When I was starting out working in dental practice after spending some years post-qualification working in the hospital service, I had a problem with the concept of taking money from people for the services that they accessed.
This process is commonly known as selling, and often, healthcare professionals have a problem with selling.
The problem that healthcare professionals have with selling takes two possible forms.
- They don't like selling; they think they don't need to sell. They believe that selling is beneath them and degrading because it's healthcare.
- They oversell horrendously to suit themselves.
Interestingly, both of these things are terrible because we're all selling all the time; as Dan Pink taught us in To Sell is Human and To Sell is Human, it is the most extraordinary exploration of why selling is essential and part of our everyday lives.
However, the other side of this is that healthcare and the delivery of healthcare come with a massive ethical imperative, and we must have the self-awareness to understand what we're doing and to whom, or else we should not be allowed to practice.
Once we've got that out of the way, though, it's really important to understand the fundamental basics of selling to allow patients to access the most appropriate care for the problem they are presenting.
A classic feature of this process would be called features and benefits.
It is entirely possible to apply features and benefits to healthcare and, in particular, to dental treatment. Let me show you how.
Some years ago, in our practice, we realised that the only thing we were offering was the absolute highest level of treatment available, with the best practitioners we could find, using the best dental implants we could find, and offering an enormous 10-year guarantee.
If you came to our practice and didn't want that level, you had to go somewhere else.
This is the bit that dentistry has a huge problem with. It's called ego.
Some people cannot afford care at that level but would still like to access some of the best possible care, so we developed a tiered implant pricing system. We developed products.
At The Campbell Clinic, we have Levels 1, 2, and 3. Let me explain. Level 1 offers a 10-year guarantee using Straumann SLactive implants (the most expensive and highest quality) Provided by the most experienced practitioners.
Level 2 are 5-year guaranteed implants using SLActive implants (1 down from SLactive) with practitioners who have been trained and, taught and mentored at The Campbell Clinic but are not as experienced as Level 1 practitioners who have placed thousands of implants.
Level 3 are 1-year guaranteed implants (amazingly, still SLactive), which are placed on our teaching courses by dentists who are training to provide implant treatment.
When you break this down, you're able to explain to patients the features and the benefits of the products that are being provided, but people will choose for different reasons, and this is the key to features and benefits and the explanation of features and benefits.
Many of our patients choose level one simply for the 10-year guarantee. They're not really fussed about who places the implant or particularly fussed about the mechanics or design of the implant itself; they just want the 10-year guarantee.
Other people are not concerned about the guarantee; they just want the most experienced practitioner, and yet others want to understand which implant they're having, all the mechanical basis of it, and the way it's been designed (the engineer personality) and they then will have level one for that reason.
Other people can't or won't afford it and want to consider the features and benefits, dropping down the pyramid to the level that suits them best.
Understanding these things related to the products you provide.
Understanding that you need products to provide.
Understanding that you need to be able to describe the products that you provide as clearly and as openly to patients as you can is one of the most fundamental aspects of presenting care to patients in an ethical way and gaining consent.
Sales in private dentistry and private medicine are not distinct from consent; it is an absolutely fundamental aspect of consent. Therefore, I think all dental practitioners should undertake some form of proper sales/consent training.
It would make your practice better, your patient's experience better, and your life and their life better.
Many years ago, I developed a Consultation Masterclass with this in mind, explaining features and benefits and applying those to different patient personalities (Different patients require different things).
The Consultation Masterclass was a couple of weeks ago, but you can access it online here and watch it as much as you can. It's a really, really important skill, and the truth of the matter is we're not born able to do this; we have to learn to be able to do it.
Leave a comment