Navigating The Digital Landscape, From Content To ROI

[00:00:00] Welcome to Around the Horn in Wholesale Distribution with Kevin Brown and Tom Burton.

[00:00:10] Sponsored each week by Leedsmart Technologies, Tom, Kevin and their guests review the news

[00:00:15] of the week and dive deep into the topics impacting manufacturers, wholesale distribution,

[00:00:20] independent sales agents, and the global wholesale supply chain.

[00:00:25] Whether it's M&A, SaaS and cloud computing, B2B e-commerce or supply chain issues, we

[00:00:31] peel back the onion with our guests into the topics that impact your business the most.

[00:00:37] Tom Burton, Kevin Brown, we are joining you every Friday morning to discuss the topics

[00:00:44] around the world, mostly in the Americas here about manufacturing, wholesale distribution,

[00:00:52] economy, sales and marketing, mergers and acquisitions, technology, AI, and many, many different things.

[00:00:58] What we do each week is Tom and I get together, we're doing it today as 86 times.

[00:01:06] We've done this where we've gotten together with a community online and chatted about

[00:01:11] the topics going on as it relates to wholesale distribution and manufacturing.

[00:01:15] We publish a newsletter every week, it's called Around the Horn in Wholesale Distribution.

[00:01:19] We bring together lots of unique articles and interesting information and we get together

[00:01:23] on Fridays and we talk about that newsletter.

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[00:02:25] You got thoughts or comments?

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[00:02:27] In fact, if you're joining us live today, chime in in the comments and let us know

[00:02:31] where you're from.

[00:02:32] Share your thoughts.

[00:02:33] Lastly, we couldn't do this each week if we didn't have the sponsorship from this

[00:02:37] company that Tom and I work for, which is Leedsmart Technologies.

[00:02:41] Leedsmart has developed a AI enabled customer intelligence and CRM platform that connects

[00:02:47] to external data resources within your business like ERP and marketing automation and e-commerce

[00:02:52] products and so forth.

[00:02:53] We bring all that data together in one format, in one platform and we run AI models

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[00:03:10] Tom, did I miss anything?

[00:03:11] Did I get our house key?

[00:03:12] I think that's good and you mentioned if you're online.

[00:03:15] Oh, good Paul.

[00:03:16] Good to see you.

[00:03:17] We've been having...

[00:03:18] Quite easy.

[00:03:19] Paul said he's at 35,000 feet.

[00:03:22] Okay.

[00:03:23] I hope you're in a plane or...

[00:03:25] Yeah, good point.

[00:03:27] But yeah, let us know.

[00:03:30] Hey Scott, as well, good.

[00:03:32] We've had some issues with the comments coming through.

[00:03:37] But hey, this is a new one.

[00:03:38] We're at the Mile High Club I guess now or the multiple Mile High Club here with Paul.

[00:03:43] So we want to put that Mile High Club thought together and my friend Paul Kennedy in the

[00:03:47] same...

[00:03:48] Yeah, okay.

[00:03:49] I think Paul's off to Eastern Europe somewhere to start opening DSG branches because they

[00:03:56] just open another location this week and are growing, growing, growing.

[00:03:59] It's on the phone with a couple of their people this week.

[00:04:02] What a great organization.

[00:04:03] So Paul, we appreciate you being with us regularly.

[00:04:06] So anyway, if you're definitely online, let us know you're here.

[00:04:09] Like I said, we've been having some trouble the last few weeks with comments coming through,

[00:04:12] but so far so good.

[00:04:14] So yeah, I'm sorry Paul, that was a bad analogy.

[00:04:18] Bad analogy.

[00:04:19] So let's move on here.

[00:04:20] Let's get into the news.

[00:04:21] Good.

[00:04:22] Nice to have Scott with us as well.

[00:04:24] In fact, Scott's a California guy onto an Arizona guy and now Minneapolis guy.

[00:04:29] So Scott leads with us as well.

[00:04:31] And I'm sure we've got lots more than a little timid to jump in here.

[00:04:36] So yeah, let's dive into each week in our newsletter.

[00:04:39] We split that up into topics like we start off with the economy and supply chain and

[00:04:43] we move in and talk about people and sales and marketing and technology and cybersecurity,

[00:04:47] but we'll start off with the economy and supply chain.

[00:04:51] So I have Tom, I have informed Mrs. Brown that we might be having ground beef and

[00:04:58] ground turkey and beans for a bit coming into the next couple of months because I might owe

[00:05:04] you a steak.

[00:05:06] I think it's looking highly likely, yes, highly likely.

[00:05:09] I think it was the wine too.

[00:05:11] I think you said steak and wine.

[00:05:12] I wasn't mistaken, but yes.

[00:05:14] I'll bring the wine in that case.

[00:05:17] I have better wine than Chuck's does anyways, but yeah.

[00:05:20] Yeah, it's, you know, so I'm going to make another prediction though.

[00:05:26] I'm still definitely doubling down on my one cut this year, but I think we're going to see

[00:05:32] four cuts next year in 2025.

[00:05:35] So, so unpack that a little bit.

[00:05:37] And the article that we first published today is about wholesale inflation heated up again

[00:05:43] last month.

[00:05:44] We were talking about the PPI or the producer pricing index.

[00:05:47] So that's one of the key indexes the Fed looks at along with the consumer pricing

[00:05:52] index.

[00:05:53] What is tied to the producer price index is what does it cost to make stuff?

[00:05:57] Right.

[00:05:58] So anyways, tie that.

[00:05:59] I just wanted to tie that back in.

[00:06:01] And then the second article obviously is a CPI one, which is the consumer price index.

[00:06:05] So bottom line, it costs more to make things and it costs more to buy things in the

[00:06:10] last month.

[00:06:11] And you know, I think I sent you an article, you know, now there's talks of potentially

[00:06:16] no cuts this year.

[00:06:17] I don't buy that.

[00:06:18] I think they're, you know, and you made a good point last week about, there's just

[00:06:22] expectations that I think there is an expectation that something is going to happen this year.

[00:06:28] And I don't think that those that expectation can be ignored.

[00:06:32] But I do think I'm still definitely on the on the one.

[00:06:35] What I do think however is that there's a number of variables and again not to

[00:06:40] be pessimistic, but if I just look ahead into 2025, there's a lot of things that

[00:06:46] I think are going to potentially come together that could cause a bit of a slow

[00:06:51] down.

[00:06:52] And as a result of the economic slowdown, obviously ideally or we should see a

[00:06:57] reduction in inflation and prices as well.

[00:07:00] And I think we're going to see a faster pace of cuts next year.

[00:07:04] One of those impacts I really, I know people might call me crazy, but I

[00:07:08] actually think that with the AI maturity that's I believe will happen

[00:07:13] predominantly in the second half of this year.

[00:07:16] We're going to see more layoffs and we're going to see more people out of work

[00:07:19] and just things like that happening that I think you're going to reduce the

[00:07:25] consumer spending and will just cause things to maybe ease a bit.

[00:07:28] So anyway, you've now had my 18 month predictions on what's happening.

[00:07:33] That's good.

[00:07:34] I'm not ready to put any more bets out there yet.

[00:07:37] I will tell you this.

[00:07:38] It's interesting by the way, just nice note from Terry.

[00:07:43] She's in Chicago land area and Darlene is not far away as well here today.

[00:07:48] So the I guess you triggered something for me last week and talking

[00:07:55] about maybe just one cut with a half of, you know, 500 basis points or

[00:08:03] a half a percentage cut versus quarter percentage cuts.

[00:08:07] And hadn't thought of it at all that way before we were talking about

[00:08:10] last week when we had Lynn Cheson with us on the show.

[00:08:13] But you know what really, really triggers for me is I think about that is and

[00:08:19] by the way, you know, I heard some pundit yesterday say their thoughts were,

[00:08:25] you know, we're like more likely to get an increase than a reduction in any

[00:08:29] rates and I think that's absolutely ridiculous and it wasn't anybody

[00:08:32] that's tied to the Fed or anything like that.

[00:08:34] But I think you're still seeing a lot of that discussion if you, you know,

[00:08:40] MSNBC, you know, or CNBC, I should say that MSNBC, but CNBC Bloomberg,

[00:08:45] some of the folks that they're talking to are they're still talking about

[00:08:48] two less people talking about three.

[00:08:51] But what's interesting is and hadn't thought about this at all until

[00:08:54] you brought it up last week was that because you were talking about maybe

[00:09:00] instead of two smaller ones, we get one bigger one.

[00:09:03] I could see us actually getting two or maybe three of the quarter point ones

[00:09:09] so that there's the feel that the Fed is saying, Hey, you know what?

[00:09:14] We're not we see what's coming.

[00:09:17] We're not doing big cuts, but feel good because we gave you two.

[00:09:21] It's the same amount, but we gave you two, right?

[00:09:26] Again, what we'll obviously see I'm sticking with my one.

[00:09:30] I'm probably at this point sticking with my one and a quarter point,

[00:09:33] but I don't think a half a point is out of the realm of possibilities.

[00:09:37] So clearly the world of technology thought you were wrong because it just

[00:09:41] took your picture away for about 10 seconds there.

[00:09:43] So I just got tired of looking at me.

[00:09:45] All right. Very good.

[00:09:47] Yeah. So anyways, we see these, you know, then the reality of it is

[00:09:50] it just kind of goes back to this simmering up and down thing

[00:09:53] that we've been kind of talking about, right?

[00:09:55] We'd rather see a rolling boil than a simmer

[00:09:59] with stuff that we're so and people are spending.

[00:10:01] I mean, there's no doubt about it, right?

[00:10:02] There is people are spending, they're spending money.

[00:10:05] They're continuing to put money on credit.

[00:10:08] I mean, it's actually quite remarkable.

[00:10:10] And when you're spending, right, prices tend to go up.

[00:10:14] Well, I think for the most part that is if we looked at the statistic

[00:10:19] you're going to see that a big part of that spending is probably folks

[00:10:22] in the millennial range or lower because they've never experienced

[00:10:27] in their life, you know, I mean, we remember, you know, lines to get gas,

[00:10:31] right, in the 70s and weird things happening in the economy.

[00:10:36] We think about, you know, and I'm certainly as I say every week,

[00:10:40] far from an economist, but the

[00:10:45] as you look at kind of what's been going on here,

[00:10:48] you know, we're frustrated because of mortgage rates in the 70s.

[00:10:51] But in the 80s, we were 10, 12, 14 percent or more.

[00:10:55] Right. And and, you know, in our parents' days,

[00:11:00] you know, 10 percent mortgage rate would have been, you know, a luxury.

[00:11:04] Right. Because so but I think what we're seeing is a lot of that exuberance.

[00:11:08] Maybe exuberance is too strong of a word.

[00:11:10] But a lot of what you see going on out there from that high spending

[00:11:14] is from people who have never experienced a downturn before or of major

[00:11:18] or when we saw 2008, 2009 and that time,

[00:11:22] they were too young to even really understand what was going on.

[00:11:26] Yeah, maybe, maybe. So anyway, still sticking with my one.

[00:11:30] I'm yeah, I'm getting ready looking forward to that state.

[00:11:33] Well, there's no turning back for either of us at this point.

