james, Author at The McAnally Selling System

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So far james has created 3065 blog entries.

The Next Step After a Low-Cost Dental Consult

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

What should happen right after a patient finishes a low-cost consult? Never leave the next step to chance. The worst thing you can do in selling is let a patient drift out the door with nothing scheduled. After the free or low cost consult, the doctor wraps up and a real person, your treatment planner or financial coordinator, walks the patient to the front. There you reinforce that it was good they came in, book them for the complete dental physical, take the fee, and tell them plainly what happens next. Always say it out loud. Let me tell you what [...]

The Next Step After a Low-Cost Dental Consultjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

How First Purchase Amount Affects Patient Spending

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

Does the first fee a patient pays affect how much they will spend later? Yes, and the retail world has the data to prove it. The size of someone's first purchase sets the ceiling for what they will spend after. Make that first purchase tiny and the next ones stay small. Make the first purchase substantial and the additional spending climbs to match it. That is exactly why I do not want your diagnostic exam priced like an afterthought. A 150 dollar exam anchors the patient to small numbers, and then you are fighting that anchor the whole way through the [...]

How First Purchase Amount Affects Patient Spendingjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

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

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

Why Your Patients Forget the Treatment Options You Offer

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

Why do longtime patients forget what dentistry I can offer them? Because forgetting is normal. We all do it, and frankly it keeps us sane. Your hygiene patients, your old prospects, the people you presented to two years ago, they have all let the details slip. They might remember it costs a lot, but they will not remember specifics, and they have no idea dentistry has changed since you last talked. New options, new materials, new approaches, none of it landed because you stopped telling them. So stop assuming they carry the knowledge you carry. They do not. That gap is [...]

Why Your Patients Forget the Treatment Options You Offerjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Re-Presenting an Old Treatment Plan a Year Later

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

A patient I presented to a year ago wants to come back. How should I handle it? Do not just rush back in and try to close the old case. If real time has passed, things have changed, and acting like they have not is a mistake. Reassess the clinical picture and update the complete dental physical. It may not be the full exam, but roll through quickly to see what is the same and what is not. Then update the fee range, because you are back to numbers and buying. Here is the part dentists miss. Your own thinking will [...]

Re-Presenting an Old Treatment Plan a Year Laterjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

How a Specialist Wins More Referral Cases

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

As a specialist, how can I get more big cases from my referring doctors? Teach your top referrers how to refer correctly. Most general dentists do not know how, and that is not their fault, nobody showed them. Pick your top five or top ten referring offices and invest real time, energy, and shoe leather teaching them to spot and hand off the right cases. One of the strongest moves is to pay the tuition for a top referring practice to learn proper selling alongside you. Think about the cases that come back as a byproduct. That single investment beats any [...]

How a Specialist Wins More Referral Casesjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Handling Emergency Dental Patients and Pain Cases

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

How should my practice handle emergency patients and patients in pain differently? Treat them as their own track, not as a normal scheduled consult forced through the same script. A patient in real pain or a true emergency is in a different headspace, and your job first is relief and trust, not a polished case presentation. The consultation flow you built for elective implant cases does not map cleanly onto someone who walked in hurting. So decide in advance what happens for emergencies, for pain, and for existing patients of record, because each one needs its own path. The dentists who [...]

Handling Emergency Dental Patients and Pain Casesjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Keep the Dental Financial Conversation Off the Doctor

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

Why should the financial conversation happen away from the doctor? Because the doctor in the room changes the conversation, and not for the better. When you stack the clinical authority and the money talk into one visit, the patient feels squeezed from two directions, and that pressure pushes them toward no. Hand the financial visit to the front office. The financial coordinator, the treatment planner, whoever owns it. That person can talk fees, options, and timing without the patient feeling like the doctor is standing over them waiting for a yes. It also frees your chair time, your most expensive asset. [...]

Keep the Dental Financial Conversation Off the Doctorjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Why Random Actions Hurt Your Dental Practice

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

Why are random actions a problem in a dental practice? Random actions are the quiet killer in a practice, and most dentists never see it. Every time a procedure depends on someone stopping to think "do we do this one this way or that way," you have introduced variation, and variation breaks results. Take the patient application. The moment it becomes optional, your team has to decide each time, and now half your patients get one experience and half get another. Same with your triage steps and your financial visits. The fix is to make the right thing the standard thing, [...]

Why Random Actions Hurt Your Dental Practicejames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

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