In this episode of The Stress-Free Dentist Podcast, Dr. Eric Block welcomes back Brett Walisever, CEO and founder of Ball Sales Training, for a powerful conversation on how dentists can dramatically improve case acceptance with emotional selling, structured communication, and intentional presentation processes. Brett explains why traditional treatment presentation often fails, how to uncover a patient’s true “why,” and, not clinical logic, lead patients to move forward with care. The episode dives deep into sales psychology, communication techniques, decision-making dynamics, the role of a trained treatment coordinator, and how to build a practice culture that consistently converts high-value cases without fear-based tactics.

Key Takeaways

  • Patients Buy With Emotion, Justify With Logic
    Most dental teams present logically, but Brett explains why uncovering emotional drivers is the true key to acceptance.
  • Stop Selling Through Fear
    Telling patients “it will get worse” creates distrust. Effective case acceptance requires offering choices, not fear-driven decisions.
  • Ask Better Questions, Especially “Why Now?”
    Open-ended questions such as “Tell me why today was the right time to come in” reveal the true motivation behind the visit.
  • Silence Is a Tool, Not a Problem
    Avoid filling every pause. Give patients time to think and express concerns, or risk overwhelming them with clinical talk.
  • Know the Decision Maker
    Ask early: “How are financial decisions made in your family?” Include spouses or family if needed.
  • Always Schedule a Follow-Up
    Just like hygiene recall, never let a big case leave the office without the next step on the schedule.
  • Train a Treatment Coordinator
    Practices need someone focused solely on understanding patient motivation, presenting options, and following up.
  • Sales Training Matters
    Corporate sales teams get 30–60 hours a year of training; dental teams get almost none. Investing here increases revenue significantly.

Episode Timestamps

  • 00:00:12 – Episode Introduction
    • Dr. Block introduces the show and other resources.
    • Welcomes returning guest Brett Walisever.

    Dr. Eric Block: Welcome to the Stress-Free Dentist Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Eric Block. As always, I want to inspire, entertain, and educate you on the best tools and technologies out there. My goal is to help make your practice and career more profitable, efficient, and most importantly, more enjoyable. Check out all of my nonfiction and children’s books on Amazon, and check out thestressfreedentist.com  for any upcoming events. If you’re a dental professional that’s burnt out, or you just feel stuck or want to get to that next level, visit the International Academy of Dental Life Coaches or www.iadlc.com, and we’ll get you matched up with a life coach that understands dentistry.

    I also wanted to thank our amazing sponsor, Ekwa Marketing. They have helped me and my practice over the years to improve with SEO and website performance. To find out how you can make your practice dominate in your area, go to ekwa.com/msm   to book your complimentary meeting. Again, that’s ekwa.com/msm.

    All right, everyone, welcome back to another episode. Today we’re joined again—actually, this is for the second time—Brett Walisever, who’s the CEO and founder of Ball Sales Training. Brett, thanks for joining us again.

    Brett Walisever: Thanks for having me. I’m impressed you got the last name right.

    Dr. Eric Block: Two for two. I practiced it over in my head. I practiced it over and over, and I got it. It’s been a while since you’ve been on, and you’ve been up to a lot of great things for dentists. Tell me about Ball Sales Training. What’s that all about?

  • 00:01:56 – Why Dental Case Presentation Is Broken
    • Brett explains that dentistry often dictates treatment instead of offering choices.
    • Emotional buying vs. logical selling misalignment introduced.

    Brett Walisever: Yeah, thanks for having me on. I think the last time I came on, it was specific to dental patient finance. After a few years of doing that—when I say a few, I mean like ten—it was pretty evident that there are things that needed to be done in a dental office to even get to the point of discussing any sort of payment options or third-party financing. The level of treatment presentation has really been at an all-time low. It’s really us dictating to the patient, "Hey, I’m going to tell you everything that’s wrong with you, and I’m going to show it on a screen, and then I’m going to bring in a treatment coordinator, and we’ll go over pricing on how to fix that."