[00:11:36] So you're hoping for maybe we need to do the show live from Shucks

[00:11:41] while we're eating the stakes.

[00:11:41] Yeah, it's pretty funny.

[00:11:43] So hey, you know what? As we say that,

[00:11:45] I'm going to throw this out before we leave our economy and supply chain section.

[00:11:50] I'm just going to throw that out to whether you're listening live or not is,

[00:11:54] you know, we're just where are we at 14 weeks away from the 100th episode

[00:11:59] and and or the hundred show.

[00:12:01] We've got to do something right?

[00:12:03] We can't have used you in a condo and me in my home office

[00:12:09] for that milestone. And it's it's astounding.

[00:12:12] I've got to come up with the statistics on how few podcasts actually make it

[00:12:16] that far. And I don't know if we're just, you know,

[00:12:20] crazy and keep going like others give up.

[00:12:25] But getting to 100 is a big, big deal that I'm proud of you

[00:12:29] and what we've done with that.

[00:12:30] So we're going to have some level of celebration that ties into that.

[00:12:33] So we got to map that out and figure out maybe we do it from the

[00:12:37] from the beach in Laguna here and and with umbrellas and boat drinks

[00:12:41] and beach chairs or something.

[00:12:43] So let's figure that out.

[00:12:45] That should be a good audio visual experience.

[00:12:47] Yeah, right.

[00:12:48] Right. The cameras would only be pointing at the ocean at that point.

[00:12:53] Yeah, good point.

[00:12:54] The but the reason I bring that up is if you got ideas,

[00:12:58] throw them out to us.

[00:12:58] Let us know what we might might do for 100th episode might be fine.

[00:13:02] So before we jump ahead, Paul Kennedy says, take the show on the road.

[00:13:06] I think that was an invitation to do that from the Dakota supply groups,

[00:13:11] corporate headquarters in in the Twin Cities.

[00:13:13] So maybe we'll head like a lot of family in Twin Cities.

[00:13:16] So that would be OK.

[00:13:18] I just want to go have dinner with Paul.

[00:13:21] Some good to be good, too.

[00:13:22] He's got some great folks on his team.

[00:13:24] We made I'm thinking there might be a I've got a waterfront

[00:13:28] location in mind that could possibly work, but we'll figure it out.

[00:13:31] A lot of lakes in Minnesota.

[00:13:33] There is. That's a good point.

[00:13:35] Maybe we, you know, we've got a regular listener and a

[00:13:39] and a longtime Leedsmart customer that just bought a lodge in Montana, too.

[00:13:45] That's OK.

[00:13:47] Now we get the juices going.

[00:13:49] All right, everybody, keep that happening.

[00:13:50] All right, very good.

[00:13:52] So like Mike France, you said, come on up.

[00:13:54] Mike's in Minnesota, too.

[00:13:56] So that's that we'll have to keep figuring this.

[00:13:59] So but listen, we've been talking a lot in the last getting back to the

[00:14:04] the reason that we're here and why people spend time with us is.

[00:14:08] We've talked a lot about supply chain stuff and important issues.

[00:14:12] Right. Last year we were talking about West Coast port problems and potential

[00:14:17] strikes, then we had the Canadian issues earlier this year.

[00:14:20] We were talking about a potential east coast and Gulf Coast

[00:14:23] or Gulf Coast strike issues.

[00:14:25] But now we've got what we've been talking about with this kind of

[00:14:28] perfect storm triple threat with Panama Canal issues.

[00:14:33] We've got issues with Suez Canal, with the Houtti rebels

[00:14:37] and the bombings and stuff for them and going on there.

[00:14:40] And now we've got this tragedy in Baltimore.

[00:14:43] So, you know, this is this resiliency thing.

[00:14:45] And I think it's, you know, we've talked about it regularly,

[00:14:48] but I think it's just really reinforces, you know, we've got

[00:14:52] lots of folks here running large organizations that listen in.

[00:14:55] And we had Mike Mortensen from ARG Supply in Alaska on with us a while back.

[00:15:00] And we were talking about this.

[00:15:02] I don't remember what Mike was talking about.

[00:15:04] You know, never before have they had more conversations

[00:15:07] with their vendors about what their vendors supply chain looks like.

[00:15:13] Right. And understanding that because this is a time where we've got to be,

[00:15:18] you know, plowing through and knowing really what's happening.

[00:15:22] They're talking, you know, it could be just even the end of May

[00:15:25] that they could have a portion of the channel open in Baltimore.

[00:15:29] But right now they're only getting some small, you know, more like tugboats

[00:15:32] and some a few barges through.

[00:15:35] And this article, you know, talked about the

[00:15:40] this was from supply chain exchange magazine and or dot com.

[00:15:44] And they talk about

[00:15:48] the capacity of the number of 20 20 foot containers

[00:15:51] they can get through or T.E.U.'s, you know, 48000 go through that

[00:15:56] just in January or a month.

[00:15:57] And there's hundreds of thousands, you know, of those going through

[00:16:00] some of the bigger ports.

[00:16:02] But it did have this same conversation

[00:16:05] that it's not having a major that one thing is not having a major impact.

[00:16:10] When we start putting these things together, what starts to happen

[00:16:14] is we have supply chain issues.

[00:16:15] But the biggest thing that's going to come out of this probably

[00:16:19] when you added that third layer is cost.

[00:16:23] Right.

[00:16:24] But this article was I think looking at things from a little bit

[00:16:27] of a different stance is despite all of that.

[00:16:30] Yeah, right.

[00:16:31] Is, you know, overall, we're being very resilient.

[00:16:35] We're finding workarounds.

[00:16:37] We're doing things and I would bet, right?

[00:16:40] For sure, I completely agree that probably most distributors

[00:16:43] are definitely working with their manufacturers and manufacturers

[00:16:46] are also very much digging into their different supply change options.

[00:16:51] I think this has been

[00:16:53] I think we're going to end up a lot bigger, better and stronger

[00:16:55] as a result of all of this and looking at options and looking at things.

[00:16:59] And I think that's what this article talks a little bit about,

[00:17:02] despite all the crap we're making it, you know, still making it go.

[00:17:07] Yeah. So they talked about to your point, they made the quote

[00:17:10] what has been done with work and resiliency

[00:17:13] is result in a relatively stable supply chains in a short period of time.

[00:17:17] But what they also talked about and they don't meant

[00:17:19] they meant they don't mention the result in this article.

[00:17:22] They talk about what's happening though, right?

[00:17:24] Ships are going the longer route and they're going faster.

[00:17:28] Right. That adds huge cost.

[00:17:30] That does that cost. Yes, yes, it is.

[00:17:32] So that's the big issue here is in the PPE or the producer price index

[00:17:37] that we were just talking about.

[00:17:38] Yep, exactly right.

[00:17:39] And so now we've got these added costs to get even finished goods

[00:17:43] and raw goods that are coming to North America

[00:17:47] and other parts of the world.

[00:17:48] Right. And you know, it's if you think about something going from Asia

[00:17:51] to Europe to not go through the Suez Canal is

[00:17:56] it's devastating right from that time standpoint.

[00:17:59] So yeah, you're right that this talked about how we've been somewhat resilient so far.

[00:18:04] But that resiliency piece and I think what we're learning from all of this is

[00:18:08] we can't only be thinking about resiliency in our supply chain

[00:18:11] and resiliency is probably too simple of a word

[00:18:15] is that it's more of a have this be part of our

[00:18:20] you know, I mean, sometimes people have a title of somebody

[00:18:22] within the organization or a group of people that's called supply chain analysts

[00:18:26] and things like that.

[00:18:27] Well, that's usually tied to managing numbers

[00:18:31] versus how we're getting things right and supply chain,

[00:18:35] you know, optimization and so forth is often tied to crunching

[00:18:40] the numbers about delivery rates and things like that.

[00:18:42] But I think this is going to become more and more important,

[00:18:45] more and more powerful to those wholesale distributors

[00:18:50] and manufacturers who are taking advantage of understanding this

[00:18:53] are going to be the ones that are thriving more

[00:18:56] because I don't think these things are going to go away.

[00:18:58] I think what the risk is right.

[00:18:59] Can you imagine is if this and I'm assuming

[00:19:03] the unions probably not the East Coast and

[00:19:07] and Gulf Coast Port Workers Union

[00:19:10] probably is going to be smart enough to not go on their strike

[00:19:14] that's I think two or three months away while this issue is going on

[00:19:19] this tragedy in one of the ports that they impact.

[00:19:21] So hopefully that's the case, but imagine through all of this

[00:19:25] if the Port Workers went on strike as we talked about a month or so ago

[00:19:29] was was their deal was being negotiated to be a challenge.

[00:19:35] So anyways, let's jump ahead.

[00:19:37] Let's go into our manufacturing and distribution segment.

[00:19:41] There was a good article here about manufacturing numbers as well.

[00:19:46] And this did kind of a year a month compared to previous year months.

[00:19:52] You know, there's parts of it are down, but

[00:19:55] they talked about how strong the first quarter of last year was,

[00:19:59] which would make it hard to kind of catch up with for this quarter

[00:20:02] this year as well. Right?

[00:20:04] Yeah, so I mean, it looked like it was a big jump in the first month.

[00:20:08] And then there was a decline from last year.

[00:20:10] So a bit of a roller coaster on could just be some numbers

[00:20:13] things that are there that looks like overall just things inching up.

[00:20:18] Yeah, well, they talked about expanding to a level for the in the first quarter

[00:20:24] that that's higher and better than since the first quarter of twenty two.

[00:20:28] So, you know, I just think we're going to continue to see these kind of

[00:20:32] good new bad news things. Right?

[00:20:33] We talk about this each week, kind of, but it's important that we're

[00:20:36] keeping on top and looking at these numbers and then understanding

[00:20:40] what they mean to to our businesses.

[00:20:42] We go ahead. So but it's good.

[00:20:45] I think that's important to keep an eye on manufacturing technology,

[00:20:49] the PPI for production costs and so forth is is powerful to do on an ongoing basis.

[00:20:55] Good. All right.

[00:20:56] You want to jump in on this industrial metaverse, not just for large corporations?

[00:21:01] You want to jump on that first?

[00:21:04] Well, I mean, over I was really I was quite impressed with the article.

[00:21:07] I think it really kind of you hear a lot about the metaverse or

[00:21:12] augmented reality or virtual reality.

[00:21:14] Right. You don't really hear a lot about the use cases that are behind it.

[00:21:19] And I thought they really did a nice job in here talking about some of the use cases.

[00:21:23] And I agree.

[00:21:24] I mean, I can't imagine any company large or small here

[00:21:29] in the next five years that would start to invest in

[00:21:33] may almost be negligence, right, to start going and investing

[00:21:35] in building things and putting things together without doing

[00:21:39] some form of metaverse, like lack of better word,

[00:21:45] metaversish sort of testing or prototyping or all of those types of things.

[00:21:52] I mean, it's just, you know, it's it's ridiculous, right?

[00:21:54] To think you try and do that on a trial and error sort of situation.

[00:21:58] And I think that's their point here is that this is going to become the

[00:22:01] standard of this if this will be the norm.

