Latest / Sales Trajectory Podcast / 👉 Building a Business That Doesn’t Rely on One Person with Matt McLachlan, CEO of Yellow Couriers

Transcript

👉 Building a Business That Doesn’t Rely on One Person with Matt McLachlan, CEO of Yellow Couriers · Sales Trajectory Podcast

• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Sales Trajectory Podcast, where innovation meets execution in sales.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jason Howers, your host, a 35-year sales veteran and lifelong student of the game.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: This podcast is for leaders and sales professionals with a growth mindset.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: You'll hear real sales stories about new products, motivating teams to prospect, and boost productivity.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: We dive deep into sales process, cutting edge tech, and recruiting top sales performers.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get started.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Today I'm joined by CEO Yellow Couriers, Matt McLaughlin.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Great to see you, Matt.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Hi Jason.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me on board.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Matt and I actually met at a the HRIA, the Higher and Rental Association, one of their uh Queensland meetings.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: We met a few times, and obviously, both being from a strong sales background, we we did connect quite quickly and we've had some really great conversations over the last few years as well.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: So we wanted to get Matt on today because obviously to hear from the CEO and a business leader within the current business environment and a lot of the challenges that everyone's facing, we thought that might provide some good value.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: So Matt has sales leadership experience across the commercial career of over 30 years.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: He's worked with uh in national sales and managing director roles across commercial sales, cabs and careers.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: So just love to hear more about your journey, Matt, and uh yeah, what what brings you to business today?
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Jason.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, so yeah, I started my career in sales, actually for a Mexican company of all things, but uh in the agricultural field, and then uh that developed into a uh or led me into a national sales role for City Coat Pet Care.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: So I was a national sales manager for those guys for a few years and did a little bit of export work for them as well before taking the opportunity to uh join with my partner in the pet industry, and we acquired a business out of administration in Queensland.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: I moved to Queensland at that point in time to uh turn that business around.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: And at the same time we opened up a new business, which was big box retail stores called Petwise, which uh subsequently we sold seven years later to Pet Barn, as some of the first Pet Barn stores in Queensland.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and I sold my shares in the wholesale business to my business partner in 2012.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um and from there I um had a short stint with Elders and then got into the logistics industry with a company called Aramex for three and a half years before joining Yellow Cabs, one three cabs as is now.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: And uh then the result of that was I did a management buyout of Yellow Couriers.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: That was almost four years ago, and it's been onward and upward ever since.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Coming from the the pet industry into uh commercial vehicles and uh and freights.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean that what what was the biggest uh change from say one one side to the other from your perspective, Matt?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: I think you're you're going from a uh a product-oriented industry, um, yeah, and retail, so it's very uh B2C, and then you're going into a B2B environment in the uh in the logistics space.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: Logistics is obviously a very service-oriented space, which comes with its own, I suppose, different set of challenges, different levels of customer satisfaction.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: You've got to be very mindful of that because it's not a tangible product in the service industry.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: So um slightly different approach, but at the end of the day, from a sales perspective and uh uh branding perspective, it's it's all about the goodwill that you try and project and the culture you try and project in the company.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting that you've um, as I said, you've you've taken a business on and then you've ended up selling that to corporate chains.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And now you're in a position where obviously you've you've taken on yellow couriers.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: The change in dynamics in the in the economy at the moment and and that trend because I know in the uh areas that I've sort of done a lot of business in as well, you can see the you know the big guys are getting bigger and the independents are getting smaller, but there is a still a lot of strength and great businesses in that independent area.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think the uh you're right, the it's been a trend for many years, you know, the big guys are absorbing the little guys quite often by acquisition.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um that is certainly what happened with us with uh when Pet Barn came along and bought us, they just put enough money on the table, basically.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: And we've seen that happen in other industries as well, where you've got, you know, uh smaller independent businesses and the big corporates that struggle sometimes to be adaptable and and I suppose um can maneuver fast enough to compete with those businesses that have a a strong foothold in their either geographic area or their niche.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's just easier for the big guys to acquire them and quite often they've got the money to do it.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: So happy to promote.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Talk to tell us a little bit about Yellow Couriers, the the business and and the markets you serve.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so yellow couriers was uh was an offshoot of yellow cabs back in the day.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: I think the the original founder of Yellow Cabs saw the opportunity there to diversify and apply the same concept as the taxi industry.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: So a point very much a point-to-point delivery service for items that don't really fit in standard cars.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: The Yellow Courier's fleet is is predominantly made up of trucks and youths for larger awkward items, but still using the time critical aspect of point-to-point deliveries when things need to be delivered in a certain time frame.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: So that's worked well.