EPISODE: Overcoming Patient Objections: Turning “No” Into “Not Yet” in the Orthodontic Consult
Show: GrowOrtho Podcast
Host: Zach Dykes (GrowOrtho / HIP Creative)
Guests: Harrison Bagdan, sales and objection-handling coach at HIP Creative; Melissa Gardner, treatment coordinator (TC) coach at HIP Creative with 20+ years in dentistry and orthodontics
Published: [1-12-2026]
Summary: A patient objection is rarely a rejection. It’s usually a request for validation, and most objections trace back to something that happened three steps earlier in the consult, not to the moment the words came out. This episode breaks down how orthodontic and dental teams turn resistance into commitment: reframing “no” as the start of the job, separating price (a one-time number) from cost (what the treatment actually costs a patient over its lifetime), running the acknowledge-respond-pivot (ARP) sequence on a cost objection, and preventing the “I need to talk to my spouse” and “I want a second opinion” objections by handling money and logistics on the phone before the appointment. The throughline: lead with empathy, keep sales resistance low, and guide with assumptive statements instead of open-ended questions.
Topics covered: objection mindset, treatment coordinator (TC) value, money conviction, script dependency, sales resistance and rapport, the feel-felt-found method, price vs. cost, the ARP framework, empathy-led consults, the spouse objection, the second-opinion objection, assumptive closing language.
Key entities named: HIP Creative, GrowOrtho, treatment coordinator (TC), Smile Direct Club, the Practice Paradox and Practice Personality Assessment, feel-felt-found, ARP (acknowledge, respond, pivot), price vs. cost.
About the author
By Luke Infinger — CEO & Co-Founder, HIP Creative | Author
Luke Infinger has spent more than 12 years helping dental and orthodontic practices grow through marketing, software, and education. He is the founder of HIP Creative, which works with more than 500 dental and specialty practices across the country, and the creator of Practice Beacon, a lead-tracking CRM built specifically for dental and orthodontic teams. His work has included taking practices from regional obscurity to nationally recognized growth benchmarks, among them helping an orthodontist become the fastest-growing in the country by 2018. He is also the author of multiple books on practice growth and a sought-after speaker for dental continuing education events. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-infinger-b36a001b/
The consult is won or lost before the objection ever shows up
Every orthodontic and dental team hits the same wall: the patient wants treatment, then says “it’s too expensive,” “I need to think about it,” or “I want a second opinion,” and the consult stalls. Most teams treat that moment as the problem. It isn’t. Overcoming patient objections starts long before anyone says no, and the objection you hear at minute 45 is almost always a symptom of something that went unaddressed at minute five.
This episode of the GrowOrtho Podcast puts two HIP Creative coaches, Harrison Bagdan and Melissa Gardner, in front of host Zach Dykes to walk through how high-performing treatment coordinators actually convert. The short version: a treatment coordinator’s job starts at “no,” a patient’s objection is an invitation to educate rather than a wall to knock down, and the single biggest lever is preventing objections in the first place by keeping the patient’s guard down and handling money and logistics early.
What follows is the framework a practice can hand to a TC or front desk on Monday morning: the mindset, the vocabulary, and the specific talk tracks for the four objections that stall the most consults.
Key takeaways
- A treatment coordinator’s job starts at “no.” If patients could make a five-to-seven-thousand-dollar orthodontic decision alone, practices wouldn’t need TCs at all, which is why a strong TC should be one of the highest-paid people in the office after the owner.
- Objections are requests for validation, not rejections. Patients push back because they want you to make their desire feel valid and safe, so the response is to educate and reassure, not to defend.
- Resistance is a lagging indicator. Any objection is the result of something that happened roughly three steps earlier in the conversation, usually overpacing the patient or breaking rapport, so the fix lives upstream, not in the objection itself.
- Price and cost are not the same thing. Price is the one-time number to buy the treatment; cost is what it takes to own the outcome over its lifetime. A cheaper price often carries a far higher long-term cost, which is the core of the value conversation.
- The “I need to talk to my spouse” objection is preventable. Roughly 99% of patients will need to discuss a multi-thousand-dollar decision with a partner, so quoting the down payment and monthly figure on the phone before the appointment removes the objection before it appears.
- Scripts are for learning, not reciting. A script read word-for-word reads as disconnected, so use it as an outline and deliver it through genuine empathy and connection.
- Assumptive statements beat open-ended questions. “Let’s get you back to the clinic” and “morning or afternoon?” keep momentum; “when would you like to come in?” stalls it.
Why should a treatment coordinator treat “no” as the start of the job, not the end?
A treatment coordinator (TC) is the person in an orthodontic or dental practice who presents treatment and fees and guides a patient to a decision. Harrison Bagdan’s framing, taught to him early by a mentor, is that a TC’s job starts at “no.” If everyone said yes on their own, or there were no objections and no big decisions to navigate, the role wouldn’t exist.
He draws the line between selling and order-taking. Amazon, Target, and Walmart don’t staff professional treatment coordinators because their price points sit below the threshold where the average person needs help deciding. Orthodontic treatment at roughly five to seven thousand dollars, an implant at three to five thousand, or full-arch work at twenty-five to fifty thousand all sit well above that threshold. If the average patient could make that decision alone, the practice wouldn’t need half its staff. That’s exactly why the skill of handling objections has economic value, and why a high-level TC should be close to the highest-paid person in the office after the owner. The job exists because the decision is hard.
Why do patients really raise objections?
Because they want you to help them say yes. Melissa Gardner, who has coached and worked in consult rooms across the U.S. for over 20 years, reframes the objection as an invitation. Patients aren’t pushing back because they want to walk. They want you to validate that what they want is reasonable and to show them you have a way to help them get it.
Once a team stops treating objections defensively, the conversation changes. The objection becomes a chance to educate, build trust, and let the patient feel heard, then guide them toward the outcome they came in for. The practical shift is to stop bracing for resistance and start listening for the real concern underneath the words, then honor that concern rather than argue with it.
Why do dental and orthodontic teams feel awkward talking about money?
Usually because no one taught them how, and often because they carry their own discomfort about money into the room. Harrison Bagdan’s point is blunt: a large share of communication is nonverbal, so if the person presenting fees has an uneasy relationship with money or quietly thinks the practice is overpriced, the patient feels it regardless of how good the script is. He describes the “something just didn’t feel right” reaction most people have had after a sales conversation. That feeling is usually subconscious signals, a lack of confidence or certainty leaking through.
