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My friend Chris sent me a link to a blog, it’s here I recommend that you read the blog and see how much of it applies to not only you and your business, but also your life.

1. ‘Attempts to negotiate are a signal that your value proposition is not sufficiently clear or appealing to your incidents’.
2. ‘Your ability to add value is innately bound up in your ability to walk away’.

Consider these two for a minute. Then consider this. ‘Price negotiation in private dentistry is utterly unethical’. The last statement is mine.

Picture this scenario, which has happened to me fairly recently in the practice.

I am sat in our nice conservatory in our practice discussing a treatment plan with a patient. The plan is valued at £29,000. This has been calculated using our price formula in the practice and applies to treatments that are over a certain level. I can calculate this exact same price for another existing patient and it will be the same. We price consistently.

The patient, who is a gentleman, tells me that if I reduce the price there and then by £2,000 he will sign the forms immediately. Politely I explained to him that I am unable to do that because I consider the negotiation of prices in private health care to be unethical. I explained that this is because if someone was to walk in after him who is a poorer negotiator, they’re likely to pay more for their treatment. To me, that is simply not fair.

The patient walked out and we never saw him again. You are either an ethical practitioner or you are not. An ethical practitioner would charge the same amount for the same treatment for every patient. Sometimes this is difficult but it is your responsibility to have a system within your practice where you can price consistently and openly for each individual patient. Failure to do so is a problem.

Blog Post Number - 1317