When seeking extraordinary talent, reflect upon the following questions and concepts when your mind says the following:

Misdemeanor 1 – “She has tons of experience”

  • Experience is the ultimate double-edged sword. Less upfront training comes with negative habits. Dig deeper and ask yourself (and her): What kind? Why is she not still working at her old job? Is she set in her ways? Does she expect to run things the way she always has? Do you sense it will be challenging to train her the proper way? What frustrations come with her level of experience and can they be overcome?
  • Too often, experience alone is the major factor in a practice hiring a new individual. Remember, experience can be positive, but you are committing a management misdemeanor if you don’t select a person wholly open to applying prior skills to a fresh and superior way of doing things.
  • Tips: Dinosaurs go extinct. Feel free to explain this to experienced employees as well as new employees joining with experience. Find people (with or without experience) who want to grow and embrace personal development. Seek applicants who read avidly, have excellent GPAs, went to top schools, talk about personal growth, live a healthy lifestyle, do not job-hop, and have a track record of achievement and not just years of experience. Generally, it is better to have a person with one year of experience who doubled the business in their last practice or office, than a person who has 10 years of experience during which business was stagnant.

Misdemeanor 2 – “She has had surgery in the past or has the right look”

  • YellowTelescope salespeople, who average over $2,000,000 in annual surgery sales, rarely have past surgery sales experience and few have had procedures done by our doctors. Even our office administrators and managers rarely come from a medical background. Having work done by your practice or another is not bad, but does not make a great employee. And looks don’t equal results.
  • Tips: Compare the person sitting in front of you for an interview to the following paradigm and decide who you would prefer.
    • Candidate 1 is a former patient of yours and looks great. She says “I am sold on plastic surgery and you.” She has held three jobs in the last three years, has limited experience, and you get that “she is great, but I just don’t know” feeling about her.
    • Candidate 2 is an honors college graduate with a 3.96 GPA from a Tier 1 University, with a track record of being consistently in the top 1% of salespeople out of a group of 4,000 national pharmaceutical reps in her previous role. She has worked with her current company for four years and is moving into the area due to a spousal job transfer. She reads three books a week, runs a small charity in her free time, has impeccable communications skills and a warm demeanor. She has not had a procedure, presents and dresses herself well, but is not a poster child for plastic surgery.
    • Who do you choose? The latter is out there if you search hard or hire a great staffing company (a small sales pitch for YellowTelescope). Be patient and don’t settle for the easy mistake of hiring a look or a former patient for that reason alone.

Misdemeanor 3 – “She was recommended by a friend”

  • Referrals are among the best ways to find new talent in the medical industry. YellowTelescope, in its own searches, utilizes this technique often. The misdemeanor is investing too much in the recommendation and estimation of a friend who does not fully comprehend your practice.
  • Tips: We do recommend that anyone who is recommended by a trusted colleague or friend does get an interview with you, but the playing field should be even thereafter. Maintain a great relationship with the referrer by following this system:
    • Thank the referrer profusely for sending the resume along. Let that person know that their word alone guarantees a preliminary interview based on nothing more than your respect and conviction in her.
    • Be careful, however, to let the referring friend know that although the first interview is guaranteed, thereafter you will have to select the best overall fit for the position regardless of personal connection and you appreciate their understanding whether their friend does or does not win the role. In this way, you are not insulting the referring friend, but are keeping your options open and keeping the door open to future referrals regardless of whether this particular resume is a fit.

Misdemeanor 4 – “She was cheap or she was expensive”

  • It is very tempting to get a “steal” on a new employee and underpay in this tough economy in which so many people seek work.
  • It is equally tempting for many to assume that because a person was making a high salary elsewhere that they must be worth the same or more in your practice.
  • Tips: Avoid both of these misdemeanors and establish a policy of fair pay for hard work. When the economy is bad your people will respect that you treat them fairly. When the economy is excellent you will avoid a mass exodus when your savvy people are smart enough to not jump to another company. They give you loyalty because they were not taken advantage of during the lean years. Occasionally pay 5-10% less than market value if a person is newer and must earn their stripes. If you are blown away by the talent of an individual, pay 5-10% more than market value. In general, however, know what your market average is and pay that rate. If you are a massive practice ready to get to the next level, still pay market value plus 10% for a superstar, but give her the chance to earn a significant bonus on the upside so as you grow, so does she – this method guarantees she is always worth exactly what she is paid as her paycheck is a mirror of practice results. Incentivize your people with clear objectives that will lead to higher pay. All salespeople, if legally allowable, should be paid mostly incentive to create results. Managers, front/back-office employees, and similar should have bonuses paid for measurable results in addition to fair base pay for their work.

