How AI Will Impact B2B Customer Experience and Manufacturing Alike

[00:00:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Pink shirt, dancing, man.

[00:01:00] [SPEAKER_01]: I can't explain drums today.

[00:01:02] [SPEAKER_00]: A drum, drums, I think, right?

[00:01:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Alright, okay.

[00:01:06] [SPEAKER_01]: My wife said it's not pink, she didn't tell me what color it is, but I'm going with pink along with you.

[00:01:10] [SPEAKER_01]: I agree.

[00:01:11] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think you could call that anything other than pink, at least from what I can see.

[00:01:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Alright, well, you know what?

[00:01:18] [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's cool.

[00:01:19] [SPEAKER_01]: No offense, but I have to go with what Mrs. Brown says.

[00:01:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, sorry, my friend.

[00:01:26] [SPEAKER_01]: To it okay.

[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Very good.

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_01]: Another week on bite, I don't know what's happening, it's like we're approaching the end of summer and it feels

[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_01]: like it was just the beginning of the year.

[00:01:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, I know.

[00:01:37] [SPEAKER_01]: It's overwhelming.

[00:01:38] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm guessing other people are feeling that way as well, but that is the nature of the beast these days, right?

[00:01:46] [SPEAKER_01]: So that's the structure we hit sometimes.

[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Let's get ready to dive in.

[00:01:52] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Kevin Brown.

[00:01:52] [SPEAKER_01]: This is my lifelong friend at Business Partner Tom Burton.

[00:01:56] [SPEAKER_01]: We get together every Friday morning here on LinkedIn Live, YouTube Live, Facebook Live,

[00:02:02] [SPEAKER_01]: and then later in the day on all the popular podcast formats.

[00:02:06] [SPEAKER_01]: What we do each week is we review the around the horn and wholesale distribution and manufacturing newsletter,

[00:02:11] [SPEAKER_01]: that's a newsletter that we put together, it goes out to, I think we're close to 11,000 people now, Tom, we're getting that.

[00:02:20] [SPEAKER_01]: And we try and compile the news of the week in things like the economy and supply chain, mergers and acquisition, sales and marketing, AI technology, cyber security,

[00:02:30] [SPEAKER_01]: all of the things that impact wholesale distribution and manufacturing.

[00:02:34] [SPEAKER_01]: What we try and do is unpack those articles a little bit, kind of reference what they mean and what they mean to wholesale distribution and manufacturing.

[00:02:42] [SPEAKER_01]: So if you're with us live, let us know would be great to just sub-bob written payments given us a little low high this morning.

[00:02:49] [SPEAKER_01]: I could go change my shirt real quick and follow the Aloha theme and let us know where you're at that you're with us.

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_01]: If you are, are though, listening on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Odyssey, whatever it might be.

[00:03:04] [SPEAKER_01]: If you're listening there later in the day, just remember that what you're hearing is our discussion,

[00:03:11] [SPEAKER_01]: but what the people that are live with us are seeing is the newsletter that we publish each week.

[00:03:16] [SPEAKER_01]: If you don't get that newsletter and you would like to get it, there's two simple ways.

[00:03:19] [SPEAKER_01]: You could email us at helloatleadsmarktech.com or go to the website for our podcast, which is www.aroundthehornpod.com

[00:03:31] [SPEAKER_01]: and you can see past episodes there, you can subscribe there and get the newsletter as well.

[00:03:36] [SPEAKER_01]: We'd love to send that out to you.

[00:03:38] [SPEAKER_01]: So that's just a quick reminder if you're listening on the podcast, you won't see that.

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_01]: So we do this each week, we have guests oftentimes and we have the same discussion,

[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_01]: but there's a couple things I have left to do. First, if you like what you hear today or have you been with us before, do us a favor,

[00:03:54] [SPEAKER_01]: hit the follow button on Facebook or LinkedIn Live wherever you might be listening and or if you're with YouTube,

[00:04:03] [SPEAKER_01]: following us there, subscribe.

[00:04:05] [SPEAKER_01]: And so you'll get the alerts when we go live, that'll get us out to other people.

[00:04:08] [SPEAKER_01]: If you're listening on the podcast, please leave us a review and subscribe as well,

[00:04:12] [SPEAKER_01]: and that'll help get that message out to others.

[00:04:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Lastly, in closing, we can't do this each week because of the costs that go with this without the sponsorship,

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_01]: sponsored each week by Leedsmark Technologies, which is the company that Tom and I both work for.

[00:04:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Leedsmark Technologies has developed a customer intelligence and CRM solution that's AI enabled

[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_01]: that helps wholesale distributions and manufacturers get deep insights into their customers,

[00:04:36] [SPEAKER_01]: their teams and their overall business to accelerate growth.

[00:04:40] [SPEAKER_01]: So that's where we sit today, Tom, ready to get rolling?

[00:04:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Let's do it.

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_01]: You got a smile on a grin on your face there, what's going on behind the scenes?

[00:04:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, Beth, just thinking about some of the stuff we're going to be talking about.

[00:04:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, I don't buy it anyways.

[00:04:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Good morning, Brian Hopkins as well.

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Did you have you with us after you and for him, I guess?

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Of course, I think is that New York?

[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Charlotte, I believe, is that they call the Queen City of my right brain?

[00:05:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, see, I'm not the only one it was in the right.

[00:05:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:05:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, all right.

[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_00]: So our first trivia today is what is the Queen City?

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's good thing that nobody said San Francisco yet.

[00:05:18] [SPEAKER_01]: So that's true about may happen though.

[00:05:21] [SPEAKER_01]: That could be coming.

[00:05:21] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure Brian will let us know and happy to have him with us as well.

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Today, because Brian is told me a while back he has a standing lunch date on Fridays with his wife.

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_01]: So she must have punted him for the day and he's joining us, which is great.

[00:05:35] [SPEAKER_01]: So, one who get ready and dive in here?

[00:05:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Let's do it.

[00:05:38] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[00:05:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, each week we as we review the newsletter.

[00:05:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Again, if you don't get the newsletter, please let us know.

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_01]: But we have a series of topics that we go through.

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_01]: We start each week with the economy and supply chain.

[00:05:49] [SPEAKER_01]: And part of this has been taken over by a little wager that Tom and I have about interest rates.

[00:05:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Tom, what do you?

[00:05:54] [SPEAKER_01]: What do you think from this CNBC article plus we have another article that we post here from

[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Raiders about just the economy in general of what we saw this week?

[00:06:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Any punted to get you?

[00:06:06] [SPEAKER_00]: What I think is what I told you earlier if you don't like with somebody saying about the economy weight 15 minutes because it's kind of changed.

[00:06:14] [SPEAKER_00]: And I mean, if you look at the sentiment and the just the overall mindset that existed what just a week ago when we were talking about this,

[00:06:25] [SPEAKER_00]: it's like you would have thought six months went by.

[00:06:29] [SPEAKER_00]: So anyway, I mean, I think it's I do agree that there will absolutely be a rate cut in September.

[00:06:36] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think it'll be a half a point.

[00:06:37] [SPEAKER_00]: I think it'll be a quarter point unless there's some drastic something drastic that happens in the next 30 days but aside from any sort of something drastic and then after that who knows right who knows.

[00:06:51] Yeah.

[00:06:52] [SPEAKER_01]: You know, this triggered a question for me.

[00:06:57] [SPEAKER_01]: And you follow you've always been more of a stock trader and following the markets closer than I do.

[00:07:04] [SPEAKER_01]: You know, we talk a lot Tom about a computer generated trainer, auto trading and so forth it goes on so much of this but I think what we've seen a lot of and part of this was, you know, the big kind of bloodbath was I guess it would have been two weeks ago today.

[00:07:21] [SPEAKER_01]: And the following Monday, right where the the market just started tanking that all seemed to be not driven by computers.

[00:07:30] [SPEAKER_01]: That was that was driving sentiment by traders in general that was really trying to kind of force the hand I think at least a little bit of of the of the Fed because I think what came out of that was you know the calls and that's to your point earlier right way 15 minutes was, you know, it'll be two weeks ago Monday and and early.

[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_01]: And then we're going to be the next week, but you know there was people literally, you know well known economists and traders and hedge funds and so forth that we're calling for an emergency fed me.

[00:08:02] [SPEAKER_01]: And now there's this kind of balancing act going on as we'll talk about with these articles, but do any thoughts, you know from your end on the difference between automated trading that's going on and then maybe some of the pressure that's getting put on the fed by by the markets that's probably not done that way.

[00:08:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, the the drop that happened whatever two weeks ago.

[00:08:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I was definitely driven by the algorithms and the computerized training trading mainly because of the Japanese.

[00:08:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Interest rating.

[00:08:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And that whole carry trade the whole Japanese carry trade right that a lot of companies have a lot of hedge funds and a lot of computer based training to trading platforms.

[00:08:44] [SPEAKER_00]: And then it all starts on wine anyway that's a whole another yeah if you remember I did I did work for a quant hedge fund and if you're got about thing you were so many places.

[00:08:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I have some experience with this but we can talk about that more another another time but the.

[00:09:01] [SPEAKER_00]: What happened was is that it dropped really quickly because of the Japanese piece I don't remember what the timing was of the job I think the job thing was the right the Friday before.

[00:09:12] [SPEAKER_01]: The job thing was on Friday that started some movement and then the the.

[00:09:18] [SPEAKER_00]: The end trade piece was was over a weekend I believe right so the two that's it were not necessarily correlated but they just happened to be happening at the.

[00:09:26] [SPEAKER_01]: So, let's quick pause on things for a minute what we're talking about with that the end trade piece.

[00:09:31] [SPEAKER_01]: I've got this correctly basically is in Japan they've had zero interest rates forever.

[00:09:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Foreign investors are coming in their borrowing money in Japan at zero interest they're moving that out they're moving it into other funds.

[00:09:45] [SPEAKER_01]: They're taking profits from those funds paying down those loans and they're going through the cycle and it's basically I'll go to Japan to get my free money lots of that has happened super super dangerous if you caught with your pants down.

[00:09:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Which is just what happened is all of a sudden the central bank in Japan raised interest rates in and actually be had an interest rate and all these folks started paying.

[00:10:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, and they back down right Japan actually was going to continue to raise and they backed out and they said, well I can't we can't do this.

[00:10:14] [SPEAKER_00]: What what happened was.

[00:10:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Right is a huge default risk came quickly right.

[00:10:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, what happens is right is that the the the so basically right so people are borrowing money in the end at zero percent.

[00:10:30] [SPEAKER_00]: And a lot of people just invent a lot of these traders are just putting it in T-bills or you know taking it and putting it.

[00:10:35] [SPEAKER_00]: The challenge of the problem is is they're leveraged on top of that so they leverage the leverage.

[00:10:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes 10 times 15 times or more so now you have this huge amount of leverage so even a quarter point increase in the interest rate can cause a trigger a whole major unwinding.

[00:10:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, some of the margins and everything that are there that's what happened then jab japan stepped in and said well well well yes, sorry we won't do this anymore whatever we're not going to and then everybody kind of okay recovered and everything sort of went back the other way on the mean time.

[00:11:08] [SPEAKER_00]: You know I think I even said this on the call or on the last week is yeah there was a missed if you want to call it in the job thing but it certainly didn't look like it was the end of the world.

[00:11:17] [SPEAKER_00]: That was there and then you start to see other data that goes away to minute maybe we were re-acted and so I think there's a number of things that occurred along the way and yes a lot of overreaction along the way so.

[00:11:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Good so back back to the articles that we're talking about here and what's what's really happening so you're take on yeah the the bets are locked in.

[00:11:44] [SPEAKER_01]: For the interest rate cuts, what do you actually see happening.

[00:11:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I guess that I see September for sure.

[00:11:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay quarter point quarter point and then I don't I don't I think there's only two more meetings after that.

[00:11:56] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think there's three there's October and December and I think if the economy stays strong.

[00:12:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Like it's showing that it's been or there's not like a major drop in the job market I think the job market will be the kind of the the driver on this if that stays reasonably strong and I think I have a 50 50 chance of winning.

[00:12:19] [SPEAKER_00]: I think if the job markets continues to show weakness and yeah we'll definitely get another cut and I'll be paying a few mistakes so I don't feel good about my I don't feel good about my position but I'm not ready to throw in the tell you.

[00:12:34] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm glad this this enthusiasm and optimism you have that's so unrealistic is not carried over into business and you're just thinking about it on when steak's at risk here.

[00:12:48] [SPEAKER_00]: I have to have to have delusion somewhere.

[00:12:53] [SPEAKER_01]: The delusional is this is the perfect for the timeline between opta and delusion you right I'm going to stick with I think we're going to see.

[00:13:03] [SPEAKER_01]: And this is what I hope and I hope I think it's a little bit that I know I think it's the right move is we're going to do a quarter point three times potentially this year for sure twice but I think they want to get closer to one.

[00:13:18] [SPEAKER_01]: A full percentage versus a half a percentage and they want they'll be cautious how they do it now that statement ties exactly to how you started to show.

[00:13:28] [SPEAKER_01]: Wait 15 minutes wait 15 seconds because that you know could change based but what I mean what we're seeing in the last two weeks I would think that what they're probably thinking about is.

[00:13:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Quarter quarter and then let's see what happens in the last meeting of the year right and do we maybe do we just do another quarter with something in the for knowing that they could do a half a point in the first quarter next year.

[00:13:55] [SPEAKER_01]: So we'll see we'll see where we end up but a couple of good articles there one from CNBC that we published today and two from Reuters and the interesting thing is my last point on that is the the Reuters article was about more fat officials line up behind September 8 and the two that they reference in there had been very very.

[00:14:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Really bearish on on doing any cut necessarily any cuts this year so they're they're both looking at this but I think they're referencing quarter point cuts to so you know I've been it's just so funny with the.

[00:14:30] [SPEAKER_01]: The idea behind what happens this week versus what happens next week so tune in next week for you know the around the horn and interest rates discussion so.

