Podcast

In this episode, we have our guest Sarah Barnes-Humphrey from Shipz, who shares her knowledge of the international supply chain and trading. She discusses the challenges associated with traders and manufacturers as they go through the process of international trading.

Since Sarah is highly influential on LinkedIn and in the international supply chain community with over 26,000 followers on her podcast and 11,000 personal followers, we also had a chance to briefly touch on her productivity secrets. And why LinkedIn is essential for personal branding and community development.

Chapter Markers

• [0:00] Intro
• [3:59] Personal journey and current focus
• [4:38] Her LinkedIn journey
• [7:51] Her productivity secrets
• [9:07] Recommendation for executives why LinkedIn matters
• [10:40] Impact of LinkedIn on Sarah’s personal and professional life
• [11:33] Overview and international supply chain benefits of Shipz
• [14:57] Where Shipz fits among other systems such as ERP or TMS
• [17:53] International supply chain roadmap for Shipz platform
• [19:50] How importers and exporters can save on their international supply chain activities
• [25:51] Collaboration with international supply chain custom brokers
• [26:41] Current practices and lesson learned on international shipments
• [28:40] INCO terms for importers and exporters
• [29:15] Closing thoughts
• [30:05] Outro

Key Takeaways

• You should put aside a certain amount of time on a daily basis to really cultivate, engage. And when engaging on LinkedIn, it’s really, really important to not only react to a post but to comment on a post and even share a post with some of your comments about what you’re posting and why you’re posting it.
• It’s very difficult from an importer and exporter standpoint, to really compare apples-to-apples, when you’re dealing with three to five freight providers on every single shipment to provide you know, rates and different things like that you’re getting three to five different quotations back with three to five different terms and conditions.
• If your shipper overseas is paying for the freight to your door, they are putting the freight charges onto your commercial invoice, if they’re not breaking out the taxes and the duties, you’re actually paying taxes, or sorry, if they’re not breaking out the freight portion of what you’re paying for freight on the product that you’re buying, you’re actually paying taxes and duties on that portion, which you don’t need to.

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About Sarah

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey is the co-founder and CEO of the innovative bid-and-ship freight platform Shipz Inc.

Born from a family of logistics entrepreneurs, Supply Chain was in Sarah’s blood from the get-go, and that natural flair has only grown over time. Over the course of her career, Sarah has held leadership roles in numerous disciplines across Supply Chain, from operations to sales and marketing, and it was the insights and expertise gained during this time, that helped Sarah identify a gap in the market and go on to found Shipz. With Shipz, Sarah is on a mission to change the face of international shipping.

Passionate about collaboration, transparency and diversity, Sarah also brings her infectious enthusiasm and dedication to better business to her popular podcast, Let’s Talk Supply Chain. Bringing awareness to brands and hot topics in the industry, Let’s Talk Supply Chain, and its sister shows Women in Supply Chain and Blended, deliver thought-provoking questions and lively discussion, weekly.

Sarah has been voted ‘Top 100 Most Influential Women Leaders in Supply Chain (global)’ and ‘Top 100 Most Influential Women in Canadian Supply Chain,’ and is a regular contributor in thought- leadership at key industry events. 

Resources

• Connect with Sarah
  • LinkedIn | Facebook| Twitter
• Connect with Shipz
  • Website| Facebook | Linkedin | Twitter | Instagram
• Lets Talk Supply Chain Podcast
  • Website| Linkedin| Instagram| Twitter| YouTube

Full Transcript

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 0:00

We talked to a lot of people and the pain that their teams are going through. Like I’m talking to some international supply chain stakeholders right now, where their teams are begging their team leaders to find a better way for this process just because and that also is kudos to the next generation that’s coming up as well and is handling some of this stuff. And they are kind of like why are we doing it this way?

Intro 0:24

Growing a business requires a holistic approach that extends beyond sales and marketing. This approach needs alignment among people, processes, and technologies.

So if you’re a business owner, operations, or finance leader looking to learn growth strategies from your peers and competitors, you’re tuned into the right podcast. Welcome to the WBS podcast where scalable growth using business systems is our number one priority.

Now, here is your host, Sam Gupta.

Sam Gupta 1:01

Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of The WBS podcast. I’m Sam Gupta, your host, and principal consultant at the digital transformation consulting firm, ElevateIQ.

The international supply chain is entirely different from the domestic. Growing internationally requires you to understand various stakeholders and processes involved. The new collaborators could be importers, exporters, custom brokerage shops, freight providers, and regulatory agencies. The process is extremely complex and involved. This process also exposes you to new risks unfamiliar to you. The lack of understanding of the international supply chain process and risks could be a hit on your growth ambitions.

In today’s episode, we have our guest, Sarah Barnes-Humphrey from Shipz, who shares her knowledge of the international supply chain and trading. She discusses the challenges associated for traders and manufacturers as they go through the process of international trading.

Since Sarah is highly influential on LinkedIn and in the supply chain community with over 26,000 followers on her podcast and 11,000 personal followers, we also had a chance to briefly touch on her productivity secrets and why LinkedIn is essential for personal branding and community development.

Sam Gupta 2:29

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey is the co-founder and CEO of innovative bid and ship freight platform Shipz, Inc.

Born from a family of logistics entrepreneurs supply chain was in Sarah’s blood from the get-go and that natural flair has only grown over time. Over the course of our career, Sarah has had leadership roles in numerous disciplines across the supply chain from operations to sales and marketing, and it was the insights and expertise gained during this time that helped Sarah identify a gap in the market and go on to form Shipz. With Shipz, Sarah is on a mission to change the face of international shipping.

Passionate about collaboration, transparency, and diversity, Sarah also brings her infectious enthusiasm and dedication to better business to her popular podcast Let’s Talk Supply Chain. Bringing awareness to brands and hot topics in the industry, Let’s Talk Supply Chain and its sister shows Women in Supply Chain and Blended deliver thought-provoking questions and lively discussion weekly.

Sarah has been voted top 100 most influential woman leaders in supply chain globally and top 100 most influential women in Canadian supply chain and is a regular contributor in thought leadership and key industry events.

With that, let’s get to the conversation.

Hey, Sarah, welcome to the show.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 3:52

Hey, Sam, I am super excited to be here to talk about everything that we are going to talk about today.

Sam Gupta 3:59 – Sarah’s personal journey and current focus

And I’m so excited to have you as well, just because the kind of you know, following you have obviously you are very famous in the supply chain space. But my listeners may not be familiar with you. Would you like to talk a little bit about what do you guys do?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 4:13

Sure. Yeah, absolutely. So I have been in supply chain logistics for over 20 years. Currently, right now I am the founder and host of Let’s Talk Supply Chain, which is a podcast, a blog, we do live streams, all sorts of things.

And then I’m also the CEO of Shipz, which is a new online marketplace platform for international shipping.

Sam Gupta 4:38 – Her LinkedIn journey

Okay, amazing Sarah, obviously, you know, you have a large following on LinkedIn. And if I look at, you know, my operations or the finance guys from the manufacturing, they are typically complaining about the workload.

So I want to know your secrets. You know, what you do to make sure that you are personally engaging with every single follower that you have. And I would like to know the count of your followers as well.

So could you touch a little bit on that?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 5:04

Sure. Yeah, absolutely. I don’t know if I have a secret sauce. But on our Let’s Talk Supply Chain LinkedIn page, we have just over 26,000 followers, on my personal LinkedIn, I have just over 11,000 followers as well.

I feel like I interact with everybody. And I take time to do that because they take time to interact with me. And I think that it’s very important. It’s something that I live by on a day-to-day basis, I do schedule some time to go through, you know, LinkedIn, and some of the messages, it can get overwhelming at times.

Because not only do you have people responding to posts, either through comments or reactions, but you’ve also got people sending you messages through the messaging function as well. And so I do spend a lot of time on LinkedIn. But that’s also because I’m cultivating and bringing together the community.

And yeah, so I don’t think I have any secrets. But I do, I would say that you should put aside, you know, a certain amount of time on a daily basis to really cultivate, engage. And when I talk about engaging on LinkedIn, it’s really, really important to not only react to a post but to comment on a post and even share a post with some of your comments about what you’re posting and why you’re posting it.

Sam Gupta 6:29

So in the case of you Sarah, I mean, you are not only engaging on LinkedIn, I think you are responding to the direct messages as well. When I approached you, you probably didn’t know me, but you responded right away.

Let’s say if I talk to my CEOs, and I’m talking to a lot of them on a daily basis, obviously, they are very busy. So they cannot respond to everyone.

But in your case, I get a very different energy.

So how do you keep up with all of this?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 6:54

It’s not easy. But I definitely make a point. I mean, if somebody is going to take their time to message me, I definitely want to message something back.

And that’s just, you know, one of the values that I live by, and so I definitely make sure that I have time to do that.

Sam Gupta 7:10

So you said that you don’t have any secret sauce, but in my opinion, you do because personally engaging with 26,000 followers, and 11,000 your personal followers, and I don’t know if there is going to be an overlap between these two.

But that seems to be a secret sauce.

So you have to tell me, what is your productivity secret?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 7:29

Well, I do have a team of people. I mean, it’s not just me. So I do have a team of people at Let’s Talk Supply Chain, that is handling some of the social media, I have a virtual assistant, content creator, communications manager, all of that kind of stuff.

So they definitely helped me. And so most of the things that I’m engaging with are from my personal LinkedIn.

Sam Gupta 7:51 – Sarah’s productivity secrets

Okay. But I mean, do you have any advice for your fellow CEOs in terms of how they can have a similar presence on LinkedIn? In terms of time management?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 8:02

Yeah, I would, I would definitely just suggest to dedicate and be intentional about some time that you’re going to set aside during your day to spend on LinkedIn.

Once you’re on LinkedIn, I think that it’s really important to react to some of the posts that you want to react to, I think it’s important to comment. And a lot of the times when we comment, that’s where people really see who we are. And it gives them a chance to interact with us and you can start a conversation, you never know where that’s going to lead.

So I highly, highly recommend getting into some of those comments, really engaging with the community through different types of posts. And then I would also share, like, if you have if there’s anything that you’ve resonated with, or any posts that you’ve resonated with, I would definitely suggest that you share it, but when you share it, don’t just share it. I think you need to share it with some of your comments. Why are you re-sharing this? What did it mean to you? What resonated with you from that post, and maybe even a shout-out to the author?

Sam Gupta 9:07 – Recommendation for executives why LinkedIn matters

Okay, I could not agree more with that advice, Sarah. And in fact, I mean, when I look at the manufacturing audience, they might not even have a LinkedIn account. Some of them I mean, are obviously very active, but some of them may not even have a LinkedIn account.

So let’s say if somebody is simply starting on the LinkedIn journey, they don’t have as many connections at this point in time, and they want to get to 25,000 followers.

How can they do it?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 9:33

Honestly, it’s really just through interacting and spending some time on it, spending some time on LinkedIn connecting with those that you know, I think that it’s super important that if you do have a team that’s generating social media for your company, that you get involved with it, you can see comments from outsiders that are commenting on your posts, and you get a good sense of who’s out there in your community.

And so I would go to you or companies, social media, or your LinkedIn page, go through it, see if there are some connections on there that you want to connect with. Then I would also just start, you can follow some hashtags as well. And you can find some people that way you can search by job function.

So if you want to connect with some other CEOs that are maybe not in your industry, you can also use the search function to be able to do that. And you can look through the list once you’ve done that search, and you can connect with those people as well. It’s also very important when you do connect with those people that you include a message because a lot of people want to hear from you and want to hear why you’re connecting with them.

Sam Gupta 10:40 – Impact of LinkedIn on Sarah’s personal and professional life

Okay, so how long have you been doing LinkedIn? And what has been the impact of LinkedIn, on your business and on your personal life?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 10:48

So I’ve been on LinkedIn for quite a while. But I have to say that I really didn’t start using it probably until well, actually, no, I was using it religiously, I guess, probably back to 2012. But I really started using it from a media perspective.

So I was using it from a sales perspective from 2012 to about 2016. And then as of 2016, when we started the podcast, I really started using LinkedIn, for my own personal reach, and also to build up the brand’s reach as well. And we’ve probably accumulated that 25,000 – 26,000 followers over the last two years.

Sam Gupta 11:33 – Overview and international supply chain benefits of Shipz

Okay, amazing. So let’s shift the gears a bit. And basically, we want to cover your, your business as well. We want to see how our audience manufacturers and distributors can benefit from Shipz.

So can you talk a little bit more about, you know, Shipz? And how manufacturers and distributors can take advantage of that?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 11:50

Sure. Yeah, absolutely. I would love to. So my background is in logistics, I worked for a 3PL in operations, done all sorts of operations, and then in sales. And What that did was it gave me a good view as to what it meant to be a freight provider, and also what it meant to be an importer and exporter.

What I quickly realized was that there is a lot of disconnect between the two. And there still is today. So what we did was we took what the importers and the exporters are doing when they’re trying to find rates for their air and their ocean freight shipments. And we took what the providers are doing, and we brought it online into a digital marketplace.

So importers and exporters usually go to three to five different providers to get rate quotes. They also go to them when they need benchmarking rates.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 12:41

Well, Shipz.com now offers you an option to get benchmarking rates at your fingertips, so you no longer have to exhaust your freight providers. And then once the shipment is close to being ready, you can then go to a variety of different freight providers to provide you with real-time rates so that you can take a look at what’s out in the market.

Take a look at what the pricing is like. And then you can also book it through our platform as well. And a lot of importers and exporters, complain about having multiple different logins when they’re dealing with multiple different freight providers, Shipz provides one login, we also provide one vendor account.

So if you want to try out a new freight provider, you no longer have to go through the rigmarole of setting them up as a vendor in your system, you can set up one vendor account with ships, and that will take care of all of the different freight for freight providers that you want to try out and use.

Sam Gupta 13:38

So does that mean let’s say if I’m a manufacturer, and I’m actually shipping my electronic goods, and I’m importing some of the parts from China, can I simply use your portal and get connected with every single shipper out there?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 13:53

Absolutely. So you can log in to our system, put in all of your shipment details. And then you can either get your costing information with the click of a button. Or you can go out to a variety of different freight providers that will provide you with real-time rates on your shipment at that moment.

Sam Gupta 14:11

So what I’m hearing here is let’s say if I want to ship my goods, and I want to know the competitive rate, and I want to compare the different rates of different shippers, I can go to your platform and I can compare those rates and select the one that makes sense for me, right?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 14:23

Yes, absolutely. That’s exactly how it works.

Sam Gupta 14:27

Okay, do you guys do last-mile delivery as well? Or is that not part of your platform.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 14:32

So we don’t do last-mile delivery as a separate function. So when you come onto the platform, you can put in all of your air freight and your ocean freight shipment information. And if you’d like it to be delivered to the door, then you can utilize the INCO term for door delivery and those freight providers will quote you from door to door or port to door. Whatever you need. They can provide the rates for that.

Sam Gupta 14:57 – Where Shipz fits among other systems such as ERP or TMS

Okay, and in the ERP space, obviously, there are several different players. And I don’t know if you’re familiar with them, there are some of the players named, let’s say ProcessWeaver they are integrated with a lot of different ERP systems.

And what they do is they provide the carrier integration. I don’t know if they do air and ocean as well, but they have, let’s say, FedEx, the UPS of the world, you know, and all the trucking companies that a manufacturer or distributor need from the rate perspective, that is one.

And then we have a company called Pacejet. They also provide a similar sort of functionality, each of them is present in the specific ERP ecosystems.

So are you guys planning to be in any specific ecosystem from the ERP perspective?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 15:41

We are definitely working on integration at this very moment because we realized that it’s important for our customers to be able to be integrated with our system, as well as the freight providers as well.

So we want it to be a seamless, seamless operation for you, but we are agnostic. So we will be integrating with our customers’ TMS systems, their transportation management systems, or ERP systems, however, they have it set up and it will all flow through the Shipz platform.

Sam Gupta 16:12

Okay, so when we look at the landscape of TMS systems, sometimes it could be all over the place.

For example, let’s say if you look at you know, ProcessWeaver, they like to call themselves a TMS. But my understanding of the TMS system is more from transportation management where you could have a lot more functionality in terms of managing your logistics processes.

Obviously, the the the rate shopping is part of that too. So from your perspective, since you guys don’t plan to cover the trucking part, which is going to be essential, in my opinion for the manufacturers, and distributors when they are doing the rate shopping, because when they are doing great shopping, they are going from point A to point B.

Now Point A to Point B could be based on air, it could be based on you know, road, it could be based on the ocean, what they are looking for is the most competitive rate that they need to shop based on the platform.

So for you, would it make more sense to integrate with some of these players, for example, ProcessWeaver? Or would you directly integrate with an ERP system and work with manufacturers directly?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 17:14

So that’s a very loaded question. And it’s not that we’re not going to get into trucking. But we’ll definitely get into trucking later on.

What we do want to focus on is air and ocean freight. And one of the reasons for that is because it’s more complex. There’s not a lot of players, there are a lot of options when it comes to trucking when it comes to the last mile.

And so what we want to do with the platform is that we want to integrate with companies like that, to be able to provide that last mile to be able to provide the trucking and so we can have a full ecosystem for our customers. So we will be integrating on both sides. We’ll be doing an API with companies like them.

Sam Gupta 17:53 – International supply chain roadmap for Shipz platform

Okay, amazing. With respect to the trucking roadmap, I don’t know when that is going to be there.

Do you have any sort of roadmap with respect to ERP integration? which particular ERP system are you going to be planning first? Or maybe a TMS system? Do you have any of that roadmap right now?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 18:09

Yeah, so we’re focused more on the provider side at this very moment. So most of them are a lot of them are with Cargowise. And so we would be looking at the integration there.

And then we’ll be looking at the solution of more API integration with the importers and the exporters. Although we’re we are already in talks with some of our importers and exporters to already be doing that.

So it’ll most likely happen simultaneously.

Sam Gupta 18:38

Okay, and for the benefit of listeners who are not familiar with terms like providers and supply chain, could you help understand, you know what that means?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 18:47

Sure, yeah. So a freight provider can be a freight forwarding company who is a company that you would work with for your less than container truckload, your full container load, your air freight shipments, it could also mean airlines directly.

And it can also mean steamship lines or ocean carriers directly as well.

Sam Gupta 19:07

Okay, amazing. Are there any specific carrier that you are working at this point in time?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 19:12

No, we are. We are definitely agnostic in the industry. So one of the things that we wanted to do with this platform was to make sure that we were agnostic.

And so we invite different freight providers onto the platform, as well as you know, different importers and exporters as well so that the importers and the exporters can get a variety of different freight providers who are doing some very different things, some amazing things in the industry, and you wouldn’t necessarily have access to them otherwise.

And so we want to bring just everybody together onto the platform to be able to do better business when it comes to air freight ocean freight shipments.

Sam Gupta 19:50 – How importers and exporters can save on their international supply chain activities

You know, one of the things that I had noted during our first conversation about reducing the cost of the shipments. I think that’s one of the value propositions you had when I started talking about this specific topic with you.

So tell us a little bit more about how manufacturers can save money with their freight shipping at this point in time. And what are some challenges in the industry?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 20:14

Yeah, so there are so many different ways. And that’s such a great question, Sam.

