Mike Huffaker: The Hidden SaaS Opportunity Inside Dentistry

Mike Huffaker: Foreign.

Host: On today's episode of the Revenue Insights podcast, I'm excited to welcome Mike Huffaker, uh, Chief revenue officer at, uh, Planet DDS and the host of the Dental Economist show. Mike is a seasoned sales leader and a go to market strategist who has spent his career building high performing teams across technology and healthcare. At Planet dds, he's helping define the future of dental industry through AI powered innovation, scalable operations and data driven growth strategies. Mike is also passionate about sharing what he learns, whether it's through his hit podcast, the Dental Economist show, or through thoughtful posts that challenge leaders to think differently about sales leadership and organizational growth. So, without further ado, welcome to the podcast, Mike.

Mike Huffaker: Hey, thank you so much for having me. Really looking forward to being here.

Host: Mike, let's jump straight in. You, uh, had an incredible journey from sales leadership to CRO and podcast host. Can you share your journey today that drew you into the world of dental technology and what kept you motivated in that space?

Mike Huffaker: Yeah, sure. So I think I have a relatively unconventional journey, but I think probably a lot of people do when you, when you really start to dig into it. So. In my previous life I sold shoes. So I worked wholesale with a company out of Italy. It was a really high end men's line of footwear. Sold it to all the large accounts in North America. Neiman Marcus, Sachs, Nordstrom, Zappos, you know, you name it, I did that for a long time. I managed the men's shoe department while I was going to school at Nordstrom and UC Santa Barbara. And then I just kind of moved into this space without a whole lot of thought because it just seemed like it was the next thing to do. But around 11 years ago, I was 34, I was living in Northern California. I'm looking around and I've got a lot of friends working in tech. You know, my sister in law worked at Google, brother in law, I was working at tech startups, had a good friend working at Salesforce. And it felt like I was reaching the ceiling of my potential in the industry that I was in at that moment in time. And I said, you know what, what am I doing here? I'm living in the tech hotspot of the world. I love sales. Let me get into tech sales. Uh, one problem with that is Nobody wanted a 34 year old that had zero sales experience in technology at all. So I start shooting off resumes to Microsoft and Oracle and all these large companies and it was just like shooting them off into a black hole. No responses, super discouraging. And I had a friend say, you should look at startups, maybe they'll give you a chance. And so sure enough, I started applying for roles at different startups and I find my first role, a company called Revel Systems that was, ah, disrupting how point of sale solutions worked in restaurant hospitality. It was the iPad point of sale. Now it's ubiquitous. You see them everywhere and you see, you know, all the tablet point of sales all over the place. But at that moment in time it was pretty new. And so even after roughly 15 years of sales experience, I joined as an entry level account executive. I spent four months making my way to the top of the leaderboard. I loved SaaS sales like right from the get go. Loved the conversations that I was getting to have with people, love to be solutioning and problem solving. And about four months later they're like, hey, do you want to be a team lead? I say, sure, let's do a team lead. Which is just more work for the same amount of money. But now you have people that you're responsible for. So I took that and four months later we raised the Series C $100 million round. They asked if I wanted to open up our first remote sales office in Phoenix. I said, sure, let me do that. I have no idea what I'm doing. I, uh, moved to Phoenix, hire 25 reps, find office spaces, just kind of on my own at that moment in time, and ultimately had three offices that I opened and another one in New York, another one in Dallas, had roughly 70 reps that reported up to me through six sales managers. Um, and I was a director of sales at that time. And I think one of the keys for me throughout my growth trajectory has been a real curiosity about the business. Like as soon as I got into SaaS, I couldn't learn enough about how all elements of it worked, whether it was the implementation, how engineering handled, uh, their sprints, what our release cadences were, what we were doing on the support side, what our SLAs were like. I just wanted to know it all and it was just completely fascinating to me, this whole new world from what, from where I was before. I ultimately went to another early stage startup, also in restaurant hospitality. And then six years ago had the opportunity to join Planet dds, which is a dental practice management solutions company. Cloud solutions, um, when they first reach out, I said, no thank you. Like, this is weird. It's like people with their hands in people's mouths all day long. Like dentistry just didn't have a whole lot of appeal. But I Learned more about what the market looked like. I learned about the consolidation that was happening. I learned about the lagging technology adoption that was present in the space. And I said, you know what, this actually could be a really, really great opportunity. So got my, my first kind of big VP of sales role at that point, in charge of two sales reps and one person in marketing. It was his first job out of college and that was sales and marketing and planet DDS circa 2019. We were doing roughly 12 million in ARR at the time. Fast forward six years, moved into the CRO role. There's roughly 70 people in my organization. I oversee 25 quota carrying reps across, account management, sales. I'm also responsible for the marketing function within the company.

