my finger, and I pushed the cupboard door closed, and I said to myself. ‘I’ve just solved the problem.’”
And I thought, this was a wonderful experience for someone at her age, because it takes so many of us a lifetime to realize if we just consider the millions of different views that we have on a particular issue or subject, we might then be able to step back and look it away to make it better. And so I love it and I live by it.
“Change the people or change the people.”
This is my favorite business quote because I think in small office settings, especially like dentistry where we have small groups of people and we tend to allow ourselves at times to fall into this pattern of thinking like we are a small family. And that can be fine until we realize we do have a small family; we have the slacker; we have the one that carries the load – we have all of those things – rather than looking at our group of people as a team. And I think being able to really take a good look and recognize that we have people who have accountabilities and responsibilities in our business, and to be able to have the acumen to recognize it, and then the strength and ability to make that step to change. So, my life revolves around change – I love everything about it.
What Cyndee does for the dental profession:
So what I do is go into offices and help create “hygiene-driven dentistry” within their office, and treat hygiene like a business within the office. It actually has a profound effect on not only the success of the practice itself, but on the quality of life for everybody involved.
What I do is I help them understand that the hygiene portion of the business can really be looked at as the hub of the dental practice. Because who in the office really spends the most amount of time with your patient? And when we have hygienists that are really trained and focused on creating value for dentistry, creating value proposition for dentistry, meaning recognizing the need for the patient to receive the dentistry that they need and deserve, and then helping guide them on to the schedule for the doctor, it just lightens everybody’s load.
Our graduate hygienists are consistently scheduling for their doctors between $3,000 to $5,000 every day. So this is restorative treatment, cosmetic treatment and preventive treatment that’s going on to the doctor’s schedule on behalf of their hygiene team.
Cyndee’s difficult time story:
I’ve had a client who has been dealing with a real challenge in her office. And it’s about bullying in the workplace. Again, in these small office settings, there can be some passive aggressiveness, there can be some combativeness and there’s often little “turf wars” that takes place in the settings when you are working with a group of women. And women, by nature, we are not pack animals; we are more matriarchal, so we tend to like to manage things well individually.
In this particular office, we had a really great employee who was doing a fabulous job; the patients loved her and the team loved her. But there was just this underlying current of ‘this is sort of my domain and I don’t wanna make your life really that good.’ So we communicated over a few months and she built up the courage to set up a meeting with the doctor and this hygienist and brought this to their attention. And I spoke with her last night and she said, “I’m walking a foot taller today.”
And it was so incredibly pleasing for me to hear how when one gets the bravery to really address and issue and take it on and be upfront and calm in the presentation and come out of it in the other end feeling really great and knowing that when you go to the office tomorrow, it’s going to be a good day, was a great thing to hear.
What is concerning or exciting Cyndee right now in dentistry:
I don’t really have any concerns. My focus is on what is exciting me. I feel so excited about just this opportunity that we have in the profession to shift our thinking, and to embrace that the only constant in our lives is change and cease this amazing opportunity in the dental profession. We have dentistry changing at so many levels. And really, people are still human; people want some very basic things from some people that they encounter. They want to be treated very well, they wanna know that what their buying is enhancing their life and bringing value to them in some way. And they want to feel that they have a committed partner in whatever decision or choice that they are making.
So, we have this opportunity in dentistry to really focus on embracing sales. (Sales to me is not a dirty word. To sell is human.) To embrace sales, couple it with five star customer service and really experience a change in the satisfaction, the stress reduction and the excitement in our profession. We have new technologies and anything we need or want is on our fingertips to provide our patients. We’ve gone so far to automation; the pendulum is now swinging back to people wanna be treated well. And I think that’s something that we really have an opportunity to grasp a hold of and put into play.
The best advice Cyndee has ever received:
“Do what you ought to do, when you ought to do it, no debate.” It came from my mentor Gary Walker. He is retired now. He was one of the top 10% dentists in the country; ran a thriving insurance-free practice, and this is how he was able to do that.
The one habit that contributes to Cyndee’s success:
My habit is my unwillingness to begin with a finger point. Its an ability to help people understand that when we are faced with a challenge, its most often due to a process issue; not a people issue. And to help people understand that when a process is correct and working, then things are easy.
Management or marketing pearl (tip):
When a new patient walks in our office, stand up, walk around the desk if you are able to do that, shake their hands and say, “Mary, welcome to our office! We are so happy to have you as our patient,” and just changing the way that we treat our patients.
The other tip is going to my website and I will send you a year’s worth of practical tips to implement daily into your practice. Just simple one liner that you can do, that will have a huge effect.
Technology or procedure that is exciting Cyndee right now:
I’m introducing sales into a curriculum, into a profession that historically has challenged that word. And I’m doing it through what I call “servant sales”, and I love it.
Sales is such an important aspect of treatment acceptance and those of us who believe ‘my treatment sells itself’ or ‘I’m not a sales person’, really, really, I encourage them to embrace what I call service selling, which is coming from a very ethical point and helping people receive the treatment that they need and deserve.
Internet / App resource that Cyndee feels is awesome:
Our Dental Team – http://www.ourdentalteam.com/
Her book recommendation:
“To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others” – Daniel Pink
- Hardcover edition can be purchased on Amazon here.
- Paperback edition can be purchased on Amazon here.
- Kindle edition can be purchased on Amazon here.
- Audiobook edition can be purchased on Amazon here.
Cyndee’s recommendation for those who are about to start new or restart:
I would recommend that any new dentist coming out who is starting a practice of his or her own for the first time, hire a business coach if they can do it, or read and study anything that they can get their hands on about business and sales.
Additionally, I would encourage them to hire a hygienist to understand hygiene-driven dentistry. The biggest fear is ‘I can’t afford to do that,’ but what it cost a new dentist to perform preventive procedures and what it costs him in unscheduled treatment, it’s just not worth it. Hire a hygienist who can help him build his practice and he’ll make great, great choice.
Ms. Cyndee Johnson can be reached at:
- Website: www.scaler2schedule.com
- Phone: 888-470-2217
If you enjoyed, I would really appreciate a review in iTunes & Stitcher!