“I Reduced My Overhead by 20% Just Like That”: Why Private Practices Are Paying 60% More Than DSOs for the Exact Same Supplies
Dr. John Montoya has been practicing dentistry for over 25 years in Boulder, Colorado, and after owning multiple practices throughout his career and experiencing both sides of vendor pricing (the economy-of-scale benefits and the single-practice penalty), he founded Dental Purchasing Partners to level the playing field. His revelation was brutal: single-location practices might think they’re doing great with a 5% discount on supplies, but DSOs are getting 10-60% discounts on the exact same products—and the company is still making money at those lower prices. When he scaled down from multiple locations to one practice, his discounts disappeared, and he thought “this is insane—why is the private practice paying the most out of anybody in dentistry?” So he approached his vendors, asked what he needed to do to get those discounts back, built a formulary, and started Dental Purchasing Partners to help doctors stay independent while getting the same pricing as big corporations.
In this eye-opening conversation, Dr. Montoya reveals how he reduced his own overhead by 20% with just a couple simple changes (money that immediately hit the bottom line), why practice brokers have to deliver devastating news to dentists producing $1-1.8M with 80% overhead versus 60% (the guy with 60% gets way more value at sale), and why dental schools desperately need to provide MBA-level business education since the lion’s share of dentists graduate and open small businesses with zero clue how to run them. He shares how DSOs buy practices producing a lot but then strip out costs (supplies, credit card processing, payroll) to make investors happy by revealing the profit that was always there but hidden, why you could run a successful million-dollar practice with 80% overhead and still take home a paycheck but miss the much bigger paycheck waiting at 60% overhead, and why Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods both have coaches despite being at the top of their game—so why don’t you?
If you’ve ever wondered whether there’s a better way to negotiate vendor pricing, how much overhead is really too much, or what it takes to compete with DSO buying power without selling your independence, this episode will completely transform how you think about supply costs, profitability, and what it really means to run a lean, profitable practice that’s worth more when you retire.
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Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- 02:30 – Playing a dentist in school play at age 8
- 04:30 – Interning one day a week: Dentist loved his work, staff loved it, patients loved him
- 05:00 – Four days a week in college: Different dental office every day (general, ortho, endo, oral surgery)
- 06:00 – Origin of DPP: Every practice added = better vendor deals (economy of scale)
- 07:30 – As he scaled down, discounts dwindled: “Why is private practice paying most?”
- 09:30 – Hard part: When had single practice initially, didn’t know any different
- 10:00 – Doctors don’t realize options exist; margins are astronomically high
- 11:30 – Stay independent without selling to organization telling you what to do
- 12:00 – Over 80+ vendors with 10-60% average savings
- 13:00 – Even 5% overhead change drops so much profit to bottom line
- 14:00 – “When I made couple simple changes, reduced overhead by 20%—just like that”
- 15:00 – Running lean and mean machine—what DSOs do
- 17:00 – “Dentistry: We’re successful despite ourselves”
- 19:00 – Michael Jordan had coach, Tiger Woods has coach—dentists should too
- 20:00 – Golden nugget: Sit down, look at industry average figures
- 21:00 – Don’t have to do one more dime in dentistry to be more profitable
Episode Summary
Dr. John Montoya knew from an early age he wanted to be a dentist—so early that he played a dentist in a school play when he was eight years old. When he got to college, dentistry was still on his mind along with medicine, so he went the medical track and interned at a hospital. But the physicians he worked with weren’t excited—the insurance industry had taken the love out of medicine, and they couldn’t practice the way they wanted. While working at a gym (he jokes he was in shape at one point), an older gentleman kept asking about college and his career journey. When the conversation finally turned to “what do you do?”, the man revealed he was a dentist. He invited John to intern at his office one day a week, and John discovered the dentist loved what he did, his staff loved it, patients loved him—he was happy. That dentist introduced him to an orthodontist friend, then an endodontist friend, then an oral surgeon. Four days a week during college, John spent each day at a different office, falling more and more in love with dentistry. He applied to dental school, got into Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, graduated, practiced in California for seven years, then moved to Colorado to raise a family. He owned multiple practices throughout his career before scaling back to one while building Dental Purchasing Partners.
