These are tumultuous times in wholesale distribution: U.S. small business sentiment fell in February to the lowest level since May due to continued concerns around inflation. In addition, the consumer price index, a broad measure of goods and services costs, increased 0.4% for the month and 3.2% from a year ago. Combine this with strikes at East Coast ports and shipping restrictions through the Panama Canal, and you've got a messy situation.
But when it comes to those all-important buyers, this economic data hardly matters: they're more concerned with the customer journey. In fact, 86% of B2B retailer buyers said they're willing to switch suppliers if another B2B web store offers a better experience, according to new survey data from Sana Commerce.
So what are wholesale distributors and manufacturers supposed to do with this? Where do you focus your attention and resources? How do you look at this data and see its relevance to your business? This week, Kevin and Tom look behind the headlines to bring you deep analysis and insight into these topics and more - it's an episode to help you make heads or tails of a constantly changing wholesale marketplace!
Leave a Review: Help us grow by sharing your thoughts on the show.
Learn more about the LeadSmart AI B2B Sales Platform: https://www.leadsmarttech.com/
Join the conversation each week on LinkedIn Live.
Want even more insight to the stories we discuss each week? Subscribe to the Around The Horn Newsletter.
You can also hear the podcast and other excellent content on our YouTube Channel.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok.
[00:00:00] Welcome to Around The Horn in Wholesale Distribution with Kevin Brown and Tom Burton.
[00:00:10] Sponsored each week by lead smart technologies, Tom, Kevin and their guests review the
[00:00:14] news of the week and dive deep into the topics impacting manufacturers, wholesale distribution,
[00:00:20] independent sales agents, and the global wholesale supply chain. Whether it's M&A,
[00:00:26] or the staff in cloud computing, B to B e commerce or supply chain issues. We peel back
[00:00:31] the onion with our guests into the topics that impact your business the most.
[00:00:37] Good morning. What's happening? Keep dancing. Keep dancing.
[00:00:42] When you're not having anybody on here because we have the wrong, the linkedin canceled
[00:00:46] our original events. So there may not be anybody to see your dance either than me.
[00:00:51] Can fire the editor? No, I'm going to fire John and fire the person that posted it.
[00:00:59] Got to cut my contract. That's it. Well, we'll see if anybody shows up to join us this
[00:01:06] one. You are here. Click the links. Know that you're here because you can be very lonely.
[00:01:12] Yeah. So to get if I get that hiccup that happened in a correctly is you're on the East Coast
[00:01:17] today in Florida. Take a little time with your wife there and but work in still somewhat
[00:01:24] and I'm here in California like normal. And I think your laptops timing on it when you schedule
[00:01:31] the event caught us on East Coast versus on linkedin for the linkedin invite. So that's okay.
[00:01:37] We live in our. That's right. And we've got our podcast friends joining us as well.
[00:01:41] And John will edit this accordingly. Our editor that takes care of all the podcast of John
[00:01:48] been working with him diligently this week on some updates and some cool stuff he's doing.
[00:01:53] So we're appreciative of that. So before we jump into things I'm Kevin Brown. This is Tom Burton,
[00:01:59] my lifelong friend and co-founder of Leeds Mart Technologies who's the sponsor of the
[00:02:04] around the horn in wholesale distribution live show and podcast. We get together every Friday
[00:02:11] morning at 9 o'clock Pacific time on the ring. We live in the 12 Eastern. Yeah. Or 12 Eastern.
[00:02:21] On linkedin live YouTube live in Facebook live and then later in the day our editor that I mentioned
[00:02:27] earlier Johnny does a phenomenal job. John puts all of this together and gets us out on all the
[00:02:33] popular podcast formats. So you can listen live or listen to the recording on a podcast. So what we do
[00:02:40] but Tom and I get together we oftentimes have guests. We've got a phenomenal list of guests.
[00:02:45] In fact, we have guests typically every other week. Sometimes every week our guests are kind of
[00:02:49] booked right now through really almost through probably through Q2 and into the early part of Q3.
[00:02:56] We've got some guests book. So exciting. We're able to do that in phenomenal industry folks.
[00:03:03] So what we do every week is we get together. We spend about an hour or so when we talk with
[00:03:08] industry experts and folks like you that might join us on the live podcast and ask some
[00:03:12] questions and give some feedbacks. And we talk about what's going on around the world in wholesale
[00:03:18] distribution and manufacturing. We look at things like the economy and technology and M&A activity
[00:03:25] shipping and supply chain issues. And so for them we kind of try to take all that information that's
[00:03:31] coming together for us and boil it down kind of some likes to say kind of peel the onion back and
[00:03:37] find the story behind this story and how that impacts wholesale distribution and manufacturing.
[00:03:42] That's who our audiences for each week. We do that in what we're doing this morning on this show is
[00:03:48] we're reviewing a newsletter. The newsletter is called Around the Horn and wholesale
[00:03:52] distribution of manufacturing. It goes out bright and early every Friday morning to
[00:03:57] think we're 8,000 or so people that that goes out to now. If you don't get that newsletter and
[00:04:02] you would like to too simple ways to do it. You can quickly and easily just share an email with
[00:04:09] us at hello at leadsmartek.com and we will get that right out to you and or you can go to the
[00:04:16] website for the podcast which is www.aroundthe horn pod.com. Around the horn pod.com and you can sign
[00:04:24] up for there as well as listen to previous episodes. We get that newsletter out each week. We consolidate
[00:04:29] a lot of what's going on as we mentioned. We couldn't do this if it wasn't for two factors each week.
