Have you considered upselling your services to patients? If you haven't, you could miss out on an important opportunity to greatly improve each patient's smile while increasing your dental practice's profits. When patients come in for a cleaning, they may also be interested in a whitening treatment. If you offer or upsell this service, you could help patients get what they want and need from your practice with every visit. The most important part of the process is building communication and trust with patients.

With dental payment solutions from Dental Intelligence, you can make it easier than ever for patients to pay for preventative and elective dental services. Our secure payment system lets you offer flexible payment options, communicate with patients who have past-due balances, and get paid an average of 12 days faster.

Understand What Your Patients Need

The first step to successful dentist upselling is understanding your patient's needs. Keep the necessities at the forefront of your services before you upsell them on anything else. Then, look at what else your practice offers that will improve your patient's oral health or complement the service they need. You can approach this by asking a few questions:

1. What do your patients want to achieve when they seek services from your dental practice?

2. What services do you offer that would go hand-in-hand with those initial goals?

3. How can you help patients get the most out of their money?

For example, consider a patient who comes in for a deep cleaning after years of no dentist appointments. They tell you they hope their teeth will look brighter, whiter, and healthier. You schedule their appointment for the deep cleaning but also educate them on your whitening services. While deep cleanings will get rid of plaque and many stains on their teeth, whitening will provide the brightness they want. When your patient adds on a whitening treatment, you have performed successful dentist upselling. 

Inform Your Patients About Oral Health Options

When many people book appointments for dental procedures, they want the quickest and least expensive option possible. Who can blame them? Everyone leads busy lives, and dental appointments can eat into much-needed time. 

When a patient requests the simplest and most pain-free option available, you should elaborate on that option and others too. Let them know the pros and cons of each related procedure and why they shouldn't just go for the cheapest or quickest one. This can benefit their oral health in the long run while showing your knowledge and care about their situation.

Demonstrate How Your Dental Procedures Can Improve Oral Health

After you have discussed the better treatment options available, patients may still want to take the cheaper option. This is where the use of visuals comes in. 

If a patient schedules a typical cleaning, show them before and after photos of what your whitening services can do. When someone needs an implant for an extracted tooth, show them photos of all their options, including the more expensive and longer-lasting ones. Explain that endosteal can last for over two decades while zygomatic lasts half of that. 

Streamline What Your Dental Practice Offers and How You Market It

As a busy dentist, you may not place focus on your marketing materials. Advertising may feel like it's too technical with the changing interface and algorithms of today's platforms. When you're marketing your services and designing materials to use in dentist upselling: 

• Design and write materials that appeal to your patients' oral health concerns and goals.
• Keep your patients informed about how different options complement certain services to make them more likely to seek those extra options.
• Use before and after photos or pictures of different fillings and implants alongside written information to help your patients make informed decisions. 

Streamlined Digital Dental Solutions for Your Dental Office

Many practices are hesitant to implement dentist upselling into their marketing plan and conversations with their patients, viewing it as little more than a sales tactic. In reality, it's a fantastic communication method that helps your patients understand all their options with any given service. 

When your practice masters dentist upselling, you present an image of knowledgeable, caring staff ready to assist its patients with all their goals. Dental Intelligence is prepared to help you streamline how you manage your dental practice today, from marketing resources to understanding factors affecting a dental billing statement. Request a free demo from us today! 

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