The Fundamental Difference Between Child and Adult Patients
Most doctors and staff that I interact with say that, once started, adult patients are ‘high maintenance’ when compared to parent/child cases. They also tell me that adult patients are harder to persuade to start treatment. I agree with the first point – after all, it is their mouth, not a family member’s – and there isn’t anything your practice […]
Texting as a Decision Tool
In both my books and in past Tip of the Week posts I have provided a number of ways to enhance your practice’s ability to deal with the fact that you frequently do not have both decision-makers present for your initial consultation. While I do not necessarily agree that job responsibilities preclude this from happening, finding the time to […]
How to Manage Follow-Up with Pending Cases
When it comes to following up with visitors who left your practice without making an on-the-spot decision to start, having an organized, consistent system of ensuring timely follow-up with those visitors is a requirement to avoid losing cases. Space precludes me from going into a lot of detail here, but my recommended method of quickly getting […]
Trial Closing in TC Consultations
The main reason that I developed a consulting practice catering exclusively to orthodontics is that those in your profession have historically had very little opportunity, if any, to learn practical business skills that address the issue of improving case acceptance. My experience in working with over one hundred practices over the last three years has simply reinforced in my mind that, while you […]
The Financing Deal-Breaker of Lost Cases
In my fourth book for orthodontic case acceptance, No to Lost Cases, I spent most of an entire chapter outlining my opposition to what to this day remains the worst tactic that I have seen used within your profession: the use of a credit check to score, and then determine, the minimum down payment required for a family to begin […]
The Real Reason Both Spouses Don’t Attend Consultations
Case acceptance improvement is not the TC’s job, it is a process, and my current course in case acceptance training covers all of the skill areas spanning the respective roles of the front desk, the TC, and the doctor in that process. However, nothing that I teach you and your team members will have more impact on your case acceptance […]
Is No Money Down a Good Financing Idea
Not long after I started my consulting business thirty years ago, I worked with a large, privately owned company in the industrial products business that was having a poor rate of success with closing sales with new accounts (what you would call a conversion rate). As part of my work with the company, I went into the […]
Motivation and Top-Performing Employees
Some years ago, I gave a retention test to a group of 100 sales professionals following a three-day course that I conducted at their company. I have taught graduate-school curriculum in the past and this test was comparable to my final exam; thirteen pages long and taking about two hours to complete. The test scores […]
A Mother-of-Pearl Communication Tip
In my work in the field with orthodontic practices, I regularly see new, innovative ideas that contribute in a small way to the success of a practice and the care of its patients. Once in a great while, I see something that is a real game-changer – a “mother-of-pearl” idea. I had this happen recently. […]
Why Visitors Ghost You After the Consultation
If you are a Treatment Coordinator, you have had this happen: at the end of a new-patient consult, the visitor/decision-maker gives every indication that they want to move forward, but they need to “discuss it with their spouse.” You agree on a follow-up date, and they leave the practice. Everything indicates that this is a […]