[00:04:35] One is the company that's on and I work for lead smart technologies which is developed a
[00:04:40] AI enabled CRM and customer intelligence solution that gathers data from around your company
[00:04:46] and siloed data you may have in ERP systems and e-commerce systems and we bring all that together
[00:04:52] and apply some AI tools to that to give you actionable insights within your business on what's
[00:04:57] happening with your customer with your team and throughout your business. Lead smart supports this
[00:05:02] and sponsors us of any week but we also could do it without you because our audience grows every
[00:05:06] week so we're now getting podcast downloads in five to seven countries each week and hundreds
[00:05:11] and hundreds of people are tuning in live each week so we're excited about that and we're thinking
[00:05:15] for that. The last part of this if you are with us on the podcast hit the subscribe button
[00:05:23] and leave us a review on whatever format you're on so it gets out to other people. If you're
[00:05:28] with us live, you too, have to subscribe button in the like button linked in live, follow
[00:05:33] lead smart technologies where this will be each week and click that button so you can share
[00:05:38] that with your friends as well. So that's kind of it for the day time you want to kick us off
[00:05:42] here and get us rolling on the news. Let's talk about some news. So we'll start as usual with
[00:05:50] economy and supply chain. If you want to kick off with the first one here, prices up a little bit
[00:05:56] in February and for that 2.2 point something again from a year ago so definitely not I don't know
[00:06:06] it's not drifting down but it's drifting upside. Yeah you know what it's interesting is you know
[00:06:12] early I don't know I haven't seen any of today's news but I don't know if the fed said any
[00:06:17] different but Powell was saying earlier in the week that this kind of bumping up and down wasn't
[00:06:24] impacting them too much and that they're still looking for that and it's probably you know we
[00:06:28] were hoping for March it's obviously not going to be March we're on the 15th now but you know I think
[00:06:34] there's still looking at this unless something dramatic happens that we see something at the end
[00:06:38] of this month that pushes this much higher but you know it's I was thinking about this morning
[00:06:43] as we're kind of putting some of my notes together and things on this and you know it's like well
[00:06:47] you know I just got done talking about the fact that you know we're here to talk about wholesale
[00:06:51] distribution and manufacturing and you know here we are talking about consumer price index you know
[00:06:57] it's like where's the balancing act with that but you know when you stop and look at this
[00:07:01] the reality of all of this is that consumer price index and the handful of these other factors
[00:07:06] housing markets and so forth they all tie right in through the department of labor
[00:07:13] of labor statistics and so forth all these peace factors into what the fed's doing
[00:07:18] with interest rates interest rates impact how easy it is to get money and how easy it is to get
[00:07:23] money and yeah impacts wholesale distribution based on the cost of money right obviously the cost
[00:07:28] to cap the cost of money yeah so yeah so yeah I guess you know bottom line I don't
[00:07:36] think the same sort of story right not a whole lot of guidance one where the other things is kind
[00:07:41] of drifting around um I personally think we're gonna see a slight tick up over the next
[00:07:49] say between now and the end of the year that's just really difficult observation upon on rates
[00:07:56] on inflation I think we're gonna see a little bit to probably end up around three dot you know
[00:08:02] waiver between three dot two and three dot five as we move from month to month yeah are the next
[00:08:08] few months just that's just you know again that's more instinctive more than having a whole lot of
[00:08:14] data back to back it but that's what I think we're gonna I don't I doubt we're gonna see that drop
[00:08:18] back down but that could be proven wrong so let me ask you question related to that if you're
[00:08:25] prognosticating then okay based upon that prognostication or your crystal ball what what a
[00:08:33] Johnny uh first thing used to have that they call the Wizard of Sensor yeah I remember that yeah
[00:08:38] yep but um so if that's the case let's say we bounce between three point two three point five
[00:08:47] are there cats I don't I think we will see a cat I don't know all the meetings I think there's
[00:08:54] meetings in November and December I don't know exactly but I think we will see the first
[00:08:59] task we can roughly right but I think at the end of the year there I don't know if there's one
[00:09:03] month a month or whatever I think it'll be Q4 let's just put that way I think we're not gonna see a
[00:09:08] cat until Q4 um and I think they're going to have to make a cat at that point but I don't think
[00:09:17] we're still gonna see inflation you know getting down to that 2.0 by then I think they're just at the
[00:09:22] point where they're gonna have to start making some cats otherwise it ends up they end up being
[00:09:28] too late like they were before when they were too early so I think that that might what I believe
[00:09:34] will happen is they're gonna say hey we're gonna hold tight until Q4 really kind of see how this
[00:09:39] plays out and then there will be a cutting Q4 I don't think it'll be meaningful and then we'll
[00:09:44] have to see how things kind of play out till next year that's my procrast what would you call the word
[00:09:49] um track and estimation or kind of easy for me to say yeah pronunciation yes that is my pronunciation
[00:09:56] okay I'm gonna take a different tack all right I think I think we're gonna bounce between
[00:10:03] 2.8 and 3.2 and I think that by summer we're gonna see them
[00:10:13] doing the first one of what's probably only 2 this year I think so you think Q3 so the first one will be in Q3
[00:10:22] yep so 1 and Q3 and 1 and Q4 so I think we'll see 2 to 3 not I think the original they said 4 or 5
[00:10:30] I don't think that's gonna happen this year based on where we're at but might at in listen
[00:10:35] where we right uh we're procrastinating yeah yeah we're procrastinating too but that's why
[00:10:44] yeah that's funny no the the the point with that then I'm making and thinking about this is
[00:10:51] I think there is enough of and in this goes kind of back to what I've talked about a lot is
[00:10:57] I I question kind of all of our metrics that we use that we've been using forever
[00:11:03] in the economy and I think at this setting right now is I think the stock market is doing some
[00:11:09] great things although this week hasn't been as you know bullish as some other weeks recently but
[00:11:14] you were setting records and what we look at what's going on with the chip makers and some of the
[00:11:19] technology stocks out there that are happening right now I think there's enough of the economy that's
[00:11:24] feeling this we've talked a lot about this just even over almost two you know year and a half now right
[00:11:29] there's just some pent-up energy there and I think that again what do I know but about economics
[00:11:36] but I think the reality of it is I can see the fed saying okay we're gonna test the water with one
[00:11:43] right and but I would think we would have to be at three or below three certainly not being up you
[00:11:51] where we're at right now three two-range and so forth so that's just my thoughts we'll see what happens
[00:11:56] we'll see what happens yeah so we'll let's let's go into the next article here because I think it's
[00:12:03] kind of relevant to what we're talking about here yep so U.S. small business this is from
[00:12:10] Reuters U.S. small business optimism falls to lowest nine months and they're saying that it's a
[00:12:17] lowest level since May due to continued concerns around inflation right so what's your what's
[00:12:23] your take on that and based upon what we just were you know talking about well I you know I think
[00:12:29] this stuff is interesting right it's the they've historically right been been solid and had you know
[00:12:37] good outlook on things and I think the struggle right now is what you know we mentioned earlier
[00:12:42] right is cost of funds right what is it cost to get money and until we see some of these things happen
[00:12:49] right um the some adjustments to rates and so forth you're gonna have this call it kind of
[00:12:56] waffling right at the small business level um you know it's been solid all along but I think it's
[00:13:04] my struggle with some of this is like how long can we it we use the term oftentimes here on
