February, 2024
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Bart Knellinger: All my girls here have flowers, but that’s because we got them for them. But some of them have two.[crosstalk]
Matthew Hubis: [inaudible]
Bart: [laughter] [throat clearing] I’m just going to give everybody a minute to log on here.
Ashley Pavero: Happy Valentine’s Day, everybody.
Bart: Yep. Happy Valentine’s Day. Got a bunch of people logging on, so I am just giving them a second. You guys closing arches?
Ashley: Absolutely.
Bart: All right. This year seems to gotten off to a really fast start for a lot of people. A lot of people have been closing arches and maybe it was just a backup from, um, from December, but a lot of people seem to be doing really, really well right now, with their volume and actually getting people to say yes. So that’s good. It’s really good. [Humms] You-You guys know today, I’m actually gonna be going through something. I touched on it the last power session, but I wanted to go through it as a group today, which is how to pre-qua-, when and how to pre-quali-qualify and when and how to triage. We got a really, really good video example that I’m going to go through with you guys, because I think [crosstalk] sometimes there’s a little confusion or hesitation.
There you go. So sometimes I feel like there’s a little bit of a confusion or hesitation in regards to when, when should we bring up money? When should we get a number from them? When should we try to qualify them with the financing? So I’ve got a really, really good example that I want to play, to try to clear that up and um, and give you guys something really simple to follow. Um, so this um, this video is actually from a treatment coordinator that’s really new in the program. I don’t think she’s been to a power session at all yet. So she’s just, just went through the online training, and you know, she actually really, really does amazing.
So there’s a lot of good things to point out on this one. But I’m gonna kinda skip around to some of the parts, because that’s what I really want to hit is pre-qualify in triage, when and how to do it the right way. Okay? So if you guys have been dealing with that, or any confusion, make sure you guys have something to write with, because, the um, this is a really good video example. Okay, here we go. And turn up the volume also on your mic. The audio is pretty clean, but sometimes it doesn’t come through that well. Okay. Alright, here we go. And this is, this is Melissa. So remember she’s new, but she-she really does amazing.
Melissa: Okay. Well, nice to meet you.
Patient: Nice to meet you, finally.
Melissa: Again, you know who I am. My name’s Melissa. I’m really here to be your patient advocate, okay? I’m here to kind of get a little bit more information on what’s going on, um, and kind of, combine with the doctor to hopefully get you a treatment plan that’s gonna be best for you. Okay?
Patient: Yes, ma’am. Yes, ma’am.
Melissa: Um, I know we talked, it seems like forever ago when [crosstalk] we spoke on the phone. You have some few issues going on and we’re gonna try to see, so kind of explain to me a little bit more about what’s going on.
Patient: Like I said, my teeth, I don’t know. I mean, I don’t even like to smile, like to really look at nobody and talk to nobody, because my teeth are so bad. I reckon it is just inherited from my mom and my dad because, like, I can be eating supper, and they just start falling out.
Melissa: Oh, no.
Patient: They are breaking off, chipping off and deteriorating. I don’t know why, but like I said, I try to brush them least twice, at least three times a day and dental floss. But they don’t seem to be doing no good now, I don’t know what else to do. And
I’m just out of o-, out of options. And the next thing I know was just… to get me a plate put in or something, so I don’t have to worry about them no more.
Melissa: How long has that been going on for?
Patient: Uh, for about three years now.
Melissa: My goodness!
Patient: Yes. I’ve been, I’ve been tired of maybe something I was doing wrong. We tried different toothpaste and different mouthwash and stuff like that, but….
Melissa: Nothing’s really making a difference.
Patient: … ain’t nothing making no difference. And I tell my daughter that I make excuses about eating supper at night time just ‘cause… I’m scared I’m gonna bite down on something then I’m gonna swallow a piece of tooth and get choked on. And she said, “Dad, I understand. You try to find something and we’ll do whatever we got to do.” So I’ve got to do something.
Melissa: Yeah
Patient: I want, I want my mouth fixed a little bit before I die or whatever reason, you know…
Melissa: Hopefully a long ways from now. [laughs]
Patient: Hopefully a long ways from now, but you never know, tomorrow ain’t promised to you. So, but I just… And y’all reached out or I got into contact with y’all or something…
Melissa: Yeah.
Patient: …and you called me back and I thought, well let me call them and see if we can work something out. So then y’all said well, we have a payment plan. I said, that’s kind of what I got because I didn’t have no insurance at the time until I went to work for this company. And they like, offered me a little bit of AFLAC and I said, “Well, actually, do y’all have a dental plan?” I said, that’s the main thing I want is dental and vision. She said, I don’t have no vision, but I got a dental plan. I said, well, I want a dental plan then. Then I said, I don’t know how great it is, but I just need something because I need to go to the dentist.
Melissa: At least have a little bit of help.
Patient: A little bit of help better than nothing.
Melissa: Now, when you say you sit down at dinner and worry…
Bart: Okay, so right here, like, what do you guys remember? Right? This is the reason why we have this process where it’s 10 minutes with you before we go into the doctor, is so that we can abbreviate the consultation. You guys can gather all the information necessary, prepare the doctor, save the doctor’s time, but also to make sure that we’ve got qualified candidates moving forward. Wait, did anybody hear anything from the first two and a half minutes of the call that may give you some type of reason why you mi-, you might want to pre-qualify at this point?
Ericka Gaines: When he said that he was looking for a payment plan.
Bart: Mm-hmm. I think….
Melissa: Also when he said, his um, you know, that he was talking to his daughter and they’re like, “We’ll do anything we have to um, you know. That A, another one is that he didn’t have insurance. He might have only AFLAC or a little bit of help. He’s already kinda getting into that, that financial conversation. She did a good job of trying to get him back on track and pulling him back to those pain points that we’ve talked about. But, um, I probably would’ve changed the, you know, his direction, he talked about the financial options right then and there.
Bart: Well, and uh, how eager does he look on a scale one to ten?
Ericka: Ten.
Bart: To get it done? He looks like he’s pretty much desperate, right?
Melissa: Mm-hmm. He’s already given the urgency. He gave it to you, she didn’t have to create it. He already created it for himself.
Bart: Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, she came in, she stated her intention, she asked questions. I mean, she’s, she’s doing a wonderful job. And frankly, the fact that she’s not, uh, addressing it right this second, I would probably do the same thing. So, to me, I didn’t hear anything that screams at me that he is unqualified. Right? I did hear enough to lead me to believe that I need to dig a little bit and qualify. But I don’t like to get to-, completely off track with the call. So this is a situation where it’s like, okay, you’re not going to the second 10 without pre-qualifying, but it doesn’t mean that you have to stop the flow of the call and make it all about money two and a half minutes in, right? I think she’s doing the right thing here by continuing, as long as you remember it, right?
By continuing on, get the rest of the pain points, go in, talk about the vision, do everything, but then before you go into the second 10, you’re going to probably want to pre-qualify just because… of the different, all of the different factors that exist, right? So desperation, talks of insurance and payment, all three of those together, you probably want to pre-qualify. Now, none of them scream, this person doesn’t have any money. I didn’t hear that, right? But I heard enough to where I’m going to pre-qualify. I don’t know if it’s a triage yet, but I’m gonna pre-qualify and I want you guys to remember, right? If you hear something like this and it’s kind of middle of the road, it doesn’t mean that you have to stop the call and address it because you can take it in a totally different direction when sometimes you, you don’t need to, right then.
Now, this is a different situation than if you would’ve said, “Listen, you know, I’m on a, I’m on a fixed income. I’ll be straight up and honest with you. I don’t have a lot of money. I need payment plans. And I have-, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t have any credit or anything like that. So I’m just looking for whatever I can get.” Okay, that’s like a screaming example of somebody that you have to pre-qualify in triage. You know what I mean? I would do that right then. This guy, I’m, I’m not completely sure yet, so I don’t have a problem with her continuing on, but I want you to pick up on these things and that right there, that’s enough to pre-qualify before you go into the second 10. Coz here’s the thing, with somebody like this, this to me is not screaming I don’t have any money, but this is… [crosstalk]
Jenny G.: You hear?
