42:41
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, ai, customer, sales, salespeople, product, advocates, buy, catalog, sell, purchasing, based, nursing home, business, company, fangled, question, plumbing, thinking, understand
SPEAKERS
Andrew Deutsch, Damon Pistulka
Damon Pistulka 00:04
All right. Thank you, everyone, for joining us once again, on the faces of business. I’m your host, Damon Pistulka. And I am pleased to have Andrew Deutsch with me here today of fangled tech.
Andrew Deutsch 00:19
Hello, hello.
Damon Pistulka 00:20
Welcome, Andrew.
Andrew Deutsch 00:21
Thanks for having me back on.
Damon Pistulka 00:23
Yes. Well, I’m excited, man. I’m excited. First of all, just because I know you pretty well. And you’re funny as heck. And that’s good. Because I, I wouldn’t think that there would ever be a joke when we would talk. But there may be, I’m just saying ever. How dare you?
00:40
Or your clown? Is that what it is? No,
Damon Pistulka 00:43
not at all. Not at all. Not at all. But so anyone listening here on now, so I can remember this. Because usually I forget, if you’re listening to us here on LinkedIn live, go ahead or in Facebook, go ahead and drop where you’re listening from. If you have any questions for the guests throughout the show, just go ahead and throw them down. And we’ll get them answered. So we’re gonna start off Andrew, tell us a little bit about fangled tech and and how you’re helping people.
Andrew Deutsch 01:08
fangled tech is a full strategy, first marketing and sales consultancy. And what that means is that we help customers, before they get to all those shiny objects, the tactical tools, the websites, all that stuff, we help them really dig in to understand who their customer or customers are, and those personas so that they can build a strategy and how they differentiate, to truly speak to those people that their model of the world in a way that none of the alternative solutions for those problems could possibly compete. And we convert in teach how to convert every touch into a voracious advocate for that brand. That’s a mouthful in it.
Damon Pistulka 01:48
It is it is and I was writing notes, because I remembered, I want to remember a couple things that you said, because it’s very important, I think, a couple things that I’ve heard you say this before, that when you position yourself at because of your unique. I’m not saying your uniqueness. And I’m that’s not the right word, but your unique, unique abilities, your unique, unique offerings, that you are the only one that can provide the right solution that best fit.
Andrew Deutsch 02:20
Well, it goes back to taking the old concept of blue ocean strategy to the next level, which is I don’t know if you’re familiar with blue ocean red ocean strategy. But the idea that that it’s, it’s clear sailing, because you’ve eliminated the battle, you’re instead of going to battle for that price market, you’ve created that unique micro niche where you can work.
Well, it’s also the other part of it, that we explain it very clearly, we don’t say convert your customers into voracious advocates, we say convert every touch. Because if you run your business properly, even the people who don’t do business with you can become advocates for your brand. So so you know, you’ve got this old fashioned model of that sales funnel, and it’s changed over the years you’ll see it well.
The first two steps are marketing, and then the rest is sales. And then oh no, now with modern marketing, marketing goes all the way through to the point where the funnel becomes an hourglass. So as the funnel goes down, people forget what happens to the people who fall out of the funnel. Yeah, what would happen if early in the funnel, you discovered that you really aren’t the solution for that customer, but you guided them to the right solution. They’re going to be telling the world how brilliant your company is, and how much they love you.
This guy could have taken my money, he didn’t instead he sent me somewhere else and I got great service. That’s a voracious advocate for your brand. At the next level, well, he might have had to because of some internal business solution that the customer your company has a relationship. The the other buyers brother is your competitor, that kind of stuff. But if you help educate him during that process, the moment that conflict doesn’t exist, he’s going to buy from you and he’ll be telling his buddies, you know, we’re not allowed to buy from those guys, but you should.
So it’s every touch along the way, the fellow who pulled in the parking lot and couldn’t figure out where he was going in the industrial park and ask the fella who cuts the grass, who’s part of your customer service team, whether you like it or not, and he gets those directions. Boy, those people at that company are nice. Another is advocate for your brand. Everyone your company touches can be if if marketing properly treats them and then the moment of purchase.
When people tend to forget about that customer. You don’t let them go away. You’ve got the hourglass at the bottom where you collect and continue to nurture those people as their advocates now because they’ve been treated so well. They can go back up to the top and buy again. They also can brag show off what they benefited from you tell the world shouted from the hilltops. And yes, those voracious advocates Did you collect them that hourglass are so powerful for the growth of your company, millions of voices So speaking to, to your praises, and growing up?