So a lot of the challenges when it comes to importers and exporters when they are either pricing their air and ocean freight shipments, or booking their air and ocean freight shipments, is something that I mentioned earlier with the multiple logins. So there are multiple logins, you forget your password, so you’re spending a lot of time there. And then also, if you want to use a new freight provider, you have to set them up as a new vendor.

And so there’s a lot of time spent on that as well. There’s also a lot of time spent on email and Excel. And what happens there is that you’re going back and forth by email with your freight provider for costing, you’re going back and forth with them, once the shipment is ready to provide actually real-time pricing, you’re going back and forth with them when there’s when it’s booked. And there’s multiple different contacts for multiple different pieces of that shipment.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 21:13

Right. So you’ve got the pricing department when it comes to costing when it comes to taking a look at the real-time pricing, then you’ve got your operations team that takes over. And so you’ve got another person another email, and they might have colleagues and documentation is going back and forth by email and it’s getting lost and people are putting it into folders and not remembering where they are or maybe putting them into the wrong folders.

So there is just so much time because think about that they’re going to three to five different providers with every single one of those things. And so it’s just a massive amount of emails and contacts and missing documents and all that kind of stuff. We want to fix that because it really shouldn’t be that difficult. And it really shouldn’t be that time-consuming.

So just from that side of things, we are saving importers and exporters so much time, because what we do is we keep all of the interaction with the freight provider on our platform, you can keep the documents on our platform in that particular PO.

So if you give your username and password to somebody else on your team, they can go in and see exactly what’s been happening with that shipment. And they don’t have to go into your email or ask you to resend you an email. So just from that respect alone, I mean, we are saving companies two to three hours a day.

Sam Gupta 22:40

That’s amazing. I could not agree more with this whole, you know, collaboration and communication aspect, from the delivery perspective, because I was looking at one of the companies that did the last-mile delivery, and they would like, you know, $40 million. And they did the last mile delivery.

And I guess they had 4000 orders per month and the amount of churn that they had in their operations department. It was a nightmare, to be honest, we see a lot of complexity in the ERP space is with manufacturers and retailers as well. But this was different. So I can definitely relate to the complexity that you just mentioned.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 23:20

Yeah. And it’s crazy that, you know, we did a lot of research before we decided to launch Shipz, the way that we the platform, the way that we have built it.

And we talked to a lot of people and the pain that their teams are going through like I’m talking to some importers and exporters right now. where their teams are begging their team leaders to find a better way for this process just because and that also is kudos to the next generation that’s coming up as well and is handling some of this stuff and they are kind of like why are we doing it this way?

Sam Gupta 23:57

There are so many different elements from the costing perspective as well. And I don’t know what all you guys are planning to cover there is a customs brokerage, I think that custom isn’t going to be more in a lot of different international shipments, the companies that are collaborating with the neighboring countries, for example, here in US and Canada, there needs to be a NAFTA documentation. I don’t know if you guys get into all of that, but it could be fairly complex.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 24:22

Yeah, yeah. So when you do ask for a quotation, you can ask the freight providers to quote customs or insurance. Usually, most importers do have their own customs broker. So that doesn’t come up as much.

So I think, you know, there are options there as well for them to be able to get that quoted, but you’re right. I mean, air and ocean freight, you know, shipping internationally is quite complex.

Sam Gupta 24:50

Right. So, let’s say if I’m working with you, I’m a manufacturer and you are helping me with my freight quote.

So do I need to worry about the need Some brokers separately is it going to be embedded as part of the price that you are going to offer me on your platform?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 25:07

It’s really up to you. If you have your own customs broker, you can use your own customs broker, you can let the freight provider know through our platform who your customs broker is. Or if you’d like them to take care of customs, you can actually just by clicking a button, let them know that you would like them to include customs in their quote, and they can provide you with that part of the pricing.

And then also, they can provide you with that service as well. The one thing that you mentioned was the documentation. So we have an area where you can upload documentation as an importer and exporter. And the freight provider can upload documentation as well.

So again, it stays within that PO, and you’re not having to search for it everywhere. And you can just exchange documents through our platform.

Sam Gupta 25:51 – Collaboration with international supply chain custom brokers

Okay, wonderful. And one of the things that you mentioned during this conversation is, you know, let’s say if I want to invite my own customs broker, and he or she is not part of the platform, what would be the workflow in your system to invite them and interact with them?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 26:08

Yeah, so you would just send a message to the freight provider that you have chosen to let them know who your customs broker is with the contact details, and then the freight forwarder will contact them once the shipment is at that point. And so it’s, it’s very, very easy.

What we are working on as well as expanding the profile for the importer and the exporter so that they can keep information within their profile and be able to share that with the freight provider as well. So if they wanted to keep their customs broker information there, and just, you know, do a quick transfer over to the freight provider, we’re working on upgrading some of those features as we move along as well.

Sam Gupta 26:47 – Current practices and lesson learned on international shipments

Okay, amazing. Do you have any perspective in terms of the sort of mistakes that manufacturers or distributors might be doing at this point of time, in choosing their their freight provider, or maybe making that more expensive than it needs to be?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 27:02

Yeah, I think it’s very difficult from an importer and exporter standpoint, to really compare apples-to-apples, when you’re dealing with three to five freight providers on every single shipment to provide you know, rates and different things like that you’re getting three to five different quotations back with three to five different terms and conditions.

And you know, there could be some ancillary charges on there, there could be some charges that are put in the fine print that you might not have noticed or didn’t even realize. And so the shipment ends up being costing you more than it really should have.

The other thing to take note of is if you’re relying on your, on your shipper overseas to pay for the freight, this is a big one. So if your shipper overseas is paying for the freight to your door, they are putting the freight charges onto your commercial invoice, if they’re not breaking out the taxes and the duties, you’re actually paying taxes or sorry, if they’re not breaking out the freight portion of what you’re paying for freight on the product that you’re buying, you’re actually paying taxes and duties on that portion, which you don’t need to.

And so that’s a really simple hack, that if you do leave it up to somebody else to move your freight and to charge you for that freight, you want to make sure that the freight charges are being broken out so that you’re not spending too much money or too much additional money on taxes and duties when you really don’t need to.

Sam Gupta 28:40 – INCO terms for importers and exporters

Oh, my goodness, I mean, my head spins when I look at all of those INCO terms who is responsible for the delivery? Who owns the good? Oh my goodness, it’s so complex.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 28:51

It really, really is. Yeah, we actually have a chart for INCO terms on our platform, because we want to help people understand a little bit more about the INCO terms what they mean because it really makes a difference to your business because it talks about where the risk is being transferred.

So not only where the payment is being transferred, but also the risk of the shipment is being transferred as well.

Sam Gupta 29:15

Okay, amazing. So that’s that’s it for today. Do you have any last-minute thoughts by any chance for our audience?

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 29:21

No, I just I would just encourage everybody to go to Shipz.com. Check us out. If you’re looking for a demo, reach out to me at Sarah@shipz.com.

And Sam, I just wanted to let you know like I’m really excited about your podcast. I think you guys are doing some amazing things. And I really just enjoyed being on your show.

Sam Gupta 29:46

Thank you so much for your time Sarah and just to touch on your contact information that is going to be part of our show notes.

And we are going to be including some reference material as well. So if anybody wants to learn about either Shipz or Sarah We are going to have all of that on our page.

Sarah Barnes-Humphrey 30:03

Great. Thank you, Sam.

Sam Gupta 30:05

I cannot thank our guests enough for coming on to the show for sharing their knowledge and journey. I always pick up stuff from our guests, and hopefully, you learned something new today.

If you want to learn more about Sarah, please visit letstalksupplychain.com. Importers and exporters can also sign up at shipz.com. Links and more information will also be available in the show notes. If anything in this podcast resonated with you and your business, you might want to check other related episodes, including the interview with Chase Clymer from ElectricEye, who brings a unique perspective on growth from the angle of ecommerce toolset and Shopify. Also, the interview with Jason Chester from InfinityQS, who touches on growth from a real-time manufacturing quality intelligence standpoint.

Also, don’t forget to subscribe and spread the word among folks with similar backgrounds. If you have any questions or comments about the show, please review and rate us on your favorite podcasting platform or DM me on any social channels. I’ll try my best to respond personally and make sure you get help. Thank you and I hope to catch you on the next episode of the WBS podcast.

Outro 31:31

Thank you for listening to another episode of The WBS podcast. Be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform so you never miss an episode. For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, check out our community at wbs.rocks. We’ll see you next time.

In this episode, we have our guest, Chase Clymer, who brings a unique perspective for manufacturers and e-commerce merchants from his experience of helping customers getting their e-commerce businesses to grow from the ground up using Shopify.

He also shares his in-field experiences of what makes an e-commerce toolset or architecture, especially Shopify, successful.

Chapter Markers

• [0:00] Intro
• [2:14] Chase’s personal story and current focus
• [2:51] How to start on the e-commerce journey?
• [4:54] Overview of Shopify ecosystem
• [7:03] Differences of Shopify needs for B2B and B2C business models
• [8:38] Recommended verticals for Shopify
• [9:46] Limitations of Shopify
• [11:41] Shopify architecture patterns
• [13:54] Shopify gift card strategy
• [15:46] E-commerce KPIs
• [24:59] 30-60-90 plan to hire a Shopify agency
• [26:35] Closing thoughts
• [27:54] Outro

Key Takeaways

• For the customization of like wholesale orders in bulk ordering, Shopify is just a pain in the butt to make that work the right way that you probably want it to work.
• If you’re looking to expand direct-to-consumer, that’s a new growth goal for you, then, then you’re just launching a direct-to-consumer website on a platform that’s perfectly great for it.
• If you’re in fashion, or if you’re selling like a consumer packaged goods, or you know, just like a physical product, low SKU count, Shopify is amazing.
• Shopify has an inherent 99 variant limit on its products. For example, if you have it in 10 colors in 10 sizes, you’ve just hit 100 variants.
• Your user experience is directly responsible for your conversion rate, you got to make it easy to navigate, you need to make it easy to understand, you want to make sure people aren’t falling out of the funnel and Goofy places because of goofy stuff happening with your website.
• If you don’t understand how customers like to shop, or best practices for e-commerce, sometimes if you make a wonky decision in your website design or the layout, or how things are filtered, or how things are kind of played in the navigation, it can be detrimental to your conversion rate.

Subscribe and Review

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About Chase

Chase Clymer is the Co-founder at Electric Eye where he and his team create Shopify-powered sales machines from strategic design, development, and marketing decisions.

He is also the host of Honest Ecommerce, a weekly podcast where we provide online store owners with honest, actionable advice to increase their sales and grow their business.

Resources

• Connect with Chase
  • LinkedIn
• Connect with Electric Eye
  • Website| Facebook | Linkedin | Twitter | Instagram
• Honest E-commerce Podcast
  • Website| Facebook | Twitter| YouTube
• YouTube video – E-commerce KPIs and Metrics – Mentioned at 21:32
  • Why your user (or customer) experience matters and the profits you could unlock

Full Transcript

Chase Clymer 0:00

E-commerce is cool. And the numbers behind it are super cool. And it comes down to three realistic numbers and anybody listening to this that has an e-commerce store, you can like, do this with your numbers for the last 30 days and you’ll be like, Wow, he was right. That’s crazy.

Intro 0:15

Growing a business requires a holistic approach that extends beyond sales and marketing. This approach needs alignment among people, processes, and technologies.

So if you’re a business owner, operations, or finance leader looking to learn growth strategies from your peers and competitors, you’re tuned into the right podcast. Welcome to the WBS podcast where scalable growth using business systems is our number one priority.

Now, here is your host, Sam Gupta.

Sam Gupta 0:50

Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of The WBS podcast. I’m Sam Gupta, your host, and principal consultant at digital transformation consulting firm, ElevatIQ.

When I was putting together a list of growth topics for this month, that could be valuable for our audience, especially with the changing business environment due to COVID, direct-to-consumer (D2C) strategies were on the top of our list. We wanted to cover D2C from different perspectives, including operations, finance, and marketing.

In today’s episode, we have our guest Chase Clymer who brings a unique perspective for manufacturers and ecommerce merchants from his experience of helping customers getting their ecommerce businesses to grow from the ground up. He also shares his infield experiences of what makes an e-commerce toolset or architecture, especially Shopify successful.

Chase Clymer is the co-founder at Electric Eye, where he and his team create Shopify-powered sales machines from strategic design, development, and marketing decisions. He is also the host of honest ecommerce, a weekly podcast where they provide online store owners with honest actionable advice to increase their sales and grow their business. With that, let’s get to the conversation.

Hey, Chase, welcome to the show.

Chase Clymer 2:12

Hey, thanks for having me.

Sam Gupta 2:14 – Chase’s personal story and current focus

My pleasure. Would you like to tell us a little bit about what you do? And who you help these days?

Chase Clymer 2:20

Yes, my real big boy job these days is I run an e-commerce agency called Electric Eye. We help brands grow through strategic design, development, and marketing initiatives.

What that really means is like we build beautiful websites and help them sell awesome things online for Shopify partners. And it’s been a wild ride.

And along with that, I’m also a podcast host myself, so you can catch me over on the honest ecommerce podcast as well if you enjoy listening to the sound of my voice, which personally I don’t, but some people like what I have to say.

Sam Gupta 2:51 – How to start on the e-commerce journey?

I have actually caught up on some of your episodes, they’re really good. So I would highly recommend Chase’s podcast. It’s amazing. So, Chase, I’m actually going to touch on the topics you just mentioned about strategic marketing.

So let’s say if I have a manufacturer who has never done ecommerce before, and they have no idea how to start on e-commerce, what would be your recommendation for them?

Chase Clymer 3:16

Oh, yeah. So this is a pretty softball question. If you’re, if you have a product, and you have like wholesale accounts and whatnot, and people are buying it off of you, so you know that there’s like a fit out there in the ecosystem for your product, you should definitely reach out to someone that knows what they’re doing, like an agency or a freelancer or anyone else, because it’s going to get you selling so much faster than what I usually see happen is people fail through it for six months to a year and get frustrated.

And it doesn’t really work. Like if there’s a proven market for your product because other people are buying and reselling it like you’re gonna you’re entering a market that you already know that it’ll work.

But one of the bigger things with kind of launching a business. So I’ll give you some like, very straightforward like specific advice is just to start on Shopify, you can get away with using an off-the-shelf theme.

Chase Clymer 4:04

You don’t need a custom $60-$100,000 website. You don’t need to be oversold on any of that stuff. If you’re just getting started and you’ve got a product and you’re a manufacturer or distributor or wholesaler and you’re like looking to go DTC, just get it off the shelf theme. And you just got to get that MVP out there.

Because there’s so much goofy logistical stuff on the back end, you got to figure out like how you’re going to deal with returns and who’s gonna fulfill it, you know, discount codes like email automation, subscriptions, if that’s the space you’re playing, and there’s all that stuff you got to figure out.

So like, don’t spend any time worrying about the look and feel of the website. There are amazing premium themes out there in the marketplace, especially on Shopify, that’ll get you to where you need to be. I know like, honestly, from going from zero to $1 million, you can just you can survive perfectly fine with an off-the-shelf theme.

Sam Gupta 4:54 – Overview of Shopify ecosystem

I couldn’t agree more with respect to your thought process about not worrying about the technical stuff. When You’re simply starting, they should be worrying about the business first, and there is so much to do in the e-commerce business.

So thank you for that thought. And since you mentioned Shopify, you know, obviously, Shopify has a great ecosystem. It’s growing. But do you have any recommendations with respect to any other tools that our listeners can explore?

Chase Clymer 5:19

Yeah, I mean, so here’s the deal. We’re Shopify experts at the agency, right? And obviously, when all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. So we use Shopify a lot. With that being said, there are better tools out there and better solutions out there for different types of businesses, I would sometimes recommend like so if you just have a content business or a website that just content stuff like a Squarespace or WordPress website would be just fine. You don’t need Shopify.

I mean, if you’re a restaurant, you need more specific stuff than a direct-to-consumer website, ie a Shopify site could offer you.

If you’re more wholesale, Shopify is a terrible solution. If you’re B2B, Shopify is a terrible solution.

Chase Clymer 5:56

So like there’s a whole bunch of other stuff you can look at. But if you’re selling a cool product direct to consumer, you know you’re shipping someone a box or something or you know, even these days we got are getting a little bit more into digital, like Shopify is probably a great solution for that if you’re just selling a product to end customer with no other weirdness, but kind of once you kind of get out of that core thing that Shopify is really good at sometimes begins to be more work than it’s worth to make to begin Shopify as well into what you want it to be, you know, trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, as some people would say.

So just kind of really understand that Shopify is great at doing one thing, and one thing well, then anytime, like the further and further you get away from that, it’s probably not a good idea. A perfect example is the other day someone wanted to do like a launch a B2B business, and they were looking at Shopify, and I just told them, this is a terrible idea.

And I introduced him to somebody that knew BigCommerce very well, and they’re off to the races now kind of exploring that. That’s how to launch their business. So all of the solutions that exist out there in the ecosystem, have their fit in there perfectly. It’s just I’ve kind of tied my cart to the Shopify horse because we’re really, really good at it. And it’s a lot more profitable to just stick to what you know.

Sam Gupta 7:03 – Differences of Shopify needs for B2B and B2C business models

Okay, amazing. So since you’ve touched on B2B a bit, and obviously, you know, our listeners are going to be a mix of B2C, as well as B2B.

So can you touch on the differences of how B2C differs from B2B, as far as a tool is concerned like Shopify?

Chase Clymer 7:20

Yeah, I mean, just for the customization of like wholesale orders in bulk ordering, Shopify is just a pain the in the butt to make that work the right the way that you probably want it to work.

So if you’re looking at launching the Shopify website, and you don’t have a plan to go direct-to-consumer right off the rip, you know, it might not be the best fit for you, you got to really, you got to use it for what it’s good at. And it’s, it’s for going to the end, the end customer so you know, bulk purchasing or, or like really custom-like purchase orders, or like doing net-30 terms, like more things that are definitely more like a more traditional business to business sales techniques, like Shopify isn’t built to do that.

So you have to like work around it to make Shopify do that if you are trying to launch a B2B website on Shopify like it’s just a lot more work. But if you’re looking to expand direct-to-consumer, that’s a new growth goal for you, then, then you’re just launching a direct-to-consumer website on a platform that’s perfectly great for it. So you’re gonna, you know, be adding your products appropriately building a user experience that makes sense, and it’s good looking and elevates whatever brand that you’re bringing to the table. But you know, again, the hard part is going to be like you can build the most beautiful door in the world. But how are you gonna get people to see it?

Sam Gupta 8:38 – Recommended verticals for Shopify

And are there any specific verticals in B2B that you would definitely not recommend Shopify? Or are there any verticals that you would definitely, definitely recommend Shopify?

Chase Clymer 8:48

I mean, if you’re in fashion, or if you’re selling like a consumer packaged goods, or you know, just like a physical product, low SKU count, Shopify is amazing.

On the flip side of that, if you’re selling a vice product, so this would be anything that like, you probably can’t advertise on Facebook or Google, where you have like some really obscure payment provider because Shopify pay won’t accept you because you have a vice product.

I can be a little more specific on that if you want me to, but I think most listeners will get it. You know, Shopify is probably not the best idea for you.

