Ashley Latter Dental Sales Training

Ashley Latter Dental Sales Training Enhance your communication skills and deliver the dentistry that you love to do and your patients want I have lived in Manchester all my life.
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In 1997 two dentists together with 15 sales people from other industries took my course. To be honest, when they left the programme on the second day I did not think they had enjoyed it, however, I promised that I would call them to follow up. From two dentists, Neal Sampson and Barry Oulton, I have now delivered my Ethical Sales and Communication Programme to over 9,500 dentists worldwide. An add

ed bonus is that Neal is today is one of my best friends and our families have enjoyed holidays together both in the UK and abroad. The Ethical Sales and Communication programme is legendary in the U.K. dental world and is probably the most sought after one in dentistry today. I have delivered it in 14 different countries, including Estonia, Serbia Canada and five times in the USA. Apart from the Ethical Sales and Communication course, I deliver other programmes including The Advanced Ethical Sales and Communication Programme, Creating a World Class Patient Journey, Public Speaking Course for Beginners, A Reception Programme - How to Turn Telephone Enquiries into Appointments and his Life Skills Bootcamp which is a kids course where we teach 16-24 year olds skills to help them sell themselves better in interviews, develop extra self-confidence and a more positive attitude. I also work with a very forward thinking group of dentists and orthodontists on the Serious Players Club, which is an Entrepreneur group. I am the author of several books including; Helping patients to say YES, Don’t Wait for the Tooth Fairy - How to communicate effectively and create the Perfect Patient Journey and You are worth it - Communicate your fees with self-confidence and achieve the income your services deserve. I wrote a chapter in Dental Masters and have written and published hundreds of articles. In 2014, I was voted number 12 in top 150 most influential people in UK Dentistry and I was the only overseas speaker at the 100th Dutch Dental Conference, which was opened by the King of Holland. I have delivered over 23,000 hours of business coaching to the dental industry all over the world. I empower dentists and their teams to communicate with their patients, which results in a world class patient journey, more patients saying YES to treatment plans and increased profits for their practices. During the last 20 years, working with my clients and by tracking their results, I have helped them communicate and sell over £200m worth of extra dental treatment in an ethical way world-wide. When I am not delivering presentations (over 140 in 2014), I have an extremely busy personal life. I am married to Graziella, with two daughters Enrica and Martina. In any spare time I have, I enjoy keeping fit, walking with my family in the Lake District, going to concerts and I love reading personal development books, over 25 books a year. I have run three marathons raising money for cancer research and have also delivered my programmes a few times for charity. I am a passionate Manchester United supporter, and have had a season ticket at Old Trafford for over 40 years.

sunny and very windy on the tops today.
03/08/2024

sunny and very windy on the tops today.

Check out my ride on Strava.

I have read several articles recently about some resorts in Spain, where they not only want to significantly reduce the ...
18/06/2024

I have read several articles recently about some resorts in Spain, where they not only want to significantly reduce the number of tourists visiting their resorts, but they also want a different type/calibre of clientele. Evidently, some of these places do not want some of our holidaymakers from the UK and in some cases, to deter them from coming, they are now reducing the times when you can drink alcohol.

You might say, who can blame them.

In your Dental Practice you should always consider who your ideal patient is and what type of patient you want coming through your door. In my business, we obsess about it. We normally find our ideal clients have three main traits.

They are very forward thinking. They want to grow in their personal and professional life. They realise to get better depends on their own growth and development.

That is why we have developed lifers in our business, dentists and clients that use us all the time and are obsessed about developing new skills and getting better.

Recently, I was on a Zoom coaching session with a Practice Owner from abroad, who told me that he spends an enormous amount of income attracting new patients to his Practice.

The figure made my eyes water. The challenge is that a lot of these patients have not been to the dentist for a while. They only go in because they have a problem and once they have had their problem solved, they quickly move on. Alternatively, they may have a one-off cosmetic treatment and then do not stay with the Practice. They must have to consistently replenish the marketing budget to survive. That is not a great business strategy.

