What A Difference A Week Makes: The Fed's Big Decision

[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

[00:00:22] and the global wholesale supply chain. Whether it's M&A, Sass and Cloud Computing, B2BE Commerce or Supply Chain Issues,

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

[00:00:37] I thought with that cool new microphone, you might be singing a few tunes as well.

[00:00:42] No, no, I should have. There was words to that tune I would have. My camera seems to be a little fuzzy right now,

[00:00:53] let's see if it adjusts for me. I'm sure we'll momentarily. How are you?

[00:00:59] Good. The things are changing out there these days aren't they?

[00:01:06] I think so. How do we paint other changes?

[00:01:10] Yeah, all dive right into that in a moment. I'm looking time as we're on our

[00:01:17] simultaneous tool that we use. I look a little bit fuzzy but I'm looking at a

[00:01:23] LinkedIn feed and it's not too bad so I'm not quite sure what's going on there but we'll adjust to that.

[00:01:29] But anyways, you're getting ready to hit the road next week, aren't you?

[00:01:32] I am. I am. Let me out of the house.

[00:01:34] Yeah, to see a key customer and work with them on some technology issues which is exciting. That'll be great.

[00:01:42] And I'm headed off to the Industrial Supply Association's event in Orlando, Florida looking forward to that.

[00:01:49] I say, I've been there always good. Good speakers, good networking and so forth and go with that as well.

[00:01:56] So why don't we do a little bit of housekeeping that we normally do if that works out okay? What do you say?

[00:02:01] Yeah, let's do it quick quick quick quick. We got a lot to cover today.

[00:02:05] We got a lot to go. You have a couple of exciting things and I know there's a couple of topics you want to move beyond quickly as well.

[00:02:12] But so I'm Kevin Brown. I'm here with my lifelong friend and go founder of Leeds Smart Technologies Tom Burton.

[00:02:18] We get together every Friday morning here in less like next week we won't be here because someone will be on a one of us will be on an airplane.

[00:02:27] But we get together each week. We talk about the news of wholesale distribution and manufacturing.

[00:02:34] We look at everything going on in the world whether it's ports, strikes, supply chain issue, M&A activity, finance, the economy, sales and marketing, e-commerce, human resource things.

[00:02:45] We look across it all of those. We try and discuss what is happening with that is how it relates to wholesale distribution.

[00:02:53] And so we do that each week here. We send out a newsletter every Friday morning. It goes out to about 10,000 plus people and that newsletter is called again around the Horn and wholesale distribution and manufacturing.

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[00:03:24] Past episodes will be there. We're going live this morning on LinkedIn Live YouTube Live and Facebook Live like we do every week and later in the day this broadcast and livecast will be available on

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[00:03:39] We'll get those and we would love it if you would join us there.

[00:03:45] If you were listening on the podcast, you do not get an opportunity to be working on.

[00:03:53] I did that on purpose.

[00:03:56] I'm trying to get my camera to just here.

[00:04:00] Thanks for the from me off face there. But anyways, if you're listening on the podcast, you don't get to see our beautiful faces.

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[00:04:39] Last thing before we move ahead is we couldn't do this each week if we didn't have the support of the company that's on.

[00:04:45] I'm going to both work for LeedsMortech technologies. LeedsMort has developed a AI enabled customer intelligence and CRM solution that is a truly foundational tool for wholesale distributors and manufacturers to

[00:04:57] gather information from around their organization through ERP, marketing automation, e-commerce, data lakes.

[00:05:04] Other tools and bring that together to get AI enabled insights into what is happening at their customer and within their organization to help accelerate growth.

[00:05:12] If you're a wholesale distributor or manufacturer and you're ready to digitally transform, we would love to talk to you about that.

[00:05:19] So that's about it Tom.

[00:05:21] Ready to dive in? We've got Will with us.

[00:05:23] We've got Bob here.

[00:05:24] I want to say I want to say good morning to Will.

[00:05:27] Hey, Will, I'm going to a big in for customer next week. So if I need any help, I'm going to give you a call and again, welcome Bob Aloha.

[00:05:37] And yeah, if you're out there listening, please check in. Let us know you're here where you're from.

[00:05:42] Always great to know who's out there.

[00:05:45] Very good.

[00:05:47] Want to dive into the news with us there, Tom?

[00:05:50] We can do that.

[00:05:51] Fix my camera.

[00:05:53] Oh, yeah.

[00:05:54] As soon as I brought up the news, camera was fixed.

[00:05:57] No, no, I did it on my own.

[00:05:58] So I don't ever question my abilities with technology.

[00:06:02] It had somehow changed on its own and changed the setting of the quality of the image.

[00:06:10] So I'm a higher quality image now just to put that on the record.

[00:06:14] Yep.

[00:06:15] So I'm going to skip all of these and move onto the news.

[00:06:18] You just want to real write back past this economy and supply to you.

[00:06:21] By the way, he's good to see writing Williams with us from North Texas.

[00:06:26] Crystal's joining us to from Saskatoon.

[00:06:30] Wow.

[00:06:33] How cabin you just you just you just died.

[00:06:37] Okay, this died.

[00:06:41] No sound.

[00:06:44] I'm going to have to go back to the other other microphone.

[00:06:52] This this happened earlier where.

[00:06:56] He has a cool new microphone, but it likes to cut out.

[00:06:59] I think after like five minutes.

[00:07:04] Once you go back in.

[00:07:09] All right.

[00:07:11] He's coming back and going back in.

[00:07:15] Lars, greetings from sunny Minnesota.

[00:07:17] You know, I'm I'm going to Wisconsin next week and I was hoping to get a little taste of

[00:07:23] fall and they tell me though it's going to be in the 70s in Craig Warren.

[00:07:27] So I guess in Minnesota it's been very warm as well.

[00:07:30] It was talking to that another customer in Minneapolis this week and I think they said 80s.

[00:07:36] So but there might be some some leaves that are changing colors so looking forward to that,

[00:07:41] which we do not get here in California.

[00:07:45] All right.

[00:07:45] Just another minute here and hopefully Kevin's technical difficulties will be handled.

[00:08:00] Well, now he just disappeared completely.

[00:08:05] And I'm hoping that his computer is not rebooting will be a part of Wisconsin.

[00:08:17] It's about an hour, I think from green bay about an hour north of Green Bay.

[00:08:24] Somewhere in that area.

[00:08:26] I don't know exactly the city but he had bought by me the jeopardy theme here.

[00:08:33] And otherwise I'm just going to do the news by myself.

[00:08:35] I'm going to give Kevin another minute and then you're going to get my take on the news.

[00:08:41] But yeah, Duncan saying is changing color and Toronto that's good.

[00:08:44] That's good.

[00:08:46] And I've heard about that Mars cheese castle now from a couple of different people.

[00:08:53] I don't know if that's going to be exactly in the area that I'm going to be into but I've heard about that Mars cheese castle will

[00:09:01] be a part of the city.

[00:09:02] And I'm sure there's some cheese curds all over the place.

[00:09:09] Okay, well, I see Kevin coming back but it says his device is not connected.

[00:09:19] Thank you everybody for all the comments to keep us going here for.

[00:09:26] Well, Kevin's soarch through his technical difficulties.

[00:09:36] Yeah, I heard it's a little bit of a drive.

[00:09:39] But it's fine because it's like I've the few people I've told I've gone to Wisconsin like three of them have said go to the Mars cheese castle.

[00:09:47] So it must be pretty epic.

[00:09:55] You know, I'd really like to start on the news and start talking about raycats and things like that but I just don't feel I can do that where.

[00:10:04] Yeah, Bob says he's from New England and they start coming up from leafpeepers start coming up from New York.

[00:10:11] Yeah, my wife is from New Hampshire.

[00:10:13] So we try and go out every year to New Hampshire to see the leaves and all of that.

[00:10:21] And yeah, it's probably a bigger bigger tourist season.

[00:10:28] It's probably a bigger tourist season there in the fall than it is in the summer or at least similar in size just different different people.

[00:10:38] Yeah, well, I may be dancing here in a minute.

