#Partnerships 3: How to Use Partnerships as Sales Enablement w/ Andy Hutter

WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.879 --> 00:00:10.710 Wouldn't it be nice to have several thought leaders in your industry know and Love 2 00:00:10.910 --> 00:00:16.149 Your brand? Start a podcast, invite your industries thought leaders to be guests 3 00:00:16.269 --> 00:00:21.350 on your show and start reaping the benefits of having a network full of industry 4 00:00:21.350 --> 00:00:29.820 influencers? Learn more at sweet phish MEDIACOM. You're listening to be tob growth, 5 00:00:30.260 --> 00:00:34.619 a daily podcast for B TOB leaders. We've interviewed names you've probably heard 6 00:00:34.659 --> 00:00:38.490 before, like Gary vanner truck and Simon Senek, but you've probably never heard 7 00:00:38.530 --> 00:00:42.850 from the majority of our guests. That's because the bulk of our interviews aren't 8 00:00:42.890 --> 00:00:47.409 with professional speakers and authors. Most of our guests are in the trenches leading 9 00:00:47.450 --> 00:00:52.280 sales and marketing teams. They're implementing strategy, they're experimenting with Pactics, they're 10 00:00:52.359 --> 00:00:56.880 building the fastest growing BTB companies in the world. My name is James Carberry. 11 00:00:56.920 --> 00:01:00.479 I'm the founder of sweet fish media, a podcast agency for BB brands, 12 00:01:00.600 --> 00:01:03.679 and I'm also one of the CO hosts of this show. When we're 13 00:01:03.719 --> 00:01:07.549 not interviewing sales and marketing leaders, you'll hear stories from behind the scenes of 14 00:01:07.629 --> 00:01:11.269 our own business. Will share the ups and downs of our journey as we 15 00:01:11.349 --> 00:01:15.670 attempt to take over the world. Just getting well? Maybe let's get into 16 00:01:15.670 --> 00:01:25.260 the show. Hey, welcome back. I'm Dennis Carlson, the host of 17 00:01:25.299 --> 00:01:29.739 the Partnership Series here on b Tob Growth and founder of agency leverage. I 18 00:01:29.780 --> 00:01:34.689 am joined today by Andy Hudder. Andy is the director of partnerships at beam 19 00:01:34.730 --> 00:01:37.730 dental. Andy, how are you today? I'm great, Dennis. Thanks 20 00:01:37.730 --> 00:01:40.329 for having me. For sure I'm excited to talk to you, Andy. 21 00:01:40.650 --> 00:01:45.290 Beam dental is fairly new on the scene as far as dental insurance companies go, 22 00:01:46.090 --> 00:01:49.719 and thank you guys. have been around just for just a couple of 23 00:01:49.799 --> 00:01:52.519 years now. Is that correct? That's right. Yeah, the company has 24 00:01:52.519 --> 00:01:56.920 been around since about two thousand and twelve, but we've only entered the employee 25 00:01:56.959 --> 00:02:00.319 benefits space little over two and a half, almost three years ago now at 26 00:02:00.359 --> 00:02:02.989 this point. So still a rela relatively new player on the scene. Yeah, 27 00:02:04.030 --> 00:02:07.189 we don't see a lot of folks from the carrier side coming into the 28 00:02:07.310 --> 00:02:10.509 market. More and more maybe in the past, you know, year or 29 00:02:10.550 --> 00:02:15.229 so, but historically we've kind of had, you know, just a handful 30 00:02:15.860 --> 00:02:19.020 handful to look at in that market. So I'm curious if you can just 31 00:02:19.259 --> 00:02:23.580 give us an overview on who beam dental is, where you fit into the 32 00:02:23.620 --> 00:02:28.659 landscape for employers and then, of course, what you do over at beam 33 00:02:28.659 --> 00:02:35.729 dental. Sure than so. Beam dental is a employee benefits provider, really 34 00:02:35.849 --> 00:02:39.129 carrier, and we specialize in dental. Obviously that's our bread and butter, 35 00:02:39.250 --> 00:02:45.639 but we also offer vision in a part through partnership with VSP, and we're 36 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:49.800 working to add a suite of lied eye products to kind of round out that 37 00:02:49.919 --> 00:02:54.879 offering of of ancillary employee benefits. Our sweet spot is pretty down market. 38 00:02:55.199 --> 00:02:59.110 So we say two too, D and fifty, but the majority of our 39 00:02:59.110 --> 00:03:02.789 bookers probably under a hundred lives. We know that as many do that that's 40 00:03:02.830 --> 00:03:07.750 an underserved market. What we've been able to do as a dental carrier, 41 00:03:07.789 --> 00:03:10.789 a newcomer to the scene in that space, is bring like a tech first 42 00:03:10.789 --> 00:03:15.060 approach to it, and that tech first approach touches everything that we do. 43 00:03:15.180 --> 00:03:20.020 So it's not just, you know, member enrollment and modern experiences with, 44 00:03:20.259 --> 00:03:23.699 you know, the mobile APP and digital asurance cards and all that kind of 45 00:03:23.740 --> 00:03:27.849 stuff, but also all of our technology behind the scenes. Are Underwriting model 46 00:03:28.090 --> 00:03:34.409 is pretty powerful and proprietary. Our enrollment tech. That we've built in house 47 00:03:34.449 --> 00:03:38.889 and our claims processing tech, because we're also the claims processor where the TPA. 48 00:03:38.650 --> 00:03:44.520 Everything that we've done is tech first and we have a distinct advantage because 49 00:03:44.759 --> 00:03:47.000 we're able