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: I suppose during COVID um it it um was always viewed by the bigger corporate of of Cab Charge, which was the owner of 13 Cabs and BICabs.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um the couriers were always, I suppose, a lower priority.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: So coming out of COVID and when the uh the board of directors decided they wanted to um consolidate back to core business only, it presented me with an opportunity to buy it.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um it was at that stage as far as there'd been very little investment into the Yellow Courier's business.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: So the opportunity was for me to uh to put new systems in place, put new branding in place, put new websites up.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't even have a website actually back in those days.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um and take it to where we are today.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: So we've increased the fleet size quite considerably, we've increased our our brand presence, we've got good websites up and running, we we advertise, and um we've got a very strong loyal customer base.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: One thing I was really impressed when we caught up, Matt, was um, you know, a lot of companies we work with or we speak with, that there's no sales systems, there's no process.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: But when I saw uh when I met with you that day and you were showing me on what you've been working on behind the scenes, it was incredible.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: The fact that you've you've mapped out the the customer journey and the sales process and and all the steps that you know uh required for to bring someone into the business and for them to be able to fit and be onboarded properly.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I do I do really like to give you a shout out in that area, it's really impressive.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: But not only that, the fact that you'd spend so much time doing that, but you're also you know having a chat with me as well and going, you know, from your experience, what do you think?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: And and we spoke about some other areas, and I think that's the thing in business at the moment, you've just got to keep on really improving what you're doing to to to maximize not only the customer experience, but also to be able to scale your your team and have that automation in place.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you do, and but the tools are there to do that these days, and it's you know, you've got really high-end CRMs and you know you can do all sorts of magic with them to automate automate communications.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: You've got uh a lot of data that flows back to you so you can see, you know, you can prioritize your leads a lot better, you can give really relevant information to your sales team to go out there and land those big fish.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: So looking looking back across your career, what core sales and leadership lessons have stayed consistent regardless of industry?
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: The the the principles of of um business development and account management I think remains the same across the industries.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: I think that basically that's a uh uh a skill that the person that the sales representative has that uh is necessarily not necessarily learnt, but is is more uh ingrained in their persona, um, whether they're a good people person or not, uh how well they communicate, how strong is their EQ.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um I suppose the difference across the industries is that uh the technical knowledge can be learnt and usually fairly quickly.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: Things aren't usually that complicated to someone that's that's intelligent.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: The difference may be across the the network that that a person may have developed if they've been in a particular industry for a long time.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: They've got their own uh their own network that they can bring to the table, which is their own brand, really.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: But you've still got to be sure that the person you bring on board is a because they're a coal waste with your customer, they need to represent your culture, they need to represent your brand, and they need to put your brand on your values without compromise, because otherwise it uh it can erode what you've built as far as your entire brand is concerned.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's what they say.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, you you should be able to not be involved in a conversation and that should be able to be continued by your person that's representing the company.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I think uh again, I can see you've done a lot of work with that.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it it's um you've obviously had a lot of salespeople working for you over the years.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, how do you how would you compare sort of sales talent these days compared to in the past from just from your observation?
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I think the talent's definitely there.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: I think that you've got to be careful about how you incentivize and tap it, tap into that talent and incentivize it.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's the important part.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: So working out what uh not only as a team but also individuals, because it's one thing I noticed about salespeople, they're all individuals.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's uh true Mark on the the the leader, the sales manager, to be able to identify those individual needs.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: So they need to be able to listen, they need to be actively listening to their people and coming up with a plan that satisfies the whole team and creates cohesion so that you've got everyone working in the same direction because an dissatisfied salesperson can do a lot of damage to your business.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's interesting you say that.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I've had a lot of conversations lately and and I sort of go back to and you read my book as well, thank you very much.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you know, a lot a big component of the of the crystal ball recruiting is to make sure that you're aligning, you know, the salesperson you're looking for and and and aligning what they're looking for, because where, as you said, where when there's that gap, well then that's when the problems start to happen.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: And and I think in a lot of cases, you know, leaders are so busy, they're juggling so many balls, and they, you know, they hire a salesperson and just think that they're going to fix all their problems, which is not not the case.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's I mean, if you all always sort of really got involved in that strategic component of the business, obviously where would you have learnt a lot of that coming from your background?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: We've all had some good mentors as well, and I I always say that you know, if you you can only coach or train to the to the ability that you've been taught, are there any good mentors that you're looking back?