[00:14:41] [SPEAKER_01]: All right as we jump ahead here we're going to talk it this is part of our supply chain and and the economy segment some this is that we posted an article here from.

[00:14:52] [SPEAKER_01]: The distribution publication and it talks about the firmer freight rates on tap for 25 this is US trucking rates and so they talk about in this article.

[00:15:02] [SPEAKER_01]: They use five major indices for this.

[00:15:06] [SPEAKER_01]: The freight volumes freight rates fleet capacity fuel costs and financing costs so this isn't talking about what we talk about typically oftentimes is what's going on in the shipping world and and supply chain issues tied to.

[00:15:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Container rates on ships or the Suez Canal issues or whatever we might be chatting about this about you know over the ground rates tracking rates in the US they.

[00:15:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Look to be having really favorable condition starting at the beginning of the year and by next spring.

[00:15:35] [SPEAKER_01]: A really balancing of that and again here we are a big part of it that they talk about here is tied to interest rates.

[00:15:45] [SPEAKER_01]: So interesting the good news is living here in California it's been probably over a month since I've had to pay five dollars a gallon for gas.

[00:15:56] [SPEAKER_01]: So the old rates seem to be tapering further and I know for those of you who are listening in the well I think for our US listeners that are outside of California they probably choke at paying four dollars even.

[00:16:10] [SPEAKER_01]: But then if we get to their friends in Germany or Italy or other parts of Europe, they're looking at that and saying what a bargain.

[00:16:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah well it's always been a bargain right so compare.

[00:16:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh when you look at what last time I was in Europe I think it was 350 a leader.

[00:16:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah 3333 that's 3353 that's 3355 euros for a leader was a crazy number.

[00:16:34] [SPEAKER_00]: You know there's we didn't include this article but there was an interesting article I read this week where there was a survey done of consumers and

[00:16:43] [SPEAKER_00]: there was a belief a consumer belief that as you hear the inflation rate going down into the 2% that somehow that is going to equate to price cuts.

[00:16:56] [SPEAKER_00]: So in other words, you know the fact that I'm paying whatever I'm paying at the grocery store as the rates come down then my prices are going to drop down.

[00:17:04] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's a big fallacy.

[00:17:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Right and so but if there's a perception that my spending power is going to be increasing.

[00:17:17] [SPEAKER_00]: You're spending power is just decreasing at a lesser rate.

[00:17:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah basically along the way but related to that and then they went one step further and said that the spending power you know in a lot of

[00:17:29] [SPEAKER_00]: there's fuel or certainly in groceries and food probably close to 30% less spending power for groceries and you know essential items 30 between 30 and 50% higher when you talk about eating out compared to where we were just 2 or 3 years ago.

[00:17:48] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean and there is no sign that those prices are going to start deflating even though the interest rates are going down which I just thought was an interesting viewpoint.

[00:17:58] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know I want to bring a Bob's question our gas prices being held artificially low due to being an election year.

[00:18:05] [SPEAKER_00]: It's a good question. I thought about this because gas prices are going to be significantly in the summer and we haven't seen this year.

[00:18:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Summer blend right here in California that's that's our issue right is they changed the additives and so forth the fuel.

[00:18:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Well great great comment on that as long as they stay down I'm good.

[00:18:24] [SPEAKER_01]: But you know I was I was I kicked off.

[00:18:31] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean I think it's eight trips over nine trips over two and a half months earlier this week and was in Denver for an affiliated distributors event it was just a great event but.

[00:18:43] [SPEAKER_01]: You know it's funny I was thinking about it as I was getting ready to head to the airport you were talking about you know costs and.

[00:18:50] [SPEAKER_01]: You know hotel costs and especially when you're at a you know at a conference type hotel or you're not you know near downtown or you could just walk down the street for other meals.

[00:18:59] [SPEAKER_01]: The prices are through the roof in general. But I laughed because I went to I said you know I'm going to eat at the airport in the sit down restaurant at the airport because even airport food is going to be cheaper than the so tell.

[00:19:12] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean true you know it's like yeah yeah, the.

[00:19:17] [SPEAKER_01]: It is, but it was factual when all was said and done.

[00:19:22] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's astounding though.

[00:19:23] [SPEAKER_01]: One of the articles we talked about earlier,

[00:19:25] [SPEAKER_01]: though did relate to the fact that a food cost coming down,

[00:19:29] [SPEAKER_01]: although it was eggs in another commodity had gone up

[00:19:32] [SPEAKER_01]: a little bit over the last month,

[00:19:34] [SPEAKER_01]: but in general, we're starting to see

[00:19:36] [SPEAKER_01]: a little bit of a dip with that.

[00:19:39] [SPEAKER_01]: So I do the grocery store.

[00:19:42] [SPEAKER_01]: I just say I do most of the grocery shopping

[00:19:44] [SPEAKER_01]: in our house.

[00:19:45] [SPEAKER_01]: So I'll, you know, the other party

[00:19:47] [SPEAKER_01]: and this marriage takes care of Amazon,

[00:19:50] [SPEAKER_01]: and I take care of the grocery stores.

[00:19:53] [SPEAKER_01]: So we'll, we'll see if I see anything.

[00:19:55] [SPEAKER_01]: So let's jump ahead time.

[00:19:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Let's get to our manufacturing distribution segment.

[00:20:00] [SPEAKER_01]: There was a segment in here,

[00:20:02] [SPEAKER_01]: came from industrial distribution magazine

[00:20:04] [SPEAKER_01]: and it just talked about applied industrials,

[00:20:06] [SPEAKER_01]: full quarter sales being up

[00:20:07] [SPEAKER_01]: besides, like a fourth quarter in general.

[00:20:10] [SPEAKER_01]: One reason I really included that is again,

[00:20:13] [SPEAKER_01]: the quoting there from one of the executives

[00:20:16] [SPEAKER_01]: at applied was talking about the fact

[00:20:18] [SPEAKER_01]: that they believe industrial activity could remain muted,

[00:20:22] [SPEAKER_01]: near-term as customers awake clarity on interest rates

[00:20:25] [SPEAKER_01]: in the election.

[00:20:27] [SPEAKER_01]: So I think we're gonna probably continue

[00:20:29] [SPEAKER_01]: to see a lot more of this.

[00:20:31] [SPEAKER_01]: I'll just say,

[00:20:32] [SPEAKER_01]: vacillating, simmering kind of up and down a little bit

[00:20:35] [SPEAKER_01]: until the end of the year.

[00:20:37] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the election thing is kind of going

[00:20:39] [SPEAKER_01]: to be an interesting piece too

[00:20:40] [SPEAKER_01]: that we haven't much talked about.

[00:20:43] [SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to spotlight Bob,

[00:20:44] [SPEAKER_00]: I have to say he went to the movies in paid $28 for an icy,

[00:20:49] [SPEAKER_00]: a small popcorn and a medium soda.

[00:20:51] [SPEAKER_00]: I hope it was a good icy.

[00:20:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I hope it was a large, so.

[00:20:55] [SPEAKER_01]: We talked about going to the movies recently

[00:20:57] [SPEAKER_01]: and there's one of the synopolises right by the house

[00:21:00] [SPEAKER_01]: where you can get the fluffy chair and bar service

[00:21:03] [SPEAKER_01]: and we haven't been to that since,

[00:21:05] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think we've been to the movies like that

[00:21:07] [SPEAKER_01]: since pre-pandemic and it was 150 bucks

[00:21:10] [SPEAKER_01]: to go do that, I think pre-pandemic.

[00:21:13] [SPEAKER_01]: I can only imagine what it is now with.

[00:21:15] [SPEAKER_01]: You have a couple cocktails and an appetizer

[00:21:18] [SPEAKER_01]: in a movie and boom.

[00:21:21] [SPEAKER_00]: So, so I just want to go back to this article

[00:21:22] [SPEAKER_00]: that you were talking about.

[00:21:24] [SPEAKER_00]: What was it in there that is causing,

[00:21:27] [SPEAKER_00]: whether it's interest rates in election

[00:21:29] [SPEAKER_00]: that people are,

[00:21:31] [SPEAKER_00]: they're just waiting to see what happens.

[00:21:32] [SPEAKER_00]: They don't wanna make a wrong move.

[00:21:34] [SPEAKER_00]: What is it that's going on?

[00:21:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I think what we're seeing in a,

[00:21:37] [SPEAKER_01]: ties to some of the other,

[00:21:38] [SPEAKER_01]: the next article we're gonna talk about

[00:21:40] [SPEAKER_01]: manufacturing tech orders in just a moment.

[00:21:43] [SPEAKER_01]: I can just prognosticate a little bit on this myself,

[00:21:46] [SPEAKER_01]: but you know, I think what we're starting to see

[00:21:47] [SPEAKER_01]: and talking to some distributors out there

[00:21:49] [SPEAKER_01]: is that their customers aren't pushing big levels

[00:21:53] [SPEAKER_01]: of inventories up

[00:21:54] [SPEAKER_01]: and they're balancing out what they're doing.

[00:21:59] [SPEAKER_01]: They're buying what they need,

[00:22:01] [SPEAKER_01]: but they're not buying any excess,

[00:22:02] [SPEAKER_01]: they're not, and they're being very cautious

[00:22:04] [SPEAKER_01]: while they're waiting and see what happens.

[00:22:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Because if you think about,

[00:22:08] [SPEAKER_01]: if you're talking about a capital expenditure

[00:22:10] [SPEAKER_01]: versus a commodity for a job or a project,

[00:22:12] [SPEAKER_01]: but if you're talking about a capital expenditure,

[00:22:15] [SPEAKER_01]: then you can look at that and say wait a minute,

[00:22:17] [SPEAKER_01]: if my cost of money goes down by a percentage point

[00:22:20] [SPEAKER_01]: by waiting for three months or four months,

[00:22:23] [SPEAKER_01]: it's a big impact when you start talking

[00:22:25] [SPEAKER_01]: about large capital expenditures in that setting.

[00:22:30] [SPEAKER_01]: So I think even when we talk about commodity spending

[00:22:32] [SPEAKER_01]: in this setting that would impact a company

[00:22:35] [SPEAKER_01]: like apply as well here is that people are not necessarily

[00:22:40] [SPEAKER_01]: replenishing in the same amount and so forth.

[00:22:42] [SPEAKER_01]: So I think that's what we're seeing.

[00:22:44] [SPEAKER_01]: And then I think there's a lot of concern too,

[00:22:46] [SPEAKER_01]: and we talked about this a couple weeks ago.

[00:22:47] [SPEAKER_01]: I think it was last week we had an article

[00:22:49] [SPEAKER_01]: that they can't remember who published the article,

[00:22:53] [SPEAKER_01]: but they it interviewed a number of wholesale distributors

[00:22:57] [SPEAKER_01]: across the country.

[00:22:59] [SPEAKER_01]: And it was one of those articles

[00:23:00] [SPEAKER_01]: where you were not unclear on the political bend

[00:23:04] [SPEAKER_01]: of the people that they had in there.

[00:23:07] [SPEAKER_01]: But you know, the concern is in some parts

[00:23:10] [SPEAKER_01]: of the country's specifically in the Southeast

[00:23:11] [SPEAKER_01]: with battery plants and stuff like that

[00:23:14] [SPEAKER_01]: that are being built.

[00:23:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Is it look if you end up with a current administration,

[00:23:20] [SPEAKER_01]: you know, in the Democratic Party continuing

[00:23:22] [SPEAKER_01]: to push through things and wanting to get rid

[00:23:25] [SPEAKER_01]: of internal combustion engines and so forth,

[00:23:27] [SPEAKER_01]: then yeah these projects for all these battery plants

[00:23:30] [SPEAKER_01]: are probably gonna push ahead.

[00:23:31] [SPEAKER_01]: And other stimulus spending is gonna stay there

[00:23:34] [SPEAKER_01]: as they're gonna push dollars in.

[00:23:36] [SPEAKER_01]: You've got the other party who's candidate

[00:23:38] [SPEAKER_01]: is suggesting that maybe there's gonna be some balancing

[00:23:41] [SPEAKER_01]: on these things and maybe some of these other

[00:23:44] [SPEAKER_01]: big projects won't continue.

[00:23:46] [SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, I think you've got some probably

[00:23:48] [SPEAKER_01]: some slowdown in some of the large projects as well.

[00:23:52] [SPEAKER_01]: So I think we've got to wait and see that

[00:23:54] [SPEAKER_01]: I think right now probably are takeaway today

[00:23:56] [SPEAKER_01]: will probably be the election

[00:23:59] [SPEAKER_01]: and interest rates are probably gonna be

[00:24:00] [SPEAKER_01]: to biggest drivers on things in the next say 180 days

[00:24:06] [SPEAKER_01]: probably still of what, because even once we have a result

[00:24:09] [SPEAKER_01]: on what we see the year end is with interest rates,

[00:24:13] [SPEAKER_01]: even let's just say they drop a half point.

[00:24:15] [SPEAKER_01]: It's gonna take a couple of months

[00:24:17] [SPEAKER_01]: of figuring out what that's really gonna do to things.

[00:24:20] [SPEAKER_01]: And then the election, I don't know

[00:24:21] [SPEAKER_01]: that we're gonna see any knee jerk reactions to things.

[00:24:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Well it's an interesting, as I was listening

[00:24:28] [SPEAKER_00]: to you talk about it, right?

[00:24:28] [SPEAKER_00]: It goes back to what we were just talking about

[00:24:30] [SPEAKER_00]: if you don't like when somebody's saying weight 15 minutes.

[00:24:33] [SPEAKER_00]: I think that creates a lot of indecision,

[00:24:36] [SPEAKER_00]: because it's like, well, I don't know.

[00:24:38] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, if I wait 15 minutes, maybe it'll be better.

[00:24:42] [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, or I don't wanna make the wrong decision

[00:24:44] [SPEAKER_00]: or make the wrong choice and it got out.

[00:24:46] [SPEAKER_00]: If I did this now and it turned out

[00:24:48] [SPEAKER_00]: I could have waited a month or whatever.

