james, Author at The McAnally Selling System

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So far james has created 3065 blog entries.

What Is Risk-Based Treatment Planning in Dentistry

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

What is risk-based treatment planning in dentistry? It is planning around what is likely to go wrong, not just what is wrong today. Instead of cataloguing existing holes, you assess the patient across categories of risk. Functional risk, decay and caries, periodontal risk in both hard and soft tissue, and esthetic risk. From a single snapshot of a mouth, and the experience of having seen thousands of them, you can forecast what is probably coming for this person over the long term. That changes the whole conversation. You are no longer fixing one tooth, you are protecting a future. It is [...]

What Is Risk-Based Treatment Planning in Dentistryjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

How to Triage Dental Cases by Fee Before You Sell

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

Should I sell every dental case the same way regardless of the fee? No. The size of the case should decide how you handle it. For small treatment, run your normal estimate and sell the way you always have. But once a case crosses a fee level you set, even a simple problem deserves a separate financial visit handled by your front office, not the doctor. The dollar amount changes how people decide, so the process has to change with it. Think of it like a doctor reading for a sore throat versus surgery. Same patient, completely different conversation. Pick the [...]

How to Triage Dental Cases by Fee Before You Selljames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

What Diagnostic Exam Fee to Charge for Big Cases

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

How much should I charge for a diagnostic exam on a large dental implant case? Charge enough that it filters out the tire kickers. For complex cases I want that fee somewhere between 300 and 700 dollars, not the 150 to 200 most offices default to. Here is why. A cheap exam tells the patient this is no big deal, and it pulls in unserious people who will sit in your chair, eat your time, and never decide anything. A fee with some weight to it does the opposite. It signals seriousness on both sides, and it qualifies the patient before [...]

What Diagnostic Exam Fee to Charge for Big Casesjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Why Take a Lifetime Risk Dental CE Course

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

Why should I take a continuing education course on lifetime dental risk? Because it will change how you see every patient for the rest of your career. I went through advanced treatment planning training built around lifetime risk, and it reshaped my thinking permanently, even the cases I treated years later. A good course like this takes about a week to complete, which sounds like a lot until you weigh it against decades of practicing the old way. Look for instructors who take no manufacturer money. When someone refuses industry dollars, you know their recommendations are not being bought, and that [...]

Why Take a Lifetime Risk Dental CE Coursejames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

When Patient Demands Should Raise Your Fee

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

Can patient behavior and demands raise the fee on a case? They should, and you are within your rights to let them. Not every factor that drives a fee is clinical. A patient who needs it fast, who can only be seen on one specific day, who can only sit twenty minutes before needing a break, who has a long list of personal wants and demands, all of that costs you. It costs scheduling flexibility, chair time, and stress on your team. Those non-clinical realities belong in the fee conversation, not absorbed silently while you quietly resent it. Put patient behaviors [...]

When Patient Demands Should Raise Your Feejames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Why You Get Blindsided by a Big Dental Case

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

Why do I keep getting blindsided by huge cases at the exam? Because the case escaped your process earlier, usually on the phone. When someone shows up and the extremity of the case catches you off guard, that is a sign your phone step missed it. The fix is on your checklist for major cases, the rule that says you bring the spouse or financial decision maker to the diagnostic visit. If you catch case size early, you never get surprised, and you never present a life changing number to a patient sitting there alone. So I do not want to [...]

Why You Get Blindsided by a Big Dental Casejames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

The Cost of Skipping Case Presentation Steps With Patients

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

Why is it a mistake to jump straight to case presentation with existing patients? Because you are guessing at what they know, and you are usually wrong. With patients who have been around a while, the temptation is to skip the early steps and go straight to presenting the case. That is how good dentists bomb out. The patient has forgotten the specifics, their clinical picture may have shifted, and you walk in talking like they remember a conversation from two years ago. They do not. Skipping steps with a familiar patient makes no more sense than skipping the exam. Run [...]

The Cost of Skipping Case Presentation Steps With Patientsjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

When a Patient Asks Dental Fees During a Consult

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

How should I handle a patient who keeps pushing for fees? Defer first, and only frame a range if they will not let it go. In a free consult, the honest answer is that you cannot quote accurately before you have a diagnosis, so tell them you would prefer to answer once you have looked at everything. If they keep pushing, it is okay to give a rough range. But be up front that it is rough, because without diagnostics you are far less accurate and you owe them that disclosure. The rules change at the diagnostic visit. There, fee framing [...]

When a Patient Asks Dental Fees During a Consultjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Should You Close a Big Case in One Visit?

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

Should I try to close a big implant case in a single visit? No. Cramming the consult, the diagnostics, and the fee presentation into one day feels efficient, and most practices do it before they know better, but the science of human behavior says it backfires. When you rush a patient, you put artificial pressure on their decision. That triggers the part of the brain that quietly decides whether to trust you, and it decides against you. The patient leaves overthinking everything, and you wonder why a warm case went cold. Slow down on purpose. Let information settle between steps. You [...]

Should You Close a Big Case in One Visit?james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Justify a High Exam Fee With the Picasso Lesson

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

How do I justify a high fee for a dental exam that only takes a few minutes? Think about Picasso. He was sketching in a Paris park when a woman recognized him and insisted he draw her on the spot. A few quick strokes, a couple of minutes, and he handed her a portrait that captured her perfectly. She asked the price. Five thousand francs, serious money at the time. She was stunned. How could a two minute sketch cost so much? His answer was the whole lesson. Madame, it took my entire lifetime to be ready for these two minutes [...]

Justify a High Exam Fee With the Picasso Lessonjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

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