james, Author at The McAnally Selling System

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So far james has created 3065 blog entries.

Handle a Patient’s Insurance Benefit Fear With a Promise

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

How do I handle a patient who fears they won't get their full insurance benefit? Take the fear off the table entirely. Almost two decades in practice and I've heard it constantly. Every patient with a plan carries a built in fear that the carrier will stiff them out of their benefit, and they get so caught up in it they can't think about treatment. After enough trial and error I landed on what I call the insurance promise. You promise the patient they'll get their benefit through the insurance, and if for some reason they don't, you apply whatever the [...]

Handle a Patient’s Insurance Benefit Fear With a Promisejames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Why Free Dental Consultations Drive Case Acceptance

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Why do free dental consultations work so well to get patients to say yes? Reciprocity. When you give someone something of real value for free, they feel a pull to give something back, and that instinct is hardwired into the vast majority of us. This is not a gimmick I invented. Behavior studies have validated it, and it is an ancient idea. There is a Japanese proverb, nothing is more costly than something given free of charge, which captures the debt a person feels they owe. You can use that pull for good. A free visit gets the patient in the [...]

Why Free Dental Consultations Drive Case Acceptancejames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Phone Training for Dentists: Why Scripts Are Not Enough

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Do I need a trained phone person to sell consultations? Yes, and training means more than handing someone a script to read off a phone slip. That is not training. Even with proven tools in front of them, it takes real coaching to get this skill into someone who has never done it. You can hire people who are already good at taking money over the phone, but for most practices they will not work at the rates you are used to paying for phone support. Here is the practical upside of going free or very low cost: selling something that [...]

Phone Training for Dentists: Why Scripts Are Not Enoughjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Free Appointment System: Why Even Free Needs Structure

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Why do I need a system even to give away free dental appointments? Because free is not automatic. I have worked with practices that, when they started, could not even give a free appointment away. Imagine that, couldn't give it away for nothing. That tells you something important. Systems and skills are needed even to close a free visit, not just a paid one. People still have to be invited well, scheduled well, reminded, and given a reason to actually show up. Without a basic system the no shows pile up and you conclude that free does not work, when really [...]

Free Appointment System: Why Even Free Needs Structurejames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Handling Consultation No Shows and Free Visit Abuse

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

How do I handle patients who abuse free consultation offers? You build a system for them before they ever walk in. Some people cancel, no show, and never fill out their materials, and you have to protect your time from that behavior. The answer is not to argue or chase. It is to move them on to a next step that is no longer free. When someone shows they will not respect the free offer, you stop offering free. That is fair, and it filters out the people who were never serious. In some cases it is actually good news when [...]

Handling Consultation No Shows and Free Visit Abusejames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

How a Dentist Can Become a Leader in the Practice

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

How does a dentist actually become a leader in the practice? You decide you already are one. That sounds too simple, I know, but the leader is inside every dentist out there. In some it's already awake, doing what leaders do. In most it's just asleep. And the way you wake it is by deciding, plainly, that you are that great leader. Say it and mean it, and the process starts. It may take a little time, but the deciding is the trigger. Churchill didn't study to become Churchill, dire circumstances pulled the leader out of him. Our circumstances aren't rockets [...]

How a Dentist Can Become a Leader in the Practicejames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Why You Should Record Your Dental Case Presentations

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Why should I record my case presentations on video? Because you cannot fix what you never watch. I tell dentists to record the clinical work, the consultations, the diagnostics, and especially the treatment presentation, both the clinical part and the financial part. The smartphone you're already glued to is the easiest tool you own for this. Here's the honest reason. You think you're following your own checklist, but until you go back and watch, you're guessing. I've sat through presentations I did years ago and winced at things I'd handle completely differently now. That's not failure, that's the point. You inspect [...]

Why You Should Record Your Dental Case Presentationsjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Blocking Consultation Time to Protect Your Schedule

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Why should I block out my consultation time instead of fitting them in anywhere? Because random consults wreck your day. If you stick a consult wherever it lands, you interrupt your flow of procedures, and that is an inefficient way to work. Think about the means of production in your practice. You are most efficient at procedures when you are already doing procedures. I will say that again, you are most efficient at procedures when you are already doing them. The more you stack up until that early afternoon point where you start to tire, the better you get at staying [...]

Blocking Consultation Time to Protect Your Schedulejames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Dental Time Management: Run On Time to Win Cases

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Is running my practice on time really part of selling big cases? It is, more than most dentists realize. Strong scheduling systems and good time behaviors, meaning you actually operate on time, are part of handling free and low cost visits well. There are plenty of reasons to run on time regardless of any sales process, but it matters double when you market heavily. A patient walks in already unsure whether to trust you. If you keep them waiting, you confirm their worst suspicion before you say a word. On time tells them you respect them and you have your house [...]

Dental Time Management: Run On Time to Win Casesjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Why Leadership Books Fail to Make Dentists Leaders

james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Why do all the leadership books fail to make me a leader? Because they describe symptoms and call it the disease. I've read my share of leadership books, chasing something I thought was called leadership, and what they all do is the same thing. They list the behaviors of leaders, the attitudes, the way someone sits and looks a person in the eye, and then they expect that describing those traits will somehow hand them to you. But symptoms aren't causation. Sneezes don't cause colds. A rhinovirus does, and the sneeze is just the effect showing up. Every one of those [...]

Why Leadership Books Fail to Make Dentists Leadersjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

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