Playbook for Full-Arch Success with Greg Essenmacher

Transcript performed by A.I. Please excuse the typos.
00:00
but getting the patient to be able to connect back with you when it comes to these big cases, that’s that stickiness that’s so critically important. I know we’re talking about case acceptance, but this is the patient experience is as if you have this ball of trust that you’re slowly adding to. I call it a power phrase, right? Tell me more. And there you go. Whether you’re using it in business or even in your personal life, it literally not only gets them to speak more that you’re sharing with.

00:28
It gives you a minute to think.

00:32
This is Dental All-Stars, where we bring you the best in dentistry on marketing, management and training.

00:41
Welcome to Dental All-Stars. I’m Eric Vickery, president of coaching at All-Star Dental Academy. My guest today, Greg Essemaker, is a leading expert in fixed full arch dentistry, which as I think everyone knows is a hot topic. He’s been helping transform implant practices into full arch powerhouses. As the founder of GNA Consult, Greg has, he’s been focused for over a decade now on the fixed full arch market.

01:10
He uses tailored solutions and cross-functional collaboration to maximize his client’s potential. His expertise includes optimizing patient acquisition costs, coaching for lead calls, and improving case acceptance, which we all love here. His insights on actionable steps enhance a practice’s ability to convert full-arch cases, increasing valuation, and improve EBITDA.

01:38
All right. Awesome. Well, welcome Greg. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely. Glad to be here, Eric. And I figured a few of those words might land with your listening audience and with your whole team if they’re listening to, I love the case except the stuff. So I have to ask you about cross functional collaboration. And what was the other one using tailored solutions and cross functional collaboration? Just

02:03
It was just great words and phrases. Yeah. I just want to sound important. Yeah. So I just throw stuff in. Yeah. You know, to jump in the cross-functional collaboration, what we find is so often, especially in big cases in full arch and really any auxiliary services. And we work with what we call micro teams, right? Because most of the clients that we work with are GP practices that also do full arch and they’re trying to grow it is that things get so siloed, right? Those that are converting the leads into consultations.

02:32
The gals, they’re guys that are doing the consultations, the doctors, the dental assistants. And it’s really a 360 view of the practice. And that’s how we approach it at GNA Consult. It’s how I grew up in the dental industry of seeing how there just was this disconnect all the way and having a smooth patient walk flow throughout the entire process. They feel it. If they’re going to make a 20, 30, $60,000 investment in a practice.

02:59
We have to make sure that that experience, patient experience is seamless. And so that’s really where we talk about this cross-functional like- Float it. That has to really make sense for sure. Yeah. And then what was the second one? know you threw me there by throwing it a curve ball right in the- No, I think that was it. the see, I think the term we use is seamless team. And again, that cross-function, we’re multi-talented and the patient isn’t stressed because, Hey, we don’t do that here and you got to go over there. It’s just-

03:28
You have a nice flow to it. So I love it. Oh, and custom. Yeah. So customized, think was the other one. And that’s the reason why that’s so critically important is that we customize solutions to each client. And I can just talk about that, right? Because you might have a practice that’s doing two and a half, three million, right? In GP services and auxiliary services. And there might be a single practitioner with two dental assistants and maybe somebody who’s cross-functional and the office manager that’s actually doing the treatment planning.

03:57
And one or two gals or guys upfront. And that’s it. And that’s the whole team, maybe with one hygienist. And there might be another practice that has, you know, a lead surgeon. has three associates. It has four hygienists. has 13, I mean, build it out, right? One of our clients currently single location, 15 operatories. The solutions, certainly formulas are the same that we use at GNA Consult, but scripts, not so much. And the way that you’re dealing with each of the clients.

04:27
It has to be customized for what they’re doing. And so being able to flex and adjust, which we do with all of our clients is so critically important all the way up to a 33 location DSO that we’re working with currently as well. How you flex and adjust to that is so critically important because they need to get that playbook at the end of the engagement and say, great, this makes sense. Now let us apply it because if not, then we’re just another fixture on their payroll and they might as well hire a fractional or hire a full-time employee to do it.

04:55
And that’s our philosophy. It’s what I’ve known to be true and why it works for all of our clients. So good. The tailored approach. So let’s jump into this full arch case acceptance topic for today. So, you know, you guys are known for your, expertise in the full arch space. How did your journey into just fixed full arch dentistry, just the beginning, I guess your testimony on this and,

05:22
How’d you develop this niche in the dental world? Give us some background there. Yeah, and it really is a niche. So I’ve been in dental for 18 years, but the Fix Full Arch started really in 2013, early 2014. I was brought on as the original part of the team with Neodent, right? A part of Stroman Group, Neodent being their value line. And we went right after the Full Arch market, right? One of our very first big accomplishments was partnering with Clear Choice.