Host: Wow, what an incredible journey. I think the big takeaway I got from there is in those early days when you got into software, just being curious and wanting to know about how it all works and really, really getting under the skin of it. It's amazing how open the rest of the team are to the sales team. If they ask.

Mike Huffaker: Sure.

Host: You know, if you felt willing to, they'll happily come in half an hour early and show you how the product team work or what the development team are up to or what they're prioritizing or stay late, you know, just buying them a beer and they'll join you for an extra half an hour and give you some insights. And it's amazing how few, uh, sellers are genuinely curious to understand that, especially about their own business.

Mike Huffaker: Yeah, yeah. I mean, everybody wants to talk about what they do. You know that it's, you spend so much of your time at work, other people and their functions also are very, very vested into the outcomes that they're driving. And you just have to ask. It's uh, one of those things that I've always found kind of interesting about growing as a sales leader in the technology space is there's this notion that you last for 18 months. Like I've always had it in the back of my head like you. That's the timeline. The clock starts ticking, you get into this role, you 18 months later, they're going to fire you because you're only capable of doing the same thing that you did before. And there's the, uh, statement that what got you here won't get you there. Right. But a lot of what got you here actually will get you there. And that's because the people that get there are curious, they're interested, they have motivation to succeed. They are perpetual learners. Like those are all the same Things you need to get you to the next step that got you to where you are today. It's just you need to implement things differently and be open minded and recognize that you're going to need to change as well. But I think it's kind of a misnomer when people are like, well, this person got you from here to here, they can't get you to the next step. Really depends on the person. And if they have those innate traits of perpetual curiosity and learning, they're ahead of the game. And there's definitely potential for them to continue to grow into those roles.

Host: I absolutely buy into that. So when you joined, uh, Planet dds, they weren't necessarily the category leader, uh, you know, dental software. There was already established dental software vendors out there. But now, you know, you talk about the growth that you've seen in the business and um, what do you think has been the secret behind that sustained growth and innovation?

Mike Huffaker: Yeah, so we just passed 100 million. So we're about 10 times, close to 10 times as large as we were when I joined almost six years ago. We did do a few acquisitions, but the majority of that growth has been organic, driven through the revenue team. Um, you know, I always think you get well, I think you can't focus enough on your customers. And, and so for us, we had initially kind of one Lighthouse account that was a larger DSO that we had effectively won because they acquired a smaller group that was using our software and then decided to implement our software across their larger organization. So that was kind of like our key to the castle a little bit to work with these enterprise customers. And we took it very seriously. So we listened to them, we worked with them closely and a ton of development went into the software to, to ensure that it met the needs of those larger organizations. At that time, the notion of a dental service organization or an enterprise dental company that would have hundreds of offices was relatively new. Like the roll up and the consolidation in the industry was still recent. Like the term DSO just came across, uh, around maybe 15 years ago or so. And so what we've always done is listen to our customers, talk to our customers and, and really take the approach of if you can create raving fans. Because there's almost nothing more important to people than social proof and having somebody else when you're not in the room speaking favorably about your product to somebody else. And we've just built that reputation as a company that's honest, that's transparent, that does what we say we're going to do. And that will continue to stay committed, invested in the success of our customers, because we can't be successful if they're not successful. And there's a lot of expansion, growth that happens within our client base, adding new locations all the time. And so we really just wanted to hone in on building the best relationships possible.

