Message Boards
Today's Active Topics Today's Active Cases Browse Forum Categories My Recent Activity My Messages Private Groups My Marked Threads My Subscriptions
Today's Active Images Today's Active Polls Most Active Topics Global Townie Map Advanced Message Board Search Message Board Terms of Use

Your Orthodontic Business Funnel by Alan A. Curtis, DDS, MS, Editorial Director

Start Discussion More by this author (30)


Every successful business makes strategic plans. Those plans map out the key processes, decisions and structure for the proper functioning of that business. Orthodontic practices are no different. It’s important for an orthodontic CEO and the office manager to review that structure periodically to see if the practice needs to be adjusted to bring employees back in line with this strategy. As I near my 10th year in practice, I love seeing my business as a funnel more than ever before.

The orthodontic business funnel is useful because it graphically identifies areas where you and your staff divide responsibilities. It also allows employees to see where their performance can affect other metrics downstream.

The top of your funnel
At the top of your funnel you have your community; these are your potential clients. It is the responsibility of your professional relationship coordinator (PRC), or marketer to put you and your practice at the top of people’s minds when they think about orthodontics in your community. You can’t expect any kind of response if you whisper your service offerings—you must shout them from the rooftops!

As dental consultant Dr. Roger Levin says, your PRC should be your first hire. In businesses that have a traditional sales cycle, the term “lead” refers to every potential client who has had a contact with your company. Your PRC is responsible for finding opportunities to get your practice out into the community in as many ways as possible. You need to have a marketing calendar and someone to be in charge of executing it. Work your plan, plan your work!

The entrance to your funnel
A lead becomes a lead once you have collected a person’s information, such as name, phone number and email address. This could be someone’s information on a clipboard at a health fair, a new-patient phone intake, a Web inquiry, a chairside question about a sibling, or a referral from a dentist. Getting the patient into the funnel and following up on interest (no matter how small the interest) is the most important key to a practice’s success.

The person who collects this information needs to understand this. Someone who talks to you for 10 minutes at a health fair or calls your office to find out “how much braces cost” and doesn’t schedule, has just fallen out of the funnel.

Employees need training to understand that everything that can be done, should be done to enthusiastically welcome potential patients into the funnel. Once I started recording phone calls from potential new patients, I was shocked at how many times my staff merely answered inquiries and did not capture leads. Once leads are captured, the new-patient experience can begin.



In the funnel
The scheduling coordinator (SC) completes the demographic information and starts the sales process. The lead is now an official patient and is assigned a patient ID number in your practice management system. The team should now go to work, setting up the treatment coordinator (TC) and the doctor for success for the first office visit. During the intake call, the SC talks up the doctor and the TC, and invites all involved in the decision-making process to attend the exam. An example of “talking up” is: “You’re going to enjoy talking to Sally and Dr. Curtis—you’ve found the place to fix your crowding.”

It’s also important to invite people to visit your Web page and social media sites as a digital “get to know you.” If done properly, potential patients will have decided to start at your practice even before you, the doctor, have officially met them. It is important to know:
  • Who else in the practice knows the patient?
  • Who is the patient’s dentist?
  • What is the patient’s insurance?
  • Who referred this patient?
  • How did the patient hear about us?
  • What specific concerns does this patient have?
In our practice, families are sent new-patient registration forms to fill out before the first appointment. The financial coordinator verifies insurance benefits and becomes familiar with the billing nuances of that insurance. The TC requests panoramic X-rays from the dentist.

Additionally, patients who schedule but don’t show up have fallen out of the funnel. Recording all of the phone interactions in your office will allow you to plug holes in your funnel where tremendous leaks can occur.

Showtime
The first visit to the office is extremely important to your sales funnel. Many patients will decide in the first 30 to 60 seconds if they are going to give your practice their business. How well the SC talked up the team and greeted the patient when he or she walked through the front door can determine if the patient falls out of the funnel. Not every new-patient experience is going to be the same; just make sure you’ve practiced every detail of your show to wow them to stay in the funnel.

They’ve successfully stayed in the funnel if you’ve scheduled the next appointment. A great book on the topic of keeping patients in the funnel at this stage is, “Yes to Treatment,” by Landy Chase, MBA, CSP.

The contract
Assuming you’ve won the opportunity to be the office of choice, it’s now time to finalize the terms of your relationship. Financial policies and expectations of patient behavior need to be solidified by your practice. In our practice, we’ve decided to require families to do automatic draft to keep their contract/account current. Slipping out of the funnel financially is not an option. Money falls out of the funnel through improper insurance billing, declined automatic drafts and patients transferring out of the practice. Patients also fall out of the funnel when they fail to come in for regular appointments.

Controlling expenses
The clinical team controls the success of the funnel by providing excellent, speedy treatment at the lowest possible cost. Your bottom line is determined by how efficiently and profitably you and your team perform. A practice that has an extremely efficient overhead control is said to have a funnel shaped like a cylinder, whereas a very inefficient practice narrows the funnel drastically at the bottom where the profit exits the funnel.

Periodically reviewing the funnel with your team allows all of you to sharpen your systems to ensure the least amount of leakage out of the funnel—and keep your practice thriving.



Orthotown Magazine
September 2025
Orthotown Magazine September 2025 Read Current Issue Read Archived Issues
Sponsors
Townie® Poll
Do you have a dedicated insurance coordinator in your office?
  
Site Menu
Message Boards Magazine Continuing Education Podcasts Blogs Classifieds News Events Townie® Poll Ebooks Townie Choice Awards
Company Info
Contact Us Advertise With Us Howard Farran DDS, MBA Policies and Agreements
Site Help
Sally Gross, Member Services Specialist
Phone: +1-480-445-9710
Email: sally@farranmedia.com
©2025 Orthotown, a division of Farran Media • All Rights Reserved
9633 S. 48th Street Suite 200 • Phoenix, AZ 85044 • Phone:+1-480-598-0001 • Fax:+1-480-598-3450