Bart: …but what I’m thinking, and this is like a guess, this guy’s probably not double arch zirconia. And I don’t know, right? You’re just speculating on these things to develop a feel, but what I’m thinking is, all right, the guy wants payment plans, the whole thing. If it’s gonna be double arch zirconia, probably gonna hinge on financing based on what he’s saying. I need to figure out how much capital he’s working with, because I’m gonna have to conceptualize some type of a plan B, right, treatment plan or removable or this or that or whatever to help the guy. But this to me more than screams, I don’t have any money, is screaming he probably doesn’t have that much. Does that make sense?
Ghazal: I have a question if you don’t mind. Um, so, so far most of the patients that I’ve got the leads over the phone, they’ve all picked the option like 50 to 150 a month for their budget. And when I’ve spoken with them, they all stated that financial, um, problems, is why they’ve postponed it to the extent that they actually don’t have any tooth. And um, most of them ask if the consultation is gonna be free. So the minute the phone call starts, it immediately starts with, “I can’t afford the consultation. I want to make sure it’s free. And I want you to know I have no money.” I have tried to, like, make-make them feel very comfortable, went over like all their issues and how it’s important to take care of the problem to bring them in. Is that a good move? Or it’s best to just, you know, um…
Bart: If they’re tell-, if they tell you straight up that they have no money and they need the payment plans, then the-the only logical thing to do, and I would do this right over the phone, is to get their information, see what they’re approved for. Because if somebody doesn’t have any capital and they need a payment plan and they can’t get approved for any payment plan, then why schedule them to come in, right?
Ghazal: Yes.
Bart: The conversation then turns to how do we create capital? Do you have anything that you can sell? Do you have a co-signer? You basically go through the, um, the funding worksheet for ‘em and give them different options. Give them pathways that they can explore to create some liquidity. It doesn’t make any sense if we know, that they’re unqualified to go down the road of talking about a treatment that’s completely impossible from a financial point of view.
Ghazal: Yes. Yeah. Okay. Sure. So, it’s-, but I was trying to avoid any financial conversations on the first like pre-qualifying call, coz people do also tend to you know, act like, bargaining is also a very good skill, you know, so, uh…
Bart: Well, that’s different. That’s different. That’s different. So here, very important. Okay? You’re on the phone. Rule number one is, if they don’t bring up price or cost, you’re not bringing up price or cost.
Ghazal: Not at all. Yes.
Bart: Okay. So if they do bring it up, but it’s a price shopping question that doesn’t scream, I’m unqualified at all. Right? What screams I’m unqualified, is if they’re saying, “Hey, you know, I’ve been to other places, I need something. I really need like, help. I’ll take whatever I can get, but I need monthly payments and I don’t have any money to put down.” Right? Because what you’re looking for, if I have no money to put down, I can’t sell them anything if they can’t get approved. So I need to figure out if they’re approved and what they’re approved for. Because if they’re approved for $10,000, that’s the approval we get, then you’re going to be able to tell them that right over the phone. Say, listen, we’re able to get you $10,000. Now look, I know a lot of people, they want to come in and they want the best of the best of the best, right? But there’s the best of the best of the best, and then there’s what we can afford. And then there’s getting you moving in the right direction.
So if we’re on the same page, our job here is to take the $10,000 that you have available to you and try to get you moving in the right direction with the highest standard of care that we can possibly do, that will fit within your current budget. Right? And then we can slowly build from there. And you can make sure that you’re on the same page with them. Does that make sense?
Ghazal: Yeah. Yes. That makes sense.
Bart: But if they have no money and they don’t get approved, no triage. Don’t schedule them. Because we don’t want those people going through and taking 20 minutes of the doctor’s time, taking 20 minutes of your time, going through and-and you know it’s not gonna happen.
Ghazal: Yes. So do you, you, um, recommend, I do the pre-approvals over the phone for those patients, correct?
Bart: If and only if [crosstalk] [inaudible] new payments and they don’t have any capital. Yes.
Ghazal: Yes. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Bart: No problem. Okay, we’re good. Keep going here.
Melissa: About eating and, you know, something happened, does it affect what you eat?
Patient: Well, yes, because I want a steak so bad and I’m scared to eat a steak.
Melissa: Yeah. That’s my favorite too. That’d be hard.
Patient: I’m scared to eat apples because, if I bite an apple, and it’ll break off, um, chicken and stuff like that. I mean, all the good food that I like that you don’t really need, but… and I can’t eat it because I’m kind of hesitant for like, but if I could sit down here with a…
Bart: And I just wanna point out something she’s doing that’s really, really good. I want you guys-, it’s called active listening. Right? But I want you to pay attention when he’s talking, I want you to look at her. Because she’s engaged, she’s actively listening and she’s responding, right? She’s responding from a physical standpoint. She’s respond-, she is responding and changing up her tone. She’s doing a really, really, really amazing job here. You know, when s-, when someone’s talking instead of just sitting there like a robot, she’s doing really, really good. So just pay attention to that.
Patient: …big plate of apples and bite down on it… because, are my teeth going to break off or, or something like that, you know?
Melissa: Right. Gosh.
Patient: And at this point, I just don’t know, I just…
Melissa: That’s hard.
Patient: It’s hard. I just want them fixed, that’s all, where I can sit down and enjoy a nice meal.
Melissa: Absolutely.
Patient1: Go to, you know, get an apple off the counter and bite down on it, and not have to worry about it. Like, oh, did I broke some teeth off, did I break off or something, you know?
Melissa: Yeah. Are you in pain with any of your teeth?
Patient: Yes. They hurt me all the time.
Melissa: Oh no.
Patient: And I said, I had a couple that broke off and I’ve still got half of the teeth up in my gum when it broke off. Like I said, they hurt, they hurt all the time.
Melissa: Yeah.
Patient: Yeah, like I had a couple pulled, and they said, “Well, you got a couple more that needs to be…” And, I said, “Yeah, I got a lot of them that need to be pulled.” I said, “I’m having trouble with them and I’m just trying to find the right option to get them fixed so, I don’t have to worry about that.”
Melissa: Absolutely.
Patient: You know, I’m just tired of fighting with it.
Melissa: I Understand.
Patient: My brother had almost kind of the same problem. His, wasn’t deteriorating as bad as mine, but he went ahead and had all his, took out and had him a plate for him.
Melissa: Right.
Patient: So, he would have the same problem. He would have real bad toothaches all the time and just-, but his wasn’t deteriorating like mine was deteriorating. Like my mom’s, hers is deteriorating. My dad, his was deteriorating before he passed away, so I reckon, I inherited more from them than he did, you know what I’m saying? So.
Melissa: Well, sounds like you came to the right place.
Patient: I hope so.
Melissa: Yeah
Patient: I hope so.
Melissa: I wanna kind of take a turn a little bit and think more in like a positive light. So let’s think about what you see in the future. Okay. What you’re looking for as far as an outcome from us. Okay. So I’m gonna ask you a few questions on how much importance a few things are to you.
Patient: Mm-hmm.
Melissa: So we can kind of gauge better on what you’re looking for as an outcome, okay? So from 0 to 10, how do you think like aesthetics? Like the look of the smile? Like how important is that to you?
Patient: 10.
Melissa: A 10? Okay.
Patient: Yes.
Melissa: Okay, okay. Um, what about function? Meaning eating, chewing, talking. How important is that to you?
Patient: That’s very important because I don’t really don’t like to look directly at people and talk to them… because, you know, that first thing you see is the teeth, you know?
Melissa: Right.
Patient: And because mine is bad, and I kinda shy away from that, because I don’t want look at you and talk to you. I know my teeth so bad and you got pretty white teeth, you know that?
