The Future of Distribution: Smart CRM, Nearshoring, and Economic Trends

[00:00:04] Welcome to Around the Horn in Wholesale Distribution with Kevin Brown and Tom Burton. Sponsored each week by LeadSmart Technologies, Tom, Kevin, and their guests review the news of the week and dive deep into the topics impacting manufacturers, wholesale distribution, independent sales agents, and the global wholesale supply chain.

[00:00:24] Whether it's M&A, SaaS and cloud computing, B2B e-commerce, or supply chain issues, we peel back the onion with our guests into the topics that impact your business the most.

[00:00:36] To kick us off and get us started, I'm Kevin Brown. This is my lifelong friend and business partner, Tom Burton.

[00:00:43] We get together every Friday and we chat about the news of the week.

[00:00:49] And we talk about things like the economy and supply chain and manufacturing and distribution and sales and marketing and mergers and acquisitions and technology and e-commerce and cybersecurity and all the different things that are going on around us in this crazy, hectic world that we live in.

[00:01:05] And we discuss how that impacts wholesale distribution and manufacturing.

[00:01:09] How we do that is we review through the newsletter that we put out every week.

[00:01:13] That newsletter is called Around the Horn in Wholesale Distribution where we talk about wholesale distribution and manufacturing with these articles.

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[00:02:27] And so we won't be with you next Friday because of the holiday, but we'll be cranking right back up.

[00:02:33] We have a holiday here in the US, so we'll be jumping ahead with that.

[00:02:37] The last thing to kind of do before we dive in today is kind of a little bit of the final piece of the housekeeping is the business side.

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[00:03:21] The last piece of this is we could not do what we're doing each week if it wasn't for the company that Tom and I work for sponsoring the newsletter and the show each week.

[00:03:32] There's quite a bit of cost.

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[00:03:39] But lead smart technologies company that Tom and I work for is a company that has developed an AI enabled smart CRM and customer intelligence platform.

[00:03:48] Get some really exciting things that we're working on there on the AI front and bringing the what used to be we can sometimes call it your father's CRM and or a four letter word CRM into the new world of AI and technology by using that smart CRM to gain and gather data from across your organization.

[00:04:07] So lead smart channel cloud gathers information from your ERP, your marketing automation solution, your e-commerce solution.

[00:04:14] Other data from around your organization brings it into one place where we use artificial intelligence tools and some smarts from Tom and his team that they put together to help you make great decisions in your business with data that's never before been seen.

[00:04:27] So if there's any value to that in your business as you want to look to accelerate and grow your business and take full advantage of technology and have a platform to introduce artificial intelligence into, we would love nothing more than to support you on that journey.

[00:04:41] So if you're a manufacturer or wholesale distributor, reach out to us.

[00:04:45] We would love to share.

[00:04:46] Tom, did I miss anything?

[00:04:48] No, you didn't miss anything.

[00:04:49] But I don't want to go down a rabbit hole on this, but it was interesting.

[00:04:53] You were talking about CRM and father's CRM and all that.

[00:04:57] We had an interesting call yesterday with a customer where people always complain about, oh, I have to enter activity data in the CRM and meeting information and whatever.

[00:05:07] And we had this conversation that we're working on with a customer where we're actually using AI to correlate activity and the type of activity, not just any activity, but the type of activity with revenue and wallet share.

[00:05:23] And some pretty interesting, I guess, prescriptive guidance coming out of that.

[00:05:28] Right.

[00:05:29] So it's interesting, you know, is all this stuff that we've always heard in the past about, oh, God, I hate entering data and I hate.

[00:05:36] Obviously, we want to minimize that, but there's a lot of value we're finding with some of the data now that can be done anyway.

[00:05:42] I mean, that's a great point.

[00:05:44] But even before we dive into talking about that a little bit, right, is, you know, what is smart CRM as we just, you know, as I mentioned earlier, right?

[00:05:52] And the idea historically, you know, I said, you know, your father's, it's like that old Buick commercial, right?

[00:05:57] Your father's CRM.

[00:05:59] What we're talking about with smart CRM is literally 60, 70 percent of the data in the CRM, if not more.

[00:06:05] Sometimes in the example you gave with that particular company, which is a large wholesale distributor with 100 plus people using our technology and almost 50 branch locations.

[00:06:17] They're flooding their team with intelligence to help them be better in the field at selling.

[00:06:25] So whether it's the marketing team, the inside sales, the counter people, outside sales, customer support, whoever it might be, they have this full view of a customer journey.

[00:06:37] And the activities, as you're mentioning there in that particular setting, the activities that are going on with them that are driving revenue forward, which makes a huge difference.

[00:06:45] Because, you know, the old days of just putting a CRM in the lap of your salespeople and saying, type your notes in.

[00:06:51] We always joke about it and say CRM Saturday, right, where they're watching some football or their kid's soccer game, type in some notes in to appease their manager.

[00:07:00] Complete opposite, right?

[00:07:01] This is the things where we take all this disparate data from an organization, bring it together to help make decisions where people want to use the technology.

[00:07:09] So that's the difference with smart CRM versus traditional CRM.

[00:07:13] It's just a very different place where we're helping people and we're enabling people to be in the spot to help accelerate growth.

[00:07:20] And as Bob points out here, right, CRM often has made data entry clerks out of sellers.

[00:07:26] And I get it, right?

[00:07:28] I mean, we understand why people complain about that.

[00:07:30] But again, what we're seeing now is some of that data entry can actually have some pretty big, big value, not just to the company, but to the sellers themselves.

[00:07:40] Right.

[00:07:40] So anyway, more on that.

[00:07:42] And hey, I want to congratulate Will, who is visiting his son, coaching his ninth grade basketball team, but he's still here.

[00:07:50] So thank you, Will.

[00:07:52] Well, you know, Will clearly has all of his priorities in line.

[00:07:57] He's got family and then around the horn.

[00:07:59] That's right.

[00:08:01] I'm good with those priorities.

[00:08:05] Yep.

[00:08:06] All right.

[00:08:06] You ready to get rolling here?

[00:08:07] Let's roll right into this and get going here.

[00:08:10] So, you know, we've had a handful of articles.

[00:08:12] We start each week.

[00:08:13] Again, we're looking at the newsletter here.

[00:08:15] So if you're listening to podcasts on Apple, Spotify or another podcast platform, you're not seeing this newsletter that we have on the screen.

[00:08:23] Just let us know and we'll get that out to you.

[00:08:24] But we start each week talking about the economy and supply chain.

[00:08:27] It's probably time for me to stop beating up on you about the fact that you lost the bet.

[00:08:33] And I want to say so old news.

[00:08:35] We need to move into the future here.

[00:08:38] Yeah, it is.

[00:08:40] It is sometimes fun to dwell on the past on some things.

[00:08:43] But an article here from this is Yahoo Finance.

[00:08:46] But we have a few articles that kind of flow together today on this.

[00:08:49] So, you know, what we have is, you know, just basic.

[00:08:55] I guess it is it two months from yesterday that the new administration will take place?

[00:09:02] I think it's the 21st.

[00:09:04] 20th.

[00:09:05] It's my birthday.

[00:09:05] My birthday is January 20th.

[00:09:07] So I remember.

[00:09:08] I know it well.

[00:09:09] All right.

[00:09:09] Well, everybody now knows that you promoted your birthday.

[00:09:13] And you accept gift cards, PayPal, you name it, right?

[00:09:19] Yes, exactly.

[00:09:21] And yes, well, I am turning the page.

[00:09:23] It's time to move on.

[00:09:24] We're not going to allow him to do that, right?

[00:09:27] So anyways, if we kind of start thinking about this, there's quite a few factors, right?

[00:09:33] So we had Jerome Powell spoke last week.

[00:09:36] We talked about it a little bit last week as well with last week's guest that we had with us,

[00:09:42] Alex Jasofsky and from the Bundy group, which was what a man.

[00:09:46] I listed a part of that the other day and my head was spinning of some of the great.

[00:09:51] Oh, look, Tom, you and Bob have same birthdays.

[00:09:55] So really?

[00:09:56] That's not yet.

[00:09:57] The essence there.

[00:09:58] Really?

[00:09:58] Okay.

[00:09:59] That's cool.

[00:10:00] I think we're going to have a party.

[00:10:01] We're going to have, I don't know what the day of the 20th is this year.

[00:10:04] As long as it's not a Friday.

[00:10:06] I don't think it's a Friday, but I hope it's not a Friday.

[00:10:09] You keep talking.

[00:10:10] I'll look up the date here.

[00:10:11] Okay.

[00:10:12] You do that.

[00:10:13] That's fine.

[00:10:13] You and Bob can have a kumbaya party.

[00:10:15] On a Monday.

[00:10:16] Maybe we need to have a special Monday episode.