[00:22:03] And this is how manufacturing will be done, regardless of the size of the of the

[00:22:07] organization.

[00:22:08] Well, and so it talks about right.

[00:22:10] And one of the quotes I liked out of the article was it says many people

[00:22:13] associate the concept of the metaverse with a colorful virtual world for

[00:22:17] entertainment and shopping.

[00:22:19] But it says its greatest potential lies in unlocking some infinite value

[00:22:22] for industry.

[00:22:23] And I think that's the case, right?

[00:22:25] So I think where most of our minds go in some of this would be, you

[00:22:28] know, back to was it was that Tom Cruise movie where it's in the room

[00:22:33] and pushing everything around on the virtual screen minority report,

[00:22:38] I think is what it was.

[00:22:40] Or now we see, you know, Apple's goggles, right?

[00:22:43] That they're out with it.

[00:22:44] And Facebook slash meta has their goggles out.

[00:22:48] And, you know, I think we've probably all seen the memes or the YouTube videos

[00:22:51] of people walking down the street with the goggles on and they're like

[00:22:55] playing drums or they're moving emails around or whatever it might be.

[00:22:59] There's so much more to this, right?

[00:23:01] And so what we're talking about now, you know, is that idea of and I

[00:23:05] said it was great.

[00:23:06] It's, you know, the image that goes with the article, you can see it on the

[00:23:09] screen here, you know, someone is wearing some virtual reality goggles

[00:23:13] and they've got what looks like a saws all battery powered saws all in front

[00:23:17] of them where they're able to look at design prototypes and things like that.

[00:23:22] Right.

[00:23:22] So when we can now look at things and say, okay, let's look at not just

[00:23:27] a thinking from a manufacturing standpoint, you know, we're not just

[00:23:32] thinking about, okay, well, if we changed the saw blade to this, here's

[00:23:38] what we have statistically.

[00:23:40] We take that statistical data that we have, we can put that with the

[00:23:44] CAD drawings of what the new model would look like.

[00:23:47] We could take that saw blade and actually put it on four or five

[00:23:51] different vendors piece of virtual equipment and watch what it does.

[00:23:56] And now we're getting this real world thing, not to say that I, you know,

[00:24:01] I do, you know, I'm just going to use a saws all or a reciprocating

[00:24:07] saw like they have looks like here in this article.

[00:24:11] But now I can test, you know, Metabo, Makita, Milwaukee, all of the

[00:24:16] different, you know, Stanley Black and Decker, DeWall.

[00:24:19] I could test my blades virtually with all of the data sets against

[00:24:23] all of those different pieces of equipment.

[00:24:25] And I don't even need to go buy one.

[00:24:28] You know, so those are the types of things that we're going to see.

[00:24:30] And what came through my mind in looking at this, you know, they

[00:24:33] talked about it optimizing production, getting continuous feedback

[00:24:37] loops on what's going on with your production.

[00:24:39] We've talked a number of times about what the Metaverse can do for

[00:24:42] us with training models and so forth that we can build for our teams

[00:24:48] and say, well, what does my business look like if I opened a branch

[00:24:51] here with this many counter people based upon this customer base

[00:24:55] and this end user base?

[00:24:57] Right.

[00:24:57] And now we start virtually seeing not just the data flowing, but

[00:25:01] even what does that look and feel like?

[00:25:03] Right.

[00:25:03] Do we have enough space to do these things?

[00:25:05] One of the things that, you know, came to my mind is if

[00:25:08] you know, if you're thinking about if you're a manufacturer,

[00:25:11] you know, and you figured out how to optimally using the Metaverse

[00:25:16] right to build some tools where you're optimizing your warehouse

[00:25:21] for your pallets, your cases, however you're storing things.

[00:25:26] What great data you could share with your distributor partners.

[00:25:28] It says, hey, you know what?

[00:25:30] The best way to store this for optimization in your cubes or

[00:25:34] loading or unloading or packaging or whatever it is is this.

[00:25:37] We've already done that work and they did all the model testing.

[00:25:40] I think that's a great point.

[00:25:41] I think that if a manufacturer can provide that level of value

[00:25:45] add right to their distributors, that's going to give them a

[00:25:50] big, big advantage.

[00:25:51] So I mean, the more value add that you can provide with that,

[00:25:55] I think that's a really great point.

[00:25:57] Well, and I think right manufacturers, and this is a whole

[00:26:00] new discussion, we could go path, we could go down.

[00:26:03] For the end of the day, manufacturers are always looking

[00:26:06] for how to get more mind share.

[00:26:08] Sure.

[00:26:08] And then, you know, time and energy from their

[00:26:11] distribution partner.

[00:26:12] So what better way than to just, you know, instead of

[00:26:15] sending spec sheets and doing lunch and learns, what if we

[00:26:18] were really helping them optimize and maximize their

[00:26:21] business with tools outside of that are product related.

[00:26:27] Right.

[00:26:27] We've learned this from our testing.

[00:26:30] Let me show you how you can use that in your business.

[00:26:32] Or by the way, we've built our model so that you can

[00:26:35] actually log into a secure area and do some of your own testing.

[00:26:39] Just the, but it's value add right?

[00:26:42] I mean, who are you going to do business with?

[00:26:44] It's, yeah, no, we talk about value add to the end user

[00:26:48] value add from the manufacturer is no different.

[00:26:51] Right.

[00:26:51] Yep.

[00:26:52] And I think that this becomes a trickle down effect.

[00:26:54] My point that I look at the strength of all of this is, and

[00:26:59] we're going to talk about this in a few minutes, right?

[00:27:01] About AI adoption and so forth.

[00:27:03] You don't have to be first.

[00:27:05] In fact, sometimes it's better to be a fast follower.

[00:27:07] But what you do need to be thinking about is whether

[00:27:11] your manufacturer or distributor is, what am I doing to

[00:27:15] stay even with or ahead of my competitive set of factors?

[00:27:21] And am I on the right roadmap so that I do these things and

[00:27:25] get these things right long term, because we talk every week

[00:27:28] about the changing customer and the changing buying habits

[00:27:31] and keeping up with that.

[00:27:32] So if a manufacturer can partner with a distributor,

[00:27:35] everybody doing more to serve the end user.

[00:27:37] It's great.

[00:27:38] And if obviously if you're a manufacturer that provides

[00:27:41] more value with a better product, you're going to,

[00:27:44] you know, take the lead over your competitors.

[00:27:46] So I thought it was good.

[00:27:48] It's a good article about that.

[00:27:49] It's a good article.

[00:27:49] Yeah, it's good.

[00:27:50] Yeah.

[00:27:51] It's actually it's from a British publication.

[00:27:55] I think it was called the manufacturer.com and it spoke to

[00:28:00] and got a lot of information about from a division of Siemens.

[00:28:04] And Siemens is a monster German company.

[00:28:08] And but they talked about how they're doing it in small

[00:28:12] business units, which I thought was cool too.

[00:28:14] All right.

[00:28:15] E-commerce and marketing jumping into our next segment section

[00:28:18] here, the first article talks about Granger doubling down on

[00:28:23] digital commerce.

[00:28:24] Do you have any thoughts that came out of that?

[00:28:27] I had questions just because I don't fully understand the whole

[00:28:30] I'm not an expert on Granger's digital strategy, but it

[00:28:34] sounds like from reading this and I'd like your take on it is

[00:28:39] they have kind of two different web presences.

[00:28:41] So they have one is maybe Granger.com, which is a bit more

[00:28:44] full serve, more aligned with their sales team.

[00:28:48] And then they have another presence that's more, hey, do it

[00:28:50] yourself and you're more on your own.

[00:28:53] And it looks like they were really expanding the more do it

[00:28:55] yourself in, you know, scenario with which I found interesting.

[00:29:00] I guess for certain, I mean, I guess with their wide

[00:29:02] variety of skews, right?

[00:29:05] There's certainly a lot of skews that probably fit very

[00:29:07] well in that.

[00:29:08] And then there's other skews that fit more and products

[00:29:11] lines that fit more with the full serve approach.

[00:29:14] You're right.

[00:29:15] And so we can talk about that a little bit.

[00:29:17] I don't know if we have some times we get some

[00:29:19] guests that are some wonderful former Granger executives

[00:29:22] that are with us, but Granger used this term.

[00:29:27] They were the first people I ever heard to use this term.

[00:29:30] But it was it's tied to as they call it their

[00:29:35] endless assortment, right?

[00:29:37] And the reality of it is Granger has historically

[00:29:41] been in as a company, as most also distribution is a

[00:29:46] hub and spoke model of branches with distribution

[00:29:49] centers feeding those branches.

[00:29:51] Well, all of a sudden when e-commerce came around, they

[00:29:54] went to that endless assortment, which they went

[00:29:56] to with Granger.com is how they got started, which is

[00:29:59] traditional, right?

[00:30:00] We could plug in, you know, Fastenall.com here,

[00:30:03] MSE.com here, any of the larger publicly traded

[00:30:07] organizations like that, they all kind of worked to jump

[00:30:10] in at varying levels of success and varying time frames.

[00:30:13] And the idea behind that is a big part of what this

[00:30:16] article talks about, right?

[00:30:18] Is when you have an organization and I remember,

[00:30:23] you know, in my earlier days selling to Granger

[00:30:26] and going to Lake Forest regularly as a vendor being

[00:30:29] summoned, as I call it, for a for an overview

[00:30:33] of what they called their Granger Value Advantage

[00:30:35] program. And that was the message that their sellers

[00:30:38] were taking to the end users, which talked about

[00:30:41] the strength of their hub and spoke model and they

[00:30:44] can get you anything quickly.

[00:30:46] But that's out of the branch and that's going on

[00:30:48] a delivery truck or UPS or somebody coming into

[00:30:50] a branch. Well, this e-com piece said now we

[00:30:53] can offer you so many more items that we don't

[00:30:56] have to have in the branch because if they're

[00:30:58] in our hub and spoke model, we can get it out

[00:31:01] of the hub quickly, right?

[00:31:04] And this is I don't want to turn this into a

[00:31:07] discussion of the history of Granger because I

[00:31:09] probably not qualified to talk about this other

[00:31:11] than my personal experience.

[00:31:13] But Granger bought and we think when we had

[00:31:16] Ron Paulson on with us in the Q4 of last

[00:31:19] year, we talked about this a little bit.

[00:31:21] Ron was very involved as a Granger executive

[00:31:23] in the early days of all of this.

[00:31:26] Early, very early in that e-commerce was

[00:31:29] coming along, they bought a company called

[00:31:31] Lab Safety Supply in Jamesville, Wisconsin.

[00:31:34] And Lab Safety Supply put out this monster

[00:31:36] cataloging if you had a pulse and appeared

[00:31:40] you could ship ship things on time, lab safety

[00:31:43] would carry your products.

[00:31:44] And it wasn't about lab safety, it was general

[00:31:47] safety and it turned into industry as well.

[00:31:49] Granger bought that and then all of a

[00:31:51] sudden they went from that model of Granger

[00:31:54] having three or four vendors per skew or

[00:31:57] per category I should say.

[00:31:59] Lab Safety having 20 or 30 per category.

