I often hear, “I don’t like selling,” “I don’t like being pushy,” or “I don’t like feeling like I’m manipulating my patients.” This is often followed by, “I want to learn how to have conversations with patients without losing my integrity, conversations that allow me to be naturally who I am.”
The following are six tips of case acceptance conversations:
1. Care about the person more than you care about getting a YES for case acceptance
When you’re focused on being a partner with your patient, you will be perceived as an ally. When you cling to “selling the treatment,” your patients will experience the conversation’s energy as slick or unsavory. Your “being” is to think less about yourself and what’s in it for you (such as production), and place much more attention on your patients and what’s in it for them.
2. Connection counts more than anything
The relationship you have with your patients is more powerful than anything else. So even if you make some mistakes, you’ll be fine if you maintain a connection and a bond.
3. Acknowledge, acknowledge, acknowledge
Mirror back as much as you can to the people you’re speaking with (this is called the influencing cycle), show them fully that you’re excited for them to get to where they want to go, and be compassionate about their motivators and concerns. You want them to feel seen, heard, and understood. If you can create that experience, that’s a tremendous gift.
4. Be curious
Your questions and curiosity about your patients will be like a breath of fresh air to them. And, your patients can notice the difference between genuine curiosity and fake curiosity, and if you’re interested on them just so you can get a yes to case acceptance. So, your interest must be genuine.
5. Let go of force in the process
Once you start trying to convince someone, or start manipulating someone to change their mind, the process breaks down. This happens when you try to sell someone on your value, or say, “This is what you need,” “This is what you should do,” or “If you were my mother, this is what I’d recommend.”
Instead, when you help your patients:
• Create clarity around their health
• Identify their motivators and concerns in commitment to themselves
• Help them decide to invest in themselves through your services and team, and the rest of the case acceptance pieces will fall into place.
6. Know your “money personality style”
What research shows us is that while our relationship with money is unique, there are patterns or themes that possess a universal quality — “money personality styles.” These styles affect your practice. Why? Because where you have people you have “money personality styles.” Understanding yours first, and then understanding others’, is a huge key to improving communication, assigning roles, job responsibilities, and overall functioning of high performing teams. These are teams that see, hear, and acknowledge each other and their patients.
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Tuesday Tips from Pride Institute are provided weekly on their Facebook page as well as in this column in DentistryIQ. To ensure you don’t miss any of Pride Institute’s proven methods to take your practice to the next level, visit prideinstitute.com, and like them on Facebook.
