Wholesale Distribution Insights: Tariffs, Small Business Confidence, and AI in B2B Sales

In this trans-Pacific episode, Kevin checks in from his Hawaiian vacation to join Tom in a rich discussion on the intersection of macroeconomic trends, wholesale distribution strategies, and emerging technologies. What are the implications of rising small business confidence, evolving tariff policies, and the AI-driven solutions that are shaping the future of distribution and manufacturing?

Key segments include insights into how distributors are strengthening contractor relationships, the rising importance of e-commerce in B2B sales, and the transformative role of AI in optimizing operations. Kevin and Tom shed light on the economic drivers and technological innovations influencing the industry.

As always, listeners are treated to practical takeaways as Kevin and Tom analyze the news - from leveraging AI for structured data analysis to fostering customer-centric strategies that align with evolving buyer expectations. The episode underscores the importance of adapting to new trends while maintaining a firm grasp on traditional values like service and reliability.

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[00:00:04] Welcome to Around the Horn in Wholesale Distribution with Kevin Brown and Tom Burton. Sponsored each week by LeadSmart Technologies, Tom, Kevin, and their guests review the news of the week and dive deep into the topics impacting manufacturers, wholesale distribution, independent sales agents, and the global wholesale supply chain. Whether it's M&A, SaaS and cloud computing, B2B e-commerce, or supply chain, we'll be able to get into the next few weeks.

[00:00:30] With the high chain issues, we peel back the onion with our guests into the topics that impact your business the most.

[00:00:36] How are you, my friend?

[00:00:38] Okay. Aloha. Good. I see you have your Aloha shirt on.

[00:00:41] I have my Aloha shirt. I will be home Monday, late Monday night after a glorious 11 days in beautiful Hawaiian Islands. We did, what did we do? We did five days in, five days on Oahu.

[00:00:59] I'm sorry, on Kauai. And now we're on the North Shore of Oahu. Pretty cool. The big surf contests are getting ready to fire off here. They had earlier in the week started the Pipe Masters at Banzai Pipeline. And so some of the top surfers from all over the world are in for that. And that's less than 10 minutes up the street from us. And then the big, big wave surfing contest for us here in Hawaii every year called the Eddy. That's a three month window that they do.

[00:01:29] And the window opens up, I think tomorrow, sorry, today the window opens up and it goes through March 14th. So when that, where they get a weather forecast coming in that says they expect two to three days of 40 foot or larger waves, then the buzzer hits and people basically have 24 hours to arrive in the North Shore of Oahu if they're not already here.

[00:01:52] But you can see a little buzz around town. So where I'm looking at right now to about literally about a quarter of a mile up the beach is Waimea Bay, which is a big part of where those contests will be.

[00:02:05] So pretty cool spot, but plenty to get done today as well. So it's good to be with everybody and to see you.

[00:02:10] I haven't seen you. I'll see you next week face to face when I'm back in town.

[00:02:14] This was 20th wedding anniversary. So my wife will present. So we're in a good spot.

[00:02:19] Right. Well, let's get started on episode one.

[00:02:22] What are we at? What's the number?

[00:02:25] 120.

[00:02:26] 120. How did that happen, Tom? All of a sudden, all of a sudden we were at 100 and that was a big deal.

[00:02:33] I did want to say before we really get rolling today, we did just confirm this week that I think we're the 17th of January will be the big hitters are joining us again.

[00:02:44] And so last year we did in January, we did a year in review of 2023 and looking ahead at 2024.

[00:02:51] And we had the illustrious Dirk Beverage and Mike Marks and Ian Heller in the distribution strategy group and Mike with Indian River Consulting and Dirk with Unleashed WD and the We Supply America tour.

[00:03:07] Dirk was responsible for a new section in our newsletter that we published, which is exciting from that show.

[00:03:13] And we got everybody confirmed for to do that again this year, which is going to be exciting.

[00:03:18] So we can keep Mike under under control.

[00:03:21] We'll be in good shape, but I think it'll be a fun show.

[00:03:23] So look for the announcements for that.

[00:03:25] I think the date is the 17th.

[00:03:26] If I'm not mistaken.

[00:03:28] Yeah.

[00:03:28] So that should be fantastic.

[00:03:30] But anyways, why don't we before we dive into the news, let's do a little bit of our housekeeping.

[00:03:33] My name is Kevin Brown.

[00:03:34] I'm here with my lifelong friend and business partner, Tom Burton.

[00:03:38] Tom and I get together every Friday morning and we discuss a newsletter that we publish and is sponsored by the company.

[00:03:46] Tom and I work for Lead Smart Technologies.

[00:03:47] We'll talk about that briefly in a moment.

[00:03:49] But we publish a newsletter.

[00:03:51] Again, it's called Around the Horn and Wholesale Distribution and Manufacturing.

[00:03:54] It goes out to 10,000 plus people.

[00:03:57] And the idea behind that is that we take a look at the economy and the supply chain in the world.

[00:04:03] We take a look at mergers and acquisitions and sales and marketing and AI and technology and cybersecurity and general news of the world that impacts manufacturing, wholesale distribution.

[00:04:15] And we get together each week.

[00:04:17] Tom and I do are guests like we have coming with us next week and the guest server that we were talking about for next month.

[00:04:23] And we look at that newsletter and we kind of break down and look.

[00:04:27] Tom, you often say the story behind the story or I think our bumper music says peel the onion on the topics and look at how they impact manufacturing, wholesale distribution, both in the U.S. and internationally.

[00:04:40] We do that again by this through this newsletter.

[00:04:43] So if you're listening in on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Odyssey, whatever it might be, and you don't see our screen today, what is up on the screen for the people who are live with us on LinkedIn Live, YouTube Live, Facebook Live and so forth.

[00:04:56] What they're seeing is a copy of that newsletter.

[00:05:01] And then sometimes we have some charts and graphs that we share.

[00:05:03] So anytime you want, you could go back to YouTube, Facebook or LinkedIn.

[00:05:09] If you went to the Lead Smart Technologies page there, then you would see the graphics and the handsome faces of Tom and Kevin that would be there.

[00:05:17] So that puts us in a good place to be for that to get started today.

[00:05:23] So, Tom, the last part of that that we'll discuss is two more pieces.

[00:05:26] One is if you would like to get that newsletter and you don't, the simple and easy way to get a hold of it, that is to send us an email.

[00:05:34] You can send that email to hello at leadsmarttech.com.

[00:05:38] You could then in turn go directly to LinkedIn and there is a page for our podcast.

[00:05:45] It's connected to the Lead Smart Technologies page on LinkedIn, but there's an Around the Horn and Wholesale Distribution podcast link there.

[00:05:53] And you can sign up for the newsletter there and that'll come from LinkedIn.

[00:05:56] It'll come to your inbox every week as well as available anytime on LinkedIn.

[00:06:01] And then you could go to the website for the podcast, which is www.aroundthehornpod.com.

[00:06:07] Finally, before we jump, we've got to say thank you to two groups of people.

[00:06:11] One is the people behind the scenes, Lily and John, that work hard each week to make sure this podcast gets out with the newsletter, publishing, editing and so forth.

[00:06:20] And two, the company that Tom and I work for, Lead Smart Technologies.

[00:06:24] Lead Smart sponsors our show and pays the bills and keeps the lights on, as they say.

[00:06:28] And we couldn't do that.

[00:06:30] And Lead Smart is a technology company that Tom and I developed a number of years ago.

[00:06:36] And Lead Smart is what we call an AI-enabled smart CRM and customer intelligence platform.

[00:06:42] You might say, what is smart CRM?

[00:06:44] A smart CRM is something that is not, as we sometimes say, your father's Buick.

[00:06:48] So historically, CRM and tools that are similar to that are very labor intensive.

[00:06:55] They're a big brother looking over your shoulder.

[00:06:58] They're just trying to get salespeople to put data in.

[00:07:00] And we take a completely different approach by taking data from across an organization,

[00:07:05] from ERP systems, marketing automation, e-commerce, and other data points across an organization.

[00:07:10] We bring those together to feed revenue teams data and information that help them understand what's going on at their customer,

[00:07:17] how to accelerate and drive revenue in a better way than they've ever done before with a minimal amount of work.

[00:07:22] And that's what makes it smart CRM.

[00:07:24] So if your company is trying to accelerate growth and expand your revenues and understand your customers,

[00:07:30] your teams, and get a better look into your entire organization,

[00:07:33] we would love the opportunity to talk to you.

[00:07:35] And you can catch us anytime through the show here.

[00:07:38] Or Tom and I are both very active on LinkedIn and other formats.

[00:07:41] And you can find us there.

[00:07:43] So, Tom, that's about it for our housekeeping.

[00:07:45] Did I miss anything there?

[00:07:47] No, Bob speaking your language.