Melissa adds the historical layer: 20 years ago there was a stigma around discussing finances, and some of that carries down. Her fix is conviction. She was effective because she believed completely in what orthodontics does for a patient, so to her the fee was a bargain, which made the number easy to talk about.
Harrison stacks a second conviction on top: belief in the outcome, not just the product. Once a TC is convicted in both, the mindset becomes “if I can’t get comfortable talking about money, I can’t help anybody.” A five-hour consult that educates the patient perfectly still fails if discomfort with money lets them walk out and buy lower-quality treatment from a corporate chain. Framed that way, getting comfortable with money is a duty to the patient, not a sales tactic.
What’s the risk of relying on standard objection responses and scripts?
Two risks: you raise resistance, and you sound like a robot. Harrison Bagdan’s view is that “objection handling” as a discipline often raises sales resistance on its own, because people don’t buy when they’re guarded and they can smell a canned tactic. Asking “so how’s your day going today?” or “how’s the weather?” at the top of a call is one of the fastest ways to raise resistance, because the patient immediately reads it as buttering them up.
The deeper problem with scripts is disconnection. Melissa, who writes and hands out scripts as a coach, is direct that a script read word-for-word gets detected instantly, even over the phone. The purpose of a script is to be a guideline and an outline, a way to remember what to cover and to hold new team members accountable. It should never be recited verbatim. She tells the story of writing an elaborate, filler-packed script when she joined HIP, delivering it on her first call, and having it fall flat, until she was reminded that she was good at the job because she cared and connected, not because of the lines. Scripts are fine for learning. They are not something to lean on.
How do you keep sales resistance low in the first few minutes?
Break the pattern and stay external. Harrison Bagdan gives two concrete tactics. First, break the predictable pattern. Patients walk into an ortho office already a little anxious, already told it’s expensive, already sizing up whether you’re the person who’s going to try to take their money. The standard “Hi Mrs. Jones, welcome, how are you today?” runs exactly the script they expected, which keeps their guard up. Instead, ask something slightly unexpected and disarming, like “you guys staying out of trouble over there today?” It gets a laugh, and you can watch the tension drop.
Second, stay external. When you’re learning this, focus only on what’s in front of you rather than the running commentary in your own head. Notice how fast the patient is breathing, whether they make eye contact, their posture, their hands, and get in sync with them. Match their pace and energy without being obvious about it. Harrison’s training suggestions: practice getting in sync with a friend, a spouse, a young child who can’t talk yet, or a puppy, all of which force you to read nonverbal cues instead of relying on words.
Melissa’s version of the same skill is to treat every patient like a person she’s genuinely interested in rather than a transaction, reading their shoes, their smile, their mood, and building a real conversation off what she notices. The result both coaches describe is the same: true connection built fast, which is what drops resistance and opens the patient up.
How does the feel-felt-found method work in an orthodontic consult?
Feel-felt-found is an empathy framework: you acknowledge how the patient feels, share that you or others felt the same way, then describe what you or they found after moving forward. Harrison’s example runs: “I feel you. I remember when I was bringing my kids into orthodontic treatment, I felt the exact same way. But what I found was that my child’s confidence went through the roof and they started doing better in school.”
It works because it combines empathy with social proof: it tells the patient they aren’t alone and that others with the same hesitation came out glad they proceeded. Melissa’s guardrails keep it from sounding fake. Use your own real patient stories, and you’ll accumulate plenty of them. Speak slowly, avoid exaggerated claims, and don’t oversell, because patients can tell when you’re performing. Treat it as a bridge from the patient’s concern to their outcome, not a manipulation tactic.
What is the difference between price and cost, and why does it close cases?
Price is the one-time amount to buy a product or service. Cost is what it takes to own that outcome over its lifetime. Most of society uses the two words interchangeably, and Harrison Bagdan argues that when a TC understands the difference and hears a prospective patient conflate them, it becomes one of the easiest closes available.
His car analogy: the price of a car might be $50,000, but over several years the cost includes interest, maintenance, repairs, and insurance, so it never actually costs $50,000. In orthodontics, the cautionary example is Smile Direct Club, the direct-to-consumer aligner company that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September 2023 and shut down operations in December 2023, with treatment that typically ran around $2,500. A patient shopping on price sees cheap plastic aligners and a low number. What they don’t see is the cost. When at-home treatment goes wrong, an inexpensive case can turn into a far more expensive corrective one. Astronomically lower price, astronomically higher cost.
The specialist works the equation in reverse. A higher price of, say, seven thousand for orthodontic treatment can carry a near-zero long-term cost if the outcome holds and the practice bundles in the things that protect it. Building retainer plans and whitening into the fee, rather than charging $500 every time a retainer is lost, lowers the patient’s long-term cost and justifies the higher price without discounting.
Melissa extends price-vs-cost past the fee itself. The DSO with a revolving door of doctors has a lower price and a higher cost: no relationship, no continuity, and often a longer treatment because a different provider sees the patient each visit. Postponing treatment carries a cost too. She describes a patient who wanted to delay braces to avoid wearing them in senior photos and prom, only to face either braces during those milestones or paying to remove and later re-install them. And clinical delay compounds: misalignment, grinding, and tongue-thrust issues that are cheaper to treat now get more expensive, or turn into lost teeth, implants, and crowns, later.
How do you run the ARP framework on a cost objection?
ARP stands for acknowledge, respond, pivot, and it’s a core structure for handling almost any objection. The guiding principle Harrison Bagdan learned from mentors is to always agree first. When a patient says “that’s a lot of money,” the worst move is “no it’s not,” because that makes them feel wrong. Agreeing (“I agree, it’s definitely not cheap”) keeps you on the same side.
Melissa walks a full cost objection through the sequence. Acknowledge: “I totally understand, it is an investment, completely understand.” Respond: “However, our goal is to make sure you can achieve your perfect smile, and to fit the treatment and the budget into your life, so we offer flexible payments we can customize to what feels comfortable for you.” Pivot: “Let me show you how we can get started without delaying, and get you confident and moving in the right direction.” Acknowledge the concern, respond with the value and the flexibility, then pivot back toward starting.
Why should a consult lead with empathy instead of the doctor’s expertise?
Because patients decide to trust you emotionally before they can evaluate you logically. Melissa’s position is that people buy on emotion, and the moment a patient feels understood and validated, they open up and the clinical answers actually land. Empathy first isn’t soft; it’s what makes the information matter.
