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Case acceptance is pivotal to owning and running a successful Dental Office.

Put simply, if your patients are not accepting the treatment that you diagnose, then you have a problem.

After all, all dentistry that you diagnose is necessary. You see disease. And pathology. And you need to fix it.

Because it doesn’t fix itself.

If as a competent dentist all of your patients are accepting and completing all of their diagnosed treatment, then you are living up there in the land of rarified air.

If none of your patients are accepting and scheduling the dental treatment that you present to them, then it’s a case of “we have a problem.”

To run a successful dental office you need to be working closer to the land of rarified air than we do in the troubled land of rejection.

Life is better all round when more of our patients are accepting and completing their treatment.

Life is better for our patients because we treat to prevent their future problems by doing what needs to be done now, rather than delaying and waiting for the problems to escalate.

I was tidying my desk this week and came across a great article “Eighteen Objections Buyers Have That Kill Case Acceptance And How To Overcome Them” written by Dan Kennedy in May 2015

Here’s my take on the top ten of those reasons that apply in dentistry that result in your patients not booking their necessary treatment:

1. They do not understand

Confused patients do nothing. Certainty promotes action. If your patients are not crystal clear on what they are to have done, when they need to have it done, and what will happen if their treatment is not completed in the time frame that you recommend, then guess what?

They won’t be scheduling.

2. They do not trust the dentist

Rare.

Most people WILL believe what you tell them, if you tell them in the best way.

As a patient once said to me:

“Doc, you’re the guy in the white coat. Tell me what I need to get done.”

As a dentist, your patients really want to know that you are competent, and that you will be around tomorrow in case they have any difficulties.

You need to be able to exude your competence to your patients so that they feel confident in you.

3. They do not believe in the value of their treatment

High price implies high value. Your patients’ perception of the value of your treatment must be a match to the dollar value you apply. Any incongruity, or perceived incongruity, will result in them not going ahead with treatment. The patient must believe in and accept the value of what you are going to do for them.

4. Unable to pay the price

Offering installment options to your customers will always boost sales.

Even people who can afford to pay in one payment like to take installments sometimes.

5. Cannot justify the purchase to others

They may want your treatment, but however bad they do, they don’t want to be laughed at or ridiculed by friends and family who would say

“I can get it cheaper”

or

“I would never spend money like that just on my teeth. I’d rather spend it on a holiday”

6. Competition

In a competitive marketplace, you need to be able to match and surpass everything that your competitors offer, or carve out and focus on the things they cannot and won’t do.

In dentistry it is very easy to create a point of difference in your practice by creating an unchallengeable different patient experience for your customers.

7. Inadequate urgency

Procrastination is the overwhelmingly favored human behaviour. You need to have very strong compelling reasons for your patient to be acting NOW!

Most dentists do not emphasise the urgency of what will happen to the teeth if treatment is delayed. In fact, most dentists talk in sale destroying softening language.

8. Fear of loss or dissatisfaction

No-one likes wasting money. We all have bought things that we later regretted buying that did not live up to our expectations.

You need to make your patients have the utmost confidence in your ability to deliver to them what you are telling them they need to do.

9. Not emotionally involved or motivated

Always difficult trying to sell people what they should want rather than what they really want.

You need to work out the “why” in why they are in your dental office in the first place, and play to that why.

10. Weak Close By The Dentist

Timidity in closing. Get over it.

You need to be able to say what you need to say in such a way that your patient knows that anything other than going ahead now is sheer lunacy.

To take your dental practice to its next level and beyond you need to be able to recognise these top ten objections that your patients will sometimes be experiencing and you must be able to master the necessary skills to be able to overcome their concerns and encourage them into solving their dental issues at the appropriate times.

*****

Have you read my book , How To Build The Dental Practice of Your Dreams [Without Killing Yourself!] In Less Than Sixty Days.

You can order your copy here: Click Link To Order

*****

The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple to build complete Customer Service system in itself that I developed that allowed me to create an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.

Email me at david@theupe.com

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