The Marketing 32 Show

This is the Marketing 32 Show, a podcast that connects with leading dentists, influencers, and experts to explore strategies and innovations that help dental practices grow and thrive.

Blog By:
Braxton

Frustrated with low phone conversion rates despite investing in marketing? Many dental practices experience the painful disconnect between generating leads and actually booking appointments, often converting only 20-25% of incoming calls into scheduled patients. What if the solution isn’t just about having someone answer the phone, but about fundamentally changing how your team approaches each interaction?

According to Shelly VanEpps, COO of All-Star Dental Academy, the key lies in moving from transactional to relational interactions through their trademarked GREAT call process. This systematic approach—Greeting, Rapport, Engage, Ask, Take information, and Thank—flips traditional phone handling on its head by building trust before asking for anything. Using her gum analogy, Shelly demonstrates that people won’t accept offers from strangers, but will readily accept them from trusted friends. Since dental patients inherently distrust dentists and dental procedures, practices must earn trust from the very first phone interaction, which requires the entire team to be cross-trained in phone skills, not just the front desk.

In this episode of The Marketing32 Show, host Brett Allen interviews Shelly VanEpps about transforming dental practice phone performance and team building. They explore the GREAT call process methodology, discuss why 60-80% booking rates should be the standard rather than the exception, and dive into All-Star Dental Academy’s comprehensive hiring services that help practices find qualified team members. The conversation covers practical strategies for handling multiple priorities at the front desk, the importance of asking for appointments, and Shelly’s transformational philosophy of focusing on what’s working well in your practice to amplify positive results.


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Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn

    
• [02:16] Shelly introduces herself and her passion for dental team development
            
• [03:27] The origin story: How Alex Nottingham’s father’s struggling practice led to All-Star Dental Academy
            
• [04:20] The breakthrough: Bringing retail sales expertise to dental phone conversion
            
• [05:18] The GREAT call process: Moving from transaction to relationship building
            
• [08:31] Breaking down GREAT: Greeting, Rapport, Engage, Ask, Take information, and Thank
            
• [09:24] The gum analogy: Why trust building must come before asking for appointments
            
• [11:35] The shocking reality: How often front desk teams fail to ask for the appointment
            
• [14:17] Cross-training solutions: Why the entire team must be able to answer phones
            
• [16:59] Target booking rates: Aiming for 60-80% conversion from answered calls
            
• [20:00] The hiring crisis solution: How doctor requests led to comprehensive recruiting services
            
• [21:31] The hiring process: From ghosted interviews to qualified candidate delivery
            
• [24:16] Real-world hiring validation: Testing candidates on basic industry knowledge like EOB
            
• [28:56] The transformational mindset: “Focus on the good, the good gets better”
            
• In this episode…

Resources mentioned in this episode:   

    
• Brett Allen on LinkedIn
            
• Marketing32 – Performance-based dental marketing with growth guarantee
            
• Shelly VanEpps on LinkedIn
            
• All-Star Dental Academy – Training and hiring services for dental practices
            
• Alex Nottingham – CEO and co-founder of All-Star Dental Academy
            
• Heather Nottingham – Co-founder who developed the GREAT call process
            
• Robin Reese – Director of hiring services at All-Star Dental Academy
            
• Dentist Partner Pros – Associate recruitment service mentioned for doctor placement
            
• Joyce Weeks episode – Previous episode about compliance and regulation
            
• Call Cat AI – Marketing32’s AI call tracking software mentioned

Quotable Moments   

    
• “I like to say we take it from the transaction to the relation. So it’s not a transaction anymore. It’s building a relationship.”
            
• “If you’re walking down the street and some random person says, ‘Hey, would you like a piece of gum?’ Are you going to take that piece of gum?… Dentistry, we need to have trust. People don’t trust the dentist.”
            
• “I haven’t met somebody yet in all my years of answering phones in a dental practice, nobody accidentally called and went, ‘Oh hey, it’s a dental office. I think I’ll schedule.’ Nobody does that. They’re calling for a purpose.”
            
• “If that phone stops ringing, we don’t have jobs… The person in front of you is a highest priority for you. And that may mean the person in front of you is the phone.”
            
• “Focus on the good, the good gets better. If you’re constantly focused on things that are going wrong, that’s all you’re going to see. But if you focus on some of the things that are going right, those start to come to the surface.”

Action Steps   

    
1. Implement the GREAT call process systematically—Greeting, Rapport, Engage, Ask, Take information, and Thank—ensuring trust-building happens before asking for appointments
            
2. Cross-train your entire team to answer phones competently, not just the front desk, so every team member can handle the first two steps of greeting and building rapport
            
3. Establish clear priorities for when someone is physically present versus phone calls ringing, with protocols for when to let calls go to voicemail during critical patient interactions
            
4. Track and measure your phone conversion rates, aiming for 60-80% booking rate from answered calls rather than accepting the industry average of 20-25%
            
5. Focus on celebrating and amplifying what’s working well in your practice rather than constantly dwelling on problems—”focus on the good, the good gets better”

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Marketing 32—the only dental marketing agency and team with a performance guarantee that is truly invested in the growth of your practice.

If you’re not growing in that first month they work together with you, you don’t pay. They really try to find practices they know they can help and partner with you for a win-win relationship.

If you need help with your marketing, visit Marketing 32 and hop on a discovery call to see if it’ll be a great fit.