Harrison ties this to how doctors introduce themselves. Patients arrive anxious, about the price, the procedure, and the drills they can hear in the background. The old-school “white coat, pressed pants, Dr. Smith” presentation, he argues, reinforces that anxiety instead of lowering it, because it signals distance and expense right when the patient needs to feel comfortable. His high-converting doctors tend to introduce themselves by first name. The patient already knows the doctor is an expert; the name is on the door and they called with a problem. As orthodontist Ben Fishbein puts it, people walking into your office already think you’re an expert, so don’t convince them otherwise. The respect and the “Dr.” will come; leading with it can be a subconscious barrier to connection.
Melissa adds the counterbalance so doctors don’t lose their standing: build a team that edifies you. When the front desk and TC talk the doctor up before the handoff, the doctor’s credibility is already established, which frees the doctor to drop to a human, first-name level and win the patient on connection. You get the authority and the empathy.
How do you handle “I need to talk to my spouse”?
Prevent it first, then honor the relationship without killing momentum. Both coaches agree this objection is usually a failure three steps back. Roughly 99% of patients will need to discuss a five-to-seven-thousand-dollar decision, or a twenty-five-to-fifty-thousand-dollar implant or full-arch decision, with a partner. Expecting otherwise, Harrison says, means you’re surprised by something entirely predictable. Opening an hour of chair time for a patient whose real goal is to collect a folder and take it home to a spouse is, in his words, the most inefficient thing a practice can do, and no amount of TC training fixes it after the fact.
The prevention is to say the money out loud before the appointment: on the new-patient call, on the confirmation call, on the TC intro call. Melissa’s numbers as an example: “You can get started for $300 down, payments under $200 a month.” Say it repeatedly so the patient has the conversation with their spouse the night before, not in your consult room. A parent who already knows the figures shows up ready to move forward.
When the objection does surface, honor the relationship but protect momentum. Melissa’s play: “Absolutely, I want you both to feel great about this. Would it make sense if I step out for a minute and give you a moment to call? If they have questions, I’m right outside.” Give them the room, literally. If that doesn’t land, set the next step: “Would it make sense to hold Thursday at 2, so once you’ve talked, you just text me and we’re ready?” And if a patient still won’t budge on any option, that’s usually a sign they were lost three steps earlier and the objection is a polite exit, which means the work is in follow-up and rebuilding value, not in a clever comeback.
How do you handle “I want a second opinion”?
Stay completely non-defensive, stay curious, and keep the momentum. Melissa’s first move is zero defensiveness. Confidence isn’t loud; it’s calm, and people trust calm. She gets a little nosy to read the situation: “Do you already have that appointment scheduled?” If it’s real, the patient names a day. If it isn’t, they fumble, and that tells you the second opinion isn’t the real objection. Either way she keeps the door open and the momentum alive: “Absolutely, go get that second opinion, we’ll be right here. Let’s actually go ahead and hold your start appointment, and after you’ve visited them, just text or call and we’ll move forward.” She’ll also ask directly whether something about the treatment plan didn’t make sense, because if a no is coming, she wants to know why so she can build off it.
Harrison sets expectations first: nobody converts 100%, and if you never got a second-opinion request or a no, the town would build you a statue. His baseball framing: go 3-for-10 your whole career and you’re in the Hall of Fame, so closing seven of ten is strong. He also points out that for the right, genuinely analytical patient, shopping around often makes your job easier, because they either never come back, or they call back with a credit card in hand and no further selling required. His diagnostic is a wide-net “this or that” question delivered with humor: is something about the plan not perfect, or are you the kind of person who truly wants to fill out health-history forms at four more offices and take Johnny out of school five times? Usually the honest answer surfaces the real issue, which is often just price, at which point you move to “how do you need the money to work for you?”
What language keeps a consult moving toward “yes”?
Assumptive statements, not open-ended questions. Melissa prefers active statements over active questions, because the patient doesn’t know how the process is supposed to flow and her job is to guide them like a tour guide. A tour guide doesn’t ask whether you’d like to hear about the next room; they walk you there. So at the close she assumes the start: “Let’s go ahead and get started. Did you want to put the payment on debit, credit, cash, or ACH?” For appointments, open-ended invites like “when would you like to come in?” send people into their calendars and stall. Specific options move: “We have Tuesday at 2, does that work, or we actually have 30 minutes in the clinic right now.”
She also credits the doctor’s role in the handoff. One doctor she worked with, Dr. Sparkman, said the same line every single time he left the room: “Can’t wait to see you back in the clinic in a few minutes.” That set the expectation that going back to the clinic was simply the next step, which made the TC’s close feel like a natural progression rather than a decision.
Harrison’s principle is that people don’t like big decisions; they like easy. It’s why Amazon won. So make the next step the easy one. Instead of “when do you want to start,” offer a frictionless-versus-friction choice: “Do you want me to get a chair ready in the clinic now so Johnny doesn’t have to come back, or would you rather take more time off work and pull him out of school again next week?” The same works on the phone: rather than “when would you like to come in,” narrow it in steps, “specific day or first available? Morning or afternoon? I’ve got Tuesday at 8 or Thursday at 9, which is better?” Melissa layers on scarcity and surprise: “We actually have an opening tomorrow at 1, want to grab it?” Every one of these guides the patient down a path instead of handing them an open-ended decision to stall on.
FAQ
Why is “your job starts at no” the core mindset for a treatment coordinator?
Because the role only exists to help people through hard decisions. If patients could make a five-to-seven-thousand-dollar treatment decision on their own, practices wouldn’t need treatment coordinators, the same way high-volume, low-price retailers don’t. The skill of guiding someone past a real objection is where a TC creates value, which is why a strong one should be among the highest-paid people in the office after the owner.
What’s the difference between price and cost in orthodontics?
Price is the one-time amount to buy treatment. Cost is what it takes to own the outcome over its lifetime. A cheaper aligner or a DSO with rotating doctors can carry a lower price but a higher cost through worse outcomes, longer treatment, no continuity of care, or expensive corrective work later. Framing the value conversation around long-term cost, rather than the sticker price, is what justifies a higher fee without discounting.
How do you stop hearing “I need to talk to my spouse”?
Handle the money on the phone before the appointment. Since nearly every patient will need to discuss a multi-thousand-dollar decision with a partner, quoting the down payment and monthly amount on the new-patient, confirmation, and intro calls lets the patient have that conversation at home the night before. When it still comes up in the room, offer to step out so they can call right then, or hold the next appointment so momentum carries.