I enjoyed this question, because if you have a super insane SKU count, like really, really high or you’ve got really, really variable products that are super customizable. Shopify may not be the best idea for you.

But I mean, if you’re selling like some tangible, cool, good, like some real product I can hold it in my hand, and you know, people want and it’s super photogenic. Shopify is gonna be great for that.

Sam Gupta 9:46 – Limitations of Shopify

Okay. Can you touch a little bit more on the variable product that you mentioned? And what are going to be the problems with Shopify?

Chase Clymer 9:51

So this is a problem that Shopify has but you know, most agencies where their salt like knows how to solve for it now, but Shopify has an inherent 99 variant limit on their products. An easy way to hit that limit would be to have like, one product in like, if you have it in 10 colors in 10 sizes, you’ve just hit 100 variants.

So if you think about it like a little bit more obscure so like say you have one product in three sizes in five colors in five fit or you know, you can have it be like this, this comes up a lot in more when you get more into like manufacturing and like buying parts or buying, you know, car parts for sure this comes up all the time because you have so many variables like, like makes and models and years and all that stuff. So dealing with high variant levels on Shopify is sometimes a pain in the butt.

Sam Gupta 10:42

Okay, amazing. So some of the fashion verticals, I would say, you know, might not be a great fit, just because they might have a lot more styles.

Chase Clymer 10:50

I mean, with styles it’s fine. Some of the biggest fashion stores on the internet or on our on Shopify fashion. Fashionova is hands down, you know, one of the biggest powerhouses out there. And they’re running on Shopify, like right now.

Sam Gupta 11:00

So other than the variable metrics SKU problem that you mentioned, do you see any other problems in the B2C space with Shopify?

Chase Clymer 11:10

You know, you can get away with it. There is some wholesale stuff out there. And if your wholesale system is pretty simple like Shopify might, you know, it might make sense.

But again, it’s like you’re not using the tool that was built for that. I believe, you know, there are probably better tools out there to solve for your use case for going business to business.

Again, it goes back to its use of the right tool for the job. And if you’re going business to business, there are better tools. If you’re going business to customers, Shopify is your it’s hard to find one that you know, will be hard to beat it.

Sam Gupta 11:41 – Shopify architecture patterns

And since you mentioned that use the right tool for the right job, that’s really important, in my opinion. So can you talk about some of the architecture that you typically see, when you work with any specific customer? Do you see any specific tools that you commonly implement along with Shopify?

Chase Clymer 11:58

Yeah, I mean, that’s a great question. Shopify has got a, you know, as I said, they’re really good at their core product and what they’re really good at.

And then anything that’s kind of like bolted on on top of that is like anyone that’s used to Shopify, like understands, like there’s this whole app ecosystem out there. So when you’re talking about tools and stuff that people have installed in their stores, it usually is an app that they have, right. And you know, we’ve been doing this forever.

So we’ve used almost every app under the sun at this point. And we understand, you know, which ones are actually going to work for people and which ones are kind of trash. So I won’t mention any of the bad ones.

But I mentioned some of the good ones that we use all the time. So I think one of our favorite tools to implement out there is for email automation and email campaigns. It’s called klaviyo that’s hands down our favorite email automation tool out there. We won’t work with any other platform on it honestly, that that one’s our favorite. That one’s fantastic. If you’re talking about subscriptions, recharge is definitely the number one in the game these days.

Chase Clymer 12:58

Does some really, really cool stuff for, you know, doing recurring orders and subscriptions. Like I said before, you’re talking about doing operations and stuff you’re trying to figure out, you know, how you’re gonna deal with returns and all that stuff. If you’re getting to a sales velocity, that’s pretty, pretty high, and you’re dealing a lot more with customer service.

Gorgeous is an amazing customer service ticketing tool and a chatbot that, you know, ties just perfectly in with Shopify, it was almost tailor-made for Shopify. So that was one that we are oftentimes like telling clients about, again, you know, I said Shopify does certain things well, but they don’t like really go beyond that core functionality.

Recently, we’re recording this about a week before, it’s actually exactly before American Thanksgiving. So next week is going to be Black Friday, Cyber Monday. And we helped almost all of our clients implement it, like more advanced gift carding, and you do that through rise.ai is an amazing tool there. I could go on, but those are just the ones that come top, top of mind for me.

Sam Gupta 13:54 – Shopify gift card strategy

Okay, since you mentioned gift cards, do you see any specific strategy that works with respect to the gift cards with the customers that you typically work with?

Chase Clymer 14:03

Ah, yeah, I mean, well, one, if you just want to hear a whole like the 30-minute episode about it, we just did that on the podcast. We had the theme from rise.ai on this podcast, they were talking about all the crazy strategies that their customers were having for it.

So this is interesting to you just like go find that on the Honest Ecommerce website. But specifically, the one that really stood out to me is when you have like this advanced functionality on your site, you can give instead of giving like a coupon code, you can give them like store credit like gift card cash, and like people that the perceived value of that is so much higher than Oh, like, I’m going to give you 15% off this $100 item versus I’m going to give you $15 in store credit, like one of those sounds way cooler, right?

Sam Gupta 14:47

Yeah, definitely. And, you know, just to retouch on your point about the link for the podcast. So what we are going to do is we are going to be including that link as part of this podcast, so if anybody wants to check that out, they can check that link. (Check the resources section for the link)

Chase Clymer 15:00

Yeah, it’s definitely a cool time. And then kind of going on it goes in line with the gift card thing is also just like customer loyalty programs is what we’re seeing a lot, especially a lot of people are gonna dump a bunch of money into acquiring new customers right now. Because it’s what you do with Black Friday, Cyber Monday, you’re trying to acquire new customers and sell them whatever your cool deal is your cool products during holidays, the next thing you got to do is re-engage those customers and try to raise the lifetime value of them, right.

So your like investment is way more profitable on that acquisition cost. So a lot, oftentimes people are using like kind of loyalty programs, and you can build them out through a bunch of different apps in the ecosystem. But yeah, that’s like a great touchpoint to kind of follow up after the holidays, and you know, give people like double points, or like turn those points into gift cards, like I just said, but yeah, that’s another kind of great strategy to do.

Sam Gupta 15:46 – E-commerce KPIs

Yeah, that’s a great point. And in fact, I mean, since you mentioned so many different KPIs there, I wanted to know, if you have any insight on your favorite KPI that you definitely recommend tracking.

Chase Clymer 15:56

Oh, I mean, I’ll give you three with an asterisk because there’s a fourth one that like I’m always looking at, but ecommerce is cool, and the numbers behind it are super cool. And it comes down to three realistic numbers. And anybody listening to this that has an ecommerce store, you can like, do this with your numbers for the last 30 days, and you’ll be like, wow, that he was right, that’s crazy.

Um, so what you’re gonna do is you’re going to go into the back into your store, and you’re going to look, I always like to do last 30 days of the pretty good snapshot, you know, but unless you have like some crazy sales, or you went viral, or something like that, it might not be a good idea to look that I’d look at like your more average month, right?

So go and look at like an average month. And you’re gonna want to look at your conversion rate, right? How many people came to the site and actually converted conversion rate is only it only compare your conversion rate to yourself, don’t compare it to anyone else in the industry, because they are selling something different than you their offers different than yours, their brand is different than yours. If your friend’s conversion rates, you know, 3% and yours is 2%. Who cares? Like That doesn’t matter.

Chase Clymer 16:50

You just need to tie your success to your, your previous metrics, like don’t look at anyone else. So you’re gonna look at your conversion rate. And then the next thing you’re going to look at is you’re gonna want to look at your traffic.

So if that’s your, your sessions, not your unique visitors, you like wanna look at your total sessions for the month. And then you want to look at your average order value for that month, right? So like, what’s the average order value of although I don’t think I have to explain these KPIs smart people, listen, this podcast, that’d be so you get 10,000 visitors a 2% conversion rate, and a $75 average order value, that comes out to about $15,000 a month, right?

That’d be like your gross sales for the month. So what we’re going to focus on is like we moved forward with a project or what you should be kind of think of talking about with your team or your contractors, your freelancers, your agency, partner, whoever is used to focus on one of those KPIs, right. And the one I always like to start with is the conversion rate.

Chase Clymer 17:38

Because that one is like the biggest lever that you can really pull at the beginning is so you want to like look at your user experience because your user experience is directly responsible for your conversion rate, you got to make it easy to navigate, you need to make it easy to understand, you want to make sure people aren’t falling out of the funnel and Goofy places because of goofy stuff happening with your website.

Definitely, a lot has a lot to do with speed. And kind of like the customer journey and how that flow is mapped out. So let’s say you’ve been some time and energy and money and effort on your user experience, right it this is literally talking about your store design and how it set up.

You spend some effort on that and say you take your yours, you put all that effort in it, now you move the needle on your conversion rate from 2% to 3%. Your monthly sales have now jumped to $22,500 without doing anything, any work on your average order value or on your traffic, right.

But that one’s like the biggest one to focus on first. You know, once you get that to a place that you’re proud of, then the easiest lever to move honestly, is traffic.

Chase Clymer 18:40

You can do a paid acquisition, right? You can go and go into Facebook or Google or Pinterest, you know, now you got TikTok that you can put do ads with. So you can definitely pour a bunch of money in there, you will make sure you’re getting qualified traffic.

One thing to note though is when you do increase traffic with a bunch of new people, your conversion rate is going to drop that back down a bit. But it’s going to add so many more people into your flywheel for retargeting efforts when you know, that’s why we like to use klaviyo because we’re having to do the heavy lifting on like an awesome drip sequence that shows people the features and benefits and values of the brand over time and educates them on the product.

So you know, maybe they’re going to be exposed four months ago to some ad and kind of getting the funnel because they were thinking about purchasing and then they keep getting these emails over time. And then they purchase. You know, that’s kind of how you’re building up this flywheel. But let’s say that now you’d like to, you’re investing a couple $10,000-$20,000 a month into ad and ads and he tripled your triple your traffic.

Chase Clymer 19:39

Now you’re tripling your monthly average. So you’re going from, you know, $22.5K up to $67.5K a month in sales. And you know, you’re only focusing now that your only focus has been on two KPIs, the other KPI it’s a lot harder to move the needle on this and the ones where you got to get really tricky and fun with upselling prospects. bundles post-purchase upsell is average order value.

That one is where you’re, you know, I don’t believe that there’s good like an off-the-shelf plug-in in the Shopify ecosystem that will allow you to manipulate average order value very well. But if you find a trusted partner and you work with them on a strategy of like, increasing the average order value, obviously, again, you move that it’s gonna raise, it’s gonna raise the bar here, but those three are the ones that we like to focus on at the agency. And then, of course, I said there was a fourth, which is lifetime value.

Chase Clymer 20:32 – 30-60-90 plan to hire a Shopify agency

So you know, obviously, it’s a lot easier to sell to someone that you’ve already sold to before. So those are like re-engagement campaigns. And again, like loyalty programs, like we just talked about, doing cool things with like, you know, store credit and gift card, those are some ways to try to re-engage customers and bring them back again.

Because, you know, oftentimes people are talking about customer acquisition costs and all that stuff. And Facebook and Google are getting so competitive that it’s like really increasing what you have to spend to acquire a new customer on these, like paid channels, that if you’ve got a low average order value, or like a really cheap product, you might be paying, like, like paying the cost of your product to acquire a new customer.

So you have to make up your money on the tail end of it. And like get more sales from that customer. I just went off on an extremely long tangent there. Do you have any questions for me about all that?

Sam Gupta 21:22

That’s actually amazing. I think, you know, the KPIs are really important. And that’s one of the things that I really wanted to cover in this topic so that our listeners can get insight into that. So I thank you for that.

Chase Clymer 21:32

Oh, you’re welcome. I believe there is a video where I walk through this on our YouTube channel as well. (Check the link for the video in the resources section). I’m using some easy math as well. But I mean, it’s, it’s one of those things where it’s just you know, it’s just me writing numbers on a piece of paper, but it really just simplifies e-commerce.

And, you know, it comes down to these three KPIs, that’s where you need to focus, if you want to talk about growing the top line, obviously, there are ways to grow margin, but that’s a little bit more kind of on the business operations side of things. But you know, if you’re talking about, you want to hit a certain monetary goal, you got to focus on three things.

Sam Gupta 22:06

Okay, amazing. And, on that note, I think, you know, we have to include the video link as part of this podcast as well. So if anybody wants to check that out, they can check. And I am actually personally going to check that as well. Because you can always learn about KPIs, and you can draw insight even for, you know, other businesses. And hopefully, we can learn from it as well.

Chase Clymer 22:24

All right, yeah, once you get it down, it’s pretty simple. So, you, we talked about this in the kind of the pre-show, but you know, I wanted to kind of, I can give some rough numbers. An example of a client that we did this with, though, we started working with her back in 2019, probably in the summer, and we kind of were working on some smaller projects.

And you know, we had some, we had some quick wins there. And we were like, Alright, look like, here’s the deal, here are your numbers. You know this is the road, this is how you get to a million dollars. And we did a lot of work on the user experience of the website. This was a client that, you know, she had built this website herself using off-the-shelf themes, making all the choices herself, which is you know, that’s all well and good.

Chase Clymer 23:10

But if you don’t understand how customers like to shop, or best practices for e-commerce, you know, sometimes if you make a wonky decision in your website design or the layout, or how things are filtered, or how things are kind of played in the navigation, it can be detrimental to your conversion rate.

So we did a lot of work of the kind of polishing what she had already had there. and you know, going and looking at what you had, and just making it as much better you know, how can we make this as awesome as can be from what we got here. So we did all that work there, ping brought the conversion rate up a lot, and build a lot of awesome remarketing applications through you know, again, automated email marketing, we actually dove into SMS as well. And we did some really good work on Facebook and Instagram to kind of bring people back into the funnel.

And we’re like, Alright, like we’ve got when people get here, they’re usually going to buy like, now it’s time to pour some gas on this fire. It’s going pretty well. So we go to the top of the funnel, you know what I mean? So we started working on strategic ways to bring new people into the business, new eyes on the product. And yeah, so this year with the goal of this year was the help her hit her first million, we’re probably going to be leaning more into 1.5 by the end of the year.

Sam Gupta 24:28

That’s amazing. I think with COVID. If she can do that, you know, million dollars is what you mentioned within two years. That’s an amazing goal.

Chase Clymer 24:35

Yeah, well, the goal was for this year in 2020, was to help her hit that first million dollars a year. But we already did it as we passed it a month or a month and a half ago.

Sam Gupta 24:44

I think that’s phenomenal. And for your services, I guess I don’t know, you know how much you would typically charge. But that’s a huge ROI. Right?

Chase Clymer 24:52

Yeah, I mean, it’s just you got to it just goes back to the numbers was like alright, these are the things that we’re working on. This is how it’s gonna work.

Sam Gupta 24:59

Okay, Chase, so let’s say somebody wants to work with you, do you have any specific, actionable advice that you can offer with respect to designing the 30-60-90 day plan? So let’s say if I’m a customer for you, and I’m coming to you, what would you recommend with respect to aligning the e-commerce strategy or starting on the e-commerce strategy as of today?

Chase Clymer 25:20

I mean, well, first and foremost is like this, you got to be in it for the long haul, there’s no silver bullet, there’s nothing that’s gonna make you an overnight millionaire, you just got to understand it takes hard work. That’s the first thing is like, if you come to the table with realistic expectations, you’re already ahead of the game with then other people that I’ve met, are, you know, had conversations with.

So the first is always just having realistic expectations, right? You got to understand just like if your goal is like some super cool, awesome, you know, number, which numbers like don’t matter, you know, I mean, if million dollars, $10 million, whatever, like those, those are just arbitrary numbers.

But if you have big goals, you need to understand that it’s going to take a big investment of time and energy and monetary investment to get you there, you know, you’re not going to see any insane returns on any of this stuff.

But with that being said, I mean, we’re pretty, we’re pretty easy to work with, we’re a small shop, but you know, we’re bringing in about one or two, one or two new clients a month.

We start small, you know, it’s like, Alright, let’s kind of get under the hood of your business. And let’s learn what is working, what isn’t working. And let’s develop that strategic plan together. So that’s usually the first engagement. Well, usually that is the first engagement with everybody that we start working with. And then we just kind of pick a direction, focus on a KPI, and let’s make it better.

Sam Gupta 26:35 – Closing thoughts

Okay, amazing. So I think that’s it for today. Do you have any last minute closing thoughts?

Chase Clymer 26:40

No, I mean, this was super fun. I think we covered a lot of ground here, I just, want to go back to talking about kind of the two areas of e-commerce, businesses kind of where they are in their business lifecycle. I mean, if you’re, if you’re working on getting your first initial sales, like, you know, I think that zero to $10,000 is the hardest, the hardest part of starting an e-commerce business.

When you’re in that stage. Just focus on organic sales completely ignore paid traffic, like you’re gonna light so much money on fire and invest in weird, weird, you know, people that are stealing your money as far as it comes along with like gurus or whatnot, plug it you like get your paid media off the ground, nobody can help you find product-market fit, which I believe like once you kind of hit that $10k in sales a month like you’re kind of finding that product-market fit, you’re figuring out what your offer is and what your value is, and why people want to buy your product.

So when you’re going from zero to $10,000 a month, just focus on organic sales. After that, you can start introducing paid, but I would say the hardest thing to do is go from zero to $10k a month going from $10K to $100K is a lot easier. And then going from $100K to you know, something crazier is like is even easier.

Sam Gupta 27:49

So, okay, amazing. Thank you so much for your time Chase and your insight.

Chase Clymer 27:53

Awesome. Yeah, thank you so much.

Sam Gupta 27:54 – Outro

I cannot thank our guests enough for coming on the show for sharing their knowledge and journey. I always pick up stuff from our guests, and hopefully, you learned something new today.

If you want to know further about Chase, check this podcast at HonestEcommerce.co and his agency at electriceye.io. Links and more information will also be available in the show notes.

If anything in this podcast resonated with you and your business. You might want to check other related episodes, including the interview with Michael Begg from AMZ advisers, who brings a unique perspective on D2C from Amazon as a marketing channel. Also, the interview with Jason Chester from InfinityQS, who touches on D2C from a real-time manufacturing quality monitoring standpoint.

Also, don’t forget to subscribe and spread the word among folks with similar backgrounds. If you have any questions or comments about the show, please review and rate us on your favorite podcasting platform or DM me on any social channels. I’ll try my best to respond personally and make sure you get help.

Thank you, and I hope to catch you on the next episode of The WBS podcast.

Outro 29:10

Thank you for listening to another episode of The WBS podcast. Be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform so you never miss an episode. For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, check out our community at wbs.rocks. We’ll see you next time.

In this episode, we have our guest Erin Koss, CPA from Syte Consulting Group who brings a unique and fresh perspective through her recent e-book on how to execute ERP project implementations during COVID-19.

She takes us through the journey of an ERP project implementation that they planned before COVID but continued despite the unforeseen challenges and made a massive success for the client in the end. If you would like to learn more about how to manage ERP project implementation without that being a roadblock for your growth, this episode is a must-listen for you.

