The Closing Institute Monthly Coaching Call

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The Closing Institute Monthly Coaching Call Transcipt

Bart Knellinger: Okay. I am just going to hop around on this because, obviously, it is longer than thirty minutes. I think it is about fifty-eight minutes, but a lot of it is just waiting for the doctor. The camera did not really go off and on. I am going to play a little bit from the beginning to give you guys some context. Then we are going to get to the close, and we can have a discussion. I will take some questions afterward. This is Dr. Connelly’s practice.

Assistant 1: Have a sit right in that chair there.

Patient: Thank you.

Assistant 1: All right. You are just looking at replacing all of your current teeth that you have [inaudible] right now.

Patient: Yes.

Assistant 1: Okay.

Patient: Or something there. I mean we could not say for back [inaudible], in the front stopping by. That’s fine.

Assistant 1: Okay.

Patient: But whatever seems to be the smartest move at the most inexpensive list.

Assistant 1: Okay. Typically, we do like to save teeth if we are able to. Obviously, if there are only a few that are [inaudible] you have a decent number that are looking okay. Typically, we would like to try to avoid taking all of your teeth [inaudible] possible. We will have to have Doctor just take a look at these x-rays and see what you think as far as that goes.

Patient: I have had two other dentists that looked that out for full implants, and for consultation in both places. It is just they could not even finance for a while, but he did not understand me. I do not know, anyway. I just gave up.

Assistant 1: Okay.

Patient: I was tired of playing the system. I do not care if it is even from the back because some of my back teeth are still okay and just the fronts, whatever we can do.

Assistant 1: Okay. Are you having any issues with any of your teeth in there right now? Are you having pain?

Bart: All right. A couple of things right off the bat. Just a couple of things to keep in mind, guys. When we are doing consultations, and you are wearing a mask, it is super hard to influence when you wear a mask. It is literally covering your face. You have to be twice as engaged with your tone and with your enthusiasm, and your personality. You really have to compensate for it because it does make a huge, huge difference in your ability to get through to them.

Keep in mind your tone is going to be so important when you guys are wearing a mask. You really have to be very, very engaged with that person to still connect with them. You are going to lose a lot with a mask being that you have to wear one. Wear it. Just know that it is more difficult, so you have to be overly aggressive with your tone. That is number one.

Number two. If we have somebody, let us not forget what the point of this is. The point of a consultation is to bring someone in and figure out what type of clinical outcome they want, what they can pay for, and what they will pay for. Then match in those two things up to a treatment plan. That is what we are trying to do. He said a lot right there. He said he has already been to two consultations, and he said [inaudible] one time they could not get him financed.

He said something like, “They did not understand me” and “I was tired of playing the system.” She just listened to that and moved on. I would not move on from that. I would say, “Really, really. What do you mean? When you say that they did not understand you, what did you mean by that?” I am trying to figure out why he did not move forward. Why did he not move forward with the other treatment plans? I do not want to repeat the same mistake that they made.

He is obviously opening up Pandora’s boxes, guys. Super open right from the beginning. This is an example where if you become too mechanical with how we do the consultations, you can miss something important. This is not his first consultation. He has done his research. He has obviously gotten pricing. He has had treatment plans, but you know when he says “They did not understand me and I was tired playing the system,” I really do not know what he meant by that, and we do not really find that out anywhere throughout this call. We never really define what that is.

If they say they have the treatment plan, and they did not have a good experience, ask him to elaborate. I want to know. “You said that they did not understand you. What did you mean? They did not understand what quote you want or you are wanting. They did not understand what price point you wanted to be at. Tell me. Where was the miscommunication there?” Ask him. You are going to use that. You cannot get better information than that. You do not just gloss over that. We want to know why he did not move forward because we are going to do the opposite of that to get him to move forward with this call.

They did it a little bit differently where they brought the patient in. They took the x-ray immediately and brought in the assistant. Then this is where Doctor Connelly comes in. What I am going to play a couple of little parts from this because again what he is saying — We have to make sure that we are always listening to what the patient is saying. I think that is probably what he meant the first time when he said they did not understand him. I think you, guys, will see it here.


Assistant 1: All right. Sorry about that. Wait, Doctor. [inaudible] just take a look at everything and we will come off.

Dr. Connelly: Hi there. How are you doing today?

Patient: Good. How are you?

Dr. Connelly: Good. Is it a day of work today?

Patient: No, I try not to let it get too busy.

Dr. Connelly: What would you like to see [inaudible]?

Patient: Just I need a movie star smile at a panhandler’s budget.

Dr. Connelly: Make that. Just smile for me. Okay.


Bart: All right. Number one, Connelly, he made a joke, you have to laugh. Even if the joke is not good, you have to laugh at their jokes all the time. They are patients, okay? Movie star smile, panhandler’s budget, obviously, that is a joke. Something you guys did not hear in that previously is “I am just tired of my teeth. I smile and I look like a freaking meth addict. I am just sick of it.” He is very aesthetically-driven. He wants a smile that looks really, really good.

The function, even though it is not all there for him and he has got bad teeth, it does not bother him near as much as the way that his smile looks. That is what will get him into the practice. He is getting a smile that looks better. But if someone says a movie star, “I want to a movie star smile on a panhandler’s budget,” what is the first thing that we are going to think? What is the first thing that we should be thinking? I would be thinking what is your definition of a panhandler’s budget.

My goal is to figure out. He said a panhandler’s budget which tells me he has a budget in his mind. He has a dollar amount. He has already gotten treatment plans. He has a dollar amount that he is ready to spend. He has also said previously that he would like to do both the top and the bottom. He says, “Look. If I can do the top and the bottom, I would rather do the top and the bottom and just get it done if that is feasible. If that is feasible, it just means financially. He wants to do both top and bottom and be done with it.


