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The Most Effective Presentation Process Ever by Tom Hopkins and Pat Leiby

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There are many ways to accomplish a single task. Wise dental practitioners are constantly on the lookout for better ways to explain preventive measures to their patients or to present their restorative services. Once you and your staff open up to learning new and better ways to turn those explanations into sales of your services, you'll be amazed at the nuances you come across and the world of difference each one makes on the results you get from your patients.

When presenting services, one of the most effective strategies we teach has four simple steps. Anyone can do this once he or she understands it. It only takes a little thought and practice to master. It's a proven-effective procedure for presenting the services your patients need and is sure to work for you as it has for thousands of others. Once you understand the steps, work with them a little and start using them. You'll be amazed at how many more of your patients agree they need the services you recommend and start scheduling those services sooner than later.

This strategy begins with some preparation. Invest a few minutes thinking about the next patient you will present to (or the patient's decision-maker if he or she is a minor), break down your service presentation into segments highlighting each individual feature that you know will benefit the patient.

As a definition, features are facts. Benefits are more descriptive of what the end result of the features will do for them. Benefits typically include adjectives such as "strong," "aesthetic," "durable," "effective," and so on.

The second step is to present each of those features in the following manner, and only in the following manner.

First, you state the fact. Then, you explain the benefit. Once the benefit is given, you must create urgency. And finish by asking for feedback.

Facts and benefits create the sale. Urgency and feedback make it happen now. The first two are pretty easy if you are a dental professional who truly knows your services. Urgency for each feature is something that you must create. It's not there until you make them feel it. This does not involve being pushy or trying to force your patients into quick decisions. Creating urgency requires effort and creativity to assure that your patients feel a genuine need to make a commitment today and now. They must feel that they will be better off in the long run if they take action within a short time frame.

In my seminars, we create urgency by offering special investments on products that are only valid the day of the seminar. These huge savings are offered only to attendees as a reward for investing both their time and money to attend the training session. It's the "today-and-today-only" method of developing urgency.

Retail outlets use special sales or offers where they indicate quantities are limited to create a sense of urgency in their potential shoppers. Investment counselors show charts and graphs of growth potential that are based on today's market figures. If clients want to earn those kinds of returns, they should start their program today. Watch how others create urgency to determine if any of their methods might apply to your practice.

In your practice, you could easily offer special discounts on particular services during each month of the year. As an example, I know of several dentists who offer discounts on initial visits for children during the month leading up to the beginning of the school year. You might want to test some offers during what are typically your slowest months. Then, take a look at your entire year's marketing plan to see what makes sense to use as an urgency creator each of the other months.

You already have a built-in sense of urgency for many treatments. You have those that will protect teeth - especially young teeth - relieve the pain of cavities or strengthen the whole mouth structure with crowns or implants. Then there are the vanity features of some of your services such as whitening for which urgency could be created around the biggest month for weddings and reunions.

The fourth step is asking for feedback. Asking serves two purposes: 1) it provides a way to monitor the progress you're making in getting patients to agree to the services, and 2) it helps you determine if your patients are ready for the next logical step, which would be to schedule the services.

To give you a better idea of how the process works, here is an example. Read it, study it and customize the system to work for you. Just think back to the last patient who "passed" on having a service done that you believe he really needed. What did you say? How did he respond? Now, read the following example, thinking of how different his response might have been if you had used our system.

Fact: "Fluoride is a mineral that occurs naturally in many foods and water. Based on what we put in our mouths every day, minerals are added to and lost from a tooth's enamel layer."

Benefit: "Fluoride treatment helps prevent tooth decay by making the tooth more resistant to acid attacks from plaque bacteria and sugars in the mouth, thus creating stronger teeth overall."

Note: After stating this fact, if the patient in question is a child, you might ask if little Johnny has a sweet tooth or if he's good about brushing and flossing. Of course, you'll already know that he has these challenges because you've seen the result. Your goal in asking is to get mom or dad to agree with you that the treatment might be just what little Johnny needs to prevent even larger dental issues (and bills) in the future.

To discover the appropriate benefit for each of your services just put yourself in your decision-maker's mind and ask "what's in it for me?" In the case of little Johnny, the parents might be concerned about keeping their child's teeth healthy for a long time. At this point, the parent is starting to think, "I want that." Or, "That sounds like a good idea to me." Facts and benefits might do the selling, but urgency and feedback will do it now.

Urgency: "We are recommending this particular treatment for children the age of little Johnny here so we can start protecting his relatively new adult teeth before there's a chance for deterioration." Without using any high pressure or being pushy, the dental practitioner has merely pointed out the significant advantage to making a purchase right now over procrastinating until later. Buying now is clearly in little Johnny's best interest according to the parents' own definition of need.