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: Certainly from a management perspective, I've had very good mentors in my background.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: I think in my mid-twenties when I joined Cisco Pet Care, which is part of Green's General Foods, I was actually tapped on the shoulder by uh uh a gentleman named Dr.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: Ray Johnson, who brought me across into that business who I knew from my previous role.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um he was a great mentor for me for five years.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, we used to go mountain biking three times a week together, and um I learnt a lot from Ray.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um I suppose since then uh when I moved to Queensland running my own business, it was it was um I suppose you start shooting from the hip a little bit, you make a few mistakes along the way, and you know, you learn from those mistakes.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Thankfully, not too many of them, my guess.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think it uh you're right, and and even myself as a business owner, I look back at things that I did and I'm like, that didn't make sense.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: But then there's other things that I did, and and I think it it worked out quite well.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: And and I'd you're better off trying and failing than not trying at all.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: And if I look back over, you know, the years of selling timber, if I look back, you know, the 90s were tough and then we had the the GST pull forward and boom and then the the slowdown and then we had the GFC and then we had the COVID and now we've got other stuff happening.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean m business is moving very fast, isn't it?
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, and and how how do you how do you keep on top of all the changes, particularly at the moment with obviously all the fuel and logistics challenges that are going on?
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Oh look, I think the fuel crisis is is uh its own set of challenges, but most people b you know understand that because of all the press that's been around about it, they understand that the costs are going up and you know we've got to keep uh uh on top of deliveries, we've got to keep the uh you know, it's the old saying, the trucks keep the Australia running.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: And if we don't, then we're all pretty much coming to a standstill.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: But at the same time, if we are facing an inflationary period driven by the cost of fuel going up.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: So that's going to be you know, we're very we're at the very early stages of that now.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: I think that there's a long way for it to pan out, and let's face it, who knows what strings are gonna be pulled by people that we can't influence that um are going to have a direct impact on us without going into the politics.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and I think that, yeah, this conversation tomorrow is probably gonna be a whole different story.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and I know that, yeah, a lot of clients we deal with, I mean, yeah, they're they're shipping timber and or building products and materials all over the country.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: I was talking to a CEO yesterday and his comment on the fuel levy was that he um he his opinion was he didn't think he didn't think it worked, and and he thought that a better option is just to have to increase your delivery rate, reflective of what you think it it is actually going to cost.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: What's your thoughts on that?
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um No, I'm a little bit we're trying to be a lot more transparent than that, to be honest.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um so we're using a formula which uh we can stand behind.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: So this is the if we start with the base price of fuel before the crisis and that dollar seventy-five mark, and to where we are now, you reflect that increase and you work out uh on your vehicles what that uh percentage costs per hundred kilometres.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: Every vehicle 12 litres per 100 kilometers, in the case of big trucks, probably more like 25 litres per 100 kilometres.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: You can you can work out what the percentage increase in per kilometer is is has been.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: And we have applied in our case an 8% fuel limit, started at five, then it's moved to eight uh over the past three or four weeks.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: But if anyone wanted to see how that calculation's been done, we can show it and it's it's it's justified and you know the the bouse prices can support it.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um and as the fuel prices in the future come down, we can move it back to the point where we don't have to rely on a fuel levy anymore when we get back to normal.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: In our case, at 8%, our customers are uh are very happy.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: We have had no complaints, no pushback whatsoever.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: But that is reflective of what the cost is, and we pass that 100% to our drivers.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: The the business takes nothing of that because we're not the ones that are inquiring the extra costs, it's our drivers that fill off the tanks.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: We have uh uh operators that are contracted to us, and um that's what it is, and and that that's all been explained to them.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: They're all happy with it.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: There's no there's no uh ambiguity around it, let's say we're being totally transparent.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then on other parts of our business where we use line haul business, line haul trucks uh to go up to cans and beyond, um, we understand that their cost of fuel as a percentage of their sales is far higher.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: So we're seeing some of their fuel levies go to fifty, fifty-five percent, and we can do the car closes with them.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: And and I can understand that.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: But coming back to the original question, I think it's important at this point in time that we're all transparent about it, because otherwise there's you know, the uh consum we might be perceived as we're gouging, that's not the case.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: I think that there is gouging going on out there, and being transparent, being able to show the calculations both up and down is important.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, you know, we'd face Australia going into a recession and all those sorts of things, it's we're we've all got to try and do our part to avoid.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's interesting you say that, and and thanks for explaining that, because I think it's good for our listeners to hear, you know, what you're talking about.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I I suppose where I was speaking before, uh you know, if you've got like a you know, three or four tonne of timber and it needs to go within a particular radius, a lot of the people do sort of tend to go, okay, it's gonna cost me 90 or 100 dollars.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean, if you look back to what you're doing, you said you're moving product every day, that's a core component of your business.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: I like the fact that you're um the um the the driver actually uh gets to benefit and utilize that that levy because it's really important.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: I suppose one of the big things here is, you know, obviously you've got to look at efficiency of moving product around, don't you?