Patient: Actually, I have a bad underbite, but…

Dr. Connelly: Probably.

Assistant 1: He would prefer something fixed if it all possible.

Dr. Connelly: Well, that is not possible in a panhandler’s budget.

Patient: All right. I got just a ball-picking [?]

Dr. Connelly: It looks like, probably, your biggest concern is your upper teeth, right? You want to be able to smile right and [inaudible] away, your teeth are so far off on the top. From the bottom, they are still probably pretty decent. From just looking at this x-ray here is that the way go we would traditionally go with something like this just remove the remaining teeth in the upper denture. That is the [inaudible] panhandler’s thing, but that is removable.

Now, when it starts going to affix [?] — This is your perfect candidate for this because you got very large sinuses right up into your ears, so we really do not have any good bone back here in place of implants. Implants can be placed [inaudible] are placed one here, one here, a couple in the middle. Then we make a beautiful smile.

That. There we go. Even these teeth, we find that people like [inaudible] get them wider than this. That is what we are talking about when we are talking about it all on for. There is a transition period. Actually, we [inaudible] to a more and more where we actually [inaudible] fixed temporary teeth in there, but they are mainly for show.

Patient: While you are healing?

Dr. Connelly: While you are healing, right. But, at least it, gives you some teeth up there to work with. That is probably what would be the best.

Patient: Then wait on the bottom teeth, and get them fixed to the later date.

Dr. Connelly: I would. Yes.

Patient: You know I got a cavity in the bottom, at least,one of them.

Dr. Connelly: What I hear you saying, your biggest concern is wanting that smile. We can certainly do that with some [inaudible] just time to tell right now. Keep your bottom teeth where they are. If this molar gets in the way, we can get rid of that. There is this thing that we can do to work with.

Patient: Yes, I just need to know how much and see if I can get financed.

Dr. Connelly: Okay.

Patient: I do have CareCredit, and I do have [inaudible] on it. I did not go over there because I did not go with the other doctors.

Dr. Connelly: We have some even better options too.

Patient: That is what I have heard.

Dr. Connelly: – taking care of that. I have lower interest,t and it is an actual loan, not a retail credit.

Patient: Right.

Dr. Connelly: It is something like that.

Patient: So when I do not pay, you come to take my teeth? Hold you down and junk your teeth on.

Dr. Connelly: Yes, it is a loan. The interest keeps accumulating.

Patient: Yes, that was something that encouraged me to come this way [inaudible].

Speaker: I think the interest rate is much better. If you have good credit, the interest rate is really awesome.

Patient: If I was able to do both the top and bottom, would you do both top and bottom now? I mean would you be inclined to do that or would you still [inaudible]?

Doctor Connelly: You know what, your bottom teeth are in good shape.

Patient: Okay.

Dr. Connelly: It is like twisting my arm and beat me up and say, “Man down.”

Patient: I will not do that.

Dr. Connelly: My advice would be to try and get the top done first because these teeth are in great shape. All right. I see they are in great shape.


Bart: All right. Here is what he is missing. His teeth are in great shape. He is just talking about the bone that helps the teeth. He admires how the teeth looks. That is his main thing. He is like, “Yes, but they are crooked and they are ugly and duh, duh, duh, duh, duh.” He wants some all done, but, really, the hard thing right here is that he is somebody who is on his third consultation. This is a third opinion. He understands something about pricing. He has a price in his head, and we are not asking the question. This is so easy. This is so easy right now. We have to be ready to have a price conversation with somebody that wants to talk about price.

The thing that they need to know is: Number one, “I see the way that your teeth look. I understand why you want to get those fixed,” okay? What the patient needs to understand is there are more multiple ways in multiple different treatments that you can provide them that are all going to enhance the way they look significantly. They are going to look significantly better, and you have different options for the patients at different budgets.

There are a couple of factors at play here. What can we do? We can do a lot of different things but at the end of the day, it is trying to match up what it is that you want. Give you the best-looking teeth that are going to last as long as possible, and it could be the lowest possible maintenance for a dollar amount that you can live with. That is what we need.

Sometimes, it is like, “Hey. The patients come in and money is no option. We just do this and it is easy.” No problem. Another patient is going, “I want all that, but I only have X amount that I can spend right now.” Sometimes, we have to stage into the treatment and do one part now and one part later. Sometimes, we have to start with the removal which is not the end of the world because we can convert it to a fix later.

One of the things that make us different is we have a lot of creative ways to work with you, to allow you to accomplish your goals while still staying within a budget that is fair and reasonable for your situation. That is why it needs to be said here. That is it. Then we ask them, “Listen. You have already been to two other practices. You have had treatment plans. It sounds like you have a budget in mind that you want to stay within. What dollar amount you have in your head that you are ready to invest in your smile. Then let us work backward from here. I will tell you exactly what you can get.

I will tell you what the best thing we can do. I will give you a couple of different options, but no matter what, I see the way that your teeth look now, even if we did a removable and we went with acrylic. Even with the provisional, you are going to look a thousand times better. The transformation is going to be amazing either way, but tell me, what you are comfortable spending?

You have to ask him that question because how do you know what to pitch? The last thing you want to do is sit down and not ask. He is telling you that he has got a budget in mind. He is telling you he wants to do both if he can. I need to figure out what is that, what is that if you can number? Does that make sense? Fast forward this just a little bit.


Dr. Connelly: Now you see sometimes people go through [inaudible], “I want that in my bottom too.” That is what I would do.

Patient: I am forty-nine, and I am not necessarily looking for anybody, but you will never know.

Doctor Connelly: That is right. You want to have some nice teeth in there.

Patient: I got divorced and I am not engaged now but that does not always mean that that will to last.

