Secure Dental_Kyle White: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Secure Dental_Kyle White: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Noel Liu:
Welcome to the Secure Dental Podcast. Through conversations with the brightest minds in the dental and business communities, we'll share practical tips you can use to scale your practice and create financial freedom for yourself and your family. My name is Dr. Noel Liu, CEO and Dentist at Secure Dental and also co-founder of DenVia. I'm your host for the second podcast, and I'm so glad you're joining in.

Noel Liu:
Welcome to our Secure Dental podcast. I'm thrilled here today with somewhat remarkable, and you know I'm singing from the bottom of my heart, who has carved a distinct role and a niche for himself in the world of dental sales, and a proud member of the esteemed Straumann Group brand, join us as we dive into the dynamic journey of Neodent's territory sales manager Mr. Kyle White. With more than seven years of experience in the world of medical sales, Kyle has discovered his true passion in the dental industry. Beyond his professional role, Kyle is a dedicated and devoted family man, married with two kids, and a golf player. What really stands out about Kyle is his dedication to helping dentists make the most out of their practices, and he loves working with them to find ways to grow and improve. Join us as we chat with Kyle about his shift from medical sales to dentistry, his love for gold, and his mission to support dental professionals. Kyle, man, we are delighted to have you here. Welcome, the stage is yours.

Kyle White:
Hey, thank you so much; quite the introduction. I swear I'm not that, typically that interesting, but you definitely made it seem that way, so I appreciate it. No, thank you for having me on. Obviously, this is something that I know that you're very, very interested in, invested in, is this podcast, so I'm just very fortunate, very happy to be a part of this journey with you, and answer any questions that you might have, and the listeners might have as far as myself, Neodent, and the dental industry, especially implants as a whole.

Noel Liu:
So yeah, I mean, that's great, we know you're a Neodent rep, right? Everybody knows you by now in the dental world. So tell me a little bit about yourself. Like we want to see the guy behind the Neodent uniform. So tell me a little bit about yourself, how you got started, and what's your journey like.

Kyle White:
Yeah, so just take it back, not too far, but I was a college golfer, played Division One college golf at Chicago State University. It was an awesome, awesome opportunity, met a lot of really cool people, still friends with a lot of the guys that I played golf with, but I knew college was just the start of it, you know? It was, hey, what do I want to do after this? I knew I wanted to be in a sales role. I knew that I enjoyed talking to people. So like most college athletes, I went to Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and kind of found my niche for just talking and trying to sell stuff to people. As you know, when you go to Enterprise, it's you want to add additional insurance, you want to have roadside assistance, you upgrade your vehicle, so I spent quite a while doing that. It was really great, it truly was. They definitely prepare you for the managerial side of things. So I would tell anybody out there, you know, that is looking into a sales role, like don't look past them, they do a really good job of kind of just getting you ready for being in that sales role, you know.

Noel Liu:
Whoever had a think, like Enterprise would be like a sales role. I mean, we always see guys behind the counter, but nobody's actually selling much, so you must have stood out there quite a bit.