Damon Pistulka 05:04
Yes. And like you said, it’s not just your customers, it’s everybody that you help along the way and show that you care about their problem and solving their unique problem at that point,
05:14
every touch every touch.
Damon Pistulka 05:16
Yeah, you know, I, it’s funny you say that because I, I see. And I, I try to recognize things like that. And there, there are a couple, you know, there’s an electrician up here that does a big one and a plumbing company roofing company, there’s few that just rise above the others. And like, for example, the plumbing company, I just love their example. And their their aim and, and their television commercials, they got to the point that you know, a, everybody’s in a uniform, dress, good.
Of course they do on television, but I’ve asked to and I’ve said they said it’s that way in the field, they come to the door, they’re very, they’re very respectful, they put booties on, even if it’s nice out, doesn’t matter if it’s wet. booties on when they go to work, they lay down a nice mat that covers a floor, even if it’s a granite floor, they don’t care what they’re on. And they do that.
And then, you know, speak into the people and how they talk to them all the way in and out makes such a huge difference. And like you said, it’s throughout the entire organization, you had the example of the the person going along given directions, that can be the person that converts a customer or potential customer into a buyer or that voracious advocate.
Andrew Deutsch 06:29
Absolutely, you know, using your model, if if we were going to take a step back on that, and we’re going to do research, talking to potential customers of Plumbing Companies. And you want to know, what is it about a plumbing company that would make you want to hire them. And of course, there’s they’re available, an emergency might be one, there’s there, the Plumbing Companies are talking about my guys had this much training, they do this and that, if you dug in and really understood the motivation, structure strategies of the personas of people who hire plumbers, one of the things that you’ll find out is they want people that will come in their home and treat it with respect.
They want somebody that they can feel comfortable that when they’re in the house, they’re they’re safe, they’re secure, they’re clean, there’s a lot of things that you would find out. And as you test those against the market, you can figure out which two or three of those matter the most, I would, I would propose that you could promote a plumbing company without ever discussing the equipment on their truck.
The training based on the level of service, there’s 20, there’s Plumbing Companies who did research and turned out that people wanted to know that they could have them, there’s a company, I think it’s called eight hour plumbing, they guarantee they’ll have so much your house within eight hours. And that was a value that a benefit that people Gosh, if my house is flooded, if I can’t use my toilet, and I can take a shower, I’ll pay anything to get someone here within eight hours. Yeah, that was a value prop that that that helped them create the advocates for their brand.
So So all of those things have to do with truly understanding the personas of the people what they value, and then you as a company, what are the things that you can do that actually differentiate you from all of the alternatives? I don’t talk about competitors or about alternatives, which I’ll define in a second. But, you know, the idea is, how can I solve their problem in a way that matters to them? That’s different than what any alternative to that solution could be? Because you know, what an alternative to the plumber, the plumber is Home Depot. Yeah, Billy’s uncle who used to fix stuff.
Damon Pistulka 08:33
On the street,
Andrew Deutsch 08:35
selling the darn house is an alternative. There’s many things besides plumbers call. So, so if you if you understand what those people are looking for, what are the values? What are the pains, what are the challenges, the desires, they have to be solved, how you can solve them in a way that separates you from all the alternatives out there and speak to it that way it matters. So if if you’re a typical, non technical non, you know, somebody doesn’t know how to fix stuff, man, woman, otherwise in a home, and you go on and you look and they say we have state of the art equipment, we carry rigid pipe cleaners, we you know, this, our pipe cutters and this kind of stuff.
All of those things are great if you know anything about plumbing. Yeah, consumer didn’t give it. They want to know that a guy’s going to come in their house, he’s going to be clean. He’s going to make sure that he doesn’t do any damage. He’s going to make sure you feel secure. And he’s going to fix your problem in a timely manner and not try to rob you with with a high invoice. That’s what the consumer wants. Yeah. So so you know, we you know, we’ve got more stuff on our truck than anybody else who cares. Home Depot or Lowe’s is up the street.
Damon Pistulka 09:48
You can get in good suffering need to get that. So, though this is interesting, we were kind of kind of people may have thought we got off topic a little bit but I know that I’m thinking about what we’re talking about, you know, we can We’re talking about the future of sales powered by AI. And this is something that was very interesting you and I started talking about this a long time ago, and you had mentioned some things that are going on. But I think this is a really interesting thing.
