Selling to a dental corporate? Six critical questions you must ask

Andy Acton suggests six questions dentists should be asking before selling their practice to a dental corporate.

The growth of the dental corporate in recent years has meant a dramatic increase in the number of direct approaches from them to buy practices. How would you react if you received just such an approach?

There are attractions to selling to a group; the most obvious being the capital sum, particularly as corporates can make competitive offers to acquire the right practices. There are others; the management burden shifts to someone else, your overall working hours should reduce, and you can get back to doing the clinical work which is probably the reason you went into dentistry in the first place.

The term ‘corporates’ is a catch-all term for groups covering those that have a few practices, owned and managed by a small group of dentists. All directly involved in the business and very much hands on, right through to larger organisations that have secured external investment. It’s this latter group that are likely to pursue an aggressive growth strategy. Along with an approach to business designed to drive up value for their shareholders. It is important to understand with which type of entity you are engaging, particularly if you continue to work in the practice post sale.

I am often asked about how to navigate the complexities of selling to a dental corporate entity. In my experience, if you can get comfortable with the answers to these six key questions you can be confident you can get a positive outcome.

Q1. How important is the ‘upfront’ capital lump sum?

If it is critical to you to maximise the amount you receive on the day of completion, then selling to a dental corporate…