Kyle White:
Yeah, so I ended up in a really good location not far from me in New Lenox. I had a really good office manager. I also had a really good area manager and kind of set my goals pretty shortly. I didn't want to be in a management trainee role very long, so the criteria for moving out of that into like an MA role and then being able to interview for an assistant manager role is a minimum of six months. So you need to have six months of a proven track record in sales, and then there's like a test that you have to take at that six-month mark if you qualify for it. So, right at six months, I qualified. I had the six months directly of the sales that were needed, and then I took, they call it the Grill, so I took that and passed. So it was kind of nice, it was like just another step into the sales world. I became an MA. Shortly after that, I applied for an assistant manager position for a location near me, and I ended up getting that. So I spent the remainder of my career there as an assistant manager at the Joliet location. I enjoyed it, but I knew that ultimately, I wanted to be outside talking with people. I wanted to have the freedom to kind of run my own route and do things like that. Automotive was what I knew, just even going back further than that, I was definitely a car enthusiast myself as much as any, you know, young college kid could be, but had a bunch of buddies that were into cars and things like that. And so wanted to stay in automotive, so I actually went to a company called BG, and they sell automotive chemicals to dealerships and then private shops and things like that. So that gave me the opportunity to kind of take my sales and persuasion and everything like that, but let me be on a daily basis. You know, let me be out in dealerships talking to owners of small shops and just seeing like, how can we help you generate revenue? Because that's what all of these services were doing, their revenue-generating services. So if I could get you to install our transmission fluid exchange machine, I could show you, hey, the ROI on having this and the time used to do the service, you're going to make X amount of dollars per day if you do X amount of these services. So that was the really fun part. That got into really now not looking at things for myself, but it looked, it was how can I help this small business owner or, you know, dealership, GM, whatever it may be, How can I help them generate more money? Because I knew that if I could help somebody make money, they weren't going to leave me. And things are going to come up, and issues are going to, you know, occur, but when you're helping somebody actually put money into their pocket, it becomes a very hard conversation to say, hey, we're moving on to somebody new. You know, and then a lot of facets of business and especially sales, what ends up happening is we get that first initial sale, and then everything else goes by the wayside because it's like, okay, well, you know, I had that chase. The thrilling part of it was the chase to get their business. Then you get it, and then you're like, okay, well, where's my value after that? So I learned at a very young age, hey, I need to, the chase is definitely important. It's needed, but you need that value after the fact.

Noel Liu:
So you're more of a long-term.

Kyle White:
Yeah, yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't.

Noel Liu:
..., right?

Kyle White:
For me, it's never been like, ... the sale today or, you know, tomorrow or a week from now. It's always, where do I want to be a year from now? Where do I want to be two years from now? So I'm always looking ahead, sometimes to a fault, but for what I'm trying to do, it's, it makes sense. You constantly have to be saying, okay, well, where can I help this doctor now? We want to have a solution right now, we want to have a pain point that we can help on, but we also want to say, okay, well, where's my value going to be nine months from now, 15 months from now, two years from now? So it kind of had that. So my wife is a nurse, I have a lot of family members who are in medical, and I've always kind of heard the rumblings of, hey, get into medical sales, there's, there's a ton of money there, but it was always like, I don't know where to start. I didn't know, I'm like, you know, you would apply for jobs, and it's like, well, you didn't do an internship, or they want you to take a significant pay cut to become like a junior associate salesperson. So funny enough, was really, really good friends with my area manager from Enterprise. His name is Ryan Iliff, I'm still very good friends with him to this day, he actually went to a company called ATI Physical Therapy, and he's like, hey, you know, I know that it's not exactly medical device sales, but you're dealing with orthopedic surgeons or, you know, rheumatologists or vestibular doctors or whatever it may be. He's like, you're selling a product, you're selling our physical therapy centers, and.

Noel Liu:
This was after Enterprise.

Kyle White:
After BG.

Noel Liu:
So after BG.