I urge you to consider who your ideal patient is, and what traits they have.

1. Do they value and respect what you do and the advice you give to them?

2. Are they willing to join a plan and pay monthly to be a part of your family?

3. Do they invest in making their smile be the best it can be?

Look after these patients well, exceed their expectations, develop lifelong relationships with them and then do not forget to hand them a referral card and ask them to hand it to their friends, relatives, and work colleagues. There is a very good chance they will be referring you to patients just like them and then you can start building a Dental Practice of the ideal patients what you want.

25/05/2024
24/05/2024

Big communication mistake #3 when discussing fees: Considering the treatment time in relation to the fee.

The first of a series of videos on what I find are the five biggest mistakes that dentists make when discussing fees. Cl...
09/05/2024

The first of a series of videos on what I find are the five biggest mistakes that dentists make when discussing fees.

Click the link to watch:

In this first of a series of videos I will be discussing the five biggest mistakes that dentists make when discussing fees. Stay tuned for next weeks video w...

Welcome to our first podcast of 2024 and an interview with Dr Mike Hughes of Deintyddfa Na-Nóg Dental & Implant Team in ...
26/01/2024

Welcome to our first podcast of 2024 and an interview with Dr Mike Hughes of Deintyddfa Na-Nóg Dental & Implant Team in Bangor, North Wales

We begin our new podcasting year with a story of courage and resilience that has led to the creation of an award-winning specialist referral practice in Gwynedd, even though some local councillors and planning officers did their level best to stop the project before it started.

Mike Hughes shares his history with us - qualifying as a reluctant dentist second time around in Cardiff and then moving on to develop his passion for MaxFax.

In our conversation you will learn:

how to grow a 4-chair practice in 2250 sq feet of office space; how to open in 3 months after acquiring the building how to attract over 400 new complex referral patients in your first year; how terrible Chris Barrow is at Welsh pronunciation! the three biggest tips for anyone stepping on to the ownership ladder in 2024; how Mike runs his business in 60 minutes a month.

Listen here:
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/s07-e01-on-never-giving-up-and-how-to-run-your/id1184618980?i=1000641089314

This is so true. I have to deal with many suppliers in a typical year and I normally find that the party who has the big...
25/01/2024

This is so true. I have to deal with many suppliers in a typical year and I normally find that the party who has the biggest issue with regards to the price is the person selling, very rarely is it the buyer. Just because someone many years ago made some sarcastic comment about your fees, dentists think that every patient is doing the same. They are not, so neither should you.

https://www.lanz.dental/community/event-rsvp/?event_id=5I am really excited to announce, for the first time I will be de...
20/01/2024

https://www.lanz.dental/community/event-rsvp/?event_id=5

I am really excited to announce, for the first time I will be delivering my Two Day Ethical Sales & Communication Programme in Auckland New Zealand on the 22nd & 23rd March 2024.

All the details are below.

LANZ.Dental specialises in dental practice sales, business advice, valuations and the placement of dentists and dental professionals in New Zealand.

Although important, very few patients shop on price only, they might say they do, but they dont. Think about your own bu...
19/01/2024

Although important, very few patients shop on price only, they might say they do, but they dont. Think about your own buying habits, do you actually ever buy anything on just price only? Make the consultation so amazing, build incredible rapport with your patients and get them to trust and like you, so they don't think about the price of your services.

15/12/2023

In November, I delivered 14 days of ethical sales and communication training all over the UK, including Ireland, this is the most I have ever delivered in a month. The schedule was punishing, but extremely enjoyable and I loved every minute of it.

As you can imagine, on these courses, a lot of topics are discussed, one of them is the value of creating picture books and posting pictures and videos on Instagram and other social media platforms. Some dentists have openly admitted that they don’t create picture books, because they are waiting for the perfect pictures. This may result in some dentists not progressing in the way they would like and not achieving the success they deserve. They don’t post on Instagram or any social media because they are worried about what other dentists might think, or what comments they may get on their posts. In other words, they feel their work will be judged. So even though they can see the benefits of using picture books when explaining their cases to patients, they can’t see the benefits of posting on social media, and therefore don’t do it just because they are waiting for the perfect picture.

