Bridging the Gap in Full Arch Dentistry: Insights from Greg Essenmacher

[00:00:04] Joseph: Welcome to Marketing Matters with Weo Media. As your host for this episode, I have the pleasure of introducing our good friend, Greg Essenmacher, CEO and founder of GNA Consult and the host of Tooth Sleuth Podcast.

Great having you here, Greg. Thank you.

[00:00:23] Greg: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for the invite. Looking forward to the conversation, Joseph.

[00:00:27] Joseph: Yeah, we're going to have some fun here. let me tell our listeners a little more about who you are. 17 years in the dental industry. you were actively involved in launching the Neodent brand in the U S market. you are clearly an expert in all things full arch. but beyond simply helping a practice as a consultant, do more.

Implants. You take a very comprehensive approach to that effort. you're not, you're not just niche. Focused. You literally, from a strategy standpoint, cover every base. And, And clearly given your experience, you just know a lot about, what it takes for a practice to go from A to Z in that, in that world.

So, you know, for all things, implant-related, how, how do you do what you do? How do you do that?

[00:01:26] Greg: Yeah, I appreciate it. And you know, it is true when you look, look at Fixed Full Arch and you look at the landscape. I mean, the industry is so broad and it's growing, right? And we can talk about those numbers, you know, just in the Fixed Full Arch area, a 1. 5 billion industry annually and growing at 8%. And consistently over the last five to seven years.

I mean, these are some really gaudy numbers. And so it's no surprise that many clinicians are wanting to get into it. You know, whether you're talking about individual practices, small emerging groups, which is where I do most of my work, you know, or even what I call the big box stores. I mean, we could talk about ClearChoice and Nuvia and Advanced Dental Implant Centers and, and, and I could go on and on and on when you're really looking at the fixed full arch space.

It's not so much about the product, right? Of course, there's a product. There's a dental prosthesis. There are the implants. It's screwing it together. It's making Sure.

The occlusion is right. Occlusion is right. It's more so on the motivation of the patient. So I've been spending a lot of my time recently really talking and honing in on the patient experience because anybody who's in this space knows that in the last two years, the last year, the last six months, the last three months, the dynamics of the patient Have been changing significantly.

And I'm not just talking about credit scores are changing and people are concerned because of inflation. And of course that's a contributing factor, but the attitudes of patients, when you look at, if you're doing Google AdWords, you know, you look at the formulas that changed and, you know, a mall with patient prism had a fantastic article that was really almost like a literature review of what's happened the last seven or eight months.

And, you know, I'm sure you've seen it at Weo Media. Yeah. You know, when they change the formulas, having the right marketing company that can adapt to and not just, you know, like the old infomercial, you know, I think you and I are of a certain age where you remember the set it and forget it. You can't do that.

Right. So understanding that, and I'm just really talking about patient acquisition and the leads and, and, and, and right, which is what we do at GNA consult and my team. You also need to look at the people side of the business, investing in your people inside your clinics and then what are the needs based there?

So taking this cookie cutter approach and saying, here's the scripts. Scripts don't work. By the way, we can talk about that. They just don't Formulas do, but scripts not necessarily.

When you look at these pieces, When you look at a practice, when you look at a business, they have needs like, well, how do I find the right people?

How am I, my interviewing skills? If I have an office manager, say for example, and we have nine or 10 total employees, how well skilled is that particular office manager who's doing interviews for said position or however many people there are? How many interviews have they really done? And are they interviewing for X, Y, or Z?

And how do they know how to fill in the blank? So there's so many other pieces other than just patient experience and those pieces and to be able to look in a customized approach of finding out where the needs are of a practice and being able to match that to a skill set from my experience and those of my team members.

And if I don't have it, I can bring somebody in who does. And I think that's really that unique approach you mentioned. I appreciate you bringing that forward.

There's the magic right there. a very interesting approach. I love what you said about formulas versus scripting, that scripting doesn't work. But formulas, expand on that if you would. It needs to contain certain elements so that they can use their own words and their own personality to convey a specific thought.

