james, Author at The McAnally Selling System

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So far james has created 3065 blog entries.

Do Checklists Improve a Dental Practice?

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

Can checklists actually improve outcomes in a dental practice? Yes, and the proof did not come from dentistry. A surgeon named Atul Gawande studied his own error rates, then a wider cross section of physicians, then went to the world stage and looked at what happens when systems are used in medicine. He found something profound. A simple surgical checklist, rolled out by the World Health Organization, cut the inpatient death rate by roughly fifty percent. Fifty percent, from a piece of paper. If a checklist does that in an operating room, imagine what a step-by-step method does for your emergency [...]

Do Checklists Improve a Dental Practice?james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Handling an Emergency Dental Patient Not in Pain

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

How should I handle an emergency patient who isn't in pain? Pain comes first, always. If there is physical pain, your job is to eliminate it before anything else. But when an emergency or new patient shows up and they are not in pain, you owe them a choice, not a sales pitch for full-mouth work. Think about it from their side. They did not walk in that day having decided to be evaluated for something big. So that is not what they want to be sold, and pushing it triggers exactly the defensive responses that wreck good decision-making. What you [...]

Handling an Emergency Dental Patient Not in Painjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Preparing Patients for Cost Before You Quote a Fee

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

Why do I need to prepare patients for cost before the fee conversation? Because an unprepared patient hears a big number as an ambush, and an ambushed patient says no. By the time you discuss fees, the patient should already sense that real treatment carries real cost. You build that across the whole process, not in one panicked sentence at the end. Every visit gives you a chance to seed it, to hint at the scope, to soften the eventual number so it lands as expected rather than shocking. The dentists who skip this are the ones who watch faces fall [...]

Preparing Patients for Cost Before You Quote a Feejames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Asking Patients About Previous Dental Experiences

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

Why should I ask about a patient's bad experiences at other dental offices? Because they came to you for a reason, and that reason is gold. I ask, any recent dental experiences that did not go the way you would have liked? Patients pursuing major treatment have usually shopped around. If they had loved the last place, they would still be there. So they will tell you exactly what turned them off, the rushed feeling, the surprise bill, the dismissive doctor, whatever it was. That is a map of the mistakes you must not repeat. Listen, write it down, and then [...]

Asking Patients About Previous Dental Experiencesjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

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

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 to Make an Exciting Dental Exam Worth a Fee

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

How do I make a dental exam exciting enough to charge a real fee for it? First admit the problem. Most exams are boring, and if yours looks exactly like every other exam the patient has sat through, you have given them no reason to pay more or to choose you. That is the trap. The way out is to put some real substance behind it. Move to risk-based treatment planning, where you are openly evaluating function, decay and caries, perio across hard and soft tissue, and esthetic risk. You are reading a snapshot of this mouth and telling the patient [...]

How to Make an Exciting Dental Exam Worth a Feejames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

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

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

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

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