Can you put a price on good team members, The Answer is Yes!

I run a small office just me and one other staff member. Since joining FPC a year and a half ago we have gone through 3 different staff members, that turnover has been very stressful and hampers on the success of the practice. The last two hires have lasted only 3 months each. OUCH! Something drastic had to change in the way I was hiring!

I called FPC and talked to Mindy, she helped me reorganize my hiring structure and created a different advertisement for a Wellness Assistant instead of the Admin Assistant. The candidates from this new advertisement were completely different breed of people. At the group interview they were already fans of a wellness model and they understood the alternative lifestyle; simply put they “got it”. I had to do less explanation on the new paradigm of health care making the whole process easy and fun.

Let’s get down to the numbers. With the old staff member, I first noticed something different two months ago. Words were being said would encourage people not to sign up or attend the supper talks going way off the script and “winging it” regardless of how many times we trained. Instead of realizing she was not in the right place, I kept making excuses for her lack of performance. Our attendance at the supper talk declined by 15% with fewer and fewer spouses, our close rate plummeted to a paltry 10%. I first blamed myself and made great efforts in changing and improving the supper talk. That did nothing, I replaced my staff with my sister, who is very bubbly and sweet, my close rate went up 40% that night. Now if we are to point fingers at who is to blame it still falls back on me, I hired her, and I did not fire her, and it has cost me well over $200,000 in the past 3 months.

Bottom line: Train your staff, what to say and how to say the right words, make sure they have intention behind their words. If they are not a good fit, then GET RID OF THEM!!!

You are doing your patients a disservice by no firing them. You are hurting yourself and your family by enabling them. Yes, team members do have a sticker price and it is a big one!

Ky Carlson recommended a book which I read immediately “Who” written by Geoff Smart and Randy Street. Let me say this simply “I would not do another interview without this book”. It completely changed the way I do a group and individual interviews and following up with referrals.

I’m excited for the next upcoming months we WILL be able to excel because we WILL get the right team members. You can rest assured I am no longer scared to get the wrong people off the ship.

The Very Best

Dr. Sauer