Host: That's fascinating. And how many products do you sell? Uh, how many different types of products? Uh, have you got like a Chinese menu of options or is it just One kind of SaaS model? How you structure?

Mike Huffaker: Yeah, yeah, it's interesting. So we acquired. So we were kind of the category creator for cloud enterprise practice management software. We acquired the category creator for cloud X ray software. So when you go to the dentist, they shove the thing in your mouth. It's like relatively uncomfortable to take the X rays. Our software will power that to, uh, capture those X rays. So we acquired a company that did that and then we acquired a company that was doing ortho cloud practice management software called Cloud 9, and they were the category creator of that. So there are some nuances in different dental specialties, whether it's orthodontics or pediatrics or endodontist or oral surgery. And the ortho space had its own specialized software, which we acquired. So now when we go to market, we have both our core product, which is Denicon, it's our flagship practice management solution within that brand or that product. We have modules that can be added on for patient engagement. We'll add the imaging solution on as a module. We have, um, an analytics platform that you can add. So we've got insurance verification tools that you can add to it. So there are things that you can, like, scale up or back depending on the needs of that particular customer, as well as adding the ortho solution either in conjunction with what we sell with our general practice software, or as a standalone for ortho only groups. So we really have two core products. But the flagship product, Denicon, is the vast majority of the business that we do.

Host: Uh, and is it a land and expand motion? So do you tend to get one product in first and then people buy more over time, or do you tend to kind of build the package once and that's it? They stick with what they buy because that's the kind of customer they are.

Mike Huffaker: Yeah, I think I would definitely say it's land and expand. We absolutely will sell pretty comprehensive packages to people at the outset, but we're never stopping with our innovation efforts. And so, you know, a year ago we launched a payment product that ties into the software and so that didn't exist for people that acquired our software two, three, four years ago. So that was an expand opportunity in motion that's really driven a lot of bookings for us over the past 12 months. And so there is some flexibility depending on the needs of the client for what that looks like. There's almost what we see. And we're vertical SaaS software. So you have a very, very clearly defined market within which you sell. If you're in vertical SaaS, you're desired outcome is really that people want to buy more from you. You should have that relationship where they're like, if all things being equal, I have the opportunity to start working with a brand new vendor for this function, or to work with this vendor that I know and trust, that I worked with for a long time, I'm going to buy it from this vendor. And so that's where we have that kind of expansion motion almost in perpetuity because we're always coming out with new features and products that we can offer to the market.

Host: I love that. So those that listen to the podcast regularly will know that we produce these benchmark reports every year. Um, and when we look at the data over the last 12 months, we analyzed over 650,000 opportunities in the last year, all B2B, all technology based. And what was fascinating is the transition we've seen. Nearly 50% of businesses now have got full cycle sellers that are responsible for some of their own top of funnel and retain access to the customer after they sign the initial agreement, at least for six months, maybe first year. So uh, how long do you allow the AES to continue to earn out of their customers once they bought?

Mike Huffaker: So we actually have a pretty defined line where once the sale is closed it moves into the account management team. Now that being said, we don't really have a whole lot of pilots that we do, which I think people find interesting. And I, uh, and the reason for it is because it's not a point solution because it's a core system of record, you can't really dip your toes in the water if you want to be successful with it, you need to have this be an organizational decision to move your entire organization onto this new platform. If you're like, hey, I want to test it in two offices first and then we might decide to move forward. All the heavy lift is at the outset and so you're basically going to have to do all the work that you'd have to do for 20, 40, 50, 60 offices for two or three. So the new business sales team is able to gain commitments for the entire organization when they initially sell. And I think part of that is also the reputation that we have within the industry. People know that it works for their needs, people know that others have been successful with it. We do have kind of like a fast follow option where there is collaboration between our account management team and our new business sales. And we do deal splits. And so there's a different percentage split depending on the level of effort that went in prior to the initial deal being closed. So let's say an example would be the pay example that I laid out. We look to have 100% attach rate to pay for every deal if we can. Now sometimes it works out where, look, we need to get this deal closed. Pay has not yet been attached. The new business sales reps, like I'm sitting on this opportunity for a quarter million dollars. But wait, I don't get credit for that any longer. Like we've had all the conversations, all this is being done. We all know things can slip at that point. And you can have examples where we think it's a done deal, the deal closes and then a year later you're still trying to attach the pay. So in order to avoid that and also not to have the new business rep get stuck in the weeds while that customer's going through implementation, we assign an account manager. That account manager is incentivized to bring that deal to a close. And then we'll do a split, like an 8020 split where for the first six months or so the new business person will get the higher percentage if they already laid the groundwork for that product to be added. But the account manager gets to do the follow up work and ensure that it happens. So it's a little bit of a blend. Depending on what the exact scenario is. It's all designed to create aligned incentives with both the new business and the account management team so that they're looking to work together in harmony to do what's best for the customer.

