Persuasuve Case Presentation Begins with Knowing Your Patient

Do you need to make a case for a particular patient to take a particular course of action? Realize that in order to successfully present your case, you must know your patient well.

Think about how attorneys present their cases to the juries before which they argue.  They size up the jurors, figuring out which ones will respond to a certain presentation strategy and which ones are more likely to  provide the desired verdict if approached another way. While they must stick to the facts of the case, attorneys are free to make their arguments in the manner they believe will be most effective.

That's what you should do, too, and in one way it's much easier for you to do it: You actually know your patients, whereas attorneys don't know their jurors.

Think about what you know about the patient to whom you are going to suggest a certain course of action. Is he or she comfortable discussing money? Will you need to bring up that aspect? Will talking about dental health be more persuasive than talking about dental appearance?

You know your patients.  Use that knowledge to your advantage and theirs, and you'll both come out ahead.