SPEAKER_00 0:01

This is not a podcast about dentistry. This is a call to leadership. For those who are carrying pressure, for those building something bigger than themselves, for those who refuse average, this is where discipline replaces chaos. This is where clarity replaces confusion. Where leaders are forged. Welcome to the Iron Dentist. I'm Dr. Bobby J. Grassi, and this is where dentists stop reacting and start leading at the highest level. Welcome to the call, first and foremost. But I had to tell you something crazy really fast. I literally just got back from vacation. Last night I flew in from Mexico and I had a 105 degree change in temperature. I'm from Michigan. It was 92 degrees in Mexico and it was a negative 17 or something like that when I got back. So first time ever experienced a 105 degrees a change in temperature in one day. But with that said, um, who really cares about that, right? You're here to really figure out how to convert high-value treatment plants and how to truly get your patients to say yes. It has been so amazing to me over 21 years of doing this, of how to really, the mindset and methodology it really takes to get people to say yes. And I really hope after this presentation, one, I'm going to welcome you to share. Any question you might have, please feel free to put it in the chat. So this is all about you. This is about me serving you. This is, I have some nuggets for you. I really hope you take something from it. But at the end of the day, I'm here to serve you. You know, that's my mission of life is how can I create a thousand dentists to net over a million dollars like I have in one year? That's what my goal is. But let's talk about this. What are my injections and my intents for you on this call? Really, how to help close patients. And yes, it sounds crazy. We need to make sales in dentistry, just like you do in everything else. We need to sell cheeseburgers, if you will, if you're McDonald's. How to convert the no patient into a yes patient, show you how I do it, and then how to help you earn more revenue. Because at the end of the day you can see what you want, whether you're trying to stabilize your practice, or whether you're trying to scale your practice, or maybe you're in the process of trying to get out of your practice, like really in the acquisition of selling your practice. How do you benefit the most more by getting more patients to say? Yes, increase more revenue and profit. That's what business is about. If anybody tells you anything else, they're flat out lying to you. So that's what I'm hoping you're gonna get out of this call and objectives, right? A little bit about myself. I'm Dr. Bobby Grassi, born and raised in Flint, Michigan, uh raised by a single mom, raising three kids. My mom made a whopping $18,000 a year. I started out and graduated from the University of Detroit Mercy in 2003. It is 2024, so I've been doing this over 21 years, two decades in a gear. I've taken a practice going $150,000 to over $4.5 million. And I can tell you that I've, other than maybe last year, I stayed a little bit stagnant. Um, we continue to grow as time goes on. I went from just doing general dentistry to orthodontics training. I had over 10 years of doing conventional braces and invisible braces. I've done over 15 years of implant training. I learned at the Anglo Institute. So I've literally taken a practice of doing just doing your general dentistry drill and fill to now trading implant dentistry and orthodontics all in one practice. I've done this now in Flint, Michigan, understanding that my average crown prep is $700. So imagine if you can grow a $4 million practice in Flint, Michigan, wherever you're at in your town, do you think it's possible yours? Of course. We have over 100 dentists just in Genesee County, but where I'm from, where I have competitors. Let's say what it is. But it's not about competitive, it's about getting the patients to say yes and creating that wow experience. On top of this, after I got my dental practice pumping, I own two crumble cookie franchises. I know a dentist who owns cookies, right? Cookie hashtag cookies and cavities. I it's it sounds funny. It's not a conflict of interest. My daughter wanted to bake one time. I'm treating her with entrepreneurial spirit. I do that. I'm also the creator the dentist CEO coaching brand, which you see right now. So I'm constantly moving. I also own a dental lab company, Great Lakes Dental Design Inc. Why do I say that? Because anything is possible. I've written two books. So when you don't think it's possible, anything is possible. And I have a beautiful wife who's supported me all this time, Sabrina, and three beautiful children. So a little bit about myself. But what is the agenda? Really, my agenda for this whole thing is just the practice, the admin, prep work. What does it take to really get a patient to say yes? How do you set up the team for success? How do you build rapport with the patients? Know what the patient's needs or wants are. How do you really know that? How do you communicate the plan and cost of the patients so that they understand it and you get them to say yes and how to help the undecided patient? Yes, there's the patients that are undecided. How do you do that? How do you handle objectives? How do you handle the bargain uh hunters? And then we're gonna conclude with obviously role play and some QA's. What I mean by role plays, I'm gonna give you some strategies that I use every single day when patients are undecided on how to get to say yes. So hopefully when you leave here, understand this. I can't change your practice overnight, but hopefully I can give you a nugget and nuggets that will help you catapult your level of success because that's what this is about. Um, know your numbers. This requires every dentist. I don't care what business you're in, whether it's a franchise business, whether it's in your financial reports, whether it's in your PLs and balance sheets. I know a lot of dentists that require on other accountants to tell them their numbers. Do you even know your cash flow? What do you mean? What does it cost for you just to do a consultation? What does it cost for your procedural prep time? What is your insurance cost? What is your what does it cost for you to run your overhead every single day from your support stamp to your pre and post op? I'm using implants as a as a thing. What's your implant or instrumentation cost? What is your actual procedure time and follow-up time? And what medications, if applicable, does it cost you? You need to know your numbers. If you do not know your numbers, there's nowhere I can go with you. They always say the facts or the truth is what sets you free. The facts are the facts. Most people, most dentists I've talked to, I've literally I've coached, I didn't have a lot of time to coach 24 dentists. I coached 12 dentists last year. Everyone increased their number