Bart Knellinger: Hey, guys. What’s going on? How you doing?

Ghazal: Hi, Bart. Good. How are you?

Bart: I’m good. How are you doing?

Ghazal: I’m good. I’m good. I had one consult yesterday. I did everything I learned from our session, so I was very happy. I didn’t close it, but I did everything I learned. So it was very exciting.

Bart: Awesome, awesome. What happened in it? Why didn’t they close?

Ghazal: Um, so down payment. She couldn’t put down any money. She was under the impression that it would be 150 a month regardless, and I couldn’t get her qualified for anything, basically.

Bart: Got it.

Ghazal: And, um, iCare requires 30% down anyway. So I told her, if you can do it with them, you can just give me that down payment. She still couldn’t. So she…

Bart: Got it.

Ghazal: Yeah, which has been mostly, to be honest, that’s my only, um, obstacle as of now, those patients who can’t afford their down payment.

Bart: Yep. Yep. Well, hey, you know, as long as you figure that out efficiently, it’s no problem. You know…

Ghazal: Yeah.

Bart: …if you can’t, you can’t close somebody that can’t be closed.

Ghazal: Yeah. Should I push for patients who can’t do their down payment? Try to like, make it happen?

Bart: Good. Good. Awesome.

Ghazal: Thank you.

Bart: Good job. [Hums] I’m just giving ev-everybody a minute to log on here. Good to see everybody. Good to see everybody.

Male Sifa Dental: What’s going on, buddy?

Bart: Who’s that? Oh, Sifa. What’s up, buddy? [laughter] Pit Bull [Foreign language].

Male Sifa Dental: [Foreign Language]

Bart: [laughter] Alright, man. Hey, man. You’re in your new office?

Male Sifa Dental: Yes, we’re here right now. Training.

Bart: Hey, congratulations on that, man. How exciting.

Male Sifa Dental: Good things to come.

Bart: Yeah, it’s awesome. Awesome. I-I know you guys work hard. I can’t wait to see it.

Male Sifa Dental: Yeah. Soon. [laughter]

Bart: Cool, cool, cool. Have you guys started your consultations? You done any full large consultations?

Female Sifa Dental: On Monday.

Male Sifa Dental: We have, we have like around 15 to 18 patients scheduled.

Bart: Alright. Alright. You-you got one Monday?

Male Sifa Dental: What?

Bart: You got one Monday? Full arch consult.

Female Sifa Dental: We got a few.

Male Sifa Dental: Fifteen.

Female Sifa Dental: We got a few.

Bart: Alright. Alright.

Male Sifa Dental: [laughter] So I wanna… [crosstalk].

Bart: No pressure, girl. [crosstalk]

Male Sifa Dental: [inaudible].

Bart: No pressure, girl. Brand new office. You know how much money you spent on that place. You better bring it in. [laughter]

Female Sifa Dental: God.

Bart: All right. Anyone had any, anyone had any good consultations the last week? Any, any good ones you closed? You guys wanna share any tough ones or what?

Melissa: I have one.

Bart: What’d you have?

Melissa: Can you hear me, Bart?

Bart: What do you have?

Melissa: Um, I did have a lady. She was gonna buy a car. She ended up doing full arch, and I used Progressive. And she signed, and she scheduled next week. So…

Bart: So she was going to buy a car, and instead, she bought the teeth?

Melissa: She did.

Bart: Awesome.

Melissa: It was…

Bart: Well, when did she bring up the car thing?

Melissa: …it was awesome. She just decided that she had, um, and, you know, our meeting, we talked about putting yourself first before other people, and she said, you know what, uh, it’s time for me to put myself first. She was in tears. She’s like, you know, I was looking at cars. I’m just gonna do this. Let’s do it. So, um, she got a loan through Proceed and she funded right in the office, signed all the paperwork, and she’s coming in next week.

Bart: That is awesome.

Melissa: You see[?] that was awesome.

Bart: That’s awesome.

Melissa: Yeah.

Bart: So, it was basically, it was just like the example we used in the power session.

Melissa: Yes, yes. It was very weird. It was my first day back, [laughter] and I’m like, wow. So…

Bart: That’s [inaudible].

Melissa: …yeah, I mean, I’ve had some others where they don’t have the money, but, um, I’m following up with some of those. But yeah, she was, she was good, and I felt a little bad because we were a little late for her consult, but she stayed with us and was really flexible and, um, a really lovely lady. So, yeah.

Bart: Amazing.

Melissa: Your, um, the power session was helpful, so.

Bart: Wow. That’s awesome.

Melissa: Thank you.

Bart: Guys, we had, we had a power session last week and it was on closing styles. So, um, you know, talking about different situations when we’re closing. There are some people that, you know, you’re closing, they end up just like the first example here if they’re not qualified, they’re not qualified, right? Um, but there’s other people where they are qualified. You know, they’re not saying that it’s too expensive. Some of them will just use excuses, right? Excuses to procrastinate, you know. It’s, “Hey, I gotta buy a car,” maybe or “I’m thinking-, we’re thinking about doing a home remodel,” or “We’re shopping for a new house,” or, you know, “I don’t want my credit to get messed up for the new mortgage,” or you know, they have different things. Um, so we went through different closing styles in terms of how to, how to, you know, create an assumptive close, how to do a push close, how to do a question close in different scenarios. Um, because there’s some instances where they know they need to do it and they know they want to do it, they just need a little push, you know. And to know how to push the right way, you know, from a place of caring about them, not from a place of trying to get a sale done or trying to get them to, to spend the money and take action, but more of a place of trying to, from a, a place of caring, right? You wanna see them get better and, um, you know, you don’t wanna see them repeat the same mistakes they’ve made in the past. So, we literally spent the whole day at the power session going through those scenarios last week. So, Melissa, that is awesome. Thanks for sharing. It’s so nice when it happens.

Melissa: It does.

Bart: And we go and then you get one soon, you know, that’s, that’s, that’s like the example.

Melissa: It was, it was my first power session. So, I just wanna tell everybody it is worth it. It is, it’s fun, it’s educational, and you get to meet a lot of people. I mean, I know I love these Zoom calls too, but we learn a lot from each other. And I would encourage you to do the power sessions. They’re very helpful.

Bart: Yeah, for sure. If you guys haven’t gotten signed up, it’s easiest just to go through the, the schedule for the year with the doctor and say, all right, “Which ones am I-, which ones we’re gonna go to? I wanna go to the one on, you know, closing styles. I wanna see that one, or I wanna see the one on lead management, or I wanna see the one on, you know, pacing and leading, or the one on framing.” You know, we take a small portion of the sales process, and we work on-, hyper-focus on it for the whole day. So, um, it really, really helps out in terms of getting you guys some repetition there to where when you leave, when it comes up, you know, you guys know what to do. So, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. Anybody else have one? Anybody else have a tough one you wanna share with the group before we get going? Are you guys closing arches? It seems to be good right now. I’ve, I’ve heard so many people that seem like they’re really doing well in the consultations. Um, is everyone closing? You guys doing good? Keep in mind, right? I-I hope this is true.

Just remember this from, from the end of the year last year. I hope that everybody has a very clear goal set with the doctor and for the practice in terms of what your objective is, right? What is your goal in terms of how many arches per month you’re trying to close? And make sure that you guys are managing that entire process. And what I mean by that is, if your goal is to do ten arches, and that’s the expectation, you’re supposed to be closing ten arches. The question that you have right off the bat is, how many consultations does it take me to get ten arches closed? So, as a rule of thumb, you’re gonna want probably 30 opportunities to close 10 arches, 25 to 30, right? So, if you walk in and you look at your four-week forecast, and you guys only have ten consultations on the schedule, and your goal is to close ten that month, somebody tell me what you do. What do you do first thing? [pause] What do you do first thing?

Melissa: Follow up with people.

Female Sifa Dental: Get more consults.

Bart: Yeah. How do you get more consults?

Melissa: Call.

Female Staff 1: Make those calls.

Female Staff 2: [inaudible].

Bart: Okay, there’s [crosstalk] three people on the team.

