Ep. 82: Case Acceptance: How to Address Patients’ Objections
We’ve all heard it before: “I can’t afford it,” “I need to talk to my wife/husband first,” “Can it wait?” “I have to think about it,” etc. And if you’re not hearing these objections, then ask your treatment coordinator, because they definitely are! So this week, Jeff discusses how to address these objections in a friendly and effective way so you can still help the patient with the best treatment plan for them.
Links:
The MGE Communication & Sales Seminars - https://www.mgeonline.com/abc
Team training video courses - https://ddssuccess.com
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Questions From This Episode
What's the actual difference between a valid objection and just sales resistance?
A valid objection sounds reasonable, the patient sticks to it consistently, and they stay communicative and solution-oriented about it, often proposing their own workaround. Sales resistance, on the other hand, shifts from reason to reason, busy, then expensive, then needing to think about it, and the patient stays vague rather than offering real detail. The pattern, not the specific words, is what tells you which one you're dealing with.
What does it actually mean when a patient says they need to think about it?
In almost every case, it's a polite way of saying no without the confrontation of saying no directly. Very few people genuinely sit down and deliberate over a treatment decision the way the phrase implies. The real move is to acknowledge it, then gently find out what's actually behind it, discomfort with the cost, fear of a procedure, or something else entirely.
What should I do when a patient says they need to talk to their spouse before deciding?
First determine whether it's genuine by asking a few questions, if they'd proceed today were it entirely up to them, that's a strong signal it's real. If it is genuine, one effective option is offering to bring both the patient and their spouse back in so you can explain the treatment plan directly, rather than asking the patient to relay 20 or 30 minutes of clinical explanation on their own, since only the dollar figure tends to survive that secondhand conversation.
Is money really the reason most patients don't move forward with treatment?
Rarely, in the truest sense. In a small number of cases someone genuinely cannot qualify for any form of payment, but for most patients, cost becomes the surface-level object of an extended back and forth precisely because the real hesitation, discomfort, fear, or simply not wanting the treatment, isn't being addressed directly. When a money conversation starts looping without resolution, it's usually a sign to set the fee aside and ask directly whether the patient actually wants to move forward with treatment.
How should I react in the moment when a patient gives me an objection?
Expect it, since objections are a normal part of any sales process, not a sign the patient doesn't care about their health. Getting visibly annoyed or impatient, even subtly, is one of the fastest ways to derail the conversation, since patients can usually sense that reaction whether or not it's said out loud. The first move should always be acknowledging that you heard them, sometimes that alone resolves a resistance-based objection entirely.
Episode Transcript
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Since starting this podcast back in 2021, I've received a ton of listener feedback, and I want to say thank you for that first. It's genuinely helpful to know people are listening, and it shapes what future episodes end up covering, since a lot of them come directly from what you're asking.
The subject I get asked about most, by a wide margin, is treatment acceptance and treatment presentation. I understand why. It's one of the weakest areas in the dental industry, patient retention and reactivation being the other, and it's also one of the fastest ways to make an outsized impact on your practice. Collections go up, profitability potentially goes up, you get to do more of the dentistry you actually enjoy, and most importantly, patients get their full treatment plan, not just what insurance happens to cover, which genuinely improves their health and quality of life.
We've covered a lot of ground on this already based on listener feedback, the organizational side of sales, the financial conversation, how to structure a case presentation. But looking back through these episodes, I noticed something significant was missing: what do you actually do when you've explained the treatment plan, given the patient the cost, and they respond with, I need to think about this, or, I'm very busy right now, or, I need to wait, or, I'm only going to do what insurance covers?
In other words, what do you do when a patient gives you an objection? I've never actually covered that directly, so that's what this week's episode is about, handling objections in a way that genuinely increases treatment acceptance. My name is Jeff Blumberg, and I'm your host.
Let's start with the general nature of objections. They fall into one of two categories, and if you can't tell which one you're dealing with during a case presentation, you can mishandle it badly. The two categories are a valid, or real, objection, and a flawed, or unreal, objection, which is essentially just sales resistance.
A valid objection has three basic characteristics. First, it sounds reasonable, it makes sense on its face. Second, the patient sticks to it, it's the objection, not one of three rotating reasons. Third, the patient stays communicative about it, genuinely working with you rather than shutting down.