[00:10:41] I'll be dancing through the news.

[00:10:48] I don't know why Kevin is having so many problems here on the sudden.

[00:10:53] He got a new microphone.

[00:10:54] I don't know why that went kill his computer.

[00:10:58] All right, I'm giving him 30 seconds.

[00:11:03] Yeah, my my Bob's lady moved from Dallas to Manchester.

[00:11:08] All my in laws live in ports with New Hampshire and extra New Hampshire, which is right on the border of Maine.

[00:11:14] Really a cool area.

[00:11:16] It's about an hour north of Boston and it's just unbelievable up there with the leaves and the in the color especially if you get there at the right time at the right peak.

[00:11:27] There is some.

[00:11:28] Just amazing.

[00:11:43] Yeah, I spend the warrants.

[00:11:46] Warren's lobster house, which is in.

[00:11:49] Kittery Maine, which is right across the river from New Hampshire and not only do they have good lobster but they have an amazing salad bar far remember correctly.

[00:12:01] So yes, we tend to go there most of the time when we're we're in town there.

[00:12:09] All right, hey, I'm going to get rolling here.

[00:12:11] I have no idea what's going on with Kevin and his computer, but let's get into the news here. So.

[00:12:18] Hey, as we all know, the Fed slash interest rates by a half a point.

[00:12:23] And if you've been listening to our show and are bet Kevin is gloating because not only did they say they you know, it's cut rates by a half a percent, but they said they're going to be cutting rates.

[00:12:35] And another half a percent before the old period comes he must have heard me.

[00:12:40] Are you there?

[00:12:42] I'm here.

[00:12:43] Okay.

[00:12:44] Well, thanks to Bob and Will and everybody else, they kept us going, you know, we chatted about all kinds of important things here.

[00:12:51] Yeah, so new laptop arrives.

[00:12:53] Monday, my new MacBook.

[00:12:55] All cheese to you into everyone.

[00:12:59] I'm wondering though, if actually that was all done on your end to keep me from gloating too much.

[00:13:07] That's what I was hoping that's what I was thinking I was just about right to go through and give my take, but hey, let's let's let's speed up here, you know.

[00:13:15] Well, let's let's just how much did you cover about that because I do just started we just started just started.

[00:13:20] Okay, my apologies.

[00:13:21] This has happened once before a new MacBook arrives Monday and quite excited about I think it just seems time it seems like that that new my guy bought like it's been a lot of money on it.

[00:13:33] A couple of months about a month ago.

[00:13:35] It's basically overtake your back and the can't handle it.

[00:13:39] Well, let's you think that says in the case, I think that could be part of it.

[00:13:43] Well, new machine arrives Monday, pretty excited about that.

[00:13:46] I will be fast.

[00:13:49] Yep, the.

[00:13:51] Yeah, so the large says in sure your state Kevin has to buy you as a really good one.

[00:13:57] Well, why would why would I be buying you a steak large?

[00:14:02] Well, because all my large steak.

[00:14:05] Yeah, happily.

[00:14:07] So look, I admit, I admit my probability of buying you a steak is probably is quite high.

[00:14:13] However, I am not giving up 100% hope.

[00:14:18] And I think actually the half a point cut works in my favor slightly because they cut more than expected you know a big cut to start off and you know they've basically said that they're going to do another 50 basis points this year.

[00:14:35] But but they're going to be very data driven.

[00:14:38] So if we see a little if we see an uptick in jobs or we see an uptick in the inflation rate over the next two months, it's not a slam dunk they could easily easily not make that move.

[00:14:52] And otherwise I'll I've been looking forward to taking you to out back and you know you're welcome to even have the blue man onion if you like with your dinner.

[00:15:00] I'm totally good with that so.

[00:15:02] Yeah and and will says he's going to call the chairman I appreciate that to push push the next cut out to January just tell them there's no rush will there's no rush right you know the new year is is better so.

[00:15:16] Well, what's in your coffee cup.

[00:15:19] What are you drinking this morning or figured I just had to take over the show myself so that's yeah but the the gin in your coffee cup or to kill us before we go on from there.

[00:15:30] Just because of the illusion that you're talking and will was saying some silly stuff like that yesterday on a linked in post I had although he did put a beautiful steak there picture of one on there and.

[00:15:41] But listen there is the dot plot that's I think we've missed here and the dot plot is suggesting as they describe that and let's just read this it says in addition to this reduction the committee indicated through its dot plot the equivalent of 50 more basis point points of cuts by the end of the year close to market pricing the matrix of individual officials expectations what to do another full percentage point in cuts by the end of 2025.

[00:16:10] And a half point in 2026 and all the dot plot shows the benchmark rate coming down about two percentage points beyond Wednesday's move my friend.

[00:16:22] There would have to be some pretty big news out there.

[00:16:27] But but look at what happened in a week right one week ago we said on the show.

[00:16:32] And there was an article I think we went through that we were talking about that the chance of the making a half a point cut was like 17 percent it was very very low and if I remember correctly the article was hey if they do a half a point cut the stock market's going to go crazy go down because they're going to freak out right it's going to show a sign of them.

[00:16:52] And in the course of one I think by Monday, I don't know what that happened but the chances were up to like 50% for a half point cut and by the time Tuesday or Wednesday rolled around it was like 70% or 80%.

[00:17:07] What what changed in four days.

[00:17:11] Leaks yeah, obviously.

[00:17:14] But anyway information getting out.

[00:17:17] Yeah, but anyway I think that they do he was very clear about them being data driven and if the data stays the same then.

[00:17:28] I think you and I are going to be going to out back for a stake in a blue man onion if it doesn't stay the same then.

[00:17:35] You know we'll be having a much better stake somewhere else.

[00:17:40] So where we go is dependent on who wins is that the deal right that's right perfect.

[00:17:45] No, you know we went through a really cool stake house together in Newport Beach last December.

[00:17:52] That's that's on the agenda the there's a great place that famous hockey player team of salani owns in Laguna Beach that it's called salani's it's round Pacific coast highway that's kind of where I'm leaning so.

[00:18:06] You can you can try and play the outback game that it.

[00:18:10] But you know what I listen nothing sure tell it's sure but I think even though will is agreeing with you and my thought I thought Lars was my friend first but.

[00:18:23] The Lars might be along the way as well, but you know I don't I'm not buying anybody a stake regardless right my my worst case scenario is we go to be by our own stakes so.

[00:18:35] But did you call it house money.

[00:18:38] Yeah, but if I said there's only one or less right so it's actually not 100% house money yet.

[00:18:43] Well, you think we've had eight.

[00:18:45] Right so there's one so if there's only one I win.

[00:18:49] Okay, that's more than one you win right that's how it works so you're not quite on house money I overspoken the.

[00:18:57] Bob's got a good comment here though getting back to the more important thing of the discussion the day.

[00:19:02] So money will be cheaper but things will be more expensive and that's you know potential for that right we've got to get some balancing at going.

[00:19:13] There's some weird stuff happening out there though I mean the whole.

[00:19:17] You know we don't try not be political here at all but it's just that was watching a senator that you know really wants to drive corporate profits and stop mergers and so forth and squash a lot of capitalism out there right now.

[00:19:30] And just to dry trying drive prices down that way and whether some risky risky discussion out going on out there related to that and obviously prices are.

[00:19:40] Are still crazy the good news is here in California gas prices have come down a lot so I'm very appreciative of that but you know what when.

[00:19:47] I'll play a local or but you know.

[00:19:51] I mean it seems like fast food is 80% or 70% of the cost of going down and sitting and having a meal somewhere now.

[00:19:58] Yep, well, so.

[00:20:00] Well, you've got to the out back for the price of going to play a local practically.

[00:20:05] You could but if you're paying off a debt.

[00:20:07] Yeah, then it's not going to play out that way.

[00:20:10] So.

[00:20:10] All right.

[00:20:11] That's what we've got a lot to cover here and we're behind.

[00:20:14] So next articles we're talking about in the newsletter here survey shows top execs.

[00:20:20] Back to viewing supply chain management as a cost center this was from digital 360.