    It’s probably been taught incorrectly all these years. If you think about every other industry, that’s not how things get sold. When we’re talking elective patient healthcare procedures—if we’re talking clear aligners, if we’re talking implants—people make decisions with decisions versus choices. A lot of times in dental, we don’t give them the choices. We don’t give them the options. The decision is, "Hey, this is what’s wrong, and this is what’s happening in your mouth. And if you don’t do it, this is what’s going to happen." It’s not a very effective way to sell. Sometimes it’s selling out of fear, and the goal is to really find out what’s important to the patient and bring that out of them.

  • 00:03:50 – Emotional Selling & Uncovering Pain Points
    • Patients buy with emotion; teams must uncover the “why now.”
    • Discusses how to ask questions that draw out true motivations.

    Brett Walisever: Okay? If you don’t have teeth, for instance—"I want new teeth." But why? Why do you want that? Obviously, everybody wants teeth, right? But tell me why. What is the reason? You haven’t had teeth for four years, but why are you here today? Why now? What made today different than any other day over the past four years?

    When you start to dig out that pain point, that’s really where you get into emotional selling. Ninety-five percent of buyers buy with emotion, and they justify with logic. In dentistry, we ask patients to use logic to make a decision, and it’s the complete opposite. If people buy with emotion, why are we asking them to make a decision with logic?

    That struck a chord, and that’s really the basis of the training program.

  • 00:04:54 – Transition From Financing to Full Sales Training
    • Brett shares why he shifted from patient financing to improving pre-financing processes.
    • Case acceptance depends on conversations long before money is discussed.

    Dr. Eric Block: So you started in patient financing, which was like a third-party financing. But you’re right—that’s sort of at the end of the line. And there are so many steps that have to happen before that conversation even comes up. I mean, first, you’ve got to market, and then the patient’s got to call, you’ve got to crush the phones, and the patient’s got to come in. Then you’ve got to give a great case presentation and get that patient to accept treatment, and then finally get them to accept the financing. You’re so right. So you are kind of on the back end of things, and now you’re helping dental offices with more of essentially getting patients to move forward with treatment, right?

    Brett Walisever: Yeah, exactly right. Obviously, you have to get the patient there, right? So you’re marketing, you’re working them through a funnel, you get them in for a consult—that part is great. I would say if you can get the patient in there that day, there’s a reason why he or she is there. It’s because there’s a pain point. Nobody wants to go to the dentist for fun, right? So they are there for a reason. It’s our job to extract that reason and then get them to move forward.

    It really starts with a doctor’s consult. I see a lot of doctors walk into the consult and say, "Hey, so tell me why you’re here today." It’s not a great question, right? Because, okay, I advertised, I got the patient in here.

  • 00:06:27 – The Right Way to Start a Consult
    • Don’t ask “Why are you here today?”—you already know.
    • Ask: “Why now?” and tie clinical findings to personal life impact.

    Brett Walisever: It took three, four calls. I had to do my follow-up. The patient came in responding to a dental implant ad, or whatever the case may be—even if it’s word of mouth—I know why you’re here today. So I’m not going to ask you, "Hey, tell me what you’re doing in the office today." I know why.

    The question is, why now? Why are you doing this now? We’re going to talk clinically first, and I want you to think during the process. Tell me what this would mean in your life as I’m discussing all of this, and then at the end, let’s talk about moving forward. The question is, "Tell me what’s going to change in your life specifically." Tell me that pain point.

    At the end, you say, "You know what, Eric, I know why you’re here today. I understand what your pain point is. If you’re comfortable, we’re comfortable treating you. Would you like to move forward?" And if the answer’s yes, then you bring in the third-party payment options and say, "Hey, you know what? My treatment coordinator, Brett—I’m going to bring him in here and we’re going to find a way to make this happen."

    And I haven’t really touched on price. I haven’t talked about how to pay. I haven’t discussed anything, right? But I know this: the patient wants to move forward. So we got the yes. Now in practice, we need to find a way to make that happen. What is it now? The patient came in, right? So there is a want, a desire, a need.

