Bart: What’s up guys?

Brenda: Hi Bart.

Bart: Hello.

Brenda: Hi.

Bart: Hey.

Brenda: What’s up Bart?

Bart: What’s up with you, Brenda?

Brenda: You know, just trying to close some more cases.

Bart: You’re killing the cases?

Woman 1: I’m a little concerned about that as well.

Bart: Muted. Cool. Alright, cool, cool. Are we waiting for Chris too?

[pause]

Brenda, you’ve been closing some cases or what?

Brenda: Well, we’ve been a little weird with our schedule. And our, hold on one second, some changes here at PFD so I’ve been a little behind with the leads but I’ve been training up the girls to do that. Actually, that way we will get more leads in the door. But so far so good, I mean I closed implant-supported denture yesterday for 27k. That was nice.

Bart: Woah.

Brenda: I thought that was nice.

Bart: That’s real nice, one arch implant-supported dentures at 27?

Brenda: No, upper and lower, just a snap-on.

Bart: Alright, cool, cool.

Bart: Well, hey guys, I’m glad that I have a chance to get on with you, I’m actually catching a flight in about 2 hours to go to Las Vegas, to do the closing institute. But I spoke with Veronica and I want to do this with you guys today because we got a recording from one of the treatment coordinators that I thought was really good. And I thought it was a really good opportunity to learn. You know, sometimes you have patients come in and it’s not straightforward for a large case right from Jump Street. And it can kind of go off script a little bit.

So I wanted to take you through this sample where it’s a situation where it wasn’t super straightforward. Meaning that the guy didn’t really know that it needed full arch. He wasn’t there specifically looking full arch. He just had a lot of issues. So there were a couple of things, there were some things that Chris did really really well during the consultation. And I think there are some easy wins here too. So it’s just a classic case of having to do a little improv, you know, with the script. So I wanted to have a chance to go through with you guys. So make sure that if you guys have something to write with, you take notes as I go through it. I got a lot of notes to go through. I’m going to try to get through all of this in an hour.
But it’s Chris from Dr. Maximo’s office and he did a really really good job in actually using the script.

Hey, quick question. Are you guys, are you making sure that those patients are filling out the new patient intake form before you speak to them? Are they filling that out?

Good. If they don’t fill it out, the first thing you’re going to have to do is ask them “So what’s going on?”. And it’s going to be some big open-ended question. If they fill it out already, you already know what the pain points are and you can just ask them to elaborate on it. Seriously, it cuts out like 5 minutes minimum. Right, so you want to have that form filled out but also get them in the right mindset. They’ll list what their pain points are and they’ll tell you how it’s affecting their life and they’ll write it down. So they’ll have to be synced. It’s a huge huge help to have that information beforehand. If you don’t, you have to get it through dialogue.

So if you haven’t been doing it, try to make sure that whoever is at the front when those are patients checking in, get their new patient paperwork as soon as they turn that in, hand them the new patient intake form. That will ask them if this is a second opinion or not. It’ll ask them to summarize what their main concerns are, what’s going on. It’ll ask them to summarize how it’s affecting their life. It’ll ask them if they are the primary decision-maker in the household for medical or dental issues. It’s going to give you a lot of really good information that you can then start. You can open with a leading question and you are already 20% into the call. So if that’s not happening, make sure that it will help you to do that.

I’m going to go ahead and share this call on the first 10. And I’m going to spend a lot of time here because where this goes wrong, it kind of mess up the close for everybody because of one place that we went wrong in the first end. But you guys are going to be able to see exactly what I’m talking about. If you have any questions or anything any comments like that while I’m going through this, just type it in the chatbox, and then I’ll address them. Okay? Alright. And turn your volume up. This patient is kind of difficult to hear. He’s very soft-spoken. Chris is not difficult to hear but the patient is a little bit difficult.

Okay, is everybody muted?

David: Two kids, they’re working for me. So.

Chris: Oh, that’s awesome.

David: One daughter worked for [Inaudible].

Chris: Mm-hmm.

David: I got a daughter from Charles, South Carolina.

Chris: Okay.

Bart: Hold on, that was close. Let me share the right one. Okay.

Chris: Alright David, like I said, I’m Chris and I’m one of the implant coordinators here at the office. So my role to help you is just to help yourself and the doctor team find a customized plan that’s going to fit your needs to get you what you want.

David: Alright.

Chris: So, in order to do that, I just have to be super clear on 2 things for you. So the first is everything you’re going through right now. So any symptoms, any discomfort, any trouble chewing, anything that you just don’t like. Because that’s important to us. We need to be able to resolve that for you. And then the second thing is that we need to be clear on like a future vision. Things that you don’t like about your smile that you’ve wanted to improve. Just because our plans are very customizable. So we want to be able to find out where you are now and where you want to go. So we could get on an option that’s going to fit you [crosstalk]

David: Alright.

Chris: And for what you want. So can you first just start with what you’re going through right now?

David: These set of teeth.

Chris: Okay.

Bart: One quick comment, I thought he did a good job going with the script and trying to state his intentions there. But just make sure when you say the intention, the whole point of that little dialogue right there is to tell the patient “Hey, I’m here to get you what you want. In order for me to get you what you want, I need to know where you are now and where you want to be. So the more descriptive you are, the better I can help you.” Does that make sense? And you don’t want to move on from one point to the next without saying something like, “Does that make sense?” or “Does that sound fair?” or “You’re following me?” You want to make sure that you gain agreement on that simple concept. And the more you do it, the more you guys are going to be able to smooth it out.

But all we are trying to do with that is to have the patient make the connection that the treatment plan is going to be predicated on what they tell you they want. Does that make sense? The whole thing is set up to where their treatment planning themselves. So however you need to do it. Sometimes you can take you can utilize more words or less words, it doesn’t matter. But the patient, I want the patient to make the connection right up front, that I’m here to get them what they want. So they need to describe what’s going on now and then describe how they want to feel later. And then we’ll make a plan to eliminate the bad and get them the good. Okay? So always gain a grim before you move forward.

David: I have when I was a younger baby and I have my baby teeth and then I have another set and my mom took me in to get braces and everything.

Chris: Mm-hmm.

David: When we did, the doctors said that well you have another set of teeth coming out.

Chris: Okay.

David: So then teeth pushed these out. They’ve been straight and all of that but they are extremely soft.

Chris: Okay.

David: So they break easy. When you break them with an apple and then cavities are easy.

Chris: Mm-hmm.

David: And then, we’re in construction there in winter you get laid off, so you’ll have no money to do what’s normally do. And now I’m back to work and I like to get some stuff fixed. So I got a couple of broken teeth.

Chris: Okay.

David: And I got some cavities that have deteriorated

Chris: Okay.

David: So I’d like to get that fixed.

Chris: Alright.

David: And see about what we’re looking at as far as cost was. And the best way to [crosstalk]

Chris: Oh yeah, definitely. So you have any missing teeth right now?

