The best dentists know how important their team is to their success. Your team members are the first people patients speak to when they call. They’re the first people patients see when they visit your office. They’re the people who help patients understand insurance coverage or financing options. They keep your office running.

Clinical training will give you the tools you need to perform implant dentistry. Marketing will help you attract more cases. Your team helps you close. Improve your closing rate by training your team in these five critical areas.

The Impact of Implant Dentistry

Nothing boosts employee performance more than showing them why their work is important. Not checklists. Not systems or processes. Nothing. Checklists, systems, and processes promote consistency in performance. But understanding why their work is so important motivates people to go the extra mile.

Consider these two scenarios.

Scenario 1:

You tell our team you’re going to start offering implant dentistry. You let them know you’ll be out for clinical training. When you return, you tell them you’re ready to get started placing simple implants.

Scenario 2:

You call your team into the waiting area at the close of business one afternoon. In your right hand is a stack of 8×10 pictures. One by one, you hold them up. They reveal before and after pictures of implant patients.

You tell them you went to dental school to make this level of impact on people. You let them know you’re attending our Dental Implant cruise to Cuba and the Bahamas to get started. You describe how critical their role will be in changing lives.

You share your vision for your practice. You include them in that vision, describing how your new practice can help them achieve personal goals, too. You briefly describe the important training areas, such as phones, insurance, and financing. You end the meeting by promising to invest in continued staff training, too.

Which Scenario Do You Think Would Inspire Your Team To Work Harder?

Scenario 1 is all about the work. All it does is tell them to expect more work. Scenario 2 gives them important context. It shows them how they can take part in changing people’s lives. It shows them how it will change their lives.

Scenario 2 will motivate them to perform. When patients call about implants, the conversation will be about more than scheduling. It will be about more than insurance and financing. It will be about helping them transform their lives like the people in the before and after pictures.

Show your team the impact implant dentistry can have on patients, practices, and themselves.

Phone Training

Make sure whoever answers your phones knows how to handle implant calls. Make sure they’re knowledgeable about implant dentistry in general. Give them lists of answers to frequently-asked-questions. Talk with them about the importance of patient empathy with implant patients. Teach them the many benefits of getting implants in your office versus with a specialist. For example, patients can save money getting implants placed in your office. They can also get continued full-service dental care without getting bounced around.

Tell them your goals for implant calls. Do you want them to ask patients prequalifying questions? Do you want them to schedule initial oral exams? Do you want them to discuss financing?

If you want your team to do something on a call, give them the tools and instruction they need. Then put everything they need to do their jobs well into an easy-to-navigate manual.

Insurance and Financing

Make sure your team understands insurance coverage and financing options for implant dentistry. Remind them how life-changing these procedures are. Encourage them to go above and beyond to help patients afford their treatment.

Affordability will be the most frequently-asked question you receive. Patients will want the procedure because of the impact it can have on their life. But they’ll all want to know how much their implant will cost and whether they can afford it.

Make sure your team knows all insurance and financing options. Then give them the tools to work hard to help patients change their lives.

In-Office Patient Care

Patients seeking implants are often more fearful than other patients. Implant dentistry is a more complex procedure than typical dental care. It’s a bigger investment than they’re used to.

Make sure your team understands unique needs and concerns of implant patients. Train them in techniques to make implant patients more comfortable. Simple activities such as giving patients a tour of your office or offering a drink can help. Make sure your team has everything they need to make implant patients feel welcome and safe when they visit your office.

Building Patient Confidence in You and Your Practice

Even with all the benefits of coming to you for implants, patients will still have questions. This is especially true for patients deciding between you and a specialist. Coming to you will have advantages in cost, comfort, and many other areas. But many patients will still choose a specialist if they think they’ll be in better hands.

This is an area where your clinical training, experience, and marketing overlap with staff training. Clinical training and experience will develop your technical skills. Proven marketing strategies will attract the right cases for your skill level. Having the right training and attracting the right patients sets you up well for getting your team to talk you up to potential patients.

Is your team ready to close?

It doesn’t matter how talented a dentist you are if your team can’t do their jobs well. Patients won’t schedule appointments if the person who answers your phone isn’t friendly. They won’t be confident in your practice if the person isn’t knowledgeable. They’ll delay treatment if your team can’t help them with insurance or financing.

We’ve teamed up with the leading implant dentistry trainer, Dr. Arun Garg, for a 4-day comprehensive Dental Implant cruise. On the cruise, Dr. Garg and his team will give you the clinical training you need to get started placing implants. You’ll leave the cruise with the skills to perform up to 20% of implant cases. You’ll also learn proven marketing and team-training strategies from us at Driven Dental Marketing. Best of all, you’ll learn all this while having plenty of time to relax and enjoy a trip to Cuba and the Bahamas.