[00:24:50] [SPEAKER_00]: So it's an interesting, all of this back and forth

[00:24:54] [SPEAKER_00]: sort of noise can definitely create a lot of indecision.

[00:24:58] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I just give you the most simplistic example

[00:25:01] [SPEAKER_01]: of that.

[00:25:01] [SPEAKER_01]: I'll use myself, right?

[00:25:03] [SPEAKER_01]: My car lease is up at the 17th of next month.

[00:25:07] [SPEAKER_01]: I went and kind of looked at the numbers

[00:25:09] [SPEAKER_01]: and buying it out of the lease.

[00:25:11] [SPEAKER_01]: It's worth more than the residual

[00:25:13] [SPEAKER_01]: of the payoff on the leases.

[00:25:15] [SPEAKER_01]: I'd like to get a new car, but you know what?

[00:25:18] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm in the exact same boat because no matter what the rates are,

[00:25:22] [SPEAKER_01]: my payment's gonna go down by buying my car out of my lease

[00:25:25] [SPEAKER_01]: which is the fastest and easiest way to do it.

[00:25:28] [SPEAKER_01]: And then let's see what happens in January

[00:25:31] [SPEAKER_01]: with the December, with the year and deels

[00:25:33] [SPEAKER_01]: and maybe we've had a couple of rate cuts

[00:25:35] [SPEAKER_01]: and I can almost guarantee you

[00:25:36] [SPEAKER_01]: where you're gonna see probably the first big benefit

[00:25:40] [SPEAKER_01]: to any rate cuts is you're gonna get back

[00:25:42] [SPEAKER_01]: to those zero interest loans.

[00:25:45] [SPEAKER_01]: And so for that, the Volkswagen dealership by our house,

[00:25:48] [SPEAKER_01]: just I saw the other day they had on certain models

[00:25:50] [SPEAKER_01]: they have zero interest for 18 months or something like that

[00:25:54] [SPEAKER_01]: so I think that may be the first place we see.

[00:25:57] [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm looking at it from my view

[00:26:00] [SPEAKER_01]: from a consumer standpoint is I'm gonna wait

[00:26:02] [SPEAKER_01]: till the end of the year because it's easy

[00:26:04] [SPEAKER_01]: to sign a document and just keep my car

[00:26:06] [SPEAKER_01]: just do that with a bank, right?

[00:26:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Do it electronically.

[00:26:09] [SPEAKER_01]: And then you know what, if all of a sudden there's great deals

[00:26:13] [SPEAKER_01]: least deals at the end of the year,

[00:26:15] [SPEAKER_01]: I'll make them move then.

[00:26:16] [SPEAKER_01]: If not, I don't have to.

[00:26:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Yep.

[00:26:20] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[00:26:21] [SPEAKER_01]: Jump ahead here.

[00:26:23] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[00:26:24] [SPEAKER_01]: So we can let's bypass time that we posted an article

[00:26:27] [SPEAKER_01]: about manufacturing tech orders growing.

[00:26:30] [SPEAKER_01]: There was some similar discussion in that as well

[00:26:33] [SPEAKER_01]: about interest rates as well.

[00:26:36] [SPEAKER_01]: So while those tech orders manufacturing tech orders grew,

[00:26:39] [SPEAKER_01]: those are that data that comes from the USMTO

[00:26:44] [SPEAKER_01]: which published by the Associates for Manufacturing Technology.

[00:26:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Those are a reasonable parameter to be looking at too.

[00:26:51] [SPEAKER_01]: You know, one of the things that we try and do,

[00:26:53] [SPEAKER_01]: I think we've got some new folks with us today

[00:26:55] [SPEAKER_01]: from what I saw in a couple of different platforms

[00:26:57] [SPEAKER_01]: where we can see who's coming.

[00:27:00] [SPEAKER_01]: We try and look regularly at a lot

[00:27:02] [SPEAKER_01]: of the different verometer so to speak.

[00:27:04] [SPEAKER_01]: The Fed looks at some very specific things

[00:27:06] [SPEAKER_01]: but there are some other bellwethers that come

[00:27:09] [SPEAKER_01]: in this manufacturing tech orders

[00:27:10] [SPEAKER_01]: is when we look at every few months as well.

[00:27:13] [SPEAKER_01]: So we'll always continue to try

[00:27:14] [SPEAKER_01]: and look at these different verometer

[00:27:17] [SPEAKER_01]: so to speak that we could look to.

[00:27:21] [SPEAKER_01]: All right, Mr. Mark Deanser,

[00:27:25] [SPEAKER_01]: if you haven't seen Mark's sub stack before he's been writing

[00:27:30] [SPEAKER_01]: forever, I think Mark is a fellow with any W and he does stuff

[00:27:35] [SPEAKER_01]: with an SSO-SUSH's whole sailors,

[00:27:37] [SPEAKER_01]: he does stuff with a NASA-SUSH

[00:27:38] [SPEAKER_01]: with electrical distributors as well.

[00:27:40] [SPEAKER_01]: He has a sub stack which is kind of the replacement

[00:27:43] [SPEAKER_01]: these days for most most,

[00:27:48] [SPEAKER_01]: by the way, Tom, let's address Bob's question there.

[00:27:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Really quick.

[00:27:53] [SPEAKER_01]: So as we talk about manufacturing tech orders,

[00:27:55] [SPEAKER_01]: it's not really Bob's software

[00:27:58] [SPEAKER_01]: that they're talking about in that setting.

[00:28:00] [SPEAKER_01]: It's technology tools within the manufacturing setting

[00:28:03] [SPEAKER_00]: that is real hot and things like that.

[00:28:06] [SPEAKER_01]: That's actually right.

[00:28:06] [SPEAKER_00]: I guess that would be more cappac.

[00:28:08] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not suggesting that.

[00:28:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Exactly, right.

[00:28:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Cappacs would be the exact piece of that.

[00:28:13] [SPEAKER_01]: And so when he started thinking about automated,

[00:28:18] [SPEAKER_01]: CNC machines and stuff like that,

[00:28:19] [SPEAKER_01]: is a lot of what that ties to you.

[00:28:21] [SPEAKER_01]: So great question, and we appreciate that.

[00:28:23] [SPEAKER_01]: So back to Mark's thing, Mark has a sub stack.

[00:28:26] [SPEAKER_01]: It is called Mark Dancer on Flourishing Business.

[00:28:29] [SPEAKER_01]: He calls it food for the supply chains sold,

[00:28:33] [SPEAKER_01]: which is pretty cool.

[00:28:34] [SPEAKER_01]: So he wrote an interesting article

[00:28:35] [SPEAKER_01]: that kind of ties to some work that he's doing

[00:28:39] [SPEAKER_01]: with another gentleman in the tech world.

[00:28:42] [SPEAKER_01]: But Tom, you had some couple of thoughts

[00:28:43] [SPEAKER_01]: that you liked about this,

[00:28:44] [SPEAKER_01]: that talked about tying manufacturers distributors

[00:28:47] [SPEAKER_01]: and the things they can do to help communities.

[00:28:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he kind of had two takes.

[00:28:53] [SPEAKER_00]: One, you have kind of two ways of community.

[00:28:55] [SPEAKER_00]: You can collaborate better with your partners.

[00:28:59] [SPEAKER_00]: That's more for your own purpose.

[00:29:02] [SPEAKER_00]: And I do think there's a lot of opportunity

[00:29:04] [SPEAKER_00]: that's going to be coming for more enhanced

[00:29:08] [SPEAKER_00]: and greater and more productive collaboration.

[00:29:11] [SPEAKER_00]: But then what he was talking about was,

[00:29:14] [SPEAKER_00]: how do you then take that collaboration

[00:29:17] [SPEAKER_00]: and actually work and figure out within a community

[00:29:20] [SPEAKER_00]: how do you within an area, right?

[00:29:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Region, yeah, quality, whatever.

[00:29:24] [SPEAKER_00]: How do you help make that community better

[00:29:27] [SPEAKER_00]: by working together with whatever

[00:29:29] [SPEAKER_00]: the community challenges and problems are?

[00:29:33] [SPEAKER_00]: So rather than just looking at,

[00:29:35] [SPEAKER_00]: hey, I got my business and I'm selling my stuff

[00:29:37] [SPEAKER_00]: to whoever buys and you're selling your stuff

[00:29:38] [SPEAKER_00]: to whoever buy, maybe we look at things

[00:29:41] [SPEAKER_00]: a little bit differently and say, look at the community,

[00:29:43] [SPEAKER_00]: how can we help the community

[00:29:45] [SPEAKER_00]: a bit more holistically and work together

[00:29:47] [SPEAKER_00]: to accomplish that?

[00:29:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Very foreign concept, very foreign concept,

[00:29:52] [SPEAKER_00]: maybe a bit more of a dream than a reality,

[00:29:55] [SPEAKER_00]: but I think that that is an interesting,

[00:29:57] [SPEAKER_00]: and I think it's the only reason

[00:29:59] [SPEAKER_00]: that I consider it maybe interesting

[00:30:01] [SPEAKER_00]: is the fact that I believe that that could be possible

[00:30:04] [SPEAKER_00]: again when you start factoring in some of the things

[00:30:06] [SPEAKER_00]: we've talked about of AI, blockchain,

[00:30:09] [SPEAKER_00]: some of the capabilities that are going to enable this ability

[00:30:13] [SPEAKER_00]: for us to become less siloed.

[00:30:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Like you just look at all the businesses

[00:30:18] [SPEAKER_00]: that we have all these siloed businesses,

[00:30:19] [SPEAKER_00]: whether it's in our industry or industrial distribution

[00:30:22] [SPEAKER_00]: or any industry and everyone just is trying

[00:30:24] [SPEAKER_00]: to compete with each other

[00:30:25] [SPEAKER_00]: and get their bite of the apple versus really

[00:30:29] [SPEAKER_00]: the opportunity to collaborate more.

[00:30:32] [SPEAKER_00]: So I thought it was an interesting take

[00:30:34] [SPEAKER_01]: That was good.

[00:30:35] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm probably going to end up referencing this a few times today

[00:30:38] [SPEAKER_01]: because one of my favorite things to do

[00:30:40] [SPEAKER_01]: is get out and talk to customers.

[00:30:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Whether there are leads more customers

[00:30:44] [SPEAKER_01]: or their prospects and people,

[00:30:46] [SPEAKER_01]: people within distribution of manufacturing.

[00:30:49] [SPEAKER_01]: So as a disadvantage,

[00:30:50] [SPEAKER_01]: we can get to talk to both manufacturers

[00:30:52] [SPEAKER_01]: and distributors ahead and opportunity

[00:30:54] [SPEAKER_01]: to speak at this affiliated distributors event

[00:30:58] [SPEAKER_01]: on kind of a general conversation

[00:31:00] [SPEAKER_01]: and we call it the data gold mine

[00:31:02] [SPEAKER_01]: within wholesale distributions businesses

[00:31:04] [SPEAKER_01]: and it really enjoyed talking to the group

[00:31:07] [SPEAKER_01]: at a room full of people.

[00:31:09] [SPEAKER_01]: But then had, I think I had 15 appointments,

[00:31:13] [SPEAKER_01]: 15, 15 minute appointments in the booth

[00:31:15] [SPEAKER_01]: and then a handful of discussions

[00:31:17] [SPEAKER_01]: that cocktail receptions and lunch and things like that.

[00:31:21] [SPEAKER_01]: And there is just still a mixed bag out there

[00:31:23] [SPEAKER_01]: in August of 2024,

[00:31:27] [SPEAKER_01]: wholesale distributors who are still,

[00:31:31] [SPEAKER_01]: I'll just also use the word anxious versus scared,

[00:31:34] [SPEAKER_01]: but still anxious and uncomfortable

[00:31:36] [SPEAKER_01]: about sharing significant amounts of data back

[00:31:39] [SPEAKER_01]: with the factory and other manufacturer partners.

[00:31:42] [SPEAKER_01]: And we talked on stop about partnerships

[00:31:44] [SPEAKER_01]: and they all go to these meetings about partnerships

[00:31:47] [SPEAKER_01]: but the end of the day,

[00:31:48] [SPEAKER_01]: and this was not some of my conversations.

[00:31:51] [SPEAKER_01]: It's not like it's one branch Joe with six employees.

[00:31:55] [SPEAKER_01]: This was some large organizations

[00:31:56] [SPEAKER_01]: with 100 plus employees

[00:31:58] [SPEAKER_01]: and so forth.

[00:31:59] [SPEAKER_01]: I had a couple of discussions and it was just still a caution.

[00:32:02] [SPEAKER_01]: And it's interesting in this day and age,

[00:32:07] [SPEAKER_01]: it's hard to have information

[00:32:11] [SPEAKER_01]: that somebody else can't find.

[00:32:14] [SPEAKER_01]: It really makes me tiny and think about historically

[00:32:17] [SPEAKER_01]: like a lot of the non-compete contract stuff

[00:32:19] [SPEAKER_01]: with employees is you can't compete

[00:32:23] [SPEAKER_01]: with if you have some very specific data

[00:32:26] [SPEAKER_01]: about an organization.

[00:32:27] [SPEAKER_01]: You know at the end of the day,

[00:32:29] [SPEAKER_01]: when you can buy lists about just about anything you want.

[00:32:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Yet the distributor might know exactly

[00:32:36] [SPEAKER_01]: how many pieces of sandpaper were purchased in that factory

[00:32:40] [SPEAKER_01]: but you can buy a list of commodities purchased

[00:32:43] [SPEAKER_01]: and you know your industry well enough.

[00:32:45] [SPEAKER_01]: So I think I just look at it

[00:32:49] [SPEAKER_01]: as it's not really time for everybody

[00:32:50] [SPEAKER_01]: to look at how do we collaborate and share data

[00:32:53] [SPEAKER_01]: not just because it's being forced by a buying group

[00:32:57] [SPEAKER_01]: or a contractual arrangement that says,

[00:32:59] [SPEAKER_01]: if you don't share this with me,

[00:33:01] [SPEAKER_01]: I won't give you this discount

[00:33:02] [SPEAKER_01]: but really changing that mindset back to what you were talking

[00:33:05] [SPEAKER_01]: about and Mark is talking about someone in this article.