Ghazal: Create the momentum.

Bart: There are three people on the sales team. There’s you, right? There’s the patient advocate, who’s responsible for the leads, and there’s the doctor. Okay? So if your goal is ten, that’s your goal to close, what’s the patient advocate’s goal in terms of consultations for you? What’s their goal?

Lisa Maisonet: At least 50.

Female Staff 3: At least 50.

Bart: Okay, so you’re gonna say 50. Okay, fine. I would say at least 30 consulta-, I mean, and those are 30 people that actually show up for consults. For you to even say, for you to have a shot at closing ten arches, you need 30. ‘Cause some of them you’ll close on the double arch. Some of them will be single, right? But their goal has to coincide with yours. So, if you look at the forecast and you don’t have consultations on the books, the first person you’re going to talk to is the patient advocate to find out why. And the patient advocate’s going, “Yeah, I need to close 30. I-I need to get 30 people in the door for you. I get it, but I only got 50 leads this month and I’m only getting in touch with ten.” Then what do you do?

Female Sifa Dental: Bother you guys.

Bart: Bother us. Say, “Hey, we need more leads. Something’s going on with the leads,” whatever it is. But just make sure that you guys are, and I talked about this a lot at the end of the year, but it’s just an important refresher being that we’re almost already through the first quarter of the year. It’s crazy. Um, but make sure that you guys are acting proactively, right? Your job is to drive the practice and drive the business forward with full arch, right? So you have to control your, you have to keep your eye on the leads. You gotta keep your eyes on how many patients, how many consultations and opportunities you’re getting, and what your closing percentage is. And you don’t wanna look back at February and go, what was it? You wanna look forward at, through March. Go, “Hey, how many consultations do we have booked this month? How many do we have booked this week? How many do we have booked next week? Right? How many openings do we have, you know?” And make sure that you guys, every day, you guys are constantly managing ahead. So, the actions you take right now, you’re taking the actions to change the outcome for next week. You’re not trying to change something looking at last week and changing based on last week. Do that for the doctor, right? Do that for the doctor. ‘Cause the doctors, they have a-, they’re so busy with the clinical staff and with taking care of patients that almost all of them react in regards to growing the business ’cause they don’t usually even know what happened until the month’s over, right?

So, you can’t do it that way if, if you’re trying to grow a business and you guys are in charge of sales, you, everything you do operates off of a forecast. Forecast. No reason of having a goal if it’s impossible. Your goal is to do, “Oh, well, we have a goal to do 30 a month.” Yeah, well, you had three consultations. That’s ludicrous, you know. So make sure that you guys are using that four week forecast that I gave you, and have your huddles in the morning and anytime there’s a hole, right? If there’s a hole for new patient consultations tomorrow, you guys are trying to make sure that you, you guys get that full. [Clears throat] Same thing with the doctor’s schedule, right? If you close a full arch today and the doctor has an opening on Thursday morning, you don’t want to let that patient schedule, you know, next week or the week after, or the week after. You wanna try to influence that patient to take that Thursday spot ’cause if Thursday-, once Thursday comes and goes, if that block didn’t get filled, it’s never coming back. You can’t recoup the revenue. Revenue’s gone forever for the month. Can’t get it back. Does that make sense, guys? Does everyone have the four-week forecast?

Ghazal: Do you mind if I get it? I can ask Morgan to send it to me, but I, I don’t have it.

Bart: Okay. Is it in Litmos?

Jenny: I don’t believe I have that either.

Bart: Hey, we’ll put it in Lessonly so you guys can just all get to it when you log in. But that, that, that needs to be your Bible right there. The four-week forecast is something you look at every single day because that’s your formula to succeed, right? So, you-you’ve got ten arches. You know exactly how many days over the next four weeks. How many surgical spots do you have open? Oh, the doctor’s going on vacation next month. He’s gone for a week. Well, if we lost a week’s worth of surgery, where are we gonna make that up for the month? Okay? That doctor needs to open up a Friday or open up this or do a, do a surgery in the afternoon on Wednesday when he normally doesn’t do it or whatever. But you have to forecast out to make sure that A, can we do the number of arches? And then B, right, how many openings do we have? So, you don’t just let people go, “Oh, yeah, I can do it in three weeks.” It’s like, “No, hey, I can get you in next Tuesday morning.” Boom, fill that opening, right? Double arches, those always take the priority. It’s double arches going in, you know. So you’ve got your ten surgical blocks for the month, okay? And then you’re filling them up, you’re scheduling, filling them up, and then you’ve got your blocks for new patient consultations. Okay, we do new patient consults on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 1:00 to 3:30, and we can fit in ten consultations in that time-frame ’cause, you know, 30%, 40% of ’em aren’t gonna show up. And then you can see, right, exactly how many you have next week, the next week, and the next week. And what you’re trying to do is get that four-week forecast as full as possible.

If it’s not full, if you’re looking at like, hopefully, this week is always full, the week you’re in, but if that second week is looking light, then you guys need to start really moving to get that full, right? You just can’t afford with some of the goals that, that you guys have, how aggressive they are. Do you understand like, you can’t have, you can’t have one of those bad months? You, you can’t bomb a month where you’re trying to do ten every month and you have one month where you do three. It’s super, super hard to recover from one of those. And that will only happen if you guys aren’t looking out into the future and you’re not forecast. So, [clears throat] it’s a very, very quick thing. You do it in the morning, and it’s you and the patient advocate, right? “How are we doing on consults? Here’s how many I got. Here’s how many openings. Okay. Here’s how many surgery-, surgical openings we have.” Then you can tell the doctor, “Hey, we’re booked out for six weeks straight. I don’t have another surgical opening for six weeks. And I’m afraid if we keep going like this, we’re, I’m gonna start losing closes, or we’re gonna start seeing an increase in refunds, and it’s gonna be hard to stay competitive. So we need to look at opening it up another day for surgery here, right?” Because if you start getting booked out six, seven, eight weeks with surgery, you can’t fit anybody in, why generate any more leads? You know what I mean? You’re gonna start losing them to second opinions. Other doctors can get them in quick.

So, constant communication with, with your doctor in regards to the schedule. Um, and then make sure that you guys are getting your opportunities, right? If you’re not getting your consultations, you don’t get your opportunities, then that day is dedicated towards, right, looking at the leads, helping the patient advocate and, and seeing, seeing what’s going on. Getting butts in the seats. Makes sense? Alright, good. I want you guys to be proactive and really aggressive. Take ownership, uh, take ownership over that process for, for the doctor. You should know what we’re gonna do in terms of arches for the next six weeks, right, like the back of your hand. And also keep in mind, it doesn’t matter how many you sell in a month, it only s- matters how many you do in a month. So, if the doctor only has capacity to do 12 arches in, um, every month, right? That’s how many blocks they have, and you guys sell 17 or 18 for two or three months straight. What’s gonna happen? Your backlog’s just gonna get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. And now, you’re collecting money, but you’re not produ-, you’re not actually providing the service. So, the money isn’t even real. Make sense? So, you make a sale, you want to provide that service as quickly as you possibly can, right?

And I have to have the conversation with doctors sometimes that go, “Oh, Bart, we had a bad month.” And I look down, I’m like, “Yeah. Well, you took two weeks off, buddy. You’re gone for two weeks, man. You were on a cruise, and then you came back and you still took Friday off. What are you smoking? You need to be working Friday and Saturday when you get back, right? To make up for the month. Otherwise, clearly, you’re gonna have a down month, and you’re also making my treatment coordinator miss her goal. Right? That, that’s not fair. That’s crazy. That’s crazy.” So, but they don’t know, right? You guys keep your-, keep your eye on the forecast and make sure that you’re in constant communication with the doctor about what your capacity is, right, for the surgeries, when you need to open up more, you know, how many more leads you need to get the consultations and to get the opportunities, all that stuff. [clears throat] Okay? I’ve got a little video that I’m gonna play. Um, in terms of just showing you guys. I want to go through and talk about, um, some of the price qualifying here in triage ’cause again, there, there’s no getting away from this guys, but the, the red flag that you’re looking for here, that’s gonna tell you to triage. If somebody openly says they don’t have any money to put down and they’re only looking for payments, that is the time in which you guys want to grab their driver’s license and put them through Proceed in the first ten, right? “I have no money down, I need payments.” Okay. Right. You don’t have to go through-, they don’t need to know it’s Proceed. They don’t need to know really anything about it, right? You guys just need to do it. It’s an assumptive close. But if I know that the entire sale is going to hinge on their ability to get-, to receive financing, then why not figure that out right now?