[00:07:49] Aloha.

[00:07:50] And jump in and say hi.

[00:07:54] Let us know where you are.

[00:07:55] But I think with that, let's get on with the news.

[00:07:58] Was that Brandon's comment there about that was a little bit scary?

[00:08:01] Was that being able to look up my nostrils?

[00:08:03] Is that what he meant?

[00:08:03] That's what he meant.

[00:08:04] Yes.

[00:08:05] Very good.

[00:08:06] I think he ran for cover.

[00:08:08] He's like, oh my God.

[00:08:10] Yeah, that's very good.

[00:08:11] I completely understand how he feels for that.

[00:08:14] So, thank you for that and aloha to Bob.

[00:08:16] And I'll try and not slide in any pigeon English throughout our discussion today.

[00:08:21] So, all right.

[00:08:22] Well, as we mentioned from our newsletter that we have every week,

[00:08:25] we co-late, I guess, would be a way to look at it.

[00:08:30] Great news points from across the business world

[00:08:34] and the distribution manufacturing world each week.

[00:08:36] And we have segments that are in the newsletter.

[00:08:38] And we start each week with a segment called the economy and supply chain.

[00:08:41] So, Tom, next week, when I think we're at, what would that be?

[00:08:46] I think it's going to be Wednesday.

[00:08:48] Next week, we get to find out if there's a third rate cut this year or not.

[00:08:53] Yeah, they have market odds of 99%.

[00:08:56] Is that what it is now?

[00:08:57] Yeah.

[00:08:57] That's what it says here, right?

[00:08:58] I don't think the reported market odds were a rate cut to 99%.

[00:09:01] Yeah, yeah.

[00:09:02] That's great.

[00:09:03] So, yeah, I guess it's a foregone conclusion.

[00:09:07] I mean, the inflation rate came in high, sticky.

[00:09:12] Sticky is a great term that you used that last week as well.

[00:09:16] And I thought that was a great way to look at it.

[00:09:20] So, it's certainly not in that two range,

[00:09:24] but it's not going the other direction.

[00:09:26] So, I think everybody believes for the most part,

[00:09:29] and that's what it talks about in this article,

[00:09:32] they'll cut on whatever Wednesday, you'll hear on Wednesday.

[00:09:35] And then next year, it could be a little bit slower.

[00:09:39] I think what we're going to see is exactly what you described.

[00:09:44] And just, Tom, as a reference point, as we talk about each week here,

[00:09:49] this is an article from CNBC,

[00:09:51] kind of did a recap on some of the statistics that are tied to what's going on in the economy this week.

[00:09:55] It was from yesterday,

[00:09:57] and the article says annual inflation rate accelerates to 2.7 in November,

[00:10:02] as expected.

[00:10:03] And I think one of the challenges to your,

[00:10:05] kind of with what you're saying,

[00:10:06] and I really like that idea of saying sticky,

[00:10:08] because I think what we're seeing, right,

[00:10:11] is they thought they were coming back to the getting things in line, right,

[00:10:16] with the first rate cut, second rate cut.

[00:10:20] You know, we had a big event around here with that second rate cut,

[00:10:22] but we won't go in too deep on that second rate cut issue,

[00:10:26] because you said that that's getting old with the fact that you lost the bet.

[00:10:30] It's way, way old news.

[00:10:31] Way old news, yeah.

[00:10:32] People want to kind of just talk for up-to-date news and information,

[00:10:35] not things that happen.

[00:10:37] They don't want me living in the past.

[00:10:39] That's what you're saying.

[00:10:41] I will tell you,

[00:10:43] I think we'll be talking about this one for a while, though,

[00:10:45] just because, you know.

[00:10:46] I don't think we will.

[00:10:47] We'll come up with something new to talk about.

[00:10:50] What you're saying is that I might be talking about it,

[00:10:52] but it's not relevant.

[00:10:53] Yeah, that's right.

[00:10:54] Okay, perfect.

[00:10:57] But I think what happened was,

[00:10:59] is we got, you know, a couple of stimulus,

[00:11:01] I guess, little bumps there to drop rates

[00:11:04] and kind of hope things start getting a little more balanced,

[00:11:07] but what was expected from those aren't nearly as good as planned

[00:11:11] and as hoped for.

[00:11:13] And inflation ticked a little bit again last month,

[00:11:16] and so now we're, you know, close to where they want to be.

[00:11:19] And it says the core CPI at 3.3 was almost matching with the forecasts were,

[00:11:27] but this bump in the consumer price index

[00:11:30] and then getting the inflation rate around 2.7 there is not where they want to be,

[00:11:34] so they're going to have to take some action.

[00:11:36] But I did catch a little bit yesterday, kind of,

[00:11:39] and this ties in,

[00:11:40] our next article talks about is a Reuters article.

[00:11:45] We'll kind of tie a few of these together today and stick with the topic in general.

[00:11:49] But this other article about U.S. small business sentiment

[00:11:52] nears three and a half year high in November,

[00:11:55] you know, that kind of ties in.

[00:11:57] I'm going to make a kind of a broad assumption.

[00:11:59] I think quite a bit of that is coming from the,

[00:12:03] from post-election enthusiasm,

[00:12:05] and from a business standpoint that,

[00:12:07] okay, rates are coming down a little bit.

[00:12:09] I can invest in my business more.

[00:12:11] I feel a little bit of a balancing,

[00:12:13] and then I've got somebody that's talking about,

[00:12:15] you know, tax cuts and so forth.

[00:12:17] And I think I had CNBC on for a little bit yesterday

[00:12:21] while I was doing some work here,

[00:12:23] and they were,

[00:12:25] I shouldn't say which one of the investment companies,

[00:12:29] but there were economists who are,

[00:12:31] and they were talking about even some stimulus

[00:12:33] coming into the market next year

[00:12:35] from the new administration

[00:12:37] to really kind of boost the economy along.

[00:12:40] And then the tax cuts were starting to be talked about

[00:12:43] exactly what they will.

[00:12:44] What kind of stimulus were they talking about?

[00:12:46] Well, they were talking about pumping some money back in.

[00:12:50] So like,

[00:12:51] from a Fed perspective or?

[00:12:53] Yeah.

[00:12:54] Like quantitative easing?

[00:12:55] You know that?

[00:12:56] They didn't use that term.

[00:12:58] They just used the term stimulus.

[00:12:59] And it was one of those things

[00:13:00] where I wish that it was recorded

[00:13:02] what I was listening to

[00:13:03] so I could hit the back button.

[00:13:04] And I think we live in this world where I,

[00:13:07] you know,

[00:13:08] I was looking at,

[00:13:09] this is funny,

[00:13:10] I was looking at,

[00:13:11] hugely digressing here,

[00:13:12] but I was looking last weekend,

[00:13:15] it was a Thanksgiving weekend,

[00:13:16] I was with my older sister,

[00:13:17] and we were looking at some pictures of our father

[00:13:19] who we lost in April.

[00:13:21] And she's handing me pictures,

[00:13:23] and I kept wanting to grow the picture with my finger

[00:13:26] like I was looking at it on my phone, right?

[00:13:28] It's a picture I was holding in my hand,

[00:13:31] and I think sometimes we're listening to live topics

[00:13:36] and we want to hit the back button

[00:13:37] because of what they were saying.

[00:13:39] But they were talking,

[00:13:41] Trump was being interviewed,

[00:13:42] he was talking very specifically

[00:13:43] about where the corporate tax rates would be

[00:13:45] and the lowering of them in general.

[00:13:48] And then if you were manufacturing in the US,

[00:13:50] they were significantly lower

[00:13:51] if you're manufacturing offshore and so forth.

[00:13:55] So I think what we're just seeing

[00:13:57] is this next article that we're referencing today

[00:13:59] talking about small business sentiment

[00:14:01] being at a three and a half year high.

[00:14:03] You know,

[00:14:03] that puts us back into when we had,

[00:14:05] you know,

[00:14:06] stimulus coming into the world

[00:14:08] because of the pandemic and so forth.

[00:14:10] So I think it's going to be an interesting

[00:14:12] next four to six months.

[00:14:15] Yeah,

[00:14:16] I mean,

[00:14:16] you know,

[00:14:16] I know a lot of small business people.

[00:14:18] I think most of my friends are business people.

[00:14:20] And I would agree that I'm,

[00:14:24] what I'm hearing from people I'm talking to

[00:14:27] is definitely a bullishness.

[00:14:30] And I would even go one step further

[00:14:31] and say an excitement about the future

[00:14:34] and about the next year.

[00:14:35] Can't really,

[00:14:36] they can't really explain why.

[00:14:38] They can't say specifically what they're going to do

[00:14:40] or what will change necessarily.

[00:14:42] But they think overall,

[00:14:44] the macro environment,

[00:14:45] I believe is more conducive to their success.