[00:33:08] [SPEAKER_01]: How do we just put our collective voices,

[00:33:12] [SPEAKER_01]: data, experience, tribal knowledge,

[00:33:15] [SPEAKER_01]: all of those things together

[00:33:17] [SPEAKER_01]: to in this article talks about help the community as well

[00:33:20] [SPEAKER_01]: but really help both of our businesses thrive.

[00:33:25] [SPEAKER_01]: So anyways, that's the end of the game on that.

[00:33:30] [SPEAKER_01]: So I bought a comment about

[00:33:32] [SPEAKER_01]: poor relationship between vendor and customer.

[00:33:35] [SPEAKER_01]: I think what you would really find

[00:33:37] [SPEAKER_01]: at least in the discussions I'm describing

[00:33:39] [SPEAKER_01]: is most of these people would still tell you

[00:33:42] [SPEAKER_01]: they have a great relationship with their vendors.

[00:33:44] [SPEAKER_01]: It's just not a collaborative relationship

[00:33:48] [SPEAKER_01]: at the level that it could be.

[00:33:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Now it's easy for me to say we have our

[00:33:55] [SPEAKER_01]: needs more connect tool that can bring manufacturers

[00:33:58] [SPEAKER_01]: and distributors together to share data

[00:34:00] [SPEAKER_01]: but lots of them are doing a great job

[00:34:02] [SPEAKER_01]: but there's still that mindset here.

[00:34:04] [SPEAKER_01]: We aren't 2024, it's, well I'm not gonna tell them

[00:34:07] [SPEAKER_01]: who I sell their stuff to.

[00:34:09] [SPEAKER_01]: It's like, it's not that hard to figure out these days.

[00:34:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think we're gonna have to be able

[00:34:14] [SPEAKER_00]: to demonstrate some examples of how that really can

[00:34:19] [SPEAKER_00]: improve and change.

[00:34:21] [SPEAKER_00]: But yes, I do think there's still a lot of that anxiousness

[00:34:24] [SPEAKER_00]: of, I gotta keep everything tight to the vest.

[00:34:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Yep, yep.

[00:34:29] [SPEAKER_01]: If you know you might sell direct there

[00:34:31] [SPEAKER_01]: is really the idea.

[00:34:32] [SPEAKER_00]: That was asking about as e-commerce creeping in,

[00:34:35] [SPEAKER_00]: oh well then they'll be able to go sell to my customers

[00:34:37] [SPEAKER_00]: on their e-commerce later.

[00:34:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Right, it's like, it's,

[00:34:40] [SPEAKER_00]: it is a bit of a scarcity mentality

[00:34:43] [SPEAKER_00]: that there is no shortage

[00:34:44] [SPEAKER_00]: and I think that if we end up,

[00:34:46] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, heck, we even see this on our own business.

[00:34:49] [SPEAKER_00]: I find that every time that we partner with others,

[00:34:53] [SPEAKER_00]: really partner with others, things go better.

[00:34:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Every time that we try and go and no,

[00:34:58] [SPEAKER_00]: no, no, we're gonna try and do our own thing.

[00:35:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Right, it's harder.

[00:35:02] [SPEAKER_00]: It's, it's, it's, and so I just think it's a,

[00:35:04] [SPEAKER_00]: the world we're in, yes, I agree with Mark

[00:35:07] [SPEAKER_00]: and I agree that that's the direction to be.

[00:35:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there's an e-commerce,

[00:35:10] [SPEAKER_01]: there's an e-commerce component of it

[00:35:12] [SPEAKER_01]: and there's a man, the other side of it is,

[00:35:15] [SPEAKER_01]: a man in fact, I can think of it in the,

[00:35:18] [SPEAKER_01]: in really safety equipment space.

[00:35:22] [SPEAKER_01]: And in the last 30 years,

[00:35:24] [SPEAKER_01]: they've gone sold through distribution,

[00:35:26] [SPEAKER_01]: gone direct without distribution,

[00:35:30] [SPEAKER_01]: gone back to distribution

[00:35:32] [SPEAKER_01]: and then gone hybrid where they're selling online

[00:35:35] [SPEAKER_01]: and a little bit direct to certain types

[00:35:37] [SPEAKER_01]: of accounts and selling through distribution.

[00:35:39] [SPEAKER_01]: So a big part of this is,

[00:35:40] [SPEAKER_01]: hey, if you know where I'm selling your product,

[00:35:43] [SPEAKER_01]: you might go sell it to them directly

[00:35:45] [SPEAKER_01]: or if you know exactly where I'm selling your product,

[00:35:50] [SPEAKER_01]: you might go there with somebody else as well.

[00:35:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Too many, too many people out there,

[00:35:54] [SPEAKER_01]: too much information available

[00:35:56] [SPEAKER_01]: and too easy to get the information

[00:35:58] [SPEAKER_01]: about what's going on.

[00:36:00] [SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, great comment.

[00:36:01] [SPEAKER_01]: If you wanna go fast, go alone.

[00:36:02] [SPEAKER_01]: If you wanna go far, go together.

[00:36:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Partnerships say go together to go far.

[00:36:07] [SPEAKER_01]: So I like that.

[00:36:08] Good.

[00:36:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Let's bump into our e-commerce and marketing segment.

[00:36:11] [SPEAKER_01]: We haven't started on yet today.

[00:36:13] [SPEAKER_01]: The future of B2B experience human versus machine,

[00:36:17] [SPEAKER_01]: this is from marketingprofsurmerkitingprofessionals.com.

[00:36:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Tom, first at the Lans take a ways at that?

[00:36:26] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I honestly, the article wasn't,

[00:36:30] [SPEAKER_00]: wasn't all that thrilling to me

[00:36:32] [SPEAKER_00]: but I thought they made a good point

[00:36:35] [SPEAKER_00]: about all of these things are only as powerful

[00:36:38] [SPEAKER_00]: as the people and the strategies that are behind them.

[00:36:43] [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm really seen now,

[00:36:47] [SPEAKER_00]: as we start to have more AI conversations

[00:36:50] [SPEAKER_00]: with our prospects and customers.

[00:36:53] [SPEAKER_00]: It goes back to the strategies,

[00:36:56] [SPEAKER_00]: it's like what got you here won't get you there.

[00:36:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Great point, the strategies, the approach,

[00:37:03] [SPEAKER_00]: the way that AI works compared

[00:37:04] [SPEAKER_00]: to traditional technology and so forth.

[00:37:09] [SPEAKER_00]: It's so different and you can't just shoe horn in these things

[00:37:14] [SPEAKER_00]: into the ways that are there.

[00:37:15] [SPEAKER_00]: So I like that take about, hey, we need to be thinking

[00:37:19] [SPEAKER_00]: differently strategically.

[00:37:21] [SPEAKER_00]: We need to be thinking about how we do things,

[00:37:24] [SPEAKER_00]: how we do people, all that kind of stuff.

[00:37:28] [SPEAKER_00]: It's just, I thought that was a good thing.

[00:37:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Some of the other stuff was kind of,

[00:37:32] [SPEAKER_00]: a lot of stuff that you see over and over and over.

[00:37:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I took a little different take on it.

[00:37:40] [SPEAKER_01]: There was a great quote there that they talked about

[00:37:42] [SPEAKER_01]: with great data becomes great response to build.

[00:37:46] [SPEAKER_01]: And what I really liked is they were talking

[00:37:49] [SPEAKER_01]: about chat bots and all the different tools

[00:37:53] [SPEAKER_01]: that we have that we can embrace and enhance

[00:37:56] [SPEAKER_01]: in our businesses but the whole focus on it, right?

[00:38:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Was on customer experience.

[00:38:01] [SPEAKER_01]: And I really liked that there was a bend to this article

[00:38:05] [SPEAKER_01]: that really talked about the human interaction

[00:38:08] [SPEAKER_01]: along with the technology.

[00:38:10] [SPEAKER_01]: And I talked about this in my talk earlier in the week

[00:38:13] [SPEAKER_01]: and then it was funny, I just Brian Hopkins,

[00:38:17] [SPEAKER_01]: it was with us earlier posted a link to income

[00:38:20] [SPEAKER_01]: at this morning about a webinar

[00:38:23] [SPEAKER_01]: that the distribution strategy folks did earlier in the week.

[00:38:26] [SPEAKER_01]: They did at Wednesday because as literally packing

[00:38:28] [SPEAKER_01]: in my hotel room, had my computer on was listening

[00:38:30] [SPEAKER_01]: to it and there was a lot of discussion there

[00:38:33] [SPEAKER_01]: about not eliminating people but how people

[00:38:37] [SPEAKER_01]: and AI tools can be working together.

[00:38:40] [SPEAKER_01]: And that, this is really I think what we're starting

[00:38:43] [SPEAKER_01]: to see so much more,

[00:38:44] [SPEAKER_01]: if I talked about it in my talk earlier this week

[00:38:46] [SPEAKER_01]: and Denver as well about,

[00:38:49] [SPEAKER_01]: you know, don't be too overly concerned

[00:38:51] [SPEAKER_01]: about eliminating jobs.

[00:38:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Look at how could you keep your same head count

[00:38:56] [SPEAKER_01]: but repurpose how we're doing things

[00:38:59] [SPEAKER_01]: and train people differently.

[00:39:01] [SPEAKER_01]: And there was some nice pieces of this

[00:39:03] [SPEAKER_01]: where, you know, our tribal knowledge

[00:39:05] [SPEAKER_01]: that can get into the system

[00:39:06] [SPEAKER_01]: and one of the great examples

[00:39:07] [SPEAKER_01]: that was in a shift in years on where we're getting

[00:39:10] [SPEAKER_01]: our data from but on the distribution strategy groups.

[00:39:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Webinar this week was, you know,

[00:39:15] [SPEAKER_01]: thinking about a, not having necessarily

[00:39:18] [SPEAKER_01]: just a chatbot experience

[00:39:20] [SPEAKER_01]: but an experience where the AI can see

[00:39:23] [SPEAKER_01]: because you're connected for the phone call

[00:39:24] [SPEAKER_01]: into your CRM.

[00:39:26] [SPEAKER_01]: If your CRM ideally is AI enabled

[00:39:28] [SPEAKER_01]: and can get broad information across your organization

[00:39:31] [SPEAKER_01]: like we can with Leeds Smart Channel Cloud

[00:39:33] [SPEAKER_01]: where we're looking at e-commerce,

[00:39:35] [SPEAKER_01]: we're looking at ERP, we're looking at working automation,

[00:39:38] [SPEAKER_01]: maybe some other data sources.

[00:39:40] [SPEAKER_01]: We're now that AI tool says things like,

[00:39:43] [SPEAKER_01]: hey, it's Tom Burton calling

[00:39:45] [SPEAKER_01]: and here are the things that he probably is calling about.

[00:39:49] [SPEAKER_01]: And now it's like,

[00:39:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Tom has a line item on invoice 1234

[00:39:53] [SPEAKER_01]: that hasn't shipped yet.

[00:39:55] [SPEAKER_01]: It's scheduled to ship on Tuesday.

[00:39:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Tom has a back order on these three things.

[00:40:00] [SPEAKER_01]: We don't have an update yet

[00:40:02] [SPEAKER_01]: but we're supposed to be getting an update tomorrow

[00:40:03] [SPEAKER_01]: from XYZ manufacturer.

[00:40:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Tom's account is past do.

[00:40:08] [SPEAKER_01]: All of those things that through Robust CRM

[00:40:11] [SPEAKER_01]: can even be fed right to the salesperson

[00:40:15] [SPEAKER_01]: based upon who's calling.

[00:40:16] [SPEAKER_01]: So these things start popping up

[00:40:17] [SPEAKER_01]: as they're answering the phone, right?

[00:40:19] [SPEAKER_01]: So now the customer gets this amazing experience

[00:40:21] [SPEAKER_01]: where they got served by AI

[00:40:24] [SPEAKER_01]: with their answers super quick

[00:40:26] [SPEAKER_01]: but a human that they have a relationship

[00:40:28] [SPEAKER_01]: can invade the information too.

[00:40:32] [SPEAKER_00]: And I listen to that webinar as well.

[00:40:34] [SPEAKER_00]: You can go one step further about really providing insights

[00:40:40] [SPEAKER_00]: so if the customers on the phone

[00:40:41] [SPEAKER_00]: may be in calling about a query or a situation

[00:40:44] [SPEAKER_00]: or whatever and then but you can also offer

[00:40:47] [SPEAKER_00]: some insights in their business that says,

[00:40:49] [SPEAKER_00]: hey, did you know or, hey,

[00:40:51] [SPEAKER_00]: I just wanted to fill you in on this or whatever?

[00:40:55] [SPEAKER_01]: But the white space, it's the white space example.

[00:40:59] [SPEAKER_01]: You say, hey, you know, I just noticed that you used

[00:41:01] [SPEAKER_01]: to buy this from us and you're not buying this

[00:41:03] [SPEAKER_01]: from us apparently anymore

[00:41:04] [SPEAKER_01]: and that's doing a customer a service by reminding

[00:41:09] [SPEAKER_01]: and because sometimes they don't even know.

[00:41:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but even if there's other things

[00:41:13] [SPEAKER_00]: you can, are you realizing

[00:41:14] [SPEAKER_00]: that there's a project in their area or whatever?

[00:41:17] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, who knows, right?

[00:41:18] [SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of different ways to add value

[00:41:20] [SPEAKER_00]: and then people want to talk to salespeople

[00:41:22] [SPEAKER_00]: because they're actually at asset versus something else.

[00:41:27] [SPEAKER_00]: That's there so.

[00:41:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Yep, yep, great.

[00:41:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Let's jump ahead here.

[00:41:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Let's it's time for us to do our regular con corner

[00:41:35] [SPEAKER_01]: as I call it.

[00:41:38] [SPEAKER_01]: That of the FTC, Helena Con is jumping into

[00:41:45] [SPEAKER_01]: fake reviews on e-commerce.