[00:13:09] this shows simmer right how long can we be simmering and we don't want rapid boil you know like
[00:13:14] evaporating boil and we don't want coal but simmering seems to be you know it's like it's it's no man's
[00:13:22] land I think it's as struggle to be there you know yeah I think if you look at this article right
[00:13:30] and look at some of the data that they were talking about in here what I read from this is that
[00:13:37] and I think about it just even for our own company or in in so forth I think people expected
[00:13:43] almost what we just talked about expected things to be getting better faster and maybe even have
[00:13:49] I did a reduction in price right so reduction in interest in a reduction in price and it's not
[00:13:55] it just keeps dragging on right it just keeps dragging on along the way and yet you know we see it all
[00:14:01] the time right I mean the cost of things especially for people and it depends upon the types of
[00:14:06] people you're looking for the cost of services all of that just keeps going up and up and up and
[00:14:10] up and you know it's obviously a drag on your expenses and it keeps going up so I think that you
[00:14:17] know if you look at that article I think that's what I read into it is it's keeps it keeps
[00:14:23] dragging on longer and so as a result the optimism falls where there is a lot more optimism
[00:14:28] that things are going to be happening faster well I think you're spot on with that and one of
[00:14:33] the things that the article talks about right is you know they've small businesses have felt the
[00:14:38] pinch of higher costs and tighter credit conditions right there's not as much money available
[00:14:44] and it's more costly to get to that impacts the business right as a whole you know the good the good
[00:14:49] news out of that is right the audience that we're addressing here with wholesale distributors and
[00:14:54] manufacturers is you know they have been surging you know the vast majority of our customers and
[00:15:01] the people we talk to day in and day out crazy busy growth opening new branches even you know
[00:15:07] really getting ready for you know the future being more positive I think one of the neat things
[00:15:14] that came out of this are that I really liked and appreciate that of this particular article excuse me
[00:15:19] was the discussion about the labor market easing a little bit from the same survey
[00:15:25] because we've you know heard constantly from our customers and folks had joined us for the show
[00:15:29] regularly and so forth talking about how difficult it is to hire right now and this talked about
[00:15:36] that that was easing slightly and they're having an easier time and attracting and retaining employees
[00:15:41] so that's a that's a positive thing that that came out of that because you know in January
[00:15:48] it was a much higher issue so we've seen some adjustments so far this year for them so
[00:15:53] yep good news let's jump ahead here you know it's interesting we're in our section by the way as a
[00:16:00] reminder if you're listening to the podcast and and not watching us live on YouTube linked in or Facebook
[00:16:07] we we're discussing the newsletter around the Horn of wholesale distribution that goes out every Friday
[00:16:12] and that we have multiple sections that we talk about the economy and supply chain and then we move on
[00:16:18] and we we talk about e-commerce and marketing and AI and technology so we've got these different
[00:16:23] sections so we're still in that first section about supply chain and there's an article that we
[00:16:27] posted this morning from CNBC and it talks about strikes at that east coast and golf port
[00:16:35] ports that are uh port strikes that are looming or potential and it's a big a big deal right
[00:16:42] we've talked about this talked about it east coast and west coast of Canada last year and the west
[00:16:48] coast of the US earlier last year and these are these are big factors you know and again we're here
[00:16:54] each week to talk about things that impact wholesale distribution and manufacturing and part of what
[00:16:59] we've what we've got going on here is the perfect storm kind of brewing right we've got
[00:17:06] the Panama Canal issues that are going on with the lake there being lower because of a drought
[00:17:11] and the Panama Canal's narrower and fewer ships able to get through and it's slower and a big
[00:17:15] backup with it in the article even mentions what's going on is kind of similar to the backup
[00:17:20] that we had during the pandemic at the ports of Los Angeles and LA and then you've got this
[00:17:26] Suez Canal issue which things from Europe are coming through there to get to the east coast so this
[00:17:30] is a big issue yeah it is the perfect storm we talked about last week right some of the things
[00:17:37] in fact with Mike on the call we were talking about just the issues with you know shipping
[00:17:42] and shipping so forth right you know just the like us geopolitical issues and the
[00:17:48] and the drought issues but now you enter in a strike into the equation it seems like you know
[00:17:54] freight shipping or shipping is really going to be a very very perilous way of writing stuff around
[00:18:02] well and what's interesting about this one too is this is all of the east coast and it's
[00:18:07] the golf right so you're it's really kind of talking about from probably the port of Houston
[00:18:13] all the way across through Florida and up towards Canada and that's a really big issue so we've
[00:18:19] already been seeing container prices going up and slowing down in talking to folks here
[00:18:26] and now you've got this potential issue now the contract doesn't expire tell September but
[00:18:33] it's May 17th is the cutoff for the contract negotiations basically so this this could be a pretty
[00:18:39] big deal what if there was potentially a little bit of a silver lining to this is that unlike the west
[00:18:46] coast the west coast bonuses and so forth or typically to for that longshoremen and in the
[00:18:53] west coast it's longshoremen warehouse workers in east coast it's longshoremen is tied to
[00:18:59] hours worked in so forth there's a tie on the east coast contract and golf port and east coast
[00:19:04] contract to the amount of tonnage going through so in the west coast they had some work slow downs
[00:19:12] but not a stopage and the east coast if they have a stopage they're not going to be removing
[00:19:17] as much tonnage and you know there's people here as this article talked about that you know
[00:19:22] are longshoremen that are making 150 to $250,000 a year that's an attractive wage
[00:19:28] and now they're talking about with this contract extension wanting to go I think it was the the
[00:19:34] west coast increase was 32% and this mentioned something about a great lakes
[00:19:42] contract extension that was even higher so these are some powerful job numbers yeah big numbers
[00:19:50] right I think and man maybe I should head up to get in this union head up on Friday afternoon
[00:19:55] and Saturday and Sunday and I'm looking for a good like a moon my job yeah that's right it's
[00:20:01] yeah it's my little my little uh it's right Keith the odors here says I should be a longshoremen
[00:20:07] right uh that's it and and Keith happens to live in Long Beach probably 10 minutes from the port
[00:20:13] so uh that's a great thing I agree you know and but you know it's funny as we talk about this
[00:20:18] which I'm at the east coast right we have people listening from all over the world but you know
[00:20:23] we've been friends our our whole life basically since kindergarten which is funny enough but
[00:20:28] we grew up right on the edge of the port of L.A. in Long Beach and I know quite a few people
[00:20:33] that have gone into that career and I had a job while I was in college working in the port
[00:20:38] and delivering things out to the tanker ships in the harbour and those at anchor in those in
[00:20:42] the harbour at dock and and that was quite an experience to watch that whole world work so big issue
[00:20:50] you know it's just something to be paying attention to whether you're central part of the country
[00:20:54] eastern part of the country we're already seeing freight being somewhat diverted to the west coast
[00:20:59] this talks about so that's how to pay close attention to because back to what we're not going
[00:21:04] right yeah I just could say it goes back to everything is getting more that on-shoring that near-shoring
[00:21:09] yeah having options that are not were dependent upon stuff coming from overseas so well and perfect
[00:21:15] perfect segue man you're getting your approach this as we move into our manufacturing
[00:21:20] distribution segment here right we've got a talk about Schneider electric the French electrical equipment