[00:10:20] Tom, it's not that important.

[00:10:22] Okay.

[00:10:23] I'm happy for you.

[00:10:24] I'm just thinking about Bob.

[00:10:26] Okay.

[00:10:27] Well, you and Bob can do a call.

[00:10:29] I think it'd be fantastic.

[00:10:30] And you guys can talk about smart CRM and so forth.

[00:10:35] I think that's fantastic.

[00:10:36] But listen, what we have coming up here, right, is we finally have got some feedback from what the Fed is thinking about and seeing from a standpoint of what they might be anticipating or expecting with the new administration.

[00:10:51] So we're starting to see a little bit of a feeling of, well, wait a minute.

[00:10:55] What's going to happen if we get all these tariffs that are being discussed and some of the other things that have been, I would say, discussed and some people might say threatened by the incoming administration.

[00:11:07] So what do we do in that setting?

[00:11:09] So I think we're starting to see a little bit of a caution that says that maybe we're not going to cut right away again.

[00:11:18] I think we were a couple weeks behind on that for your benefit.

[00:11:21] But what are your quick thoughts on that before we dive too far much further into this?

[00:11:24] What he said, right, was don't expect to have cuts every meeting.

[00:11:29] That's what he said.

[00:11:30] So I think there was this expectation.

[00:11:32] There's a meeting.

[00:11:33] There's a cut.

[00:11:34] There's a meeting.

[00:11:34] There's a cut.

[00:11:35] What he's saying is don't expect that.

[00:11:37] And he said it's basically said previously, right, to you that you could kind of expect that.

[00:11:44] And now that's kind of being walked back a little bit.

[00:11:47] And I think, you know, we're seeing that from Wall Street as well.

[00:11:51] It said, you know, Wall Street traders and some economists now envision just two rather than four rate cuts next year.

[00:11:56] I would be.

[00:11:58] And again, I'm going to go ahead and start calling myself a junior economist since I called the rate cuts right for this year.

[00:12:10] The look on your face.

[00:12:11] That's a pretty low bar.

[00:12:13] Okay.

[00:12:14] But whatever.

[00:12:16] I mean, if anybody here, I mean, I, you know, I guess I'm going to I'm going to ride this horse for a while, Tom.

[00:12:24] But with that said, I think that comment that was made there about, you know, potentially, you know, just two rather than four rate cuts next year.

[00:12:35] That to me would be astounding if that's all we had.

[00:12:39] We would have to see some really weird news.

[00:12:41] It was interesting, as I mentioned, I was listening to the show we did last week with with Alex and Alex's comment.

[00:12:49] And his entire career is around tracking and following and managing the economics of this country in the world.

[00:12:56] And he was saying, you know, a point to a point and a half next year is what we really needed.

[00:13:01] And so I think right now we can we're probably in the same boat that we've been in for a year and a half.

[00:13:06] Right.

[00:13:06] Is you can find you can find the answer that you want by just picking the right economist or the right prognosticator on these things.

[00:13:17] But I think we're if we don't see a point cut next year without any something pretty dramatic happening separately in inflation, I'd be pretty surprised.

[00:13:28] Yeah, I mean, I think we could see that.

[00:13:30] But overall, and I think this is the theme of these these articles here.

[00:13:34] And there's actually several articles in the section.

[00:13:36] I know we won't get through all of them.

[00:13:38] But if you were to read through these different articles that are here, there's a theme to emerge.

[00:13:45] And the theme that is emerging is a inflation is sticky.

[00:13:51] E, there's a lot of things that are.

[00:13:53] And look, I mean, as we talked about, right, taking Trump seriously and not literally.

[00:13:58] Regardless of that, there are going to be some actions that are going to happen with the new administration that, you know, maybe have some short term ramifications for some downturn, long term benefits.

[00:14:10] Right.

[00:14:11] And some of those short term ramifications could be inflationary.

[00:14:14] And so I think that, you know, everyone's kind of, you know, the tariffs, obviously, and who knows how they end up playing out or the amount or or whatever.

[00:14:23] But if you look at some of the things he's talking about, if you again, look at it seriously versus literally, there are definitely some short term potential impacts.

[00:14:32] And those impacts are going to be inflationary.

[00:14:35] Things aren't just going to be.

[00:14:36] Let's say maybe.

[00:14:38] Yeah.

[00:14:39] They play out.

[00:14:40] Right.

[00:14:41] You'd be careful there.

[00:14:43] Yeah.

[00:14:43] Agreed.

[00:14:44] Agreed.

[00:14:44] Agreed.

[00:14:45] So, listen, we posted three different articles today.

[00:14:48] Yahoo Finance, CNBC and Axios about a handful of topics.

[00:14:54] Right.

[00:14:54] We talk about tariffs.

[00:14:55] They're talking about issues in the port.

[00:14:57] And then we're talking about what's going on in the supply chain world, which is a segment we're in today is the economy and supply chain.

[00:15:03] Right.

[00:15:04] Right.

[00:15:04] Where we're already in that place now where we're seeing people really starting to try and buffer their inventories and get ahead of that.

[00:15:15] So, these articles kind of tie together.

[00:15:18] So, if we're looking at the potential of these, of some large tariffs out there, right, then that conversely, you've got people on the other end of that.

[00:15:29] Their supply chain is tied to some of the countries that will be having the majority of the impact of that.

[00:15:37] We're trying to ramp things up.

[00:15:39] You tie that together with right now, we're going back into January.

[00:15:42] We've got that cooling off period right now with the port strike in the Gulf Coast and the East Coast, right, which is 30 plus percent of what comes into this country, I think, is the case.

[00:15:53] And now we're seeing this front loading of inventories and freight coming in.

[00:15:59] There's some real pressures on the supply chain that come with this right now.

[00:16:03] So, I think this is something extremely important for us to be paying close attention to.

[00:16:07] We've been watching this for a long time.

[00:16:09] There's even some discussion, some of the articles that we've posted today where we're talking about the upswing in investment in manufacturing from the Chinese in Mexico.

[00:16:22] And I'm going to go back and continue.

[00:16:24] This is another drum.

[00:16:25] I'm going to bang on my end of this is watch Mexico, watch Mexico, watch Mexico.

[00:16:30] Because the impact and we've got a this is I think I'm going to go back.

[00:16:36] And this this came from from Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist.

[00:16:40] And you've you've mentioned this a couple of times on our show, you know, that the way to look at this incoming administration is was it?

[00:16:48] I think it said take him seriously, but not literally.

[00:16:52] And and one of the things I think we're really looking at, we talked about this a little bit last week with Alex was the fact that, look, there's part of what's going to go on with these tariffs is not just in all.

[00:17:03] Anybody on the left seems to want to talk about right now is, you know, 60 percent, you know, tariffs on Chinese products.

[00:17:13] And it's, you know, it's going to ruin our economy and it's going to do this and it's going to do that.

[00:17:19] That's, I think, a little bit extreme in that.

[00:17:21] In my belief, Tom, I want your opinion.

[00:17:23] In my mind, that is the exact perfect example of take him seriously, but not literally.

[00:17:29] When we start talking about how large some of those numbers are, what's your take on that?

[00:17:34] No, I agree.

[00:17:35] Right.

[00:17:35] And sometimes you have to be, you have to talk in a way that's extreme in order to get people's attention to actually listen.

[00:17:44] Right.

[00:17:45] So I think, and also, as we've talked about, there's negotiation involved in that.

[00:17:49] But sometimes you have to go a bit extreme to get people to actually realize that you're talking seriously.

[00:17:56] Thank you.

[00:17:57] Yes.

[00:17:57] Anyone who's raised kids can speak to that, right?

[00:18:01] Or you dealing with, or maybe you dealing with me.

[00:18:04] Exactly.

[00:18:06] Good example.

[00:18:08] Very good.

[00:18:08] So anyway, yeah, again, I think how all of this ends up playing out.

[00:18:13] I'm going to bring up Bob's comment here because he set it up more articulately than I did.

[00:18:19] But exactly what I was trying to say, right?

[00:18:21] With a new administration, we are changing gears.

[00:18:24] In order to change gears, as he says, you need to press the clutch, drop a few RPMs and MPHs before the new gear engages, and things are going to happen right there.

[00:18:33] And that's what's going to happen here, how that all plays out.

[00:18:36] How exactly we won't know for a bit.

[00:18:40] And hey, I just noticed here, Ron's on with us.

[00:18:44] We haven't seen him for a while.

[00:18:45] Good to have you.

[00:18:46] I talked to Ron earlier in the week.

[00:18:48] He's had a lot going on.

[00:18:50] Yeah, but good to have you back.

[00:18:52] Yep.

[00:18:52] Yep.

[00:18:53] So he's a regular with us, and we're appreciative of all his comments.