[00:41:49] [SPEAKER_01]: There's probably a need for some of this

[00:41:51] [SPEAKER_01]: but is it from the FTC and is it from somebody trying

[00:41:57] [SPEAKER_01]: to grasp a little more limelight before the doors closed

[00:42:01] [SPEAKER_01]: on MFA?

[00:42:02] [SPEAKER_01]: There's a new,

[00:42:04] [SPEAKER_01]: of there's a Republican in the group.

[00:42:07] [SPEAKER_01]: I did say that.

[00:42:09] [SPEAKER_00]: So first of all, yes, fake reviews are a problem

[00:42:12] [SPEAKER_00]: but if I have a company or if I have a website

[00:42:15] [SPEAKER_00]: and I'm getting fake reviews,

[00:42:17] [SPEAKER_00]: then that's my problem to figure out how to overcome them.

[00:42:21] [SPEAKER_00]: I can't believe that of all the things

[00:42:23] [SPEAKER_00]: that they could possibly at the FTC be thinking about

[00:42:26] [SPEAKER_00]: and considering fake reviews should be high on their list.

[00:42:31] [SPEAKER_00]: I can't imagine that that's got to be high

[00:42:34] [SPEAKER_00]: on the list of all the other things

[00:42:36] [SPEAKER_00]: that they could be dealing with.

[00:42:39] [SPEAKER_00]: So, I think it's,

[00:42:40] [SPEAKER_00]: I think I understand that it's a problem.

[00:42:43] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying that, I'm not saying it's not a problem

[00:42:45] [SPEAKER_00]: but I think doing it through the FTC

[00:42:48] [SPEAKER_00]: and what they're doing is absurd.

[00:42:50] [SPEAKER_00]: It's not enforceable, it's just like,

[00:42:52] [SPEAKER_00]: what is she doing here?

[00:42:53] [SPEAKER_00]: It's just, no, I know you know,

[00:42:55] [SPEAKER_00]: we are chatting about this, right?

[00:42:58] [SPEAKER_00]: You could see that as the ramifications,

[00:43:02] [SPEAKER_00]: if you're launching a B to B commercite

[00:43:04] [SPEAKER_00]: or whatever,

[00:43:06] [SPEAKER_00]: now you've got something else you gotta think about.

[00:43:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, that's why we included this article

[00:43:11] [SPEAKER_01]: because there's a big push for either expansion

[00:43:15] [SPEAKER_01]: of e-commerce or getting into e-commerce

[00:43:17] [SPEAKER_01]: and wholesale distribution in general.

[00:43:20] [SPEAKER_01]: And as that happens, there's gonna be,

[00:43:23] [SPEAKER_01]: you know, you put up a new website

[00:43:24] [SPEAKER_01]: and I'm sure you're gonna be hearing

[00:43:27] [SPEAKER_01]: from lots of people that wanna help you get reviews, right?

[00:43:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's time we've really gotta be paying attention to this.

[00:43:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Now the FTC is saying that estimated revenue

[00:43:37] [SPEAKER_01]: for services impact by consumer reviews

[00:43:40] [SPEAKER_01]: is $341 billion.

[00:43:43] [SPEAKER_01]: So that's why they think that it's okay

[00:43:45] [SPEAKER_01]: for them to put their thumb print on this.

[00:43:47] [SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, Amazon's working hard on this.

[00:43:49] [SPEAKER_01]: They've got together with booking.com and TripAdvisor

[00:43:52] [SPEAKER_01]: and some others, they put together the coalition

[00:43:54] [SPEAKER_01]: for trusted reviews.

[00:43:56] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure that them trying to bypass having

[00:43:59] [SPEAKER_01]: any regulatory impact where they could get fines

[00:44:02] [SPEAKER_01]: and so forth.

[00:44:03] [SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, at the end of the day,

[00:44:04] [SPEAKER_01]: it's obviously is a big problem

[00:44:07] [SPEAKER_01]: and it could be an issue coming up

[00:44:09] [SPEAKER_01]: for wholesale distribution as well,

[00:44:10] [SPEAKER_01]: which is why we included it.

[00:44:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Part of this, I just don't wanna do personal attacks here

[00:44:17] [SPEAKER_01]: but if you watch the history as long as this show's been around

[00:44:20] [SPEAKER_01]: and this particular head of the FTC has been there,

[00:44:25] [SPEAKER_01]: there sure seems to be some grabs for line light

[00:44:29] [SPEAKER_01]: and where I'm gonna be when I'm not here anymore

[00:44:32] [SPEAKER_01]: because she's gone after some kind of crazy stuff

[00:44:35] [SPEAKER_01]: over the years.

[00:44:36] [SPEAKER_01]: And even some of the stuff she's been chasing Amazon

[00:44:38] [SPEAKER_01]: about where they've kind of almost flicked her off

[00:44:42] [SPEAKER_01]: like a fly a few times and paid a couple little fines

[00:44:45] [SPEAKER_01]: and then she's had some big wins as well

[00:44:47] [SPEAKER_01]: but some of the stuff that they're trying to jump into

[00:44:50] [SPEAKER_01]: the FTC, I really kind of question.

[00:44:53] [SPEAKER_01]: But it is, there's no question about the impact

[00:44:56] [SPEAKER_01]: and it has an negative impact as well.

[00:44:59] [SPEAKER_01]: And you know, you think about it if,

[00:45:01] [SPEAKER_01]: and we'll just talk about this for a second again,

[00:45:04] [SPEAKER_01]: if I'm a distributor or a manufacturer

[00:45:07] [SPEAKER_01]: and I'm selling in marketplaces,

[00:45:08] [SPEAKER_01]: whether it's a vertical marketplace

[00:45:10] [SPEAKER_01]: or it's an Amazon or whatever it is,

[00:45:13] [SPEAKER_01]: bad reviews can impact me horribly

[00:45:15] [SPEAKER_01]: because of return issues and so forth

[00:45:18] [SPEAKER_01]: because the falsehoods that could be going along with that.

[00:45:21] [SPEAKER_01]: So it is something to be paying attention

[00:45:24] [SPEAKER_01]: to just how you manage it.

[00:45:25] [SPEAKER_00]: No, it's a situation that should be,

[00:45:28] [SPEAKER_00]: of course, managed.

[00:45:30] [SPEAKER_00]: It's got to be a fly as to your brand,

[00:45:31] [SPEAKER_00]: it applies to your result.

[00:45:33] [SPEAKER_00]: It just seems like this is kind of a weird way

[00:45:35] [SPEAKER_00]: to go about it.

[00:45:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Here's the pro tip of the day for online reviews.

[00:45:40] [SPEAKER_01]: Look at a handful of the five stars,

[00:45:42] [SPEAKER_01]: look at a handful of the one stars,

[00:45:44] [SPEAKER_01]: look at a couple of the ones in between

[00:45:46] [SPEAKER_01]: and make a decision based upon what you're seeing.

[00:45:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, an AI is also going to come into play

[00:45:52] [SPEAKER_00]: to help summarize a lot of these reviews.

[00:45:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Look, what's already been,

[00:45:55] [SPEAKER_01]: are you doing it on Amazon?

[00:45:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Are you right?

[00:45:57] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:45:58] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the Amazon's doing a nice job

[00:46:00] [SPEAKER_01]: of that already, it's showing you

[00:46:02] [SPEAKER_01]: many people are saying this, some detractors say this,

[00:46:06] [SPEAKER_01]: overall, this is what we're seeing.

[00:46:09] [SPEAKER_01]: But you know what, at the end of the day,

[00:46:11] [SPEAKER_01]: we have to take some responsibility as consumers as well

[00:46:14] [SPEAKER_01]: and buyers.

[00:46:15] [SPEAKER_01]: So good.

[00:46:16] [SPEAKER_01]: All right, well, let's jump into something

[00:46:18] [SPEAKER_01]: that I think is kind of interesting about promises.

[00:46:21] [SPEAKER_01]: This article is B2B campaigns

[00:46:24] [SPEAKER_01]: with clear customer promises triple market share gains.

[00:46:28] [SPEAKER_01]: It's pretty significant.

[00:46:30] [SPEAKER_01]: So any thoughts from you on that before we dive too far into it?

[00:46:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, on the other,

[00:46:34] [SPEAKER_00]: I think this was a great article.

[00:46:36] [SPEAKER_00]: That was a really well put together,

[00:46:38] [SPEAKER_00]: a article really well written and a lot of good information.

[00:46:43] [SPEAKER_00]: We were talking about brand was it last week

[00:46:46] [SPEAKER_00]: or the week before.

[00:46:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's last week we had a discussion about brand.

[00:46:49] [SPEAKER_00]: All, and basically what they're saying here is a way

[00:46:52] [SPEAKER_00]: to really kind of put a stake in the ground

[00:46:56] [SPEAKER_00]: as a relates to your brand

[00:46:57] [SPEAKER_00]: is to kind of come up with what is your big promise?

[00:47:01] [SPEAKER_00]: And I agree with it.

[00:47:02] [SPEAKER_00]: I agree that if you can be clear in what your big problem

[00:47:07] [SPEAKER_00]: and this isn't like, oh, you're going to make a million,

[00:47:10] [SPEAKER_00]: like not these sort of ROI claims and stuff like that.

[00:47:14] [SPEAKER_00]: This is more of as a company and the products

[00:47:18] [SPEAKER_00]: that your company sells or what you're bringing to the market,

[00:47:22] [SPEAKER_00]: what is the big promise?

[00:47:23] [SPEAKER_00]: What is the valuable outcome that you're providing to that?

[00:47:28] [SPEAKER_00]: And just very, very clear and concise with it.

[00:47:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And what they said is that companies that do that

[00:47:34] [SPEAKER_00]: get a three times more, or more likely deliver increases

[00:47:38] [SPEAKER_00]: and market markets here.

[00:47:40] [SPEAKER_00]: And going to have time and increase in brand health.

[00:47:43] [SPEAKER_00]: And again, based on some surveys

[00:47:44] [SPEAKER_00]: and some really good data to back it up.

[00:47:46] [SPEAKER_01]: So, I mean, thank you very much.

[00:47:48] [SPEAKER_01]: And numbers that go with that, right?

[00:47:49] [SPEAKER_01]: If you're talking about three X increase in market share

[00:47:53] [SPEAKER_01]: and I mean, three times your market share

[00:47:56] [SPEAKER_01]: by doing some tools within marketing,

[00:47:58] [SPEAKER_01]: now this doesn't mean that it's simple and easy to go do.

[00:48:02] [SPEAKER_01]: But when you do it right,

[00:48:03] [SPEAKER_01]: and it's kind of funny and made me think about,

[00:48:05] [SPEAKER_01]: that Leeds Mart, we operate on the EOS

[00:48:08] [SPEAKER_01]: or the Entrepreneur operating system.

[00:48:10] [SPEAKER_01]: And that is a component of EOS is deciding

[00:48:13] [SPEAKER_01]: if you're going to have a guarantee

[00:48:15] [SPEAKER_01]: or a promise within your business.

[00:48:18] [SPEAKER_01]: And so I think that's kind of interesting.

[00:48:19] [SPEAKER_01]: The quote that I liked that says here,

[00:48:21] [SPEAKER_01]: this allows buyers that they can cut through

[00:48:24] [SPEAKER_01]: the noise and messiness of decision making

[00:48:26] [SPEAKER_01]: by offering a clear and simpler articulation,

[00:48:29] [SPEAKER_01]: the value delivered by a brand to its customers.

[00:48:32] [SPEAKER_01]: So I understand what this brand does,

[00:48:35] [SPEAKER_01]: what they stand for and what they're promising me,

[00:48:37] [SPEAKER_01]: they're going to do for me.

[00:48:39] [SPEAKER_01]: And if I do that correctly,

[00:48:40] [SPEAKER_01]: this is saying guess what?

[00:48:42] [SPEAKER_01]: It can three X my market share.

[00:48:45] [SPEAKER_01]: And this is one piece of research,

[00:48:47] [SPEAKER_01]: but whatever you could double your market share.

[00:48:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, well it makes sense, right?

[00:48:51] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think, you know, hey, at Leeds Mart,

[00:48:53] [SPEAKER_00]: we need to do a better job of this.

[00:48:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm really, yeah.

[00:48:55] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we need to do a lot better job of this.

[00:48:59] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think we have it certain times,

[00:49:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I think we've had a good big promise

[00:49:03] [SPEAKER_00]: and then something happens

[00:49:04] [SPEAKER_00]: and it gets diluted and stuff like that.

[00:49:06] [SPEAKER_00]: But I think that, yeah, it's a big deal

[00:49:10] [SPEAKER_00]: and I do think it becomes the heart.

[00:49:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Look, there's so much noise out there, right?

[00:49:15] [SPEAKER_00]: A promise like that provides clarity

[00:49:17] [SPEAKER_00]: if it's understandable, right?

[00:49:19] [SPEAKER_00]: And not just a bunch of hype, it's not hype.

[00:49:22] [SPEAKER_00]: It's really that promise as to what you're going

[00:49:25] [SPEAKER_00]: to do by working with my company.

[00:49:27] [SPEAKER_00]: What is the outcome that you can expect, right?

[00:49:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think it really helps cut through the noise,

[00:49:34] [SPEAKER_00]: which is why you see that brand lift

[00:49:36] [SPEAKER_00]: that they're talking about there.

[00:49:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, it doesn't, you know,

[00:49:39] [SPEAKER_01]: I just went back and I looked at the article real quick there

[00:49:41] [SPEAKER_01]: and this was a survey of 700 companies

[00:49:44] [SPEAKER_01]: slash brands.

[00:49:45] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's not like, I think we surveyed five guys over here, right?

[00:49:49] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's pretty, the magnitude of this is significant

[00:49:52] [SPEAKER_01]: of the detail.

[00:49:53] [SPEAKER_01]: So I think this is something that I'm going to continue

[00:49:55] [SPEAKER_01]: to look for information because I think it's pretty valuable

[00:49:58] [SPEAKER_01]: to share with our audience here as well.