    Maybe in those four years of putting this off, they have saved up money. Maybe they have some money. Maybe you don’t even need to offer third-party financing. Just start to understand all those things, but give options.

    It can’t be, "You know what, thanks, Eric. Okay, so for this, it’s $22,000. How would you like to pay?" That was very aggressive. The doctor just gave me a really nice case presentation, and it seems like all you want now is $22,000.

    Even if you had a piece of paper that you slid to the patient and it said "Cash, Check, Charge, or Third-Party Payment Options," even if you had that and just slipped it over to the patient, that would be better than throwing out a $22,000 number.

  • 00:09:12 – Presenting Treatment: Stop Leading With Price
    • Slipping written options is better than verbalizing a large number.
    • Patients need choices: cash, card, or simple payment plan.

    Dr. Eric Block: You’re actually making me rethink my process because, you know, I’m a fully out-of-network office, and patients that come in—new patients—are so much more valuable than they used to be. We do get fewer new patients because we’re not in network. But I either see the patient for the new patient cleaning—so I’m with them for about an hour and a half, so I have a lot of time with them—but there are other cases where, and I think this is most often in dental offices, the hygienist sees the new patient, and then the doctor comes in at the end for like a five-minute exam.

    It sounds like, especially if we want to sell and have them move forward with elective, high-value treatment, should this ideally be done in the—move them out of the hygiene room into the dentist chair—for like a separate consult?

    Brett Walisever: Yeah, I mean, I would say this. If you have a surgery room, or you have a specific treatment room or presentation room, bringing the patient out of the chair—or, if you do have that nice surgery suite where it’s a chair but you’re eye level—I mean, that’s really the move.

    It’s like, okay, now you’re done with your hygiene. Now we want to talk oral cavity, we want to talk about what is happening. And I think the important thing to understand is, it’s not—here’s a prime example. You go into Jiffy Lube, right? You walk in, they take your car. They come back into the waiting room, and they hold up your air filter. They say, "Eric, if you don’t change this air filter, your car is going to have a lot of problems."

  • 00:11:01 – Why Fear-Based Selling Fails
    • Analogies like Jiffy Lube show why fear pushes patients away.
    • Options build trust and long-term relationships.

    Brett Walisever: Like, well, what problems? Uh, just a lot. Okay? Or, "If you don’t upgrade"—you know, in Massachusetts it’s really cold—"If you don’t switch to the synthetic, you’re doing yourself a disservice." But I still don’t understand why. I came in to just get an oil change, and now they’re telling me basically my car’s going to blow up if I don’t do these things.

    Now think about a dental office. I’m going to take that X-ray, the pano, whatever the case may be, and I’m going to say, "Hey Brett, this is what’s happening." I can’t really understand the X-ray or the pano. "This is what’s happening, and if you don’t do this, it’s going to get worse." So you’re asking the patient, "Shoot, I came in for a cleaning, and now we’re talking about other issues, and I’m not feeling pain."

    So what is it? Well, the dentist just told me if I don’t take care of this, then I’m screwed. What does that do? You’re asking the person to make a decision, not a choice. You’re selling based on fear versus options. And the next time I come in—"You know what, this dentist just told me if I don’t get this treatment done, it’s just going to get worse." So the next move is: do I go there, or do I see somebody else? Do I trust going in there? Do I feel comfortable going in there? I don’t want to get pitched the same thing every single time.

    That’s why bringing options up is super important. Having the one-on-one conversation of, "Tell me what’s happening. Tell me what’s going on. This is what we’re seeing. We work with patients in many different ways. We’re here to help you."

    Dr. Eric Block: And how would you—because I know you’re exactly right—a lot of dentists sell through fear. "This cavity’s going to get worse, and it’s going to turn into a crown or a root canal." I think we’re really good at that. What would your recommendation be instead? Would it be something like, "Is it important to you to try to keep your teeth healthy?" Or what would you recommend there?