to do that right. A lot of the incumbents in the space, 50 00:03:47.400 --> 00:03:51.319 you know, to their credit, they're they're huge, but they've also 51 00:03:51.360 --> 00:03:55.590 been around for a long time and their companies were built on processing paper and 52 00:03:55.750 --> 00:04:02.069 individual enrollment forms and everything that comes along with starting to sell insurance a hundred 53 00:04:02.069 --> 00:04:05.349 years ago, and they've all worked really hard and some of done a pretty 54 00:04:05.389 --> 00:04:13.300 good job of digitizing their business. Beam has the distinct advantage of starting from 55 00:04:13.419 --> 00:04:17.379 that digital first footprint and what that allows us to do is be really efficient 56 00:04:17.420 --> 00:04:23.620 hyper competitive with our pricing because we can control our total cost to serve and 57 00:04:23.620 --> 00:04:28.250 a variety of interesting ways. But the getting back to the the beam dental 58 00:04:28.410 --> 00:04:35.370 product itself pretty straightforward standard PPO dental employer benefits. So think of us like 59 00:04:35.529 --> 00:04:40.560 a competitor to Guardian or to Delta or two principle, because that's exactly what 60 00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:45.600 we are. And you can really think about beam in three distinct layers, 61 00:04:45.639 --> 00:04:47.160 and I kind of build it up like a peer a bit the first layer 62 00:04:47.319 --> 00:04:54.310 is that traditional PPO dental insurance product, fully insured, rich standard benefits like 63 00:04:55.350 --> 00:05:00.709 no missing tooth clause and implants are covered by default and we, you know, 64 00:05:00.149 --> 00:05:02.829 provide night guards for, you know, teeth grinding, the kind of 65 00:05:02.870 --> 00:05:06.860 the sort of the bells and whistles features of a dental insurance plan that sometimes 66 00:05:06.899 --> 00:05:11.379 aren't included in in the basic plans from some of our competitors, and and 67 00:05:11.459 --> 00:05:14.540 we do that on purpose just to try and make the product really easy to 68 00:05:14.579 --> 00:05:17.459 consume. So you know, get caught with some gotcha scenarios. And that's 69 00:05:17.459 --> 00:05:24.449 the first layer. Competitively priced and pretty straightforward. The second layer is enabled, 70 00:05:24.490 --> 00:05:29.290 or is comes in the form of our beam perks program and beam perks 71 00:05:29.449 --> 00:05:35.079 is this hardware component that gets attached to our traditional dental insurance and that comes 72 00:05:35.120 --> 00:05:41.120 with the beam brush, which is a battery powered sonic brush. That is 73 00:05:41.240 --> 00:05:44.920 beams device. We designed it, we manufacture it, we own the patent 74 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:48.560 on it, we are manufacturing, assembling, shipping and fulfilling, so we're 75 00:05:48.600 --> 00:05:55.750 completely vertically integrated this sonic battery powered brush and then also beam toothpaste, floss, 76 00:05:55.990 --> 00:05:59.949 replacement heads for the brush itself and then batteries for the brush itself and 77 00:06:00.069 --> 00:06:04.540 that whole package is called beam perks and perks are delivered to every single member 78 00:06:04.579 --> 00:06:10.300 that has beam dental insurance if they opt into the program. It's a completely 79 00:06:10.459 --> 00:06:13.420 optional, voluntary program, but if they say that they would like the beam 80 00:06:13.500 --> 00:06:15.860 brush and the beam perks program, then we send it to every member in 81 00:06:15.899 --> 00:06:19.689 the family at no additional cost and we we do that for pretty simple reason. 82 00:06:19.689 --> 00:06:25.490 It's preventive wellness, it's IT'S A it's a wellness program. What we 83 00:06:25.610 --> 00:06:28.689 know is that if you give members the tools they need to take better care 84 00:06:28.730 --> 00:06:30.810 of themselves, whether it's, you know, at a providing a fitbit and 85 00:06:31.209 --> 00:06:36.480 encouraging, you know, tenzero steps a day or something else, that those 86 00:06:36.519 --> 00:06:40.560 members do end up taking better care of themselves and what that actually ends up 87 00:06:40.600 --> 00:06:45.279 doing is lowering risk in the form of claims exposure to the insurer eventually. 88 00:06:45.959 --> 00:06:48.870 So there's an ultruistic component and then there's also a practical business component. The 89 00:06:48.990 --> 00:06:54.110 members get something out of it. A lot of people don't switch from a 90 00:06:54.149 --> 00:07:00.589 manual brush to a electric brush unless they're given one. And that perks program 91 00:07:00.990 --> 00:07:05.740 is the probably the core unique value proper beam. Then it enables the third 92 00:07:05.779 --> 00:07:11.060 layer. So building up that pyramid standard benefits, parks program the second layer, 93 00:07:11.579 --> 00:07:16.170 and then the third layer is the the ability to control or actually lower 94 00:07:16.290 --> 00:07:20.610 the group's premium at renewal based on the average brushing behavior of the group. 