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, what's your thoughts on that?
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because uh you see a lot of people delivering all around the place.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, is this a chance for some alignment and for some companies to go, you know what, maybe it's not worth me, worth myself um freighting stuff.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'm better off to get someone like yourself to step in and take ownership of that?
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's that's definitely some communication that we're trying to get out there at the moment because one of our biggest competitors, particularly in the time critical space, is a a warehouse manager or an operations manager saying to uh one of their staff, jump off that forklift or whatever and jump in the company you and go and deliver that that timber to the customer.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: But of course, what's happening there is that um it's it's a decision that may not have realized all the commercial ramifications of that because when you're using a company vehicle, you're traveling there and back.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: So you're paying for that fuel two ways, A to B and B to A.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um when you use a courier, you're only paying for one direction.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: The second thing is the um the costs and the wages of that person that you've taken off the forklift and the opportunity cost of what they could have been doing, versus again the cost of a courier is probably going to be less because you're only paying for that time that is from A to B, not both ways.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: So the opportunity cost that that could have been benefited the company at the same time.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: So and then of course there's a responsible thing.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: You're you're you're not using as much diesel because we want we need to save the diesel.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: We've only got 30 days worth of reserves.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the farmers are the ones that I feel the most uh empathy for at the moment because they're the ones that are struggling.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: So trying to keep as much fuel in our reserve by not running empty, which is what that company vehicle is gonna be doing, is is a responsible thing to do.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: Look, I remember sitting in an office one day with a CEO and I looked out the window and one of the sales manager was loading stuff up in the Ute and I said, Oh, what's going on?
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Oh, we left something off and he's gonna take it.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, Okay, where's the job?
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: And it was like two and a half hours away, or and I'm sort of and I'm looking at it because you know, obviously, you know, in in a lot of the work we do with our clients is understanding the cost per hour of what your your salespeople are are worth.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's right, you know, and if you and if you added it all in, it's probably worth a couple hundred bucks an hour to deliver, you know, something so it's probably cost them five hundred dollars.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: When they could have had a courier do probably a hundred, right?
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's the part yeah, and I think the big thing at the moment is everyone, including myself as a business owner, is trying to look at ways, well, how can I actually how can I be more cost effective?
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: But on the flip side of that, if you still want to, you know, if you pull your team back too much and you cut everyone back, which a lot of companies are at the moment, everyone's juggling multiple balls, well then all of a sudden you lose the effectiveness and you and you lose the performance base, and then you've got excuses as to why you're not growing it's because we're short-staffed or we haven't got any people.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I think, yeah, right now is a really good chance to to look at your logistics and go, yeah, are we doing it the right way?
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: And or should we be looking for a uh a preferred carrier or company?