Melissa: I work for a good dentist. [laugh]
Patient: [laugh] Yeah. Well, that just kinda makes me, well, I, I don’t really want to talk to you, but you know, you got a nice little smile and you got pretty teeth and look at me. Mine’s all deteriorating away and rotting out, that makes you kind of feel, and just don’t feel right, you know?
Melissa: So you ready to, you ready to make a change?
Patient: Mm-hmm.
Melissa: Yeah. Absolutely. Um, we also have like different levels of, like maintenance, like upkeep. So how important is that to you from 0 to 10? Like, are you willing to do a little bit of upkeep as far as like, cleaning and stuff like that? Or is it something that you want in and never have to worry about?
Patient: I want something, that if I got upkeep a little bit more, as long as they don’t hurt me and I can sit down and enjoy a nice meal, I’ll upkeep them just like I’m supposed to. Or if not, if I have to put them in and not to worry about them no more, I’m fine with that too.
Melissa: Okay.
Patient: I just need it to work, you know?
Melissa: Understood. Yeah. Okay. And last question. This one’s the biggest one that nobody likes talking about, you know, of course, I don’t even like talking about it, but we have to approach the, the subject. I know we talked before about, like doing a payment plan and stuff like that. Um, so when it comes to cost wise, you know, is there something that you can, you know, put down? Are you looking to do like a monthly? Um, what…
Bart: Guys, this is probably, this is… exactly the time in which I would go back to it. Right when she’s doing it here, you know, instead of addressing it and kind of getting off track, she finished up the pain points, she went through, she created the, the vision. But you also heard it out how he answered the maintenance. He didn’t say, no, I don’t want-, I don’t wanna remove, I definitely want something that’s gonna be in and fixed. This guy just sounds like, man, his situation’s really bad and he wants whatever he can get, whatever this guy can afford, he’s probably gonna buy it. Does that make sense? So, I like how she didn’t address it right away, and-, but she is going to address it and try to pre-qualify before the second 10.
And, and here’s another reason why you wanna do it. You wanna know before you go into the second 10, what’s possible here, because you don’t want the doctor recommending $60,000 in treatment when there’s someone sitting in front of you that can, that can only do an $8,000 treatment, you know. And sometimes, yeah, we, we wanna do full arch fixed, we wanna do upper and lower, like we want to do it, um, but our main job is to say, okay, we have to make the best of every situation and try to help best we can to every person that comes in. And if that means you start with, you start with what-, whatever is the, the number one priority if you have limited funds, right? So if it, if it’s the lowers, if-if they’re, those teeth are done, okay, maybe you start with a, with a removable lower denture and that’s it, you know, and or a removable lower denture and a, and an, and an upper denture, something like that. It doesn’t matter. The point is, it’s not gonna help you and it’s not gonna be a good use of the doctor’s time if we go back and we’re talking about something that’s completely unrealistic. You wanna know what’s realistic when people are open to talking about money and they’re bringing it up and they’re showing all the signs of, of somebody that’s desperate for it, you wanna try to be specific here. So, um, this is exactly how I would’ve done it. Um, not addressing it, but also addressing it right before we go to the second 10.
Melissa: …what’s [phone rings] kind of, where are you at as far as that?
Patient: [pause] I would like to do a monthly if I could.
Melissa: Okay.
Patient: Like I said, if I had to pay a little something down, I could pay a little something down. But I would like to have that, if I can work it out right, and have a monthly payment plan, that’d be, I’d… that’s great for me. I can handle that.
Melissa: Okay.
Patient: I, I have no problem with that.
Melissa: Okay.
Patient: I mean, I work six days a week, Monday through Friday, sometimes Saturday. I make halfway d… [crosstalk]
Melissa: Oh my goodness!
Patient: …I make halfway decent money. So, I mean, I don’t make all the money in the world, but I’m make enough to get by.
Melissa: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Well, especially right now in this world, [crosstalk] [inaudible].
Patient: Yeah. And if I can get my teeth fixed and I can make pay-, payments plans towards a pretty smile…
Melissa: Yeah.
Patient: …I’m for that.
Melissa: Okay.
Patient: I’m for that. All the way.
Melissa: Perfect.
Patient: All the way. I have no [inaudible].
Melissa: Yeah. Do you have a monthly budget that you’re comfortable with?
Patient: What’s the least or, uh… that y’all can be comfortable with? I mean…
Melissa: Well, it, it ranges.
Patient: [inaudible] I just need the ranges for it. Let me know the ranges…
Bart: So, the thing is, when you’re pre-qualifying, um, what they feel comfortable with monthly isn’t so relevant. What’s super relevant is how much they can put down. That’s what you need to know, because based on that number, right? That is the number that’s gonna tell you if you need to run them, run their credit right now. Or if you can wait, here’s the rule of thumb. If it’s sub $10,000, you need to run the credit now. Go ahead and see if you get an approval. If it’s over $10,000, right? Like if they can put, if somebody tells you they can put 15 or 20,000 down, I’m not even worried about the credit because even if they get declined, I’m gonna be able to get them in some type of an option for the cash they have available, right? Because whatever they-, if they say 15, they can pay 20, maybe even $25,000 down, right? If they say 10, they can probably pay 15. So you can still probably get them in one arch, you know, with a, uh, with a, a mill PMMA or something like that. But, you know, if they say five or four or six, now-now it’s different, right? So five, four or six, that might mean 8 to 10, 8 to 11,000, something like that. That’s not gonna get them any full arch option, that’s gonna get them a removable. But I would want to know right now if, if they can get approved at that point. So what they can pay monthly only matters if they get approved. Right? And we don’t know if it’s appropriate if-if we certainly need to run them or not until we know what type of cash issue we have at hand.
Patient: …what you need this month or whatever I have to pay, you know, and then we’ll go from there.
Melissa: Right.
Patient: And see what you can do.
Melissa: Yeah.
Patient: But I’m, I’m willing to do whatever I need to do at this point. I mean, I’m really. I mean, I just want my mouth fixed.
Melissa: Absolutely.
Patient: That’s all I want. I just want a pretty smile.
Melissa: Okay.
Patient: That’s all I want.
Melissa: That sounds like a plan. We’re gonna help you. Okay?
Patient: That’s what I want. That’s what I want more than anything.
Bart: Can you guys totally see the difference between this guy and a price shopper? There’s no price shopping to it. This dude is desperate. This is like 80% of the time gonna wind up in a default. Not a default, but a decline. You know what I mean? That’s just the way… price shoppers don’t act like that. Price shoppers are trying to make an intelligent buying decision because they have options. They’re looking for the best deal. They’re looking to negotiate, but they don’t have the same level of desperation. If anything, a lot of times the price shoppers will try to portray a level of indifference because they know they have options, right? So price shop-, that’s why trying to pre-qualify a price shopper, you can really go wrong. You don’t have to pre-qualify them, right? You have to show them that they’re getting the best deal and the seed and the frame that you’re trying to use with price shoppers is that all of the results are not the same, right?
The most important thing is not the price. It’s not what we’re telling them. This is just the frame that the-, this is the idea that you’re trying to get them to come up with, is the fact that you-you will only be happy with the price the moment you sign and pay. “Hey, I got a great deal on that.” “Well Teeb[?], you know,” to be continued. Let’s see, because the second that, that those results don’t live up to what they thought, if they crack the bridge or they have a failing nailing implant, there’s nobody that ever after they have an issue that comes back and says, “Yeah, but you know what? I got a great deal on it. So it’s okay that it broke.” Says nobody ever, you know what I mean? It’s just that the price shoppers are operating under the mindset that an all on four is an all on four is an all on four, and the results are all the same.