[00:21:26] you know Schneider is if you're in distribution anything industrial related or building materials
[00:21:33] related you know who Schneider is the biggest and let's say the best because I don't know enough but
[00:21:37] the biggest out there and they're investing $140 million to boosting their US manufacturing operations
[00:21:46] doesn't necessarily mention this tying into on-shoring they have a facility already here in
[00:21:52] Mrs. Irina Tennessee but they're talking about 750 new workers right so one they're going to have
[00:21:59] to go find those people but that's good news and I think that also our pioneer attention is we
[00:22:05] we've had some of the articles to some more about on-shoring because when you look at all this
[00:22:10] port stuff that we talk about each week and last week I think we had an article about just freight
[00:22:15] in general and it is a it's no longer a spot issue right it's now a global issue the article
[00:22:22] I think it was last week we talked about this that it's not an issue about is there a port strike
[00:22:29] you know on the west coast of the east coast or in Canada or whatever it's geopolitical tensions
[00:22:35] with China and Taiwan it's the Russian input on you know of gas and LPG and in the North Sea and so forth
[00:22:45] it's the Suez Canal and geopolitical issues going on in the Middle East it's climate change or
[00:22:51] whatever you want to call that that has this lake drying up in the Panama Canal these are
[00:22:56] issues that are day-to-day issues that are probably no longer going to be ebbying and flowing
[00:23:01] like they have historically they are constantly which you know if you're in the supply chain world
[00:23:06] right and you're working on that and planning and so forth it's your job is probably more important
[00:23:13] than it's ever been yeah all right and we talked about this last week I think you know even
[00:23:20] we've talked a bit even about how AI and so forth can help really optimize what you're doing
[00:23:25] with your supply chain so you understand you know what are the different where are the points of
[00:23:31] failure or potential points of failure what are some contingencies all of that kind of stuff
[00:23:35] I'm sure Schneider you know as big as they are invested a lot in making the decision to decide
[00:23:40] to boost the US operations I'm yep you're interested to know you know all the things that
[00:23:45] we're decided to look at behind the scenes yeah my my guess it was a it was a a broad decision
[00:23:52] it was probably tied to on-shoring it was probably tied to issues in China going on and so forth
[00:23:59] right now and and you pull all of those things together and it starts making sense and you know
[00:24:05] the reality of it is we've talked about this a lot is you know it is nowhere near
[00:24:11] the the financial benefits of manufacturing in China even if you were not factoring in any
[00:24:17] it is geopolitical issues or timeline issues or port issues any of those things it's not the same
[00:24:23] financially manufacturing it when manufacturing moved over and I'm going to say 80s was the big push
[00:24:30] but 70s and so forth as well as we moved so much offshore to China in particular there was no
[00:24:38] middle class in China there's a middle class that's developed now because of this input and in
[00:24:44] fact and prices just keep going up so now as you have prices have gone up for manufacturing in
[00:24:51] China and then you have these supply chain issues shipping issues and and so forth that are going on
[00:24:57] so you start putting all that together and the question is comes is you know not just what are my
[00:25:02] costs or what are my risks yep so in risk and the risk and lead to much higher cost
[00:25:10] well exactly right and you know what I know is on people's mind on tucked people about this
[00:25:15] is that if there's an issue with with China and Taiwan which is a great risk right now
[00:25:22] right other countries are going to get involved with that and getting things out of China might
[00:25:26] be very difficult certainly out of Taiwan right so anyway something we're going to continue
[00:25:31] to pay close attention because we do on an ongoing basis you come here for this type of info and
[00:25:36] we'll give you opinions from at least two of us as you can we will give you some really crappy
[00:25:42] opinions but other than that we're going to give you you know opinions right there worth what you pay
[00:25:47] for but try so good all right well our friends at at Hardy the eating and air-conditioning
[00:25:54] refrigeration distributors international group trade association for those folks which we have a
[00:26:00] lot of customers in the leeds more technologies world in that HVAC and refrigeration world so
[00:26:08] good news right 9% revenue increase in January for their members which is this all it because
[00:26:15] they earlier had been reporting some some falloffs a little bit so it's kind of nice to see this
[00:26:22] I think December was a 7% decline so it's nice to see this kind of bump for that group
[00:26:28] Yeah and it looked like year over years it's pretty flat 0.2% but definitely and again this
[00:26:35] goes back to our early discussion on economy right it's you know obviously I have to 9% increase
[00:26:41] in one month as a lot of additional revenue yeah and again that could just be pent up to man
[00:26:46] from a holiday is you know things not happening during the holiday season or whatever will be
[00:26:51] it's we just see how that continues as we as we move forward. Yep absolutely the
[00:26:58] it's interesting right in in this HVAC kind of world and there's a lot of really large distributors
[00:27:05] here in the US in particular that our HVAC plumbing pipe volunteer and electric we've got
[00:27:14] three or four and and have those as really good the very large ones as leeds more customers
[00:27:20] some more coming on here shortly as our customers and as you know I was a couple of weeks ago
[00:27:25] is on the East Coast and visiting a few of our larger ones and one of our customers it's
[00:27:34] a large very large HVAC distributors visiting in in upstate New York and just great great people
[00:27:41] and to watch the buzz around their business right opening new branches new showrooms and so
[00:27:47] for the just felt really really positive in fact I made a video about it and posted it's a LinkedIn
[00:27:52] and Instagram last week about that is just you can feel when you are on the phone with a lot
[00:27:59] of these organizations they're moving fast and there's good things happening there so even if
[00:28:04] it's kind of a little bit of a hiccup liner you know that we see along the way I should say hiccup
[00:28:09] a more like a heart rate with ups and downs overall there's a nice demand that you can see when
[00:28:15] you're out visiting and talking to these folks yep so good all right shall we scroll into our
[00:28:20] e-commerce and in marketing segment yep so first one here digital commerce 360
[00:28:27] is miss a surprise customer experience has everything in e-commerce 80 per 86% of B2B retail buyers
[00:28:35] are willing to switch suppliers if the B2B web store offers a better experience again we've talked
[00:28:41] about this before well get more and more important every day right yeah and we obviously you know
[00:28:49] there wasn't a tremendous amount of details in this article but you know things that we've
[00:28:53] touched on before yeah you think about omnipresence right what is experience experience has a lot of
[00:28:58] different things as personalization it's omnipresent or omnibying opportunities omnichannel
[00:29:04] and what you're doing you know there's a number of variables that go into that and I think the bar
[00:29:09] is going to continue there's an area where I think AI is really going to as AI gets more solid
[00:29:15] and more reliable is really really going to make a big difference because somebody who can really
[00:29:21] have that conversational AI experience that isn't hallucinating or you have been bad data like
[00:29:27] some of the airlines did or whatever I think it really will make a expectation of experience to another
[00:29:35] I think you're on with that you know what I mean it's kind of that we think about you know what
[00:29:42] what is experience right and they talk a little bit about that you know in here they're looking
[00:29:48] for accurate delivery time and information accurate pricing information accurate stock love
[00:29:54] levels and it said that they one of the challenges they have is lack of product information
[00:30:00] you know and I know a number that both of buying groups and trade associations are working really hard to
[00:30:05] get unified you know product information management tools out there the the pins that are out there
[00:30:11] for a software standpoint that work on these things but it's interesting you know and we've got