[00:32:03] Granger up there and brought those down

[00:32:05] and together they probably had eight or 10.

[00:32:09] What this article references about that

[00:32:11] they've had a little bit of struggle again

[00:32:13] and it appears and this is my take on this.

[00:32:16] But what I read between the lines was Zorro,

[00:32:19] their online presence is lower cost because

[00:32:23] they don't have that same branch structure

[00:32:25] that they have to support from a margin standpoint.

[00:32:28] So pure E-com play.

[00:32:31] They went back to that lab safety model

[00:32:34] where we'll just kind of carry almost everything

[00:32:36] because the vendor will ship it or we might

[00:32:39] have it in our warehouse if it's a Granger skew

[00:32:41] already, they've done a phenomenal job

[00:32:43] but it kind of looks like they got a little

[00:32:46] bit ahead of their skis with how far Zorro

[00:32:49] went into that as well.

[00:32:50] That's kind of the crux of all this

[00:32:52] but the chart that we have and we have it

[00:32:55] up on the screen here and it's large in the article

[00:32:58] talks about them.

[00:33:00] 2022 their total sales were at Granger

[00:33:03] were 15 and a quarter billion,

[00:33:06] 2023, 16 and a half billion

[00:33:09] but what they talk about too is their

[00:33:11] high touch sales versus their endless

[00:33:14] assortment so high touch.

[00:33:16] Am I answering your question here?

[00:33:18] I guess is that

[00:33:19] the crux of that and then some.

[00:33:20] Yeah, that and then some.

[00:33:23] I think that the answer is that

[00:33:25] the low touches they're expanding.

[00:33:27] They're really trying to push that and that makes sense,

[00:33:29] right? Is.

[00:33:31] Hey, you can get it here, right?

[00:33:32] Regardless, you can get it here or if you need

[00:33:34] more of a.

[00:33:36] Full serve or a higher touch thing,

[00:33:38] then you've got that as well.

[00:33:39] But I think this is saying they're doubling

[00:33:41] down more on the for the moment anyway

[00:33:43] on some of the low touch approach.

[00:33:45] Well, and you see that the success

[00:33:48] that they're having with that in this

[00:33:49] chart as well, you know,

[00:33:51] an increased growth level that

[00:33:54] they're seeing with that.

[00:33:55] It's just I think they're also finding

[00:33:56] a balancing act of how to go do

[00:33:58] that correctly right now and they're

[00:34:00] seeing where those adjustments need to be.

[00:34:02] But it's great.

[00:34:03] I mean, it's a great story and a great model

[00:34:04] to follow of how they but.

[00:34:06] But I think that chart is really relevant,

[00:34:08] right? Because we talk a lot about

[00:34:10] providing that high level of service

[00:34:12] and providing that experience

[00:34:14] and all of that and getting that kind

[00:34:15] of balance and understanding.

[00:34:17] Like there's some good some good data in there.

[00:34:19] Yeah, no, it's good.

[00:34:20] So again, this is a good time for us

[00:34:22] to jump into the time that charts is

[00:34:25] again, Kevin Brown here, Tom Burton.

[00:34:27] We get together every week and have

[00:34:29] this discussion about the news of the week

[00:34:31] as it relates to wholesale distribution

[00:34:32] and manufacturing.

[00:34:33] And our focus is to try

[00:34:36] and take that news peel the onion

[00:34:38] back a little bit as we like to say

[00:34:40] and talk about how that impacts

[00:34:41] wholesale distribution as a whole.

[00:34:43] If you're listening on the recorded

[00:34:45] podcast, what you're missing is

[00:34:47] some of the charts, some of the articles,

[00:34:49] the newsletter itself that we talk

[00:34:50] about here each week.

[00:34:51] So if you would like that newsletter

[00:34:53] and you do not get that, please let us

[00:34:54] know. Simple two simple ways to do it

[00:34:57] is that you can reach out to us

[00:34:59] at hello at Leedsmarttech.com

[00:35:03] We will get that out to you or you

[00:35:04] can join the podcast website

[00:35:06] which is www.aroundthehornpod.com

[00:35:10] We'll get that information out to

[00:35:12] you. You can also hear previous

[00:35:13] episodes and so forth there.

[00:35:15] So.

[00:35:16] Yeah, that's a nice comment here

[00:35:18] quick and then I know we need to move

[00:35:19] on here quickly, but I think he brings

[00:35:21] up a good point.

[00:35:22] Right? He says with Granger doubling

[00:35:23] down on digital commerce means it

[00:35:25] will be harder for smaller players to

[00:35:27] be seen online.

[00:35:28] Local distribution needs more than

[00:35:30] SEO to compete.

[00:35:31] Right? Because

[00:35:33] and he's right there is, you know,

[00:35:35] the SEO model, I assume,

[00:35:37] fits very well with their

[00:35:39] endless assortment model and their

[00:35:40] low tech thing.

[00:35:41] And these marketplaces will be

[00:35:43] taking away from relationship

[00:35:44] building opportunities.

[00:35:45] So smaller players and additional

[00:35:47] strategies for end user engagement.

[00:35:49] Yeah, there's definitely a poker game

[00:35:50] here that I think you have to think

[00:35:52] through depending upon who you are,

[00:35:54] who your market is, your size

[00:35:56] and all of that that takes into

[00:35:58] that account and how do you find

[00:35:59] your best, you know, niche,

[00:36:01] if you will in that

[00:36:04] in that in that game, so in that

[00:36:05] poker game, right? How do you get

[00:36:06] yourself the best position?

[00:36:08] I think there's some, you know, a

[00:36:10] lot of things to be thinking about

[00:36:11] there.

[00:36:12] So it's my thanks

[00:36:14] for that comment. Mike's been on

[00:36:16] the podcast here with us a number

[00:36:17] of times, couple of times.

[00:36:19] Mike's the founder

[00:36:21] of our co founder, I think of in

[00:36:22] supply and in supply works

[00:36:24] with local

[00:36:26] and independently owned wholesale

[00:36:28] distributors on helping them

[00:36:30] get their messages out its IN

[00:36:32] S U P P L I

[00:36:34] Mike does a great job with their

[00:36:36] team of supporting local

[00:36:38] and independent businesses as well.

[00:36:40] So it's good stuff.

[00:36:43] I think we have a heckler too.

[00:36:44] I don't know. We might need to

[00:36:46] saw that.

[00:36:47] We might need to ban her from

[00:36:49] further shows.

[00:36:50] I have clearly I have no

[00:36:52] influence on her.

[00:36:53] So you may need to have a talk

[00:36:55] or I think we need to talk to my

[00:36:56] wife.

[00:36:57] So as we as we talked

[00:36:59] about that, I'm assuming

[00:37:01] she's relating that to the

[00:37:03] comment about getting the newsletter.

[00:37:05] So yes, it was all right.

[00:37:06] You have a talk. Will you have a

[00:37:07] talk with my wife?

[00:37:08] I'll take care of it. Yeah,

[00:37:09] I'll handle it.

[00:37:11] For those of you that don't know

[00:37:12] because we didn't say it today,

[00:37:13] Tom and I've been lifelong

[00:37:14] friends and so he can

[00:37:16] sometimes get a message across to

[00:37:18] my wife better than I can for me.

[00:37:20] So of course, Mike

[00:37:22] thinks it wasn't a plug.

[00:37:23] It was an acknowledgement of great

[00:37:24] work that you guys are doing it in

[00:37:26] supply.

[00:37:26] So all right.

[00:37:27] Next article as we jump ahead,

[00:37:29] can digital content

[00:37:31] drive worthwhile ROI

[00:37:33] for distributors?

[00:37:35] This is my

[00:37:37] take on this article is kind of

[00:37:38] cool. This is written by Lindsay

[00:37:40] Young, Lindsay's with three

[00:37:42] Espans media.

[00:37:43] She does just a ton in wholesale

[00:37:45] distribution.

[00:37:46] Fantastic human being, great

[00:37:48] writer. She's got a team that does

[00:37:50] some neat stuff.

[00:37:52] And I'm actually sent her a message

[00:37:54] this morning. Thank you for that,

[00:37:55] because I think what she did is

[00:37:57] kind of boiled down a lot of things

[00:37:58] we talk about regularly

[00:38:00] and made this kind of

[00:38:02] as a

[00:38:04] little bit of a roadmap, but most

[00:38:06] importantly, I think really calling

[00:38:07] out the importance

[00:38:10] of investment in digital content

[00:38:11] for wholesale distribution.

[00:38:14] That she did a good job.

[00:38:16] Yeah, and I

[00:38:18] you know, it would be interesting to

[00:38:20] unpack this. Maybe she'll probably

[00:38:21] be back on the show. I think we

[00:38:22] have a strategy.

[00:38:23] No, this is either near June.

[00:38:25] Yeah.

[00:38:26] You know, obviously you have all of

[00:38:28] your product content and your

[00:38:30] website content about your products

[00:38:32] and all of that.

[00:38:33] What she was talking about here is

[00:38:35] additional digital resources

[00:38:37] that really and I think

[00:38:39] it ties into what we are just

[00:38:40] talking about, right? That properly

[00:38:42] positions you and establishes

[00:38:44] the right relationship

[00:38:47] that you're looking to make with your

[00:38:48] customers.

[00:38:49] And, you know, that can come in a lot

[00:38:51] of different ways.

[00:38:53] One of the things that we're seeing

[00:38:54] a lot that people are looking for

[00:38:56] is kind of a lot of things we talk

[00:38:59] about on this show. Like what is the

[00:39:00] state of the market? What is the

[00:39:01] state of the market that we're in?

[00:39:02] What is the state of so as an end

[00:39:04] user, there's a lot of potential

[00:39:06] value or a distributor, rather,

[00:39:08] there's a lot of potential value you

[00:39:10] can provide to your end user just

[00:39:11] about what's going on in the market

[00:39:13] in the world and things like that

[00:39:14] because you have a broader

[00:39:16] broader view of things. So I thought

[00:39:18] that it was an interesting way

[00:39:20] of looking at, OK,

[00:39:22] how do what kind of content do I

[00:39:23] need above and beyond my product

[00:39:25] information and, you know, the

[00:39:27] things I have on my website about

[00:39:28] my products and so forth?

[00:39:31] I think there's a lot to talk

[00:39:32] about here way more than we have

[00:39:33] time for today.

[00:39:35] Let's hit some of the highlights

[00:39:37] because here, because I think

[00:39:38] what Lindsay is really doing is

[00:39:39] she's referencing

[00:39:41] online content, but it actually

[00:39:43] ties pretty well to

[00:39:45] to the whole e-commerce

[00:39:47] journey, I believe, as well, because

[00:39:49] one of the challenges in the title

[00:39:51] of this article talks about ROI

[00:39:54] for developing content.

[00:39:56] Right? And I think people also

[00:39:57] struggle with where's my ROI

[00:40:00] on my website if they're

[00:40:02] just trying to look at how many

[00:40:03] transactions they had

[00:40:05] on the website.

[00:40:07] And the website goes so much

[00:40:09] further than online transactions,

[00:40:11] right? It can be people just

[00:40:12] building orders.