Now, if it’s not that cut and dry and they’re a price shopper, it’s different. Price shoppers, I’m not worried becau-, I’m not worried that they can’t afford it, they’re just looking for the best deal or they might be looking for a lower price, but they can afford it. They’re qualified. That’s different. It’s different than someone coming in, that’s desperate, that’s saying, “Hey, I need payments, right? I make $1,500 a month. I can do 100 or 200 bucks a month.” “Okay. Well, let’s see what we can do then. Hey, do you have your driver’s license handy? I’m just gonna check and see what I can get you approved for, for here in terms of a monthly payment. Let’s go ahead and see.” And then just start putting it in immediately. Grab their driver’s license and do it. You don’t have to go through all the details. You certainly don’t ask them if they want to. It’s, ju-, we’re just like wasting time, right? The person that can’t put any money down and needs a payment, they’re gonna get approved like, God, five out of 100 times that person. You know what I mean? It’s gonna be, it’s gonna be an exception. So, you wanna run that through right there in the first ten. No reason going the second ten doing CTs, getting to the doctor, going through a close, you’re gonna get all the way to the end, and then you, and you, [chuckles] they’re gonna get denied, and you’re done. And it’s like, damn, I could have done this an hour ago. Right?

And there’s two more people in the lobby, that I’m, I’m, I’m late for now. Okay? So, but what I don’t wanna have happen, I don’t want you to confuse a price shopper with somebody that we need to pre-qualify. [pause] Make sense? Okay. The biggest difference and this is what I want you to look for, price shoppers, a lot of times they’ve had-, they-they’ve, they’ve been to consultations before. Price shoppers deal more in whole numbers, okay? So price shoppers are gonna ask you directly, “Hey, how much you charge for all-on-four.” They’re gonna want a number because they got a number. They’re looking at more of the-the principle amount, and they’re gonna ask you straight up, “So, what do you charge for all-on-four?” Now, that doesn’t make-, that doesn’t mean, to me, that’s not screaming I need to pre-qualify this person with credit. To me, this is just screaming, price shopper. The ones that you need to pre-qualify, they don’t even really ask how much it is. They just wanna know if they can get payments. They just wanna know if they can get qualified for anything. They’re not asking direct. They’re not coming in saying, “Hey, listen, I know I’m a candidate. I know I’m gonna have four to six implants. I know that I want Zirconia, and I know I need top and bottom, and I’m already a candidate, and I already got enough bone. How much do you charge?” That’s a price shopper. That is not somebody that I need to pull a driver’s license from and get them approved. That’s somebody that shop in the principal price looking for the best price. They’re looking for the best deal. That’s not the one to go into payments ’cause they’re not, they’re not even concerned. They can probably-, a lot of those guys can just go ahead and pay for it, you know? So, that’s a price shopper.

The-the other guys, they’re too easy of a sale. They act, they’ve got a lot of urgency, they’re desperate, and they’re focused much more on monthly payments. That’s how they talk. They don’t even ask the price of the all-on-four upfront. They don’t even-, some, some of them don’t even know all-on-four. They just know that they don’t want dentures and they don’t have any money, but they can do a couple of hundred bucks a month. So, they’re kind of living on a prayer. That’s the one when there’s no money, and it’s all about monthly payments, get the credit card and, and see if they’re approved. Don’t waste all your time in this entire consultation to get to the end. But also, guys, do not confuse those two people. They’re very, very, very different people. Okay? I don’t need to triage out a price shopper. I need to close them. Somebody with no money and no credit, I need to pre-qualify. If they’re not qualified, I need to triage. Does that make sense? Okay. So, we’re gonna watch this, uh, we’re gonna watch just a little part of this video and I’m gonna show you guys. I want you guys to listen to the patient and tell me if you think this patient, I’ll pause it at the right time, and you tell me if you think this patient is a price shopper or if you think this patient needs to be pre-qualified. Okay?

Jackie: [Background noise] [coughs] Okay. Um, and have you-, [coughs] you had dentures…

Patient: I have.

Jackie: …and tried wearing them?

Patient: Yeah. And I have a gag reflex that does not allow me to wear them.

Jackie: Comfortably.

Patient: Yeah.

Jackie: Okay. [noise] What’s…

Patient: And I’ve tried even, you know, trying to sleep in them to get used to them, and it didn’t work.

Jackie: Nothing, nothing was helping? Is it the upper and lower that was bothering you, or could you handle one or another?

Patient: I mean, I could, I could do the bottom, but every time I put the top in with it, you know, and you can’t chew anything if you, if you just got bottom fixed.

Jackie: Right [laughter]. It kind of, it’s, it’s a, a set. Yeah.

Patient: Yeah.

Jackie: You need one just as much as the other. [pause] So, just kind of going through and reading through what you filled out for us, “You’re tired of not being able to eat your favorite foods and people making jokes or comments about not having teeth.”

Patient: Yeah.

Jackie: I can appreciate that for sure because of… [crosstalk]

Patient: Yeah, I had[?] one of those that actually came to me…

Jackie: Oh, wow.

Patient: …and asked me why I didn’t have teeth and gave me all these resources to look into and I’m like, “I have dentures. I can’t wear them.” [laughter] It’s not that I don’t want to, I just couldn’t wear it.

Jackie: Right. I can appreciate that. So, I’m gonna pull up your x-ray here. That’s what I’m working on getting on here. It’s a very personal thing. Um, teeth are very personal and to be without them for a long time like you have, it’s challenging, but, uh, you seem… [crosstalk]

Patient: I love pea or peanuts and almonds and stuff, and I can’t…

Jackie: Get some fun-function back is definitely important thing for you.

Patient: Yes.

Jackie: That’s like a, um, big one. Um, the main thing that’s gonna be, um, of topic of conversation is going to be whether there’s adequate bone there. Have you seen someone else about your…

Patient: No.

Jackie: …dental? I saw that you marked no one here, that you haven’t seen anyone. We’re kind of the first stop for you and…

Patient: Yeah. Ever since I got the dentures, I, uh, I tried going back to get them readjusted and have them to shave some of that down, and they refused because they said it would mess up my suction. And I am like, “Yeah, but if I can’t wear them, then there’s not gonna be any suction anyway.” [laughter].

Jackie: Yeah. Right. [silence] Um, cost is a concern that you mentioned.

Patient: Yes.

Jackie: Do you have a budget in mind or do you know an estimate about…

Patient: I have no idea. [laughter]

Jackie: …what this costs? No idea?

Patient: This is of great importance. So, you know, as long as it’s not an astronomical amount, you know, we can put it in. Um, we’re living with friends, so we don’t have a whole lot of bills.

Jackie: Mm-hmm.

Patient: You know, car payments, insurance, that kind of thing. And that’s it. [coughs]

Jackie: Okay. But, um, do you, I know, I think, uh, Laura had mentioned that your husband’s going to be popping in at the end possibly.

Patient: So… he cannot.

Jackie: He can’t? [beeping sound]

Patient: Um, yeah, he’s on the second route [inaudible] were out today, so there’s no way.

Jackie: Yeah.

Patient: They’re short-staffed.

Jackie: Okay.

Patient: I think that’s true everywhere. [laughter]

Jackie: Yes. Yes, it is.

Patient: Yeah, our daughter just, uh, applied to the bus garage, which is where my husband works.

Jackie: Yeah.

Patient: …and yeah. She just got hired today. [laugh]

Jackie: Oh, nice. Are you employed yourself?

Patient: Yeah, I work for the post office.

Jackie: Oh, okay. Nice. Um, I’m gonna kind of walk you through, and since you do have some dental knowledge on what’s possible for getting something in there, doing some research on your own.