[00:50:00] [SPEAKER_01]: So good stuff, they're tough.

[00:50:03] [SPEAKER_01]: You want to jump in and talk a little bit

[00:50:04] [SPEAKER_01]: about technology, cybersecurity, and AI?

[00:50:08] [SPEAKER_01]: We occasionally talk about AI here, don't we?

[00:50:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I don't know.

[00:50:11] [SPEAKER_00]: We could skip all this.

[00:50:14] [SPEAKER_01]: This week ago, I actually do like there's

[00:50:18] [SPEAKER_01]: a good article here posted.

[00:50:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Again, this is, you should have said this again a little bit

[00:50:22] [SPEAKER_01]: earlier.

[00:50:22] [SPEAKER_01]: If you're listening on the podcast,

[00:50:25] [SPEAKER_01]: you will not be seeing what the folks that are watching us live

[00:50:28] [SPEAKER_01]: or are recording on YouTube linked in or Facebook.

[00:50:32] [SPEAKER_01]: We're looking at the around the Horn and wholesale

[00:50:34] [SPEAKER_01]: distribution of manufacturing newsletter.

[00:50:36] [SPEAKER_01]: It goes out every Friday to 10,000 plus people.

[00:50:41] [SPEAKER_01]: If you don't get that, this is where we get these articles

[00:50:44] [SPEAKER_01]: and we review them, you can get that by emailing Hello

[00:50:48] [SPEAKER_01]: at around the Horn.

[00:50:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Excuse me, hello, edletesmartek.com or going to the web.

[00:50:54] [SPEAKER_00]: We'll email address.

[00:50:54] [SPEAKER_01]: I will be there.

[00:50:55] [SPEAKER_01]: We've set that up really quickly.

[00:50:58] [SPEAKER_01]: Hello, edletesmartek.com and www.aroundtheHornPod.com

[00:51:03] [SPEAKER_01]: is the website for the show.

[00:51:05] [SPEAKER_01]: And you can get a lot of past shows and other information

[00:51:07] [SPEAKER_01]: on the website and subscribe to the podcast

[00:51:12] [SPEAKER_01]: as well as subscribe to the newsletter.

[00:51:15] [SPEAKER_01]: So if you'd like to do that.

[00:51:16] [SPEAKER_01]: But now we go into our segment,

[00:51:19] [SPEAKER_01]: we have six segments, seven segments I think now.

[00:51:23] [SPEAKER_01]: But technology security and AI, what does your CEO need

[00:51:27] [SPEAKER_01]: to know about cybersecurity?

[00:51:30] [SPEAKER_01]: And my big takeaway from this time and get your thoughts

[00:51:34] [SPEAKER_01]: was they made a comment here.

[00:51:35] [SPEAKER_01]: It says 10 years ago, cybersecurity was seen

[00:51:37] [SPEAKER_01]: as an IT and compliance issue.

[00:51:40] [SPEAKER_01]: If there was a breach, the impact goes and seen

[00:51:41] [SPEAKER_01]: as significant.

[00:51:43] [SPEAKER_01]: And the CEO, those roles, primarily

[00:51:44] [SPEAKER_01]: to make high level decision during the incident.

[00:51:47] [SPEAKER_01]: The difference now is the potential

[00:51:48] [SPEAKER_01]: threat to business operations and reputations

[00:51:51] [SPEAKER_01]: and CEOs are taxed with integrating cybersecurity

[00:51:54] [SPEAKER_01]: into overall business strategy

[00:51:57] [SPEAKER_01]: and the lining cybersecurity with business goals.

[00:52:00] [SPEAKER_01]: By narrow this down to four or five sentences,

[00:52:05] [SPEAKER_01]: integrating cybersecurity into overall business strategy

[00:52:08] [SPEAKER_01]: and a lining cybersecurity with business goals.

[00:52:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Big deal.

[00:52:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, yeah, and going one step further, right?

[00:52:16] [SPEAKER_00]: If you don't take this seriously from a business perspective,

[00:52:20] [SPEAKER_00]: you are guilty of malpractice as basically what they're saying.

[00:52:23] [SPEAKER_00]: So that's where they were talking about that guy

[00:52:26] [SPEAKER_00]: that the picture is there.

[00:52:27] [SPEAKER_00]: I think it would night at health to CEO of United Health

[00:52:29] [SPEAKER_00]: and he testified in Congress and he was all these excuses.

[00:52:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, we acquired a company and we didn't get around

[00:52:36] [SPEAKER_00]: to putting in our security properly in there

[00:52:39] [SPEAKER_00]: and they're looking at them going.

[00:52:42] [SPEAKER_00]: And why is that okay?

[00:52:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:52:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, they didn't let them off.

[00:52:46] [SPEAKER_01]: Looked at the.

[00:52:47] [SPEAKER_00]: No.

[00:52:48] [SPEAKER_00]: So no, it's becoming, it's become a liability, right?

[00:52:51] [SPEAKER_00]: A big liability.

[00:52:52] [SPEAKER_00]: It's not just a technology issue.

[00:52:55] [SPEAKER_00]: It's a business issue all the way around.

[00:52:58] [SPEAKER_01]: Yep.

[00:52:59] [SPEAKER_01]: No, so something to be paying attention to

[00:53:01] [SPEAKER_01]: if you're an executive or senior executive even in any space,

[00:53:09] [SPEAKER_01]: this something got a pay attention to.

[00:53:10] [SPEAKER_01]: And I think what's going on now is within,

[00:53:16] [SPEAKER_01]: specifically within wholesale distribution

[00:53:17] [SPEAKER_01]: is we're seeing far more CTOs and CIOs, chief information

[00:53:24] [SPEAKER_01]: officers, chief technology officers that aren't just,

[00:53:30] [SPEAKER_01]: they're not just title-related.

[00:53:32] [SPEAKER_01]: These are people that have backgrounds and experience

[00:53:34] [SPEAKER_01]: in doing these things and having those people integrated

[00:53:37] [SPEAKER_01]: into executive management, making presentations to the board.

[00:53:43] [SPEAKER_01]: And this could be about digital transformation

[00:53:45] [SPEAKER_01]: as well as a cybersecurity.

[00:53:48] [SPEAKER_01]: But it's nice to see this in our,

[00:53:50] [SPEAKER_01]: I'll just use the terms kind of sometimes slow

[00:53:53] [SPEAKER_01]: adopter marketplace of manufacturing

[00:53:56] [SPEAKER_01]: and wholesale distribution for overall tech.

[00:53:58] [SPEAKER_01]: It's nice to see some of this migration

[00:54:00] [SPEAKER_01]: in this move along the way.

[00:54:03] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's good.

[00:54:04] [SPEAKER_01]: Have an article here about integrating

[00:54:06] [SPEAKER_01]: a generative AI into supply chain operations.

[00:54:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Let's from supply and demand chain executive magazine.

[00:54:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Just some good kind of resources in there are some tips

[00:54:16] [SPEAKER_01]: that go with how to do that better

[00:54:18] [SPEAKER_01]: and what the value can be, the value payoffs.

[00:54:22] [SPEAKER_01]: They talk about pilot programs and assessments

[00:54:25] [SPEAKER_01]: and scalable implementation plans.

[00:54:27] [SPEAKER_01]: We've talked about quite a few things before.

[00:54:29] [SPEAKER_01]: If you're looking at adding in a lot of AI

[00:54:33] [SPEAKER_01]: and generative AI tools into supply chain operations,

[00:54:36] [SPEAKER_01]: mostly on the manufacturing side,

[00:54:37] [SPEAKER_01]: this talks a lot about there's some pretty good tips

[00:54:39] [SPEAKER_01]: in that article.

[00:54:42] [SPEAKER_01]: So, all right, what are we looking at next here?

[00:54:44] [SPEAKER_01]: AI, the digital bridge to industry 4.0, huh?

[00:54:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:54:51] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, again, it's an interesting, a little bit of chain.

[00:54:56] [SPEAKER_00]: And I know we want to move along

[00:54:58] [SPEAKER_00]: because we saw quite a bit to cover here,

[00:55:02] [SPEAKER_00]: but and we see this, right?

[00:55:04] [SPEAKER_00]: A lot of companies, especially in this industry,

[00:55:06] [SPEAKER_00]: are operating with what they say clipboard,

[00:55:10] [SPEAKER_00]: pencils and human only in this case,

[00:55:12] [SPEAKER_00]: assembly lines or whatever.

[00:55:14] [SPEAKER_00]: We see it in the front office as well, right?

[00:55:16] [SPEAKER_00]: They're using clipboards, pencils and spreadsheets.

[00:55:20] [SPEAKER_00]: And then they're looking to leap from there to AI.

[00:55:27] [SPEAKER_00]: And first I was like, I'm not so sure,

[00:55:31] [SPEAKER_00]: but as I think more about it, it may actually work

[00:55:35] [SPEAKER_00]: because I think that it might be easier

[00:55:38] [SPEAKER_00]: for a lot of companies to move from the sort of manual,

[00:55:42] [SPEAKER_00]: non-technology way of doing things

[00:55:44] [SPEAKER_00]: into an AI-centric way of doing things

[00:55:47] [SPEAKER_00]: and adopting technology that way,

[00:55:49] [SPEAKER_00]: rather than the traditional technology

[00:55:51] [SPEAKER_00]: that we know with the transactions

[00:55:53] [SPEAKER_00]: and the dashboards and the reports

[00:55:56] [SPEAKER_00]: and all of those things that go with it.

[00:55:58] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure, I'm not 100% convinced,

[00:56:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I want to investigate this for myself a little bit more.

[00:56:03] [SPEAKER_00]: I find it as an interesting thing,

[00:56:05] [SPEAKER_00]: and that's what they're talking about

[00:56:06] [SPEAKER_00]: is that some of these things can

[00:56:09] [SPEAKER_00]: are fading away as people are kind of leapfrogging

[00:56:12] [SPEAKER_00]: from manual to much more sophisticated automation.

[00:56:17] [SPEAKER_01]: So this article, I agree with you on this.

[00:56:20] [SPEAKER_01]: And it's interesting in this article,

[00:56:22] [SPEAKER_01]: it referenced a 2023 survey

[00:56:26] [SPEAKER_01]: found that 69% of North American manufacturers

[00:56:29] [SPEAKER_01]: were still collecting most of their data

[00:56:31] [SPEAKER_01]: through non-digital methods.

[00:56:33] [SPEAKER_01]: That's got to change fast if you want to keep up.

[00:56:36] [SPEAKER_01]: And so this article references industry 4.0

[00:56:39] [SPEAKER_01]: and says, industry 4.0 is also known

[00:56:42] [SPEAKER_01]: as the fourth industrial revolution.

[00:56:45] [SPEAKER_01]: What does that mean?

[00:56:47] [SPEAKER_01]: 4.0 generally covers four categories of technology,

[00:56:51] [SPEAKER_01]: connectivity and data, analytics and intelligence,

[00:56:54] [SPEAKER_01]: human machine collaboration and advanced engineering.

[00:56:58] [SPEAKER_01]: So I thought those were kind of nice

[00:57:00] [SPEAKER_01]: to look at that from those four components

[00:57:03] [SPEAKER_01]: of what we're referencing as we talk about industry 4.0.

[00:57:06] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna try and remember those for future thoughts,

[00:57:09] [SPEAKER_01]: but one of the things that I like most was

[00:57:11] [SPEAKER_01]: the human machine collaboration.

[00:57:14] [SPEAKER_01]: So when we start putting whether it's AI tools

[00:57:16] [SPEAKER_01]: and machine learning tools and so forth

[00:57:17] [SPEAKER_01]: into our operations,

[00:57:20] [SPEAKER_01]: we just really want to continue to look at this

[00:57:23] [SPEAKER_01]: as this is people and technology.

[00:57:28] [SPEAKER_01]: It's not people or technology.

[00:57:31] [SPEAKER_01]: And so often we have that thought that says,

[00:57:33] [SPEAKER_01]: well I have to move everything over to all technology

[00:57:36] [SPEAKER_01]: driven and that's not the case.

[00:57:37] [SPEAKER_01]: It is people love people

[00:57:40] [SPEAKER_01]: and people still know great things

[00:57:43] [SPEAKER_01]: that machines will never know

[00:57:44] [SPEAKER_01]: and when you put those things together

[00:57:46] [SPEAKER_01]: that's where you get the great power.

[00:57:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Totally great code.

[00:57:50] [SPEAKER_01]: All right, let's move into our further into our sales

[00:57:56] [SPEAKER_01]: and M&A segments.

[00:57:58] [SPEAKER_01]: AI is a game changer for sales coaching.

[00:58:01] [SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna kind of just hit some old quick overviews

[00:58:04] [SPEAKER_01]: of that the core of really what that was talking about

[00:58:07] [SPEAKER_01]: is that this was a survey that was done

[00:58:11] [SPEAKER_01]: by a couple of organizations,

[00:58:13] [SPEAKER_01]: trend indexes in your report

[00:58:14] [SPEAKER_01]: and then LinkedIn and Microsoft were both involved.

[00:58:18] [SPEAKER_01]: But they talked about the challenges

[00:58:19] [SPEAKER_01]: that happen in most sales coaching

[00:58:21] [SPEAKER_01]: which is first off insufficient coaching,

[00:58:24] [SPEAKER_01]: second, that they call it limited practice

[00:58:27] [SPEAKER_01]: which means they do maybe some role playing

[00:58:31] [SPEAKER_01]: and some things like that.

[00:58:32] [SPEAKER_01]: But nobody likes that in this day and age

[00:58:34] [SPEAKER_01]: and they said bias in the role playing,

[00:58:36] [SPEAKER_01]: traditional role playing with managers and peers

[00:58:38] [SPEAKER_01]: can be affected by unconscious bias

[00:58:41] [SPEAKER_01]: that can negatively impact the whole coaching session.

[00:58:44] [SPEAKER_01]: So and then what we're really relying on

[00:58:47] [SPEAKER_01]: is how good is our coach in that setting?