The idea for DPP started when John began adding practices to his portfolio. Every time he added a practice, his vendor deals got better due to economy of scale. When he approached vendors asking why pricing was different now, they explained: “You’re going to order more.” It’s the Costco model—the more volume going through, the better the pricing. Originally, John planned to build an army of practices, sell the bundle, and exit dentistry on a white horse. But he changed his business plan and sold practices one by one, selling his last practice December 19, 2019—right before COVID hit (he feels bad for the doctor who bought right before the pandemic). As he scaled down, his discounts started to dwindle, and he had a revelation: “Why is the private practice paying the most out of anybody in dentistry?” DSOs thrive because 5, 10, 50, 100, or 1,000 practices get better deals through economy of scale. Single practices might think they’re doing great with a 5% discount, but other places are getting 10-60% discounts on the exact same products—and the companies are still making money at those prices. John wanted his one location to get the same opportunities multi-locations were getting, so he approached vendors asking what he needed to do to get those discounts back. He put a formulary together and started building DPP. Selfishly, he wanted to help himself and several friends, but it grew into a real business with a mission: help doctors stay independent without selling portions or all of their practice to organizations that tell them what to do, while still getting the benefits of being in a huge group.
The hard part for John was that when he had only a single practice initially for ~16 years, he didn’t know any different—he was paying higher prices without realizing other options existed. But then he saw the other side (the benefits of multiple locations), had it ripped away, and was back to where he started. The problem is that doctors don’t realize other options are available because they’re not showcased, and margins are astronomically high. Sales reps say “we’ll knock 10% off this $100 widget” and you think you got the bargain of the century, while a DSO office down the street is paying 40-60% less—and the company is still making money selling at that price. Now DPP offers over 80+ vendors giving members discounts, with the suggestion to go through what you’re using and price compare. On average, members see 10-60% savings depending on how aggressive they want to get. After COVID changed the industry forever with staff costs and supply costs going up while doctors haven’t made the shift to adjust, even a 5% change in overhead drops so much profit to the bottom line. Thinking long-term about retirement, practice brokers often have to deliver bad news: “You’re producing $1-1.8M but your overhead’s 80%—the guy down the street doing $1M with 60% overhead gets more value when you sell.” It’s not what you’re producing that matters—it’s how much you spend. When John made a couple simple changes in his office, he reduced his overhead by 20% just like that, and it immediately hit the bottom line. That 20% means you can hire staff, give raises, provide 401k and benefits they’ve been asking for, buy that new CBCT with cash (but don’t pay retail). You can give yourself a raise or retire early if you want—so much becomes possible when you’re not worrying about paying bills every month.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Dental Purchasing Partners: Dr. Montoya’s network providing 80+ vendor discounts to help private practices compete with DSO pricing
- Marketing 32 Offers: Available through Dental Purchasing Partners for websites, photo/video shoots, new patient acquisition, existing patient marketing
- Vendor List: Over 80+ vendors offering 10-60% discounts on supplies, services, equipment, credit card processing, payroll, and more
- Creighton University: Dental school in Omaha, Nebraska where Dr. Montoya graduated
- LinkedIn Profile: Dr. Montoya’s LinkedIn Profile
- Rita Zamora Episode: Previous Marketing 32 Show episode on social media strategy for dental practices
- Marketing 32: Performance-based dental marketing agency with growth guarantee
Quotable Moments:
“I kind of knew at an early age that I wanted to be a dentist. I have been talking about being a dentist forever since I was a little kid. I was in a school play when I was like eight years old and I was a dentist in the school play.” – Dr. John Montoya
“I interned at a hospital while I was in college and all the physicians I interned with, they just weren’t excited. The insurance industry has really kind of taken the love out of medicine. They couldn’t practice the way that they wanted to practice.” – Dr. John Montoya
“I was working at a gym at the time. You can’t tell now, but I was in shape at one point in time. This gentleman kept coming in and one day I was like, ‘Well, what do you do?’ And he’s like, ‘Well, I’m a dentist.’ And I was like, ‘No way.'” – Dr. John Montoya