So that’s the frame you’re trying to use at price shoppers. You don’t need to pre-qualify them. They’ve already kind of pre-qualified themselves with their behavior and the way that they’re interacting with you. This guy is not a price shopper. This guy’s not trying to negotiate. This guy’s saying, I’ll do whatever I need to do. I’ll work six days a week. Uh, if I have to put some down, I’ll put some down. If I have to pay, pay some as we go, whatever to pay. If I have to maintain it a little bit more than usual, I’ll maintain it. I’ll do whatever I need to do. This is a pre-qualify. All right? Do-, and and do not confuse the two because you, you handle these two-, those two types of patients, completely different. Price shoppers over here, right? And, and desperation over here.
Patient: That’s what I want.
Melissa: Okay, well good. I think I have a good idea of where we’re at.
Patient: Mm-hmm.
Melissa: Um, what I’m gonna do-do now, is get Miss Jessica, she’s one of our assistants. She’s gonna come in and take your CBCT scan, the 3D scan.
Patient: Mm-hmm
Melissa: And I’m just gonna write a few notes for him.
Bart: So here’s what I would’ve done, right? So we’re moving ahead to the second 10. What I would’ve done is say, “Hey, let’s figure out what kind of options that we have available financially. If you need a bank payments, let’s look at what kind of payments we can get approved for. Now you give me that because… I want, I want the doctor to talk to you about something that’s realistic, right? We-, it’s not like you only have one thing, that you can go with the one thing only. We have to figure out what’s realistic here. So, would you rather put more money down, have a less payment or less money down, have a higher payment?” He’s gonna say “Less money down. Have a higher payment.” Okay, “How much are you thinking, 10,000, 15?” And you lead with that and watch the reaction. Because if, “Oh God no, I can’t do that.” Right? I’m thinking this is probably not even going to the second 10, or I’m 100% going to run this patient through Proceed, and, and, and Care credit like right now. So if he says something like 5,000, I could put $5,000 down. Okay. I would run them through, I’d say, okay, let’s see what-, let’s, let’s see kind of what are our options are from a financial standpoint.
And this will be good information to give to the doctor ’cause look, I know that you wanna a 10 out of 10 in, in terms of aesthetics, a 10 out of 10 in terms of function. And I know that you’ll do whatever you need to do for the maintenance. And that’s-, that goal is not gonna change, right? But what we need to do is make sure that we’re getting you as close to that goal as possible, moving in the right direction for something that you can afford, something that will work with your financial situation. The only thing that makes no sense is walk out in the same condition that you’re in right now and, and allow for further deterioration. Does that make sense? We’re on the same page there. Yep. Okay. Because what I’m thinking is, if they say five, I’m thinking, okay, if he says five, that probably means eight or 10. And depending on what your prices are, you know what I mean? You might be able to do, uh, lower borrow of a denture with an opposing denture just to get the guy in something. You know what I mean? And that might be what, 12, 13,000 bucks. And if he can come up with 8 or 9,000 cash, I would probably do that and allow him to in-house finance the last three or 4,000, right? But what I want, I want my plan.
I wanna know what’s possible here. If he gets approved, forget it. I’m not going through any of this. We’re gonna continue on, right? And we’re gonna do it the same way we always would, right? X plus Y, equal Z, we’re gonna just keep going. But if he doesn’t get approved, I have to conceptualize a treatment right here. I have to conceptualize and gain agreement on some kind of a dollar amount right here. And then I can give the information to the doctor, and doctor can support it by saying, “Yeah, this is a much better situation than you’re in right now. Let me give you an idea in terms of what we can-, what you can expect, and how we can timeline this out and how I can do the case where, you still have options moving forward, right? To upgrade the material or to turn something removable into something fixed. Here’s kind of what that looks like. And here’s what you can expect from an aesthetic standpoint, from a function standpoint.” They can support it, but we’re all living in the same reality at that point. And you’re not-, and we’re not wasting any time. You know, he said five, I’m gonna guess this person can do eight, especially judging by their desperation. If he can’t, if he can’t do eight, I’m gonna take the five and give him two months to give me the eight. Once he gives me the eight, then we’ll do the case at 12 and we’ll hold the note on four. But I would want more than 50% down with this guy to do it. Make sense? And listen to him. Would this guy not be better off? Right? Than it-, than his current situation, if he had a snap in lower opposing a denture upper? It would be huge difference for him from a function and certainly, God! From an aesthetic point of view, it would be night and day.
So this is part of it, is understanding what’s possible. And then you guys always are making your backup plan. That’s why I always wanna know what kind of capital they’re working with. Um, because I want to know in the event that I get a decline, I already have an idea. This person said they’ve been saving for years, they can afford 20, it’s a double arch case. It’s gonna be 50. Worst case scenario, I know I’ve got a single arch, single arch opposing a denture. I got it. Or you got two removables, you got options there, right? So they’re not gonna, I’m not gonna present a double arch, get a decline and let that person leave. I’m gonna get a decline. We’re basically, we’re immediately going to go to our backup plan, sell it conceptually s-, sell it conceptually, we’re gonna gain agreement on what type of outcome that they can expect. And then we’re gonna re-pitch it as the next best thing and the only logical direction to go in, right? And-and-and it doesn’t change your goal, we’re-, it’s just gonna take us longer to get there, but better to do something. Make sense guys? Okay. I’m gonna go to…
Melissa: Yes, makes sense.
Bart: Alright, awesome. I’m gonna go to the third 10 here real quick.
Nima: Bart, one question.
Bart: Yes, sir.
Nima: So, um, from, uh, what you’re saying, uh, like we have a lot of information from the forms and kind of the conversation that is happening over the phone. Uh, and it seems like more than 60% of the patients are the ones who bring up payment plan and insurance and all that. I mean, same type of verbiage that we’re seeing in this video. So would you say that we triage all of them in the first 10? Or that would be kind of rude?
Bart: It would be rude if they didn’t bring it up first. But again, it’s how they bring it up, right? So the question, if you’re unsure, okay, and they’re asking you directly about payment plans, you know, and they, and they sound kind of desperate, the question you want to ask is, “Yeah, we, we do, we’ve got plenty of payment plans. There’s tons of different options depending on what you want. Give me an idea of what you’re looking for. Are you looking to put more money down and have a lower payment, or less money down and have a higher payment?” Right? And they’re gonna say less money down and have a higher payment. Okay. “So what, what are you prepared to put down on, on some type of a, some type of a treatment? Are you prepared with? I mean, what are you thinking? You’re gonna put down 10,000, 15, 12, 8? Like, what-what, how much are you thinking about putting down?” And if they say something like a thousand bucks. Okay, let me see what I can, do. You have your license handy. I’m gonna try to get you a pre-approval right now. Well, a thousand dollars, it’s-, if, if they don’t get approved, you’re done. You know what I’m saying? So just do it right then. But if somebody says they got 10 grand to put down, you don’t wanna triage that. Bring them in. They got 10,000 bucks, that means they got 12, 15, maybe 16,000. So I don’t care if they get approved or not, they have 10,000 in cash, I, I’m bringing that person in. We can, we can help them in one way, shape, or form for 10,000 bucks. If we can’t, something’s wrong.
Female Staff 1: And what about if for instance, a patient comes in and they’re still set on, I want the partial, I want the partial, I don’t want the all in four, they’re like, set on they want the cheaper alternative, but I know that I can get the all in four out of what they’re already approved for? But they’re still like, oh, because it lowers my [inaudible] score, I’m trying to buy a house. I’d rather…
Bart: Well, that’s a, that’s a whole another problem, right? And that’s exactly why you don’t just present treatments, you know what I mean? Because they’ll pick and choose and they’re typically going to try to find some type of a logical justification for the lowest one to save some money. So you don’t want-, you don’t wanna sell that way, right?
Female Staff 1: Right.