Here is my take on this. You will never create the perfect picture; you will always find something that you are not happy with. I have delivered thousands of hours of communication training courses, workshops and presentations and I am yet to deliver the perfect course. On reflection, there are always things I could have done better. I am super critical about myself. I once heard this saying …‘‘Good enough is good enough’. If you are waiting for 15 perfect pictures before you are ready to print your picture book, you will never print one.

If you are worried about what other dentists think about your pictures on Instagram, you will never post one. Who cares what they think anyway, they are not the ones who will make new appointments with you or visit you for a consultation. What I can say is that not creating a book, or posting on social media will cost you.

I occasionally look back at some of the videos I published 5 years ago, and cringe, I cannot believe I put them out there. You will most likely feel the same as me in a few years’ time, however, along the way I promise you will create more opportunities to deliver the dentistry that you love to do. Remember ‘Good enough is good enough’.

'Low-hanging fruit' are the terms used in marketing to describe the best and easiest opportunities in your business. Ext...
12/04/2023

'Low-hanging fruit' are the terms used in marketing to describe the best and easiest opportunities in your business. External marketing is important however, asking yourself this question in relation to your business could create £1000s worth of opportunities without having to spend money on external marketing.

Watch this short video to see how this theory can be applied...

I hope you enjoy this short video and find it useful! Please let me know in the comments or message me if there are any other topics you would like me to discuss.

https://youtu.be/QIopQPT_fS8

12/09/2022

Be very careful who you take your business advice from

In the excellent book ‘Building a Millionaire Mindset’ written by Jonny Wimbrey which I read in three days on holiday, he writes about the importance of valuing yourself and not letting instigators and spectators infect your life, your goals and most importantly your mindset.

I find this so true, especially when some dentists come to discuss their fees with patients and I do say some dentists, not all have this issue. Let me give you an example of what I mean. Often, on my courses dentists will tell me that they regularly discount their fees in their head. So, for example if a crown is £600 by the time it comes out of their mouth, it is £550, and £50 has gone missing. All this took place in the dentist’s head, so the patient does not know a discount has been given. There is not a course that I have ever delivered, where at least half a dozen dentists inform the class that this is a common behaviour. On questioning a dentist on why they do this, they often inform me that they do this because they feel if they make the treatment slightly cheaper, then more patients will say yes. The other common reason I hear is that they tell me how a patient has made some sarcastic comment about their fees. Examples of these comments are ‘am I paying for your car?’ or ‘where are you going on holiday this year?’ I am certain you all have had a time when you have heard this from a patient. The challenge is that some dentists take this to heart, and it then starts impacting their behaviour and they get into the habit of fee reduction.

Now the big problem when you reduce the fee in your head, is that it becomes a habit that is very hard to stop and these £50s don’t half add up. If you just did this twice a day and you work five days a week, you could potentially be talking about £500 a week, which amounts to £20k a year and over a lifetime, you could be talking about many hundreds of thousands of pounds in lost income. All because, some patient made a sarcastic comment about your fees.

If this resonates with you, here is the big take away from this short article. Stop listening to people who are not qualified to give you business advice. You will never learn to value yourself if you let these instigators infect your mindset.

Every day you provide incredible value to patients lives in terms of giving them amazing smiles and of course the many health benefits you provide on a day-to-day basis. If you start to think like this and stop listening to some of the negative feedback you receive, you will never reduce your fees ever again and you will get properly rewarded for the value that you bring every day.

I wrote this newsletter sat around the pool of my hotel when I was in Singapore. I enjoyed my time there, enjoying the c...
15/08/2022

I wrote this newsletter sat around the pool of my hotel when I was in Singapore. I enjoyed my time there, enjoying the city, and getting ready to deliver another two-day Ethical Sales and Communication Programme to 31 dentists. I could not wait to start.