Doctor Connelly: We will make her jealous when you are smiling.

Patient: [inaudible] smile and she is going to try even more [inaudible].

Dr. Donnelly: [inaudible] To be able to [inaudible]


Bart: Okay. Now, check this out, guys. Now, basically, and I said that I wanted to do both if I can. I would rather do fixed if I can if it is feasible and we have not found out if he can become financing. We do not know the price yet. We do not know what his budget is. Right now, they are just kind of moving forward under the assumption that they are going to do the upper. They are just going to do upper and it is just going to be fixed Zirconia. That is basically what their treatment planning here, but I do not understand how the treatment planning because he does not know if he can get financed. He does not know what the prices are. So what he is going to buy can change drastically depending on how much it cost and if he can get financed.

We should be finding that out before we go any further. Instead, we spend about the next twenty minutes going through the logistics of the procedure. How long it will take. we are asking if he is interested in oral conscious sedation which, by the way, there is no reason. Just include it if you are going to go through the details, just tell him that it is included. Do not ask him, “Hey, do you want this?” Just one more thing to think about is not really necessary.

You are going to include it in the price anyway, so just include it. But I do not see the point in going through the logistics of treatment that we do not know that he is going to go for yet. I think, being his third appointment, you can get straight to the point and start talking about money. Then figure out a solution and that is to work for him because this guy will buy. This is definitely a buyer. All right. Now, I am going to go to the last part. This is the financial consultation where they actually present the price.


Assistant 2: Do not have a heart attack when you see this.

Patient: Oh, drop me. I have seen these prices before.

Assistant 2 I want to do something here for you.

Patient: Right.


Bart: Never say do not have a heart attack before you see this. You are insinuating that it is an excruciatingly large number. Okay?


Assistant 2: He is here to visualize.

All right. This is just for the fixed bridge. This is the IV sedation, all your extractions, all the components, everything. Your temporary, it would be from A to Z, okay? The cost comes to twenty-nine thousand three hundred and seventy-seven. Dr. Connelly will do the upper fixed bridge for you for twenty-three thousand, nine-hundred and ninety-nine. As you can see, he got a substantial saving on that. Do you know how you want to take care of this? By cash, cheque, or credit card?


Bart: You basically have no way to close. You do not know if that twenty-three thousand is going to represent a good deal for him or not because it is not his first consultation. Even if it was, there is a way to build it up and sell it better than that where you just, “Okay. Well, here is–“ I do not even know what screen this is that we are showing on him, but it is kind of showing him a number on a screen.

When you show him the retail number, it is important to discuss what is in that retail number to make it look like, “Hey, this is a big deal. You are getting a lot of care, a lot more than most places are going to get.” That is what we are supposed to be, that is how it is supposed to be framed.

You are getting a lot more than any other dental practice is going to give you, and we are also very, very competitive with our fees. Let me show you what is going to be included with no additional charge. We do not charge for this. We do not charge for this. You have to sell it. Otherwise, it just loses its impact. It does not look like a real discount. It does not help you.

It does not necessarily hurt you, but it certainly does not help you in terms of getting him going, “Wow! Oh, men. That is a good deal.” Is he saying that right now? I do not know what he is saying because we never asked him anything, but he is about to shed a little bit of light on it.


Patient: I want to try and do financing if I could finance first.

Assistant 2: Okay. We have a company that we work with called Proceed Finance. If you were to do that, we could take ten percent of the twenty-three thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine for the upper fix.

Patient: It is twenty-three thousand just for the uppers?

Assistant 2 Yes.

Patient: Thanks.

Assistant: That is a substantial saving, and you can see there when you price everything out, you are almost at thirty-thousand dollars there.

Patient: I could get a full top and bottom for twenty-five thousand at the other places.

Assistant 2: Okay. For a fixed bridge?


Bart: Did you see that? I can get top and bottom for twenty-five thousand at the other places. We should have known this information. In the first four minutes of this call, in the first four minutes of the call when he said, “They did not understand me. I was tired of playing this system.” I would have gotten that information. I would have figured out what the treatment plan was. How much are they charging? “Oh, really. Twenty-five thousand for both.” Are we talking about the denture, the implant-supported denture? Was it many dental implants for you?

I would have gotten that information right up front because she is not talking about acrylic, she is talking about Zirconium. How many doctors are going to do double arch zirconia for twenty-five thousand? No one is going to do that. You know immediately that that is incorrect. Most likely, they are removal and if they are not removable, best-case scenario, it is scaled with the provisional.

Either way, all that information, we should have already had it before even made a recommendation or a price. I do not even how you sell. The whole point of selling to somebody is to figure out what their perception of it is. What is his perception of what this costs? Maybe he has no idea. He probably does not even know the difference between a hybrid and zirconia or a denture. Those things have such a huge impact on the cost, but you can do it in different ways as well. Dr. Connelly does a full arch fix, but he also does implant-supported dentures.

The most important thing is what is your budget and then explaining the differences. If the doctor is going to do both arches for twenty-five, more often than not, it is not going to be fixed. It is going to be removal, and if it is fixed, it is going to be with plastic teeth. That is the only way to make it work. The Zirconia LA is literally made to last for the rest of your life. The plastic teeth are much less expensive to make, but they are also going to wear a break.

There is a trade-off. There is a couple of different ways to do it. But we still need to know what is the drop-dead budget for this person, and he will tell you. He is very, very, very forthcoming. Listen to some of the rest of this. Also, right there at the beginning if he says, “Price is an issue, what are we going to do?” We go right into triage mode. They talk about price resay, “I want to do this if I can afford it’” If I can afford, it is priced. They say, “If I can afford it.” Okay. Well, it sounds like you have an idea in your head of where you are going to stay with him financially. How much are you looking to spend or how much are you looking to invest in your smile right now? Twenty thousand? Fifty-thousand? Thirty thousand fifteen? Ballpark it. What are comfortable with? We will make it easy, and you get that number out on.