[00:20:26] Similar article we posted as well from supply and demand chain executive they're both referencing a study that was just released and some research that was out there.

[00:20:38] From Ernst and young and you know it's interesting we talked about this and you know we're in our.

[00:20:45] Our economy and supply chain segment of the show and we've talked about this a number of times from the.

[00:20:52] The standpoint of going through the pandemic supply chain issues were out of control executive had to take a totally different.

[00:21:01] A totally different view of things and we saw a lot of focus going in on managing supply chain looking technology within supply chain.

[00:21:13] And really having that becomes such a key part of the company because of.

[00:21:17] Of the challenges of work with just getting product and now this starts this article is really talking about how executives as a whole or kind of falling in the back in the wrong direction of.

[00:21:28] And we all of our supply chain work and and basically it talked about supply chain management people were almost becoming peers.

[00:21:36] Of the executives in the organizations and things are flip flopping back now and I couldn't think of a worse time for that to be going on based upon two things one is.

[00:21:46] The supply chain while the ships aren't stacked up out there and things are moving a little bit better.

[00:21:50] We have a very volatile supply chain out there between the risk we're going to talk in a few minutes about potential port strikes and the Gulf Coast and the East Coast.

[00:21:59] And then we missed us all of the issues in the Suez Canal we have geopolitical tensions now is not the time to be you know reverting back to previous thinking.

[00:22:10] And so the idea is that there was there's been a switch from supply chain being a growth driver or supply chain strategy be a growth driver.

[00:22:21] And now going back to a constant and it seems like it's a pretty short memory in a lot of in complacency that would set in that quickly.

[00:22:30] I don't know yeah it's and it was it was an overwhelming number of people on their survey that well it's been in a direction.

[00:22:39] And so the surveys is Ernst and young again surveys that did this surveys 347 US supply chain executives from various industries whose companies have at least 500 million in annual revenue.

[00:22:50] It says despite heightened awareness and importance of supply chain 78% of supply chain leaders say their organization is back to focusing on supply chain cost management with 28% citing cost reduction is one of the top three priorities.

[00:23:04] A shift from pandemic era strategies they go on to say the series of supply chain shocks that started with a pandemic elevated the role of supply chain leaders in the C-suite.

[00:23:15] But executive teams are increasingly revered to reverting to outdated views of supply chain as a cost and a rather than a growth engine.

[00:23:24] And that's big challenge.

[00:23:25] So I think the one of the things to be thinking about with this is you know going back to some of the discussions we've had we talked with our guest last week with James Gilman.

[00:23:37] About this we've talked quite a few other guests in the past year about how much more closely they're managing their supply chain and asking harder questions of their vendor partners if you're a distributor and so forth.

[00:23:49] I think that's where we need to be right when we need to be is thinking about this just not as the dollars and cents of it, but what does it mean to my customer.

[00:23:59] We go back to being customer centric with these things and that's where I think the risk of this is getting away from being customer centric.

[00:24:06] And just doing what's best appears to be best for the customer with old school.

[00:24:11] Yeah, and I want to you know I think what Bob saying here here we are on the heritage of having squeeze so many dollars out of supply king costs as becoming hyper fragile doesn't take much to create shock waves.

[00:24:25] You know I don't know if they're looking at this as a cost center is there are a lot more to squeeze out of it.

[00:24:30] It seems like there's a lot more opportunity to optimize and there is to squeeze all of the other end.

[00:24:35] I think we're actually we've been having discussions about even AI tools for supply chain management and some deep conversations in those things and I think.

[00:24:45] I think this were the risk with this kind of thinking right now is it's.

[00:24:52] There's one school of thought that says we're going to work hard on.

[00:24:56] Crunching the dollars and the supply chain the other side of it is those are the things you control but if if you're doing that.

[00:25:04] And you're not paying attention to the things that you can't control and you can't control a hoodie rebel you know shooting a drone at a ship that has your raw materials on it.

[00:25:14] You can't control the geopolitical issues in the South China Sea and China and Taiwan and then that pressures with the US government and Taiwan.

[00:25:22] You can't control those things but you should be preparing for those things so I think just the point of these two articles in this in why survey was don't go back to pre pandemic thinking.

[00:25:32] Take that pre pandemic thinking or the during the pandemic thinking and make it your post pandemic view of how you manage supply chain in your business is understanding all of the factors and on a consistent and ongoing basis.

[00:25:46] But I'm then pontificating on that point.

[00:25:50] All right so speaking of supply chain it looks right.

[00:25:53] And it's not going to step in in any way if there's a strike here on the east coast so.

[00:25:59] I mean it's step and think about that the applications at that time there's what we're talking about with this is.

[00:26:08] Main it's a Houston down these coast and across the central part of the country no ports open right potential and by the way in about two weeks.

[00:26:20] And there's ships are hustling to get in there fast while they're already moving to the west coast right we talked about that week's the other very right and there's already been a shift coming that direction.

[00:26:31] And there there it's this is a big deal but you know we could pass by this but you know there's that what was it called there's the tethheartly act right that allows the government to step in.

[00:26:44] Regarding labor issues Biden said that they've never you know it says we've so his administration never invoked it before he sent out an emissary the acting labor secretary.

[00:26:56] Last summer right when there was the risk on the LA.

[00:27:02] Long each port issue with this and and yeah they got something done I think it's that was still somewhat of a fragile deal but the.

[00:27:13] The good news of all of this you know is.

[00:27:17] It hasn't happened yet they're talking I'm guessing they're going to extend talks probably a little bit the union said something and that we posted a week or two ago though that you know they're not fooling around and they're ready to go.

[00:27:31] I listened the other day we had a guest on earlier this year that's.

[00:27:36] I really enjoyed having with us at Eric Hopeland the CEO of the National Association of wholesalers and Eric was on.

[00:27:44] Fox business network earlier this week that it's called mornings with Maria Bartiroma and it's a pretty big and popular show and you know what Eric was talking about I listen a couple clips I commented on he posted it.

[00:27:57] I'm part of the clip on LinkedIn. I shared it if you follow me on LinkedIn or we're connected you can see it there or go out and check Eric's comments the issue that's going on here is is powerful right in the issue that's being talked about time here in this setting is the idea of automation.

[00:28:15] And that's the big issue and what they're trying to do is completely block any automation coming into craines gates container movements any of those things right.

[00:28:28] And and this is a you know protection is tight things right we got to protect the jobs protect the jobs protect the jobs understandable but the Eric made this great point he was talking about the.

[00:28:41] The court of Rotterdam in the Netherlands and what he was saying there is it's one of the most automated and mechanized ports in the world.

[00:28:51] And when they did all of that there was no significant job loss issues that went along with it and so he used I just think this was great Eric used the point of.

[00:29:03] He just said look we're not the most sophisticated supply chain in the world that we probably think we are the specific when it comes to our our ports and he said this we're at a moment I loved it he said we're at a moment of.

[00:29:18] Blockbuster or Netflix.

[00:29:22] What do we want to be in our ports and our supply chain in the US because right now we're in that blockbuster world right and the rest of the world specifically a lot of the European ports are embracing technology that's there that are making them more sufficient.

[00:29:36] There's research that saying we're not losing jobs because of it right and I've spent a lot of time when you know when you and I were just at a high school.

[00:29:46] I worked for a company and I was in the portal long be to LA every day and you know that was while that was eons ago with steam ships coming in it feels like versus tanker ships but.

[00:30:00] You go through the harbors and just been call spades paid somebody can get mad at me but there's a lot of waste with a lot of you know it's kind of we joke about the culture and screws right your California right it's one guy with a shovel and seven guys watching.

[00:30:14] There's a lot of that in the harbor and I think the research is saying we got to automate these things and that's an issue of staying competitive in this country.

[00:30:22] Yeah well they look whether I don't know what's going to happen in the strike or how this is going to result but it's going to happen right so whether it happens now or later you're you know just make it more more friction more difficult but it's could the automation can happen so it's.

[00:30:40] Anyway, it seems like there's there's probably it I don't know enough about the situation but it that seems like a.

