Maxing out on bench

Does anyone know of (in their opinion) the best way to work up to a max bench press? I mean, I almost never max out, I just get a good workout, and don't worry about the max. But, on the few occasions I have tried to max out, I either jump up too fast, and do worse than I do in a workout, or I end up basically doing too many sets and reps on the way up, and am too tired to get anything higher than I usually do in an average workout.

Any advice would be appriciated.