Host: Yeah, I can imagine at least lots of conversations and each time a deal comes in, there's a question as to which way it goes. But listen, at the same time, it's a tough balance. You know, on one side the seller's built enough trust with the buyer to actually get them to sign a contract. And we know that those cross sell upsells happen in that first year more than any other time. Uh, on the other side, we want to keep the sellers freed up so that they can work on the next new deal. So it's A tough balance, but it sounds interesting. And you've got, you know, you're north of 100 million ARR now, so it sounds like you've got a good scalable process.

Mike Huffaker: Yeah, I think it all ties to the culture that we've created in the company, to be quite honest. We have this set of revenue principles that ties very closely to our company core values. But it's designed to be a little bit more specifically applied to the revenue organization, like the subculture that you have within a revenue team versus what you would see in a support organization or engineering. And you know, competitive and collaborative is our number one principle. And success is not a zero sum game, which is like, listen, everybody in our company, every person in this revenue team has the opportunity to be successful. Like everybody's enabled to do so. Everybody has the training, the enablement, the support to be that. But we also have a very firm expectation that if somebody needs assistance with something, there's no like hiding secrets, there's no secret sauce. Like we are open. You help other people, you help them be successful and you'll be successful as well. That kind of ties back to one of my favorite quotes that I have from Zig, uh, Ziglar. He's kind of one of the old school sales trainers. He was the first set of like cassette tapes I think I listened to in like 1995 when I was running a house painting business in college. And he had a quote that says, you can have anything you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want. And I think that it's a really great way to go about living and, and to go about working. And it's something that we, we really focus on inside our, inside our organization. So we've been, I think, very, very fortunate to have a team of folks that really live by that and seek to help each other out.

Host: I buy into that massively. Always give before you get right. And I'm, I'm fascinated to understand if you've got a partner channel in your ecosystem. I mean you're obviously well known in your market, but do you find you getting a chunk of your revenue through or new logos from community or partners or how does that work?

Mike Huffaker: Yeah, so, great question. We have a channel model for the imaging software. So there are other competitors in the marketplace, cloud practice management solutions that actually white label our X ray technology and they include it in their sales. Of course we have to build the Chinese walls so we don't look at anything that they're doing from that perspective. It's Run by a completely different team within my organization that manages that. But it's not insignificant amount of revenue that we, that we generate from that channel. We don't have a lot of resellers of our core practice management product. It is such a complex sale and product that what we tend to do is enter into referral agreements with people where they'll refer business, then we will compensate them as a result of that versus having them sell directly or white label or do anything else with our core products.

Host: At this point, no, it makes a lot of sense. And so you're considering where you are now and what you've achieved over this period of time. Uh, how do you see that acceleration continuing? Can you see have you got line of sight to what 200 million ARR looks like or is that too big a leap?