by 30%. But it all starts by just understanding the facts. Where is it, what does it really cost you to operate your business? Every procedure, hourly, monthly, yearly, like what does it cost you? You need to know your numbers. But here's an example cost of analysis. This is more of an implant procedural cost. Now I'm using not only the cost, understand this, not only the cost of the material, but the cost even of my time per hour. I generate on average $10,000 to $11,000 per day I'm in this building. That's what I generate. So my initial consultation time just for 30 minutes is about $375. It's a little bit low. It's actually $750 an hour to almost, if I'm doing $10,000 a day, I work eight hours a day, it's probably $1,200 to be on average. But let's just use for math, it's $375 for 30 minutes. That's my time. Understand your time is worth money. People don't look at it in there. What's your procedure prep time? What does it cost you just to prep it? 30 minutes, whatever it is. Another 375. I'm giving you examples of this so you understand what it means. Your support staff, whether it's your assistant, your hygienist, your front desk, what does it cost an hour? Let's just say there's an assistant that works for you. Let's say they make 20 bucks, you got your front desk. We're gonna give it a cost of $50 per hour. Your implant instrumentation costs, $135 just for my implants. Procedural time, $375 for 30 minutes, plus at $750 an hour, follow-up time, $375. So this is how I came up with $17.35. Do the math. This is what I mean by procedure costs. So how do I know to add the markup or profit? I know I'm talking fast, but how do you truly know? If you know your margin, do you want 20%? Do you want 50%? Whatever it is, you want 100%. I'm using this as a 50% markup model. Remember, you covered all your costs, including your paying yourself up to this point. And so, and this is this is nothing but gravy. So when I said it was $17.35, and this is what's ultimately going to set you apart for success. When you say, how do you make profit in dentistry? It's knowing your numbers, knowing exactly what it means for you to be profitable. If you're trying to sell your practice, how do you create more Ibida? You create more IBITA by creating more profitability, which then goes in your pocket, which gives you the 5 to 7x multiple if you ever want to sell. But it starts by every procedure. So if you want to do the total procedure cost times one markup, it's $1735 times 0.5, $868 a markup. We might have messed up with the math. It's really supposed to be $17.35, not $14.35 plus $868. You're at $2303. That's what you should charge for implant. Now I used implant as an example. It doesn't matter what it is, Crown and Bridge. It does not matter if it's your fillings, it doesn't matter what it is. I know what you're gonna say. Yeah, but insurance marks it down. I get that. I get that. That's when you decide whether you participate with the insurance or not. This is more of a if you have a 100% profit margin, people are fee for service, what should your fee be? Now understand that most companies, if you're like me, insurance dictates my fees. I get that. But the higher I set my fee, the more insurance company will come up. So it all matters. You need to know what you want, you need to know how it works. It all starts by knowing the truth of your numbers. Then it comes the second. You know your numbers, you're setting up a team for success. So how to truly set the team up for success, how to involve your team in the process, how to really make sure they're probably trained. Like, how do you do that? One, you gotta first of all, you gotta make sure they can do it. I always tell my dentist, they always say, I want you to scale my practice. And I always laugh. I'm like, I can't scale you, I can scale you, but what does it mean if your team's not trained? People always say, I don't need uh coaching and consulting or advising. I'll tell you, it's the actual other way around. It wasn't until I got coaching and advising that really set me apart to really grow my practice. Why? Because us dentists go to C's. We all go to CA classes, we get all excited, we implement all these things, all these strategies. The dentist is on the call right now. Your staff doesn't know anything. You don't train them how to really show them the numbers because let's be honest, they don't understand the numbers the way you do for the most part, or they have a limited belief of finances, which really can be the roadblock. So you must understand that your team has to be properly trained. Minimum, before they even start another floor with me, I train them two weeks of all my methodologies, all my processes, all my systems. Most people, they'll hire somebody, they'll put them in the fly, they think they'll train them on the fly, and all of a sudden you wonder why there's chaos. They need to understand the process and systems. You look at the people that do it right, the Ritz Carletons, the Chick-fil-A's. I don't care if there's 57 ingredients in their chicken or whatever it is. The point is, is there's a process and system that you must know before you even step foot on the ground. You want to have your assistants, your front desk, your hygienist to be on the same page you are. And I'm telling you, minimally to shadow you, walk with you, even if it's an associate dentist, they must speak like you, talk like you. Minimum of two weeks of training of just shadowing you. How do you speak? How do you interact? How do you talk? Put them on a training schedule, educate them, make sure that they're aware of all the service you offer, what you provide, why is it powerful and beneficial to the patient? How does the patient win? How do you win? Make sure that they're aware of the services you provide and like the overall pros and cons of everything. They need to understand how to act like you. You are the visionary, you are the leader of your team, and they need to replicate you. You are the trunk, they're the branches. How does the branches violent with you? They feed the trunk, right? They need to act and behave like you. Two minutes, two uh two weeks minimally of training. This is a sample setup team for success, how to set your team up for success. This is what I do. The doctors, this is a little sample sheet. If you guys want this, reach out to the infothedentseal.com or go to thedent to seal.com and say, hey, I want this dental assistant training task list, whatever it is, just as a courtesy of you jumping on here right now. I will give you this, I will help you resolve some issues, and I'd love to be a part of your success someday. Because that's the end of the day, that's what it's about. So we talk about really setting up the team, like sharing the wealth. I always say that a pig gets slaughtered, meaning if you want all the money for yourself, it's eventually what's going to happen is you're gonna get