Yeah, well, I'll tell you, I'll do personal and then I'll bring it out into the broad scope. So myself, a 52 year old white male from Detroit is going to have different life experiences than say a 27 year old Hispanic female from Houston. Okay.

And so when you're trying to have these conversations and make this emotional connection just in The lead call, right?

So just these calls, initial inquiries from patients who are calling to potentially come into your practice, right? Convert them from a lead call into a consult. This isn't the one to two minutes of a new patient for a hygiene appointment. This is more of that eight to 10 minutes, maybe even more when you're really trying to make an emotional connection and get to their why not the what, the what is the product, the why is the motivation behind it.

And so being able to relate to them in a way, allowing them to share their story. And so. The scripting would be the words on a page, the exact words, and memorizing those words. The formula for me, and I use an acronym, I'm big on acronyms, Is EAZ right? The E is the empathy. And how do you express empathy without just simply saying, Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.

You know, the caller says, Oh, my upper plate has just not fit right. I've had it for a long time and I have some discomfort in my upper right. Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. What do you mean you're sorry to hear that? Like that, that sounds so empty and shallow, but if you can identify with, well, you may as the person who's working in the practice.

Never had an upper plate before because you have all your teeth. However, have you ever felt discomfort? Have you ever had something that's been frustrating before? Sure.

That's how you relate that part of empathy to the person, right? And there's other elements, right? Give them your undivided attention.
You know, are you paraphrasing back to them? Are you know, actively, there's different pieces and elements. So it's that first part of the formula. That you're trying to express to them. And the second part, the a of the EAZ is assuring them, assure them they've called the right place. Now it's not, you know, Oh, our doctor's the best.

You've got to come here. He be, this is why he's the best. You can't say it directly, right? You could, but generally not. Right. And so it's the indirect way of being able to assure them. You know what? We got you. This is the place to come of all the other that you saw when you Googled, whatever it is that you did, or whenever you, however you found us, assuring them that called the right place.

And this is the place for you. And then the Z is zeal, right? I speak with a little bit of zeal, right? A little bit of oomph in my voice, you know, is really to help lift the conversation and of, of the literally thousands of phone calls that I've listened to on phone recordings, It's if you start to lift with a little bit more energy because most of the patients that are calling it, I am calling because I saw an ad like about like this, this, this dental implant stuff or that you do, right?

Because most of them are have some shame or they're scared or fill in the blank. And so if you talk with a little bit of zeal, you can hear the energy of the patient lift up as the conversation continues through. If you lift up with a little bit more energy. And then driving the conversation forward ultimately to get that appointment, get them to consult because you need to try to not force, but encourage them to have some skin in the game to really want to come and see you not hang up the phone.

And two days later, cause it took them courage to make that initial inquiry. To really want to continue through with that to follow through with that to come in and see you So that's what I mean by a formula rather than scripting certainly They need to come up with you know Some parameters around it but each clinic and I call every dental office a clinic because it's a medical clinic Especially when you're talking about a twenty thirty fifty thousand dollar procedure.

They really need to come up with their own parameters around the formula Um, but I think that's terribly important to be able to come up with what that formula looks like specific to that practice.

And of course, there's more detail underneath, but just to give your listening audience a little bit of an idea of what I mean, formulas instead of scripts, because there's so much more effective with clients that I work with.

[00:09:30] Joseph: E A Z. Empathy, Assure, and Zeal. That's a great example of a formula. I like that.

[00:09:38] Greg: But it's not easy, even though it does say easy. It's simple, but it's not easy.

[00:09:43] Joseph: I can imagine The office manager or the, the individual in the clinic, most likely mirrors the enthusiasm level of the caller and you don't want to do that. You want to take them someplace, right?

Rather than simply answer their questions in the same tone that they're asking. that that's not conducive to scheduling that appointment.

[00:10:06] Greg: Well, exactly. And what you're talking about then is mirroring the patient. And this is so often what's taught in sales or in, you know, phone etiquette is to mirror the patient, right? If they're excitable, you know, lift your energy up to them. And what we've learned and not just me, but others that are in this space and that have worked, Really being able to drive the conversation forward in in a courteous way, right?