Summary:

  • Hire the best people regardless of their experience, look, or patient status. Pay fairly and look for referrals from employees and friends, but be clear with the referrer that you will always pick the best fit. It is always more work to train people the right way, to seek talent at all costs, and to pay people fairly and create proper incentives. In the long run, however, it repays your practice severalfold.

If you love the information in this blog, like our over 1,000 current subscribers, please keep reading – it is just one email a month. We greatly appreciate you forwarding this blog to your doctor and ancillary staff contacts in all medical arenas – this information is free and it helps your friends, colleagues, coworkers, and you grow professionally – “pay us forward.” In addition, we encourage you to visit Jon, Dr. Epstein, and the entire YellowTelescope executive team if you are attending the Multi-Specialty meeting in Las Vegas in early June where they have been selected as faculty and will be speaking and running workshops on a variety of topics. They will also have a booth for you to visit to discuss how YellowTelescope can help your practice grow. To learn more about how we “bring your practice goals into focus,” and why every practice YellowTelescope has worked with has grown by 60-125% in their first year working with our team, email us at info@yellowtelescope.com and visit us at yellowtelescope.com. While you are on the site don’t forget to sign up for this free newsletter blog if it is the first time you are reading the “Telescope.”

**Send Your Best Employee to the YellowTelescope Training Seminar** October 5th and 6th, 2012 – Miami, Florida – The finest Sales, Management, and Leadership Seminar EXCLUSIVELY for Practice Managers, Sales Advisors, and Patient Coordinators in the medical industry-5 Star Hotel with All Food and Beverages Included-Results are literally GUARANTEED! Click Here for more information and to get a discounted rate for early sign-up. Or contact us at info@yellowtelescope.com.

So Who Are These YellowTelescope Folks?

Good question! Dr. Epstein is a triple board-certified facial plastic surgeon and hair restoration doctor with 18 years of experience and over 10,000 procedures performed. His Executive Vice President, Jon Hoffenberg, is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business and brings over 15 years of sales management and leadership experience to YellowTelescope. He has personally hired, trained, and managed several thousand salespeople and managers. Having grown Dr. Epstein’s practice year after year to its highest-ever level during the worst economic times in nearly a century, they realized their system was proven, but more importantly, replicable. They both realized they had a passion for helping practices, hospitals, and businesses thrive so they formed YellowTelescope Medical, which helps their customers do exactly that, just as it helped Dr. Epstein’s practice grow to within the top 1% of cosmetic surgery practices in the country. They have conducted an annual Aesthetic Think Tank the past two years for 10-20 of the most successful plastic surgery practices in the U.S. where they share and gather ideas. They manage practices throughout the United States, have a staffing wing that fills office manager and patient advisor positions, and run 2-Day training seminars for staff members of doctors and hospitals teaching elite-level sales, management, and leadership skills. To learn more about Jon, Dr. Epstein, the executive team, and YellowTelescope Training, YellowTelescope Staffing, and YellowTelescope Management, go to yellowtelescope.com. We welcome your feedback and love to hear from readers.

About Yellow Telescope

We help doctors grow their aesthetic or elective practices, whether they are solo practitioners or within a group practice, in exactly 3 ways:

1 – Training – we run in-depth training for high-level practice managers and sales staff in the medical industry. These 2-Day events are literally guaranteed to grow your medical business.

2 – Staffing – we can recruit, then train, and then even supervise a high-level employee at your practice. We run practices every day so we know exactly what you are looking for. Hire us to hire the practice manager or salesperson who affects your results more than any other single factor.

3 – Practice Management – we can help run your entire practice while maintaining your autonomy. Every practice we manage has grown by 60-125% in the very first year they have worked with YellowTelescope. And we don’t make a dime unless you grow. Founded in 2008, YellowTelescope is a company, unlike any other in the aesthetic surgery field, focused solely on medical practice growth.

Learn more about why YellowTelescope has become an industry leader in just four years at yellowtelescope.com.