Blog - Page 75 of 310 - The McAnally Selling System

Handle a Patient’s Insurance Benefit Fear With a Promise

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

How do I handle a patient who fears they won't get their full insurance benefit? Take the fear off the table entirely. Almost two decades in practice and I've heard it constantly. Every patient with a plan carries a built in fear that the carrier will stiff them out of their benefit, and they get so caught up in it they can't think about treatment. After enough trial and error I landed on what I call the insurance promise. You promise the patient they'll get their benefit through the insurance, and if for some reason they don't, you apply whatever the [...]

Handle a Patient’s Insurance Benefit Fear With a Promisejames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

How a Dentist Can Become a Leader in the Practice

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

How does a dentist actually become a leader in the practice? You decide you already are one. That sounds too simple, I know, but the leader is inside every dentist out there. In some it's already awake, doing what leaders do. In most it's just asleep. And the way you wake it is by deciding, plainly, that you are that great leader. Say it and mean it, and the process starts. It may take a little time, but the deciding is the trigger. Churchill didn't study to become Churchill, dire circumstances pulled the leader out of him. Our circumstances aren't rockets [...]

How a Dentist Can Become a Leader in the Practicejames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Why Leadership Books Fail to Make Dentists Leaders

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

Why do all the leadership books fail to make me a leader? Because they describe symptoms and call it the disease. I've read my share of leadership books, chasing something I thought was called leadership, and what they all do is the same thing. They list the behaviors of leaders, the attitudes, the way someone sits and looks a person in the eye, and then they expect that describing those traits will somehow hand them to you. But symptoms aren't causation. Sneezes don't cause colds. A rhinovirus does, and the sneeze is just the effect showing up. Every one of those [...]

Why Leadership Books Fail to Make Dentists Leadersjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Leadership in Insurance Conversations With Patients

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

Do I need leadership skills to talk to patients about insurance? More than you think. Sitting eye to eye with a patient and telling them honestly what insurance does and does not do is not a clerical task, it's a leadership act. It takes someone willing to be candid and comfortable in a conversation most offices dodge. That's why I push the doctor plus the office manager, or the doctor plus the financial coordinator, to step into a stronger role here instead of handing it off to whoever answers the phone. When you can have that honest discussion, you separate yourself [...]

Leadership in Insurance Conversations With Patientsjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Why You Should Record Your Dental Case Presentations

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

Why should I record my case presentations on video? Because you cannot fix what you never watch. I tell dentists to record the clinical work, the consultations, the diagnostics, and especially the treatment presentation, both the clinical part and the financial part. The smartphone you're already glued to is the easiest tool you own for this. Here's the honest reason. You think you're following your own checklist, but until you go back and watch, you're guessing. I've sat through presentations I did years ago and winced at things I'd handle completely differently now. That's not failure, that's the point. You inspect [...]

Why You Should Record Your Dental Case Presentationsjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Who Should Route a Large Dental Case Call in Your Office

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

Who in my office should handle questions about a large dental case? One person, and everyone else routes to them. After any case presentation you brief the whole team, either right then or at your weekly meeting, so they know who this patient is and exactly where the case stands. Then the rule is simple. If that patient calls, they go straight to the financial coordinator. Nobody else should be answering money or treatment questions on a case they only half understand, because one fumbled answer from the front desk can unravel weeks of trust. There's an upside too. When the [...]

Who Should Route a Large Dental Case Call in Your Officejames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Follow Up Reminders for Undecided Dental Implant Cases

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

Should I set reminders to follow up with undecided implant patients? Yes, and the reminder is for you before it's for them. If a patient came in, got every question answered, and still walked out undecided, that case lives or dies on whether anyone remembers it exists. I put a hard reminder on the 45 day expiration of their plan so I can nudge them before it lapses, and another at 60 days for a follow up letter paired with a call. Without those triggers the case just evaporates, and you'll never know how many you lost to nothing more than [...]

Follow Up Reminders for Undecided Dental Implant Casesjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

How to Keep a Patient Engaged Before Big Case Surgery

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

How do I keep a patient excited about treatment when surgery is months away? Treat the wait as the most fragile part of the case, not the easy part. Someone who says yes in spring but won't have surgery until summer has months to talk themselves out of it, and a big check written with nothing in hand yet can curdle into regret fast. So you stay in front of them. Personal notes telling them how glad you are they chose the treatment they deserve. Weekly calls. Flowers or chocolates the day they commit. When my patients said yes and I [...]

How to Keep a Patient Engaged Before Big Case Surgeryjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Keeping Patients Committed When Surgery Is Months Away

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

How do I keep a patient committed when surgery is months away? You stay in their life so doubt can't move in. A patient might say yes but not be able to start for a couple months, a teacher waiting for summer, someone with travel booked. That gap is dangerous, because a lot can happen in two months and cold feet are real. Sometimes a person writes a large check and gets nothing immediately, and the whole thing curdles into a negative in their head. My job is to keep it positive and exciting. So I send personal notes telling them [...]

Keeping Patients Committed When Surgery Is Months Awayjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

Handling an Immediate Yes After the Case Presentation

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

What do I do when a patient says yes immediately after the presentation? You get out of your own way and take the yes. If someone says I have no questions, I'm ready, the last thing you do is slow them down with let's set up a question and answer appointment first. That's a system meant for the undecided, not for a ready buyer. When anyone says they're ready, jump straight into getting the finances in place. Everything else, scheduling, consent, prescriptions, comes after. But before any of that, I want a minimum of twenty five percent down. No reserved surgery [...]

Handling an Immediate Yes After the Case Presentationjames2026-06-16T00:00:00-04:00

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