95 00:07:20.730 --> 00:07:29.129 And that's called the beam smart premium discount and it is a behavior driven pricing 96 00:07:29.250 --> 00:07:33.079 engine which is completely novel to the Dental Space and it's enabled by the perks 97 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:41.720 program so the brush actually sends back some anonymized aggregated data to beam and we 98 00:07:41.800 --> 00:07:45.110 can look at it at the group level. Again, this is an an 99 00:07:45.189 --> 00:07:47.949 individualized program. There's no names attached to data. There's no weird big brother 100 00:07:48.069 --> 00:07:55.149 thing happening here. It's very much a group level wellness program that allows the 101 00:07:55.269 --> 00:07:58.860 group as a whole to control their cost at renewal. So really what we 102 00:07:58.939 --> 00:08:03.019 do is we can look at first your behavior and then we can extrapolate in 103 00:08:03.100 --> 00:08:07.779 project from there that the group will probably have decent or lower claims exposure in 104 00:08:07.899 --> 00:08:09.899 your two and your three, and of course that's the trick. We have 105 00:08:09.980 --> 00:08:13.410 to keep them for your two and your three. But if we can, 106 00:08:13.889 --> 00:08:18.769 then what beam does is we take that projected savings and we can actually pass 107 00:08:18.810 --> 00:08:20.610 some of it back to the form of in the past, some of it 108 00:08:20.730 --> 00:08:26.089 back to the group in the form of that discount at renewal at the group 109 00:08:26.089 --> 00:08:31.759 level. So that's about is succinctly as I can summarize being value prop with 110 00:08:31.879 --> 00:08:35.559 a little bit of detail baked in there, but hopefully that makes a little 111 00:08:35.559 --> 00:08:37.320 bit of sense. Yeah, now that makes that makes a lot of sense. 112 00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:43.549 I know probably people don't spend a lot of time thinking about their dental 113 00:08:43.669 --> 00:08:48.149 insurance and most of us just go to the dentist and hope that all of 114 00:08:48.269 --> 00:08:50.029 it or most of it is covered and then, you know, hopefully take 115 00:08:50.070 --> 00:08:54.269 good care of our teeth. So it sounds like you guys have really integrated 116 00:08:54.750 --> 00:08:58.419 more into not just what happens in the dental office but what also happens at 117 00:08:58.500 --> 00:09:05.220 home, which which seems like a pretty unique value proposition for both the employees 118 00:09:05.259 --> 00:09:09.090 at a company and and certainly the employer who's probably usually sponsoring a big portion 119 00:09:09.129 --> 00:09:13.169 of that that bill. So want to get into the meat today, which 120 00:09:13.330 --> 00:09:22.169 is talking about partnerships and your role. So dental insurance to many of us 121 00:09:22.649 --> 00:09:26.840 is probably not the most exciting topic to think about. Certainly that market isn't 122 00:09:26.879 --> 00:09:31.559 something that people are, you know, clamoring to get into. Typically, 123 00:09:33.120 --> 00:09:35.080 there's a lot of incumbents. You mentioned a couple of big names, but 124 00:09:35.200 --> 00:09:39.750 we can all you know. We all knowst snoopy and Metlife, and you 125 00:09:39.830 --> 00:09:43.629 know, many of us know Guardian and course, Delta Dental, huge dental 126 00:09:43.669 --> 00:09:50.070 insurance provider. And along comes beam and your job is to create partnerships to 127 00:09:50.470 --> 00:09:58.139 sell beam into employer groups. Talk a little bit about your approach entering a 128 00:09:58.820 --> 00:10:05.899 market with so many incumbent, legacy, big brand name players and how you, 129 00:10:05.860 --> 00:10:11.210 as the director of partnerships, start building those relationships. Sure so, 130 00:10:11.970 --> 00:10:18.570 partnerships that beam is probably a misnomer. It really is this hybrid of Business 131 00:10:18.570 --> 00:10:24.679 Development and the responsibilities that come with traditional bed but we focus those energies towards 132 00:10:24.759 --> 00:10:30.679 distribution partnerships, and the simplest way to explain that is that my team's job, 133 00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:33.519 our job, is to put the beam product in front of as many 134 00:10:33.879 --> 00:10:39.350 employee benefit decision makers as possible as fast as possible. So my team isn't 135 00:10:39.389 --> 00:10:41.590 the direct sales right. We have a sales force that calls on brokers and 136 00:10:41.629 --> 00:10:45.710 producers. So another phrase that you could use for what you do is sales 137 00:10:45.710 --> 00:10:50.500 enablement and right now our guns are pointed at three different channels or three different 138 00:10:50.500 --> 00:10:54.820 categories within that sales enablement stack, and the biggest is probably the insure tech 139 00:10:54.860 --> 00:11:01.620 or the Benech category. We also focus on building our national brokerage relationships, 140 00:11:01.740 --> 00:11:05.210 so the you know, they ons and the hubs and the one digitals and 141 00:11:05.330 --> 00:11:11.929 the gallaghers of the world. And then also we look at and partners strategically 142 00:11:11.009 --> 00:11:16.649 with some of the next GEN general agencies. If there's a specific territory that 143 00:11:16.690 --> 00:11:18.759 maybe we don't want to put, you know, sales specific effort into, 144 