The Top Supply Chain Optimization Strategies, With Guest James Gilman

[00:00:04] Welcome to Around The Horn in Wholesale Distribution, With Kevin Brown and Tom Burton.

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

[00:00:15] 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, Sass and Cloud Computing, B2BE Commerce or Supply Chain Issues, We peel back the onion with our guests into the topics that impact your business the most.

[00:00:37] James, I'm sorry you have to have to see this to start off the morning.

[00:00:42] I love it.

[00:00:43] It's the afternoon on the East Coast.

[00:00:46] So, that's fine.

[00:00:47] That's fine.

[00:00:48] That's probably a wake.

[00:00:51] Hey James, see my cup.

[00:00:54] Can you read that?

[00:00:55] Being kind.

[00:00:56] It's for my time throughout the morning.

[00:00:58] All right. We'll do.

[00:01:00] Yeah.

[00:01:00] He sometimes gets a little unruly with my behavior and maybe my behavior gets a little unruly in Tom.

[00:01:07] I was going to say it's probably equally on both sides there.

[00:01:12] So, we're great to see you happy to have you with this James.

[00:01:15] We're going to talk a little bit more about you and perimeter office products in a few minutes, but wanted to welcome everybody today as we do each week.

[00:01:24] I'm Kevin Brown, and here with my lifelong friend and business partner Tom Burton.

[00:01:29] We try and get together every Friday unless somebody's on a plane in a hospital or just somewhere that they just can't make it.

[00:01:38] And we talk about the events of the week.

[00:01:40] We publish a newsletter every week.

[00:01:42] It's called Around the Horn and wholesale distribution that newsletter goes out to over 10,000 people each week.

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[00:01:54] Look at that related to the economy and supply chain, mergers and acquisitions, people and leadership.

[00:02:00] Sales and marketing AI technology.

[00:02:02] All of the things that impact wholesale distribution as a whole and manufacturing as well.

[00:02:08] We chat with our guests about those articles and how those actually impact the wholesale distribution of manufacturing world.

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[00:03:21] If we didn't have the support of the company at the time and I work for leadsmarktech technologies,

[00:03:25] leadsmarktech has developed a product called channel cloud and channel cloud is an AI enabled CRM and customer intelligence solution.

[00:03:35] It helps wholesale distributors and manufacturers gain deep insights into not only their customers,

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[00:04:42] So, but got it all out.

[00:04:45] James, I don't know if you've ever met me.

[00:04:47] I've paid attention the entire time.

[00:04:50] Yeah, I don't know if we've ever missed an episode though for somebody being in the hospital.

[00:04:54] Yeah, so we did.

[00:04:55] When we first heard it.

[00:04:57] But yeah, I was an hospital, remember?

[00:04:58] Oh, I don't.

[00:04:59] But I don't remember.

[00:05:00] Yeah, so.

[00:05:01] Yeah, and then we missed didn't we miss one after you had your surgery?

[00:05:06] Well, no, no.

[00:05:07] You did it.

[00:05:08] You're telling me you're not.

[00:05:09] No, I did it.

[00:05:10] And then went into surgery.

[00:05:11] It was in the morning and I went right after.

[00:05:13] So, hold me for God.

[00:05:15] That's okay.

[00:05:16] That's okay.

[00:05:18] Right?

[00:05:19] Tom's having it in.

[00:05:21] Brandon, welcome James, your fans are starting to show up already.

[00:05:24] So this is great.

[00:05:26] Well, and I thought Brandon knew everything.

[00:05:30] So so that's easy.

[00:05:32] He's a reason I'm here.

[00:05:34] That's, well, you know what, we've known Brandon.

[00:05:36] Land of boys runs deep.

[00:05:39] We've, you know, Brandon for a number of years.

[00:05:42] I think originally, I met him through LinkedIn as well.

[00:05:45] And there are times one of us did in Tom and Brandon are involved in another podcast.

[00:05:51] And you've got your podcast now.

[00:05:52] We're going to talk about all of that in a minute.

[00:05:55] But yeah, so you know what it did.

[00:05:57] Maybe think Tom is you were thinking about not having the podcast to so many being in the hospital.

[00:06:01] We certainly had it not had it because of airplanes.

[00:06:04] And then I think there's two times in October where I'm going to be a trade shows that I'm going to.

[00:06:08] Probably I think we'll still do something.

[00:06:11] Probably I'll call in from the booth and see if we can, you know, still still broadcast something that day.

[00:06:17] But hey, before we dive into the news like we do every week.

[00:06:21] James, thanks for being with us.

[00:06:23] You're a podcast through yourself of great renowned and.

[00:06:29] I've had a new.

[00:06:30] Yeah, you know, I was you had me as a guest on your podcast.

[00:06:34] I thought it was great.

[00:06:36] You do a really nice job with that.

[00:06:38] But why don't you first tell us about perimeter office products and then let's learn a little bit about you.

[00:06:44] You have one of the most unique and cool LinkedIn header profiles out there.

[00:06:50] So maybe you can share some details about you and the Gilman family and then obviously the company as well.

[00:06:57] Yeah, no and and thanks so much.

[00:06:58] So glad to be here with you guys.

[00:07:00] I am looking forward to learning a lot and maybe I can add one or two things, but just want to make sure I'm setting the bar appropriately here.

[00:07:11] I am.

[00:07:12] Yeah, so you mentioned my LinkedIn profile.

[00:07:14] My LinkedIn profile since we don't really get to meet in person as much these days.

[00:07:21] My height is what most people used to recognize first and it was always the first thing that people would make a comment about.

[00:07:28] I'm six foot eight.

[00:07:30] I've been six eight since I was 14 years old and I've added a lot of weight since then, but.

[00:07:40] But grew up here in Atlanta, Georgia more specifically Lawrenceville, Georgia married my high school sweetheart.

[00:07:47] We were in band together.

[00:07:50] She was on color guard hours on drum line and we've got three kids so we have Jay is eight.

[00:07:57] Jonas six and Juliet are young as daughter will almost be is almost four she'll be four nct over so.

[00:08:04] So you've James you've posted a couple of times in pictures of your family, which I thought was pretty cool on LinkedIn and seeing a picture of your lovely wife clarifies that like me and Tom.

[00:08:17] You're both you're quite the sales person because you were playing above the rim when you we knew you got your love.

[00:08:24] It's to marry you just way way above just as I know it's a.

[00:08:28] The American dog opposites attract.

[00:08:31] I mean, it's absolutely true.

[00:08:33] I mean, she is beautiful and smart and in your smart and you're smart.

[00:08:40] Right.

[00:08:40] So I have I have also since I was 14.

[00:08:45] I've aspired to have my height start with a six.

[00:08:48] Not six eight just start with a six of any type so and it's never had.

[00:08:53] Yeah, but here we are.

[00:08:54] You know, it's it's fun.

[00:08:56] But I would never be able to be a traveling salesman.

[00:09:00] I mean being on a plane is like the most painfully as the most painful thought ever.

[00:09:07] Trying to fit in cars and I'm a car not to I think we've talked about that in past.

[00:09:12] But with the you know, it's interesting.

[00:09:14] I had a former business partner that.

[00:09:17] It was also six eight and.

[00:09:21] But he was much older than you when we were even working together and.

[00:09:27] Traveling's heart right at that height.

[00:09:29] It's just if you don't have an exit row or sit in up front.

[00:09:32] It's it's almost impossible.

[00:09:33] Yeah, I know in his case, most gate agents would move him when they saw his height and make arrangements for him quite often.

[00:09:41] They understood.

[00:09:44] But you know what he would always say when people would be out the lunch or having to be or something and people would ask him.

[00:09:50] How tall he was.

[00:09:51] He also happened to be a very well dressed African American gentleman.

[00:09:55] So people I think sometimes that he might be a basketball player.

[00:09:58] So people would and when people would ask him.

[00:10:01] I've been in restaurants with him when people would come and just ask him for an autograph.

[00:10:05] And he literally signed his name on an applicant and handed to them.

[00:10:08] Not say a word and just let them go off on their own train figure out who he was.

[00:10:13] But when people would but people would ask him how tall he was he would say very.

[00:10:18] You're going to say, he just said very.

[00:10:21] So there you go.

[00:10:22] So I've already been fascinated with psychology and and how how people think and and I my dad, I think helped.