Because as, as we know, sales is difficult. And it’s really, really, really getting more and more and more tailored to the individual, and really being able to show someone, hey, Damon, I know this is what you want, based on these things. And you know, Google does a really good job of it. There’s others, obviously I do, but based on your likes, your interest is whatever. And AI, from what you and I had taught is something that that you think and have seen, could really change the way that this this works.
Andrew Deutsch 10:52
Yeah, and it fits. I mean, the reason that I went into the details I just did is because it really does relate to discussions of AI. So let’s start with the problem. And we’ll use industrial distributors as an example. Because there’s companies like Granger like McMaster Carr, the big the big guys, million SKUs, in the catalog, that’s there. So they sell through, they’ve got internal order entry, people call place orders, they’ve got the web, and they also have salespeople out on the road.
Most of those companies have real problems that sounds like this. new recruits, we got to hire 100 of them to keep 10 because the churn is awful, yeah, experienced guys that are really making a great commission. They don’t do too much there, they’re already making their money. So they got a four hour, five hour day, they don’t leave the home. There’s great leads in the territory, but we call those the fat and sassy. We’ve got internal sales, people that don’t know what’s in the catalog. And they don’t care because people call so they never have the ability to suggest products.
And then there’s other other people, but for our purposes, let’s talk about those three. So what’s out there that can help all of them why why did the new sales guys churn? Well, it takes so long to learn what’s up, that they, they cop out and disappear before they ever get up to speed? You know, we have to find a way to help them on day one, be able to sell product, then the fat and sassy guy doesn’t have any any accountability to go out and find those new leads. And new because he’s he’s comfortable with what he’s making. He’s well above the salary, and the inside people.
You know, those are fun people who don’t have technical backgrounds. Yeah, so now we start talking about what AI does. So AI being artificial intelligence, if we can go back and say, we have data for 20, something years, the purchasing patterns of customers, we can look at those invoices and see what they’ve purchased. We also know the different categories of silos that we sell into. So say for example, let’s let’s break out the catalog to cleaning chemicals. I always use this as an example. So imagine we’re an industrial distributor who sells 1000 sk use of cleaning products into the janitorial space. And we’re gonna break it down to one more silo we’re gonna sell to nursing homes. Okay?
Well, there’s different personas within the nursing home world, we’ve got the highly ethical, we love the elderly, we want them to have their final days be dignified, and comfortable and wonderful. And at the other end of that spectrum, we’ve got that jerk who recognizes that housing old people can make money. And it doesn’t matter if they die, because you know, somebody else will take the bet, I’m being a little cynical. Okay. So if we, if we’ve identified those, and now we look at the product offering, we recognize they’re going to have very different purchasing patterns.
So we can take the data from, say, the last five years, after we’ve classified every existing customer, are they this end of the spectrum or that and what what customer type, are they? And then through an algorithm that we create, we then can understand the exact purchasing better? What were the first three items most likely to be purchased by people within that persona? What would be the next item? What items Won’t they buy? So So we now have that data set. Now I don’t have to train the salespeople to know how to go through the catalog to deal with those folks. They’ll have basic understanding of the product and the functioning of the company.
But we can actually give them a two or three question besides Hey, how you doing today? To understand Are you a 1234 or five persona? And in asking those questions, the AI is giving them this suggestion, where should I begin? What’s the highest probability of product? Now the reason AI is that it’s not some sales analyst who figured this out a month ago when you’re using that data? sales guy talks with the customer offers those three years You know what, only two of those matter. And the next customer the same to the AI is constantly thinking, adjusting and changing those parameters based on the yeses in the nose.
Damon Pistulka 15:10
Okay,
Andrew Deutsch 15:10
same guy just took over a territory from a fella who retired. He’s gonna be horrible at his first stop, because they’re so used to the previous sales guy, he was a champ. Yeah, well, the AI is saying to him, this is what the customer has been buying all along.
These are items they haven’t bought for a while. So you certainly want to bring those up. But also based on the probability, they’ve only been buying these five items for the last three years, every other company within that persona that bought those five items, also bought this and also bought that. Yeah. And on their first visit, they can start suggesting and broadening the purchasing pattern of that customer. So that’s, that’s just the beginning of it.
Damon Pistulka 15:51
Yeah. And that’s, that’s really something I want to stop just for a second because we got Chris Webb’s been weighing in on here. I think he did, actually, when we were talking about the plumbers is, is the big difference is us people forget value comes from the person and their way of execution is what he meant he had his subsequent Massey, but he’s right. That’s right.