“Sales reps say, ‘We’ve got this widget, it’s a hundred dollars, we’ll knock 10% off.’ And you’re like, ‘Wow, 10%, I just got the bargain of the century.’ When a DSO office down the street is paying 60% less, 40% less, and the company’s still making money at that point.” – Dr. John Montoya
“You can stay independent, but still get the benefits as if you were in a huge group.” – Dr. John Montoya
“We have over 80 plus vendors that give our members discounts. On average, anywhere from 10 to 60% in savings.” – Dr. John Montoya
“After COVID, the industry changed forever. Staff costs are going up, supply costs are going up and doctors really haven’t made the shift to change. They’re just kind of paying as these things go up.” – Dr. John Montoya
“A lot of offices, even a 5% change in their overhead, drop so much profit down to the bottom line.” – Dr. John Montoya
“Practice brokers have to deliver news: ‘You’re producing a million to 1.8 million, but your overhead’s 80%. If I sold your practice today, you’re not going to get as much value as the guy down the street doing a million and he’s got 60% overhead.'” – Dr. John Montoya
“It’s not what you’re producing. You can produce all you want. It’s how much you spend is really what matters.” – Dr. John Montoya
“If you’re not spending as much as the guy down the street, you’re going to get more value for your practice when you decide to retire than the guy that has no control over what his costs are.” – Dr. John Montoya
“When I made a couple of simple changes in my office, I reduced my overhead by 20%. It went down just like that. And that immediately hits the bottom line.” – Dr. John Montoya
“That 20%—you can hire staff, you can give them raises, you can give them 401k that you may or may not be providing or benefits that they have been asking for. You want that new CBCT? Pay cash. But don’t pay retail.” – Dr. John Montoya
“You do now have the money to do these other things or put it down to your bottom line, give yourself a raise, retire early if you wanted to. There’s so much you can do if you’re not worrying about paying the bills every month.” – Dr. John Montoya
“These DSOs are buying these practices that are producing a lot, but they’re overhead—they strip out the costs. They’re taking their overhead down and they’re making their investors super happy because the profit was there all along. It was just hidden.” – Dr. John Montoya
“I really wish that dental schools provided you something like an MBA or something like that, because a portion of the dentists will go into public health or military, but the lion’s share of dentists come out and they open up a small business.” – Dr. John Montoya
“Most of them have no idea how to run a business. Dentistry is a type of business where we’re successful despite ourselves because of that overhead.” – Dr. John Montoya
“You could have a successful million dollar practice, have an 80% overhead. You’re still taking home a paycheck. But you could have that same practice and have a 60% overhead, you’re taking home a much bigger paycheck.” – Dr. John Montoya
“A lot of doctors don’t know how to get there. They don’t know how to get from 80 to 60. And that’s all business practices and looking at your systems and tracking what you’re spending.” – Dr. John Montoya
“I think it’s a key component to have a coach on your side. It doesn’t have to be forever, but if you haven’t had a practice consultant come in and really do some evaluations, I think it’s a super important component to practicing dentistry.” – Dr. John Montoya
“Sometimes CPAs are not aware of new things or what it really takes for marketing. If we can translate that and connect that to production for the practice, that may be above parameter from what they see, but if it’s healthy for the practice and actually helping growth, there’s definitely good advice.” – Brett Allen
Key Action Items:
- Visit dentalpurchasingpartners.com: Review the 80+ vendor list and schedule a 30-minute call with Dr. Montoya
- Calculate your current overhead percentage: Divide total expenses by total revenue to see where you stand
- Compare to industry averages: Sit with your accountant and benchmark your practice against successful practices
- Price compare your current vendors: Go through what you’re using and see what you’re paying vs. DPP rates (10-60% savings)
- Identify “out of line” expenses: Look at supplies, credit card processing, payroll services, equipment purchases
Episode Sponsor:
This episode is brought to you by Marketing 32—the only dental marketing team with a performance guarantee where if you’re not growing, you don’t pay. Marketing 32 is truly invested in adding value to your practice and working with doctors they know they can over-deliver for. Marketing 32 helps you build the patient acquisition piece of that vision through strategic online presence, content creation, and growth campaigns. If you need help with marketing and growth, reach out at marketing32.com for a quick 15-minute discovery call to see if it’s a good fit.
