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Howard Speaks Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, MAGD

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The Three Functions of Business; Part Two - Sell Something!

Howard Farran, DDS
MBA, MAGD
Publisher,
Dentaltown Magazine
 Last month I wrote about the first function of business — making something. I introduced new ways you can boost your office's production to get you on your way to becoming a million-dollar practice. This month I'm focusing on the second function — selling something.

What is the greatest tragedy that ever happened to the great old United States of America? Was it building the first nuclear bomb from 1941 to 1946? No! The Manhattan Project eventually employed more than 130,000 people and cost nearly $2 billion ($24 billion in 2008 dollars based on consumer price indexes). Was it storming the beaches of Normandy to end Nazism and Fascism? No! More than 150,000 American troops took part in that operation and 2,500 GIs and 2,600 paratroopers died, as well as 3,100 Germans.

Was it the Civil War to end slavery? Yes! The total number of people killed either during battle or because of disease was a little more than 680,000, which even today is more than all the rest of America's wars combined. And when the greatest American president, Abraham Lincoln, had to sell the merits of a Civil War, he presented to his fellow Americans the Gettysburg Address — and he used less than 270 words!

Do you know how many words a dentist uses to explain a single root canal, build-up and crown? Probably 500 or more — and the patient doesn't even understand half of them!
Years Countries
Abolished Slavery
  1. Hungary: around 1000
  2. Sweden & Finland: 1335
  3. Japan: 1587
  4. England: 1772
  5. Canada: 1793
  6. France: 1794
  7. Columbia, Ecuador, Panama & Venezuela: 1821
  8. Spain: 1837
  9. Russia: 1861
  10. United States: 1865
  11. Brazil: 1888
  12. China: 1910
  13. Iraq: 1924
  14. Nigeria & Ethiopia: 1936
  15. Saudi Arabia: 1962
  16. Mauritania: 1980
  17. Niger: 2003
 Example
Dentist: You have an interproximal lesion on the mesial surface which has gone into the mesial buccal pulp horn of tooth #3. You will need endodontic therapy, a post build-up, and a full coverage restoration, blah, blah, blah…
Patient: (turns to the dental assistant) Is this guy talking to me? What did he say?
Assistant: I don't know, I quit listening to him years ago!

The word "doctor" comes from the Latin word Docere meaning "to teach." But, the best doctor (teacher) in the office is usually not the dentist. Dentists go to college for eight or more years and learn 5,000 words of Latin and Greek. Latin is a dead language and you don't live in Greece!

According to a Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, in 2004 there were more than 294 million Americans and just over 44 percent had one dental visit or more that year. The average expense was a little over $560 per year. The average number of visits that year was 2.5 per person, so the bottom line is that the average new patient is worth $560. Do you track your new-patient expenditures? Are you average, ahead of the average, or are you lagging behind? You know why you don't track it? Because you don't even want to see your grade!
  Let's say you are a typical introvert geek dentist and you are not into social situations or sales. Then let someone else do it! Most of the high-falootin' offices that I know of have an assistant do the treatment plan presentations and scheduling or they have a treatment coordinator in the front office handle these duties. They speak in plain English and patients feel less intimidated so they ask more questions

Remember you are selling optimum oral healthcare to your patients. If they don't buy into it and schedule an appointment then you are not doing ideal dentistry for your patients. So do this for me, run the report that tracks your average new-patient exam dollars and see where you fit into the national average of $560 per patient. Next, go figure out how much outstanding treatment there is in your charts. Then let the best communicator in your office start presenting treatment plans and scheduling. After a month or two, compare that person's dollar average to yours and see who the better teacher is!

My dental assistant Jan has been with me for more than 20 years and is the best dentistry salesperson on the planet. I wouldn't compete with her if you put a gun to my head and asked nicely. Yes, I would love to do her job but I just can't compete with her. Since she sells more treatment plans than I do, she is actually doing more for my patients' optimum oral health than I am. I simply do the dentistry but I wouldn't be busy doing dentistry if she wasn't convincing people to accept treatment and thus have a healthier oral cavity.
"Many dentists do not want their dental hygienists "selling" dentistry. This is
just nuts."		 The same concept goes for hygiene. Many dentists do not want their dental hygienists "selling" dentistry. This is just nuts. Your hygienist is in the patient's mouth for an hour. S/he better have an intraoral camera, and digital X-rays which can be blown up on a monitor in the same room. In our morning huddle we go over each patient in the hygiene column and note whether or not there is any remaining treatment not scheduled. When the hygienist takes care of those patients s/he spends an extra five minutes with the intraoral camera showing them their cavities and broken down fillings.

Digital X-rays are a must. You simply cannot show a patient "flossing" cavities if you do not have digital X-rays. It's impossible to "sell" dentistry if your patients are looking at a one-inch square X-ray film on top of a lighted viewing box. The patient can't see the cavity. With digital X-rays you can enlarge the X-ray to full screen and print it out so you can take a red magic marker, circle the cavity and trace out the nerve pulp horns so the patient can see clearly how close this cavity is to becoming a root canal. Patients do not want root canals. This motivates them to get the cavity repaired, which is more optimum than waiting for a nerve involvement.

Another tool you should have in all your operatories is patient education videos. Patterson Dental's CAESY program is one of the best but there are so many out there to choose from. Have your staff demo several to find the one that suits your practice the best and then implement the videos into your daily routine so they don't collect dust in a corner of the operatory! Sell more dentistry so that you and your patients can have more success. Your patients will better understand the treatments they need and will buy into their disease while you get to treat it.

The more you sell, the luckier your patients are that their dental disease doesn't wreak havoc in their mouths.
Dentaltown Magazine
September 2025
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