[00:30:47] Tough one to hold to hold try to hold the for.

[00:30:51] Well, they got enough people that are ready to stop working but eventually it's all going to happen right so let's jump into our manufacturing distribution segment.

[00:30:59] Yeah this first article.

[00:31:01] Interestingly enough I didn't realize this but there are ETFs out there.

[00:31:06] Great electronic traded funds or basically little you know not mutual funds but sets of stocks that are all related to near sure in or.

[00:31:17] The research range or bringing things back to the US and I think they're also with the article said is there are also being.

[00:31:26] Essentially accelerated through the fact that there's a lot of money set aside for projects and for reshoring and things that happen here in the US so a lot of money I think they said record amounts of money pouring into these funds.

[00:31:41] That are all related to companies that are in the reshoring near sure near sure industry 2.25 billion has floating just this year right they're expecting.

[00:31:55] That that brings total assets they said in these funds to nine and a half billion so they said companies this the quote was from one of the one of them.

[00:32:05] One of the ETFs as companies a keeper referring to reshoring as a long term driver of their growth in our goal is to find beneficiaries or an avalars of that trend before that theme is mainstream.

[00:32:19] I mean here's the kicker on this right.

[00:32:22] And I think this is this is not somewhere I would put my money right now. I love the idea but I think that kicker on this is what they're trying to look at with this is some short term returns because we still have labor cost issues in this country we still have raw material was still have transportation issues we could have closed ports.

[00:32:43] Now that was all some of those drive towards the idea of this being a bigger value but I think we've got to see some of this plot I think these ETFs got started a lot of it because of the government money that's coming back to reshoring and and the overall growth here.

[00:33:00] But listen no matter how you slice a block rock is in on this as well and one of their funds through this which is an infrastructure development fund.

[00:33:11] Here today returns of 26.6 percent.

[00:33:15] Yeah, tough to argue.

[00:33:17] No I look at it again I don't know all the details of what they're investing in and so forth but it seems like it's a trendy type play at the moment right now.

[00:33:27] I think there could be some short term opportunity this isn't investment advice but it's probably not something I would be looking at the whole for 10 years.

[00:33:36] But if it's something that you know to put money in for a year or two.

[00:33:40] I think that with some that with some stops in it right.

[00:33:57] Yeah.

[00:33:58] You know kind of important to look at from that standpoint they talk about supply chains are being reconfigured wages are rising consumer demand is softening cost pressures are continuing.

[00:34:09] The times are an easy for us manufacturers and incremental improvements will not be enough to a term success so I thought that was.

[00:34:18] I think that's a value and a benefit to kind of get a look at because those are the realities of what we're seeing right now right no matter how you slice it.

[00:34:28] Go ahead I'm sorry.

[00:34:29] No I thought the article was actually quite quite good I mean I thought it was quite thorough and talking about just a lot of different areas as relates to manufacturing like I think that could carry over the distribution as well.

[00:34:42] Yep that is.

[00:34:45] You know that kind of need to be short up I guess for lack of a better word no pun intended and so anyway I just thought you know there was a lot going on in that article and a lot of things obviously technology was a big part of what they were saying an automation interestingly enough.

[00:35:03] Was a big part of that as well.

[00:35:05] Yeah the you know and I think this just kind of all these pieces kind of tie back together with what we were seeing earlier about supply chain executives in manufacturing.

[00:35:16] And you tie these pieces together with what's going on in manufacturing so they talked about change management organizational health front and center.

[00:35:25] They had some another piece in there about skills development of core part of transformation right we're no matter how you slice it you're not going to be able to stay competitive in this world unless you're bringing in.

[00:35:37] New or technologies that means you've got upscale your workers and then talking about communicate with shareholders and if you're involved in capital markets but I don't know if I send it to you kind of last minute there was a chart in here and did you by chance grab that.

[00:35:52] I did.

[00:35:56] And the chart is really talking about an effective transformation of US manufacturing again if you're if you're listening on the podcast you're not going to be seeing this so I'm going to read a little bit of it.

[00:36:07] But an effective transformation of US manufacturing sector could boost GDP by 275 billion dollars to 460 billion while adding up to 1.5 million jobs so.

[00:36:19] This though ties back to some of the thinking that we were time at earlier with executives looking at manufacturing and supply chain with.

[00:36:28] Reverting to old school thinking you're not going to achieve any of these things with that but if you're thinking forward and your upscaling your workers you managing your supply chain well, you know, your embracing technology.

[00:36:42] Listen I mean between 275 billion and 460 billion dollars to the US GDP.

[00:36:49] It's a lot of money plus a million and a half jobs.

[00:36:52] Talk about strength in the economy.

[00:36:54] So that's it.

[00:36:56] And what this is saying is right rather than trying to save jobs, you know what we were just talking about in the on the defensive.

[00:37:04] And so on the offense and create jobs.

[00:37:06] Yeah, great point on a lot of jobs created with on the offense versus trying to play defense to keep the jobs.

[00:37:13] Yeah, I think it may be different types of jobs.

[00:37:15] They made you require some different skills.

[00:37:17] There's no no doubt about that but yeah, I mean there's a lot of job if you're growing at this race.

[00:37:22] There's definitely going to be room for people to get involved.

[00:37:26] So this is an article written by two McKinsey executives as well.

[00:37:30] I didn't reference that and their point here really was about in the first of the very first one was make skills developed in a poor part of your transformation.

[00:37:39] And so look to your point that you just made a moment ago, things are changing right it's not that and I don't think we're going to have to look at these things is it's not like.

[00:37:50] Joe in the warehouse that drives a forklift now has to be trained to program a computer.

[00:37:54] No Joe in the warehouse that drives a forklift most days now has to also understand that there's going to be some robots running around or some other automations in the warehouse and he's going to need to be upskilled.

[00:38:09] In that setting to support his ongoing job so I think anywhere in an interesting time right and I think you know we may look back in a few years and listen to some of these episodes again and kind of get some giggles out of it.

[00:38:23] Tom before we jump ahead to the next article though I just did want to jump in here and remind everyone if you're live with us you're seeing the newsletter that we put out every week that newsletters call around the horn and wholesale distribution of manufacturing.

[00:38:36] If you don't get that newsletter and you would like to just reach out to us at hello at lead smart tech.com or directly at www.aroundthehornpod.com which is a website for our podcast and we'll get you added to that list so if you're listening you don't get to see it so sometimes we describe things a little bit further than normal.

[00:38:58] Because of those that are listening on the recorded podcast so Tom we've talked a number of times recently about over the past sixty months about.

[00:39:08] QXO which is a large fund including an integrated technology company that goes with that that's led by a Brad Jacobs.

[00:39:19] Brad Jacobs is the guy that consolidated trash companies around the country that became waste management and then consolidated local and regional equipment rental companies at became united rentals.

[00:39:34] He is reported to have a net worth of himself over six billion.

[00:39:40] He's put this interesting and unique fund together to go out and start buying large distribution companies.

[00:39:47] I maybe I'm not aware of it all. I was anticipating more of a focus that he would be buying some large regional players and so forth with this but there.

[00:39:58] What do you like to say all about of the jar is that right first all about of the jar.

[00:40:03] Resolve out of the bottle yeah was a nine point billion, $9.4 billion offer for Rexel which just absolutely astounded me to catch that so.

[00:40:18] Any thoughts on that?

[00:40:19] I don't know what the strategy is right it's it don't know enough about what his strategy is and why making such a mega deal in the beginning how that fits into his.

[00:40:33] His road map or as blueprint.

[00:40:35] Yeah well it's interesting I mean it's a obvious a large group if you if you look at Brad Jacobs on I don't know him.

[00:40:43] I know a lot of number of people that know him but.

[00:40:46] I don't know him but it actually interesting that his Wikipedia page is quite intriguing, but I mean I get there focus on being very aggressive and wanting to get.

[00:40:55] Get jumping ahead but the.

[00:40:57] It's an interesting piece and in Rexel is such a large player in the electrical and electronics market that that that's a big statement so we're going to watch that close so we're going to continue to pay attention to it as it goes.