05:51
and working with that. But really it was not so much about the DSO special market space back in 2014. It was the individual clinics. If it was all being done under one roof, we wanted to partner with you to help build and grow your full arch practice in that piece of your practice. And so we as a team really focused and honed in on how to build and grow. And my philosophy had always been, look,

06:16
We’re at conferences all the time, and this is back in the mid 2010s. So the conferences were a lot different than they are today. Right. And you know, you’re there and then it’s the breaks in between and the lunches and whatnot and all the doctors and assistants and they come over and it gets crazy and chaotic and you’re getting all these leads. And then they go into their sessions for that hour, hour and a half. And then it’s break time and it’s crazy. But that during that break session, what is it that you do at that time? Well, for me, it was meeting other industry partners. What do you do?

06:44
What do you do? Tell me about what you do. Because as we would go in instead of, I want to buy my implant, which is a lot do, you know, Hey, do you want to buy my product? It was going in and finding out what needs do it. Does a client have a prospect, a customer have that’s 360 view, right? Well, of course I want you to buy my implant bone grafting material, whatever the case may be, but maybe it’s marketing services. Maybe it’s they’re looking for an intra oral scanner. And if we didn’t have the product.

07:13
At least I knew, you know what, I met John last week or last month, and he might have a solution that could work in making those introductions. Because if I can create myself 10X, why wouldn’t I do that in the industry? And that’s really the philosophy that I brought and implemented with Neodent as part of the Stroman group. And that really served me well there. And that’s what I’ve also done at G &A Consult three and a half years ago. When I created this business, it was about.

07:41
Getting to know other industry partners. How can I help you and your business? And it’s really come back to me tenfold. And it’s how we’ve really been able to grow and scale G &A Consult. Love it. Love it. What does G &A stand for? Well, it stands for Greg and Al, my husband. So, but if others want to ask and they have a little issue with that, you know, because the DEI is not real popular now, then it stands for growth and acquisition. Eric, thank you for asking.

08:08
Okay, growth and acquisition. So funny story, the first agency that I worked with back in the day, PMA was the name of the company. And on the board, it said plan marketing associates. That’s what everybody knew it as, but PMA actually stood for positive mental attitude. So you always have these, you know, sub meanings of what’s going on. So, all right, wonderful. I love it. I love it. you’re, you guys focus on getting patients in the door and casing septic when it comes to full arch. So

08:38
You know, there’s people out there listening. love making our podcasts like, oh, I’m going to walk away with something I can actually take action on this. So there’s, there’s practice out there listening. We’re not converting either the phone call. We’re not converting the case acceptance on full arch. It’s so expensive. All people care about is the money. Tell us what is, what is one thing you’re seeing common in practices on these mistakes and then action, what can they do to fix those things? Yeah, that’s a great question. And I,

09:05
what we know to be true, that very first touch point, the first experience, especially if you’re in the direct to consumer marketing. And let me be very clear on that because the other side, the referral, whether it’s an internal referral or anything, there’s already a trust built in and it’s a transfer of trust. Well, you don’t feel built in or if it’s coming through your practice. So in the direct to consumer side, right, there’s zero trust built in.

09:28
They’re, found you on an ad on Google, right? Or, you know, through Instagram or meta, you know, some meta platform, somehow they found you and were inspired to either do a form, fill a survey, or they called your practice. most important critical things, speed to lead. People talk about that all the time. I’m sure they’ve heard about that. How quickly can you get back to them? It’s so critically important categorize. But there’s a couple other pieces that I really want to talk about. That’s critically important.

09:55
One of the most important is that making an emotional connection with the patient, not outbound to them, but getting the patient to be able to connect back with you when it comes to these big cases. That’s that stickiness that’s so critically important. It’s not a hygiene patient. It’s not a name, rank, and serial number. Do we take your insurance and booking them in? Now, and I don’t mean to say that disparagingly for the general dentistry side of practices, because that’s critically important. And most of our clients

10:24
have that and a big need for that. And it’s a driver, it’s an engine driver for profitability, don’t get me wrong. But when it comes to the big cases, and it’s been shown that average phone call for a new patient in the hygiene area, if you will, is about a minute and a half to two minutes, right? In full arch, it’s been shown that if you want your no-show rate to be low, and you really want to be able to not only book a consultation, but have the highest percentage of pull through.

10:53
Right? Which is that you’re actually generating revenue from that patient and pre-qualification. And we’re not talking about like, you know, if they can pay for it, you have all this, but at least have some type of pre-qualification for them. They have some clue about what they’re coming in for type of situation. You know, their dental condition somewhat, you’ve made that emotional connection with the patient. There is some stickiness to it. It’s really about having that seven to eight minute conversation where they’ve detailed to you why.