Kyle White:
Enterprise, went to BG and kind of knew, I kind of ran my course with automotives, and knew that I wanted to make a change into medical sales. So I ended up going to ATI Physical Therapy and was there a number of years, I really enjoyed it, really enjoyed just being with doctors. And for me, that was the cool part, but the best part about it was being within our clinics and seeing patients who, you know, you met three months ago that had lower back pain and couldn't bend over to kind of pick up their grandkids or whatever it may be, and then you see ... on the line, and they're getting discharged, and they're like, I just played catch with my grandkids for the first time ever, you know? And it's just being able to be part of a company that was truly giving that back to people was just special. It was a really cool time in my life, it was very interesting. Much like everything, COVID hit, I was very fortunate. A lot of our staff was let go, and I was actually kept on with two other people, and we basically oversaw all the doctors in Illinois. So it was a lot of days of sitting at home, being on the phone, and whatever it may be, and it just got draining, it really did; and so many of these practices were being bought out by large orthopedic groups. So wasn't, it kind of went away from talking about revenue generation to, now like, hey, we really don't have a choice, we have to use this because this is where our contracts at. And it became tough, it really became just a challenge to find out, okay, well, where are we going to get new business from? You know, who's even seeing people during this time and different things like that. Because what a lot of people don't realize is that a lot of older orthopedic surgeons, just older doctors in general, they retired. They're like, you know, we're not dealing with this. You know, we're just going to walk away. So it was just a very tough time. So that's really when I started to look. You know, I was like, I don't know really what I want to do. I want to stay in medical. So it's funny enough, I was actually at my dentist. I've been there for a long time and he's just asking the questions. He's like, how's everything going? He'd been a patient at ATI, and so I had seen him and was like, Yeah, you know, I think I'm looking at maybe possibly having a change, you know? And he's like, you should look at dental sales. And I'm like, what the heck do dentists buy? You know, like, you know, like, I don't know. I was like, I really don't know. Obviously, I see all the supplies in an office and things, but I'm just like, I don't really even know where to look. So funny enough, one of the first brands that he said is he's like, well, he's like, There's a bunch of different companies, but you know, he's like Henry Shine, Patterson, and these Straumann. And he's like, you know, is an implant company, and I'm like, Dental, haven't really ever heard of them. And so I went home that day, and I was talking to my wife, and I'm like, you know, this might be kind of cool, so I just dove in, like full head-on in dental implant companies and had 100 different tabs open on my computer. And I'm just going through everything, well, wildly enough.

Noel Liu:
What were you thinking at that time?

Kyle White:
I was overwhelmed. You know, I was like, there are so many facets of dental that people just don't understand. And I think, we all think of the very basic things, we all think of, okay, you go in for your checkup, you're cleaning, and maybe you have a cavity, maybe you're getting a root canal, but pretty much everybody's knowledge, for the most part, stops at that, you know.

Noel Liu:
When was this, Kyle?

Kyle White:
So this was in the beginning of 2021, beginning of 2021. And so I knew that if I was going to move on from what I was doing, I really had to go to a company that I was going to. There wasn't just going to be a change to make a change. It had to make sense, it had to be the right move. So funny enough, you know, a couple months goes by, and I'm doing a ton of research, and I'm looking at a bunch of different companies and hadn't really applied for anything, and a position opened up on LinkedIn for Straumann. So I applied for it, and they called me, and they're like, you know, we actually have two opportunities. We have Straumanm Group, but they're like, we actually own a company called Neodent, and they're like, we think your personality fits better for Neodent as you're kind of in that hunter mindset finding new business. And so was like, okay, well, you know, that might sound interesting. So I went through the whole process, and then I was hired.

Noel Liu:
Awesome.

Kyle White:
I went in not knowing anything about dental outside of where my dental office was at, and quickly learned, you know, Straumann Group does a fantastic job on the training side of things. So I was hired, and then my, I spent two weeks very early on in Andover and our corporate office, and you go through everything. You go through what is a dental implant, what is a UA, what's a cover screw, what's a healing ..., what's an impression post. You're there two weeks straight.

Noel Liu:
And you're just learning the whole.

Kyle White:
Just learning. Just all day, every day, eight, nine hours a day, just learning. And then there's a group of us there, so then it's, we get back to the hotel, and we sit around and we talk dental. We're all trying to understand this. And there's a couple of people who had come from dental in our class, they obviously offered a little bit more knowledge, but for the most part, we were all pretty new. So it really worked out. You know, and this group that I'm talking about, we call ourselves the Wolfpack. We're all still with the company, even two years later, we're all together, and we all see each other's successes and struggles. And we have a group thread and we chat with each other, and it's.

Noel Liu:
That's awesome, you know?

Kyle White:
So that's kind of where we kind of lean on each other. So now we're two years removed from that, and everybody's got their different things going on, what they're doing, and I'm here just continually trying to find success in the doctors that I currently have and saying, hey, how can I assist you? How can I help you? And then obviously, still trying to find those new doctors that want to jump on the Neodent train.