You don't want to blow their doors off, but that is something that's critically important in order to be most effective. And again, There's no trust involved initially when these patients are inquiring. It's so much different when you're doing direct to consumer marketing for this patient population than it is in a referral network.

And the traditional referral network, from that referral office, they're leveraging the trust from that referral office. When they're inquiring into your practice. And so in that scenario, you're not trying to establish, build, and then leverage that trust going forward in your practice to try to lock them into, you know, this, who are they?

Should I, trust them? Is there any connection? Which means then I, have some type of skin in the game, some type of fidelity to this practice that I literally just found. Possibly on the Internet. Maybe I saw it on some social media. Maybe I saw it on an Instagram story or on Facebook. Really, what's the level of trust there, especially with the skepticism these days?

So it's really needing to be able to find that level of connection and start to build that trust. And then transfer that trust authority once they actually come into the practice, which will help reduce your no shows. And there's a lot of other pieces to that formula, which are critically important in that patient journey, not just in the initial inquiry, but it all starts with that initial inquiry that I've been speaking about today.

[00:11:57] Joseph: I often think of the technical side, of making the phone ring comparable to the technical side that a doctor needs to invest in in order to do the dentistry that he does or the implant or the full arch, but making that phone ring as, as now as much of a science as that is be more than it was years ago.

You're taking a medical professional, a dental medical professional, and you're expecting them to know sales routines, or to use your word formulas in order to schedule that patient, regardless of who's on that call, have you found that to be challenging?

[00:12:43] Greg: Well, it's, it's a really great point. And one of the things that we've found is that if you have people who are open to learning and oftentimes the learning. Platform can be the most challenging. And this isn't just from, you know, myself saying, Oh, I think I've got a good way. Let's sit him down. And each individual learns differently.

I always talk about the seven different personality profiles. And oftentimes I talk about that with the patient, the way you're identifying with a patient, you know, the one who believes they know it all, and they're overtalking you and interrupting you. The other one that's really demure and you can't get any information out of them.
So when you ask the question, So tell me a little bit more about your dental condition and they really give you nothing and you're constantly trying to drag information. It's the same with working with individuals within a dental clinic, those that are motivated to do better. Clients don't reach out to us at GNA consult.

If they have a plethora of patients, they're doing full arch profitably and everything's going swimmingly. There's usually an area of opportunity cause they want to get better. They want to grow or they're high, you know, they're wanting to expand. There's some level of opportunity in their clinic or in their group that they want to improve upon.

They know they can be doing something better or things have gotten better. arguably worse, right? This happened a lot actually last year because patient dynamics have changed. And so I say all that because the challenge within each of the clinics is also for myself and our team is to learn their learning style.

So a lot of the learnings online, but there's also some in person learning, but predominantly it's Having the, having metrics, right? Knowing when the volume of calls is highest, right? Working into their scheduling to get them the time and the tools. But that's why, just like we're talking here today online, it's not killing them death by PowerPoints, right?

It's having these one to one conversations. being relatable to what they know, listening to their calls that they send to us and say, we'll highlight some of the calls, listening and giving that coaching feedback, and then highlighting it the following week. Those first 30 days of uplift, those metrics change significantly because it's still of all the industries that I know, the dental industry is the most relationship oriented.

And especially when you look at a niche like full arch. So yes, you're taking a medical dental professional who has the clinical knowledge and skill, and then you're asking them to be able to relate on an emotional level to patients that are calling in, which is much different than what maybe traditionally they're used to, which is, I don't want to say impersonal, but somewhat it's a mechanical process oriented, New patient hygiene call, right.

Cause that new patient hygiene call is identify if that you accept the insurance that they have, unless you're a fee for service office. What availability do you have? Let me take down some basic information, get them on the schedule. Cause it's not really a revenue generating opportunity in, in general, right?