[00:58:50] [SPEAKER_01]: But the article talked about really some cool things

[00:58:53] [SPEAKER_01]: about just in time learning,

[00:58:56] [SPEAKER_01]: role playing that is unbiased

[00:58:58] [SPEAKER_01]: and then how there's some AI tools that can do that.

[00:59:00] [SPEAKER_01]: And it covers three different segments on that

[00:59:03] [SPEAKER_01]: in this article.

[00:59:03] [SPEAKER_01]: But what is simplistic is you could take this out

[00:59:07] [SPEAKER_01]: is using an AI tool that is evaluating phone calls

[00:59:12] [SPEAKER_01]: and or Zoom meetings and coming back

[00:59:15] [SPEAKER_01]: that says things like,

[00:59:17] [SPEAKER_01]: and I'd love to do this.

[00:59:19] [SPEAKER_01]: It's starting to look into this more.

[00:59:20] [SPEAKER_01]: I look at as an example we use within Leedsport.

[00:59:23] [SPEAKER_01]: We use Fathom.au and their meeting recording tool

[00:59:26] [SPEAKER_01]: that gives you an AI analysis and so forth.

[00:59:29] [SPEAKER_01]: But if we started running that analysis through

[00:59:34] [SPEAKER_01]: ChetGPT or another tool that came back

[00:59:36] [SPEAKER_01]: and gave us some analysis that says,

[00:59:38] [SPEAKER_01]: hey, is this probably what I would be guilty of?

[00:59:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Is you talked 62% of the time

[00:59:43] [SPEAKER_01]: in your prospect talked X amount of time, right?

[00:59:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Or you missed talking to them about this particular problem

[00:59:52] [SPEAKER_01]: that they had mentioned.

[00:59:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Those are the types of coaching tools

[00:59:56] [SPEAKER_01]: that AI can bring in now when I'm having a conversation

[00:59:59] [SPEAKER_01]: with a salesperson, it's not about my unconscious bias

[01:00:04] [SPEAKER_01]: or what I think about something.

[01:00:07] [SPEAKER_01]: It's like these are the details.

[01:00:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Let's work together on how we can make this better.

[01:00:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah and there's been tools like this

[01:00:15] [SPEAKER_00]: that have been used predominantly

[01:00:16] [SPEAKER_00]: in the tech industry for a long time.

[01:00:18] [SPEAKER_00]: You have record calls and so forth,

[01:00:21] [SPEAKER_00]: but yes, I agree.

[01:00:22] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think even going one step further from coaching

[01:00:26] [SPEAKER_00]: is just overall enablement, right?

[01:00:29] [SPEAKER_00]: And enabling, just like we talked about earlier,

[01:00:31] [SPEAKER_00]: about the phone call when the call comes in to an inside wrap

[01:00:35] [SPEAKER_00]: and they have at their fingertips

[01:00:36] [SPEAKER_00]: what they need to have the most efficient

[01:00:40] [SPEAKER_00]: and valuable call with the customer.

[01:00:43] [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I agree.

[01:00:47] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that coaching is just the start of things.

[01:00:49] [SPEAKER_00]: I think coaching then ends up

[01:00:51] [SPEAKER_00]: into really a broader enablement.

[01:00:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Right, at that point.

[01:00:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there have been a few comments

[01:00:56] [SPEAKER_01]: that we've had here kind of questioning about,

[01:00:59] [SPEAKER_01]: you know, are we getting too wrapped up in AI

[01:01:02] [SPEAKER_01]: and missing the core competencies

[01:01:05] [SPEAKER_01]: and core business goals that we need to think about?

[01:01:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Which is fine.

[01:01:09] [SPEAKER_01]: I think the reality of it is

[01:01:11] [SPEAKER_01]: we don't need to pick between those in business, right?

[01:01:14] [SPEAKER_01]: We need to be focused on driving our business ahead,

[01:01:18] [SPEAKER_01]: strategy, all of the things that were mentioned

[01:01:20] [SPEAKER_01]: in a few of the comments that we've seen here.

[01:01:22] [SPEAKER_01]: But at the same time,

[01:01:23] [SPEAKER_01]: there is no escaping the technology component

[01:01:25] [SPEAKER_01]: of these things.

[01:01:26] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's not an if and or or do we drop everything

[01:01:29] [SPEAKER_01]: and go to that?

[01:01:30] [SPEAKER_01]: No, we need to do all of those things in our businesses.

[01:01:33] [SPEAKER_01]: And I mean you made a comment earlier on some things

[01:01:36] [SPEAKER_01]: we need to do better at lead sport

[01:01:37] [SPEAKER_01]: than our business, that you and I right.

[01:01:39] [SPEAKER_01]: So I think it's not an if or,

[01:01:43] [SPEAKER_01]: it's an end not an if or is really wrong.

[01:01:46] [SPEAKER_00]: I do agree that there is

[01:01:50] [SPEAKER_00]: a maybe an undo attention on a lot of places on AI

[01:01:53] [SPEAKER_00]: as like some sort of savior.

[01:01:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think what unfortunately is missing is

[01:01:58] [SPEAKER_00]: and I do agree is that with what Bob Sane

[01:02:01] [SPEAKER_00]: is that there is a reduced focus

[01:02:03] [SPEAKER_00]: on the some of the strategy, but I think a lot of that

[01:02:06] [SPEAKER_00]: is because we don't know how to actually build

[01:02:12] [SPEAKER_00]: the right strategy utilizing AI into the DNA of that strategy.

[01:02:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Right, and I think that's going to be a big part

[01:02:22] [SPEAKER_00]: of the next 12 to 24 months is how do you really

[01:02:26] [SPEAKER_00]: incorporate the AI aspect of things into the DNA

[01:02:31] [SPEAKER_00]: of the strategy and the core competencies

[01:02:33] [SPEAKER_00]: of the business?

[01:02:34] [SPEAKER_00]: That's not easy, but it's because it's so different

[01:02:38] [SPEAKER_00]: it's hard I think, right?

[01:02:39] [SPEAKER_00]: It's easy to incorporate or easier

[01:02:41] [SPEAKER_00]: to incorporate things that we know already

[01:02:44] [SPEAKER_00]: and understand real well, it's not as easy to do that.

[01:02:48] [SPEAKER_00]: So as a result, we end up playing a lot with AI

[01:02:50] [SPEAKER_00]: really rather than building into the DNA of what we're doing.

[01:02:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I have a little different take than what I think

[01:02:57] [SPEAKER_01]: it's not too far off but what you're both saying

[01:02:59] [SPEAKER_01]: what I'm seeing from the people that I talk to every day

[01:03:01] [SPEAKER_01]: and this is the great thing about getting out

[01:03:04] [SPEAKER_01]: to live events is in our world

[01:03:07] [SPEAKER_01]: and why we're here is talking about manufacturing

[01:03:10] [SPEAKER_01]: wholesale distribution.

[01:03:11] [SPEAKER_01]: The event I was at earlier this week,

[01:03:13] [SPEAKER_01]: there was 30 plus manufacturers

[01:03:20] [SPEAKER_01]: and I can remember the number.

[01:03:21] [SPEAKER_01]: I think it was well over 250 distributors represented there.

[01:03:26] [SPEAKER_01]: I probably got to talk with 30 different distributors

[01:03:30] [SPEAKER_01]: and what I'm seeing is that nobody is pushing pause

[01:03:35] [SPEAKER_01]: on anything else that they're doing in their business

[01:03:37] [SPEAKER_01]: to go say I've gotta go around and do AI.

[01:03:40] [SPEAKER_01]: What they're doing is driving their business ahead

[01:03:43] [SPEAKER_01]: and trying to start getting,

[01:03:46] [SPEAKER_01]: and it's really a lot of people aren't even going this far yet.

[01:03:49] [SPEAKER_01]: But the ones that are looking at and saying well,

[01:03:52] [SPEAKER_01]: how can I use this?

[01:03:53] [SPEAKER_01]: I need to understand what's going on.

[01:03:56] [SPEAKER_01]: I wanna go to the talks about these things.

[01:03:58] [SPEAKER_01]: I might even go to some events.

[01:03:59] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna tune into around the horn,

[01:04:01] [SPEAKER_01]: whatever else, you know, with MDM stuff,

[01:04:06] [SPEAKER_01]: any W stuff, any EED stuff

[01:04:08] [SPEAKER_01]: and trying to get my arms around this.

[01:04:10] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not seeing anybody saying,

[01:04:12] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm running off the deep end right now.

[01:04:14] [SPEAKER_01]: In fact, I would go almost the reverse that is

[01:04:16] [SPEAKER_01]: if you were to look at the majority of the companies out there

[01:04:19] [SPEAKER_01]: that are focused on AI versus just technology

[01:04:23] [SPEAKER_01]: and business tools in general.

[01:04:24] [SPEAKER_01]: But if AI is the total focus is they're not getting

[01:04:28] [SPEAKER_01]: the take rates that they would like to

[01:04:30] [SPEAKER_01]: from these markets that we talk about.

[01:04:33] [SPEAKER_01]: That people are managing their business

[01:04:35] [SPEAKER_01]: trying to be aware.

[01:04:36] [SPEAKER_01]: But to the point that Bob was saying

[01:04:39] [SPEAKER_01]: and again, one guy's opinion is

[01:04:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Bob was saying what you're saying.

[01:04:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Might take on this is that we're probably at the top

[01:04:50] [SPEAKER_01]: of the hype cycle.

[01:04:51] [SPEAKER_01]: In fact, probably past that now in AI

[01:04:53] [SPEAKER_01]: and now people have said,

[01:04:55] [SPEAKER_01]: okay, I put a lot of energy.

[01:04:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe I went to a conference,

[01:04:58] [SPEAKER_01]: watching some webinars doing some things.

[01:05:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Now I kind of get a feel for it.

[01:05:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Now let's see what comes available

[01:05:04] [SPEAKER_01]: that can really help me in my business.

[01:05:05] [SPEAKER_01]: And now we'll see that fall off a little bit.

[01:05:08] [SPEAKER_01]: And then eventually we get to that place where AI

[01:05:11] [SPEAKER_01]: is ubiquitous in business.

[01:05:13] [SPEAKER_01]: But I'm not seeing anybody that's saying,

[01:05:15] [SPEAKER_01]: at least the my travels, anybody that's saying,

[01:05:18] [SPEAKER_01]: let's drop everything only work on this.

[01:05:22] [SPEAKER_01]: We don't have to agree every time.

[01:05:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I don't think that's happening either.

[01:05:27] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think that's happening either.

[01:05:28] [SPEAKER_00]: But I do think it's going to have to start permuting

[01:05:31] [SPEAKER_00]: maybe a bit faster into the overall strategy

[01:05:34] [SPEAKER_00]: of the business.

[01:05:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, good.

[01:05:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, we kind of, we're going to go,

[01:05:37] [SPEAKER_01]: we were going to go fast on that and we didn't.

[01:05:39] [SPEAKER_01]: So let's jump into our, let's jump into our people

[01:05:42] [SPEAKER_01]: on leadership segment.

[01:05:43] [SPEAKER_01]: We have three articles this week,

[01:05:44] [SPEAKER_01]: once from HRDRIVE.com.

[01:05:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Employees have forged ahead with generative AI.

[01:05:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, companies lag behind.

[01:05:51] [SPEAKER_01]: This is a McKinsey report.

[01:05:52] [SPEAKER_01]: It kind of ties into what,

[01:05:53] [SPEAKER_01]: well, we've just been talking about employees.

[01:05:56] [SPEAKER_01]: I think there was a,

[01:05:57] [SPEAKER_01]: trying to remember what the number was.

[01:05:59] [SPEAKER_01]: It talks about 91% of survey respondents

[01:06:02] [SPEAKER_01]: saying they use AI for work through internal or

[01:06:06] [SPEAKER_01]: public-evalible tools.

[01:06:08] [SPEAKER_01]: But I think what we're probably would see if we really

[01:06:10] [SPEAKER_01]: peeled that onion back is that they're publicly available

[01:06:13] [SPEAKER_01]: tools, not necessarily company tools.

[01:06:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.

[01:06:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.

[01:06:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Not company tools.

[01:06:19] [SPEAKER_01]: And there is big risk at that is what is discussed here.

[01:06:23] [SPEAKER_01]: So companies are going to need to get caught up on this stuff as well.

[01:06:26] [SPEAKER_01]: So any thoughts on that before we jump ahead?

[01:06:28] [SPEAKER_01]: We've got a couple of things.

[01:06:30] [SPEAKER_00]: That's a good summary.

[01:06:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, good.

[01:06:32] [SPEAKER_01]: So another article here about succession planning,

[01:06:35] [SPEAKER_01]: key to retaining supply chain expertise,

[01:06:38] [SPEAKER_01]: millennials, people are changing.

[01:06:40] [SPEAKER_01]: I can't remember how this stat was traveling this week.

[01:06:45] [SPEAKER_01]: The number of baby boomers that retire,

[01:06:49] [SPEAKER_01]: are retiring daily.

[01:06:51] [SPEAKER_01]: It was, I was astounded by the number.

[01:06:55] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, literally I was astounded as probably

[01:07:00] [SPEAKER_01]: an understatement.

[01:07:02] [SPEAKER_01]: So we know on the B2B side of things that was 62% of B2B

[01:07:09] [SPEAKER_01]: buyers or millennials were seeing that on all sides of

[01:07:13] [SPEAKER_01]: distribution.

[01:07:14] [SPEAKER_01]: And now this is talking about the supply chain.

[01:07:16] [SPEAKER_01]: If you have a succession plan in place for getting the right people

[01:07:19] [SPEAKER_01]: to come in, learn that tribal knowledge,

[01:07:21] [SPEAKER_01]: learn the other data that's available there

[01:07:23] [SPEAKER_01]: to help things move ahead.

[01:07:25] [SPEAKER_01]: So how was that summary?

[01:07:27] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[01:07:29] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[01:07:30] [SPEAKER_01]: But this one's important.