[00:30:16] another article I'll talk about in a few minutes related to a large electrical distributor the good folks
[00:30:22] at state electric in their experience but I kind of was thinking about this one if wanted to
[00:30:28] get your take a little bit on this you know and I haven't this will surprise you I haven't
[00:30:34] developed an opinion on this fully yet but it kind of wondering right as we and we talk about
[00:30:39] e-commerce every week at some level I just was a travel last last month to a e-commerce and marketing
[00:30:47] event in San Antonio that affiliated distributors put on for their members a great event talked to a
[00:30:54] lot of people there and I guess where I'm kind of struggling is am I in my in my
[00:31:00] and better shape because if I'm a wholesale distributor because I adopted an e-commerce strategy two
[00:31:06] years ago but I'm struggling with some of these issues right my content keeping pricing up to date
[00:31:13] because of my connections and so forth you know maybe I have maybe some of that not as advanced
[00:31:21] software solutions you know put a little plug in for our friends it optimizely and there e-commerce
[00:31:28] solutions that we've just partnered with at Leeds Smart we're excited about that and maybe
[00:31:33] there maybe there are a little bit behind the curve and now they're struggling to have to go fix all
[00:31:38] of these things and my better off being that guy or my better off being the person that is taking
[00:31:43] advantage of all the advanced tools the research has been available some of the AI tools that
[00:31:48] are available and just going into e-commerce i mean just start out with the commerce i mean just starting
[00:31:53] with the commerce just starting with e-commerce versus having been in it for a while yeah no I
[00:31:58] well yeah so I think there's definitely first of all I don't even like the word e-commerce I think
[00:32:03] there is there is the buying whatever we want to call it whether digital or analog right there's
[00:32:09] the buying experience yeah and I think those become there's there's those lines are getting grayer
[00:32:17] between them but that said if we call it e-commerce I do believe yes there is an e-commerce
[00:32:22] 2.0 that we're in to right now that is looking I think this ties into the next article we're going
[00:32:28] to talk about e-com 2.0 is very different than e-com 1.0 in terms of that experience in terms
[00:32:34] of the technology in terms of you know how it's again just the different capabilities that are going
[00:32:42] to be there I do think that there's unfortunately a lot of people that have done e-com 1.0 that
[00:32:49] all to a large degree have to throw the baby out with the bath water and really upgrade it's
[00:32:54] not just hey I'm going to patch this and patch that they're just not going to have the architecture
[00:32:58] of the infrastructure necessarily to accomplish what they need to but you know again everybody's
[00:33:04] different right everybody's done things at a different time and different technologies and
[00:33:08] different platforms and so forth so by no means is that a one-size-fits-all but yeah I do think
[00:33:13] there is a definitely a new generation here and what I would recommend is be deliberate right now
[00:33:20] because I think a lot of the AI things that are available now are going to be very different than
[00:33:25] what are available and even six months nine months 12 months yeah so I think that's the challenge
[00:33:31] is being a bit deliberate between those things because we haven't seen some of the things that
[00:33:37] are going to be possible with the AI side but yeah I think there's very much a new generation
[00:33:42] here that's yep so it's a it's a kind of an interesting place to be and I think you're right about
[00:33:49] it the the interesting thing they just was going through my mind you know I'm going to make
[00:33:54] a broad statement that's maybe a little too broad but you know sometimes you look at your
[00:34:00] some of your legacy technology right and I'll just use ERP's the simplest one right is
[00:34:06] it's not that it's set it and forget it right you've got your IT teams are managing there's
[00:34:10] updates or patches whatever it might be um if you've got a CRM or customer intelligence solution
[00:34:16] you're always working in the updates with that but e-commerce is super dynamic right it's changing
[00:34:23] constantly buyers are adjusting there's new tools that are coming into it it seems like
[00:34:29] e-commerce specifically in the technology side of it and then maintaining you know all of the
[00:34:35] connections and so forth might be a little bit more challenging for folks who are used to having
[00:34:39] kind of a set it and forget it and you know we have the same ERP system we've had for you know 14
[00:34:46] years or whatever it might be yeah I mean and when you went to the show the e-commerce show a
[00:34:52] cup like I suppose last month who month before come on you see yeah are you seen where you
[00:34:58] seen titles of like a chief buying officer or a chief you know commerce officer thing
[00:35:04] things like that and all are seeing that in some other industries where it's it's a full time
[00:35:10] strategic role it's not even an IT role it's a full-time strategic role on that buyer experience
[00:35:16] I think what we see that's a great question Tom I think what we see a lot of is
[00:35:20] and I've seen this I've been in a event three years in a row now and in fact interesting enough
[00:35:28] them this particular e-commerce event that affiliated distributors posted it was the first very
[00:35:34] first event I went to it wasn't even post-COVID I was actually kind of uncomfortable even going to an event
[00:35:42] yet you know we had the different colored landyards based upon you know with could somebody you know
[00:35:47] keep their distance was red and all these difference what you were you know the landyards of
[00:35:52] what you were willing to for your bat land your bat a batch landyards for what you were willing to
[00:35:57] engage with people but what I've seen the changes you'll see in a lot more of a director level
[00:36:07] you come director and so forth digital experience and it's been so much of that a digital
[00:36:12] director and then there are a handful in fact trying to get him to come join us on the show
[00:36:18] sometimes soon is at to go to supply you know massive HVAC plumbing electrical distributor in the
[00:36:27] north central part of the country and their president CEO has been on this show with us before
[00:36:33] and they've recently hired a chief digital officer where all of those things kind of fall underneath
[00:36:39] and I think that's in this again this is just one guy's thoughts but um that's what I think will
[00:36:45] probably see more of is a chief digital officer that's going to be responsible for e-commerce AI
[00:36:52] and what I'm seeing is that digital term it starts falling into where we fit because of the AI tools
[00:37:01] and so forth built into leads more channel cloud our our product is it we're fitting more into
[00:37:07] that world than maybe an IT world um I know what some of these companies are doing is they've got you
[00:37:13] know a chief digital officer and chief information officer as well or CTO and you know
[00:37:21] CDO in that setting so I think that's kind of where we're headed but to your question is I've only seen it
[00:37:27] where somebody has the C level position a couple of times okay yeah no I think I mean that way
[00:37:35] I mean there's you know IT right his historically been very technology focused
[00:37:40] sure and technology being you know transactional right we have systems that do a transactions
[00:37:47] when you start looking at your technology solution from the eye of the buyer first or your partner
[00:37:54] or whatever whoever your your your stakeholder goes way beyond an internal employee right a lot of
[00:38:00] IT was all built around building systems for internal employees but now if you look beyond the
[00:38:05] instruction figure right customer facing partner facing all of that which is what this is happening right
[00:38:11] as the technology the the driver of the technology is outside of your organization versus inside
[00:38:18] your organization exactly having that strategic view from the buyer perspective is I think essential
[00:38:24] because an IT person and generally isn't going to have that same depth of understanding of the
[00:38:31] buyer there are more understanding the technology not the buyer and the user themselves so I think it's
[00:38:36] kind of be a very important role well those are good points Tom you know and I think before we jump
[00:38:41] ahead on that it's good to discuss right and you brought this you talk about this a lot in your book
