Cosmetic Dentistry is usually quite expensive, and often as a young dentist, you may get a lot of people saying no to your treatment plans - and you might assume that its because of cost.
Sometimes, it is.
But that's not the only reason.
The details of why some people go ahead with treatment, and why others don't is quite complex.
But like always, lets keep things more simple.
For anyone to buy anything, they need to first realise that their life would be better with this something in it.
(look at all the adverts you get on insta - don't you imagine that some of the things they advertise would be great to have or do?)
This is called identifying a need.
A lot of dentists go wrong here, trying to push veneers onto someone who doesn't want them!
If there is no need, there will never be a sale!
After a need is identified, now it becomes about solution finding.
Once a patient wants something, and they come to meet you, you can do your consultation (solution finding process), and offer options.
Finally things need to line up in their personal life for this to work.
Lets take an example, one of my patients who I saw in 2017, he hated his denture.
We did a kick ass consultation, everything went well, the cost of treatment was +£15,000, which he could afford.
But he didn't have treatment.
His work schedule did not allow it.
in 2023, he got in touch, saying that he now wants to move forward with the treatment.
He didn't go anywhere else, and we are a bit more expensive than most places.
Because he went quiet, its easy to jump to the conclusion that it was the cost that put him off, and he found it cheaper elsewhere.
But how did we get agreement for this cost of treatment?
We generally make sure that our patients are well informed of costs before we have a consultation.
This can be done from a website, or your marketing, but most people will make assumptions about the cost of something from the appearance and initial interactions.
So the practice has to look good.
Then the way you carry out your consultation is critical.
You may know all the solutions to your patients problems, and you could tell them even before they have said anything.
But if you take the time to listen to your patient, and suggest solutions so that the patient can decide what they want to do, you will be far more productive.
It's like they see a menu of options and think: This is what I want.
This is not like what most dentists do, and say: you need this, this is the cost.
An extremely powerful technique to help introduce your fees is Anchoring.
Most people do not know how much their treatment plan is, but they have a range in their head.
By having a nice looking building and conducting a good consultation, this range is generally increased.
Just like you would expect to pay more in a Waitrose compared with a Lidl - if you had never had interactions with either brand.
Now, here is the really cool trick, if you suggest a high number before giving the treatment fee, this will act like a mental reference, from where to work from.
So if I tell you that when I was last exercising, my heartrate peaked at about 180.
Then I asked you to estimate the age of Ghandi when he died, most people (who do not know the answer) will use the 180 as a reference, and work down from that, to what seems more reasonable.
So something that I tend to say is: "I want to give you an accurate cost for your treatment, and for some people this is super high, like plus £30k, and for others its much less.
Lets work out your ideal plan, and find something that works for you. "
So in addition to anchoring the £30k, I have moved the focus from the cost (which I am not ignoring) to "lets give you options."
This puts the patient in control again.
There are a number of other ways that you can introduce your patients to cost of treatment, you can say that "one veneer is £1200, so if you have 4, the cost is roughly £5-6000 all together," keeping it casual and informative.
Then you can show the patient what 4,6, 8 will look like, and let them decide what works for them.
We have a whole course on increasing your case acceptance, and you can get additional tips and tricks from signing up to our newsletter (link lower down).
Ultimately, the goal should be to make our patient feel like they are in control of the level of treatment that they have, and the cost.
Doing this in a delicate way is hard, and takes practice.
It helps to think of your role as a guide, and educator. If your patient knew you know, then they would likely go with the best treatment.
Cost may limit the level of treatment, but by letting your patient have control over the cost, they will choose what is comfortable for them.
Over the long term, you will have much more success with letting your patient have all of this control.
If you want to increase the amount of cosmetic care you provide, see more complex cases, and enjoy more free time while stressing less about your income click the button below. Our mentoring programme is designed to give you the tools you need to built a successful list of patients.
