For many years I attended every seminar I could on the topics of communication, case acceptance and sales.
In practical terms those three topics are the same thing but many dentists don’t like to think of themselves as being in sales. At some of these seminars I’d be the only dentist in a room of real estate or car sales people.
If I were to summarise, there are three methods that I was taught to get case acceptance from patients. Every sales techniques can be boiled down to one of these:
Tool box method
You learn a bunch of fancy things to say to patients. For example the “sharp angled close”, the “alternate of choice close” or the “Benjamin Franklin close”. The difficulty comes in knowing which one to use and when. I found this approach to be difficult to apply in practice. Also, it’s manipulative: Like you’re trying to bamboozle the patient.Psychological method
You assess the person you’re speaking to psychologically. Let’s say you think that they’re kinaesthetic (in Neuro-Linguistic Programming that means they like the sense of touch). In that case you would tell them that they will “love how the crown will feel”. This approach is weird, hit and miss and also manipulative.Checklist method
This is the best approach and it suits the dentist mindset. We are systematic thinkers who like to have procedures mapped out. I’m sure that when you do a class I restoration you have a mental checklist: Step 1, Step 2, Step 3 and so on. The same can apply to getting case acceptance. By having a checklist you never have to wonder what comes next. You always know. This reduces stress and multiplies success.
When you talk about treatment with patients do you have a system you follow? Or, do you wing it? I think that, if you don’t have a checklist then you’re missing out on so much.
