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In today's Monday Morning Marketing episode, join us as we dive into the world of dental membership plans with Eli Salls from Kleer, the cutting-edge cloud-based membership platform trusted by thousands of dentists for growth. Eli unpacks the critical topic of "team buy-in" and emphasizes the paramount importance of securing your team's trust and enthusiasm when implementing a membership plan. With data showing that a staggering 70% of business initiatives fall flat, having the team in full support is of utmost importance. Eli walks us through the five essential ingredients for achieving a successful team buy-in for your membership plan, so yours reaches maximum effectiveness. Discover how to identify strengths and weaknesses within your team, effectively train them on the plan, and craft enticing incentives that make embracing the membership plan a joyful experience. We'll learn the art of assigning champions for streamlined system implementation and how to take your dental practice to new heights.
Don't miss this episode for invaluable insights into creating a thriving dental membership plan with your whole team on board!
You can reach out to Eli Salls here:
Website: https://www.kleer.com/
Email: eli@kleer.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eli-salls-a6280b186
Other Mentions and Links:
If you want your questions answered on Monday Morning Marketing, ask me on these platforms:
My Newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/
The Dental Marketer Society Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2031814726927041
Michael: Hey, what's up Eli. So talk to us about membership plans. What can we do? What advice or suggestions do you have
Eli: to grow it? Yeah, definitely. First and foremost, thank you, Michael, for having me on. I appreciate it. But yeah, membership plans. So I think a lot of the content we see.
Existing out there right now discusses the benefits of having one, the why around that, also the house. So how to build one, how to market one, how to effectively manage it on that day to day. But what we, I think miss a lot of times is that bigger question. And I think it's, one of the biggest and most important things, with any system that you're going to implement in a practice, but.
Definitely with a membership plan. And that's, how do you get that team buy in? So how do you get people excited about this? How do you get everyone from whether that be the front desk, office manager, hygienist, all the way back to the doctor, talking about this. And that's how we see the most effective practices operate is when everyone's on the same page.
You've got a good culture. You've got that team buy in. We have data from McKinsey and company that says about 70 percent of business initiatives whether it be a dental practice or any business tries often fail. So 70 percent of those, and when we look at this, it's not because people are doing these for the wrong intentions.
I mean, you're always trying to improve your business, Whether that be enhancing patient care, up brand awareness, improving profitability, driving case acceptance, you name it. These initiatives exist for some reason, but they often fall flat. And the reason we see a lot of times is just because, the leaders that are implementing them again, they're seeing big picture.
It's all for the right reason, but they're not necessarily looking at the day to day work and the people that are going to be boots on the ground, actually implementing this and really working with them and having their hands on it every day. And there's a lack of buy in from those people that are actually responsible with maintaining and making sure that this is, you know, an effective system in place.
Once that initiative is set up, we often see that it just falls to be another task that the office has to perform. And it can be kind of. thrown to the wayside and people forget about it. There's really 5 different things we look at when, trying to get that buy in from our offices we coach our doctors and office managers on how to really get that excitement up there and make sure that.
It stays there so that we have that long term success with these plans. And again, these are things that can be applied to most systems within a practice, but going to be looking at it mostly on the lens the membership plan because that's my specialty. um, the five things, first one is. Kind of Like a bottom up approach. So looking at your team and, as the leader, the strengths and the weaknesses of each one of your team members. So really leveraging those strengths and being aware of those weaknesses to be able to put people in the right positions when dealing with a system, a membership plan So you want to set people up for success and you want to make sure that you're implementing this in a way. That people can execute on it. You also want that collaboration from the bottom, from the people that are going to be touching it every day, to make sure that it is something that they can do, that they understand how to do.
And again, that they're just set up for success. This also comes down to role modeling, right? So the leader. As the leader, whether that's the dentist, the office manager, whoever's the champion of the membership plan in your office, you need to make sure that they're role modeling that behavior.
So you want your team to be excited about it. You need to be excited about it. That energy is contagious. So just making sure that, if you're asking your team, Hey, why aren't we talking about this? And you as a leader haven't been talking about it at all. Maybe it's time to do some self reflection on that.
So really leading with purpose and being that role model that you want. so it's kind of a bottom up, making sure that you're, taking those people that are going to be touching it into account, but it's also, top down from the role modeling perspective. So the second thing that we preach as far as making sure that we have that buy in is, educating or training and then making sure that you're retraining.
the education and training is, really around everything, membership plan associated. So that might be the value around it. So why? Are we offering this to our patients? Why is this better than pushing them into the PPO marketplace? And why is this easier for us than having to deal with those PPOs?
as far as efficiency and ease of use and everything. But really your team needs to understand that and needs to understand why you as the leader have decided to go this route. So educating them around that value, and then also educating them on the actual.
Admin of this, the actual, implementation. So how do I sign up patients? How do I talk to patients about this? How do I present it? Where are the resources I need to be able to do so? and that, again, that's all the education and training, and that's the front loading.