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: So just from um from the obviously the the listeners here, talk to me a little bit about so obviously I I did a lot of time supplying major chains and we used to do a lot of work in the operational area and DIFOTS and all that sort of stuff.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: Talk to us a little bit about the DIFOTs and the uh the the offer that Yellow Couriers offers to their clients andor new prospects.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: So we we try and fit that um time critical mark is is uh when something isn't in the destination it needs to be in.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um Um, it's worth more money not being there.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: It might be a spare part for an automotive car, it might be uh a piece of equipment for a construction site.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: If it's not there, you've got uh work that's not being happening.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: So it might be uh a plumber needs a generator or and they can't start their work until the generator's there, but in the meantime they're getting paid for sitting there waiting for the generator to arrive.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: So um we work on the basis that if the delivery isn't in place or the item is not in the place, then it's worth more money to the company not having it there than what the cost of the delivery is.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um and that I suppose has seen us very strong in the automotive industry, it's seen us very strong in the hire industry, which is servicing the trades, those sorts of things.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: And we work on the basis instead of telling the customer when we will get it there, we ask the open-ended question, when would you like it there?
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: So if a customer phones now, it's 10 to 10, it says it's ready now, it's got to be there by 12.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we put in as our as our requested delivery time, and our allocators will try and get the vehicle into it there, collect the item, get it there by 12, and we measure our results.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: We're very, very conscious of what our diquot delivered in form time is, and proud to say that we uh we achieve over 95% week in, week out on that.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that's what's awesome.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: That is what has uh kept our customer base very um very loyal to us.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: We get very good reviews on that space.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's a little bit more expensive than using something like Courier's Please or Australia Post, which will get there next day or the day after or whenever it gets there.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: But as I said, if it's more important that the item is in place and delivered on time when the company needs it there, then it's justified.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: 95%'s incredible.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and obviously so many barriers these days for for companies to be able to achieve that sort of level.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I think again, um, you know, from a leadership perspective, having that scoreboard and being able to clearly see it where you're at and and where you want to get to is really good.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: And again, that's why I really enjoyed um chatting with you about your your CRM and all your stats are just really impressive.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just duck back a little bit more into leadership blind spots right now.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: What do most CEOs still underestimate when building sustain sorry, when building and sustaining sales teams?
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think that they've got to ensure that they get the right people.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um we touched on culture and brand values and uh being able to uh create the right image for the company is the responsibility of the uh of the BDM or the account manager or whoever's face to face with the customer, uh even if that's the CEO, at the end of the day, the uh your branding, your culture is so important.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's what the goodwill of the company is.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: So if you haven't got the right people in place, if you haven't got the right communication, if you haven't got the right sales materials as well, then you're not doing the right things by you the the goodwill of your and the shareholders of your company.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: Having a sales background like yourself, if I sort of put that to the side for a sec, what what we tend to find is we, you know, we might have a business owner that could be, you know, from a finance background or uh or uh an operational background and which they're really strong in, that's their passion.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: But I think where we see a lot of business owners and leaders struggle is when the sales become hard and all of a sudden there's in a lot of cases they're solely relying on hiring someone to actually try and change all that.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: And as you know, that typically doesn't tend to to happen that often.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean, as a CEO and business owners, I mean, yeah, we're wearing so many hats.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: So what we're finding right now, I I spoke at an event recently and and there were some professional business owners there, and they were really struggling because they actually they're really good at their craft, but they've they don't like sales.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: They openly admit it.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: They've never been trained or taught in sales.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: So what's happened is they've been able to reduce their cost, but they're not winning any new business.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: So and obviously, you know, referrals have dried up from a consultant's perspective.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of companies have, you know, stopped in spending money in external sources in a lot of cases, and then we had hiring freezes last year.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I think there's a real opportunity or a real situation where as a business owner, if you're because as you know too, if you're a business owner of a small sales team, well then you are the sales manager literally as well.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's the area that that we tend to find is that it's quite right now, because new business is hard to win, and a lot of salespeople have never been taught.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: What's your perspective on that?