David: I do.

Chris: Okay. Alright. And then.

David: Not like right in the front but I got a broken one right here.

Chris: Okay.

David: And then a broken one down here so.

Chris: Okay. Yeah, I understand. So just a couple of ones missing. And then like you said, just some cavities here and there that had fixed.

David: Like my tops, I got cavities, in my top, my front 2 teeth on the top, that’s pretty bad.

Chris: Okay. Alright. And then. Are you currently going to any dentist right now?

David: No.

Chris: Okay.

David: I have been here like 5 years ago.

Chris: Mm-hmm.

David: And I have one that broke that they’ve put a new one in.

Chris: Mm-hmm.

David: And then they put a stud in and put a new tooth in here.

Chris: Okay.

David: So I mean we could do that.

Chris: Yeah, definitely so you just, so correct me if I’m wrong but you want to try to get those cavities fixed, start restoring the teeth, restore the smile. Those types of things. Okay. That’s something we definitely help you out-

Bart: Hey Chris, you joined the call? You’re on, man?

Chris: Yeah, I’m here.

Bart: Cool. Hey, I know you just joined but I wanted to tell you before I kind of get too far into this. I think you did a lot of things really well on the call. You were going by the script and you did a good job in stating the intention. I think that you’ve improved a lot already. So you did a lot of things really good. I think this patient was a little difficult being that they were so quiet, they are a little bit more difficult to open up things like that but you did good, man. I think there’s some easy wins here for you, that you will going to be picked up from this call, that you can implement right away. That’s going to make a big difference, but you are already the majority the way there. So you’ve been doing great.

Chris: Well thank you. Yeah, this call was on May 20th. The last time I was there was at your guy’s place was on June 5th or 4th. That session after we picked up more.

Bart: Yeah.

Chris: I mean, I will say, you’ll see later in the video, Dr. Maximo and I talked about just being because when we get to the close more, we didn’t really have. If someone can’t get into the idea of what we want for them to full arch, what’s our secondary thing. In this one, I know that later on, I had to go out in the room and ask and things like that. So that’s what we talked about since.

Bart: Mh’hm.

Chris: I think that helped a couple more for the stance like you are full arch candidate and then we just go from what they can end up just doing.

Bart: Right.

Chris: That’s our story I guess.

Bart: Well, I think the big issue here is that we don’t know if he’s a full arch candidate during the first 10. You know, it doesn’t sound like he’s got his mind made up that that’s what he is nor do we actually know if he is a candidate for it upfront. So it kind of changes things a little bit. Okay?

Chris: Mm-hmm.

Bart: But guys where we are right now, you can see, we stayed into the intention and we kind of got into having the patient describe the things that are going wrong. Right? So the patient is talking about a couple of different things. They’re missing some teeth and they’ve got some cavities and they’ve got some broken teeth. Just a variety of different issues. The one thing I want to make sure is, we can know all the symptoms, and the symptoms are moderately useful but not extremely useful. What’s extremely useful that we’re trying to get to is the quality of life issues that the symptoms are creating. Right? So if I recapped, okay so you basically want to fix your cavities and your broken teeth and missing teeth. Yes, but that’s really not what they want to fix. That’s not what’s going to create the urgency. What we have to do and write this down. You have to make a connection between the pain points and the quality of life decrease that those pain points are creating. Does that make sense guys?

So I’ll give an example, I would probably recap it here in a little bit different way. So when they’re giving you symptoms that are like this and it’s not a super straight, it’s not straightforward and say “Hey, I’m missing all my teeth, I know I’m a candidate, blah, blah, blah, blah. How much is it?” Those guys are right down the middle. You know exactly what they are talking about. You know exactly how to handle it. But if it’s a situation where it could be a full arch reconstruction, it could be restored, it could be a lot of different things. Then we need to recap the pain points a little bit differently and dig a little bit more. So I might say something like, “Okay wow well, sounds like we have a lot of issues here. We have a few broken teeth, a few missing teeth, some pretty bad cavities on the front 2 teeth you said. Let me ask you, do you have any teeth that are loose or have any sensitivity or pain? What about discomfort while eating or chewing?” I got to dig to figure out. I wanted him to tell me, “Yeah. I’m in pain”. I want him to tell me, “Yeah, I haven’t been able to really eat this” or “Yeah, I got loose teeth” or ” It’s harder to talk” I have to dig a little bit to figure out what the urgency is. Nobody wants just to, he’s there for a reason I guarantee it. And it’s not because he’s just missing teeth. It’s because those missing teeth created a situation that’s giving him some heartburn at home. Right? We have to kind of find out what that is.

Okay, so the tactical mind is going to say here and go, “Okay, here are the problems, yes we can go fix those problems.” But in order to sell, here are the problems now I have to connect it to something that is emotional for that person because urgency is only created through emotion. Does that make sense everybody? There’s no emotion when someone is describing their clinical state, there’s no emotion. When they describe how the clinical state is affecting their life it becomes extremely emotional. So we are not looking for the symptoms. The symptoms are just the lead-in. What I’m looking for is how the symptoms are affecting their life and then I’m going to recap that. And if I don’t get that from the patient, then you have to ask. Right? Okay so well, and we never want to minimize it, never minimized it like “Okay well that’s no big deal, okay so you got a couple of cavities, no problem we could fix that. I don’t necessarily want to minimize it right now because I’ve got to create the urgency here. So I’m going to do the opposite so I’m going to go “Wow, jeez, so it sounds like we have a number of issues. It’s not like you’re just missing one tooth here. I mean you’ve got some broken teeth, we’re missing a couple of teeth, we’ve got some cavities, you know you’ve got some teeth that are possibly loose. So just being kind of deteriorating over time. Let me ask, are you experiencing any pain? Any discomfort? How about pain and discomfort when you are eating or chewing? Talk to me about that.” And then I’m going to dig right there, okay?

Chris: …with. It sounds like something where you would want to look at, based on past experience, just looking how you can restore your existing teeth.

David: Right.

Chris: The implant route of things, there are things that you could do with single teeth or you’re kind of those people who had dentures and they just don’t like them.

David: Yeah, I’ve never had dentures.

Chris: Or they have a lot of missing teeth and they need something firm in there that’s going to lock in and stay good. It sounds like you could be a mix of different things. But we could get a big picture on how we could start restoring your smile because it’s nice if you have a lot of your own existing teeth and you could save them.

David: Yeah.

Chris: I mean that’s the number 1 option.

David: I want to keep what I’ve got. I don’t want to go into dentures and stuff like that.

Chris: Yeah.

David: I know it’s going to cost a little more.

Chris: Definitely. Now we got the picture as far as symptoms and things like that. Are there things about your smile right now that you just don’t like? That you like to fix? Ways you want to improve? Anything like that?

David: I would, like when I was younger, and they fixed these. They filled like part of the tooth but they didn’t put a crown on it or a cap on it or something.