[00:10:32] He has a little bit of a sense of the fact that he's been a little bit of a bit of a bit of a sense of the fact that he was always trying to make people laugh and trying to, you know,

[00:10:38] make people turn their head and kind of think.

[00:10:40] You know, see see if they're actually paying attention and thinking.

[00:10:43] So my my response is for three.

[00:10:47] When somebody asks me how tall I am, yeah, for three.

[00:10:50] And half of the people go, wow.

[00:10:53] Like not even hearing what I'm saying.

[00:10:55] I'm not asking for a question.

[00:10:56] The other people go, what?

[00:10:58] So yeah, you got to have fun right?

[00:11:01] That's good.

[00:11:02] All right.

[00:11:02] We'll tell us about perimeter and then let's dive into the news but perimeter is important.

[00:11:07] Absolutely.

[00:11:08] I've been I started in sales at perimeter back in 2009.

[00:11:13] It was a teeny tiny privately held company owner Mike Ever who's a dear friend and mentor of mine.

[00:11:22] He started the company in 2007, but we were just shy of two million in revenue and I think

[00:11:30] I was a seventh employee that he hired.

[00:11:33] So we grew organically through a sales process here in the Atlanta area to just over 15 million

[00:11:40] and just less than 10 years.

[00:11:44] And I think at that time we had maybe 20 to people.

[00:11:48] So but we were acquired by Office Depot in 2018.

[00:11:53] We came a part of the Federation, which is a group of privately held or independent companies across

[00:11:59] the country and we have gone through a couple of acquisitions.

[00:12:04] We acquired a couple other companies and now we've grown almost 70 employees in about 30 million in revenue.

[00:12:11] You're right.

[00:12:12] I understand you've made some really wise technology decisions in the past year.

[00:12:18] I absolutely did.

[00:12:20] Yeah, no, I mean, but seriously though a huge challenge I think for a lot of small businesses

[00:12:25] is number one figuring out how the technology works and even being aware of what technology is even out there

[00:12:34] but once you become aware how do you make it work and how to make everything talk and if you're not a tech background

[00:12:41] that's me, I'm not a techie at all.

[00:12:43] It's really overwhelming.

[00:12:45] So we were we had a CRM system but nothing talked together.

[00:12:50] And so after I really started looking into lead smart and we looked at a number of other ones as well.

[00:12:58] We chose to move forward with leads part not only from the technology components but honestly in the real tipping point is the relationships.

[00:13:08] I mean you guys always did what you said you were going to do and you guys have always been responsive and that's held true over the past.

[00:13:14] I mean through integration was it been four months now, five months now?

[00:13:19] So we're still making improvements and I mean just light years different from what our experience was with other software as we've had in the past.

[00:13:27] So we're going to want to work together soon on a case study too and see how we're moving the needle inside the business.

[00:13:34] But you know it's interesting as we talk about this, I'm kind of laughing to myself because not sure we've had other customers lead smart customers on the show before but we have.

[00:13:46] And the reason I say this is because about four or five months ago we had a guest on that was you know,

[00:13:54] we worked for a very large distributor and the I had somebody text me that had seen the LinkedIn invite and say hey you have so and so on the show since he's one of your customers can you introduce me.

[00:14:08] I really want to talk to him about X and it's like well he's not a customer and the person's the reason I share this is the person said I thought every guest that you had was one of your customers.

[00:14:20] And and it's not at all the case we just try and get really good guests and if you weren't going to be a great guest we wouldn't have invited you here so we already knew you're going to be a good guest but it's kind of fun to have you as a customer as well.

[00:14:33] And and now I would like to call a friend as well so that's great to.

[00:14:37] Great to have.

[00:14:38] Good.

[00:14:38] Tom anything to add for jumping in.

[00:14:40] We're going to talk about sales methodology but you know James you were talking about your organic growth and all that stuff and I obviously had a chance to work with you guys and understand your.

[00:14:50] sales methodology and your approach and it's it's quite remarkable I think what you've put into place in terms of the sales process and I know we're going to talk about some of that in the news but.

[00:15:02] It's you know you look at the growth that you have I think a lot of that can be attributed to the processes that have been.

[00:15:08] Put into place and then when you start to automate those are have more visibility it gives it to another level so anyway yeah.

[00:15:17] All right.

[00:15:19] Can you really produce yeah yeah again we're diving into our newsletter here.

[00:15:23] First one that we talk about here's was from Yahoo Finance what a bigger than expected fed rate cut cut mean for the stock market Tom my guess is right now that you're really thinking about.

[00:15:35] I hope that the fed goes a half a point or three quarters of a point and chokes things and they don't raise again this or lower I should say again this year is that so what you're thinking would be.

[00:15:48] That would be a nice idea but not not reality so.

[00:15:51] They're going to do a quarter point.

[00:15:54] You know we talked last week about larger cuts and.

[00:15:57] I think we agree with that article 100% if they do something larger it's going to cause too much of a spook is a spook the market too much.

[00:16:04] It's not market what react well yeah and it's just so they're going to wait into it with the quarter point.

[00:16:11] You know is that that's what Tuesday next Tuesday I think it's next week yeah think it's next week it's it needs to 17th of not mistaken.

[00:16:23] That's great.

[00:16:24] And then inflation with overall was down but core inflation was up and so you know it's not I don't think that there's any slam dunk on anything.

[00:16:35] And as we've certainly learned right if you don't like the way something's going wait 15 minutes because it's probably going to change so yeah you're you're going to you're going to be playing with house money starting next week because.

[00:16:48] There will be one cut and then it will just be a matter what happens after that.

[00:16:55] James what's your take you thinking about.

[00:16:57] I don't know if you do you know about our the little wager the time and I have.

[00:17:02] No I don't okay so.

[00:17:05] Tom has been a believer since I think this guy started the beginning of the year didn't Tom.

[00:17:10] Yeah somewhere around there yeah we were just early in the year we were talking about cuts and I was adamant that we would see two cuts or more this year.

[00:17:17] Tom was like no way we're only going to see one and all of a sudden there was a stake involved and some things are looking promising for me.

[00:17:26] It's a play with house money you know right as well.

[00:17:29] He's on house money at top.

[00:17:30] Yeah so yeah the my I'd say my worst case scenario is we buy our own stakes.

[00:17:38] Yeah yeah that's that's the worst case scenario but I will be having stake with Tom probably multiple times before the end of the year.

[00:17:45] So that's the gig you know as we kind of that drops us in a little bit to the second article you know Tom you talked about what.

[00:17:54] What we're seeing with some of the the pricing it's is we've posted an article here from CNBC a consumer prices rose to 10% in August as an annual inflation rate hits its lowest since early 2021 and it talked about.

[00:18:13] 12 month inflation rate it two and a half percent down four tenths of a percentage point from the July level and again lowest since February of 21 but.

[00:18:23] We've got increases decreases to your point earlier time is we're going to have to wait and see because.

[00:18:30] I don't think there's any chance we're not going to see to this year but.

[00:18:35] Last week in the week before I was thinking we might see three and one of them might be and if we only saw two one of them was certainly going to be a half a point or 500 basis points and I think what we could be seeing right now is.

[00:18:50] Two quarter points could based upon this week to quarter points could be the case.

[00:18:55] I think we could be if you get another if we get another uptick in inflation next month and who knows right so yep.

[00:19:04] Like I said.

[00:19:07] What one day at a time literally yeah well it's almost like we should do a little pop in on Mondays and Wednesdays to just kind of see what's happening that week and then.

[00:19:18] I do a snippet for our LinkedIn and other social audiences about what's what's it looking like this week and what are we going to talk about Friday get so in following up there we've got you know we're what we didn't mention is that we're in our.

[00:19:34] Economy and supply chain segment of our newsletter so again we can put out a newsletter every week and within that newsletter we have these different segments so we start each week with the economy and supply chain.

[00:19:45] This where I want to get a little bit of James take on a few things as we talk about the.

[00:19:53] Supply chain optimization strategies that's from supply chain digital dot com they talk about 10 strategies here and we're going to talk a few different about a few different things today about how.

[00:20:05] Supply chain issues are being impacted out there right now but either it be significant takeaways from this from either one of you.

[00:20:13] No I'm in James what's your what's your overall take I know we're going to talk a few things about supply chain here.

[00:20:19] Yeah no just from some of the things that I've.

[00:20:25] Noticed recently from we pull from multiple different wholesalers.