Noel Liu:
No, that's great because it takes a mindset. What I'm more interested and know is, I understand you said you love sales and you wanted to go to sales, but what was the mindset behind it like initially when you said, hey, the sales is something I want to be really good at? Because most people shy away from sales and you're the kind of guy, like he just want to take it head-on. That's one thing I just want to kind of know a little bit more on what was the mindset initially.

Kyle White:
Yeah, so sales is hard. You know, sales, sales are hard. You hear a lot of no's. I've already got my guy.

Noel Liu:
Did that ever bring you down?

Kyle White:
And I would be lying to you if I told you no. There are definitely days that are harder, there's days that feel like you can't do anything wrong and everybody you talk to wants to set up a meeting. Unfortunately, those days are few and far between, but I think for me, the drive for sales was two parted. I'm competitive, I like to win, you know, so I like to get that sale, and that drives me to continue to get that sale, but I also look on it on the other side too as I truly want to be somebody's business partner. I truly want to bring my knowledge that maybe they're not as educated on, and I want to bring that knowledge to them and truly be a resource and be a business partner for them. And so I'm a people person, you know, I enjoy people. And the more relationships that I can build, the better. You know, I'm still friends with a lot of the orthopedic surgeons that I worked with three years ago, you know, and it's friendships that I've just created totally outside of Orthopedics. It was just, hey, man, you do something, you know, you have interests that are the same as me, you know? So, and that's truly what I try to do in this segment, too, is, yes, I want to get the most amount of business possible, but I also want to.

Noel Liu:
Build my relationship, right?

Kyle White:
Yeah, I want to build my network as big as possible, too, and make sure that I'm flooding that network with the right people and good people that are out there doing more than just being dentists. You know, they're giving back or, you know, they're the real estate segment like you are teaching and mentoring. And I think that when you really take down the side of sales, I think that most people are looking for that. They're just looking to build those relationships.

Noel Liu:
So, Kyle, tell me this here, sales in dentistry, like a lot of the listeners who are going to be dentists, what is one tip that sets you apart from many of the other sales reps? And what is something where a dentist can actually employ what you're doing and to make their practices successful in terms of sales, because sales is one word where everybody runs away from. That's why I'm trying to dig in a little bit deeper into your mindset that, if there is one piece of advice or one strategy that sets you apart, what would that be, so that many of the listeners listening to they can employ the very next day with their patients and making sure like they are successful? Not only just a one-time thing, but also a long-term relationship with that patient.

Kyle White:
Yeah, I think the biggest thing for me, and I think that you would probably agree, is the persistence. I think there has to be a persistence of getting that business, and understanding that you might not get every piece of the business right away, but it's okay to continue to, when you get a piece, stay persistent on helping in other avenues. And there's going to be the right time to say, hey, I think you're ready for a printer or, hey, I think you're ready for an iOS, and then there's going to be the time where it's like, hey, you know, I just got implants, we just got them biomaterials, let's let them get on that, and then let's wait to see where this relationship can go. Because I do think that there then becomes the point of becoming too pushy, becoming too sales-oriented to where it's like, well, I need to tell you about this. I need to tell you about this. I need to tell you about this. I do think that there's a time to kind of sit and reflect and say, okay, well, we've got this implemented. Where can we go next? And I would say on the doctor's side of it is when you do find that person who is persistent and truly shows a care in your business, give them the opportunity to help you grow, trust them when they're bringing ideas about printing or about an iOS or about a mil, you know, if you want a mil zirconia blocks, be open to those conversations with them, because in more cases than not, we are truly trying to look out for what's best for your practice. And it may come off salesy at times, but at the same time there's we all know that there's the time to have that conversation. And sometimes doctors just need that little bit of a push, you know, and to say, hey, like, let's sit down and really talk about this and have that conversation because our outlook on things is that if we don't, there's going to be somebody that's knocking on that door to have that conversation with you. So I would say, yeah, if you have that person who's persistent and you gave them the opportunity, be happy you found that person. Because there's a lot of salespeople out there where they're told no a couple of times, and they're like, all right, see you later, somebody else's problem. So if you've got that person that's come to your office 10, 12, 14 times before you ever decide to set a meeting with them, understand that that's a person that's probably in there for the long haul with you, and just ... through that relationship.