Chris: Mm-hmm.

David: And I like to get rid of that.

Chris: I think we could be able to help you definitely.

David: Hopefully like whiter teeth. You know, everybody just wants to have a white smile.

Chris: Yeah. Well, you seem like just, I know you have the mask on right now but it seems like you like to smile a lot. Anyway.

David: I do.

Chris: Friendly guy and you know, yeah so we want to be able to help out in that spec. So what we could do complimentary is we could get the kind of imaging that we need. That way we just could see what’s happening in the mouth. Dr. Maximo could take a look as well and we could figure out how we could get on the road to be able to restore that smile again and just to get you into that good spot really. Alright so.

Woman 2: Bart, you’re muted.

Bart: Yep, sorry about that. So what are we trying to do here? We’re trying to set this patient up in a specific mindset that is going to prevent the patient from doing what the patient is likely going to do. We’ve got a patient that mentioned cost twice already. Right? He mentioned it twice. How did the patient get into this situation? They’ll come in, they’ll just do just enough to get by, to eliminate a little pain point and they’ll go on. It’s like a bandaid approach. People do it little, by little, by little, by little until there’s nothing left to do and they lose all of their teeth. Right? That’s probably been his pattern of behavior so far. So what I’m trying to do is set him up and plant a seed in his head that the state that he’s in is not a state that’s going to get better by itself. The state that he is in is only going to get better, it’s only going to get worse over time and It’s a good thing that he’s here. Right?

So there’s a couple of different ways to put this in terms of a recap. And I’ll send you guys these language patterns here after the call. I actually wrote some down. But I might say something like, “You know it’s amazing how this type of thing could sneak up on you. It’s not a process that transpires in a day. It happens slowly over time. Tooth by tooth and inch by inch. Until you’re at the point where everyday activities that you normally wouldn’t think about like eating, chewing, or even smiling start to become a challenge. And obviously, as you develop more and more issues, the aesthetic of your smile go as well.” So what I’m basically saying is that this is going to continue to happen. Right? And again I want to set him up. Right?

Let me ask you, depending on what the CT scans says, you could have multiple options. Let me ask you how important it is, on a scale of 1 to 10, to restore the function of your ability to eat and chew back to a point of your life where you never had to worry about it? Scale 1 to 10, how important is that to you? Just to never have to worry about that. And again this is all, I’m predicting this based on him saying to me that it has affected that. Which I’m sure that it has. If he could eat and chew with no pain, no discomfort, no problem, and the aesthetics were no problem. He wouldn’t be there. Right? So it’s safe to say that it’s affecting his life in one way shape or form. Right?

And I would also ask, “How important it is to you to restore your smile at one point where your teeth are white and straight and it just looks great? I mean those 2 things. How important are those 2 things to you? How important?” And then again based on what he said, I’m expecting him to give me some type of a high number. Okay? Again I have to use his words to create the treatment plan. He has to want the treatment plan. Okay? Then we’ll set him up. I’ll say, “Look, typically in situations like this that I encounter all the time, I see people go on in 2 ways. One way, when you have multiple issues like this is what I call a bandaid approach. Basically fixing just enough to provide you with some short-term comfort and function but the problems are going to continue to deteriorate. It will just deteriorate at a little bit of a slower pace. And the other way, which is to basically, let’s do this once and do it the right way. So I can be done with this. Which way best describes you? Are you in a school of thought that’s like, “I’m done with this, I just want to get it done the right way and be done” or “I really just need to have this one thing or this thing fixed and just buy me a little time.” Which one would you rather?

I’ve got to ask that question. I’ve got to set him up for the pitch. I have to set them up with their own words. Right? Most people are going to say the latter. Most people are going to say, “Well, if I could just have it done the right way”. So yeah, I mean that’s the best way. Honestly, it’s how people get in this situation. They come in, oh they have a problem with the tooth. And they fixed that tooth but it caused an issue with the adjacent teeth or with the bone or periodontal disease and they have pockets and it just spreads from one tooth to another, to another, to another. And it is a slow process until here we are. So there are ways that we could handle this where we do it the right way and it’s done. I’ll go through that with him. And then again I would set him up with something like this, “Okay, well, let’s get the CT scan and go from there. The big thing we need to look at here is the quality of the bone and the soft tissue that’s actually supporting the teeth. How much deterioration and bone loss have already taken place? That’s going to tell us if it’s worth it to try to salvage the existing teeth or if it’s best to start over with something permanent. Either way, you’d like to go with some type of a long-term approach that’s going to both restore the function and give you the best aesthetics. Right? That’s our goal. Our goal is to do this once and be done and have the best long-term approach? Am I correct in that?”

And I’m going to get him to say, yes. Otherwise, I have nothing to pitch. It’s got to be their words. Does that make sense? Everything you’re doing, we’re selling the whole time but you have to frame it properly and we have to get them. Do we have to get them telling me that that’s what they want. This guy hasn’t said that he wants a whole lot of anything other than white teeth up until this point. So we have to get him saying that stuff. Okay? Once they agree before I take the CT scan, I’m going to touch with the triage. Now again, I don’t know we don’t necessarily know that this guy is a full-blown full arch candidate. So I’m not triaging quite as difficult because if he does have these symptoms, you can’t save a lot of teeth. You know he might not be in that ballpark of the 15, 20, 25 thousand. Then again, judging from what he’s saying he hasn’t been to the dentist in years even when he was last time 5 years ago, there were major issues. You have it in your head that he probably has crazy perio. He probably has severe perio and he probably has a lot of bone loss. But I’m still going to touch him on the triage right before I go. Right? So something like, “Okay, great, and also before we could CT scan, you said something about finding out about the cost right? I only ask because there may be different ways to approach the treatment based on the result of the CT scan. So if you have a specific number dollar amount that you are trying to stay within, you can tell me and I can try to make sure that we have something close to that for you. Do you have a specific number in mind? If not, no big deal.” But sometimes they will come in like a very specific budget. “Hey, I can spend x amount.” And that’s it. And I’m just touching it and he’s like, “No, I don’t really have a budget. I just kind of want to see whatever” Alright, then I’m going to move to the CT because I would be a little nervous to triage too hard just in case what if it’s the treatment could cost 4 or 5 grand. You know what I mean? So I will go to get the CT scan.

But I want to see how he will react to that question. Because that would be interesting for me. To ask that question to this particular person given his personality. He seems like a… he’s not a dominant personality. You can tell that by his tone. But when you ask him, he may have said something like, “Yeah, well, I can’t afford a whole lot here.” And then it’s like okay, we’re getting somewhere now. “Okay, so what’s your idea of a whole lot? Give me a ballpark that you are trying to stay within. And I’ll make sure that we have something that’s within that for you. Because we want to make sure that it’s affordable too. I mean, I could give you the treatment and work the whole thing up. But if it’s not possible financially what’s the point? So I’m here to give you what you want, give you a treatment plan that’s going to get you as close as what you want as possible, for something that you can actually afford.” And I’ll have that conversation with him right now. If he doesn’t want to have it right now, no problem, I’ll go get the CT scan. Because again we kind of want to figure out if he’s a full arch candidate or not here. Does that make sense? You guys have any questions up until this point?