[00:20:30] And we have experienced nothing like you know three years ago I mean it was this pledging was completely wrecked but.

[00:20:37] I think coming out of out of that the wholesalers are trying to figure out and the one how do we keep our costs in line I mean labor costs fuel costs.

[00:20:49] It's it's hard to balance out, especially when you see these big spikes.

[00:20:55] But still be able to provide that consistent delivery so we we've seen some we've seen some issues and some hiccups you know with moving to a different.

[00:21:05] Some of the things that we've been doing in the last five years I think that's not a lot to be able to help.

[00:21:10] So we have seen our industry off supply industry.

[00:21:17] You know some some rumbling some disruptions but I mean I just think that we really took a lot of things for granted you know pretty preco.

[00:21:25] to call this soon.

[00:21:26] Yeah, everything is.

[00:21:27] It would always just work naturally without, you know, yeah, I really understand the challenge

[00:21:35] and the complexity of logistics.

[00:21:38] So, you mentioned working with a number of different wholesalers.

[00:21:43] Do you also within your business?

[00:21:45] Do you also work direct with quite a few factories as well as in a mix?

[00:21:48] Yeah, I mean, actually.

[00:21:50] So, have you taken an uptake or an uptake?

[00:21:54] I should say or frequency of your check-ins on supply chain, do you meet more regularly now?

[00:22:02] Well, that's a part of the other challenge is a lot of the manufacturer representation

[00:22:09] is also rotating and turning.

[00:22:15] So, the point of contacts inside of the organization, especially when you have a private equity

[00:22:21] company that comes in and purchases this manufacturing company and this one things change.

[00:22:27] So, I talked about relationships before, and that's one of the reasons why we went with

[00:22:33] Leedspart.

[00:22:33] I think relationships are so valuable in business.

[00:22:39] And I think a lot of people underestimate and are putting a lot of emphasis on automating

[00:22:44] things without understanding the benefit of the human element and the relationships.

[00:22:52] So, good.

[00:22:53] The reason I asked that question is we've talked to some folks more in the building materials,

[00:22:58] construction kind of related fields that are doing almost weekly now meetings, cadence

[00:23:08] meetings about what's going on and so the supply chain.

[00:23:11] I think sometimes when you work with a lot more with wholesalers, maybe a little bit more reliable,

[00:23:18] and can hopefully focus on their having those meetings with the manufacturing you're

[00:23:23] behalf.

[00:23:24] But this is an interesting thing, right?

[00:23:26] Because I don't know that we've ever seen it before.

[00:23:28] I'd love if we have any guests that might have had this type of experience or would think

[00:23:33] about this, but I'd love somebody's comments on this.

[00:23:36] But the reality I think is we're in a new kind of world post-COVID or post-pandemic.

[00:23:44] What we saw is, and Tom and I've talked about this a lot, we're both from Long Beach,

[00:23:48] California, which is there's a piece of man made finger that goes through the ports there,

[00:23:57] which separates Los Angeles and Long Beach Harbor.

[00:23:59] But if you flew over the top of it, you'd have no idea that it's not the same port.

[00:24:03] If you combine those two ports, they are, I think the third busiest port would be the third busiest

[00:24:10] port in the world.

[00:24:12] I live about 40 miles south of there now.

[00:24:15] During the pandemic, they even post-pandemic when we first started doing this show, there

[00:24:20] were ships lined up down within a few miles.

[00:24:25] In fact, I'm not even 40 miles.

[00:24:26] I'm 30 just below over 30 miles.

[00:24:28] There were ships lined up waiting to get into the harbor, right?

[00:24:32] As we were coming out of all of this.

[00:24:34] And as I would, the Lord, I sat down on the beach with my wife and not that she's interested in this topic,

[00:24:39] but I'm looking at that and saying, there's paper clips on that.

[00:24:46] Yep, right?

[00:24:46] There's reflective desks on that.

[00:24:50] There's office chairs on that.

[00:24:52] And they need to get somewhere.

[00:24:53] And then there's the kid's school supply or holiday presence or whatever it is.

[00:24:57] And people kind of didn't look at all of this.

[00:24:59] Well, now we start looking at the things we've been talking about a lot recently on the show

[00:25:02] with the issues in the Suez Canal.

[00:25:05] Right?

[00:25:05] We had a weather impact of lack of rain near the Panama Canal, the Panama Canal.

[00:25:11] Water was so low that certain size ships couldn't get through it and they couldn't get as many ships through.

[00:25:17] We've got geopolitical issues.

[00:25:19] We're going to talk about this a little bit more with some of the other articles we covered today.

[00:25:22] But I think right now, now is a time where understanding our supply chain, staying

[00:25:27] on top of it is even more important than ever.

[00:25:29] So this article, I'm going to tell myself, move ahead.

[00:25:32] And I'm going to hit it because I think this article was really valuable.

[00:25:35] Again, this is from supplychaindigital.com.

[00:25:38] They talked about 10 strategies that could be used.

[00:25:41] And the first one was implementing risk management strategies.

[00:25:44] We kind of touched on that a little bit in our discussion.

[00:25:47] They talked about regionalized sourcing.

[00:25:49] I think we're going to start seeing a lot more of on-shoring.

[00:25:53] There's an example of that in our industry scuttlebet that we'll get to later in the show today.

[00:25:59] They talked about using different types of model.

[00:26:02] They talked about a PPRR never heard of this before on my life, but I love the idea.

[00:26:09] Prevention, preparedness, response and recovery.

[00:26:12] I think maybe those are just four words to use in life in general.

[00:26:19] But in supply chain, how to get it?

[00:26:23] And then seven was invested in the building.

[00:26:26] Yeah, so that they fully understood what supply chain issues mean.

[00:26:30] It says talks about Walmart, leads the way in investing employee training for supply chain.

[00:26:37] 11,000 stores in 27 countries, 32 billion in inventory.

[00:26:42] They use tech driven education to keep all of their people up to speed on what's going on.

[00:26:48] There's a ton we were on the phone earlier this week and I was again yesterday with an executive from a

[00:26:54] AI company.

[00:26:56] And that's exactly what they do is they manage supply chain in which warehouse products should be in.

[00:27:01] And so forth, doing more and more of that.

[00:27:04] They talked about optimizing inventories.

[00:27:07] Number five was enhancing data accuracy and transparency.

[00:27:11] If your data is bad, your supply chain is going to be horrible.

[00:27:15] Four was fostering stronger supply relationships.

[00:27:17] The James was talking about three implementing sustainable practices.

[00:27:21] I'm getting to the end time you see you jumping at the bit to move here.

[00:27:26] Enhancing demand forecasting and, you know what?

[00:27:29] There's more and more and more tools coming available to a specific through AI that can really,

[00:27:35] really help demand planning.

[00:27:37] One of the things we're seeing at Leedsmart with our channel cloud CRM and customer intelligence solution is.

[00:27:43] Traditionally that is people using our software on the customer facing side of the company.

[00:27:49] And what we're starting to see more and more of our customers is saying, you know what?

[00:27:52] I need my operations people, my purchasing people.

[00:27:58] And of course our executives to be seeing customer data and then now wanting to integrate other supply chain data

[00:28:05] and other data about when things are available and so forth right into that same platform because it's a wonderful visualization platform.

[00:28:12] So this was good.

[00:28:14] And I think the final one was leveraging they talked about advanced technologies and that's what I just mentioned.

[00:28:20] And they use some of the examples of what Amazon does with predictive analytics.

[00:28:24] I guess the takeaway for me is it's probably never been more important than having more than just a,

[00:28:32] we buy this from that vendor and we trust them approach.

[00:28:37] And now it's time to really really get focused on what we're able to do managed supply chain versus be a victim of supply chain.

[00:28:46] I'm done participating James anything.

[00:28:50] Good.

[00:28:50] Good.

[00:28:51] And you're taking on that?

[00:28:53] No, all right.

[00:28:54] No, I mean, I have some takes on this but I'm going to hold on it because it's going to we're going to talk more about some of these things later on.

[00:29:00] So I think there's a number of things that we can type kind of connect the dots on but I'm going to hold off and just so that we can kind of keep keep moving.

[00:29:09] Good.

[00:29:12] Where we head a next.

[00:29:14] Manufacturing and distribution.

[00:29:16] Yep, next segment everything you wanted to know about force, measure now I'm sure James is your last night with your glass of Cabernet.

