While most implant dentists would rather have a root canal than discuss sales or address sales issues in their business, the reality is sales is a mandatory and serious aspect of practice operations for anyone wanting to treat multiple full arch cases on a monthly or weekly basis.
You Can’t Wing Luxury
Patient out of pocket cost is the #1 reason that sales process can’t be ‘winged.’ The most basic full mouth rehabilitation with a cosmetic denture upper and a lower implant retained appliance ranges from $10K-$20K (i.e. the price of a Kia) and can go to $50K-$80K depending on type of fixed restoration (i.e. the price of a Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, or high-end Toyota), Even for the very best scenario for a Medicare Original Par B insurance patient where 50% of treatment is indirectly subsidized from a medical surgical benefit, their out-of-pocket cost will still be equivalent to a nice Kia.
Yes, your full arch reconstructions cost as much as these major purchases. Furthermore, your reconstructions can’t be taken for test drives for proof of result (this shortcoming can and is addressed in our MBA level sales training that our advertising clients attend).
Think about the differences between BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, Toyota, and Kia and your brand. Billions of dollars in advertising, tons of real-world street credibility, years and years of production of millions of vehicles, and even generations of owners who ‘swear by’ their vehicle.
Then there’s you (and every other implant clinician) with none of those things. Why would you expect patients to immediately trust you and hand over the same dollars they required to buy one of these vehicles for your upper and lower All-on-X treatment plan?
Take Off The White Coat!
Wise up! The consumer world does not work in this manner. Take off the white coat for a moment, put yourself into the patient’s shoes, and think about it how they see you. Would you give a stranger what you are demanding (often on the first date!) without some level of proof of result?
Addressing this inherent flaw in the business of implant cases (i.e. your sales process) is the only answer if you want to treat cases all the time. Otherwise, it’s best to focus on regular dentistry that insurance covers and divert your attention to other endeavors to occupy your time. If it’s about making more money, open more regular clinics with hired dentists. If it’s about personal satisfaction, find other ways to satisfy such that don’t require you to embrace sales (e.g. start new hobbies or return to old ones, play an instrument, collect wine, do more mission dentistry, learn something completely new, etc.).
Why We Fail At Sales
If you are still reading, then we will continue the topic of sales. So why do we fail at sales even though the price points demand that we have professional processes? Well, most sales processes for dental treatment plans were modeled on dental school undergraduate training and how treatment was presented in those environments. None focus on advanced reconstructive treatment plans such as implant dentistry at the level of what’s required at these price points for implant treatment. Dentists carry forward the behaviors they were taught even though they do not apply to their current situation or aspirations.
Fees are a big part of why you have to step away from what you think you know about sales. As an implantologist, the cases you trained to treat are among the most complex in our profession. Because of that complexity, time, lab, and materials, there are significantly more fees associated with implant treatment plans (e.g. All-on-4, All-on-X) compared to routine treatment plans revolving around dental insurance. The full mouth implant case fees exceed by many multiples any treatment plan you ever presented during your undergraduate or post-graduate dental education. In fact, these fees are even greater than those presented in the faculty practices of your past instructors. All signs point to a higher cost of treatment.
Moving Forward
As you acquired your additional education, it’s likely you have continued to do what you were taught in dental school with presentations or you’ve chosen random sales ‘tips’ thrown out to you during the ‘last day, last hour’ of any number of CE courses attended where sales training was an afterthought versus a serious topic for an entire CE course.
What dentists experience in their everyday results with fees on their cases and cases going to treatment show that what was provided via these routes (dental school and random sales ‘tips’ from CE courses)is woefully inadequate and failing in the real world. This behavior with selling is what I’ve seen since the founding our advertising agency and inquiring into sales process of the doctors we work with. What we’ve found is that this lack of real attention to selling is due to ignorance and lack of exposure to a level professional that would benefit every implant practices selling at these price points.
The Win-Win-Win Scenario
Imagine if you were told you could only use what you knew clinically back in dental school on the day of your graduation to treat your full arch implant cases. You wouldn’t even attempt to treat your patient! Now apply that same thinking to sales and you’ll surmise quickly why it’s time to leave behind dental school behavior as related to the full arch implant case.
We’re proud to be the only specialty advertising agency with a curriculum in professional selling that would be at home in any MBA level business school. It’s part of our goal to make each advertising client successful. We can deliver prospects predictably and with ease to most every practice location of doctors inquiring for advertising services. We’ve seen that when the sales side of the equation is handled, doctors get the maximum return on their ad dollars and they help far more patients.
It’s truly a win-win-win.
On occasion, I will set aside a few days annually to teach this training outside of the advertising program on a 1:1 basis. You’ll have be willing to invest at least a ‘Kia’ in your business, yourself, and your team, but that’s a small price to pay to sell services month after month at the BMW and Mercedes level price points. You are asking patients to pay you the price of a Mercedes and to park it in their mouth so if you truly want to step-up to the pro level for selling cases, you must make an investment in your business operation’s sales process to do that with predictability. If you want to be at a level where selling a $50K, $60K, or even $80K case is not a big deal, you must pay for the expertise and knowledge that makes it happen!
If you are an advertising client, then of course our MBA level sales training is a mandatory aspect of the on-boarding process with us and it’s simply part of our ‘going the extra mile’ to create success for our doctors.
To schedule a discussion to review how to have our dream implant practice that involves proven full arch advertising (and MBA level selling) click here to have your one-on-one discussion about this with Dr. McAnally.
Full-Arch Program Testimonials
“James, please turn off your full arch implant ads! We have so many cases right now we can’t keep up. Two back to back record months in my 25 year career this summer. October already has $90K on the books and we are routinely presenting three $50K cases every week. Having fun but so busy!”
– Dr. Kathy C., Buffalo, NY“The Full Arch Program with Medicare Option has given me the implant practice of my dreams.”
– Dr. F. A. Charlotte, NC