Okay look, so big takeaways from this first 10 here. Number one, if you have a patient describing symptoms and they’re just symptoms, symptoms, symptoms. Fine, got it, okay. And then leading question linking the symptoms to the quality of life issues and then get him talking about that. And take your time there. Take your time. It’s just all urgency, if you have no urgency, you can’t sell. You can not sell without creating urgency in emotion. And you’re not going to get emotional, talking about clinical symptoms. So that’s the first thing, we have to link that to something that’s emotional. Once we link it with something that’s emotional, we have to then help them to create a vision or some type of a picture, some type of a description of what they want. And an easy way to do that without complicating things for the patient is with the scale of 1 to 10 approach that I gave you.

Just ask them, that could lead to additional questions. It could lead to additional price questions. It could lead to creating a better picture for them. It’s going to lead, the conversation is going to be going in the right direction. The fact-finding is why he’s here and how it’s affecting his life. And then the selling comes in with creating a compelling vision of who he’s going to be in the future without all of these issues. Without all of this quality of life issues and pain points. Who he’s going to be. What he’s going to look like. How he’s going to feel. That’s what we’re selling. The whole thing. You just can’t do it the same exact way as if we knew that they were basically a full arch candidate like their second and third opinion. They already have the CT scan, they already know what they want. It’s a little different. Here it could be a couple of different treatment plans, so you have to set him up for that.

And the one thing I’m trying to preemptively handle, him telling me, “Okay, well, you know, let me think about it.” In procrastinating on treatment, that’s why he is in the situation that he is in because he is procrastinating. So why would he not procrastinate again? So I’m trying to preemptively handle that by talking to him about, “Hey look, when I see people in this situation, I understand how you get in it, I understand how people get in it. It happens slowly. It sneaks up on you. And then all of a sudden you got all these issues. You know perio is a silent painless problem a lot of times it doesn’t cause any aesthetic defect until it’s too late. Right? You can have teeth but if nothing is supporting the teeth if the soft tissue and the hard tissue are compromised supporting the teeth. What’s good is the tooth? What good is the chair without legs? It’s not. Right? And that’s the part of the tooth that you can’t see. So I understand that how you get in this type of situation. But when I see people in this situation, there’s usually one of two ways they’re going to go. Number one, is they continue to just fix problems. And they’re constantly in and out of the dental practice just getting a cavity filled, or getting a crown, or scale and root cleaning of one quad, or they just piece nailing it. And the totality of your teeth and your oral health is just deteriorating. Just at a little bit slower rate. We haven’t really fix anything. Right? In the long run, it costs you the most amount of money and max amount of time in the dental practice.” That’s one school of thought.

The other one is like, “Hey, I don’t want to continue to take a bandaid approach here. I’m not interested in coming into the dental practice all the time. I don’t want to constantly have problems. I want to explore different ways, whatever those ways may be, to fix this problem the one that will give me a solution long term. So I don’t have to worry about eating or chewing. Where I don’t have to worry about my smile. The way I have the aesthetics that I want and I look good.” Does that make sense? And I’m going to ask him, “Does that make sense?” Which one appeals to you more? I’m going to make them say it. I got to make them say it. They have to say the words to own it. Otherwise, it doesn’t work. What starts to happen is if they’re not talking to me, if I don’t get them saying these things and describing it and owning it, it doesn’t click here that they want it. Because they are taking no ownership of it at all. So I end up selling something that they don’t want. And when you sell something that they don’t want, they want it for as cheap as possible and they are going to constantly procrastinate.

Does that make sense guys? I know that’s a lot but that’s really important. I’ll just play out the rest of this real quick.

Chris: Just give me a minute and I’ll introduce you to Solay. She’s part of the doctor team. She does all the imaging, take some medical history-type things, and all that. And then we’ll have Dr. Maximo look at everything and he’ll come in and also meet you and look inside the mouth as well. And then just talk about different kinds of options that we could do. And based on those options, If you are liking what you hear, that’s where you’ll come back to me. We talk about the obvious things like price and ways to set that up. Okay?

David: Okay.

Chris: Alright. Sounds good. I’ll introduce you.

Bart: Okay. I’m going to share the next one which is basically the third 10. Hey, Chris, I got a question for you. When you are going through the second 10, there’s a point in time where you took the CT scan and Dr. Maximo made a diagnosis that basically he had terminal dentition. So there was nothing we could do to actually save any of the teeth. Because what you were actually recommending in the third 10 is full arch. Recommending extracting all teeth and doing double arch treatment. So how did that conversation go with a patient, when you told the patient that. Did the patient understand that? Were they concerned about it? Did they have questions? How did that conversation go? Just explaining to them that there’s nothing that can be done for the existing teeth or if we did something to the existing teeth that it wouldn’t be a good investment because you are just going to buy them a year or two. Like how did that go?

Chris: I mean, once he took off his mask, you know, when we got him into the clinical area getting ready for the CT, it was very obvious that he had terminal dentition. You could literally see the decay. And then once he saw the CT scan itself at that time right away he could see that things weren’t being able to be saved. In Ohio, there’s a company that’s called Shelly and Sands. They do like a lot of things in the interstates, construction, and things. He’s been working there for 30 plus years. He’s actually a manager that builds bridges on a highway. So he’s very an engineer-type sound and he likes the idea of having the all on four just because that’s what he does. He builds bridges. So from there, when he saw that he didn’t seem upset that he couldn’t keep at the time. He’s like, “Yeah this is very obvious that this is what I need.” As far as the functionalities concern. He did come to us before back in 2014. He had an accident where he had a front tooth that was injured. So we did a root canal and crown on number 10. And that was the last time we saw him. So like you said, he’s definitely been a bandaid-type person. We just didn’t really remember much about him just because at the time we [Inaudible] of the area like he didn’t have a pain in the past.

Bart: Did he ask about the price in front of the doctor?

Chris: What did you say?

Bart: Did he ask about the price in front of the doctor?

Chris: I don’t think he did at that time. I remember him saying that he does have a health savings account as well but he had like $7000 on.

Bart: Mm-hmm.

Chris: But that’s all I remember about, sometimes I’m not always in the room just because there is this other treatment going on in that second 10.

