Brooke Oliphant
Hey, I'm Brooke Oliphant, the founder of Rise of Coaching, and in this podcast you're going to hear about the opportunities that exist inside your consultation space by transforming your treatment coordinator from a presenter to a proactive guide, and the opportunity cost loss of not managing leads effectively and also not managing the consultation effectively to send too many people into pending, or to settle for an average at best conversion rate.
Dean Steinman
Well, hello everybody out there on podcast land. This is Dean Steinman from OrthoMarketing and guess what we are back with another podcast for you.
That's right, So everybody's having a fantabulous day. And I am very excited to have back with me one of my favorite people in the whole entire orthodonic world. And I've got Brooke Olliphant with me. Brooke is the founder of Rise up Coaching, and we're here to talk a little bit today about getting your bottom line up, bringing in more new patients, how to close them, and getting your program from A to Z.
All right, so Brooke, welcome, how are you today, my dear.
Brooke Oliphant
Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. I'm great,
Dean Steinman
Awesome, good good. So we're going to kind of jump right in here, you know.
So you and I have been talking a bunch of you know, we see that there's a lot of holes in the orthodontic world right now. So let me ask you a question. Where do you see things right now in you know, spring of twenty twenty six, And what's the biggest issue a practice is facing from a new patient perspective?
Brooke Oliphant
I mean, it's twofold. A lot of what we've been talking about recently, you and I, is that, you know, practices want more leads. They want more scheduled appointments. So, I'm definitely seeing a higher no-show rate and more openings in people's schedules, but then also that conversion is flatlined, plateaued, sometimes even going backwards. So, there's definitely this feeling, which is not a wrong feeling, uh, that it's harder to convert people than it used to be.
Dean Steinman
Right? It is. So, let's talk about that. So, um, you know, why is it hard to convert people now than it was? And we're not talking about going back to the like 1970s here. We're talking maybe, you know, 12, 18, 24 months or so. So, why is it so much harder to to get a start?
Brooke Oliphant
Yeah, Dean, everyone is the consumer is a different shopper. So, what I see is that orthodontics is this beautiful curated organization. every practice is doing things as well as they can do them. So it's not that we don't care, we don't love our patients, but the systems and processes are old and tired. They have be begun to work against people instead of for them. And so what I'm seeing is that that presentation model in the consultation or uh not gathering valuable information before someone walks through the door, not effectively painting the picture of the opportunity to get started. Like so much of what orthodontic practices are doing that they think is good customer service and friendly and ultimately going to achieve case acceptance doesn't. It's an entire model designed to send people into pending, to send them home to think about it.
Dean Steinman
And I I just don't so I don't use the word often, but I hate the word pending.
You know, it's just you know, somebody, If somebody shows up to your office and that butt is in the seat, interested in getting trader teeth period. So shame on you if you, if you and your if your staff is not taught how to help them understand the value of working with you and what the results will be and then get them to stop start if they're going to leave, then not coming back.
Brooke Oliphant
Right, I see this all the time for anyone who's heard me, like speak or read anything. From me before.
Like there's so many micro yeses before someone even calls
Dean Steinman
Right
Brooke Oliphant
right, you know this, Like what you're doing in your advertising and your website and your your reviews, the consistency and the value of what's said in them, all of those things are researched by today's consumer before they would choose to schedule. So if they're choosing to schedule, they've already done their homework and that needs to be appreciated. The process of intake needs to really align with how today's consumer makes decisions and how much they researched before calling. And then the console tation needs to be a continuation of momentum and conversation, not a starting over, and definitely not a presentation of information.
Today's consumer is savvy and researched, so they actually need effective guidance to simplify and be confident about a decision, not another menu of options.
Dean Steinman
As they have too many options in the rest of the world the rest of their life, you know. Just make it simple for them, you know, and you know. And that's also what's changed a lot in marketing guys, is you know what we do now? You just put tend people to Google and they'll find you and convert.
More, we need to sell them and educate them before they went to Google to make the decision to search, because we want them sold on you. We want them to see your expertise to and for your name to be in front of them, and your face to be in front of them, and your results to be in front of them before they even get to Google. So when they are searching for orthodontist, they already sold you know, back in the mind by you, just because your works will show itself there and your expertise and what makes you stand out, So you know, the same type of things you had to the whole recipe has changed.
Brooke Oliphant
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm constantly telling treatment coordinators. I'm like, listen friendly doesn't earn a signature on the dotted line, not. All by itself. I'm not diminishing friendly, right, But all different personalities and treatment coordinators can be highly effective when they're good at connecting people's wants and needs with your service.