[00:38:47] that you wrote in the revenue zone and and we talked we've talked about it forever and you know
[00:38:52] in the conversations we have with customers we talk about this all the time right is is the buyer is
[00:38:58] changing right every day what's the most recent percentage you've seen a BTV buyers being millennials
[00:39:05] a big 60 60 60 60 yeah 60% yeah and so that's just going to keep changing right so guys like us
[00:39:14] you know we're approaching I guess we're approaching and we're not there but approaching those ages
[00:39:19] and people are starting to retire and we've got younger people coming they're expecting a different
[00:39:25] experience I'll quote our friend Ian Heller from Distribution Strategy Group that was on the show
[00:39:31] as well back he said and I absolutely love this phrase right wholesale distribution needs to meet the
[00:39:39] buyer where the buyer wants to buy and it's irrelevant what you think or what you want right you need
[00:39:47] to meet the buyer where the buyer wants to buy and what the buyer is now doing is saying
[00:39:51] I want a different experience I say this all the time right that you know you're I am holding
[00:39:57] up my cell phone right that that buyer be to be buyer is coming up through the ranks in at the
[00:40:04] auto planter at the construction company or whatever it might be that guy probably took his girlfriend
[00:40:12] to out to dinner or to a concert in an Uber the night before and could have ordered door-dash
[00:40:18] delivered to the office from his phone that says has experience is different so we need to meet them
[00:40:24] in that place uh and what wholesale distribution is going to have to catch up with and frankly
[00:40:29] is I'll suggest this as well with manufacturers what manufacturers have to be thinking is what's
[00:40:34] the digital experience that distributors want right uh with them as well and so you start putting
[00:40:41] those two pieces together as we've got to keep expanding making these things seamless and frictionless
[00:40:47] for these buyers because what we see the most of right now and you know this is back to
[00:40:54] to the folks get distribution strategy you can browse listed in one of their podcasts the other day
[00:40:59] and you know they were talking about attribution and you know because a lot of people will
[00:41:05] comment about well you know i'm trying to figure out exactly how many purchase orders were placed
[00:41:11] you know online and that's not appropriate attribution for your digital journey right or your
[00:41:18] digital options that you share with your customers right what you really want to be looking at
[00:41:23] is thinking about you know even surveying customers in this setting is with the idea that says hey
[00:41:28] you know what when you purchase from us what role does our website play and and what most people will
[00:41:36] find is that you know the vast majority of people are starting to say i did research on your website
[00:41:41] or maybe i built my order and so forth and I think where we're going to migrate out of right
[00:41:45] now is what people are seeing is people are building orders online and saying go ahead and ship this
[00:41:51] to me or my guys are going to go pick it up but that digital transition to e-commerce being much
[00:41:58] deeper of what the people are literally ready to click the buy button at that b2b buyer is going
[00:42:05] to continue to expand yep and just i guess to kind of wrap up right what we just said here 80
[00:42:10] percent of buyers are willing to switch suppliers if they offer a better experience so
[00:42:17] you may have discounts you may already have pre-existing you know peos and things
[00:42:22] and contracts with the buyer but yet what it's saying here is regardless of that if you're
[00:42:26] experience is not great i'm still willing to look this way so anyway let's let's jump yeah we
[00:42:33] got still got a few more. Yeah it was kind of ties into that second article right about state electric
[00:42:37] and uh and their digital commerce article that we've got in there great folks there you know the kind
[00:42:43] of ties right in right with they're really working on doing is you know keeping up with what the buyers
[00:42:49] the last thing i'll make the comment on this is Ryan Ramsby that from state uh and there's
[00:42:55] great folks over there have had number conversations with them you know he made a comment about
[00:42:59] their internal structure as well is that they had a struggle with sales people being uncomfortable
[00:43:06] it's stuff being available online and am I going to get commissions and this internal adoption
[00:43:11] and has it in c.m. amongst some of the stakeholders so i think you know that goes ties back to
[00:43:16] how we message in general to our people what is all this mean so yeah good points there okay let's
[00:43:22] go ahead do uh technology cybersecurity and AI yeah hey can I tell you real quick um way off base here but
[00:43:32] you know just as it hit me with as we as i look at the newsletter here which i'm at cyber and
[00:43:37] technology and AI in the segment of the newsletter and and yesterday i saw uh only for the second time
[00:43:44] i saw a Tesla cyber truck you see any of those on the road yet i have not no no kind of there ugly
[00:43:53] i don't know why somebody would spend that kind of money but other than the look cool but yeah i've
[00:43:57] seen two of them now in the last 10 days uh i haven't seen them yeah so anyways that just caught me
[00:44:04] cyber trucks ugly my my book got my mine record now so all right so hey but it's an important
[00:44:10] thing's stressburg uh Austria i'm sorry stressburg frames um is uh right on the the border of
[00:44:19] the black forest with Germany is um big meeting this week the uh european unions group that was
[00:44:28] working on artificial intelligence rules have met they've got a provisional agreement in place
[00:44:35] that looks like it is going to become legislation within the EU starting very quickly
[00:44:41] what are your takes on that is our resident AI expert good morning Brandon just joined us as
[00:44:46] well thanks for having me with this Brandon not not to worry that you're late because
[00:44:51] because of my LinkedIn ineptitude um i think we're late because of the times on so i'm glad you found us
[00:44:58] so nine and forty four Pacific time so we're happy that anybody knows this yeah that's right but um
[00:45:06] i haven't read all the details of this you know i know it's based on what they did before or what
[00:45:10] some of the things that they had done before so i assume it's going to be
[00:45:15] not radically different than you know more details or whatever i still say the same thing that i said
[00:45:21] before um i think it's hard to legislate something that is so rapidly changing a lot of this
[00:45:28] focus is on the building large models but if you look at where a lot of the model building is going
[00:45:36] is open source and i don't know how you regulate open source because you're not really
[00:45:44] it's it's not there's not like you know one neck to choke so to speak it's like how do you
[00:45:49] actually you know manage and do some of these things so i think there's a lot of
[00:45:54] first why i think it's good i think it's good to get some guidelines down on paper i think
[00:45:59] it's good that we're looking at it i don't know practically from a from a rule or a lot
[00:46:06] perspective how practical this is going to be or even enforceable so that we're going to have to
[00:46:12] see but the time i've said this before i just don't things are changing so quickly and it's
[00:46:17] i'm in the technology changing it's just if you look at the in the beginning you know when open a i and
[00:46:23] chat GPT came out right it was one big model and it was owned by open a i and you have models that are owned by google
[00:46:29] and there's actually a lot of conversation even with open a i and a lot of push to make what they're doing open source
[00:46:35] so there's a lot of things happening in the dynamics here that i'm not sure are going to reflect in
[00:46:41] these legislations but i guess i think it's a good start
[00:46:44] we're good so i've got a take on this as well i'm very happy to see this you know i i think there's
[00:46:52] a you hear sometimes the phrase it says we're in the you know the wild west of AI right and what
[00:47:01] was needed during the wild west you need it a sheriff and i think what this does is just as
[00:47:08] a nice job of laying some groundwork i would argue for one second what you're saying about all these
[00:47:13] eight open source pieces and so forth what they're doing here though is they're saying hey you know what
[00:47:19] if you're chat GPT and you choose to make this open source you are accountable for this and so i think