What is the ARP framework?
ARP is acknowledge, respond, pivot. You acknowledge the objection and agree with the feeling (“it is an investment, I completely understand”), respond with the value and a flexible path (“we can customize payments to what feels comfortable”), then pivot back toward starting (“let me show you how we can begin without delaying”). Agreeing first keeps you on the patient’s side instead of making them feel wrong.
Should a doctor introduce themselves by first name or as “Dr.”?
The episode’s argument is that leading with first name lowers patient anxiety and builds connection, because patients already know the doctor is an expert before they walk in. The credibility can be protected by having the team edify the doctor during the handoff, which lets the doctor connect on a human level without losing authority. It’s ultimately the doctor’s call, but reflexively insisting on “Dr.” can be a barrier to the trust the consult depends on.
Are scripts good or bad for treatment coordinators?
Both coaches use scripts, but only as learning tools and outlines, never to recite verbatim. A script read word-for-word is detectable, even over the phone, and reads as disconnected and transactional. The right use is to internalize what needs to be covered, then deliver it through genuine empathy and connection rather than memorized lines.
Glossary
Treatment coordinator (TC): The team member who presents treatment plans and fees and guides a patient to a decision. Often the highest-paid non-owner role in a high-performing practice.
Price: The one-time amount of money it takes to buy a product or service.
Cost: The total amount it takes to own an outcome over its lifetime, including everything that follows the initial purchase.
Feel-felt-found: An empathy-and-social-proof framework: acknowledge how a patient feels, note that you or others felt the same, then share what was found after moving forward.
ARP (acknowledge, respond, pivot): A three-step structure for handling an objection by validating it, responding with value and options, then redirecting toward starting.
Order-taking: Low-objection transactions below the price threshold where a customer needs help deciding, contrasted with the consultative selling a TC does.
DSO (dental service organization): A group that provides business support to affiliated practices, sometimes associated with rotating providers across visits.
Full episode transcript
Zach Dykes: Patient objection. “It’s too expensive.” “I need to think about it.” Or even “I had a bad experience.” Was it a no, or a not yet? Today we’re flipping resistance into commitment using the most powerful tools for overcoming patient objections. Welcome to the show, Harrison and Melissa.
Harrison: Hey, thanks for having us. Super excited.
Zach Dykes: Glad to have you all. I’m excited to jump into this, empowering partners and listeners on how to overcome objections. So let’s give a little overview. Objections aren’t barriers, they’re opportunities. Can you all unpack that mindset shift and what it unlocks for orthodontists and TCs?
Harrison: Great question. The easiest way it was taught to me early in my career: my mentor said your job starts at “no,” because if everybody said yes, or there were no objections, or there were no big decisions, you wouldn’t have a job. If people could just go to a website and click “buy now,” you wouldn’t need a treatment coordinator, you wouldn’t need a front desk. Personally I don’t like “handling objections,” because if we do this right, there shouldn’t be many, we vaccinated against them early in the process. But there are objections, and if handling them wasn’t a professional skill set, you wouldn’t have a job.
We call the alternative order-taking. Why doesn’t Amazon have professional treatment coordinators? There aren’t a lot of objections. Same with Target and Walmart and lower-ticket offers. There’s a certain price point, different for everybody, where the average person can make a decision without consulting anybody. That’s why at Target nobody’s answering your questions about doormats. You take the stuff, check out, done. But five to seven grand for ortho, three to five for an implant, twenty-five to fifty thousand on full-arch, if the average person could make that decision alone, the doctor wouldn’t need half the staff. So if I want to be a really good TC, I’ve got to understand the reason I get paid, and the reason a high-level TC should be close to the highest-paid person in the office outside the owner. It’s because their job starts at “no.”
Zach Dykes: That’s big. A lot of people turn away when someone says no. Melissa, how have you dealt with this personally in a dental office?
Melissa Gardner: It really is all about mindset. When you’ve spent as many years in as many different consult rooms across the U.S. as I have, you realize patients aren’t giving you objections because they want to say no. They want you to validate them so they can say yes. They want help overcoming their fears, and to know that what they want is valid and that you have the way to help them get it. Once we stop feeling defensive or like we have to placate them, and start thinking of it as them asking for support, the whole conversation changes. It becomes an invitation to educate, a chance to build trust, an opportunity to let them feel heard and seen. So we stop bracing for resistance and start listening for clarity, hearing their true reason for being in the office. As long as you honor the concern behind it, you bring them closer to yes. We have to learn to take objections not defensively but as opportunities to support, validate, and guide.
Zach Dykes: Most orthodontists and teams feel awkward talking about money and facing pushback. Why does that matter, and how do we shift that mindset?
Harrison: How we shift it is different per person, because the reasons for being uncomfortable with money differ, maybe how they grew up, maybe their current financial situation. So I don’t know if I’m qualified to say exactly how to fix that, but I can speak to why it’s important. Most of us know that a large majority of communication is nonverbal and only a small percentage is the actual words. So when people try to sell big things, five, seven, twenty, fifty thousand, and they have a weird relationship with money, or they think their own office is a little overpriced, they project those feelings onto the patient. They can have the best script and learn everything from Melissa, but you’ve had that moment where you talk to someone and think, “it was fine, but something didn’t feel right.” That’s the subconscious communication, a lack of confidence or certainty, body language, resistance. So if you’re the person selling treatment and you have those feelings, you have to figure out where they come from and address it. If you don’t, you’ll only ever get the order-taking deals.
This happened to me yesterday. I got my wife a new car last year, and somehow a dealership called and made a deal work at lower interest and a lower payment. I talked to the sales guy, super nice, super attentive, but I could tell he wasn’t sold on his own deal, like he didn’t believe it. I cooled off. Then the GM called, walked through the exact same numbers and financing, and he got me hot on it again. Same information, completely different result. It was all the nonverbals.
Melissa Gardner: I’ve been in dentistry and orthodontics over 20 years. Twenty years ago there was a real stigma around talking about finances, and some of that carries down. But it comes down to confidence and conviction. I was a good TC because I truly believe in the impact braces and orthodontics make. This isn’t just a smile, it’s the smile they wear at their wedding, their graduation, the first smile their child sees. I believe in that wholeheartedly, so to me it’s a bargain. Most teams feel awkward discussing money because no one taught them how, and no one taught them there’s value in being empathetic about someone’s budget. When we give it structure and realize we’re not selling braces, we’re improving quality of life, the number becomes insignificant. And realistically, you’re going to get to money eventually. Do you want to make it comfortable, or have a great conversation that turns awkward the second dollar signs appear?