[00:14:49] Okay.

[00:14:50] That's there.

[00:14:51] I wanted to hit Bob's comment here

[00:14:54] because it is an interesting one.

[00:14:56] He said,

[00:14:57] you know,

[00:14:58] federal rate,

[00:14:59] Fed rates can have,

[00:15:00] have some impact.

[00:15:02] I don't think they really have,

[00:15:03] but that's a different story.

[00:15:04] But with increased SMB activity,

[00:15:07] spurring competition,

[00:15:08] which will drive prices and inflation down.

[00:15:11] That's an interesting angle

[00:15:13] that I hadn't thought a lot about is,

[00:15:16] hey,

[00:15:16] if there's more SMB activity,

[00:15:17] more businesses getting started,

[00:15:18] is that going to create competition?

[00:15:20] That may be a long tail.

[00:15:22] I don't know if that's going to necessarily be something

[00:15:24] that we'll see in 2025,

[00:15:26] but it could be a long tail outcome of all this.

[00:15:29] Well,

[00:15:29] I think that's a great,

[00:15:30] great way to describe that,

[00:15:31] Bob and Tom,

[00:15:33] with Bob's comment there.

[00:15:34] And I do,

[00:15:35] I do think that's a long tail,

[00:15:36] but I think a long tail is important to be looking on this,

[00:15:40] right?

[00:15:40] We don't want,

[00:15:40] we don't,

[00:15:41] we don't want to see,

[00:15:42] you know,

[00:15:42] struggle,

[00:15:43] struggle,

[00:15:44] great time,

[00:15:45] struggle,

[00:15:45] struggle.

[00:15:46] We want to see this,

[00:15:47] you know,

[00:15:47] nice movement across the board with balanced rates.

[00:15:50] You know,

[00:15:52] again,

[00:15:52] I really wish I had the opportunity to,

[00:15:55] had the opportunity to hit the back button and listen,

[00:15:59] that whole conversation I heard on CNBC yesterday,

[00:16:02] because there was even a discussion about rates being,

[00:16:05] you know,

[00:16:06] below 4% and in,

[00:16:07] in the,

[00:16:08] in the threes again,

[00:16:09] but a higher side of the threes by the end of next year.

[00:16:12] Now,

[00:16:12] again,

[00:16:13] this is,

[00:16:13] you can argue whatever you want.

[00:16:14] This was one economist from,

[00:16:16] I don't think it was Morgan Stanley,

[00:16:18] but it was,

[00:16:18] you know,

[00:16:18] somebody in that,

[00:16:20] that range.

[00:16:21] And,

[00:16:21] and,

[00:16:21] but he was,

[00:16:22] could not have been more bullish,

[00:16:24] but I,

[00:16:24] I think,

[00:16:26] you know,

[00:16:27] look at what,

[00:16:28] you know,

[00:16:28] having free money again is in,

[00:16:30] you know,

[00:16:31] 2020,

[00:16:32] 2021 that came along with the pandemic and things like that.

[00:16:34] I don't think that's healthy,

[00:16:35] but I think if we can look at some things where some interest rates get down to a reasonable rate,

[00:16:41] where if you're a small business,

[00:16:42] you can,

[00:16:42] whether you need,

[00:16:43] you know,

[00:16:44] you're an ice cream shop that needs a new freezer or you're wanting to build,

[00:16:48] you know,

[00:16:49] a four,

[00:16:50] 500,000 square foot warehouse and you're a distribution company,

[00:16:54] right?

[00:16:55] The cost of money matters.

[00:16:56] And I've been super impressed with,

[00:16:59] you know,

[00:16:59] I just read yesterday about,

[00:17:01] um,

[00:17:02] VP supply,

[00:17:03] um,

[00:17:04] big HVAC and plumbing distributor,

[00:17:07] electrical distributor in Ohio.

[00:17:08] One of our great customers and good friends just announced the building of a big new distribution center.

[00:17:13] You've got companies like in the same,

[00:17:15] same space or related space with Dakota supply group,

[00:17:18] opening multiple branches this year.

[00:17:21] Um,

[00:17:22] first supply,

[00:17:23] uh,

[00:17:23] in Wisconsin opening another huge distribution center.

[00:17:27] You know,

[00:17:27] I don't know any of the financials,

[00:17:29] any of those companies,

[00:17:30] but if they went to the,

[00:17:30] to the bank or the markets to get money for those things,

[00:17:33] that was expensive money.

[00:17:35] Yeah.

[00:17:35] Well,

[00:17:36] and I,

[00:17:36] I would be absolutely shocked if there was quote unquote stimulus.

[00:17:40] Yeah.

[00:17:41] But I do not,

[00:17:42] not quantitative easing and that type of stuff,

[00:17:45] but that's even different,

[00:17:46] right?

[00:17:46] So you have quantitative easing where they're,

[00:17:48] where they're buying bonds and they're doing things like that to try and provide liquidity into the market.

[00:17:54] But the,

[00:17:56] the,

[00:17:57] well,

[00:17:57] we had a new,

[00:17:57] whatever the,

[00:17:58] at the,

[00:17:59] uh,

[00:17:59] COVID or we're during the pandemic,

[00:18:01] right?

[00:18:01] It's basically grants and very low interest loans and all that.

[00:18:06] What I do believe though,

[00:18:08] is probably that,

[00:18:09] you know,

[00:18:10] the Trump administration is looking at how do we streamline the SBA and how do we make SBA loans easier to get and things like that.

[00:18:20] Cause I mean,

[00:18:21] that can be a real nightmare going through some SBA.

[00:18:24] You can only get SBA money.

[00:18:25] I mean,

[00:18:26] most people you'll hear if you talk to most small businesses,

[00:18:28] what they'll tell you is the only way to get an SBA loan is to not need one.

[00:18:32] Right.

[00:18:33] Right.

[00:18:34] Well,

[00:18:34] and even if you don't,

[00:18:35] even then there's a lot of hoops to jump through.

[00:18:37] Yeah.

[00:18:37] Right.

[00:18:37] So anyway,

[00:18:38] it'll be interesting to see if some of those things can happen is there's a,

[00:18:41] you know,

[00:18:42] maybe the lower cost of capital.

[00:18:44] There's some easier ways to get capital as a smaller business,

[00:18:47] or at least with less bureaucracy along the way.

[00:18:50] I think there's a lot of things,

[00:18:52] tax cuts.

[00:18:52] There's a lot of things I think that can stimulate.

[00:18:54] I would just be shocked if there were any sort of,

[00:18:57] you know,

[00:18:58] things that were occurring during the COVID period.

[00:19:01] Well,

[00:19:01] the,

[00:19:01] the president-elect said in the interview I heard yesterday,

[00:19:04] he said that the intention would be,

[00:19:07] I can't remember the timeframe,

[00:19:08] whether it was next year or was moving forward quickly was that the economy

[00:19:13] would be back to the best economy that this country has ever had and the

[00:19:16] best in the world.

[00:19:17] And you know what?

[00:19:18] It's kind of hard to argue with,

[00:19:20] if you look at,

[00:19:21] you know,

[00:19:21] the early part of this,

[00:19:23] you know,

[00:19:24] recently elected president's previous administration,

[00:19:27] things were moving pretty well in the economy and the stock market,

[00:19:30] you know,

[00:19:30] the stock market is,

[00:19:32] has shown itself to not care about any of this stuff,

[00:19:35] right?

[00:19:37] The stock market and the bond market have been doing some things that are

[00:19:40] pretty out of whack to tradition in the,

[00:19:42] in the past year,

[00:19:43] as we've been for almost two years,

[00:19:45] we've been going through some of these challenges.

[00:19:46] So it'll be,

[00:19:48] it's,

[00:19:48] I'm interested to watch things.

[00:19:49] I think it's going to be good for business.

[00:19:51] There's still $7 trillion of investment dollars from consumer and that are

[00:19:57] seen in cash accounts.

[00:19:59] So that's a lot of money.

[00:20:01] Consumer cash.

[00:20:02] Well,

[00:20:02] yeah,

[00:20:03] you know,

[00:20:03] personal,

[00:20:04] personal investment.

[00:20:05] Yeah.

[00:20:05] Right.

[00:20:06] $7 trillion of savings accounts and money market accounts and those types of

[00:20:11] things that is in theory available to be going into the market.

[00:20:16] Yeah.

[00:20:17] I think what you've seen,

[00:20:19] and I know this isn't part of what we're talking about,

[00:20:21] but what we've seen,

[00:20:23] I think with the,

[00:20:24] with the melt up on the market over the last,

[00:20:26] whatever,

[00:20:27] couple months since the election,

[00:20:29] people being willing to take more risk.

[00:20:32] And I think that risk willingness is going to continue.

