190 3 Ways to Increase Treatment Plan Acceptance

Hi everyone. And welcome to another episode of the Delivering WOW Dental Podcast. I have recently had a bunch of people reaching out to me through Facebook Messenger, asking me about treatment plan acceptance, and how can they increase their revenue for their practice? How can they have their team get more confidence? And so I decided to actually take today to talk exactly about that. All right?

So we're talking about treatment plan acceptance, and how do we increase that? And there's actually three steps or three ways that you can increase your treatment plan acceptance. And the first way is for those who have reached out is actually the first step, is number one, understanding that there is no ceiling on how many cases that you can close with high value cases, setting your goals really big is really, really powerful. I've had people reach out to me as well and I said, "Okay, let me share some simple strategies with you to be able to grow your practice and significantly scale and get more revenue." And they come to me and they say, "Well, it's not possible. We are full. We are doing the best that we can. We're really busy. And I don't see that we can actually grow anymore."

And so the first thing that we want to look at in terms of increasing our case acceptance, our treatment plan acceptance is to really not limit our mindset. And what's been really interesting as I've worked with practices who've grown even over a million dollars in one year, the biggest shift for many of them is really shifting their belief of what was possible in their practice. And so that's one thing that I want you to really think about.

And I remember when I had my first coach years ago and she was sitting down and we were going through and we were creating budgeting and expenses sheets, and we were looking at reverse engineering how the practice would grow. And I set some goals and she said, "Okay, great. This is really good. And this is very safe. But what I want you to understand is that you can actually double or triple that goal and you can achieve it once you reverse engineer how." And so I was like, "Okay." We did it. And that's exactly what happened. And I've seen the same thing happened with all of the practices that have really adopted this philosophy that we've worked with. And so I say, "Let me see your goal. Okay, go ahead and double it, go ahead and triple it." And then they are able to now reverse engineer and design a plan. So, that's the first thing that I want you to think about. Okay?

The second thing that I want you to think about is that there are simple processes for you in your team to be able to increase case acceptance, right? And so, as we start looking at case acceptance, a lot of times people are like, "Well, if we educate people more or we show value, then now, patients will say yes." One thing that I want us to always understand is that when we are learning systems and processes and we're learning them in frameworks, all of a sudden, now we can repeat the process very simply over and over and over again. And pretty much guarantee that we're going to have the same result every time. And it's very similar to a principal. And what is a principal if you look at the principle of gravity? If we were to drop a pen, it would always go to the ground, right? Because, that is a principle.

Well, when we learn in frameworks and that could be frameworks for how do we hire effectively, that could be frameworks for accountability, that could be frameworks for, again, in this case, treatment acceptance. Once we're learning in frameworks, it's going to be really easy for your team, even if they've never had any experience before in verbal skills or sales, or even working in a dental practice. Once they're implementing the frameworks, they too will be able to get results. And so it's really important that as you start learning, and as you start looking at how you're going to grow your practice, that you start thinking about systems and frameworks for you to actually get results.

And really interestingly, I have recently had a lot of the members of our mastermind come to me and

they're like, "Oh my gosh, our practice is growing really fast." And what they're excited about is that they no longer have to do everything in the business. And I said, "The framework for success of where I want you to get to is number one, I want you to learn. And then from there, I want you to create a really good system or process. And then what we're going to do is we are now going to actually go ahead and create an automation of that process. And then now you're going to delegate that process." And it could be something like, how do we onboard teams?

"And we are going to create a process of when we onboard, we're going to do step one, step two, step three. And then you create a system. Maybe you're recording videos, you're putting those videos perhaps in Asana so that now, new hires can go into Asana. They can go ahead and watch those videos. So you're now automating that process. And then how do you scale is that as you continue to have more team members come on, there'll be able to watch that training. There will be accountability, and you won't have to micromanage them because you've already been very clear." Right? So, that's an example of that.

And so as we start looking at, again, treatment plan acceptance, there are definitely some frameworks that you could use. And so that now goes into step three, how can we increase treatment acceptance, right? And for me a framework that's very, very powerful and obviously it takes time to really understand this framework and to implement the framework, but it's very, very simple. And how it goes is really number one, with step one is always asking a question. And that question is something that we would say, for example, "There's something that we can do to prevent cavities. Would you like to learn more?" Or, "There's something that we can do if a patient has bleeding gums or is having issues with their gums starting to recede. There's something that we can do to prevent the bleeding and stop the gums from getting long. Would you like to learn more?" Or, "There's something that we can do to prevent that dark line at the gum. Would you like to learn more?" Right?

So asking a question is now going to have a patient say, "Yes, I'd love to learn more." Right? Because, you pointed out something that could be a potential issue based on what you're observing. Right? From there, you're now saying something like, "Great, it's called a..." And then now you insert in the name of the service. "Great, it's called a sealant. How it works is that we paint it on the top of the tooth. And once that's done food, sugar and bacteria cannot get through. What it is, it's called an all-porcelain crown. And so how it works is we're able to make a crown that looks exactly how your tooth looks. There's no metal. So what it is, it is called Perio Protect. And how it works is you wear simple trays, similar to a bleaching tray. And once you're wearing it, the bleeding will reduce. And you will also significantly decrease your chances of needing to have gum surgery." Right? So you're explaining in very simple terms, what it is.