It's really about the lifetime value of the patient and being able to provide service in that way. Which is different from the emergency patient where they're already have motivation behind it. The full arch patient generally is trying to figure out, find out, shop around, and then you have to filter through, you know, when you have grants that are being put out online and grabbing actual landing pages, and you have to filter through that and you're overcoming two major objections, which is how much does it cost and do you take my insurance for these huge cases, these large scale cases and the way that you navigate that.
Is critically important to the success of that initial inquiry about whether you've earned the trust to be able to have a continuing conversation, be able to actually see them in your clinic, which affects your average arch acquisition cost.

Clients who are trying to, or clinicians who are trying to add full arch into their practice, it's one of the biggest hurdles that they face. They'll invest a lot of time, effort, and energy, right? I call it time, talent, and treasure into the beginning parts of full arch and adding it to their practice.

And it's one of the biggest, I don't want to say mistakes. It's one of the biggest challenges they have is that it's not as simple as. If my average, if my arch acquisition cost is 2, 800 on average, cause that's what they're told by a marketing company. Okay. Here's 5, 600. Where are my two arches this month?

There's so much more that goes into it with team development and answering the phones and being responsive to those inquiries that come in and what platforms and the build out and all of that even before they come into the door. That's so critically important. And then we can certainly talk about once they come into the door and the branding and the consistency of language and all the rest of that I work with teams on as well.

But this is one of the most critical pieces is that initial inquiry. Because I've seen so many clients talk about we've invested X, Y, and Z, and we're just not seeing the consultations or we're not able to close the cases, which I feel for them because there's, you know, it's difficult out there and having a marketing partner who understands and a growth partner that understands, like we owe media that understands, okay, This isn't like snap your fingers.

There's no magic pixie dust that we're going to sprinkle on you to get you the qualified leads. We're going to partner with you. We're going to identify what your brand is in the marketplace, and we're going to do a comprehensive plan to be able to bring to you what makes the most. Now let's look at your systems in place.

Is your team ready and prepared to be able to capture the momentum that happens with patients that are inquiring?

Um at the level that you're looking to to convert them into consultations Show up and then the team's prepared as well to have consistency You without the micro fractures of trust, because on your digital, it says CBCT. The person answering your phone calls it a cone beam. When they get in clinic, your dental assistant says, we're going to take your digital records.

Then the clinician says, Oh, let's take a look at your cat scan. Well, all of those are literally the exact same thing generally, but it's called four different things.

So by the time it comes ready to present to them the cost structure for this rehabilitation for their mouth, they don't know exactly why, but they really just don't have this comfort and they have these micro fractures of trust all along the way because you haven't beenconsistent.

And that's just the CT scan doesn't matter what you call it, but just be consistent in what it's called and what you're presenting out there. And there's another of a number of other examples. Um, but that's just one of them that cleaning up that language and consistency helps patients to feel more at ease that, okay, I don't know exactly why, but this feels like the right place for me.

And that's why selecting a marketing company like we owe media. It, it's one of the things that I talk about all the time, that there needs to be a fit with your energy and your vibe, right? It's not just a culture fit, but really with who you are of your branding and what you're trying to present to the marketplace.

[00:19:58] Joseph: That's an interesting concept that it, that it impacts the trust, which the patient doesn't really know at the time that they're evaluating their trust level of that provider, of that clinic.

They just, they just. Know what they like and what they don't like.

[00:20:15] Greg: Well, and here's the thing, Joseph. Yeah. And here's the thing. If you or I were going in for a treatment, literally you or I, right. We're going in for some type of dental procedure, right. Treatment. And they presented a dental treatment that was 1, 200. Let's just call that number out. Right. Okay. 1, 200. Like the way that you or I would pay for that, we would think about it.

It's like, okay, we could probably swipe a credit card. Maybe there's some type of like, you know, revolving credit that they have in there. Like 1, 200. 1, 200. Gosh. All right. Hate that we have to pay this, but probably should have it done if they built the, the need in, right. And you understand there's a need. If they, build that there's a need in for a 30, 000 procedure, right. That, you know, you kind of need, right. You've been embarrassed because your sister has been making fun of you the last 10 years that you haven't smiled in the family pictures and.

Fill in the blank, right? You know, there's a wedding coming up or you're going on a cruise with your spouse or you're fill in the blank, but it's a 30, 000 procedure.