That night I went out for dinner with some of the dentists on the course. I wanted to understand their local market, and the challenges they are facing. Even though I have delivered over 34,000 hours of this material, I still went back to my room that night and added some new material to the slides. I finished at 2am.

The point I am trying to make here is that I still have the same hunger and excitement as I did when I delivered my first programme over 25 years ago. I pinch myself that I am now delivering these courses in Singapore. I feel so lucky.

Do you love what you do, every day with a burning desire? Do you sometimes go to bed and cannot wait to start all over again the next day? If you do, then you are so lucky, you might be in the 5% of people who do love what they do. If you do not like what you do, just imagine doing it for the next 25 years.

Before I left the UK to travel to Singapore, I delivered an Advanced course in Manchester and at the end of the programme, a group stayed behind chatting on my couches and one dentist opened up and stated how much she did not enjoy NHS dentistry anymore, the grind, the short appointment times and patients not turning up. The only time she really enjoyed was when she was doing private dentistry, making a real difference to patients’ lives. She loved the time she had building stronger relationships with her patients. I asked her why she did not go fully private, what was stopping her? And could she imagine herself doing this for the next 25 years? Because if she did not make the change now, 25 years will soon pass very quickly.

Today I am helping her with a letter she is going to send to her patients to set up a membership plan. What is the one thing that would keep you excited and motivated for the next 25 years? What do you REALLY want it to look like?

Here is the good news, there is a magic wand, you can design your next 25 years. - Do you love what you?

How to sell without sellingWhat is the difference between hard selling and ethical sales? Recently, one of my delegates ...
06/07/2022

How to sell without selling

What is the difference between hard selling and ethical sales? Recently, one of my delegates told me a story about a recent car purchase.

Her existing car was a sporty model and she needed to change to a bigger car, one with a lot of boot space. The salesperson who never really asked any questions about what she was looking for, did not ask why she was looking to change, then went onto try and sell her the upgraded model of her existing car, with a small boot. The car salesperson was only interested in selling her the car that he wanted to sell and not what she was looking for. After hearing the salesman’s presentation, she walked out of the garage and went to another dealership, where she purchased her new car. She needed a bigger boot because of her husbands’ medical condition to hold all his equipment.

The mistake the salesperson made is not new it is a story I hear all the time- trying to sell to their customer, without truly understanding their wants and needs.

So, what is the opposite to this?

For me, it’s all about finding out your client’s problems, solving them in a language that excites them, to create a better future for your client. They should always benefit more than you.

To achieve the above and create a win for both parties, you need to do four things extremely well:

1. Build rapport with the right client – trust is crucial to a successful transaction and the best way to build trust, is to build rapport. In the dictionary, the definition of rapport is a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned understand each other's feelings or ideas and communicate well. The word right, is a patient who is genuinely interested in what you are proposing. If you are an NHS dentist, you need to accept that not everyone will be interested in private treatment.

2. Ask questions - we are all problem solvers. The more problems we solve, the more successful we will be. In the above situation, if the salesperson would have asked my client the three essential things that her new car needed to have and why they were important, he could have come up with the correct solution. There are many advantages to asking questions, the main one is that you will create new opportunities.

3. Solve the problem - we are now ready to offer solutions, options that meet the criteria of your patient, in other words we offer the correct solution to the patient in a language that they understand and benefit from. Patients buy the destination; they do not buy the aeroplane. Many dentists like to talk about the aeroplanes.

4. Commitment - if you have built rapport, asked questions, and solved the problem, the next step is to ask the patient how they feel about what you have proposed? Hopefully, they are happy. If they are happy with your proposal and you go through consent, you now have the patient committed. You have a win win. The patients get what they want, and a brighter future and you win, because you get to deliver the dentistry that you love to do.