11:20
If you’ve gotten them to tell you their story, right? To divulge, they’re not going to want to do that again over and over again, calling three, four other places and making a consultation. That’s the piece. And this can be taught and trained, not with scripts, but with formulas. And I say that because if it’s a script, it’s going to sound like a 54 year old white male who grew up in Detroit. And let me tell you, Yessenia down in Houston,

11:49
should not sound like a 54 year old white male from Detroit, right? Now, I don’t wanna say that like, know, scripts don’t ever use them because they do have a place. When you’re in basic bootcamp, you’re in basic bootcamp, but you’re not gonna put somebody who just came out of bootcamp in a $2 billion fighter jet. And when you’re talking about a $60,000 potential case, you need people who are in fighter jet mode, right? So that level of training, so scaling up to that. And that’s really what we’re talking about.

12:17
For us, translation, those listening that know the great call process are rapport. This is rapport where you’re in and engage. You’re engaging them and you’re finding an emotional connection. Chairside, those are listening, the emotional swap, finding the why. This is exactly in sync with our belief system. This is why we’re meeting, doing this and supporting you. You can get that story being told on the phone. That’s amazing. Is there a question you would say would be a hack, a coaching hack on, man, if you could ask this question, you get that patient to open up the floodgates and you really can tap into it?

12:46
Or is it more just a feel and you got to have street smarts. got to know how to connect with people. Sure. I mean, you know, a simple one, and this is what I use now granted at GNA Consult, because I have not been somebody who has sat in that seat over and over that hot seat, taking 10, 20, 30 leads a day, sometimes more, right. And working that pipeline, the four calls, you know, four times, four touches, four days and all of that. Mine is pretty straightforward. And it’s like, tell me a little bit more about your dental condition.

13:14
Right. Yeah. Not what you’re calling for because that’s requiring them to know what patient, what service they’re inquiring about. But tell me about you, your dental condition, not what bring, why are you calling today? Right. And not that, but tell me about your dental kid. Like what, what’s going on, Jenny? Like what’s happening in that mouth of yours. Right. And that’s the piece, right. However, that question comes about, even if they’re just calling and asking about one of the two questions that they actually know how to ask. How much is it? Does my insurance cover it?

13:43
Those are only two questions that, yeah, it’s the only two questions they really know how to ask when it comes to that lane. mean, some know a little bit more than others, but as you’re asking them about their dental condition or however you want to phrase that question, again, that sounds like you, natural like you, right? To get them to open up about, tell me what’s going on, right? Well, you know, I have a cracked tooth and then I also have this like partial or I have an upper plate that just never has.

14:10
fit, right? So I haven’t really worn it over the last couple of years. It’s hard. I don’t go out to eat with my, whatever that looks like to be able to make that connection. That’s what you’re trying to get to. So there are some simple phrases. That’s one that I use. My team members laugh at me when I use it. They’re like, Oh, that’s so generic. And I’m like, yeah, well, you sometimes I’m pretty basic, not in my personality. it’s, and anytime with any of our clients, whether it’s, you know, on the phones, we do a virtual trainings like this.

14:38
And we also go in clinic and to reinforce the virtual trainings. Any of the clients, and I say the same thing and all of my team members at any time, they can pop you in that chair, whether it’s for a consultation or to take some lead calls and you better be ready to do it. And some of the best stories we have come out of that one, especially when they look at me and I’m like, don’t do it, don’t do it. Why don’t you take the call? I’m like, okay, I’ll do it. Right? It’s just, it’s fun to try to navigate, right? It’s like cooking in someone else’s kitchen.

15:04
Right. Yeah. And somebody else’s grill. You don’t know the hotspots of the state is like, Oh, Love stepping in. Yeah. So that again, that fits with our system. Be interested, not interesting. It’s a Dale Carnegie phrase, you know, before you could be interesting, you must be interested. And we talk about, there’s a, there’s a get out of jail free question you can ask. It’s five words. Tell me more about that. Tell me more about and fill in the blank. Pretty simple to remember. And then you can expand from there and get fancy from there.

15:31
And we love the how questions using that, that, that word how so beautiful. is there a. Well, and I just, I want to insert here too. I love it because I call it a power phrase, right? So to put it in GNA consult, the vernacular it’s minus three. It’s tell me more. there you go. You’re using it in business or even in your personal life. It literally not only gets them to speak more that you’re sharing with. It gives you a minute to think.