[00:29:24] You said, oh my word, I can so excited about this topic.

[00:29:28] Thank you.

[00:29:29] No, I definitely had you.

[00:29:32] WWW dot dictionary dot com, what in the heck is this?

[00:29:36] So so I bet if you went back and looked in some of your vendor contracts,

[00:29:43] this is going to be prevalent in many of them.

[00:29:48] And most manufacturing companies use this in many, many, many, many wholesale distributors use this as well to tie into contracts that they have.

[00:29:58] Right, if we have supply chain contracts either distributor to end user manufacturer distributor with expectations.

[00:30:07] Force measure really ties into the idea that says look we will do everything we promised and said we would do.

[00:30:15] Unless there's something that jumps in that we can't and I think force measure translates to major force is if there's something that we can't do and you know,

[00:30:24] if you of them are acts of God, lightnings, tornadoes or cancer, and armies, manmade disasters, plant fires, floods, war civil issues, riots and so forth disease epidemic, the pandemic that we just had.

[00:30:40] And so there's quite a few of these and even government and power outages, transportation issues.

[00:30:47] But a lot of people see these and I thought it was just this was good.

[00:30:50] This is from modern distribution management.

[00:30:53] I thought it was a good article just to have there from that standpoint that says,

[00:31:00] these are important things to understand back to talk about supply chain right is if I'm relying on a manufacturer, if I'm an end user relying on my distributor and there is a force measure.

[00:31:14] Component to our agreement, which, you know, my days in manufacturing and distribution both we use them consistently.

[00:31:23] There are issues and I need to be thinking about and there's weird parts of this right, you can think about it is like, of course you can't get your shipments out on time if you got hit by a hurricane.

[00:31:33] But what about if there's civil unrest in, you know,

[00:31:39] there you're your, your manufacturing plant or as a distributor your warehouse and you can't open your warehouse to get trucks out that day.

[00:31:49] What happens if you can't, you know, number six that they talked about here is government and bargos right we just talked a few minutes ago about steel issues.

[00:31:57] We're going to talk a little bit about that later if all of a sudden steel is tough to get.

[00:32:02] And you can't get those pipes out or the chairs out or whatever it is. So it's interesting I think there was some good pieces of this article from my viewpoint about having well drafted force measure provisions and they added some elements to it so any take away from you guys I just thought it was a value in worth sharing with with our audience.

[00:32:23] I think it's worthwhile to I think they made a really good recommendation in there which is.

[00:32:30] Rather than just having a generic force measure clause and your contract is.

[00:32:35] And I don't know if you could obviously name out any everything that can occur, but you could probably name out categories of things to make it a bit more specific and what you're doing.

[00:32:46] I think that's a good practice right I think it's a good practice I think it helps you also understand better what are some of the things that could get in the way.

[00:32:55] So anyway, it was a good good interesting article not that's something you see every day.

[00:33:00] Well I think it you know really ties in I think maybe the theme for today probably ties to in general of we looked across the board and in our producer and editor John always texts me.

[00:33:13] About what the title for our.

[00:33:17] snippets should be that are going on on the social media platforms and and I think this one really ties to supply chain awareness and preparedness because we're going to talk about that a few more times today so they talked here about you know two two pieces provision should define the events that constitute force measure.

[00:33:36] Second was the provisions should set forth as a player's rights and obligations if a force measure event occurs that impacts a supply is ability to timeless supply parts.

[00:33:46] Included noticing of time and resume resuming performance there is as we kind of move ahead there are two sides of this right there's part of the the UCC or uniform commercial code that already addresses this.

[00:33:59] And so if you have your own force measure contract either as a manufacturer distributor in your in your contracts then it is super would super seed.

[00:34:13] If it goes even broader and beyond what the UCC does so there's that there's a little chart in here it calls us some key takeaways from a cellar's perspective or buyers perspective and some things to look at and some things to include.

[00:34:25] So if you are listening on the podcast and not seeing our screen with these pieces here this is from modern distribution management mdm.com it's as it's hurricane season.

[00:34:41] Performance is used and why it's not a breach so that was the title of it talking about everything you wanted to know about force measure so that's it.

[00:34:50] Good morning to Bob joining us here. Aloha got my 100th anniversary podcast the low-hush shirt on today as well so thanks for being with us Bob.

[00:35:02] Anything else on force? Major you guys look enamored with this I think we've I think we've we've yeah.

[00:35:07] We've beat it to death the horse dead. Yes, all right a little bit of the head nod to the PPR model you and I think he used word preparedness.

[00:35:19] Just kind of the same. Yeah, you know, in principle right.

[00:35:27] I've said this for forever in my my life is that I think we can be successful in life if we understand that recovery is probably the most important thing we're able to do because stuff comes at us.

[00:35:42] We can always sometimes only be so prepared and how we're prepared to take those punches that come and recover whether it's in our business life or our personal life is key and that was the final R and that so it's good stuff.

[00:35:56] Tom talk to us about steel plants.

[00:36:00] There's one that's closing 150 year old one closing in Illinois partially due to Mexican steel imports and I believe they also blame some of the tariffs and things that come from from China or tariffs not being forced that are on some of the things that are coming from China.

[00:36:22] You know, I obviously I think there's a story obviously behind that story that is not clear in here but.

[00:36:28] Yeah, interesting that they brought up the point of the sort of Mexican influx of Mexican steel imports.

[00:36:35] Yep. That's why this was included this week is from that.

[00:36:42] Good. It looks catch Bob's quote there back to our last article.

[00:36:47] Like I said plans are worthless but planning prices.

[00:36:51] Who's like who's like for a millimials.

[00:36:56] Back in the hour Eisenhower right yes very good so plans are worthless but planning is priceless love it.

[00:37:04] That's ties right into failing the plan is planning to fail right. How many of us had our dad tell us that so it's good yeah exactly but back to this plant closing right this ties right into what we were talking about last week where.

[00:37:21] The Biden administration has said that they're likely going to block the Nepal steel.

[00:37:31] Acquisition of.

[00:37:33] U.S. steel both parties that are running or both candidates that are running for president said they would likely do the same.

[00:37:41] This is going to be an interesting time and you know it's like guys why are you talking about steel well you know what we have lots and lots of wholesale distributors of.

[00:37:51] HVAC products and pipe valve and fittings and and so for James you probably.

[00:37:58] Yeah if you sat back and thought about all of the things that you have that have steel in them that are in your catalog of tens of thousands of items.

[00:38:07] You know I think about desks and chairs but you know it's all kinds of stuff that comes out of that and when you think about the idea of trying to re manufacturers now talking about reshoring.

[00:38:17] If there's struggles with steel it's going to be harder to reshore right so interesting time so we'll be continuing to pay attention to that.

[00:38:27] All right let's jump into e-commerce and marketing our next segment.

[00:38:32] This is kind of an interesting one we've talked about a lot B to be buyers and sellers embrace omnichannel sales approach but there's some nuances to this one did you if you want to kick us off time.

[00:38:43] Yeah sure I mean I thought this you know um as you know I kind of wrote a book on the subject here about the buyer journey you wrote a book I did I did and it's all and it's going to be re released here in the next couple weeks.

[00:38:58] The revenue zone see that revenue zone yeah.

[00:39:03] But what I find it you know what I think I've missed in the book or I need to include more we talk a lot about the buyer journey right that the buyer has a specific journey that they're following.

[00:39:15] But with this article talks about is not only do they have a journey in terms of what they're researching and what they're looking for.

[00:39:22] But that journey is taking a place across multiple channels right so they may be looking for some content and some information on one channel and then looking for other content another information on another channel which.

[00:39:39] I'm sure isn't always consistent right some people may look in one channel and some may look in the other so as you start to what I call the yellow brick road right what is you start to define that yellow brick road for.

[00:39:51] Your business and how your buyers go through their research and their evaluation process.

[00:39:57] It really took it to another level about looking at channels and I think we even have a.

[00:40:02] Yeah, the property would be really helpful let's talk about channels related to that a little bit I think.

[00:40:08] Yeah, I mean this is I thought was a great graph right of talking about buyers using multiple channels you know email phone in person mobile online chat.

[00:40:18] The messenger you know website all of those things right all of these different places where they may be going to get information or to.

[00:40:28] You know engage or to you know move the ball down the field at whatever it is in there.

[00:40:33] I think this is really important and glad you're outlining the time because I think a lot of times we talk about and people just think about oh there you know engaging from a standpoint of whether they're on our website or whether they're.