Chapter Markers

• [0:00] Intro
• [2:48] Overview of Erin’s ERP project eBook
• [7:41] Business overview of the eBook’s client’s ERP project
• [14:19] Overview of client’s ERP project selection process
• [17:21] Challenges with expertise on multiple ERP systems
• [23:05] Changes in ERP project assumptions with COVID
• [24:51] Learnings from remote ERP project implementations
• [32:48] Closing thoughts
• [35:53] Outro

Key Takeaways

• While the manufacturers may be absolute experts in production, and purchasing and order entry, things like this order-to-cash, procure-to-pay some of these key and core business processes within their own organization, translating that to how do I get from a smaller ERP system to a bigger ERP solution is a challenge.
• ERP products have a lifecycle like any product in the marketplace. And if you’re not playing in that world, every day, there’s a lot of things you don’t know, you don’t know, and you can miss.
• The biggest challenge companies are having is how do we how do we collaborate, communicate and connect. Because if you want to get the things done that matter to your organization, you need to make sure these three things happen. And those three things are almost strictly related to people, as opposed to whatever it is you’re actually trying to do.

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About Erin

Erin Koss, CPA is the CEO of Syte Consulting Group. She helps family-owned manufacturing companies scaled with vision and integrity.

Taking a people-first process and Technology Readiness approach, Erin and the team at Syte ensure companies are ready to take on big change initiatives like ERP project, and technology upgrades before diving in headfirst.

A native to the Pacific Northwest, she enjoys traveling, being outdoors, hiking, biking, rowing, and supporting the local culinary scene.

Resources

• Connect with Erin
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• Connect with Syte Consulting Group
  • Website| Facebook | Linkedin | YouTube

Full Transcript

Erin Koss 0:00

If you want to get the things done that matter to your organization, those three things need to happen. And those three things are almost strictly related to people as opposed to whatever it is you’re actually trying to do. So if you can get above what it is you’re actually trying to do and recognize that it’s again communication, connection, and collaboration.

Intro 0:19

Growing a business requires a holistic approach that extends beyond sales and marketing. This approach needs alignment among people, processes and technologies.

So if you’re a business owner, operations or finance leader looking to learn growth strategies from your peers and competitors, you’re tuned into the right podcast. Welcome to the WBS Podcast, where scalable growth using business systems is our number one priority.

Now, here is your host, Sam Gupta.

Sam Gupta 0:55

Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the WBS podcast. I’m Sam Gupta, your host and principal consultant at digital transformation consulting firm ElevatIQ.

When it comes to managing growth through inflection points, ERP project implementations are pivotal. Despite the premise of superior ERP systems helping with our growth, going through the purchase and implementation process isn’t fun. With the added challenges of COVID-19 and remote collaboration, we face an added risk of going over budget. And as a result taking a hit on our growth ambitions.

In today’s episode, we have our guest Erin Koss, CPA from Syte Consulting Group who brings a unique and fresh perspective through her recent eBook on how to grow and scale during COVID-19. In this episode, she takes us through the journey of an ERP project implementation. They planned it before COVID but continued despite the unforeseen challenges and made a massive success in the end. If you would like to learn more about how to manage an ERP project implementation without that being a roadblock for your growth, this episode is a must listen for you.

Erin Koss, CPA is the CEO of Syte Consulting Group, Inc. She helps family-owned manufacturing companies scaled with vision and integrity. Taking a people first process and technology readiness approach, Erin and her team at Syte ensure companies are ready to take on big change initiatives like ERP project, and technology upgrades before diving in headfirst.

A native to the Pacific Northwest, she enjoys traveling, being outdoors, hiking, biking, rowing, and supporting the local culinary scene.

With that, let’s get to the conversation.

Hello, hey, Erin, welcome to the show.

Erin Koss 2:45

Thank you, Sam, it’s really great to be with you today.

Sam Gupta 2:48 – Overview of Erin’s ERP project eBook

So today, I think we are going to be talking about the ebook that you have written.

And my understanding is that the topic of the ebook is how to grow and scale during COVID-19.

Would you like to talk a little bit about that?

Erin Koss 3:05

Yeah, for sure. Our company helps companies, midsize manufacturing companies grow and scale using enterprise solutions and technology as a catalyst essentially. And so for us as we were in as COVID hit. One of the interesting things that happened was, we were right in the middle of it. You know, what, for us is a typical nine months to 36 month ERP implementation with a midsize manufacturing company.

And we were just going into the second phase, what we call the design phase. In this phase, we focus on transaction testing, sometimes also called unit testing. In this case, it was an Epicor E10 implementation for the client. And we headed in there. All of a sudden, this was in March of this year and COVID hits. And we expected to be traveling to the client site for three of the five weeks in March. We went we got a weekend of March, we traveled that first week, and we were all grounded immediately.

So the question became, all right. You know, in a world where project execution in the ERP, you know, these types of projects. Historically, it’s been really important to clients, particularly that we’re on site. We’re in a war room, if you will, that’s the term we use for that conference room. We’re just spending hours and hours together, really testing and pressure testing a new solution for a company.

Erin Koss 4:39

And you know, they they have always preferred that we spend a lot of face time with them. Doing that certainly has always been very efficient to do that. There’s so many things to, you know, it’s like herding cats. As you can imagine you’re competing with the clients’ day job. You’re trying to stay focused on the project and moving toward important milestones etc. All with this idea that they can only grow and scale as fast as you can get these tools in to support them. And it’s costing the money, the longer everybody’s putzing around with getting it implemented.

So, you know, there’s a need for speed. Some of that has always led to, I think, a perception that we all have to be on site together as much as possible during some of these critical times in a project. And so, you know, the project is, uh, I would say, a third of the way in and COVID hits, and we can’t be face to face anymore. And so we had to make a pivot.

So the the interesting thing, I think, for us as a consulting firm, you know, we’ve been doing what we do for almost 30 years. So for us, the idea of remote work is, is not as foreign right? Doing zoom is pretty common, our clients are all over the country. So we do a fair amount that way, as a, you know, as a technology forward company. So that wasn’t foreign to us.

Erin Koss 5:52

So we’ve always been very open to the the idea of remote work. But, you know, for clients in the work that they have, particularly manufacturing companies, that’s not typically the way they’ve operated.

So come March, we had to do a profound pivot. And, and start to figure out how to help this client not only acclimate to zoom as a tool, which they did very quickly for in their in their case, but also how to establish and how to how to keep our project cadence but also remained connected in some new and different ways that we just didn’t have to do before. Right?

You’re not looking at people face to face, you’re not, you know, right next to them in an office, you can’t just go grab them when you have a quick question. So we were very intentional about how we scheduled our time, how we pull people in. And when and how we oriented the project to serve the client and keep up the the cadence that we had it.

And in the end, the most amazing thing was, you know, and this is so much to the client’s credit, as well as to my team is, you know, we haven’t missed a beat. It’s just been so amazing.

Erin Koss 6:58

And I think even even in spite of some COVID not only created challenges in this way, from a remote work perspective, but also practically speaking for many of our manufacturing clients, businesses, the supply chain has been interrupted and impacted.

So not only are they working on a project, that is transformational for them, but there’s some very real challenges in the business that it had come up as a result of COVID that then exacerbated their the pressure on their resources to be able to show up in play at all.

And you know, to their credit for sure. They have maintained a cadence with us, as we had designed from the beginning and haven’t missed a beat.

Yeah. So so it’s just been remarkable, remarkable to see.

Sam Gupta 7:41 – Business overview of the eBook’s client’s ERP project

Yeah, it’s interesting. I mean, the way you mentioned this, that we are so familiar with these digital tools and technologies, but still, it could be quite a change for everyone, especially during this pandemic.

So it’s remarkable story for sure. But, before we get there, I would like to understand a little bit about the client, what was this company? And what was the challenge with respect to the ERP project? Can you take us back in time and talk about the client in the situation? And what was your role with respect to the ERP selection?

Erin Koss 8:14

Absolutely. So these guys are a second generation family owned manufacturing company, they’re over $100 million in sales, and they make seamless gutters for the for the residential construction industry. So they have multiple manufacturing plants two in the US and one in Canada.

And then they also have over 20 distribution centers, basically they do their own distribution, they own their distribution centers. And that is the way they support in the United States, their own customers.

It’s a business to business model. And they support their customers by running what they call these, Brittany’s you know, over 20 branches around the country where they’re shipping their product to, you know, on a daily basis so they have manufacturing three locations and then over 20 branches around the country.

It’s kind of a classic scenario where you know, they came to us with their legacy system for them was a MAS or excuse me Sage ERP 300 is what they call now.

Erin Koss 9:19

I think these days in my in the old days it was called a ACCPAC that’s still with the client calls it, of course, but so they were on they were pushing the limits of what ACCPAC could do for them both in terms of the number of licenses that they could have as well as just the capabilities and features that it had to support a combination manufacturing distribution model that was you know, decentralized in some areas and centralized and others things like point of sale, you know, and the heavy lifting and manufacturing in terms of MRP and scheduling, etc.

So you accepted they had just outpaced the the current solution which is real common. And so they had reached out to us we had met them before. A few years ago, at a conference that we were both at and got to talking about their challenges. And as we find so often with companies of this size, they are so brilliant at what they do, they’re so successful.

Erin Koss 10:13

I mean, in fact, these guys have continued to grow very rapidly in 2020, despite COVID, just because of the industry they’re in, certainly, they’re essential relative to the industry that they’re in.

And, you know, the the challenge they run into at this kind of the size they are, are the employees are so, so great at what they do at running the business, but they also run relatively lean, they aren’t sitting around with a bunch of extra people that they can just pull on to staff, a core team, as we call it, a team that is required to implement and across, you know, implement these solutions will put together a core team of individuals who are kind of the best and the brightest, within an organization and create a cross functional team to really help be the brains of inside their own organization to help get them from where they are today to where it is they’re trying to go relative to a new solution.

And the challenge they have though, is they know their business so well. But they are so these are also the folks that are terribly, terribly busy with their day jobs. So there’s two challenges they tend to face. And the reason they tend to ask us for help and our support, they just don’t have the capabilities in the ERP space, or the capacity within their own organization to support a project like this completely and totally.

Erin Koss 11:32

So for example, you know, one of the things that we see is while they may be absolute experts in production, and purchasing and order entry, things like this order-to-cash, procure-to-pay some of these key and core business processes within their own organization. translating that to how do I get from ACCPAC to a bigger ERP solution.

In this case, they went to epicor, which is a what we would call a tier II solution. You know, they it’s not something they do very often, you know, sometimes companies do this once every, you know, 10, mostly closer to 20 years sometimes. So the people in the building, that’s not their core competency, right. So the risk they run is it takes longer, it costs more they’ve run, they stepped into potholes that they would have known to skirt around, if you will.

And so they bring us in to really help with the, the the guidance, particularly in the areas of project management, you know, that’s again, that the idea of how do I get from where I am today to where I need to go bringing together the people processes and technology to do so in a way that makes sense for the business that’s going to be efficient, and is also going to avoid some of the traditional risks and potholes. Again, that’s just not their sweet spot.

Erin Koss 12:48

It’s not where they where they know to go. So we what we do is we will oftentimes particularly play a very strong project management role, because we’re able to help sort of guide that road, help them craft that roadmap and guide that roadmap throughout, bringing together all of those pieces in a way that they can be successful.

The other place where we see them, companies like this typically needing support is oftentimes in the business and business and technical analysts space. So we don’t love to fill out a core team with a lot of outside resources, because those business processes of the company are so much better.

I mean, certainly we all understand order-to-cash and my interest in my world. But you know, the way a particular client needs to approach that to be successful for their customers, is unique and special. And we need to be able to honor that. So we bring a combination of you know, a broad business background to the table to help support their team getting where they’re trying to go.

While we will provide business analysts or technical analysts to support some of the additional capacity needs they might have, we try really hard not to replace the people on the team so that between them and us and the software provider themselves, we create what we call three legs of a stool, which really creates a potential for great success.

So for them, you know, it allows them to run at a pace that made this project doable within the business, but provided them the capabilities and capacity they needed to really be successful in the end.

Sam Gupta 14:19 – Overview of client’s ERP project selection process

Amazing. And with respect to your role, I can see that they were on Sage and you guys went on Epicor. So were you involved with the selection process as well? Or did they select by themselves and then you complemented their team?

Erin Koss 14:33

Yes, that’s a great question. You know, we were just talking about that today in our organization a little bit because one of the things that’s so fascinating about these family owned manufacturing companies is they are so capable, they’re so industrious.

I mean, they’re successful for a reason. They are used to doing things for themselves internally and doing them very, very well. And ERP is one of those things that they will often in fact, I would say probably We would say 75% of the time will go at the selection process themselves. And it has a variety of results. Rarely is it a for a company of this size, particularly a midsize company, is it a successful fully successful endeavor, truthfully, without outside assistance, and I, and that’s not not a dig on the company themselves.

Again, it comes back to this just isn’t where they spend all their time, you know, ERP products have a lifecycle like any product in the marketplace. And if you’re not playing in that world, every day, there’s a lot of things you don’t know, you don’t know, and you can miss. And so we actually find a fair number of our clients come to us, following some being used in some point in the selection process. But oftentimes, it’s it’s near the end. And we have to sometimes backpedal and adjust.

Erin Koss 15:54

So we find it kind of interesting that so many of these guys will go at the selection themselves. And it’s kind of a risky endeavor. That said for these guys, to their credit, they did, it took them about two years to select Epicor.

And so I would argue for them, the challenge was not that they didn’t choose the they actually did the selection themselves, and then brought us in to assist with the implementation. But I think they had intended to do it themselves, until they realize going to realize that they were in over their heads in terms of capabilities and capacities, because again, they they started to get some insights into, oh, you know, we don’t know what we don’t know, here, we need some more support.

And they realize that through talking with other people at ERP conferences provided by the software provider themselves, actually, but what was interesting is in their case, you know, I think that the selection would have taken them, you know, six months, or, you know, we find that selections, average four to nine, four months to nine months, for the clients that we work with, and you know, took them two years.

So you got to look at the opportunity cost there at some level by doing it themselves. And so certainly we find a quicker, typically more, more or less risk free outcome if people hire experts to support the selection process. But in these guys’s case, in their case, they brought us in for the implementation initially. So that’s how we started with them.

Sam Gupta 17:21 – Challenges with expertise on multiple ERP systems

Interesting, that’s a tough spot to be I guess, especially since you have to get involved with so many different ERP systems, and you don’t know which one you’re going to be working with next. Sometimes it could be really tough position to be in, I guess.

Erin Koss 17:34

Yeah, yeah, you know, we actually really love that spot. You know, we like to think of ourselves as ERP agnostic, but we’ve been in this business long enough. And because we focus on manufacturing companies, you know, we’re not looking at, you know, the 150, or more and some level solutions that claim to be ERP solutions in the marketplace, you know, we see up, you know, in the last five years, we see really the same pile of solutions over and over.

So we hedge our bets typically, and stay pretty well acclimated to all of those solutions for this, you know, size of company, in this industry, etc. You know, and we maintain those relationships as well. But you know, we really don’t pretend to be the solution providers.

So we really leverage, we really do see it as three legs of a stool, where, you know, use epicor as an example, since we’re talking about this particular installation. But you know, where we the mode of operations for the solution providers to focus is to bring the experts in the solution that really even sometimes the VARs can struggle with, but the, you know, the VAR typically, or the solution, or excuse me, the solution manufacturer, whether they go direct or through a VAR, you know, they’re the absolute expert in the software

Erin Koss 18:44

And that’s a place where like, we can’t be an expert in the company, the clients business to the degree, they are like, Sure, we know order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, but we can’t be the expert to the degree they are, it’s just not possible.

We’re not in it every day. And you know, the same is true, the solution provider, they’re in it every single day. And they have expertise that you know, as many as much as we understand and get ERP and I’ve worked with most of the solutions for manufacturers at this point, you know, they’re going to add a level of value there that we just can’t provide the same way.

So I think we’re we kind of bridge the gaps with both are having because of our broad business background, as well as our expertise in manufacturing. And on the, you know, the more technical IT architecture side software development side, some of these places that sort of bring all of these pieces together, is I think the place that we really add value because the VAR is for all of their expertise and the solution provider for all of their expertise in the software, because of their own business model can get very myopic in that area.

They’re so focused on the software and and getting it implemented and focusing on that piece that there’s things outside the business strategically, just that that they would, they wouldn’t necessarily be privy to or know

Erin Koss 20:00

Because they’re not boots on the ground with the client in the same way that we are. So we find just this really beautiful synergy between the three parties that, you know, I just I think is just really serves the client well in the end.

The other one thing I want to add, actually that that comes to mind too is one of the things that’s really special about what I call that three legs of a stool or the trifecta is, we have an opportunity recognizing going in that the client that when we get their knows ACCPAC, but doesn’t know Epicor, and maybe doesn’t know how to get their order-to-cash process from here to there, let’s say, and they don’t have internal project management skills, they don’t have the business analysts with the broad business background to help kind of navigate getting from the start to the finish.

One of the things that we really pride ourselves on is collaborating and working with them, as well as the solution provider to help together at the end of that project, make sure that they’ve got some of the critical skills that they need to really optimize, and continue to support and maintain these solutions going forward with as little outside support as they can, as required.

Erin Koss 21:09

So, you know, if you’ve done ERP, for any length of time, you realize that it’s really a leveling up exercise for the organization, when we talk about scaling and growing, we recognize that that that’s the people exercise as well.

So there’s people in the organization that, you know, we’ve had situations where and this situation is no different. You know, somebody who comes onto the team, as a purchasing Purchase Order Entry person or an order entry person, you know, when they have to level up in an MRP sense, they’re also leveling up their own business acumen, their own technical acumen and their you know, if we do our job correctly, and work with the solution provider in the most effective way, the end result for the client is one where, you know, they level up the people in the building.

Erin Koss 21:53

So they’re not just transaction workers that they make, some of them come in as, but they’re truly powerful knowledge workers in a lot broader sense, they collaborate better, they communicate better cross functionally, they maybe know how to manage a project a little little more than they did before.

They’re more technical than they were before. Just things like that, that come about, we’re very intentional about trying to bring those skills that we do bring to the table initially, and try and augment their own team with some of those so that as they move forward, they need to rely on us less and rely on the solution provider less and then only pull either of us in for those kind of transformational change initiatives that really they just need extra capabilities and capacity to do.

But these are companies that really pride themselves on being self-powered, if you will. And so they really do want us to be temporary, and only in the room for some of those key change initiatives. Right. So we try and really honor that. So it’s kind of funny, we, we talked about how we work ourselves out of a job, and we’re not joking. And yet, it’s really what serves these companies the best. You know, what our hope is, is that they say, hey, you did a great job. And they refer us to their colleagues.

Sam Gupta 23:05 – Changes in ERP project assumptions with COVID

Yeah, amazing. And I want to go back to our COVID situation a bit, because you talk a lot about the project management. And this is one of the interesting projects that I have seen recently, I think, you know, you had to change the project plan or the business plan, at least three times, I guess, you know, related to the project, because one point they actually brought you in, so I think there must be some sort of cost adjustment with the project plan there.

Then, the COVID hit, so there must be some cost assumptions that need to be changed there as well. So do you want to talk a little bit about that?