Patient: Well, I, I actually, um, when I first set up the first appointment that I wasn’t able to make it, um, the lady that I talked to told me about some of the different…

Jackie: Options.

Patient: …things-, options, yeah. And I know I want implants because I’ve had bad experiences with dentures.

Jackie: Yes.

Patient : It’s just the cost of it is, you know, the biggest concern.

Jackie: Absolutely. So…

Patient: And she did tell me that there were… [crosstalk]

Jackie: You’re going to want…

Patient: …like monthly plans and stuff like that.

Jackie: Yes. So, you’re going to want something that’s fixed.

Bart: Okay. What do you guys think? Do you guys think, is this a, is this a price shopper, or is this somebody that you’re thinking, “Okay, I need to pre-qualify this person?” What are your thoughts here?

[Background conversation]

Ghazal: She didn’t sound like a price shopper. She, she said that they don’t have any expenses, and she hasn’t had a consult. Um, to me, she didn’t sound like a price shopper.

Bart: She doesn’t sound like a price shopper to me, either. What do you think? What else? Somebody else, what do you think? Price shopper, or are you guys thinking that you need to pre-qualify this lady right now?

All: Yes

Lisa Heath: Yes, I would because she’s, um, mentioned as long as the, the cost is not astronomical, which I would’ve asked her, you know, can you give a better idea what is the astronomical for you? You know, what would be not affordable? And then found out from that. And depending on what she said from that, then I would go [Background conversation] straight into, um, asking her about if she, if she came expecting to have payments or was she-, this something she was expecting to pay out of pocket?

Bart: Yeah. Yeah. Who else? Anyone think, anyone think she does sound like a price shopper right here?

Lisa Maisonet: Bart I don’t, she really didn’t bring up cost per se. I think the treatment plan coordinator brought up the cost.

Bart: No, she brought it up. She brought it up.

Lisa Maisonet: She did bring it up in the initial case? So I may have missed it. I just think she wants to know if she can pay monthly payments. I would, I would take her, her driver’s license and run her through, and then I’d say that we, we can go ahead and, and treatment plan her according to what she can or can’t do.

Bart: For me, what it-, it doesn’t scream that, “Hey, she’s not qualified.” I’m not hearing she’s not qualified, but I’m hearing enough to where I would just go ahead and start down the path of figuring out if, is she expecting this whole thing to be done with monthly payments, or is she expecting to put some money down? You know, like I would start going down the path. And guys, remember, the easiest way, if you’re gonna start going down the path of pre-qualifying, the easiest and the smoothest way to do it, right? Is to always start off by saying, “Listen, here’s the, here’s the good part about this whole thing. Based on everything that you’re telling me, it sounds like, for you, you’ll probably end up having, I don’t know, four or five or six different things that you’re probably going to be a candidate for, right? Which is good. There are different ways to do this.”

Now, having said that, like you said, “Oh, the cost over here was astronomical, or that cost was very high, and I’m looking for something better than a denture, but not something astronomical, right? Given the fact that you’re probably gonna have a lot of different things that we could theoretically do, um, you know, gimme an idea of what ballpark we’re in, in terms of what you’re expecting. Because there’s no sense in going through this whole thing and saying, “Hey, we want this as far as function, and aesthetics, and longevity. We want the best of the best of the best. Everybody wants the best of the best of the best. But if the best of the best of the best for you is astronomical, then there’s no reason to go through that. Right? Let’s go through kinda what’s possible to get you on the right road. So, just kinda give me an idea of what you’re expecting. You know, you’ve already spoken with somebody else. Like what, what kind of ballpark are you in here? And give-, gimme an idea of what we’re starting with.” And I always start with the fact that, “Hey, there’s not one way that you could do it. You could do it a lot of different ways. All those ways get different outcomes, but what’s the point in going through the outcome that we want, right, if that outcome is impossible.” Does that make sense, guys? And all I’m trying to do is figure out if they have any money. Because if I do that and they’re like, “Well, I, you know, I don’t have like an endless budget here, but you know, I’ve-, I’m prepared with like $10,000 I have saved up. So, if I could do something like $10,000 in payments and then do payments for the rest, you know, that’s kind of what I’m looking for.”

Um, cool. Then I don’t even need to run them through Proceed. Does that make sense? Anybody gives you a f-, a-a dollar amount of ten grand or up that they have, then you just immediately move forward ’cause that’s-, they’re qualified. ‘Cause if nothing else, I can get her in an overdenture, right? Take the ten and just finance the other 2 or $3,000 in-house. So, e-either way, I’ve got something here. I’m gonna move on with the sales call and with the consultation in a normal manner. Right? Now, if they answer it the other way, and these people are obvious ’cause they’re like, “Well, geez, I don’t know. Do you have payments?” They’ll be all about the payments. And if they’re all about the payments, go ahead and see if they get qualified, right? [clears throat] But that’s the easiest way to justify, right? You always want to pre-qualify, talk-, speaking about money.

Because here’s what we wanna avoid, guys, and I want you guys to listen to this. We want to avoid the perception that we’re all about money. I do not want that to be the perception. The only reason I’m talking about money is out of respect for the patient because they’re bringing it up, right? And it’s out of respect for them and out of respect for their time to say, “I understand,” right? Like, we’re gonna go through this exercise, and you’re gonna tell me, “Hey, I want this in terms of function and this in terms of aesthetics, and I want the best of the best. That’s what I want. I wanna look great and feel great, but I’m on a limited budget here, right?” So, if the budget is a limiting factor, we can start there, and then I can back into the treatment and set your expectation for what kind of an outcome you can set from there. Just being respectful of your time.

Like, you just wanna be careful doing it ’cause I’ve seen on the videos where we go through and we p-, pre-qualify and it can get a little, um, [pause] I don’t know, it can get a little mechanical and a little cold, and… it’s not the-, it’s just not the right vibe, right? So, you wanna make sure if we’re gonna go in and pre-qualify a patient, I want that patient to be crystal clear that I’m not saying, “Hey, let’s see if you have any money.” That’s not it. “Hey, let’s see what ballpark we’re in so that I can respect your time. That’s all, and give you something that’s realistic. That’s all. We, uh, the only thing that we care about is that you start moving in the right direction. If we were to get from here to here, that’s great. But if here financially is impossible, okay, then maybe we go from here to here or from here to here, and maybe we get here two or three years later. It doesn’t matter. What matters is you’re not walking outta here suffering for another week or two weeks or a year or two years, right? But let’s figure out where you are financially, then we’ll back into it ’cause you’re gonna have different. There’s gonna be some way that we can help you.” Does that make sense, guys? So, always pre-qualify it and get in the mindset of the only real-, I’m not pre-qualifying so that I don’t waste my time. I’m pre-qualifying here so that the-, I’m not wasting the patient’s time. Makes sense? I’m getting paid to be here. Okay?

You guys are paid to speak with them. That’s your job. You don’t wanna waste their time. And you also don’t wanna put them in a situation where you make a presentation, they look at the price, and they’re like, “Oh, my God. That’s impossible. There’s no way in hell I have that. 30 grand! That’s like, you-you might as well have said 3 million. That’s just never gonna happen.” You don’t want to be in that. That it, it sucks to be in that position after you’ve spent, you know, 40 minutes with somebody and you’ve built all this rapport. It’s just such a letdown. You know what I mean? And then you try to get them fi-, they don’t have any money down. You run them through everything in the world. They’re denied with everything, and it just sucks, you know? And it sucks way worse for them than it, than it does for you. Right? It’s really defeating for them. So just keep that in mind. But I’m in agreeance with you. I would go in to start the, the pre-qualifying process here.

Patient: Yes.