[00:41:10] So all right he cumbersome marketing 15 exciting trends that are impacting b to be digital marketing 2024 article from Forbes.

[00:41:19] Any quick takeaways from you before I dive in on that.

[00:41:23] You know there were a couple things in there that really I thought.

[00:41:29] Chumped out as me.

[00:41:31] One of them is they were talking about news letters interestingly enough.

[00:41:36] Yeah and it's funny that they just yesterday I learned in LinkedIn for example you can now send a newsletter.

[00:41:45] Associated with your business page you couldn't do a newsletter associated with your business page until recently and LinkedIn is giving news letters a lot of priority in the news feed and the subscribers and.

[00:41:57] And all of that so.

[00:41:59] What they were talking about in there is and I wanted I've heard about behind I hadn't heard about the other one.

[00:42:04] And so the first thing that I'm going to do is basically rather than sending news letters out by email like we do every week.

[00:42:11] Right and we know when we send it out by email.

[00:42:14] The fact is there's a lot of times it's not going to end up in a large percentage of the people's inbox right the spam.

[00:42:21] You know even if they've asked for it or whatever that the corporate spam filters and all that stuff.

[00:42:27] Decide that it's not going to get past the.

[00:42:29] As the spam well so.

[00:42:32] By having a newsletter channel outside of email which LinkedIn is and what these are I think is a really it's something that I know we're going to explore is a really interesting.

[00:42:44] This was just one example of things in here that I found that were what I liked about this is it wasn't the same old same old there were some unique in really interesting strategies of what they talked about.

[00:42:55] Well I mean unrelated to this are well let me phrase it.

[00:42:59] It was in mentioned exactly in the start of what you talked about you know kind of some old school it was number four on list old school strategies we were kind of call earlier this week you together with our agency.

[00:43:12] And we're getting agency for leads smart and we were talking about direct mail right when was the last time you heard somebody talk about direct mail and be sass.

[00:43:20] So it's interesting so these I'm not going to hit them all but the other interesting was you know one was that.

[00:43:27] I've talked about video storytelling you know we we think about that is you know it's it's not a new new concept of and necessarily successful.

[00:43:37] I'm going to say that it's not successful it's not new but it's not been as successful with people even trying it in wholesale distribution.

[00:43:46] She in a little bit of it.

[00:43:49] And but not a whole lot of it so that that.

[00:43:52] It says that the under this particular one more strategic use of video and ongoing consumerization of be to be experienced is a key trend and you know isn't an interesting we talk about that that they made that statement we talk about it constantly about.

[00:44:06] I think that's the biggest thing that's been said by our journeys and.

[00:44:08] By our expectations is the consumerization is a great point.

[00:44:13] So I like to there's again there's 15 points in here we can't talk about them all.

[00:44:18] One of the thing was though as human driven connections right just getting back there and having lunch once in a while.

[00:44:26] And there's the only other one I'll mention just so we can kind of jump ahead today was that.

[00:44:32] Trying your why to your prospects purpose right so you know that kind of goes back to Simon cynics.

[00:44:41] Famous talk about understanding your why within your business and so that's the first step is even understanding why your you're here right but then after that is putting energy to understanding the purpose or what is your prospects purpose.

[00:44:57] What drives their business and when you understand those things you can crystallize was the term they use your message between your why and their purpose.

[00:45:07] And now all of a sudden you see some pretty amazing results.

[00:45:10] I think that'd be a great exercise.

[00:45:12] Yeah, you hear a lot about product market fit and all that I think the extension to that would be why purpose fit right to your why in their purpose line and are you communicating in the same way.

[00:45:26] Yeah, right.

[00:45:29] Yeah.

[00:45:29] The last one I wanted them.

[00:45:31] Oh, sorry Tom, I started in RIP you go ahead.

[00:45:34] I just said a lot only other one of these 15 that I'll mention is apparently there's this new thing that supposedly successful we should look into.

[00:45:41] So we call it LinkedIn live.

[00:45:44] So maybe we should check in on that.

[00:45:45] Yeah, you just need to make sure you have a good computer and a decent microphone that doesn't cost you the crash and it's really good.

[00:45:52] It's a really good platform.

[00:45:53] It arrives Monday.

[00:45:54] Okay, you know this is actually I'm going to miss this MacBook because it got me through the pandemic.

[00:46:00] You know we spent a lot of time together.

[00:46:02] Well, like, you know, a little case or something.

[00:46:05] Yeah, it'll put up on the wall behind me in a little shadow box.

[00:46:09] Love it.

[00:46:10] Good good.

[00:46:10] All right.

[00:46:11] How to improve B2B demand generation with qualifying buying groups.

[00:46:16] We can kind of hit that fairly quick, but I thought it was there were some pretty good points in there.

[00:46:23] The interesting thing for me in their time is and I talked about this a lot and you know, to use subscribe to the same theory because we that's what we are looking to do within.

[00:46:32] You know our company at Leeds for technologies is the idea of aligning sales and marketing now.

[00:46:39] That's a simple statement.

[00:46:42] But most companies don't do it right there's just push pull right of sales and marketing.

[00:46:47] We look at things from having a revenue department where everybody has a goal that they're working together to achieve.

[00:46:54] It's not how many MQLs that I developed in marketing to marketing qualified leads to throw over the sales as a sales qualified lead then and sales saying marketing sucks and marketing sales sucks.

[00:47:05] No we're all achieving a revenue goal right and there was some really good points.

[00:47:11] I thought in this article related to that they gave a five key points in there as well that we're solid take away from you from that article.

[00:47:19] Yeah, well, just to clear up with a mean by a buying group right with their talking about in there.

[00:47:26] I think he is in B to B there is generally a group of people that are making the buying decision.

[00:47:33] It's not an individual, generally it is a group of people and even if all of those people don't have authority they have influence to the buying decision that's there.

[00:47:44] So their point being is and this is almost like we were just talking about the why and the purpose right you'll align to the reason to make sales and marketing more in alignment.

[00:47:55] And so that as a team you can do a better job of communicating to these buying groups and I think they have a color marketing qualified buying group or something.

[00:48:07] Right, that you've done enough to actually, you know, a lot of people get a lead right and they say oh I got a name I scanned a badge the trade show or somebody signed up at my website or whatever well that that could be it is most likely one individual out of many in a meaningful be to be purchased.

[00:48:25] That is making those decisions on how you're going to work with them. So understanding the entire buying group is in marketing as a relates to the whole and selling to the whole buying group is really the key message in there.

[00:48:41] And I thought it was very relevant.

[00:48:44] Good, good so let's say it's you know all I think all roads lead back to aligning all groups within your company right for the for the common goal and.

[00:48:55] I think people miss out you know sometimes I think purpose within a company and or core values ties to the old thick of a mission statement where.

[00:49:06] I remember consulting with a company years and years ago and they invited me to.

[00:49:11] Day and a half of meetings with the third pros and organization development company where we sat in a room and.

[00:49:19] And I'm laughing as I think back through this with I think the lowest level person was a senior manager.

[00:49:29] The rest of those directors VPs and executives working on a mission statement and it was a cool exercise right at the end of the day they just had something to frame and put up on a wall.

[00:49:42] Right as opposed to one of the core values within the company that we operate from and when you have core values you can higher related to your core values and you can put those things together and then all the.

[00:49:53] Divisions within your organization groups within your company should be working on a line on those core values or your purpose.

[00:49:59] And when you put those things together, that's what you see that the shining star of companies that are way ahead of their competitors.

[00:50:07] Good.

[00:50:09] All right technology cybersecurity and AI I'm going to let's move past this first article, but I do want to mention it it's from cybersecurity dive.

[00:50:18] It's 98% of organizations worldwide connected to a breached third party vendor so into the day all the 2% of companies worldwide are connected with an organization who has been breached and and are doing business with them and have some level of connection within the organization.

[00:50:36] So, it's go cybersecurity. I have a good friend. I think you've met my buddy Ed before Ed lead cybersecurity for a huge national company and.