Feedback: "Because it looks like it'll be awhile before his next adult teeth erupt, when do you think you want to start protecting the ones that he already has?"

The answer is rather obvious, isn't it? With these four steps, the parent should realize that, too, and be prepared to move to the next step in the system, which would be to schedule the service now. And, this strategy will leave the door open to additional treatment for Johnny's other teeth when they finally emerge.

Here's another example:

Fact: "Teeth grinding might not only cause headaches, but can negatively impact your dental health."

Benefit: "Using a custom-fitted guard is a simple remedy that can help minimize the pain and potential damage to your teeth from excessive grinding."

Urgency: "Since teeth grinding can lead to abnormal wear patterns or fractures of the teeth, we recommend it be dealt with as soon as you become aware of it."

Feedback: "What do you think about wearing a mouthguard at night now as opposed to repairing more extensive damage later?"

Do you see why so many doctors are excited about this strategy? With those four simple steps you are gently guiding your patient (or parents) toward the end goal of agreeing to your recommended services. The end result is a happier, healthier patient and greater revenue for your practice.

Use the preceding examples to think creatively about how the process will work with additional products and services. Creating urgency might require a little thought on your part, but it can be done.

Just remember that asking for feedback is critical. If you don't generate feedback, you might never discover the concerns your patients have until it is too late to effectively address them. In other words, you have created an awkward situation in which to ask for a commitment. That is something you want to avoid mainly because it will take time to re-build the decision-maker's emotions to the point where he or she will once again be open to considering the services.

When you get positive feedback throughout your presentation, asking for the commitment becomes much easier because patients would be contradicting themselves by refusing to go ahead. Always remember that your patients are not opponents to be overcome but people to be helped.

Even when you receive negative feedback, it's valuable because it lets you know where your patients stand on the particular service. For all you know, he might have had a bad past experience that would hold him back from going with the service you are recommending. Or, he might know someone else who has a very strong opinion about the service that is opposed to yours. Until you know what the concerns are and address them, you will be prevented from selling that service, no matter how good you believe it is.

Your service presentation is basic. It's simple, but it's not as easy as falling off a log. You have to do your homework, study and practice the technique. You also need to understand your patients' real needs, wants and concerns. Beyond that, you have to apply your own creative resources to put the entire system together in terms that provide the unique solution to your patients' unique situations.

When you use the system properly, the "math" will astound you.

Fact + Benefits + Urgency + Feedback = Sold Today, Sold Now

Repeat this mantra over and over: "I will never give a service presentation again without presenting the features in this manner: State the facts, show the benefits, create urgency and ask for feedback."

It will make a world of difference in increasing the number of people you serve, improving your closing ratio and allowing you to do it in less time. It's a dental professional's dream come true.

*Excerpted from Sell It Today, Sell It Now - The Art of the One-Call Close by Tom Hopkins and Pat Leiby.

Author Bios
Tom Hopkins is a world-renowned expert and authority on selling and salesmanship. His simple yet powerful strategies have been proven effective in many industries, including the dental industry, and during all types of economic cycles. The foundation of his training includes both the "people skills" of proper communication and the nuances that impact every situation where trying to persuade others. Tom's style of delivery is practical and entertaining - making the strategies easy to remember and implement. Learn more about how Tom Hopkins can help you increase revenues in your practice at www.tomhopkins.com/blog. To reach Tom, please e-mail him at tomhopkins@tomhopkins.com. Details about Tom's speaking schedule can be found at: www.tomhopkins.com/live_events.shtml.

Pat Leiby began in sales in the 1960s with MetLife of Ohio. He was an avid student of self-help material such as those offered by Dale Carnegie and Wilson Learning. Through the application of his studies, he became the top producer in the Eastern third of the U.S.

He developed his own style and continuously analyzed what was happening during the sales process, coming up with a system (the basis of the book). The system has been successfully applied to the home-building industry, resort sales, financial services and several other industries.

In the home building area, Pat's company went from selling 25 homes per year to 220+ per year after implementing Pat's system. In resort sales, Pat has been the number-one salesperson at three different resorts, salesman of the year three years in a row, then moved into sales management to help a larger group of salespeople understand and benefit from the system.

Pat also served in the capacity of Sales Training Director at Westgate Resorts in Orlando, Florida. His system increased their closing ratio from 9.9 percent to 17 percent while reducing their cancellation rates from 30 percent to 20 percent.
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