  • 00:13:15 – Asking Better Questions
    • Use open-ended questions and repeat “Tell me more.”
    • The power of silence for patient processing.

    Brett Walisever: Yeah, yeah, something like that. I mean, you asked a really nice question—an open-ended question versus a closed-end question. Even the most basic, "How are you doing today?" Dentists don’t ask enough like, "Hey, tell me more," or "Why?" If I’m giving the answers and I’m saying, "Yeah, no, I totally understand," but then you follow up with, "How come?"—it’s really important to get the patient to talk.

    You know the old adage, right? You’ve got one mouth and two ears. That’s the thing—keep asking the questions. Understand what they’re doing there today. What is going on in their life? For instance, if it’s someone who doesn’t have straight teeth, it’s like, “Hey, I know you come in for your cleanings all the time. We really appreciate that.” See how the patient’s presenting.

    You can bring it up on their first visit: “This is what we do in this office.” The second visit, you can have a more in-depth conversation and say, “Hey, is there anything that you would do right now to change your smile?” “Well actually, yeah, I’ve never really been asked that. I have halitosis. I don’t have straight teeth.” “Great. Do you want straight teeth?” “Yes.” “But why? Why do you want straight teeth?”

    “Well, it’s because I’m 29 years old and I want to find a partner for the rest of my life, and I’m lacking confidence.” Or, “I’m on a Zoom call and I keep looking at myself and I keep looking at others, and it’s creating intimidation because I don’t want to smile.” Or, “I’m 65 years old and I want to get back in the dating scene.” “I’m 50 years old, and I want to start going for a job that’s really important to me, a promotion, but I’m not really looking the part.”

    We see folks who get a lot fitter when they become CEOs, right? I mean, it’s the same thing. It’s the way you’re presenting yourself. And you— I don’t know what the number is, you probably do—but isn’t it the first thing that people recognize is your smile? And that’s a big thing. So if you don’t want to smile—you see people go like this all the time, right? And they shouldn’t have to. They shouldn’t have to hide from anything.

    Dr. Eric Block: I love the just following up with the "why." And, you know, there may be plenty of times where people are just in—they just want to get their teeth healthy. But if you really want to dig in and offer some options of some elective, high-value treatment, that’s where you really get into that. Yeah, it sounds like you’re getting into like a psychology with them.

    Brett Walisever: Yeah, exactly. It’s the psychology. It’s like the art of selling. If there’s a pain point, your job is to solve it. But if I’m not telling you what my pain point is, your job is to get it out of me. And the "why," the "tell me more," the "what’s going on in your life"—tell me why you’re here today versus a year ago when you were at your other dentist. Tell me what wasn’t meeting your expectations. But all that requires me to say something, right?

    So quickly, we want to combat that. And a lot of times we’re already formulating the answer in our head, so we’re missing a lot. I think people get nervous around awkward silence, right? But it could be the patient’s getting a lot thrown at them. They need to digest things in their head. They need to formulate a response.

    The awkward silence—it’s okay. What we usually do in a dental office is we just keep going. We hear the silence, the patient didn’t say anything. “Okay, well, I’m going to start to say more now. I’m going to say more.” Now I’m running out of things to say, so I’m going to start talking clinically. Now you’ve just lost the patient. Now all they’re thinking about is, “Okay, whenever this person stops talking, I’m leaving.”

    And here’s the reality: confused patients do nothing. They walk out, they don’t do anything. They don’t understand really what happened. And that’s the truth.

    Dr. Eric Block: Now, I think also, sometimes they’re not the only decision maker, whether it’s their spouse—I know often a lot of dudes will say, “I gotta check with my wife.”

  • 00:18:01 – Identifying the Real Decision Maker
    • Ask how financial decisions are made in the family.
    • Bring spouses or key decision makers into the consultation.

    Brett Walisever: Tons.

    Dr. Eric Block: Do you recommend—let’s say all the HIPAA forms and everything like that have been signed, and everyone’s okay with it—having that decision maker, it could be a parent, it could be a spouse, it could be a loved one, come in for that consult so everyone’s on the same page?