But if someone is going home to their dining room table or their kitchen counter to go any meaning mini mo between three, four or five different price quotes treatment plans. Seeing statistically that people are shopping a lot more than they used to, if they don't really know the difference, why not pick the cheapest
Dean Steinman
right,
right? So the power, the opportunity inside the consultation is to really powerfully differentiate, to empower the person to understand stand how to even shop this industry
Dean Steinman
Exactly. Let's let's do a comparison.
I like to tell I talk to a new practice, I play them. Then you're a plastic surgeon. Okay, they don't shop, they don't give discounts. You're changing somebody's life with a smile.
This is an aesthetic thing, you know, a plastic surgeon in Park Avenue in New York or in Beverly Hills. They're not going to discount there. You're you're changing, You're changing their life. The same type of thing here, all right, if you want to be you know what's a twenty nine ninety nine in visual line provider.
Go ahead, but that's not gonna you know, that's just burn them and burn them and burn them. You need to focus on quality, on results. And you just said differentiator. I screamed that word all the time, because you need to stand out in the crowded market wherever you are.
If you're in the middle of Oklahoma, you're in Phoenix, New York, wherever it is, you have competition, So you need to stand out. And what's your differentiator, you know, and that's and hopefully it's your results, and it's what your patients say, it's your expertise, and that's what's going to make a difference. So price, hopefully is Listen, it's always part of the equation, but right, it shouldn't be the deciding factor. If you're going to fight people on price, forget it, you know,
Brooke Oliphant
no, And.
I feel like if you're fighting people on price, like if they're getting to the fee presentation, and that's when you're getting any kind of pushback or reaction that points to something that didn't go well earlier in the journey.
Dean Steinman
Right,
Brooke Oliphant
the patient should be sold into the doctor, sold into the treatment plan and truly understand what sets you apart, why this is their right fit before you. Get to the money. Because then if there's.
A surprise, which is fine, it's fine for people to be surprised. And it's so funny because that's when when treatment coordinators often shrink. But that is such an opportunity to help someone if surprised by the top number, or if the options that you're giving doesn't comfortably fit into their lifestyle, this is the beginning of a new conversation of collaboration and figuring it out together, not sending them home to think about it. The black hole of pending of follow up is such an opportunity cost loss for the practice.
The difference between sixty percent and seventy percent conversion or fifty to seventy five. Is huge, huge, And. So what we do and how we do it, and really leaning into those moments where I think sometimes treatment coordinators feel like it's overstepping or we need to give people space when in fact you're not effectively helping them understand or figure it out.
Dean Steinman
Let's take a step back.
Let's talk about the whole evolution of the treatment coordinator. Okay, because so many practices now they just the person who is in that chair, in the TC chair is running a very close second to the doctor as far as the most important person in the practice. This. But the doctors don't understand it, or they don't know how good they are, or they just finding somebody with a pulse sometimes well, which is the hardest, which is really frustrating, you know, from sure from their perspective.
So, you know, we truck anything here with the marketing, you know, so we're you know, banging it out for our practices and lining up appointments and getting those butts in the seats, as I like to say. But then when I say, doc house, things going well, I don't know, I don't know my numbers or you know, my TC is great. And then we look and say, everite a second, we've got you last month, you know, forty seven appointments. How many of them started? I don't know.
Well, let's look at it and we'll track it now, and said you only got eleven, how did you? But we're at the other you know, thirty some are go, you know, while they're impending what So obviously the TC needs to understand it because it is a sales job, you know. So so let's take a send into the step back. You know, how should a doctor, you know, go about finding a quality TC. And then if they do somebody that they think is mouldible, how do they work with somebody to get them to be excellent?
Brooke Oliphant
Oh my gosh, you said so many things. if we could unpack different.
Dean Steinman
Right, So I'll start up. So, how should somebody go about finding a great TC?
Brooke Oliphant
Yes, so I believe that anyone who is coachable, if you want to learn and improve, then you can be a great TC. So you know, foundation number one is just are you teachable and will you step outside of your comfort zone to learn it? Differently, a lot of doctors admit to the fact that they don't really know how to train a treatment coordinator or exactly what should or does happen inside the console room when they're not there, And that's fine, it's not their job, it's not their expertise. But we do need.