[00:18:58] And RP is a former senior executive with Grainger and now advising a cool AI-related company called ORS, an Italian-based company doing some neat AI stuff.

[00:19:10] So happy to have you here with us, RP.

[00:19:12] Good to talk to you earlier in the week.

[00:19:14] So, Tom, let's just kind of back and before we move ahead, let's recap what these articles were about, right?

[00:19:19] So we've got this potential tariff impact situation, right?

[00:19:25] And the one thing that we didn't talk about that I do want to mention is, and it's pretty important related to the tariffs, is all we hear about consistently is China, China, China with the tariffs.

[00:19:36] There's a whole other side of this I was reading about and listening to a different podcast about as well last week was the idea of this is so much more than China.

[00:19:47] There are a number of countries around the world who we have imbalanced tariffs on.

[00:19:51] So a big chunk of this will be going, and I can't remember some of the countries, but there's some additional ones in Southeast Asia, where the imbalance of where our tariffs or taxes are on each other's goods is way out of balance.

[00:20:03] And part of what the new administration is saying is, hey, we're going to come right back and say we're at least going to get that balanced.

[00:20:09] And then we're going to look at this issue where we've got geopolitical pressures.

[00:20:13] And I think the two biggest things that we probably want to watch with this administration, and this isn't about world politics or any about that.

[00:20:22] This is what we're talking about right now is how it impacts wholesale distribution manufacturing, is the two things to watch is what happens from the geopolitical standpoint with China and with Russia, right?

[00:20:36] Because we've got all the fuel issues with Russia and so forth.

[00:20:39] And we've got a different incoming president who is ready to push hard and kind of kick butt and take names, so to speak, and going to be extreme to try and get what he wants out of some of these things.

[00:20:53] So I think those are two of the key things in the geopolitical factor.

[00:20:56] But there are other countries, I should say, where we need to balance out the tariff issues.

[00:21:01] The other thing to recap on all of this is watch what's going to be happening right now with this inventory balancing, because there could be a rebound effect to that.

[00:21:11] If we get too much of that in place, then we're going to be stalled on things as well.

[00:21:16] And then the price of freight is going to be going up significantly with all of this happening as well.

[00:21:23] So some pretty significant things to pay attention to.

[00:21:26] We should probably catch Will's comment there.

[00:21:30] It's probably valuable as well.

[00:21:33] Do you want to read that?

[00:21:34] Well, of course, Will.

[00:21:37] I mean, you look at Kevin's economic background and skill set.

[00:21:40] Of course he's spot on about this.

[00:21:42] That's right.

[00:21:42] It goes without saying.

[00:21:43] As long as we're acknowledging that now.

[00:21:46] But, right, we're talking about he mentions here that, you know, he was at a – when Will spends – Will's an executive within for the ERP company.

[00:21:55] Great, great people there.

[00:21:56] In fact, Will's been on the show a couple times.

[00:21:59] We're going to have Stephen Levy on soon within for – he's going to be a guest with us before too long here as well.

[00:22:04] And so we need to be paying attention to a lot of these pieces related to automation.

[00:22:08] So we're – which ties into the whole port strike thing that we were talking about as well.

[00:22:12] So right now we've got – we didn't publish an article today, but there's huge pressure on the West Coast ports right now.

[00:22:19] So these – the whole supply chain issue is really tenuous.

[00:22:23] And we're going to do a good job, hopefully, of continuing to have those ongoing conversations about all of that.

[00:22:30] Just one thing to make clear, right, the earliest the tariffs would actually kick in would be February or March.

[00:22:36] Yes.

[00:22:37] That's the earliest that that could happen.

[00:22:38] So between February and March, you may have a bit of a bubble occurring, right, of people trying to rush to maybe avoid some of those tariffs, as we've seen in some of these articles.

[00:22:49] Good.

[00:22:49] So before we jump into the manufacturing distribution segment that we do each week, Tom, quick reminder, there's another couple of articles in there, one related to what we've been talking about.

[00:23:00] But in that segment of our economy and supply chain, good article about the Eurozone industry falters again as trade troubles loom.

[00:23:09] Again, a lot coming in from Europe as well into the U.S., some challenges in the European market as well.

[00:23:15] So a good article to read there.

[00:23:16] Again, we probably don't talk about this enough.

[00:23:20] I sometimes get real late of the reminder.

[00:23:22] It's been 24 minutes since I did it.

[00:23:24] But if you're listening to us on the podcast, the recorded podcast on Apple, Spotify, Odyssey, wherever you get your podcasts at, you're not hearing what we're – you're not seeing, I should say, what we're talking about.

[00:23:37] So we're talking about the Around the Horn and Wholesale Distribution Newsletter.

[00:23:40] You can get that by emailing us at hello at leadsmarttech.com.

[00:23:44] To get that, you can get it on the website for the podcast aroundthehornpod.com or go to LinkedIn, go to Lead Smart Technologies LinkedIn page, and you can see the newsletter right there and subscribe to it.

[00:23:57] So jumping into our manufacturing and distribution segment, it says, first articles from Forbes, from production to precision, how AI is reshaping manufacturing.

[00:24:08] What are you seeing out of that?

[00:24:09] I think we can probably hit these first couple right together.

[00:24:12] There's a lot of overlap.

[00:24:13] You mentioned that other article that's there and where it's from.

[00:24:16] The second article is from advanced manufacturing.

[00:24:18] Where will AI or gen AI deliver real value in 2025?

[00:24:25] One of the things I found really interesting about both of these articles is the amount of, I guess, AI automation and modern AI technology that is being built into the DNA of a lot of the manufacturing plants that are being either designed or being built, at least for these articles that are here.

[00:24:48] We talk a lot about multimodal, which is the ability to process data from multiple sources, whether it's visual, audio, even sound, and potentially even smell over time.

[00:25:02] And that's what they were talking about is in this first article in particular is, or I'm sorry, the second article is the use of multimodal technologies to observe what's going on in the manufacturing plant and then be able to make adjustments based around those different types of observations that it's able to make, even just around sound.

[00:25:24] Or, you know, I could assume a machine could potentially create a somewhat slightly different sound or whatever that could be picked up and could be identified as something that needed to be addressed.

[00:25:36] So can I hit pause with on that for you real quick?

[00:25:38] Because that's such a cool thought you just brought up.

[00:25:41] And I almost included in an article this week.

[00:25:43] There is an AI tool that was just developed to be, that's beginning, being tested right now in battery plants, that it can, the AI has a listening mode that can hear a fire starting in a battery plant, like before the sounds that the batteries are making before they even catch fire.

[00:26:04] Yeah.

[00:26:05] Right.

[00:26:06] And so that's just using AI just by having microphones placed and probably some cameras as well.

[00:26:12] I thought that was, I almost included the article, but it was just had a lot to cover today.

[00:26:17] But I thought that was really cool.

[00:26:18] But I think that triggers exactly what you're describing there in that setting.

[00:26:21] And it was in a plant as well.

[00:26:24] So.

[00:26:25] Yeah, you probably know this as well.

[00:26:26] How the Cal Fire here in California is using AI to look at satellite images of areas and seeing even the slightest amount of change in the satellite to determine if they're an opportunity or a situation where a fire is happening.

[00:26:44] So.

[00:26:44] Yeah.

[00:26:44] Similar example with that.

[00:26:46] Good.

[00:26:47] You know, there's an interesting point by Jeff here.

[00:26:50] He says, I have a lot of experience in AI, machine learning and manufacturing.

[00:26:54] The issue we had is around collecting relevant data.

[00:26:57] I think that the multimodal aspect of things should open the door to being able to collect more accurate data around and not just relying on some of the more traditional sensors that are there.

[00:27:10] This is a Infor ERP day.

[00:27:12] Jeff's another executive from Infor, I think.

[00:27:15] So it's great, great to have the Infor team with us today, which is super.

[00:27:19] And I love getting when we get feedback like that from folks that, I mean, Jeff's talking about is his plant floor experience.

[00:27:26] And same thing with Will, you know, as well earlier with one of his comments.

[00:27:30] So I think we're going to continue to see the growth of that.

[00:27:34] What's interesting, Tom, is, you know, I think, you know, you spend, you know, time every day talking to existing lead smart customers and helping them within our implementation team.

[00:27:46] And you're overseeing all of that.

[00:27:47] And I talked to him kind of on the front end of their journey.

[00:27:50] And the types of conversations that we're seeing with both distributors and manufacturers now related to AI is very quickly changing.

[00:27:59] You know, there's the amount of requests of people that even, well, I mean, maybe the easiest way to describe it was three, four, six months ago,

[00:28:08] the idea of an agent or a co-pilot for somebody in distribution was like, you know, head shaking, right?

