Dental Marketing Tactics
Helping the Skeptical Patient to Accept Your Recommendations
By Roger Eshaghian, DDS

Are you finding patients increasingly resistant to your case presentations? Does it seem like the selling techniques that worked so well when you first opened your practice rarely lead to a "yes" anymore?

If so, you're not alone. Everywhere I turn, dentists are telling tales of woe about how much harder it has become to get patients to accept their recommended treatments. Here's why.

In general, American consumers are much more sophisticated than in the past. Constant bombardment from misleading advertising messages has taught them to be a lot more skeptical about what they hear from marketers. At the same time, the Internet has opened up a world of information to anyone with access to a PC. When armed with sufficient knowledge about the products and services they buy, people tend to make much more careful, judicious purchasing decisions.

For example, when I went shopping for a new car earlier this year, I spent several hours online researching makes, models, prices and features. By the time I arrived on the lot, I knew more about the car I wanted than the salesman. Plus, I could use the Internet to verify any claim he made while attempting to sell me the car. The ability to do this kind of research was unheard of only a few short years ago. Today, it has become commonplace in nearly every industry -- including dentistry.

Consumers also tend to be far less trusting than in the past. Television shows like "60 Minutes" and "Dateline" specialize in pointing out shoddy products, disreputable business practices and consumer scams. While these shows typically spotlight only a few bad apples, the buying public has nonetheless become much more skeptical of all businesses. In particular, they have grown wary of hard-sell claims that say, "You must have this product."

Finally, today's consumers have more choices than ever. If they don't like you, your product or your sales pitch, they can walk down the street and find another business that does essentially the same thing for the same price. With all these trends converging at the same time, it's no wonder that dentists are struggling to close case presentations that once seemed to close themselves.

Fortunately, there is a solution.

Help Your Patients Buy

Sales pros know that people like to buy but they don't like to be sold. So the secret to dealing with skeptical patients is to forget about selling them and learn how to help them buy. To put this approach to work in your dental office:

• Practice "consultative" selling. Ask plenty of questions, listen closely and tailor your case presentation to your patients' expressed needs.
  
  
• Avoid over-extensive recommendations. When patients come in for one specific problem only to get hit with an overwhelming treatment plan that costs ten times what they had in mind, their first instinct is to head for the door. It's better to close the deal on a lesser treatment than to make no sale at all.
  
  
• Give patients a choice. Most dentists present only the #1 choice (typically the most expensive) and don't disclose the second or third choices until the patient rejects the first. This makes the patient feel manipulated and decreases their trust in you. Instead, lay out all the options, explain them fully and give the patient a choice.
  
  
• Pull, don't push. Patients want information, not high-pressure sales techniques. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of each option, while avoiding a "here's what you must do" tone. Instead, try a suggestive approach, as in, "Here's the option most of our patients choose," or, "In your situation, here's what I would recommend."
  
  
• Build an atmosphere of caring and trust. Many people view the dentist-patient relationship as adversarial. To counter this mindset, every aspect of your practice -- from your case presentations to your office décor to the way you answer the phone -- needs to create a warm, friendly feeling that puts the patient at ease and reassures them that you have their best interests at heart.

These techniques may run counter to what you learned in dental school. But it's a brand new world out there with a very different kind of patient. To overcome their built-in skepticism, focus on helping them buy and remember that most will refuse to be sold.

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