15:59
Yeah. So if you don’t know where to take the conversation next, simply saying, tell me more people love talking about themselves. Oh my gosh. one topic that they’ll never get tired of talking about themselves is so tell me more. And once my team members, you know, cause we keep onboarding more, you know, as we grow and once they actually adopt that and realize that they’re like, you use that a lot with me, don’t you? You’re just trying to know what to say next. I’m like, ah,

16:26
I don’t know, but yeah, it’s tell me more. It’s, and I love that you have the five words. I’ve narrowed it down to three, which is just love. need time to think here. Tell me more. And some people would be like, well, what do you mean by that? I’m like, well, just tell me a little bit more about what you’re saying so I can understand, help me to understand better. Right. But the tell me more. They’ll just go off for another minute or two. I’m like, okay, what do I want to say next? What direction do I want to take the conversation or what phrase do I want to pull out?

16:51
and tap into to make more of an emotional connection, to grab it and get that stickiness going. So then they’re going to want to choose us using those unique selling propositions. Why are we differentiated from the guy or girl down the street? What makes us unique? Those pieces, right? To pull out and draw out. Which, you know, I love too, cause I was talking with one of your team members prior to setting this up. And I’m like, there’s a lot of alignment between the two philosophies of the two companies. this, because ultimately Eric,

17:19
It really boils down to a bunch of little things. It’s generally not the big things. And that’s what we find with our clients. It’s a bunch of the little things and the accountabilities and the measurables and the metrics that get to the next level. So if anyone watching this, listening to it is frustrated because their conversion rates aren’t there, their return on investment of marketing dollars isn’t there. Any of those pieces that stymie a practice or it used to be better.

17:48
Right. Or our leads used to be better or fill in the blank. It’s really a lot of the little things and being able to inject, inject outside perspective to be able to get some of those systems back on track and maybe bring in a few more nuggets from best practices of clinics around the country. can be tremendously helpful and really put back on track some of those things that you’re trying to accomplish. So many thoughts going in alignment with this. Have you already read Captivate by

18:16
Vanessa Van Edwards, have you ever read this book? I have not. Okay. Yeah. Check it out. Just some things that you’re talking about. Uh, you know, tell me more about that. She, she does every year she does a seven, either of us could do this. She does a seven days of silence about silence. And what she talks about in the book is she gets business with four flashcards in her, in her hand. I’m, I’m on a vow of silence. I’m so sorry. Tell me more about you.

18:47
That’s her, her flash. It’s just a fourth one. She goes through, can’t remember what it is, but she’s like, people love to talk about themselves. And when you’re quiet enough, you get creating space for something that probably wouldn’t have been communicated because you didn’t have awkward silence and there’s power in the silence. So tell me more about that and then let it lie. Let it lie. The other thing you got me thinking about here is too, is okay, converting that new patient call, the pinnacle of that. So now we know seven, eight minutes.

19:16
We tell a story often about the 24 second new patient phone call and how this doctor sent it to me and how poorly it was done because there was no training. the patient said, I see you guys do those dentures that stick, they have the implants in there. I have 20 year old dentures and they’re flopping all around. I have blue cross with shield and I’m wondering where do I go from here? And our untrained team member said, oh, I’m so sorry, we don’t work with them. Okay, thanks, bye. That was the end of the phone call. And we go, we just.

19:45
you know, roll out, you know, verbal skill coaching from that point. So hear the difference one to two minutes. Are you just making a task or a transactional conversation or are you getting into relational conversation on the phone call? you know, making sure you’re building rapport that you’re asking, you’re being interested, not interesting. Let them talk it out a bit and let there be some silence that they fill that void with their words and connect with them. I love it. You’re saying use their words and then

20:14
Where’s that pinnacle? Where’s that shift to say, okay, we do this and we know we’re getting these patients scheduled. Once you’ve got that emotional connection, what’s that next call to action on getting the call scheduled? What would you say you guys work on there? Yeah. And it’s really about that. And I love.

20:31
everything that I’m hearing from you because it really is about being relational with the patient. And it’s that once you understand that there’s a need that the patient has, it’s really talking about how you are uniquely positioned to be able to solve for X and solve for the challenge that they’re faced with. It’s identifying that we have helped others just like you without saying, yeah, we do this all the time. Right. And in, that

20:54
exercise that we do with all of our clients very early on creating this unique selling proposition and sales isn’t a dirty word. You’re selling yourself all the time. I’ll give you an example, right? If you go out to eat, you know, if you aren’t like LeBron James and you don’t have like the best table of all time, or you don’t have a reservation and you’re just going out to eat friends, spouse, whatever the case may be, you walk into a restaurant, whether it’s the Maid or D, the hostess, doesn’t matter if it’s fine dining or even, you know, the local Applebee’s, they still have Applebee’s, right? I think so. And yes, they do. Table selection.

21:23
Right? Table selection. Do you want to sit by the window and have a nice view or do you want to be stuck back by the restroom or, know, where it’s really loud and clanging by the kitchen? Do you sell that opportunity to the person who’s going to select your table for you? It’s going to impact the next hour to hour and a half or three hours, depending on how long you have your dining experience, it’s going to impact that meal. And so do you sell the opportunity of, yeah, is it possible to get that booth over there?

