Fractional Leadership
Executive leadership without the full time cost
The DEO's fractional leadership program embeds experienced dental executives — a Chief Dental Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, or Treatment Coordinator Director — directly inside your organization to build the systems, lead the team, and create the leadership infrastructure that scales with you.
Why practice owners choose The DEO
50%
Higher profit margins
2x
Increased free time
5x
Return on your investment
But more importantly my net profits has gone from some months being in the red to now consistently being 15 to 20% more. And I have gone from working four days a week painfully to working three and a half days a week with an associate and more time off.
I’ve gone from practicing four to five days a week to not practicing at all for the past year. The biggest win has been the connections; having peers I can text anytime who understand the same challenges. That support helped us grow, realize we’re not alone, and build the confidence to keep expanding.
We are now at seven locations and $16 million. Every single one of these events I pull so many great things away from — I cannot put a tangible number on how much of that growth is attributed to DEO but certainly a chunk of it very much is.
Imagine...
Executive leadership in every department
Executive leadership in every department
A leadership team built to scale
A leadership team built to scale
Systems that outlast the engagement
Systems that outlast the engagement
Welcome to The DEO
The executive leadership your org needs to perform at the next level
Most growing dental group practices hit a point where they need executive level leadership in a specific functional domain — clinical operations, marketing, or treatment coordination — but cannot justify or find a full time hire for that role. The DEO's fractional leadership program solves that problem by embedding experienced dental executives directly inside your organization on an ongoing basis — building real systems, leading real teams, and creating real accountability structures that outlast the engagement.
Real executives. Not consultants.
Real executives. Not consultants.
Built for your specific stage.
Built for your specific stage.
Leadership infrastructure that lasts.
Leadership infrastructure that lasts.
How we can help
Discover what's available
Fractional Chief Dental Officer (CDO)
Fractional Chief Dental Officer (CDO)
The DEO's fractional CDO provides executive level clinical operations leadership for dental group practices that need it without a full time hire. Your fractional CDO is accountable for clinical performance across every location — building clinical SOPs, managing provider performance, developing associate talent, and creating the clinical quality systems that make consistent patient outcomes possible at scale. For multi location groups where clinical inconsistency across providers and locations is a defining quality and profitability challenge, the fractional CDO is the single most impactful leadership addition an organization can make.
Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)
Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)
The DEO's fractional CMO owns the patient acquisition strategy, marketing systems, ROI tracking, and brand positioning for dental group practices that need executive level marketing leadership. Your fractional CMO does not just manage campaigns — they build the marketing infrastructure that makes patient acquisition measurable, accountable, and consistently productive across every location. For organizations where marketing spend is significant but ROI is unclear or inconsistent, the fractional CMO brings the strategic and operational marketing leadership that turns spend into a predictable, optimizable growth engine.
Fractional Treatment Coordinator Director
Fractional Treatment Coordinator Director
The DEO's fractional TC Director embeds inside your organization to build the case acceptance systems, TC training programs, and revenue coordination infrastructure that sustains and deepens the Treatment Closing Academy framework over time. Your fractional TC Director coaches your TC team, manages performance metrics, standardizes treatment presentation across every location, and builds the financial coordination systems that turn case acceptance into a consistent, measurable organizational competency rather than a personality dependent outcome.
Onsite assessments
Onsite assessments
For members who want to begin the fractional leadership engagement with the clearest possible picture of where the functional gaps are, The DEO's onsite assessments put an experienced operator physically inside your locations to diagnose the specific clinical, marketing, or revenue coordination challenges that the fractional executive will be addressing. The assessment report feeds directly into the fractional leadership engagement plan — giving your fractional executive a clear, prioritized action plan from day one.
Proven frameworks.
Extraordinary outcomes.
The Profitability Stages™
The DEO's trademarked five stage growth model tells you exactly where you are, what is holding you back, and what you need to do to get to the next level.
The Profitability Cycle™
Every DEO coaching engagement is built around one proven framework that turns financial chaos into intentional, compounding profit at every stage of your growth.
The DEO 5X Return
Every member can expect to earn back at least 5x their coaching investment through real, measurable improvements in profit and growth.
Find out which growth stage you're in
Before you can scale, you need to know exactly where you stand. Take two minutes and find out.