[00:28:15] That's kind of what are you talking about?

[00:28:17] Yeah, maybe, maybe that'll get here.

[00:28:19] And now people are asking about that early on, you know?

[00:28:23] So I think we're going to just continue to see that growth and movement.

[00:28:26] But there are factors like Jeff's talking about is making sure you can get the data correctly and so forth.

[00:28:31] So I think this is interesting.

[00:28:33] I've seen the article here talked about, you know, efficient running plants.

[00:28:37] It talked about product development and design work.

[00:28:41] And, you know, when we start talking about the value of digital twins in this setting,

[00:28:46] when you could replicate a, in product development, replicate a manufacturing process

[00:28:54] and look at how we might manufacture something, three, four, five different methods that we could use to find the most efficient,

[00:29:01] the types of things that are going to happen.

[00:29:03] And I think even from a speed to market with new products in manufacturing is really going to happen quickly too.

[00:29:09] Because when you think about the tooling and all of the things that goes through that,

[00:29:13] if you can start modeling that out with digital twins and multimodal, as you were describing as well,

[00:29:19] start lumping all of that stuff together and speed to market is going to really change as well.

[00:29:24] I would agree.

[00:29:25] Yep.

[00:29:26] So, hey, let's, let's move on to this next article because I have a question for you here.

[00:29:30] Yeah.

[00:29:31] You know, this next article about nearshoring continues new facility in Mexico and talking about sort of the modern design of that.

[00:29:41] And this kind of, I think we'll mention this, but I'm interested in your take on this.

[00:29:45] Is companies move, you know, if we get more nearshoring or onshoring and we build more manufacturing,

[00:29:51] do you think that most organizations will take the time to design and really build a modern organization or a modern plant and a modern facility?

[00:30:01] Are they going to just, Hey, this is the way it's always worked.

[00:30:04] And we're going to, you know, minor, minor, maybe modernization and the whole thing.

[00:30:10] That's an insightful question.

[00:30:13] And I was on the phone the other day with a gentleman.

[00:30:19] I might even be on with us today, Darren Ross.

[00:30:20] And you've met Darren before.

[00:30:22] And Darren has a deep background in distribution and some in manufacturing.

[00:30:26] He had been doing quite a bit of nearshoring work in the last company he was with, with some cabinetry and so forth that they could just do better and faster in Mexico than in bringing in from Asia.

[00:30:40] And we, we had a lengthy discussion about this the other day.

[00:30:43] I think what we're going to see Tom is you're going to see two, I'm going to preface this.

[00:30:49] I think there's going to be two sides of this discussion.

[00:30:52] One side of that is going to be where we see what distributors might start taking advantage of working with existing plants in Mexico that can do products that they're getting from Asia right now.

[00:31:08] One for speed, quality is potentially equal or better.

[00:31:12] And the price differential is not too much different.

[00:31:16] So we might, we'll see that of working with existing plants are there.

[00:31:19] To your question about talking about what we might see from a manufacturer.

[00:31:24] I think the issue in this really ties into our earlier discussion.

[00:31:28] I think the key thing that we're going to see in the next year is what happens in the geopolitical scenario, right?

[00:31:36] As we start talking about China's, you know, pushing their way into the South China Sea and other parts of Southeast Asia and the geopolitical pressure from that.

[00:31:48] We're going to see what's going to be happening as well from a standpoint of what's going on with Taiwan.

[00:31:53] And then we're going to see what happens with the tariffs.

[00:31:55] I think if there's a lot of pressure from those things quickly in answer to your question, you might see companies that are just rushing to get something up and running or existing companies that already have a presence in Latin America.

[00:32:09] I won't just say Mexico, but an example in Latin America will expand upon existing pieces.

[00:32:15] What I would also say is very likely, though, is you have people right now that are saying, wait a minute, how can we get started quickly?

[00:32:23] Let's get the real estate guys going on a new plant.

[00:32:27] Let's get the budgets in place as quick as we can.

[00:32:30] And let's be thinking about including some AI and some other smart technologies in that.

[00:32:36] But I think there could be an impact on that as we see what happens in the first half of next year, because, you know, nearshoring isn't something that you flip a switch on.

[00:32:46] Right.

[00:32:46] Your whole supply chain changes.

[00:32:49] There's real estate issues.

[00:32:51] There's capital expenditures.

[00:32:53] There's all of the things that go with that.

[00:32:54] But I think we could see people rush.

[00:32:56] And I think we could see people doing it from a thoughtful approach to it of how they can introduce technology.

[00:33:03] So does that make sense?

[00:33:04] Yeah, that makes sense.

[00:33:05] Yep.

[00:33:06] So, yep.

[00:33:09] I wanted to hit Jeff's point here about digital twins are a great technology really taking off.

[00:33:15] Jeff, I couldn't agree with you more.

[00:33:17] And, in fact, I think the concept of a digital twin, while historically been more in manufacturing and replicating a manufacturing process or a distribution process,

[00:33:29] we're doing some work on digital twins.

[00:33:31] We're doing some work on digital twins that are actually a twin of an outside salesperson or an inside salesperson, but even a digital twin of a customer or an ideal customer and being able to look at those.

[00:33:42] I really think that 2025 is going to be a year of where we're really going to see the proliferation of the use of digital twins in different parts of that, not just in the manufacturing.

[00:33:54] So, Tom, we talk about digital twins all the time.

[00:33:56] You've given a good explanation of what that is.

[00:33:59] We have people that are with us today listening that may or may not have clarity on that, like some of the comments we have.

[00:34:05] Why don't you give us a quick rundown of digital twin in these types of settings?

[00:34:08] I mean, the simple answer, right, is to twin is to take something and replicate it, right?

[00:34:15] So, if I have a physical, and in the manufacturing world, if I have a physical manufacturing plant, I want to replicate a digital twin of that and then be able to run scenarios through that through a digital replication.

[00:34:30] So, but take a, in the example I was using before, right?

[00:34:34] A lot of, in almost every organization we work with, there's always those, you know, take an outside salesperson, for example.

[00:34:41] There's always that outside salesperson or maybe a collection of a few different people that are really the high performers within that organization.

[00:34:49] How do you replicate that, right?

[00:34:51] So, that anybody who is doing outside sales has the benefit of those top performers or even things that those top performers wouldn't be able to do on their own just by the volume or the things that are there.

[00:35:04] So, we want to be able to replicate things that are there.

[00:35:07] So, I just had a crazy thought.

[00:35:09] Maybe we should get guys like Jeff here that's commenting and Will and Steven and some of these smart guys from Infor and maybe some of the other folks we talk about.

[00:35:18] We should do a joint call sometime soon and talk about AI and just kind of a meeting of the minds and who knows, maybe a webinar or something comes out of that.

[00:35:28] So, Jeff, think about that and throw that out with some of your guys if you want to.

[00:35:33] Will made a comment there to kind of the, and Bob commented as well on that, that I don't think the world was ready for what Will's suggesting.

[00:35:46] Will's suggesting, it's just Tom and Kevin, we need digital twins of you two.

[00:35:50] Yeah, I'm not sure.

[00:35:52] I think Will got hit in the head with a basketball.

[00:35:56] It just takes me back to, this was 30, 25 years ago.

[00:36:03] I, in the days, I was a manufacturer's rep here in Southern California and I was visiting with one of our key accounts.

[00:36:09] And I remember talking to their lead buyer who was just a wonderful lady.

[00:36:15] And she asked me how I was doing.

[00:36:17] I said, oh man, I'm doing great.

[00:36:18] I'm just so busy.

[00:36:19] I said, I need another one of me.

[00:36:21] She looked at me and she's like, the world does not need two of you.

[00:36:24] We couldn't keep up.

[00:36:27] And so, yeah, thanks Will.

[00:36:29] I appreciate the confidence in Bob, but I'm not so sure that two more of us would be, people would be able to take it.

[00:36:37] But that's nice.

[00:36:38] Before we leave this section, let's just hit this last article real quick.

[00:36:41] Yeah.

[00:36:42] Hey Tom, can I interrupt you just for a second before we even leave this segment?

[00:36:46] Is the last key thing on these two articles that we had about AI and manufacturing, there was three key points that were brought out in the second of the articles.

[00:36:57] And I think they're worth mentioning briefly today.

[00:37:01] It says descriptive insights, right, would be coming from digital twins and AI's usage in general.

[00:37:07] Descriptive insights telling manufacturers what is happening in their operations.

[00:37:11] Predictive insights, forecasting what issues or problems may occur in the future.

[00:37:17] And three, prescriptive about recommending actions manufacturers can take to address these issues.

[00:37:22] And, you know, RP's with us today.

[00:37:24] The company he's an advisor to does quite a bit of that already on the distribution side of things with supply chain, right?