Here's what that might sound like. Say I've just presented a 12,000 dollar treatment plan, and when I ask how you'd like to handle payment, you say, I definitely want to do this, but here's the issue, I'm in the middle of refinancing my house, it closes in three weeks, and my lender told me not to apply for any new credit or make a large purchase until it closes. Is that true in a lot of cases? Absolutely. Could someone be lying about it? Sure, people lie sometimes. But if this person is genuinely open about it, solution oriented, maybe even offering, could I put down 500 dollars now, and set up that payment plan once the refinance closes, or just put the rest on a card, that's someone actively working with you. That's very likely a valid objection.
How do you actually know, though? You have to ask questions and be genuinely comfortable doing so, if you can't communicate well, selling is going to be difficult regardless. Here's a trickier example: instead of the refinancing explanation, I simply say, I need to talk to my wife about this. That phrase alone could be entirely valid, or it could be pure sales resistance, a polite way of ending the conversation. I'll be honest, I've used that exact line myself before just to exit a conversation gracefully. Or it could be completely genuine, some couples have real agreements about not making certain purchases without discussing them first.
So how do you tell the difference? You ask. You might say something like, Jeff, do you want to move forward with this treatment plan? If yes, if it were entirely up to you, would you just do it right now? If the answer is yes, but I'd go home, get into a real argument, and possibly end up sleeping on the couch, because my wife and I made an agreement years ago not to spend over a certain amount without talking first, that's almost certainly a valid objection. It sounds reasonable, I'm sticking to it, and I'm being genuinely communicative about it.
So what do you actually do with a valid spouse related objection? There are a few approaches. One is simply asking if they could call their spouse right now. I don't typically do this myself, since in my own experience, if I need to talk to my wife about something important, I'd rather choose the right time and place, catching her mid-workday when she's slammed isn't ideal. Some people are comfortable asking this directly, and if a patient volunteers that they could call right now, fine, let them. But I usually won't push it unless they bring it up first.
The second option is letting them go home and discuss it there. The problem here is that you've just spent 20 to 30 minutes building genuine understanding of the treatment plan with this patient, they get it, they see the value, they understand why it costs what it costs. When they try to relay all of that secondhand to their spouse, unless they're an unusually skilled communicator, most of that nuance gets lost. What survives the retelling almost every time is the number, 12,000 dollars, stripped of all the context that made it make sense. You're essentially asking them to resell your treatment plan on your behalf, without your training or your explanation.
Here's the approach I personally prefer, and this isn't unique to dentistry, I do the same thing here at MGE when someone is considering one of our training programs. I don't want to be the source of marital conflict, and I genuinely believe someone going through a significant program, whether that's a dental treatment plan or a business training program, needs their spouse's support, not resentment, for it to go well. So here's what I'd say: Jeff, we've spent 20 to 30 minutes together, and you fully understand everything in this treatment plan, right? Yes. Here's something I've noticed before, when someone goes home to discuss this, the cost is the one thing that translates clearly, but the value behind that cost often doesn't. So here's what I'm willing to do: I'll make myself available again, just like today, and bring both you and your wife in so I can walk through the full treatment plan with her directly and answer any questions she has, so you're both genuinely comfortable moving forward together.
From the patient's perspective, that lands really well, the doctor is willing to go to bat for me so I don't have to awkwardly explain this and field questions I can't answer. And there's a practical bonus too: if that spouse isn't already a patient of yours, and the two of you get along well during that follow up visit, it's a completely natural moment to ask, do you have a dentist? We're running a new patient special, let's get you on the schedule. You've potentially gained a new patient out of what started as an objection.
You'll run into other genuinely valid objections too. I can't do this right now, I'm leaving the country tomorrow for three months. Fair enough, you're clearly not going to prep a set of crowns you can't deliver on and leave someone in temporaries for months while traveling, unless there's active pain or disease progression that genuinely needs addressing first. The point stands: you have to actually communicate with patients to determine whether something is real or whether it's sales resistance dressed up as a reason.
Now let's look at flawed or unreal objections, essentially sales resistance. These have two defining characteristics: the patient isn't especially communicative about it, and they don't stick to one specific objection.
