Yes, No, and Payment Terms
Those of you familiar with my case-acceptance protocol know that I recommend presenting multiple options – usually, three – when presenting fees to practice visitors. You also know that if the patient does not choose one of the options on the spot, the most common response to your fee presentation will be “I need to […]
When Your Fee is Higher than the Competition
In your increasingly competitive business, more and more patients are shopping – as I’ve noted in earlier posts, in my estimation this is the case in most practices at least 50% of the time – and you need to know what to do when a potential patient confronts you with the lower price of a […]
When to Hit the “Eject Button” With Fee Negotiators
One of the questions I addressed from the audience during a recent webinar last night dealt with the issue of “hagglers” ? people who try to use a lower quoted price from another practice as a negotiating tool to get you to drop your fees. I touch on the subject of hagglers in The Book […]
When the Question is Not Yes or No, but Which
A common occurrence in fee presentations has the visiting spouse making a decision to begin treatment at your practice and leaving the meeting with the only unresolved issue being which of your payment options the family will choose. So, in the eyes of the visiting parent, the question for the family is no longer yes […]
When It’s Time to Close, Stay on Topic
As you know, in business, the term “closing” refers to “sealing the deal”. In orthodontics, that doesn’t just mean that the patient has made a decision to move forward; it also means “closure”, in that the conversation that led up to the decision is over, as well. There is nothing left to talk about, and […]
The Records ‘Nudge’
When it comes to the issue of fees, and specifically, what services to charge for, I see more variation in the handling of records fees than any other service that practices provide. In the United States, many practices do not charge a fee for records at all; in Australia, the practices that I have worked […]
Should You Discount to Match a Competitor’s Fees?
In my last article we discussed handling several issues related to discounting, one of those issues being whether or not to match a sibling discount offered by another practice that had treated a family member of the patient. My recommendation was that you should match it. Several doctors wrote me afterward with the same question […]
No Consequence, No Urgency
Those of you who have worked with me previously know that, to confirm the training date you have selected for your practice, I send out a brief Letter of Agreement that includes this sentence: “Receipt of your deposit formally confirms this date for your practice on our calendar.” The message being: put off the paperwork […]
How to Deal With Cultural Based Negotiating
Most practices encounter negotiation issues with various ethnic groups that, if not understood and addressed properly, can make getting to “yes” difficult. This week’s post takes a look at this issue and offers suggestions for finding mutual agreement to start treatment during negotiating. To begin with, it is worth mentioning that there is a very […]
Driving Patient Value
If someone were to ask me what things have contributed the most to my success in twenty years of owning my business, the most important would be the importance of creativity – doing things for client value that are different and unique in the marketplace. To that point, I always enjoy seeing innovations at client […]