james, Author at The McAnally Selling System

About james

This author has not yet filled in any details.
So far james has created 3065 blog entries.

Existing Patient Next Step Offers and Periodic Reviews

james2026-05-14T00:00:00-04:00

How should a dental practice periodically offer existing patients the next step or newer services? By systematizing the offer through a checklist that runs at appropriate intervals during routine visits. Existing patients drift through hygiene appointments and routine care without ever being told about treatments that could benefit them, because the team assumes they already know what the practice offers. They do not. A quick survey of any ten existing patients about what services the practice offers will reveal substantial gaps. People forget. Technology changes. Costs shift. Patient circumstances evolve. New procedures become available. The practice that runs a periodic next-step [...]

Existing Patient Next Step Offers and Periodic Reviewsjames2026-05-14T00:00:00-04:00

Returning Patient Full Process Without Skipping Steps

james2026-05-14T00:00:00-04:00

Should returning dental patients skip steps in the selling process because they already know the practice? No. Run them through the full process anyway, with the same attention given to brand-new patients. The temptation to skip steps with returning or longtime patients comes from a reasonable instinct: they know the practice, the practice knows them, and going through a full intake feels redundant. The reality is that things have changed. The patient's circumstances have shifted since last time. Their dental health has changed. Their financial situation may be different. Their priorities have evolved. Technology and procedures have advanced. Costs have moved. [...]

Returning Patient Full Process Without Skipping Stepsjames2026-05-14T00:00:00-04:00

Specialist Referring Doctor Elevation Strategy

james2026-05-14T00:00:00-04:00

How can a specialist dentist elevate their referring doctors' clinical and selling abilities to mutual benefit? By treating referring doctors as long-term partners and investing in their development rather than just receiving the referrals they happen to send. Most referring general practices have not been through formal ethical-selling training and lose cases between the referral and the eventual specialist appointment because the referring doctor presented the situation poorly to the patient. The specialist can change this. Send referring doctors copies of relevant training materials. Pay the tuition for a formal selling course for the top five or ten referring sources. Offer [...]

Specialist Referring Doctor Elevation Strategyjames2026-05-14T00:00:00-04:00

Dental Power Referrals System Lifts Conversion

james2026-05-14T00:00:00-04:00

What is a dental power referrals system and how does it improve case acceptance? It is a referral system in which the referring doctor not only verbally recommends the specialist but also hands the patient a substantial information packet from the specialist at the moment of referral. The patient leaves the referring office already holding the specialist's materials and begins absorbing them on the way home. By the time they call the specialist to book, they have read the bios, seen the credentials, reviewed treatment options in patient-friendly language, and started internalizing the practice's positioning. The consultation that follows starts from [...]

Dental Power Referrals System Lifts Conversionjames2026-05-14T00:00:00-04:00

Complete Dental Physical Fee and Why It Matters

james2026-05-14T00:00:00-04:00

Why charge a diagnostic fee for the Complete Dental Physical instead of including it in a free workup? Because the fee serves several purposes beyond covering the in-person hour. It qualifies the patient as serious. A patient who declines to pay a reasonable diagnostic fee is signaling that they are not yet committed to investing in a real solution, which saves both sides the time and embarrassment of going further. It functions as a second qualifying step beyond the information packet. It also positions the doctor's time and expertise as genuinely valuable rather than something given away. The fee does not [...]

Complete Dental Physical Fee and Why It Mattersjames2026-05-14T00:00:00-04:00

Diagnostic Fee Ethical Qualifier in Dental Selling

james2026-05-14T00:00:00-04:00

How does the diagnostic fee function as an ethical qualifier in the dental selling process? By inviting the patient to demonstrate seriousness through a small financial commitment before the practice invests heavy time in treatment planning. Many doctors who arrive at formal selling training are exhausted from presenting elaborate treatment plans to patients who turn out to be unqualified, unable to pay, or uncommitted. They blame the patients. The actual problem is that the practice had no qualifying step between the free consultation and the full treatment workup. The diagnostic fee fills that gap. It is small enough that genuinely interested [...]

Diagnostic Fee Ethical Qualifier in Dental Sellingjames2026-05-14T00:00:00-04:00

Large Dental Case Hours Add Up Across the Team

james2026-05-14T00:00:00-04:00

How many hours of total team and doctor time does a medium-to-large complexity dental case actually consume? Five to fifteen hours, depending on case size, complexity, and how many decision-makers are involved. The visible hours, the consultation visit, the diagnostic visit, the case presentation, and the procedure itself, are only part of the total. Add the phone work for the initial inquiry and follow-up calls. Add the team time to prepare and mail the information packet. Add the staff time to handle the consultation visit's surrounding activities. Add the doctor's hours of treatment planning between the diagnostic and the case presentation. [...]

Large Dental Case Hours Add Up Across the Teamjames2026-05-14T00:00:00-04:00

Dentist Picasso Preparation Story on Fee Value

james2026-05-14T00:00:00-04:00

What does the Picasso sketch story teach a dentist about valuing their own preparation time? That the visible time spent on a piece of professional work represents a small fraction of the actual preparation that made it possible. Picasso was sketching in a park when an admirer asked him to draw her portrait. He agreed, studied her briefly, completed the sketch in under a minute, and named a price equivalent to roughly five thousand dollars. The woman protested that the sketch took less than a minute. Picasso replied: "Madame, it took my entire life up to this point to be ready [...]

Dentist Picasso Preparation Story on Fee Valuejames2026-05-14T00:00:00-04:00

Dental Anchoring First Purchase Sets the Reference

james2026-05-14T00:00:00-04:00

How does the anchoring effect from a patient's first dental purchase shape what they buy later? Retail research consistently shows that the size of a customer's first purchase from a store strongly predicts the size of subsequent purchases. Customers who start with a small first purchase tend to keep buying small. Customers who start with a substantial first purchase tend to buy at higher levels going forward. The mechanism is psychological anchoring. The first transaction sets the customer's reference point for what is normal in this relationship, and subsequent decisions get measured against that anchor. Dental practices can use this principle [...]

Dental Anchoring First Purchase Sets the Referencejames2026-05-14T00:00:00-04:00

Dentist Thinking Time Value Behind the Fee

james2026-05-14T00:00:00-04:00

Why do patients sometimes comment that a dentist is being well-compensated for their "thinking time"? Because the fee for time spent diagnosing and planning treatment looks higher per hour than what most patients pay in their own working lives, even when the dentist's fee fairly reflects the years of preparation, equipment costs, team overhead, and clinical risk involved. Patients see a one-hour visit and a substantial fee and do the simple per-hour math. They are not factoring in the doctor's eight years of post-secondary education, multiple post-graduate continuums, decades of accumulated clinical judgment, the cost of running a fully staffed practice, [...]

Dentist Thinking Time Value Behind the Feejames2026-05-14T00:00:00-04:00

Previous 197198199 Next