Hello, and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
My name is Chanel Bunger, and I'm recording
live at the Becker's Healthcare
fall 2024
future of dentistry round table. And right now
I am sitting with Jay Glaser,
the director of business development at DC Dental.
Jay, thank you so much for joining me
today. Thank you, Ruben, for, allowing me to
join you.
Well, to get us started, could you please
introduce yourself and tell us a little bit
about your background? Thank you. My name is,
Jay Glaser. I stand in a waiting 285
hour journey.
Yeah. We are in the dental,
I guess, distribution business. We pick pack ship.
I think we're actually number 5 in the
country now. We have DC Dental. We have
Crazy Dental.
I've been in this business now for 13
years.
And our growth has been over the 3rd
to 3 year period, almost $10,000,000
a year. So we're really we're going we're
number 5 in the country now.
And, we love what we do. It's very
simple. A decent dental model, we'd have reps
or we and then we have we work
with DSOs, GPOs.
The reps will work with either solo practitioner
offices or the larger groups. And then we
have Crazy Dental, which just takes our authorized
competitors pricing. We match the lowest price, and
that's what you pay. So it's no haggle.
You don't have to look around and have
12 windows open to look at each price.
Well, I can get this here, that there,
and none of that. Just leave it all
up to us. Ship same day, evening, you
receive your tracking. Done. And the DC side,
it's the same idea. Ship same day, evening,
you receive your tracking. And thank God we're
growing and we're rocking and rolling. So
Love to hear it. Well, that kind of
brings me to my next question.
What strategic initiatives
are you prioritizing for growth and patient care?
That's a great question.
So we are prioritizing
opening up 2 new warehouses
to be 2 days to everyone in the
United States.
Not that if someone's, you know, 3 or
4 days away that we actually have to
put it on our own dime and and
get this stuff done within 2 days because
it's now expected. Amazon has changed the rules
of, shipping. Sure has. So we're working on
that. And then within the warehouses, we've I
like to call it Amazonian.
So now there's we have people working there,
and we also have a lot of, you
know, conveyor belts and machines and robots. And
it's it's one of our competitors, one of
the largest dental distributors in the country is
in some ways. Like, I heard you guys
are, like, top in in this. So we
do that. A lot of APIs we we're
open to working with, you know, marketplaces that
a lot of our competitors are not excited
and thrilled about using.
So we're we're open to competition. Our goal
is to just, you know, just keep growing
upstream, but just chisel away.
Love you. Yeah. And then we we have
this AI stuff and the customer service is
very important to us and make sure that
everybody's
happy and taken care of and
keep rolling. We have about 46,000
SKUs, over a 170 manufacturers we work with.
So it's,
we're we're growing. We're growing. Love to hear
it. Well,
moving forward, what key experiences have shaped your
leadership journey
in the dental and DSO industry?
Key experiences for me.
And I guess from you could do for
me. And then I do a company first
and then for me. So originally,
people may or may not wanna hear this,
but we we tried very hard to avoid
the DSO,
space.
DSOs
own you.
They they they dictate to you,
how things should be done, and they're here
today and gone tomorrow.
Even though maybe 67% of dental offices will
be DSOs in in the, you know, short
term,
in the near future, I should say. But,
you know, there'll still be another 30, 40%,
and you can make billions off that. But
as as time progresses,
it's it's it's obvious that you gotta get
into the space.
So, you know, by default,
we're in it, and we're we're thrilled to
be in it and win it. You know,
we work with all the manufacturers now to
get the special market pricing.
We make sure that our clients are taken
care of and what with multiple here that
already use us here at the conference. And
they're very they're very happy with us. I
have a whole team.
Some designate are designated to work with solar
practitioners and some just with DSOs and GPOs.
And, so we just we were pushing for
a while to to jump in. And now
the company has actually said, okay. It's
let's do this and light bulb off, and
we're in. So,
that's really brought us in. I, you know,
I go to I go to multiple DSO
conferences, and, it's
it's going in the right direction. We're not
we're not, we're we're not we're not avoiding
it any longer. And not only are we
saying we don't really wanna do this, we're
doing it. You know, we're we're all in.
Well, thank you so much for that answer.