21:50
in that corner booth, there’s an absolutely fantastic, it’s a really good evening that we really want. You know what? My husband would be really happy if you do that. If not, I’m to be in the dog house and you know what? After the day that I’ve had today, I could really use that, right? So selling, right? And some people do it all the time and some don’t, or, you know, another good example is, I don’t know, do you have a significant other? You were probably selling yourself in the first three or four dates that you went, at least most people do.

22:16
Did you clean out your car? Did you make sure you had some clean laundry? you shower and use deodorant? Eventually you get to the point when you’ve been married for a while, it’s like, they see that soft underbelly. I’m just saying. But this is what I’m saying that selling. so the unique selling proposition, back to my point, is that it’s not just throwing out features. Oh, we have the latest technology. Oh, we have this. It’s the why.

22:41
It’s why does that matter to the patient? patient centric. Why would it matter to them? Well, we have some of latest technology so that we can get you your teeth more comfortably faster. get the patient. So it’s always transitioning to be patient centric to really help them to understand that it’s for you, not for us. And you talked about that, right? To be interested, which is patient centric, not interesting. It’s not about me.

23:09
It’s got nothing to do with us. We want you to select us, but it’s more, it’s about you than it is about us. And we’ve helped folks just like you. And then to create a little sense of urgency, but on the phone, you’re not really doing it like as a matter of, you better do something about that, right? Oh, I’ve really waited a long time to reach out to you. Oh, I’m glad you finally did, right? Don’t guilt them into it, right? Cause that’s judgment, right? It’s one of the seven ways of active listening is be judgment free.

23:38
And those are the pieces that really then drive the conversation forward. We teach something that formula I was talking about, right? It’s E-A-Z, right? Empathy, which is super critically important. The A is assurance, right? I’m sure they call the right spot, but acknowledge what they’ve said always, right? Don’t, you know, they said, oh, well, you know, is this something that’s going to hurt? Yeah, it’s not going to hurt. So let’s go ahead and get you a book.

24:03
Okay, right. You know, but answer the question doesn’t mean if they say how much does it cost 60,000, you don’t blurt that out. I would answer at least, you know, acknowledge and answer the question. Yeah. Ask another question driving up to the Z, which is talking with a little bit of zeal. Vast majority of patients that you talk to that have this current situation where they have a need for this procedure in full arch. Most of them talk in undertone understated tone. They’ve been embarrassed hiding their mouth, things of that nature for a very long time.

24:32
Right. So elevating that conversation and speech and tone, can actually watch and listen to it at, the end of the conversation where they will lift their voice and tone up. mean, not overwhelm them. they’re uncomfortable and you’re building trust. Exactly. And so that’s the piece of getting to that appointment. And then we believe in that, give them two options, right? We have tomorrow at 10 and then, you know, well, today’s, you know, the day, right? So another day after that in the afternoon, morning, afternoon, next two days, two options.

25:01
And if they can’t, then they’ll let you know. then figuring out something forward, not that, well, we have plenty of time, you know, what’s a good day and time for you. That makes me cringe, right? You know, we just don’t do that, right? You know, come in any time and making sure, especially in full arch too, that comes to the operation side of what we do as well with practices, not just the coaching and training, but the operation side is your scheduling optimization. Like, can you get those consultations in, in a short period of time? Because we know.

25:30
It’s further out than two days. That no-show rates are very steep. You don’t have availability. What are you doing? You’ve got to be able to optimize that. That’s why they’re not showing up. I got new patients. Well, okay, let’s have a question for you. Oh, I’m scheduling new patients out two months. Well, yeah, every night they go to bed, you increase the chance of no-showing. All right, let’s go back through this. Let’s get some good stuff. Unique selling proposition. We use a term called law of the herd. People feel safer together. We do this a lot.

25:56
all of our patients that have come through and done this. Oh, we see people with that sort of insurance all the time. And here’s how it works. You can connect them to that. So this is so good. You talked about the S word and this is a PG podcast. So you did use the S word, sell. It is a four letter S word, but here’s at the end of the day, you make a great point. We’re all in sales at some point in our life and we just don’t want to do it the wrong way with the pressure. you very eloquently describe, Hey, it’s just

26:26
getting to a place where you can ask. You get so comfortable with someone, you build that seven to eight minutes where you’re connected with them, you’re building a trust and rapport, and then it makes sense, you’ve made, JAWS Connection, oh, your why? We have a solution for that. Wouldn’t it make sense for us to go ahead and get you scheduled for an appointment here? How do you feel about going ahead and getting your first visit scheduled with our office? Great, I’ve got this one or this one. Which one of those works best for your schedule? And then you could set the expectations from there. Love it so much. And then you got me thinking, reminder.