Jackie: I will tell you that right now. Um, it’s on the top for sure. Bottom, you might be able to get away with doing implant-supported by doing a locator denture. Um, so they’re…

Bart: They’re new to the program. You guys know we’re not talking about any of this, you know what I mean? They’re doing their best. I think this is the fir-, first video. You can tell she’s operating through the ten, ten, ten. But this is, this is like the same exact mistake that everybody makes when they first come on board is talking about all these different treatments. You know what I mean? Talking about fix, talking about removable, none of them matter. All that information in the first ten is completely irrelevant, right? We’re finding out where they are, what their pain points are, how it affects their life, creating a vision, getting the patient to articulate the vision, and we’re moving on. That’s it. We’re just identifying the problem so that the doctor can solve the problem with the treatment plan. That’s it. That’s all we’re doing, right? Unless cost comes up… then it’s a deviation from the script. And we’re pre-qualifying.

Jackie: There’s, there’s two different types and then there’s different budgets, and…

Patient: This one’s gonna rub up against them…

Bart: I’m just gonna forward this [inaudible].

Patient: …when you’re trying to snap it in your mouth.

Jackie: This the, the strong snap.

Patient: [inaudible]

Jackie: Okay, that’s exciting though.

Patient: No, you know, they, they got engaged. Not this past December.

Jackie: Okay.

Patient: I mean it was yeah, the past, this past December ’cause it was right…

Jackie: Oh, wonderful… you’re in the right place. Um, like I said, we do these kinds of cases all the time. Um, the next step is just getting him in here, uh, to see whether your bone is adequate for putting implants in there and then kind of going from there.

Patient: I’m hoping [inaudible].

Jackie: If you’re are-, you know, if you’re not a candidate here in this office with a level of bone, um, we do have places that we can look into and try and find you-, there’s different types of implants, whether it can be traditional implant-, implants, if we have adequate bone. Um, they also have implants that are called zygomatic, implants that are a little bit larger and longer. And they can use, uh, bone in your cheeks…

Patient: Okay.

Jackie: …to give more support.

Patient: Okay.

Jackie: So even if you’re not a candidate here, we can kind of help steer you in the right direction. Um, with that in mind, do you have like a monthly budget or something that would work for you if we were to help you kind of finance things? Did you, have you had a chance to kind of think about what would cost or what you could afford monthly?

Bart: See, so Jackie’s on the right. She, she, she senses the same exact thing, right? So she’s, she’s getting into this here. Now, you can tell Jackie’s from a clinical background, you know what I mean? She’s got to-, she, she knows too much, right? We’re talking zygos, we’re talking craziness, you know. So all that stuff, just forget all about it, you know what I mean? Where are you? Where do you want to be? I’m gonna give it to the doctor. And they’re gonna, they’re gonna talk the zygo language. You know what I mean, even though we like it, you know, forget it. We actually know too much here, but she’s get-, she’s on the right track right here. So let’s see how it goes.

Patient: I would need to know what the cost would be…

Jackie: Overall?

Patient: …and see how much I could do a month…

Jackie: From here?

Patient: Yeah.

Jackie: Um, do you guys have any amount set aside for the down payment…

Patient: No [laughing].

Jackie: …or anything like that? It would be purely funded financed. That would be…

Bart: Okay. Did you hear that? Have anything set aside for a do-down payment? She laughed at that. She laughed at her. [laugh] Down, like, money, I don’t have any money. Okay.

Jackie: And then trying to find a, um, uh…

Patient: A doable amount?

Jackie: …[inaudible] uh, on payment plan.

Patient: I mean, right now, um… so I’m bringing home about, uh, 1600 every two weeks from the post office.

Jackie: Okay.

Patient: And then, you know, all the other stuff I’ve got…

Jackie: Yeah.

Patient : …extra. And that’s what pays our main bills, like our car payments, insurance, you know, stuff like that.

Jackie: But you’re not paying for living expenses right now?

Patient: No. Not at all.

Jackie: Okay. Um, do you have decent credit between you and your, uh, husband? Not so much. Not your credit…

Bart: And you never really have to ask ’em about credit. You’re gonna-, you’re about to find out. You know what I’m saying? You’re about-, because why ask, like, I’m gonna run you no matter what. Right? Just to see, to be sure. So who cares? You’re-you’re gonna find out, right? You’re-, at this point, the second she says she doesn’t have any money down, you’re asking her for a driver’s license. You’re gonna figure out what program she can qualify for and, and, see what’s available to her. Because if she doesn’t qualify for anything, she literally laughed at the, at the idea of putting money down. It’s over. Why are you gonna introduce her to the doctor? Why are we gonna go through and do a bundle close? Why? Why do it? Because you-you’re wasting her time, you know.

Jackie: Working on building it back backup. Okay?

Patient: Yes.

[Background conversation]

Jackie: We work with a company called Proceed finance [inaudible] who we fund these types of cases through. I’m gonna grab Dr. Pelman[?], I’ll have him come in…

Bart: Doesn’t matter if it’s Proceed. It doesn’t matter if you do it with two, three, four, or five, right? You got your driver’s license handy? Here, lemme see your driver’s license. I’m gonna see what I can get you approved for. Let’s see if monthly payments are gonna be a possibility here. You got your license. Lemme see it. Okay. Boom. And then just do it. Just do it. Take your, your words and chop ’em by 80%. You know what I mean? You get, you get straight to it. When it’s time to pre-qualify, you know, somebody doesn’t have any money down, then just, you know, get to it. Ask for their license, they’ll give it to you and then run it.

Jackie: …and he’ll look and make sure that you’re a candidate. If you are, um, we’ll go through and I’ll talk through the price points on each, and then we’ll kind of go…

Bart: So she had the right instincts, right? But we just kind of moved forward with the call and you got all the way to the end and we’ve presented, I think, I think it was 36,000. Um, and the lady’s like, “Huh, I wish I had $36,000 to give you,” you know. And then of course you have to try to get her pre-qualified. But, um, this is a, this is a good example, guys, of why we have this broken up in ten minutes, ten minutes, in ten minutes. This is why. Because there’s a certain percentage of ’em as you guys go through and figure out current state and desired state, there’s gonna s-, be a certain percentage of these patients that are not going to be financially qualified that you can-, that you have the opportunity to triage out and save countless hours over the course of the week, month. Imagine how many hours you save over the course of the year just by effectively triaging. How much doctor time do you get back? [pause] If you could triage out even 75% of the patients that get all the way to the end, have no money, and then they don’t get approved. If you could just get 75% of those patients out of there in the first ten, it’s so much time, and time is money and money is profit. Make sense? Okay. Last thing I want to talk about here, unless there’s any que-, is there any question? Any questions in regards to understanding the difference…

Ghazal: Yes. Well, I actually do have a question. Can you hear me?

Bart: I can hear you well.

Ghazal: Sorry, I don’t know if it’s working. Okay, perfect. So in the first ten minutes after doing all of that, going over financing, would we just walk them out without seeing the doctor? Is that what we’re doing? ‘Cause I’m having my first consult today, so I just, I kinda have a jiff of how it goes.

Bart: Yeah.

Ghazal: Um, but I’m not-

Bart: So after the first ten?

Ghazal: Yes, after the first ten, if we know that they’re not pre-qualified for anything, we’re basically wasting our time. Right?

Bart: Well, well, they’re, well, you can’t close ’em.

Ghazal: Right.

Bart: Right. They-they can’t, they, they financially can’t buy anything.

Ghazal: Correct.

Bart: Okay, so what’s your goal then? Your goal is to help the patient. That goal never changes. So how do you help that particular patient? You give ’em ideas on how to create liquidity.

Ghazal: Gotcha.

Bart: And you give them things to do on their own. Let’s go through this quick checklist, right, the funding worksheet. Let’s go through this quick checklist and I’m going to list off a couple ideas and a couple different ways that I’ve had patients be successful in the past in terms of securing additional financing or creating liquidity. Okay?

Ghazal: Okay.