Then I would immediately put him through to see if I can get him financed. What is he approved for? That is before they ever even see the doctor. That is before they ever see the doctor. What if you are talking to someone in the first three minutes, you ask him that question goes, “Well, you know, I really, I really need to stay within three thousand dollars. I would like to get both done. Movie star smile, three-thousand dollars is spent. Got a hundred and twenty credit score.”

Would you spend an hour with this guy? No, so get the information. We have to talk to him. If we are operating in a straight line and take a straight line, we cannot run from the price conversation, it is a good one to have especially with second and third opinions. I want to figure out everything they did not like about the first two treatment plans. Why did they not already pull the trigger? That is a question that you definitely want to have the answer to.


Male Patient: Fixed.

Female Interviewer: Do you happen to have the treatment plan here with you?

Male Patient: I do not have it with me. I rolled it up over.

Male Speaker: Hold on. I just got a question I just want to answer real quick. It says, “Okay, so if we do that in the beginning, how do we come back from that if he is saying he can get both for the same price as one arch with us? How do we break that down for him that it is not the same as what we do?”

Male Speaker: Well, it can not be the same. Because again, you know by that price point, at twenty-five thousand, that no one is doing full arch fixed for twelve-five on the arch with Zirconium. I mean, nobody is doing that. The odds of it being the same are virtually zero. If he said forty thousand for both, then it is much more likely, right? Even if he said thirty-seven or thirty-eight, but twenty-five for both? It is just not.

Male Speaker: It is going to be removable or it is going to be some type of a denture based appliance there. So, I would not worry about it being the same, but you take the opportunity. If he says, “Well I can get both for twenty-five.” and say, “Well, basically what you are saying is twelve thousand five hundred per arch.”

Male Speaker: There are things that we can do. There are full arch treatment plans that we have that we can do for you immediately that are twelve thousand five hundred an arch. I mean, if that is the tipping point, but there are trade-offs. Let me show you.

Male Speaker: There is the biggest component. The two biggest components are (A) the number of implants that are going to be placed and (B) the type of teeth that you are going to get, the material that the teeth are going to be made out of. Okay? With a removable, you are probably going to have maybe two implants and you are going to have plastic teeth, and there are the pros and cons.

Male Speaker: With the fixed, you are going to have four or six or even more depending on the situation. And you are going to have Zirconia. Here is the difference between these two: now, this Zirconia cost about five times more to make than the traditional denture, but it is also built to last for your life. Does not chip, crack or break and obviously aesthetic wise. If you are looking for the most beautiful smile that you can get that is going to last and is going to look great, then I will have to say that there is really no comparison between these two.

Male Speaker: You show it to them. That is how you sell. You build value. I mean, that twenty-five thousand dollars an arch. I have never heard of anyone doing double-arched for twenty-five grand.

Male Speaker: But this is how patients get confused. They get confused because everyone just kind of calls it all on four even though one is a hybrid and one is Zirconia or one is nano ceramic and one they are just putting them in the provisional and just treatment planning that aspect of it. So it is easy for them to get confused.

Male Speaker: Your job is to make it simple, right? Eliminate the confusion. Just eliminate the confusion, figure out what he wants to spend and then be upfront and honest about what some of the trade-offs are because you can do it either way, but those are good conversations to have.

Male Speaker: Do not worry about them getting stuck with an answer. Even if you said, “Oh, I can get…” Let us say it was not that big because that dramatic is very easy to handle, but if you said, “Oh man, I have got quotes from other practices that said that they can do it at twenty thousand an arch. So you are at twenty-three which is six thousand dollars less and it is also Zirconia, then you can start selling. Again, that is the point of the bundle. If you did the bundle close the right way, you already separated yourself from everybody else, with your warranty, with everything that is going to go into it, and with how he is going to look. That is what this guy cares about, so that is what he wants to do, build his enthusiasm. If you have before and after, you tell him to say, “Look, you want you to see what is going to look like with Zirconia, at this practice? Because I have seen it and you probably have seen it too. People that get this procedure done and all the teeth just look the same. They just look like standard teeth like you took it out of the mold and just put it in, that is not how we do it here.”

Male Speaker: There is a certain amount of artistic ability that goes into the lab work for these teeth to craft them for your face. Something is going to look amazing just for you. Let me show you. You take out your portfolio, you start showing the before and after, so you got to get them emotionally invested, you got to get them going. Anybody that is there for cosmetics that wants to look good, that is going to be an Impulse buyer. They are easy. They are super easy to close. They are much easier than the person that does not give a damn how they look. They are just there because they absolutely have to be. They would rather be anywhere else right now, but they have no options so there in your chair, but they definitely do not want to be there. That person is infinitely more difficult to get to move forward than the person that is there because they choose to be there. He is there because he wants to be there. He wants better-looking teeth. He wants to look better, feel better at the end of the day. So, definitely have those conversations with them.

Male Patient: I do have it somewhere.

Female Interviewer: Because I would be happy to take a look at it for you to feel something that… Because I do not know if I am comparing apples to oranges here, so… [cross talk]

Male Patient: Right. I understand that.

Female Interviewer: They may be something completely different from what we do.

Male Patient: Only a real doctor does all the anesthesia. So, most teeth [inaudible] constant feeling.

Female Interviewer: Okay. Doctor Connolley does everything here.

Male Patient: Okay.

Female Interviewer: You would come in we would do the IV sedation.