An outside perspective and that's why founded rise of coaching is to help treatment coordinators become the CEO of conversion. So I believe the treatment coordinator, to your point, is the right hand to the doctor. They are the quarterback, they are the needle mover. For the practice, like however you want to frame it, it's a highly impactful position, for better or worse for the organization.
But treatment coordinators are often trained to follow a script. They're they're trained to do a job that feels pretty clerical.
Dean Steinman
Where do we get that script from the doctor.
Brooke Oliphant
Or other.
Dean Steinman
Or other Passed on.
Brooke Oliphant
Passed on. probably grandma's pie recipe like it's generation employee to employee and maybe it gets tweaked a little bit over time or the PC says it slightly differently but consultations are typically very formulaic and it positions the treatment coordinator more like a clerical assistant. They're asking surface level questions. They're maybe reviewing the health history form. They're getting a little info gathered to share with the doctor, but the doctor's the one doing the heavy lifting of really presenting the treatment plan and then the treatment coordinator presents the financials.
that model doesn't meet today's consumer preferences. Today's consumer wants collaboration. They want clarity. They want efficiency. I mean, even from the point of the initial phone call, the industry forever has responded when someone asks about money over the phone with this blanket statement of like our our consultation is complimentary. Let's get you scheduled. We'll go over financing when you come in or you know, there's a range, but it depends on what the doctor recommends for treatment. That's not good enough. Today's consumer wants some honesty, they want some transparency. The phone calls an opportunity to start earning trust or create barriers.
And then the same thing in the consultation. If we wait until the very end of the consultation to talk about money, and that's the thing that someone is most concerned about, they're not letting their guard down, they're not participating in your process effectively, you're not earning their trust, and so then you don't even really have an opportunity to collaborate and figure it out with them when you get to that point. What we need from freement coordinators now is to be on a highly effective fact finding mission, collaborative conversation with the patients for moment one to really guide an experience based on what they need to hear and learn to get to a point of decision making and being going home to think about it, going home to talk with someone else. Why what are they going home to talk about? What did they not talk about before they walked through the door.
What did you miss? That is pointing them to go home and think about it, continue shopping around as opposed to making a decision. So that's the end result of too many of the consultations that tells me that the entire your journey up to see presentation in the close of the console is inefficient in old school.
Dean Steinman
Let me do ask you to some industry wide numbers here, So what would you guess or even know in you know, spring of twenty twenty six, what the industry number is for people who check off that they're ready for start actually start close rate? What is it not before they come to you just across the board, you know, from being terrible a ten to fifteen percent to be an amazing at ninety five? What's the industry at at now? Would you say?
Brooke Oliphant
The industry has been stuck? It seems like for decades somewhere between fifty and sixty percent,
Dean Steinman
Okay. All right. And flow out to my eyes. I'd love to see 60% from a lot of the practices we work with, and unfortunately not even close to it.
Brooke Oliphant
No, No, And I will say in different areas like dependent on your business model, your price point, your marketing, right, I've met practices that were really stuck around forty forty five percent, very low same day case acceptance, and then we're able to move that needle to sixty five percent and that that was a significant financial gain for the practice. Right. Not every practice can be or needs to be the ninety percent converting Right, it does done who your audience is, and what your competition is, and what your price point is. So I do have some practices where I would say, seventy seventy five percent is their ninety ninety five percent?
Right, I'm sure that you see the same thing. And kind of the ranges of performance possibility in your practices.
Dean Steinman
What would you. Say, another just number out there is when people are in that chair to get them to you know, when you say start sometimes I'll let you know when they come back and they have to reach back.
How many times do it do they have to speak to them, communicate with them to get them to say yes? Is a one time? Two times? You know, same day? You know? So what is the you know, so people in their head in the same time time they have to reach out to somebody in order to get them to say yes. Is it Should they be closing up while somebody's there fifty sixty percent? Should they be looking at thirty then the next time they reach out another twenty Is there a formulationship that they should be thinking about?
Brooke Oliphant
Oh for sure. Yeah. So with my practices we're tracking kind of speed to case acceptance in that pending range.
But at a foundation, if you want to be a seventy to eighty percent converting practice, we need a baseline of fifty to sixty percent. Same day commitment. Okay, this is the same day brace as sign contract deposit paid something toward the initial investment. So if that happens in real time fifty to sixty percent, then what I'm seeing is we could convert twenty to thirty percent out of pending over a rolling ninety days.
Okay, but it can take up to eighteen to twenty follow ups in that ninety. Days to achieve that. And what I see in most practices is that their follow up protocol is so. Easy to ignore.