Bart: You wanna sell in terms of, “Hey, what, what options do you have? There’s a million options. The question is, what do you want it to do? Then I’ll show you how to do it. But what do you want it to do? You gotta help me here. What do you want from an aesthetic point of view? How important is it? What do you want from a function? What do you want from longevity? What do you want in terms of maintenance?” You have to get them to describe the clinical outcome of what you’re going to pitch. So that changing it doesn’t make sense. And they’re like, “Well, I also had another doctor say that I could get a removable denture.” You say, “Well, of course, you’re a candidate for if you’re, you’re a candidate for this, you’re also a candidate for a removable denture. You’re also a candidate for a regular denture. You’re also a candidate to have all your teeth extracted and walk home with no teeth. Like you’re-you’re also a candidate to do nothing. You’re also a candidate to place an implant in every single site and do individual crowns, right? The question isn’t what you’re a candidate for. The question is, what is the most efficient way for us to treat you to arrive at this place, which you said you wanted to be. And that’s this, right? So you can’t have to say this treatment versus that treatment. No, because that treatment only exists because it gives a completely different outcome, which you said you didn’t want.
Now, if financially this is impossible, right, then we can talk about other things in different ways to stage this out to where you can reach your goal in time, right? But it’s not like, “Hey, I’m gonna pick the treatment plan because this is a lower price. Because you’re not-, even, even if you’re happy with the price you pay right now, six months down the road when you’re like, ‘God, you know what? I don’t like the way these things look, these things don’t feel real. Right? I can feel them move in and kind of like sliding, or I don’t like this taking in and out.’ All of a sudden you don’t care about it anymore, you know. And that’s why you do things in the most logical manner, which is what’s the outcome that I want? And what’s the easiest way to get it? Fastest, easiest, most efficient way that we can get it.“
So that’s a, that’s a different thing. But that’s the-the-the whole purpose of the sales process is that. If you guys have somebody that is approved and they have the funds to move forward with the treatment plan, then there shouldn’t ever be a conversation about a backup, unless you went through multiple treatment options or multiple ideas during the consultation, which you don’t want to do, right? That, that would be… an error, uh, because you’re kind of setting that up to happen at that point. So, uh, just figure out where they are, where they want to be, present one treatment plan and go. And then the only way you’re rolling it back is if there’s a financial obstacle that can’t be overcome and you have to stage it out, and then stage it out. It’s better to, hey, it’s, it’s 10,000, 12,000, 13, $15,000 cases. Even if, say you were gonna charge 16 and the, and the person only had 10. Ten Thousand down to hold the note for six months on 6,000, if they could do a thousand a month, I would probably do that. I would at least always bring that to the doctor. ‘Cause at least we’re giving the doctor or who-, whoever owns the practice, we’re giving them a pathway to move forward. And that $6,000 is accounts receivable.
Now, if someone wanted to put down 2,000, and do 16, we’re not doing that. That’s crazy. Uh, but that’s exactly the reason why you want to know the capital. So I don’t want you guys to get over-, get overly aggressive and start triaging everybody on the phone. That is not what I’m saying. They don’t bring it up, bring them in for a consultation. If they bring it up but they’re asking about cost, they’re questioning you in about cost, that doesn’t mean run them. That means that-that you might be dealing with a price shopper. The dead giveaway is the overabundance of de-, of desperation asking for monthly payments. And it’s just too easy of a sale. Is it too easy? Like they’re done. You know what I mean? They’re not giving you any objections at all. They’re not hard at all. Like that’s kind of a dead giveaway for when you want to find out how much capital they have. But you have to do it in that sequence, um, otherwise, like I’ve had clients that were getting tons of leads and they would have, you know, five or six people that would come in and they weren’t qualified and it made the doctor upset, which then made the treatment coordinator made upset, which then made the patient advocate upset. And then they were-, you, you see this huge overreaction by the patient advocate qualifying everybody, asking for credit scores, throwing out prices, doing all this over the phone, and all of a sudden the consultations go from, “Hey, we had 20 last month to where we, we don’t have any this month, but we got one.” You, you, you don’t, you don’t want that either, right?
So, a price shopper, that’s one thing. If you feel like they need to be pre-qualified, start with the capital, and then based on the capital number that they give you. Anything under 10, run them. Anything over 10, schedule them. You guys got it? Okay, cool. Alright, we’re gonna keep going here with the third 10. And see-, you guys see how this kind of works out here.
Melissa: That’s amazing.
Patient: That’s a good start.
Melissa: Yeah. So the best thing is, is you can get what you want out of this. You know, you are a perfect candidate for getting exactly what you want, you know, so he did talk about, you know, this one so I wanna elaborate. Do you have any questions about the fixed, um, anything like that? Pretty much.
Bart: Now, you guys didn’t see the second 10. I like what she’s doing right here because the second 10, frankly it wasn’t super clear. There was a lot of things kind of discussed, um, but it wasn’t like, “Hey, this is the treatment plan, here’s what we’re gonna do. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.” So I, I like how she celebrates the candidacy, but now she wants to make sure this guy understands exactly what the doctor is recommending, um, because it wasn’t totally clear in the second 10. So if you guys ever feel like, eh, we kind of talked about a lot of things, I’m not sure that they still understand exactly what’s involved here, then do this. Right? Do you have any questions on the fixed, just to summarize, here’s what we’re looking at. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And then, and then keep going. So, um, Melissa’s just doing a really, really good job with this.
Melissa: But I’ll, I’ll make it as brief as possible. [crosstalk] You come in, you have surgery, you leave that day with your teeth.
Patient: The same day.
Melissa: Yes.
Patient: Okay.
Melissa: There is some healing involved.
Patient: Alright, I understand.
Melissa: Of course, you know…
Patient: [inaudible] I tell you, what have you when you have surgery.
Melissa: Yeah. So you leave that day what we call, quote unquote, like your healing denture, if that makes sense.
Patient: Mm-hmm.
Melissa: And then once everything is done healing, then we put your permanent in.
Bart: See, obviously none of this was discussed in the second 10. You know what I mean? So she’s going, okay, before I present the price and try to close this thing, I have to make sure that this patient is crystal clear on what exactly we’re going to do. So this is exactly the right thing to do here.
Melissa: But you still will not go without anything.
Patient: No, you have to wait to but the last one in after all the swelling and stuff, whatever goes down in it and put the ones in.
Melissa: Absolutely.
Patient: And you’re good to go. Yes!
Melissa: So, but you do not go without teeth during this entire process.
Patient: Absolutely. [inhales]
Melissa: Alright. Alright. So now here’s the big, let’s let’s get into that little bit harder stuff, okay?
Patient: Okay.
Melissa: So the fixed is the best of the best.
Patient: Mm-hmm.
Melissa: Have you done research on cost and stuff like that? You already-, do you even know ballpark of where we’re at? Okay. All right. So getting the fix is kind of like buying a car.
Patient: Yeah.
Melissa: Okay.
Patient: [inaudible] I know that.
Melissa: Um, so they usually start out. Um, so typically most places around here, and with us, we do a bundle cost. Okay?
Patient: Mm-Hmm,
Melissa: If I’m, if I nickel and dimed and priced every single thing out, right, you’re looking at like $40,000 per arch. Okay? We do it for 31. Okay? That’s per arch. Um, that includes…
Bart: Now look, so this isn’t set up normal, right? Going through the bundles. Um, what I’m guessing here, is that she’s doing basically what I would’ve done kind of in, in the first 10, which is just, she’s like, “All right, we need to get to the point here to see if this dude can do this or not. So I’m not gonna take a lot of time, I’m just gonna get straight to it, throw a number out, see how he reacts, see if I can get him approved.” Like she’s just getting to the point ’cause she’s not worried about not closing him. This guy’s an-, if he is approved, this guy’s an easy close, it’s over, right? He hasn’t given one objection, like he’s done if he’s approved. So I think she’s just trying to get to the, to get to the point here. Um, and this is an example of something that you could do in the first 10, right? In, in this situation, right before she moved to the second 10. This is kind of where, where, um, she could have gone before we got in with the doctor. ‘Cause the thing is with Melissa, she’s highly efficient. She communicates really well. She’s doing an amazing job. Um, she only took about seven minutes in the first 10, so she got through it. I would’ve rather get through 10 minutes, figure out the financial situation, and then that consults either over or we’re going into the second 10 with a very specific dollar amount for the doctor to fit a treatment plan. And one of the two, because the doctor, the doctor took way longer on the second 10 than she took in the first and third combined, which can happen sometimes, you know what I mean? Going through all these different options and scenarios that probably aren’t relevant to this particular patient.