You need to make sure at the beginning, everyone has this, but it's not a set it and forget it thing. Dental practices. No, they have a million and one different initiatives happening and you need to circle back on them. I mean, maybe it's been a month, two, three months since you've gone over all of this with your team.
you got to circle back and make sure that everyone's still on the same page and everyone still has that knowledge and knows how to present this and how to really implement it on the day to day. As well as with that retraining having those resources readily available.
On demand or however it may be, to be able to reference them when necessary
Michael: when it comes to real quick, the retraining. Let's just say we sign up with clear We get to know the admin. at the same time. do we get someone that teaches us when we sign up with Clear?
Eli: Yeah. Let's just say real quick from day
Michael: one, someone's teaching us, we're learning where the team's learning to their training. So the retraining part would be what it's more like, Hey guys. Every month we talk about it. We're like this is the scripts We should be using to present it into people or is that
Eli: what you mean?
Yeah, so I mean I can't really put a one size fits all, but yes, pretty much So whatever cadence you think your team needs the other thing is too is we're seeing a lot of turnover in dental teams as well. So making sure that if someone new joins the team, are they getting trained?
You know a lot of times you'll be like, oh went through that we signed up with clear Everyone knows that you get new staff members. Let's make sure we're training them. But yeah, and whatever cadence you feel is effective and good for your team, that's monthly, if that's quarterly, maybe it's yearly.
going back and making sure if you have scripts that you're recommending. That everyone still has those scripts and is up to date on those and just running back through the plans. You might be selling these plans as a front desk person, but you might not have looked at them in a while.
Do you know what's on those plans? Just look back, make sure that uh, you're referencing that stuff that you went over when you first implemented it. awesome. Okay. I like that. All
Michael: right. So number
Eli: three, number three and four kind of blend together. So the number three is make it simple.
That just makes it easier on everyone, one of the big benefits of a membership plan, everything's there in black and white for both your staff and for the patients. I'm paying this much a month or a year and I'm getting this and this much off of additional treatment.
You don't have to worry about, oh, if I hit this much or, you know, your waiting periods or, you know, all maximums, all that. Membership plans just because of how they're set up are simple to begin with, don't over complicate that process and make it simple for a your staff to be able to present and be for that patient to understand what they're getting out of it.
And like I said, I mean, This is for any system. I think you've got to try to make it as simple as possible. Membership plans conveniently kind of lend themselves to that because it is such a simple kind of concept and simple plan for patient and practice to be able to talk about.
And then number four is. Make it easy. make those systems that your people, your office team are going to have to use on a daily basis. Make it as easy as possible for them. How are we tracking this?
Do we have auto renewals on so that we don't have to go back and check every time a patient comes in? Hey, are they up to date? Do we have a portal I That is tracking their benefit status is tracking whether, like I said, whether they've made their payments, things like that. And is it an easy process for them to sign up?
Do they have to fill out like a huge long paper form? Or is it just a quick portal where they just throw in some information? Do you have integration with your practice management software to be able to do that even quicker? These are all things that clear can offer. But just if you're looking things.
Overall, I mean, just make it as easy as possible. If you want something to stick, you need it to be simple and easy for that team or else it becomes another chore. It becomes another task and people are going to prioritize the things that are easiest path of least resistance, So make it as simple and easy as possible for that team. and you'll see a lot, better buy in. And then number five, I think this is probably my favorite of them incentivize or gamify this whole thing. Run fun competitions within the office. It doesn't have to be anything crazy.
So our platform allows, it's a fun little feature we added recently, it allows you to attribute which staff members signed up patients. it gives you like a little gold, silver and bronze trophy for those people that have signed it up and you can run different reports to see between which dates and things.
So what we like to recommend to our offices is, hey, do a sprint or just do a quick competition. Whoever signs up the most this week. Gets a free 5, 10 Starbucks gift card. So they get, coffee. Or maybe it's something bigger. You know, If the team hits X amount of signups, we throw an office party.
Whatever works for your team is going to move the needle for your team. You know, Your team, then that's something that you can put in place. have a way to track those signups and have fun little competitions. I mean, People are going to be more receptive to something they can see.
They can hold. And that is, right there for them, instead of, Hey, bigger picture. This is going to be great for our, patient care, patient acceptance, revenue. Uh, These are things that are great, but your office team might be like, okay well, I've got. A million other things to do.
You say, Hey, we're having a fun competition. Now you're, you're upping that culture. You're having a more fun time, just overall in the office and it gives them something to strive for, right? Everyone wants to be great. Give a fun competition. And I think that can really help with that buy in and the culture piece that so many offices struggle with.
I like that,
Michael: man. The gamify, I like the sprints. Throughout this process, you mentioned it in number four, make it easy. Where do you guys from your research, because I know you guys have a lot of data, right? Where do you mainly see people drop
Eli: the ball?