It doesn't like it's maybe six touch points in six months.
Dean Steinman
You're lucky,
Brooke Oliphant
Yeah, a week before. They reach out for the first time. Like momentum is dying inside of practices the moment the patient walks out the door, and it is it's so discouraging, right, Like they've invested money with you with their leads.
They're working really hard to get people on the schedule, and then we get them through the door, we deliver a nice appointment, they end up impending, and then the follow up process completely drops the ball terrible, and numbers are being sabotaged simply because the protocol and processes are inefficient.
Dean Steinman
They really are, you know, let me just think we'll step back from our side. You know, what we've implemented in the last eighteen months or so is now we have a call centers. We handle the leads and the initial communication with the practice, but us most of them walking them as lost leads because then the practice will leave a voicemail, a day later or six hours after the person eventually contacts them and that's it, or maybe follow up one more time, you know, So we're following up, we're calling, we're calling, texting, emailing before they ever become a page, before they can get into your software.
Rehandling it all. And I just had a meeting with my team this morning. In the month of February six they keeps going up. Sixty two percent of the appointments that we booked for practices took four or more touch points just on the sales part, all right, and we sent them before speed to lead.
We reached out to people as soon as they fill out that form of reach or chat or whatever within two minutes. Otherwise you're going to go somewhere else. So you got two minutes to communicate with them through multiple ways, and then if they don't communicate the next day again, next and automated. Nobody's nobody's doing that now, so they're increasing conversions by sixty percent by us just taking it over and having a process in place.
And now you know, from there, once we get the person to book, then guys, you need to work with somebody like Brook to teach teach staff how to then follow up will get them to say yes right there, So you know, it's it's important to understand that you focused on getting people to smile, all right, work with experts who could train you and be up to date on how to make you better. And what you do you know,
Brooke Oliphant
Exactly, yeah, because practices like practices will complain to me, like the no show rate of consultations. I've seen that increase, right right, But what was your process? What was your nurture and engagement process from the time scheduled before they walked through the door. Well, most practices don't have one.
Dean Steinman
Or if they do, they what they do is yeah, we we you know, we basically do that and we can confirm it. Oh that you don't confirm it? Mind them you have tomorrow at ten o'clock. Okay, okay, Well what does that mean that if you have them call you a text? You back to say yes, I will be there. If not, we're going to take you out of the you will you know show you'll see them, kind of like it, but just having a two way communication with somebody.
Brooke Oliphant
Yes exactly. And so it's like typically someone gets scheduled and then the practice is sending out some templated info style email with a link to a health history form. All of that feels like going anywhere else.
Dean Steinman
Right,
Brooke Oliphant
My belief, my attitude toward the orthodonic industry is that this is boutique, high end, it's special, it's different, and so unfortunately it's too similar to general dentistry, like as opposed to being more like plastic surgery exactly higher end.
Right, So it's like, let's step further away from dentistry as the umbrella and say, there's such huge untapped potential within the orthodonic business model and patient experience if we were looking for those opportunities through a different lens. So that's one of the things that I do when I partner with teams is like, let's let's go with this from all of these different angles. Why are you doing it this way? How long have you been doing that.
It this way? And is it actually serving the team and the patient. I want to find as many mutual wins. There's so many opportunities here for us to do it better.
Dean Steinman
What's one thing that a doctor could do today to just understand how good or how bad his TCO conversion is.
What's one thing they could just after listening to this same wes, I gotta I gotta just dig a little deeper. What's one thing they could do? One's one step obviously besides calling me or you know, to make it fix it up. What's one thing they should look at today for them to get in the aha moment?
Brooke Oliphant
I think they need to really like how much is it robbing them of peace and joy at home? Like how heavy or noisy is the average or the underperformance both personally and professionally? You know? So I sometimes it's just a temperature gauge on like do I feel like I'm as successful and happy as I want to be? Or as like there's so much grid and passion and self belief and confidence like everything that it takes to not only be a skilled practitioner but also to be an entrepreneur like beautiful, But then it comes with so many frustrating elements that we can start to tell ourselves stories that. Almost lead to settling.
And so I would going to just take that temperature gauge of like how much does this matter? Then from a practical perspective, do some math. If your convert your rate right now is sixty two percent, you know how many patients you see on an average, like a monthly basis. Just if you converted ten percent more annually, is that another five hundred thousand, eight hundred and fifty thousand, Like how much is walking back out the door that already choose to walk through your door? They were already there. That missed opportunity is also a missed opportunity in five star reviews and their entire referral network.