[00:37:32] Descriptive insights, predictive insights, and prescriptive.

[00:37:36] So I like those three phrases.

[00:37:37] I thought those were valuable.

[00:37:39] So thanks for bearing with me for a second with that.

[00:37:43] So good.

[00:37:44] It's last article here though, which I found interesting, right?

[00:37:48] Is after, and this is from industry week, it says manufacturers to Trump.

[00:37:53] In other words, industry week did a poll with manufacturers, business leaders.

[00:37:58] What were their top priorities?

[00:38:00] Yeah.

[00:38:00] Obviously tariffs were not the top priority on the list.

[00:38:03] Yeah.

[00:38:03] There's a chart with that.

[00:38:04] Did you have that?

[00:38:06] I think so.

[00:38:07] Is that the one you sent over?

[00:38:08] I did.

[00:38:09] It's a pie chart.

[00:38:10] It's quite colorful.

[00:38:12] I don't have a pie chart.

[00:38:13] I just have one that had a list on it.

[00:38:15] I thought I sent you one yesterday.

[00:38:16] That's okay.

[00:38:17] In this article, it's an industry week with that.

[00:38:20] And that's, that's just fine.

[00:38:21] But it talks about, you know, if I'm looking at this, it's a 19.4% of those surveyed were focused.

[00:38:32] And this is the highest were reduced regulations.

[00:38:35] And that's what this article was about.

[00:38:37] Second at 16% was closed the southern border.

[00:38:41] 14.9% was lower corporate tax rates.

[00:38:46] 13.5% was imposed tariffs on incoming goods.

[00:38:51] And those were the, and then nine, almost 10% was imposed higher tariffs on China.

[00:38:57] And then there was a small amount with increased military spending and on from there.

[00:39:04] So that was, it was kind of interesting to see that chart.

[00:39:06] Yep.

[00:39:08] So yeah, the regulation piece was big 19.4% and make it easier to do business, right?

[00:39:15] Make it easier to open more plants, make it easier to, you know, grow.

[00:39:19] So, um, and then boy, that border issue is pretty big.

[00:39:25] So it's a good article.

[00:39:28] All right.

[00:39:29] Should we move on to e-commerce?

[00:39:30] Yeah.

[00:39:30] Let's talk about e-commerce and marketing.

[00:39:33] What do you see there?

[00:39:35] I see two articles from digital commerce 360.

[00:39:39] Yeah.

[00:39:40] By the way, this first article, a, um, it's, uh, related to a Gartner study, Gartner report,

[00:39:48] a predicts B2B e-commerce futures will be led by AI and digital transformation.

[00:39:53] That was written by our friend, Mark Brohan.

[00:39:55] And Mark's going to be on with us on the show as a guest.

[00:39:58] I think I want to say December 20th.

[00:40:01] Um, yeah.

[00:40:02] So that'd be excited to have him with us.

[00:40:04] So you can kind of jump ahead on your first thoughts on that if you want, Tom.

[00:40:08] Well, I, I mean, again, it talks about how do you provide, how do you use AI to provide

[00:40:14] the better experience, right?

[00:40:16] For the buyer, the personalization aspect of it.

[00:40:19] But I was this first article in particular, and I look, I'm not a huge fan of Gartner,

[00:40:25] Gartner group as a analyst firm.

[00:40:28] And I'm not so sure that our industry follows Gartner too much, but I do look at at least

[00:40:35] some of what they believe to be trends is relevant in what they're doing.

[00:40:40] And I thought there was some really good, you know, trends that they were pointing out

[00:40:44] in there related to Gartner and the use of, you know, AI with B2B e-commerce and the personalization

[00:40:50] and the things that are there.

[00:40:52] So.

[00:40:53] Well, they, they talked about, you know, needing low code, no code tools that can be used outside

[00:40:59] of the traditional IT department.

[00:41:00] And I think that to me, when I think about just the traditional wholesale distributor

[00:41:05] or manufacturers, you know, oftentimes if we think about, about e-commerce from a, from

[00:41:12] a consumer view versus a B2B view, there's huge departments within e-commerce.

[00:41:19] There's, they're all, they're doing their own research.

[00:41:22] What we're talking about now, when we think about, you know, most wholesale distributors,

[00:41:26] it's a small IT department, you know, sometimes one or two people.

[00:41:30] I mean, we have, you know, quarter billion dollar a year customers, you know, with 75,

[00:41:36] 80 salespeople, a hundred plus salespeople, but there's, you know, two and a half people

[00:41:41] and a third party consultant working on IT for them.

[00:41:45] And marketing is leading the e-commerce charge in that setting.

[00:41:48] So the idea of having simpler tools to work with, I thought was quite interesting with

[00:41:53] that as well.

[00:41:54] I don't know, I'd love to get the feedback from that.

[00:41:57] I know he is regularly with us is Simon with Optimizely, which does some pretty phenomenal.

[00:42:04] We have a global partnership with them.

[00:42:06] They support affiliated distributors and other groups.

[00:42:09] Simon was with us.

[00:42:10] I'd love his thoughts on this article, but it talks about decentralized development.

[00:42:14] So making it easier to kind of develop and work with tools, digital twins.

[00:42:18] Again, what would happen if, if I'm looking at my e-commerce solution and I'm thinking

[00:42:24] about doing this promotion or this featuring this product this month, what does that look

[00:42:30] like compared to doing this other one, right?

[00:42:32] And so we can really start using audience data that we already have in place and really trying

[00:42:39] to get a view by using digital twins about just like we were talking about earlier, right?

[00:42:44] It's about a prescriptive guidance that can come out of this that really helps us with that

[00:42:48] as well.

[00:42:49] They talked about connected products, but says by 2028, an estimated 15 billion connected

[00:42:55] products will act as independent customers autonomously purchasing service and supplies

[00:43:01] for themselves or their owners.

[00:43:02] So you'll have actually, if I read this correctly, right?

[00:43:06] Is a machine will just go out and purchase the parts that it's going to need next.

[00:43:12] Is that, can you read that part again?

[00:43:14] Yeah, let's listen to it closely, right?

[00:43:16] And it says connected products.

[00:43:18] And by 2028, an estimated 15 billion connected products will act as independent customers autonomously

[00:43:27] purchasing services, supplies for themselves and their owners.

[00:43:33] Interesting.

[00:43:34] So is that like, you know, hey, I have a razor and my, my blade is, is dulling and it will

[00:43:40] automatically go and purchase the blade for me.

[00:43:43] That's the consumer version of that.

[00:43:45] That's the consumer version of that.

[00:43:46] Yeah.

[00:43:47] Yeah.

[00:43:47] So, but imagine, imagine, you know, this happening as well is, you know, right now you'll see

[00:43:54] every day, right?

[00:43:55] It's a huge market for a lot of our listeners are even big with it is having vending machines

[00:44:00] in.

[00:44:01] If you think about it, right.

[00:44:03] If you put a, if you, you know, there's cutting tools out there and manufacturing facilities

[00:44:07] that are hundreds of dollars for little, little cutting tools.

[00:44:11] Right.

[00:44:12] And then you have costly safety equipment that might be specialized and things like that.

[00:44:17] So those have, I mean, they've been doing this for 25, 30 years now, putting those into

[00:44:22] vending machines.

[00:44:23] Well, vending machines now are already connected so that the company that is leasing it as well

[00:44:28] as the company that services it can see inventories.

[00:44:31] You get a report of Joe Smith got these items out of it and it goes to this budget for that.

[00:44:37] Well, now if we're just looking at that place where that's the most simplistic version of that,

[00:44:42] where it just says I'm automatically ordering what's needed next.

[00:44:46] But I think what this is really talking about that's pretty darn exciting with this is that

[00:44:52] you're now you think about a manufacturing piece of manufacturing machinery or a robot itself saying

[00:44:58] I need the, you know, imagine where we're headed with, with robots, with things in a plant and a robot

[00:45:04] that says, Hey, I'm the one who services these other pieces of equipment.

[00:45:09] And I need this much lubrication.

[00:45:11] And I need this, these chains and these hoists or whatever it might be.

[00:45:15] And I'm sure early stages of that will be a human confirming that that's okay.

[00:45:20] But look at all the labor that they, that takes out of the, the purchasing process.

[00:45:26] Well, I think that was Mike's point here.

[00:45:28] Yeah, exactly right.

[00:45:29] Great to have Mike with us.

[00:45:30] Mike, congratulations.

[00:45:32] Mike's had, had a big anniversary with ARG.

[00:45:35] So I think it was 30 years.

[00:45:36] So Mike's president and CEO of ARG in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.

[00:45:42] Great company.

[00:45:43] Great, great guy.

[00:45:44] So congratulations.

[00:45:46] I just anniversary personally there.

[00:45:48] That's company.