    Brett Walisever: Yeah. I mean, it’s really easy. Again, if we don’t know who the decision maker is, it’s a question like, “Tell me how decisions are made in your family.” Oh, okay. Now I know—"I don’t do anything without talking to my wife." Great. Is she available? Can we FaceTime her? Or can we set up a point where you both come in?

    This is not just impacting your life—it’s impacting your family’s life. Whatever the case may be. If you’re all of a sudden a new grandpa, and you’re wearing dentures and you’re scaring your grandkids—understand, what is the family dynamic? Again, why are you really here today? Why now?

    “Well, it’s because my dentures fall out and I scare the crap out of my grandkids.” That is the pain point. It’s not that I have teeth or don’t have teeth. I’m scaring my grandkids. Or, “My wife never wants to kiss me anymore.” There’s a whole bunch of things.

    And a big financial decision—again, it’s all about asking, “Who makes the big financial decisions? Tell me how that’s made.” “Well, I do everything, so I can say yay or nay right now.” Okay, great. I’m talking to the right person.

    Obviously, if it’s a child in braces or under 18, that’s a different story. Again, you want to ask. Because you know what? It might not be the mom who’s the decision maker. It could be the grandparents. It could be the mom who’s the decision maker and the grandparents are willing to pay for the treatment.

    But if you don’t know, I don’t want to say you’re wasting your time, but you’re talking to the wrong folks.

    Dr. Eric Block: Yeah. If you don’t ask and you don’t figure out the why, then you could be just wasting a lot of time and energy. Now, let’s say we’ve figured out the why, we’ve spent the time—and it sounds like for these patients, you really gotta get them into a special time for a consult so you can focus on this and not be running around and checking five hygiene patients. You really need the time, ’cause they want to know that you’re actually listening to them.

  • 00:20:43 – The Importance of Dedicated Consult Time
    • High-value elective cases require undivided attention.
    • Patients feel heard when clinicians slow down and listen.

    Brett Walisever: I mean, it’s really about having a patient for life, right? If you take the time, I’m going to take the time.

    Dr. Eric Block: You’ve figured out the why—now tell me about the big F word: financing, and getting them to—

    Brett Walisever: Yeah. Well, yeah—getting them to move forward. I see it all the time: "Oh, we have financing." Okay, financing—I’m thinking like my house, I’m thinking credit cards, I’m thinking stress, I’m thinking anxiety, I might be thinking bankruptcy, right? When you’re adding something that you have to finance, you think about like, "Holy cow, how much is this thing?"

    Now, the alternative is, "Hey, we have payment options." Now the reality is, if someone has the money to pay for it, you want to understand that, because you don’t have to offer financing, right? You don’t have to offer payment options. It’s nice to have. But if that gets uncovered…

    So many treatment coordinators are quick to bring it up. They bring it up—why?

  • 00:21:48 – Payment Options Without Anxiety
    • Replace “financing” with “payment options.”
    • Understand whether patients prefer discounts or small payments.

    Brett Walisever: Because it’s easier, right? It’s, "Oh, you know, Eric, we have 12 months of 0%. We have 24 months of 0%." It’s actually doing the office a little bit of a disservice. When you have to pay the financing company 20%, you could take the 20% that you would pay the financing company and offer a 10% discount—and still make out—if the patient has the money to pay for it.

    So, understanding that—what are the options here? Again, if I go back to, I’m not going to say a word, I’m just going to pass them a slip. I’m going to write down, “It’s $22,000,” maybe, “$20,000 cash,” “$21,000 charge,” or “$600 a month.” Say, “Tell me what works best for you.” And I’m looking at that—great. If I can pay $20,000 and save two grand, I’m going to pay that way.

    But you didn’t verbalize the $22,000. You just wrote it on a piece of paper. A lot of people—and it’s different for everybody—but what you don’t want to do is alienate the folks who do not have the money. $22,000—wow, that’s a lot of money. You may have the money, but you might not want to part with the money, too. So it’s understanding: what is comfortable for this patient to move forward?