Here's what that looks like. I've just told you the treatment plan is 12,000 dollars, and you say, I just don't have time for this right now, I'm very busy. Notice there's no detail, no specific commitment, appointment, or trip, just very busy. Say you address the scheduling concern directly, we can absolutely work around your schedule, and the response shifts: yeah, but it's a lot of money. You address that too, and it shifts again: I think I just need to think about it. The objection keeps changing, like flipping channels. Sometimes it circles back to the original reason after drifting elsewhere entirely.
Compare that to real communication: I'd love to do this, here's my actual constraint, I've only got 1,000 dollars available on this card and can't write a check over 3,000, so I can pull together 4,000 toward the 12,000, is a payment plan possible for the rest? That's someone genuinely working the problem with you. Just saying it's expensive, I can't afford it, with no further detail, isn't communication, it's a soft no.
What's really behind sales resistance, at its core, is simple: the person doesn't want to do what you're proposing, for whatever underlying reason, and saying no directly feels too confrontational. Play it forward: if I told you flatly, no, after you'd just explained my treatment plan, how often does that actually happen? Almost never. Instead it's, I'm really busy, I need to wait, let me think about it. All of these functionally mean no, just delivered more gently.
Why the no in the first place? Could be any number of underlying reasons, but fundamentally it comes down to whether the value you've communicated outweighs whatever resistance the person has to moving forward. Take a completely non-dental example: I want to get in shape, but I really love ice cream. If looking good in certain clothes doesn't matter that much to me, I eat the ice cream. If long-term health matters more to me than the short-term discomfort of skipping dessert, I skip it. It comes down to whether what's being offered outweighs the resistance to doing it.
Sometimes that resistance is something the patient isn't voicing directly, genuine fear of needles, discomfort with the sound of a drill, real anxiety around the procedure itself. If the value you've communicated doesn't outweigh that specific resistance in their mind, you get an objection, even if the stated reason is something else entirely, like being busy or needing to think about it. Ultimately, these flawed objections are simply a polite way of saying no.
Take, I really need to think about this. What does that actually mean in practice? It's a gentle no. Realistically, is someone going home to sit at the dining table and genuinely deliberate, chin in hand, working through the decision? No. Nobody really thinks about things that way, especially decisions. Think about buying a house, a genuinely large purchase, did you go home and think about it in the abstract? No, you weighed specifics: do I want this house, can I afford it, does it make sense. That's not thinking, that's actively working through a decision, which is honestly part of your job in sales, to help someone work through exactly that.
So when someone says they need to think about it, the wrong move is challenging them, what is there to think about, since that just puts them on the defensive instead of actually listening. The single most important first step with any objection, valid or flawed, is making sure the patient genuinely feels heard. The fastest way to derail a conversation is responding to an objection by steamrolling past it toward your close, the patient will feel unheard immediately.
I've had patients give me an objection, I really need to think about this, and simply responding, I understand, I get it, was enough on its own to resolve it. Not every time, maybe 20 to 30 percent of the time in my experience, but often enough that it's worth trying first. Sometimes people just need to feel like what they said actually landed.
The flip side of this: don't get annoyed or irritated, even subtly, even if you think you're hiding it well. Picture this, you've just presented a 12,000 dollar treatment plan, the patient seemed genuinely engaged throughout, nodding, tracking with you, and then at the end, instead of yes, let's do it, you get, I really need to think about it. That's not what you expected to hear, and the instinctive reaction for a lot of people is mild irritation, an unspoken, what's wrong with this guy.
I've done sales training for over 30 years, I'm one of the main speakers at our Communication and Sales Seminars, and we have extensive training on this on our online platform, DDS Success, links on the episode page. Objections are simply part of the process. If you think objections only happen because a patient has a low dental IQ or doesn't care about their teeth, that's not accurate. Everyone listening to this has given plenty of objections themselves at some point when buying something. It's simply part of how a sales process works, no different than expecting a duck to swim when it hits water. Getting irritated by it is like being upset that the duck is doing exactly what ducks do.
If you get annoyed, even quietly, you've derailed the conversation, patients can generally sense that, whether or not you show it outwardly. Objections are genuinely easy to handle once you expect them and know what to do with them, they're simply inherent to the process, sometimes you'll get several, sometimes none at all.
