james, Author at The McAnally Selling System

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So far james has created 3065 blog entries.

Should You Quote Implant Price Over the Phone?

james2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

Should I tell a caller the price of implants right away on the phone? No, and the word you use matters before the number ever does. When a caller asks how much, never lead with the cost. Reframe it as the investment, then redirect to why they are calling in the first place. People who open with a price question are rarely shopping on price, they are scared, in pain, and testing whether you will treat them like a transaction. If you blurt out a dollar figure, you have handed them a reason to hang up and dial the next practice. [...]

Should You Quote Implant Price Over the Phone?james2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

Why Delegating Your Weaknesses Grows Your Practice

james2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

Why does delegating my weaknesses make my dental practice stronger? Because trying to be good at everything is how a practice quietly stalls. Your future is only as good as your willingness to admit what you're not good at and then hand it off. I learned this the hard way. I'm no good at anything involving construction, and for years that stressed me out because I thought I should be able to do it. Once I understood it was just an operational trait hard wired into me, I felt liberated. I stopped fighting it and started nurturing what I'm actually strong [...]

Why Delegating Your Weaknesses Grows Your Practicejames2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

Worried Dental Training Is Boring? Format Is Everything

james2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

I think I'd get bored sitting through a full day of dental training. Is it worth it? If it were a day of someone lecturing at you, I'd say skip it too. I can't sit still for that either. But the format that actually works isn't a seminar where you park yourself in a chair and watch slides. The good sessions move. Frequent breaks, lots of variation, and most of the day spent brainstorming and planning your own business with other high achievers, not listening to a talking head. The focus is on you and your goals, so you're working, not [...]

Worried Dental Training Is Boring? Format Is Everythingjames2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

Too Busy to Improve Your Dental Practice?

james2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

I'm too busy to work on my practice, how do I find the time? I'll push back on the premise. You're not too busy, you've just never sorted important from most important. When dentists tell me they can't travel, they've got a stack of stuff to read, they're slammed, what I actually hear is someone who hasn't made that distinction. Here's the reframe that changed things for me: getting results doesn't take time, it's the not getting results that takes all the time. The dentist drowning in busywork isn't busy with the right things, he's busy with minutia that produces nothing. [...]

Too Busy to Improve Your Dental Practice?james2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

Shy Dentist? Why Speaking Up Decides Your Results

james2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

I'm a shy dentist and hate speaking up in group settings. Will that hold me back? Let me push back gently. If you truly couldn't talk or put yourself out there, you'd be bankrupt right now. Think about it. You started or bought a practice, you face new patients every day, you ask people to say yes to big treatment. You already do the hard version of speaking up. A learning group is the easy version. Nobody is going to force you to talk or do anything that makes you squirm. But here's the pattern I see over and over. Dentists [...]

Shy Dentist? Why Speaking Up Decides Your Resultsjames2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

Don’t Like Groups? Why a Dentist Peer Group Pulls You Up

james2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

I don't like being in groups. Won't a mastermind of dentists just drain me? Most entrepreneurs, dentists included, do not like being stuck in groups of non-creative people. I get it. But a strong peer group is a different animal. Everyone in it is, or wants to be, a creative leader, and they understand that getting better means talking to people ahead of them in some area. That is the whole point. The fastest way I have found to improve is to spend time with people who are better than me at the things I want to be better at. The [...]

Don’t Like Groups? Why a Dentist Peer Group Pulls You Upjames2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

Does the Dentist Have To Be Selling the Cases?

james2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

Does the dentist have to be the one selling big implant cases? Not forever, but probably for now. Look at how the big corporate clinics run it. They built sales staff into the office and pushed those people hard to learn a real sales process, which lets them pull the doctor almost completely out of the success equation. The doctor does dentistry, the trained staff handle the conversation. That is the luxury of scale. In a solo or small group practice you usually do not have that yet, so you are still part of the sales team, and that is fine. [...]

Does the Dentist Have To Be Selling the Cases?james2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

Dental Team Accountability With Long-Tenured Staff

james2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

How do I hold a long-time dental team member accountable without damaging the relationship? Stop confusing loyalty with competence. You can have someone who shows up every day, never misses, maybe is a relative or has been with you fifteen years, and that person can still be quietly torpedoing your case acceptance because they will not run your phone process the way you built it. Dependable does not mean coachable. I see it constantly when I sit with teams and listen to the reasons they give me for skipping steps. Hold them accountable to the process, not to their tenure. Be [...]

Dental Team Accountability With Long-Tenured Staffjames2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

Should Your Front Desk Use a Phone Script?

james2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

Should my front desk use a phone script for new patient calls? Yes, and stop flinching at the word. Script is the S word dentists hate, right alongside sales, and that resistance is exactly why their phones underperform. A phone slip is not a robotic read. It is the proven path through the call so your team hits every slat instead of winging it and dropping the patient somewhere. The skill slat of the call is precisely this, whether the person answering is trained, coached, and monitored to follow a real intake flow, not just fill out a form and book [...]

Should Your Front Desk Use a Phone Script?james2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

New Patient Greeting: The First 25 Seconds That Win

james2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

What does the greeting on a new patient phone call actually need to do? It needs to tell the caller you have been waiting for them all day. Something as plain as thank you for calling Dr. Smith's office, this is Chris, I can help you. Say it warm, say the practice name clearly, and sound grateful. Here is why that matters more than people think. The person dialing has stalled for weeks because they assume the call will go badly, the flat tone, the license-and-registration interrogation. When you answer like you expected them and you are glad they called, you [...]

New Patient Greeting: The First 25 Seconds That Winjames2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

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