[00:50:48] We keep laughing it's because his son just graduated from high school and isn't sure exactly trade school college what what is he going to do and I keep looking at this and going, you know young guy and learning all of this could be making.

[00:51:01] You know, 152,000 dollars a year very very quickly at a very young age if you really dive in and then stand cyber.

[00:51:11] So good.

[00:51:12] Hey so evidently there was an event with the sit folks our friends from Salesforce this week there was there was dream force this week that's how it's done.

[00:51:31] I remember the co-founders of leeds smart technologies and AI enabled customer intelligence in CRM solution as you probably know every piece of software in the world is built on a platform of some sort.

[00:51:43] Lead Smart, our product is actually called channel cloud.

[00:51:46] The channel cloud is actually built on the same software development platform that Salesforce.com is built on.

[00:51:52] So we're at least part of one of about 500 companies globally that Salesforce allows to develop on their platform and use their cloud solutions.

[00:52:01] So while our customers certainly have a business relationship with us,

[00:52:05] a lead smart, no business relationship with Salesforce, their data sits in Salesforce's cloud.

[00:52:10] So we get to take advantage of the technology that Salesforce is developing along with the technology that we've developed to bring unique vertical specific solution to wholesale solutions,

[00:52:23] also the distributors and manufacturers.

[00:52:25] So that's a little bit of a background of why we get excited about this not just because of what's happening because

[00:52:30] where what's called a global strategic OEM partner of Salesforce here at Lead Smart.

[00:52:35] Yeah. So Salesforce had dreamforce this week and the entire show revolved around a new,

[00:52:46] a new product that they're releasing an AI product called Agent Force.

[00:52:53] With trying to keep this simple, so what that is is, they've been building,

[00:52:58] they've been a big AI proponent for a couple of years now. And basically,

[00:53:05] they're saying, we have built a new platform that allow you to build AI agents.

[00:53:11] Think of an AI something that as AI that takes data in,

[00:53:16] reasons with that data and then potentially doesn't actually, it is very interactive.

[00:53:21] And that could be a customer service agent. It could be a sales agent. Again, these are all AI.

[00:53:29] I think they released, I think 97 different templates they said of different agents

[00:53:36] that are available. And this article though talked about two things. One is Mark Banyov,

[00:53:43] CEO called this Agent release, the Killer app of AI. I've heard that term before.

[00:53:52] That is well. And I agree. I've told you and I'm going to show a video here in just a second.

[00:53:59] I've been saying that really for AI to become mainstream and really start to generate.

[00:54:05] There's needs to be companies need to be able to see that killer app. The things you can do with

[00:54:13] blog post or press release, but that's helpful. It's not the killer app that I think a lot of

[00:54:19] companies have been looking for. So, you know, Banyov was saying that this is the killer app. You're

[00:54:25] you know, where were you when you heard this announcement? You know, a lot of hype, which he's very good at.

[00:54:30] It was in a waymo. Yeah. Yeah. It was like the way we call it the waymo moment. Right.

[00:54:35] When you're the first time you drive in a self driving car. It's, yeah, you remember that.

[00:54:40] But he also, what I thought was interesting is he talked a lot about the fact that

[00:54:48] in so many words, hey, this is early stage stuff. And things may not work as well as as you may expect.

[00:54:55] So, he took a big bold move to release something which we've, you've heard a lot of people talk

[00:55:00] about stuff but not with these things. Yeah. Knowing that we're still in the early stages and they have

[00:55:06] very tight relationship sales force does with OpenAI. So, they get a lot of the technology that

[00:55:11] us mere mortals wouldn't get access to. Alumni. Any say us mere mortals? What you're really

[00:55:16] referencing there is other technology companies like Leedsworth. Right. Is any technology? Anybody who's

[00:55:22] trying to build with the OpenAI? But there's companies like Salesforce, right here. Then there's companies like us.

[00:55:31] My hands are off here. And then there's the day-to-day user Joe, Joe, user, smaller technology

[00:55:40] companies and then Salesforce is of the world. Right. There's three levels of what people get to see.

[00:55:45] Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, I thought it would be worthwhile to show it's about a minute, a video

[00:55:51] of an example of an agent. And as you watch this video, you're going to look at this. It's

[00:56:00] implemented and they're company for customer support. But as you look at that, think about the

[00:56:05] possibilities. There's things that are certainly flaws with this by no means, but you can start to see

[00:56:11] the possibility. So let me go ahead and play this. At the time before you start, I can interrupt you

[00:56:16] for just a second. So two things that they think they go with that that I'd like to add to what

[00:56:19] you're saying because this is an exciting time. So first think of and you were sharing this with me yesterday

[00:56:27] was we're still nacent or embryonic or early in AI, right? So we're just there's just so much left to come.

[00:56:38] So to see where we even are today with these things that are in fact working, think about not just

[00:56:43] how cool this is but then that it's just going to continue to get better. The other side of it is

[00:56:49] you mentioned that this is sex with Avenue. If you're listening and getting a chance to watch this,

[00:56:54] even if you're listening on the podcast, you don't get to see this. It's fine. Listening will be

[00:56:59] fine for you on this as well. But think instead about sex with Avenue, think about acne,

[00:57:06] HVAC and plumbing supply, right? And these agents working within their both supporting sales,

[00:57:13] marketing, executives, all aspects of the company. This just happens to be a customer service

[00:57:19] and I'm just been out of to think about agents, it's your point that you were telling me about the

[00:57:23] other day as maybe even multiple agents per person working within your relationship. I just wanted to

[00:57:28] add a little bit, that's what you were coming about thinking about what could come up.

[00:57:33] Yep. All right let's run this video.

[00:57:43] Hi I'm Sophie, your fact is AI assistant. How can I help you today?

[00:57:48] Yeah. Hey Sophie, this is Patrick. I'm wondering if you can help me with my most recent order.

[00:57:54] I think I might have got the wrong size.

[00:57:58] I'm sorry to hear that Patrick. I'd be happy to help. Is this about the sexist Avenue collection,

[00:58:03] cashmere baseball bombers, but are you purchased on September 9th?

[00:58:07] Yep, totally is. That's the one. I tried it on and I think it's just a little bit tight.

[00:58:14] I'm sorry the sizing didn't work out. Based on your purchase history, a size medium should

[00:58:19] provide a relaxed fit. How does that sound? Yeah that sounds pretty good but I noticed you said

[00:58:25] cashmere is it? Is it going to shrink? The sweater is 100% cashmere so we recommend dry cleaning

[00:58:32] only to preserve the natural fibers and avoid any potential shrinkage. Would you like to go with a medium?

[00:58:38] Yeah let's do the medium. Great. Based on your shipping address you should

[00:58:44] receive it within three to five business days. Does that work? No I have a pretty big event coming

[00:58:51] up as any way I can get it in like one or two days. Unfortunately that's the fastest shipping

[00:58:57] available for this item. Would you like me to transfer you to someone who can assist you further?

[00:59:04] No not right the second Sophie. Thank you though. Pretty impressive. Yeah. Well and

[00:59:12] you know what what I look at it is and I think a big takeaway of this for me from this this week

[00:59:21] was this is that what we've talked about so much about augmenting versus replacing. Right so

[00:59:27] so many people are concerned about being replaced and AI is going to replace and this that

[00:59:32] would be a great tool to augment. Right and so imagine if you know now our customer service

[00:59:39] people or inside sales or whoever it might be right when a call gets to them they know

[00:59:45] and we talked about this a number of times recently right when you answer the phone

[00:59:49] in your CRM up pops all of the things that are likely going to be going on with this customer.