So practically, the first move with any objection is acknowledging it, I understand, or tell me a bit more about that, whatever feels natural to you, don't fixate on exact wording, focus on the underlying concept. From there, assuming good communication, there are a few directions you can take.
First, you might dig deeper directly: when someone says they want to think about it, that usually means their attention is actually on something specific they're not comfortable voicing yet. You might say, I want to be clear, my job as your doctor is to get you healthy, whether that happens today, next week, or next month is ultimately your call, but I'm here right now, dedicating this time to answer whatever's actually on your mind. What's the real concern? That often surfaces the actual issue, fear of needles, cost concerns, whatever it is, and once it's named, you can address it directly.
Second, you might simply acknowledge the objection and pivot back into reinforcing the value of the treatment plan itself. I understand this is a big decision, can I walk you through one more part of this plan? Then continue building understanding, since if a patient doesn't fully grasp the significance of what you're recommending, they haven't truly understood it yet, and that understanding is what ultimately moves the conversation forward.
Third, you can ask directly: I get where you're coming from, can I ask you something, do you actually want to do this? It's a real commitment, I know, but is this something you genuinely want? Motivated people generally find the time and figure out the payment, even amid real constraints. If someone isn't finding a way, that usually points to a lack of genuine motivation rather than a genuine logistical barrier, which is worth knowing directly.
One pattern worth naming: the resistance you run into when trying to help someone move forward is often the exact same pattern that created the underlying problem in the first place. Take a patient who's chronically avoided dental care and let a problem worsen over two years. What do you think you'll encounter trying to get them to finally address it? The same avoidance that got them here in the first place. That's exactly why the understanding and value you build in that conversation has to be substantial enough to outweigh that ingrained resistance.
This is honestly why I find sales genuinely enjoyable rather than something uncomfortable, it was never about closing someone like some kind of manipulation. It's about genuinely trying to help someone across a real gap, their own resistance, toward something that improves their health and quality of life. I see the same pattern here at MGE constantly. When I'm talking to an executive who's clearly struggling, unprofitable office, a team that isn't performing, and they push back on training, it's not surprising, the same weaknesses that put them in that position are exactly what's generating the resistance. I don't have the budget, my staff won't listen anyway, and so on. Eventually the shift happens, I need to actually fix this, can you help me.
For too busy specifically, listen first, understand what's actually behind it, then either ask directly whether they genuinely want to move forward, or return to reinforcing a specific point in the treatment plan that matters most to their situation.
The it's too expensive objection deserves special caution. If someone says, this is very expensive, and you ask them to elaborate, you can end up in a 15 to 20 minute back and forth entirely about financing options, what about a payment plan, I can't manage that payment, what about this card instead, I don't want the interest, on and on. Here's something worth remembering: money is very rarely the actual, root reason someone doesn't move forward. In a small number of genuine cases, someone truly can't qualify for any payment path, in which case you're really just addressing the immediate clinical priorities, pain or active disease, and handling the rest as circumstances allow. But for the vast majority of patients, if they're genuinely motivated, they find a way.
So when a money conversation starts looping without resolution, back and forth, back and forth, it's rarely actually about the money at that point. Set it aside directly: let's pause on the financial piece for a second, do you actually want to move forward with this treatment plan? Do you see why it matters right now? That reframes the conversation around the real question rather than continuing to circle financing details that were never the true obstacle.
Those are the fundamentals. There's genuinely a lot more depth to this subject, we spend close to 21 days on it combined between our online sales training on DDS Success and the MGE Communication and Sales Seminars, plus more advanced material specifically on communication and case acceptance. The average increase clients see from the Communication and Sales Seminars is around 288,000 dollars in the first year alone, and often more in following years. I'm one of the speakers at that seminar, and I'd genuinely recommend it if this is an area you want to strengthen, it can meaningfully move your practice forward, and there's a lot more material there to help you feel completely confident presenting treatment of any size.
I hope this was helpful. Try some of this out and let me know how it goes, you can reach out through the Contact Us section on the Dental Business Rx site, or email me directly at jeffb@mgeonline.com. If you have other questions about improving your practice, find us online at mgeonline.com or call 800-640-1140. Have a great week, and I'll talk to you at the next episode.