Bart: You just stop me if any of these kind of strike a chord, okay? And then you go through it, right? Do you own a home? Do you have equity in the home? Do you own a, you know, a-a-a second car? Do you have an IRA? Do you have a retirement? Do you have 401k, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, you just go through these things, right? A secondary co-signer. Like, you go through this list, um, and sometimes something will strike a chord. You’ll get an idea and the patient will go back, and then they’ll come back and they’ll have it. Or if not, you give it to ’em. Tell ’em, “Hey, go home. Do your research here. And remember, a lot of people have a lot of money laying around. They don’t see it because it’s not in money form, right? But it’s sitting there in the form of a secondary car they’re not using, it’s sitting there in the form of, you know, um an antique sitting in their house.” All it is, is something that you own that you can sell, right? Because there’s nothing you’re gonna be able to sell that you’re gonna miss more than using your teeth every day. So what do you have? How do we create cash and capital? How do we do it? You either sell something or someone loans it to you and they’re only going to loan it to you on credit. So if you have bad credit, the only way they’re gonna loan it to you is against something else, against an asset. And if that’s not possible, then you have to start liquidating things and selling stuff. Make sense?

Melissa: I have a question.

Bart: Yep.

Melissa: So let’s say the person comes in and the same thing, I can’t get them for, I can’t get them for anything, but they’re approved for like, or maybe they have just enough for maybe partials. Would it be okay to offer them that, “Okay, this is your last option?” Or never try to like downgrade[?] in treatment?

Bart: Well, [clears throat] I mean, if they’re sitting there with no teeth, I’d rather have, I’d rather have a partial to no teeth.

Melissa: That’s what I thought. Okay?

Bart: So again, the-the whole-, the goal is not to sell an all-on four.

Melissa: Okay.

Bart: And the goal is not to sell implants. The goal is to help this person get to the outcome that they want. Right?

Melissa: Okay.

Bart: And sometimes based on finances, the outcome they want is not possible right now. So then…

Melissa: I had that issue here.

Bart: …so then the mission changes.

Melissa: Okay.

Bart: Then the mission changes from, get you the outcome that you want to, let’s get you the very best outcome that you can pay for.

Melissa: Okay.

[Background conversations]

Bart: Because the mission is get ’em moving forward in the right direction to stop the deterioration, stop the progression of deterioration of their teeth and of their function of their life. Like we have to stop it. And a partial will do that. It’ll, it’ll restore some level of function. A denture will restore some level of function, a good fitting denture. If you guys don’t do that there and they can afford it, you know, then you pick up the phone, right, and you call one of the other doctors in the area that you know that does that kind of thing, and you go ahead and you set the appointment right there for ’em. That’s called service. That’s called giving a crap. That’s called just being the-, an advocate for the patient. It’s always all about them. It’s never about us, right? If we can, if we can do a partial and help ’em, then we wanna do the partial and help ’em if that’s all they can pay for. I’m not gonna tell somebody that has $5,000 or $6,000, you know, to kick rocks. You’re not even close. You know what I mean? To say, “Listen, 5 or 6,000, you’re not really in the ballpark for any type of a full arch implant solution, right? So give you an idea like one implant that’s gonna be probably $3,800, $4,000, $4,200 just for one implant and a crown. So for full arch 5,000, you’re more in the ballpark of like a, well-made denture, you know what I mean? That’s where-, that-that’s kind of where you are there, right?” And you’re just shooting ’em straight. And a well-made denture is better than a denture that doesn’t fit for right now. And then they can go work on their liquidity. Make sense? Anybody else have any questions on how to identify the price shopper versus somebody that needs to get-, be pre-qualified?

Okay, good. Last thing I wanted to talk to you guys about, um, I wanna talk to you about understanding that every time you walk into the consultation and you meet somebody, I don’t want you to-, I want you guys to stop looking at it like a consultation, okay? And I want you to start looking at it like a performance. Like you guys are putting on a performance there, right? That’s what, that’s what you have to do in order to connect with somebody in order to influence… Like the computer stuff, you don’t need a computer for the first ten. Get that computer out of there. Look the-, when you walk in the room guys, you have to make an impact on that patient immediately to connect with them. You gotta look ’em in the eye, go up, shake their hand, and be excited to see ’em. Show ’em that you’re, that you’re, that you’re excited to see ’em. That you’re waiting for ’em. That you’re glad they’re there, right? That you’re interested in, in their story. You’re interested in it.

You know, like you guys, I can so tell when somebody’s from a clinical background because how you explain things like, in a clinical setting is very educational. It’s, it’s not how you sell though, right? It’s not how you influence. That educational tone, you know what I mean? It’s like when I’m watching the videos, I can watch the videos and I can like, you know, I can check off the anchor points, but I’m still in the back of my head, I’m going, “Man, yeah, but this performance, this, this isn’t a good performance, right? They’re not connecting, they’re not making an impact on the patient. I don’t feel anything here.” Okay?

And there’s something called transfer of energy and influence. And it is, God, it is so, so important. You know, when somebody walks in the room, I can walk into a room and I can move the energy, the-the, of the entire room however I want. If I wanna move the energy down, I don’t have any problem. You know what I mean? I can put a cloud over this damn building if I need to. You know what I mean? And it’ll happen. If you wanna lift somebody up, you can do that, you know. But the, the thing that doesn’t, it’s not gonna help you, is if you come in and you’re just worried i-if you get mechanical and you’re like, “Okay, I gotta do this, this, and this and this. And you’re worried about this and you’re asking this question, that question, you’re not connecting with, with them.

And figures of authority and people of influence, they-they-they just don’t communicate that way, you know? And I want, when you guys walk in the room, I want it to-to make a statement. I want it to make a statement that, hey, you’re, so you’re a force to be reckoned with. You’re not normal. You’re not someone taking an order. You’re not somebody doing paperwork. You’re not somebody going through a checklist, right? You’re somebody that, that can help ’em. And this is something that you need to give the doctors feedback with also. You come in the room, don-don’t, don’t walk in the room and start looking at the TV. Don’t walk in the room and look down, like walk in the room and look at the person that’s in the room. They’re walking into your business. They’re walking into your business as a perspective patient. You gotta make ’em feel welcome. You gotta make ’em feel safe and you gotta make ’em feel comfortable with you. Right? People feel comfortable with people that know what they’re doing. So remember, this is a, this is a performance. This is a performance. I don’t know what you need to do to get yourself into a good mindset. Like Jackie, right here. Like, watch this. Here, watch-watch how it starts right here.

Jackie: Okay. My name is Jackie.

Bart: Boom! Alright. Seven seconds in to look up at the patient. And she looked up and looked right back down, right? She’s too busy worried about the computer, the tablet, the pen, forget all that shit. Like there’s a person sitting there. Walk in, look at her. “Hey, how you doing? I’m Jackie. Oh, nice-, so nice to meet you. I’m so glad you got a chance to come in today. How are you doing?” Like, connect with the patient. Connect with the patient. That’s it. If you gotta listen to music before you walk in there, it let-, you know. I don’t know.

I have a, I have some weird ways of doing this kind of a thing to like snap into it. But one thing I do, if I’ve got, like, let’s say I’m getting ready to do a power session, I do not look at emails before that. I don’t take phone calls before that. I don’t do anything. I don’t allow myself to get any type of crazy curve ball thrown that could put me in a negative state. You know what I mean? When you walk in, it has to be all about, all about the patient. And you have to be worried about connecting with the patient. And I talked to Jackie after the power session for like, geez, probably like, at least a half an hour. You know, I think it was their, it was their first power session. I talked to her for half an hour and she’s super personable, super personable. She’s definitely not that serious. She’s got tons of jokes. Watch.

Jackie: I am Office Manager/Treatment Coordinator here in this office.

Patient: Mm-hmm.

Jackie: And my goal for today is to kind of get to know you a little bit, get to know your mouth, um, how you’ve gotten to where you are with your mouth, and then kinda find out what your goals are for what you want to have. I think-, I’m reading through some of your notes, I saw that you’ve been without teeth for about 20 years.

Bart: See, now look, performance-wise, Jackie’s gotta get more excited. You know what I mean? She’s-, like Jackie needs to talk to this patient like she was speaking to me at the power session. Now we were drinking at the time, so I’m not advocating for margaritas before every consult, but that, that would help here. The whole point is, guys, you can’t be that serious. There’s a time to be serious, right? But the seriousness is typically like, um, it’s, it’s more, more showing empathy. You know, there’s a time to show empathy, but right in the beginning, you have to show some level of enthusiasm, genuine enthusiasm, and interest, right, about wanting to hear their story and about wanting to help them. You have to show that you’re excited about the prospect of learning about ’em and helping ’em. And that’s a performance. You know what I mean?

