We’ve gone over the three Core Elements of Net Profit and the six Pillars of a Lean Mean Profit-Making Machine . Here is my go-to strategy that a dental practice can use to add more revenue using a virtual sales assistant.
But first, a quick question…
When a patient comes in for a regular cleaning, and you mention a service they need or could use (teeth whitening, deep cleaning), who follows up with them after they leave the office?
When someone fills out a “new patient” inquiry on your website, who follows up with them?
If you have someone who is doing this, what is the frequency of the contacts and what mediums do you use? (I.e. phone, text, and email)
Is anyone going through your database of inactive clients and following up with them to book a general cleaning or maybe do a more advanced treatment?
If your answer to any of these questions is “I don’t have anyone to do that” then you’re leaving money to be made on the table.
Also, it should not be YOU, the owner, doing these sales contacts. It’s helpful for you to do it in the beginning to learn the system, but it should be delegated quickly.
You can hire people abroad to follow up with your clients/prospects and set meetings for your American-based staff.
Currently, I have a sales assistant named Roj in the Philippines who I pay about $9 an hour and he works thirty-five hours a week making 200–300 outbound phone AND email AND text follow-ups with my leads and clients for my after-school education business, LIFT Enrichment. He is calling Americans, during regular Pacific Standard Time hours, that are high-level directors of schools and districts.
His English is very good, he calls from an American number, and he has a great Zoom presence. He’s been with me well over a year and he makes great money working from home, plus some bonuses based on the company’s performance.
His focus was to set appointments for me to close sales. After six months, the position evolved (as my company did) because I trusted him. He became in charge of a lot including:
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- Setting appointments for me
- Invoicing clients
- Reminding clients about their appointments (the day before and often the day of)
- Sending proposals (using a templated script)
- Following up on proposals (to help close deals)
- Staying on every Zoom meeting with me
- Emailing clients about follow-up meetings
- Sending key documents to new clients (W-9, Certificate of Insurance, etc.) plus helpful links
The system has and continues to get refined, but it’s saved me dozens of hours of work per week. Currently, my time is worth $600 an hour. It’s exceptionally valuable at this level and continues to be more important as my business grows. My main goal is to figure out how I can leverage other people’s time using the key tasks to bring in more sales.
Here’s how you could use a business development rep aka BDR / aka sales assistant based abroad to bring in more revenue.
Step 1: Crunch the Numbers to See What a BDR Could Sell
I like to start my planning with a Google spreadsheet to see what services and at what price points could help boost your topline.
Services that patients could come in for include:
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- Teeth Whitening
- Teeth Molds and At-home Whitening Solutions
- Root Canal
- Deep Cleaning
- Etc.
Write in a few columns
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- The price point of each item
- How many you sell per year
- Then multiply those numbers to see how much you’re doing now
- Add how many patients you have in your database and multiply by .10 (10%) to see how many you could potentially close
- Put a dollar amount to see what you could add to your revenue
| Service | Price | Volume Last Year | Total Sales Last Year |
| Teeth Whitening | $500 | 40 | $20,000 |
| Total Clients in Database | Close 10% | Value for Teeth Whitening | |
| 1,000 | 100 | $50,000 |
A staff at $9 an hour is definitely worth it for an extra $50k in revenue!
Step 2: Write the Script
Next, we figure out what the conversational flow will be to get a patient to book a meeting with your staff to do a service (like teeth whitening).
You’ll be calling them between 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
The next part is to write a script that includes:
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- How to greet the patient and remind them who you are
- Ask them about their previous experience and if there could be any ways to improve it
- Ask if they’ve thought about (insert treatment discussed)
- Ask if they would like to put an appointment on the calendar. If possible, the call can get transferred to your American-based receptionist/admin to confirm the details
You’ll also need to:
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- Create a voicemail script
- A text message script for follow-up
- An email template to go with it
Step 3: Setup the CRM and KPIs
I like to use simple CRMs to keep patients organized. Currently, I use Pipedrive and Roj can call from my number during American hours to get it up and running.
Notes are added to each file.
Each week we look at his KPIs or “Key Performance Indicators”, which are the key metrics to track:
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- Outbound calls per week
- Closed deals per month
- Appointments set per week
Step 4: Train your BDR
It’ll take about two to three weeks to get a good BDR up and running. Elements to practice will be:
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- Sharing the script and doing some roleplays
- Have him or her listen to a few calls made by a more experienced American-based staff
- You listening to their calls (or listening to recordings)
Step 5: Start Calling
Now your admin has a goal, a script and tools.
For me, Roj has weekly goals, outbound calls, metrics, and more. I’m not super adept at CRM usage, but we meet weekly and check his numbers.
Your Roj can start calling patients, about five to six hours a day. You probably have a list of hundreds or even thousands of patients you’ve had over the years, some who come regularly and some that haven’t come in a while.
You will now stay in front of their mind and most will appreciate a warm reminder call. Later, we’ll go into how to hire this BDR (mine has helped me generate millions in sales in a single year). He’s motivated and hard-working and I’m looking to bring in more. Who wouldn’t at $9–$10 an hour when someone abroad can lead their best life working from home and helping business owners succeed? If you’d like help finding, hiring, and training your “Roj” to add an extra $50k in sales to your dentistry practice, let’s hop on a call with the link here.
And here are our 3 most recent newsletters
• Why We ONLY Work With Dentists
• The Six Pillars of a “Net Profit-Focused” Business
• Three Core Elements of Net Profit For Dentists