[00:20:37] And why do,

[00:20:39] is there $7 trillion seen in,

[00:20:40] in the savings accounts or bank accounts?

[00:20:43] One,

[00:20:43] they wanted reduced risk and they had higher rates.

[00:20:45] You reduce rates and you remove the risk taller or you increase the risk

[00:20:49] tolerance.

[00:20:50] You have an opportunity for even more money to be flowing into the markets

[00:20:53] next year.

[00:20:54] So that anyway,

[00:20:56] that's something else to keep.

[00:20:59] So I hadn't heard that amount from individuals that,

[00:21:03] you know,

[00:21:03] can be now going into the markets and so forth,

[00:21:06] but there's similar larger numbers of dry,

[00:21:10] as they say,

[00:21:10] dry powder in the investment world.

[00:21:12] That's sitting on the sidelines.

[00:21:13] Yeah.

[00:21:14] That's totally different.

[00:21:15] That's right.

[00:21:15] That's a whole different.

[00:21:16] Yeah.

[00:21:16] We're talking about consumer.

[00:21:18] We're talking about professional money.

[00:21:19] Right.

[00:21:19] That's right.

[00:21:20] Yeah.

[00:21:20] So the professional money side of that is,

[00:21:22] you know,

[00:21:23] probably closer to $10 trillion that's sitting on the sidelines,

[00:21:26] waiting to come back in the market.

[00:21:27] And guess when that money is going to come back in quickly.

[00:21:31] Right.

[00:21:31] When,

[00:21:31] when there's great returns on that money and they can access other money

[00:21:35] easily.

[00:21:36] And so,

[00:21:39] and anyway,

[00:21:40] so it'll be interesting to watch.

[00:21:41] How does that,

[00:21:41] how does that impact wholesale distribution and manufacturing?

[00:21:44] I think all of a sudden,

[00:21:45] now we look at this,

[00:21:46] if this continues and we can get out of this kind of,

[00:21:48] as you know,

[00:21:49] you described it.

[00:21:50] And I like that using the term sticky,

[00:21:52] right.

[00:21:52] If we need to run out of the stickiness and get rates where they need to be,

[00:21:56] or,

[00:21:57] you know,

[00:21:57] not where they were,

[00:21:59] but manageable rates moving forward,

[00:22:01] that we can have this,

[00:22:02] this confidence that this,

[00:22:03] this article that we're talking about here,

[00:22:05] right.

[00:22:06] And is being a three and a half year high from this Reuters article,

[00:22:10] uh,

[00:22:11] when small businesses,

[00:22:12] you move that into small and mid-sized businesses with that confidence.

[00:22:15] That's what drives the economy,

[00:22:17] right?

[00:22:17] As small and mid-sized businesses,

[00:22:19] you,

[00:22:19] you know,

[00:22:20] the,

[00:22:20] the markets might be driven by the,

[00:22:22] you know,

[00:22:22] the fortune 100 companies,

[00:22:23] but it's that,

[00:22:24] you know,

[00:22:25] it's that a hundred million,

[00:22:26] uh,

[00:22:27] 50 million,

[00:22:27] 20 million or $300 million a year wholesale distributor that,

[00:22:31] you know,

[00:22:33] $125 million manufacturer of a plumbing part or something like that.

[00:22:37] Those are the things that people don't think about that,

[00:22:38] that drive the economy.

[00:22:40] And it's,

[00:22:40] it's funny having,

[00:22:41] you know,

[00:22:41] been,

[00:22:42] been traveling,

[00:22:43] uh,

[00:22:43] on holiday here for the last week and a half,

[00:22:46] you know,

[00:22:46] meeting lots of new people.

[00:22:48] And,

[00:22:48] and,

[00:22:49] uh,

[00:22:49] you know,

[00:22:51] effective.

[00:22:51] It was great,

[00:22:52] great example.

[00:22:53] I was having dinner with my,

[00:22:54] my wife's step-sister lives here in Oahu and we're having dinner with her

[00:22:58] and her husband.

[00:23:00] He's an architect and works with a lot of builders here on the Island.

[00:23:03] And,

[00:23:03] and,

[00:23:04] uh,

[00:23:05] he works with wholesale distribution constantly as,

[00:23:08] you know,

[00:23:08] an architect with the home builders and building materials.

[00:23:10] And it still took him a few minutes to kind of catch up on the idea of how

[00:23:15] big wholesale distribution really is in,

[00:23:18] in making the world move and nothing,

[00:23:20] you know,

[00:23:20] 75 cents out of every dollar goes through distribution.

[00:23:23] And,

[00:23:24] uh,

[00:23:24] globally,

[00:23:25] and that's a pretty big deal.

[00:23:26] So these are going to be good things for us to watch.

[00:23:28] So let's kind of jump ahead.

[00:23:29] Uh,

[00:23:30] in fact,

[00:23:30] we let's,

[00:23:30] we'll just talk really quickly.

[00:23:32] We posted an article in the newsletter.

[00:23:33] Again,

[00:23:34] if,

[00:23:34] uh,

[00:23:34] if you're listening on the podcast,

[00:23:37] uh,

[00:23:37] on Apple or Spotify or your favorite podcast format,

[00:23:40] and you're not seeing us,

[00:23:42] we do this show live every Friday morning.

[00:23:44] And,

[00:23:44] uh,

[00:23:44] later in the day,

[00:23:45] John,

[00:23:46] our producer and editor puts this out to,

[00:23:48] uh,

[00:23:49] the podcast world.

[00:23:50] And,

[00:23:51] uh,

[00:23:52] we're discussing the newsletter that gets published each week.

[00:23:54] And that's called around the horn and wholesale distribution manufacturing.

[00:23:58] And,

[00:23:58] uh,

[00:23:59] so you're not seeing our screen where we have these articles,

[00:24:01] but we're trying to mention where the articles are titled and where they come

[00:24:04] from.

[00:24:04] That spurs the discussion that we're having today.

[00:24:07] Okay.

[00:24:07] So this next article,

[00:24:08] again,

[00:24:09] this is from,

[00:24:09] um,

[00:24:10] CNBC.

[00:24:11] It says low hire,

[00:24:13] low fire.

[00:24:13] The U S job market is stagnant right now.

[00:24:16] And so they're talking about,

[00:24:17] you know,

[00:24:17] that there's a low rate of layoffs,

[00:24:19] which is good to see.

[00:24:20] And,

[00:24:20] but the hiring that's going on is slow.

[00:24:22] And this goes back to this kind of,

[00:24:24] what did we,

[00:24:25] what did we call it?

[00:24:26] The,

[00:24:26] the,

[00:24:27] the majority of 2023.

[00:24:29] And most of this year,

[00:24:30] I think we just said simmering.

[00:24:32] Of,

[00:24:32] of things within the economy.

[00:24:34] And we see the same thing within the job market.

[00:24:36] So,

[00:24:36] you know,

[00:24:37] there's been overall strength that talks about in the labor market,

[00:24:40] uh,

[00:24:41] with unemployment is historically low,

[00:24:43] but now there's people that are,

[00:24:44] there's this kind of balancing act of,

[00:24:46] you know,

[00:24:47] we've seen,

[00:24:47] we're seeing,

[00:24:48] you know,

[00:24:48] Boeing and,

[00:24:49] uh,

[00:24:50] who is a food company that did 8,000 layoffs,

[00:24:53] I think earlier in the week.

[00:24:55] Um,

[00:24:56] but as a balancing act,

[00:24:57] things are,

[00:24:58] you know,

[00:24:58] low hire,

[00:24:59] low layoff,

[00:25:00] which is just,

[00:25:01] you know,

[00:25:02] simmering in that state.

[00:25:05] Yeah.

[00:25:05] I,

[00:25:06] I don't,

[00:25:06] I think the employment area is something that is,

[00:25:10] I think employers are confused about.

[00:25:14] And,

[00:25:14] and I get it.

[00:25:16] I totally understand it because even,

[00:25:19] and I think we have an article coming up later on about,

[00:25:22] you know,

[00:25:22] upskilling and what are some skills that it,

[00:25:25] that the new generation of employees need to be thinking about.

[00:25:30] And it's hard to know,

[00:25:32] Hey,

[00:25:32] is this a person I should be hiring?

[00:25:33] And is this a person that I,

[00:25:35] that is going to make sense long run in the business?

[00:25:37] And do I really need that role?

[00:25:39] Or is that,

[00:25:39] you know,

[00:25:40] there's just a lot of,

[00:25:41] I think,

[00:25:41] confusion and ambiguity right now.

[00:25:43] It may end up staying that way for the next few months.

[00:25:47] Yeah.

[00:25:48] we'll have to,

[00:25:48] regardless of the growth of the economy.

[00:25:51] So,

[00:25:51] right.

[00:25:52] Right.