[00:40:46] Calling us or we're seeing them in person but you know.

[00:40:53] Huge number I mean and even this chart that we're showing now if you're again if you're.

[00:40:57] Listening on the podcast you're not seeing our screen but we're looking at a chart of usage of omnichannel buying or multiple channels to interact with sellers that be to be buyers or doing it talks about email phone in person mobile app online chat online portal texting SMS messenger apps online knowledge bases social media online communities and video chat.

[00:41:22] Now this is 10 channels and it says the average retail customer is only using eight in that setting so it's kind of interesting.

[00:41:32] That'll be to be buyers even more engaged in in this omnichannel world and omnichannel takes on a whole lot more than the traditional.

[00:41:45] Traditional consumer we do so that was interesting it really makes me think about our.

[00:41:51] Our partners at at Mublico that we work with in their mobile messaging solution that wholesale distributors use consistently where they can you know the mobile app they can market through it customers can can pay their bills or invoices on it they can view all kinds of things there.

[00:42:08] And they can interact and they even can connect to what's happened other messaging tools right through the mobile eco tool so.

[00:42:16] If you're wholesale distributor trying to communicate better with your customers mobile eco and needs more have a great integration to bring that together so.

[00:42:25] Looks like we lost James yeah I guess he got tired of us and decided no we said what don't not sure what happened okay well I'm sure he'll be back.

[00:42:35] I want to hit Bob's comment.

[00:42:38] I also want to hit Brandon this is a comment from Brandon Kelly a minute ago yeah we're talking about steel right place of bearings and trick I guess that's a very big common use of steel yeah and I want to hit Bob's point here.

[00:42:53] I think this is right on the money right what's new and buyer journeys and becoming more.

[00:42:58] Problem is there need for validation their self diagnosing and self solution anymore frequently but they don't but they want validation that they're on the correct path right that's new right and.

[00:43:10] That's why you know I talk a lot about and we talk a lot about even with our customers.

[00:43:15] If you don't know your buyer journey and know what they're going down it's certainly hard to validate and help them as they're moving through that process and.

[00:43:25] The people that not only have the buyer journey but the validation is going to go on you know add more to that to that equation right yeah.

[00:43:35] Good well I think that's you know if as we're marketers within the B to B world staying on top of what buyer journeys look like.

[00:43:45] Is going to be probably the most critical piece because you don't want to be find yourself in a place where your customers trying to communicate.

[00:43:55] And with you in a certain format and you're not there.

[00:43:58] Cap rate that that's the key and you know the buyers get to go wherever they want to go to buy it's pretty rare these days where we find.

[00:44:07] That that option so.

[00:44:09] So James is struggling to get back in here so you have to keep having some technical difficulties.

[00:44:15] We'll get him back let's jump ahead I'm going to message him real quick take us to our next article time.

[00:44:22] Up here comes.

[00:44:26] James are you back right.

[00:44:28] Guy yeah got you.

[00:44:29] Yeah.

[00:44:30] Yeah.

[00:44:30] My internet just decided to take a nap I don't know what's going on that switched on the other one sorry guys.

[00:44:36] I saw those buyer journey channels and it got overwhelmed and said oh my god no that's what got that's just what I get excited about.

[00:44:44] Yeah yep.

[00:44:46] No this is we were talking about while you were gone was.

[00:44:51] I like this turn journey mapping right and that's what Brandon's saying it's journey mapping is is and that journey map has to not only look at the channel but what content and information and actions are taking place within that channel kind of a matrix if you will.

[00:45:06] I think that should that journey mapping sounds like a yellow brick road and the journey mapping is a great turn.

[00:45:13] I agree.

[00:45:13] I agree.

[00:45:14] You're mapping your yellow brick road journey.

[00:45:16] I mean a yellow brick road's a little tired I think you should see if Brandon's copyrighted that journey mapping thing and if he has it then you should not drop it into your book.

[00:45:25] Okay.

[00:45:26] But if you do I'm going to want to I'm going to want a piece of every sale.

[00:45:31] So okay.

[00:45:32] All right.

[00:45:33] Also I'll send you 50 cents.

[00:45:35] I think 50 cents for every book.

[00:45:37] He's tall.

[00:45:38] I believe.

[00:45:40] Let's see this has been recorded you heard it two James.

[00:45:43] It's locked in.

[00:45:45] Let's let's move on.

[00:45:47] Yeah nobody cares about that.

[00:45:49] All right so little bit more there about exploring the journey of digital transformation manufacturing article from Forbes.

[00:45:56] What do we bounce past that?

[00:45:58] Because there was a lot from that to tight into what we've just been.

[00:46:03] Take away on the day right is understand your customers journey and it doesn't matter what business you're in.

[00:46:08] And I think that's one of the struggles we see a lot when we talk about it, you know,

[00:46:13] Think about it.

[00:46:14] I think Brandon Kelly that's with us today, you know was commenting about bearings and power transmission.

[00:46:19] I was just affiliated distributors.

[00:46:22] I'm bearing power transmission event a few weeks ago.

[00:46:24] That's where the folks that are keeping factories running and job sites running are at right with.

[00:46:29] With conveyor belts and chains and power transmission tool things equipment and so forth and you know most people don't think about that because that isn't you know old school industry.

[00:46:40] Right.

[00:46:40] You just think about we got a delivery truck coming and it drops this stuff off of the factory and somehow at the other end of that I get a widget that comes to me through distributor of some sort.

[00:46:50] But you know the reality of it is is that be to be buyer that's buying that widget to use in his factory.

[00:46:57] And I use this example all the time right.

[00:47:02] He just probably at his lunch break ordered Uber eats to deliver food.

[00:47:08] Might have bought something on Amazon and is taking his girlfriend to a movie that night that he's buying the tickets online on his phone as well.

[00:47:17] Hold different world then when I was first selling in wholesale distribution and going out to visiting plants in the early 1990s where you just met up with a guy.

[00:47:27] Joe Bob on Thursdays because you brought donuts in or bagels in and he was going to talk to you about what his needs were and you're going to tour the plant to see a new piece of equipment.

[00:47:37] Days are not completely gone but moving away quickly.

[00:47:42] So buyer journey.

[00:47:45] Technology cyber security AI that's our next segment for the day transforming supply chain management.

[00:47:51] The impact of AI and data science.

[00:47:54] Tom you would be probably James no offense but I'm going to suggest that Tom's probably our expert on data science here.

[00:48:01] 1 million percent yes.

[00:48:04] Tom we have a green.

[00:48:05] Science that that qualifies you to chat more about this well I mean it's this article really gets into some like.

[00:48:13] Deep deep stuff.

[00:48:14] I mean yeah if I remember there's some pretty intense and quaget the equations in there and stuff that they're going through related to the data science.

[00:48:23] But I think you know going kind of popping back up a bit higher and I think we even have another article about this and this.

[00:48:29] Is more and more technology and AI is going to be used if nothing else to help model or put the what it's right into the supply chain process.

[00:48:40] And the more.

[00:48:43] The deeper you can get on the what if in fact you know you have you mentioned a call we had earlier this week right where they've actually created a digital twin if you will for your supply chain.

[00:48:53] That you can say what if if if this changes or if that changes are put to the place I wanted to ask James though and I'm kind of.

[00:49:01] You're kind of um.

[00:49:03] You turning a little bit from one of the things we were talking about earlier but I think it ties into what we were just talking about about customer experience.

[00:49:11] James how tolerant are you seeing that your customers are when they can't get things right is is the tolerance are your customers tolerant at all of the supply chain.

[00:49:24] Issues that you may run into or they just like hey that's your job I just want it when I want it and I don't want to you know I don't want it.

[00:49:31] I don't want to hear that because supply chain becomes these issues become a customer issue as much as they become an operation to our logistics issue.

[00:49:41] Yeah I think it.

[00:49:43] It's a great question I personally think about this all the time.

[00:49:48] It it does depend right if you're doing one project like we had a big project.

[00:49:53] I'm a school system down in South Georgia.

[00:49:57] Well the furniture that we were putting in there right that's one big order one time.

[00:50:03] And the customer was understanding we explained to him hey there was a private equity company that bought this slam and at company they decided to do inventory will the piece that you bought.

[00:50:12] Now I mean two months ago it impacted us not being able to get the piece that they ordered that we were expecting.

