Sell treatment? No way!

A dentist employed by a corporate was recently feeling under stress.

The reason? They had quotas to meet and they were feeling pressure to sell treatment to patients. Nothing will put you under the hammer more than the feeling that you need to sell treatment.

But, what's the answer? Can you practice dentistry without selling? If I posed this question you of course know that answer must be "yes, you can practice without selling". It just takes is a shift in your perception.

The selling mindset is that you have before you a reluctant patient and you must convince them to care for their teeth, preferably by buying lots of expensive treatment.

The non-selling mindset is that it's your job to fairly and honestly present treatment options to patients and then let them make their own decision. Whether they "buy" or not is totally, 100% up to them.

The first way leads to stress and pressure. The second way takes all the pressure off.

But, here's the magical part of this.

The more you let patients make up their own mind, the more likely they are to opt for good treatment. The more you try to push and sell to patients, the more likely they are to go home to "think about it".

This is so counter-intuitive that you might not believe it until you try it.

Have you ever had an experience with a sales person who was pushy? Did you find yourself resisting? Of course. It's the same with dentistry.

Stop selling. Relax. Present options and then let the patient decide. Less stress for you, less stress for the patient and your acceptance rate will go up.