And it’s in and you know, in that in terms of that plumbing example, it’s taking the time to make sure that that that plumber, that person mowing the lawn, the the people that are sweeping the floor in a place as well as the people that are in accounting or engineering, understand that they’re all part they’re all sales in the business. And you say that a lot that everyone’s a salesperson, whether they like it or not, and they’re going to be good or bad, depending on what you
Andrew Deutsch 16:38
that we’re all part of customer service. We’re all part of the marketing team.
Damon Pistulka 16:42
Yeah. And that’s and that’s the thing that I think that really is, is lost or or understood by the better run companies. I mean, you look at some of them. And I look at this, and I was past it again this weekend. chick fil a right? chick fil a has good sandwiches, right? But I i Are they the them enough for me to wait in line for an hour from when? No, but that thing’s got a line out the door every week. I go by it every weekend.
And I think it’s because they really work on their customer service. And the way people talk to them this they have good food and yes, they serve it at a reasonable price and all the other things. But when you’re looking at some things, that little bit of differentiator and how you treat that customer is why people come back.
Andrew Deutsch 17:32
Yep. And they are a perfect example of a company that knows how to create variations for advocates. When when they open a store people wait around the block for you to be the first it’s it’s the same thing. Think about electronic companies like the you know, when a new Apple phone comes out? Oh, yeah. waiting around around the block for something that they’ve never even held or know if it works. Yeah. If there’s bugs in it, they just they just they’re advocates. Yeah, it kids that that are into brands, like, you know, those those off Nikes that only they only make a certain number. Yeah, you know, they’ve created that value. They have to have it, they have to have it.
Damon Pistulka 18:11
Yeah, well, and you make a good point. I mean, my my son’s gonna be 22 now, and he is a Marvel fan beyond Marvel fans, and you know, anything comes out on Disney with a different Marvel base series, any of the new movies, he’s watching the trailers, and he’s watching all the different trailers to see if there’s little nuances that he can tell about the movie in there. And yeah, these voracious advocates are all out there.
Andrew Deutsch 18:37
Yeah, part of the spark that led me to the model was when I was a kid, just really into music. And there were certain artists, that I was absolutely certain no matter what they put out, I wanted it on the first day. I’ve never, you know, there was no place to pre hear anything. Yeah, I would go in the joy of going home with that jacket and record and opening it up and reading it and putting it on the turntable for the first time having no idea what the heck, I was gonna hear.
Damon Pistulka 19:03
Oh, wow,
Andrew Deutsch 19:04
that that level of fandom works in the b2b space too.
19:08
Yes, it does.
Andrew Deutsch 19:09
Yeah, I’ll tell you a funny about the years ago when I was was in the in the industry. Many times I’ve had product lines that competed directly with the with the folks at 3am. The one thing that buyers in seven eight different languages have said the same thing to me over the years is we’re currently a 3am customer, nobody ever lost their job by buying from 3am. And you wonder if that’s something that three m teaches or salespeople I don’t know. But you’ve I’ve got an alternative we’ve tested it, it performs better as a better price structure, better delivery. I’m not going to lose my job if I keep buying from three m Should I take the risk? And and that fits that model?
Damon Pistulka 19:53
Yeah. Yeah. And that’s a that’s a hard thing to overcome. You know, and when you when you look at though Back to the AI part of it.
Sure, I really think that the AI and the understanding that it gives that new salesperson really does and your example there, where they’re going out there taking over territory, you know, if that AI is not there to help them, they have to go research at client, they have to pull that data together, they have to try to put that in even just let’s just be honest, 90% of the people are not going to do that you don’t, they’re gonna go out there, they’re gonna go out there and say, Hi, they’re gonna want to take him to lunch, they’re gonna want to or whatever they’re not going to, they’re not going to do that research not going to do that.
So the AI is really giving that large portion of those salespeople a better first impression, therefore giving the company a better first impression.
Andrew Deutsch 20:49
Let me give you the other the other two examples quickly. So x guy is that fat and sassy hasn’t been out on the street. Now the AI is tied into a CRM, when he gets up in the morning, he’s going to be getting his customer lists and what he should be suggesting next.
And he’s going to be accountable for doing that. So that one customer he never bothered with, he’s got to offer product x, and it gets him re engaged in what’s going on the marketing team, just recognize that there’s 20 new nursing homes in the in the neighborhood, it will automatically be on his prospect list, there’s going to be the initial offering, and there’s accountability to do it. So now he’s got to get back to work.
