So, how do you get your average production per patient to increase without increasing what the below-average spender spends?

Heres an important lesson: Its way easier to get someone SPENDING money to spend MORE money than it will ever be to get someone who is spending little or none to spend MORE.

Its like this: If Im in the buying mood, and my wallet or checkbook is already open and Im writing a number of any kind down, its EASIER to get me to make it a bigger number than it will be for you to get me to open my checkbook again.

If your patients are in the buying mood, by all means, oblige them and give them what they are looking for.

Your teams time should be spent on those willing to buy already, not on trying to move some stubborn soul from a non-buyer to a buyer.

Heres a real-life example:

A woman comes in the SofTouch office. She smokes a lot wants her badly stained teeth to be improved. Why? Shes a national spokesperson for some organization and shes going to be doing a ton of public speaking.

SO... she has a huge motivation and need (perceived or actual does not matter and you and I should not judge!) to get her smile in the best shape possible. Now that our team knows that, they can make numerous suggestions to the patient to improve her smile. We can do Cadillac, Chevy or Yugo. A, B or C. Frankly, some practices only offer A and B, some, like Dr. Schaumbergs, only A. Sometimes, we offer C, along with A and B. There are a lot of factors there, too (one of them is not how much money we think the patient has, because we always sell monthly payments; and never a total treatment plan unless its asked for). I think its a huge disservice to offer only C or only B. It should be a patients decision, correct? Limited only by you and your teams skill set.

We can work with this woman and get her the best treatment possible. Shell take it too.

If we had Joe Sixpack in (no disrespect - I like beer myself) the office, and he just wanted B or C, and he had a history of being stubborn, lower-quality oriented, wed offer A, but would be completely OK with him taking B or even C, and not lose sleep over it.

Maximizing your production is about you and your team learning to deal with human nature and not automatically categorizing each and every patient that walks through your door.

On any given week day, Im dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, with flip-flops on in the summer, and believe me, if a businessman, banker or otherwise were to pigeon-hole my spending ability, theyd probably lose a HUGE sale.

Theyd best get to know me first, what I do and what my likes and dislikes are. Quality to me is #1. Convenience #2 and Affordability last.