Episode Transcript:
Brett Allen (00:21)
Hi, Brett Allen here, host of the Marketing 32 show where I connect with leading dentists, influencers, industry experts to bring you guys to the latest and greatest on how to grow your practice. This episode, as always, is brought to you by our team here at Marketing 32. We’re the only dental marketing team that I know of that is fully standing behind their services with a performance guarantee. If you’re not growing, you don’t pay us. We try to find those practices we can partner with that we know will have an impact with and do ethical marketing for the industry.
If you need help with marketing, head over to marketing32.com, up a different, a little 15 minute discovery call. We’ll have a great conversation, set you straight if it’ll be a great fit for us. Quick shout out to Rita Zamora. Recently had her on the show to talk all about social media for your practice. How to do it right. There are different approaches to social media and you should definitely check out that episode to see how you can get more patients.
with your different social media profiles. Excited to have a new guest on the show today, Dr. John Montoya. ⁓ Laura Brenner introduced us. Quick shout out to her, had her on the show. You should check out that episode. But Dr. Montoya is a practicing dentist of over 25 years based in Boulder, Colorado, and the founder of Dental Purchasing Partners, a fast growing network helping private practices compete with DSOs on cost.
After decades in the operatory, he saw firsthand how independent dentists were overpaying for supplies and services and built a solution to level the playing field. Today, he’s on a mission to help private practices take back control over their overhead and increase profitability without sacrificing independence. Outside the office, John is a devoted husband and father of four. Dr. Montoya, welcome to the show. Great to have you on.
John Montoya (02:02)
Well, thank you for having me. It’s a great pleasure.
Brett Allen (02:04)
Yeah, yeah, this will be a fun conversation. I think the value you provide and the connections you have in the industry to provide dentists with reduced costs, improved overhead is a great, great thing for their practice. So tell us more about that. Like tell us your journey in dentistry. How did you get into dentistry? Ultimately, how did you start dental purchasing partners? And let’s hear that story.
John Montoya (02:29)
Yeah. Yeah. So, I kind of knew at an early age that I wanted to be a dentist. don’t, don’t ask me how, but I have been talking about being a dentist for, for forever since I was a little kid. As a matter of fact, I was in a school play when I think I was like eight years old and, and I don’t know what school play was about, but I was a dentist in the school play. Yeah. And so, ⁓ you know, I went to college and
Brett Allen (02:49)
Really?
That’s awesome.
John Montoya (02:57)
You know, dentistry was still in my mind, medicine, you know, kind of something in the, in the, in the world of medicine. And so I thought, um, I would go to the medical track. Um, when I got into college, mean, I had some friends that were going into medicine and I actually interned, um, at a hospital while I was in college and all the physicians that, um, I interned with, they just weren’t excited. You know, the, the, the,
Brett Allen (03:20)
you
John Montoya (03:25)
insurance industry has really kind of taken the love out of medicine, right? They couldn’t practice the way that they wanted to practice. And so I was, um, working at a gym at the, at the time. You can’t tell now. Um, but I was in shape at one point in time. Um, and this gentleman kept coming in, um, he was an older gentleman and he kept coming in and he asked me about how college was going. And, you know, I talked to him about my
Brett Allen (03:30)
Mmm.
John Montoya (03:51)
journey and I thought it was going to, you know, go into dentistry. And then I thought about medicine and, know, he was like, that’s interesting. And, know, one day the conversation came up and I was like, well, what do do? You know, and he’s like, well, I’m a dentist. And I was like, no way. Right. ⁓ And so he introduced me to ⁓ interning at his office. He said, come on down. You know, I practice in, you know, here in town, why don’t you come down and ⁓ look over my shoulder and.
Brett Allen (04:15)
Okay
John Montoya (04:20)
And so I did, I went to his office and I interned there ⁓ one day a week and he loved what he did. His staff loved what he did. just, ⁓ patients loved him. He was just happy. ⁓ And then after that, he introduced me to his orthodontic friend. And so I would intern at the general practice and then I would intern at his orthodontist friend’s office. And then they introduced me to his endodontist friend.
