I’m Alyssa Mance, founder of Frankly Consulting and The Dental Bridge, former dental rep, and the person who still gets emotional about a good smile. This is the story of the crying patient who changed my career just two weeks in, the problem I kept seeing in practice after practice, and why I built a place to fix it for every seat in dentistry.
Two weeks in, everything changed
Two days into my first dental job, I had one burning question: how do doctors even remember all of these tooth numbers?
Two weeks later, I was sitting in a post-op appointment with a doctor and their patient, who couldn’t stop crying. She kept repeating that we changed her life. See, before her smile transformation, she never had confidence. She never smiled. Ever. She’d been bullied and lost jobs because of her teeth, and now, for the first time, she could be proud of who she is.
What first started as this-woman-has-to-be-insane-why-is-she-crying very quickly turned into understanding the deep impact teeth, dentists, hygiene, oral health and successful practices have on a person’s life. Sometimes it gets compared: “This isn’t heart surgery, it’s not life or death.” But to a patient who has felt they’ve never lived, it is.
It changed my life too.
Brilliant clinicians, struggling practices
As a rep, I walked into practice after practice and kept seeing the same situation: brilliant doctors clinically, but struggling as a business. Big systems gaps. Patients not accepting treatment. Profit leaks and missed revenue in the hundreds of thousands.
I wasn’t ever trained clinically, but I’ve always been sharp and strategic with business. Getting people the results they’re after and showing the real value of things? That’s my happy place. So that’s where I went to work.
“Dr., let’s make a deal: put my products in your practice and I’ll make your practice more profitable than it’s ever been.” It worked (even though I’d use a different approach now, LOL). I’ll never forget the trust this practice gave me, which compounded into referrals to other practices who gave me the same trust.
Practices get lost thinking, “There’s no way to fix this.” Here’s what I can promise: I’ve seen it all, and everything is fixable.
The business behind the bridge
That work became Frankly Consulting.
We help dental practices become more profitable and systemized, and we help dental companies grow revenue and create real value. For practices, that means systemization, revenue operations and the patient experience behind every yes. For companies, it’s go-to-market strategy, commercialization and value-based selling, built on real relationships that turn into lasting customers and partners, not one-and-done transactions.
Thousands of practices and hundreds of dental companies later, I can tell you the problems repeat. The good news? So do the fixes.
(Frankly comes from two references: I speak frankly, and my grandma was my favorite person on the planet. I lost her when I was young, but she lived on through her almost identical brother, Frank. And otherwise, I simply could not name my consulting group ‘Patricia Consulting’.)
From “here’s the resources to use” to “but how can we help more practices?”
I’ve watched this industry take every twist and turn, even on a global scale, and one thing hasn’t changed: great practices and clinicians are still struggling in the same ways. The Dental Bridge started as a simple idea: give my clients access to the trainings we use with them and the systems behind the results every day, all in one place.
But the question still remained: “How can we help MORE practices?” Flight prices are out of the question, so the answer was simple. Let’s make this accessible for everybody.
- Accessible. The business side dental school never taught, minus the travel, conferences, and course-after-course price tag.
- Proven. The same strategies and systems I still use with practices and companies today.
- Actionable. Exactly what to do next in your practice, with frameworks to implement it.
- Connected. Learn alongside peers who either have been there before, or are in the same position now: Practice Owners & Dentists; Clinicians, Team Members & Practice Managers; Dental Companies & Reps; Consultants & Advisors.
Alyssa’s impact in dental
You don’t have to just take my word for it. So here’s some feedback along the way:
“Our hygiene team started using the simple systems during diagnosis and approaches to reframe our patient experience, and it created over $8,000 in additional monthly revenue we were blindly missing before. More importantly, with the new approach we implemented, patients finally understand the ‘why’ behind treatment.”
“The reactivation methods we learned brought back 63 overdue patients in one month. Even the scripting is simple but effective. My front desk and teams finally have a system they feel confident using that works.”
“I’ve invested in a lot of dental CE and resources over the years (well over $50k+!), but this was single-handedly the best investment. It far outweighs a combination of others, in a fraction of the time. I actually still can’t believe it. And my team is on board, implementing systems without a fight, so there’s that!”
“The team at Frankly has a way of looking at the numbers and instantly seeing where we were leaving money on the table. Within two months, we were more productive with the exact same team and hours. Maybe I’m biased now, but I think our patients like us more too.”
“I’m not gonna lie, I was nervous about buying into consulting again after trying other programs that just didn’t stick. Every offer out there sounds too good to be true and lacks the real support I needed. I’ve learned the hard way. Alyssa’s approach is very different. She worked alongside me and my team, and walked us through the entire process and why. Change is hard, but we all actually enjoyed it. Now my office runs smoother than ever.”
“We always felt so busy but literally never profitable. We couldn’t figure it out. Somehow (possibly through magic, I don’t know) Alyssa found ways for us to save substantial amounts on overhead and add hundreds of thousands in revenue. Even in the first quarter??”
“The leadership coaching and direction for our doctors and managers was a game-changer. Alyssa helped us improve gaps everywhere that felt nearly impossible to correct. Communication, accountability, systems, stronger teams across three locations. This sounds cliché or whatever, but our culture is way better than it has been in years, and it was killing our practices before.”
“Everyone claims they know patient experience better, but I can confirm they do not. Alyssa’s understanding of patient psychology, and the buyer’s journey in general, especially in a medical setting, is mind-blowing. She’s thought of everything. But it’s easy to retain, and the systems attached to it make perfect sense now.”
“Alyssa will always figure it out, we know and trust her for that.”
(Rep answers phone on speaker): “Hey man, just a heads up Alyssa’s in the car with me, but don’t worry, she’s like one of the guys.” (Also, WTF??)
Results from Frankly Consulting client engagements. Individual results vary.
Beyond the work
Quick personality profile: introverted extrovert, old soul. Denver-based, originally from The Lou (St. Louis: where are my Midwesterners at?), with five years in Australia along the way.
I love learning, data science and analytics, because the numbers always tell a story. (I’m fun at parties, I promise.) I value relationships and making people feel good, and I make time for volunteering and philanthropy. I love change and the unknown, which is exactly why I’m so good at coaching people through it.
Off the clock, it’s books, my dog and hiking. The mountains have a way of bringing you back down to earth. Experiences over things, always. I’m grateful to have seen corners of the earth most people never get to say they’ve been. I love making people feel comfortable and included. I have a hard exterior, but I feel really deeply. Don’t let the blazer fool you.
Pull up a chair
If your practice is brilliant clinically and struggling as a business, you’re not alone, and you’re definitely not stuck. Somewhere today, a patient like the one I met two weeks into my career is sitting in a chair. The better your practice runs, the more of those moments you get to create.
Owner, clinician, rep or advisor: wherever you sit, there’s a seat for you here. Come say hi at thedentalbridge.info or in my inbox at hello@thedentalbridge.info. I’d love to meet you (and I’d love to know what else you want to see here).
— Alyssa