james, Author at The McAnally Selling System

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So far james has created 3065 blog entries.

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

Handling a Dental Patient Who Returns After No

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

How do I handle a patient who said no the first time but comes back? A patient who re-presents is not a lost cause. They are a re-presentation, and that is a real category in your sales process that you need a plan for. The fact that they came back at all tells you something changed, in their mouth, their money, or their mind. Do not treat the return like a fresh start that ignores history, and do not punish them for the earlier no. Pick up where the decision stalled. Lay out the same honest choices again. Stabilize, go complete, [...]

Handling a Dental Patient Who Returns After Nojames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Why Use a Patient Application Form for Every Visit

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

Why should I use a patient application form for every new patient? Use it on every single patient, no exceptions. Here is why. A real application lets the patient tell you what is actually bugging them and what they want from you, so you stop guessing. The standard medical and dental form you fill out now looks exactly like every other practice on the planet and differentiates nothing. An application that asks real questions puts you in a different category in the patient's mind before they ever meet you. The second reason matters just as much. The moment you stop and [...]

Why Use a Patient Application Form for Every Visitjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Tracking the Annual CDP Offer in Hygiene Charts

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

How do I track which hygiene patients I have offered larger treatment to? Use the charting system you already have. You are already marking probings, charting, all the routine hygiene data, so add one more flag. Mark the chart for the annual complete dental physical offer, whether the chart is electronic or paper. The offer itself is just a verbal conversation, so train your hygienist to have it, or have the doctor step in first to start it. Either works. The reason this matters is that good intentions vanish without a system. If the offer lives only in someone's head, it [...]

Tracking the Annual CDP Offer in Hygiene Chartsjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Why Your Dental Patients Say They Have No Money

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

Why do my dental patients always say they have no money? Because you are skipping the qualifying steps and talking to the wrong people. When a dentist tells me every patient they see is broke, I do not believe the patients are the problem. The process is. If there is no diagnostic fee with any seriousness behind it, and no step that asks the patient to commit before you start presenting, then of course your chair fills with people who were never going to buy. A real diagnostic fee is part of qualifying. It asks the patient to show some skin [...]

Why Your Dental Patients Say They Have No Moneyjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

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 to Schedule a Separate Financial Visit

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

When should a patient have a separate financial visit? Set a fee level. Below it, run the patient through the normal way you handle basic treatment. Above it, even if the problem itself is simple, that patient should come back for a separate financial visit. And by separate I mean front office only. The financial coordinator, the treatment planner, whoever owns that role. Not the doctor, not the whole clinical team crammed into one room. The reason is that money pressure and clinical pressure do not mix well in the same conversation. Pull them apart and both go better. It does [...]

When to Schedule a Separate Financial Visitjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Why Listening Wins the High Value Dental Consultation

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

Why is listening so important during a high value dental consultation? Because the patient is telling you why they will buy, and most dentists are too distracted to hear it. The pro asks great questions, then listens intently to the answers, not only to what is said but to what it means. That second part is where the money is. Listen for the unspoken thing, the worry behind the words. We live in an age that is wrecking attention spans, and the phone in your pocket is the worst offender. Smart phones do not always make you smart. Before you walk [...]

Why Listening Wins the High Value Dental Consultationjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Give Complex Case Patients an Emergency Contact Path

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

Should complex case patients have a way to reach me in an emergency? Absolutely they should, and giving them that pathway is part of caring, not just risk management. A patient carrying an advanced condition is already anxious. The last thing they want is to be scrambling at night, calling around, trying to find anyone who will help them when something goes wrong. So before they leave, hand them a clear mechanism to find you if there is a problem. It costs you almost nothing and it lands as genuine concern, which deepens the relationship right at the point where trust [...]

Give Complex Case Patients an Emergency Contact Pathjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

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

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