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.

Are Dental Procedure Models Worth Buying

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

Should I buy the procedure models that dental reps keep pushing? For the most part, no. Those expensive procedure models you keep getting sold do almost nothing to move a patient toward yes. The exception, and it is a real one, is when you are attaching an entire arch of teeth with implants. A model that shows how the prosthesis snaps onto the implants helps a patient understand something they cannot picture from a photo. Everything else is clutter. A good photo of the patient's own mouth, projected large enough that they can actually study it, beats a generic plastic model [...]

Are Dental Procedure Models Worth Buyingjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Should You Apply the Exam Fee to Treatment?

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

Should I apply the diagnostic exam fee to the patient's treatment plan? There is nothing wrong with it, and there is a real reason to do it. When you tell a patient the diagnostic fee will be credited toward their treatment, you have just removed risk from their mind. Patients hate loss far more than they like a deal. Spending a few hundred dollars and then wondering if it was wasted is exactly the kind of loss that makes people hesitate. Take that worry away and they decide easier. This also taps reciprocity. You gave them something, so they feel inclined [...]

Should You Apply the Exam Fee to Treatment?james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

How Thorough Should Your Clinical Examination Be

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

How thorough does my clinical exam need to be for big cases? Thorough enough that nothing surprises you later, and that means a written checklist. The clinical half of the diagnostic visit is genuinely up to you, your niche, your training, your judgment. If you have done a course like John Kois's, your list will be far longer than any generic one. But the point stands: clinical findings drive both the complexity and the fee. How hard the case truly is, whether the long term result is predictable or not, what the long term risks are, all of that lives in [...]

How Thorough Should Your Clinical Examination Bejames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Setting the Stage at the End of a Consultation

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

How do I end a consultation visit so the next appointment goes well? You set the stage, and you do not rush it. The end of that exam visit is one of the most important moments in the whole process. Tell the patient plainly: we got everything we need today, next time we will review what I found and walk through your options, and we will see you that day with your husband, John, as well. Then ask if they have any questions for you. That last line cleans up anything left hanging. Notice what you just did. You defined the [...]

Setting the Stage at the End of a Consultationjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Patient Complaints About Dentists: A Warning Sign

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

What does it mean when a new patient complains about every previous dentist? Pay attention, because you are next in line. There are bad dentists out there. I have seen practices that flatly refuse to update their clinical work or their ethics, and yes, some of them earn the complaints. But when a patient runs down every single dentist who ever touched their mouth, that is statistically close to impossible, and it tells you something about the patient, not the profession. The common thread in all those stories is the person telling them. So if you take that case, go in [...]

Patient Complaints About Dentists: A Warning Signjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Building Rapport With Patients: a Bank Historian Lesson

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

What can a bank's historian teach me about building rapport with patients? A lot, and it is one of my favorite examples of liking at work. Wells Fargo put a staff historian on the payroll to chase high net worth clients. Instead of a sales pitch, the historian researched the family, often generational wealth, and uncovered stories the family itself never knew. Then they simply said, we found some things about your family we would love to share. People love their own history, so they listened. The result, by the time that article ran, they had targeted roughly four billion dollars [...]

Building Rapport With Patients: a Bank Historian Lessonjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

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

Pausing After Stating a Fee to a Patient

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

Why is pausing after I state a fee so important? Because silence does work that talking cannot. When you give a patient a fee range, the instinct is to barrel into the next sentence to escape the discomfort. Resist it. Pause. Let the number sink in. Give the patient room to react, to think, or to tell you something you needed to hear. Most dentists never learn what a patient really feels about a fee because they talk over the moment that would have revealed it. That pause is not awkwardness, it is respect, and it is information gathering. The discomfort [...]

Pausing After Stating a Fee to a Patientjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Documenting the Fee Range You Quote Patients

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

Why should I write down the fee range I quote a patient? Because you will forget it, and the patient will not. The moment you say a range out loud you have set walls. The final treatment options and fees have to land inside those walls, or you look inconsistent and untrustworthy. So note exactly what you said on the chart, in writing, every time. There is a blank for it on my checklist for a reason. Weeks later, when you are constructing the actual plan, that written number keeps you honest and keeps you from drifting outside the range you [...]

Documenting the Fee Range You Quote Patientsjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

The Power of Because in Patient Conversations

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

Does giving a reason why really make patients more likely to say yes? It does, and the science is almost funny. Ellen Langer ran a study in 1978 at a Xerox machine, the one everyone calls the copier study. A researcher cut to the front of the line. When she just asked to use the machine, about 60 percent let her. When she added a reason, because I am in a rush, compliance jumped to 94 percent. Then they tested a nonsense reason, because I have to make some copies, which says nothing at all, and compliance stayed almost as high. [...]

The Power of Because in Patient Conversationsjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Previous 434445 Next