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:24.039 we can leverage aga in a more traditional way. But by far the largest 145 00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:26.799 of those three categories is the insure tech in the bentech segment. Kind of 146 00:11:28.279 --> 00:11:31.990 two halves of the same coin. What are some of the big name suretech 147 00:11:33.110 --> 00:11:37.710 providers? Just for for my benefit in and for our audiences benefit, who 148 00:11:37.750 --> 00:11:39.470 are we talking about? More talking about those folks? Yeah, sure. 149 00:11:39.590 --> 00:11:45.789 So it really depends on your market segment. So if you're, you know 150 00:11:45.870 --> 00:11:48.379 any of your listeners are in the two thousand and twenty five hundred and up, 151 00:11:48.820 --> 00:11:52.580 you know, employer space, they're going to know names like Ben if 152 00:11:52.620 --> 00:11:58.980 its solver or benefit focus be swift, big platforms that can be white labeled 153 00:11:58.980 --> 00:12:05.289 or can be customized to become basically the benefits sort of Hrman management system of 154 00:12:05.409 --> 00:12:09.330 record for employee benefits for that large employer. That's not the market that we 155 00:12:09.450 --> 00:12:15.450 play in. So down market it becomes more fractured and there's more players because 156 00:12:16.039 --> 00:12:20.519 the sophistication of the technology doesn't have to be so large because you're supporting, 157 00:12:20.879 --> 00:12:24.639 you know, two thousand plus employees. So downmarket, in the two to 158 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:28.919 fifty range there's a a handful of folks. Employee navigator is a Ben ad 159 00:12:28.960 --> 00:12:33.750 been an enrollment system that we work with. He's formally e's central. Pretty 160 00:12:33.789 --> 00:12:35.350 well known, more on the West Coast than than the East Coast, but 161 00:12:35.389 --> 00:12:41.110 pretty well known. And then there are some players that span the group size 162 00:12:41.429 --> 00:12:46.659 spectrum. So be swift, usually mid market. That's a preferred engine of 163 00:12:46.860 --> 00:12:52.500 NFP, which is a big international agency and like does literally dozens, if 164 00:12:52.580 --> 00:12:58.809 not hundreds of other been admin and enrollment tools and platforms. So what my 165 00:12:58.250 --> 00:13:03.809 team went my job is and my team's job is to figure out creative be 166 00:13:03.970 --> 00:13:09.009 tob distribution relationships and when you're working in an ancillary employee benefits space, like 167 00:13:09.009 --> 00:13:13.919 dental, which is very much a commoditized space. As a new entrant to 168 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:18.000 that market full of lots of legacy incumbents, you had to get creative in 169 00:13:18.039 --> 00:13:20.879 the way that you put your product in front of your clients. So you 170 00:13:20.919 --> 00:13:24.960 know, beam has the this unique value prop and we're investing heavily in sales 171 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:28.429 and outbound but that that's only going to take us so far, right and 172 00:13:28.669 --> 00:13:31.950 those two things are really just table stakes anymore. So the real challenge for 173 00:13:33.149 --> 00:13:37.509 our team and for the business broadly is waiting through this see of in sure 174 00:13:37.590 --> 00:13:43.940 tech and all of the different providers and you know, software layers and quoting 175 00:13:43.980 --> 00:13:48.820 platforms and been addin platforms that producers use, and finding that best fit and 176 00:13:48.179 --> 00:13:52.659 the Best Bang for the buck for beam. And so what does that look 177 00:13:52.700 --> 00:13:56.570 like really practically? Walk me through maybe a you know, if you want 178 00:13:56.610 --> 00:14:00.769 to mention the platform by name, go ahead or just or just refer to 179 00:14:00.809 --> 00:14:03.370 it as a platform, but walk me through what actually moves the needle for 180 00:14:03.690 --> 00:14:11.320 beam dental in one of these tech enabled partnerships. Sure, so good bed 181 00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:16.120 involves a lot of time spent just keeping up at the market and that might 182 00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:22.159 sound obvious, but it needs a really purposeful effort. And my world there 183 00:14:22.159 --> 00:14:26.629 used to be only one or two paths to the employee, benefits decision makers, 184 00:14:26.669 --> 00:14:30.350 and that one of those two paths was the producer, the insurance agent. 185 00:14:31.110 --> 00:14:33.350 There's now dozens, if not more, because of this explosion of the 186 00:14:33.350 --> 00:14:39.019 insert tech landscape and that landscapes really dynamic. So finding that most efficient path 187 00:14:39.059 --> 00:14:45.779 from whoever sells the majority of your industrial product to the purchaser of your industries 188 00:14:45.899 --> 00:14:50.779 product is that's the trick right. So tactically, what that looks like for 189 00:14:50.259 --> 00:14:54.889 beam is kind of trying to map out this this workflow, the spectrum, 190 00:14:56.090 --> 00:15:01.889 and imagine that you and the thing that your company sells is on the far 191 00:15:01.970 --> 00:15:05.809 left of the spectrum and the decision maker WHO's ultimately buying the products, is 192 00:15:05.889 --> 00:15:11.799 on the far right. So think about who sits between you and your product 193 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:16.039 and that decision maker. It's different per industry, of course, but generally 194 00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:20.840 speaking there's some type of broker, like an actual broker, in my case 195 00:15:20.919 --> 00:15:28.509 insurance broker, or there's resellers, there's tech distribution products, there's service providers. 