Male Speaker: The guy probably only got quoted for the surgical fee. That is probably what happened. I will tell you, he probably went in to see a specialist get quoted for the surgical fee and he has not even seen the restoring dentist yet. If I add the bet, I would bet that is the case here just from what he just said. So, I would have asked them. “Okay, have you seen the dentist?”, “What type of restoration are you getting?”. Do you know what I mean? He is not going to have the answers because you probably just saw an oral surgeon or a periodontist, they quoted him for their fee and they are going to refer them out, and then he is going to get the second treatment plan, and I tell him that. I said, “Look when it comes to full arch dental implants, full mouth dental implants, the thing is, there is more than one way to do this.” Right? And that is good and bad. The good is you have options. So based on your budget, the odds of us being able to work something out for you that you are going to be happy with are, very high because we do have different ways to do it. The bad is that you can easily mistake one type of treatment plan for another, and it can start to get confusing, right?

Male Speaker: For instance, they say, “All on four.”. Well, that just means all of something sitting on four implants, but the “all of something is pretty” important too. That is the actual teeth, right? So, it can be all on four and you got plastic teeth. It could be all on four and you got the in ceramic teeth. It could be all on four and you have a hybrid. It could be all on four and you have Zirconia. All at different price points, all the different pros, and cons depending on what is important to you, right? You could have a situation where someone is doing all on four, someone is placing six implants. There is a situation where it is not even. It is not even fixed, it is removable, but it is kind of position like it fits. It can get super confusing, right? But I can tell you at twenty-five thousand, for the full fee that is more likely to be just a surgical fee or it is a thief or a removable at the very, very least it is with plastic teeth. Does that make sense? I want that information. I would have had that conversation literally within the first 10 minutes because I do not know what to recommend. I do not even know and I do not even know if it is feasible for him to buy anything yet. That is the whole point of the “Ten, Ten, Ten” is the prequalifying triage. That is the whole point of it. So when the patient gives you an opportunity to prequalifying triage, please do it. Do not ignore it. Do it. That is the whole purpose. There is no reason to even see the doctor or even take a scan if they say, “Yes, my budget is three hundred dollars.”, “My budget is five thousand dollars.” Right? No. We are triaging that out.

Male Speaker: And if it is their third opinion, we do not have to waste your time with a ton of procedure. We need more of ‘get to the point’. And the point is “What do you want?”, “What is most important to you?” so, you know how to frame it, “How much do you want to spend?”, and “How do I work this out for you?” What is going to be the situation that you are most likely to buy? And the earlier you can figure that out, the better it is for both.

Female Interviewer: We would place the implants and do all your extractions, and you would get your temporary denture. Then you would heal for three months and then we start the process of fabricating the fixed frame because can not get on with those implants when they are nice and soft.

Male Patient: Sure.

Male Patient: So tell me that again.

Female Interviewer: Let us see what we are working at. If we were to see what the [inaudible] finance had offered for you, like I said, with twenty-three thousand, nine-hundred ninety-nine with the 10% off if you were to be approved through them, or they would show you some loans that they could offer you, it would be twenty-one thousand, five hundred ninety-nine. And if you like, we can go ahead and see what type of loan they can offer you.

Male Patient: Yes to that.

Female Interviewer: It is soft teeth. It is not anything anybody else sees, it is just to see if you are…

Male Patient: No. That is fine. Let us do that.

Female Interviewer: Alright.

Male Patient: Then we could make some…

Female Interviewer: Decisions?

Male Patients: Yes. Some good decisions.

Female Interviewer: Yes.

Male Speaker: Right? It should have already been done. You should have already done this. Do not be afraid to do it. Do not be afraid to run through proceed right at the beginning. But it says if it is feasible to do both arches, okay? Well, what is feasible? You have a dollar amount in your head. What is it? You get that information right off the bat, then collect their information, run through proceeds, see if they are approved. Once they are approved, now you have an idea.

Male Speaker: Judging by everything that he said throughout the call, he probably has a good amount of money to actually be able to put down, but you can tell he would rather finance the whole thing if you can just to make it easy. But he probably has both, so I will fast forward through this proceed part, but he ends up getting approved.

Male Patient: Six-seventy-six. They only go up to sixty months. It looks like I’m approved for twenty-five thousand.

Female Interviewer: It says up to — yes.

Male Patient: Okay. So…

Male Speaker: He got approved for twenty-five.

Male Patient: I want to see what we can do for… Do you have a total for the top and bottom?

Female Interviewer: Let me see.

Female Interviewer: Alright, so you were looking at the fixed bridge on the top based on my understanding.

Male Patient: Correct.

Female Interviewer: I made your charting about the lower, but what did you guys discuss about the lower?

Male Patient: [inaudible] because he thought my teeth were good. He said the bottom one seems to be fine. [inaudible]. But I would rather do them all if that is possible.

Male Speaker: He is asking to do both of them again. So, throughout this call, it has been 48 minutes long. I think he said that he wants both done five times. Five times, we are not really hearing them on that. And again, he said, “If it is possible, I would like to do both of them.”

Male Speaker: So what would make it possible? What dollar amount would you say? “Okay, let us just do it”. Because it is impossible to do Zirconium on the top and something different on the bottom. You guys can get creative but you need to understand where his head is at. The last thing I want to do, I want to try to avoid showing a price and then go on, “Oh yikes”. I just feel like that should not happen especially with a second opinion. It should not be a ‘yikes’ situation. It should be a situation where I already know how they are going to view this number before I ever show it to him.

Female Interviewer: Well, this is the way I would look at it. Dr. Connelly is recommending that the teeth on the lower are the best. There is an indecent and restorable shape right now. If it was myself and I would go with the best option for the ones that need to be restored and save maybe some of your natural teeth on the bottom, and maybe we could come up with a better option in the future, maybe a partial.