your legs cut off and you're gonna get cooked. To me, how I scale my practice from the 150s, the one millions, the two millions, the three millions, to the four millions is by sharing the wealth. A good rule of thumb, I know this is not a payroll conversation, is ideally you want your payroll to be 26% or less, right? And crumble cookie, mother stuff, it's 20%, but let's just do dentistry. A good rule of thumb is 20% or less. Well, let's be honest. If you make $4 million of profit, you you should have one to $1.1 million to share the wealth. And as long as you have the numbers don't change and we can help you scale, if you win, they should win. Always share the wealth. It's the yin in the game. You can't take from people and not give back. It's not how money works. Just like you can't always expect people to give you love without giving love. You can't give money without uh take money without giving money. So you're if you win, I promise you they'll all win. I don't care if you have to do a charitable contribution. I don't care what your staff wants, you need to put something back into the kitty for they win. If you have trouble with bonus systems, I'm here to help. Reach out the implementaceo.com. I have strategies I've used over 21 years to really scale practices every year, growing at least 5 to 10% every year. Understand the bigger you get, the harder it is to scale. To scale 10% of a $4 million practice, that's $400,000. That's significant change. A little bit easier if your practice is smaller to scale really fast. I could probably double it in a year. But these are some things. Get your stab to win. If they win, you win, you all win. I promise you. More teams will win, the more success you have. Use bonus systems, you use referral for your patients. Whatever you got to do, if they win, they all win. Everybody wants to be a part of something bigger. Don't nickel and dime people. Don't, don't, I'm gonna only pay you X amount of dollars an hour. I nickel and dime your patients. Go through their stigmas. This is more about patience. Go through their patience. This is what you can expect. Don't charge people for paper clips, if you will, or phone calls. Do you like you don't do that? You don't charge them for the lead you're using on your pencil or the keystroke you have on the keypad. That's not what you do. You'll lose trust with people. When you set up a fee schedule, it is what it is. If I do an all-in-four case, my fees are blacked out. You got 10,000, 15,000, 18,000, 20,000, period end of story. It doesn't matter how much bone grafting I have, it doesn't matter how many teeth I got to take out, it doesn't matter if I got to do a veloplasty, it doesn't matter if I got to do bone grafting or membranes, it does not matter. Like this is the fee. And always give them the worst case scenario because they're never gonna be shocked. That's another secret. Tell them this is the worst case. Be a hero instead of the zero. Like if you say to somebody it's gonna cost you this and you charge them less, they'll never be upset. But if you say to somebody, I'm gonna do this procedure, oh, I messed up, it's gonna cost you more, you're gonna lose trust. Break down everything. Break down your statements, explain medical terminology, use it in terms that they understand. You don't have to be the smartest guy in the room. Dentists that use these big words that they don't understand, that's your ego speaking. Like you got to be the smartest person in the room. At the end of the day, nobody cares. The reason why I know nobody cares, I'm gonna give you a good example. If somebody ever gives you a Google review, they don't say, Oh my god, I have a smart dentist, I got the most skilled dentist in the world. They'll say your staff's nice, your assistants are nice, oh my god, they explained everything in detail. I totally understood what I was getting. Nothing is worse, even with your team success or your patient's success, of breaking line of communication. If they don't understand, you're never gonna get movement. Patients need to understand. Your team needs to understand. Patients will believe what they see, not what they hear. You need to show them pictures. Paint a picture with your eyes of what it is you're gonna give them to. Like if there was a problem, paint a picture, what are their possibilities, what path or journey can get they go on, and then you're gonna finally pitch them. Like there's a framework to this whole thing. Have models, have images, have presentations, have videos. If you don't believe that videos and pictures are worth a thousand words, think about how social media blows up and TikTok and everything that goes on. We have a younger generation now. Back in the heyday, you could tell somebody you need XYZ, they would trust you. Like there's AI technology now, there's video technology now, there's video testimonials, there's pictures. They always say a pictures is worth a thousand words. Man, it doesn't lie. I mean, to the point now we'll see fitness people on Instagram and think they're the biggest shape of the world. They don't tell you have what I have them are probably using steroids and cheating the system. People don't care. Oh my God, I want to be just like that. That's the power. So when you have models and pictures, show them the breakdown, show them the value, hide your breakdown barriers. Just truly help them, and you will once, you will win. You can never lose by giving them more information. You're only gonna lose if you don't share all the information. Just remember that. That is a very key thing. Use models, images, presentations, videos, do whatever you gotta do. I don't care if it's TikTok, dance for them. Do whatever it is you gotta do to make them feel successful. Remember, like attracts light. You got the patients. Your rapport, your relationship is the mutual trust. Understanding and respect between two or more people is all about trust. Do they believe what you're saying? Are you clear of what you're saying? Is there a clarity or a confidence by what you speak? What I see most dentists where they fail on treatment plan presentation is they either have diarrhea of the mouth where they don't shut up, and they give people too many options, options that they really don't care about, because they don't get to understand what problem they really want to solve for the patient. Or they're just insecure about how they speak. Like you need to be matter-of-fact. Like I always like, my wife always says they don't, he doesn't, she didn't date a girl. Like she doesn't want to date a girl, she wants to date a man. So when I come home, I should be a matter of fact. Here's what here's the decision we're making, here's what we're doing. Not some brood thing. I'm not saying I gotta be the guy, meaning where I don't give and I don't cook and I don't clean, I don't help my wife with the chores. That's not what I mean. She doesn't like to