Harrison: Building on that, Mel, you were fully convicted. Convicted in the product, that it’s a good clinician and good work, and convicted in the outcome, that it changes the person’s life. Once I’m convicted in both, the mindset has to be: if I don’t get comfortable talking about money, I’ll never help anybody, because if I can’t close them, I can’t help them. You could spend five hours educating someone about dental health, more than anyone else could, but if your uneasiness with money holds you back, the TC at some corporate chain who’s good at closing is going to get them. So your discomfort with money actually hurts people, because your inability to get them over the edge lets them walk out and buy low-end treatment somewhere else. Picture the person whose implants all failed. “Why’d you go there?” “Well, they made it easy and they were confident, and you seemed uneasy about the money.” If you truly believe in what you do and your provider, you have to make it your duty that when someone spends the money, they spend it with the person who’ll get them the best result.
Melissa Gardner: A hundred percent. You can’t sell something you don’t believe in. And if you believe in it, there’s no obstacle, money, connection, any of it, you can’t overcome.
Zach Dykes: Wholeheartedly believing in it is huge. But I want to get into the risk of relying on standard objection answers. Are there other risks beyond patients going elsewhere?
Harrison: It comes down to whether you’re raising sales resistance or lowering it. People don’t buy when they’re in a state of resistance or feeling guarded. I’m a sales guy and a sucker for a good salesperson, I love to buy, but when you start running tactics on me, my guard goes up, and I can sniff it from a mile away. We’ve all been conditioned by bad sales tactics. As soon as we sense someone’s just buttering us up, resistance goes up, not down. One of the fastest ways to raise resistance is opening a call with “so how are you doing today?” or “how’s the weather?” Has anyone ever bought something and thought, “I’m just so happy that salesperson asked how my day was”? No. My immediate thought is, this guy’s buttering me up.
So the easiest way to keep resistance down is to know the objections are coming. Here’s the note to write down: resistance or an objection is a result of what happened three steps ago. It’s not what you just said. And any resistance is a result of overpacing, being out of sync or out of rapport, because of something three steps back. So I don’t want to spend time on “if they say money, say this.” Get out of your head, stop being so internal, and notice what’s happening in front of you. We know what resistance looks like in body language. Notice it, and only respond to that. Keep resistance down by getting in rapport, staying on their point, and pacing them, not yourself.
Melissa Gardner: I deal with this a lot in TC coaching. We use scripts all the time, I create them and hand them out. But if you follow the script to a T, they know it, they can feel it, you’re disconnected. I can hear it on a phone call without even being in the room. The whole purpose of a script is a guideline and an outline. You still have to understand the emotion and reason behind the objection and respond authentically. Are we focused on replying with an automated script, or on connecting and understanding what the patient needs to move forward? When you truly implement just a script, you lose trust, you disconnect from their needs, you come off transactional.
When I came on with HIP, I came from the clinical dental TC world, and I typed out this whole amazing script with all these great filler words, probably the most wasted hour and a half of my life. My first call was a dud, over before it began. Then Harrison, Luke, and I talked, and you said, “Mel, do you know why you’re good at this? Because you care, because you connect, because you’re empathetic. Lead with that and the rest comes.” I’d done that all along as a TC, but I thought I had to change everything because it was a different setting. You brought me back to my core values. Scripts are fine for learning and accountability, but a script should never be read word-for-word, because they’ll know the minute it comes out of your mouth.
Harrison: Let me give a couple tactics, because we’ve been broad. First, when you first meet someone, the number one goal is to get resistance down. Most people coming into an ortho office are already nervous, already have buying anxiety because everyone told them it’s expensive. So break the pattern. What’s the pattern they expect? “Hi Mrs. Jones, welcome, how are you today?” Now you’re on the exact script in their head. Break it. Ask something that makes them laugh and feel safe. People’s resistance goes up because they don’t feel safe, they’re sizing you up. So: “Hey Mrs. Jones, good to meet you, you guys staying out of trouble over there today?” It’s not a normal question. They laugh, and you see the tension come down.
Second tactic: stay only external, only what’s in front of your face. Everything behind that is your head, and that’s dangerous land when you’re learning. Your eyes are your ears. How would I get in rapport if I couldn’t hear you? I’d notice how fast you’re breathing, your eye contact, your posture, your hands. Practice matching people, don’t be weird about it, but slowly get in sync and breathe with them. A lot of the script comes out naturally when you’re in sync. Like a great date where you don’t even remember what you talked about, that’s being fully in sync. Practice with earplugs in, or getting in sync with a kid who can’t talk yet, or a puppy. Raising a puppy forces you to be external, because they can’t give you the cues in words.
Melissa Gardner: So true. I don’t really have a set question, I’ll talk to anyone and everyone. If you use the visual cues, whether they’re stressed or have a great vibe, and just insert yourself into a conversation as if they weren’t your patient, treat them like a person in the middle seat of an airplane you’re going to befriend, everybody wants to feel like they matter. Skip “how was your day.” There’s always something you’ll notice, their shoes, their smile, that breaks the barrier and makes them want to talk to you.
Zach Dykes: True connection, done quickly, you don’t need five years. When you talked about scripting, it made me think of Daniel Day-Lewis, a method actor. That’s what you have to be, fully invested, not a second-grader in a Christmas skit delivering lines.
Harrison: At a holiday party, watch, you’ll see the people who are external and get in sync with everybody, and the ones stuck in their heads who can’t. It’s not the tallest guy or the prettiest person, there’s always that one person everybody says, “did you meet them? They’re everybody’s best friend.” My wife doesn’t fully get what I do, she just knows it’s dentistry stuff, and at a party she asked, “why does everybody start telling you their whole life story when you say hi?” Because I’m in sync with them, noticing body language, breathing, tonality, are they quiet, loud, fast, slow, and I match it.
Melissa Gardner: Same, we went to a casino-style holiday party last weekend and by the end I had five new best friends. I even convinced the dealer to give me a win at blackjack after I busted, because we had such good rapport. It’s easy when you’re passionate about people. Sales, TC, front desk, your number one passion outside of what you’re selling has to be people.
Zach Dykes: Let’s jump into the financial side, the feel-felt-found method. It’s popular but often misused. What makes it work in orthodontics, and how do you keep it genuine?
