Before we dive in this week, I want to thank those of you who have taken action on the past series of Profit Reports and shared your incredible results. Yes, of course, you are always right whanever you take action quickly and put in motion the very next opportunity you have to test, try, and experiment with new ways of thinking or specific strategies, from word changes to reworking the orchestration or choreography of your Patients’ experiences in your Practice you will reap the rewards.
As the saying goes (and the law of prosperity and abundance states), what you focus on you will get more of. When you focus on more diagnosed treatment you will find more dentistry available to help make your patients healthy and grow your practice production in quality treatment not just quantity of procedures.
I love hearing the action-taking stories. Remember this, just one $10,000 to $20,000 dollar case each week out of your new patients or flow of hygiene visits or expanded treatments is an extra $500,000-$1,000,000 in produced dentistry that will always be at least 50 percent if not 100 percent more profit than any other dollar of dentistry produced.
You can grow your income by $250,000-$500,000 or more, literally overnight by simply following this plan and approaching every patient with big wide open eyes and looking at the possibilities that exist for you to better help them and truly provide life-changing long-term preventative and permanent dentistry.
Let’s keep the trains running and move forward to bring your Patient back into the operatory where the magic happens.
Now, it’s all about Teamwork and helping the Patient believe they are worth the best dentistry you can provide and that they deserve the changes you can make happen.
Here’s our “final 4” to cap off your Treatment Diagnosis…
5: Use Every Piece of Technology (without exception) explain what, why, how
This is one of the single greatest opportunities to grow your practice and see immediate results. I mean like, tomorrow, the next patient, right now.
Things you can do to make a major difference in your Patient Experience.
Look, you can’t argue with science, proof, visual representation. When you just talk about it, they often see it as arbitrary, something you say to everyone… when you show them and use the technology you have invested in, you can’t help but produce more diagnosed treatment.
We both know that most Dentists are fascinated with a new piece of equipment, some bright shiny object of a high tech toy, and many types of equipment are worth every penny IF you fully embrace them and put them to use.
Here’s what I my best clients do – EVERYTHING.
They don’t rely on waiting for just the right scenario for a new patient to walk in with a specific condition and then try this piece of technology out.
If you want more TMJ, use the JVA.
If you want more Invisalign, use the itero
If you want full mouth reconstruction then do something to show the Patient why.
If you aren’t getting as many cosmetic cases any more, it’s not because the patients have changed, it’s because you aren’t paying any attention to it.
Simply put, please stop thinking about a piece of equipment as “how much you can bill for it” or think of it as a money-maker – no – you are the money maker – not the equipment.
Use the equipment to educate your patients, to help set up a case. My best clients, the ones earning over $1,000,000 (7-figures) in income per year and have practices with New Patient Diagnosed averages that range between $10,000-$20,000 (as they should) are embracing equipment, giving away every single test and experience and diagnostic tool they can so they can create more treatment.
Stop stepping over dollars to pick up pennies.
Of course this is based on my A / B / C Patient Screening system and knowing when, how, who, and why to use this approach.
6: Use Pictures…all of the pictures…but this one above all else!
Okay, this one is my favorite and to be very blunt, whatever you think you are doing good with the use of pictures right now, you can do better.
I’ve yet to see any one Practice, Team, or Dentist fully utilize the pictures that Patients look at of themselves in an effective and congruent way to produce more treatment.
Ultimately, here’s what you must know by now – patients can look at all the befores and afters, and all the computer generations and all the fancy written-by-some-scientist equipment brochure of nonsense you can throw at them and they don’t care for nothing – because it has no relevance to them.
Making it personal is the single most important thing you can do.
And there is nothing more personal than staring at pictures of themselves in the face and owning up to the fact that their mouth, teeth, gums, appearance is not what it’s suppose to be and certainly not what it is capable of becoming.
Above all else, use the full front picture and side views the way everyone sees the Patient, that will be the most eye-opening way to prove to the patient that they are uncomfortable with how they look.
Every human being looks at themselves every single day in the mirror before they go out into the world and they become conditioned to see them as normal and believe this is “just how they are supposed to look”.
They forget what they looked like once before or they are in denial about how much they over correct and/or are ashamed of they way their smile, face, or any other part of them makes them feel self-conscious.
Hey, you want to play a game, why don’t you try it, and everyone in your practice, take your own pictures (and unless you have had your own smile makeover, I certainly hope you have, as the living breathing example of ideal optimal health you are suppose to be), and see how self-conscious you are about your own appearance.
