james, Author at The McAnally Selling System

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So far james has created 3065 blog entries.

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

Helping an Anxious Patient Make a Logical Decision

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

How do I keep an emotional or anxious patient in a logical decision-making state? First, recognize that you can't logic someone out of fear by piling on more clinical facts. An anxious patient has dropped into a child state, reacting from old emotion rather than present reality. Meet that with calm, not with a louder explanation. Stay rooted in your own adult state, slow your pace, and acknowledge the feeling before you touch the numbers. Name the safety and esteem concerns underneath the worry, because those middle Maslow needs are usually what's really driving the anxiety. Then sit beside them, not [...]

Helping an Anxious Patient Make a Logical Decisionjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

The Takeaway Technique in Dentistry: Ethical or Not?

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

What is the takeaway technique in case presentation and is it ethical? The takeaway is simple. Before you talk cost, you make clear there are things you need to agree on together first, and you signal that you might not be willing to do this for just anyone. As humans we want what we feel we may not get, and that's hard-wired. The instant a patient senses the offer isn't automatic, they want it more. Is that ethical? It is, as long as you're using it to help the patient help themselves toward a decision that's genuinely good for them, not [...]

The Takeaway Technique in Dentistry: Ethical or Not?james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Who Presents the Fee in a Dental Case Presentation?

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

Who should actually present the fee, the doctor or the treatment coordinator? The doctor. A fee presented well, with real confidence, by the person who carries the clinical responsibility lands differently than the same number from staff. The patient knows the buck stops with you, so when you say it without flinching, they trust it. The coordinator's job is to make the arrangement afterward, not to deliver the number. If you're not comfortable doing this, that's the thing to fix, not delegate around. I tell doctors plainly: if you can't get good at presenting your own fee and the case keeps [...]

Who Presents the Fee in a Dental Case Presentation?james2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

How I Open Presenting Treatment Recommendations

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

How should I open the recommendations part of a case presentation? Put the patient's interests on the same level as your own family before you recommend a single thing. The first words out of my mouth heading into recommendations are some version of, I am only going to suggest what I would recommend to my own family or a close friend. That one sentence reframes everything that follows. The patient stops bracing for a sales pitch and starts hearing advice. It is the difference between a salesman and a trusted advisor, and patients can feel which one they are sitting across [...]

How I Open Presenting Treatment Recommendationsjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Explaining Bone Loss to Patients in Plain Words

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

What is the best way to describe missing teeth and bone loss to a patient? In the plainest words you own, like you are talking to a high schooler. I never say edentulous or severe resorption to a patient. I say things like, you have this many teeth left, 15 of them are savable and 15 are not. Your upper teeth only have 10 to 20 percent of their foundation left, not much, but still something to work with. Your lower bone has an infection, but we can treat it with predictability. Notice the pattern. State the problem honestly, then immediately [...]

Explaining Bone Loss to Patients in Plain Wordsjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

How to Bring the Spouse Up at Case Presentations

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

How do I bring a patient's spouse up to speed at the case presentation? Assume they know nothing and start there. For many large cases, the presentation is the first time you meet the financial other, and they did not sit through the complete dental physical the way the patient did. If you skip ahead, you leave the most important decision-maker behind, confused and defensive. So before the clinical talk, play them the educational video on the service you're discussing, then walk them through the patient problems slides on the big monitor. Ask whether anything has changed since last time, whether [...]

How to Bring the Spouse Up at Case Presentationsjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Using a Patient Problems PowerPoint in Presentations

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

What is a patient problems PowerPoint and why do I need one? It is a simple set of slides showing the patient their own situation on a large monitor before the doctor presents. Photos of their mouth, a basic summary of the problems pulled straight from your intake and the interview during the complete dental physical, and a glimpse of how they could look if they go forward. Nothing fancy. The point is to prepare them visually so the clinical conversation does not blindside them, and to bring a financial other up to speed if this is their first time seeing [...]

Using a Patient Problems PowerPoint in Presentationsjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Financial Other Attendance at Case Presentations

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

Should I cancel a dental case presentation if the spouse can't attend? Usually yes, and I treat the absent financial other as a stop signal, not a minor hiccup. You went to real lengths to get this person in the chair, because they often hold a veto over a large decision they were never part of. So when they cannot make it, ask one question honestly: is this a true scheduling conflict, or are they ducking you? If it is legitimate, reschedule without hesitation. You are far better off long term with that person in the room. If you sense avoidance, [...]

Financial Other Attendance at Case Presentationsjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Closing Large Dental Cases as a Dentist

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

How do dentists actually close very large cases worth tens of thousands of dollars? First, accept that those cases exist. There are real patients who need over a hundred thousand dollars of dentistry, and I am not talking about over-treatment. I mean people with the deepest disabilities who have lost most of their function. When they are sold to correctly, some of them will spend whatever it takes to get their health, beauty, and function back. The reason you cannot close them now is that big cases carry enormous emotional weight, and you are presenting them as a pile of clinical [...]

Closing Large Dental Cases as a Dentistjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

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