Melissa: …point A to point B, doesn’t matter how many times you walk in this door…
Nima: Hey, Bart, we can’t hear the video. At least I can’t…
Bart: Mm. Try to turn up the volume or do you have headphones plugged in or something?
Nima: Yeah. But I can hear you clearly.
Bart: That’s weird. Everybody else can hear the video, right?
Leslie: Yeah. Loud and clear.
Female Staff 2: Yes.
Bart: I don’t know dude. I’m the worst tech guy in the world…
Female Staff 2: Yes.
Bart: …here. I, I, I can’t even begin to troubleshoot it. I guess just read it ’cause it was almost done.
Melissa: …you come in here. We do an all inclusive, it doesn’t matter. He says, “Hey, we’re gonna do four implants and we end up doing seven.” I don’t charge you anything different than that. This is a bundle cost. Okay? So you’re looking at top and bottom being at 62, is a 31 for top, 31 one for bottom.
Patient: Okay.
Bart: Look at her. She knows there ain’t no way.
Melissa: What’s your thoughts on that?
Patient: What’s the payment run on that?
Melissa: So do you know what your credit score is?
Patient: It ain’t the best in the world.
Melissa: Okay.
Patient: I mean, I went through a bad divorce and…
Melissa: I understand.
Bart: But again, what he wants for payment, it doesn’t even matter. How much money did he have? We’re gonna find out right now. How much can you put down? You put down 10? No. Okay. What can you put down? You tell me. I can put down three, four, five. Okay, cool. Got your license, let’s figure out what options we got. And then go, forget it. Like I’m-I’m not using a whole lot of words here at this point because as soon as I get that number I’m gonna know does this entire thing hinge on this or not. And I want to get down, I want to get down to it as fast as possible. So if I have to switch to a plan B, I still have time to switch to a plan B, pitch it and get it signed and, and collected today and scheduled.
Patient: It kind of left me bad, you know, she took everything and…
Melissa: Yeah.
Patient: …it was just, and I’ve been trying to get my credit score back up and it’s just been hard, you know? I mean…
Melissa: Oh, it’s, it’s definitely hard to do it. Believe me.
Patient: It’s hard. I mean…
Melissa: When I met my husband and his was in the four’s, so I-I get it. You know, we’ve been working on his for a while.
Patient: It’s just hard when you by yourself, but, you know, life goes on. I mean, I never thought that would happen after 31 years, but then it did. So I mean… but it ain’t the best in the world, but it ain’t the worst neither.
Melissa: Do you have an idea of where it’s at?
Patient: [exhales] I would say maybe… I can’t be too sure, four something maybe.
Melissa: Got it. Okay.
Patient: I know it’s bad, but I think it’s in the four’s or something.
Melissa: Gotcha. Okay. And then I know you said you possibly have something to put down.
Patient: Yeah.
Melissa: What are you thinking for that amount?
Patient: I could put 2,000. Or a thousand.
Melissa: Okay.
Patient: 1,500, whatever, you know, I need.
Melissa: Gotcha.
Patient: I mean, what do I need to do to help get the ball rolling, you know? I don’t want to delay time just kind of let me know. We’ll do what we got to do.
Melissa: Right.
Bart: So, she like, e-even asking about the credit score, like so what we’re gonna run it, you’re, you’re about to find out, you know what I mean? Figure out how much money they have first and then get their driver’s license and run it and see if they get approved for anything. Then go, don’t get, approved for anything, then you address it. 2,000 bucks, this is, this is probably going to be a triage. Um, but-, unless you said, listen, you know, two, 2,000 bucks, you’re, you’re not even in the-, for $2,000, you’re not even in the single dental implant category at 2,000. You can’t get one dental implant with a crown. Right? And you’re kind not in the denture category either for two well made dentures. You’re not really there either. So I know you want to do what’s comfortable, but right now we have to talk about what’s possible, not comfortable.
You may have to give up certain things that you do, right, for a period of time to be able to put more down here. Because if, if you, if you can’t get in the, you know, seven, $8,000, six, seven, $8,000 range in terms of what you’re willing to put down at the, the stage in which your teeth are, you’re gonna be very, very limited. So the question is not what you wanna put down. We’re past that. Right? It’s what can you put down, right? And if you can put down say five, the next question is what do you have that you could sell… to get more? Because you really need to end up somewhere between 10, $12,000 to start looking at getting you in some type of a full arch option, right? And I’m not even going into removable or fix or anything ’cause it, I’m trying to figure out a dollar amount right before I triage the guy. But credit score, well, whatever. A lot of people, some people know, some people don’t know, but I’m gonna run it anyways. Figure out the dollar amount and go from there. Who had a question?
Lisa: I, I did Bart, real quick. Lisa, I just had a question on why would we jump into the $62,000 hybrid when from the start it seemed this person didn’t have that much money. Why not present maybe the over denture or the one arch to try to make him feel a little better? Because I think that 62,000 for someone who was from the start saying, “I’m very much on a limited budget, I can only pay a certain amount.” Like why present a hybrid and not an over denture?
Bart: Well I think that’s kind of the lesson here. I think the reason why they didn’t present something different is because we didn’t know for sure what the situation is, right? We never got that 100% clarity, right? The guy said, I work six days a week. He said, I don’t make all the money in the world, but I make enough money and I’m willing to do whatever it takes. If I gotta put some money down, I’ll put some money down. He just wasn’t specific. I think, I believe his exact words were, [crosstalk] if I gotta put a little something down, I’ll put a little something down. So she kind of, he kind of gave Melissa, oh sorry, you got it. He kinda gave Melissa enough to where, I mean, she had the right instincts. She had the right instincts. I think the, the lesson here is when you look at it, you look at the totality of it. This is somebody you want to be specific with [crosstalk] and figure out the capital. Now, once you know the capital, if he would’ve said, “Hey, I can put 2,000 down.” She’s gonna do basically what, what’s happening right now? She’s gonna do it right then, right? I’d say, “Well, okay, let’s figure out what kind of payments I can get you approved for before we go see the doctor, just to make sure that we have options there. Because what’s the point in talking about the best of the best in terms of treatment and giving you everything that you want if financially it’s impossible?
So let’s, let’s kind of, let’s cross this bridge right now and we’ll go from there. You got a, a driver’s license handy? I would do that right then. Okay. The guy gets declined. Say, “Listen, we’re not able to secure any type of payments.” We say, “You got some credit challenges, so let’s kinda go to plan B. Okay? Now I know you said what you wanna put down or you could put a little something down, but now we’re kind of getting to the point where it’s not about what you wanna put down or what you’re comfortable putting down, it’s about what can you put down? Because at $2,000, just to give you an idea here, $2,000 is, is not even in the realm of one implant with one crown. And for you, we gotta do full upper and full lower. You understand? So now I’m not saying you can’t do anything, but what I’m saying is we are going to have to figure out how you can come up with some more capital? We have to start getting a lot closer to 10, 12 than two really fast to have any viable option.”
Lisa: So you would’ve triaged this all day long in the first 10.
Bart: Totally.
Lisa: Okay. So…
Bart: Well, only if he said 2,000 though guys. like like, I would’ve just got the number in the first 10. If he says 2,000, I’m running it. Now, if he would’ve told me, “Hey, I’ve got 15 grand to put down,” no, I’m not running it. I’m not running it. And I’ll still-, I don’t mind pitching 61, 62 at that point because I know if I don’t get them approved for 61, 62, I have an airtight plan B, that I can fall back on. And I know they’re qualified and they can buy it.