And now you're looking at an eight or 10 year monthly payment of 425. That's a little different. Now you have, you're looking longer term. Now you're talking about, well, I mean, it's kind of a car payment. Now, maybe not the car that I'm driving right now, but that's another story for another day, but that's a longer term commitment.

That's not a, I'm going to swipe my card and I'm going to pay it off or gosh, I got to take that out of my savings. That really stinks. I was saving that up for, you know, I'm going to buy myself a guitar, whatever it is, like some type of discretionary income. But now I have to pay a medical expense for this is a longer-term commitment for a number of years that you're getting into.

So these little pieces of micro fracture of trust, you're, you're in this for the long haul. I mean, I don't know about you, but I would, even if I have that in the bank, right, even if those who they say, make sure you have 3 to 6 months of liquid savings, you know, for monthly payments, like if something were to happen as a, even if I have that. Yeah.

What I really want to slap that down like you'd have to if you built in the value, what I really want to take that and slap that down. Now I have to start thinking secure is my job? How secure is my spouse's job? What is the economy going to look like? What is the political landscape look like?

What's going to happen? I mean, you start to ask all of these questions rather than You In a 1, 200 transaction. So that's why full arch. And I talk about this all the time, colleagues of mine who are in full arch, you know, if they understand that, then they can start to build these processes and workflows to be able to walk a patient along this journey and put these consistencies in place to help them in their buying decision because it is different.

Ball game whatsoever. And that's why some of the more successful, those that are out there, the DSOs and the bigger chain, like they spend a lot of time, effort and energy locking it in and it's consistent. It's a, it's a McDonald's franchise, right? It is similar. Everyone that you walk into, they might look a little different.

Some are have been around a little bit longer than others, but it's fairly consistent, the product that you get and the presentation, the way that it's handled, and that's why some struggle of these independent clinics. over others. Fluctuations in the market always happen, but the consistency, what can you control and team and consistency of messaging and branding, these are the pieces to be able to work on internally, to be able to present better when the public comes in.

And when they're making their initial inquiry all the way through, um, the patient experience once they're in clinic.

[00:23:56] Joseph: Greg, you mentioned earlier that, the patient's mentality has changed over time and either just as recent as six months and even two years ago. Can you speak to that? How, how is that changing the, the patient themselves, what they're looking for, how they, how they think, what?

[00:24:18] Greg: From what I'm learning, right, and I'm consistently learning, I'm always trying to learn and understand better the patient population. As this procedure continues to become more commonplace, as dental implants become more common vernacular for the layperson, it is, I don't want to say rare, but it's much less common that if I say dental implants that people that I run into in airport and Airports are a big part of what I happen to be lately, at least, you know, but just in general, if I talk about dental implants, it is more uncommon than common that people just wouldn't understand what I'm talking about.

There is a level of common knowledge amongst the general public, at least in the United States. Whether it's true, you know, whether they have a clear understanding or an unclear understanding, and then the full large treatment therapy, the teeth in a day, or, you know, there's a lot of different things that it's called is becoming more common in their vernacular, but also, you know, the fact of the matter is that if you google anything related to implants, More and more sponsored ad come up, there's much more education available and patients are becoming much more savvy and how they're going to spend their dollars.

And the reason why it's Ben this way and it's continues to grow this way is you see click bait that happens out there all the time on the social media, right? Whether it's on tick tock or on meta, right? Instagram, Facebook, they're trying just simply to get more clicks on their site and you know, Oh, 150 implant, click here.

[00:25:58] Greg: And once you click, it'll actually have. Real landing pages, right from, I know because clients of mine have this and I work with a number of marketing companies, you know, um, Corey and I, Corey is one of the co founders of wheel media. I've talked about this. There's not much you can do about it because it's third party that you'd have to kind of have on.

If not, you're going to lose. Like, I think I've heard as high as 80 percent of your leads. And so it's kind of, it's, people wouldn't be using that for clickbait, getting people to click on their site. Using actual landing pages, if it weren't effective for them to get clickbait, right? If, if, if it wasn't effective, they wouldn't be doing it and trying to do their, their scams to try to just get people interested.

