james, Author at The McAnally Selling System

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So far james has created 3065 blog entries.

Build a Repeatable Selling System for Your Practice

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

How do I make my dental selling system repeatable when I add associates or new staff? Write it down so it survives you. A selling approach that lives only in your head is worthless the day an associate joins or a new front-desk person starts. The whole value of a system is that it is teachable and repeatable, something you can hand to a new team member and trust to run the same way it runs today. So document the steps between every visit. Who sends the note, who orders the smile preview, who assembles the presentation, who books the appointment [...]

Build a Repeatable Selling System for Your Practicejames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Should I Send a Personal Note to Every Patient?

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

Should I send a personal note to a patient after their consultation? Yes, and make it dead simple to execute. Have the note pre-addressed and stamped so all I have to do is write a line or two and sign it. The minute the patient walks out, it goes in the mail. Why bother? Because liking is something you keep building, not something you establish once. The easiest compliment in the world is telling them they made a great decision to start investigating their treatment now. Studies going back to the 1970s show compliments move what psychologists call compliance, which just [...]

Should I Send a Personal Note to Every Patient?james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

What Is Patient Dental IQ and How to Use It

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

What is a patient's dental IQ and how should I use it? Dental IQ is just my shorthand for how much a patient already understands about how their mouth affects the rest of their life. Do they know teeth can change how they feel about themselves, that gums and teeth affect the whole body, that a smile changes how other people treat them, that disease can be serious without ever hurting? If they know all of it, the IQ is high. If they do not, it is average or low. Here is the part dentists get wrong: it does not matter [...]

What Is Patient Dental IQ and How to Use Itjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Why Before and After Photos Drive Case Acceptance

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

Why are before and after photos so important in a case presentation? Because patients decide with their eyes, not with your treatment plan. Pull photographs of everything you do in your niche and match them to each of the three options you are presenting. When a patient sees an actual result, the abstract plan becomes a thing they can picture for themselves, and that drives the decision more than any explanation. Build a before-and-after composite for their specific situation too. Full facial before and after, or quadrants, whatever fits the case, paired with the digital smile preview. Showing someone a photo [...]

Why Before and After Photos Drive Case Acceptancejames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Pull Patient Credit Score Before You Present Financing

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

Should I pull a patient's credit score before presenting financing on a big implant case? Yes, and do it before you ever open your mouth about third party financing. Here is why. The financing company is going to run that same number, and a computer makes a cold, fast decision. If the score is weak, they say no, and there is nothing you can do about it. So if you pitch outside financing first, you have set the patient up to get rejected in front of you, and now you both feel awful. Pull the score early. If it looks bad, [...]

Pull Patient Credit Score Before You Present Financingjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Why a Dental Case Report Beats a Verbal Pitch

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

Why should I give implant patients a printed case report instead of just talking? Because talk evaporates and paper does not. A patient sits across from you, hears everything, nods, and forgets most of it by the time they reach the parking lot. That is normal human memory under stress, not a flaw in your explanation. A tangible case report does three jobs at once. It fulfills your professional obligation to make sure the patient truly understands the problem and the options. It gives them something physical to take home so the discussion does not vanish. And at the fee levels [...]

Why a Dental Case Report Beats a Verbal Pitchjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Keep Treatment Options Inside Your Verbal Fee Range

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

Should the treatment fee match the range I quoted the patient earlier? Yes, without exception, and this is where a lot of practices quietly blow their own credibility. Once you have seen the patient in person and given them a verbal fee range, that range is a promise. If your financial coordinator builds options that land outside it, you just became a painful practice again. The patient hears one number, then gets a different number, and now you are backtracking and explaining, which feels like a bait and switch even when you did not mean it that way. So the rule [...]

Keep Treatment Options Inside Your Verbal Fee Rangejames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Best Time of Day for Treatment Planning in Your Practice

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

What time of day should I do complex treatment planning? Early. Move it to the front of your day and batch it together. Treatment planning a big implant case is one of the most cognitively expensive things you do, and your brain runs out of good judgment the same way a muscle runs out of strength. By late afternoon you are not the same clinician you were at 9am. You start cutting corners, simplifying plans you should not simplify, and reaching for the easy answer instead of the right one. That is not laziness, it is fatigue, and it costs your [...]

Best Time of Day for Treatment Planning in Your Practicejames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Why a Case Presentation Checklist Saves Big Cases

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

Why should I use a checklist before a dental case presentation? Because memory is the worst place to store a process you cannot afford to get wrong. The hours before a big case presentation involve dozens of small steps spread across your assistant, you, and your financial coordinator. Miss one and the whole presentation wobbles. A checklist takes those last-minute items off your mental plate so you walk in knowing the materials are ready, the deck is right, and nothing is hanging. Surgeons and pilots use checklists for exactly this reason, and their stakes are not higher than yours, they just [...]

Why a Case Presentation Checklist Saves Big Casesjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Patient Understanding: Why Big Cases Get a No

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

Why don't patients say yes to large dental treatment plans? Most of the time it isn't price. It's that they never understood what you said. Patient understanding is the thing that moves a niche case to yes. The more understanding you create, the more yes's you get. The less you create, the fewer cases you do, full stop. Here's the trap. Most of what we do as dentists actively destroys understanding, because we present the way we were taught in school, dense and technical. When information gets complex, the patient's eyes glaze, their mind wanders, and they check out. You've felt [...]

Patient Understanding: Why Big Cases Get a Nojames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

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