Harrison: It works in any setting, it’s tried and true in every vertical, because it’s empathy. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. And people need social proof, proof it’s been done before and they’re not on an island. Feel-felt-found puts that together. Keep it simple: “I feel you. I remember when I brought my kids into orthodontic treatment, I felt the exact same way. But what I found was that my child’s confidence went through the roof and they did better in school.” That’s how it flows. “It’s too expensive.” “Mel, I feel you, I remember having five kids to put into treatment, I felt the same way. But what I found was their confidence went through the roof, they did better in sports, had more friends, best thing I ever did.”
Melissa Gardner: For me it reverts to normalizing and validating a patient’s fear instead of dismissing it. Patients want to know they’re not the only one who’s felt this way. Keep it real, use your own patient stories, you’ll have plenty. Speak slowly, avoid exaggerated claims, nobody wants over-the-top, and we’ll know you didn’t really feel, felt, or find that if you’re exaggerating. Remember it’s a bridge, not a tactic, a way to bridge their concern to their outcome by putting yourself in their shoes.
Zach Dykes: This episode is brought to you by the Practice Paradox. If practice growth advice has felt random, like it works for everyone but you, it’s because it’s not the strategy, it’s the fit. The Practice Paradox matches growth strategies to your practice personality so you stop forcing tactics that fight your wiring. For $19.99 you get the book plus the Practice Personality Assessment, a five-minute diagnostic that shows what actually works for you. Now, let’s go into price versus cost, something Harrison has talked a lot about over the years. What’s the difference, and how does it help a patient shift from hesitation to action?
Harrison: Probably my favorite topic. Price and cost are not the same thing, yet most of society uses them interchangeably, and I hear TCs do it too: “yeah, we cost more.” No, your price is higher, but you cost less. When you understand the difference and hear patients interchange the words, it should be one of your easiest closes. Price is a one-time thing, the amount to buy a product or service, period. The price of the car was $50,000. But if you keep that car three, five, eight, ten years, does it cost $50,000?
Zach Dykes: No.
Harrison: Now there’s interest, maintenance, repairs, insurance. In orthodontics, take Smile Direct Club, gone now, but something like it always pops up. People shopping around think they want the cheapest price. What they actually want is the lowest cost, the amount it takes to own the outcome forever. If Smile Direct charged two grand for aligners and the specialist charged seven, the unassuming consumer sees “it’s just plastic on my teeth, way lower.” But they’re interchanging the words. So if you’re selling full-arch, all-on-X, and competing with the cheap options, or ortho and competing with GPs slashing prices, or people doing braces in their basement, you need this down. The price of Smile Direct’s aligners was around two, twenty-five hundred. But why did they get shut down and face lawsuits? Because people’s teeth were falling out. Now instead of a two-thousand-dollar case, it’s a fifty-thousand-dollar “put new teeth in your head” case. Astronomically lower price, astronomically higher cost. Go to the specialist at seven grand, much higher price, and if you wear your retainers it should cost you nothing after. This is how you justify a higher price without discounting: put the retainer plan in, put whitening in. That’s value, and it lowers the long-term cost.
Melissa Gardner: A couple ways this pertains to orthodontics and dentistry. Price versus cost with the DSO that has a revolving door of doctors: your price is lower, but your cost is you never build a relationship, you feel moved through like cattle, treatment changes every appointment, so you have a longer outcome. Price versus cost of postponing: I had a patient, end of sophomore year, whose big thing was not wanting braces during senior pictures, graduation, and prom. They wanted to prolong it because the price felt hard to swallow. But the cost was two options, braces during all those milestones, or paying $400 to remove the braces, do the events, then come back and re-install them. So the cost got even higher. And with actual treatment, misalignment, grinding, tongue-thrusting, the price seems hard to swallow, but the cost is it increases, or you lose teeth and you’re looking at implants or a crown you’ll still grind down and still need braces for. When we realize the cost of the outcome if we don’t deal with the price head-on, these conversations get easier.
Harrison: You also have to know how people are wired. Some truly don’t care about long-term cost, they just want a good price. For me it depends, clothes I’m Costco all day, but I know that’s me being a price person there. Broadly, though, most of the time when someone says your price is too high, what they mean is they don’t see how your value saves them long-term cost. Not always, but most of the time.
Zach Dykes: It reminds me of what Julie talks about, from pain to pleasure, are they trying to avoid the high cost, or are they more long-term pleasure focused. That comes from building connection and rapport. But let’s get into ARP, acknowledge, respond, pivot, a huge core of overcoming any objection. Can you run me through a typical cost objection start to finish?
Melissa Gardner: It’s pretty similar. You acknowledge, you respond, and…
Harrison: …then you pivot back. One of the better coaching points I got long ago is always agree. It doesn’t mean you viscerally agree, but if they say “that’s a lot of money,” the last thing you want is “no it’s not,” because now you’ve made them sound wrong. Some part of you always agrees. “This is a lot of money, I agree, it’s definitely not cheap. What I found out after putting my own kids in treatment was…”
Melissa Gardner: Here’s an example. “That’s more than I expected.” Acknowledge: “I totally understand, it is an investment, completely understand. However, our goal is to make sure you can always achieve your perfect smile, and to fit the treatment and the budget into your life, so we offer flexible payments we can customize to what feels comfortable for you.” Then pivot: “Let me show you how we can get started without delaying, get you confident and moving in the right direction.” Acknowledge, respond, pivot, and shift the dynamic.
Zach Dykes: We’ve talked about empathy a few times. Why is it more powerful to lead with empathy in the consult than to lead with the answers? Doctors often want to show their expertise.
Melissa Gardner: I prefer to lead my whole life with empathy. Whether it’s patients, strangers, friends, or family, we all connect through trust and emotion. No matter your personality type, at the end of the day we’re all human and want to feel connected. On the ortho or consult side, patients decide to trust you emotionally before they can analyze logically. The treatment is going to be similar wherever they go, so they’re buying on emotion. The minute I have someone empathetic who understands and validates me, I open up, I don’t shut down, and the answers they give me actually matter. Patients want to be seen, not rushed, to feel valid. It’s a good standard to live empathetically, but when you’re asking someone to spend significant money and time with you, empathy has to exist in that moment to move forward.
