• June 24, 2019

Asking for a Decision—THE CLOSE – Part 1

Surprisingly, many offices present cases but fail to ask for closure. Whether it’s from fear of rejection, fear of confrontation or just fear of offending someone, they just don’t ask! To be effective you need a great closing question and this is a perfect example where a scripted approach will be most effective. To close means to get the patient to say “yes” to what you prescribe. We don’t call it closed until four things have happened.

The patient has:

  • Committed to the full comprehensive dental treatment plan that the doctor has recommended.
  • Arranged a payment plan to cover all the finances related to his or her optimum dental health.
  • Scheduled an appointment for his or her first treatment.
  • Left the office with a smile, glad to pay you for providing the service.

Ask the magic closing question…

“Mrs. Smith, do you see any reason why we shouldn’t proceed with this?”

Then be silent and wait, even if they are uncomfortable. If they state that there are no reasons not to proceed, then proceed!

“That’s terrific Mrs. Smith, we look forward to taking care of you. Let’s get started with our appointments”.

Another close option you may consider:

The Assumptive Close simply requires you to speak as if the decision was already made to proceed. This is done to save time and can be effective for routine, everyday procedures. Since this close basically eliminates the decision, it should not be used for anything beyond routine. For example:

“Mrs. Smith, It’s been over a year since your last X-Rays, I’m going to go ahead and take some bitewing radiographs for you. Are you OK with that”?

Notice how permission can still be asked, even though by being assumptive the stage has been set for an obvious “yes” answer.

We will explore further Close options in Part 2

 

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