Melissa: So I, I don’t know if this is a good thing and you please let me know what you think. So what we do is if we know that the patient’s starting to get squirmy about money and, and tells us that information, you know, we’re letting them that know that no matter what, we’ll get them closer to the outcome they’re looking for.
Bart: Mm-Hmm.
Melissa: Um, no matter what the treatment is. And we, we let them know we can get pre-, we can pre-qualify now and we could always reverse, the, engineer, the treatment to get you as close as we possibly can to the outcome you’re looking for. And in his, in his situation, it’s really easy because the main thing he wants to do is eat. That’s the main thing. He mentioned aesthetics, but it’s all been surrounding upon eating. Um, so I don’t know if that’s the right thing to do, but that’s how we…
Bart: That’s exactly what I’m saying. That’s exactly what I’m, that’s exactly what I’m suggesting. It’s just, again, you guys want to, you wanna, we’re trying to get from open to close and straight line, right. And getting from open to triage in a straight line is just as important as open to close, because time is money and the doctors have things, they have other things that they can be doing during that time. Plus, if the guy says 2,000 bucks and I start talking to him, he goes, you know what man? I do have an extra car that I could sell. Right? I do have a car. I could probably get some money for it. I could probably sell that for about five grand more. You know what I mean? And we can get him to seven or 8,000. Yep
Female Staff 1: So I have a question.
Bart: Yep
Female Staff 1: So earlier in the video, he was saying that he was talking with his daughter and his daughter was also in agreeance with him and you know, he was voicing his concern to her. Wouldn’t it be a lot of these credit companies also let you send the link to family members. So do you think it would be good to tell the patient at that moment, you know, we can also have your daughter use her credit to help you to get where you need to go.
Bart: Yes. And I use it. I use it at the very, very end. You know why?
Female Staff 1: Okay.
Bart: Because his daughter’s not in the room.
Female Staff 1: Right.
Bart: You know what I mean?
Female Staff 1: Mm-hmm.
Bart: So I’m trying to figure out, right. Even if his daughter ends up, they end up doing it and then he could buy the whole 60, right…
Female Staff 1: Right.
Bart: …coz she is approved, she’s not there right now. So I’m trying to get a plan B, that I can close on. Once we close on it, I’ll say, “Listen, if you go home, this is gonna be the plan for right now. But if you go home, talk to your daughter, she says, ‘Hey, I’ll help you get the fixed. I can do it right over the phone.’ You have her call me. We’ll run it and we can very quickly, we can upgrade this and change you-, change the schedule and get you on the board for a fix.” [crosstalk] It’s just, if you lead with that, if you lead with it, you’re, you’re giving them a reason to not do it now and tell you, “Oh well okay, I’ll talk to her and call you back.”
Female Staff 1: Correct. That’s true.
Bart: So, I wanna try to figure out can I get 10 grand? Right? Can I start them off with a removable.
Female Staff 1: So the [inaudible] would be the least. That would be the last part we, might go for.
Bart: Yeah, because you know, it’s over then. ‘Cause I mean, she’s not there.
Female Staff 1: Yeah.
Bart: If she was in the room that, that’s a whole another discussion ’cause I, I’m gonna get both of their licenses.
Female Staff 1: Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.
Bart: Cool. Here, I’ll keep going real quick.
Melissa: Yeah, yeah.
Bart: Actually…
Melissa: So the hard part of doing this is…
Bart: Actually I’ll just get to it ’cause obviously, she didn’t even need to run them here ’cause he said it’s a 400 [laugh], I mean 400. Right? So you’re, you’re not, you’re not getting approved. Um, but I’ll say…
Female Staff 1: Probably in Proceed.
Bart: Four hundred, you ain’t getting approved. No, you ain’t getting approved.
Female Staff 1: They said in Foun-, they said when we were in Fountain Blue in Miami, he said they had a new company so…
Bart: Show me, show me the money ’cause I haven’t seen it. 400?
Melissa: We have one. We have one Bart.
Bart: A 400 get approved!
Melissa: Absolutely.
Bart: No.
Melissa: We have one. I swear we have a company.
Female Staff 1: With Proceed?
Melissa: Uh, nope. Not with Proceed. So Proceed is working on, um, matching with, uh, one main financial, that’s something…
Female Staff 1: Exactly. [crosstalk] [inaudible]
Melissa: … for the end of this quarter, which is normally they’re in the, in the secured loans. But I have a company that we utilize and we use it supplemental and for patients, um, it really depends and gauges based off of their ability of monthly payment because they will give one year interest rate up to $15,000. Whether they have good credit, no credit, terrible credit, even, even no social patients that have ITIN’s, they do take risk.
Female Staff 1: Wow!
Melissa: But it is a four, it is a 5% fee on our end. Um, so you get 35% upfront.
Bart: Yeah.
Melissa: And then once they complete their term, it is, [throat clearing] you get the remaining 60%. It is a risk, we use it as a supplemental and with our smaller cases, but with a denture, think about what your actual overhead is on that. And it definitely is helpful. We’ve also teared out [crosstalk].
Bart: Well hold on, but hold on, hold on. Let me, lemme just stop ’cause that that’s not a loan. You know what I’m saying? So it’s totally diff when I say it, you’re not getting approved at a 400 credit score with an unsecured loan for 60 grand. That’s what I’m saying. Right?
Melissa: Well, not with 60. but…
Bart: Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa: …with 15, and we’ve…
Bart: Melissa, hold on because we’re out of time girl. We’re out of time girl. We’re out of time. Lemme lemme wrap this up. Hold on. I’ll tie, I’ll put a bow on it for you. I promise. Okay. So, so when it comes to this, this type of situation, okay, that’s another reason why I say like I don’t ever really ask them what their credit score is because I already know I’m gonna run them. So I’m just gonna run them anyways, right? And then whatever happens, happens. What I wanna know is the capital, if you know what the capital is, that’s gonna help you guys immediately understand, hey, is this somebody I might sub out to a third party to handle the, um, the accounts receivables for us? Or is this somebody that can put down 8,000 bucks on a $12,000 removable, because $8,000 on the $12,000 removable, I don’t want to pay a 5% fee. I’ll, I’ll take the risk on eight on 12. You know what I mean? I’ll take the risk on 15 on 20 or on 20 on 23, 25 no problem. You know what I mean? Especially because, you know, you can start the monthly payments pretty much immediately and you can tweak the schedule where you already have the vast majority of your money beforehand. But it all boils down to the capital that you’re dealing with and finding that out, for sure. Whatever they tell you, they’re gonna lie by 50 to 100%. Okay? So they tell you five, it’s 7,500 to 10,000 bucks that they could actually do. And that’s why I’m giving you the specific language to use with them. It’s not about what you wanna put down anymore. It’s not about that. ‘Cause the dollar that you wanna put down doesn’t even get you one implant and I need all upper and all lower, now it’s what can you put down and let’s see how far we can get.
Then the next question is, what can you sell or leverage? How do we free up more more funds? Because we have to get you to that 10, $12,000 range to start looking at an implant solution. Some type of a denture that’s actually anchored instead of just two dentures. If we have to do two dentures, we’ll do two dentures. But you’re gonna be way better off, e-especially on the lower if you’ve got the implants in there. And then we can get to the fix later. So this is just like sequencing, right? Operating in the right sequence as efficiently as possible. But I also wanna say, when I watched this video, I was super impressed with Melissa and how she followed the 10, 10, 10. She stayed on time on the first 10. She stayed on time on the second 10. She kind a recovered from a little bit of, uh, a little bit of confusion in the second 10. She did a really good job recovering from that in the third. She followed the script. She had great tonality. Um, she got in a really, really good rapport. I thought this was an amazing job from somebody that had just started the program and gone through the online learning. Um, I think that this was great. There-there was, there was 99 things that were amazing about this, that we could, that we could do the video on to show an example of what to do. Um, and I think that this was also a really good example of, of one, of a case that was tricky. ‘Cause he didn’t come out and say, “I don’t have any money.” And he didn’t come out and say, um, you know, “Hey, I’ve got a 400 credit score.” He didn’t say any of that in the first 10. So it was borderline. It was borderline. Um, you know, and I think everybody deals with this situation where you guys are in the first 10, you’re going, “Ooh, um, this person is kind of sounding like they don’t have any money. Should I qualify them? Should I bring it up? Should I ask them if they have a price in their head? Should I go ahead and get them, you know, finance? Should I see if I can get them approved?” I think this happens all the time with you guys.