So, as you can see there is a big difference. What I have discovered over 30 years of being in business, is that no one likes to be sold to, they hate pushy and needy salespeople. If you become truly world class at the above four steps, then your patients will buy from you, as that is really what we all want.

How to deal with Complaints & Create a Patient for lifeNo one likes receiving complaints, it can be uncomfortable, and w...
27/06/2022

How to deal with Complaints & Create a Patient for life

No one likes receiving complaints, it can be uncomfortable, and we can get involved in difficult conversations. However, if dealt with correctly, you have a chance to shine. Here is a personal story to back it up with several lessons that you can use in your own Practice.

A couple of weeks ago, I took Grace away for a short break to a pub called ‘The Inn at Whitewell’. We have eaten many times here, but never stayed and we decided to have a walking holiday. After a long day’s walking, we decided to have a couple of beers in the pub. Grace decided to go and get ready for dinner, I decided to stay and have another beer. After an hour, I walked into our room where Grace shared this story. In short, the handle on the bathroom door broke, which meant she struggled to get out of the bathroom. Her mobile phone was in the bedroom, which meant she could not ring me. After a lot of messing around, using a variety of items in her make up bag, Grace finally managed to get out of the bathroom.

Before we went down to dinner, Grace reported the broken handle to the receptionist. What happened in the next hour blew me away. The Manager of the hotel came to our table in the restaurant, to discuss the matter, he listened attentively as Grace explained what had happened and after listening, he apologised. He then suggested that he called their handy man who was willing to travel that evening to fix the problem. We told him that it could wait till tomorrow when we would be out walking, which he arranged whilst he was still with us. He then did something which blew me away, he told us that we could have a bottle of champagne on the house. Grace and I are now raving fans, that is why hence I am happy to share this with you.

Since Covid, my clients are telling me that patients’ expectations are higher and that they are receiving more complaints than ever before.

So, what can we take away from the actions of the Manager of the ‘The Inn at Whitwell’?

1. If you receive a complaint act quickly. Don’t delay and don’t procrastinate.

2. Listen attentively to the clients’ concerns, put yourself in their shoes. As Dale Carnegie states in his classic book ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ ‘See things from the other person’s point of view.’ How would you feel if it was you?

3. After listening attentively, apologise. At the end of the day listening attentively and saying sorry, genuinely will mean so much to your patients.

4. Put it right. The Manager was willing to get his handy man to fix the problem that evening, the next day was sufficient. I was delighted with either option.

However, what really blew me away was the bottle of champagne he did not need to do this. What can you do that will shock your patient, what will surprise them?

We had a great two nights at Inn at the Whitwell, the rooms are great and the setting and scenery is superb. If you do decide to go, the Cheese Onion Pie is fantastic.

Are you taking on NHS patients?It seems like every day I am contacted by a dental practice asking for some help or advic...
22/06/2022

Are you taking on NHS patients?
It seems like every day I am contacted by a dental practice asking for some help or advice on how to deal with the questions “are you taking on NHS patients?”. It seems that reception teams are getting asked this all the time.

Is this happening in your practice? I often do mystery calls and we ask this question and the most common replies are:

‘No, I am sorry we don’t.’

‘No, we are not taking any more NHS patients, but we have a monthly plan starting from £15 per month.”

‘No but we have a private appointment, and the fee will be £85.’ and lots more...

This is not an easy one to handle, having said that, it is possible to turn some of those enquiries around, possibly 25-30% and they could become regular patients.
To do this you need to follow four simple steps.

1. Build rapport with the patient. You do this simply by asking the name of the potential patient and how they heard about your practice. It is a lot easier to get the name of the patient, if you use your own name when answering the phone. Asking them how they heard about your practice is a key question, if they were recommended by a friend for example, then they might be more likely to be interested in other alternatives that you have.

