January 17, 2020, by Tyler Williams, D.D.S.
On this very day in 1792 the dollar sign ($) was born and showed up for the very first time on a federal U.S. document, which was a treasury bond issued to President George Washington (Source: WSJ).
Only three stocks have every broken the trillion dollar mark, until Google’s Alphabet stock (GOOG) became the fourth this week as it also broke the trillion dollar mark. Apple, Amazon and Microsoft are the only three others to ever hit this huge number. On the flip side, J.P. Morgan, Chase the LARGEST U.S. Bank is worth less than half of Google, Amazon, or Apple* at just short of $426 Billion as of today (Source: Yahoo Finance).
This brings me to my point, what do your patients really want?
All of us NEED a bank account to stay in business or to buy groceries and gas. But most of us only WANT an iPhone, 2-day delivery, or online search at our fingertips. These WANTS aren’t things we need to function.
As a bank holding your money, J.P. Morgan is more of a necessity than any of these tech giants, yet it isn’t even worth 50% of the value of Google.
When you tell your patients they NEED a crown, mouth guard or wisdom tooth removed. Do they belive you? You are clinically trained to know what’s best physiologically for your patients, but do you really understand their psychology?
Helping our patients WANTS match their needs is the key to case acceptance. If they want whiter teeth, show them how their needed perio treatment will make their teeth whiter. If they want to save their teeth until they die, show them how they need a crown to prevent losing a tooth or needing a root canal or dental implant.
As demonstrated by Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft, WANTS are at least 2x more powerful than needs for all of us.
Now I think I WANT to grab an afternoon snack, surely I don’t need one, but never underestimate the emotional side of needs from you or your patients. Plus this powerful psychological principal can more than double your case acceptance like it has in my practice.
Until next time, have a wonderful week! If you have any thoughts, please share, I’d love your feedback!
*full disclosure: I am a shareholder of Apple and my iPad is one of my favorite productivity tools!