[00:50:20] The limit everything down there the customer was understanding of that but if it's something if it's a product that a customer needs on a consistent reoccurring basis and there's an issue with it and there's an issue with it again and then there's an issue with it again.

[00:50:34] I think there's an understanding maybe once or twice but then you know if it's that reoccurring so it depends on the product that they get depends on how it impacts the business obviously.

[00:50:44] But coming out of right what we all went through five years ago I definitely feel the customer has a less.

[00:50:53] Brand loyalty right and a larger appetite to try other.

[00:51:01] You know products as long as it's going to serve and solve the same purpose or a problem.

[00:51:10] It's important because you get paper a lot of places right.

[00:51:15] Yeah, yeah, but if you're doing large large prints and then you know you got crappy paper and it keeps on messing up.

[00:51:22] You know so I mean there's there is that there's there's there's context that needs to be kind of explored to really understand that there's new ones.

[00:51:33] There you go.

[00:51:35] So again kind of taking a back full circle right the the some of this data analysis data science could be.

[00:51:41] Even based around product lines product categories different things that you're doing because you have to look at those from a different perspective.

[00:51:50] Yeah, interesting.

[00:51:53] All right Kevin where do you want to go next?

[00:51:55] Well we got I think we covered a little bit of the hype is real and manufacturing article that decorate our.

[00:52:03] But that was kind of had a little bit of interest to me as well. I think you one of the things and that was an article from I said I mentioned tech radar dot com.

[00:52:15] The title is AI hype is real in manufacturing successful adoption journeys or scarce and I think that's a little bit worth a discussion of because.

[00:52:24] I think we're getting to that place of where we're getting to the top of the hype cycle. I think if we're not already there in AI right now and I think it's important to kind of be.

[00:52:36] Be starting to talk about you know what is actually working and what is not in that setting.

[00:52:43] Because we've got a lot of people that have gone into the mindset of yep let's let's do AI let's do AI and I'm going to go to a conference and I'm going to read all these papers.

[00:52:52] I'm going to come to a podcast that talks about it and now it's time to try to get rubber to hit the road on these things and that's a little bit about what this article was talking about here again tech radar dot com.

[00:53:04] Talking about the hype is real in manufacturing I think you can just substitute distribution as well here successful adoption journeys or scarce and I've been even watching recently with some of the folks who we use some of their.

[00:53:21] News industry folks mostly related to wholesale distribution that they're bringing on some some distributors and so forth we're you're talking about their journey and some success and as I as I look at some of these and have listened to some of these.

[00:53:36] I don't I don't think where those are real great success stories of what I'm seeing so far.

[00:53:43] I think what we're what we're going to see and tell me you talk about this quite a bit just in general conversations that we have is that you know we're we're barely embryonic stage of what AI is kind of do right and so people are thinking about.

[00:53:56] You know even the disc the example you used a few minutes ago time about talking about digital twins is.

[00:54:01] That was kind of the first really good example that could go into distribution that is real and could be used today the one you mentioned earlier and I think right now what we're really looking at is.

[00:54:13] Now it's time to start getting the rubber to meet the road for real and it's much more than just using.

[00:54:20] Chatchy pt or perplexity or cloth or whatever it might be for some marketing content right and that's what this article kind of references is you're finding some real good use cases and success and true journeys that are working are fewer and far between.

[00:54:36] So well and in Bob says we're nose diving into the trough right now right I 100% agree that.

[00:54:46] The hype of AI as we know it today.

[00:54:51] It's definitely nose diving into the trough but I think as the application of AI as we know it today has fallen short of expectations.

[00:55:01] It's what this article is right.

[00:55:03] Yeah right.

[00:55:05] I think unfortunately then people jump to the conclusion like they do with anything is well AI doesn't work or it's going to work for me right.

[00:55:14] It's like LinkedIn doesn't work right or whatever right it's everyone right thing that's there and LinkedIn's worthless I have seven contacts but right.

[00:55:22] I don't work right so but you know open AI just released yesterday I believe is an update to their model I have not had a chance to look at it again supposedly it's a major improvement in the reasoning aspect of things and the analytics.

[00:55:38] Again don't know how good or bad but there is going to be some significant increase improvements in what we quote unquote no is AI over the next six months 12 months even 24 months.

[00:55:52] The timing is a little bit ambiguous but it's going to happen so I think the model is there and they talked about some of the reasons why these are falling short right and the skill stat and all of that.

[00:56:04] But I do I do I guess I would.

[00:56:08] My my comment would be is don't make sure don't say that okay that means AI doesn't work or you shouldn't be thinking about AI in your organization because I do think it's been overhyped and under expectations have been minimal based on what is available today.

[00:56:22] And how it's been put into place.

[00:56:24] Yep.

[00:56:24] And I think we're moving way past that thing where every and this is I'm headed off to the Industrial Supply Association conference so we can have our next.

[00:56:37] Realizing I should probably buy playing tickets today.

[00:56:40] The.

[00:56:41] In Orlando and they've got a little bit of content plan there it's always a great event that I say does but.

[00:56:49] I think I'll be able to content there surrounding AI as well but you know in so many of the events that I've been traveling to or even podcast that we listen to relating to wholesale distribution of manufacturing.

[00:57:01] We're just we're kind of here in the same stuff about.

[00:57:05] And we're just here that we've painting the picture of the future.

[00:57:08] But then we're saying today is the idea of.

[00:57:12] Well, just get started right I said this sort of I just get started use chat GPT and but we've also talked here about in the show a number of times about.

[00:57:20] Putting some parameters and some guardrails within your organization about how people using those things so to just say yeah I'm starting to use AI because.

[00:57:28] I let my marketing team have a paid chat GPT account is not AI right and now really digging into what is it is we can do to transform our organization.

[00:57:40] And that's kind of tying back to what this article talks about they talk about you know avoid what to do to avoid stalling right they talk about gardener's hype cycle that we mentioned earlier.

[00:57:49] Some tools for success finding the data what's the inside of the balance of the crucial data that you want to use.

[00:57:56] Being cautious about getting stuff stuck in analysis paralysis cutting through the data.

[00:58:02] Cut clutter.

[00:58:03] Expect some employee push back focus on the fact that AI is there to empower not replace and so there's a series of good points in this again this is tech radar.

[00:58:14] The article is AI hype is real and manufacturing successful adoption journeys or scares and again I would suggest you just.

[00:58:23] Drop wholesale distribution in for where it says manufacturing if your wholesale distributor Tom before we jump ahead one James any thoughts on that about adopting AI.

[00:58:35] Yeah, I mean think point number two and in the article was what stood out most of me.

[00:58:42] And I alluded to it earlier in the show that analysis paralysis right as a leader you're just so bombarded with all these different options and things are moving quickly.

[00:58:53] You don't want to get left behind but you also still have to run the business too it's like at some point you just need to make a decision and move on and in that decision process got understand what you're trying to accomplish right.

[00:59:06] Yep, that's why you're able to get started early with AI with just with genius feed within leads more channel cloud and set in some alerts so your team of what quotes or do and what customers are not buying categories and so forth.

[00:59:22] So those are some early phase things that can be done quickly and easily now.

[00:59:26] But hey Tom before we jump ahead here to the next article just as a quick reminder to everybody if you're listening in on the podcast and you're not seeing our screens at these three handsome devils here.

[00:59:37] The we get together every week and we do this but we're reviewing the news letter that we published on Friday mornings it's called around the horn and wholesale distribution so if you're listening not seeing you would not be seeing that newsletter if you would like to get that newsletter please let us know two ways simple either an email to hello.

[00:59:56] at leadsmartek.com leads smart being the sponsor of the show and or two go to www.aroundthehornpod.com and you can sign up there as well as see previous episode so Tom sales and mergers and acquisition segment that we talk about each week how distributors can layer insight selling into their sales methodology from the distribution strategy group are.

[01:00:21] But friends doctor Jonathan buying and Ian he and hell are over there going to be seeing in a few weeks in bolder.

[01:00:29] So any thoughts or takeaways from that to get started on it.

[01:00:34] Well there's quite a bit in here actually in this article kind of two parts to it one you know I mentioned James earlier about you know how impressed I've been with your sales methodology and sales process right and.

[01:00:49] You probably take it for granted because you've been doing it that way but many distributors that we work with have almost zero sales methodology for sales process in fact it's all based around.