Erin Koss 23:40

Yeah, you know, this was this was really, when COVID first hit, it was a bit of a panic for sure for them, and for us, because we, we assumed Gosh, it’s going to stretch the project out longer, it’s going to cost them money.

You know, we didn’t want that any more than they did. That’s just, it’s just not good for anybody it’s poor for momentum, it leads to lower success rates, it just, it can be fraught with just all sorts of challenges. But actually, something really exciting happened, you know, because we were able to pivot to a remote model.

And I’m happy to chat with you some about some of the critical success factors there if it serves. But one of the things that was really beautiful was in going remote out of necessity. You know, it was the first time we were able to because we had to prove to a client, hey, you can do this remotely like we’ve kind of always known we could, because we do in other contexts, but clients were never convinced.

And so they said, hey, you got to be on site. We actually ended up saving clients, you know, $5,000 to $7,000 a week and travel costs that’s a week in the course of this project. So we’ve actually saved save the money relative to the big picture. And for us, I just feel like that’s such a win for them. And for us even I just think it’s just such a wonderful thing

Sam Gupta 24:51 – Learnings from remote ERP project implementations

Yeah, any savings for the client. I think that’s, that’s going to be amazing. So good work there.

Now with respect to the remote Work, did you see any differences in the working environment? Do you have any learnings that you would like to share? If anybody is doing these remote projects? The ERP projects?

Erin Koss 25:10

Yeah, definitely, definitely. So, you know, I won’t lie, we had to try some things, we had to be really aware, I think about what was working and pivot quickly if we saw that something wasn’t serving any longer, which is the nature of a project anyway, I think when you’re on the ground, but we had to be, I think, just just as aware, so hyper aware of what was going on in the dynamic, I do think that it was helpful for sure that we had had as much face time with the client and getting to know them as individuals and as a company in January and February, which we started the project in January.

And so it’s an interesting thing to think about going forward that if you don’t have that initial face to face, like, how do you make up for that piece, and I think that’s still doable, but steps is definitely something we would think about. But we had had a fair amount of FaceTime going in. And so what we’ve had to do was then once we went remotely, I think the thing that was interesting was we went from a situation where we could be more fluid with it.

Erin Koss 26:14

So so you travel on site to the client for say, three or four days worth of work during the week, and you’d be focused on a particular topic, call it transaction testing, right, you’re testing the new system, with the company, the clients, business processes, to see what works and what doesn’t, and making adjustments accordingly.

And you’d be in a room together, and you would be doing this being able to have a lot of fluidity. And what we learned with being online was that this wasn’t always possible. So we started out by creating sort of day long meeting rooms, if you will, for the whole team to exist in. And this worked a little bit for a while and kind of got us all acclimated on zoom and got us all face to face.

But just the nature of the technology made it difficult to kind of everybody be in a room all at once, without a lot of without the specific intention or a plan.

So you know, where we can have a little more fluidity on the ground face to face, we found over time that it was really important to schedule clear sort of small breakout meetings during the week. So a couple things I’ll back up a little bit, one of the things we learned in order to be effective was you know, the, like I said, the big group scenario wasn’t always didn’t always serve.

Erin Koss 27:28

So we started to limit those and the way we did that, but we didn’t want to let we didn’t want to eliminate them. Because what we found was being together all too all together in one group is really how we fostered connection, collaboration and could get broad communications delivered.

You could also get a nice pulse. You know, when you’re looking at a zoom screen with 18 people on it, believe it or not, you can get a really nice test or gauge of like, how is everybody doing? Do we still have momentum? Are people why am I getting deer in the headlights here? Why am I getting? Why is everybody quiet today like what’s going on that’s bigger than this project in people’s lives in the company.

I mean, it could be one person having a challenge because you know, grandma’s at home living with them now and has COVID or all of my kids are at home right now. And I haven’t you know, they’re not in school. And I’m trying to balance all this.

Erin Koss 28:17

So you could you need in that group dynamics, so you couldn’t eliminate it. And so the way we what we did was, we started to take that we take apart, we typically will carve out a project, when a company has when the resources on a project have to flip between their day job and their project work, we will oftentimes very clearly sort of negotiate with the client, like what are the days do you want these guys allocated to this project?

When do we have them so that we can keep the distractions to a minimum, and they can focus on one or the other? Because when they when they try and do both in the same room? It just they don’t do either? Well, right? multitasking is a big, big joke in some ways. And so we agreed with these guys that the project was Tuesday to Thursday from nine to 4pm during the week, and so on Tuesday mornings, we schedule a 30 minute, kind of all hands on deck, what would kind of be looked like a stand up meeting, if you were doing it on site.

We all get in the room and we kick off the week. And that meeting is focused on getting everybody in the room getting everybody face to face. I call it getting eyeballs. It’s my big phrases. I need eyeballs for a minute. And it usually has it’s because that’s where you find your point of connection is through through looking looking at one another directly.

Erin Koss 29:31

And so we will kick off the week with what’s the schedule who’s going to be where what support do you need? How can we help you get to where you need to go and get the things done? You need to this week, so it’s just really kind of a tactical, how are we going to get what’s going on for the week? How are we going to do it? How can we support you? That’s usually a relatively quick meeting.

And then what we learned was during the week that we started to really schedule with with business analysts who were on the I would say quote on the ground, but working day to day, kind of hand-in-hand with some of the key resources on the core team, who were particularly, I would say, really particularly busy, like so they just couldn’t get it all done.

So they really needed someone to kind of help them move through the project most effectively. So we’ve provided we provided a technical analyst and a business analyst to really side by side with Pete, multiple members of the team to really help keep that moving forward. And so what we’ve done is taken those analysts and leverage them to create small group meetings throughout the week to continue to move whatever initiative is happening that week forward.

Erin Koss 30:36

So for example, we’re now in integration testing, where what we call end to end business process testing. And so it’s a cross functional exercise. So we will the week before, really look at what’s coming that following week. And we’ll get all these meetings on the on the books for subsets of people on the broader team. And those will be led by analysts from our team, to ensure that we’re moving that needle forward consistently.

I think that’s actually now that I’m thinking about it a little more. Another change since COVID, where you know, our role, we that we have, our analysts are involved in a slightly different way, right, they’re running subsets of these teams, as opposed to maybe the group as a whole, all the time. So we’ll have these subsets of meetings move the needle forward, during the week, everybody’s very heads down, anybody on the teams is allowed to pop into any of the existing meetings, if they think, oh, gosh, I should have been invited to that meeting. And I wasn’t they can pop in.

Erin Koss 31:34

But we’re really focused on heads down moving the needle forward on Thursdays, then we always we have a closing wrap meeting, which is can be an hour to an hour and a half. And that one is really focused on what came up during the week and what we call our top 10 critical issues.

So what are the issues that are going to keep us from meeting our milestones on time and on budget. And so these are the big process issues, typically that come to the forefront, and are the things that we end up focusing on quite heavily. But it really again, gives the team a chance to eyeball to eyeball, you’re done with the week, you can do a pressure test on you know, what went well?

What are your challenges, you know, sort of what’s your big win, and maybe what’s your big challenge this week, and sometimes we’ll do a round robin event to just get a pulse of that and get people sharing a little more broadly.

But the key thing about the open, the meeting that opens the week, and the meeting that closes the week is really that opportunity for connection, collaboration and communication that you just, you know, you just have to have to be successful when you’re doing all this remote work together in smaller teams during the week. And we found, we have found that we really hit our stride in taking that type of approach for a project.

Sam Gupta 32:48 – Closing thoughts

Okay, this story is so interesting that I want to keep going. But unfortunately, we have to stop now. Because we have run out of time. So do you have any last minute thoughts by any chance, Erin, before we close?

Erin Koss 33:01

Yeah, you know, I think as companies are considering doing, you know, transformational change projects in the midst of this remote work, like when we talk about what’s the future of this work? You know, I think what I hear consistently, the biggest challenge companies are having is how do we how do we collaborate, communicate and connect.

And I think, I think being aware that that is the most important thing. Meaning that is important. Because if you want to get the things done that matter to your organization, those three things need to happen. And those three things are almost strictly related to people, as opposed to whatever it is you’re actually trying to do.

So if you can get above what it is you’re actually trying to do and recognize that it’s again, communication, connection and collaboration. And that’s an exercise in people staying aware of those people, the people on the team, how do you figure out how they’re doing? What do they need? How do you meet those needs? How do you support them? And just asking good questions, being aware asking good questions. And then being prepared to pivot and adjust as people’s needs change.

What we saw with COVID this year is, you know, every week was a different experience. Every week was a different something new we had to deal with. So we have more experience now. But I think the questions are still the same. How do we stay connected in collaboration and communicating? It’s an exercise in people. It’s not about software.

Sam Gupta 34:23

Thank you so much Erin for your time and insight as well.

Erin Koss 34:27

You’re welcome. Thank you, Sam is pleasure to be with you.

Sam Gupta 34:30

I cannot thank our guests enough for coming on the show for sharing their knowledge and journey. I always pick up stuff from our guests, and hopefully, you learned something new today.

If you want to know further about Erin or Syte Consulting Group, please visit sytecg.com. She is offering a complimentary copy of the ebook to our listeners. Links and more information will also be available in the show notes.

If anything in this podcast resonated with you and your business, you might want to check other related episodes, including the interview with Chase Clymer from ElectricEye, who brings a unique perspective on D2C from the angle of eCommerce toolset and Shopify. Also the interview with Jason Chester from InfinityQS, who touches on DTC from a real-time manufacturing quality intelligence standpoint.

Also, don’t forget to subscribe and spread the word among folks with similar backgrounds. If you have any questions or comments about the show, please review and rate us on your favorite podcasting platform or DM me on any social channels. I’ll try my best to respond personally, and make sure you get help.

Thank you, and I hope to get you on the next episode of The WBS podcast.

Outro 35:53 – Outro

Thank you for listening to another episode of The WBS podcast. Be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform so you never miss an episode. For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, check out our community at wbs.rocks. We’ll see you next time.

In this episode, we have our guest, Jason Chester, who shares his thoughts on how evolving consumer trends are forcing manufacturers to rethink their approach to managing manufacturing processes. He also touches on how optimizing your quality operations across the three fundamentals of cost, value, and risk will ensure long term growth, competitiveness and ultimately, profitability. 

Finally, he shares why rethinking of approach will enable new manufacturing businesses and SMBs with ambitious growth plans. And how they can leverage the substantial growth opportunities that exist in today’s global consumer society and the frictionless global market.

Chapter Markers

• [0:00] Intro
• [3:17] Overview of Jason’s company
• [4:26] Manufacturing Quality Intelligence?
• [9:44] Why is Quality number one priority for manufacturers?
• [15:35] Overfill vs underfill issue in Quality management
• [19:45] Collaboration of SPC with ERP and MES systems
• [23:01] Right time to implement quality initiatives
• [29:05] 30-60-90 plan for implementing quality initiatives
• [32:22] Closing thoughts
• [33:37] Outro

Key Takeaways

• There are a lot of changes happening in the markets. We’ve got advances in global logistics that are lowering competitive barriers to entry for manufacturers. It’s kind of creating this global single market. We have now online e-commerce and price comparison sites and distribution channels online. This trend is really creating much more frictionless markets for manufacturers.
• An automated production environment isn’t an optimized production environment. We can still get a lot of waste in automation. We can still get poor quality products in automation. An automated production process does what it’s pre-programmed to do, whether it’s filling bottles of source or cans, etc.
• There is often a lot of confusion about where manufacturing quality intelligence fits with ERP and MES. But typically, MES and ERP systems manage the environment open till a product goes into physical production.

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About Jason

Jason Chester has over 25 years of experience working directly within the Enterprise IT industry.  After starting his career as a software engineer he moved into the IT analyst world. In this role, his work focused on how information technology capabilities can deliver sustainable and transformative business value to end-user organizations. 

He now leads the global channel partner operations for InfinityQS, a world leader in manufacturing quality intelligence and Statistical Process Control solutions.

Resources

• Connect with Jason
  • LinkedIn
• Connect with InfinityQS
  • Website| Facebook | Twitter | Linkedin | YouTube

Full Transcript

Jason Chester 0:00

If we do that sales and marketing promotion, but then we distribute poor quality products out to consumers. That’s going to come back and hurt the manufacturer very significantly very, very quickly.

If we send out products that are not safe for consumption, that’s going to really hurt the manufacturing brand.

Intro 0:18

Growing a business requires a holistic approach that extends beyond sales and marketing. This approach needs alignment among people, processes, and technologies.

So if you’re a business owner, operations, or finance leader looking to learn growth strategies from your peers and competitors, you’re tuned into the right podcast.

Welcome to the WBS podcast where scalable growth using business systems is our number one priority.

Now, here is your host, Sam Gupta.

Sam Gupta 0:55

Hey, everyone, welcome back to another episode of The WBS podcast. I’m Sam Gupta, your host, and principal consultant at digital transformation consulting firm, ElevatIQ.

When we think of growth, we often don’t consider quality as a cornerstone for enabling it, especially in the SMB space. The perceived quality of your products can lead to a poor customer experience, disengaged consumers, and financial implications. All of these factors will have an impact on the P&L and slow your growth down.

Quality Control is of paramount importance for growth for brands seeking the path of DTC. In today’s episode, we have our guest, Jason Chester from InfinityQS, who shares his thoughts on how evolving consumer trends are forcing manufacturers to rethink their approach to managing manufacturing processes, and how by optimizing their operations across the three fundamentals of cost, value, and risk will ensure long term growth, competitiveness and ultimately profitability for new manufacturing business, and SMBs with ambitious growth plans.

Rethinking your approach will enable you to leverage the substantial growth opportunities that exist in today’s global consumer society, and the frictionless global market.

Jason Chester has over 25 years of experience working directly within the enterprise IT industry. After starting his career as a software engineer, he moved into the IT analyst world where his work focused on how information technology capabilities can deliver sustainable and transformative business value to end-user organizations.

He now leads global channel partner operations for InfinityQS, a world leader in manufacturing quality intelligence, and statistical process control solutions.

With that, let’s get to the conversation.

Hey, Jason, welcome to the show.

Jason Chester 3:15

Thank you Sam

Sam Gupta 3:17 – Overview of Jason’s company

Jason, so before we start, as you know, the topic we are going to be discussing today is going to be quality initiatives.

In the quality community, my understanding is that a lot of people know you. They know about your company as well. But what about the other folks and my audience that do not know anything about your company or your background? Would you like to give us a brief about what you guys do and who you help?

Jason Chester 3:43

Yeah, certainly. So InfinityQS, so we’ve been around now for approaching 30 years, we have extensive experience of providing quality intelligence and manufacturing intelligence solutions into manufacturing that is based on statistical process control.

We help clients large and small for multinational manufacturing organizations right down to you know, small single plant manufacturing operations where we utilize fairly advanced data collection, analytics, intelligence, and statistical process control solutions, help them optimize their manufacturing or their production processes. A lot of years of experience in the field.

Sam Gupta 4:26 – Manufacturing Quality Intelligence?

30 years is a very long time, Jason. Okay, so I think I caught a couple of things, and pardon me here because I don’t really have as much familiarity with the quality space and think of me as your manufacturer, and I’m actually trying to understand how I can utilize quality processes for my business.

So I caught some of the terms as per your conversation such as quality intelligence, manufacturing intelligence, they sound fancy but tell me a little bit more about how they can help me

Jason Chester 5:00

Okay, excellent. Yeah, so let’s just take a look at, you know, typical manufacturing organization and the markets that they serve, whether they’re B2B manufacturers or B2C, consumer manufacturers, etc.

You know, there are a lot of changes happening in the markets, they serve, we’ve got advances in global logistics that are lowering competitive barriers to entry for manufacturers. It’s kind of creating this global single market. We have now online e-commerce and price comparison sites and distribution channels online, which are really creating much more frictionless markets, than those manufacturers.

And also the supply-side, you know, we have a lot of, you know, online supply chain hubs and ecommerce platforms and that sort of thing. You know, we have the whole kind of online social media, you know, we have this consumer base that they are now able to influence one another very effectively, where they can rate and review. They can share good and bad stories. They can name and shame brands. You know, even the consumers themselves are shifting. They’re becoming what I call more promiscuous.

And they’re becoming less loyal to brands, and where are the factors take more of a priority. They’re becoming more thrifty. They can be more cost-sensitive, etc, you know. They’re not conscious, conscious consumers. They’re, they’re very, very cognizant towards, you know, recycling, and upcycling, etc. And they’re very ethical now that they shun corporations that have a disregard for the waste and corporate responsibility and environmental responsibility. And they have a voice to be able to share those things across the consumer space, you know, almost instantly to very large numbers, etc.

Jason Chester 6:44

So that is what I kind of collectively call the liberalization of markets. And that’s a very significant change for manufacturers. But equally, there are opportunities as well. New markets are emerging on the back of that new opportunities. You know, opportunities for new products and new innovations, etc, you know, we’ve got new, easy access to emerging economies and emerging markets.

We’ve got a growth in population. And generally, you know, the global economy and wealth growth be, you know, some would argue not equitably, is increasing significantly. And we are genuinely in this kind of era of mass consumption.

So that’s really creating a very challenging environment for manufacturers, and an environment where there’s a lot of opportunity for growth for manufacturers, whether there be small startup manufacturers, or established manufacturers looking to expand into new markets and grow, etc.

And what’s really critical for a manufacturer to be able to address those challenges, and this is why I focus on three really important dimensions, and they are cost, value, and risk.

So cost is obviously really keeping costs as low as possible, reducing waste, reducing resource usage, be more efficient, be more productive. And that obviously doesn’t just impact the profitability of the manufacturing organization but allows them to be more competitive in the markets from a price perspective, etc.

The dimension of value would be about quality, one thing that caught those consumers do demand is better, faster, cheaper. So quality is absolutely paramount. You know, even if we very cost competitive in particular markets, we can’t give way to quality, you know, quality has got to be the number one priority.

Jason Chester 8:29

But value also applies to things like the ability for a manufacturer to be able to adapt to changes in the market, to be more flexible, to be more agile, to provide more capability to get innovative products out to market quickly, etc. And then the risk element falls into two categories.

There are the operational risks that a manufacturer might have, such as you know, operational risks, machine downtimes, quality issues, workforce issues, etc, right through to strategic risks, where potentially, you know, a food safety issue in the case of a food beverage manufacturer, for instance, could really damage brand reputation, or even the cost of quality or safety recalls, product recalls, etc. can be devastating on a business.

So yeah, so really what we do is really help manufacturers to optimize across those three dimensions of cost, value, and risk.

Sam Gupta 9:25

Amazing. So there are a couple of things that jumped out to me based on your conversation, especially the liberalization of the market that’s very new for me.

I did not know that term existed for this one. So maybe we need to have another show for that.

Jason Chester 9:42

Certainly. I would be happy to talk about it.

Sam Gupta 9:44 – why is Quality number one priority for manufacturers?

And the other three dimensions that you mentioned the cost, value, and risk. I think we need to talk a lot more about that. But before that, what I really wanted to discuss is quality being the number one priority.

So as a business owner, my priority is always to get money in my bank account. And the focus of this podcast is really growth for the smaller to medium-sized businesses.

So why is quality the number one priority for me?