Male Patient: Okay. Can you tell me how much the snappy dentures are?

Female Interviewer: Sure. So, a snappy denture can run anywhere from about, just the snappy denture itself, not the extractions and all that, anywhere from about seventy-five hundred to over twelve, thirteen thousand dollars, depending on the number of implants that you would recommend.

Male Patient: Okay.

Male Speaker: This is how we mess up in a negotiation. We do not have any idea of his reference points and he is just getting prices from us. We want to do the exact opposite of that. I do not want them to just go, “Okay. Well, how much is a full arch?”, “Well, it is for twenty-five grand.”, “Okay. How much is removable?”, “It is about twelve grand.”, “Okay. How much is a regular denture?”, “It is about five grand.”, “Okay. Let me think about it.”

Male Speaker: That is miserable, right? It is a “How much is this?”, “Well, how much do you want to spend?”. There are different ways to do it. Just to say: full arch, there are different types of materials we can use, there are ways of staging it out to get you into something that is really good and upgrade it later. There is a lot of different ways. It really depends on what you want and what your budget is.

Male Speaker: “So what is your budget?”. Give me a dollar amount. Something that would make it easy and comfortable for you to move forward and let me get creative with some different ways that we can help you because it is not like there is just one way to do this. We will work it out for you. We want to get you the best possible clinical outcome, give you the most beautiful smile that you can have so you will look great, but we also recognize that you have a certain dollar amount you need to spin and it is our job to make something work with that budget. So, where are you at? And ballpark them. Where you at? twenty-five thousand, thirty thousand, forty thousand, or is a monthly payment more important? Getting financed having something, where maybe you could double the amount if you have monthly payments. Ask them. Talk about it right up front before we get to this point where they are just getting prices from us and we are just blindly getting prices. You really cannot sell that way. There is almost no strategy and you are almost guaranteed because you are just giving them different prices, his brain is going like this. You are almost guaranteed to set yourself up for an ending where he says, “Let me think about it.”.

Male Speaker: You are almost guaranteed because he does not really have any clarity on what to do. He wants to be told what to do, like “Tell me what is best.”. What would you do here? And what he wants to hear is. Yes, we can do both arches immediately and you are going to look amazing.” That is what he wants to hear.

Female Interviewer: One thing I will say about the snappy, it comes in and out. When it pops off, there is little components in here that can wear out.
They are great. This is warrantied for a year.

Male Patient: That snap is?

Female Interviewer: Yes, these particular implants are warrantied for a year. This one is warantied for seven years.

Male Patient: Okay

Female Interviewer: And does not have the capability to know the possibility of the little o rings have. It is not that expensive but still it is taking an in-and-out big you wearing do we have to be replaced where this you went past. You do not have to worry about taking it in and out.

Male Patient: Okay. Well, let me talk with my fiancé and see what she says which way she wants me to go.

Female Interviewer: Okay.

Male Patient: And I will just give you guys a show back and we get the process started. I got to do something soon.

Female Interviewer: No. You did not say that you went to some other places and they talked about some more prices?

Male Patient: Yes.

Female Interviewer: If you can get me a copy of that I will be glad to take a look at it.

Male Patient: Yes.

Female Interviewer: So we will know what we are comparing.

Male Patient: Because I do not want to get— I am doing it and found out it was forty thousand and I did not understand what they were talking about. Correct?

Male Speaker: Yes, exactly. I can guarantee he is looking at a surgical fee there from a specialist. If the specialist is going to send him to another practice to get the restorative done, then if they are not doing it in the house then those prices are completely impossible because they both have to charge their fees. So you know right off the bat, that is not exactly correct, but right now he does not really have anything to buy, because he is confused. He is still confused and he still does not have a solution. He wants both upper and lower and he does not have a solution for that and he does not have any definitive answer for how to compare your treatment plans to the ones he had before so he just went to his third consultation and he is probably more confused after the third one than he was from the first two.

Male Speaker: He just has a general lack of clarity. I mean I could not see any way for him to say, “Yes, let us do it. Let us go.”, “Let us do it. I am in.” He is confused about the pricing, he wants to have both done, he is confused about what they will do with the lower. Right now, he is just in limbo. We are just saying just leave it. He does not really want that. So you probably want some clarity in terms of okay if I leave it. Well, how long do I leave it for and what can you do in the interim to make them look better on. You know beautiful teeth on top and horrible teeth on the bottom and how is that going to look? He is probably got all of these things that are just confusing him right now. You are guaranteed to get a ‘let me think about it’ with this.

Female Interviewer: I do not want you to be getting a lesser quality product. You go there and you are getting a lesser quality product and you could have come here and got an iron quality product and then you are set in the same amount of money, so.

Male Patient: Well, I would rather be here anyway so [inaudible]. I do not want to have to go to Detroit every time.

Female Interviewer: Well, I am not sure. I will tell you this. I have been a dental assistant. I have started in dental twenty-nine years ago and I made an agreement to myself that I would never ever work for someone I could not stand behind your work. I am not just saying this to say it. Dr. Connelly is outstanding at what he does and I promise you he is one of the best there is in the area.

Male Patient: That is good to know because that is the scariest thing with this whole thing is [cross talk].

Female Interviewer: You just do not know. Exactly. You just do not know.

Male Patient: It is the same way when it comes to construction and [inaudible]

Female Interviewer: Exactly

Male Patient: I would rather come here. It is so much faster and easier for me to get here. It is not completely a money problem or issue, it is just that I have to figure in my head. [inaudible]

Male Speaker: He just said he has a figure in his head. He just told you, “I got a figure in my head.” We still do not know. We never asked. In an hour, we never asked. You can not do that guys. That is such a buying question. I have a dollar in my head that I want to spend. What information would you want to know more important than that if you are trying to sell this person, right?

