The Power of 80/20 with Graham Dersley

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Dr. Graham Dersley is back on the podcast! A prosthodontist with a clinical focus on dental implantology, Graham owns and operates two startup practices in the suburbs of Maryland. In this episode, he shares how he has grown these practices using a concept not commonly discussed in dental circles: the Pareto Principle.

Also called the 80/20 rule, the Pareto Principle states that 20% of the invested input is responsible for 80% of the results obtained. Throughout his career, Graham has seen the truth behind this concept and has adjusted his own practices to focus on the top 20% of patients. Doing this allowed him to not only grow his practices, but also improve his overall satisfaction with his work in dentistry. Listen in to learn how he did it and how other dentists can do the same.

Key Quotes:

“A lot of us might get to a point where we plateau, and really focusing on the things that have the greatest impact is so important.”
“I have a certain type of practice model that I’m moving my practice toward, and that doesn’t just happen by treating everybody the same or trying to bring everybody in off the street into your practice. You have to be very intentional about it.”
“The bottom 20%—and really even the bottom 50%—are such a small percentage of your profit, and if you can clear up some time and some headspace to focus on the top 20% … you’d really come out a lot ahead.”
“Early on in my practice, I wanted to be the dentist for everybody, and I’d lose sleep at night from that patient that complained about the outrageous cost of that single filling … Now, I just see it as a blessing—they’ve identified themselves as the bottom 20 type patient, and I don’t have to worry about focusing on them.”
“These patients, when you find the right ones who are motivated and ready to go, you know, one of these patients can be worth 100 typical average new patients.”
“Initially, you might be working with a dental marketing company whose main goal is increasing the gross number of your patients without much regard to the quality level of those new patients … If they could instead bring in two really awesome patients, you’d have a better ROI.”
“[Defining your top 20%] is really about increasing your skillset and being able to deliver services that your competition is not, and being able to articulate that you can do that through a marketing message.”