[01:07:33] [SPEAKER_01]: The last one here from again from HRDive,

[01:07:35] [SPEAKER_01]: US Women aren't projected to reach full pay equity

[01:07:38] [SPEAKER_01]: until 2048.

[01:07:40] [SPEAKER_01]: That's 24 years.

[01:07:42] [SPEAKER_01]: That's just stupid.

[01:07:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm going to tell that.

[01:07:45] [SPEAKER_00]: That was actually quite shocked about this

[01:07:47] [SPEAKER_00]: about some of the data in here.

[01:07:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, it says despite progress

[01:07:52] [SPEAKER_01]: and closing the gender pay gap,

[01:07:54] [SPEAKER_01]: US Women still learned about 15% less than men.

[01:07:57] [SPEAKER_01]: I rarely meet a woman that's not smarter than me.

[01:08:00] [SPEAKER_01]: So this to me doesn't make any sense.

[01:08:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I don't.

[01:08:05] [SPEAKER_00]: So maybe we need to cut your pay and give the women more,

[01:08:07] [SPEAKER_00]: I think is what we ought to do.

[01:08:09] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm sorry.

[01:08:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Something wrong with your microphone.

[01:08:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's all right.

[01:08:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Let's keep going.

[01:08:14] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[01:08:14] [SPEAKER_01]: With that, I've been to our industry scuddle about sex

[01:08:16] [SPEAKER_01]: and we do each week a little bit about motion industries

[01:08:19] [SPEAKER_01]: and an acquisition.

[01:08:22] [SPEAKER_01]: The next week talk about here.

[01:08:23] [SPEAKER_01]: It's from Industrial Distribution Magazine.

[01:08:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Distribution Solutions group,

[01:08:27] [SPEAKER_01]: which also goes by DSG here in the US,

[01:08:31] [SPEAKER_01]: closes their source Atlantic acquisition.

[01:08:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Source Atlantic is, I think, I just met with a group

[01:08:36] [SPEAKER_01]: from, at the event, I was at this week

[01:08:38] [SPEAKER_01]: from Force Atlantic and a source Atlantic.

[01:08:40] [SPEAKER_01]: Great group, broad line distribution,

[01:08:43] [SPEAKER_01]: everything from industrial and cross

[01:08:44] [SPEAKER_01]: to varying some power transmission.

[01:08:48] [SPEAKER_01]: It was just acquired the two people

[01:08:50] [SPEAKER_01]: I met with senior level managers

[01:08:52] [SPEAKER_01]: and were absolutely ecstatic about this acquisition.

[01:08:56] [SPEAKER_01]: They go from the Maritime's in Canada across

[01:09:01] [SPEAKER_01]: almost all the provinces.

[01:09:02] [SPEAKER_01]: I think they're in five provinces in Canada

[01:09:05] [SPEAKER_01]: and they're growing.

[01:09:07] [SPEAKER_01]: So cool acquisition is to see

[01:09:08] [SPEAKER_01]: congratulations to both sides of that deal.

[01:09:12] [SPEAKER_01]: There was an article here that I wanted to dig into further

[01:09:15] [SPEAKER_01]: and re-close for myself.

[01:09:16] [SPEAKER_01]: It's from modern distribution management.

[01:09:19] [SPEAKER_01]: We get a lot of our data and share a lot back

[01:09:22] [SPEAKER_01]: and forth with the folks from MDM.

[01:09:24] [SPEAKER_01]: I had to spend over an hour with Tom Gail

[01:09:26] [SPEAKER_01]: from the founder of MDM,

[01:09:29] [SPEAKER_01]: who's just sold the company to the National Association

[01:09:32] [SPEAKER_01]: of Holsellers and Tom is just a wealth of wisdom.

[01:09:35] [SPEAKER_01]: We sat for well over an hour, over a beer

[01:09:39] [SPEAKER_01]: and just chatted about the market and distribution

[01:09:42] [SPEAKER_01]: and just Tom, if you're listening to,

[01:09:44] [SPEAKER_01]: they think for that time

[01:09:45] [SPEAKER_01]: because it was really valuable to me.

[01:09:47] [SPEAKER_01]: We had a great time.

[01:09:48] [SPEAKER_01]: But then it's article about former steel distributor

[01:09:50] [SPEAKER_01]: pleads executive pleads guilty to price fixing.

[01:09:53] [SPEAKER_01]: And this was related to, I think,

[01:09:55] [SPEAKER_01]: pipe valve and fitting stuff.

[01:09:57] [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm sorry, it wasn't.

[01:09:58] [SPEAKER_01]: It was related to rebar and steel or construction.

[01:10:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Don't play those games, right?

[01:10:03] [SPEAKER_01]: You will go to jail.

[01:10:06] [SPEAKER_00]: So we're gonna get the FTC on them.

[01:10:08] [SPEAKER_01]: That's right.

[01:10:09] [SPEAKER_01]: There you go, Lee.

[01:10:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Back to the con corner in around the Horn

[01:10:13] [SPEAKER_01]: and Holseller distribution.

[01:10:15] [SPEAKER_01]: So we have a segment each week called Good Reads.

[01:10:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Time to take a look at that.

[01:10:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Perfect.

[01:10:20] [SPEAKER_01]: If my strategies do avoid midyear burnout this summer,

[01:10:23] [SPEAKER_00]: I did.

[01:10:24] [SPEAKER_00]: I was surprised that they said how many people were

[01:10:27] [SPEAKER_00]: the phomo that people get from watching social media

[01:10:30] [SPEAKER_00]: of people on vacation and then, you know,

[01:10:34] [SPEAKER_00]: beaches and all that kind of stuff.

[01:10:35] [SPEAKER_00]: I had never thought of that.

[01:10:37] [SPEAKER_01]: It's all the tourism, tourism add dollars

[01:10:40] [SPEAKER_01]: to all the North and the North and the influencers

[01:10:42] [SPEAKER_01]: and so forth.

[01:10:43] [SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, we always try in that good read section

[01:10:45] [SPEAKER_01]: oftentimes it might be from fast company

[01:10:47] [SPEAKER_01]: or from Mink Agazine and that segment.

[01:10:50] [SPEAKER_01]: We try and, you know, not necessarily focus just on

[01:10:53] [SPEAKER_01]: on the business standpoint,

[01:10:54] [SPEAKER_01]: but sometimes it's the personal side of things too.

[01:10:57] [SPEAKER_01]: So again, if you don't get the newsletter, let us know

[01:10:59] [SPEAKER_01]: and you'll get that each week.

[01:11:02] [SPEAKER_01]: I did want to jump.

[01:11:03] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna pass by.

[01:11:04] [SPEAKER_01]: We have a segment there called a second look each week

[01:11:07] [SPEAKER_01]: if we've talked about some things before.

[01:11:09] [SPEAKER_01]: There's a strike at the world's largest copper mine.

[01:11:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Which threatens prices.

[01:11:14] [SPEAKER_01]: And I'll step and think about that.

[01:11:16] [SPEAKER_01]: If, you know, you drive down the street at least here

[01:11:18] [SPEAKER_01]: in Southern California where I'm at,

[01:11:20] [SPEAKER_01]: it's all you hear about is people, you know,

[01:11:22] [SPEAKER_01]: knocking over light posts to strip the copper wiring out

[01:11:26] [SPEAKER_01]: of it to sell it.

[01:11:27] [SPEAKER_01]: And now we could have a shortage that is gonna threaten

[01:11:30] [SPEAKER_01]: those prices even more.

[01:11:31] [SPEAKER_01]: So that's something we'll pay attention to.

[01:11:33] [SPEAKER_01]: But we talked quite a bit today, Tom, about AI

[01:11:36] [SPEAKER_01]: and we do that regularly.

[01:11:39] [SPEAKER_01]: David Gordon, that publishes electrical trends.com.

[01:11:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe there's a similar publication for the HPDC market.

[01:11:47] [SPEAKER_01]: He's been on the show with us,

[01:11:49] [SPEAKER_01]: and we get him back soon again.

[01:11:50] [SPEAKER_01]: He did a whole segment on chatGPT prompts

[01:11:53] [SPEAKER_01]: for electrical salespeople and I loved it.

[01:11:58] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I was real practical, real good practical information.

[01:12:01] [SPEAKER_01]: The cool is, so David, thank you.

[01:12:03] [SPEAKER_01]: I know he joins us from fairly regular if you're with us.

[01:12:06] [SPEAKER_01]: I thought it was just really solid because it's easy

[01:12:09] [SPEAKER_01]: for us to talk at, you know, 30,000 level about the things

[01:12:13] [SPEAKER_01]: that happen with AI, which was what we really typically do.

[01:12:16] [SPEAKER_01]: He broke it down and says, so instead of us talking

[01:12:19] [SPEAKER_01]: about all the tools that it can help an electrical salesperson

[01:12:22] [SPEAKER_01]: or an HVAC salesperson or whatever,

[01:12:24] [SPEAKER_01]: he'd break in down prompts about what to ask,

[01:12:27] [SPEAKER_01]: chatGPT or whatever tool you're using,

[01:12:30] [SPEAKER_01]: and that will really be beneficial.

[01:12:32] [SPEAKER_01]: So if you don't follow David Gordon on LinkedIn,

[01:12:36] [SPEAKER_01]: do so electricaltrens.com is his publication as well.

[01:12:41] [SPEAKER_01]: So good stuff there.

[01:12:42] [SPEAKER_01]: So I, again, I just thought it was so practical.

[01:12:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Yep, that was really good.

[01:12:46] [SPEAKER_01]: All right, what else do we have before we close it out today?

[01:12:49] [SPEAKER_00]: I think that's enough.

[01:12:51] [SPEAKER_00]: I think that is enough.

[01:12:52] [SPEAKER_01]: We went fast, we covered a lot.

[01:12:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Lot of ground.

[01:12:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Yep, good.

[01:12:56] [SPEAKER_01]: We appreciate the comments for today.

[01:12:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, thanks Bob and Brian, some really good insights.

[01:13:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Appreciate that.

[01:13:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Any big weekend plans, my friend?

[01:13:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Not big ones now.

[01:13:08] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to get to the beach.

[01:13:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Ain't full's bad doing so much better.

[01:13:13] [SPEAKER_01]: I've got to be gone a lot over the next few months.

[01:13:15] [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm going to take some time with a wife this weekend

[01:13:17] [SPEAKER_01]: and get some toes in the sand.

[01:13:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Let me have some pictures on it.

[01:13:20] [SPEAKER_00]: And I can have foam off from you being a good beach.

[01:13:22] [SPEAKER_01]: That's right, yeah.

[01:13:24] [SPEAKER_01]: That's right.

[01:13:24] [SPEAKER_01]: I'll send you a picture of my IPA and toes in the sand

[01:13:28] [SPEAKER_01]: if everything plays out.

[01:13:30] [SPEAKER_01]: So we'll go from there.

[01:13:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, everybody thanks for being with us.

[01:13:33] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Kevin Brown.

[01:13:34] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm here with Tom Burton, Tom and I've been friends.

[01:13:36] [SPEAKER_01]: It's kindergarten.

[01:13:37] [SPEAKER_01]: We now work together.

[01:13:38] [SPEAKER_01]: It leads to more technologies.

[01:13:39] [SPEAKER_01]: We get to together each week.

[01:13:41] [SPEAKER_01]: And we talk about trends in the economy

[01:13:44] [SPEAKER_01]: and mergers and acquisitions and supply chain.

[01:13:47] [SPEAKER_01]: And all of these things, and hopefully we've

[01:13:48] [SPEAKER_01]: been bringing some value.

[01:13:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Again, what we mentioned earlier today is if you get any

[01:13:52] [SPEAKER_01]: value out of this, follow us, subscribe.

[01:13:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Leave a review if you're on the podcast.

[01:13:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Share with your friends.

[01:14:01] [SPEAKER_01]: And we'll get the word out and we'll

[01:14:02] [SPEAKER_01]: allow us to keep doing that.

[01:14:03] [SPEAKER_01]: We couldn't do this if we didn't have the help of the company

[01:14:06] [SPEAKER_01]: that Tom and I work for lead smart technologies.

[01:14:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Again, if you're in the wholesale distribution or manufacturing

[01:14:11] [SPEAKER_01]: world and you're trying to navigate your future related

[01:14:16] [SPEAKER_01]: to the world of AI customer intelligence

[01:14:20] [SPEAKER_01]: and accelerated growth within your business,

[01:14:22] [SPEAKER_01]: we would love to talk to you and share with you

[01:14:24] [SPEAKER_01]: how our technology tools can help you in that growth.

[01:14:27] [SPEAKER_01]: And have that kind of conversation.

[01:14:30] [SPEAKER_01]: So that's it for us today, Tom.

[01:14:32] [SPEAKER_01]: You're still smiling.

[01:14:33] [SPEAKER_01]: I think Bob, I don't know if we can let him

[01:14:35] [SPEAKER_01]: but I've never been insulted like that in my life.

[01:14:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Tom says I think you're actually for charitable twins.

[01:14:42] [SPEAKER_01]: That's it.

[01:14:43] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm done.

[01:14:44] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not coming back.

[01:14:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Bob, what black ball from all further?

[01:14:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[01:14:48] [SPEAKER_01]: You know, as funny as I guess that teaches me

[01:14:50] [SPEAKER_01]: for disagreeing with Bob's take on something

[01:14:53] [SPEAKER_01]: a little earlier today.

[01:14:54] [SPEAKER_01]: So that's a funny closing comment.

[01:14:56] [SPEAKER_01]: So at that note, everybody, have a wonderful weekend.

[01:14:59] [SPEAKER_01]: We hope to see you next week.

[01:15:01] [SPEAKER_01]: We'll have probably new news next week on what's

[01:15:03] [SPEAKER_01]: how many interest rate cuts there going to be?

[01:15:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Based upon what happens in the US economy this week.

[01:15:08] [SPEAKER_01]: But we thank you for being with us.

[01:15:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Have a great weekend.

[01:15:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Be kind, be safe and do good things.

[01:15:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks everyone.