From there, you'll now put out any resistances, right? "So here's the thing. Insurance doesn't always cover it." Right? If that's a resistance, a lot of times teams are afraid to talk about high value services or services that are not even high value, even sealants or fluoride or any of those services that really could help the patient. They are afraid to have those conversations, because they are afraid that there are going to be objection block, people are going to tell them no. Why? Because that's happened in the past, right? "So here's the thing. Insurance doesn't always cover it, but why our patients choose to do it anyway is because..." Right?

So now you're pulling the objection back, right? You're putting out the objection and then you're pulling it back, right? "Why our patients choose to do it anyway..." And then now you can go ahead and insert in the reasons why people choose to do it anyway, right? "It's typically a peace of mind benefit. They will have peace of mind because..." Or, "The reason why our patients choose to do it anyway," you go ahead and put out a time benefit. "It doesn't take a lot of time." Right? "It will save you time." And also money.  

"And it will save you money because now you won't have to worry about the cost of doing a filling," or, "Now, you won't have to worry about the cost of having to do deep cleanings over and over and over again. It will reduce your risk." Right? Or, "It will reduce your costs, because now you won't have to look at the costs of having surgery."

So typically, going ahead and putting out the objections, pulling them back, and then giving those benefits are really huge. And then from there, you'll always want to look at giving a call to action, right? "So we do have time today to go ahead and..." And whatever you have time to do, "Get started with your sealants, go ahead and take the scan so that we can get your trays made for you for Perio Protect." Right? Whatever that first step is, going ahead and giving that call to action is going to be very important and powerful. And so that's what we're looking at, right? To be able to let people know what the next steps are.

Now, my question, I always ask when I teach this framework and there are actually a few different case acceptance frameworks that we share, this particular one would be for a patient after you've presented treatment. There are also pre frameworks that you can learn for you and your team that would help you as you have a new patient to really find out what their issue is, why they're there, what's their real issue. No, no, what is their real issue, right? Which we're not going to speak about necessarily today on this podcast, but what's really cool and a lot of times when I teach this framework, I'll ask teams when we're having our training sessions, I'll say, "Now, do you feel like I'm selling you anything? Do you feel like I'm selling you anything?" And they'll say, "No." And they said, "It sounds like you're just letting me know about something that can help me. And you are giving me more information and letting me know how it will help me." And I say, "Exactly." Right?

A great framework, it's very simple for our teams to implement. It's very simple for us to implement. And it works, right? And the reason why this is so powerful is because the team members and the doctors are now feeling that they are giving patients solutions, right? And when that happens, confidence develops. And when confidence develops then now, you're having these conversations with patients and now you're having your patients actually get started on the treatment that will help them. Right? To help them to get confidence in their smile, to help them to get healthier, to help them to be able to prevent decay and damage to their teeth, which obviously once a cavity starts, it never goes back to its natural state, right?

And so, as doctors, as teams, as healthcare providers, this is something that's really powerful. And if you've not yet started to implement frameworks into your path of learning in your practice, this is definitely something that you're going to want to invest in because it's extremely powerful. It's going to help you to be able to help so many more people, help you to be able to give your team confidence, to be able to give yourself confidence, and allow you to be able to significantly increase your revenue for your practice. And as I always say, never feel embarrassed or ashamed about wanting to have a successful business. That's why we've gone into business, to be successful.

And what success looks like for us is being able to be able to have freedom, right? If things are needing to be replaced, equipment needs to be replaced in the practice, we have the freedom to do so, freedom to be able to invest in our education and our knowledge, to be able to keep growing. Freedom to be able to now have the finances, to be able to invest in a better team. Freedom to be able to now have time as we start to understand delegation skills and how can we delegate and elevate with our team to be able to have time freedom, to be able to spend with our families. And that financial freedom to guarantee our future success with our retirement, and being able to give and make an impact inside of our committees. Really powerful stuff, guys. So again, I really look forward to helping you to continue to increase your treatment plan. Acceptance is really, really powerful once you start to implement these frameworks.

There's no limit on how much you can grow.

All right, guys, thank you so much for listening to another episode. I really hope that this was helpful for you. If you've not yet done so, you want to make sure that you're joining us inside of our free Facebook group, our Dental Boss Movement Facebook group, where we have dentists coming together for support and action-taking tips and motivation. And if you'd love to learn more about how we can help you, feel free to reach out to us deliveringwowplatinum.com. We have live one-on-one coaching that we do with practices helping you and your team understand how do you grow and scale your practices faster. And we also have on-demand training programs for you as well. All right, guys, that's pretty much it. Thank you so much for listening. Until next time, take care and keep Delivering WOW.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast with Dr. Anissa Holmes. We'll catch you next time.