And then after that, the oral surgeon. so four days a week, when I was in college, I would do a different office every day. And I just felt, fell more and more in love with dentistry and, and, ⁓ you know, it, it solidified my journey into, into, into dentistry after that. And so obviously I applied to dental school, ⁓ got in, ⁓ went to Creighton university in Omaha, Nebraska, graduated. went back to California. practiced there for seven years, and then I moved to Colorado.
Brett Allen (04:48)
Wow.
wow, cool.
John Montoya (05:17)
after wanting to raise a family outside of California, no offense to anybody in California, but just wasn’t the right place for us at the time. And so ⁓ I’ve been here ever since I’ve owned multiple practices over my career. And now I’m scaled back down to one and, and ⁓ building DPP for doctors. So that’s, that’s my journey in a nutshell.
Brett Allen (05:37)
That’s cool.
That’s cool. Everybody’s got a unique story. That’s why I always love to hear those background stories of how people got into dentistry or connected to the industry. ⁓ That’s cool. So what created the, what was the impetus or start for dental purchasing partners? How did that idea come to life? And tell us that story and what you guys are doing there.
John Montoya (05:57)
Yeah.
So it started when I started adding practices to my portfolio. So ⁓ every time I would add a practice to my practice portfolio, my deals with my vendors got better. The reason being economy of scale. I would approach them and say, well, why am I paying different pricing now than what I was before when I had X amount of practices? They said, well, you’re going to order more. So the more you order, the
the better the pricing gets. mean, it’s like the Costco model, right? mean, the more people that go through Costco, the better that Costco can say like, hey, we can sell Coke instead of at $5 a six pack, we’re gonna sell it for three because so many more people are gonna buy this Coca-Cola, right? And so…
Brett Allen (06:47)
Right.
John Montoya (06:49)
I thought I was going to go down the journey of building this, you know, army of practices and then, you know, sell the bundle of practices and exit dentistry on a great white horse. Right. So, long story short, I decided to change my business plan. I ended up selling off practices one by one. ⁓ I sold my last practice December 19th, ⁓ 2019 right before COVID. ⁓ and as those, as I
Brett Allen (07:15)
⁓ got out in time.
John Montoya (07:18)
Yeah,
perfect timing, right? feel bad for the doctor that bought right before COVID. ⁓ as I scaled down, my discounts started to dwindle. And I thought, well, this is insane. Why is the private practice paying the most out of anybody in dentistry? These DSOs are thriving because they have the economy of scale because 5, 10,
Brett Allen (07:29)
Hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
John Montoya (07:46)
50, 100, a thousand practices are getting better deals than the single guy. I mean, you may get a ⁓ 5 % discount on some things and you think you’re doing great, but these other places are getting 10 to 60 % discounts on stuff, the same stuff you’re buying. And so I thought, I want my one location to get the same opportunities that these multi-locations are getting.
Brett Allen (07:49)
Yeah.
Right.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
John Montoya (08:15)
You know, I approached my vendors. said, what do I need to do in order to get those discounts back? They told me, ⁓ I put the formulary together and I started building out dental purchasing partners. ⁓ and that’s really where it became, selfishly, I wanted to help myself and, and, and several friends of mine. And then it started to grow and really become a business of where, you know, I want to help doctors that want to stay independent.
but still get the same pricing that these bigger corps are getting.
Brett Allen (08:45)
Yeah, yeah, I love that. think that’s the beauty of entrepreneurship, right? You have this pain you’re trying to solve for yourself and it blossoms into some kind of business. I love the show Shark Tank. You ever watch that show? That’s a fun show. I just love seeing people’s journey into entrepreneurship and how they’ve come up with their ideas and how they grow them and get money to invest and grow it. And seems like that’s the case, right? We have this pain or we have this problem.
John Montoya (08:58)
yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Brett Allen (09:13)
and we solve it and we realize other people have the same pain problem, well let’s turn this into a business then. So, yeah.
John Montoya (09:20)
Well, I mean, the hard part
for me is throughout my career, when I only had a single practice, like I knew I didn’t know any different, right. And, but then I saw the other side, right. saw the other side of things, you know, of having the benefits of having more than one location. And then that being ripped back away and being back to where I was, you know, for the first, gosh, I don’t know, 16 years of my career of, paying.