196 00:15:28.549 --> 00:15:31.549 Are there any automation layers? So you got to try and map the 197 00:15:31.590 --> 00:15:35.899 spectrum and look at the whole journey. So how does the product move through 198 00:15:35.899 --> 00:15:39.620 the whole industry? And then what those tactics look like? For Beam at 199 00:15:39.659 --> 00:15:46.059 least, is continuously researching that ever changing landscape and then identifying the partners that 200 00:15:46.139 --> 00:15:50.169 share market fit. And market fit can mean mutual target client size. Right. 201 00:15:50.250 --> 00:15:54.129 So I mentioned, you know, the benefit of solvers in the benefit 202 00:15:54.169 --> 00:15:56.809 focuses of the world. Those guys are admin tools that are up market. 203 00:15:58.210 --> 00:16:00.090 They don't really align with beam. We know that they exist, but they're 204 00:16:00.090 --> 00:16:04.799 not necessarily going to be a ideal client or partner of beams just because of 205 00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:10.200 that market misalignment. The market fit could mean physical geography. You know, 206 00:16:10.240 --> 00:16:12.679 if we were focused on, you know, California, for example, it 207 00:16:12.879 --> 00:16:15.440 well, we're really only going to worry about the players that are in California. 208 00:16:15.440 --> 00:16:18.470 And again, that sounds obvious, but it takes a purposeful effort to 209 00:16:18.509 --> 00:16:23.990 understand that. Other tactics include establishing a tech connection with those companies, whether 210 00:16:25.029 --> 00:16:30.350 it's just a you know, playing regular enrollment feed or whether it's some type 211 00:16:30.389 --> 00:16:34.659 of quoting API that allows those producers to enable some self quoting capability through that 212 00:16:34.779 --> 00:16:41.820 platform. So the last thing that we do is prioritize and assess the partners. 213 00:16:41.860 --> 00:16:45.019 That what we've identified them? What order should we work with them in? 214 00:16:45.820 --> 00:16:51.850 And we do that by finding alignment in what creates value for the customers 215 00:16:51.929 --> 00:16:56.690 of both companies. So who's our customer? Our customers, the employee and 216 00:16:56.730 --> 00:17:00.929 the employer, but also our customer is the producer that's putting beam in front 217 00:17:00.970 --> 00:17:04.119 of the decision maker or making the decision. In some cases. We look 218 00:17:04.160 --> 00:17:11.559 for ability of that platform to lower beams customer requisition cost. So if our 219 00:17:11.640 --> 00:17:15.789 sales team is targeting a seventy per life acquisition cost, I don't I actually 220 00:17:15.789 --> 00:17:18.470 don't know exactly what it is. I'm not on the sales team. But 221 00:17:18.630 --> 00:17:22.789 say hypothetically, if they're targeting a seventy customer requisition cost, my job is 222 00:17:22.829 --> 00:17:27.150 to go find partners that can bring in customers to beam lower than that, 223 00:17:27.509 --> 00:17:32.740 in most cases significantly lower than that because of the tech enablement portion of it. 224 00:17:33.339 --> 00:17:37.740 We look for partners that have a presence in a frontier market. So 225 00:17:37.019 --> 00:17:41.579 if you and your company are expanding into a new physical territory or into a 226 00:17:41.700 --> 00:17:47.329 new industry or into a new group size segment of the industry, there are 227 00:17:47.369 --> 00:17:52.490 players that specialize in those different categories, different ches, right. So you 228 00:17:52.609 --> 00:17:56.849 might go enter the fifteen up space and your partners are going to be different. 229 00:17:57.329 --> 00:18:02.319 You might go attack the Pacific northwest as a physical geography, your partners 230 00:18:02.359 --> 00:18:06.119 are going to be different. And last but not least, we look at 231 00:18:06.519 --> 00:18:11.519 the ability of a partner's to hold down our administrative overhead. We measure this 232 00:18:11.640 --> 00:18:15.269 in the form of total cost to serve, commonly referred to as total cost 233 00:18:15.269 --> 00:18:19.029 to serve, and that's everything post sale. What does it take to support 234 00:18:19.109 --> 00:18:25.670 and service those customers, in our case ensured individuals, and what can they 235 00:18:25.710 --> 00:18:29.220 do to help hold down our administrative overhead? Well, so there's a lot 236 00:18:29.259 --> 00:18:33.140 of factors that that go into selecting partners and and in the end, your 237 00:18:33.660 --> 00:18:37.299 you mentioned earlier that this boils down to really being sales and ablement for