How to find a pilot customer, upsell agency clients into SaaS, and avoid the early mistakes Rajeev made
Rajeev Bhatia · BPKTech
Published September 1, 2022Rajeev Bhatia, CEO and Founder of BPKTech & Simplifi Dentistry, shares:
- How to find a pilot customer to build SaaS with
- Key mistakes and what to do instead
- Agency & SaaS Upselling - Inside Info
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Rajeev Bhatia explains how an agency background informed a SaaS business: preserve runway, learn from product losses, systematize sales operations, use channel partners, and make the product stickier through a broader offering.
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“grew the sales without actually having any salesperson and then having the Consulting team help out this has business so here is our today this is our agency we just got into Inc 5000 this year so the business has been growing so as you can see from 2020 to 21 uh by employing some really cool strategies and statistics we were”
“or like our sales active didn't stop so we kept pushing sales really really hard and we only had like three sales people we still only have three sales people and so we kept pushing hard and one of the things that was happening because everyone was at home so we actually had a lot of meetings right because there was no one working and especially dental offices were shut down so we had a lot of meetings happen but no one wanted to sign up because even though we were offering free software so we probably”
“capital usually it takes them anywhere from 30 to 120 days and after that the accounts go delinquent and so our goal was to build tools and Technology to do insurance verification to do collections much much faster so um so that's what we ended up building and even today that's been the focus now we are adding more bells and whistles to it because customers are asking for it but that has become the core product for us”
“onboarded there are still areas of improvement but at least it gives us the Insight that we need into the business and not only just me but my leadership team because it helps us open up be very transparent and direct right mine is a distributed team I have half the team here some team members are in Europe and then most team members are in India so for me I think the biggest thing that I”
“good predictable results with this if I look at my pipeline for the next six months I can with 80 confidence say that we're going to get 28 deals every month and it has been going on for a while so so here's our average deal size we do around eight thousand dollars per Clinic per year we started the business with uh three month Auto renewal now we're”
“How Many Thank COVID for their Business Today?”
“Desperate Times call for Desperate Measures.”
“Big Mistake #1 - Doing Everything”
“Scaling SaaS - Simple Sales Strategy”
“Agency & SaaS Upselling - Inside Info”
Video
Cheat Code: I learned what SaaS to build for dentists by building a $7m agency first - Slide Deck
As the CEO of Dentistry Automation, he leads a team of experts in delivering dental revenue cycle solutions that automate insurance verification, claim management, and payment posting for dental clinics and support organizations. He is also the CEO of BPK Technologies, a software and data analytics company that serves healthcare, e-commerce, manufacturers, and construction clients with innovative and scalable solutions.
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Each slide with a short explanation of what it shows. Open the slide text for its exact wording.
28 passages
Rajeev Bhatia CEO, Founder of BPKTech & Simplifi Dentistry Founder500, Sept 2022 I Got Paid $7m To Learn What SaaS Dentists Wanted … the power of an agency first model
The talk opens by asking whether attendees credit COVID for their business, inviting reflection on how the pandemic shaped company outcomes.
How Many Thank COVID for their Business Today?
The agenda connects the agency-to-SaaS pivot with operating mistakes and early sales. It previews the COVID scare, finding a pilot customer, improving focus and measurement, and choosing direct or channel sales.
Over the next 20 minutes: I’m going to show you MISTAKES Doing Everything Not Measuring Anything $0-$1M SAAS SALES No Rules AGENCY TO SAAS PIVOT Agency & SaaS Upselling - Inside Info Direct vs Channel - Salesforce Dilemma Solving something no one has solved - Last Mile Covid Scare Finding a pilot customer to build SaaS with
BPK’s agency revenue rises from $2.4 million in 2018 to $7 million in 2022, with the chart stepping up each year: $2.5 million, $3.6 million, then $4.5 million. The slide marks the 2022 Inc. 5000 honor alongside the growth.
BPK (Agency) Revenue Growth - Today
Simplifi Dentistry’s revenue climbs from $0 in 2020 to $4 million in 2023, passing $300,000 in 2021 and $1 million in 2022. The chart presents this as growth after the product buildout with a customer.
Product Buildout with Customer Simplifi Dentistry (SaaS) Revenue Growth - Today
The agency nearly shut down as projects and morale fell, while the team had 40 people without work and $120K in the bank, described as enough for 3 months. The slide’s response is to use the available time to build something.
Agency to SaaS Pivot This is me! Losing my hair! My Customers My Employees Covid scare Agency almost got shut-down Lots of tech talent but no work - 40 people Enough cash to survive 3-months - $120K in bank. Use the time to build something
This section opener marks the agency’s difficult period and sets up the decisions made during the COVID scare.
Desperate Times call for Desperate Measures.
The agency offered software development to keep work moving, and one customer agreed to co-develop a product that the agency could license. The slide pairs a $250K development cost with a $10K monthly license and a stated 25-month return period; identifying details in the work statement are redacted.
Agency to SaaS Pivot Agency sales continued Survival tactics - offered free s/w dev One customer agreed to co-develop and let us license them! Dev Cost: $250K. License / Month = $10K. ROI = 25 Months! Pilot Customer
This section opener introduces the mistakes the speaker will unpack, beginning with product ideas that did not work.