Or another one is grants, right? Oh, there's a grant. You can get full arch, you know, you can get a grant to have full arch treatment therapy done. And it, it annoys the ever living, you know, out of clients of mine and they talk about it. And so. I'm needing to educate them as consumers of marketing. And so what that tells me though, if we pull it back to the bigger picture, is that there's more and more and more understanding, even if it's incorrect information out there about implants and specifically about full arch treatment therapy, because the needs so great right now, there are 34 million Americans missing 14 teeth or more. Let me repeat that because that is an astonishing number, 34 million Americans missing 14 teeth or more because of the tremendous amount of need and the tremendous amount of supply out there, supply being clinicians who do full arch treatment therapy, it's really bridging that gap and the level of desperation for those who have dentures or just have the missing teeth or have bad teeth or have a bad tooth.

Um, you know, whether dentures or like even snapping, right? You know, it's a good, it's better than nothing, right? It gives them back about 40 percent functionality of what their adult teeth are, but it's not like the 90 percent functionality that a fixable large can give them. And so there's just so much more.

That patients understand about it. There's so much more information out there. There's so much more disinformation out there. And in this, you know, information age, it's more about, you know, getting them to know what is true and what isn't true. And because of that, having to level up, the, the knowledge base of our teams in the full arch clinics.

Is more critical than ever before because a flippant answer to yeah, I'm calling because I see that you have grants for full arch. No, we don't do that. That conversation ends instantly if it's answered in a flippant way like that. And certainly God bless anyone out there that's listening. That does. Any type of call center work, whether it's in dentistry or not, I bow down to you because I, you know, in a previous life before dental, I worked with a company that actually helped us.

I was a corporate sales trainer with advantage rent a cart back when they were independent. Um, and we had a group, the frontline performance group and a shout out to them. They're amazing with their training and sales program. It's where I got so much of my good. education in sales formulation, training, programming.

In call centers, I mean, the amount and level of discipline it takes. I mean, just like outside salespeople, but even more so of. Man, just the nose over and over and over again. And call centers get a bad rap because you know, the robo dialing and all that, that we deal with on a regular basis.

You're amazing. All of You are amazing, but to be able to give them the skills, um, and tools that are, necessary to be successful at what they do to help the clinicians doing full arch is critically important. And that's why I talk so much about investing in your team and helping them to invest every little chunk along the way.

If you're doing full arch, there is a certain level of profitability, you know, giving a small percentage, and it can be a little bit, but all those that have a touch point in that patient journey, I'm a big believer should all benefit from it proportionally to what they're contributing to those patients getting that brand new smile.

And if you do that, then everyone's driving toward the same goal. And you can talk to just about anybody who talks in motivation and in sales. If you incentivize that way, and there's ways to do it responsibly and profitably. You will see that you'll have the right team members, you'll have motivated team members, and you'll be much more successful.

[00:30:37] Joseph: When someone thinks of, full arch consulting, I think most of us in the industry think, well, you're going to be working with the provider or the dentist in, feeling more confident or competent in, in the delivery of, of the, the implants or the full arch themselves.

And that's a whole nother science. How often do you find the doctor themselves not feeling as comfortable or as confident as they should be in order to do the number of implants that you think they have the vision for? Is that ever getting the way?

Yeah, I appreciate that question. So the great thing is because I've been in the industry as long as I have, I have a tremendous amount of relationships in the industry. And so if a clinician isn't able to, isn't skilled up to the level for particular cases, I mean, I call them specialized implants, you know, whether they're pterygoids or zygomatic implants, they're just not at that level or advanced cases, there, there are a lot of opportunities for them to still be able to maximize their marketing dollars.

[00:31:44] Greg: Through, all different types of channels to be able to source in or source out those particular cases. Um, and then also to have recommendations. There are a number of different industry partners at institutes where they can go and get more education.

I mean, if you look at, I'm always learning something new every day and the best clinicians in the world are doing the same thing because there's always an opportunity to get better at what you do. And then to share that skill with others along the way. So as far as like making recommendations about them clinically in surgery, in op.

