One of the most important pieces of the puzzle, when a patient is deciding to commit to your treatment or not, is emotional connection. As we try to boost our case acceptance rate by removing obstacles for our patients, emotional connection cannot be overlooked.

This doesn’t mean that you need to be an effusively outgoing personality. If you are, that’s fantastic. But even if you aren’t, there are still ways to make your patients feel heard and understood as they think about treatment with you.

The best way to connect with a prospective patient is to position yourself as a friendly guide on their journey. You know how the patient can get the transformation they seek, and you are more than happy to show them. 

Helpful guides build emotional connections. The patient doesn’t see them as another salesperson trying to hawk products or services.

Here are a few tips to make sure that you connect emotionally with your dental implant leads.

Focus on the transformation they can achieve.

As a dental implant practice, you’re not just selling implants… you’re selling transformation.

Part of your job, as a patient decides whether to go with you, is to show them what’s possible. Show them the best success stories that you have. Use photos and testimonials of people who have similar situations to them.

Unless they specifically ask technical questions, avoid overly technical answers. Your proficiency in “dentalese” is not helpful in this particular situation.

Give patients a virtual “smile preview.”

To really build an emotional connection with patients, nothing is more powerful than showing patients what their smiles will look like in the form of a virtual “smile preview.”

Although only a small percentage of practices offer virtual smile previews, the ones who do rave about the impact it has on patients to be able to see what their smile would look like. Even better, our friends at PreVu Dental make it easy to give patients a glimpse into what life would be like after their smile transformation.

Here’s what one patient had to say about the power of a PREVU smile preview:

“I went for five consultations and when I came to see Dr. Radu, he was the first one who gave me a simulation of my smile. As soon as I saw the simulation, it was the fact that I could see my appearance—and my appearance was radically changed—that I decided to go with Dr. Radu. If I had not seen the simulation when I came to Dr. Radu’s office, I would not have proceeded and I would still have my old teeth.” —Malcolm E, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

If you do not offer patients the ability to preview their smile, you could be missing out on thousands of dollars in lost revenue and the ability to change countless lives through implant dentistry.

Use social proof to encourage leads to move forward.

When a patient sees what their smile will look like after removing forward, they will be much more likely to want to achieve that transformation. That said, they might still wonder whether moving forward with you is a good decision. That’s where social proof comes into play.

With implants, hardly anything does a better job of encouraging patients to move forward more than social proof. Between before-and-after pictures and testimonials from other patients, social proof lets patients know that others have been happy after making the decision you’re asking them to make.

Having before-and-after pictures and written or even video testimonials of patients handy lets your patients say all the great things about you that you might not be comfortable saying about yourself. Here’s an example of a high-impact testimonial that a patient said about one of our clients.

Start a conversation.

Finally, connecting emotionally with implant leads means having conversations, not consultations. This is a shift in mindset. When it’s obvious that you have an agenda, people shut down. When they realize that you’re simply having a conversation to learn more about them and their story, they warm up.

Use casual, conversational language. Look them in the eye and shake their hands (or give a fist or elbow bump for sanitation). Ask them open-ended questions about their life and story. Treat it like a conversation where you’re only trying to get to know them. More than getting a “yes” to your procedure, your goal should be to start a mutually beneficial relationship.

If you’re using a virtual patient advocate program, our VPAs can use the first couple of conversations to build a relationship with the lead and prequalify them in advance. That way, every person who comes into your office starts out warmer.

Ideally, when a prospective patient comes to you, they don’t feel like they’re being sold something. They feel like you hear and understand their unique story and problems. They feel like they can trust you. They know that you’ll take care of their issue and guide them to the transformation that they seek. As a result of your conversations, they will commit to your treatment plan.

For more help understanding and connecting to leads, feel free to book a strategy call with us today.