    Using terms like “financing,” especially right away in the conversation, is not a good move at all. You want to understand what the patient is going through right now in their life. This is a big decision. Are you adding—two of the top life stressors are health and finances. Are we solving one problem just to give another person another problem? That’s not a solution. It’s great for the office, but that’s not really a solution for the patient.

    Understanding all of that will really give both the treatment coordinator and the patient the answer on best moving forward. Hopefully that makes sense.

    Dr. Eric Block: You said the words “treatment coordinator.” Let’s say I have a patient, we’ve discussed the why, we’ve figured out what their motivations are, where they are in their life—maybe regarding finances. It’s a big treatment plan. Do you recommend that we try to do whatever we can to give the patient the treatment plan and estimate that day, right there? Or should we have them come back in?

  • 00:24:45 – Should We Present Same-Day or Later?
    • Ask if the patient is comfortable reviewing next steps that day.
    • Always schedule the next follow-up before they leave.

    Brett Walisever: I would say, yeah—again, it’s all about asking. Like, “Hey, I know you digested a lot. Are you comfortable today discussing the next steps?” Again, a lot of people work with us in different ways. Some want to digest it, some need to go home. If you leave today, when can we schedule the next follow-up?

    I think that’s the most important thing—folks let people walk out of the office. And it’s amazing, because in hygiene, you always schedule the next six months, right? But on a big implant case, it’s like, “Oh, well, we’ll follow up with you,” or “Call us when you’re ready.” And really, the low-hanging fruit in a practice are those existing patients. So when you get new patients, you really need to keep them, right?

    Because that really is your pipeline. The existing patients—your next big case is probably going to come from there. So having these discussions is really important to start generating some of those elective cases.

    And a lot of times, people don’t want to bring stuff up because they think, “Hmm, I don’t want them to stop coming to the practice.” And that’s where you have to have sort of the feel of sales—meaning, can I push this patient? Is this a patient that needs to be pushed? Or do I back off?

    Understanding the types of personas that are in a practice is important. I’m a person that really needs to be pushed. If you tell me, “Hey, you need Invisalign, and this is what it’s going to do for you,” I’m that patient. My wife—if you tell her she needs something, she clams up and leaves. She’s like, “I don’t ever want to go back.” But again, it’s all about asking the patient, “Are you comfortable discussing this? If you’re not, tell me.”

    Dr. Eric Block: I love the idea of what you said—of creating a follow-up appointment. Like you said, we do this in hygiene. We get their recall in and get it on the schedule. Why don’t we do that with restorative or after our consultations? Set up for the next consult if they need some time. I think that’s a great idea.

  • 00:27:06 – Why Sales Training Is Essential in Dentistry
    • Corporate sellers train 30–60 hours yearly; dental teams rarely train.
    • Practices must invest in closers and proper compensation structures.

    Brett Walisever: And really, the sales training behind it is—this is what I tell people—in corporate America, good sellers get 30 to 60 hours of training per year. In private dentistry, and you touched on it earlier, when I’m doing these consults, people are running around. If the person that you have pitching a $20,000 case is also on the phone right now, also dental assisting, needing to be called from another room—whatever the case may be—that is not a good setup to really close these cases.

    If I want to sell you something for $20,000, I want your undivided attention. It really needs to be a one-on-one type thing. From the office perspective, it’s: I want to invest in someone. And this is what I do—I sit down with the practice and say, “Okay, who do we want to invest in to be your seller, your closer? And what do we need to get there?”

    If there’s nobody in the office, we’ll identify that and then start from scratch. But it’s really, really important. You need to invest in the people that match the type of office you want to have. If you don’t want to do any restorative work and just want to keep it as a hygiene-type office, then invest in your hygienists.

    But if you really want to do implants, clear aligners, cosmetic cases—six through eleven—these are high-value cases. They don’t come around a lot. So when you get it, it’s important that you take it as far as you can and build that into your pipeline.