No, when I was working for a manufacturer like Neodent, sure. We would talk about parts and pieces and things of that nature. Um, but that's not really something that I do now when it comes to the presentation, to the patients. Certainly there's two different types of, or two different sides of the presentation with the patients.

There's obviously the clinical where they do share about, you know, how much bone do they have and what's going to be recommended and how would we go about with this case, and then the sales presentation, cause it, it's It's about sales, right? You know, you are selling a case. And for all those that are bristling about talking about sales, you're in sales every single day, right?

Sales is not a dirty word. It's something that we're doing all the time. And it's really just presenting our best foot forward about the opportunity of what we can help to accomplish for those patients. But it's really two separate. Okay. Aspects and some of the clinicians that I work with do need a little bit of honing or on that aspect of this, the clinical presentation or specifically if they have some associates that are a part of their practice who are newer to full arch of just some, again, it's not the scripting, but it's really the formula.

[00:33:25] Greg: It's the pieces to touch on. And in that regard to there's also some education on what I call the handoff hand up between the doctor and the treatment coordinator between the dental assistant and the doctor depending on their workflow or what I call the walk flow of a particular clinic or practice so that information shared in front of the patient so that they know that this trust authority that's happening and being built all along the way of being cared for in clinic can can continue to be built.

Um, and they feel like, Oh, so they're actually listening to me. They're caring for me as if you were, you know, you had like a ball of trust in you cupped in your hands. And you're passing this gently along the way, rather than doctor walks in barges into the room. Hi, I'm Dr. So and so and starts. At least there's some soft and trust me, some clinicians are tough, right?

I tell like the dental assistant or the treatment coordinator, you got to kind of block him, you know, where he's coming into the room. So stand in the way and get your three seconds in, you know, This is Jenny upper plate pain on the upper right. This is Dr. So and so, you know, I mean, sometimes it's that quick.

I mean, ideally there's more of a cadence to it, but depending on how busy they are in the clinic itself, but there should be a handoff. And one of the most important things that I teach coach and train. To clinicians is before they leave the room. Of course, they're doing a check in with the patient before they leave.

The room is actually talking to hopefully the treatment coordinators in the room. But that's this is something that I strongly recommend to be able to hand that authority back over to somebody in the room before they walk out, because if not, then they walk out of the room with all of that authority.

And then somebody else has to pick it up and almost start from scratch again. It's one of the biggest keys that are missed in full arch clinics when I start working with them. And it's a subtle thing, but it is extremely effective. So that's one of the pieces that I think are critically important. So that's a nice little free nugget that you're, none of your listening audience has to worry about paying my team for, because I believe in giving away free content and all on all of my socials, you, can grab a ton of this stuff.

Because I just believe that sharing is caring and if you can implement this in your own clinic, by all means, you know, grab all the content you can off of my, off of my socials and do it yourself.

[00:35:46] Joseph: right. No, those are great pearls. We think of that hand You, you refer to hand off and hand up, we think of those as little things, but, I've learned that the 80, 20 rule is alive and well in the dental office. we think of them as little things when those can be the things that determine whether or not that patient ultimately schedules Could you name maybe just one example of a common pitfall that a dentist will fall into when he's trying to do more full arch cases?

What's one example that maybe we haven't talked about yet?

[00:36:26] Greg: Oh yeah, that's a good question. I think one of 'em would, I think a big one would be having the right resources and tools in place, and so along those lines would be third party financing companies For big cases, having one is great and I work with a number of 'em, but having an a couple of options I think is even better.

And the reason I say that, so whether you call them a financial coordinator, a treatment coordinator, whatever the case may be, being able to soft pull on a credit and have a couple of options with different lengths of terms and years and, interest rates after they've done the discovery with the patient established the need talked about.

You know, have you set some money aside for this? What, you know, how are you looking to pay for this? What's more important? You know, the, the interest rate or the monthly payment, these types of cascading questions to get them to where, you know, you want to be able to help them to get to a yes for their brand new smile.