And then the last one, you’ve got those people who are hired to answer the phone and take orders with the AI is going to say to them, hey, they should be buying this product, make sure when they place the order, let’s suggest this. And same with a webinar analysis on the web, they’re placing their cart when they do their search, the search can be designed to show them products that would be in their preference, and not show them things at the top of the search that would not be of interest.
Lastly, lastly, go back to the person now in the office, I answered the phone, you need these four items, you know, I people you should be trying this product. Can I throw a free sample in there for you to who should whose name should I put on it so they can test it? And all of that happens? So so the AI is this, this sales analyst who’s changing their mind based on true data every second of every day thinking through and and performing, then you take all of that data now, the marketing team is going to send out the sales flyer, okay.
And I’m sending it to nursing homes, I can customize the order of the items, or even exclude items. Like imagine, you know, in the AI, you knew that you had a place that was a Islamic or Jewish nursing home. It could reduce everything that’s not how or or kosher off of that list. Yeah. But nonetheless, you’re meeting people at their exact model of the world every time you’re communicating with them. And the customer goes, I love this company. They know me. Yeah, the AI does all of that in a way that now your salespeople are up to speed faster.
The fat and sassy guys are actually growing their territory, even though they haven’t for a long time. Because they don’t have a choice. And they’re making more money, so they’re not going to complain about it. And your internal people are getting excited because they’re actually making sales too. And they’re more of a part of the profitability of the company. We’ve seen where with this AI has gone out and we’ve watched horizontal growth with existing customers in the first months 20 to 30% Wow, because that’s what AI does. And by the way, it won’t it won’t take over the world because if we don’t we don’t let it have guns.
23:34
Yeah, yeah, it’s it’s
23:37
here never get used to the AI. Well, I
Damon Pistulka 23:39
think he I don’t think that would be a good choice. The the I just think that it’s it’s it’s interesting, though, because it does things that we naturally just not going to do. Well, it was never gonna do.
Andrew Deutsch 23:54
Great salespeople have been doing it for years. Yeah, intuitive guys who know their product line front to back who know their customers have all that experience. The problem is, by the time you’re that good, you’ve only got a few left in your career. And that’s you guys. You know, are you going to take that guy off the street to try to train the young guys and does a guy who knows that have the skill set to train because the skill set that makes you a brilliant hunter salesman? Probably doesn’t make you a very good sales trainer. Yes. So that the AI gets people up to speed so much faster. And your churn is going to drop your Well
Damon Pistulka 24:32
yeah, that’s what I was thinking too. It’s it’s got to make the sales job. I don’t want to say easier because you’re still selling but it makes you be a better salesperson allows you to be a better sales for not makes you but allows you to be a better salesperson because you’re more knowledgeable about the things that will truly help them with their challenges today.
Andrew Deutsch 24:52
It adds your predictability. It makes you appear to be much more in tune with your product line then you will would have been at that quickly to your customer, it helps you to to show the customer that, that not only do you know them, but you know their business so you can start to predict what’s next and what works and what doesn’t. But it also gives great feedback to the marketing team, the product development team, because those knows what doesn’t work becomes far more obvious quicker to maybe we need to hone this product line, maybe we need to release it. Maybe we need to to grow it because it’s being this successful.
You know, if if you knew in real time, for example, imagine you were in the fragrance but you got 20 different fragrances for for air fresheners. And in real time you’re seeing what’s bought what’s not bought, you then could plan your production that you know what when we run that that one it sells but not as much. Let’s not make as many. Yeah, so it in the data comes without turning your salespeople into darn clerks, where they’re presently doing paperwork and filling out forms rather than being in front of customers doing what Yeah, or which is to sell.
Damon Pistulka 26:05
Yeah, that’s a whole nother subject. It is. Yeah, that is. So what are some of the exciting things you see, we’ve talked about, we’ve talked about, you know, you’re going to help these the new person, you’re going to help them help the fat and sassy, experienced salesperson got their territory nailed down, you’re helping the inside people. So what do you really think is the next thing on the horizon pass that for them for what artificial intelligence is going to be able to help us with and sales,
Andrew Deutsch 26:33
what the next step is through through that learning process, it’s really going to help with the future product development category. Because, because you’ll you’ll notice that certain tendencies, which will notice them in real time. So for example, in the chemical industry, you’ve got really strong nasty acrylic, what am I saying? acid acidic and alkaline products for cleaning. And then you’ve got these new bio safe pH neutral products.