You guys are on stage with these patients and you’re gonna move their energy. They’re going to mirror and match what you do, right? So if you’re short in monotone, well they’re gonna be short in monotone. You can’t build an emotional sale without emotion. You can’t do it. The doctors can’t do it either. So you have to get back to basics. So remember, hey, this is just, all this stuff is about psychology. None of it has anything to do with these damn implants. It’s just another person dealing with another problem that doesn’t have a way to fix it. And that’s why they’re there. Your job is to find out what the problem is, what the solution, what their ideal solution or ideal result is, and then show ’em how we’re gonna fix it. That’s it. But there’s a performance aspect to it. And I want you guys to remember, if nothing else, like the second that you guys walk in, forget the computer, forget the notes, forget all that crap.

Certainly, don’t have your phone on the table. And you never look at your phone when you’re doing business. You guys know that, right? That’s, you know how, like, that’s super rude. So you never look at a cell phone. You don’t take a call, right? You don’t look at a text. Super, super unprofessional, right? But again, what-what is there to look at? What is there to look at? Your job in the first ten, where are they, where they wanna be? There’s nothing to look at. You can remember this shit. It’s easy. You can remember. You don’t even need to write it down, you know. The-, all that stuff is a crutch for when you’re learning something new, when you get lost and you don’t know what to say, right? They’re just like little things that you grab. It’s like a speaker that grabs onto the podium ’cause they’re, they’re public speaking for the first time and they’re like looking at the podium and they’re-they’re shuffling papers that don’t even have anything on ’em. That’s all that is, right?

But I want you guys to walk in. I don’t wanna see anything on the desk. Get everything outta there. When the doctor walks in, I don’t want that. I don’t want the CT, I don’t want ’em looking at the CT when they walk in the room in the second ten. Walk in, straight up to the patient, smile at the patient. You’re excited to see them. They pay your bills, and you help them. So treat ’em that way, you know what I mean? Get into it, okay? Focus on the, on the energy that you walk into the room with. That’s the energy you’re gonna transfer over to that person. And you can say that’s crazy, but that’s not, that’s-, it’s real. That transfer of energy stuff is so real. I can’t even tell you. You know, you never had somebody miserable walk into the room and you’re like, “Oh God.” They didn’t say anything bad. They just got miserable energy. And you’re like, “Oh, gross. Who is that?” Right? And then you have somebody come into the room that just kind of makes everybody smile. And they’re super positive, you know what I mean? They bring a different energy. It, and it-it has an effect on you. So it’s one thing to go in and hit the anchors, right? And that’s good and you do that, okay?

But as you’re doing it, that’s why the videos are so important. Take the video and watch it. And you guys, I want you guys to grade your own, your own performance. Grade your own performance. I think for-, this is the, I think this is the first, uh, video that they sent over. I think for the very first video and obviously, I watched the whole thing. I didn’t play the whole thing here, but I watched the whole thing, and Jackie hit a lot of the anchor points. She hit a lot of the anchor points for the first time. I thought it was really, really, really good. And that’s the exact process that you should go through, right? You go through it and you just try to hit it. You’re just trying to do something different for the first time. And as you go through, you’re gonna, “Oh, okay, all right. I don’t need to mention this there. I don’t need to add that in. I don’t need to do this. Hey, I’m gonna focus on this for the next one.” Like, if I’m Jackie, I’m just focused on nothing but going in and coming in with a performance. Everything off the desk, make a connection, and bring a different level of energy to the call. And of course, you know, remembering what-what we spoke about. [crosstalk] Is this a price shopper or is this somebody with no money?

Jackie: [inaudible] Can you hear me?

Bart: I can hear you now.

Jackie: Alright, this is Jackie. So me watching this video back, [chuckles] the first one that I sent in, and re-watching it today, I, it’s so cringy to me because I was so mechanical in that one because I had all the papers and I was thinking like I have to do the ten, ten, ten. I have to…

Bart: Yeah.

Jackie: That’s why I didn’t triage right there and do the Proceed ’cause I thought, no, I have to go through my 30 minutes and then we do everything. So now, like we’ve completely removed before, like, before I even sent in the next video, I think we removed all the paper, we removed everything. And I went back to just being my normal clinical self. ‘Cause I think I have it kind of ingrained now. Like what all points I need to hit on.

Bart: Not normal clinical self. Normal self. I’ve never-, I don’t even know what that means.

Jackie: Well having…

Bart: Your normal self is perfect.

Jackie: …normal, having my normal dental background, like having the experience I guess. Experience is a better word. [crosstalk]

Bart: Forget the dental though. Forget the dental.

Jackie: Having, having the experience. Yeah.

Bart: You-You, see, you know too much.

Jackie: Yeah [laugh].

Bart: That’s the problem, right? You have too much information. Yeah that-, my reps do the same thing. Like, you know too much. Right?

Jackie: But I knew for her that she wouldn’t be happy with, with a locator ’cause she gags on ’em with, with having something across the pallet. So that’s what I couldn’t get rid of with that. ‘Cause I’m like, “I know she can’t afford it, but…

Bart: Yeah.

Jackie: …she’s not gonna be happy with something that’s a locator that’s, you know, filling and covering the pallet.

Bart: But we’re in the first ten.

Jackie: Yeah.

Bart: So it’s not relevant, right?

Jackie: Yeah.

Bart: It’s just not relevant. It doesn’t matter. Like we’re not thinking… The treatment only comes from the doctor. And in your mind, hey, if the doctor says locator, it’s locator. If the doctor thinks that well, from where this person is, to where they want to go, if the doctor thinks it’s locator is the best way to get this result, then it’s locator. If it’s all-on-four, it’s all-on-four. If it’s a denture, it’s a denture. But like, hey, doctor’s there to make that call. I’m not going to assume it’s gonna be this or this, nor is it-, nor does it matter right, in the first ten and…

Jackie: But the, the first ten you’re supposed to dr-, try to figure out what her goal and what her end goal is gonna be. If I can figure out that she’s not gonna be happy with something that’s impending on her palate, then that…

Bart Yeah. But that’s-that’s-that’s gonna be-, the doctor’s gonna get that. You know what I mean?

Jackie: Right.

Bart: He’s not gonna miss that. Like, that’s gonna be self-explanatory when you tell him what-what she wants as a result. He’s not gonna say, “Oh, to get that result, I’ll do, uh, an overdenture. Like he’s-, that’s, that’s just, don’t worry about it. You know what I mean? Um, and listen, for your first video, that’s why I said that’s completely normal. And you can’t look at the first video and go, “Oh God, I look so mechanical, I gotta change everything.” No, that doesn’t mean go back to the way you were doing it. It means do it that way. It’s just that, practice it. That’s it. ‘Cause it will, it will get-, you’re gonna smooth it out. You’re gonna have, uh, you’re not gonna have a problem. Out of all the first videos that I see, like to grade ’em, this is gonna be like, in the top 15%. You know what I’m saying?

Jackie: Mm-hmm.

Bart: Of, of all the very first videos, because you did hit the points. What typically happens, Jackie is the second somebody gets uncomfortable and they don’t know what to do next and they get lost, they revert right back to their old way and they abandon the whole process.

Jackie: Mm-hmm.

Bart: That’s typical. You didn’t do that. So this is how you get better. Right?

Jackie: Right.

Bart: You go, hey, this makes sense. Okay, so theoretically and strategically we agree that if I could find out where they are and where they wanna be in the first ten minutes, get that information to the doctor, that means they can make one plan. We agree that one plan is more simple than three options. We agree that I can run a bundle close and show massive value for one plan, not three at the same time. Okay? We can agree in theory, then it’s just about execution. So if the strategy’s good and then we didn’t get the result that we want, it’s not-, doesn’t mean change the strategy, it just means we’re not executing. And execution comes with consistency and practice and that’s all it is. But you did really good for your first one. So what I don’t want you to do is go, “Oh God, if I do it that way, I’m gonna be mechanical.” You were only mechanical ’cause it was the first time.

