Dr. Leighton Wood: My name is Leighton Wood, and I’m an orthodontist. I had an office in Kingsport, and then I had an office in Bristol, Virginia. I did sell the one office on my own to my associate. And it’s very difficult. I mean, you have to have a lot of professional help, which that’s one thing US Dental Transitions provided.
Ted Burgin: When I first met Dr. Wood, the first impression when I walked in was, “This guy is really successful.” His history is he’s been in the military, he served in the Air Force, and he actually has been in practice after that for 25, almost 26 years now. As he gave us a tour, I just saw that he’s really put something great together.
Dr. Leighton Wood: US Dental Transitions does make the process easy. Because if you’re trying to do it on your own, then you have to figure out, what’s your practice worth? Or can you find a buyer? What’s a good deal? What’s a bad deal? And they really have a streamlined process and some great staff. They were good about giving me information, and I felt like I could trust their information. They weren’t trying to just make a sale.
Ted Burgin: Our team behind the scenes are the people that do the job, honestly. Our process relies on some very, very intricate programs and some very, very smart people running those programs. And so I can confidently say that once we come to a valuation over what we list that practice for is what that practice is worth. Our potential buyers, they can look at our work for five minutes and say, “Yes, I am,” or, “No, I’m not interested.” And so again, we’re saving time for the client and we’re moving faster to a sale.
Dr. Leighton Wood: Even buyers that didn’t work out, they were qualified. So they’re not going to bring somebody in that’s just fishing, they’re going to make sure they bring a qualified buyer and we just had to find the right one. We finally come up with a buyer that they… A big investment group that had the money and the CEO orthodontist was a great guy. We got along. And we also came out about $500,000 more money than the first deal.
Pete Newcomb: We want to get to know the selling doctor really well. Because if we can understand who the selling doctor is, we are going to be able to identify our buyer a lot easier. And that all comes down to philosophy. I mean, how does he approach the clinical aspects of his patient care? How does he approach the management style? Having continuity in that regard is extremely important.
Dr. Leighton Wood: Yeah, I think it’s important because I feel like I built this practice to a high level and with a good reputation. And I feel like we always have provided great care. And I wouldn’t want to sell to someone that couldn’t do the same thing.