So if you’re noticing through the AI that as as as people are learning to educate folks, and there’s a trend towards them, you may want to eliminate certain products that are in the line and understand the trends based on that real time purchasing, when you’ve got guys that are just selling what they’re comfortable with. They never, you know, if I’ve got a customer who has been buying bleach for 20 years to do cleaning, do I want to take the risk?
Well, no, but the AI is telling me that I should it’s an incentive to try to bring them towards these, these other products. So there’s a lot of things that sort of change, you know, who we are as as, as those products develop and grow, that the AI helps us to lean towards it. Also.
There’s there’s so there’s so many different aspects of Yes, how it benefits. I mean, just just from the ability to to forecast the ability to recognize market trends in Region, you can look at it, it can, it can be set, so that, you know, for example, that customers use this particular product, they have a 90 day supply, they only have a 30 day supply of the other, you should get in touch before a competitor get in the door. there there’s there’s just so much that it can do to make you smarter as a salesperson. It’s basic. Personal Assistant.
Damon Pistulka 28:28
Yeah, you’re right. Because
Andrew Deutsch 28:29
predictive model than you do.
Damon Pistulka 28:31
Yeah, yeah. And they’re they’re working 24 seven to help you be better. Yeah. And it’s, you know, you think of the things that you talked about helping you get more relevant products, help them switch to more relevant products, you’re talking about making sure you don’t run out of products, without, you know, having to go in and do inventory just based on past usage. Yep. And
Andrew Deutsch 28:55
one more one more piece of that. So let’s take it out of the the nursing home scenario. We’re now a company like say fastenal that has nails, they have fasteners, they have ladders, they have a rag. So the stuff that they have everything. Yeah, this, this AI is so intelligent that if you’re dealing, let’s say with a roofing company, who’s been buying all their fasteners from you, and certain tools, it can compare that to kit pages at the catalog, you’ve never even looked at 80% probability that these guys are going to buy rags. And there’s a 90% probability that at some point in time, they’re going to need a ladder. And it can look into into areas within the catalog.
That’s another issue in these massive catalogs. Nobody knows all the pages and most sales people make their money selling a small percentage of the catalog and they don’t care about the rest of it. This forces the sales team to sell every page in the catalog because the AI is telling them to so you know you Who would have thought that if you told him by the way we have truck boxes, Mr. roofer, oh my god, I need a new Now, how did you know? Well, I’ve got a 90 percentile chance that at some point, you’re going to need one because my data shows me that course you’re not going to refer because he’s going to go I don’t have time for that. I got to do.
Damon Pistulka 30:11
Yeah. But yeah,
Andrew Deutsch 30:14
it expands into the into the entire product line. I remember when I was in the in the strapping industry, there were two pages that I made my money with. And all the rest of it was if it came up.
Damon Pistulka 30:25
Yeah. You know, so you’re so you’re fighting that AI would have helped you be a better salesperson, if you are still selling today?
Andrew Deutsch 30:33
Absolutely, absolutely. It’s I am in the same way that I talked about CRM, the day, the day that the CRM reminded me that I hadn’t followed up on a $1.2 million proposal for equipment and Venezuela. And the and the CRM when you haven’t followed up, and I picked up the phone and called and the guy said, I’m so glad you called. I’ve been thinking to reach out to you. We got to make a decision today. And we have one out. And I need the answer. And I gave him the answer and close the deal. The thing that came from RM
31:06
Yeah,
Andrew Deutsch 31:07
I’d have been, I’d have been well, nobody would have known I didn’t get the deal because of that, except for me. Yeah, but I got the view.
Damon Pistulka 31:15
That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Well, Dan Biggers got a funny comment here says, When are you to not on a podcast? I don’t you know, Dad, this is what we do all day. We just do this? No, yeah, that’s what we’ll
Andrew Deutsch 31:29
tell him tell Dan that if he you know, Venmo owes me 20 bucks. I’ll shut up.
Damon Pistulka 31:33
Yeah, buddy, that’s the deal. We’re trying to get people to pay us not to be on. Yeah, but But no, it’s that that I just I’m in, I’m really it just just odd by the thought of what this could do. And in so many different areas.
You know, and this is sales being just one and I look at this, there’s so many others, where I’ve talked to people about using AI and in maintenance and AI and you know, when you look at a complex piece of equipment, and there are so many different possibilities of what’s wrong, but you, you know, it doesn’t matter, even like in Dan’s case, and an injection molding machine, right, there’s a lot of different things that go wrong, and one of those things, but if you’re AI, if you could pull up an AI application that knew that machine, and you said, This is what it’s doing, and it just ran right through the things.
