Once you are committed to doing a practice transition, the obvious initial step after you have your written strategic transition plan is to find the right associate. Admittedly, this can be a challenge, particularly in certain markets.

Typical efforts, at best, are casual in nature, which often means the owner dentist networking among peers. A step beyond this is to advertise in the local county society and state association journals, perhaps the ADA publications, and any close-proximity dental schools. Yet another step beyond these efforts is to hire a professional dental associate recruiter, or headhunter, if you will. These professionals typically charge a five-figure fee for their efforts.

The common thread with these efforts is that they are usually contained and restricted to a local or, at best, regional effort. But owner dentists never know where the ideal person is at the point in time when they start their search! The reality is, the right candidate may not be in their backyard, so to speak. At Mercer Transitions, we are contacted on a regular basis by dentists coming out of the military, out of corporate dentistry, out of residency programs, and from private practices who are inquiring about opportunities in other states. One recent email came from a dentist coming out of a dental school in Southern California looking for an opportunity near where she grew up in Kentucky.

The lesson here is that your search needs to be a full-court press; a full-scale national search. Toward that end, Patterson Dental, through the acquisition of Mercer Transitions and with it the Transdent website, has enhanced and re-launched the site as Patterson Connect. In essence, Patterson Connect is a match-making site for dentists, professionally speaking. It is a proven, very powerful search engine for owner dentists to find associates, and vice versa. It’s strictly for dentists, and hundreds of matches have occurred through the site as part of the robust and comprehensive Associate Recruiting service that Mercer Transitions offers.

The Associate Recruiting service is a great resource, and an opportunity to consider whether you are just looking for an associate to help with the workload as an employee on a permanent basis, or as part of an intended practice transition with the right person. The great thing is that it requires a substantially lower investment than what dental associate recruiting firms typically charge.

Anyone who brings a new dentist on board with this kind of strategic thinking, support and attention to detail is far more likely to enjoy a successful transition than someone who wings it and takes a more free-form approach. Do this right and you not only minimize the risk of the human variable, you supercharge your transition and create lasting prosperity for everyone involved.