your 238 00:18:37.940 --> 00:18:42.250 outside sales force. So when you're putting together these partnerships, you're not necessarily 239 00:18:42.329 --> 00:18:49.089 able to to see the value until that cell through is done from your sales 240 00:18:49.170 --> 00:18:52.809 reps through most likely a brook. It sounds like. Everything still going through 241 00:18:52.849 --> 00:18:56.960 a broker channel and the employer makes the decision. So are you your couple 242 00:18:57.079 --> 00:19:03.319 of layers back really trying to see into the future and see how what you're 243 00:19:03.359 --> 00:19:06.920 doing is going to really impact that ultimate sale. And then, of course, 244 00:19:06.920 --> 00:19:08.640 the employee actually has to enroll in the end. Is that all fair 245 00:19:08.720 --> 00:19:12.190 to say that that's kind of the path that? Yeah, that's all. 246 00:19:12.349 --> 00:19:18.430 That's all fair. It makes my job challenging to, you know, to 247 00:19:18.509 --> 00:19:21.630 measure Oro I to the business, but it also makes my job really fun 248 00:19:21.829 --> 00:19:26.259 because I get to pool all of these different levers and, you know, 249 00:19:26.420 --> 00:19:30.460 see what works. And we're not going into these partnerships and these deals with 250 00:19:30.859 --> 00:19:34.940 any lack of sophistication, right. I mean they're as careful and robust as 251 00:19:36.220 --> 00:19:41.289 our vetting and, you know, prioritization criteria are. So too is our 252 00:19:41.569 --> 00:19:45.930 process for putting together the right type of be tob deal that is mutually beneficial, 253 00:19:47.369 --> 00:19:49.529 that forecasts out, you know, where our break even point is on 254 00:19:49.569 --> 00:19:53.079 the relationship. There might be an initial an initial upfront investment in the form 255 00:19:53.119 --> 00:19:56.599 of actual cash or just in the form of time and Labor for our team 256 00:19:56.599 --> 00:20:00.839 to stand up that relationship and we need to know, okay, when are 257 00:20:00.880 --> 00:20:03.279 we going to get that back and how are we going to get that back? 258 00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:07.430 How fast are we going to get that back. You know, we 259 00:20:07.750 --> 00:20:10.630 see that. You know, we can measure that in a couple of different 260 00:20:10.630 --> 00:20:15.549 ways, but the most obvious is if a partner opens up sales opportunity to 261 00:20:15.630 --> 00:20:19.309 a thousand brokers, we know that a thousand brokers are selling on average. 262 00:20:19.349 --> 00:20:23.220 Let's say those brokers are selling fifty, you know, dental deals a year 263 00:20:23.259 --> 00:20:27.140 each. Maybe that's high. These are just hypothetical numbers. I'm not looking 264 00:20:27.140 --> 00:20:32.500 at our actual model. But let's say, if you know they're selling fifty 265 00:20:32.539 --> 00:20:37.289 deals a year, maybe beam can win ten percent of those. So then 266 00:20:37.329 --> 00:20:40.450 we get five from each. So now we're at you know, let's say 267 00:20:40.450 --> 00:20:42.849 we convert a half of those brokers and they're selling ten percent of their book 268 00:20:44.250 --> 00:20:47.450 to beam, or rather they're selling beam as ten percent of their book. 269 00:20:47.529 --> 00:20:52.480 Then we're looking at five hundred times five. Okay, it's a meaningful number. 270 00:20:52.920 --> 00:20:56.039 And then what's the average deal size that comes in through that that block, 271 00:20:56.200 --> 00:21:00.119 that book of business that was enabled by this one particular partner? So 272 00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:06.549 it's really they become. They become relationships of leverage where my team can go 273 00:21:07.269 --> 00:21:14.990 work through a low customer acquisition cost partner because of automation, and through that 274 00:21:15.190 --> 00:21:19.539 one relationship. My team can introduce beam to a thousand brokers or to tenzero 275 00:21:19.819 --> 00:21:26.700 employers, which are fiftyzero eligible lives, and you know some of them are 276 00:21:26.740 --> 00:21:30.259 enrolled. So it's a long tale, as you described, but usually it's 277 00:21:30.299 --> 00:21:34.049 worth it. You know, these deals take three, four, sometimes six 278 00:21:34.089 --> 00:21:40.529 or more months to put together and then you really don't see measurable data that 279 00:21:40.769 --> 00:21:48.279 can prove Roi and hopefully validate your hypothesis until at least another six months because 280 00:21:48.279 --> 00:21:49.599 you have to build traction, people have to enroll and then you have to 281 00:21:49.720 --> 00:21:53.519 measure value there. They're after. But to me that just means a little 282 00:21:53.519 --> 00:21:57.839 bit of job stability, right, because sure we get to do bigger picture, 283 00:21:59.119 --> 00:22:03.589 longer term strategic initiatives and hopefully provide meaningful value to the business and the 284 00:22:03.670 --> 00:22:07.390 process. Yeah, well, and it makes a lot of sense to really 285 00:22:07.789 --> 00:22:14.589 focus in on those distribution partners when you when you see how it can really 286 00:22:14.670 --> 00:22:19.940 impact the long term, not not just lowering cost of customer acquisition but also 287 00:22:21.900 --> 00:22:26.380 just the distribution, just the availability of the product. And and to that 288 00:22:26.539 --> 00:22:30.809 point, I assume your job and your your divisions, your department's job doesn't 289 00:22:30.890 --> 00:22:37.490 end once the integration it like again with for talking about a tech enabled partner. 