Male Speaker: “Oh, you have an exact figure. What is it?”, “Where are you trying to say?”, “Help me out here. Were you trying to stay within twenty-five, you trying to stay within thirty-five, or trying to stay within fifteen? What are you trying to stay within?” And I will back in to it because whatever your budget is, there are ways to get you started where you are going to look amazing, even if we have to stage it out and do one stage now, get you looking really good, and then do a different stage later to make a more permanent solution for you.

Male Speaker: There are different ways. It just depends on your budget and your time frame. That is all. But I promise you are not going to have another consultation. I understand how frustrating it can be to go to a couple of different consultations. It is confusing. You come in here. We will make it easy. We are going to work it out for you. You are going to leave with beautiful smile. You tell me what you want to spend and I will just work backwards from there. I will take care of everything.

Male Speaker: It would have been really an interesting answer because you got somebody sitting in front of you that is approved for twenty-five thousand dollars right now and he has no clarity in what he should buy. It is not that he will not pull the trigger. This guy, you can tell with his body language. He has done research. He is ready to go in. More importantly, this guy wants the treatment. He has asked to do both arches four times. He wants it and I got twenty-five thousand dollars that is done. He has got no clarity on treatment plan.

Male Speaker: I think those are those are the biggest misses and what actually happened on the follow-up of this.

Female Interviewer: … talk to your fiance and have decided to buy a house first.

Male Speaker: She said the patient talked to his fiancée and they decided to buy a house first, which I do not buy it. Do not buy it at all. What is your mortgage have to do with this? Stop it. That is nonsense. No, he probably went back to one of the other places, went somewhere else and someone told him and make a deal, upper and lower, removable, for whatever that budget was in his head. He is probably got a budget that he probably already even spoke with his fiancée about that they are good with spending, that is why he said he has a figure. Someone got within that figure and close them and he is not going to say, “I have decided to go somewhere else.” I do not know that to be a fact, but that would be what I would put my money on over this guy just waiting. I mean, he even said at the end “I got to do something soon.” You can tell he wants it. He is pretty invested to have already done three consultations. He is obviously very interested and he has been approved for financing. So somebody is going to close him. That twenty-five thousand dollars staring at you in the face, that is a case that should be closed.

Male Speaker: We got a couple of minutes left, but just to do a quick recap and then I will take some questions. Quick recap. Someone sits in front of you, it is a second opinion and they allude this something not going right. One of the main things you want to know is what was the treatment plan, and why did not they move forward. You want to know that. Then if they say they are going to tell you about what they are looking for and if they say anything at all related to cost, or if they say if it is affordable I want to do this or if it is reasonable I want to do this, or if it is possible I want to do this, or anything like that, then we immediately ask, “Well, it sounds like you have a figure in your head. What you are looking to stay within?”.

Male Speaker: When it comes to full arch options, there are five or six different ways that we can approach the case. All with different treatment plans. Every single one of them will put you in a significantly better position than you are in right now, all at totally different price points. Sometimes people think there is only just one way and there is one price, that is not true. One of the things that we do and that Dr. Connelly does that I really like is he really works with people to find the best possible solution for the budget that they have to invest. Maybe what would be easier and shave some time off everything is you tell me what you are willing to invest and what ballpark you are in and we kind of work backwards from there and we will come up with some creative options. I see the way your teeth look and I understand why you want to have a better-looking small. We can definitely do that.

Male Speaker: So are you looking like twenty-five thousand, fifty thousand, one arch, both arches, full mouth, what? Just give me an idea of exactly what would you want. We will make it easy. That is in the first five minutes of this one. From there, if you have the information, everything else is so much easier on the call because you know what his perception of that price is going to be. He said something about price right at the beginning. Dr. Connelly came in the room and he said a panhandlers budget. If anyone says anything like that, like I need some cheap implants that look great and lasts forever, I am going to ask, well depends on what your definition of cheap implants are. I mean, we can make this full arch flourish implants very affordable, but just with everything, different prices, their pros and cons, and there are trade-offs. Not that any of them are wrong, it is just what is right for you. Then our job is going to be to set the expectation and do the best possible clinical outcomes, so what is your definition of a panhandlers?

Male Speaker: Are you looking to get the whole mouth done, one arch, upper, or lower. Where you at? twenty thousand, ten thousand, fifty thousand. You could have done it right there. And then at the end again, right if he says, “Well you know if it is feasible.”. He even reiterated. She was like, “What”. He said, “Well, okay. Can you give me a fee for the upper and lower?” Because you heard the fee for the one. He said, “Give me a few for the upper and lower. She said, “Well, would you talk to Dr. Connelly about-“, “Well he said just leave them, but I would rather just do it all at one time.”

Male Speaker: So it is not like he was running from the twenty-three. He said yes, but it was not like he was he was running from it. He still wanted to know what is the total amount that I have to pay for and he got approved for twenty-five, so that means he has some cash too.

Male Speaker: Just as a recap, do not be afraid to take a shortcut with somebody that is a second or third opinion. Do not be afraid to have that conversation. That is why they were. They were there to have the conversation, but more importantly you would not want to spend an hour or ninety minutes with somebody that is in la-la land, somebody that thinks yes, I have got a budget and my budget is a thousand dollars.