[01:01:01] The sales person right the sales reason he's was their own sales process in methodology but with this talks about in the article is.

[01:01:12] Okay you have a methodology but then how do you incorporate into your methodology.

[01:01:19] More value add essentially to your customers by providing or your prospects or customers by providing them insights or.

[01:01:28] Information about the market or about their business or about their you know and again this is another place where.

[01:01:35] A. I and some AI tools can really give you a big advantage right if you're using them on the behalf of the to provide that insight into the customer.

[01:01:46] And James we mentioned in your take you know do you see an opportunity even in your business I would think so.

[01:01:52] To provide a lot of insights into your customer about what's going on in the market their business and all of that and you mentioned earlier loyalty is sort of becoming a thing at the past but I maybe this could be.

[01:02:05] I think that's a great opportunity to help put some more of that loyalty into that equation.

[01:02:11] Yeah, no it's it's something that is is really really exciting.

[01:02:17] I mean the process that I grew up with was extremely manual and I mean by manual I mean literally picking up the phone like it's all each step is relying upon number one me remembering what the next step is and then we actually doing it.

[01:02:35] And a lot of times that's why organizations don't get the lift that they think they're going to is just because of the consistency and the repeatability of the sales nature and their sales team.

[01:02:47] So by having AI kind of and automated systems come alongside the sales team.

[01:02:56] Honestly it could help yes it's going to help improve the productivity but think about that that salesperson in a day he's not spending mental energy.

[01:03:07] Wasting mental energy on a specific task he's being reminded now can actually pour more of that energy into connecting with the customer.

[01:03:15] Yeah, instead of spending the time trying to understand you know what the motivation is for this business how about.

[01:03:25] Have you know AI tell me hey what are the initiatives of this company and it scours the entire you know internet and then it can feed that to you so it's feeding you data doesn't.

[01:03:35] It's not going to remove the human element but if we use the tools the right way you could really aid and help that stand out.

[01:03:42] Yeah, amongst the crowd.

[01:03:45] But that's I love that you're really augment what they're looking to do and that that's the goal of these things.

[01:03:51] James let me can ask you a question to go with this I'm going to make a statement and then a question is I don't have a lot of experience in the office products world and where where you live but.

[01:04:02] You in the other markets that we serve quite a bit in building materials electrical HVAC industrial safety bearing power transmission some of those worlds it's not uncommon that you know even the largest of distributors like you know.

[01:04:18] And about a quarter billion half billion three quarter billion dollar billion dollar year distributors are out hiring people.

[01:04:26] Not because of the understand sales processes or have processes or are are driven people that are using structured methodologies they're hiring people because.

[01:04:37] Joe worked at XYZ competitor and he knows a bunch of accounts that he can bring with us any successful over there so hence we'll assume he'll be successful here.

[01:04:46] Did you see that in your world as well.

[01:04:51] Yes, yes I do and I have two different schools of thought on it I mean if you have a well defined sales process it's almost.

[01:05:01] Not adding pages to bring somebody in from the industry because you're going to have to help them unlearn whatever processes that they had to employ at the other company that doesn't have the mojo that that your organization does right so I mean in many cases I almost.

[01:05:18] Instead of the experience I I focus more on the the mindset in the willingness to to learn.

[01:05:29] You're good.

[01:05:30] Sorry, you're saying are you saying your better serve not trying to hire the superstar maybe or the perceived superstar who may be a one man band or a one person band and somebody who is going to be more of the team player.

[01:05:44] One million percent and a lot of people I will double down.

[01:05:50] I'm a culture guy through and through so you can hire a superstar and he can he can be he could be bringing on accounts but if he's a jerk or she's a jerk and interrupting other things inside of your company you can't you can't grow an organization around a single person.

[01:06:09] Right, yeah that's great. I just as you talking about that brings up an example there was a distributor safety equipment in industrial equipment distributor here in Southern California that I called on years ago when I was a manufacturer's rep in the in the 90s and early 2000s and they their focus for their hiring.

[01:06:33] Was on copy machine sales guys.

[01:06:38] And the reasoning behind that was and they said any copy sales guy that came in knocked on their door and called called them they'd see one of the two owners would do have a meeting anyone listened to the entire pitch about copy machine.

[01:06:52] And if the guy was good they'd offer a job.

[01:06:55] You could they said you know what the guys got enough personality and gumption that he's willing to knock on my door and probably get thrown out on his ear.

[01:07:05] And if he did a good presentation about copy machines, they would literally would offer a job because they know he knows how to get up and that a bit every morning they know he knows how to at least face his first set of obstacles.

[01:07:17] And sometimes showing up is the most important thing code. And so that was their mindset right is we'll teach him how to sell right he does so he knows how to sell and he knows how to self motivate.

[01:07:29] So we'll teach him how to sell grinding wheels or hard hats or whatever it is that's the easy part is getting that person that can go get started is interesting.

[01:07:38] So just as you were talking about that a trigger that old story for me.

[01:07:41] Yeah, I think you know hitting Bob's comment here right he is the person coachable right and you know not saying it all super there's our coachable some are.

[01:07:53] Yeah a lot of times they're you know they've operated based on their super star ability not on a team approach that's.

[01:07:59] Well, last part of that before we jump ahead is you know just makes me think Tom you know within our company leads smart we use us the entrepreneur operating system right and with any OS you've identified all of your core values of a company.

[01:08:15] And if you've done a good job identifying your core values of your company then you just use the simple people analyzer tool which the OS is published.

[01:08:24] And when you might find what you think is the super star but if you're super star that you're thinking is because he has the count over here or he sold a bunch over there.

[01:08:34] You may find a James point earlier about toxic type people that could disrupt your organization if you use that people analyzer tool and see how they line up with your core values of your company.

[01:08:46] Sometimes it's really bad news because you think you want to hire somebody but people analyzers going to tell you that you shouldn't.

[01:08:53] Right so aligning your hiring with your core values becomes power.

[01:09:00] Yeah, all right.

[01:09:15] So as is corn be fashion age sounds really good right now.

[01:09:19] So all right, so moving on gray bar points of customer experience leader you know what we won't spend much time at that gray bar huge.

[01:09:28] Electrical distributor and a little bit of industrial distribution as well the reason I shared that today in this segment was that.

[01:09:34] Customer experience is everything these days we talked about it multiple times earlier today understanding customer journey is important.

[01:09:44] It's what we are in able our customers to do it lead smart by taking ERP data e-commerce data marketing data.

[01:09:50] Bringing that into a single platform and running AI tools against that to travel and watch the customers journey with them.

[01:09:58] So it's cool to see a company gray bars the size putting somebody in charge of as a senior leader in the organization of customer experience so congratulations to them.

[01:10:10] All right.

[01:10:11] In that second distribution strategy group published a piece two about.

[01:10:16] Mergin acquisitions create sales and marketing friction here's how to get rid of it so a bunch of steps as you see markets and her should say as you see company starting to align.

[01:10:26] With each other this was written by an attorney on behalf of of distribution strategy group so.

[01:10:34] She's a consultant and attorney I believe so it was kind of interesting it talks about you know integrating text acts and data integration of people and.

[01:10:42] Building culture within the article integration of brand and communications and integration of the organizational structure.

[01:10:49] You know James you went through this win when when perimeter was acquired right was there any great steps that you guys took and put in place.

[01:11:00] Um because of the the nature of the group that we became a part of no not really and that was done very intentionally and our industry.

[01:11:09] That that that kids ago I mean there's been too too many examples of of great organizations that were acquired by another company and then forced to assume that companies right everything and.

[01:11:25] And that's why I'm such a culture warrior is I mean that it it's really difficult to build and it's super easy to lose.

[01:11:36] Um and so we we did we did acquire two other local companies office people in and then rolled those underneath perimeter and amazing people great clients and but there was there's definitely some.

[01:11:54] Some things that were exposed from from my perspective on like internal no manclature and just things that we took for granted.

[01:12:02] No idea I mean they are other people coming in and like what free trial or you know, raving fam like what what does this mean so it really exposed to us a lot of the things that we needed to start documenting and paying attention to clarifying I should say processes so.

[01:12:20] Yeah, I'm just a lot of businesses and leaders that that is something that you should pay attention to is if somebody came in from the outside had no idea could they understand easily and quickly.

[01:12:31] What you do in the internal processes.

[01:12:34] Probably some good takeaways from that article.