Michael: because I feel like people spend time like okay, you know To hop is visit to pro fees all these things, right? then they get excited. They're like all these people are gonna somewhere The ball drops within that year of like, what
Eli: happens?
that's a great question. And I think it really, a lot of it does come down to this, buy in piece. So it's just the leadership or whoever's making the decision to implement this are like, this is going to be great for our office. We were going to be able to increase revenue, increase treatment acceptance, but somewhere along the lines there, the people that are actually using it, either, they don't understand the value of it or you know, People are prewired in dental to be like, okay, PPOs. If I have an insurance plan, I go to the dentist. If I don't, I don't So the whole mentality around membership plans I think it's beginning to shift and people are understanding it more, but it can be a little bit of a retraining of how you think about coverage.
And making sure that everyone, whether that be the patients or whether that be the staff have had that little bit of a rewiring and understand, Hey, this is another option that is just as good, if not better than my employer funded insurance plan, and it's going to provide great treatment for people that may not otherwise have that access.
So being able to Build that value, I think, is where a lot of people, it's a lack of understanding on both staff and patient side or sometimes it's the other way. Maybe the staff understand and the doctors just like, don't really get it. The PPO thing has been working for me and they don't look into the advantages of having that membership plan.
And then they don't role model that behavior. And again, it's just another initiative that falls by the wayside. lack of understanding is where we usually see the ball dropped. Yeah,
Michael: I like how you guys mentioned you have to have a champion for this, right?
Cause they're the ones who are gonna take the lead, hold each other accountable. Cause if everybody's feeling like they're accountable, nobody's really gonna be accountable, right? But if you put one person to champion it, you can even give them the, lead way to be like, You're in charge of starting like four competitions whenever and during the year, right?
But it can be sprints or there's so
Eli: much. Oh, man. There's so much. Yeah. building that accountability is huge.
Michael: I know you guys mentioned that you increased production by 172 percent with the membership plans. How you do that?
Eli: Yeah, so I mean, really what it boils down to, and I always tell doctors when I'm talking to them about this is the recurring revenue.
It's great. Obviously, you get that coming in. It increases valuation. You have just passive income, from the subscription, but really where doctors are going to be making their money here is that increased production from increased Absolutely. Absolutely. case acceptance. And the reason that happens is because when those members come in to get their pro fees done, normal checkups, that gives you the ability to a build a better relationship with those patients, which then makes it easier for them to say yes to that treatment because you've, created that trust.
And you also have more opportunities to be able to diagnose them for more treatment. Just getting them in the door that's the big thing here. Getting them in the door for those pro fees, they're going to come in two to three times as often. It gives you more opportunity to a build trust and be get them to accept more treatment.
And that's where we see that huge you know, boon and, both production case acceptance. All right,
Michael: man.
And I know we talked about this before a little bit in the episode, but you guys have someone Directed to me, right? Like a point of contact who teaches me, who will help me market it and stuff
Eli: like that.
I don't know. when you start off you're assigned an onboarding specialist, who's going to help you set up those plans initially give you all the best practices, around. Marketing the plan, talking to patients about the plan. And also we'll do those training. So, And we'll hop on as many calls as we need to with an office.
If you need to set up 234 million, we'll do as many as you need. Just make sure that everyone's on the same page. So that's our onboarding specialist. And then after you get through that initial hurdle of implementation, you're going to sign a dedicated account manager, which will then be your point person.
And we also do have support. That is based right here in Philadelphia where, the whole team is. So you're not going to be talking to anyone overseas or in a call center. They'll field all those questions and they actually field questions for both the patient and the practice. So if patients have questions around the clear, membership plan, want to change payment methods update passwords, stuff like that.
Our support team will take that off the front desk so they don't have to worry about it as well. So we're big on the people, the implementation piece, making it as easy as possible for the office to be able to implement these plans.
Michael: Nice man. Awesome. And also congrats on making it to the Inc 5, 000, man.
That's
Eli: really good. We're very proud of that and hopefully we'll be back again next year.
Michael: Yeah, man. Awesome. So if anyone has any questions or concerns, where can they reach out to you?
Eli: Yeah. So you can definitely reach out to me um, either on LinkedIn. It's just Eli Salls L I S A L L S, or you can email me Eli, E L I at clear K L E E R.
com. And then if you're interested in hearing a little bit more, we actually have a landing page set up for the show. So it's going to be clear. com slash partner slash the dash dental dash marketer. And you can just go there and, and, uh, request a demo and we'll give you a little more information, but anytime, feel free to reach out to me.
I'd love to be a resource.
Michael: Awesome. So guys, that's going to be in the show notes below, reach out to him. And at the same time, Eli, thank you so much for being with us. It's been a pleasure and we'll hear
Eli: from you soon. Yes. Thank you, Michael.