[00:45:49] Yeah.

[00:45:49] Yeah.

[00:45:50] Mike's Mike's a little more than 30, but that was, that was, that was nice of you.

[00:45:56] Anyway, his point being right is that the agents can replace some of that dirty, that data entry

[00:46:02] and busy work and all of those things along the way, which is along the line with what you were,

[00:46:07] what you were saying there.

[00:46:08] So, yeah.

[00:46:08] So really, really positive stuff actually, I think that came out of that.

[00:46:12] So good, good, good news from that.

[00:46:15] And, you know, a follow-up article to that was there as well from, say, my digital commerce

[00:46:21] 360.

[00:46:22] We use their information a lot.

[00:46:23] And it talks about another Harvard study about role of AI growing in e-commerce is going to

[00:46:30] grow dramatically.

[00:46:30] There's a great chart in that as well, which Tom, I'm going to hit this one more time today.

[00:46:36] If you're listening on the podcast, it's recorded later in the day on Friday, the 22nd, or any time in the future.

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[00:47:10] We love the folks that are listening.

[00:47:11] In fact, I have a call later in the day with a great prospect, great manufacturing company in the Northeast that is looking closely at bringing our technology from LeadSmart into their organization to help them not only run their own organization,

[00:47:27] but communicate better through our LeadSmart Channel Cloud's partner portal with their manufacturers rep and so forth.

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[00:47:41] And she listed the three full episodes of Around the Horn on Spotify.

[00:47:45] So kind of nice to hear.

[00:47:48] You know, a quick, I know we've been, for those of you who get the newsletter, we've been trying to beef it up a bit the last couple of weeks.

[00:47:57] We have some more people working on this.

[00:47:59] So what I'm finding interesting, and I think this is really helpful too, is for me, even, I can scan through one of our sections and look at the collection of articles and get a theme of that,

[00:48:11] and then decide to drill into some of these individual articles.

[00:48:14] And I think that's going to continue with some of the stuff that's going on in the newsletter is that make it easy for people to scan through it, get a theme, get some data,

[00:48:23] and then be able to do a deeper dive in some of the areas that are there.

[00:48:25] So hopefully...

[00:48:27] Remember 117 weeks ago when we said, hey, let's put a newsletter out and see if anybody cares.

[00:48:35] And then you said, hey, let's go on LinkedIn Live and see if anybody shows up.

[00:48:40] And here we are now.

[00:48:42] And I think we averaged 26 countries with downloads in it each week and multiple people behind the scenes working on it.

[00:48:49] So good job, Tom.

[00:48:51] I think we might be on to something.

[00:48:52] I think it'll get better next year.

[00:48:54] So where's it going next year?

[00:48:56] Very good.

[00:48:56] Yeah.

[00:48:57] And in curating this, everybody works on it.

[00:49:00] I try and do the first pass of the articles on this.

[00:49:03] That's been the goal, right?

[00:49:04] Is let's find a theme.

[00:49:06] Let's get articles and information out there that can be valuable and beneficial to people as they're trying to navigate the waters of all the areas that we cover.

[00:49:16] So this is good.

[00:49:17] Yep.

[00:49:18] All right.

[00:49:19] Want to jump ahead here?

[00:49:21] Yeah.

[00:49:21] I mean, let's just kind of hit these pretty quickly.

[00:49:25] I think some of these we've hit on already.

[00:49:27] This is now the technology cybersecurity and AI section.

[00:49:32] We've talked quite a bit about AI so far today.

[00:49:36] But, well, there's a couple of key points here.

[00:49:38] The first article here, Millennials Gen Z at odds over AI's value.

[00:49:44] You know, I read this and I'd like to dig into this more.

[00:49:47] But basically what it's saying is, hey, millennials are embracing the use of AI in business more so than Gen Z seems to be.

[00:49:58] Yep.

[00:50:00] Which is a little bit strange to me, I would think.

[00:50:04] But maybe, you know, the only thing I was trying to draw a conclusion to that is that our millennials feeling like they're a bit more stable in their job and in their career.

[00:50:12] And so the AI is not as threatening or is more, you know, the Gen Z generation still not feeling as stable in their career and in their career skills so that, you know, there's more threatening.

[00:50:25] Don't know.

[00:50:26] Those are just there wasn't a lot of insight behind that.

[00:50:28] But I just found it an interesting set of data.

[00:50:33] Yeah.

[00:50:34] Well, but the crux of this article, right, is that they're looking at things differently.

[00:50:39] Millennials and Gen X and Gen Z responded to the survey that was done.

[00:50:46] But the crux of this, I think the simple takeaway on this is you need to have a structure within your organization about how you're going to roll out AI solutions.

[00:50:58] They talk about it as deploy AI with change management in mind.

[00:51:02] Understanding employee behavior and sentiment will play a significant role in whether these initiatives roll out or not.

[00:51:10] So thinking about the generational, it's really no difference than, you know, an HR person that's going to roll out a new policy.

[00:51:18] Stopping and thinking about I have different generations in my workforce and how do I address it with them?

[00:51:25] Same thing with rolling out AI is, you know, they talk about gaining employee buy-in on AI initiatives, making sure to engage everybody with what you're doing.

[00:51:33] You know, we've talked about a handful of these types of things before, but I think they continue to be really important because, you know, and we see this all the time.

[00:51:40] We talk to some of our customers is, and it just makes me think of a couple in particular that are like, give us your AI, give us your AI, give us your AI.

[00:51:48] Where they're not, the organization's not even ready for it at this case.

[00:51:53] The AI isn't even ready necessarily with some of the technology behind it.

[00:51:58] So I think this is that the crawl walk run scenario that we talk about so often fits right into this again.

[00:52:04] So, okay.

[00:52:08] Very good.

[00:52:10] This is, I like Mike's comment.

[00:52:12] He says, I think that Gen Z looks at AI and says, meh, what's the big deal?

[00:52:16] Well, this is where we live.

[00:52:19] It's right there, probably seeing it everywhere.

[00:52:21] And I think millennials are probably at a place where they're starting to look at it and say, how can this really benefit me in general?

[00:52:28] Because I think there's also a gasp or a gap or a chasm there.

[00:52:33] And we've talked about this many times as well, is, you know, when we start thinking about that, you know, younger, youngest generation that we're working with right now.

[00:52:42] What's going on at work is just kind of another thing in their life where millennials may be a little bit more career focused.

[00:52:50] And then you get whatever the next generation is beyond millennials, you know, and then you get to people like us where, you know what, we should be putting, you know, thinking about our families and then work comes next.

[00:53:03] Right.

[00:53:04] So, yep.

[00:53:05] And a good point of what Mike's doing.

[00:53:07] But I think Mike's point here is that Z and millennials are rolling it out in the workplace, regardless of initiative.

[00:53:13] And that's a double-edged sword, right?

[00:53:17] That could be great news.

[00:53:18] It could also be dangerous when you start thinking about security implication.

[00:53:24] And so, I don't even understand what Will just wrote.

[00:53:34] Yeah, well.

[00:53:35] He was talking millennial speak.

[00:53:38] So, that's, anyways, Mike commented here, you got to be out in front and take the lead.

[00:53:44] We probably need to run this through AI to make sure we understand what he's saying.

[00:53:48] Yeah, I think that was Gen Z speak, I think.

[00:53:51] Yeah.

[00:53:51] Yeah.

[00:53:52] Yeah.

[00:53:52] So, I know the sus.

[00:53:55] I was, I was, I was, that was an accusation, I guess, with that.

[00:54:01] So, but I think the point is, and what Mike's commenting on and Will and a number of the comments we're getting here is people are already doing it.

[00:54:08] They're already engaging.

[00:54:09] They're already grasping on it.

[00:54:11] But as an organization, right?

[00:54:13] We need to be, and Mike says this, it's got to be a front line led, right?

[00:54:18] People want to, want to embrace it, want to be involved with it.

[00:54:21] But organizationally, we have to have some guardrails on things as well because it's scary what could happen with your data.

[00:54:27] And we talk about cybersecurity regularly on our show as well.

[00:54:31] And there's some cautions and some guardrails that need to be put with these things as well.

[00:54:35] So.

[00:55:04] All right.

[00:55:05] And cybersecurity dive magazine, and it talks about attackers are using password spray attacks to target victims.

[00:55:14] And that article, Tom talks about how easy it is for organizations to jump ahead on, on, and do very simply doing these spray attacks where they can auto generate, you know, billions of passwords and target them at system users out there.

[00:55:35] So, you know, it goes in and talks a little bit about two-factor authentication and other security things.

[00:55:40] And you know what?

[00:55:41] It makes me think, right, is that you and I, as the founders and leaders in our organization is, man, you know, we've got a lot of data.

[00:55:49] So are we doing all of the right things?