What to expect at each step
Your Growth Accelerator Call
Every DEO fractional leadership engagement starts with a free 30 minute Growth Accelerator Call. A DEO coach reviews your current organizational structure, identifies the specific functional domain where executive level leadership is most needed, and outlines exactly how The DEO's fractional leadership program addresses it. Whether you need a fractional CDO, CMO, or TC Director, or are not yet sure which role would have the highest impact, the call gives you a clear picture of what executive level leadership in that domain would change for your organization.
Fractional leader matching
Once onboarded, The DEO matches your organization with a fractional executive from the Tribe Coach roster whose direct operational experience aligns with your specific functional domain, Growth Ladder stage, and organizational context. The matching process accounts for the size and complexity of your organization, the specific challenges the fractional leader will be addressing, and the cultural fit that makes an embedded executive relationship productive from day one. The DEO's fractional leaders are not generic executives. They are operators who have built and run dental organizations at your scale and know your specific challenges from firsthand experience.
Onboarding and 90 day leadership plan
Your fractional executive begins with a comprehensive onboarding process, meeting the team, reviewing existing systems and performance data, and building a clear 90 day leadership plan for their functional domain. The plan identifies the highest priority gaps, defines the specific systems and accountability structures that need to be built, and establishes the performance metrics that will track progress and demonstrate impact. For members who complete an onsite assessment before the fractional leadership engagement begins, the onboarding process is significantly faster and more targeted.
Embedded executive leadership and ongoing development
From here your fractional executive works inside your organization on an ongoing basis, attending team meetings, building SOPs, coaching direct reports, managing performance metrics, and reporting directly to you or your leadership team. The engagement deepens over time as the systems take hold, the team develops, and the functional domain moves from a source of organizational weakness to a genuine competitive advantage. The goal of every DEO fractional leadership engagement is to build the organizational self sufficiency that makes the fractional leader's ongoing involvement optional because the systems, the team, and the culture are strong enough to sustain themselves.
Real practice owners. Real results.
DEO members don't just feel better about their businesses — they build fundamentally different ones. Here's what that looks like in practice.
Frequently asked questions
A fractional executive works inside your organization part time with full executive authority over their domain, building systems, coaching direct reports, attending team meetings, and creating accountability structures that outlast the engagement. A consultant advises from the outside and leaves. The DEO's fractional leaders are operators who have personally run dental organizations at your scale. This means they build solutions from firsthand experience rather than theoretical frameworks, and they are accountable to outcomes rather than deliverables.
The DEO's fractional Chief Dental Officer provides executive level clinical operations leadership for dental group practices. This includes building clinical SOPs, managing provider performance, developing associate talent, and creating the clinical quality systems that make consistent patient outcomes possible across multiple locations. The fractional CDO is accountable for clinical performance across the entire organization: attending clinical leadership meetings, coaching providers, building the quality infrastructure, and reporting directly to the owner or CEO. For multi location groups where clinical inconsistency is a defining challenge, the fractional CDO is one of the highest impact additions an organization can make.
The DEO's fractional leadership services are available as an add-on to any full DEO coaching membership for practices at $1.2M and above. For practices interested in adding fractional executive leadership to their membership, the best first step is raising it in your next coaching session. Your DEO coach will assess your current organizational structure, identify your primary functional leadership gaps, and outline which fractional leadership role would have the highest impact on your organization right now. Not yet a member? Schedule a Growth Accelerator Call and we will walk you through both the core membership and the fractional leadership services that make the most sense for your stage.
"Seven years ago we had three practices and visions of what we wanted to do but no roadmap and no tools. Today we are at 18 locations and we intend to continue to grow. The DEO broke our business down and helped us rebuild it in a much more effective and efficient way."
"When I joined I think we were doing around $11 million. We do about $20 million now. It was tough to navigate — every day felt like new territory. DEO helped me figure out how to grow strategically without running myself into the ground."
"Before joining DEO I was in the chair five days a week every week. Today I am 95% out of the chair. I have learned that I am far more efficient working on my business than in my business."
"The best thing we learned from DEO is that this is a business for people. Once we started tuning into our doctors, hygienists, front desk, and office managers the business took a different shape. Once you understand the fundamentals lie with the people — the numbers take care of themselves."