26:54
People buy for their reasons, not your reasons. And that’s all you’re doing is taking their why, connecting it to your new patient visit saying, hey, because you said it was important for you to have a confident smile again, or whatever it is, you could connect that to the appointment. That’s so good. All right, let’s shift gears. Let’s shift gears. The phone, we got them in, we converted the phone call conversion, new patient phone call into an appointment. They actually showed up and now it’s case acceptance time. So what do you see as the biggest mistake?

27:23
people are making when it comes to large case acceptance and how to avoid that. What’s the solution action in replace of that? Yeah. Well, I think it comes down to a few things. Um, actually one of the most important is to understand that, you know, clinicians should be talking clinically, right? Making sure that they actually have that skillset. And then when the treatment coordinators opportunity, we believe very strongly that the treatment coordinator should be greeting the patient and

27:52
A patient that comes in for a consultation for a big case, 20, 30, $60,000. They are not the same as somebody that’s coming in for a cleaning. They just aren’t. making sure that they’re being treated at the concierge level is something that’s critically important. If they’re treated that way from the very beginning and understand that they’re being singled out, absolutely. There should be an anticipation when they come in, right? Anticipate that this person is coming in.

28:22
and treat them as such. Whatever your walk flow is, whoever’s going to be in that walk flow, understanding what it is and making sure it’s a smooth process. That’s first and foremost, right? Uncovering and discovering what’s important to them. In full arch, it’s not the product. It’s not the what. It’s just not. You have to deliver a good what. Don’t get me wrong, but it’s not the what, it’s the why. It’s the motivation. Jenny, why now? Right? You have…

28:49
two root canals with crowns that have been on there for a very long time and one of them is chipped off. You have a partial on the other side that doesn’t fit really well and it’s on a clasp and it’s hooked on the back tooth and it’s been cutting into your gums for years when we’ve talked about it. Now you have a chipped tooth and it’s time to just do something about that, isn’t it? Right? Or you have the other, that’s the Frankenstein mouth, or you have the other patient that just hasn’t been to a dentist in 20 years because it’s just been super problematic, right? And then there’s a third big category of patient, right? So it’s that person who,

29:19
perhaps made different choices in life. I’ve been sober 20 years, so I know what this is like. You made different choices in life. And then you hit that ceiling of ability after you’ve been clean for a period of time, right? Clean and sober a period of time. And you just can’t get to that next level in your career because it’s just super problematic. But now people yourself are willing to invest in you to get to that next level, right? So the understanding that piece of who are you actually, who do you have in front of you? And that starts

29:48
in that lead call that starts with that uncovering and discovering during that connection phase and doing that, what we call the handoff hand up so that there’s an understanding of who is that that’s now in front of me. Yeah. Rather than, Oh, here’s a consultation. Great. So we look at the panel. Wonderful. Jacked up. Could we get a little something here? And the watsi say, so it brings you in today.

30:13
is the opposite of this. You already know all this, you’re set up for success, so deliver it. You’re making this connection with them, rolling out the red carpet. You maybe think of the book, Raving Fans, I think was the book. Raving Referrals. Yeah. It’s just how do you roll out this red carpet in your industry for them? How do you set yourself up so they do have a different level of experience? Then you said the discovery process, finding their why. We love that. Why is having this so important to you?

30:42
Peace of mind, grandpa brown tooth, job promotion, confidence, all of these reasons. And now you’re not, there’s the S word, you’re not selling a full arch all on X. You are selling the emotion solvent that takes care of their Y when they get this dentistry done with you. didn’t buy a $100 drill. I didn’t even just buy a hole in the wall. I bought the feeling I get when I look at the picture on the wall.

31:12
And we got to recognize that there’s levels to this and you could do this as a treatment coordinator. You could do this discovery process one-on-one with the patient, connecting with them and spending time with them. Do you have any other parameters to this? So that’s a setup to case acceptance. That’s that. And then the next step would you say is showing them what it looks like, having them imagine it? I don’t want to give you answers, but you know, but

31:36
Tell me where you go. It’s little on a stake, absolutely. It’s being able to walk them down the path. It’s helping them to understand what does this look like for you, right? Imagine if you will, a world in which, know, take you down that path. And then the next step, which is then getting to the clinical aspect, right? Which is so critically important. And this is, and it goes to the handoff, hand up now between the treatment coordinator and the clinician. And it’s not simply of stepping out of the room and saying,

32:03
Hey, doc jacked up jaw, we’ve already had a little bit of a preliminary discussion. You know, what is that patient buyer profile, right? Are have they been to two other consultations? And now this is the third. So they have a really high dental IQ, like they are they understand, like they know it’s going to be specialized implants in the maxilla and they understand a general under blah, blah, blah, and they’re ready to go. Or is it a matter of they really don’t know that much. So you might want to be soft and gentle. It’s not just that piece, right? That’s one buyer profile. Do you understand that?