[00:25:52] Good.

[00:25:53] All right.

[00:25:53] So last and final kind of article in our economy and supply chain segment

[00:25:57] today,

[00:25:58] as we talked about an article about,

[00:26:00] and this is from,

[00:26:02] this is from a written by,

[00:26:03] it was interesting though,

[00:26:03] it was written by a,

[00:26:04] a service providing company that,

[00:26:07] but I ran across and it talks about tariffs.

[00:26:09] And it's,

[00:26:10] this is available on spend matters,

[00:26:12] spend matters.com.

[00:26:14] And they talk about,

[00:26:15] we,

[00:26:15] you know,

[00:26:16] we spent,

[00:26:16] we haven't really talked about it today,

[00:26:17] but it's,

[00:26:18] we're just going to see more and more of it because we're going to see

[00:26:20] more and more of the announcements over the next few weeks that are coming

[00:26:23] available about what these tariffs are really going to be like.

[00:26:28] And so this is,

[00:26:29] they call it part one,

[00:26:30] but what,

[00:26:30] what tariffs are and what they mean for procurement.

[00:26:33] So I thought this was kind of good for our audience of wholesale

[00:26:36] distribution manufacturing,

[00:26:37] because we get a whole lot of people that are on the revenue side of,

[00:26:40] of the business,

[00:26:41] the customers that we service through lead smart,

[00:26:43] and we work with consistently,

[00:26:44] but we also have a lot of folks that are on the supply chain side as

[00:26:48] well.

[00:26:48] And so this was a nice thing to Kenny,

[00:26:50] to give us the,

[00:26:56] just saw Bob's note,

[00:26:57] Bob asked me what Island I'm on.

[00:26:59] Bob,

[00:26:59] I was on Kauai all last week and I'm on the North shore of Oahu right now.

[00:27:03] So this article,

[00:27:04] I thought gave a nice kind of breakdown because,

[00:27:06] you know,

[00:27:06] tariffs as we are,

[00:27:08] obviously we're a big factor within the election and it's,

[00:27:11] there's all this kind of doom gloom that's going on with that as well

[00:27:15] from one side of the aisle,

[00:27:17] so to speak as related to tariffs.

[00:27:21] And,

[00:27:21] and you know,

[00:27:22] this,

[00:27:22] I think I was thinking about this earlier,

[00:27:24] Tom,

[00:27:25] I'll say this now,

[00:27:25] you know,

[00:27:26] you're the one who brought this into our conversation.

[00:27:28] So we'll give you a little bit of credit for this,

[00:27:30] but it was,

[00:27:31] you know,

[00:27:31] the,

[00:27:32] the Silicon Valley investor and,

[00:27:34] and Peter Thiel,

[00:27:36] who said this about the new administration and the president elected,

[00:27:40] he said,

[00:27:41] what was his exact words?

[00:27:43] He said,

[00:27:44] don't take him,

[00:27:45] take him seriously,

[00:27:46] take him seriously,

[00:27:47] but not literally.

[00:27:48] And what we're seeing already is this,

[00:27:50] you know,

[00:27:50] this thing of,

[00:27:52] I didn't pay much attention to it earlier in the week,

[00:27:54] but I know there's some more discussion with Canada,

[00:27:57] but,

[00:27:57] you know,

[00:27:58] he talked about some big,

[00:27:59] big tariffs on Canada and Mexico related to border issues.

[00:28:03] And,

[00:28:03] you know,

[00:28:03] the next day,

[00:28:04] the president or the,

[00:28:05] the prime minister of Canada was on a,

[00:28:08] on a plane to,

[00:28:09] to Florida to talk with the president about this stuff and finding some

[00:28:12] balance.

[00:28:13] And there was capitulation on things that were a benefit to,

[00:28:17] to this country.

[00:28:18] So good article here about,

[00:28:19] you know,

[00:28:19] not just,

[00:28:20] you know,

[00:28:20] the different,

[00:28:21] it talks a lot about the difference between import tariffs and export

[00:28:24] tariffs.

[00:28:25] And,

[00:28:25] and,

[00:28:26] and then what I really was appreciative about this article.

[00:28:29] I don't know if you read it closely or not,

[00:28:30] or what your thoughts were,

[00:28:31] but it gave some good pros and cons about that.

[00:28:34] Did you look at that at all?

[00:28:35] Yeah,

[00:28:35] no,

[00:28:35] it did pros and cons.

[00:28:36] And it talked about two different types of tariff,

[00:28:39] import,

[00:28:39] export,

[00:28:39] import tariffs,

[00:28:40] export tariffs.

[00:28:41] That was a good,

[00:28:42] a good primer.

[00:28:44] Yeah.

[00:28:44] Good,

[00:28:44] good,

[00:28:45] good overall recap.

[00:28:46] But I think sometimes we,

[00:28:47] what I like about these things is,

[00:28:49] you know,

[00:28:50] even in my advanced stages of my career,

[00:28:52] I'll call it,

[00:28:53] you know,

[00:28:54] I,

[00:28:54] you,

[00:28:55] you hear terms or you think about economic factors or whatever,

[00:28:58] and constantly learning as well about,

[00:29:02] you know,

[00:29:03] the,

[00:29:03] the depth of things versus,

[00:29:05] versus an overview that we might have.

[00:29:07] So this is good.

[00:29:08] You talked about that.

[00:29:09] I'll hit this quickly because we need to move on,

[00:29:11] obviously,

[00:29:11] but you talked about,

[00:29:13] uh,

[00:29:13] you know,

[00:29:13] pros being protecting domestic industries,

[00:29:16] generating government revenue.

[00:29:17] and I think that's probably a fairly significant part of it that people don't think about

[00:29:21] a lot is that revenue that can come out of increased tariffs to,

[00:29:24] to fund other things within the organization or the,

[00:29:27] uh,

[00:29:27] the,

[00:29:27] uh,

[00:29:27] economy.

[00:29:28] economy.

[00:29:29] And when you start talking about what the discussion is with the incoming administration

[00:29:34] of wanting to reduce a lot of government waste and government departments,

[00:29:38] right?

[00:29:39] We have this department of government efficient of government efficiency coming in for,

[00:29:43] what are we going to have at 18 months?

[00:29:44] You know,

[00:29:45] so there could be tons and tons of cuts there that are cost savings.

[00:29:49] Right.

[00:29:50] And then if you see some balancing with some tariffs that are driving dollars in,

[00:29:55] into,

[00:29:56] the government as well,

[00:29:57] it goes back to what you were mentioning earlier about,

[00:29:59] you know,

[00:30:00] investment opportunity.

[00:30:01] Maybe the SBA has more money to put out there to pump into the economy.

[00:30:05] So I think this was pretty good now that the,

[00:30:07] the,

[00:30:07] you know,

[00:30:07] talks about encouraging local production and things like that.

[00:30:10] But,

[00:30:10] you know,

[00:30:11] the risk is obviously a push of increased consumer prices coming out of that.

[00:30:15] And then the trade war,

[00:30:17] the retaliation thing,

[00:30:18] we saw a little bit of that earlier this week and last week from China about the

[00:30:22] minerals and stuff that they were looking at stopping the export of.

[00:30:25] So it's going to be a good thing to watch pretty closely,

[00:30:28] but I,

[00:30:28] my,

[00:30:30] my gut says what we're going to find is again,

[00:30:32] back to that,

[00:30:33] you know,

[00:30:35] take them seriously,

[00:30:36] but not literally is we're going to see some extravagant things that are,

[00:30:40] we're going to get talked about,

[00:30:41] but the reality of what we're going to see is some balanced tariffs that help

[00:30:44] drive things here.

[00:30:46] So,

[00:30:48] so this is interesting.

[00:30:49] Once you hit Bob's comment there,

[00:30:52] the,

[00:30:53] yep.

[00:30:54] It's interesting paradox discussing tariffs prevents tariffs.

[00:30:58] So,

[00:30:58] yeah.

[00:31:00] To determine you,

[00:31:01] when you,

[00:31:02] when you carry the big,

[00:31:03] when you carry the big stick,

[00:31:05] right.

[00:31:06] That's,

[00:31:06] that's the key of that.

[00:31:07] Good.

[00:31:08] All right,

[00:31:08] Tom,

[00:31:08] well,

[00:31:08] why don't we,

[00:31:09] why don't we cruise ahead into our next segment?

[00:31:11] You just have an article there this week about me and we have our next

[00:31:14] segment about manufacturing and distribution in that segment that we talk

[00:31:20] about each week.

[00:31:21] There's an article there from supply house times and it talks about distributors

[00:31:25] are doing more than ever to build contractor relationships.

[00:31:28] And,

[00:31:28] you know,

[00:31:29] there's a lot of reasons behind that.

[00:31:30] I wanted to see if you had any takes on that article before I jump in.