[00:40:14] You know, I'd love to see some

[00:40:15] statistics of if you look at

[00:40:17] related wholesale distribution

[00:40:19] of the abandoned cart numbers are

[00:40:21] probably dramatically

[00:40:24] through the roof compared to a

[00:40:25] consumer experience because you

[00:40:27] could go build your orders online

[00:40:29] and see once you logged in in

[00:40:30] your discounts.

[00:40:31] And it's not uncommon.

[00:40:32] We know a big use of e-commerce

[00:40:34] within wholesale distribution is

[00:40:36] I'm just going to build my order

[00:40:37] online here, but I'm still going to

[00:40:39] have somebody go pick it up.

[00:40:41] Right? Or I still want you to

[00:40:42] deliver it. But

[00:40:43] but so it's hard sometimes to track

[00:40:45] ROI on a website.

[00:40:48] And it's the same thing with the

[00:40:49] marketing content we talked about.

[00:40:51] But I want to hit some of these

[00:40:52] statistics and she does a great

[00:40:54] job of the resources on this.

[00:40:55] She talks about 75 percent of

[00:40:57] B2B buyers prefer self-service

[00:40:59] experiences with no rep involved.

[00:41:01] How many times have we talked about

[00:41:03] that here? Right? And that's

[00:41:04] Gartner's research.

[00:41:05] 71 percent of B2B buyers survey

[00:41:07] downloaded and consumed multiple

[00:41:09] assets to help with the decision

[00:41:11] making process from demand.

[00:41:13] Gen dot com.

[00:41:14] Right?

[00:41:16] 46 percent of B2B buyers survey

[00:41:18] report increase in the amount of

[00:41:19] content they consume over the

[00:41:21] past prior 12 months.

[00:41:24] And so this is the

[00:41:26] question. I think this is the

[00:41:28] value of the article.

[00:41:30] And I love Lindsay just getting

[00:41:31] great writer and she said, so the

[00:41:33] better question might be

[00:41:35] based upon those stats is what

[00:41:37] is the cost if you don't meet

[00:41:39] customers increasing demand for

[00:41:41] digital resources?

[00:41:42] And that is everything from

[00:41:45] product specs, product

[00:41:47] videos,

[00:41:49] webinars, podcasts.

[00:41:51] If you have a desire to do those

[00:41:53] types of things, blog posts about

[00:41:56] how to do things better.

[00:41:57] And I love that. Right?

[00:41:58] It's that the question is what is

[00:42:01] the cost if you don't meet

[00:42:02] their increasing demand for digital

[00:42:04] resources? So I thought that was

[00:42:06] good. A couple of the last things

[00:42:08] she hits here while she talks about

[00:42:09] the value and the ability to grow

[00:42:10] a wallet share with existing

[00:42:11] customers, I would

[00:42:13] suggest it's a defensive mode as

[00:42:15] well to keep existing customers.

[00:42:17] Then it would be to grow a wallet

[00:42:19] share with those improving customer

[00:42:21] experience you talked about. But

[00:42:22] the other thing that we don't

[00:42:23] talk about is in what

[00:42:26] we the article doesn't talk about

[00:42:27] but we see regularly and then we

[00:42:28] discuss here is

[00:42:31] when you put great

[00:42:33] content together with great

[00:42:35] online resources for shopping.

[00:42:38] It allows that local or regional

[00:42:40] distributor to not only go

[00:42:42] to major new market places

[00:42:45] because their sphere and

[00:42:46] influence grew outside of

[00:42:49] you know, South Salt Lake,

[00:42:51] Utah out to now their scope

[00:42:53] of influence is in the South

[00:42:54] Florida and into even other

[00:42:56] countries. But it also talks

[00:42:58] about the opportunity to reach

[00:42:59] new vertical markets.

[00:43:01] Right? There are vertical

[00:43:02] markets that if you're a regional

[00:43:04] seller, you might have 20 branches,

[00:43:06] but you're in a regional part of

[00:43:07] the country and you sell into

[00:43:09] these four verticals when we get

[00:43:12] online with great content and

[00:43:14] great e-commerce presence.

[00:43:16] Now we can start hitting new

[00:43:17] verticals outside of our

[00:43:18] geography. So good article.

[00:43:20] Appreciate it. Lindsey putting

[00:43:21] that one together.

[00:43:22] And I'm going to hit Bob's

[00:43:23] comment here real quick.

[00:43:24] Sure.

[00:43:26] You know, he suggests they're

[00:43:27] preferring rep reexperiences,

[00:43:29] but at the same time buyer

[00:43:30] Morse is going up because

[00:43:32] of it. And I wrote about this

[00:43:34] actually quite a bit in my book,

[00:43:36] even though that, you know,

[00:43:39] the stat like you read there,

[00:43:40] like especially younger buyers

[00:43:42] are saying, oh, I just want to do

[00:43:43] everything self-serve.

[00:43:44] It's not necessarily in their

[00:43:46] best interest to do everything

[00:43:47] self-serve.

[00:43:48] Great point.

[00:43:48] And to Bob's point, right?

[00:43:49] It's like a lot of times you

[00:43:51] end up doing something like,

[00:43:52] oh God, what did I do here?

[00:43:53] Did I buy the right thing?

[00:43:54] Right? The buyers are Morse.

[00:43:55] But you also see a lot of

[00:43:56] situations where buyers to

[00:43:59] send up in a confusion of

[00:44:00] content, right?

[00:44:01] You end up in content confusion.

[00:44:02] You end up with a down a rabbit

[00:44:03] hole and then you don't make any

[00:44:05] decision or you end up down

[00:44:07] paralysis.

[00:44:08] Right. So again, we can

[00:44:11] I don't want to get into a whole

[00:44:12] different discussion here, but I

[00:44:13] think really the answer is, is

[00:44:15] not entirely to figure out how

[00:44:16] to make a self-serve environment

[00:44:18] for somebody, but how to create

[00:44:19] content and how to set things

[00:44:21] up so that people when it's

[00:44:22] appropriate are willing to

[00:44:24] engage with your sales team

[00:44:26] even potentially earlier in the

[00:44:27] cycle.

[00:44:29] And a lot of that is an adding

[00:44:30] the value that's there on the

[00:44:32] things that are that are

[00:44:33] happening. So I think there's

[00:44:34] a given take here.

[00:44:36] It's not just how do you make

[00:44:37] this as more and more self-serve

[00:44:39] is how do you then provide the

[00:44:40] right content that in the right

[00:44:42] thought leadership that may cost

[00:44:43] somebody to go, huh, you know,

[00:44:44] maybe I should have a conversation

[00:44:46] earlier in the buying process

[00:44:48] with this company and not just

[00:44:49] do everything on my own.

[00:44:51] Yeah, I think that's great.

[00:44:52] And I think what bringing

[00:44:54] this all full circle, I

[00:44:56] appreciate Bob's comments on that

[00:44:59] is I think what we really

[00:45:02] want to do is we want

[00:45:03] to enable the customer.

[00:45:06] We want to keep them going down

[00:45:07] a journey or as your book talks

[00:45:08] about our Yellowbrick Road, right?

[00:45:10] We need to guide them where

[00:45:11] they need to go, but we need to

[00:45:12] give them those those

[00:45:14] breadcrumbs on the path, so to

[00:45:16] speak, that fits

[00:45:18] what their desire is.

[00:45:19] But we want to keep them

[00:45:20] moving down our path, right?

[00:45:22] So I mean in sales, right,

[00:45:23] you're either you're

[00:45:24] either in your buyer's

[00:45:25] process or your buyer is in your

[00:45:27] process, but we need to be able

[00:45:29] to give them more content, more

[00:45:30] tools, more ways to buy.

[00:45:32] And I think that's the beauty

[00:45:33] that the wholesale

[00:45:35] distribution in particular has

[00:45:37] over traditional

[00:45:39] e-commerce is, hey, you

[00:45:41] can you can consume data

[00:45:43] on the website, you can consume

[00:45:45] data in the e-commerce

[00:45:46] shopping experience, you can

[00:45:48] place an order from

[00:45:50] an e-commerce experience, but go

[00:45:51] pick it up at a branch or

[00:45:52] have it delivered, which is

[00:45:54] very, very different than

[00:45:56] or just say, hey, you know what?

[00:45:57] I'm interested in this.

[00:45:58] I've got it in a shopping

[00:45:59] cart. I haven't clicked.

[00:46:01] Have my rep contact me.

[00:46:03] You know, and and that's

[00:46:05] you know, I'm going to I am

[00:46:06] going to read up somebody who

[00:46:07] said a

[00:46:09] commercial break earlier

[00:46:11] and I will do that really

[00:46:13] quick because that's one of

[00:46:14] the things we do with with

[00:46:15] at Leedsmart along with even

[00:46:17] our partnership with

[00:46:19] Optimize Lee and their e-commerce

[00:46:20] platform is taking that

[00:46:22] data from a third source

[00:46:25] bringing e-commerce data into

[00:46:26] the CRM platform to gain

[00:46:28] customer intelligence to watch

[00:46:29] that journey. Where are they

[00:46:30] consuming data?

[00:46:32] Oh, they've been to a branch.

[00:46:33] We see branch notes.

[00:46:34] They've got a shopping cart

[00:46:35] that's not been emptied or

[00:46:37] not been fully abandoned yet.

[00:46:39] Where where is that life

[00:46:40] cycle of that customer?

[00:46:41] So it's good stuff.

[00:46:42] Tell me, we got a lot to

[00:46:43] cover.

[00:46:45] I'm going to have mics real

[00:46:46] quick though. He says there's

[00:46:47] a

[00:46:48] he's afraid to say a

[00:46:50] program

[00:46:51] project coming out called

[00:46:52] gray data

[00:46:53] targeted to get in users to see

[00:46:55] the content and driving to the

[00:46:56] experts.

[00:46:57] Very interested to see how that

[00:46:58] comes out because I do think

[00:47:00] that in the the

[00:47:02] the right strategy isn't just

[00:47:03] how to make things more self

[00:47:04] self service.

[00:47:05] The right strategy is to create

[00:47:07] a situation where people are

[00:47:08] willing to engage with your

[00:47:10] sales team when it's the

[00:47:11] appropriate thing and it's

[00:47:12] going to move things down that

[00:47:13] buyer journey faster.

[00:47:14] So anyway, lots of talk about

[00:47:16] there. I'm sure we'll talk

[00:47:17] more about it as we go along.

[00:47:19] Let's get into tech cybersecurity

[00:47:21] and AI.

[00:47:22] So let me before we jump into

[00:47:24] that, there's a theme in this

[00:47:25] today.

[00:47:27] On this particular segment of

[00:47:30] the newsletter and our

[00:47:31] discussion.

[00:47:33] And it really it's like I

[00:47:34] probably should have as we put

[00:47:35] this together ordered these a

[00:47:37] little bit better.

[00:47:39] You know that the last

[00:47:40] article will talk about that as

[00:47:42] well talks about AI is ubiquitous

[00:47:44] in the business world, at least

[00:47:45] not yet.

[00:47:46] And and one of the things that

[00:47:48] I'm going to kind of preface

[00:47:49] this and this is one guy's

[00:47:51] thoughts, but you get to hear

[00:47:53] him when you come here on

[00:47:54] Fridays.