Jason Chester 10:11

Well, I think if you look at traditional, or even current manufacturing environments, there’s a heavy emphasis on manufacturing automation. So in recent years, you know, we’ve invested heavily in automating the production process itself, you need very rare now unless it’s an artisan kind of product producer, or whatever, that all of those manufacturing processes manual, you know, even right back decades ago to the introduction of the automated production line, etc, it’s become commonplace.

But an automated production environment isn’t an optimized production environment. We can still get a lot of waste in automation. We can still get poor quality products in automation. An automated production process does what it’s pre-programmed to do, whether it’s filling bottles of source or cans, or making packaging or making components for automotive industry clients, etc. We have this automated production environment, and we’ve gained a lot of benefits.

Over the years from that we’ve displaced a lot of labor, we’ve dramatically increased efficiency, we’ve dramatically increased productivity. But when you look at quality alongside that, the quality process is really unchanged as it was perhaps 10-20-30 years ago, we have this production process going, we have an inspection station, at predetermined intervals, we take a certain number of pieces of products off the production line, we inspect them through various different characteristics and features. And we write down the results on a sheet or we input them into an Excel spreadsheet. Then, we let the line run. And then we’ll test again further down the line.

Jason Chester 11:57

And then at the end of the line, when we’re about to package the product apart or distribute it to the customer, we may do a final inspection of one in 1000 pieces or, you know, one in you know, every hour or something like that, to check that the quality of those products is within specification.

But let me give you an example. Those products may be in specification. But that doesn’t mean say that we’re optimizing that production line. I once worked fairly recently with an alcoholic beverage supplier that filled you know, many, many bottles in a high-speed bottling line. And there are rules and regulations about the fill volumes of content like that, where you know, if you bought a bottle of bourbon, for instance, and it was below the label stated content of 750 milliliters, then you wouldn’t be happy with that as a consumer or neither with the regulators.

So they allow you a certain amount of underfill tolerance, but it’s fairly narrow. So the general trend in the industry is to overfill those bottles, so that they when they get variability in the bottle filling process, they’re not at risk of going below that level stated content allowance.

But imagine that, you know, we’re filling bottles with a lot more product than we actually need to. But technically the product is within specification.

Jason Chester 13:17

And so this particular company, they would monitor that by knowing in a given lot like 8000 bottles, how much volume of liquid is passed through the filler heads and divide that by the number of bottles and the volume of each of those bottles, then is the average on track four would be within specification.

And if it is that batch would be put would be released. If it wasn’t, that whole batch would be scrapped. So that’s 8000 bottles of, alcoholic beverage, which is expensive to produce and, and potentially, you know, lucrative to sell was literally scrapped because that level status, content couldn’t be verified.

So imagine that differently. You know, we only know that process has got inherent variability as we’re checking it. So if we check every 500 bottles, we only know that one bottle in 500 is within specification. And then if there are a problem 1000s of bottles being produced by the time we get to be able to take remedial action to fix the problem. That’s clearly not good.

So you know a with a solution like InfinityQS where we can monitor data in real-time and monitor the variability of those filling processes in real-time, not only can we predict when an out of specification event might occur to enable them to make correct corrective action prior to that specification event becoming an issue but also trying to make the gap narrowed between the overfill and the underfill.

Jason Chester 14:50

So they’re not giving the product away unnecessarily and they’re not at risk of you know, annoying the consumers that buying them refill bottles or causing a problem with the regular lasers for shipping products with not enough content in, etc.

So that’s just an example of where moving away from traditional quality management processes, and through to quality optimization or manufacturing optimization can really make a fundamental difference to the bottom line.

And that’s, you know, just an example of what we see in the industry by taking quality. And bringing that into the 21st century where at the moment, in a lot of scenarios, it’s almost been separate to that investment that we’ve been made be made in automation.

Sam Gupta 15:35 – Overfill vs underfill issue in Quality management

Amazing, when I look at what you just mentioned, the way I’m interpreting this is based on what I have personally seen with the manufacturers, typically when they measure their quality, the process, my understanding is called sampling.

So what they are going to do is they are going to take a couple of sample products to be able to test and those are the only ones that are being tested, and the rest are going to be assumed to be tested. And based on that I think there is going to be a real problem of overfilling and underfilling. And that’s the point that you just mentioned.

So in the case of alcoholic beverages, I can see the problem. But do you see this problem happening with the other industries as well, where we don’t have the problem of overfill versus underfill?

Jason Chester 16:23

Yes, absolutely. I mean, you can see that across all industries. And another example is just taking a step back in, you know, typically, when a quality issue occurs, it’s occurred for a reason there is it’s either a machine problem, or a problem in the process, or a worker that’s made an error on a machine setting, there is some causal factor in that quality event more often than not, and again, you know, you talk about sampling. And you’re absolutely right that products are withdrawn off the line and tested.

But how do we correlate that in real-time to the environment that’s producing that product?

So take a manufacturer of cookies, for instance, you know, we take all of these raw materials, we mix them together in a certain word according to a certain recipe, then we go through certain processes, like forming them into a cookie shape, letting them rest, we then put them through an oven, you know, we then you know, maybe glaze them or dust them with icing sugar or whatever it is, when you get brought bad product off the line is invariable because you know something within that process, as you know, variability has happened or a problem has happened, which has led to that quality event.

But when we just talk about sampling in isolation, we take the product off the line and we determine that it’s not within reasonable limits or within specification limits, etc.

Jason Chester 17:46

But actually, if we monitor the production line, at the same time as you know, the characteristics of the product, then we’re in a much better position to make correlations between right okay, we’re getting these overcooked cookies, because the oven temperature is slightly too high, or the belt speed is slightly too low.

So if we can optimize those manufacturing environment variables, then we’re not going to get a product that’s out of spec in the first place. So that significantly reduces waste.

And I know that that’s another food example but another example might be in, in packaging manufacturers, you know where ingredients into making PT bottles, for instance, you know, have to have a certain ingredients or they’d like a UV, ultraviolet protection additive put in that’s a very expensive raw material.

So they try and limit the amount of UV additive that goes into those products to try and limit obviously waste of a high-value ingredient. But if you have too little, you know, UV protection ingredients in the PET bottles, then inevitably what’s in those PET bottles can spoil either in the distribution channels supply chain or on the in the consumer’s hands for instance, or you put too much in and then you’ve got unnecessary cost in the manufacturing process.

Jason Chester 19:04

So it’s prevalent all around us, you know, we can see in automotive, you know, in automotive components that there are very, you know, strict automotive standards in the tier one automotive OEMs at the supplies that they get.

And unless the product absolutely meets the stringent requirements, the automotive OEM isn’t really that bothered if the 100 products that they’ve ordered, has it taken the manufacturer a sales in previous products to get the 100 good ones or 110 previous ones to get the 100 good products. So it’s all about performance and productivity. And you see it prevalently across all sectors.

Sam Gupta 19:45 – Collaboration of SPC with ERP and MES systems

Okay, I think you touched on several different industries there. Just to recap, you talked about food and beverage then you talked about the automotive industry and the packaging as well. All of the industries could benefit from the real-time quality monitoring that may not be part of their current system that they might be using, especially ERP.

And my understanding of the manufacturing floor is that there are two cases that we see typically with manufacturers. Number one is going to be if they are running the production floor manually, the second is going to be either the combination of ERP or MES.

Is that in common in your experience as well? Jason, can you talk a little bit about how your platform would talk to ERP? So let’s say if I’m a manufacturer, and I use ERP, for my quality processes, because I need to gather data related to quality in my ERP. So how would these two systems work together on the production floor?

Jason Chester 20:45

So they are absolutely complimentary. And I think that’s where there is often a lot of confusion or potentially even misconceptions about where manufacturing intelligence fits with ERP and MES. But typically, MES and ERP systems manage the environment open till a product goes into physical production.

So a lot might be released into production and scheduled into production or on a specific line, and there might be, you know, 8000 units of a particular product to be made. And then the final quality inspection characteristics of that lot, and potentially even some sampling characteristics, might then get fed back to the ERP or MES system.

So that in the future, you can look at that particular lot number and see what the final quality inspection characteristics were for its, you know, if there was a customer complaint or, or any other event that needed investigation, etc.

Jason Chester 21:37

But really, that’s where an ERP kind of stops. And we’re really where solutions like InfinityQS begin. Because what we focus on is from when that product goes into production, is really monitoring all of the process environments, and the quality characteristics of that product whilst it is in production, and be able to use in statistical process control, being able to alert to abnormal trends or abnormal variability, to be able to predict when you know, machine settings need to change or when the production environment needs to change, to ensure that we’re keeping that product as close to specification as possible or within the central specification as possible.

And then at the end of that, all of that statistical summary can also then be integrated back into the MES and ERP solution. So it’s really that when the product is in production, where solutions like quality intelligence really come into the room. And obviously, if you scale that up across a manufacturer with multiple lines, or multiple facilities, or even multiple regions, then that all of that information can be aggregated.

So they can compare performance, across processes, across products, etc, to see where you know, the opportunities for improvement. And typically, that is not what ERP solutions are designed to do.

Sam Gupta 23:01 – Right time to implement quality initiatives

Okay, so I think I am convinced of the value of real-time quality monitoring, there’s definitely a value, but I want to shift the gear a bit. And I would like to touch in terms of real hard dollars because we are talking about the growth podcast, right?

So obviously, we can do as many processes as we want, we can implement as much quality as we want. But when is going to be the right time to implement quality for a manufacturer, when I have to compete with my other priorities, such as sales and marketing or R&D?

So what would be your recommendation to implement these quality processes? And which industry? What is the right time to implement the quality initiatives?

Jason Chester 23:42

So I think that the right times when to implement quality initiatives is absolutely right now, I mean, you know, for a manufacturing organization, what those organizations do is manufacture products, the sales, and the marketing and promotional aspects, a route to get those products out to market.

But go back to what we talked about earlier in the sessions, if we do that sales and marketing promotion, but then we distribute poor quality product out to consumers, that’s going to come back and hurt the manufacturer very significantly, very, very quickly. If we send out a product that is not safe for consumption, that’s going to really hurt the manufacturing brand, etc.

Jason Chester 24:22

Or even if we do you know, if we’ve got high volumes of waste, and we struggle with efficiency, and we struggle with you know, output and productivity, then if we get a certain increase in demand because of a successful sales promotion, then we leave consumers wanting because they can’t get that product quickly. Because we’ve got backlogs we’ve got issues in the manufacturing process, etc.

Quality has got to be the underpinning of all of that and it is certainly with you know modern cloud-based implementations of quality intelligence those things can be achieved very quickly. They can be achieved very cost-effectively. The whole notion of digital transformation has been there for a very long time, high cost, high-risk strategy for organizations just simply not true anymore.

You know, we can deploy quality intelligence, very tactically, you know, cloud-based solutions that don’t require, you know, any, any kind of specific infrastructure or investment up front means that you know, we can, we can get in, you know, solving very specific problems in very specific areas, and then potentially expand out those capabilities as the manufacturer needs to or as the manufacturer grows, etc. That’s the beauty of the scalability around the cloud.

Sam Gupta 25:37

Yeah, I think you bring a very good point there with respect to sales and marketing, as business owners, we have a tendency to push a lot for sales and marketing. But I think what matters end of the day is going to be the customer experience. So even if you have your fancy sales and marketing, but let’s say if the customers are receiving the poor quality product, they are not going to come back.

In fact, they might not be able to refer you to other customers because of that experience. Or they might be talking online, I think you brought one element about social media as well, that nowadays customer’s voice is going to be really important too. So let’s say if they have a bad experience with your product, they are going to be talking on social media channels, and word of mouth is not going to be good, which is one of the pillars of influencer marketing.

So I definitely, definitely agree with your point there with respect to thinking of quality as one of the pillars as part of your overall strategy.

Jason Chester 26:33

I couldn’t agree more. Absolutely. And, you know, just reiterate that point around cost value and risk is that you know, we often think in terms of just reducing cost, and just maximizing value and eliminating risk. Actually, that’s quite a misnomer as well, it’s much more complicated than that. This is where it does get quite tricky for manufacturers, because, you know, yes, we can reduce the risk of poor quality product down to almost zero by testing every single product that comes off the line.

But that’s not economical, you know, we can reduce the cost further and further and further down. But it will get to a point where we start to impact on agility and flexibility or will start to impact on product quality, etc. So it’s about achieving that optimal balance between those three dimensions of cost, value, and risk.

And only when a manufacturer has got that optimal kind of state, do they know that they’re absolutely they’ve got the manufacturing capabilities behind their organization to be able to support those sales and marketing initiatives cost-effectively? And you know, and effectively to be able to support whatever it is the business wants to do. If you’ve got a business where you know, the pushing very well on the sales and marketing initiatives and, you know, export initiatives and channels to market and that sort of thing, but they don’t have that top-notch manufacturing capability, then it will rapidly unravel. And that’s how our experience certainly with a lot of manufacturers quality has got to be at the top as a strategy.

Sam Gupta 28:09

Okay, so I really like those three terms, cost, value, and risk. And I’m probably going to take this to the next level. I’m going to create an acronym there for that. And I’m going to call it CVR. I really like that, because that is similar to project management. I think they talk about the triangle where they have similar pillars if I’m not mistaken.

Jason Chester 28:30

Yes. Yes. And, you know, the approach is obviously very common. We’re in an industry that doesn’t shy away from three-letter acronyms. But yeah, I mean, it is a very effective way just to distill a lot of what we talk about down into those three dimensions because I do think it all does boil down to that. And that can be complex. And when you don’t have the tools in place to be able to deal with that complexity.

Inevitably, then it gets overlooked. And it doesn’t get done because it’s seen as a, you know, as a thing that’s too hard to do. And that just isn’t the case with today’s technologies and today’s tools. Okay, amazing.

Sam Gupta 29:05 – 30-60-90 plan for implementing quality initiatives

So I think I’m sold on the value of the manufacturing automation, real-time quality monitoring. I think there’s definitely value with this. But as a business owner, I need to prioritize right, obviously, I have got so many different initiatives.

So I’m actually looking for some sort of actionable advice. And let’s say 30-60-90 day plan, if I want to implement the quality initiatives in my organization, how would you recommend the 30-60-90 approach for me?

Jason Chester 29:33

so we have a very defined methodology internally within InfinityQS. And this is very much around what we call a proof of concept. And we actually have a 30 day, you know, timeframe on our proof of concept. So we aim to work with manufacturers to get them up and running with a proof of concept. And that’s very, very focused in scope.

So it might be a particular production line, a particular product, or a particular process. Where we implement a policy intelligence proof of concept project to address that immediate challenge? So they might choose which process? Or which product? Do they have the most problem with? What do they have the most waste with? What do they have the most variability or in predictability with etc, and really focus on a proof of concept trial, because there is no better way to prove the value to a manufacturing client, than for them to see the value of a solution in their own environment with their own processes, you know, we can provide endless case studies and, and success stories from other sectors and from other industries, but every manufacturer is different, every manufacturing environment is different.

Jason Chester 30:40

So 30 days, you can do a proof focus proof of concept to create that business value proof point internally within your manufacturing organization, then once you’ve done that, that gives you the confidence then that you can scale up, you know, very effectively to other areas.

And this is the beauty of, as I mentioned before, about, you know, cloud-based products now, you know, you don’t need to install, you know, servers and database servers and have a data center provisioned or, you know, new networks put in place. I mean, you know, just a device with an internet browser, and you’re good to go. They’re scalable, they’re elastic, if you know, certainly we’d like InfinityQS, there are no long-term commitments or contracts, you’re not signing up to an annual agreement. It’s a subscription-based product.

Jason Chester 31:27

So, you know, it’s an operational expense, rather than the capital expenditure, you can scale as you scale within the business. You can put a plan in place for focus proof of concept within 30 days, an expanded proof of concept within 60 days, even a full line or full plant pilot within 90 days, and then potentially an enterprise-wide rollout within six to 12 months.

So very, very fast, very fast time to value very scalable, and very cost-effective. You know, and again, the final point on that is that demand obviously changes. You know, as we’ve seen this year with the pandemic, demand can be up and down. And so can usage of cloud-based solutions, like quality intelligence, you can acquire and more licenses when required and reduce that license count when they’re not required. And that works well as well for seasonal manufacturers, as well.

Sam Gupta 32:22

Okay, amazing. So one thing that jumped out to me, overall, from the show is each manufacturing environment is different. And I couldn’t agree more with that. So with that, Jason, I think, you know, we are done with the show. Do you have any last-minute thoughts that you would like to share with the audience?

Jason Chester 32:40

No, I think there’s been a great conversation, there are a lot of opportunities, I guess the only point I would share is that you know, whilst every manufacturer is different manufacturers can also learn from other companies, even in different sectors, we talked earlier about the difference between food and beverage or automotive components or, or packaging manufacturers, etc.

Whilst there are a lot of differences. There are also a lot of similarities. And you might learn techniques around quality in one industry that can be applied with great effect to another industry. So that kind of cross-pollination of techniques and ideas from different industries can be really important as well.

Sam Gupta 33:20

Yeah, I cannot agree more with the cross-pollination aspect of learning. I think that’s the foundation of learning in my mind.

So again, thank you so much, Jason, for your time, really appreciate it. And you have a wonderful day.

Jason Chester 33:32

You too. It’s been a pleasure and enjoyable having this conversation.

Sam Gupta 33:37

I cannot thank our guests enough for coming on the show and sharing their knowledge and journey. I always pick up stuff from our guests, and hopefully, you learn something new today. If you want to know further about Jason, or InfinityQS, please visit infinityqs.com. They are currently offering three months free trial of their real-time quality, intelligence, and statistical process control software called Enact if you’re interested in trying for your quality operations. Links and more information will also be available in the show notes.

If anything in this podcast resonated with you and your business, you might want to check other related episodes, including the interview with Michael Begg from AMZ advisers, who brings a unique perspective on D2C from Amazon as a marketing channel. Also the interview with Chase Clymer from Electric Eye, who touches on D2C from the e-commerce toolset and architecture standpoint.

Also, don’t forget to subscribe and spread the word among folks with similar backgrounds. If you have any questions or comments about the show, please review and rate us on your favorite podcasting platform or DM me on any social channels. I’ll try my best to respond personally and make sure You get help.

Thank you, and I hope to catch you on the next episode of The WBS podcast.

Outro 35:07

Thank you for listening to another episode of The WBS podcast. Be sure to subscribe to your favorite podcasting platform so you never miss an episode. For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, check out our community at wbs.rocks. We’ll see you next time.

In this episode, we have our guest Michael Begg from AMZ Advisers, who brings a unique perspective for manufacturers and e-commerce merchants from his experience of helping customers getting started on Amazon as a revenue channel and grow their e-commerce businesses from the ground up.

He also shares his expertise to plan your marketing budget. If you have been thinking about or are already immersed in the path of D2C, you must listen to this episode.

