“Well, I must say that trying to hold people accountable and working hard to achieve our daily goals has been challenging at times. Our goal of 8K/day has been tough to achieve. We were doing well thru day 6. Then, we tanked days 7, 8, and 9. Yesterday was day 10 and we collected 9,600. Today, day 11, we dubbed “Operation 20.” We had a real feeling that we could achieve 20K in the drawer, today. Guess what–WE DID IT–20K in the drawer! But, the best news is that I sold a 28K case, too! He didn’t want to finance–even better–he just has to get it out of his 401K. He was calling his finance man as he was walking out our door! Maybe the MOJO has always been there and we just had to get ourselves out of the way!”
“I want to amend my comment about selling the big case. I didn’t mean to take all the credit for selling it, it was actually a team sale so I want the statement to say “. . .the best news is that we sold a. . .” Also, I have to mention something else. It has to do with our end-of-day meeting. We had an awesome end-of-the day meeting. It was our last day of the week, so I would expect everyone wanting to leave as soon as possible, but today, it seemed like no one really was in a hurry to leave and I think it was because of what we were sharing. The first good news is that the large case that came in called us after seeing our new ad in the yellow pages! Then, when he called Malinda smartly got Carmon on the phone and Carmon connected right away. He stated that he was embarassed to come in because he was sure we hadn’t seen a mouth like his before. Of course, Carmon stated she was sure she had. Ultimately, he said he would bet her a steak and she said she would take that bet.
When he came in, he was very reluctant. Of course, we made sure that Carmon took him. When she seated him and started to speak to him, he started to tear up a bit. It seems that life had just caught with him. He was divorced, raising three kids by himself and he had simply put his responsibilities ahead of himself. But, he just couldn’t believe how far he let his mouth go. What Carmon said next was very, very powerful. She just said, “Don’t be embarrassed. We don’t judge, we’ve seen a lot of people like you. All we care about is how you are going to feel after we finish working with you. I know that whatever you choose–whether you choose to fix everything up or if you choose to go to dentures–that you are going to feel great, look great and be very happy that you did it!” Of course, the tone she used was very empathetic, but not placating. Masterful, powerful, and it immediately put him at ease.
Before he was seated in the consultation room, we “lucked” onto the next thing. I had another case that we had completed just like him–teeth in horrible disrepair, draining fistulas evident. But, I haven’t gotten prints made. So, we asked Kim to print off some pictures to show him. Kim accidentally printed off a few full page photos. So, I hurriedly printed off several pics on a page to show him. But, I took the whole page photos with me, too. When he saw the before pictures and then the beautiful, disease-free, white teeth on the large scale his mind was almost made up. I could see in his eyes that he almost couldn’t believe it. I quoted the fee and a comparable fee for removable partials and quite a bit of restorative. He asked me, “Can you do this for me?”, while pointing at the large photo of the restored mouth. When I said, “Absolutely!”, it was over.
To finish up our pm meeting, I said I learned to very important things today–one I already knew but didn’t totally understand it and one we lucked onto. First, no one buys a thing from us without first buying us. That concept worked first with an older couple in the day and second with this huge case. Second, the perfectly-focused large after photo on glossy paper was huge in cementing the final emotional stone. We are going to have some large photos printed up on glossy paper, now!
Anyway, this day reminded me of why I am a dentist! And, calling a spade a spade, I have had quite a few of these days this year. I think it gets easier to sell these large cases the more you do. First, you have photos to show what you have done. Second, you have quoted the large fees before so that isn’t as stressfull. Finally, you just have the quiet confidence that comes through to the patient that you have been there before and you know what you are doing. That doesn’t come easy, you have to pay your dues first!
Sorry to talk your leg off, but I just wanted to share this with you. Quite a day all around!”
Kurt Williams, DDS, Ellsworth, KS
Brady Group LLC
Coaching Dentists and Their Teams to Happiness 