You know, it’s it’s so incredible what these these things can do now, well, where the software becomes a AI, is when it’s in real time thinking and making it adaptations to benefit the outcome
Andrew Deutsch 32:40
that you desire. That’s what that’s when it’s an intelligence, when it’s just a case of, you know, troubleshooting, if you if it does this, it’ll do this. But it’s an if then it’s not really Oh, good point. Yeah. So so you know, one of the things in the manufacturing process, there are there are complex API’s, even in in the retail world, that are every moment of every day, evaluating whether it’s a supermarket, a clothing store, or otherwise, what’s going on and off the shelf, that’s constantly creating what that purchasing patterns going to be for replacement going forward. Because it’s kind of looking at what’s happening regionally.
In that same ad, I could say, based on what we’re seeing, we’ve been keeping inventory in Seattle, and certainly inventory in Los Angeles. And we’re already seeing this trend. And we start to shift that inventory, because we need more here and less there. So there’s lots of lots of ways that it can work. It and what it does is it replaces that sales analyst who’s brilliant, but gives you a moment in time to work from, it’s already out of date, by the time you take it to the field in highly volatile markets.
Damon Pistulka 33:50
That’s true, because it can change in real time. And like you said, as soon as it says do this, and it’s moving product or doing whatever it needs to do. Yeah, that’s something and that’s a good that’s a good distinction with AI is it’s making decisions in real time based on your data.
Andrew Deutsch 34:05
Yep, the noes are just as important as the SS.
Damon Pistulka 34:08
That is for sure. Yep. And that’s for sure. So, this, it’s been awesome. Have you talked to Andrew, I just this isn’t a throwing topic. For me. It’s just, I’m so excited about to see what this kind of stuff does. Because in sales, and especially in b2b sales, there’s and these large SKU type sales where this could really be clickable. It’s really something
Andrew Deutsch 34:33
anybody out there who has a distribution company that has over 200, into the 1000s and millions of SKUs that that has at least 1520 people involved in the sales process, whether it’s customer service sales inside sales, otherwise, this AI solution that we’re working with, we’ve we have yet to see a solution where we don’t see significant growth. of the box. Wow. And you know, we’ve, we would love to sit down with some of these bigger players like the, you know, facet all Zorro. Granger and that because we we know that this solution would completely turn their business upside down in a positive.
Damon Pistulka 35:17
Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I got one question because I work in this space a lot. Do you think that this would work with large SKU ecommerce sales?
35:26
Absolutely, absolutely.
Damon Pistulka 35:28
Yeah, yeah. Cuz that mean that you don’t have the traditional salesperson people are helping themselves, but you could still do the same sort of recommendations based on the customer?
Andrew Deutsch 35:36
Well, let’s let’s talk about big box stores like Home Depot, Lowe’s. menards. Yeah, who used to be you went in and you bought a gas grill? And then you go back on the website. And they’re they know you bought a gas grill? They’re suggesting gas grills? Yeah, I kind of have one. Yeah. They got to thinking with with their their solution? Well, we know they have one. What do people who buy groceries, gas grills buy, they’ll buy spatulas.
They’ll buy covers, maybe deck furniture, things like that? Well, if they were to incorporate what we do with AI, within the Home Depot website, they would compare by who you are all of the other items in it may be that people who buy gas grills also have an 80% chance that they’re gonna remodel their bathroom. I’m pulling that out. Yeah, yeah. And the sales flyers would would show that.
Also the AI would keep understanding what you’ve purchased, and what the lifecycle of those items are. So if the typical life cycle of a refrigerator is 12 years, about 11 years in, they’re going to start with their AI knowing that you’re probably up for replacement. But but there’s there’s so many correlations that you and I can’t see. I can see, because it’s looking at all of the data all of the time and adjusting based on what’s happening.
Damon Pistulka 36:55
Yeah, so yeah, no, it’s amazing. It’s just amazing. It’s
Andrew Deutsch 36:59
amazing when you edit your search to so that the stuff that meets, if you’re a guy who always buys the premium brands, when you do your search, it’s not going to show you the generics, who’s always a price shopper. They’re going to show you what you like first, and then the step up, based on how the AI structures based on who you are, what you bought in the past and how you compare to other people who’ve had similar purchasing patterns.
Damon Pistulka 37:24
Yeah. Yeah, that’s that’s something. Yep. That’s something. That’s something. Well, Andrew, what have I not asked you that I should ask you? That’s my solution. I know it is. I’m using it on you, man because you use it. And it’s a great question.