Chapter Markers

• [0:00] Intro
• [2:49] Overview of Mike’s company and clients
• [3:17] Mike’s company’s growth journey
• [7:42] How can manufacturers start on Amazon’s journey?
• [9:37] Which products are the right fit for Amazon?
• [12:14] How can traditional manufacturers plan for Amazon’s journey?
• [16:43] Is Amazon strategy only applicable for sales or branding as well?
• [20:55] 30-60-90 plan for manufacturers starting on Amazon’s journey
• [25:11] Can manufacturers start on Amazon’s journey without a website?
• [28:05] Closing thoughts
• [29:12] Outro

Key Takeaways

• If you are going to really try to grow on the Amazon platform, you need to focus on all aspects of it. It’s not just put the product up there and see if it sells.
• The research tools such as JungleScout and Helium 10 might help with your Amazon’s journey.
• In the US, 69% of all consumers use Amazon to start their product search.
• Amazon charges a 15% referral fee. If you’re using Amazon FBA, the fee comes out to be about another 15%. So, you’re looking at about 30% of your margin. And then if you add in advertising on top of that and shipping to get the product to Amazon, you may be lucky to be close to 40% of your margin.
• The average number of impressions that a customer needs with your brand before they actually purchase from you is about 20.
• Across the Amazon platform, most categories have experienced significant sales increases. Mike has had clients that have had sales go up 400% since COVID happened just from e-commerce sales, just through the Amazon channel.

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About Mike

Mike Begg is an entrepreneur and expert in eCommerce, digital marketing, and operational nearshoring. He co-founded AMZ Advisers with his two partners in 2015 and has grown the business to managing over $10M per year in ad spend and $100M per year in Amazon sales.

Mike and the AMZ team also operate AMZ Courses, educating Amazon sellers on how to maximize sales on the platform.

Mike loves sharing advice and help on anything related to Amazon and building efficient businesses.

Resources

• Connect with Mike
  • LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram
• Connect with AMZ Advisers
  • Website | Facebook | Instagram | Linkedin | YouTube
• Download Mike’s free eBook if you would like to learn more.

Full Transcript

Michael Begg 0:00

I think the research shows now that the average number of impressions that a customer needs with your brand before they actually purchase from you is about 20.

Intro 0:11

Growing a business requires a holistic approach that extends beyond sales and marketing. This approach needs alignment among people, processes, and technologies.

So if you’re a business owner, operations, or finance leader looking to learn growth strategies from your peers and competitors, you’re tuned into the right podcast.

Welcome to the WBS podcast where scalable growth using business systems is our number one priority.

Now, here is your host, Sam Gupta.

Sam Gupta 0:47

Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of The WBS podcast. I’m Sam Gupta, your host, and principal consultant at digital transformation consulting firm, ElevateIQ.

When I was putting together a list of growth topics for this month, that could be valuable for our audience, especially with the changing business environment due to COVID. direct to consumer (D2C) strategies were on the top of our list. We wanted to cover D2C from different perspectives, including operations, finance, and marketing.

In today’s episode, we have our guest Michael Begg from AMZ Advisers, who brings a unique perspective for manufacturers and ecommerce merchants. From his experience of helping customers getting started on Amazon as a revenue channel and grow their ecommerce businesses from the ground up. He also shares his expertise to plan your marketing budget. If you have been thinking about or already immersed in the path of DTC, you must listen to this episode.

Let me introduce Mike to you.

Michael Begg is an entrepreneur and expert in ecommerce, digital marketing, and operational nearshoring. Mike co-founded AMZ advisers with his two partners in 2015. He has grown the business to managing over $10 million per year in ad spend and $100 million dollars per year in Amazon sales.

Mike and the AMZ team also operate AMZ courses, educating Amazon sellers on how to maximize sales on the platform. He loves sharing advice and help on anything related to Amazon and building efficient businesses.

With that, let’s get to the conversation.

Hey, Mike, welcome to the show.

Michael Begg 2:40

Hi, Sam, thank you for having me here. I really appreciate the opportunity to speak with your audience.

Sam Gupta 2:44

Okay, so to start with, do you want to talk about your company? And what you guys do?

Michael Begg 2:49

Sure, yeah, I’ll start off talking about us. My company is AMZ advisers. We’ve been around for five and a half years, almost six years at this point. And what we do is help brands and manufacturers maximize their online sales on the Amazon platform.

And our company will handle everything from doing the content creation, the SEO Marketing, the paid advertising, pretty much the entire Amazon sales channel for brands and manufacturers, they’re looking to increase their Amazon sales.

Sam Gupta 3:17

Okay. Do you target any specific manufacturers or specific verticals in manufacturing?

Michael Begg 3:23

Yeah, for sure. So we just give you a little background on what our typical client is, they’re typically doing about a million dollars to $10 million in sales right now.

And they’re looking to increase that amount of sales. And we’ve worked across a variety of different verticals, from apparel to food and grocery to pet supplies, as well as some more niche categories like child’s educational materials.

Sam Gupta 3:48

So tell me a little bit about your own growth, how you started, how each year was. Did you have to pivot with respect to your business model? Were there any challenges? Can you touch in detail about that?

Michael Begg 4:00

Of course, yes. Um, my background really wasn’t anything entrepreneurial. I came out of school, I started working in finance jobs, which we kind of already mentioned.

And I just realized that I needed to do something for myself. So I and two other partners that I have right now started looking for new business ideas to make money online.

We actually started selling products on Amazon ourselves, we began importing products from Asia and selling them online on the Amazon platform. And once we realized that we were very good at marketing and the advertising side and actually achieving sales for ourselves.

We looked at a lot of the other brands that were on there, and a lot of the other sellers that were well-known household name brands, and they were really underperforming and they weren’t hitting the sales levels that we would have expected.

So we saw an opportunity there to kind of build a business out, help these brands achieve more sales and the platforms, and then obviously grows business ourselves. You know, originally we started small just taking on stuff on the side while we had our full-time job still in the corporate space.

And then once at a certain point, we realize we have enough revenue to at least survive. And we were like, Alright, let’s go into this, you know, full steam. Let’s burn the ships. Let’s not look back, let’s see what happens.

And yeah now we’re here five and a half years later and we manage about $10 million in ad spend on the Amazon platform per year and help our clients do about $100 million in overall sales.

Sam Gupta 5:27

So, so tell me a little bit from the process perspective as well. Obviously, you have done amazing with respect to your sales and marketing.

But I’m sure you have had some sort of challenges, as you grew, did you have to change your business model just because that was not aligned with your processes, any processes, you know, that you came up with were unique and that manufacturers can learn from?

Michael Begg 5:52

Yes, I mean, I think we’ve developed our own for our clients, we’ve developed our own playbooks on how to actually achieve the advertising sales they want. And we can talk a little bit more about that later if you want.

But in general, I mean, as a business ourselves and growing on the platform, there are always challenges that that come up, a lot of times the e-commerce space is very, it’s very rewarding, the companies that are flexible, that are agile, and that are able to get into new markets quickly.

So for example, we’ve had many clients that have been wildly successful in a niche product that has taken off one example that sticks out is CBD oil, we had a client that was doing phenomenally they were one of the first ones out there, they took off overnight from pretty much zero, within two months, they were doing $100,000 in sales of just one CBD oil product.

But however, they were not willing to invest in the advertising, and the marketing to help them stay at that number one spot.

Michael Begg 6:49

And then the other companies that were familiar with the e-commerce space, realized that they needed to advertise that they could steal this market share back, jumped in there, produce the product, put it out almost the exact same product, ran the market, we needed to get the visibility on the platform and essentially put this client’s product out of business because the visibility just wasn’t there, the cost of his advertising became too expensive.

And he just wasn’t able to compete with a lot of these other brands are doing.

So the biggest lesson there, I think to learn is that if you are going to really try to grow on the platform, you need to focus on all aspects of it, it’s not just put the product up there, see if it sells.

You need to focus on your marketing, your reviews, the way that you’re getting social proof for your product, constantly trying to drive more traffic to it through off-platform SEO efforts, there’s a lot of different things that you need to do to make sure that once you start selling a product, well, it’s going to stay there for the long term.

Sam Gupta 7:42

So for the manufacturers, you know, the ones that have never explored Amazon’s path, or might not be familiar with e-commerce as much. Can you describe this to them a bit, and how they can start on the path?

Michael Begg 8:01

Yeah, of course, well I think one thing that, at least from my perspective that COVID has really opened up a lot of retailers to is that being online is more important.

And if they’re, if people are not physically able to go into their stores, then where are the sales gonna come from that are gonna drive their products. And that becomes even more relevant for manufacturers that follow a traditional business model, where they’re selling products to these retailers or to a distributor who’s selling it to the retailers, and they’re just selling wholesale.

Essentially, by going to e-commerce, you’re going to DTC you’re cutting out the middleman, there’s no wholesale, you’re capturing that whole margin. And it provides such a bigger incentive for you to make the shift to the platform.

Michael Begg 8:01

Now, if you are looking to figure out which of your products or if you have a lot of manufacturing capabilities and produce a lot of different products, the best way to start is just by getting in either with partnering with a firm like myself, like my own firm or like other firms that are out there to help do a lot of the market research for you.

So you can understand what markets within your product category look the best.

Or if you want you can also purchase a lot of the research tools that are out there, there’s one called JungleScout, another called Helium 10, and other that’s viral launch.

All of those can help you get some insight into what the markets look like and different marketplaces. And there are different tools for different marketplaces as well. So depending on whether you want to sell in Europe, if you want to sell in the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, you know, wherever India, wherever it may be, there’s a lot of different tools out there to help you get some insights into where your best opportunities for the sales are.

Sam Gupta 9:37

So I want to touch back, you know on the example that you mentioned about the CBD oil.

So when we talk about this particular customer, obviously it makes sense for them to go for the e-commerce path just because number one the product is small, you know, this shipping is probably not going to be as much of an issue.

But if you look at the bigger products, such as automotive manufacturers, right then I don’t know if the e-commerce path is going to be relevant for them.

So do you have any specific recommendation in terms of who is going to be the right fit for the e-commerce path before they explore this?

Michael Begg 10:13

Right. So if, in general, if we’re talking larger e-commerce, essentially, I mean, there are more opportunities to sell larger bulkier items.

But if we’re talking specifically about Amazon, one of the ways to really outperform on the platform is to be using the Fulfillment by Amazon fulfillment model. And using that model actually rewards products that are smaller and lighter.

So if your product is under two pounds, if it’s less than, I believe, 18 inches, you’re actually going to pay less fee. And once you hit those, you start getting above those, those packaging sizes above the product weight, the fees start really adding up. So that’s one thing to consider if you’re going to be selling heavier products or bulkier products, the price point needs to be there for it to really make sense, at least within the Amazon platform.

Now, if you are going to be selling in general, like you said, automotive parts, in e-commerce, there’s still a lot of opportunities to reach the right audiences, however, the marketing that you’re going to need to do is going to be a lot more targeted.

Michael Begg 11:13

So on Amazon, we’re going a lot broader. If you think about it, at least here in the US 69% of all consumers are going to Amazon to at least start their product search.

So you know, if you’re selling, let’s say, I don’t know, a carburetor, it probably doesn’t make sense on the Amazon platform. Because it’s so broad the amount of search volume that people are searching for, are I’m sorry because it’s so specific, the carburetor is so specific on the platform, people are going to Amazon and search for everyday household items apparel like lightweight things that they need.

If you’re looking to do e-commerce in a specific niche like automotive parts, you need to make sure that you’re engaging with automotive groups, making sure you know Facebook groups, Instagram, social media link building with other platforms, being in the automated forums, whatever it may be, there’s still a lot of opportunities to drive traffic to your own website or to another platform that way to sell your product.

However, selling on Amazon, those types of products probably doesn’t make the most sense.

Sam Gupta 12:14

So let’s take a bit of a scenario here, right, the traditional manufacturers that we see. And what I was thinking is if we have a traditional manufacturer, who was actually looking to go for D2C. Their current channels at this point of time are pretty much going to be trade shows. Their marketing spend is not as much. So if the average manufacturer is looking to go for D2C again, if they have a very small product, they are slightly more mixture of e-commerce as well as the manufacturing then it would make sense for them, right.

But the traditional manufacturers typically go for the traditional, you know marketing channels, and typically they are going to be working with their distributors. So my average manufacturer, typically what they do is they have their distributor channel, they just work with them, they have their margin set up.

But now you know, we are talking about going for the D2C path for that. And obviously, we need to compare the margin. So as you mentioned that the margins could be slightly more lucrative because you are not really sharing that with your channel.

But at the same time, you are going to have your existing channel because you can’t go all-in in the D2C.

That could be too risky.

So, you know, we need to look at number one, the margins, and number two, the happiness of the channel.

So how do you manage the channel conflict? If a traditional manufacturer is going to go to D2C?

Michael Begg 13:36

Yes, and I think you bring up a very good point understanding that the amount of advertising you’re going to need to do if you’re a traditional manufacturer, is significantly different than what you’re going to be doing in your you know, traditional model where you’re selling to a distributor.

However, that doesn’t mean you personally need to go DTC, you can also find other sellers that are out there. And there, there’s a variety of different sellers that will do this where they’ll actually partner with you.

So instead of if we’re saying in a traditional model, you’re wholesaling to the distributor and distributor selling to the reseller, or the retailer, you would go directly from yourself to the online reseller, cutting out the distributor, you can increase the margins a little bit, the seller will probably be paying for more of the advertising to get it going.

But you’ll also be giving them a discount on the product allowing them to make a margin on the spread. But that is one way you can do it.

Now if you’re gonna do it yourself, you do have more margin, but if we’re talking about Amazon-specific, there are significant fees that you need to understand as well.

So Amazon charges a 15% referral fee. If you’re using Amazon FBA, the fee comes out to be about another 15%. So right there, you’re looking at about 30% of your margin. And then if you add in advertising on top of that in shipping to get the product to Amazon, you’re using FBA Amazon will pay for the shipping to get to the end customer, but you also need to factor that in.

So at the end of the day, you may be looking at close to 40% of your margin.

Michael Begg 15:00

If you’re doing advertising, it could be significantly higher, it could be about 50-60%. So depending on where your product margin is on the manufacturing side is really going to determine whether it makes sense for you to go DTC or not. Or to continue to use a similar model, a lot of distributors are getting more advanced and starting to sell on the platform more.

So again, maybe if you don’t feel like tackling the platform yourself, you can find the distributors that are doing e-commerce and selling products through e-commerce and partner with them as well.

So you can continue to sell your product in the traditional model, without having to make that jump to DTC if you’re not entirely comfortable with it.

Sam Gupta 15:38

Right. So basically, what you are saying is, rather than doing it yourself, you know, what you could do is you could actually enable your channel, and you can help them understand to increase your sales.

And as your distributors or the channel is going to increase the sales, obviously, that is going to increase for you as well.

Michael Begg 15:57

Exactly, exactly. Yeah, everyone’s realizing the opportunity, whether you’re the manufacturer, or the distributor, there’s so much opportunity to sell online and more and more people are adapting to it. There are a lot of distributors out there, they’re actually acquiring agencies like mine that had the expertise within the Amazon platform to help them sell their products more online.

So, they’re actually increasing the relationships and the number of wholesale purchases that are buying. They can increase their margin, and then they’re turning around and selling it on the e-commerce side instead of selling to retail.

So they’re increasing their margins that way. So there’s a lot of different opportunities for you, if DTC is not something you’re willing to invest in yourself, just finding the right partner can help you achieve more sales for your products through online channels.

Sam Gupta 16:43

So let’s go back to our example a bit more. So as I mentioned, the traditional manufacturer, right does not really have as much marketing spend if you look at the kind of their website, they have, they would have spent, let’s say, $5,000-$10,000, just to build the website, and that’s pretty much you know, their marketing spend, their marketing spend is also going to be more from the trade show, because that’s their primary channel to get the leads.

And then they actually hang out in a lot of different forums such as the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), that’s where they are going to be building relationships with the fellow manufacturers. So this is their marketing landscape.

Obviously, they are targeting their distributors for marketing and education.

But let’s say we are going on the path of D2C. And the goal is not really sales, because it’s not always sales that matter from the marketing perspective. It’s also the relationship with the customers because the customers need to know your brand, irrespective of whether your channel is selling or you are selling.

So what would be your perspective, let’s say if the manufacturers don’t want to, you know, go for the DTC, from the perspective of sales, they simply want to go from the brand recognition perspective, do you still think DTC adds value and the manufacturers should be investing something there?

Michael Begg 18:00

Yes, and I think there’s a lot of value there if that is your goal to actually build brand recognition and a brand name.

However, the amount of investment and the amount of time it’s going to take to do that is significantly longer than just putting a product up and getting sales immediately.

If we’re going to really build a DTC relationship for your brand, we really need to look at the entire sales funnel. And that includes not only your ecommerce channels like Amazon, but also what you’re doing through your own website, and whatever traffic sources you’re using there.

So within the Amazon platform, you need to start with the basis which would be the SEO and getting the product part and content done. So the product listing looks good. But then we’re actually building the sales funnel within that platform. So within Amazon, we’re working at the bottom of the funnel, using ads to target customers that are already interested in buying the middle of the funnel targeting customers that are considering other products in our category, and the top of the funnel to build that brand awareness to get your name out there to make more people familiar with it.

I think the research shows now that the average number of impressions that a customer needs with your brand before they actually purchase from you is about 20.

So being able to hit them in these different stages of their customer journey within Amazon, but also within the entire ecommerce sphere, not just the Amazon channel. Whatever channel you’re looking at is extremely important in being in multiple places as the way you’re really going to build that brand recognition.

Michael Begg 19:26

Now within Amazon. The ability to build an audience is starting to appear there allowing you to create followers, people can follow your brand within the platform. And then you’re going to be able to use certain retargeting through different ad types in the future. Or you can use Amazon DSP, which is demand-side programming, which is a whole different sphere of advertising. It really focuses on brand awareness and customer retargeting, but you can use all of this to build that funnel to start building that loyalty and then retargeting those customers to get more sales over time.

And again, Amazon is just the largest brand discovery tool. I mean, if we’re going 69% of customers are going to search there. So by not being on the platform, there’s a very good chance that your brand’s not going to be discovered. And then if we are expanding it to that next level of what’s your overall brand, and through all of your sales channels, Amazon is going to be essentially the top of that funnel. That’s where everyone’s going to find you. Then, as people start buying through Amazon, you’re going to want to try to find a way to bring them to your website. There are different practices and tools you can do for that.

But Amazon just becomes part of that funnel, and then you’re looking at how you’re going to build out that entire funnel for all of your ecommerce channels, not just one platform. It is an involved process, it’s very difficult to do on your own. But if you have the money to invest in it, you can find the right partners that can set up those funnels for specific sales channels for you, and help you build your overall DTC online presence.

Sam Gupta 20:55

Yeah, couldn’t agree more. You know, Mike, Amazon is really that big, I mean, synonymous to its name, I guess, you know, it’s really that big channel.

So if you’re ignoring that, obviously, you know, that’s going to be very limiting. So now, you know, based on that, I want to make sure my audience has some action items here, with respect to let’s say if they want to include Amazon as part of their strategy for 2021, and 2020, is almost ending with COVID. Obviously, there are challenges.

So let’s say they want to include Amazon as part of their strategy for the next year, what will be your, you know, 30-60-90 day plan for them? How they can structure, how they can talk to companies like you, and what they can expect out of it?

Michael Begg 21:46

Yeah, well, I think this is we’re at a very good point right now. I mean, we’re already in Q4, it’s too late this year, to really get capture those sales on Amazon. If you’re just looking to get started on the DTC side. Really, we need to start shifting the focus to what we’re going to do next year. And the first thing you should be doing and using the rest of this year to do is to start interviewing other agencies that are out there.