Bart: Oof. Then that’s what makes it tough. It makes it tough for you because in this situation what you pitch is going to be predicated on the second 10 because it is not straightforward. Right? So if it turns out that you get the CT back here and it turns out that he’s got a terminal dentition, you’re watching his reaction as the doctor tells it. Because this can be a shot for people. This can be like some jarring news the first time they hear that like, “Hey, you need to have all your teeth removed.” That can be a big deal. Right? There could be some emotional reaction there. Whether they show it or not, it’s usually kind of big news the first time someone hears that “Your teeth are hopeless and you are going to be without teeth.” So you want to be watching him when that happens and then also make sure that he totally understands that that is the case and that he owns it. If that happens, then it’s like okay. We are talking about full arch treatment. And then guys, you almost have to go back to the end of the first 10. Right? When it comes to the full arch treatment, you have to understand that there’s more than one way to do it. Right? There are options that are removable meaning that your new teeth will come in and come out. They’ll either come in and out, or they’ll snap in and out but it’s their removable teeth that can or that may or may not be secured with dental implants. And then you have your more permanent solutions that are your fixed attachments. And you’ve got different types of teeth. Different types of materials that the teeth can be made out of. Right?

So let’s do a very quick overview on what some of these options are. Right? And, real quick, this is a denture, this is this. You already said you don’t want it bam. We don’t even do it most of the time. Right? The best thing is going to be dental implants. Here’s the types of dental implant treatments. You have a removable option, you have your fixed option with Zirconia. Here are the pros and cons. Let me ask you, what are your thoughts about fixed versus removable? Do you have any strong feelings either way towards fixed or towards removable? We’ve got to ask them. They have to tell me they want fixed. They going to tell me. They have to tell me they want fixed or they have to tell me, “Hey, I want fixed unless it’s too much money.” Right?

I’d rather have, if you’re telling me that removable is half as much as fixed, then I will deal with the removable which save half the money. Whatever it is, I want to know. I’ve got to ask them so that I know when I’m making a pitch that I’m on the same page with that patient and they actually want the treatment. That they agree with the diagnosis. They understand the diagnosis. I’m going to make sure there is a maximum amount of urgency and pain involved in this process to where it would almost be insane to think about waiting any longer for this. Right? I want to put them in that mind for it’s nuts to wait any longer. We’re going to get this taken care of somehow.

What’s the challenge with this particular type of personality? It’s a challenge to get them opening up and talking and you really have to wait on them.
Right? You got to wait on them. So even this is something I had to learn. I had to work on. If you speak with a lot of certainty, and you have a specific tone, and you have more of a dominant type of personality, it’s easy to kind of talk over people even if you don’t interrupt them. You can talk the room because your tone is so dominating. In comparison, that they just don’t talk very much. So this is a guy, we’ve got to get him talking. And we have to ask him what he thinks about, “What do you think about this? How do you feel about that?”

He’s got to talk to me. Right? Otherwise, you wind up in a situation where you’re doing a close and you have no certainty in terms of what you’re closing. You don’t know what the guy’s going to buy. Like you really don’t. So you kind of trying to do 2,3,4 different closes all at the same time. You’re almost guaranteed to get a “Let me think about it” at that point. But we have to get this guy saying, “Yeah, it’s important to me, yes, I want this. Yep, I understand 100%.”

You know what I mean? You have to get them to that level of certainty. Like, “Yep, I’m on the same page.” If you feel like they’re unsure about anything, you can’t move forward. And sometimes the doctor will pick on that and sometimes they won’t, and you’re going to step in, and the second 10. You know, with any of those types of questions but always make sure what these people that are soft-spoken, get them talking, and if they don’t say the words, they don’t own the words, then it’s not their idea.

And that’s the whole premise of this type of methodology of selling and influence is that it’s their idea. I’m not selling them anything. I’m not. I’m not selling them a thing. I’m not trying to push a thing. They’re telling me what they want. I’m helping them understand what is the fastest way to get there. And the best way to get there and what’s going to give them what they want. And that’s it. So I literally can’t do it without the description of what they want. That’s how I know when I can move forward and when I can’t move forward. If I can’t move forward, I’m going to continue to dig until they give it to me. That make sense?

If you don’t, you can spend a call. You can spend a consultation like this with somebody that’s soft-spoken. And you look back on it and it’s like, man, I talked for 95%, 95% of the words spoken were my words. That’s not ideal. You have to get them talking. You can’t move from one critical point to another without gaining agreement. And you have to make sure that they understand and you’ve got to make sure there’s urgency. If there’s no urgency, you have to snap them out of it. Some people show more emotions. Some people show less. Could you read any emotions on this particular patient, Chris?

Chris: Oh, I guess I was just really unsure about his dental history from what he said. So, usually, I would get into the education of a forge at that time. We ended up just doing that in the second 10 at the time. And then, I couldn’t get any much out of them at that time. But I also didn’t take his symptoms and connect it like get them to open up, how it is negatively affecting the quality of life. I still am an RN so I’ll just more like just getting symptoms, like data. Why we could fix a problem? It’s logic but it’s not emotional and we need emotions [crosstalk].

Bart: It’s clinical, what it is. This is why clinicians in general, be it dentists, or medical, or veterinarians, or any. This is why clinicians, in general, have challenges with sales and influence. Right? Because they’re diagnosing problems and they’re creating solutions to fix the problems. Right? But it’s not the problems or the solution to fix the problem that people want to buy. They want to buy the benefit that the solution to the problem provides them. The life benefit. Right? And they want to eliminate the life pain that the symptoms are causing. So those are the two things that we have to be clear on.

A clinician’s approach is scientific. It’s scientific in nature. Not unlike an engineer. Right? Not unlike how an engineer would approach a case and anybody that’s doing full arch cases, they’re engineers, as well, that’s what it is. You’re engineering in a new smile. So a lot of the same type of language is going to be used. But I want you guys to all understand, when the doctors are in their mindset of approaching the case, they’re usually taking a clinical and rightfully so clinical, very scientific, very academic approach to it. Science, academics, clinical, there’s no emotion. Emotion is urgency, its motivation, its passion. That’s not what we’re talking about, we’re talking about how to get this thing, how to get it fixed, how to treat it.

So your job is to come in and make sure that all of those things are then translated and connected to something that’s emotional for the patient. That’s your job. In terms of sales, we have to expect a doctor or clinician at a certain point to struggle with that based on what mindset they’re in when they’re doing work. It’s manual labor for them and how most of the time their brain is going to work in a very linear format. Right? And we have to be a bit more psychological in terms of how we communicate value and how we create urgency. It’s not nearly as literal. Does that make sense? All right, I’m going to play the beginning of the close because you’re going to see how this kind of goes right from the beginning and why.

Chris: Like I said I’m Chris and I’m one of the [crosstalk]

Bart: Let me do that again. Here we go.

Chris: there’s kind of bridges going on there too. Well, we should be able to hear from you soon.

David: Nine more years.

Chris: Oh yeah?

David: We’ve been around. COVID didn’t really slow us down.

Chris: Oh you have work and stuff like that? All right. I’ll get you there. You know, I’m excited, David, that we’re able to find some good options for you based on Dr. Maximo’s result. Very clear plans and there are different ways that you could go about it. And it just kind of depends on the different levels that you want to do.