"Prior to joining DEO we had one office. We now have four locations — and in that original office we demolished it and built a new one double the size. A lot of it was we just did not know how to do certain things. DEO showed us there was a better way."
"When we started with DEO we had three to four locations. Since then we have grown to eight and we are about to open two more to hit 10. Me and my partner both do not practice full time anymore. DEO helped us understand the strategy behind the growth and gave us the confidence that we could actually do it."
"Talking to groups that are larger gives me a reference for what the future can hold and what the end result can be for us. It gives us motivation to keep going — and helps me see the positive in every situation."
"When we started we had four locations. Now we have 12. I take a month off every year — this last year went to Portugal and Iceland. When I joined DEO in 2018 I was practicing five days a week, had a two hour commute, and two kids under five. It was pretty stressful."
"We did about $6.5 million together last year and we should hit close to $8 million this year. When you start to scale you do not know what you do not know — and DEO stepped in and gave me clear direction and prioritization to say this is what we should be working on now and this is what is coming next."
"We went from $3M to $5M in revenue, and when I look back at all the decisions we've made building our company, The DEO has easily been the most impactful."
"My biggest frustration was I wanted to grow but I did not know how to do it without undermining the special way I take care of patients. I did not want to ruin something that was really good. DEO helped me figure out how to grow in a way that kept our mission going in the right direction."
"I spent nine years thinking the best way to be successful was to be the best clinician I could be. I ignored the business totally. DEO gave me the financial clarity I never had — and this year we are on track to go from $1.6 million to over $2 million."
"Before DEO we were at one location with 11 team members and heavily insurance dependent. We now have three locations, solid team members at all positions, and are moving more and more away from insurance dependence. We are stronger, leaner, and faster than we have ever been."
"Seven years ago we had three practices and visions of what we wanted to do but no roadmap and no tools. Today we are at 18 locations and we intend to continue to grow. The DEO broke our business down and helped us rebuild it in a much more effective and efficient way."
"When I joined I think we were doing around $11 million. We do about $20 million now. It was tough to navigate — every day felt like new territory. DEO helped me figure out how to grow strategically without running myself into the ground."
"Before joining DEO I was in the chair five days a week every week. Today I am 95% out of the chair. I have learned that I am far more efficient working on my business than in my business."
"The best thing we learned from DEO is that this is a business for people. Once we started tuning into our doctors, hygienists, front desk, and office managers the business took a different shape. Once you understand the fundamentals lie with the people — the numbers take care of themselves."
"Prior to joining DEO we had one office. We now have four locations — and in that original office we demolished it and built a new one double the size. A lot of it was we just did not know how to do certain things. DEO showed us there was a better way."
"When we started with DEO we had three to four locations. Since then we have grown to eight and we are about to open two more to hit 10. Me and my partner both do not practice full time anymore. DEO helped us understand the strategy behind the growth and gave us the confidence that we could actually do it."
"Talking to groups that are larger gives me a reference for what the future can hold and what the end result can be for us. It gives us motivation to keep going — and helps me see the positive in every situation."
"When we started we had four locations. Now we have 12. I take a month off every year — this last year went to Portugal and Iceland. When I joined DEO in 2018 I was practicing five days a week, had a two hour commute, and two kids under five. It was pretty stressful."
"We did about $6.5 million together last year and we should hit close to $8 million this year. When you start to scale you do not know what you do not know — and DEO stepped in and gave me clear direction and prioritization to say this is what we should be working on now and this is what is coming next."
"We went from $3M to $5M in revenue, and when I look back at all the decisions we've made building our company, The DEO has easily been the most impactful."
"My biggest frustration was I wanted to grow but I did not know how to do it without undermining the special way I take care of patients. I did not want to ruin something that was really good. DEO helped me figure out how to grow in a way that kept our mission going in the right direction."
"I spent nine years thinking the best way to be successful was to be the best clinician I could be. I ignored the business totally. DEO gave me the financial clarity I never had — and this year we are on track to go from $1.6 million to over $2 million."
"Before DEO we were at one location with 11 team members and heavily insurance dependent. We now have three locations, solid team members at all positions, and are moving more and more away from insurance dependence. We are stronger, leaner, and faster than we have ever been."