And then commit to using more pictures to help you Patients build their confidence and realize that you are the link between their own personal empowerment and coming out of their shell.
At the very least your Team should have pictures of at least 3-5 problem areas pulled up looking at the patient and you when you walk in so you can use that as a building block on moving to their full face pictures.
This small simple concept will often double your production in your practice and return the cosmetic procedures to much greater (than even pre-2008) levels all because you make it possible again for the patient to buy-in and see the potential.
7: Ask Questions…to sell, never tell… always ask, listen, and restate to get agreement
Now we come to the single most important part.
Here’s a really big revelation…you don’t have to sell anything, nope, not a single dollar of dentistry. If you are doing your job right then you are a guide for the patient.. the patient does all of the selling themselves.
This happens by using questions.
The more questions the better, because questions force you to listen, they force the patient to think, and they force everyone to make the priorities of the patient the most important objective of the visit.
When you ask questions you engage the patient and you get them to see themselves for what they are and how they look, and allow them to open their mind to the idea of improving their personal reality.
Questions like…
What would you like to accomplish today?
Is there anything that you would like to see different about your smile?
Can you see those spots on your tooth right there, do you know what those are?
How about this picture of your smile, what do you notice about it that might not seem completely healthy or normal?
You should be getting the idea.
You point something out, you ask them to affirm what they see, and then you ask them to tell you what they think should be different or how it could be improved.
In the way I teach about the psychology of selling and have always taught is, you must first sell a problem before you can sell a solution.
Too often we are in a hurry to just tell them what is wrong and how you can fix it without even making it matter to the patient. If they don’t care, you don’t share.
Focus first on helping them agree to the problem they see and opening dialogue about it. You never dictate to them, you always get them to state how it would be different and coming to a mutual decision that something must be done.
The bottom line is this – it is not possible that you are asking enough questions and letting the Patient guide you to what they are willing to invest in.
One of the easiest questions on earth to practice with is…have you ever considered whitening before?
If they don’t bring it up on their own. Then you show examples of whitening and begin talking with them about what they see as white.
The easiest part of dentistry is to sell veneers because you save the teeth and most people have completely offset bites and are broken down somewhere. So you can either throw on some piece meal dentistry paint job or you can give them a full makeover.
It’s really not suppose to be your decision and judging for someone what they should want and why. It’s about guiding the patients to know what’s possible and showing them what optimal, fully functional, healthy and beautiful gums, teeth, mouth, and smile look like.
Don’t rob them of the self-esteem and confidence they deserve.
There is no other thing on this earth than a beautiful smile that makes a more dramatic impact in a patient’s life – nothing – period. And in case you’ve never bought into that idea and/or have forgotten it, I suggest you consider how many of the patients in your practice are still walking around with their hands covering their mouth, with their chin tilted down, and with a figurative paper bag over their heads because they don’t feel comfortable with their smile and teeth.
They have become conditioned to live the way they are because they don’t know any better, so whether your vehicle is health or beauty, function or occlusion or whatever you want to use…let’s commit to using more questions to bring empowerment back to the patient and give them the smile and life they deserve.
8: Predict the Future – look into the crystal ball of the future of their health, smile, mouth, appearance.
Finally, I leave you with this…it’s self-explanatory and I’ll be covering it more in great detail on my Sell-More-Dentistry Webcast coming at the end of this month.
In order to seal the deal and consummate the case you have to bring it home by showing the Patient one of two future outcomes, either consequences or celebrations… “if you don’t do anything there’s what and where your mouth will end up 2-3, 5-7, 10 years from now.”
“It will always be more expensive and more invasive with less control over your decision then than it is now. We believe in prevention and I want to make sure you are well informed. And not only making the best decision for today but also for your future.”
“Vice versa…you are making a great decision, just look at this and see what you are going to enjoy and benefit from and look like once this transformation takes place.”
And let them live into the reality of the future of having accomplished and completed together: the smile, healthy mouth, and optimal oral care makeover you’ve given to them.
There you have it my friends. Now if that doesn’t excite you, challenge your thinking, and get you jacked up for doubling, tripling, even quadrupling your treatment diagnosis and leading to the greatest finish of any 6-months in all of the your years in your entire career, I don’t know what else would.
You hold the power to make these changes and improve your overall practice culture and patient outcomes.
Next week we’ll talk about how to get Patients to pay and the handoff to the person doing the treatment presentations and/or financial arrangements.
By the way, just in case you have any doubt as to whether or not you can achieve this…I’ve created a very special Video for you…in it I will share – “3 Words” about your Success.
Good luck and go watch the video here >>>