From ‘Maybe’ to ‘Yes’: Mastering Case Acceptance Without Selling

Let me ask you about something real. How many patients have said, I'll think about it, and then vanished into some void? You presented the treatment plan, you explained the clinical need, you even offered a payment plan. And still crickets and no follow up. Here's the kicker. It's not your dentistry, it's your delivery. More than 70% of unscheduled treatment plans doesn't have to do with patients not being able to afford the treatment. That's crazy. It comes from patients who don't understand it or don't see the value in saying yes. That means you're doing all this work to have a patient show up. Do the dentistry, do the diagnostics, present the treatment. And you're running a very inefficient business if you can't convert that treatment. What if case acceptance had less to do with being persuasive and more to do with being aligned with your patient's needs? Today's episode will change the way you talk to your patients for forever. Welcome to the Next Level Practice podcast where we fix the business side of dentistry once and for all. I'm your host CEO of Next Level Practice, Kelly Dahmer. We're pulling back the curtain on one of the most frustrating and inefficient parts of a practice. Why patients say no even when the dentistry is necessary. And this goes way deeper than sales skills. Because I feel like the first thing that happens and the first instinct we have when we start talking about case acceptance is, well, we're not salespeople. We don't want to sell dentistry or even we don't want to push unethical treatment. This goes way deeper than those sales skills though. We're talking about a complete mindset shift from pitching treatment to facilitating transformation. Yes, you are healthcare advocates facilitating health and wellness for your patients. That's a transformation. You're providing them. I want to introduce you to Dr. McNew. Before he worked with us, he felt like he was a walking treatment planter, presenting full mouth cases left and right, barely getting any yeses. His case acceptance was actually hovering around 30%. His team felt discouraged and he was really starting to take it personally. But once he learned how to shift the conversation from what you need to do to what your life will look like, everything really started to change. Within 90 days, his case acceptance jumped to over 65%. That's more than double. No pressure, no selling, just alignment to his patients needs. So let's break down how he did it and how you can too. Here's what we're going to be covering today. On today's episode, the number one reason patients delay or reject treatment and why it's not just about the money. Number two, how to lead patient conversations that connect to motivation, personal motivators, not just diagnostics. And number three, three questions that unlock patient buy in before you even present the treatment plan. Have your patients asking for the treatment before you even present it to them. If you've ever felt like you're talking at your patients instead of with them, this episode is your reset. Because here's the truth. You're not in dental business. You're in the transformation business. And if your patients don't see it that way, they're not going to be saying yes, no matter how clinically perfect your plan is. You might be asking the question like, what is an appropriate case acceptance benchmark? And the answer is 67%. A third of your patients are always going to say yes. A third of your patients will say yes, but, but I need to talk to my spouse, but I don't know when I'm going to be able to do that or how I'm going to be able to afford it. And then a third are going to say no. So our job is to obviously convert the yeses and then also convert the yes buts. We want to remove bar from those yes buts. Let's go deeper into Dr. M's story. He was doing everything right. I say that with air quotes. You know, he had great diagnostics, clear presentations. He even had financial options with third party financing. But he wasn't connecting to the patient. He was delivering information instead of creating clear transformation. Here's what changed. Number one, this one's really important. He stopped carrying the load for patient education and really began a team approach. We doctors, we want you to be a bobblehead, to come in and agree with your team. Agree with the Kodiak diagnosis, okay, within reason, obviously, right? But decentralizing the doctor from being at the center of case acceptance and instead putting an emphasis on co diagnosing and a team driven patient education system is really, really vital here because you're only one person. You're never going to be able to outrun or outpace everything that needs to be done. Step number two is identifying the patient's personal motivator. It's not just health or getting out of pain or the worst one, whatever my insurance covers, right? It's truly understanding what that patient's personal motivator is. So one patient had said, I want to be able smile more confidently at my Daughter's wedding. That's not just about enamel, right? That's about identity or another patient. I love this one. It's like, oh, this patient is a first time grandma. And they want to have health and longevity through their oral care to be able to keep up with their grandkids for a really long time. Right? When you connect the treatment to that, price just becomes a little detail. It does not become a deal breaker. Step number three is really making sure that you have a simplified plan for removing money as a barrier. Because listen, people do have less cash flow now. People are tightening down a little bit. So you want to make sure that you have a really good process for this. And he got rid again. And in air quotes, not physically, he didn't get rid of this person, just mentally. The money gal really recontextualized her position into being that financial freedom fighter that removes money as a barrier to treatment. Dr. M is no longer talking about money. That's very important. He should not be talking about money. And guess what? Patients started saying yes because they finally felt, seen, heard and understood. Let's get into our three actionable takeaways so that you can take something away today and actually implement it and make your life better. Number one, ask the life vision question with your patients before you present a single treatment option. Ask what do you want Your health or smile to help you do that you're not able to do right now? You'll uncover way more than just clinical needs. You'll also tap into emotional drivers with this question. Number two, drop the dental jargon. Your patients, number one, it overwhelms them. They don't understand it. Patients don't care about margins and molars. They care about confidence, comfort, connection, you know, releasing, fearing anxiety that they might have from coming in to see you as a dentist. So translate those clinical terms into real life benefits. Things that they can actually feel, things that they can actually understand. And number three, take a team approach. If you're a doctor, identifying the personal motivator or talking about money, you're in the wrong place. Give your team a system for patient education. So let's recap today's biggest insights. Number one, case acceptance isn't about convincing. It's about connecting two people. Say yes to what they understand and what they want. And three, start with the life they want to live, not just the teeth they need to fix. If you're really curious and you want to learn how to improve your team's communication skills and create five star patient experiences that lead to yeses, our Patient Education Kit is a total game changer. Inside of it is our healthy mouth baseline standard of care. It's a tangible tool that you can use in your patient education process. Your team uses it, your patients will learn from it. It's a great tool. Head to the Next Level Practice website to download it now. It's free. You can also get it by clicking the link in the show notes and if this episode gave you a fresh way to approach your patients, share it with a colleague. We're on a mission to transform dentistry from the inside out, and it starts with how we speak. I'm Kelly Damer and this is the Next Level Practice podcast. We'll see you in next week's episode.