2. Ask questions. One of the biggest and most common mistakes I hear in a dental practice is when they offer a solution without finding out what the problem is. If you think about the three responses above, they were all solutions offered, but no questions were asked about the patients’ problems. If you are a private practice, you can say that you act independently from the NHS, but you can still help them. If you are an NHS Practice, but have no more appointments available, tell the patient you can still help them and is it okay if you ask some questions? Then you find out what their problems are. This is why they are contacting you; they want a problem solving, your job is to find out what it is.

3. Offer a solution to the problem. Once you have found out the patient’s problem, then you offer a solution appropriate to the problem the patient has. Ask them if they are happy with the solution that you have offered.

4. If the patient is happy with the solution that you have offered, MAKE THE APPOITMENT! take the appropriate details of the patient and request a deposit to secure your time with the patient. A deposit is crucial, the patient now owns the time in your diary, it cannot be given to anyone else.

It is impossible to turn every patient around, there are some patients who will never pay privately, due to beliefs or they might not be able to afford private fees.

If you would like to make further progress in this area and develop your team to be truly world class when they answer the telephone, we are running a Reception Programme. With every new enquiry potentially worth £3000 plus, then having your reception team trained is paramount to the success of your Dental practice.

I am delighted to announce that I will be attending the Scottish Dental Show on the 24th and 25th of June. Details are b...
06/06/2022

I am delighted to announce that I will be attending the Scottish Dental Show on the 24th and 25th of June.

Details are below for my speaking details and times:

Friday 24th June:
Room 3: 10.45-11.45
Atrium 1: 13.00-14.00

Saturday 25th June:
Room 3: 11.45-12.45
Atrium 3: 10.15-11.15

To sign up, please visit the link below to register.

https://www.sdshow.co.uk

Can’t wait to see some of you there!

Good morning everyone! Just thought that I would attach a useful video that discusses one of the main steps that are inv...
23/09/2021

Good morning everyone! Just thought that I would attach a useful video that discusses one of the main steps that are involved in ethical sales. This is what I consider to the be most important step in any consultation. Please enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJbKWjc_OP0

In this Video I discuss the building rapport with the right type of patient. This is what I consider to be the most important step of ethical sales in a cons...

An introduction to the 4 main steps of Ethical Selling.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8lbR5OkDkk
16/09/2021

An introduction to the 4 main steps of Ethical Selling....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8lbR5OkDkk

A little introduction to Ethical Sales and the main steps that are involved. I hope you enjoy! To receive more tips and tricks like this please subscribe to ...

Don't forget to CLOSE - here is how ...
02/08/2021

Don't forget to CLOSE - here is how ...

plus an associate job advert and free website check ‘Don’t forget to CLOSE’ My previous two newsletters, were on how to sell and market your Membership Plans. If you have not read these, then please

Brand new course dates and Success Clubs
30/07/2021

Brand new course dates and Success Clubs

2022 dates also We are back in the room! I am so excited to announce a lot of new face to face course dates. We have many courses that are full. Don't wait until the one you are looking at fills up -

A question that I get asked by dentists is how to charge more for your services against competitors. I have attached a u...
27/07/2021

A question that I get asked by dentists is how to charge more for your services against competitors. I have attached a useful video below which discusses this topic. In this video you will learn:

- The benefit of placing high quality testimonials from previous patients on your website.

- How to sell yourself and tell your patients all that you have achieved to get to where you are.

- The benefits of answering your clients concerns in your own videos and the positive impact that it will have.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLSxrjnSIsM

I hope that you find this useful. For more videos/newsletters like these please subscribe to our weekly newsletter

https://www.ashleylatter.com

Description

Young Apprentice meets Dragon's Den
08/07/2021

Young Apprentice meets Dragon's Den

Brand New Course - this August Probably the best personal development programme for your kids (16-24 years of age) available anywhere in the UK. This course will help them to develop the most essenti

Features tell.  Benefits sell.
06/07/2021

Features tell. Benefits sell.

How to sell your membership plan - part 2 Features Tell. Benefits Sell In my last newsletter, I wrote about the importance of making extra time in your appointments. This is to have the time to discus

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