Brett Allen (09:27)
Hmm.
benefits. Yeah.
John Montoya (09:48)
These, these prices not knowing any better. And that’s the hard part is that doctors don’t realize that there’s, there are other options out there available to them. but they’re not showcased and the margin that some of the stuff is, is marked to you is. Astronomical astronomically high, you know? And so when you’re, you know, nothing against sales reps, sales reps are great, wonderful people. ⁓
Brett Allen (10:07)
Yeah.
John Montoya (10:16)
You know, but when they say, listen, you know, we’ve got this widget and it’s a hundred dollars. we’ll knock 10 % off of that. And you’re like, wow, 10%, this is great. You know, I just got the bargain of the, of the century when, you know, an office, you know, a DSO office down the street is paying 60 % less 40 % less, you know, and, and the company’s still making money at that point.
Brett Allen (10:36)
Yeah, yeah, that’s great.
John Montoya (10:43)
You know, the company is still making money selling that widget. So yeah. Anyways, I can go on. I can go on my soapbox forever. I’m sorry.
Brett Allen (10:46)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, that’s no, that’s
awesome. If we were talking offhand before the show about how, how many doctors don’t know that this is an option, that there’s a, there’s an opportunity to bundle or not bundle, but get a part of a group and have these savings. ⁓ so this is great that you’ve created this for the industry. think.
You know, we hear about DSOs and how they’ve got so much money behind them and how they’re changing and affecting the industry and these group practices that are, for good or bad, affecting the industry. And so if you can level the playing field with, you know, access to group rates, I think that’s great.
John Montoya (11:31)
Yeah. And stay independent. mean, you don’t have to sell a portion or all of your practice and be part of an organization that’s telling you now what, what to do. I mean, you can stay independent, but still get the benefits as if you were in a, in a huge group. Right. Yeah.
Brett Allen (11:42)
right?
Yeah, yeah,
yeah, well that’s awesome. So tell us about some of the impact you’ve had in the industry with these clients that you have in the group. What’s kind of some impact on their overhead, their profitability? What are you seeing on average when people become a part of DPP?
John Montoya (12:08)
Yeah, you know, I mean, it really depends on how much they use the platform, right? I mean, we have over 80 plus vendors that give our members discounts. so, you know, our suggestion is to always go through and, you know, take a look at what you’re using and price compare, right? You know, on average, anywhere from 10 to 60 % in savings.
it depends on how aggressive you want to get. So after COVID hit, changed the industry forever and staff costs are going up, supply costs are going up and doctors really haven’t made the shift to change. They’re just kind of paying as these things go up. so a lot of offices, even a 5 % change in their overhead,
drop so much profit down to the bottom line, you know, and then thinking long-term, right? So eventually we’re all going to have to retire someday, right? Eventually. so, you know, a lot of times those practice brokers have to deliver, you know, some news at someone’s, you know, later on in their career. And they’re saying, well, you know, you’re great. This is awesome that you’re, you’re producing a million, a million to
Brett Allen (13:09)
Yeah. Yeah.
John Montoya (13:27)
you know, 1.8 million, you know, but your overhead’s 80%, right? You know, like if I sold your practice today, you’re not going to get as much value as the guy down the street doing a million and he’s got 60 % overhead, right? So if the practice can really look at what they’re spending, it’s not what you’re producing. You can produce all you want, right?
It’s how much you spend is really what matters. And so if you’re not spending as much as the guy down the street, you’re going to get more value for your practice when you decide to retire than the guy that has no control over what his costs are. so ⁓ we can reduce costs. We can reduce costs a lot. mean, when I made a couple of simple changes in my office, I reduced my overhead by 20%.
Brett Allen (13:52)
Yeah.
Yeah.
John Montoya (14:20)
I mean, it went down just like that. ⁓ And that immediately hits the bottom line. And that 20%, I mean, you can hire staff. You can give them raises. You can give them 401k that you may or not be providing or benefits that they have been asking for. Man, you want that new widget in your office? You want that new CBCT? Pay cash, right? But don’t pay retail. That’s ridiculous.
Brett Allen (14:20)
Wow. That immediately hits the bottom line. So that’s great.
Hmm.
