How to Build a PT Leadership Team Like a Championship Coach
In most larger transactions today the owner stays three years or longer. Paul Martin explains why the real question is what leadership team an acquirer finds when it walks in the door, and how to build one the way championship coaches do.
Full transcript
Generated from the episode audio and lightly edited for readability.
In most of the larger deals that we do today, the owner isn't going anywhere.
When a partner comes in the door, do they have to build the leadership and the structure around me, or is it already there?" I'm telling you, that's worth a lot more. Here's something that I hear from owners a lot, "Paul, I'm not planning on going anywhere, so why do I need a leadership team?" And look, I get it, but I really think that's the wrong way to look at it in this current market. Because in most of the larger deals that we do today, the owner isn't going anywhere.
not even close. So let's talk about why your leadership team matters so much, and whether you wanna keep growing or you're thinking about a partnership at some point down the road. Now look for years, the advice out there was, "Make sure your practice can run without you," and I have given that advice.
And I would say for more locally focused practices, that still matters, but I want you to think a little bigger. Currently, the large acquirers in this space, those are the strategic partners backed by private equity, they're looking at bigger businesses, multiple clinics, strong revenue, and EBITDA. And when they partner with you, they want you to stay, and that is typically anywhere three years and many times much longer.
They're not partnering with you so you can leave. They're partnering with you because you built something, and they want you to keep building it along with the resources that they can put around you. So the question is not, "Can my practice run without me?" The question for multi-site business owners should be, "When a partner comes in the door, do they have to build the leadership and the structure around me, or is it already there?"
Because let me tell you, that's a big difference as it pertains to value. If they have to build it, that's cost, that's time, that's people, that's risk, and they're gonna put that into the calculation of the value for your business. If it's already there, they can plug immediately in and start growing with you on day one.
And I'm telling you, that's worth a lot more. Just trust me on that. So as we're thinking a little bit about how great teams are built I know I do this a lot, I'm gonna go back to football. Look, I love football, and I was actually a college football coach back in the late '80s, and almost decided I wanted to make a career out of it.
So think about professional football for just a second here, or big-time college football. The owner doesn't call the plays. The owner hires the right general manager and the right head coach, which the general manager usually hires directly with the owner's approval. The head coach then brings in all the coordinators, offensive, defensive, special teams, but everybody knows their job.
And the best teams have a system, and it gets taught, it gets passed down, and it helps them bring in the right players. Why? 'Cause the right players wanna play for the right leaders. So they're not just winning one year, they're winning year after year. Hey, I hope that sounds familiar, 'cause that is your business and that's the opportunity you have.
You're the owner. The leadership team is your coaching staff. Your clinic directors are your coordinators. Your PTs, your PTAs, your front desk, your techs, those are your players. And your systems, how do you hire? How do you train? How do you schedule? How do you capture all the charges? And that's how the whole business runs and runs well. So I wanna give a few examples of some phenomenal leaders and how they built their teams.
Let's start with Bill Walsh. He takes over the San Francisco 49ers, I'm gonna say 1980, 1979. I know the year before they went 2 and 14. 10 years later, three Super Bowls. So how did he claim he did it? He wrote everything down that needed to be done, every role, every standard, every process, all the way down to literally how the phones got answered in the front office, and he called that his standards of performance, SOPs.
And here's the part I really love. When Bill Walsh stepped down, and again, I think it was the 1988 or 89 season, his defensive coordinator, George Seifert, just took the team over as the head coach, and they won the Super Bowl the very next year. That's what happens when the system is bigger than the person, and I shouldn't say system.
Systems is bigger than the person. And his assistants went on to run teams all over the league for decades. Next up, Nick Saban. Folks, Nick Saban won six national championships at Alabama, and I know you all know how incredibly hard that is, and I believe he won another one at LSU. He always talked about the process.
Don't worry about the scoreboard. Worry about doing your job right every day, every rep. Do that, and guess what? The scoreboard will take care of itself. He was adamant about that. And here's what a lot of people miss. Saban was great at hiring and developing coaches. Kirby Smart was his defensive coordinator.
He ended up going to Georgia and won two national championships of his own. Steve Sarkisian went to Texas, and the list just goes on and on. Saban didn't try to do every job, every task himself. He put great people in clear, very clear roles. He taught them the system, and then he held them to that standard.
Another great organization, and it comes right from the top, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Do you realize, and I had to look this up, the Rooney family has owned that team since 1933. And from... now check this out. From 1969, well into the 2020s, they only had three coaches: Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher, and Mike Tomlin.
Think about that. I've seen physical therapy business owners, and I can tell you in my business, they can go through three clinic directors in three, three years. How did they do it? The Rooneys picked the right leader, they gave him clear authority, clear authority, and then let him lead, stay out of his way, and they've been one of the most consistent organizations, not just in football, but in all sports.
You see it today in a lot of different teams, right? You got the Chiefs. I believe it was Clark Hunt hires Andy Reid. Andy Reid, at that point, had never won a Super Bowl, but they put the right general manager next to him. They've gone to five Super Bowls in six years. And my beloved Philadelphia Eagles, they are with Jeffrey Lurie.
They are from owner, general manager, head coach. They're all on the same page, and they did win that Super Bowl two years ago, and at that point, they were really on the same page. The teams on top, they're not usually the ones that have the one or even two superstars. They're typically the ones with the strongest leadership.
You look all through the NFL, you look all through college football, the best teams are not always the ones that have those couple superstars. They're the ones with the best leadership. What does that mean for you and your business? I think there's three takeaways here on how you can start building a business that will grow and grow on into infinitum.
Number one, define clear roles and responsibilities. And not only just roles and responsibility, but ownership. Who owns operations in your business? Who owns each clinic and their operations? Who owns billing and collections? Who owns marketing? Who owns the actual referral relationships? And if the answer to all of these is you, that's where we start.
write it down so everybody knows who's responsible for what. Second. Create systems that you can pass down. The systems can actually be from how you hire. How do you onboard a new therapist or a new front desk person? How do you schedule? How do you track visits?
How do you track charge capture? Remember, Bill Walsh wrote it down. You need to write yours down too, so your leaders can teach it. And number three, this is huge, and we've done a lot of work in this area, building your bench. Do you have a leadership program within your business?
You can build that, and you can have the next clinical director waiting in the wings. Who's your next Kirby Smart? And if you don't know, you gotta start developing those people now, not when you need them. You need to start developing them before you need them. And so in the end, this works whether you keep your business or you partner down the road with a larger entity.
If you keep it, a strong leadership team is how you go past where you are right now without burning yourself out, okay? So you can grow past where you're about to burn yourself out. You don't have to be in every clinic. You don't have to make every decision. And if you partner, look, you're like a train taking off at the station, and that's how you get the best value and the best structure.
The partner sees a team that they don't have to build. That's less risk for them. And what does that mean? You know it, more value for you. And so those three years after the deal, I promise you, they go a whole lot better when you're leading a team instead of continuing to put out fires every single day.
This is a big part of what we do in our preparatory consulting. We help owners build that leadership team, create the roles, create the systems, create the bench well before you will go out to market. And trust me, it pays off whether you're gonna partner with a large company or not. Hey, thank you for joining me today.
If you have any questions on the content that we shared today, just click below. Let's talk.
Want to talk about your own business?
Marlton, NJ 08053