[00:47:26] what they're really trying to do is put some level of accountability and this is really not
[00:47:31] stifling i think what's what's interesting might take on it is you know and i've watched this
[00:47:36] read a lot of this says as this came together it's they put something fairly rock solid and we talked
[00:47:41] about this in number months ago and they were you know first kind of gave the outline of what
[00:47:46] this was going to look like um and then we came out with this you know i think it was actually
[00:47:52] even the week before uh outcomes uh i'm just going to call it milk toast uh what did it what was
[00:47:59] what what did the White House come out with a presidential guidance or yeah i was also something
[00:48:03] I don't remember but i know i could no teeth behind it really other than i mean you you could still
[00:48:09] and i've always looked at i'm going to go back to my days and you know safety equipment sale
[00:48:14] right you know uh if you have any type of guidance out there that is an industry standard
[00:48:19] you better be ready to defend yourself against that if you get to court doesn't matter if it's a
[00:48:24] law or not um but i think what they're trying to do here in the the EU is really set some guidelines
[00:48:30] and as they talk about it you know here is that by the way uh 523 EU lawmakers voted in favor of
[00:48:39] this and only 46 were against it right so what they're talking about is um you'll real time
[00:48:47] biometrics surveillance how those things are being used uh certain specific crimes they're trying to
[00:48:53] prevent uh genuine threats such as terror attacks um and how these pieces are used out there but i
[00:49:00] think what we're seeing is and i i believe and we will see if this proves out or not i think we're
[00:49:05] going to see in the this article that we posted here references that there's you know this is probably
[00:49:11] now the baseline moving forward for other nations to follow but but i think what this does is if
[00:49:19] i mean if i think of the first thing came to my mind is i was looking at this article was
[00:49:23] you know what does this mean to leave some more technology so right we're the two co-founders
[00:49:27] of a technology company that use AI um but i think what this does is it draws kind of a line in
[00:49:33] the sand that says okay you know what to your point about open source and what does all this mean is
[00:49:40] they're shifting that responsibility that says we're putting a line in the sand of some expectations
[00:49:46] and now you as an industry that's developing all of this technology you should be taking that into
[00:49:51] account in your development right and it's as simple as having a you know an antsy standard for
[00:49:59] a piece of safety equipment or a uh a nia standard for health care or whatever it might be there
[00:50:05] is something that when we're developing technology to we're trying to stay within those bounds
[00:50:11] and maybe those boundaries change but i think it's probably good to have some boundaries in place
[00:50:15] well i got so i think it's good i don't have any issue with the taking the thing on there it'll
[00:50:20] be interesting to see the practicality of it and especially when you go from to something that's
[00:50:26] actually law right how you abide with those practicalities and so forth so yeah um i guess i
[00:50:33] haven't dug into all the details of it but the first glance that was my my thoughts i certainly
[00:50:37] agree that having something there is is a good thing to have some guidelines some some
[00:50:42] strides so the interesting thing the interesting thing is this is turn out messing around right
[00:50:47] it finds on this red we go from seven and a half million euros on the low end to one and a half
[00:50:53] times your annual turnover of your company or seven percent of global turnover uh crazy yeah oh no
[00:51:04] you don't want to be you don't want to be met or Google and get sideways on this no right so that's
[00:51:11] it'll be interesting but to see my assumption is we're going to see probably fairly quickly um
[00:51:17] you know other other nations follow and then probably some more teeth behind what we see here in the
[00:51:23] US so yeah and again i guess i haven't read it but generally when you get these large legislations
[00:51:29] so a lot of times the large incumbents have influenced it and at a lot of times or it is in
[00:51:36] their favor the Google's the Facebook's those types of people like i said i don't know i haven't
[00:51:40] dug into enough to see but a lot of times they have a lot of influence on what's put in there and
[00:51:47] sometimes in it it affects more the little guys than than the big guys when you get these big
[00:51:51] legislation that's better there yep so absolutely absolutely all right we can kind of slide on here
[00:51:57] you know before we jump ahead too far then too fast the time just i need to do my typical midway
[00:52:03] reminder and we're coming down to the end of the show but if you're listening to us uh on our podcast
[00:52:08] Amazon or pods uh Spotify Apple Podcasts wherever it might be we're here each week at 90
[00:52:16] I'm Pacific time Tom Burton and Kevin Brown we review a new letter that we send out every week
[00:52:23] all around the horn and wholesale distribution and manufacturing if you don't get that newsletter
[00:52:27] and you would like to two simple ways to get that go to our website for the podcast which is called
[00:52:33] www.aroundthehorn pod.com around the horn pod.com or a simple email at helloatleadsmarttech.com
[00:52:42] we'll get you that newsletter out it gets out to about 8000 people each week now and we have that list
[00:52:48] growing every week and so it's a real positive thing out there so if you'd like it let us know
[00:52:54] but you're not seeing the screen that we're showing these articles on and we have different segments
[00:52:58] this takes this kind of into the segment here about uh our sales and m&a segment we just posted one
[00:53:04] article there this week about imperial date which is a large janitorial supply and mros supply company
[00:53:12] having done an acquisition this week of another large maintenance supply company in New York City
[00:53:17] we try and kind of keep up on those the m&a activities we share those both here in this particular
[00:53:22] segment and also in our industry scottled about segments so good good for the folks at imperial date
[00:53:28] if we jump time into our people and leadership segments which is new work to the newsletter we just added
[00:53:33] that in in the middle of January it's kind of a good article here about it says one for all an
[00:53:40] all for one about loss and products who's a large industrial distributor Chicago based company
[00:53:46] and there's a good article there with their chief of HR and talking about really trying to get
[00:53:52] the solid message around the entire company about what they do what they bring to their customers
[00:53:59] and really get an understanding of the business and I see this so often you know or throughout
[00:54:05] my career is you know and even in my travels recently I've kind of seen this with some
[00:54:11] of the groups that I've met with is you know you've got a group over here whether it's IT or it's HR
[00:54:17] or it's whoever it might be they don't understand the full impact of their company necessarily
[00:54:24] or they don't understand all aspects of their company even what some of their other departments do
[00:54:30] and they just said this was a nice thing about the work that you know in loss and has nine hundred
[00:54:35] sales reps about trying to bring all aspects of the company together so everybody's behind it
[00:54:41] and yes telling you mentioning this to you and some of our team a while back is what some
[00:54:46] one of the things I want to start doing is we bring new hires into our company it leads more
[00:54:50] technologies is everything that we do is about supporting manufacturers and wholesale distributors
[00:54:57] so you start working with us you're going to go out and probably spend a day in a truck
[00:55:03] with a building material salesman or a pipe valve and fitting salesman and really see
[00:55:08] right what they're doing and how they how they use our products so I really enjoyed that article
[00:55:14] about the what loss and products is doing so good on your loss and whatever has got one that
[00:55:19] does take one real quick thing on that is that we I see this and dealing with our customers is
[00:55:26] every day I think I'm seeing that our customers are looking to have a much better
[00:55:31] not just the understanding of the products they sell or who their customers are but
[00:55:35] what are the customers behavior what are they buying what are they not buying what could they