Male Speaker: Makes sense? And you guys have any specific questions or comments on the treatment plan? Anything specific for me to go through? We have got a couple of minutes. We have got four minutes. Anyone had anything similar? I mean, are you guys actually having that conversation? I feel like this is a topic literally every single closing is to we go over it, every single catalyst we go over it, and almost every single webinar we go over it. It is a negotiation versus a sale. This man did not need to be sold. He is a buyer. He is already in. He wants it. There is nothing to sell to him. You just have to negotiate to get him something that he deems to be fair and reasonable for him to actually move forward. That is all it is. It is just a very simple negotiation about money. You do not have enough to worry. It is so easy. You do not have to worry about selling them. What if he says his budget is fifteen thousand dollars. His budget is fifteen grand. What can you do for fifteen grand? You can extract the teeth, you can place the implants, and you can put them in a provisional, and you guarantee that provisional for eighteen months or twelve months and then he can move forward with final after that. Spread it out for them.

Male Speaker: A construction worker. Go ahead.

Female Speaker: I have a question.

Male Speaker: Yes, ma’am.

Female Speaker: I spend a lot of time on the phone working the funnel and getting people on the phone to talk to me about coming in for a consultation. I want to make sure that they have realistic expectations. I want to make sure they have an idea of how much this cost, but I also do not want to start listing off prices. I need to build value and sell, but I am on the phone. So do you have any tips for that?

Male Speaker: Do not bring a price if they do not bring it up.

Female Speaker:Okay.

Male Speaker: That is not more like a tip, that is more like a rule because it can come off the wrong way. If you have someone calling and price is not a concern for them. You might have someone call in because they are like, I do not really care what the prices are, I just want to go somewhere where I just want to see the best doctor. I do not care what it is. I am not going to skimp on this. I just want to see the best doctor. And when you get somebody on the phone like that, those are typically the easiest people to sell. But if you get on the phone and start going, okay, so listen, just so you know this procedure starts at twenty-five thousand. It can be a bit presumptuous. Like if I am on the phone, I am like, “Why are you telling? Do you think I cannot afford it or something.”

Female Speaker: Right.

Male Speaker: Why are we even discussing this. That is not an issue. It can come off wrong. So be careful with just bringing it up only triage when they tell you that triage is necessary. When is triage necessary? When someone calls and says, “Hey, I saw you guys are offering some dental implants. I want to come in for a consultation, but before I come in, I kind of want to have an idea of the price just to make sure this is feasible for me.” Immediately, they are already asking about price. So yes, that is when you want to triage. But again, before you give them the price, I want to get a price from them. That is the whole art of negotiation. It is very simple. Never give a price without getting a price first. That is why in a negotiation, neither person wants to give a number, like, “Well how much do you charge for this one?”, “How much do you want to spend?”. That is how it goes. So if they say, “How much is it for four implants?”, “Okay. So you are talking about full arch implants. I can all on four or something like that.” When it comes to that we have five, six, even seven different types of options that are all full arch treatments. All of them give great results in their own right, and all of them are at completely different price points. And that is one of the things that really separates us from a lot of other practices that only do it one way, is we really work with people depending on what their budget. But just based on just a little bit that we have spoke and it sounds like you have a budget in mind that you are trying to stay within. So what are you trying to stay within or give me an idea and I am kind of work backwards from there and help you through this whole thing. Are you talking twenty thousand, fifty thousand, ten thousand? It does not have to be exact, just kind of ballpark it for me and we can just work backwards from there. What are you looking for to stay within And you get the number out of them. That is how you do it. That is how you triage. Never list off prices because you do not know how they are going to interpret that price. You have not had a chance to build value. We do not really know what they want. We have not done any selling or influencing at all. It is just like when someone calls me and go ‘assume you over a price sheet’. Like what are you talking about? I am never going to do that.

Female Speaker: So try to get something out of them first. I usually say you know, what do you have any idea how much does this cost? Have you done much research? Tell me a little bit about what you are looking for and try to pull it out of them.

Male Speaker: That is good. See all those things to figure out what they are looking for and what they want, but also just be direct. Say we have and this is how you deflect it. They are asking you for a price. The easiest way to deflect it is to say that we have a lot of different prices, all at different budgets, all with great clinical outcomes in their own right. There are pros and cons and trade-offs but it really depends on what you want and what your budget is and that is what separates us from a lot of the other practices, is we are very creative in our ways of creating treatment plans that will both give you something that you are very, very happy with, and that you want a great clinical outcome, and also stay within whatever your budget is. So give me an idea. That is the easiest way. It works like crazy. You do not even have to mess with it. Do not overthink it that is as complicated as that deflection gets and it does not matter if it is over the phone or in-person, it is done the same way.

Female Speaker: Okay. Thanks.

Male Speaker: Cool. Any other questions, guys? You good? That makes sense? That helps?

Female Speaker: Yes.

Male Speaker: I thought it was pretty good one to listen to, so Veronica will be putting together the webinar and email it out. So if anyone else in the office wants to listen to it, you guys will have it to share and then we are going to have another one obviously next month, but just keep in mind. If you are having trouble with something like this any time somebody gets approved of financing it will move forward, you need to write that down and really ask some questions on why. If we get them financed, and they do not move forward, something went wrong.

Male Speaker: So any questions you have, email them over, call us. You can call Veronica, myself, your account manager, whatever it is and we will help you through it. But make sure if you guys wearing those masks be engaged. You cannot sound mechanical with this. You have to mind your tone and you got to get into it, and always remember if they want something like a beautiful smile if that is aesthetically inclined, it is going to be an impulse sale. It is all about emotion at that point. It is all about emotion. Those are the easiest people to get to close are the people that are going to buy based on emotion and with impulse. To get emotion, you have to give emotion. So be there. Be present. Do not forget what we are trying to do. We are not just trying to get through a consultation. We are trying to get them to move forward with something. So I need to know what they can buy and what they want. I know those two things then we can get it done.

Male Speaker: Thanks for the time. Talk to you guys later. See you next month.

Female Speaker: Thanks.

Male Speaker: Alright. Bye-bye.

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