make decisions. And remember, patients are having a hard time making the decision. They came to you because they trust you. You're the expert, you're the master of your field. You should speak with so much confidence and like undeniable clarity that they'll say yes. That's where the that's where the the the breakdown of saying yes comes in is just bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. They call me the patient whisperer. We always joke about it. My staff goes, you get every patient to pretty much say yes. It's not that I get them to say yes. I'm very clear and precise of what it is that I can guide them on the path to help them solve their problem. I remove myself from the equation. And when you do this, and when you speak in safe terms for them and they're comfortable and they understand it reduces stress levels and increases their satisfaction, and I promise you you're gonna get more yeses. Allow them to learn about the patients and their concerns. Your your team. Your team needs to understand what it is, what is your concern? If you can't sell this, how does your team learn about their concerns? How to help them better understand the patients' need, how to create more welcoming and inclusive environments. Like, how do you create the Ritz Carlton, if you will, in your dental practice? How do you create their Mercedes-Benz or the or the or whatever your fancy cars, the BMWs or the Lamborghinis versus I'm a jam guy, which I'm a jam town versus just a simple Cadillac. I mean, how Cadillac's a great car, but how do you get them to understand the experience? How do you get them to welcome inclusive? How do they feel part of your team? Your patients now. You got to include a report with your team. Your team's got a transition ownership to you. They got to get this patient so comfortable. And if you guys aren't doing this, do a tour in your practice. Welcome into the practice, introduce them everything about your practice. Remember, your patients are like people that come visit your house. You, if you don't open the front door and welcome them in with open arms, there'll be no trust. If you can remove barriers from the patient, feeling they feel at home, it's already stressful enough. They come in an environment with where you're at. They hate the dentist, we hear that all the time. I don't like four hands in my mouth. You will say four hands is me and my assistants. I don't like the smell, I don't like the white coat, I don't like anything. How do you get them out of the dental room, believe it or not, into the peace mode? Building report. Understanding what makes them tick. The more you can understand what makes them tick, right, the more valuable they are. And your team should treat all your patients valuable and special. They should have their unique ability. Like they're not patient 101. They're patient John or a client Susie. Like and they have two kids or three kids. You need to know that you they need to know they value and respect you respect them. They're more likely to trust you. They need to know that you're gonna go above and beyond, that you have confidence in your care to provide them. They need to more likely like thorough with their treatment plan presentations and adhere, like all these will help their health regimes. They need to be more likely positive experience and satisfied with their care they receive. This will lead to better outcomes. This will lead to reduction of complications, this will lead in the reduction of payable canceling. Like if you have a practice right now where your patients are canceling, they don't value what they do or they don't trust you. It's not money. Like I know people always say it's money. Let me ask you a question. If it was always money all the time, if that was truly the case, how come people will wait in line for Louis Vuitton? You really believe everybody that has a Louis Vuitton purse can really afford a Louis Vuitton purse, or better yet, should even have one? It's a status thing, it's a perceived value. They get confidence in it. So a Starbucks coffee, $7, $6, $5, depending on where you're at for a coffee. It is coffee with a bunch of sugar in it, let's be honest. I buy Starbucks. We perceive this like it is the world's greatest coffee. Why? Because somebody one day said the coffee's worth $5. I mean, that's it. Why does Chick-fil-A have all these lines in there? It's a perceived value of how great the chicken sandwich is. Me personally, think it's overrated. It doesn't matter. It's never about money. It's never about money, it's about a perceived value. So when you allow your staff to discuss money, you know, in your hand, you I I would rather tell you, I'd tell you guys, don't have your staff uh talk about money. You should. I know that's kind of everybody else will tell you something different. Let me understand, let me tell you something. The more comfortable you are talking money, I'm not saying your staff shouldn't be aware of it. I'm not saying your staff couldn't uh get you in a ballpark. I'm not saying your staff shouldn't couldn't have a script of how to talk to their staff and make them feel comfortable. That's not what I'm telling you. But understand that you're in a different pay grade than your staff. So when you're talking about $1,000, $2,000, $5,000, $10,000, $30,000, $50,000 treatment plans, do you really think somebody might not have a bias if they're on a uh day by day? Or are uh the check by check income status that they're not gonna they're gonna tell somebody easily to drop $50,000? Like, do you think it's easier for them? No, because they're gonna have a limiting belief. That's why I'm a I'm the polar opposite. I think you should talk money. I think a dentist, I talk money all the time. And maybe it's because I'm just comfortable talking, I can handle all the objections. But if you're not comfortable doing that, make sure you have somebody on your team that is that skilled that they can talk like you and don't have a limiting belief system. If you are having a hard time getting patients to say yes right now, I would check on who's doing your treatment plan presentation and ask them how they feel about finances and money. If they're struggling in their self, that could be your problem right there. It might not be the patient itself. So ask your team to treat all the patients like they value. Especially again, have staff train, educate about buyers' remorse or regret and how to handle their conversations. I like to handle this myself. At the end of the day, if you don't want to handle it yourself, have the trap uh uh uh trained, have the staff trained, excuse me. Have the literally how to really create that wow experience for your patient. How do you handle objections? How do you handle pricing? How do you handle the planes? How to how to create a plan, payment inquiries? Are they discussed only with you? Are they discussed with your team? Whatever