[00:47:56] I think and I'm

[00:47:58] out constantly at conferences

[00:48:00] and what I hear regularly in

[00:48:02] the webinars that I listen to

[00:48:04] is as we talk about AI

[00:48:05] as we're talking and we talk

[00:48:07] about this consistently here.

[00:48:08] Right. All of these things

[00:48:10] that we're going to be able

[00:48:11] to do and all

[00:48:13] of the things that

[00:48:15] we're seeing coming down the

[00:48:16] pike, so to speak is all

[00:48:18] really positive.

[00:48:20] But

[00:48:21] what I consistently hear is

[00:48:23] fewer use cases

[00:48:25] of what people are actually

[00:48:26] accomplishing one oftentimes

[00:48:28] is because the AI models

[00:48:30] and tools aren't quite there

[00:48:32] yet.

[00:48:33] As your team works with right

[00:48:35] now as we know things we're

[00:48:36] going to do, but we're not

[00:48:38] the technology is not quite

[00:48:39] there yet to back it up.

[00:48:42] But I just consistently hear

[00:48:43] this message. It just gets

[00:48:44] started. Just get started.

[00:48:46] Just play with chat GPT

[00:48:48] and

[00:48:49] and there's some truth to that,

[00:48:51] in my opinion, that that's good

[00:48:52] to understand where

[00:48:54] we're at today. But as we talk

[00:48:56] about it today, two things

[00:48:57] that I want to preface the

[00:48:59] discussion with on the next

[00:49:00] few articles.

[00:49:01] One is you don't have to be

[00:49:03] an expert at AI today.

[00:49:04] Maybe there's three things when

[00:49:05] you don't be an expert at AI

[00:49:06] today, but you need

[00:49:08] to be aware

[00:49:10] and then you need to be

[00:49:11] working on a roadmap

[00:49:13] for your company

[00:49:14] and that roadmap isn't just

[00:49:16] we want to use AI and we want to

[00:49:18] do this. We want to do some

[00:49:19] marketing or whatever.

[00:49:21] It is a strategic

[00:49:23] plan for AI

[00:49:25] that includes cybersecurity

[00:49:27] issues and it includes what

[00:49:29] tech stack looks like

[00:49:30] and so forth. We can probably

[00:49:31] do a whole show on just the

[00:49:33] tech stack related that the

[00:49:34] third piece that I want to

[00:49:35] plug into that is

[00:49:38] the concept that we're going

[00:49:39] to start hearing more and more

[00:49:40] and more of I call it the

[00:49:41] incumbent versus one

[00:49:42] offs. Right.

[00:49:44] Is there is every day I get

[00:49:46] multiple AI newsletters you

[00:49:48] probably get two or three times

[00:49:49] the ones I do Tom, but

[00:49:51] it's all the new tools that

[00:49:52] are coming up.

[00:49:54] And I think people need to have

[00:49:55] a roadmap and a plan versus

[00:49:57] just starting to buy one off

[00:49:58] software, especially

[00:50:00] in the space that we speak

[00:50:01] to.

[00:50:03] My concept is, you know,

[00:50:04] that I call it the incumbent

[00:50:06] and Microsoft's copilot is

[00:50:08] the perfect example of the

[00:50:09] incumbent is

[00:50:12] the copilot's in a trusted

[00:50:13] source.

[00:50:15] And I think people should be

[00:50:16] looking at it and we're going

[00:50:17] to talk about some

[00:50:19] successes and failures in these

[00:50:20] next couple articles about

[00:50:21] people that just kind of went

[00:50:23] out on a limb and trusted

[00:50:24] some things without a plan.

[00:50:25] So that's my soapbox for a

[00:50:27] moment before we get good.

[00:50:31] Yeah, no, I agree.

[00:50:32] I think what I've learned

[00:50:34] firsthand in working with

[00:50:36] customers is the crawl,

[00:50:38] walk run process of

[00:50:40] preparing to use

[00:50:42] AI is got way more steps

[00:50:44] and is way more detailed

[00:50:46] and is way more.

[00:50:48] There's a lot more crawl that

[00:50:49] has to happen before you go

[00:50:51] even to the walk into the run

[00:50:53] than I would have believed

[00:50:54] if you would have asked me

[00:50:55] even six or nine months ago.

[00:50:56] Right. So doing things

[00:50:58] in the right sequence,

[00:51:00] what I'm really learning is

[00:51:02] doing things in the right

[00:51:03] sequence, especially

[00:51:04] related to your data, but

[00:51:06] even how you use the data

[00:51:08] and how it's done is

[00:51:11] will has such a such

[00:51:12] a huge downstream impact.

[00:51:15] But if you get that wrong

[00:51:16] in the beginning, then you're

[00:51:17] kind of, you know, fighting

[00:51:18] swimming backwards going forward.

[00:51:20] So so taking that, let's go

[00:51:22] back to this first article,

[00:51:23] right? The Air Canada

[00:51:24] Chat Chatbot ruling.

[00:51:26] And this was the situation

[00:51:27] where Air Canada, somebody

[00:51:29] went in, I think, and asked

[00:51:30] about a bereavement rate

[00:51:31] that Chatbot gave back saying,

[00:51:33] oh, yeah, you can do something.

[00:51:35] And it turns out it wasn't

[00:51:36] within the live agent said,

[00:51:38] oh, no, you can't say this by

[00:51:39] your by your ticket and then let

[00:51:40] us know later about the

[00:51:41] bereavement stuff.

[00:51:42] And we'll give you a discount.

[00:51:43] Right. Right.

[00:51:45] I mean, first of all, the biggest

[00:51:46] mistake is Air Canada just

[00:51:48] sort of honored when it

[00:51:50] came out of the check

[00:51:51] chat. Right. So right.

[00:51:52] I mean, what would that have

[00:51:53] cost him a couple hundred

[00:51:54] bucks or a few hundred dollars?

[00:51:55] It's like and look at the

[00:51:56] amount of PR and other things

[00:51:58] that have been created from

[00:51:59] that. But that's a different

[00:52:01] issue. That's not what we're

[00:52:02] talking about here.

[00:52:03] What it really then and this

[00:52:05] is where it is difficult,

[00:52:06] right, is to test the

[00:52:07] different. And I don't know

[00:52:09] that they made a bad decision

[00:52:11] or they had a bad company or

[00:52:13] they did. They had a bad

[00:52:14] roadmap. We don't know that.

[00:52:15] But they certainly you have to

[00:52:17] go through this testing

[00:52:19] process with the data piece

[00:52:21] by piece and so forth.

[00:52:22] And really then make sure

[00:52:25] that over time, you're

[00:52:27] getting in the systems learning

[00:52:28] more and more and more and

[00:52:29] taking these things into

[00:52:30] consideration. So again, we

[00:52:33] don't know what happened

[00:52:34] there exactly. I think it's

[00:52:35] been a bigger PR issue than

[00:52:37] it is actually a technical

[00:52:38] issue on the things that are

[00:52:39] there. But I think the point

[00:52:42] being is that without doing

[00:52:43] things in the right sequence

[00:52:45] and without doing this things

[00:52:46] and you potentially create a

[00:52:47] situation where you can have

[00:52:50] some maybe some serious

[00:52:51] damage on things.

[00:52:52] Yeah. And I do think just

[00:52:55] one last thing, I think

[00:52:56] if you just go back to the

[00:52:57] third article, because I

[00:52:58] think in the interest of time

[00:52:59] we can get these together,

[00:53:01] right? The generative AI

[00:53:02] isn't ubiquitous in the

[00:53:03] business world at least not

[00:53:04] yet. I agree. And the reason

[00:53:07] it isn't is because of what I

[00:53:08] just said is that businesses

[00:53:10] are still figuring out what is

[00:53:12] the foundation that has to go in

[00:53:13] place to then be able to take

[00:53:15] advantage of this and at the

[00:53:16] same time wait for the AI

[00:53:18] technology to get to that point

[00:53:20] where it's more industrial

[00:53:21] strength.

[00:53:23] That great recap, right?

[00:53:25] The latter part of this

[00:53:27] particular article says both

[00:53:28] chat bots and humans make

[00:53:30] mistakes, right? And we're in

[00:53:32] a world right now where

[00:53:33] we're just I mean think about

[00:53:36] how much what has happened in

[00:53:39] the where we at with that

[00:53:41] the

[00:53:45] not even barely 18 months

[00:53:47] right since chat GPT was

[00:53:49] launched and what has gone on

[00:53:51] in the world, right?

[00:53:53] In that setting just phenomenal.

[00:53:55] And so we're not

[00:53:57] even in the

[00:54:00] I'd say we're almost in the

[00:54:01] embryonic stage of AI.

[00:54:04] To even be thinking about the

[00:54:06] crawl walk run stage.

[00:54:07] So it's important, but

[00:54:09] I mean, I'm seeing some tools

[00:54:10] out there that we've had

[00:54:12] customers talk to us about

[00:54:13] that they've seen that I've

[00:54:14] gone and looked at.

[00:54:15] And it's like

[00:54:17] I see what their website says

[00:54:19] they say they can do.

[00:54:21] But I know because of the

[00:54:23] stuff that you and your team

[00:54:24] have shared about what doesn't

[00:54:26] work yet in the AI world

[00:54:28] and people are saying that

[00:54:29] they can do it.

[00:54:30] It's not going to be a good

[00:54:31] experience.

[00:54:32] Well, it works great in a demo

[00:54:33] right? I can demo anything I

[00:54:35] want to there.

[00:54:35] But when it comes down to

[00:54:37] having an industrial strength

[00:54:38] production ready product in a

[00:54:40] business that especially if it's

[00:54:42] based around their data and

[00:54:44] tying in other things,

[00:54:45] there's just a process that

[00:54:46] has to go through on that.

[00:54:47] That is

[00:54:50] and the interesting thing

[00:54:51] that I'm learning is

[00:54:53] that process.

[00:54:54] And I'm really trying to work

[00:54:55] on documenting but I keep

[00:54:56] learning more things.

[00:54:57] It's like every time I sit

[00:54:59] down to try and document the

[00:55:00] process, I learned something

[00:55:01] new.

[00:55:02] But everything along the way in

[00:55:03] that process is

[00:55:05] is really understanding

[00:55:09] how everything builds on each

[00:55:10] other.

[00:55:11] And I don't know how to explain

[00:55:13] it well until we actually lay

[00:55:14] it out.

[00:55:14] But you get something here and

[00:55:16] then you can build on it

[00:55:17] there and you can build on it

[00:55:18] there.

[00:55:18] And there's there's insights

[00:55:20] and information that people

[00:55:21] aren't.

[00:55:22] I hadn't thought about it.

[00:55:23] I mean, I'm finding things in

[00:55:24] data insights and data that

[00:55:26] I would have never even thought

[00:55:28] about a few months ago.

[00:55:29] Right?

[00:55:29] That again, if structure

[00:55:31] the right way and are put in the

[00:55:32] right way then provides that

[00:55:33] foundation downstream.

[00:55:35] So again, it's I believe the

[00:55:37] roadmap isn't about what

[00:55:39] products am I buying?