[00:31:34] Um,

[00:31:35] I have some takes just in not so much directly from the article,

[00:31:38] but just from some things I'm seeing and working with our customers.

[00:31:42] Some of the things we've been running some analysis on using AI is analyzing.

[00:31:49] And this,

[00:31:50] I think ties directly to this is the frequency of when say an outside salesperson

[00:31:56] or a salesperson works with a,

[00:31:58] with their customer and the types of things that they're doing with the

[00:32:02] customer.

[00:32:03] Right.

[00:32:04] So the,

[00:32:05] the types of activity and the frequency of activity,

[00:32:08] and then we've been running some analytics and reports on that to see

[00:32:13] trends and tying that back to revenue and revenue growth with different

[00:32:19] customers.

[00:32:20] And clearly we're seeing a,

[00:32:23] it is the two things together.

[00:32:24] It's the,

[00:32:25] it's the,

[00:32:26] what are we doing and how frequent am I doing it?

[00:32:29] And those things together,

[00:32:31] we're seeing some direct correlation,

[00:32:32] even between different types of customers on revenue growth,

[00:32:36] which we'll be sharing more of later.

[00:32:38] The point being is,

[00:32:39] as it says in this article here,

[00:32:41] right,

[00:32:42] competition is stiffer than ever for buying opportunities.

[00:32:45] So how do you differentiate yourself when you're building a,

[00:32:49] building and how do you build those tighter relationships that you build that

[00:32:52] loyalty and retention?

[00:32:54] So,

[00:32:54] and it's not always,

[00:32:55] doesn't need to be driven by price,

[00:32:57] right?

[00:32:57] It can be driven by service levels and relationships and things like that.

[00:33:01] And I think where we're at moving forward is,

[00:33:03] you know,

[00:33:04] the folks and I saw some pretty bold comments and come to me where I read

[00:33:09] this earlier in the week,

[00:33:10] but you know,

[00:33:11] uh,

[00:33:13] it was a CEO of a major organization.

[00:33:15] He was really talking literally bold statements about companies that would be

[00:33:19] going out of business because of not taking full advantage of the

[00:33:23] opportunities that are available to them with,

[00:33:26] uh,

[00:33:27] technology and specifically AI in that setting.

[00:33:29] But,

[00:33:30] um,

[00:33:31] I,

[00:33:31] you know,

[00:33:31] I've said this from as long as we've been doing this show,

[00:33:34] right?

[00:33:35] I don't believe that technology will put the vast majority of peoples that

[00:33:39] don't adopt great technology and graded added service levels and so forth out of

[00:33:44] business,

[00:33:44] but it will take a major competitive impact that they have away because they

[00:33:49] don't,

[00:33:49] won't understand their customers.

[00:33:51] Like,

[00:33:51] you know,

[00:33:51] going,

[00:33:52] going,

[00:33:53] you know,

[00:33:53] on the,

[00:33:53] the Tuesday donut runs or,

[00:33:55] or,

[00:33:56] you know,

[00:33:56] Thursday bagels or whatever it might be.

[00:33:58] And I see this guy every week is not what his,

[00:34:01] his replacement is going to be wanting.

[00:34:03] And so the people that are adopting technology in this article is great.

[00:34:07] It talks about,

[00:34:07] you know,

[00:34:08] some of the folks at,

[00:34:09] uh,

[00:34:10] Eastern industrial and South Carolina folks,

[00:34:12] we know well and good,

[00:34:13] great folks there.

[00:34:14] And then again,

[00:34:15] folks at a Dakota supply group,

[00:34:17] I think we've got a few of our friends,

[00:34:18] Joe,

[00:34:19] I think,

[00:34:19] and,

[00:34:19] and Paul might be with us,

[00:34:21] maybe even Stefan from,

[00:34:22] uh,

[00:34:23] DSG that are with us,

[00:34:24] right?

[00:34:26] DSG that are with us regularly.

[00:34:28] They're talking about some of the things that they're doing and,

[00:34:29] and anticipating customer expectations,

[00:34:32] you know,

[00:34:33] back to that thing we talk about all the time,

[00:34:35] right?

[00:34:36] But the old Wayne Gretzky comment about skating to where the puck is going,

[00:34:39] you know,

[00:34:40] not where it's at.

[00:34:41] And these are,

[00:34:41] this is a great article.

[00:34:42] And again,

[00:34:42] this is from supply house times.

[00:34:44] And,

[00:34:45] um,

[00:34:46] uh,

[00:34:47] it's called distributors are doing more than ever to build loyal

[00:34:49] contractor relationships.

[00:34:50] And that is not necessarily something that gets driven on prices.

[00:34:54] We were talking about.

[00:34:54] It's a good article.

[00:34:55] Yep.

[00:34:56] Good.

[00:34:57] One dive ahead.

[00:34:58] Let's go ahead.

[00:34:59] Where are we headed?

[00:35:00] E-commerce and marketing.

[00:35:01] Well,

[00:35:02] I think this is sort of related,

[00:35:03] right?

[00:35:03] B2B buyer satisfaction is on the rise.

[00:35:07] Um,

[00:35:08] I think this is more from looking at the world of online platforms.

[00:35:13] Yep.

[00:35:14] Correct.

[00:35:14] And a lot of the younger buyers in particular,

[00:35:17] um,

[00:35:18] just feel like there's a lot of friction and just a lot of frustration in a lot of

[00:35:24] cases with online B2B platforms.

[00:35:27] Um,

[00:35:28] not,

[00:35:29] not surprising,

[00:35:30] I guess,

[00:35:30] but,

[00:35:31] and I,

[00:35:31] and I think to be in defensive of B2B platforms,

[00:35:35] right?

[00:35:35] It's,

[00:35:35] it's,

[00:35:36] you can't just emulate Amazon with one click buys and things like that on a B2B platform than the way you could on a consumer platform.

[00:35:45] So,

[00:35:46] um,

[00:35:47] I think there is definitely more challenges on that,

[00:35:50] but clearly there's some,

[00:35:52] some,

[00:35:52] you know,

[00:35:53] dissatisfaction for this article.

[00:35:55] Yep.

[00:35:55] Well,

[00:35:56] I,

[00:35:57] listen,

[00:35:58] it would be easy to kind of beat a dead horse,

[00:36:00] but if you're,

[00:36:01] if you haven't listened to us,

[00:36:02] I don't think I've mentioned this in a few weeks,

[00:36:05] but you know,

[00:36:06] the reality of,

[00:36:06] of what we're seeing here is just more and more of,

[00:36:10] and,

[00:36:11] and I just saw some updated statistics on this,

[00:36:15] we've been,

[00:36:15] I've been mentioning,

[00:36:16] you've mentioned before many times is,

[00:36:18] you know,

[00:36:19] it was 61% and I think now it's over 62% and now it's 71% of B2B buyers are millennials.

[00:36:27] Right.

[00:36:28] And the Gen Zs are getting hired behind them and the baby boomers that,

[00:36:33] you know,

[00:36:33] folks like us are the people that are getting ready to retire,

[00:36:36] you know,

[00:36:36] people our age.

[00:36:37] And so if you're still getting in your truck and,

[00:36:41] and drive into this plant or that job site or whatever on a certain amount of times a week

[00:36:46] or whatever it might be.

[00:36:48] And,

[00:36:48] and your company isn't embracing e-commerce,

[00:36:51] whether it's just,

[00:36:52] you know,

[00:36:53] data sources that are available online or it's online ordering or online order building or whatever it might be.

[00:36:59] It's going to be tough to be able to compete with the people that are driving business now.

[00:37:04] And,

[00:37:04] and they're younger and,

[00:37:06] you know,

[00:37:06] I just,

[00:37:06] I always use the example,

[00:37:08] you know,

[00:37:08] if,

[00:37:09] if you've been calling on Judy for the last 20 years,

[00:37:12] but Judy's getting ready to retire.

[00:37:14] And the person that's,

[00:37:15] you know,

[00:37:15] heir apparent to Judy's job,

[00:37:17] you know,

[00:37:17] went to the movies last night and ordered their tickets online and,

[00:37:22] or on their phone and they got an Uber to bring them and they had lunch delivered with,

[00:37:26] you know,

[00:37:27] DoorDash.

[00:37:28] That's not a,

[00:37:29] that's not a great solution.

[00:37:30] If you're the guy that's still just bringing donuts on,

[00:37:32] on Mondays.

[00:37:34] Yep.

[00:37:36] So it'll be an interesting time to see,

[00:37:37] by the way,

[00:37:38] Tom,

[00:37:38] before we move past this,

[00:37:39] there's a,

[00:37:40] we've got a couple of articles today.

[00:37:42] This one is entitled B2B buyer dissatisfactions on the rise.