it is, I discuss mine most of the time, especially on my specialty cases. When it comes to implants, when it comes to ortho, I talk money. Big comprehensive treatment plants, I talk money. This is something I've done now for over 15 years on my own, and that's what grew my practice. I got more yeses by me because I eliminated the BS. Remember, I came from a mom making $18,000 a year. Let's not pretend I didn't know what I was like not to have money. Of course I did. But I also don't want my limiting belief system to get in ahead of what the patient might want. If they find value in what you're doing, they're gonna pay for it. How do you give them the value? Right? How do you give them the satisfaction, the skills, and how to truly meet all their objectives? That's what you need to know. That's what's gonna close your sale. So, how do you do this? First and foremost, we talked about a problem. Allow the patients the opportunity to express their concerns and ask questions. This, you're gonna ask your patients, hey, what is your problem you would like me to solve? I told you there's a framework of everything I do, right? Show them that you're willing to listen, you're gonna take them their concerns seriously, you're gonna talk about them. You know, we talk about they feel their voices are heard and they control, they're controlling everything. They they feel you. What was your last experience like? How does it feel for you? You're literally going through these patients' concerns and you're hitting them one day at a time. That is their problems. Then eventually you're gonna get to what are the possibilities. You can get once you do this, you're gonna gather all this information to help guide them down and accurately diagnose and develop an effective treatment plan. So you got their problem, you got their possibilities, you're getting all their possibilities with all the information. You're going deeper to understand all their needs. It is good, what is it there that you need to address? Any of their barriers maybe preventative. Is it money? Is it time? Is it budget? Is it fear? What are their barriers? How do you make them satisfied? How can you accommodate all of them? Then you're gonna tailor the conversation based on whatever their fears are, right? How do you likely satisfy their care? How can you lead this patient better to outcome and reduce the complications? So, ready? If you know their problem, you know what it is. What are their possibilities now? What are their possibilities of their desired outcome? And you share that with the patient. You're literally gonna share that with them, right? And this is gonna then give them the possible plan, problem, possibilities, path. I say plan, treatment plan, that's the path part of it. There's a framework to this. Review whether there's any company insurance. What is their money bearing? Find out details by asking the right questions. Understand what's covered and what is not. What are the minimum, maximum remaining amounts of insurance? So you need to understand all this and you talk to that patient. I know these rules as a dentist. If you don't know these rules, get well inversed on these rules. You might say, well, why do I need to know the rules of insurance? My team does. Because then you can speak to the patient. They're looking at you. You're the expert, man. If you don't know that every five years they'll cover a denture or a partial, or uh an implant should have a lifetime warranty based on XYZ, or they'll cover crown bridge. If you don't know that, what do you need for the x-rays? Do you need a panel? Do you need a CBCT? Like, what do you need? Because remember, that's all part of your fee. And remember, even if they're trying to get reimbursed by dentistry or insurance, you need these x-rays to even get it reimbursed. So if you're having trouble with the reimbursement rate or a collection rate, it might be just you don't even know what x-rays to take. The more you know, the more you can share with the patient, the easier it is to give them the path. This is the path you're on. Here's your problem. Mrs. Smith, I understand your problems. Here's all your possibilities to solve your problem. Here's the path I think we should take based on what you're talking about. And then, of course, you're gonna over understand their obstacles. You're gonna give them various treatment processes or phases like we talked about. Here's the here's the possibilities. Determine the patient's urgency. Do you want to do it now or later? If you can get them to do it now, you start now. These people that have these patients in their chairs all the time, the two things that walk in and they script and ship, it drives me crazy. There is nothing better than just treating a patient the same day they're in pain. It's easier to get them to say yes. What is the needed of the procedure, staff, equipment, and subtle? You need all this stuff. What does it cost you to run your practice, right? Know if money is the barrier. How do you handle that? We've already talked about this. Can you set up treatment plans? Can you help them come up with a solution? Remember, it's your job to give them the solution of what they need. I can tell you right now, a lot of people will be like, man, uh, there's no way I'm gonna do a treatment, uh, you know, do a payment plan for patients. Really? Because let's address the elephant in the room. Why wouldn't you? Orthodontics, orthodontists have done this for years and build multi-million dollar buildings on payment plans. People buy based on what they can afford a month. I have a 99% collection rate and I have over $300,000 every year of people making payment plans with me. Not just care credit, not just whatever it is, or Sunbit, not there's more to that. I mean, literally patients that have finance fees set up to meet their needs to get it done. Why? Because they just want to know you're part of their team. And really, if you know your cost ahead of time and you cover your cost ahead of time, you're right. Some people might not pay you. But if most people want to pay you, understand that. Most people truly want to pay you. They just can't afford it right away in a budget. I'm not telling you to do a $50,000 case and let it pay for three years. I never said that. But what if you said, hey, you give me $25K up front, I'll let you pay the other $24K in the next two years, $2,000 a pop, you might get a more yes. You already know that if I did a $50,000 case, my cost of that whole case might be $10,000. Okay, my whole case. That's if I'm doing frameworks and other stuff for upper implant supported CDs, right? It might be $10,000. If somebody pays me $25,000 up front before I even did anything, I got a $15,000 net profit. End of the day, I get them to say yes. I get all my expenses covered. So what if they don't show up? I still make $15,000. So you gotta understand there's power in setting up uh