Thiago Carvalho is the founder of Implant Prospect, a dental marketing agency for dental offices.
Selling full-arch dental implants is a big opportunity, but it comes with challenges that can slow down or even stop production for a dental office. If you’re not closing as many cases as you’d like, it’s likely because of four key problem areas. Addressing these can make a huge difference in your practice. It’s a matter of focus and eliminating limiting beliefs. You can start by understanding the four big challenges in full-arch implant sales:
1. Weak Or Generic Marketing Strategy
Most implant marketing looks the same. Dentists either compete on price or talk about patient comfort, but neither approach stands out in a crowded market. If you don’t have a clear, unique selling proposition, your campaigns won’t get the results you need.
2. Poor Lead Management
Even with great marketing, many practices lose potential patients because they don’t manage leads effectively. Imagine generating 600 leads but only getting 15-25 consultations a month—that’s a massive loss. If your team isn’t following up quickly and consistently, you’re missing out on high-value cases.
3. Failing To Prequalify Patients
Not every lead is a good fit for full-arch treatment. Some have financial limitations, others fear treatment and many aren’t ready to commit. If your practice treats every lead the same, you’ll waste time on unqualified patients instead of focusing on those ready to move forward. Prequalifying patients early saves time and increases efficiency.
4. Weak Negotiation Skills
Many patients who take the time to schedule an appointment already want a dental solution—they just need help making the final decision as to what they need. If your team can’t confidently discuss treatment options, financing and costs upfront, you risk losing cases that could have been closed with the right approach.
Fixing The Sales Process To Close More Cases
Without a structured sales process, new patient consultations can run 45-90 minutes, only for the patient to say, “Wait, how much is this? I can’t afford that.” That conversation should happen early, not at the end.
You must have a structure, usually 30 minutes max for the initial chat. Then if a patient qualifies, send them for a CT scan and present treatment at the end with the closing. Other ways you can potentially fix the sales process include:
Giving Patients Choices
One way to avoid last-minute objections is to offer multiple treatment options. When patients feel in control, they’re more likely to move forward. Instead of presenting one option, give them choices that fit different budgets and needs. This approach also shifts the conversation from “Can I afford this?” to “Which option is best for me?”
Understand The Shopper Mentality
Some patients don’t need convincing—they’re just shopping around. They already know they want full-arch implants but are comparing providers. The key is to identify these patients early and use effective negotiation techniques to close the case instead of letting them leave to shop elsewhere.
Bring Up Financing Early
If cost is going to be a concern, address it right away. When a patient knows financing options are available upfront, they can focus on the benefits of treatment rather than stressing over the price. This also helps ensure that by the time they meet with the doctor, they already have a plan to pay for treatment.
Lead Management: The Hidden Key To Success
With more dentists offering full-arch implants, lead management is one of the biggest challenges. Too many practices generate leads but don’t have a system to track, follow up and convert those leads into scheduled consultations. This is where AI-driven tools come in.
AI systems can help front desk teams solve lead management problems by:
• Converting more calls into scheduled appointments through automated prompts.
• Communicating more effectively with potential patients by using messaging customized to the lead.
• Prequalifying leads using rules you specify before they even step into the office so they know if they can afford treatment.
• Automatically following up with high-value leads that didn’t initially book.
By improving lead management, AI tools ensure that marketing efforts don’t go to waste, leading to a steady increase in full-arch implant production.
The Next Step: Optimizing Your Practice
Understanding these four areas of attrition—marketing, lead management, prequalification and negotiation—allows you to take control of your implant production. In the next part of this series, we’ll dive deeper into how AI and automation can help eliminate these challenges and create a predictable system for increasing case acceptance.
If you’re ready to take your full-arch production to the next level, start by assessing where you might be losing patients. Fix those gaps, and you’ll see real growth in your practice.
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