Noel Liu:
And you know, one thing I'd really, really love what you said was, helping. If you go with that helping mindset, you go with that attitude that even with, as denists, not only with sales but also with the patients, if they go with the mindset of helping, that is definitely a huge plus. And the fact that you feel like, hey, it's a relationship game, right, even with our patients too, so the same thing goes for you. So for you, is the dentist, and for dentists are the patients. What you just reflected upon is awesome. I mean, like, you know, helping, I mean, that's huge. I think that's what sets you apart, Kyle, honestly.

Kyle White:
Thank you. Yeah, I think that, and I try to say this, you know, and obviously being as respectful as possible, but I say dentists are inherently salespeople, but you're put in a situation to sell every single day. You're selling clear aligners or an implant service.

Noel Liu:
We're always selling.

Kyle White:
So I try to tell dentists, and I've told them like, ask me questions, you know, let's role play, let's have that conversation of how do we sell this service to a patient. And I've sent with a lot of coordinators or office managers and have just kind of listened to their pitch, and I'll give tips and tricks, and it's like a lot of that is, that becomes down to building that relationship and just going in there with the mindset of, hey, I'm going to be an asset to this business, not just a salesperson. You know, I joke about it all the time. I tell offices, I'm like, hey, you know, for the first couple of times I'm here, yeah, it's okay to call me your implant rep, but eventually, I want to be Kyle, our business partner.

Noel Liu:
You know, that's great because I was going to ask you about, what's the future holding for you? But the way I see it, you've got something really bright, because now I can start seeing you as a sales trainer.

Kyle White:
Yeah, so for me, I've always enjoyed just educating. I think that's probably one of my best traits is being able to educate and talk with people and come to a way that they understand it and tailor it to a way that they understand it. One of our sales trainers is Big Tony Mac, and he's incredible. He's one of the guys out in Andover, and we have such a wide variety of things that we can do within Straumann group, which is awesome. I really love what I do right now. I truly enjoy what I do right now. I love setting up new doctors and working with doctors like yourself who, we're just continuing just to grow your practice. But yeah, we'll see kind of what the future holds. I know that one of the best parts about Straumann group is that we have so many different avenues that we can go, whether that's diving into the DSO side of things and really focusing on the DSO side of things, or whether it's going into the education and training aspect, or going into a managerial role, whatever it may be. But we've definitely got a lot of, lot of opportunities, but I'm enjoying the ride right now where I'm at.

Noel Liu:
I love it, Kyle. One last thing I just wanted to ask you was, for dentists, like looking for implant system or looking for something, how to get started, I just want to kind of dive a little bit, not too deep, just a little bit, like what is the best way to get started and how are you available to help?