treatment plans. Proactive post-treatment communication, like when you're done. When you get the patient to say yes, how do you get them to say yes? Do you get them to say yes? Know that you built some rapport and trust, understand their needs. You need to ask a few more questions in order to understand what their buying power is, psychology, past behavior. Ask them follow their questions, which you'll obligate to say yes. I spent their, I gotta take a drink. I'm sorry. I got a little bit of cold. My joke is every time I take time for a vacation, I always let the sickness catch up to me. So what's my role of them? Never slow down. Right? So now you we've talked about problem possibility path. Now here's your pitch. You know, when you get to this point, you know, how do you you don't want to duplicate the same mistakes somebody else came? Most times people are coming to you from a different practice, they're new to your office for a reason. Understand what happened in their last procedure. What did they like, what did they not like? You need to understand this. What did you like about it? What did you not like about it? What didn't you, what didn't you like? Was it the cost, time, result, pain? You know, what would you like to have what would you like to if you didn't like it, what would you like to have happen differently? You know, most times they'll say, Oh, the patient didn't listen to me or the last crown hurt. How can you be different than them? Like, how can you truly be different than them? Would you like to have this the same experience? Obviously not. Most of the time when they're coming to you, the answer is no or that, right? How can you create a different wow? How do you create a different problem with them? Was it too expensive? Was it price money? How much pain would it be? Were you in discomfort? How long would it take? Is it time you're buried? What are the objects? What do you, what is it that you is it fear? What is it? You need to understand this so that you can now tailorize everything to meet their needs. Remember there's a barrier and address it, right? Remember, always, always, always agree with their concerns. This is what I mean about feel-felt found. And you're like, what do you mean, feel-felt found? When somebody tells you their concern, a little hack you can do is, hey, I understand how you truly feel. I have felt that way before. And what I found to help myself through that situation was XYZ. If you take anything out of this presentation, there's a framework, a problem possibility, path, and pitch, meaning what's their problem? What are their possible solutions to their problem? What path could you lead them in to solve their problem? And then what is your final pitch, your sale pitch, right? Or hey, I understand how you feel. I have felt that way before. And I have found when I felt that way, this is what I found worked for me. What does that do? That basically says you're one of them. You remove all the barriers, you become them. Like attracts like. If they feel you empathize with them, if they feel that you truly are just on their team and they trust you, you're gonna get yes. Once you got that and you know there's a pulse and you get that they're handling, go ahead and ask for the sale. You're gonna need their if you need to handle their negotiation of price too, that's fine. You're gonna, my husband does this or my wife makes the decisions. Look at it, I get it. But once a patient finally says yes, because they're gonna say yes, if you understand any of these tactics I teach you, stop talking. Like literally shut up and just walk out. You get a verbal consent, you walk out. Your staff think and process the financial thing. If you need a payment arrangement, your staff's already trained on to do this. What I said to your staff doesn't talk finances, you discuss finances first. Your staff helps you after you close. That's it. That's what they should do. That's where your training plan coordinators come in or your financial guys come in, whatever it is. But once you get a patient to say yes, stop talking. Here's some things that I can show you to assist the undecided patient, right? These are the patients that are undecided. Like understand their concerns, right? Ask them if they're detailed or bottom line. Like, what does that even mean? Look, when you're explaining something, if something's in detail, you're gonna have to explain the procedures more in detail. The engineer, right? Probably the architects or people that got to know every single step. They read the directions. Those are detailed people. Tell them every single step of the process. But if you're bottom line like me in time is my barrier, I don't care about the semantics. Like if I'm going to uh California, I just want to know when I start and when I end. That's me. So when I want somebody to present a treatment plan to me, hey, here's where I want to go, how do I get there? Here's the cost, I'm done. Some people want to know every step, every turn, every direction, every left turn, right turn, every detour. That's the detailed person. But you need to know who you're speaking to. Provide more education, provide the patient the more detailed version of their detail. Discuss alternative plans with the person who's here's option A, here's option B, here's option C. Somebody that's more bottom line, you already know what they want, you might just go right to the finish line. Show testimonials, share people things that they've already had, patients we have success with, right? What have other people experienced that have gone through the same thing? Oh, if you have video testimonials, it would be great. Verbal testimony, hey, here's what people are saying about me, or hey, here's what my patients got out of it, or hey, here's my picture that I got done with it. Take the time and respect their pace. Give the patients the time they need to make the decision and respect their pace. Don't rush them, don't pressure them. You are just an educator. You are a person to help them make a decision. And literally, if they can't make a decision, here's what people fail on. They don't follow up. It's like, have you ever like I always laugh? Like if I ever took the word no from my wife the first time she ever said it when we were dating 11 years old, she kept saying she didn't want to date me. Because imagine if you did that with the people you're dating, whether your friends or your spouse, or people that say, I don't really want to hang out, I want to hang out, and you finally ask them a thousand times to hang out and you finally do. That's what a patient is. They're just nothing but a relationship with you. There's a reason why maybe they don't want to say yes yet. It might be a timing thing, it might be a financial thing, it might be a trust thing. How do people know to finally trust you? Because you keep following up. I promise you, you walk away from them out of