32:32
clinically, how much do they actually understand? It’s the other pieces. By the way, right? He’s really into sports cars. And so, you know, might want to bring that up. He was just at the hot rod reality two weeks ago and he plans on going X, and Z or, know.

32:48
She actually said to Jenny who took all of her digital records, didn’t say it to me, but you know, she passed that along to me that she really hasn’t been out to eat in three years. And it’s, know, her and her husband, like her having a little bit of challenges because she’s just too embarrassed to go out to eat anymore. not that he, not that the doctor’s going to walk in and bleh, right? So that happens outside, right? The consultation room, the operatory, whatever it is, then coming in, then the handoff hand up in front of the patient. Hey, Dr. So and so.

33:17
I want you to meet, you know, Victoria here, and this is what’s going on. This is what she shared. And this is, this is blah, blah, blah. I want you to meet Dr. So-and-so. And then the doctor simply says, you know, it’s so great to meet you, Victoria, right? Is there anything else that you’d like to share about your current dental condition? Right. There’s that phrase again, that they’ve heard before, whatever’s the agreed upon language, because for the patient in the chair, right, wherever they are and doing the consultation, for them to hear back,

33:46
their own story of everything that they’ve divulged. It may be the first time they’ve heard all of that out loud. And for them to say, ah, yeah, but you know what, in addition to that, the fact of the matter is like, I’ve actually not been to consultation. went and like, they were super, like they were super salesy and I really hated that. Good to know. Right. And then the clinician can do the clinic thing, right? The clinical thing.

34:15
Right? Questions asked, questions answered, and then handing back off the authority after that piece is done. Great. Well, Victoria, if you have any other questions for me, I’m here and you can absolutely, and Amy here is fantastic, right? And she can come and get me, but you’re in really good hands with her. We’d love to be able to create that dream smile for you and help you get you exactly what you’re looking for so that you can go out to eat again with your husband. There it is.

34:42
It’s the transfer back of authority of this Amy, rather than just like, great, deuces out he goes and all that authority goes with. now Amy’s got to try to agree, build rapport, go through. are you talking with me? Yeah, exactly. It’s like, wait, just, he just went out the door. want to, what, don’t leave me. Right. Because so it’s that, that handoff hand up part. And I know we’re talking about case acceptance, but this is the patient experience is as if you have this ball of trust.

35:10
that you’re slowly adding to constantly that has to be handled and cared for. That way all of those questions can be answered by the time you actually get to presenting the dollars. Because if you have objections to that, haven’t really built any, you haven’t built- There’s nothing to stand on. Yeah, there’s no foundation to it, no connection. And so that is really, I mean, case acceptance is all foundational to patient experience, which is all driven by team development.

35:39
And team development is all about the leadership from the top. And communication. communication in that effective communication. So let’s go back through it. So everybody hears this too. And then we’ll, we’ll wrap up here. So emotional treasure is something you got me thinking about, you know, what are they, what are they sharing this treasure they’re sharing with you that’s emotionally tied? they’re why could it be deeper than that, that, that embarrassment out to dinner? That’s something that you, cherish, you hold onto and you reflect back to when it’s appropriate, which is the reason why they would buy.

36:08
The handoff, hand up, we call it the transfer of care. What you’re doing is you’re empowering the next person in line, not saying, you have any questions for me? Nope. All right, you’re all set. Here’s Amy. is not, yeah, deuces. That is not what you’re doing here. That’s not what you’re pointing out. It’s, look, people think that they’re just in the tooth industry, but we’re actually in the relationship business. You don’t get to do the teeth if you don’t establish a relationship. And so have a system, have…

36:36
some skillset in how you effectively communicate on this. Love it, so good. Is there a pinnacle after that that moves them into treatment that you find, hey, if I could give you one golden nugget here on the podcast, Eric, say this to your patients. This is a great way to move them towards case acceptance. Is there a question you ask? Is there something you say? Some dust you sprinkle on here, some special sauce.

37:00
Yeah, there’s a couple of different ways. know, honestly, to bring on like one of my senior sales trainers, they’d probably want to do that themselves and say, Greg, don’t say that. Greg, don’t say that. That’s not effective because they’ve literally taken the foundation that I built at GNA Consult because it was foundational and they’ve really built onto, right? And again, scripts don’t work. We believe that scripts don’t work, especially when it comes to those patients, because for some, the conversation might be,

37:27
What do you find more valuable? know, like the payment plan or, you know, the finance charges or how are you looking to make this investment in your brand new smile, which can be a much more powerful one. And, you know, so there’s so many different paths just depending on what have you gathered along the way in order to present that next, when you get ready to talk about the money, because you have, mean, if you’re talking a 20, 30, $60,000 case, you got to get to the money eventually.