    And when you have the right setup—it’s just like any other sales job—should that person be compensated above and beyond for closing a sale? I would say yes. What I’ve created is an incentive plan. So my seller—my treatment coordinator, treatment manager, whatever you want to call them—now, are they going to be motivated to pick up that phone call from a patient a week ago who sort of stalled out?

    The answer should be yes. “I’m going to call even on my day off.” For instance, if I keep making the phone calls, more things will happen. We’re not there to motivate a seller—the motivation should be, “I’m going to drive more revenue to the practice, I’m going to make more money, I’m going to become more important to the practice.”

    But our job is really to motivate that person and say, “Hey, this is what you can do,” and get them to want to do it—and not feel like it’s just my job.

    Dr. Eric Block: And tell me about your sales training program. How does that work? Is it one-on-one with the office or with the treatment coordinator or the person we’re empowering to be our sales..

  • 00:30:13 – Inside Brett’s Sales Training Program
    • One-on-one training: scripting, SOPs, role-play, case review.
    • Identifying the right internal leader to become the practice’s “closer.”

    Brett Walisever: Yeah. Leader. Yeah, it’s a good question. I mean, I tried to do something really different. I see so many of these big groups, the classes—“Hey, I’m gonna sign you up and teach you how to do full arch treatment planning”—and I’m in a room of 20. It’s good, but again, I wanted to do something different.

    I sit with the office for one hour, and we talk about, “Hey, tell me where you’re at in life.” It’s really the same thing as us talking to a patient. What are your pain points? Tell me where you want to be. Do you have an exit plan? Are you just working? Just tell me what your goal is.

    “Well, I want to get into implant dentistry.” Okay. Where are you at right now? “I’ve taken all the CE, I’m only doing two arches a month, I want to get to five to seven arches a month.” Okay, great—now we have a goal. Tell me how you’re going to do that. “I’m not sure.”

    So that’s where I help devise a plan. Now, who is going to sell these cases? Doctor, are you going to sell them? “No, I don’t want to be the seller in the practice. I don’t want to talk about money, and I don’t want to be the one following up all the time.” Totally fair, right?

    So who in the practice is going to take over that role? And what skill set do they have right now? What do we see in them that tells us they want to—or can—take this role over?

    Then we identify that one to two folks. I do personal one-on-one training—two hours a week. One hour on technical sales training, including scripting, SOPs, role play. And I would say this for people who are like, “Hmm, role play, I don’t want to do it”—the only way to get good is through practice and repetition. There is no other way. There are no shortcuts.

    If you’re talking to a patient for the first time and those words are coming out of your mouth, it’s going to be a disaster—just like someone’s first sales call of their career. You feel like you’re the seller who puts their foot in the door—“Oh, by the way, this… by the way, that…” and you realize, “Holy cow, I was terrible.”

    You just don’t know what you don’t know. You need all the experiences. You need all the training you can get. And again, that’s where folks lack. I hear it all the time: “This person has the gift of gab.” Eric’s got the gift of gab, he’d be a great seller. The gift of gab is not selling. The gift of gab is—I can strike up a conversation with anybody. Great. But again, that’s not selling.

    So invest in that person. If that person’s not there, then we go find them—hire them, incentivize them, and put together a structure. I ask so many doctors, “Did you put together a comp plan for this? Did you put together a job description? Did you put together expectations?”

    How many folks hire without that stuff? When you have clear, concise goals and structure, the employee knows exactly what needs to be done. There’s no room for interpretation whatsoever. It’s clear, it’s concise. And the reality is—it might sound a little harsh—but people understand.

    Then you’re able to have those conversations afterward. So I do one hour of technical sales training, and then I do one hour of case review. Bring a case—let’s see where it stalled out. Let’s see what questions were being asked. Can we recover something like this? Or do we put it in the pipeline to keep revisiting?

    And last week with one of the clients, we found one. They didn’t want to sell the highest-priced thing—it was a full-arch zirconia. They went with the middle-grade material, which was $15,000 instead of $22,000. It’s like, “You know what? This patient could have easily spent the $22,000, and they may have appreciated the upgrade.”