[01:12:36] Um if you're going to acquire or be acquired good so.

[01:12:41] Thomas we jump ahead. We have a people and leadership segment each week we're kind of running short on time but couple of articles there ones from CFO dive dot com companies boosting salary budgets as near record pace at near record pace in 2025.

[01:12:55] And the second article talks about it's from Ted magazine the electrical distributor.

[01:13:01] I'm talking about labor costs remain high for small businesses.

[01:13:05] You know, I think we've had all this challenge and James you could probably comment on this as well as you know we read constantly about the.

[01:13:17] Difficulty earlier in the year and last year about even finding people come to work.

[01:13:21] Yeah, well now we're getting them to come to work and that is showing in the job market that you know we're getting people back to work but they want to make more money.

[01:13:29] Yep.

[01:13:30] So what's your experience been with that?

[01:13:33] But it has been.

[01:13:35] Um, but we had some difficulty filling out our accounting department.

[01:13:39] Um, finding somebody qualified we made a couple of moves just because the you know we we feared burnout from some of our.

[01:13:49] Our higher in a higher level executives that I mean they were doing three people's jobs so we just need to get somebody in here but then that created more issues because.

[01:13:58] The person was supposed to be doing the job wasn't doing the job and so.

[01:14:05] Again, there's a reason why I'm a culture warrior is when people believe in the vision and the company and the people that they're working with more than the crap that they're having to deal with on a you know daily basis.

[01:14:18] It helps to keep that team in in fact.

[01:14:23] I think we have a new hashtag or a new t-shirt culture drops crap.

[01:14:28] I love it.

[01:14:29] Yeah, yeah and it really does and all businesses go through crap right I mean that's just about.

[01:14:36] Yeah, that's right.

[01:14:39] So we're talking to you know your people are going to be able to to you know whether the storms.

[01:14:45] Good.

[01:14:46] Well, I think we're just something we'll probably be seeing and talking more about in the coming months and in next year is about labor costs and the challenges you know and I just think about it is you know.

[01:14:59] Getting food the other day at all, boy, I'll local who has that will play a local and.

[01:15:04] Yeah, you know, you have to happen to hear it.

[01:15:09] And so the we beat there all the time right there's one right down the hill from our house and it's like 25 plus bucks for the two of us you know or 30 bucks for two of us there.

[01:15:25] And you know, you used to be 16 17 I mean it's just crazy.

[01:15:30] Yeah, when we're seeing this across the board right but that all ties to you know there's food costs increases obviously but it certainly ties in a lot to the salaries and the hourly wages of people are making so.

[01:15:43] All right Tom, as we wind down for today we have an industry scuddle but section each week kind of a cool little spot in here talks about when supply large distributor that is putting a.

[01:15:54] Partnership together first time I've seen this at this level with a professional football team that would be you know if you're.

[01:16:02] Not a Cincinnati Bengals fan you might question if they're actually a professional football team.

[01:16:07] Probably shouldn't have that out loud my friends in South southern Ohio and northern Kentucky but kind of cool partnership to when supplies doing with that.

[01:16:15] We talk about an acquisition in here as well in the industry scuddle but section but the one thing that then I mentioned in here and this probably wouldn't be of note but but there's a company that we reference here.

[01:16:28] You know came from modern distribution distribution management radians which is a manufacturer personal protective equipment.

[01:16:36] The based in Memphis kind of started as a little small company if I remember correctly the their original product is they did a safety glass that had hearing ear plugs are hitting protection attached to it.

[01:16:48] I remember meeting them when they first showed up well now they're there are global powerhouse now and.

[01:16:53] The most of the gentleman that built that company and but they just expanded their headquarters dramatically so that's good news relevant yeah we wouldn't talk about but.

[01:17:04] They reference in there the importance of their expansion for on shoring now.

[01:17:14] They're this this what really hit me their product category is as commoditizes they come reflective s disposable gloves leather work loves safety glasses hard hats things that you're there they're not quite consumables but just about right and everything about those just.

[01:17:39] Things southeast China southeast Asian right so to see them expanding their corporate headquarters for commoditized item so that they can on shore them.

[01:17:52] Speak to me that's the biggest statement we've seen in the months and months we've been discussing on shoring in your shoring to see those starting to look like they're coming coming back here at some level so I wanted to mention that before we closed out today so.

[01:18:08] And we have also our good reads section the key to your overall health and happiness may boil down to one rare word so we talk James each week in the newsletter is you know.

[01:18:22] This might be about leadership it might be about health it might be about personal development whatever it is but one key word anybody read what that was.

[01:18:32] I'm gonna just piece yeah.

[01:18:35] Peace right for those of you listening not watching James just flashed as the peace sign and finding peace in our life and it had some yeah some very very valuable steps and tools and and if we can look to find peace in our life then that would be you know it's it's interesting though and and james comes full circle the what you were saying in the beginning.

[01:18:56] Even about you know who you work with and so forth I find every day working with our customers.

[01:19:05] The more peace of mind I can provide to them.

[01:19:09] That is more valuable than anything else that I do with them or we do with them right it's because there's so much crap as you pointed out.

[01:19:20] Yep anything that can be done to add a little piece into the equation right and peace of mind into the equation I think everybody appreciates and I doesn't matter where you are in the business cycle.

[01:19:32] And I think it's a really interesting maybe I don't know if it's a culture pointer not because I think it's more just.

[01:19:40] Helping to make sure that you're providing that you know what you're doing are you providing peace of mind or are you creating more turbo hell and and things or whatever you're doing.

[01:19:51] Yep.

[01:19:52] Good good points. Bob tells us that pieces of loha.

[01:19:56] I agree with him there which means we're also gonna need to use a loha here in a moment to say goodbye.

[01:20:03] The last article that we had there as we talk each week we have a second look where we published articles on topics that we've talked about before and that was about.

[01:20:15] The ongoing concerns about.

[01:20:17] Right strikes in the Gulf Coast and in the east coast that's something we're gonna have to watch really close they don't figure some out if they've only got about two and a half weeks left so.

[01:20:27] Thanks guys the days been fun James thanks for being with us.

[01:20:34] Yeah this is we move a little fast you did good sometime.

[01:20:38] You go to a barbecue or anything this weekend, James.

[01:20:41] You can reinforce everybody only one rate cut to share.

[01:20:44] You can, all right, you can buy that with the order.

[01:20:47] You can work for it.

[01:20:48] Right.

[01:20:48] You review your force, measure.

[01:20:50] That's right.

[01:20:50] And we're free to force your.

[01:20:52] And I tell you why not talking for your burger.

[01:20:55] Only talk about one rate cut if you want to look like a necklace

[01:20:59] and don't get invited back.

[01:21:01] So, all right.

[01:21:02] When you get into, I was talking to Tom Burton,

[01:21:05] the author of the Revenue Zone.

[01:21:06] Don't mention Lee Smart.

[01:21:07] Not the Revenue Zone.

[01:21:09] The other name, he said one rate cut.

[01:21:12] So he's that's pretty fine.

[01:21:14] I have a force, measure of claws in my, in my prediction stuff.

[01:21:17] That's right.

[01:21:18] Right.

[01:21:19] We covered a lot of ground.

[01:21:20] James, you did great.

[01:21:21] Thanks for the fun.

[01:21:22] Thank you so much.

[01:21:23] I had my glad to be here.

[01:21:25] Yeah, we've had guests invited guests that say,

[01:21:27] I don't want to come because I can't keep up

[01:21:29] because we do move pretty fast through this.

[01:21:32] But I think that's what some people like about it.

[01:21:34] Where are you?

[01:21:35] Tom, what do we have?

[01:21:36] 107 today?

[01:21:37] 107.

[01:21:38] That's not bad.

[01:21:39] 107th episode.

[01:21:40] We've gotten together to do this.

[01:21:42] So, in kind of wrapping up,

[01:21:44] we do this every week again.

[01:21:46] I'm Kevin Brown, Tom Burton, our great guests.

[01:21:48] James Kilman being with us.

[01:21:50] We just try and bring and shine some light on what's going on

[01:21:54] in the world and how it impacts wholesale distribution

[01:21:56] and how folks both in manufacturing distribution

[01:22:00] can kind of expand and grow their businesses

[01:22:03] by using technology, understanding what's happening in M&A

[01:22:07] and the economy and so forth.

[01:22:10] We're appreciative of those of you.

[01:22:11] I've been with us.

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