Big Mistake
The audience is asked whether they have lost money on bad product ideas and how much, setting up a discussion of the costs of building without enough focus.
Raise Your Hand if You Have Lost Money on Bad Product Ideas? How Much?
The slide contrasts two dental software product concepts with the costs attached to each: $45K and $50K. It introduces the first mistake as trying to do everything.
Big Mistake #1 - Doing Everything Wasted 45K Wasted 50K
A production and collections dashboard is paired with the label “Too Much to Admit,” illustrating an unfinished or unused product whose tracked totals remain at zero. The example continues the warning about taking on too much.
Big Mistake #1 - Doing Everything Too Much to Admit
The slide moves from a broad platform plan to a single focus: RCM. Its lesson is to do one thing well, after six months and $250K were wasted across the earlier effort.
Big Mistake #1 - Doing Everything Do ONE thing - Do it REALLY Well We have ONE focus now - RCM Changed Focus to Building One Platform “value of simplifying one's workload by focusing on the one most important task in any given project” 6 months & $250K Wasted
The second mistake was operating without measurement in 2020. The slide links a prospecting-to-won-sales ratio and activity by salesperson to an automated system for tracking performance.
Big Mistake #2 - Not Measuring 2020 - No Measurement of Anything Prospecting to Won Sales Ratio Calls & Emails / sales person Automate Measurement - Then Measure Everything
This section introduces the third mistake, having no operating system, and the idea that each department should have a number to track.
Installing a Business Operating System Each Department Has A Number - Based on book - Traction by Gino Wickman Big Mistake #3 - No OS!
The 90-day plan assigns measurable targets to product development, sales, and marketing. It includes 400 story points across 6 sprints, an MVP and 3 customers, plus targets such as 30,000 sales connections, 150 clinic signups, and 30 marketing conversions.
90-Days Goals Product Dev Sales Marketing 30,000 Connects 3,000 Calls 300 Proposals 150 Clinics Signed Up 400 Story Points 6 Sprints MVP Deployed 3 Customers 1,000 Posts (SM, Blog) 300 Downloads 300 Inbound Leads 30 Conversions
This section opener introduces the sales strategy and process the speaker credits with helping the SaaS business scale.
Building a Sales Strategy & Process to Scale SaaS This saved us!
The diagram contrasts selling directly to dental offices, which promises high margins but requires a large sales effort, with group and channel routes. It labels a market of 206000 dental offices and compares groups of 50K practices with channels reaching 100K practices; the channel route is shown with a smaller team and a 10-25% margin cut.
Scaling SaaS - Simple Sales Strategy
The slide compares selling to private practices through channels with organizing sales to groups directly. It labels the group route at $600K per year and the channel route at $200K per year, framing a tradeoff between sales approach and revenue.
Scaling SaaS - Simple Sales Strategy Selling direct to private practices vs. group-practices (1:N) Organizing sales to sell to groups - $600k/year Using channels to sell to private practices - $200k/year via channels. DIRECT VS CHANNEL
A spreadsheet organizes outreach sequences, email templates, contact forms, scripts, and calendars across the agency’s service lines. It illustrates how existing agency sales materials could support the SaaS team; small spreadsheet text is not reproduced.
Scaling SaaS
The slide explains how agency experience could help the SaaS team: learn the customer’s needs, then build scripts that make the sales process repeatable.
Scaling SaaS INSIDE INFO Agency helping SaaS team initially Knowing ton about customer Building out scripts to scale
This question introduces the sales outreach section and asks how much follow-up a prospect may need before buying.
How Many Touches are Needed to Make a Sale?
The schedule spaces outreach across 21 business days, combining cold email, phone calls, LinkedIn requests and messages, and profile views. The calendar alternates touch types and follow-ups rather than relying on a single contact.
Sales Sequence
The slide states an average deal size of $8,000 per clinic per year and says the business is moving to a 2-year contract. Monthly new deals rise from 6 in January to 28 in July, then fall to 8 in August.
Average Deal Size - $8,000/clinic/year - Moving to 2 Year Contract
The slide says competing products solve only 20% of the problem, pointing to missing point-of-sale integration and automation. It argues for tackling a difficult last-mile problem others have not solved; the adjacent diagram is a blank image placeholder.
Scaling SaaS Current competing products solving 20% problems Point-of-sale integration lacking Not enough automation Solve the really hard problem that is really hard to solve by others! Last Mile
Org Chart
The closing recap groups the talk around the agency-to-SaaS pivot, mistakes in focus and measurement, and sales from $0 to $1M. It revisits the COVID scare, pilot customer, agency support, direct-versus-channel choices, and the last-mile problem.
Over the last 20 minutes: I showed you MISTAKES Doing Everything Not Measuring Anything $0-$1M SAAS SALES No Rules AGENCY TO SAAS PIVOT Agency & SaaS Upselling - Inside Info Direct vs Channel - Salesforce Dilemma Solving something no one has solved - Last Mile Covid Scare Finding a pilot customer to build SaaS with
The speaker closes with a thank-you and identifies himself as the CEO of BPK Tech and Simplifi Dentistry.
September 2022 Rajeev Bhatia CEO of BPK Tech & Simplifi Dentistry