Yeah.
John Montoya (14:48)
But, ⁓ know, you do now have the money to do these other things or, you know, put it, put it down to your bottom line, give yourself a raise, right? ⁓ retire early if you, if you wanted to, there’s a so much you can do if you’re not worrying about paying the bills every month. You know, if you’re running a very profitable, lean and mean machine, and that’s what these DSOs are doing, you know, they’re buying these, these
Brett Allen (14:57)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Hmm.
John Montoya (15:15)
They’re buying these practices that are producing a lot, but they’re overhead. Yeah, they strip out the costs. like, okay, well, they’re paying this for supplies. They’re paying this for credit card processing. They’re paying this for payroll. They’re getting the same service, but they’re going cut, cut, cut, cut, cut. They’re taking their overhead down and they’re making their investors super happy.
Brett Allen (15:19)
And then they strip out the cost even more because they’re part of the group now.
Yeah.
John Montoya (15:44)
⁓ because you know, the, the profit was there all along. It was just hidden. Right. Yeah.
Brett Allen (15:44)
Yeah.
Yeah, that’s,
yeah, I think that’s probably why the DSOs are having such an impact and private equity is having such an impact is because of all of these things that come with economies of scale. ⁓ and there’s, there’s definitely good from a managerial administrative standpoint, that’s like, Hey, this is, this is really good, but there’s also bad things that are happening in the industry from DSOs. it’s like,
How do we manage that? How is that impacting private practice? ⁓ And some of the scams and taking advantage of some of these deals when they’re buying practices, that’s obviously where it gets gray, right?
John Montoya (16:19)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah,
yeah. And you never want to hear those stories. You never want to hear those stories. unfortunately, we go to school to be a dentist, right? For four years, that’s what our whole focus is on. And I really wish that dental schools provided you something like an MBA or something like that, because
Brett Allen (16:34)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
kind of business
component.
John Montoya (16:55)
Yeah, because a portion of the dentists, mean, some are going to go work in public health. Some are going to go work, you know, for, know, go into the military or service, you know, some are going to work as an associate for the rest of their career. But the lion’s share of dentists come out and they open up a small business.
Brett Allen (17:12)
They want to open a
practice, yeah.
John Montoya (17:13)
We have, and most of them have no idea how to run a business. mean, I don’t want to be, you know, it’s true. And dentistry is a type of business where we’re successful despite ourselves because of that overhead. mean, you could have, like I said, you know, you could run a successful million dollar practice, have an 80 % overhead. You’re still taking home a paycheck, right? You know, but you could have that same practice and have a 60 % overhead.
Brett Allen (17:17)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
John Montoya (17:42)
you’re taking home a much bigger paycheck. But a lot of doctors don’t know how to get there. They don’t know how to get from 80 to 60. And that’s all business practices and looking at your systems and tracking what you’re spending and those sort of things.
Brett Allen (17:45)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
As part of DPP,
you guys, do you have ⁓ coaching or advice on all of this stuff or is it just purely access to vendors with a discount?
John Montoya (18:13)
You know, we have some coaches and stuff available for our members. Obviously, you know, it’s something that they’re going to hire them to do. But I think that it’s a key component to have a coach on your side. And it doesn’t have to be forever, you know. ⁓ But if you haven’t had a practice consultant come in and really do some evaluations, I think it’s a super important component to practicing dentistry. Yeah.
Brett Allen (18:29)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we’ve, we certainly with our team, have an approach that helps bring in new patients and help with the front end of things. But there’s all, we see all kinds of different practices in their teams and management styles and, missing pieces on the backend, right? It’s like, well, this is how can we improve, ⁓ case acceptance? How can we improve the booking rate at the front desk? How do we improve?
John Montoya (18:59)
Yeah.
Brett Allen (19:07)
marketing to existing patients and get them back into the chair. Yeah.
John Montoya (19:10)
Yeah. Well, I mean, look
at, look at just anybody that’s really excelled in their career. mean, let’s look at athletes, for example. mean, Michael Jordan had a coach, right? Tiger Woods needs a driving coach, but ⁓ no, I mean, he has a coach. mean, a lot of these great players that have excelled in their, in their, in their profession. ⁓
Brett Allen (19:19)
Mm-mm.