[00:59:55] And it's not about what to sell them. It's about servicing them at this point right and I really

[01:00:03] my appreciation from it was you know we were messaging you and I were messaging this morning

[01:00:08] about this is for me is again it's about the augmentation you can still tell that's artificial right

[01:00:14] it's just the fact that in that setting that it's I got the gentleman was able to get all this

[01:00:20] you know and if you think if you replace the cashmere sweater with the details about dry cleaning

[01:00:26] with this type of wire or this cutting tool or whatever it is and she was out there literally

[01:00:33] right just to show what was really happening with this um which he was doing is accessing ERP right CRM

[01:00:44] a data lake that's likely full of spec sheets and so forth and bringing all that together almost

[01:00:51] instantly and that's where we're moving with all of this so if you take that back to

[01:00:57] you're you know a medical equipment distributor and now you know when even even when they're calling

[01:01:05] Kevin because they want to talk to the person that digital twin or that agent can pop up and

[01:01:11] get things started and they're never going to wait on hold because the digital twin will always be there

[01:01:17] so they're getting there's two big takeaways from this and I know we can move on but

[01:01:21] no it's good this is great conversation is that obviously as you said was driven off of data right

[01:01:29] and the the other thing is it wasn't just order data but it was customer data right people have

[01:01:36] a lot of order data and transactional data in their ERP as we know very few people end up with

[01:01:41] customer data that they can use to fuel something like this yeah so as I like to keep urging

[01:01:47] people over and over and over get your customer data act together and look at it as strategically

[01:01:53] as you would look at your your order data because these two things together are going to try

[01:01:58] the second thing if she if he would have said you know it's fine right the three to five days or

[01:02:04] for the shipping was fine right with the with the agent would have been able to do is actually

[01:02:08] then facilitate the action of making that happen right to then you know or make the order for

[01:02:15] it for him get the shipping probably even given a tracking number or whatever right on the

[01:02:19] call right yeah the third thing which I guess only had two but now I'm going to go three and maybe four

[01:02:24] is that is the this was all built without code right this wasn't you know traditionally when you think

[01:02:32] of a chat bot you think of a lot of decision making code like if then's and all that stuff

[01:02:38] this was not built in the these AI agents are not built off of decision making type of things

[01:02:44] are built off these large language models so he could have just as asked you hey do you like

[01:02:49] an arams game this week right and you got an answer back you ever their plane is the answer right

[01:02:54] for and and so it's just um and I and going back to your point it sounds like a bot and it was

[01:03:03] does sound like a bot at this day but it sounded good but that's gonna get better that's just

[01:03:08] gonna get better and better and better I mean that's the yeah or early stages on it so yeah my so

[01:03:14] I guess the punchline of all of this is I agree with Mark Banyoff that the concept of agents

[01:03:20] in business is the killer app for AI right agents that can take data can reason

[01:03:26] right make reason and think and think through things and then take action is the killer app for

[01:03:31] AI you know we have not been able to do that yet and still can't do that yet because

[01:03:36] technologically we're not there to have those you know we're hope a help sales force is going to be

[01:03:40] able to pull this off but um and I'm sure they are in some cases and they have a lot of resources

[01:03:46] that are that are back in these up in these large companies but again none of this happens without

[01:03:52] having that data platform in place with your customer data your your order data and those two

[01:03:58] things working together so yeah the um agreed and I think what's interesting about this too is

[01:04:06] you know the um one of the things that I'm really appreciative of our relationship with them

[01:04:11] sales force because it's our view as well the sales force looks at things right is I think

[01:04:17] to make the comment that your data is not our product I think is the comment that Mark Banyoff

[01:04:23] made in that setting and you know that's one of the risks when you start looking at your AI vendors

[01:04:29] is what are they doing with your data as it relates to other models and things like that so

[01:04:35] important thing to consider as well so exciting time right it's exciting time business and careers

[01:04:40] I mean you know I don't this you know I just was thinking back to that cast that was an early

[01:04:50] stage person at to open AI that spoke a distribution strategy groups event last October and Chicago

[01:04:55] on AI you know and he said that the magnitude of AI is long term for us is going to have a similar

[01:05:03] impact to fire when Kate Manor whoever it was figured out fire that's that was the implications

[01:05:11] of this you know and we exponentially greater than the implications at the internet even had

[01:05:17] and that's astounding if you think about it because we wouldn't be sitting here without the internet

[01:05:21] there would be nearly a little more channel cloud product in that setting there'd be no LinkedIn

[01:05:25] lives now I wanted to just touch on and I think this is great that Lars is saying is that

[01:05:30] you know Kelly school of business at Indiana is launching an executive class on AI marketing and

[01:05:35] I mean that's going to be so critical I mean you look at the curriculum and

[01:05:38] higher education is going to have to change very very much to be you know adapting in this

[01:05:45] in the AI world so yeah it's good all right what where do we go with the with time we come up

[01:05:51] just where we post another article from supply HT artificial intelligence stats for distributors

[01:05:58] to keep in mind you know trying to get there where we're thinking about things are more than just

[01:06:03] buzzword you know we were talking earlier this week in a couple of meetings and you know it's

[01:06:09] really I as I said I'm headed off to the industrial supply associations event next week and

[01:06:15] back for a couple of days and after a sassy yo summit and then three weeks in a row of affiliated

[01:06:23] distributor meeting along with the net plus alliance to meeting as well and common theme with

[01:06:31] these things is going to be about AI being kind of a shiny object versus bringing it into our

[01:06:37] business to achieve things and we're early in this but having a digital strategy is so so

[01:06:44] important we were on the phone earlier this week with a huge distributor when even mentioned

[01:06:50] the market that they play in because somebody could probably figure them out pretty quickly

[01:06:54] that's putting a digital road map together for the future of their company that and there's a

[01:07:01] whole AI component to that and having a road map of not just your technology or your text deck

[01:07:07] but your digital journey in your AI journey as part of the digital journey I think it

[01:07:12] could never be more important than right now because it's we talked companies every day who have

[01:07:17] gone out and bought a lot of software but they're not getting any value from the software or it's

[01:07:23] not helping drive revenue or sell rate growth and with a plan in place you can go do great things

[01:07:29] yeah I mean I think every software purchase that any company makes right now has to be a

[01:07:36] step on an a it needs to be a readiness step on that direction some of these things with AI

[01:07:42] with the agents and things we're talking about if you're not thinking from that mentality

[01:07:47] right that what I'm putting in place now needs to be foundational for these things that are coming

[01:07:52] you're going to end up having to rip and replace and a lot of impact a necessary impact

[01:07:57] to the business yeah good let's kind of jump to this this next article as we move into

[01:08:03] our sales and M&A section we'll go through these pretty quickly today but this is from sales and

[01:08:09] marketing management.com how do increase sales without discounting and you know I this sounds a

[01:08:16] little rudimentary but I've spent my whole career in manufacturing and distribution and

[01:08:23] watching normally intelligent people just want to compete on price and come back and talking about

[01:08:28] you know what what if you know we we got a lower the price and we even hear that sometimes in our company

[01:08:33] you know people talking about well what if we what if we gave a killer deal um and that's not the

[01:08:39] right answer right the aunt right answer is you know having alternative strategies we just they

[01:08:45] talk about a few of them we wouldn't spend a lot of time but increased perceived value right bundling

[01:08:49] of products improving support focus on quality create an exclusive experience in brace non-discount

[01:08:57] limited time offers build strong brand loyalty and if you're to me I think the the one the most

[01:09:03] important one of these they talk about is perceived value if you're playing in a price scheme

[01:09:09] you didn't identify two things um identify our share one is identify the needs in the pain

[01:09:17] of your customer that you're going to solve and you've not shown them your perceived value

[01:09:22] because if you're showing them your value and solving their problem price becomes secondary and

[01:09:28] most instances there's there's times the things are so commoditized that there's no choice

[01:09:33] but in general that's the case I think that that was an article worth looking at

[01:09:38] and we have a white paper coming out here an ebook I think I don't know for calling it a white paper

[01:09:43] ebook on organic revenue growth there's so many different opportunities nowadays in distribution

[01:09:50] for organic revenue growth that does not involve discounting yep and you know this different

[01:09:56] than inorganic growth like buying or you know opening new branches or whatever but you know what how

[01:10:01] do you get more out of what you already have the organic growth aspect of it and you know just

[01:10:06] by going through this process we've identified working with our customers and and what we've

[01:10:13] ways to organically grow without discounting and I think this article touches on a few of those things

[01:10:19] that's great good um so following up here McKenzie published a an article about five