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I suppose as a business owner, one thing that you've always got to consider is your exit strategy as well.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: So if you are trying to be everything within your business and you're trying to be the face of your business and you own all the personal relationships in your network of customers, then you're not really doing yourself a very good service because at some point in time, either voluntary or involuntary, you may have to get out of that business and you want to have uh an exit strategy.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: So your potential buyer is going to come along to say, well, you're too ingrained in the business.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: If you leave the business, then part of the goodwill or more than that is is going along with it.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I try and avoid that situation as much as I can.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I have a general manager, I have a sales manager in place, so that if something happens to them, I can step in.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: There's not a problem short term.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: But if I don't have them in my organization and I'm trying to do it, and something happens to me, then the whole business falls over.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: Which, you know, we're we're responsible.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: I take it very seriously, we're responsible for the livelihoods of 70 families out there, including all of our operators and staff, etc.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: If if the whole business revolved around me and then I had a health problem or something like that, then and the business folded up within a month, then that's 70 odd families that have been pretty badly impacted.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's my view on that one, Jason.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's a it's a bit of a moral view, but it's uh it's important.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: Look, I mean it's uh no, I'm glad you shared that, and I think it is so important.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I always say with the companies I'm working with, it's like, yeah, you really need to take ownership of your data, and you want to be able to make sure that yeah, your systems and processes can continue if you're not there for a period of time.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: And and I think even in my situation, obviously it's smaller scale, but yeah, I'm doing a lot of work in that area now because I want to be able to bring the right people into the right position to be able to grow and scale.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's what we're seeing at the moment, and and I just heard it yesterday was you know, a salesperson potentially leaves and then everything goes with him.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then the next and the next guy starts and he gets nothing, right?
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean so he's basically he's given nothing, he's got to start again.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: The business goes backwards so far.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: So if you could give one piece of advice to a CEO or founder today, what decision or mindset shift would make the biggest impact from your perspective?
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: From that space, I would say do not expose yourself to one person, whether that be yourself or any one of your staff.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: Have systems in place, have a good CRM tool.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: So if my sales manager left tomorrow, have all of everything is locked up in a CRM.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: So you can bring in a new person, induct them, show them through the CRM, and they should be able to come up to speed pretty quickly.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, in this day and age, it's not as though they walk out with a with a paper written a diary with everything written in hand notes, etc.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: etc., which is easily lost.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: Now everything's backed up on the cloud, and you know, you've got that security, I suppose.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's it's a it's a good way to put it.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I as I said, I always um I think having that technology in practice, I know it's I was thinking about the other day, and I'd like to hear your thoughts on this, because I mean, obviously, you know, we're all the generations are changing quite rapidly.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I mean if you look at a senior sales professional now, I mean, we hired a guy the other day and he's he you know, he's in his mid to late 60s, right?
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: Which is awesome, and he's the wealth of knowledge is huge.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: But in that sort of generation, you can get that pushback on not wanting to use technology or not only not wanting to use it, but not even sort of being able to to use it or have that mindset to use it.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: But we're sort of slowly moving through those gaps now.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of companies still have implemented tech and sales CRM systems because they know that certain there's people in their team that that won't use it or can't use it.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: What's your opinion on that one?
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think that you you it's to my mind, it's mandatory.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_01: You've you've got to use it.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um otherwise, you know, if you talk about the person who you just uh put into the position last week that comes with a wealth of knowledge and a wealth of experience, that person took that from the previous business that he was in.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: So that previous business is now suffering to that extent.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: So the new business is going to benefit until that person moves on again.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_01: And if he's in there, if they're in his mid to late 60s, well, it's probably not too far off retirement.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: So you can invest a lot of time and effort into that person and then they retire or whatever.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: The CRM, it's tools of trade these days.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: You can't have a carpenter that you know is still using a hammer when there's nail guns out there.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: No, I always say uh without being disrespectful as well, like if someone expects to be paid on a weekly basis, well then part of that requirement is to to use the systems that our client has.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: And again, that's exactly what you said.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: Not only helps with collecting that data, but it's also, I mean, mentoring the the younger generation as well.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's a perfect chance to go, okay, this guy's been selling for 30 or 40 years, right?
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: Let's buddy him up with someone that's new and let's build that process and let's get what's in his head into a system that someone can follow.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's a very powerful tool.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: I personally see in the future we're gonna have less salespeople.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: There's no doubt about that.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean, they have to be better and and have to be given better access to tools that can actually help them do what they do, and I think that's the the challenge.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there's a lot of challenges, but we're consistently trying to push through those those barriers.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: And uh look, it has been really great to catch up with you, Matt, and and I really appreciate your time.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for running through where your business is at and the challenges.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure there's many other companies that that are facing those daily battles.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: And um, yeah, it's uh I look forward to catching up with you in the next event.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Jason.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: Much for it's been great and uh yeah, looking forward to catching up with you as well.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: Got a product that's struggling or launching something new?
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: Reach out.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: We're inviting guests who want to make a real impact.