Once you get there to be able to offer them and show them options in writing in front of them, helps you to be more of a collaborator, than somebody who's really selling at that point. And once you can be collaborative, it tends to change the dynamic and the relationship completely.

So I think that's probably one that I would say is one of the bigger ones that we haven't touched upon yet here today.

[00:37:44] Joseph: Yeah. Having, having that treatment coordinator or that financial arranger, mentally or emotionally move to their side of the table so that, so that the patient feels as though they are doing everything they can to make this investment affordable is very different. Then trying to sell them something or thinking that we have a responsibility to convince them to do what we want them to do.
Very different approach, isn't it?

[00:38:14] Greg: Yeah. absolutely. Yeah. And it's, it's something that the best full arch clinics in the country are doing and whether they're doing it, you know, you, you said, whether it's mental or whatnot, and even sometimes physically, depending on the layout of the office and whatnot, sometimes the, the difference of just sliding next to the patient and showing them side by side, rather than handing it to them face forward, just little changes like that, in body language.

You know, at the patient's eye level, not looking down at them. And if your chair is up higher and they sit down lower because the way your, your room is set up, that's okay in the beginning, but make sure that when you start talking about that money and you get down to that conversation, you know, make sure that you're adjusting to their level and just little subtle things like that.

Can make all the difference in the world. you know, when you get to that, you know, very sensitive piece of the conversation, right?

[00:39:05] Joseph: What's best for the patient and how can that patient best make that decision or best navigate what is the greatest value proposition for them? Greg, when I did my own research on you and preparing for this, one of the things that I saw was, your client said, you know, um, it's not like it's Greg doesn't seem to be interested in creating a long term relationship here where we need him in order to function.

Um, that I think that's a very unique. Um, quality, what, what's your average time with a, with a practice that wants to reach their, their goals and, and, and become what they want to be in that full arch space. What does that look like?

[00:39:56] Greg:Yeah, I can appreciate that question. It's not even an average time. So I work on six month proposals, no contract and it's month to month. So once they have the tools, if it's less than that six month proposal, they can take the tools and kick me to the curb. So that I just, I feel that there should always be an opportunity to be earning your keep while you're in the process.

And after six months, and then those, most of those clients end up what I call legacy clients. They may bring me in on a quarterly basis, annual basis for a tune up with their team. And that's, that works for them, but yeah. In my capacity, it's Really? about giving them the tools and then the longevity of the tools.

So all of the online trainings are all recorded and they get to keep those recordings so that they can go back and look at them again, review them again. I mean, if you think about it, if I'm, if my team is doing, or if I'm doing a team recording and it's happening at 10 am on a Tuesday with somebody who's doing the lead calls.

The clinician should be in the chair doing productivity. So if they want to review it, it's going to happen after hours. And so this is something that's extremely important to me. And then the in office days, I'm more of a fly on the wall and doing, you know, training as we're going along, and observing and coaching.

It's not, we need to shut the practice down. Production is number one, always is, always will be. And That's where I think the greatest value that I bring to any clients that I work with for.

[00:41:15] Joseph: Greg, that's, that's impressive. That's impressive. One of the visions of this podcast, Marketing Matters, is to provide our clients with some tools and some pearls and some wisdom to help them sharpen, you know, their own approach to dentistry. And, you have so, you have so accomplished that.

[00:41:37] Greg: Thank you. Super passionate about full arch and helping clinicians to do it better, right? Do it better, more efficiently, and to be able to kind of bridge that gap between the patient need and then the supplier, the providers, opportunity to be able to, to, bridge that gap and help that need for sure.
Thank you so much for having me on today.

[00:41:58] Joseph: What's the best way someone can reach you?

[00:42:01] Greg: yeah. So Greg Essinmacher, you can find me on all the socials, LinkedIn, Instagram, tons of content there. GNA consult is the company page, but they're pretty interchangeable. You can find me one to the other or the easiest way. If you just want to send me a text or give me a call. It's 602 743 5262.

Feel free to reach out to me. I'd be happy to have a conversation with you.

[00:42:24] Joseph: Wonderful. Greg, thank you again. We love your passion. Thanks for being such a great partner.