Mike Huffaker: Yeah, no, absolutely. So I like to be pretty positive in my outlook. I think I'm a relatively optimistic person. When I first joined Planet dds, every quarter I'm like, how are we going to accomplish this goal? You know, we were at 12 million, we had these goals that like we had never hit before. And it just seemed like so far fetched that we were going to achieve what we needed to. There was nothing repeatable or scalable about it at that moment in time. Now with the momentum that we have both within our existing client base, there's over 12,000 dental practices that use our software out of the roughly, you know, 140, 150,000 that are in the United States. On top of the reputation that we've built as being the premium solution for large multi location groups, we have a 90% win rate against our competition. Our biggest closed lost reason is inertia. So but even when you've put every deal of that size into a bucket, we've won 53% of them. And so we're doing really well in that space. And when I look at the future, it's always discussed, hey, it's harder to grow quick at scale. Now of course these AI companies are throwing everything on their head. You're seeing these, if companies get to 100 million AR in like two, three years, I'm like wow, that would be, I guess that would be a nice ride. It's not quite the same for us, but we're still growing at 30% year over year. You know, we will, we'll finish this year booking roughly $24 million in business. Across expansion of current client and new business. It's a roughly 6040 blend. And so as I look forward the expectation is probably growth needs to slow down. You know, maybe, maybe next year is 20%, then it's 15, then it's 10. But at the same time, there are so many new innovative options that we are building and that other people are as well, where I think we'll have the opportunity to maintain our growth or even possibly accelerate. And AI is a big, a big piece of that. But it can't just be AI that you sell that is now a new line item on the budget sheet that, that doesn't exist within the customer's budget sheet where you're like, hey, you don't have this, but you should buy it. It's going to have to become where there can be a clear path to some labor arbitrage. And I think that that's where a lot of the AI companies are looking at. And you know, for example, we have in the dental space people, RCM is revenue cycle management. It's how you get paid. It's submitting the claims, getting the claims back, dealing with denials, dealing with the patient balance that's still owed. It's a giant mess. And these companies all hire a huge amount of human capital in order to do these very like rudimentary, repetitive tasks. We had one organization that had 80 individuals that were in their department. They implemented our software, they were able to go down to 50 individuals. So that capital reallocation, human reallocation, whatever you want to call it. I know people don't like to talk about people losing their jobs, but at the same time, I think that there's an opportunity for people to be repurposed into other functions that are probably functions they would enjoy more. And I think as we look ahead, and it's been a long winded answer to your question, I see the opportunity to accelerate growth through providing more AI tools to our customers that allow there to be a reduction in labor cost. If that's able to happen, then we accelerate. Otherwise we're on a very steady pace, 25, 30% year over year. And I don't see that slowing down anytime soon.

Host: Well, while we can all look at these AI companies and see how crazy their growth is, there's also their churn rates are also insanely high. And so, uh, new logo acquisition is only part of the story and lifetime value of customers and how profitable the accounts are. These all really matter. And I think what you've got is a very sustainable business that's growing aggressively. And it sounds like you've got people don't unplug this stuff once it's in Right. Correct. Retention is very high. Know, it's not hard to have a north of 100 NRR number in that kind of business model. So you're building a lot of value and it's, it's, uh, it's. It's great to see. And the, you, uh, know, vertical tech is, is a great place to, to, to spend your time.

Mike Huffaker: Yeah, yeah. No, our, our gross revenue retention is around 96% right now. And, and NRR is one, uh, hundred fifteen ish. And so, you know, there's, there's not a lot of churn. It is a product that once it is implemented, just like a Salesforce or a Netsuite or something else, people don't want to make that change. So it's our job to, uh. But we also don't want to rest on your laurels and say, like, hey, this product is sticky. It's fine. They're not going anywhere. And I think that is one thing that separates us is that even though we know that it's sticky, we're still looking for ways to constantly add value to our clients so that they will continue to grow with us and continue to be happy with the service that they're getting provided.

Host: Yeah. Yeah. Customer first makes a lot of sense. So I've been reading up some of your blogs and articles, and you talk a lot about importance of empathy and collaboration in leadership. And, you know, and it won't be lost on our audience that you've been in the same at the same business now for, well, is it six years as CRO. Um, you know, that really does buck the trend you mentioned earlier. The average tenure is about 18 months, if not shorter. So do you see the importance of empathy and collaboration in leadership showing up in the way that you operate? And how do you see those principles in the way that you lead your team today?