And what significant challenges are dental and DSO
leaders facing currently? And how are you addressing
them in your current role? So I think
some of the biggest challenges really have nothing
to do with us at staffing.
We don't have the problem because we just
pick, pack, ship. And we always have people
that are willing to work on our warehouses.
You know? I know I don't know when
this is gonna be, broadcasted, but one one,
I think,
one one, the because of the hurricane in,
I think, was Helene in, North Carolina.
Right now, when you have, like, sodium chloride
in the water, it's still it's it's a
real problem.
Baxter is closed, and most of the raw
most of these stuff is now being shipped
to hospitals rightfully so. So there's a shortage
there.
But but other than that, I I I
I'm not seeing real manufacture back orders
on most products. And things seem to be,
you know, really streamlined. And we're we're we're
post COVID. I mean, thank god. So that
that issue of can't get this and can't
get that is really I think it's past
us.
And and as far as, other and, you
know, for us, we don't really
we're not we're not you know, you know,
there's only there's only an issue with, UPS
or FedEx or, you know, the postal service
goes down. Or Amazon. Or Amazon. Exactly. Right.
You know, AI is becoming very big. It's
all technology. So if you go down, like,
we'll get an email. Oh, you know, this
machine is not working. That could be catastrophic.
So we we have extra parts in the
warehouse. We order all for that that's for
us, that's it's all technology. So if the
websites go down or which almost really never
happens or if something if somebody's very big
machines in the warehouse go down, it could
be it could be problematic,
and it could push things off a day
or 2. But other than that, I mean,
thank god it's it's
we don't really have,
you know, like, the way I mentioned with
the water, the manufacturer back issue back order
issues. But we don't really we don't really
think that we won't really struggle. We try
to stay away from
the noise and just stay focused on what
we're doing and, you know, and and and
and work with what we have. And that's
that's so far I think it's been successful.
Sounds like a key to success. Oh, yes.
Well, so far I've enjoyed our time together.
But to,
wrap things up, could you please share a
few pieces of advice for
other leaders in your field
for
essential skills that you think that they need
to in order to be successful? I know
you've already given some advice, but
Sure.
In my humble opinion,
and there are a lot more people in
this business that are a lot wiser than
I am, and they they know a lot
more and been around a lot longer. But
for my mom picking up, I I think
you have to appreciate and you have to
love what you do. If you don't,
you're not gonna be successful. So when it
comes to dental, I find that,
you know, a lot of people some people
will move around, but most of them actually
stick in dental because they they like it.
They appreciate it.
I think you have to really like what
you do, love what you do, and that's
gonna help, you know, bring success. And your
team around you is crucial. I think the
people that work with you, you know, always
bring on smart, wise
people, intelligent people, and it's gonna make everybody
look greater and better and smarter, and you're
gonna get more business done. You gotta work
hard.
And and you have to appreciate what you're
doing. You gotta take care of your people.
Is there anything else that really sticks out?
I I think you have to be ambitious.
You got it. There there's a lot of
competition out there.
And, you gotta you you can't you gotta
be, you know, tenacious. You just gotta persistent
and just keep pushing and pushing. But at
the same time, be respectful
and and, be a friend to other people.
Don't be there, like, you know, you know,
you know, hardcore. That's it. You know, it's
either we're doing business, not doing business. No.
No. You still stay friends with them because
you never know what's gonna come around. You
always have to be,
a real genuine to other people. And and
it
it word travels quickly. If you're nice and
genuine real,
to other people, it's it's it's gonna come
back to you because at the end of
the day, no matter what business you're in,
it's all about relationships.
You know? Yes. Computers and every you know,
there's some people, like, you know, you close
behind behind closed doors and they, you know,
their power is in their fingers, you know,
the keyboard. But at the end of the
bottom line, relationships are what matter. And and,
people know you're a good person.
It it's, you know, the sky's the limit.
Excellent advice. Thank you so much for sharing.
Welcome. Thank you for your time. I appreciate
the opportunity of being here, and it's pretty
cool stuff. You know? Windy city, Chi Town,
and, go Cubs. I'm not a Cubs fan,
but whatever. It sounds good. Go Cubs. Well,
thank you so much, Dave, for joining. Pleasure.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you
for your time. Thank you.