Yeah.
Yeah
Yeah, they all do.
John Montoya (19:35)
They’re at the top of their game, but they have a coach, right? And so ⁓ I think it’s important for Dennis to have a coach.
Brett Allen (19:38)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
absolutely. Well, this has been a fun conversation. We’re about out of time. ⁓ I did want to say something that we are a part of Dental Purchasing Partners. So Marketing32 has some offers there for the group. So you should definitely join to check those out. We have ways that we help practices with websites, photo video shoots, getting new patients, marketing to existing patients. So. ⁓
John Montoya (20:03)
Yeah.
Brett Allen (20:12)
Just a little shameless plug there, but.
John Montoya (20:15)
Yeah, great partner. You guys are a great partner. We’re happy to have you. Yeah.
Brett Allen (20:19)
Great. Well, I always close with a gold nugget. So what’s that one piece of advice, that one tip that could have an epiphany for our listeners, a ripple effect, if you will, into their life or their practice? What is that for you?
John Montoya (20:32)
I would say sit down, ⁓ hopefully you have a good accountant and sit down and look at industry average figures, right? Where is your practice and where should it be? And then what simple changes you can make to kind of help yourself grow. ⁓ You don’t have to do
one more dime in dentistry to be more profitable. You could do the same amount of dentistry now, tomorrow, and beyond and still be profitable if you just, you know, make a few key changes. And so if you haven’t done that ever or in a while, I would suggest just sitting down and looking at your, your numbers and saying what’s out of line and how do I
Brett Allen (21:24)
Yeah.
John Montoya (21:25)
How do I change it? And if you don’t know those numbers and if somebody’s not on your side going over that with you, then maybe that’s not the right person in your corner. Right. And that it might be time to make a change because you you need people around you and behind you that’s supporting you and not just watching you go along day by day by day, you know? And I mean, that kind of gets back to the coach thing, but
Brett Allen (21:36)
Mm.
Mm-hmm.
John Montoya (21:52)
You also need those other players ⁓ that are on your side and, and most of those players are your, your financial advisor. So you can plan for the future and retire. And then your accountant to make sure that, you know, you’re, you’re doing everything you can legally from a tax standpoint. And, you know, from a business standpoint, where you should be in line with a lot of the other successful practices out there. So.
Brett Allen (21:57)
Yeah.
Yeah.
John Montoya (22:21)
Take some time, sit down, look at your numbers and understand what’s going on.
Brett Allen (22:25)
Yeah, that’s great advice. And sometimes these experts that we consult with and the people we’ve hired, the CPAs, sometimes they’re not aware of new things or they’re not aware of what it really takes for marketing. I know sometimes we get CPAs that are like, whoa, you’re spending that much on marketing. Well, if we can translate that and connect that to production for the practice, that may be above parameter from what they see from other practices. But if it’s healthy for the practice and it’s actually helping
growth and there’s definitely good advice out there and benchmarks that you should compare yourself to, but just be aware that sometimes people have the same old ways of doing things and it might hold you back from things.
John Montoya (23:08)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Brett Allen (23:09)
Well, this has been great conversation. Dr. Matoi, great to have you on the show. Appreciate the wisdom, insight, and everybody’s got to go check out dental purchasing partners. Where do we send them? Should we just plug your website? Or if they want to connect with you, how do they get ahold of you?
John Montoya (23:20)
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, the easiest way is go to dentalpurchasingpartners.com. They can kind of scroll through. They can see the list of the vendors that are available. There’s a scheduling link. You can get a 30-minute call with me. I can talk over what you’re looking for or what your practice is. If you’re a startup and looking to save some money, my email’s on there. My phone number’s on there.
just go to dentalpurchasingpartners.com. It’s the easiest way to get a hold of us.
Brett Allen (23:50)
Awesome, okay, we’ll put that in the show notes. All right, well thanks for coming on today, Dr. Montoya, great conversation.
John Montoya (23:52)
Yeah.
Yeah, thanks for having me. I appreciate your time.
Brett Allen (23:59)
All right everybody, until next time on the Marking32 Show, have a great rest of your day, great rest of your week, and take care.