So in summary, make sure that you remember you’re gonna, if they ask about price or bring it up at all, you are gonna put them in the price shopping bucket or the desperation bucket. Okay. Price shopping bucket is, is is a framing issue, right? Where we’re gonna deflect and we’re gonna start to re-frame. And the desperation budget, the only thing in your mind is how much capital does this person have to put down? And the easiest way that doesn’t come across rude is not, is to not ask them, “Hey, how much, how much money are you thinking about? Or how much can you afford?” You don’t wanna say that, right? If they say ask something about payments and they have that desperation aspect to them, say, “Okay, well let’s see kinda what’s available. So gimme an idea on what you’re looking for as far as monthly payments. Do you wanna put more down, have less of a payment or less down and have more of a payment?” They’re gonna choose one. Then you ask them to be specific on the number. Based on the number, under 10,000 bucks, ask for their driver’s license, run them. Over 10,000 bucks, continue with the call. I want to like do it in that sequence and you guys are gonna be unbelievably efficient.
And on the next one we’ll try to get an example of a price shopper so that we can go through, okay, how do we need to frame it in the first 10 to help the doctor as much as we can in the second. Sound good?
Melissa: Absolutely.
Bart: All right. Awesome. Awesome. And Melissa, if you’re on the call, you did great. Um, and you guys have a, have a happy Valentine’s Day. Anything you need from us, give us a call. If you, if you don’t have, uh, if you’re not on schedule for the power sessions, then get with one of your-, get with whoever your trainer is and schedule ‘em out for the year. We’re just, we’re we’re booking up and I just have to know when we need to open up another date. Right? And we’ve got some coming on the west coast for some of our West Coast people, so they have to travel all the way to Florida for one day. Um, so make sure that you guys get on the calendar ’cause a lot of you have a tendency to get-, to try to register for a power session like the week of a power session. And the seats are gonna be gone. I mean, the one, the, the facility that we’re using is at implant pathways in Phoenix for the West coast and I think we’re capped at 80 people there. 80 seats and that’s it.
Melissa: I [inaudible] it was 70.
Bart: Here in Florida we’ve got like… Yeah, 70 or 80. Here in Florida, we’ve got 115, but that’s it. We’re, we’re capped. So try to look at the schedule for the year and just pick your dates and regi-, just pre-register for ‘em. Okay?
Nima: Thank you so much. Ashley… [crosstalk]
Bart: Okay, guys.
Nima: …do you have the company name?
Bart: Do I what?
Speaker 2 : Ashley?
Nima: Oh, Ashley, uh, if she can share the company name, the financing or the, the one that she was talking about with the 400 monthly payments?
Melissa: No, the 400 credit score.
Nima: 400 credit score.
Bart: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ashley: I didn’t get the name.
Female Staff 1: Sharing is caring. [laugh]
Bart: Well, hey, we’ll we can send out, we can send out, um, an email with that. I just don’t want, I don’t want that to be confused with a loan.
Nima: Right.
Bart: You guys know what I’m saying?
Female Staff 1: Yeah.
Bart: Because there are certain situations guys where you don’t want to take less than 50% down and do the case. You know what I mean? So 35%, like even if I’m outsourcing it, it sells 35% plus I’m paying 5% of the total right up front. You just have to understand the difference between a loan and a collection agency. Okay. [crosstalk] And not that that’s bad. It’s not bad. It’s definitely an option.
Ghazal: I’m sorry to interrupt, I do wanna make a comment actually. So when we came to Miami, um, for your conference, Proceed was the closing, um, speech and they mentioned that they’re working on extend-, extending their, um, limit and lowering, um, the credit score. .
Bart: Mm-hmm.
Ghazal: …um, but that I haven’t, um, experienced that I actually did bring it up to my progressive, uh, representative as well. Um, I did try to actually get somebody qualified with, um, uh, owning a company and they actually have a job. And um, so everything was perfect on paper. They still required more documents and it took a very long time. I was lucky that the patient was patient, and I finally got it approved with Proceed and Care credit at the same time. So I-, they wanted to pay fully. So that happened. But if you don’t mind checking with Proceed or, um, seeing what’s happening. ‘Cause I’ve had a lot of patients with like, um, average credit score that have been not getting approved. Um, and um, I thought they’re, you know, they’re working on making it a little bit more user friendly on that end.
Bart: Yeah, they are. And-and I’ll tell you what about when it comes to, um, when it comes to Proceed and comes to Dave, they’re always looking for ways to do that. It’s just a difficult thing to do. Um, but if you have a situation where someone’s like borderline, they didn’t give you a decline, but it’s not approved yet. If it’s gonna take them going back home, get more documentation, what you wanna do is just kind of assume that it’s gonna happen. I would go ahead and say, all right, here, here’s what we’re gonna do. Don’t worry if they require a little bit more documentation, that’s no big deal. 99 out of a hundred times all of these go through. So I’m not really gonna worry about it. Let’s go ahead and get you scheduled. Let’s go ahead and take the records, blah, blah, blah. I, I move forward a hundred percent with the process, and then you get on the phone with Proceed, walk them through it and let them, let them do it. I just want them to leave thinking that they’re committed.
Ghazal: Yeah. yeah.
Bart: So that I don’t have to go resell it. You know what I mean?
Ghazal: Yeah. That yeah, a hundred percent. But, um, if you can check with them to see if they can at least do either or lower the credit or exceed the, you know, the limit.
Bart: Oh, you know what, Becky’s actually on the line. I got someone from Proceed actually on the line. And Becky, you want, do you want to take that?
Becky Kopecky: Yeah, I know…
Female Staff 1: Hi Becky.
Becky: Hello everyone. I appreciate the question and I know you are all anxiously awaiting our new secondary lender. Um, I ha-, the great news on our side. I know Dave did come to Miami and um, had mentioned January. Um, that has not came to fruition. So if you’re not seeing those approvals, the reason is we have not done full rollout yet. Um, unfortunately banks do always take a little bit longer than, um, we sometimes expect. But the great news here is that we are, um, currently doing user acceptance-acceptance testing, which means we’ve got the development done, our users are, um, going through a process of testing. We plan to be in beta, uh, by the end of this month, and then roll out in March. So this is actually the first time I’ve felt as though I’ve gotten concrete dates. Um, and so I would definitely expect by the end of this quarter that you guys should be seeing those approvals. Like I said, our old secondary lender went down to 580, um, and that has not been in place for you guys for quite a few months now. Um, but this new one will go down to 550. So we are very excited, um, to be offering approvals to some of those lower credit scores again.
Bart: Awesome. Okay. All right. Well great. Hey Becky, thanks. That was unexpected. You see now, that’s service right there. That’s service right there.
Becky: Anytime team. Anytime.
Bart: [Laugh]
Ghazal: Thank you so much.
Bart: Okay, guys. All right, ladies, happy Valentine’s Day. Go be sweet to your husband’s [laugh].
Female Staff 3: Thank you.
Bart: All right, bye-Bye.
Ghazal: Bye. Thank you.
Bart: See ya.
Female Staff 4: Bye. Thank you.
Female Staff 5: Thank you.
[END]