So there is a variety of them that can help strategize exactly what you need to do for that sales channel. But there are a few different things that you need to be really learning you need to be figuring out if you have products within your catalog that can do well.

So you are going to want to be paying someone for research or doing the research on your own to see what the sales market looks like for these products. That’s the first thing, you need to consider what your logistics are going to be to get the product to whatever market so if you’re shipping from Asia, how are you going to get it to the US? How are you going to store it? What logistical challenges might you run into with customs or whatever it may be?

Michael Begg 22:38

These are all things that you might have to deal with. If you’re already shipping to the US, maybe you already have that part figured out. But then once you’re here in the US, how are you actually gonna be able to fulfill the customer orders. And as I mentioned before, Amazon FBA is a great service to do it.

However, there are other services out there. So now Shopify is rolling out a fulfillment network, Walmart is rolling out a fulfillment network. And there are also third-party logistics companies that can help hold that can warehouse, your inventory, then fulfill orders as they come in. So there’s a lot of different complexity there that can be done.

And I would honestly recommend looking at having multiple distribution networks within the US or within whatever target, excuse me, whatever target market you’re looking for, I think that’ll be extremely important to focus on in the next 90 days.

And then just start budgeting, start calculating what you’re going to do. I mean, we, like I said before, about if you’re selling on Amazon, about 30% of your margin is just the fees. Now, if you How much are you willing to spend on advertising to help you achieve your goals? How does that fit within your margin on your overall product, determining what your end goal is whether it’s actually getting sales, or as we said before, building a brand within the e-commerce space, that’s going to lead to different outcomes and how much you’re going to want to advertise?

Michael Begg 23:54

I mean, if you’re just looking for sales, the advertising spend may not be as important or you may be willing to scale it down a little bit or have a more efficient target that you’re looking forward to, to maximize the profit you’re making.

But if you’re looking to build your brand, you might want to be more aggressive on the advertising to reach more customers get the brand name out there more. These are all things that you’re probably going to want to talk to an e-commerce agency about. So they can help layout the roadmap for you and help you start planning that stuff with you.

But I mean, by the end of the year, you know, we’re in the middle of November at this point right now, by the end of the year, you should already have whoever your agency partner is going to be for 2021 you should start they should start having the research for you.

So you can start figuring out what products within your catalog or your manufacturing capabilities are going to be ready to go and then start looking at the distribution networks that you’re going to use. Those are probably where I would recommend starting.

And then once you have that down as soon as you start are able to start sending products to the US whether it’s Amazon FBA or your third-party fulfillment network, that your agency partner will be able to start pushing those sales for you almost immediately.

So use the rest of this year to start planning. Just get find the right partner to help you. And that’s gonna be the easiest way for you to go DTC.

Sam Gupta 25:11

Okay, amazing. And, what about the manufacturers that don’t really have an e-commerce website at this point in time? I don’t know if that is required for the manufacturers to go D2C, can they do Amazon without having the e-commerce site? If not, do they need to build an e-commerce site first? What will be the strategy that you would take to build the e-commerce site for them?

Michael Begg 25:33

Again, I would say it really depends on what the goals are, if the goals are just making money and making a profit, you don’t need a website right now.

I mean, you can get started selling on the Amazon platform, eBay, Walmart, whatever the channel may be. And as long as you have a brand and consistent branding across those three platforms, you’ll start getting sales, you’ll look more professional, and you’ll start making money.

If your goal is to build a brand, build something of value, and you know whether you have an exit strategy plan for the future, whatever it may be, you do need to focus on building a website, however, it’s probably not the biggest priority.

Michael Begg 26:08

I mean, unless your brand is already out there, it’s already well known in the e-commerce space or in the consumer space in general, then people are still gonna be going to Amazon and you’re still gonna need to reach them there to make them aware of your brand.

So starting on those sales channels, where people are already going to shop is probably the best way to start just creating that brand awareness, more building more brand loyalty, there are other programs you can use within Amazon, such as Subscribe and Save, where you’re offering a discount for a customer to buy the product each month.

So you can build that recurring revenue, build that up brand awareness within the customer, they’ll start you know, that can lead have other knock-on effects too, you know, other referrals, more social proof on your product listings, all of this will help you build as a brand.

And then as that is starting to go, you can focus on actually building out that website. So that is really the way I would probably recommend just getting onto the platforms to start selling, especially if you don’t have a brand that is known right now.

And then focus on placing the pieces like the website and everything else later down the road, once you’re already making the sales, and you can focus on a way to get these people to your website.

Sam Gupta 27:13

Yeah, right. I completely agree. I mean, Amazon could be the near-term revenue opportunity from the sales perspective. And once you have the revenue, things obviously become slightly easier. So from the marketing and sales planning perspective, Amazon could be near term strategy. And you know, if the manufacturers want to take advantage of that, especially with respect to COVID, I think this is the right time to do that.

Michael Begg 27:38

Exactly. I mean, across the platform, most categories have experienced significant sales increases. I mean, we’ve had clients that have had sales go up 400% since COVID happened just from e-commerce sales, just through the Amazon channel.

So really not being there is just missing out on revenue and the opportunity for sales to reach new customers. So you really don’t have much to lose by being on the platform. You really only have things to gain.

Sam Gupta 28:05

Amazing. Love it. I think that’s it for today’s interview. Mike, thank you so much for your time. Do you have any last-minute thoughts before we close?

Michael Begg 28:14

I mean, I think I’ve laid out a lot of them. As I said, it’s really important if you are going to go the e-commerce route to just get started taking action.

Just getting onto the e-commerce platforms where people are already shopping is the easiest hurdle to get started in DTC and using other fulfillment networks out there. So you don’t need to start your own. You know, warehouse your own operations for fulfillment within the US or whatever target market, it may be like Amazon FBA, third party, logistic companies, those can all help you skip that step and at least start getting the sales, see whether it makes sense for your business.

And then you can look at actually building out more of the processes, building out more things yourself within your in-house to help your business grow over time.

But just getting started on the platforms is the best way to see if DTC is going to be for you.

Sam Gupta 28:58

Amazing. Love your advice. Do it today. Do it right now. Mike, thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate it. You know, you have a wonderful day.

Michael Begg 29:08

Thank you, Sam. Have a great day. I really appreciate being here and having the opportunity to speak with your audience.

Sam Gupta 29:12

I cannot thank our guests enough for coming on the show for sharing their knowledge and journey. I always pick up stuff from our guests, and hopefully, you learned something new today. If you want to know further about Mike or AMZ advisers, please visit amzadvisers.com. Links and more information will also be available in the show notes.

If anything in this podcast resonated with you and your business. You might want to check other related episodes, including the interview with Chase Clymer from Electric Eye, who brings a unique perspective on D2C from the angle of e-commerce toolset and Shopify. Also, the interview with Jason Chester from InfinityQS, who touches on D2C from a real-time manufacturing quality intelligence standpoint.

Also, don’t forget to subscribe and spread the word among folks with similar backgrounds. If you have any questions or comments about the show, please review and rate us on your favorite podcasting platform, or DM me on any social channels. I’ll try my best to respond personally and make sure you get help.

Thank you, and I hope to catch you on the next episode of the WBS podcast

Outro 30:22

Thank you for listening to another episode of The WBS podcast. Be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform so you never miss an episode. For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, check out our community at wbs.rocks. We’ll see you next time.

In this WBSRocks introduction episode Sam Gupta, the host of the WBS podcast shares his personal story and the focus for this podcast. He also provides details about the recommended episodes and what operations and finance leaders can expect with this podcast.

Chapter Markers

• [00:00] Intro
• [00:53] Sam’s Personal Journey
• [4:00] Why he started this podcast
• [4:43] The focus for this podcast
• [5:06] Podcast Schedule
• [5:19] Where you can listen to the podcast
• [5:27] Recommended Episodes
• [9:03] Acknowledgments
• [10:56] Closing Remarks
• [11:55] Outro

Key Takeaways

• Each episode will feature your peer or competitors who have grown their businesses or in the process of scaling using business systems.
• Irrespective of how confident a person sounds, we all have our insecurities and fears. People worry about their height, looks, age, race, social perception, ethnicity, or accent.
• In this podcast, we’ll be covering several topics that touch ERP and digital transformation. The topics could range from ERP implementation, eCommerce, the evolution of people processes, technology with growth, continuous improvement, lean, quality management, and professional development for finance and operations professionals.
• We are launching 10 to 15 episodes, and we’ll be releasing one to three each week with two episodes being the most common. We will be leaving on Monday and Wednesday, but Tuesday is the backup day for the bonus episode.
• You can tune in to any of your favorite podcasting platforms such as iTunes, Spotify, Google, or Stitcher.
• Whether you are launching a podcast or a business, don’t overthink before you start. There might be many people who might criticize, but there are also going to be millions who will appreciate who you are. So just be yourself and start right now.

Subscribe and Review

Apple | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts | Deezer | Player FM | Castbox

About Sam

Sam Gupta is an ERP thought leader in the digital transformation space for nearly two decades, with the primary focus on financial systems and ERP. He has been part of large transformation initiatives for fortune-500 corporations but now spends his time consulting with SMEs as a Principal Consultant/CEO at ElevatIQ.

Sam’s deep expertise in the manufacturing value chain combined with cross-industry expertise enables him to have a higher success rate with digital transformation initiatives in the manufacturing, distribution, and retail industries. Sam has engaged with the startup ecosystem in the last 10 years and has experience in building and growing businesses from scratch.

Sam regularly speaks at industry conferences and contributes his experiences through many popular blogs and publications. He also hosts a podcast called WBSRocks focused on business growth through digital transformation and ERP where he interviews top influencers and executives from ERP, Supply Chain, Digital Transformation, Supply Chain, and Accounting.

Resources

• Connect with Sam
  • LinkedIn | Twitter | Clubhouse: @samgupta
• To check Curt Anderson’s book, click on Stop Being the Best Kept Secret
• To check Brian Beck’s book, click on Billion Dollar B2B E-commerce

Full Transcript

Sam Gupta 0:00

I became a laughingstock as I came across as a robot who could not express any feelings that shattered my confidence. That nervousness lived with me. I never felt calm while speaking.

Intro 0:15

Growing a business requires a holistic approach that extends beyond sales and marketing. This approach needs alignment among people, processes, and technologies. So if you’re a business owner, operations, or finance leader, looking to learn growth strategies from your peers and competitors, you’re tuning into the right podcast. Welcome to the WBS podcast where scalable growth using business systems is our number one priority. Now, here is your host, Sam Gupta.

Sam Gupta 0:53

Hey, everyone, welcome to episode zero of the WBS podcast. I’m Sam Gupta, your host, and principal consultant at the digital transformation consulting firm, ElevatIQ. Today, I’m super excited to announce the launch of the WBS podcast.

But before I do that, I wanted to share a little bit about me and my background about why we started this podcast. The people who know me might think that, oh yeah, everything is easy for Sam. It’s very hard not to notice Sam.

You know what, let me give you a little background about myself. I was never comfortable with public speaking or doing anything in public. For that matter. I grew up as a super shy kid. In fact, I froze on the stage while doing a drama as a child. And I decided that anything public-facing wasn’t for me. I was always a target for bullies all through my school, as they felt that I didn’t know what I was talking about.

To overcome my insecurities. I decided to challenge it again, as a teenager to perform a skit at my university. And I became a laughingstock as I came across as a robot who could not express any feelings. That shattered my confidence.

That nervousness lived with me, all through my life. I never felt calm while speaking.

I went to Toastmasters but never won a single award for my speeches. While I wasn’t the most extroverted child, I was a fighter, no one could beat me on the hard work I could put in. I’m good at analyzing the hell out of a problem until I get to the bottom of it. I would analyze everyone better than me, and try to understand what they were doing differently from me.

Sam Gupta 0:53, continued…

Through my analysis, I recognized that irrespective of how confident a person sounds, we all have our insecurities and fears. People are worried about their height, looks, age, race, social perception, ethnicity, or accent.

The list is never-ending.

It’s up to us whether we want to get caught up in the dark world of insecurities, or rock with our strength and authenticity.

While a ton of people love my voice, I personally never liked it. I was never articulate and could not connect with folks who could not handle fast speech.

So I wanted to start my own podcast, but I wasn’t sure if anyone would listen to it. And I was worried about what if no one understood what I wanted to say. I had no idea how to recruit guests, or edit the software. I had done our blog and YouTube channel and received decent traction.

So that gave me confidence that at least people are willing to hear what I have to say. I wanted to postpone the plan until I hired someone who would be best positioned as the podcast host and perhaps try as a conversation rather than a monologue.

But then I don’t like to be left behind.

So I thought I’ll give it a shot.

Sam Gupta 4:00

When we were thinking of putting together this podcast, we wanted to do a show focused on growth through business systems targeted at operations and finance leaders.

While there were many podcasts in this category, there wasn’t one that was truly aligned with operations and finance leaders’ interests. There were several podcasts in the ERP category, but they were focused on a specific product or an OEM.

There were also several growth podcasts, but they addressed growth from the perspective of sales and marketing.

Finally, there were accounting, finance, and manufacturing-focused podcasts. But they each went extremely deep in these areas, but not diverse enough to meet the needs of operations and finance leaders.

Sam Gupta 4:43

In this podcast, we’ll be covering several topics that touch ERP and digital transformation.

The topics could range from ERP implementation, eCommerce, the evolution of people processes, technology with growth, continuous improvement, lean, quality management, and professional development for finance and operations professionals.

Sam Gupta 5:06

We are launching 10 to 15 episodes, and we’ll be releasing one to three each week with two episodes being the most common.

We will be leaving on Monday and Wednesday, but Tuesday is the backup day for the bonus episode

Sam Gupta 5:19

You can tune in to any of your favorite podcasting platforms such as iTunes, Spotify, Google, or Stitcher.

Sam Gupta 5:27

We have been fortunate to get the attention of some highly influential guests who agreed to share their expertise and perspective with us.

I would like to bring to your attention a couple of episodes that I highly recommend, depending upon your focus, and preferences.

If you’re looking to understand the growth journey of companies through inflection points, from the lifestyle business of one to $10 million to find a million dollars in revenue, I would highly recommend listening to Randy Johnston, who’s highly influential in the accounting technology community and rated as one of the nine technology Stars by Accounting Technology magazine.

I would also recommend listening to Wayne Sadin, the #2 CIO on IT Leader Power 100. Additionally, I would recommend listening to Brian Burke from SellYourMac.com where we have dug through the history of how they became the fastest-growing company on the INC 5000 list three times last.

And my personal favorite with Jim Gitney, who takes us through the journey of companies as they move through different inflection points, and how the need for people process and technology changes.

If you’re looking to grow your business using social media, and how operations and finance leaders can take advantage of social media for their personal growth. I would recommend listening to the LinkedIn influencer, Corey Warfield from CoryConnects with nearly 250K followers, who break down the LinkedIn algorithm secrets and how to win on LinkedIn.

I would also recommend the episode with Sarah Barnes-Humphrey from Shipz where we discussed how she became the top 100 most influential women leaders in the supply chain globally.

Sam Gupta 5:27, continued…

If you are interested in learning about e-commerce and DTC, I would highly recommend listening to Curt Anderson from B2BTail, the author of “Stop Being the Best Kept Secret.“

I would also recommend listening to Brian Beck from Encieba, the author of the first comprehensive book on b2b e-commerce entitled “Billion Dollar B2B E-commerce.”

Additionally, I would recommend the episode with Chase Clymer from Electric Eye, the host of the podcast entitled Honest Ecommerce. Finally the episode with Michael Begg, where we discuss the growth strategies through the Amazon Marketplace.

If you are interested in listening to manufacturing-focused episodes, I would recommend listening to Jason Chester from InfinityQS where we discuss the challenges today’s manufacturers face with changing consumer behavior.

You should also listen to the episode with Chris Luecke, who’s the host of the Manufacturing Happy Hour podcast where we discussed industry 4.0 trends and how manufacturers can take advantage of them.

Additionally, you may want to listen to the episode with Joe Sullivan from Gorilla 76, who’s also the host of the Manufacturing Executive Podcast, where we discuss why manufacturers need to rethink their marketing with COVID-19.

Finally, the fun episode with Greg Mischio from Winbound, where we discussed what CFOs need to know about the value of content marketing, and why it matters for manufacturers with complex products and long sales cycles.

If you’re interested in ERP-related topics, I would highly recommend an episode with Erin Koss, CPA who shares a story of an ERP project that was a massive success, despite disruptions from COVID-19.

Also in the episode with Ram Krishnamurthy, where he discusses why costing strategies matter for an ERP implementation and how to make an ERP project successful.

Sam Gupta 9:03

While I’m privileged and honored to host WBSRocks, it would not be possible without our team members and mentors’ efforts, who have always been there for us and supported us through our journey.

First, I would like to thank my family and friends for their confidence in me for letting me explore these opportunities, and for supporting me with their support.

The whole LinkedIn family provided massive support for my journey. I would like to especially thank my friend Sarah Barnes-Humphrey who has always supported me with questions and advice.

Cory Warfield, no wonder the whole world trust and respects you, this wouldn’t have been possible without your support. Brian Burke, you have always tried to help me despite my resistance to coaching. Thanks for being there and helping me.

Joe Sullivan, from the Manufacturing Executive Podcast. I know you’re super busy, but there are very few people who came out of their way to advise on how To be successful with a podcast.

Kevin Lawton from the New Warehouse Podcast, you have been super friendly with your interactions and always helped. Chase Clymer from the Honest Ecommerce podcast. Thanks for being there, my friend, your advice helped a ton.

Eric Musick from the Subscription Box Show. It’s been a huge support with your guidance. Jim Gitney from Group 50. Thanks for all the intros. They have helped in finding guests for the shows and how to build relationships with guests.

Sam Gupta 9:03, continued…

Finally, Jason Chester and the entire InfinityQS team for their support with the press release and backing us up throughout the journey.

I’m sure I’ve missed a ton of other folks who have supported us. While I’m running out of space and time on the show, and that’s the reason, unfortunately, I can’t name everyone.

But I want you to know that you all are equally important to me, and I appreciate your support and friendship a lot.

Sam Gupta 10:56

In closing, this has been a thrill leading up to the launch. And it’s going to be even more exciting in the future with the amount of traction and love we had received even when we weren’t born.

While we could mention only 10 to 20 speakers, there are at least 100 other excellent speakers who are lined up to speak and I couldn’t be more excited to interview them and share their journey with you. This is a huge milestone for me, personally and professionally.

But I want anyone who’s out there who has been self-doubting themselves in starting anything. Whether you are launching a podcast or a business, don’t overthink before you start. There might be many people who might criticize, but there are also going to be millions who will appreciate who you are.

So just be yourself and start right now.

Thanks for listening in and sharing this podcast with your friends. I look forward to having you on our show and learning a little bit about you. With that, for the love of growth and digital transformation, let’s WBSRocks.

Sam Gupta 11:55

Thank you for listening to another episode of the WBS podcast. Be sure to subscribe to your favorite podcasting platform so you never miss an episode. For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, check out our community at wbs.rocks. We’ll see you next time.