37:41
That’s my question. You say stealer IP thief.
Damon Pistulka 37:48
I’ve just said I heard it for You’re the one I listened to yesterday. Yours. So open the mango cat.
Andrew Deutsch 37:54
Yeah, yeah, it you know, the question that you didn’t ask me is, how do people reach out and find me to set up AI or to look at their brand and really how to grow their business, fangled tech. You can check me out on LinkedIn, I link with anybody who’s not trying to scam me with MLM Marketing and Bitcoins. Yeah. And in all seriousness, people who, who have a need of benefit, or they can benefit what I do mutually.
And also, we have if you go on YouTube, and I guess we can put the links in later when this Yeah, our our podcast is called the fangled cast. And what we do is we pick a topic and find experts to have a conversation in depth about it, and all sorts of business related topics. I take great pride in it. It’s a lot of fun. And we’ve got some really interesting stuff that that folks can dig into.
Damon Pistulka 38:48
Yes, yes. It’s great. It’s great. And, and interesting. And you find some really interesting speakers as well. So awesome. Well, I you know, I had to steal your question at the end. I knew I could do I couldn’t stop without that. So yeah,
Andrew Deutsch 39:05
that was gonna blow it up. Anyhow. So
Damon Pistulka 39:07
yeah. Yes, the other thing that people should understand is you you have developed a program to help people and explain this a little bit, because I think this is helpful to people to program to be more more visually impactful when they’re when they’re on live.
Andrew Deutsch 39:28
You know, I go back more than 20 years of video conferencing because most of my career was was overseas. So if I wanted to see what’s going on at home, I wanted to talk to my wife, whatever. I wanted to be in the boardroom during meetings when I was you know, overseas, I was video conferencing. Well, when the whole COVID thing hit and everybody started video conferencing and thought it was new. I was very funny. I was I was laughing about it because it was just so natural to me. And then as more and more zoom went on, people were falling asleep turning into a zombie.
Yeah, yeah. Can I share my screen So, so we started to look at other tech and tried to figure out so now when when you’re going to do a, you know, like a PowerPoint presentation with what we teach people to do, you can jump into your PowerPoint and, and shrink down. And there’s a long lag on this, what’s going there?
Oh, there we go, there’s my PowerPoint, and you shrink down and you can actually present and, and, and work from this position. And if somebody asks a question, although there’s a lag, so it’s going to take a second, I’m not sure what’s going on, you can go back up and actually address and, and talk to people in in the forum. And really, so what we did is we built a training program to use this open source software, so that you can, you can try, there we go. You can train folks to learn how to how to use this software and the best way to be present be impactful. And, and do more interesting things in your meetings and keep the audience awake.
Damon Pistulka 41:01
Yes. Yes. I think it’s so sad. so powerful. Yeah. Look at that. I’m
41:06
talking to myself.
41:07
I don’t know what happened with the leg.
41:11
I’ll be back. Sometimes.
Damon Pistulka 41:13
Yeah, I’ll be back soon. Sometimes I just happens. That’s the good thing about live is you never know what’s going to happen in there.
41:19
Yep. Can Can you still hear me?
Damon Pistulka 41:23
Yes. I hear you just fine.
Andrew Deutsch 41:25
Everything’s frozen for me. I can hear but I can’t see. So good thing. We’re wrapping up.
Damon Pistulka 41:29
Yeah, we are wrapping up. Well, thanks a lot, Andrew for being here. And and now I see now. I think it’s catching up with you. It’s catching up with you. So it’s great. It’s great having you here today. And such an interesting topic about AI help and sales. And just the examples you gave were awesome. And, and I think that that people if they if they are interested in this, they should talk to you about it and really begin to think in different ways of how AI can help us be better in our business.
Andrew Deutsch 41:59
It’s nothing to be scared of because it really is like having, as our friend Greg says a digital twin an extra set of hands, your own personal assistant, without having to having to hire one.
Damon Pistulka 42:11
Yeah. Yeah. That’s awesome. Well, thanks for being here. Thanks again, for everyone watching the faces of business today. Thanks. If you’re listening live on LinkedIn, or Facebook or periscope or wherever the heck you are, or anywhere else, for that matter. Thanks a lot, Andrew for being here today. Reach out to Andrew Deutsch at fangled tech. If you’ve got more questions about this again, I’m Damon Pistulka with exit your way and we’re signing out for today. Thank you.
42:39
Thanks so much.