[00:55:52] I think this is just one more reminder day in and day out for folks is that we've got to be paying attention on the cyber side of things because it's not even an issue of can you recover or not from these things.

[00:56:04] The issue is the downtime, the costs, the fallout that happens from an attack, even if you had no damage from it.

[00:56:13] I remember talking to a manufacturer earlier this year that somebody was able to get far enough into their system to take over some computer screens.

[00:56:24] But after, like, a week or two of having, literally having meetings with the attackers on Zoom, they were able to finally figure out they weren't really in their system.

[00:56:34] They were in far enough to get a hold of some screens and they, but by then the damage that had happened to the organization from a cost standpoint and it ripped out their servers and all kinds of stuff.

[00:56:46] So, you know, cybersecurity is going to get more and more important every day.

[00:56:53] All right.

[00:56:53] So let's jump ahead into our sales and M&A section.

[00:56:56] Good article from salesandmarketing.com magazine about self-sabotage among sales professionals.

[00:57:03] I don't think we need to go deep dive onto that, but great article.

[00:57:07] We try and always hit some articles in the sales and M&A section, you know, about growth within the sales side of things before we ever get to the M&A segment that's here.

[00:57:18] So good article talks about defining a North Star.

[00:57:21] So we have a path and we're always on a path for our own growth and not self-sabotaging ourselves.

[00:57:26] So I thought that was good.

[00:57:28] I think there's a little bit of a story behind the story on that one, too, is, you know, look, I think one of the most difficult jobs is sales, right?

[00:57:37] Sales is a very, very difficult job.

[00:57:40] You get a lot of quote unquote rejection.

[00:57:41] You get ghosted.

[00:57:43] You get all of those things that are there, right?

[00:57:46] There's a lot of potentially, I guess, negative signals that you receive in that role.

[00:57:54] You know, I think there's a lot that can be done.

[00:57:56] And I think what we were talking about earlier, even with digital twins, things that we can do to help enable that salesperson to even be more valuable.

[00:58:05] I was on a call this week with a technology company, another technology company.

[00:58:11] Salesperson was a really nice guy, but he didn't really know much about their company, their technology.

[00:58:18] Every question I had was, I got to follow up with that.

[00:58:21] I got to follow up with that.

[00:58:22] You know, that makes a very difficult situation.

[00:58:26] And so anyway, I think there's a lot that, you know, obviously we work a lot with salespeople, but I think it's, there's a lot that we can do to help make that job and make this salespeople more, more, more professional and more able to, to, to do it.

[00:58:44] So.

[00:58:48] A great quote.

[00:58:49] Great quote.

[00:58:50] And Bob's, I've done such a great job of articulating better what I'm saying.

[00:58:54] Sales is the easiest hard job you'll ever have, or the hardest easy job, depending upon your point of view.

[00:59:00] Yeah.

[00:59:01] That's right.

[00:59:02] It's what we make of it, right?

[00:59:03] I mean, the boiling that down, it's what we make of those things.

[00:59:06] So this is good.

[00:59:07] So this is our sales and M&A section.

[00:59:09] There's a good article in CIO Dive magazine.

[00:59:13] And that is discussing a Trump win interest rate cuts could spur M&A spike next year.

[00:59:20] And there's two components really to that, that has to happen.

[00:59:24] Interest rates, right?

[00:59:26] You got to be able to access money easier.

[00:59:28] And then the other side of it is what happens with both the SEC and the FTC, right?

[00:59:35] And so we already heard within the Securities and Exchange Commission that, Gimpler, I think

[00:59:42] is his name, is stepping down.

[00:59:44] That was, he and Trump were going to have some struggles.

[00:59:47] Trump had said right away he was going to get rid of him.

[00:59:50] And he's kind of been that anti, I guess, anti-merger and acquisition right along with

[00:59:56] the FTC with Lena Kahn.

[00:59:58] We'll see what happens with Lena Kahn there.

[01:00:00] And it's not to say that everything that Lena Kahn has done there is bad.

[01:00:04] She's put some pressure on some organizations that probably need it.

[01:00:08] But we need to see more M&A going on.

[01:00:11] And frankly, in IPOs as well in the marketplace.

[01:00:15] I think there's a sentiment, right?

[01:00:17] The biggest issue is there's a sentiment around M&A right now.

[01:00:20] Yep.

[01:00:20] The companies aren't even willing to try it because they think,

[01:00:24] Yeah, I'm going to step into this quicksand.

[01:00:27] So I think if we can change the sentiment of it and get people more willing to do it,

[01:00:33] that could open up the door, obviously, then removing some of the barriers.

[01:00:36] But we've got to change the sentiment first because the sentiment's pretty negative

[01:00:40] for larger M&A deals.

[01:00:41] Right.

[01:00:42] I think you're right.

[01:00:43] And that's like this, you know, and this is, when you think of the technology world,

[01:00:47] right?

[01:00:47] And then everything that goes on in the technology world, and it trickles down into distribution

[01:00:52] and manufacturing based upon the tools that we have available and what's going on out there.

[01:00:56] And right now, you know, the challenge is, I don't want to say there's fewer startups,

[01:01:01] but the opportunity for startups to be gobbled up once they have some success by an Apple or

[01:01:07] a Google or whoever it is, they've got such pressure on them from the FTC right now in

[01:01:13] that setting about being able to, do you end up with a monopoly in that?

[01:01:18] The attempted breakup of some of Amazon and some of Google as well, that trickles down.

[01:01:25] And when that can't, so when that, they can't get these deals through technology and startups

[01:01:31] slow, right?

[01:01:33] Of the value of getting stuff out there because it just doesn't have the same value to trying

[01:01:36] to do it.

[01:01:37] And that's going to impact down to what tools are available to, you know, our main audience

[01:01:42] here with wholesale distribution and manufacturing.

[01:01:45] So that's the crux of that takeaway from that one.

[01:01:49] So finally, in this section, as we talk about M&A, we talked earlier this year about QXO,

[01:01:56] which is a fund that was developed by a gentleman by the name of Brad Jacobs.

[01:02:01] Brad Jacobs was one of the founders of United Rentals and another, a number of other very

[01:02:09] successful, either distribution or distribution related companies.

[01:02:13] They put together a fund of, I think, over 6 billion.

[01:02:17] He started out with, from his personal fund with, I think, a billion dollars into that.

[01:02:21] And they have taken a couple of runs at some companies.

[01:02:25] But right now, the big one that we're seeing right now is that Beacon, which is a roofing

[01:02:32] material company and building material company, just took a run at them this week.

[01:02:37] It says that QXO has a market value of 6.5 billion and that they're looking at this particular

[01:02:45] deal.

[01:02:45] And they had taken a run at Rexel earlier that was squashed pretty quickly.

[01:02:49] But they're, they're looking at this Beacon and Beacon has revenues of over $9 billion.

[01:02:56] So this could be a huge deal.

[01:02:58] A lot of things could get in the way of this, but these guys aren't messing around in putting

[01:03:03] together a portfolio of distribution companies.

[01:03:06] So this is a close one to watch.

[01:03:09] I, you know, we've got, I was sharing with somebody recently last week, earlier in the

[01:03:15] week that had asked me for a link to our, our 100th anniversary episode.

[01:03:23] And there was a segment in there that Mike Marks was talking about how many PE firms there

[01:03:27] are in the country.

[01:03:28] And there was, I think it was 200 was the number of the, of PE companies that have a

[01:03:35] complete segment of their PE company devoted to distribution and, and tracking and looking

[01:03:42] at acquisitions within distribution.

[01:03:44] So this QXO is going to be one to watch.

[01:03:46] Okay.

[01:03:48] All right.

[01:03:49] People in leadership.

[01:03:50] We just got a few more minutes left today.

[01:03:52] We had a good article there from HR dive about, uh, um, they called it manager crash.

[01:03:58] In this setting about, uh, issues compounding for managers since they're expected to lead

[01:04:04] workers through big changes that take place in the next year.

[01:04:07] So you've got, you know, I have talked to people who had people coming to work, literally had

[01:04:14] people coming to work after the election, wondering if the country was going to collapse

[01:04:19] and if we were going to be invaded and, and all their freedoms were going to go away.

[01:04:24] And so there's a lot going on in the HR world right now.

[01:04:28] And this article impacts a little bit of that.

[01:04:31] Yeah.

[01:04:31] I think one of the key points they brought up in there is not just dealing with change,

[01:04:35] but helping them deal with the fact that change is coming.

[01:04:40] So, um, interesting, interesting, uh, perspective.

[01:04:46] Yep.

[01:04:47] Good.

[01:04:47] Well, let's, uh, Tom, let's scroll through these pretty quick.