    So let’s go back. Let’s just ask them a couple questions and see if they do want to move forward. And from there, you’ve generated $5,000, $6,000, $7,000 for the practice—in a matter of one hour. Just one hour. Because you asked the right questions.

    And if it wasn’t going that way, it’s okay—you still have them. But understanding where to push, where not to push, the certain personas—and really, again, asking the questions.

    I tell everyone too, if you’re having trouble getting the words out of your mouth—write it on a piece of paper, walk in, and just read the words off the paper. I’m telling you, you have to do that. If you don’t, you’ll never, ever be comfortable. You’re going to say the wrong thing.

    And really, at the end of the day, I tell people all the time: if everything goes awry, just go back to one basic question. Say, “Eric, tell me—what’s the most important thing to you right now?” And that will steer you back to the right conversation.

    Dr. Eric Block: That’s great, man. I love it. Now let’s wrap up with two final questions. One is: how do we find out more about what you’re up to? You can leave an email, phone number, website—whatever you want to leave.

  • 00:36:17 – Contact Information & Free Sponsored Consults

    Brett Walisever: Yeah, yeah. So, my email is brett@ballpayments.com.  Cell phone is (702) 324-1221. Texting might be easier.  Website is ballpayments.com

    So yeah, however you want to reach out. I do partner with a company called UA Pay. They’re a really good third-party lender, and they do different things—it’s not just your typical lender. They will sponsor five one-hour consults to really take a look at the practice and see if this is a good fit. Normally, it’s $250 for the first hour, but UA Pay is happy to cover that.

    Dr. Eric Block: Awesome. And final question—what advice would you give to the young dentists out there?

  • 00:37:21 – Advice for Young Dentists
    • Find your lane, stay open-minded, and don’t be afraid to ask for help.
    • Mentorship, CE, and peer conversations accelerate growth.

    Brett Walisever: Yeah, that’s a really good question. When I was in patient finance, I’d say, “Hey, get into this and this and this,” but really, for the young dentist—understand what you’re getting into and understand what you’re good at. I would say find a lane that you want to go down, and whatever that is, become an expert at it and really work at that.

    If it’s something you want to change, it’s easy to change in this industry. How many dentists have become entrepreneurs? How many assistants have become dentists? How many hygienists have become dentists? How many dentists have left and gone into private equity, for instance? There’s a lot that you can do.

    So I think just having an open mind with the industry is important, and understand what is happening around you. Be vocal. Go in the groups. Go to the CE courses. At the CE courses, you’re learning—but really, you’ll learn more talking to your counterparts and understanding, “Hey, what are you doing in the practice?”

    And I think a final thing is—don’t be afraid to ask for help. That’s an important thing. It can get very costly, very time-consuming, learning things on your own. And we’re in a day and age now where the information—it’s right there. But a lot of people just don’t want to ask. So I would say—it’s okay to ask for help. I used to not, either. And now you realize—the older you get, you’re like, “Oh my gosh, I wish I had the information 20 years ago.” And so a lot of us fall into that trap.

    Dr. Eric Block: That’s so true. All right, Brett Walisever:, such a great episode. Thanks so much for joining us.

    Brett Walisever: All right. No, I appreciate you having me.

    Dr. Eric Block: Thanks again for listening to the Stress-Free Dentist Podcast. And don’t hesitate to get in touch with me at thestressfreedentist.com.  And if you haven’t already, please subscribe on your favorite platform and leave us a review.

    Until the next episode, I’m Dr. Eric Block, the Stress-Free Dentist.

Resources


Recent Episodes

Episode #239: Cairo Murphy – Using AI to automate Insurance Verification


Listen Now

Episode #238: Chris Miles – Why Mainstream Financial Advice Sucks


Listen Now

Episode #237: Dr. Laura Brenner – Coaching Dentists To Be More Happy And Fulfilled


Listen Now