[01:10:25] fundamental truths have B to be winners keep growing the crux of this we need to kind of move ahead

[01:10:30] here today but this is uh you need if you don't get our newsletter and you'd like to get the

[01:10:36] and find this article just ask us at helloit leadsporttech.com and we'll get you the newsletter but

[01:10:41] this was just the core of it was a really in depth looking on me channel selling and we talked

[01:10:46] about on me channel selling just about every week McKenzie was just unpacking it better in this article

[01:10:52] I thought it was pretty valuable it was about standing article i was very thorough very

[01:10:56] outst-highly recommended it's one of the one of the better articles I've actually seen just in terms

[01:11:01] of depth and the level of content that they had great good um jump and head there to our people

[01:11:09] leadership article from axios what Amazon Strict Return to Office policy says about remote work

[01:11:15] and um we have entered that place now where I think people are realizing that uh it there

[01:11:22] are very select people that are successful in working remotely and uh Amazon's a lot of people

[01:11:29] thought yes um you know we got forced into it in 2020 and now we're at a place where we have to

[01:11:38] take a look at things a little bit differently and say what really happens and I've said this for

[01:11:43] you know as long as we've been talking about this is there is something to be said for talking

[01:11:48] to somebody at the water cooler or walking around the corner to the sandwich shop or sitting in a

[01:11:53] lunch room and it is to the benefit of the individuals in the benefit of the company

[01:11:58] Amazon came back last week and said okay i can't remember the exact uh number but it was with

[01:12:07] you or within a certain number of miles of the company you needed to be in the office and um

[01:12:15] substantial amount of people now we're stuck in that setting right you know it's an interesting

[01:12:19] thing I was when you were off the air earlier we were talking about you know new Hampshire for

[01:12:25] example of Amazon and and in port some of the hamster right after during the pandemic

[01:12:32] tons of people from Boston moved up there because they were all like hey I don't have to work in

[01:12:37] the office anymore you know I can be out in the you know rural side of things and I'm wondering

[01:12:44] you know and prices drove up and so forth I wonder what that's going to do to real estate

[01:12:49] in some of these areas that are you know more rural or more out there you know if a lot of those

[01:12:55] people that move to ports with the hamster which is an hour plus away on a good day not from Boston

[01:13:01] what happens if they have to come back to the office you know it's great to say I'm going to commute

[01:13:07] but that gets old pretty fast yeah you know pretty quick well I think you're right and I don't

[01:13:12] know this but I don't think you have the the train or train's at system going into port Smith

[01:13:20] that you necessarily would have from filleted your or someone like they do have some trains but it's

[01:13:25] not that's not set up to be a commuter type of them yeah no the um I think what we're seeing here

[01:13:30] is two sides but I think what you were just describing there's the potential for a uh downturn in

[01:13:38] some markets because people are going to need to be selling and moving back if they want to keep

[01:13:42] their job nothing as I think what we'll see is a lot of job openings or companies that are

[01:13:47] making this move in this case it's you know if you are a completely remote company that has uh your team

[01:13:55] and is going to stay completely remote there's going to probably be a whole lot of e-commerce

[01:14:00] related talent out there that's available looking for jobs but they're fully remote we need to be

[01:14:06] prepared to be to work with that I think the other side of it is it to your comment about real estate

[01:14:12] is commercial real estate has been just killed you know could not have been worse off in the last

[01:14:18] four years then uh then what we've seen in uh and I think we're going to see that turning around

[01:14:25] because there's going to be you know I mean think about it we were just talking a few minutes ago about sales force

[01:14:30] right I don't know if something hits me about 16 floors there's the sales force tower which is

[01:14:36] now that tallest building in in San Francisco while I went empty right and they had just moved in

[01:14:41] 90 I don't even think a year before and I think it's I think it's 16 floors of that building that

[01:14:48] but it went empty for all of that time and now they're you know bringing people back as lots of

[01:14:53] companies are and this article is about Amazon doing so so I think the the reality you're cutting

[01:14:58] to the chase on all of this is i uh remote problematic hybrid probably going to hybrid done right

[01:15:10] probably the best for hate this term but I'll still use it work like balance and uh and fully

[01:15:17] in office depending on the business at your end yep one of we should start an ETF about going back to the

[01:15:23] office your busy you need to go develop the pageants okay all right maybe I'm a great

[01:15:31] of the agent to create ETFs yes there is okay all right hey let's let's step through here I know

[01:15:36] we're getting real as yep so we just to finish up on our people on leadership segment final article

[01:15:42] was related to insights into retaining warehouse workers we've talked a lot about in the show for

[01:15:50] few years and a couple years now about the challenge with hiring warehouse workers so some good tips

[01:15:55] about that so let's talk bit right by quickly our industry scottle but section we do each week

[01:16:02] friends at tipcoe in Maryland just partnered and I think it was actually an acquisition of

[01:16:07] their acquisition for them white cap uh but white job site supply in Indiana and the industrial

[01:16:13] supply association launched their women industry mentorship program they've done a phenomenal job

[01:16:19] at i.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a. a Brendan brain and his team on the volunteers at work with them on the whole

[01:16:26] concept of not just women in industry but they've got to call it their emerging leader program as

[01:16:32] well for younger younger folks in wholesale distribution and manufacturing to raise their game and

[01:16:38] grow with mentorship as well so you guys said I'll be back with them and Florida for a couple

[01:16:42] of days next week and I'm looking forward to seeing all of them so let's uh the candidate we've got

[01:16:47] a current final good read section just an article from ink magazine in there about emotional

[01:16:53] intelligence and that kind of oh you know what though we should hit on that special feature

[01:17:00] border states the large distributor that core is electrical but do a lot of other things they

[01:17:07] publish regularly they're supply chain update they did their September update and we've got

[01:17:12] a link to that here in the newsletter as well so some good stats in there but let's uh let's get ready

[01:17:18] call it a day here my friend yep so I'm glad we recovered from from your early different

[01:17:25] yeah I apologize for that I think we I think you nailed that probably what the problem was is

[01:17:29] I think I've got too many things plugged into a four-year-old MacBook and uh and I hope

[01:17:35] that's the case so next week I will be turbocharged beyond belief with some new technology that's

[01:17:41] supposed to arrive on Monday so my thinking is that this weekend for you my friend is

[01:17:49] probably keep your spending and shopping down because we're we at our we at October and November

[01:17:56] is the next fed meeting October October December I believe yeah so you need to set a couple of

[01:18:02] dollars aside yeah yeah I'm gonna talk to talk to Lauren and we'll work out our budget so that we're

[01:18:08] eating a little bit less the next next week or so I'll try and take you to easy on you on the

[01:18:13] one okay all right thanks everybody for all the comments thanks yep you've been as moving when we were

[01:18:20] in the beginning there yeah sorry about that yep before we go Tom thanks to everybody as you said

[01:18:26] for being with us thanks to our sponsor Leedsport Technologies anyone at Leedsport can be of

[01:18:32] support to you or your team as you want to look into your digital transformation strategy and how to

[01:18:37] use AI and your business to accelerate growth love to talk to you the one favorite though that we do

[01:18:42] ask people every week is if you like what you heard this week you love the comments from people

[01:18:46] like will and Lars and Brandon and uh the whole group that uh Bob and the whole group they're

[01:18:52] commented today plus the hundreds and hundreds of people that were listening that didn't if you

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[01:19:15] this out to other people Tom I'm gonna get these stats together and we'll talk about them further

[01:19:20] I looked at the podcast stats last week over 60 countries the podcast has been downloaded

[01:19:28] well we're gonna start speaking some other languages I was astounded by that because AI

[01:19:34] to translate everything for us did not think Azerbaijan or Nepal would have people downloading

[01:19:40] our podcast but should you do a live show from Nepal that'd be great okay yeah we'll go with

[01:19:47] that on that everybody have a great weekend look forward to seeing you again see we won't be here next

[01:19:52] week but the newsletter will go out we'll see you soon be looking for some great new guests coming as

[01:19:58] be kind be safe and do good things how good we can we hope you enjoyed today's episode and

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