[01:04:49] We have another article in there that's from HR dive about Gen Z workers want to pursue,

[01:04:54] pursue skilled trades, but face some barriers.

[01:04:57] Um, you know, bringing people into distribution is great distribution typically.

[01:05:03] And, and, uh, most of the listeners that we have are, are tied to, uh, folks that are supplying

[01:05:08] trades and tradesmen.

[01:05:10] And, uh, there's been a struggle getting skilled trades people out there.

[01:05:14] So this is a good article as well, but we have another article that we can talk about briefly.

[01:05:18] And I was appreciative of this one.

[01:05:20] Again, this one's from smart brief.

[01:05:22] It talks about how a growth mindset can strengthen your leadership pipeline.

[01:05:26] And I thought this was kind of a solid piece from a standpoint is where do we need to start

[01:05:33] as executives?

[01:05:34] It talked about embracing challenges, uh, within an organization, assigning ownership by developing

[01:05:40] a leadership team that's given ownership of their projects, uh, setting stretch goals,

[01:05:46] right?

[01:05:47] Don't, don't just let people be mediocre, right?

[01:05:50] Push them, uh, involving your teams in the big decisions that are being made in the organization.

[01:05:55] They talked also as well about supporting external, external learning.

[01:05:59] So good article.

[01:06:00] If you're, if you're in a leadership role, whether it's middle management or executive

[01:06:04] management about the growth mindset within your business.

[01:06:08] Yep.

[01:06:08] You know, I think it aligns with something we were talking about last week with Alex.

[01:06:13] I think I stated this.

[01:06:14] I think that we're really going to have at least an opportunity in the next, minimally in

[01:06:19] the next couple of years for some, maybe some of the best, I guess, landscape

[01:06:25] for business growth and economic growth that we've had in a long time, but you've got to

[01:06:30] lean into it.

[01:06:31] It's not going to come to you.

[01:06:32] I think that what this article is basically saying is, Hey, you know, now is the time

[01:06:37] if, if more than ever is to embrace that growth mindset, lead into it, figure out how you

[01:06:43] grow, how you expand, you know, don't just try and stay status quo because I think there's

[01:06:48] a lot of things potentially we'll see how it plays out, but potentially providing a tailwind

[01:06:54] for that.

[01:06:55] Very good.

[01:06:56] I like that.

[01:06:57] Well, the last article in that segment today was talks about strong communication skills

[01:07:01] from leaders.

[01:07:01] So that those two really, again, that's what we're trying to add here, some themes.

[01:07:06] So if you're in a leadership role within your organization or certainly a senior leadership

[01:07:10] role, those two articles from Smart Brief and from HR Dive are valuable.

[01:07:14] So we dive now quickly into our industry scuttlebutt section.

[01:07:18] We typically put some things in here about, about what's going on out there.

[01:07:23] Again, sometimes it's related to, to M&A.

[01:07:27] So Walters Wholesale, which is a large electrical distributor here in California, not far from

[01:07:32] where I'm at, just announced two acquisitions.

[01:07:36] AFC Industries in Wisconsin just did a couple of acquisitions.

[01:07:39] But the one article in here that's really powerful as well is we talked earlier this

[01:07:45] year about the big, big surprise when Home Depot bought SRS Distribution, a big monster

[01:07:52] building material company.

[01:07:55] So third quarter results are there and posted in here.

[01:07:59] It's well worth the read to see how that's all coming together.

[01:08:01] It looks like it's being digested fairly well, which there was questions about.

[01:08:05] So our final piece of the day is we have a great read segment that we, we call it great

[01:08:11] reads and listens to sometimes it's a podcast, but Mark Dancer, who's just a great writer

[01:08:18] and works really closely with NAED, the National Associated Electrical Distributors and some

[01:08:24] other trade groups as well.

[01:08:26] He has a, this is part of his sub stack and which is, you know, his replacement for a blog.

[01:08:32] And he wrote a great article about, it's really comes from a bike shop that he loves.

[01:08:38] That's a local bike shop that, that closed.

[01:08:40] And he's talking about the articles talks about transforming communities and local businesses.

[01:08:45] And you know what?

[01:08:46] We were just down in, in Mississippi last week visiting with a large distributor.

[01:08:52] And, and we have a large customer in, in Wisconsin that I think about with these is, you know, local

[01:08:59] businesses, even though they have a national or international reach, they still have a local

[01:09:04] impact on their economy in the, in their neighborhoods.

[01:09:07] And those local branches that, that wholesale distributors have are meaningful.

[01:09:12] Even if you're a large, you know, quarter billion, half a billion, billion dollar a year company,

[01:09:17] your stores in local areas impact that local economy.

[01:09:22] So this was a kind of a good article about transforming communities and not just, it wasn't

[01:09:26] just about supporting local business.

[01:09:27] It was broader and deeper.

[01:09:28] It's a good article.

[01:09:30] Okay.

[01:09:31] Good.

[01:09:31] All right.

[01:09:32] And the last thing for the day was that second look we always post up there, which was just

[01:09:36] a little bit more about what's going on with the ports and so forth.

[01:09:40] You know, I was going to mention something in closing that I haven't read the depth of it

[01:09:45] yet, but we talked a lot earlier in the day.

[01:09:47] I should have mentioned this.

[01:09:48] It just came to my mind.

[01:09:52] The can't remember if it was Norway and Sweden, but there was a, a, a cable that was the internet

[01:10:01] connection between the two countries was cut and it was suspected in what they're investigating

[01:10:09] that it was a Chinese military or a Chinese cargo ship that was there that did it.

[01:10:14] And they're talking about it from a standpoint of foul play.

[01:10:17] So if you want to watch the geopolitical stuff any closer, uh, kind of look that one up

[01:10:22] and watch what plays out with that because, uh, that one was interesting.

[01:10:26] So it caught my attention.

[01:10:28] Yeah.

[01:10:28] I'll send you the article.

[01:10:30] Caught my attention.

[01:10:31] It was, it was kind of interesting to see.

[01:10:33] So anyways, uh, a good show today, Tom, thank you for that.

[01:10:36] Everybody in your comments, appreciate you all.

[01:10:38] Our comments are great.

[01:10:39] Awesome.

[01:10:39] Awesome.

[01:10:41] So we're, we're, we're looking forward to, uh, winding the year out strong.

[01:10:46] We've got a handful of guests coming up and then the guest list for, uh, the early part

[01:10:52] of 2025 is just looking really, really strong with some great folks who will have some great

[01:10:58] insights.

[01:10:59] So we'll look forward to that.

[01:11:00] Appreciate everybody that joins us each week.

[01:11:03] Um, we couldn't do this without you guys, uh, folks that come and join us each week.

[01:11:08] Your comments are powerful.

[01:11:09] Again, if you're listening on the podcast versus watching us live, um, this morning,

[01:11:14] you can get our newsletter by just reaching out to us.

[01:11:17] You can find it on LinkedIn at the lead smart technologies lead smart page, uh, and certainly

[01:11:22] request that, uh, as well, just by emailing us at hello at leads more tech.com.

[01:11:27] Um, one last little plug, we couldn't do this without our sponsorship for the company that

[01:11:32] for the company that Tom and I work for.

[01:11:33] If your company is, uh, looking to accelerate growth, helping your teams understand what's

[01:11:39] happening at your customers a little bit better and are looking to introduce both technology

[01:11:45] and AI driven technology into your business.

[01:11:48] We've developed what we describe as a AI enabled smart CRM and customer intelligence solution

[01:11:54] brings data from across your organization into, uh, our smart CRM solution to help use, uh,

[01:12:01] AI to make smart decisions and how we're spending our time, how we're supporting our customer and

[01:12:05] watching our customer across an entire journey across AI and across our marketing efforts and

[01:12:11] across their purchases.

[01:12:12] Very different than traditional approach to, uh, either AI or CRM.

[01:12:17] So we'd love to talk to you that, uh, with you about it that, if, uh, that's something

[01:12:21] that your organization is looking to do is accelerate your growth and plan for the future of how you're

[01:12:25] going to use AI.

[01:12:26] Love to have that conversation.

[01:12:28] Tom, anything to add before we hop?

[01:12:31] No, I, I, I second Bob.

[01:12:33] Thank happy Thanksgiving to everybody.

[01:12:35] We will not be here next week, I guess.

[01:12:37] Be dark.

[01:12:37] Um, but, uh, have a good holiday and then we'll be back in two weeks.

[01:12:41] That's great.

[01:12:42] Appreciate everybody.

[01:12:43] Thanks for being with us.

[01:12:44] Make it a great weekend.

[01:12:45] Be kind, be safe and do good things.

[01:12:48] Take care.

[01:12:54] We hope you enjoyed today's episode and our guests.

[01:12:57] Each week, we try our best to dig into the topics that are impacting your business.

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