Half a million dollars left on the table — or record-breaking growth with fewer patients. You decide.
There’s a big difference between accepting average and analyzing it.
“Confidence isn’t built from winning. It’s built from losing enough times that failure stops being scary and starts being data.”
— Scott D. Clary
Too many orthodontic practices live in that middle ground — a place where “industry average” becomes the safety net. You have a few great months, maybe even a record quarter, but when the year averages out… you’re right back where you started.
Maybe you’re afraid to put too much pressure on your TC.
Maybe you’ve convinced yourself that conversion is limited by your local economy or competition.
Or maybe you’ve quietly accepted that your practice’s “normal” is as good as it gets.
But then you hear about practices consistently converting 90%+ of their new patients.
Do you assume those numbers are exaggerated?
Or do you ask how they did it?
Because I’ll tell you right now — the top performers aren’t luckier. They’re learners.
They face failure head-on.
They turn objections like “We started elsewhere,” “We need to think about it,” and “Can you price match?” into data.
They train differently. They coach differently. They invest differently.
They treat the TC role as a high-impact sales position — not an administrative one.
They pay well, they train intentionally, and they track progress with purpose.
Because they understand there’s a massive difference between having a job and building a career.
So if your TC is underperforming and your practice is losing hundreds of thousands a year in missed opportunities… it’s time to stop justifying mediocrity.
Your team deserves clarity.
Your TC deserves coaching that empowers greatness.
And you deserve results that reflect your potential — not your patterns.
At RiseUP Coaching, I believe we can always better our best. I reframe influence as a strategy, confidence as a superpower, sales as helping, and failure as feedback.
We can always better our best.
But only if we’re paying attention.
Only if we’re coachable.
Only if we’re ready to stop settling — and start rising.
Let me show you exactly what I mean.
THE COST OF AVERAGE
Let’s put “average” into perspective.
I recently reviewed numbers for a practice with a 60% conversion rate. On paper, that doesn’t sound terrible — it’s right around the industry average (Gaidge’s 2024 data shows most practices converting between 55-65%). They started 300 patients last year, with an average case fee of $5,400.
Here’s where it gets interesting: treatment was recommended to 500 new patients. (That’s not total consults — that’s after removing those in observation or referred to a specialist.)
If that same TC converted 80% — a completely attainable benchmark for a trained, confident, and supported TC — the practice would have started 400 patients instead of 300.
That’s 100 additional starts.
At $5,400 per case, that’s $540,000 in unrealized production — left sitting on the table.
Half a million dollars.
Not in theory. In reality.
And here’s the thing: that 60% TC wasn’t failing. She was doing what most do — following the system, delivering information, and hoping the patient was “ready.”
But hope isn’t a growth strategy.
Every “We’ll think about it,” “We’ll call you,” and “We started somewhere else” became a missed learning opportunity.
No one helped her analyze what went wrong, reframe her confidence, or strengthen her close.
So, the practice stayed average.
Year after year.
THE POWER OF COACHABILITY
Now, let’s flip the story.
One of my private clients exceeded their entire 2024 production by October of 2025 — even though they’ll start roughly 80 fewer patients this year.
How?
They modernized their strategy instead of chasing volume.
They went out of network with carriers that underpaid.
They raised their fees.
They pre-sold retainers.
And they converted at 92%.
That kind of growth doesn’t happen by accident.
It happens when a TC stops waiting for results and starts creating them.
This TC is coachable. She’s self-accountable. She’s self-competitive.
She reviews every “no” like data, not defeat — and she adjusts her approach accordingly.
The result? A record-breaking year with fewer patients, higher profitability, and stronger confidence across the entire team.
That’s what happens when you stop treating conversion as an outcome… and start treating it as a skill.
Average or extraordinary — both are choices.
The difference is coachability.
So, are you ready to better your best?
If you’re ready to reframe influence as a strategy, confidence as a superpower, and sales as helping, it’s time to RiseUP. Learn more about our coaching and let’s transform your practice together.
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