Consulting

The Sterling Successful Practice Management Program includes twenty-five hours of consulting. Your consultant works with you very closely and personally. We have found that this consulting is necessary in order to ensure that you can and do implement the management tools (learned during the training phase of the Sterling Program) once you return to your office. The consultant's goal is to help you achieve your goals by assisting you to apply what you've learned so you can take control of your office.

Our consultants are experienced professionals dedicated to helping our clients reach their own goals; whether those goals are simply to make more money, to reduce the stress weighing them down, to free up time to spend with family, to reduce the chaos and confusion in the office or to achieve relief from other pressing problems.

Whatever the circumstances you might be facing, there ARE tools to help handle each specific situation and Sterling's consultants are experts in finding and applying the right tools to help you. There are no "cookie-cutter" solutions in use at Sterling. Every client is interviewed to determine exactly what needs improvement and a customized, step-by-step program is drawn up to address those unique circumstances.

Situations that Sterling consultants have helped thousands of clients with include:

• Staff Problems:
  • Failure to attract the right applicants
  • Not knowing how to choose the right people to hire
  • Non-producing staff
  • Quarreling staff
  • High staff turnover
  • Low staff morale
  • Ineffective staff
  • Non-cooperative staff
  • Staff who won't change
  • Firing problems
  • Payroll imbalances
  • Lack of reward to deserving staff
  • Lack of job descriptions
• Finance Problems:
  • Not enough net income
  • Collection difficulties
  • Overspending
  • Inability to pay bills
  • Insurance situations
  • Lack of production
  • Lack of patients/clients
  • Retirement funding
    
    
• Location Problems:
  • Wrong location
  • Lease problems
  • Low visibility
  • Too much room
  • Too little room
  • Shopworn space
  • Shared space conflicts
    
    
• Spousal Difficulties that are Affecting the Practice (whether or not you work together)
  
  
• Partnership Difficulties
  • Warring partners
  • Conflicts
  • Disagreements
    
    
• Personal Difficulties
  • Burnout
  • Inability to sell, too many discounts and no-charge services
  • Communication skills needing improvement
    
    

Using information gathered from a series of tests, surveys, interviews and statistics we deliver an in-depth analysis of the practice. Your consultant will find out what the current situation is in your office, what problems you are facing and what your goals are. From this analysis your consultant formulates a plan with which you will put your practice together in such a way that it is viable, rewarding and fun, allowing you to reach your goals.

After completing the Practice Analysis in our training facility in Glendale, your consultant will provide personalized step-by-step programs to help you implement changes and make improvements in your office.

Consulting also includes follow-up work after you return home, by phone or letter or fax, as well as the writing of programs by your consultant to address situations that may arise. Consulting at your location is also a possibility.

The thing to remember is that our consultants want you to succeed and they know how to help you do it.

"My Sterling consultant is excellent. She's an easy person to talk to. She understands a dental practice very well. She's had a lot of experience, and I don't have any complaints about her at all. I look forward to my calls with her, about every other week."

          — Leo Malin, DDS

"I had made a mistake for a long time, thinking I could be my own consultant. I think that's a big mistake that a lot of professionals make, where they think they don't need consulting. They sit there and evaluate on their own why their practice isn't going well, and they are usually completely off about what is really going on. A really big area where consulting has value is that it keeps you mindful of keeping good statistics... When you work with your consultant on your statistics and where you're going and what condition you are in, you can stay on top of it much better. Human nature is such that if you're not careful you'll slide into complacency and then have crashed stats before you know it."

          — Dominic Cringoli, DMD

"The consulting we get from our Sterling consultant is very helpful. We have no trouble getting through to her; if she's busy with another client she'll get back to us promptly. Anything that we discuss seems to be upbeat and helpful. Our consultant has been invaluable when dealing with personnel matters in the office. We have had a lot of trouble in the past with irresponsibility, theft, and so on from our staff. If there's one thing I could put my finger on that has been a major improvement directly from Sterling, it has been their consultation on employment prospects--who to hire and who not to hire. That has been very helpful and has made a big difference. The office is definitely running smoother now."

          — Christopher Chiodo, OD