Giving The Gift Of Possibilities – Part 2

Well, what is an idea without the tactical steps to make it come to life in your practice?  I loved the feedback and stories you shared with me in response to last week’s Huddle.

There is no greater privilege a person can have than to gift someone belief and hope in what’s possible.  That’s why you are there every day with your patients; to give them the gift of possibilities for their health, their mouths, their smiles, their confidence, their lives.

That major point we’ll go further into detail next week.  It’s life changing for anyone who will truly embrace it and own it.

Now, the real key is: HOW.  How do you bring the realm of “dental possibilities” into the minds and mouths of your patients?

Of course, it begins by you making the decision that you are going to do more than just point out problems.  It also begins when you yourself believe in the VALUE of what you do and the IMPACT dentistry can have on a person.

The good news is: it isn’t really all that complicated (assuming you have your clinical philosophy, practice mission, and standard of care defined based on your doctor’s beliefs).

All you have to do is say to your patients…

“You know, we have found that many of our patients, who have a situation very similar to yours, are not aware of some other possibilities.”

And then you tell them.

About the smile makeover.

About the teeth whitening.

About the straightening of teeth.

About getting rid of the denture.

About replacing the missing tooth.

About getting out of pain once and for all.

About saving teeth.

About stopping the snoring.

About WHATEVER.

And when you say ‘other people don’t know’ – it eliminates the embarrassment that they didn’t know either.  Then you describe the solution.

If you are very bashful or you have a patient you want to be more timid with, you can ask them, “I bet you would be interested in knowing about what we can do to help you [solve this] [improve that] [replace these], wouldn’t you?”

The goal here is to let them know there is more to this than meets the eye, that there are solutions for it and you’d love to help them discover what they are.  There is no reason to make this more complicated than it is.

Way too many team members (and especially doctors) think patients will be overwhelmed about hearing “everything” all at once or they won’t be interested or they will even be upset at knowing the truth.

Let me assure you that this is only the case if you do not set them up properly first, if you do not communicate with transparency, or if you push everything as problems that they have to solve instead of approaching it as possibilities that would serve them well.

Next week, I’m going to help you give another gift to give every single patient.  This approach will work like magic even when we aren’t in the midst of the Holidays.

For now, please really take a hard assessment about where you are short changing patients, where you are too problem focused, and where you do not do enough to engage in possibilities.

There is NO LACK of OPPORTUNITY to help Patients.  There is only a lack of initiative, time, energy, effort, communication and above all else willingness for you to elevate your patients’ awareness, value and desire to want more for themselves, which begins by knowing what’s possible in the first place.