[00:37:45] It's from a digital commerce three 60,

[00:37:48] but it's written by a fascinating gentleman by the name of Mark Brohan.

[00:37:54] I had lunch with Mark in Chicago in October and Mark will be our guest next Friday.

[00:38:01] So he will be with us on the show.

[00:38:03] So that's all locked in.

[00:38:04] I heard from him yesterday.

[00:38:05] So I was kind of excited about that.

[00:38:07] But if you get a chance to look at this article,

[00:38:09] um,

[00:38:11] it said,

[00:38:11] um,

[00:38:13] now it's saying this article actually even says,

[00:38:15] I just pulled one of the charts up.

[00:38:16] It says,

[00:38:17] um,

[00:38:18] dissatisfaction.

[00:38:19] It said it's highest among younger buyers is 87% of millennial and Gen Z buyers born in 1981 or later report dissatisfaction in at least one area.

[00:38:28] Do we have that chart by chance?

[00:38:30] I do not.

[00:38:32] Okay.

[00:38:33] I'm going to have to have a doctor pay on that.

[00:38:36] So,

[00:38:36] uh,

[00:38:37] dissatisfaction price was the big one,

[00:38:38] but with the,

[00:38:39] another thing that we're talking about,

[00:38:40] the third most important factor of their dissatisfaction.

[00:38:44] Second was industry expertise.

[00:38:46] Third,

[00:38:47] most important was technology expertise.

[00:38:50] Right.

[00:38:50] And I think that just right there tells you a whole lot.

[00:38:54] Um,

[00:38:54] and then they talked about ability to handle end to end project from strategy implementation domain expertise.

[00:39:01] Um,

[00:39:02] and so,

[00:39:03] you know what,

[00:39:03] this,

[00:39:04] this is almost like an ad for lead smart channel cloud,

[00:39:08] our technology,

[00:39:09] right?

[00:39:09] Because all of these things,

[00:39:11] if you take price out of it with our solution and the AI solutions that you're,

[00:39:17] you and your team have built,

[00:39:18] uh,

[00:39:19] it handles all of these things,

[00:39:20] right?

[00:39:21] From the standpoint of at least having the data and understanding of those things.

[00:39:24] So,

[00:39:24] but thanks for bringing that chart up.

[00:39:26] I appreciate it.

[00:39:27] I think that's really helpful.

[00:39:28] So all of these items below price,

[00:39:32] right?

[00:39:33] Result in our,

[00:39:35] our,

[00:39:36] our,

[00:39:36] in order for those things to be achieved,

[00:39:40] require knowledge of the customer knowledge,

[00:39:43] you know,

[00:39:43] the salespeople and the,

[00:39:44] and the customer facing people having knowledge of their own business and knowledge of their customer.

[00:39:50] And then knowledge of the,

[00:39:52] the strategies and the things that are going to benefit in that relationship.

[00:39:56] Right.

[00:39:56] Those are all things that are,

[00:39:59] that have nothing to do with,

[00:40:01] with delivering donuts and it has nothing to do with delivering price.

[00:40:05] Yeah.

[00:40:05] Good.

[00:40:05] Great point.

[00:40:06] So,

[00:40:06] so the followup article to this is,

[00:40:09] is also from digital commerce,

[00:40:12] three 60 improve the B2B buyer experience by creating customer centric strategies.

[00:40:16] I don't think we need to dive deep into those strategies,

[00:40:19] but if,

[00:40:20] if you're thinking about that,

[00:40:21] right.

[00:40:22] And you just,

[00:40:22] and,

[00:40:23] and today's a good example of this kind of merging some articles together and talking more on a topic than particular article.

[00:40:29] But these are both again from digital commerce,

[00:40:31] three 60.

[00:40:32] I don't know if Mark wrote both of them,

[00:40:33] but great,

[00:40:35] good articles.

[00:40:36] And this goes in second article goes in this developing some kinds of customer centric experiences.

[00:40:41] And I think it ties right back to the article,

[00:40:45] article two articles ago that we talked about,

[00:40:47] about distributors doing more than ever to build contractor relationships.

[00:40:50] Right.

[00:40:50] And so you,

[00:40:51] you think about the in-person relationship and the online relationship.

[00:40:55] Those two things need to come together as a brand relationship.

[00:40:59] Right.

[00:40:59] As it,

[00:41:01] and if you're doing this right,

[00:41:02] and this is one of the struggles that wholesale distributors have had forever.

[00:41:05] And it's much more on the distributor side than it is on the manufacturer side is that they're in a position where they've got,

[00:41:13] um,

[00:41:14] their self in a spot where the relationship is owned by Joe or,

[00:41:19] or Susie.

[00:41:20] That's the field salesperson.

[00:41:22] And they forever,

[00:41:23] I've described this to from way back when I was a manufacturer's rep working and doing some,

[00:41:28] even some sales training with distributors.

[00:41:30] And then other parts of my career since then,

[00:41:32] it's certainly what we do now is,

[00:41:33] you know,

[00:41:34] the salesperson should be the quarterback of the relationship that the organization has.

[00:41:41] So in a perfect world,

[00:41:43] XYZ supply as a distributor should have a key relationship with ABC manufacturing or XYZ construction or plumbing their customer.

[00:41:53] But the salesperson is role is the quarterback,

[00:41:57] not to fully own all of the relationship.

[00:42:00] And I think there's two parts of that.

[00:42:02] Probably the,

[00:42:02] the most important part of it is if the,

[00:42:05] if you have an individual that is driving a relationship versus an organization,

[00:42:10] having a relationship,

[00:42:12] then that person leaves or gets hit by a bus,

[00:42:15] which is,

[00:42:15] yeah,

[00:42:16] we were on the call together,

[00:42:18] uh,

[00:42:19] last week with,

[00:42:20] with one of our customers.

[00:42:21] And that was one of his big concerns.

[00:42:23] It wasn't something I necessarily agreed with.

[00:42:25] One of his biggest concerns was,

[00:42:27] you know,

[00:42:27] how do I keep my salespeople from taking all this data and running,

[00:42:31] running out there?

[00:42:32] Well,

[00:42:32] I think that for myself is the wrong mindset.

[00:42:36] My mindset on that is how do I build an organization that no one would ever want to leave?

[00:42:40] But,

[00:42:40] but the other side of that is,

[00:42:41] so that's first is,

[00:42:42] you know,

[00:42:43] salesperson has the,

[00:42:45] the,

[00:42:45] um,

[00:42:46] we'll call it the intellectual property of what's going on with a customer is the critical,

[00:42:50] critical piece of that,

[00:42:52] of understanding that,

[00:42:53] uh,

[00:42:53] what's going on with that.

[00:42:55] So anyways,

[00:42:56] um,

[00:42:57] I digress a little bit on that,

[00:42:58] but I think it's important as we're working on those,

[00:43:01] those strategies in that setting that we can really be clear and definitive on one,

[00:43:07] the organization owning the relationship and,

[00:43:10] and what the second piece,

[00:43:11] I'm sorry,

[00:43:12] that's what I didn't mention.

[00:43:12] Tom was a second piece of that was that when the organization has the relationship,

[00:43:18] sometimes salespeople get myopic and it's like,

[00:43:21] I call on Tom,

[00:43:23] but I miss the fact that Tom has three other counterpart buyers in the organization,

[00:43:28] but because Tom's the guy that I take to football games on Saturdays,

[00:43:32] or Tom's the guy that I've known forever.

[00:43:34] I miss all of these other opportunities in the organization.

[00:43:38] So if me as a wholesale distributor and I can drive my relationship across an entire organization versus just a buyer.

[00:43:46] So the CEO of that,

[00:43:48] you know,

[00:43:48] 300 person construction company understands the,

[00:43:52] the value proposition and me as a building material distributor to them.

[00:43:56] Now I win because my relationship is across an organization.

[00:44:00] So anyways,

[00:44:01] those are my,

[00:44:02] that's my pontificating on that topic for the day.

[00:44:06] So where do we want to go next?

[00:44:08] Um,

[00:44:09] what do we have there?

[00:44:10] What,

[00:44:10] what salespeople gain from B2B e-commerce and customer portals?

[00:44:13] That's,

[00:44:13] you know,

[00:44:14] we,

[00:44:14] let's not spend a time.

[00:44:15] Sorry.

[00:44:16] That's just the one we discovered.

[00:44:17] No,

[00:44:17] we just talked about experience as well.

[00:44:20] Um,

[00:44:21] and then the second one,

[00:44:22] the next one there as well,

[00:44:24] though,

[00:44:24] is also from digital commerce,

[00:44:26] three 60.

[00:44:26] And,

[00:44:27] um,

[00:44:28] and he's really the whole section that we're in today is,

[00:44:31] um,

[00:44:32] is really beneficial to the value.