[00:55:40] The road map is about what is

[00:55:42] the process that I'm going

[00:55:43] through to create a foundation.

[00:55:45] So does the products become

[00:55:46] available, whether they're

[00:55:47] from an incumbent or even a

[00:55:49] new player?

[00:55:50] I have a foundation to be

[00:55:51] able to use those test those

[00:55:52] and validate those in my

[00:55:54] organization.

[00:55:55] So it's a little bit of a

[00:55:55] different kind of a bottom

[00:55:57] up approach rather than a

[00:55:58] top down approach.

[00:56:00] That's good.

[00:56:01] So before we go off of this,

[00:56:03] there is another article here

[00:56:05] about when we won't go into

[00:56:07] the articles, but it talks

[00:56:09] about a basically a technology

[00:56:12] guy accidentally finding

[00:56:16] a hack in a major system

[00:56:20] within the Linux

[00:56:23] operating system.

[00:56:24] And I wrote myself a little

[00:56:26] bit notes and my show notes

[00:56:27] today was about, you know,

[00:56:28] I can see a Tom Cruise movie

[00:56:30] coming out of, you know,

[00:56:32] our Mission Impossible thing

[00:56:33] with something like this.

[00:56:34] And the bottom line is

[00:56:36] someone got into and bear

[00:56:39] with me if you're listening

[00:56:41] to this closely and like,

[00:56:42] blah, blah, blah, Linux,

[00:56:43] whatever. I don't deal with

[00:56:44] Linux, but stop with this for

[00:56:45] a minute.

[00:56:46] And I'm going to give the

[00:56:47] layman's term or this

[00:56:48] because we talked about this

[00:56:49] a little bit with Lin

[00:56:51] Chase last week.

[00:56:53] So somebody's doing basically

[00:56:56] a drip attack from the

[00:56:58] outside into a major piece

[00:57:00] of software.

[00:57:01] Now, Joe Smith, it runs

[00:57:04] XYZ distribution in Omaha

[00:57:07] and Kevin Brown here today.

[00:57:09] That probably doesn't mean

[00:57:10] that much to us.

[00:57:12] But what happened was

[00:57:13] before this got caught,

[00:57:15] actually, basically,

[00:57:16] accidentally, as the story

[00:57:17] talks about is it's not

[00:57:20] just OK, there was a hacks

[00:57:21] and Linux.

[00:57:22] That impact that it had is

[00:57:24] almost every other piece

[00:57:25] of missions, almost every

[00:57:26] other many other pieces

[00:57:27] of software that you either

[00:57:28] are using now or

[00:57:32] could be looking at using

[00:57:34] are built using this Linux

[00:57:36] platform that now has these

[00:57:38] holes in it.

[00:57:39] Those holes that they not

[00:57:40] been stopped could have gotten

[00:57:41] to all of these other

[00:57:43] software products.

[00:57:44] Is that right about right?

[00:57:47] So yeah, I mean, you're

[00:57:50] in the right direction.

[00:57:51] I don't know if there's

[00:57:51] 100 percent what you were

[00:57:52] saying, but what the point

[00:57:54] is here, right?

[00:57:55] Linux is an open source

[00:57:56] operating system.

[00:57:58] Obviously, companies that are

[00:57:59] using that generally have

[00:58:00] some pretty well

[00:58:02] sophisticated people

[00:58:04] if they're using Linux

[00:58:05] because it is open source.

[00:58:06] You have to upgrade it.

[00:58:07] You need more

[00:58:09] technical knowledge than

[00:58:10] other sort of things

[00:58:12] that are there.

[00:58:13] I think that there's two

[00:58:14] points here.

[00:58:15] Right? One is the fact

[00:58:16] that it happened.

[00:58:17] Right. So somebody, you

[00:58:19] know, open source means

[00:58:20] that everybody there's

[00:58:21] it's open to anybody

[00:58:22] to contribute to the

[00:58:23] development effort.

[00:58:24] Some bad actor came in

[00:58:26] there, put in something

[00:58:26] that was a backdoor into it,

[00:58:29] into this open source software.

[00:58:31] I think on the other side

[00:58:32] of it is again, a more

[00:58:34] sophisticated ID person

[00:58:35] who was doing some performance

[00:58:36] testing was able to

[00:58:38] identify that and catch

[00:58:40] it before it became a bigger

[00:58:41] issue.

[00:58:43] Again, there's since

[00:58:44] there's two parts of this

[00:58:45] this article.

[00:58:45] One is yeah, be aware

[00:58:47] if you're using open source

[00:58:48] and there's a lot of open

[00:58:49] source conversation occurring

[00:58:51] with large language models

[00:58:52] and AI and so forth.

[00:58:54] So you need to be

[00:58:55] eyes wide open when

[00:58:56] you're using open source and

[00:58:58] make sure that you have

[00:58:59] people that understand

[00:59:01] that and can deal with that.

[00:59:03] And then secondly, I think

[00:59:04] there are other tools that

[00:59:05] will be coming out more

[00:59:07] and more.

[00:59:07] And I get this where AI

[00:59:08] can really help to

[00:59:10] make sure that you're

[00:59:11] looking at what you're

[00:59:12] getting and what you're

[00:59:12] installing and so forth

[00:59:14] and what are the potential

[00:59:15] impacts and the potential

[00:59:18] ramifications of changes

[00:59:19] and so forth as they're

[00:59:20] coming in.

[00:59:21] But yeah, I mean it's

[00:59:22] certain, you know, open

[00:59:24] sources becoming more and

[00:59:25] more of a common use

[00:59:27] case. You hear it a lot

[00:59:28] and I think this was a good

[00:59:29] wake up call on that.

[00:59:31] Well, I think that the big

[00:59:32] takeaway for me with this is

[00:59:34] you know how it would

[00:59:34] impact other software

[00:59:36] and other organizations was

[00:59:38] it talked about it says

[00:59:39] this is a temp attack

[00:59:41] if any enough they called

[00:59:42] the supply chain attack

[00:59:44] carefully and slowly pushed

[00:59:45] updates to a little known

[00:59:46] tool within Linux

[00:59:48] that then moved

[00:59:50] it to the back through

[00:59:51] a back door into millions

[00:59:52] of other computers at once.

[00:59:54] And that's the issue.

[00:59:56] The reason that I

[00:59:57] I share any of this together

[00:59:58] in these three key articles

[00:59:59] today was have a plan

[01:00:02] know who you work with

[01:00:03] and really it ties into

[01:00:04] what we were talking about

[01:00:06] in our supply chain section

[01:00:07] earlier today, which is

[01:00:09] hey, if I've got a warehouse

[01:00:11] or you know, 55

[01:00:14] warehouses across the country

[01:00:16] and I need to understand

[01:00:18] my vendors better

[01:00:19] because of supply chain issues.

[01:00:21] I need to take that same

[01:00:22] approach to my technology

[01:00:25] vendors to understand things

[01:00:27] like, hey, tell me about

[01:00:28] your cloud security.

[01:00:30] Tell me about the platform

[01:00:32] that you're built on

[01:00:33] and what that means to my

[01:00:34] business. What are the risks

[01:00:36] of me using your cloud based

[01:00:37] solution or a ice

[01:00:39] base the I solution

[01:00:41] versus someone else

[01:00:42] and understanding that

[01:00:43] and getting that clarity

[01:00:45] becomes extremely important

[01:00:47] no different than you would

[01:00:48] check does the

[01:00:50] your supplier of safety

[01:00:51] glasses truly have an

[01:00:52] ANSI certificate that makes

[01:00:54] them safe. You need to apply

[01:00:56] that diligence across

[01:00:58] to your technology vendor.

[01:00:59] So, okay, great.

[01:01:02] All right, let's move ahead here.

[01:01:04] Yeah, those sections make my

[01:01:05] brain hurt because that's

[01:01:07] your day to day talk, but I

[01:01:08] have to think through that

[01:01:09] stuff. So you want to

[01:01:11] quickly hit this article about

[01:01:13] and their sales and M&A section

[01:01:14] about salespeople being

[01:01:16] coachable. Any thoughts?

[01:01:18] Yeah, I thought it was a

[01:01:20] great article. It's one of

[01:01:21] actually one of the better

[01:01:22] articles, more one of my

[01:01:23] favorite articles in a while

[01:01:24] actually talking about

[01:01:26] it's surprising. That's awesome.

[01:01:28] Well, but I we work with sales

[01:01:29] people all the time. Yeah. And

[01:01:32] and you know, you hear a lot

[01:01:34] of conversation about that

[01:01:36] not wanting to change. I don't

[01:01:37] want to do things differently.

[01:01:39] I want to do things the way

[01:01:40] I've always done them. This

[01:01:41] is what we've already, you

[01:01:43] know, that's a large part

[01:01:44] of what we deal with that

[01:01:45] day in and day out.

[01:01:46] Right. And what this said is

[01:01:47] that sales managers who

[01:01:49] coach consistently

[01:01:50] recognize a 28% of revenue

[01:01:52] from their coachable sales

[01:01:54] people, right? The word being

[01:01:56] their coachable sales people.

[01:01:58] And what they went into is

[01:01:59] is, you know, what kind of

[01:02:01] makes a what are the

[01:02:02] attributes of a coachable

[01:02:03] salesperson? What does that

[01:02:05] mean? What should you be

[01:02:06] looking for? I think now

[01:02:08] more than ever, especially

[01:02:09] as you're all the for all

[01:02:10] the reasons we've talked about

[01:02:11] even today and whatever,

[01:02:13] having when you hire

[01:02:15] salespeople and you have,

[01:02:17] you know, outside salespeople

[01:02:18] or even inside salespeople

[01:02:20] having the hiring people

[01:02:22] that have a mindset that

[01:02:23] they want to be coachable,

[01:02:25] I think is a huge deal right

[01:02:26] now because there's just no

[01:02:29] way that the legacy approach

[01:02:30] is going to exist and be

[01:02:32] productive, whether it's the

[01:02:33] year or two years or three

[01:02:34] years down the road. If you

[01:02:35] can't change that, it's

[01:02:37] you're going to be in

[01:02:38] trouble.

[01:02:39] Great points that, you know,

[01:02:41] and you've got thousands

[01:02:42] of people that log into

[01:02:44] Leeds More Channel Cloud

[01:02:45] and most of them are on

[01:02:47] well, almost all of them

[01:02:48] are customer facing and many

[01:02:50] of them on the sales side

[01:02:51] of things. So it's important

[01:02:52] to see that.

[01:02:53] I might say the kind of thing

[01:02:54] that I like is, you know,

[01:02:56] coaching and training are

[01:02:57] different, right?

[01:02:59] You know, training being

[01:03:00] more in a group setting,

[01:03:01] coaching being a one on one

[01:03:02] and there are people out

[01:03:03] there that do well in one

[01:03:04] and don't do well in the

[01:03:05] other and vice versa.

[01:03:07] So good, good takeaways

[01:03:08] on this. So again,

[01:03:11] this is part of our

[01:03:13] weekly newsletter around the

[01:03:14] horn and wholesale

[01:03:15] distribution of manufacturing

[01:03:16] that goes out if you'd

[01:03:17] like to get that if you

[01:03:18] don't just reach out to us.