290 00:22:37.730 --> 00:22:40.490 Once the integration is done, once the deal is signed, and they 291 00:22:40.490 --> 00:22:42.450 say yep, now you're you're on our platform and we're going to make it 292 00:22:42.490 --> 00:22:49.000 easy for people to access the beam product through our platform, you're still competing, 293 00:22:49.400 --> 00:22:53.599 right, you're right. You're not the only dental plan on the platform 294 00:22:53.640 --> 00:22:57.869 or dental option on the platform. So, just as we wrap up, 295 00:22:57.910 --> 00:23:03.029 talk to me a little bit about how you continue enabling that, for whether 296 00:23:03.109 --> 00:23:08.029 it's for your outside sales team, then play benefits brokers and then for the 297 00:23:08.069 --> 00:23:15.380 employees to where is partnerships involved in that final part of the sale? Yeah, 298 00:23:15.460 --> 00:23:21.380 it's a great question. When I'm explaining to our internal staff here what 299 00:23:21.539 --> 00:23:23.660 partnerships does, because it's sort of this black box to a lot of the 300 00:23:23.740 --> 00:23:29.930 rest of the business, I explain it as this full spectrum team that does 301 00:23:30.009 --> 00:23:33.609 everything from the industry research and the targeting plans, you know, to identify 302 00:23:33.650 --> 00:23:37.609 who the partners are, all the way through, you know, financial modeling 303 00:23:37.650 --> 00:23:41.759 and contracting and then technical implementation to, you know, the the end of 304 00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:49.599 that spectrum being internal training and then also ongoing strategic account management for that partner 305 00:23:51.400 --> 00:23:55.200 so that we continue to extractly, you know, or extract, I should 306 00:23:55.200 --> 00:23:57.190 say, value from that relationship. And it goes both ways, right. 307 00:23:57.230 --> 00:24:02.029 We need beam to be continuing to provide value to the partner, otherwise the 308 00:24:02.069 --> 00:24:04.150 partner's not going to continue to care. But also we need to we need 309 00:24:04.230 --> 00:24:07.589 the partner to provide value to beam, and one of the ways that we 310 00:24:07.710 --> 00:24:12.779 do that is through internal, indexternal education. After that partner is quote unquote 311 00:24:12.779 --> 00:24:19.259 launched, and that's actually a purposeful role and and separate set of responsibilities on 312 00:24:19.299 --> 00:24:26.410 our team is what we call program management, and that involves the ongoing, 313 00:24:26.930 --> 00:24:30.769 the initial and then the ongoing education for who that partner is, what the 314 00:24:30.890 --> 00:24:33.930 partner will do for beam, the value that the partner will bring to the 315 00:24:34.009 --> 00:24:41.079 business, and both external ended and internal facing. Right. So we bring 316 00:24:41.119 --> 00:24:44.799 in a new platform, partner beams on that platform. Great. It doesn't 317 00:24:44.799 --> 00:24:47.799 matter if the brokers don't know about beam. They're not necessarily going to, 318 00:24:48.519 --> 00:24:52.400 you know, be browsing through employe navigator and just happen to see beam and 319 00:24:52.440 --> 00:24:53.589 say, Oh, I've never heard of this product, let me recommended to 320 00:24:53.630 --> 00:25:00.349 my client's that's not a thing that happened. So we need to educate our 321 00:25:00.549 --> 00:25:04.829 sales reps, that employe navigator is now a pathway to beam so that if 322 00:25:04.869 --> 00:25:10.460 they're out talking to, you know, producers in the field and the producer 323 00:25:10.500 --> 00:25:15.299 happens to mention one of, you know, the ten or twelve tech partners 324 00:25:15.339 --> 00:25:18.859 that we have in place, then that sales rep knows exactly what that means. 325 00:25:18.980 --> 00:25:21.490 They know how to talk about it, they know how to communicate the 326 00:25:21.569 --> 00:25:26.970 value prop of that platform or multiple platforms to that producer so that the producer 327 00:25:27.650 --> 00:25:33.609 feels more confident and comfortable not only in beams product but in beams professional capabilities, 328 00:25:33.690 --> 00:25:36.559 because they understand then, that we get it, we know how to 329 00:25:36.599 --> 00:25:41.200 talk their language and we've worked really hard to put ourselves where they are in 330 00:25:41.279 --> 00:25:45.559 their daytoday so that the platforms they're using to manage their their livelihood, their 331 00:25:45.599 --> 00:25:49.390 book of business, beam has worked hard to let them continue to do that 332 00:25:49.509 --> 00:25:52.349 and also, you know, provide them an innovative product at the same time 333 00:25:52.430 --> 00:25:56.390 that they can that they can, you know, continue to earn and retain 334 00:25:56.589 --> 00:26:00.829 their own clients with. So, backing up a little bit, that Program 335 00:26:00.910 --> 