Bart: So this part right now, this should be worked out. Right? So by the time we get too close, there’s not different ways of doing this. That was already discussed, ideally. Right? That was already discussed with the doctor. That’s what the doctor is saying. Right? We’re getting agreement on the fact that you have terminal dentition and we can’t save them or it doesn’t make sense to save them, whatever. They agree, yes.

The very next thing is that there are different ways to do this based on what you want. Here are different types of full arch options. Here are the pros and cons. What appeals to you? How do you feel about removable versus fixed? Give me an idea of what you want in terms of maintenance, and function, and status. All of that is spoken about. That is the very next thing that you would talk about after you gained agreement that we can’t save the teeth. Very next thing. Because by the time you get to the close, you have to have a close. Right?

So based on what he said, “Oh, I definitely don’t want a removable. I definitely don’t. I don’t want the teeth to come in and out 100%. I do not want that.” No problem, okay. Now you’re talking about fixed, okay. Maybe you have one fixed option or maybe you have the fixed, and you have the scale, or you have zirconia, nano-ceramic, or you have a hybrid, whatever it is. But you’re going through and going okay based on what you’re telling me.

If you don’t want anything fixed and you want the best-looking teeth, the longest-lasting teeth, and you want somewhere you don’t have to worry about function. If you want that, hands down. I would recommend whatever it is and here’s why. Boom boom boom boom boom. And that’s what the doctors are doing. That’s the doctor’s job, right? The doctor has to make a primary recommendation.

If the doctor doesn’t make a primary recommendation, then you have to go back and you’re like half step in the close. It’s tremendously difficult. And well, one of your biggest advantages is that you’re going to have an expert opinion to provide credibility and confidence right there to say, “Hey, based on what I’m seeing here, with your scan, based on what you’re telling me that you’ve been dealing with, and what you want, hands down. I think you’re a perfect and obvious candidate for this. This is going to give you everything that you want. You’re a good candidate for it. We can do it, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.”

The patient has the opportunity to ask the doctor any questions, any clinical questions about it. And then you leave, knowing that the patient’s on the same page and they know exactly what you’re going in the back to talk about. There should be no confusion by the time you get to the close. There are no surprises. The patient knows what it is that you’re going to talk about pricing for because they’ve already said that’s what they want. They verbally already selected it. That makes sense, guys?

Chris: So really I’m going to show you what those are and then from there, we just find out how we could space things out or how to go about it. We just try to find a way, you know, to get the right thing. But basically, any way that you go, it’s always going to be a 3-phase process. So, if you choose the implant-supported option, you’ll come in for an hour appointment-

Bart: So this whole thing is blown. So this is like where you’re going to guarantee a “Let me think about it.” here, you’re going to guarantee it because we’re saying, “Look any way you want to go. So if you go this way, or you go this way, the doctors got to come in here.” like this. So Chris, let me ask you, was this type of thing wasn’t really discussed in the second 10 or perhaps it was you just weren’t in the room so you weren’t privy to know if it was?

Chris: Oh, at that time, the hybrid was ultimately and he told me a way to kind of if he wants to be able to transition. I think at this time right here, I’m trying to do the part, like in the script, where we say it’s a 3-phase process, like smile design, implant surgery, and then your final restoration at the time.

Bart: I can see [crosstalk]. You’re suggesting there are multiple ways though.

Chris: Yeah. I understand how. Yeah, there has to be a clear way that we’re doing, that we’re talking about.

Bart: So did Dr. Maximo actually recommended that? Did he recommend the hybrid for this patient? Did he make that primary recommendation or did he kind of say, “Yeah, I think you’re a good candidate for something. I’m going to work up the case, whatever.” And now you’re presenting the options?

Chris: We had 2 just pull on hybrid upper and lower or to do a hybrid on the lower and then either locator or regular on the top if he had to transition down. I should have just waited to see how things went before saying that there are options.

Bart: Yeah, you want to close on whatever it is [crosstalk].

Chris: I got my card already.

Bart: Well, it just confuses me, right? We want to make this as simple as possible. Right? My whole thing is, people were like, “How do you handle the let me think about it objection.” And I say, “Don’t give them things to think about.” That’s the easiest way to do it. Right? Don’t give them too much to think about. Simplify the decision-making process. That means, before we make the recommendation, we talk it through and figure it out with the patient which will we’re going to do because any of them are viable options.

They got terminal dentition. So, in play sport, dentition is a viable option. Full arch fixed, hybrid, they’re all viable options. Right? It’s how important are these things to that particular patient and are there any type of inherent cost obstacles there and that’s it. But that’s why you want to make sure if you can be in the room with the doctor during the second 10, make sure that you guys are in there. And don’t be shy about speaking up and asking a question or kind of leading if you feel like, “I don’t have a clear direction here.” or if you feel like, “Man, we’re kind of left between these 2 treatments.” Right? Like they said, “Yeah, I understand on the removal. And yes, I understand on the fix, but the patient hasn’t fully committed to say, “Yeah, I want this one over that one.” If you feel like you’re in the middle, then jump in there. Just say something like. So just to recap, given the fact that you’re a good candidate for both, which one would you prefer to have, the fixed or the removable?

And just jump in and get a finite answer like, “I want the fixed.” Or they’ll say, “Well, it’s going to kind of depend on the cost.” Either way that those are both good answers. It gives you an idea and you’re getting closer to the close. Make sense?

So that’s the main place where this went wrong. I don’t have to play the rest of the third 10 because the main issue is that the patient hasn’t really selected a treatment. They haven’t said that they want a treatment. The only thing the patient said they want and throughout the entire call was they want to keep their teeth which now isn’t a possibility we’re saying and they want white teeth which isn’t a possibility if they can’t keep their teeth.

So both of those things are kind of off the table. And we haven’t presented something else that this particular patient seems to be excited about. And I think that’s why you got the wife thing, which is the “let me think about it” type of the thing. When they’re super excited about it, they’ll call their spouse right there or they’ll be trying to work it out or they’ll be open to put a deposit down. This isn’t somebody that strikes me as a person with no money. Strikes me as somebody that’s relatively qualified. Like you said it would you say at $7,000, just in health savings from work. Is that right?

Chris: Yeah, he had that. And then he was just planning to do cash. So we ended up just talking about the pay in full or if he wanted to phase it out, like do your surgery and then do pay for the restoration later. And I got him to agree that that’s how he would do it. Where he would pay a little more than half to get the first 2 phases done and then on the last phase, then pay the rest. And not surprisingly, this guy never scheduled. I mean, I’ve contacted him 3 times and just no answer. No tags, no reply or anything.