Kyle White:
So, you know, dental implants, there's hundreds, and there's hundreds of brands, and there's brands that you can buy overseas that are order only online, and there's a lot of things, and a lot of them are different knockoffs, so same platforms as Zimmer, Astrometry, or whatever it may be. And I think a lot of times I think that for doctors, it's understanding that you may not need the help with a particular case, but chances are you're going to need help with a case down the road. So for me, I think the easiest way to do it is, hey, look at the big brands, the 4 or 5, 6 big brands. So you've got, Straumann Neodent, you've got Bio Horizon, you've got Implant Direct, you've got Nobel, you know, Astra, you look at those and I think the first thing that you do from there is you find out who the rep is and find out who gets to you quickest, because you're looking for that support on the back end. Now, I'm not saying, hey, the first person that shows up, you know, sign a contract with them or whatever, but look at who's going to be making that effort to come to you and really hear about your business. There are definitely pros and cons to every system. There truly are, one thing that I'll say about Straumann group, and obviously, this is a touch biased, but I don't feel like anybody does education the way that we do it. I feel like when you look across the board at the resources that we have from internal education, like a Dr. Bruno, all the way to external partners that we work with, like Cory Raymond or Adam Hogan. We have such a wealth of knowledge out there for whatever route a doctor wants to go, whether it's, hey, I really just focus on singles in the restoration and the aesthetics of or, hey, I want to become an implant arch center. How can I get there? We just have so many different opportunities to help. So for me, what I would tell a doctor who's getting into it is, hey, figure out what you want. What's your one-year plan, what's your three-year plan, what's your five-year plan? Switching systems isn't always the easiest thing in the world. We've got kits out here, we've got implant parts, we've got all of this. So take some time to make that decision, you know, and understand that there is no wrong decision. There's no wrong decision, it's just, what are you trying to do and what company is going to allow you to best meet those needs? I can almost guarantee that the Straumann group is going to check just about every box, but there are things, and it depends, and sometimes it's rep coverage. You know, sometimes it's, hey, I don't really like the rep because you're going to have a relationship with that person, you have to like that person, or at least respect their opinion and their educational opportunities and things like that. So I would say take the time, research the brands, understand that, like the big brands are going to pop up, and you're going to know who those are. I would say steer away from the online ordering platforms. At the end of the day, you know, especially if you start placing a lot of implants, you're going to want that support, whether it's the warranty side of things, whether it's missing parts or whatever it may be, you're going to want that support. So it really just depends on what stage you're at, but ultimately, finding that person that you can build a relationship that you know is truly looking out for your business and not just themselves.

Noel Liu:
You know, the last thing I just want to add was, because I've been using implants, different implant system for a long time and not willing to switch, you know about that, right? The thing is, you know, we can save money on the front end with buying cheaper implants, but some shape, form, or another, we do end up paying on the back end, and the back end can be redos, can be failed implants, can be dissatisfied patients. I mean, a whole bunch of series of implants like complications happening, and we still end up replacing it or doing it for free or the entire procedure if you did like a full arch. So my biggest thing was education, my biggest thing was the whole thing and the support system that you guys provided. So full disclaimer, I switched from X brand to Neodent and never looked back.

Kyle White:
Awesome.

Noel Liu:
So that was that's a great, great switch I think I did, the best investment I did for my doctors, for my associates, and for our team. I think, ultimately it reflects back on a patient for someone who we truly care for, and as service providers, I think that's huge. So Kyle, how does someone get in touch with you?

Kyle White:
So obviously we're going to have doctors that are listening from all over the country. So I always say the easiest way to do it, shoot me a text, shoot me a call. My number is (779) 240-1796. Obviously, if you're in my territory, let's set up a lunch, let's set up a time to meet. If you're not in my territory, I can get you to the correct person.

Noel Liu:
Neodent is global, is that right?

Kyle White:
Yeah, Neodent is global. So we've got reps and we've got opportunities to meet with people all over the world and we can definitely get you in the correct place. Obviously, if calling isn't the easiest or texting is not the easiest, you can email me. It's my first name, K Y L E . W H I T E @ Neodent.com, and obviously, you can get an email over to me and I can get you into the hands of the correct rep.

Noel Liu:
No, that's great. If anyone in the area, in the Chicago area, in Illinois, Midwest area, definitely reach out to Kyle. He can definitely direct you to the right person, but if he's your rep, you'll be in very good hands.

Kyle White:
I appreciate the kind words.

Noel Liu:
All right. So, yeah, Kyle, with that being said, we're going to land the plane here. Thanks for coming up. You were awesome. I mean, that was great insight. And if anyone has any questions, definitely reach out to him. And for the rest of us and all our listeners. Well, thank you very much for joining us. Make sure to subscribe and we will definitely get on with our next show.

Kyle White:
Thank you.

Noel Liu:
Thanks for tuning in to the Secure Dental podcast. We hope you found today's podcast inspiring and useful to your practice and financial growth. For show notes, resources, and ways to stay engaged with us, visit us at NoelLiuDDS.com. That's N O E L L I U D D S.com.

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