Jackie: Right. Yeah.

Bart: Make sense?

Jackie: Yes.

Bart: It’s like learning anything new and watch it. You’re going, “Oh my god, it’s cringeworthy. I get it, I get it.” But you do it, you watch it, and then you do it again. The second one’s gonna be infinitely better. Third one’s gonna be infinitely better. You know what I mean? It’s gonna get better so quickly. And you just have to remember there’s answers to the tests that you know already that you’re gonna wanna refrain from. Like you guys, frankly you guys could treatment plan these, these people yourself. Half of you guys can look at the CT and look at them and listen to what they’re saying and freaking-, and figure it out. You know what I mean? You can. It doesn’t mean that that’s what you do in the first ten minutes because we’re trying to set this up. Remember we’re setting this up to where we’re not selling a treatment. I’m not pushing a treatment. I’m not selling features and benefits. I’m not selling implants. That’s what commodities are. That’s called selling products and services, and we don’t do that. We customize treatment plans based on outcomes. And if I’m not clear on the outcome, I can’t even think about a treatment plan. The only thing I can think of is clarifying the outcome. Does that make sense?

Lisa Maisonet: Bart, this is Lisa too. I can tell you from experience, I was as skeptical to you when you said put away the models because it was my favorite thing to do, was like talk about the treatment. But I’ll tell you, simplifying the first ten and not doing it, I have absolutely loved it. It has made things so much easier not to go into the details of treatment. So while it, it was hard to break out of it, I think it was incredible to break out of it. So…

Jackie: I agree.

Bart: And guys, look, this is the, this is the exact thing. This is the exact way that I sell. When I sell a doctor, I have a consultation with a doctor, what’s the first thing that you think I talk about? Think I talk about websites. Do you think I talk about TCI? Think I tell ’em everything that we could do. Do-do you think I do that? What do I do? What do I talk about first thing? Tell me.[Crosstalk]

Lisa Maisonet: What are you struggling with?

Female Staff 4: You ask them if they have a [inaudible].

Lisa Maisonet: What are you struggling with?

Bart: Yeah. Yes.

Jackie: But they have [inaudible]

Bart: Where are they? Where are they strong? Where are they weak? Where are we trying to get to? Where are we trying to end up with the business in 12 months? What’s the long-term vision of the business? Most of the time, they don’t even have one. I have to create it for ’em and with them collaboratively. Once we have a clear vision, now I can talk about some of the things or the-the core aspects of getting from where they are to where they need to be, what that is, what that entails, right? But I could pull from anything. Sometimes it’s necessary a website, sometimes it’s not. I don’t care. What does it matter to me? I don’t care what it ends up being. I just care that it makes sense that I can set the expectation that you’re gonna achieve this in a 12-month period of time or you’re gonna have every opportunity.

This theoretically should work. If it doesn’t work, it’s not ’cause the idea was bad. It’s ’cause you didn’t execute. Right. You didn’t execute. And execution will come with practice and time. But let’s make the strategy and that, that was what I found out guys. That’s why I was selling. Do you guys know I was selling door-to-door? I was just a door-to-door salesman, then I sold yellow page ads, then I sold lasers. Nobody gave me a dollar to start this business. Nobody. This-, everything I’m teaching you right now is how I built the whole thing. That’s how I built the whole thing. That’s how I could always sell ten times more than anybody because I wasn’t selling anything at all. And I wasn’t, I wasn’t pushing anything at all. I was just trying to come up with ideas to help my clients.

That’s how TCI was created. It wasn’t created ’cause I saw an opportunity to make money. It was created because I needed to find a solution to generating a lot of leads that didn’t result in any sales for the practice. So that’s-that’s how the-, that’s how you sell. That’s how you create products. What if you guys are in a practice and you got three competitors, or two competitors, or one competitor that’s constantly kicking your butt and taking your business because they’re doing something differently or they’re doing something better than you. Are you gonna let that-, are you gonna let that slide? Are you gonna let that go? I’m not gonna let that go. I’m gonna call the doctor and say, “Hey, this guy’s killing us. Look, he’s doing everything we’re doing and then some at a better price. We need to innovate. We need to do something different here. We need to figure out a better way to meet our patients’ needs. We need to be more competitive. We need to figure out how to dominate. And it needs to be obvious why we’re dominating.” And that-that’s-, it’s the same mindset.

How you sell is how-, it’s like selling and entrepreneurship, it’s the same exact way to think. Leadership, it’s all the same exact way to think, right? But you have to be trying to if you’re trying to achieve something, right? That’s why I start off the call talking about four-week forecast. You’re trying to achieve a goal. You know where you are right now ’cause you’re in it, and you’re trying to achieve a goal so your brain’s gonna work the right way, right? If you’re talking to a patient and you know what you’re trying to achieve, your brain’s gonna work the wit-, right way instinctively. You’re gonna know what question to ask ’cause you’re trying to end up in the same spot. If you own a business or you’re trying to grow a practice, if you’re specific in where you wanna be in what time-frame, your brain’s gonna work the right way.

It’s easy. It’s easy. It’s simple. Well, it’s not easy, but it’s very simple. Very simple. So that’s why I know it so well. That’s how, that’s how I built this entire business is on that principle. So it’s not something I read in a book. It’s not-, it’s, it’s, it’s what I do every day. So just trust it and do it. And I give Jackie a lot of credit and everybody a lot of credit for buying in and going, “Hey, this makes sense. We’re gonna do it. Let’s do it. Even if it feels uncomfortable, even if it feels goofy, even if I have a negative result, I’m gonna do it, and then I’m gonna do it again, and then I’m gonna do it again. , and then I’m gonna do it again. Because I know if I can execute at a high level, this is going to be more efficient, it’s gonna close at a higher percentage. We’re gonna have higher-, we’re gonna have happier customers and we’re gonna be able to scale. And I’m gonna grow personally and professionally.” So you go through that learning curve and you go through the curve of being uncomfortable because you understand the strategy is sound. So that’s normal, Jackie. Don’t change a thing as far as your process. Run the ten, ten, ten. Just get, take one thing, and focus on it and you get better and better and better and better. But just hit the process. Where are they? Where are they going? Give it to the doctor. Get one treatment plan and close your ass off on the treatment plan.

Jackie: Yeah, you just wait for my next video Bart ’cause it’s gonna be the best performance yet.

Bart: I can’t wait girl. [laughter] I can’t wait. Alright. And hey, you know, you, you uh…

Jackie: Thank you.

Bart: …and-and like I said, you know, whatever it takes. You need a margarita in the morning, a margarita in the morning. Okay?

Jackie: Yeah. [laughter].

Bart: Alright guys. Oh, was there any…

Ghazal: Um, Bart…

Bart: Oh, yeah.

Ghazal: …sorry to bother you. I just submitted my first video and I’m actually very, I like, I’m actually impatiently waiting for the review from you guys. I know there’s so much room to improve. I’ve watch-, re-watched it at least six, seven times myself, [laughter] …and I caught myself doing things that I really liked actually and things I should not do. So if, if you don’t mind, I’m like very anxious to know what I can improve on.

Bart: Alright, cool. I can’t wait.

Ghazal: Thank you.

Bart: Alright. And guys, remember, the doctor only power sessions in April. Hey, you guys better like kick your doctors in the butt to get ’em there, okay? Because that’s the time when I have ’em there without you, where I can kinda help you guys. We go through compensation plans, we go through bonus plans, we go through management. I’m gonna go through big time, like in the second ten so they’re not messing you guys up, you know. So there’s, there’s so much that we go through with you that the doctors don’t get to hear. It’s a big disconnect. Do whatever you can do to get them here for the doctor-only power session because they’re gonna come back and they’re gonna know way more than they did. It’s gonna make your lives a lot easier, right? So if they’re not signed up, try to get ’em signed up. Okay? [pause] Alright guys, go close or go sell an arch. Alright, Bye-bye.

Ghazal: Bye-bye.

Bart: See ya.

[END]