00:26:06.099 Management Role that we have on our team is what continues to enable that internal 336 00:26:06.140 --> 00:26:10.180 land, external education and training, and then they pre become a primary point 337 00:26:10.180 --> 00:26:12.740 of contact for questions go forward after the launch of that relationship. And then 338 00:26:12.740 --> 00:26:18.609 we also have, separately, an analyst role that helps build out our qbrs. 339 00:26:18.890 --> 00:26:23.650 So quarterly business reports, reviews, whatever your acronym is, that we 340 00:26:23.769 --> 00:26:29.529 provide to our partners on a quarterly basis go forward. So to really extrapolate, 341 00:26:29.609 --> 00:26:34.359 or keep saying extrapolate, to really extract some value from the relationship for 342 00:26:34.519 --> 00:26:37.759 both parties. So an example of this would be, you know, let's 343 00:26:37.759 --> 00:26:41.680 who with a partner. We have a thousand groups together mutually. It's not 344 00:26:41.839 --> 00:26:45.920 huge, but it's significant and it's enough to actually analyze and study together. 345 00:26:47.470 --> 00:26:49.750 So you know, we spend a couple of days the end of every quarter 346 00:26:51.109 --> 00:26:53.990 just looking at the numbers and trying to pull out trends. One thing that 347 00:26:55.109 --> 00:26:59.829 beam does that I think is relatively unique among carriers, at least dental carriers, 348 00:26:59.869 --> 00:27:03.779 is we put a disproportionate amount of time and effort into these Qbr so 349 00:27:03.900 --> 00:27:06.299 that we can go to a partner and say, Hey, you know, 350 00:27:06.539 --> 00:27:08.819 we're going up into the right it's great, everything looks wonderful, we're both 351 00:27:08.900 --> 00:27:14.259 growing, we're both making more money, isn't it wonderful. But we drilled 352 00:27:14.299 --> 00:27:18.890 in per state and we noticed this concerning dip in this state, and this 353 00:27:19.009 --> 00:27:22.970 state is our second largest state together and if we hadn't looked at that individual 354 00:27:23.009 --> 00:27:27.289 state and the trends in that state, it would have been hidden just looking 355 00:27:27.329 --> 00:27:32.079 at, you know, all fifty states stacked on top of one another and 356 00:27:32.559 --> 00:27:36.599 taking the time to go that one extra step beyond in this sort of count 357 00:27:36.599 --> 00:27:42.079 management and analysis role provides real meaningful business insight and value that a lot of 358 00:27:42.119 --> 00:27:48.470 our partners just aren't getting from their other health carrier partners, certainly not dental, 359 00:27:48.509 --> 00:27:51.109 at least not that we've seen so far. So that's one way that 360 00:27:51.910 --> 00:27:55.109 the role trying to come back around to your question, it's one way that 361 00:27:55.269 --> 00:27:59.900 the role in our our team's role in the business is to continue to foster 362 00:27:59.980 --> 00:28:03.900 and provide that value both internally and externally. Then it doesn't just end as 363 00:28:03.900 --> 00:28:06.460 soon as the contract to sign and the and the you know, the tech 364 00:28:06.619 --> 00:28:08.940 is integrated. Yeah, yeah, it sounds like in some ways the work 365 00:28:08.980 --> 00:28:12.410 is just beginning when that contract is signed. Very much so. Yeah, 366 00:28:12.450 --> 00:28:17.769 well, Andy, this is been really informative. I really appreciate you taking 367 00:28:18.049 --> 00:28:22.410 all the time to talk with us today. If someone is interested in diving 368 00:28:22.490 --> 00:28:26.759 deeper on partnerships with beam dental, just getting in touch with you, what's 369 00:28:26.799 --> 00:28:30.880 the best way to reach out? Sure so the best way to reach out 370 00:28:32.359 --> 00:28:38.400 is probably to our partnerships email, which is partnerships, exactly how it sounds. 371 00:28:38.519 --> 00:28:44.190 Partnerships at beam dot dental. Little confusing. Email beam dotdental. There's 372 00:28:44.230 --> 00:28:49.029 nocom there. Okay. So welcome any questions or thoughts and honestly, you 373 00:28:49.109 --> 00:28:52.710 know, we don't pretend to be experts here. We're just learning how the 374 00:28:52.549 --> 00:28:56.019 how the industry is moving and, you know, trying to keep up and 375 00:28:56.259 --> 00:29:00.539 trying to make forward leaning decisions at the same time. So we are an 376 00:29:00.619 --> 00:29:02.980 open book and we also welcome you up. You need to learn from others. 377 00:29:03.019 --> 00:29:04.940 So if anybody has any, you know, tips or tricks and things 378 00:29:04.980 --> 00:29:08.619 that have worked well for them, will always take the insight. That's fantastic, 379 00:29:10.089 --> 00:29:11.049 Andy. Thank you. This has been great. Thanks so much, 380 00:29:11.049 --> 00:29:18.170 tonis. We totally get it. We publish a ton of content on this 381 00:29:18.289 --> 00:29:22.650 podcast and it can be a lot to keep up with. That's why we've 382 00:29:22.650 --> 00:29:26.279 started the BOB growth big three, a no fluff email that wolves down our 383 00:29:26.400 --> 00:29:32.079 three biggest takeaways from an entire week of episodes. Sign up today at Sweet 384 00:29:32.079 --> 00:29:37.119 Phish Mediacom Big Three. That sweet PHISH MEDIACOM Big Three