[00:44:34] And this is e-commerce and marketing,

[00:44:35] but the value that balancing,

[00:44:37] having a balanced look at e-commerce and field sales and inside sales is the

[00:44:43] organization of the future.

[00:44:45] Cause you know,

[00:44:45] this one talks about the next article is about what salespeople gain from B2B

[00:44:49] e-commerce and customer portals,

[00:44:50] because in part of what this is talking about is that it's very easy for

[00:44:55] field salespeople,

[00:44:56] especially,

[00:44:57] you know,

[00:44:58] older one,

[00:44:59] excuse me,

[00:44:59] older ones who have been around forever is the idea that they're in a

[00:45:05] position of,

[00:45:07] wait a minute.

[00:45:08] If my customer is buying online,

[00:45:10] I might not be managing and controlling the relationship.

[00:45:12] Like I had,

[00:45:13] and as well as then being worried about,

[00:45:16] do I get compensated the same way or worrying about,

[00:45:19] yeah,

[00:45:19] maybe they're paying me the same way,

[00:45:21] but are they always going to pay me the same way?

[00:45:23] So there's,

[00:45:23] this is a good article.

[00:45:25] Uh,

[00:45:25] and it's,

[00:45:26] it,

[00:45:26] it leads right into the next one,

[00:45:27] which is from,

[00:45:28] uh,

[00:45:29] sales and marketing management.com,

[00:45:31] which talks about three ways,

[00:45:32] gen AI shapes and empowers B2B enterprise sales and marketing.

[00:45:36] And I thought that ties this kind of put them,

[00:45:38] I tried to lay these articles out for us this week in a way that we kind of,

[00:45:43] drew them all together.

[00:45:44] And this one kind of puts a bow around that one,

[00:45:47] which I liked.

[00:45:47] Did you look at this too close,

[00:45:49] very closely?

[00:45:50] Yeah,

[00:45:51] I did.

[00:45:51] Any thoughts on it?

[00:45:53] Um,

[00:45:54] I thought it was fine,

[00:45:55] but I thought it was missing something very important.

[00:45:57] Okay.

[00:45:57] Let's,

[00:45:58] let's catch,

[00:45:58] let's catch the ones that they talked about.

[00:46:00] Why don't you hit those?

[00:46:01] Why don't you hit those first?

[00:46:02] And then I can talk about the one that's missing.

[00:46:04] Okay.

[00:46:04] Uh,

[00:46:05] let me see.

[00:46:05] I've got this up on the screen here.

[00:46:07] One gen AI brings structure to unruly data sets.

[00:46:10] This is a referencing an Oracle study that says 78% of business leaders often make decisions

[00:46:16] and then look for the data to justify their decisions.

[00:46:20] Yeah.

[00:46:21] It's awesome.

[00:46:22] You see that all the time,

[00:46:23] right?

[00:46:23] Sure.

[00:46:24] Um,

[00:46:25] then it moves on to say,

[00:46:27] number two is gen AI unlocked the experimentation at scale,

[00:46:31] which is pretty cool,

[00:46:32] right?

[00:46:32] Because now we can start plugging in thinking about digital twins and so forth in that setting.

[00:46:37] And we can look at scenarios and,

[00:46:38] and experiment with what could be going on in the business.

[00:46:41] And then number three,

[00:46:42] gen AI supports,

[00:46:43] but doesn't replace human creativity.

[00:46:46] And it talks about,

[00:46:47] you know,

[00:46:47] using Dally and other tools for,

[00:46:49] for graphics and so forth with AI,

[00:46:51] but you still have to start off with an idea.

[00:46:53] I think was the point behind that one.

[00:46:55] So,

[00:46:56] um,

[00:46:56] it says,

[00:46:57] and it kind of,

[00:46:58] it wraps up with gen AI require sales and marketing teams to pivot and understanding how to use them and benefit from them.

[00:47:05] Uh,

[00:47:06] so anyways,

[00:47:06] those were the three point,

[00:47:07] uh,

[00:47:08] structure to unruly data sets,

[00:47:09] unlocks experimentation at scale and,

[00:47:12] uh,

[00:47:13] expands and supports and helps,

[00:47:14] uh,

[00:47:15] human creativity.

[00:47:16] So what were we,

[00:47:17] what were we missing with that?

[00:47:18] Well,

[00:47:18] it's,

[00:47:19] it was actually part of number one,

[00:47:20] if number one,

[00:47:21] what they were talking about data sets,

[00:47:23] they were focused on unstructured data,

[00:47:25] if you noticed in there.

[00:47:26] So,

[00:47:27] and I think it's a big miss.

[00:47:29] I know it's a big miss.

[00:47:30] It's not a thing.

[00:47:31] I know it's a big miss to be thinking about your data as it relates to AI is only the unstructured data,

[00:47:38] meaning all of this stuff is in documents and things like that.

[00:47:42] PBS spec sheets,

[00:47:44] that type of stuff.

[00:47:45] Right.

[00:47:45] What I'm,

[00:47:46] what we're seeing is maybe even more valuable is the structured data that you have in the organization,

[00:47:53] which is the data that you can put into a spreadsheet,

[00:47:56] right?

[00:47:56] It comes from a ERP system or a CRM or,

[00:47:59] uh,

[00:48:00] you know,

[00:48:00] different things like that,

[00:48:01] where you have all this structured data.

[00:48:03] And if you can combine the structured data in AI with the unstructured data,

[00:48:09] truly one plus one is five in that situation.

[00:48:12] And I think it's really being overlooked.

[00:48:15] Um,

[00:48:16] it's,

[00:48:17] I think it's even being overlooked by some of the AI.

[00:48:20] Overlooked may be too strong a word,

[00:48:22] not given enough,

[00:48:24] enough importance at this point in time.

[00:48:26] Um,

[00:48:27] and I do believe that's going to be a key key.

[00:48:30] It's not,

[00:48:30] I guess I believe I'm proving it.

[00:48:32] We're proving it every day.

[00:48:33] You see it every day,

[00:48:34] right?

[00:48:34] The key thing to really being able to have that knowledge and understanding and all the things that we just talked about.

[00:48:41] So anyway,

[00:48:42] um,

[00:48:42] in that,

[00:48:43] I thought it was fine.

[00:48:44] It just,

[00:48:44] I thought they'd missed the boat a little bit on not talking about some of the ability to leverage structured data as well as unstructured data.

[00:48:51] So what they really missed was that they didn't ask you to edit the article.

[00:48:56] That's probably true.

[00:48:57] Or even have me write the article.

[00:48:59] So,

[00:49:00] but you know,

[00:49:01] all right.

[00:49:02] I've got a list of articles.

[00:49:03] If you're right,

[00:49:04] whenever you're ready,

[00:49:05] I got a list of articles I'd like you to write.

[00:49:07] So,

[00:49:07] well,

[00:49:07] you know,

[00:49:07] um,

[00:49:08] opening,

[00:49:08] I just released a chat GPT,

[00:49:10] just released a great product.

[00:49:12] Yesterday for accelerating writing of articles and building things and stuff like that.

[00:49:17] So talk about that real quick.

[00:49:18] I didn't see that.

[00:49:19] I missed the misty.

[00:49:21] Yeah.

[00:49:21] They have the 12 days of 12 days of Christmas or something where they're releasing new,

[00:49:27] a new feature every,

[00:49:28] every day for 12 days.

[00:49:29] I think they're on day six today or seven.

[00:49:32] I'm not sure.

[00:49:33] And,

[00:49:33] um,

[00:49:33] yesterday they released what they're calling canvas,

[00:49:36] where you could bring up a document.

[00:49:38] Let's say you're building an article,

[00:49:40] but right there on the screen,

[00:49:42] you can interact with it and ask it questions or ask the AI questions to help refine what you're doing right there in the article and what you're building.

[00:49:51] So it's not like you just ask the AI to build an article and it spits something out and then you have to go edit it and figure it out.

[00:49:57] You can collaboratively go back and forth and build content through there.

[00:50:01] Really?

[00:50:02] I've used it a couple of times now.

[00:50:03] It's really,

[00:50:04] really,

[00:50:05] um,

[00:50:06] a time saver.

[00:50:07] And it,

[00:50:07] I think it,

[00:50:08] well,

[00:50:08] I know it provides more quality content because you're not just producing something going to AI produce something and doing a few edits to it.

[00:50:16] You're collaborating with it.

[00:50:18] So anyway,

[00:50:19] I'll,

[00:50:19] I'll log in and check that out later and get some others on our team looking at that.

[00:50:24] I also saw earlier in the week that they,

[00:50:26] uh,

[00:50:27] uh,

[00:50:27] expanded out and launched more,

[00:50:29] um,

[00:50:30] with,

[00:50:31] um,

[00:50:33] got a nice little note there from Rodney Williams.