sight, out of mind, you're never gonna hear from it. Follow up with them. Actually get verbal permission. Hey, Mrs. Smith, I realize you didn't say yes today. Do you mind if I follow with you in the next 24 hours, the next 48 hours, just to check in to see where you're at better, how I can serve you. Better yet, when you do follow with them, come up with an alternative plan. You already know what they why they said no. So come up with an alternate solution and be willing to compromise of what it is to get them to say yes. At the end of the day, you want to sell more cheeseburgers. You can't always cut costs because it's dependent on insurance sometimes, but sometimes you can compromise, right? Make it out, help them make a decision, help them follow up, do whatever you can do to get that patient to say yes, because that's what this is about. I call it the loafer technique, right? Listen, listen to them. What are the options? Be flexible, empathize, and resourceful. If you don't want to do empathy, be compassionate, whatever it is, loafer method. Listen, what are their options? Flexibility, emphasizer for listen. Take the time to listen to your patients. That's what it means. What are their concerns and understand their situation? Try to identify any financial, any barriers, preventing them from single saying yes. Here's your options. Discuss options and costs. Be transparent about the costs associated with different treatment options and work with the patient to find a solution that meets their needs and fits within their budget. Not yours. They think every time they're doing something, you're built, they're buying you a brand new yacht. It's not true. We know that. Be flexible, have payment options, set up financing, payment plans, be willing, whether it's care credit, interest free, credit card, sunbit, there's many resources out there and empathize with them. Remember, I feel felt, found. Show respect, empathy towards the patient's situation, and try to understand why, where they're coming from and why. Avoid being judgmental or dismissive. Don't be a don't be a jerk. Don't be confrontational. This is not about you. You are the person to help them be part of their overall health and wellness. You're just a step. And anything in dentistry, what I love the most is we are the most holistic approach to medicine there is. Like we don't even use our power to talk to patients about overall health. They don't even know the impact you can have from diabetes, high blood pressure, COVID-19, uh, cardiovascular disease, Parkinson's disease, dementia, strobe, Alzheimer's. Like they don't even know. And we don't even share the information. So empathize them, but show them the steps and resource them. Help them figure out why. Be resourceful. Tell them if they if you need that, give them some information, get them to say yes, help them make an informed decision. Be that person of knowledge for them. Be on their team, be an extension of their team, not about you. When you serve patients, they're gonna serve you, I promise. So here's some things I do when patients say something to me. Hey, look, I understand the cost is an important factor in making your decision process. I'd like to remind you that the procedure is an investment in your long-term health and well-being. Like, why though? Like, how is this an investment in their long-term health and well-being? You need to tell them why. You know, hey, money's an issue. I get it. We offer many payment options, including finances and payment plans, which we make the procedure more affordable to you. My job, would you like to have no more about the options? Because literally, Mrs. Smith, my job is to help you get what you want. If I can make it affordable to you, ready? I'm getting them trained to say yes. This is very important. Write this down, parentheses, hard stop, whatever it is. Mrs. Smith, if I can make this affordable to you, can I get your permission to move forward? You need them to start saying yes. And if you have to shake your head as you're saying this, Mrs. Smith, I totally understand that this is expensive to you. However, if I can make this affordable to you and it could fit within your budget, would you say yes? Get them to say yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. That's what you're looking for. And we understand this procedure may not fit into your budget at this moment, but we would like to remind you that your health is our most valuable asset. Your health, excuse me, is the most valuable asset. Let's talk and see if we can find a way to make this happen. Right? This is my best thing, which is the truth, right? You're not lying to them. Hey guy, hey, Mrs. Smith, I totally understand what you're saying, but let's be honest, dentistry is not gonna be any cheaper tomorrow, I promise you. Like it's not. Like they need to understand if they don't do the procedure, what is it gonna cost? Let's just say it's the person that wants to take their tooth out versus say their tooth will look in now, or they don't want to do the implant. Hey, Mr. Smith, I totally understand you're looking at it from a short-term lens. You're right, an extraction is only $100, $200, depending on what it is. If you guys don't do extraction, you might refer to a whole surgeon, $300. Hey, but Mrs. Smith, are you aware that your teeth are gonna hypererupt and that your teeth are gonna move over time? And now you might it might impact other teeth. So therefore, what you thought was $100 a day might be $1,000, $2,000, $3,000 down the road. So are you sure you want to make that decision? See, that's informing them of the problems that might inspire by just making this one decision. Remember, there's pros and cons to every decision you make. Do you tell that to your patients? If everything, and another thing, if everything was just right, would you make the decision to go ahead today? That's what I'm telling you. If I can make everything right right now, would you say great? Great. So what is it? The price, the financing, the procedure, the terms? Is it me? Is it the company? Like they might say, hey, dude, I really don't like you. Okay, cool. It doesn't have to be you. What am I an associate working on you? Like, how can I learn? So it might be your staff member. You don't need to know the barriers, but if you can get them to say yes, get them to say yes. If you're either going to do this now or you're not gonna do this later, that's fine. The question is, do you value your money or your health over your health? You can always make more money later, but you can't get time and health back. Those are your primary answers. So let's get this going now. Like, here's some things that I do. Most important thing though, truthfully, if you're getting a patient to say no, they're always saying no. The bottom line is they either don't value what that you do or they don't trust you. And you you're not skilled enough to