If you never liked playing the role of salesman as defined what circulates in the profession as what constitutes dental ‘sales,’ you are not alone.
Routinely what is falsely believed as how one is ‘supposed’ to sell treatment in a dental practice includes high pressures selling, sales gimmicks (if you could wave a magic wand in front of your mouth…), and often advertising big discounts or published low fees to create a sales conversation.
The reality is most of us in the profession dislike what those things represent.
Why Dental Sales Is A Turnoff
Unfortunately, most clinicians believe that these are all that exists in the realm of dental ‘sales’ and as such they are tuned out from the topic of sales. A bit of time spent with Dr. Google looking for better answers to their sales issues could direct them onto the much better path but if you are tuned out to even thinking about searching for an answer, the odds are low to non-existent of allowing Dr. Google to help with finding a solution that’s working but outside of the profession.
Yes, most of us feel this way about what was and is pushed onto us as ‘sales.’ It has created an immense bias in dentistry so that even the word ‘sales’ can provoke a gross out response in a lecture hall.
Imagine the Other Side
Once you put yourself in the patient’s shoes, you realize why these gimmicks are a turn-off to the patient and feel wrong to us. If you go deeper, and investigate the biology behind decision making, you understand that these ‘sales moves’ taught literally trigger instinctual NEGATIVE responses in the patient (and us) of dis-trust.
There is a reason the term ‘gut instinct’ exists and there is science behind such instinct in how it protects us from less than savory operators and vendors of all kinds. Little do the docs buying into the gimmicks and pressure know that they are effectively activating that gut instinct in their patients and that instinct tells the patient ‘don’t trust this person.’
I also thought about these sales methods pitched at me from my mom’s perspective as she was also an implant patient. If whatever was being discussed related to sales wouldn’t pass mom’s ‘sniff test,’ it sure as heck wasn’t going to be part of my practice operation!
The Ironies of Dental Sales
The first big irony with all of this sales stuff swirling around in the profession is that what circulates like incest amongst license holders is quite disconnected from the world of professional selling (the world where people study sales as a professional endeavor).
Educated, high performers in the professional sales arena look at these antics that dentists are up to and shake their heads with disdain and then suggest a referral to a post-graduate program to study sales process as a real educational endeavor.
The second irony is that there’s no need to advertise low fees or discounts which are always a tie in to gimmicky selling. However, if you don’t have any professional sales education, you simply won’t know any better.
After a practice business owner adopts a sales process mindset as taught at the graduate business school level, it becomes clear why these pressure methods of selling simply aren’t necessary in the professional practice environment. This is exactly what our MBA level sales & leadership training for teams does.
Adopt professional level selling and you will practice clinically at a higher level and you’ll help more patients with implants.
Professional-Level Selling
MBA-level selling also means a zero-pressure sales process and an ethical framework for influencing patient decisions for the better. Zero pressure sales means you stand above all your competitors – even the nearest ClearChoice.
You’ll find that stress is removed from treatment-cost conversations because patients qualify themselves financially and they’ll know the fees before your team even presents the financials. You’ll spend time working with those who can best afford your options, and who are grateful for your help. It doesn’t mean everyone will buy but it does mean you spend your limited time with those who have the best chance of saying yes to life changing implant treatment.
If you so choose, you can also look forward to freeing yourself forever from the discounted insurance model; or you can sell far more efficiently within the insurance system—even at full fees for bigger cases. That’s also something we’ll show you how to do via insurance opt-out consents.
To have a one-on-one discussion about all of this with Dr. McAnally, click here to schedule a meeting.