[01:03:20] We'll get that to you right away.

[01:03:22] Yeah, and I'll get Bob's comment

[01:03:23] here. I agree.

[01:03:24] I think a lot of companies

[01:03:26] a lot of companies they talk

[01:03:28] about this. They almost never

[01:03:29] implement it.

[01:03:30] And I agree with you the

[01:03:31] difference between coaching

[01:03:32] and training.

[01:03:33] But again, you have to have

[01:03:35] somebody who's willing to

[01:03:36] make that change, willing

[01:03:37] to shift, look at things

[01:03:39] very differently along

[01:03:41] the way, which I think is

[01:03:42] going to be an imperative

[01:03:44] attribute, I think for

[01:03:45] anybody in the in the sales

[01:03:47] marketing or operations

[01:03:48] part of the business.

[01:03:50] Yeah, good. Thanks for that

[01:03:51] comment today, Bob.

[01:03:52] We appreciate that.

[01:03:53] So good stuff there

[01:03:55] as we wind down today, people

[01:03:57] in leadership,

[01:03:59] a nice piece

[01:04:01] here that we added in.

[01:04:02] The reason we have a people in

[01:04:04] leadership section is

[01:04:05] because our friend Dirk

[01:04:07] beverage reminded us that we

[01:04:08] didn't and we don't talk about

[01:04:10] people in leadership enough.

[01:04:12] Dirk, if you don't know him

[01:04:13] is the man

[01:04:15] behind Unleashed WD and the

[01:04:17] We Supply America tour that's

[01:04:19] getting ready to kick off again.

[01:04:21] He's been with us on the show

[01:04:22] in the we call ended up

[01:04:24] being called the legends

[01:04:25] session that we had in January.

[01:04:27] We've got to get this one again

[01:04:28] scheduled for the middle of the

[01:04:29] year to review our

[01:04:31] prognostications.

[01:04:33] But Dirk has got a session

[01:04:35] that's starting and

[01:04:37] it's called force for good.

[01:04:39] And it talks about the six

[01:04:41] million employees in distribution

[01:04:42] and supply chain that are

[01:04:44] on the warehouse floor, the plant

[01:04:46] floor, all the way up to the

[01:04:47] C suite and talk about

[01:04:50] helping people thrive

[01:04:51] and making folks in the

[01:04:53] workforce feel prosperous and

[01:04:55] good about what they do.

[01:04:56] And and I tell you what, you

[01:04:57] want to you want to spend some

[01:04:59] time with somebody that just

[01:05:00] makes people feel good at

[01:05:01] start. So he's a

[01:05:03] master at that.

[01:05:04] He is.

[01:05:05] And he's a hugger as

[01:05:07] well. So that's good stuff.

[01:05:09] The last piece in that

[01:05:11] segment is about a potential

[01:05:13] shortage of manufacturing

[01:05:14] workers and it's threatening the

[01:05:16] US's global competitiveness.

[01:05:18] We've talked about some things

[01:05:19] like this quite a few times

[01:05:21] before on the

[01:05:22] broadcast here.

[01:05:24] And you know what, when we

[01:05:25] talked about the geopolitical

[01:05:27] threats in Asia,

[01:05:29] in the Middle East and so forth,

[01:05:31] the supply chain issues that

[01:05:33] we've talked about pushing

[01:05:35] things to on shoring.

[01:05:37] This would impact us mostly

[01:05:38] with on shoring.

[01:05:39] Then we've got, you know,

[01:05:40] the jobs act and the inflation

[01:05:42] reduction act and the Chips Act

[01:05:44] and all of those things.

[01:05:46] Manufacturing plants are going to

[01:05:47] be being built is going to help

[01:05:49] construction, but we've

[01:05:51] got to put people behind those

[01:05:52] jobs and we are not at a

[01:05:54] place where AI is going to solve

[01:05:56] that problem yet.

[01:05:56] No, no, unfortunately, it's not

[01:05:58] an AI. That's not an AI solution.

[01:06:00] No, so that kind of hits it

[01:06:02] for the week. We've also got

[01:06:03] each week a section in here

[01:06:04] called the industry Scuttlebut.

[01:06:06] We've talked a little bit about

[01:06:07] some M&A stuff in there,

[01:06:10] White Cap acquiring and doing

[01:06:11] another acquisition.

[01:06:13] One of the first comments we had

[01:06:14] today was

[01:06:16] from our friend Paul Kennedy,

[01:06:17] with the president CEO of

[01:06:19] Dakota Supply Group.

[01:06:21] They just broke ground on another

[01:06:22] facility. They're widening their

[01:06:24] reach, so good for them

[01:06:26] and a couple other pieces in

[01:06:28] there as well.

[01:06:28] So that's about it

[01:06:30] for this week, my friend.

[01:06:33] Yeah, well, don't forget about

[01:06:34] the good reads that your Google

[01:06:35] Don is probably safe from

[01:06:37] AI training.

[01:06:38] So yeah, that one you're

[01:06:40] I was, you know, that certainly

[01:06:41] made me sleep better.

[01:06:44] Well, you two videos are not,

[01:06:45] but my Google Docs are anyway.

[01:06:46] Well, it's it's it's interesting.

[01:06:49] I'm glad you cut that.

[01:06:50] I was going to move on.

[01:06:51] You're it's funny.

[01:06:52] I'm moving us on and you're the

[01:06:54] one who wants to stop.

[01:06:56] No rush. No rush.

[01:06:57] No, I'm just kidding.

[01:06:58] The training

[01:07:01] hats there for a moment.

[01:07:02] I needed a laugh. Thank you.

[01:07:06] So then article, your Google Docs

[01:07:07] are probably safe from AI

[01:07:09] training. This is kind of a big

[01:07:10] deal, though, right?

[01:07:11] Because that is a big concern

[01:07:14] for people in general right now

[01:07:15] is, you know, what for me is

[01:07:17] being used for training, right?

[01:07:19] If you just use that, you know,

[01:07:21] chat GPT and just start typing

[01:07:23] stuff in there without knowing

[01:07:24] and understanding how you're

[01:07:25] using chat GPT, you're

[01:07:27] training those models.

[01:07:29] Same thing, whether it's

[01:07:31] Gemini slash Bard, whatever it

[01:07:33] might be.

[01:07:34] There is a caution here, right?

[01:07:36] If I send you a Google sheet,

[01:07:37] which I do constantly, that's

[01:07:39] safe, right?

[01:07:41] So we're afraid so they're saying

[01:07:44] is so they're saying

[01:07:46] if I send you a link to it

[01:07:49] and I click in that Google

[01:07:51] Doc or Google sheet that anyone

[01:07:53] with the link can use it,

[01:07:54] they're saying that safe.

[01:07:56] But, you know, you were both

[01:07:58] in probably particularly me very

[01:08:00] active LinkedIn users

[01:08:02] and every day

[01:08:05] I see people put links to it.

[01:08:08] It typically comes from the M&A

[01:08:10] venture capital and investment

[01:08:12] world, but people are putting

[01:08:14] worksheets and links to Google

[01:08:16] Docs and surveys

[01:08:18] and things like that, right?

[01:08:20] And probably get

[01:08:21] probably saw two or three

[01:08:23] Google links to Google surveys

[01:08:25] last week.

[01:08:27] And those are being used

[01:08:28] and they clarify that if you're

[01:08:30] putting those out in a domain

[01:08:32] like that, you're at risk.

[01:08:34] So I think what it says is we all

[01:08:36] need to kind of be paying attention

[01:08:37] to what do we put out there

[01:08:39] and recognize that, you know,

[01:08:42] it ties to interesting enough to

[01:08:45] a whole nother realm of discussion.

[01:08:47] But, you know, we have some customers

[01:08:49] that use Leedsmart channel cloud

[01:08:53] internally, but they'll use for their

[01:08:54] marketing automation, they use HubSpot

[01:08:57] and Google's talking

[01:09:00] about buying HubSpot and

[01:09:02] what happens to all of your customer

[01:09:04] data if it's now in HubSpot

[01:09:06] and it's part of Google's domain.

[01:09:07] So that's the big push that

[01:09:09] another topic for another day.

[01:09:12] Well, that's not what I thought.

[01:09:13] Don't you don't you know we're

[01:09:14] about out of time?

[01:09:15] In fact, we're over time.

[01:09:16] And what are you doing?

[01:09:18] All right.

[01:09:21] Good comments today.

[01:09:22] Thank you.

[01:09:22] Thanks, everybody, for all the good

[01:09:24] comments and results.

[01:09:26] And yeah, now

[01:09:28] are we not here next week?

[01:09:31] We are

[01:09:33] you know, it's undecided.

[01:09:35] You're in Florida, I'll be

[01:09:37] in DC.

[01:09:38] I think we're going to do something.

[01:09:41] But so stand

[01:09:43] by, watch where you get our

[01:09:45] info from.

[01:09:47] Let's do this, Tom, and tell me if

[01:09:48] this is technically safe.

[01:09:50] We're either going to do a best

[01:09:51] of recording will be available

[01:09:54] or we're going to

[01:09:56] one of three things or we'll

[01:09:57] pre-record something or

[01:09:59] we'll do a short show live.

[01:10:01] OK, or we'll do nothing.

[01:10:03] I don't think we'll do nothing.

[01:10:05] All right. So one of those.

[01:10:06] All right.

[01:10:08] Because following week, you're

[01:10:10] off in Vegas or something, right?

[01:10:13] I am. I am.

[01:10:14] I know I don't I don't think

[01:10:17] I'm going to be very valuable

[01:10:18] during my college reunion on that

[01:10:20] Friday. So you will figure

[01:10:21] something out tomorrow for next

[01:10:23] week. There's a joke in there

[01:10:24] about your current value.

[01:10:25] So that's true.

[01:10:27] No, you in Vegas, that's your

[01:10:29] that's your play place with your

[01:10:31] buddies and I don't want to bother

[01:10:32] you while you're there.

[01:10:33] But hey, a couple things we've got

[01:10:36] some great guests coming up over

[01:10:37] the next couple months.

[01:10:39] CEO of National Association, a

[01:10:40] wholesalers, Lindsay, that wrote

[01:10:42] that great article earlier.

[01:10:44] Jonathan Bain, from

[01:10:46] Distribution Strategy Group,

[01:10:48] some other great minds in AI

[01:10:49] like Jonathan.

[01:10:50] So stay with us again.

[01:10:53] Kevin Brown, Tom Burton co-founders

[01:10:55] of Leedsmart Technologies and

[01:10:58] obviously the founders of

[01:11:00] Around the Horn and Wholesale

[01:11:01] Distribution. We thank you for

[01:11:03] being with us.

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[01:11:42] Some of you faithful listeners

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[01:11:45] So that's it, Tom.

[01:11:49] Have a good weekend.

[01:11:50] Yeah, everybody do the same.

[01:11:51] Be kind, do good things

[01:11:53] and be safe.

[01:11:55] Take care.

[01:11:57] We hope you enjoyed today's

[01:11:58] episode and our guests.

[01:11:59] Each week, we try our best

[01:12:01] to dig into the topics that are

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