Bart: Yeah. And that’s usually just from no urgency, right? You got to get, yeah. I have to hear them tell me like, “Yeah, it’s bad. I can’t eat and I understand it’s going to get worse. I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want a band-aid approach. I just want to have it done. I want to have it done.” I have to get them in that mindset. The more times they say it, the more they’re going to own it. If you guys don’t have the urgency, we have to practice as much as we can. How to create the urgency and you guys can’t create, this is what salespeople do wrong. They try to create urgency by telling them the bad things that are going to happen. I have to get them to tell me the bad things that are going to happen with questions. That’s how you push without pushing. That’s how you create urgency without somebody feeling like you’re pushy or you’re over-aggressive. You’re walking through the back door here.

Okay, guys, I just unmuted everybody. So I want to open it up real quick and give a couple of minutes to just take any questions. Chris, you did a really good job. I think there are a couple of easy ways connecting the symptoms to the pain points. And again, framing it and try to preemptively handle what the most likely objections going to be. And with this particular person, the most likely objection is going to be to procrastinate, “Let me think about it.” So I’m trying to preemptively handle that by talking about people that do, that take a band-aid approach, over time versus people that just fix it and how the band-aid approach results in more visits, more money, more heartache, than then actually getting it done.

So I think those are a couple of really easy wins. And then making sure obviously, before you guys go into the close, you have one treatment to close on. And the patient has been clear about they want that particular treatment. So I just want to open up to any questions that you guys may have that I can answer here.

Woman 3: I think I struggle most with patients wanting to go home to decide what financial option is best for them. That’s my biggest struggle with closing a case.

Bart: So your biggest struggle is figuring out [crosstalk] and finding to access?

Woman 3: Yeah, committing to a specific financial option. They’re always wanting to go and decide what’s going to be the best for them which I get it. But that’s where I have the struggle with closing the case day out.

Bart: Well, then before you give them any option, ask him what type of financial situation will work for them. Right? So when we have a treatment plan, and I deliver the price. Right? We go through the price. We show them that they’re getting a great deal and then I close. I close for a full pay close, right? Upfront, cash card, check, okay? If they can’t do it, the next fallback, I could say, “Would it help if we could finance it over a period of time. Give you a low affordable monthly payment?” If they say yes, then I ask him what. “What kind of payment would you want?”

Again, guys, it’s got to be their worst. Everyone will contradict. It’s human nature to contradict things. They can’t contradict themselves. If I ask him, “okay, well, I’ve got a ton of options. What type of monthly payment would be easy for you?” So I’m going to get a yes. I’m not going to give them an option to say no to a financial option. Just like I’m not going to give them the option to say let me think about the treatment.

Before I present a treatment, I’m going to have them tell me which one they want, they have to own it. Before I give them financing options, they have to tell me financing would help and this is the payment that will work. Once I have that, now, I’m in a place where I can negotiate. If you don’t have it, you’re in the weakest position in terms of negotiation which is showing numbers without an idea of how those numbers are going to be perceived. That make sense?

Woman 3: Yeah.

Bart: So try that. Try that the next time before you do financing, ask them, “Would it help if I could take this price and split it up, finance it over several months? Something to give you a low affordable monthly payment.” They say yes. Ask him “What kind of payment would work for you, dollar amount wise, will make it easy? $300, $400, $500 a month more or less like just ballpark it. What would be easy for you?”

And I’ll go see if I can get it done. Make them give you a dollar amount. That’s how you close. That is when you are closing. We’re not that’s like there’s no screwing around. You know, what you’re doing because I’m not pitching something that you don’t want. I’m not presenting something that you haven’t asked for. I’m doing exactly what you’ve told me but I’m not putting myself in a position of weakness from a negotiating standpoint. And I’m also not putting them in a position where they have the option of saying of no matter what I present saying that it’s not good enough or it’s not low enough.

Because if they give me an answer that’s ridiculous like, “Oh yeah it would help. You know, oh gosh, $500 there’s no way. I mean, if you could do something like you know, $13 a month that would work.” Something’s crazy. I’m not going to get funding. We’re going to have a conversation about what clinical insanity is. But, what else guys? Any other questions?

Rachel: I have a question Bart

Bart: Yes.

Rachel: …if I may. So, I had an example of a patient where everything seemed to go well but I was looking for maybe some quick verbiage. When everything’s fine, I got the guy approved for financing, it was all within his budget. And as I was scheduling him, and I said, “Hey, well, let’s get you in the books for your records this week or next week, whichever you prefer.” He hits me with the, “Let me think on it and I’ll call you back. Let me talk to my wife.” Because he felt like that was a commitment because of the deposit. And I didn’t know what to say afterward or be like, “Well, come on, you know, who makes this.” How does that sound kind of like a jerk about such a big decision but also try to still close in that moment?

Bart: Well, it kind of depends on how you set that up. Right? So you said it fell within his budget. So you had a budget to shoot for? Did he give you a number?

Rachel: Yeah, he gave me a number. He told me he wanted it financed. I got him approved for finance. Everything was within his budget. The monthly payment was going to be around his budget. We got it through proceed. We were actually even. We were more affordable and gave him both options for upper and lower. So everything really seemed to go really well. So when he hit me with that, “Let me think about it”, I was like, well, I didn’t know what to say. I don’t know what I could say to kind of get him looping back on track. Like, how do I get that back on track?

Bart: I think there are a couple little sneaky things that can lead to that. Okay. So one, sometimes guys, you can do everything, like brilliantly, okay. And you get to the point. They gave me a budget, it’s within the budget, everything is lined up here. I’m given this person exactly what they say. And then all of a sudden, if we make a misstep and we say something like, “Okay, great. So, um, so would you like to move forward or so would you like to schedule?” If we give them a question, any question can screw it up, right, you’re going to crack that door, and they’re going to put their foot in it and like shove it open.

It has to be 100% assumptive close. You cannot open up the door. I’m not saying that’s what you did, I’m saying that’s the most common reason when things are lined up and I’m giving them everything that they want. The most common error that is made is that it’s not an assumptive close. You’re actually asking them if they want to do it after you’ve already given them what they said that they wanted. So there’s no reason for me to ask permission anymore. Right? There’s a big difference between me saying, “Okay, cool. Well, everything’s good. I’m going to go ahead and get you scheduled. I got everything right here. I got you down for Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. That’s going to be your blah, blah, blah.” I’m not asking, there’s no asking.

Rachel: Okay.

Bart: Once you ask, where does their brain go? “Oh, shoot, I don’t know, if I don’t know, what do I need to do? Ask somebody. Who am I going to ask? My wife, my husband, whoever? I’m out.” You know what I mean? That’s the most common error. I don’t know if that happened but if it did, that’s the most common thing that I see. Let’s say that didn’t happen. You were assuming the sale and then the patient said, “Well, look, before you pencil me in I just, you know, I need to kind of check my wife and make sure that the time is right, or this is right, or that’s right, or whatever.” Let’s say that they say it. Well, you can do again. This kind of appeals to the logical side of them is you give them an out. You give them out, say, “Okay, no problem. Well, look, I’ve already got the financing done. That’s all good. We can take the deposit, I’ll pencil you in. We’ve got a perfect appointment. So here’s what I’ll do. Right? I know you want to go home, talk to your wife. We can take the deposit, I’ll put you in. If for some reason which, you know, I’m sure there won’t be. But if for some reason, there is any type of an issue. If you have to move it, I’ll allow you, you can move the appointment with no penalty. If for some reason you spoke with your wife and you guys decided to even go a different direction, then I’ll refund the deposit for you. But this way, we can lock it in. I can lock in the financing options and get you on the schedule. The doctor’s schedule is super tight so why don’t we just do this. I pencil you in, put the deposit down, talk to your wife, I’ll assume everything’s good unless you call me back. Is that reasonable?” and sometimes I’ll just give them an out. Right?