37:54
Right. You have to present that. They’re thinking about it the time. Yeah. It’s a continuum, right? And there has to be flow, right? Probably the most important thing I would say from what all of my experience and what my team always tells me is when you ask that first question and you present that first question about money, first one to speak loses, like put it out there and then allow them time to digest.

38:22
And the last thing that I’ll just put a cap on all of these, one thing that we know to be true, and I do a lot of speaking, right? You know, from stages and for doctors and, know, on team development and patient experience and case acceptance and all of this. Retention, probably 20 to 25 % of everything, even on this podcast of what I’ve shared here today, unless they hit pause or take notes, right? It’s just, it’s human nature, right?

38:46
The same goes true, maybe even less for patients. And so to go back to that lead call, asking and closing the question as you book the consultation, and so many are afraid to ask this question, who will be joining you on your consultation? Oh, I have to bring someone with me. It’s always a good idea to have another set of ears because it is a lot of information to take in, which is true. Because we know they get really excited, emotionally involved in moving forward.

39:10
They get all this information and then it’s, well, I mean, I know for me, if I were going to move forward with something that was going to be a five, six, $700 payment a month for 10 years, I certainly better ask my husband. Right. Well, I mean, I could, but if I didn’t, Oh, are you kidding me? Right. Talk about getting in a lot of trouble, right? Forget about getting the bad table in the restaurant, right? There’d be a lot of hell to pay for that one. But I say that because if they’re only retaining a little bit of that technical information, then we’re asking them if they don’t sign on the dotted line, write that in there.

39:40
to go home and talk to another financially interested party in their household to then sell and talk about everything that we’ve talked about here today. What’s the likelihood that they’re going to be able to fill in all of those or answer the questions that are just legitimate questions that somebody would have. And so my piece would be, and it’s not, well, we give them a really nice brochure to take home. Really? That’s what you’re going to rely on for a 20, 30, $60,000 case. And so my piece would be is that.

40:10
It’s 360. It’s asking those and making sure they have enough of the information and then the follow-up, which is critically important. I maybe we’ll do a follow-up episode about what does follow-up that cadence both for lead call and for treatment coordinators. When they format, what’s the option and what are the assets to use that really re-trigger that emotional connection with the patient that you know, really does want to move forward. And how do you follow your pipeline of follow-up?

40:37
especially in big case acceptance, because it’s so critically important, because it’s not the same day close that it was before, right? But we know that within seven days, that that case acceptance level in full arch is pretty similar to where it was five, six years ago. Yeah, those the pieces that I’d say those little nuggets for those that are listening to say, oh, that sounds great. And I’ve got a lot of free resources that I’m willing to share and throw it in the show notes and really find out because I’m willing to share all of that. Yeah.

41:06
So yeah, let’s, let’s just go there now. So how do they get that sort of stuff? What, how would they connect with you and find that? Yeah. The easiest way is just hop over to our website at dental consult, the number four and the letter you.com. Um, or just look up my name. If you can figure out how to spell that last name, uh, and on socials, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, or GNA consult, um, on all of those platforms as well. Or look me up on the YouTube channel and there’s.

41:34
so much free content as well. And there’s also some free goodies too. If you book a discovery call, a strategy session, just mention this podcast and we’ll also, one thing that I love to do because of the nature of your listeners, it is on coaching and strategy and what you do as well. And I talked to some of your team members. said, look, if they mentioned this particular podcast, please do.

41:59
in scheduling that strategy. What we’ll do is we’ll actually take some of your calls, just we’ll set up the apparatus. We’ll listen to some of your calls and give you feedback on how to improve. You don’t have to become a client or a customer or anything like that. We’ll just give you some free feedback on it in full arch and give you some suggestions and recommendations in the framework we’ve shared here today in that EAZ format, which is a really good valuable tool for you. And we find that clients or even prospects love that.

42:28
Um, and if it resonates with you, think it could be super helpful for your team where they’re at now. It doesn’t matter how many you’re doing, how many arches you’re doing currently. Love it. So nice of you. Love it. Thank you, Greg, for being on the show. For those that listen to this podcast or watch us on YouTube, you know, the drill, share it, spread the word, share this with someone. There’s valuable information here that you can put action to. Don’t, don’t just think knowledge is power. It’s only potential power. If you do nothing after listening to this, if you thought it was great, that’s a problem.

42:58
Do some things that we’ve talked about here. This is good, valuable information. So I appreciate you being here. You’re in growth mindset mode. We love that you’re not declining. So thank you for being here listening. Share this with others, subscribe to the channel, and until next time, go out there and be an All-Star.

43:17
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Dental All-Stars. Visit us online at AllStarDentalAcademy.com.