Harrison: A lot of people come into a dental office with anxiety, from the drills and scary sounds, or from hearing it’s expensive and not knowing if they can afford it. The old-school white-coat doctor who makes it clear they’re a notch or two above you, I don’t think that reduces anxiety, I think it reinforces it. My doctors with very high-converting or high-production practices tend to introduce themselves by first name. It’s your prerogative, doctor, you went through all the schooling, we didn’t. But does putting “Dr.” in front, wearing the white coat, pressing your pants, and making clear you’re smarter than them create an environment that lowers anxiety? People like people most like themselves. When I’m empathetic and you already know I’m a doctor, that’s why you’re here, and I say “hey, I’m Kyle, I’m a person, you’re a person,” there’s empathy there. When you come in as “Doctor” to a patient already anxious about price and procedure, you reinforce everything in their head: “he’s got the white coat, this won’t be cheap.”
Melissa Gardner: Let me spin it. If you build a team that believes in you, they edify you all day. On the phone: “Doctor, I can’t wait for you to meet Dr. Sparkman, he’s phenomenal.” As a TC, my handoff edifies you. The patient feels that. Then, like you said, you bring it down to a whole new level of empathy and get to be the amazing person who’s going to make their life better. You worked hard, you became a doctor, so build a team that edifies that and believes in it, and then you get to shock and awe every patient by taking it down a level and being just Kyle.
Zach Dykes: It’s huge, because when you meet someone they give their first name, and leading with “Dr.” puts a barrier to entry. Brad Jacobs likes to be called Brad, and he made the point that doctors were trained to defend their cases, but the people coming in for the TC consult aren’t questioning you, you’re the expert, you don’t have another doctor poking holes.
Harrison: My friend Ben Fishbein, Dr. Ben Fishbein, to be clear, has a great line: people walking into your office already think you’re an expert, so don’t convince them otherwise.
Melissa Gardner: I’ll throw myself under the bus. I didn’t always work for Kyle, I worked for other doctors who were different in how you approached them, and I had some trauma around that. When I needed to be assertive about what they needed to do to grow, I’d tell you, “I can’t talk to them like that, they’re the doctor, I’ve been an assistant and TC for 20 years.” And you’d say, “Melissa, they’re just a person, they’re just a human.”
Harrison: They are very, very smart.
Melissa Gardner: But still a person. Sometimes that connectivity is good for them too, so everything isn’t on them and that massive pressure. They went through school, exams, boards, and sometimes it’s nice to just be Kyle. Once I got past that point, I connected a lot better with doctors and their needs as they grew their practices.
Harrison: Zach, imagine we just met, we go to shake hands, I ask your name, you say “Zach,” and I say “I’m Mr. Bagden.” You’d think, what’s wrong with this guy? It is a form of respect, sure, but let the respect come to you. If you were the doctor and said “hey, I’m Zach,” I’m for sure going to call you Dr. Zach down the road. At a conference this weekend, everyone’s going “Brad, Kyle, Tom,” and one guy says “Hi, my name is Dr. Smith.” The petty side of me thinks, “oh, your first name’s Doctor and you’re a doctor, that’s crazy.” When you over-reinforce a point people already know because they’re in your office, that’s not much empathy or human connection. Their problem brought them to your door, your name’s on it. Just connect. And if you feel you have to introduce yourself as “Doctor,” that might be a subconscious barrier getting in the way of people connecting with you.
Melissa Gardner: Build a team that edifies you.
Zach Dykes: We know somebody we can point people to for help working through that. Shout out, Julie, Nice Outcomes. Let’s go rapid-fire. “I need to talk to my spouse,” how do you handle it?
Melissa Gardner: Honor the relationship, but protect your momentum. First, I hope we don’t get this, because we prevented it three steps prior, on the phone. If day in and day out you’re starting braces at $300 down with payments under $200 a month, say it. Say it on the new-patient call, when you confirm, on the TC intro call. Say it, say it, say it. I’m a mom, and getting a child out of school is basically a prison break, ID, hands up, they practically want a blood sample. The last thing I want is to do that twice. But if I’ve heard three times that we get started for $300 down and payments are under $200 a month, I’m having that conversation the night before: “Kagan’s got an appointment tomorrow, they said we can probably get started, it’s $300 down and payments under $200, is that good?” “Yeah.” I’m showing up debit-card hot.
If it does come up, honor the relationship but protect momentum: “Absolutely, I want you both to feel great about this. Would it make sense if I step out for a minute and give you a moment to call? That way if they have questions, I’m right outside.” Give them the room, make it their room. If that doesn’t work, set the next step: “Would it make sense to go ahead and set that next appointment, Thursday at 2, so after you’ve talked, you just give me a ring or a text and we get everything ready?” Keep the door open without pressure. You’d be amazed how many say “oh, I can call him, no problem,” and 30 minutes later they’re getting braces in the clinic. The other side: if they won’t budge on any option, you probably lost them three steps prior and they want an excuse to get out, so now there’s something to rebuild and follow up on.
Harrison: I’ll beat this to death: any resistance or objection is a result of what happened three steps ago. If we don’t think people will want to talk to their spouse about a five-to-seven-thousand-dollar decision, or a twenty-five-to-fifty-thousand-dollar implant or full-arch decision, we may want to think about another career. Orthodontists’ favorite word is efficiency, how efficient can they be with treatment, but I listen to the calls and nobody’s talking about the spouse. It’s the most inefficient thing I’ve ever seen: giving away an hour of chair time for free when the patient’s whole intention is to get a folder to take home to their spouse. Then it’s “is my TC cut out for this, can she close?” You’re asking a spouse for a monthly payment without talking to the spouse. Even the richest people I know have a number that requires a phone call. So handle it on the phone, three steps ahead. When it does come up occasionally, it can be a cop-out, you lost them earlier. If you want to have fun, and only if you can read the room, something like, “does your husband know you brought the kids in today, or are we on a little secret mission?” But be careful with that, it wouldn’t be my first card.
Zach Dykes: Last one before actionable language. “I want a second opinion.” How do you handle it, staying cool but pushing the credibility of the office?