get them to say yes. Like you're not spending enough time being truthful to them of their whole outcome. We most people, most of us will look at the two and say you just need to work in our car crowd, blah blah, Sue's gonna take care of you, see you later. But why? What happens if they do do it? What happens if they don't do it? I mean, do you spend all that time? Do you spend four minutes even with the patient? I call it the four-minute rule, trying to get them to understand who they are. Do you have that trust with them? Do you understand who they are as a person to help before you start breaking down that barrier? Like you don't want a cold call, right? We always talk about cold calls and sales. Those are people that just pick up the phone and they try to sell you over the line, and you're like, dude, forget telemarketer over, click, hang up. That's how some of your patients feel. A warm call is you already understand who your client is. So in dentistry, you're you need to do more warm calling than cold calling. You already have patients that came to seek you, they did their research online, they've already liked you for a reason. Let them in your life, let them understand who you are as an individual and what your brand means and why you are the best to help them solve their problem. So that says, guys, is there any questions out there? Anyone got a right hand raise? Is there any questions you might have for me so that I can go on? I don't see anything in the chat. So if there is any questions down the road and and you guys will have right now, that's cool. People that are watching me on Facebook have any questions for me that maybe I didn't answer or you are LinkedIn, hey, email me at the involvement dentusco.com. I got you. But here's what's going forward, right? Here's what's gonna happen going forward, right? The next steps for the dental practice, what do you need? If you're having trouble stabilizing your practice, I got you. You know, if you want to reach literally a customized, guided align with your dental practice, unique requirements, I got you. I'm gonna help you start the conversation, uh start the conversation. My goal is to stabilize where you're at, help you scale, and help you succeed. Like that's the end result. If you need any help with this, I'm sending a few people right now, one-on-one consultations. I've taught 12 dentists last year how to truly grow their practice 30% in just 90 days. If you want to know how I do that, I do about one-on-one coaching. We get to the facts. We understand what it is. You might be in a process of just trying to stabilize where you're at. Cool. That's cool. I have a system for that. You might want to scale. Awesome. Have a system for that. And you might want to just get out. I'm 50, I'll be 51 in February. I'm in the point of my career where I'm ready just to kind of move on and do my thing. But at the end of the day, that might not be you. You might want to get out of the way. Set it, go ahead and email me at the info at the dentistco.com or go to thedentistco.com forward slash hashtag book now. And I'll do a one-on-one free consultation with you where we can even see if we're a good fit. That's my only sale pitch in this whole thing. I want to give you information by just joining this call, by just signing on for this call. Here's my patient interview thing that we talked about. The patient interview question here, it's yours absolutely free. You don't have to do anything. This is the bottom line, right? Are you bottom line or detailed? What are they what is what do they value? Comfort, function, cosmetics, aesthetics, what are your barriers, fear, time, trust, or budget? If you follow. This format and you literally have hygiene team that does this, you literally, literally, and it's gonna be in the chat. So I gotta do is click in the chat below, or we can if you reach out to us in the info at the gendacco.com, you will find this. It will change your practice and your growth exponentially. You'll have a better way of understanding what your patients needs are at once. So, my next event of really unleashing the power and uh of the patient's experience, sneak peek at our upcoming event, what it is, and we're gonna explore the tech advanced techniques for the ultimate patient experience that keeps on coming back again and again. This is about retention. It's gonna be February 21st, Wednesday at 7 p.m. Uh, share it with your colleagues. You can register at the theddendico.com forward slash events, forward slash unleashing the power of the ultimate patient experience. Long words, go ahead and register for that. It's gonna be unstoppable. You will change the way you practice energy. If you want to be one of the few people that has truly, truly changed the way this they've scaled their practice and grown 30% in 90 days, reach out to me at the info infothedentisto.com or go ahead and uh reach out to the dentistco.com and we can help change your life. Guys, thank you so much. You could have been doing anything on a Wednesday. I don't want to take any more of your time up. Thank you for the love and the chat. Thank you for all the beautiful things going on. I appreciate you guys. But look, at the end of the day, I'm here to serve you. I'm here to truly, my goal is to have a thousand dentists net over a million dollars. I said net, not pro like literally take home a million dollars. I've done this, I got the experience of doing this. It is forever changing, not only in your life, but your patient's life, your staff's life, and your family's life. We are here for a short period of time to create the greatest experience you possibly can as humans. And why do this if you can't butter your own bread, if you will? Why do what we do right now? I get it. You want to make a difference in a patient's life. But you know what? I also want to make a difference in your life. So thank you so much once again for sharing your time on a Wednesday. I'm gonna keep this short. It's been 45 minutes. I've already kept you long enough. You're gonna do a thousand things. One more time. If you want to help to stabilize your practice, scale your practice, or succeed or move on from your practice, please email me at the info of the dentistco.com. I will do a free one-on-one consultation. It costs you absolutely nothing where we can change your life. Hope to hear from you soon. If not, may God bless you all. Take my little nugget, the patient questionnaire, and I hope you crush it. May God bless you all. We'll talk soon. Have a great day. If this episode challenges you to think differently or lead better, share it with someone who's committed to growth and personal responsibility. Subscribe so you don't miss future conversations on leadership, discipline, and performance. And remember, leadership isn't a title, it's a daily decision. This has been Dr. Bobby J. Grassi, and we'll see you next time on the Iron Dentist Podcast.