If you regularly face patient objections around the treatment plans you propose and are increasingly unsure how to handle them correctly, then help is at hand!
Business of Dentistry events is teaming up with treatment coordination experts Laura Horton and Michael Bentley to bring you Treatment Coordination Live! – a series of events focusing on how you can deliver amazing treatment coordination to your patients. Delegates have the option of choosing to attend Treatment Coordination Live! on either 1, 8 or 16 July and will cover the various stages of the treatment coordinator (TCO) role including effective objection handling.
A tricky situation
Let’s face it, dealing with objections can be tricky and it’s often an area that the dental team struggle to deal with. If you’re too pushy, the patient is left feeling uncomfortable or if you’re unequipped to fully handle the objection, the patient is left feeling that you don’t care.
So, how do you find that happy medium? Well, according to Laura Horton, handling objections is an art. It takes a great deal of practise to hone the skills required so that you can not only feel more comfortable and at ease when dealing with the patient but that the patient can feel satisfied with the outcome.
Objections can come in all forms, whether it be a nervous patient objecting to a proposed treatment, or a patient objecting to the cost of proposed treatment. But what can we do to make objection handling a less painful process that doesn’t put fear into the team member dealing with it?
Practise makes perfect
Laura believes that the key to this is consistent practise and regular critique of how you dealt with the objection and how it could be improved. This will help to ensure that next time, you will always be better than the time before. Afterall, we all make mistakes and learning from them can only help you to improve.
Listening to the patient is key, so that you can clarify their concerns and then provide the solution. Handling an objection is all about providing a solution to the problem.
So, it’s clear that dealing with an objection needs to be carried out correctly and that dealing with it badly is not an option. So what do we need to do to make sure that this happens and that you feel at ease doing it? A relaxed, confident and comfortable approach makes all the difference. Fidgeting, nervousness and a rushed conversation to get the job done are an absolute no no. If you are not confident in what you are saying then the patient will pick up on this and be less likely to trust what is being said.
To find out more about how dealing with objections should really be done, don’t miss the chance to join Laura and Michael at Treatment Coordination Live! on 1 July in Birmingham, 8 July in Heathrow or 16 July in Manchester.
The duo will be role playing the roles of TCO and patient, and demonstrating first-hand, best practise examples of how treatment coordination should really work and giving you lots of tips and advice that you can take back and put into your practice!
For more information and to book a place, visit www.practiceplan.co.uk/events or call the Practice Plan events team on 01691 684135.