Melissa Gardner: A little preemptive thinking: I’ve never wanted more appointments in my life, and not many people make three, four, five consultations for the same thing, so if it’s happening, we probably lost trust somewhere. But maybe they do want one. I’ll handle it with zero defensiveness, cool, calm, collected. Confidence isn’t loud, it’s calm, and people trust calm. I’ll also be a little nosy: “Okay, do you already have that appointment scheduled? Would it make sense to preemptively book you out a couple weeks? Once you have that second opinion, just shoot me a quick text or call and we’ll move forward.” If they don’t really have one scheduled, they’ll fumble, and you’ll read it immediately. Realistically, I’m confident the treatment plan my doctor prescribed is exactly what they need, and that my team is the one to do it. “Absolutely, go get that second opinion, we’ll be right here. Let’s set up your appointment, and after you visit them, we’ll get your braces on.” Keep it light but confident. We’re not selling ourselves, we’re finding a solution, and we know ours is secure. I’ll also ask, “is there something about the treatment plan that doesn’t make sense, something you’re concerned about?” It shows we care, and if a no is coming, I want to know why so I can build off it.
Harrison: You knocked that out of the park. First, nobody’s 100% on conversion. If you never had anyone get a second opinion, think about it, say no, or walk out, your town would build you a statue. I find baseball boring, but if you go 3-for-10 your whole career you’re in the Hall of Fame, so knocking down seven of ten is doing pretty well. Second, stay confident, don’t let it feel like you or your office is inadequate. Some people are just logical that way, and for the right person, getting a second opinion actually makes your job easier, because either they start elsewhere and you never follow up, or they call back with a credit card in hand and there’s no more selling.
Most people don’t really want more appointments. Think of the roofing guy after a storm, “we’ll get it covered with insurance,” sounds great, easy. But if it’s “we come, we look, we leave, we come back with another guy, we leave, we come again,” how many times am I working from home for this? It becomes resistance, and there’s no shot I’m getting a second opinion. Most people don’t want more appointments. So a rough talk track, a wide-net “is it this or is it this” statement: “Totally understand, this is a big decision, you want to feel confident, no buyer’s remorse. Just so we can get better, I’m curious, was something we showed you not perfect, or do you truly want to set up multiple appointments and take Johnny out of school four or five times for a lot of opinions?” Or, “if everything were perfect, would you want to start today?” A lot of times what comes back is, “honestly, it was just a bit more expensive than we hoped.” “Okay, how do you need the money part to work for you?” Give them a this-or-that, and figure out the real cause.
Harrison: And that mom who gets an opinion at every office? If you win her business and humor her, she becomes your best referral source, telling everyone at Starbucks she went to every office and Dr. Zach Ortho is the best. Some of these people are great referral sources. The biggest thing is finding the real root: are they the “I have to be right” type who needs it to sleep at night, or is something genuinely not perfect? “If it were perfect, would you start today? Yes? Okay, what’s not perfect? Is it perfect now? Here’s a pen.”
Zach Dykes: Last segment, active language. Something like “would you like to start this week or next.” What makes action-oriented questions effective, and what’s a phrase every team should use?
Melissa Gardner: I’m not even sure I love active questions, I like active statements. Patients don’t know how things are supposed to move along, and my job is to guide them to the solution. So I always assume everyone’s ready at the end: “All right, let’s go ahead and get started. Did you want to put that payment on debit, credit, cash, or ACH?” We go straight into it. For appointments, when we leave it open-ended, people start looking at their calendars and their kids’ calendars. Instead: “We’ve got next Tuesday at 2, does that sound great? Actually, we’ve got 30 minutes in the clinic right now, we can grab them.” I’m the tour guide. I’ve never had a tour guide ask, “would you like to know what happened in this room?” No, they say, “back in 1916, so-and-so was here.” I’m telling you how this goes, and it’s my job to take you there. If we did our job right three steps prior, they’re ready.
One of my favorites: Dr. Sparkman, every single time he left the room, said, “Can’t wait to see you back in the clinic in a few minutes.” Every time. It set the standard that this is what we do, so my job was easy: “All right, let’s get you back to the clinic with Dr. Sparkman. Mom, I just need a couple signatures, we’ll take the down payment, and get things moving.” It feels like a natural step, not a big decision. Doctors, give your TC that one-liner on the way out. I’d also plant seeds like, “what color are you going to get today?” building momentum, so at the end it just comes down to signatures and down payment. Open-ended questions kill it every time. I’m not here to contemplate, I have a problem, you’re my solution, walk me through the steps.
Harrison: People don’t like big decisions, they like easy. It’s why Amazon went so big, you can buy while you’re sleeping. My wife and I went to stores last weekend and I don’t do crowds, and I thought, no wonder Amazon took over. Same point here: “when do you want to get started?” sends the brain through a million scenarios, Johnny’s got school and baseball and ballet, I need to talk to my spouse. But make it easy. Even if you’re not pushing a same-day start, go lighter: “Mom, do you want me to get a chair ready in the clinic today so Johnny doesn’t have to come back, or would you rather take more time off work and pull him out of school again next week?” That’s the reality, not a trick. What’s the easy answer? Just do it.
Zach Dykes: Friction versus frictionless. Both options are real, but one’s clearly easier.
Harrison: Right. And go back to the phone call. “When would you like to come in?” I can’t stand that question, the answer is “I don’t know, ASAP.” Be specific: “Is there a specific day you’re looking for, or first available?” “First available.” “Great, are you more of a morning or afternoon person?” “Morning.” “Okay, my first available is Tuesday at 8 or Thursday at 9, which is better?” Work through the chain.
Melissa Gardner: I also love making it sound like a surprise. From a front-desk view: “Oh my gosh, we actually have an opening tomorrow at 1.” We’re busy, people are coming to see us, this is the spot to be. “We’ve got a spot at 1 tomorrow, want to take it?” There are so many ways to build excitement by guiding and directing instead of asking open-ended questions.
Zach Dykes: “Would you like to pay cash or credit?”
Harrison: “Was there a specific type of treatment you wanted, aligners or braces, or were you looking for whatever the doctor recommends for your case?” Instead of pulling out all the options, clear, metal, champagne, gold, aligners, and asking “what do you want?” while they freeze. “Did you know what kind of treatment you wanted, or do you want what the doctor recommends?”
Melissa Gardner: Pick a hand, any hand.
Zach Dykes: Thank you all so much for being on this episode. Mark Twain said it best: the secret of getting ahead is getting started. So get out there and start making the changes you want to see in your practice today. This has been Zach, Melissa, and Harrison. Thank you for watching the GrowOrtho Podcast.
Ready to turn more consults into starts?
If your team is losing patients at “it’s too expensive” or “I need to think about it,” the fix usually lives on the phone and in the first five minutes of the consult, not in a better comeback. Book a call with HIP Creative and we’ll help you build the front-end process that prevents objections before they start.