[00:55:40] be buying and not just so much on how do I sell more but how do I again goes back to experience right
[00:55:46] how do I provide a better experience how do I provide better service so really getting that depth
[00:55:52] of understanding is I'm seeing you know companies having more more attention on that all the time
[00:55:58] yeah great great point totally agree with that what's going to jump into our industry
[00:56:02] scout about section we do each week um three m with a new CEO coming in which is uh was good news
[00:56:09] according to stock market and so that was kind of interesting to see new gentleman there bill brown must
[00:56:17] be solid with a name like that must name a brown but 7% jump in their stock on the day that it
[00:56:22] was announced pretty solid and he's not an industry insider he's a technology guy that's coming
[00:56:28] into to run this organization so it's kind of interesting to see this external person come in we've
[00:56:35] got a regular group of people from three m that join us on the show each week and we see them
[00:56:42] it shows an events and good company has had some some challenges from some tough lawsuits
[00:56:49] in the last year or so but uh good to see that and obviously it was very encouraging to Wall Street
[00:56:56] to see the new CEO coming in. Good quick update there regarding sonopar another uh French large
[00:57:05] French distributor with some very significant growth in their income so that good to see them
[00:57:11] 13 acquisitions last year wait there is no shortage of cash out there to do acquisitions is there
[00:57:19] no even with a higher interest rates and some of that the private equity and uh m and m
[00:57:25] markets still seems to be quite robust yep that's interesting and then the last part of our
[00:57:30] industry scuttle but this week last week as our guest we had the CEO of ARG industrial uh Mike
[00:57:37] Mortensen was with us for pre-shaving Mike with us Mike actually announced this news piece that
[00:57:42] we have on last week's show but they're marketing managers sent me the press release and so
[00:57:48] we we threw it in there as well that ARG just opened their 13th branch and I know so good for them
[00:57:54] there specific northwest and Alaska good solid people they're so appreciative of them and
[00:57:59] congratulations to them on that as well so last uh last and certainly not least is an article
[00:58:07] that was written its public was published uh distribution strategy groups website by our friend Brian Hopkins
[00:58:14] Brian's with us most weeks find gentleman and he wrote a great article about how to redefine
[00:58:21] leadership for a customer obsessed air era era did you get a chance to look to that very closely
[00:58:28] he'd be some really good points no I didn't and so what were some of the key highlights just
[00:58:32] real quick well you know he he his focus was on you know leadership taking a focus on commitment
[00:58:40] to being customer centric in organizations and I think you know what we've seen over the years
[00:58:45] over and over again is it's we do business this way right and we've done it this way for 75 years
[00:58:54] or whatever it might be and I think what comes out of that is uh sometimes a mindset that needs to
[00:59:00] be changes we you know we spend so much time earlier today we talk about it all the time
[00:59:04] about changing buyers is that we need to move out of that area and that mindset and we can talk
[00:59:11] about it right and Brian mentions this in here as well you know we can we can talk about that
[00:59:16] but what are we really doing it right so about changing that focus within our organization
[00:59:22] so move throughout the organization and it's not just with you know you used to turn we were
[00:59:27] we did our yearly revealing in January for our company and you were we were looking at our
[00:59:34] core values uh as an EOS operating company we need to stick really close with that we look at
[00:59:39] those every year and you had made a comment about wanting to make sure that nothing in our core
[00:59:44] values was a platitude right or just it's nice that would look nice up on the wall or you know
[00:59:49] our mission statement or whatever it is it's so so often doesn't go through an organization
[00:59:54] and there was a lot of that type of discussion and so you know he was talking about you made a
[00:59:59] couple of key points about executives you know visiting your locations uh seeing how customer experiences
[01:00:06] first hint both for your customer and for your employees and uh just talking about town halls
[01:00:14] talking about shadow a customer where leaders and team members spend a day working with customers going
[01:00:19] out and visiting with them more and getting into it all layers the organization he is a good
[01:00:23] example um from uh Brian's a former Ranger executive and uh very strong background experience he just
[01:00:30] joined a DSG and and I'd consider Brian a friend uh but he uses an example of when Granger
[01:00:39] instituted in the early 2000s I remember because I was at Granger probably monthly then as a vendor
[01:00:45] at their corporate headquarters of when they implemented their SAP program and uh when they shifted
[01:00:51] into the SAP is their ERP program and it was it was hard and I remember back there and seeing you know
[01:00:59] more call more rooms I guess of you know 50 75 people that were in there trying to sort
[01:01:04] through this stuff but he talked about uh at the time the Granger's present Mike Pulick met Mike a few
[01:01:10] different times and about him going out to branches and seeing how it was impacting people there
[01:01:15] so we tend to sometimes get wrapped up in the idea of you know this is how we do things and what we
[01:01:22] need to be thinking about is this is how our customer wants to do. So everything we've talked about
[01:01:27] today right it's a good way to put up on some of the things where so yeah I will definitely take
[01:01:31] a closer look at that. Yeah that was in our good read segment and it's a good read so
[01:01:38] very good so uh appreciate Brandon's comment their leadership behavior is so important
[01:01:44] what they do is more impactful than just what they say and Brandon you're the father of five right
[01:01:50] think that's right good friend of our company in the show and and we do some good work together
[01:01:57] and that's something I told specifically my youngest is growing up in I have three steps
[01:02:03] and says you know and and I've said forever as you know watch what I do and what others do
[01:02:10] more than what they say and I think that's a great thought to leave our show on today Brandon
[01:02:16] you can drop the mic for us on that because watch what they do so good stuff okay.
[01:02:24] Thanks everybody appreciate sorry for I apologize for our LinkedIn time zone issue we will
[01:02:31] definitely correct that for future weeks so that we don't get canceled by LinkedIn at the last minute
[01:02:36] so yeah yep good news well we've got the recording those you listed on the podcast thank you
[01:02:41] those with live I think we still have a lot more people we might have thought with us live today
[01:02:46] our recordings live recordings are there and the leads more technologies page on YouTube Facebook
[01:02:53] and LinkedIn if you're on any one of those hit the like the follow and the subscribe button
[01:03:00] would be very beneficial to us get this message out to more people and if you're listening
[01:03:05] on the podcast we thank you for coming on a regular basis if you're not subscribed to the podcast
[01:03:10] please do so and the best thing you could do to help others get the access to this information
[01:03:15] would be by leading a review as well and we're appreciative of that so on that note Tom Burton
[01:03:22] Kevin Brown go found his leads more technologies wishing you a great weekend be kind
[01:03:30] enjoy be safe do good things I've got a weekend thanks everyone
[01:03:35] we hope you enjoyed today's episode and our guests each week we try our best to dig into the
[01:03:45] topics that are impacting your business so please reach out to us and let us know how you think
[01:03:51] we can make the show better or topics you'd like for us to tackle or talk about more often
[01:03:55] and even guests you'd like to see join us we're looking forward to bringing you next week's session
[01:04:00] and hope that until then you stay safe stay focused and do great things if you haven't already
[01:04:07] please subscribe to the podcast and leave a review to help others in wholesale distribution
[01:04:12] get access to the conversation and finally please check out our sponsor leads smart technologies
[01:04:18] and they're manufacturing and wholesale distribution industry CRM customer intelligence and
[01:04:24] channel collaboration platform that's leads smart technologies at leadsmarttech.com