Mike Huffaker: Yeah, absolutely. So I think we're a very low ego company. It starts with our CEO Eric, and you know, it gets pushed down from there. You don't jump on people if they make a mistake. It's a conversation about how we can do things better. It's putting yourself in other people's shoes and understanding what situations they're going through. I think all of us, as we get older, we realize how messy life is for everyone at all times. Like, none of us actually have it all together. And we can all put up this front while we're at work. But I think if you look at all the people on your team through the lens of recognizing that what you don't see and what they're not sharing is probably pretty heavy and pretty challenging for them. And then you treat them as such. It builds a lot of culture and loyalty within the organization where people all just want to work together and collaborate. And so I think it's been a, uh, critical element for what we do. We have high standards, high performance. One of our revenue principles is, you know, everybody understands their goals and expectations and the importance of achieving them. So it's not like there's a free ride, but it's also a scenario where we recognize that there's a lot going on both with our customers and with our team. And we seek to engage and work with each other from always assuming a positive intent. And I think it makes a really big difference.

Host: I love that it's so true. We just have no idea what anyone else is going through and what's going on in their head. You know, start from a position of empathy and be supportive and just assume that their intentions are good. I think, uh, that's a great way to live your life.

Mike Huffaker: Yeah, absolutely. Agreed.

Host: Now, we see a lot of people that have the CRO title, but when you dig into it, they aren't necessarily responsible for the whole revenue engine. Do you own everything from marketing through to success?

Mike Huffaker: So I own everything from new business sales acquisition. Well, marketing, new business sales acquisition. And then, yes, our account management function, which was customer success. We had customer success and current client sales. And we recognized that there was a, uh, disconnect in incentives. And so you'd have the customer success team that would put all this work in to the success of our current customers that are live on the software and helping guide them to better adoption of different products. And then they would highlight opportunities where it was like, hey, you know, you could be using this and you can cut down your accounts receivable by X amount if you automate it this way. Oh, talk to my colleague over here in current client sales who's going to get this big commission for it. And so we're like, this is not working. And so we put the two teams together just about a year ago. Created account management function has been fantastic. So, yes, to answer your question, I do oversee that entire everything from marketing through success.

Host: And so how do you split your time between kind of strategy and execution? Uh, it's always a challenge. And then I suppose on top of that, you're also doing this thought leadership piece with the podcast, so you've got a lot on your plate. Uh, how do you split your tongue?

Mike Huffaker: Yeah, it's a really good question. And it's a really hard question, I think for a lot of us that are in the position to determine what you should do or how you should do it. As the company's grown and as my role has grown. The ironic thing is at every step of the way I have to let more go. And it's the hardest part for me. Uh, it's been the biggest challenge. It's like, wait, now I have this amazing person here that does this maybe better than I do. Butt out of that Mike. Let them do what they're supposed to do and just kind of take a step back. And so as I think about it now I really need to be the support, the sounding board, strategic thought for my functional leaders that I have in marketing and account management and partnerships and revops and help them understand what the focus needs to be, where we need to be going after. But because I've grown up with the company from 12 million, I still have a tendency to roll my sleeves up and do things myself. And so I think it's picking your battles and I think it affects fluxes throughout the course of a year. Even where you might look at something and go, okay, we're having some challenges in product marketing right now. That's where I need to shift my focus. We're having some challenges in new business, commercial sales. Let me kind of airdrop in there and spend a little more time with this team. Or maybe it's partnerships. So I think you have to give up enough control where the people that you have within your organization can do their job. That gives you the actual flexibility to focus your attention where it's needed at that given time and it changes. And so that's kind of how I think about the, uh, the, the focusing on the execution part as far as strategy. That's, I think a lot of people might be able to relate to this. I'm always thinking about the business like I'm out on a walk in the morning and I'm trying to think about anything else, but guess what? I'm thinking about the business. And oftentimes the work that you're doing doesn't look like work. But taking a three mile walk in the morning and thinking through all the different challenges that we're having, where we have the opportunity to optimize, where we need to focus. Are we doing enough from the AI front? Is the team being equipped properly in order to sell? What are we doing from a product perspective? Are we giving the proper. All of these things like the squirrel brain just goes in. But by the Time you get done with that walk, you get some clarity and then that's where you start to kind of have that opportunity to enact some of the strategy. So I think, you know, there's a lot within the role and the function I'll go back to. I think just staying curious and always looking to learn is going to serve you the best.

