62 : Overpromised and Under-Deployed: The Dental Tech Buying Problem

Most dental technology doesn't fail because the product is bad. It fails because nobody planned how to deploy it, and that problem usually starts before the DSO ever signs the contract.

On this episode of BYTE SIZED, Adrian Lefler sits down with Matt McGaw, founder of DSO Compass, an independent publication covering how dental service organizations select, evaluate, and implement technology. Matt sold on the vendor side of dentistry starting in 2008 and kept hitting the same wall: the product he was selling wasn't always what the client needed. So he left corporate sales to build a source of direction with no pitch attached.

They dig into why the market got so crowded so fast. A healthcare founders event Matt attends jumped from roughly 60 to 80 founders to about 180, driven by AI tools like Claude that let almost anyone build a product. Good for innovation, bad for evaluation. AI receptionists are the clearest example, with at least a hundred new entrants last year while practice management systems build the same feature in.

Then they get into where tech purchases fall apart. Matt blames vendors who underinvest in deployment, and Adrian points to sales compensation that pays reps to close, not to see a product through implementation. Matt lays out how a good pilot runs: locations picked with a methodology, an internal DSO champion, KPIs set up front, and success defined before day 30, 60, or 90.

They also tackle pay-to-play recommendations in the dental industry, why DSO Compass takes no revenue share from vendors, how it stays separate from sister company Relay, and why small groups hoping to sell to a DSO need standardized PMS and VoIP systems first.

1. What should a DSO ask a technology vendor before signing a contract?

Ask exactly how the vendor plans to deploy the technology across your locations, in detail. That means which locations get piloted and why, which KPIs will be measured, who owns the project on both sides, and what success looks like at the end of the pilot. A vague deployment answer is a warning sign that implementation will stall.

2. Is the surge of new dental software startups good or bad for DSOs?

Both. The flood of new products is good for innovation because new entrants push incumbent vendors to improve, but it makes evaluation much harder. A healthcare founders event Matt McGaw attends jumped from 60 to 80 founders to about 180 in a year. AI receptionists are the clearest example, with at least a hundred new competitors in the past year.

3. Why do dental technology vendors oversell to DSOs?

Sales reps are usually paid to close deals and retain clients for a month or three, not to see implementation through. That pushes reps to promise features that aren't deployed yet. DSOs should ask vendors to separate what is live in the product today from what is on the roadmap, and hold them to it.

4. What should a small dental group standardize before selling to a DSO?

Standardize the practice management system and VoIP phone system across every location. Private equity buyers and DSOs look for consistent systems, and a mixed PMS environment is a valuation problem. Groups running different software at each office will have a harder time selling and should expect a lower multiple than a standardized group.

5. How much of a dental technology rollout's success is decided at the point of sale?

Far less than most vendors think. Matt McGaw estimates only about 20 to 30 percent of the work is done when the contract is signed, maybe 40 percent at most. The rest happens during implementation, which takes months of workflow change inside the practices, and vendors that don't staff for it rarely deliver what they promised.

Matt McGaw is the founder and CEO of DSO Compass, an independent publication focused on how DSOs select, evaluate, and implement technology, and what happens operationally after the sale. He worked in dental vendor sales from 2008 before launching DSO Compass around 2021, and his newsletter now reaches roughly 8,000 readers. Matt is also a partner in Relay, a consulting and deployment firm staffed by former DSO operators. He is based in Utah.

Guest: Matthew McGaw

Website: https://dsocompass.com/

Website: https://relaywithus.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewmcgaw/

Host: Adrian Lefler

Website: https://mysocialpractice.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianlefler/

Book Adrian to speak: https://mysocialpractice.com/dental-marketing-expert/

Dental Marketing Services: https://mysocialpractice.com/dental-marketing-services/

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