But I got to have them sign for something, right? Because right now they’re all of a sudden that certainty just went from here down to here. And then afterward, if you see that you reflect on your close. Reflect on your close, “Okay, how did I close here? How did I set them up? Did I say okay? If they gave me a budget, they said, “Hey, my budget is $10,000.” Say, “Okay.” Did I really nail him down to that $10,000?” We like, okay, it’s 10. If I get it within 10, we’re good. You know what I mean? I nail him down enough.

And you just kind of reflect, and you’ll get better and better. But guys, that was a great point because it is a common mistake that’s so easy to fall into, is asking them if they want to do it, after you’ve already established they want to do it. You have to assume the close. Give zero opportunity for them to think that they’re unsure. Don’t make them think they’re unsure. Just assume they’re sure. And everybody is sure, and this is an obvious choice, and there’s no problem.

Rachel: Okay, all right. Thank you.

Bart: Anything else, guys?

Woman 4: Bart, the pick you back on Rachel’s question about the pencil in and then the patient with a deposit. How much time do you typically give them because it’s going to be such a big appointment. You don’t want to tie up your doctor’s time if they’re not going to keep that appointment?

Bart: For sure. You would put a time limit, 48 hours the most. You’re just trying to get a situation, if they leave without signing anything or paying any money, your odds of getting back are infinitely lower. Right? So if they pay something now, if they sign something out.

I’m trying to get any type of commitment here knowing that somewhere along the line, I kind of made an error here. Right? Because if I got it within their budget, they want the treatment, they have urgency, there’s no way that they’re going to tell me, “Let me think about it.” unless I made some kind of an I had to crack that door open some way shape or form unknowingly. So I’m trying to save it by giving them recourse. Right?

So if their reason for delaying is “Let me check with my wife.” And the only reason why that makes sense is if their wife has other thoughts, they’re not already committed? I’m giving them away to talk to their wife but also stay moderately committed or in their mind, I’m giving them an out. So again, if they’re not willing to move forward with that, even knowing that they have full recourse, then I probably missed them bigger than I thought.

Woman 4: So is it okay that we have them sign a paper saying, “If you don’t answer back within, let’s say, for example, 48 hours, your appointment will be released from the schedule and we will refund back your deposit.”?

Bart: No. I would take the opposite approach. Right? If I don’t hear from them, I’m assuming that it’s on because we’re scheduling it. And they’re putting money down. Right? So if I do hear from them, then we’ll cancel it and refund it. But if I don’t hear, they don’t have to call me back to keep an appointment that they already made and paid for.

Woman 4: But wouldn’t that be contradicting because you really don’t know if they’re coming?

Bart: Well, believe me, if they put down $5,000 and they’re not coming, they’re going to tell you. They’re going to want that money back. Right? That’s the point of getting the money. I would never pencil him in, really pencil him on the schedule without money. I wouldn’t do that, but something significant. What was the deposit you’re asking for? Make sure it’s a big enough dollar amount, you know, don’t even ask him for a $500 deposit. So get your 10, 20% down, and then just give them an out. They put 10, 20%. They’re not just going to ghost you and no show and not call. They’re going to call and say, “Hey, we’re not going to do it. Can I have the refund?” That will happen but at least you’re forcing them to call you back. So you’re still in the game if they call you back. So we’re…

Woman 4: Thank you,

Bart: …just trying to increase our percentages here. Little by little. Cool? All right. Any other questions guys before we adjourn?

Woman 5: Hi.

Bart: No? You good?

Woman 5: Yes, very much. Where we’ve presented treatment? Can you hear me, okay?

Bart: I can now. Yes, ma’am.

Woman 5: Okay, we’re financing. Getting the outside financing secured has been a bit of an issue. So what do you recommend when they are declined from first aid and we’ve gone through that whole? We’ve called them and they’re just not their credit score is just not good enough. What do you recommend?

Bart: Well, we have to find out how much cash they have. And we have to find out what type of assets they have to liquidate. So that’s what we have to do, so that’s your next. If you can’t get financing then we have to create cash, in some way, shape, or form. If they don’t have credit, then they’re probably not going to be able to put on a credit card. So now we have to look at assets. So what kind of assets do they have? Do they have a pension? Do they have a 401k? Do they have any retirement savings? Do they have a home with equity? We have to start kind of questioning them.

Number one, how much cash can you put down? And then let’s go through a list of assets that are fairly easy to liquidate at an extremely low-interest rate or zero interest we’re actually paying yourself back interest. And then I go down that checklist, the Funding Worksheet, and I’ll hit him and ask him, “Do you have this boom, boom, boom, boom, boom?” If I get any hits on any of those things, then we’ll dig in and I’ll start to help them come up with solutions to find the money. But if they don’t have the money and they don’t have any credit and they have no assets, then it’s pretty much a done deal unless they have a family member or a friend that wants to sponsor the treatment? Which is another question, by the way.

Woman 5: Thank you.

Bart: Do you have the Funding Worksheet?

Rachel: No.

Woman 5: No.

Bart: All right. I’ll make sure that a copy gets sent out. Then you want to go down that Funding Worksheet because that’s the last thing you do, even when you triage price. That’s how you exit with somebody that gets declined for financing. You go through it. If you don’t get any hits, tell and take it home, look it over. If you come up with anything, or you need help on any of this stuff, this is my card, it’s got my personal line on it, call me anytime, and I’m here to work with you. And we’ll figure out a way to make it work. You know, some way shape, or form.

I’ve had people that have sold their cars. I have had people that have done home equity lines. I’ve had people that are over 60 do reverse mortgages. We’ve had all sorts of different ways. We just have to get creative with the financing so that we can free it up and you can get the treatment that you want. So I’m here to help you whenever you need it. And that worksheet is a very productive, polite, and professional way to exit out of a triage call or exit a situation where the patient doesn’t get approved but they leave with some type of a plan rather than just like “Oh, well you didn’t get approved, bye. Call me if you win the lotto.” Make sense?

Woman 5: Yes. Thank you.

Rachel: Yeah.

Bart: All right, guys. Hey, go close some big cases. I’m on my way to Vegas right now. So I’ll see you guys on the next call.

Woman 1: Bye. Thank you.

Bart: Alright, buh-bye.

Woman 2: Thank you.

[END]