Host: Yeah, I hear that. And we came back to curiosity again, which I thought was really nice and I agree with you. We've got, we've got a whole team of people around us that are leaning into, to what we, you know, the direction of travel we're giving them and sometimes we have to give ourselves the. We beat ourselves up a lot, you know, expect ourselves to be at a desk, you know, at the first in the morning and last to leave in the evening. When in fact a lot of the thinking that we can do if we do it in different environments, if we go for that walk, it frees the mind and we don't give up about what we're thinking. When everyone goes home at six o', clock, right. You know, we keep going. And I agree with you, there's, there's lots of different ways of doing that strategic thinking and uh, giving yourself that freedom to do it and knowing you are actually still working is a valid point as well. But uh, yeah, absolutely. As we're coming to the end of our conversation, I can't believe how fast it's gone. But looking ahead to 2026, what do you see as the biggest opportunity or evolution coming for go to market leaders in that kind of healthcare technology space?

Mike Huffaker: So I think the application of AI, uh within organizations is super interesting. But I also think it's way harder than people think that it is. It is, it comes with a whole set of challenges and a lot of people, uh, myself included, haven't been trained or come from a scenario where they've been able to watch what it looks like to do this successfully. And so it's so new for folks when I look at opportunities for improvement moving forward. My first role in technology was a lot of hire a ton of people, throw everybody at the wall and see what sticks. And it always inside me or rubbed me the wrong way. I didn't like the approach. It was like, you know, these are all people, uh, we're not necessarily setting them up for success. We're moving so fast where we can't. And so where I think the opportunities are now is, you know, AI to me is not do more with less. It's, it's do More differently. And so rather than flood, uh, the floor with sales reps or with account managers, it's how do we make each one of them the best they can possibly be, the most effective they can possibly be, Avoid the turnover, avoid the churn, avoid the rehiring, avoid all of the things that cause so much pain. The ramp time, the hoping, like, gosh, are they going to sell anything yet? When, when is their first deal going to come through? And so when I'm looking at 20, 26, and a lot of the conversations I'm having with my leadership is how do we make the people that we have the best that they can be, and how do we enable them to be better? And what sort of an AI tools can we put at their disposal? Like, we've created some agents that are like business case builders, where somebody can run a lot of the information and conversations that they've had with a customer through an agent that ties into dental knowledge and a lot of other collateral that we've put in there to create, like, hey, based off these conversations, what we know about the industry, what we know about this customer, here's a business case you can provide. And it cuts down on the time. Like, we've done that before, but now it's done very, very quickly. And so trying to find these unlocks, to me is the key moving forward. And I think there's going to be a lot of them out there. I don't know what all of them are yet today, but maximum efficiency with the team that you have, I think is the order of the day.

Host: I love that. Yeah, let's get our A players back to back in meetings all day long. Right. That's the race money.

Mike Huffaker: Exactly.

Host: I think that makes a lot of sense and a great place to leave it. Mike, thank you so much for your time today. If people want to get in touch with you or find out more about you, how would they go about doing that?

Mike Huffaker: Yeah, absolutely. You can find me on LinkedIn. I think it's, uh, LinkedIn and forward slash. Just my last name, Huffaker. And yeah, shoot me a DM or a message. I'd be happy to connect. Sure.

Host: If you meant if they mention the podcast, you'll accept the invitation.

Mike Huffaker: Yeah, absolutely. 100%.

Host: Mike, thank you so much for joining us. Really enjoyed the session today and good, uh, with getting to the next 100 million.

Mike Huffaker: Yeah, thank you. Appreciate it very much.

Host: Take care. Bye bye.