So I talk with practices a lot about the opportunity cost loss of not optimizing your conversion rate that goes beyond the individual that you lost, because you're also losing the brand reputation and their referral network. So put some math behind it, and then if it stings and it ruffles your feathers, then you want to work with me and Dean
Dean Steinman
Exactly, Right
Brooke Oliphant
Fix it, because it's fixable if you're willing to take it
Dean Steinman
It is fixable, Just look in the mirror and you doc, you're great. You went to school, you learn this.
But the person who you who is responsible for your financial future might not be up to enough yet. But if you think that she is moldable all right and teachable, what are you waiting for? If you don't do it, the guy on the street's going to teach that person how to do it and do better. So you know, right up.
Brooke Oliphant
And the cool thing is that it really takes maybe.
Sixty days when I join a team for enough improvement to happen. That it's showing up in confidence, in leadership, it's showing up in five star reviews, and it's showing up in increased case except
Dean Steinman
love it right, So. Brook, this is great, And guys, you must reach out to her because I guarantee you that if you're not at the seventy eighty percent rate, you know she could help. You know, I've referred about to many of our clients.
I wouldn't be sticking saying hire somebody if I didn't think they were going to do it myself. So you know, I think, you know, Brook is awesome. Just look to her, see what she could do for you, and you know, let run some ideas, and you know, you be foolish not to just see what's available to you because it could make a big difference. Imagine that one extra ten percent can be as you said, three four, five, six, seven hundred thousand dollars.
Yeah, you know. That's not pocket change, that that's that's that's some good money. So you know, out so book, if somebody wants to learn a little bit more about you, reach out to communicate. What's the best way for im to do.
Brooke Oliphant
So my website riseuporthocaching.com form that you can fill out, schedule a call with me, and there's lots of other resources. I put a lot of value out on LinkedIn and Instagram. I'm definitely kind of a teach first. I want you know it's a mutual alignment what I do with the practice, So I call.
It an alignment called that initial conversation. Make sure that what you want to accomplish, your goals, your practice personality fits the foundational philosophies of a rise of coaching. Does we hit the ground running?
Dean Steinman
Awesome? All right, I got two more questions for you. But first question is, so I'm giving you a gift today.
I'm giving you the ability that tonight, You're gonna be able to have dinner with anybody in history? Who you? Who? You? Who? You hanging out with? Anybody?
Brooke Oliphant
Oh, Dean, This one would take longer for me to think about than anything about my business. Who would I?
Dean Steinman
Business, personal? And you know it could anybody. In period.
Brooke Oliphant
Anybody period. Hmm.
Well, I think I would sit down with. Simon Sinek
Dean Steinman
okay, and why and who is that?
Brooke Oliphant
Okay? He's an author and a speaker, and he's in the business world, but definitely from like a hospitality personality, high touch leadership. Okay. So I love a lot of the books that he puts out.
The way that he speaks is definitely influential in how. I get on stage. Okay. And he just has an interesting, very human story, and so it is a goal of mine.
I think it would be very cool if at some point I have a conversation with him.
Dean Steinman
Okay, cool, all right? And one lest ones people to know the rule book is I just got a text with you. Sorry, but an asteroid is hitting earth. You need to you need to eat take your last meal right now? What are you eating?
Brooke Oliphant
My last meal? Oh? Well, I will probably grill a delicious steak, Yes, with a loaded baked potato glass of wine.
Dean Steinman
There you go,
Brooke Oliphant
A little at home chefs. I love it, so yeah, something the same way.
Dean Steinman
Love it. Me.
Brooke Oliphant
So yes, something.
Dean Steinman
I'm the same way. I'd love it. A nice a nice medium rare porter house would be would be it. Finish it off with a Reese's a Reese's.
Brooke Oliphant
I love those, too. All right. Well, we'll share our meal together.
Dean Steinman
We'll do it. Awesome. Good. All right. But thank you so much for joining. Um, guys, just follow her over. She's she's great. You know, I get all her emails. Follow her for newsletters. Um, and again, just pick a brain, you know, it's it'll it's worth it for you. So, Brooke, thanks so much for joining everybody in podcast land. Thank you once again for being a loyal listener, follower, watcher, communicator with us, and uh you look forward to um being in your ear and being in your mind in the future. So, as the great Jerry Garcia once said, nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile. Peace out.
