B2B eCommerce Solutions: The Dire Cost of Doing Nothing

Curt Anderson  00:02

Hey, good morning, man. Why don’t you kick us off? Well, you please.

Damon Pistulka  00:07

All right, thank you. The we got a couple of technical issues back here. Welcome. Once again, it’s Monday and it’s time for manufacturing ecommerce success. And I am so excited for our guests today because we’re going to be talking about b2b e commerce solutions and the dire cost of doing nothing. I’m your co host, Damon Pistulka. And that pretty gentleman right over there. So excited. Coming back from his trips in Savannah bananas this weekend is Curt Anderson. Let’s take it away. My friend Damon,

Curt Anderson  00:42

let’s dive in dude. Hey, how was your weekend? By the way? Do you have a good weekend? All right. Yes.

Damon Pistulka  00:47

Yes, we did.

Curt Anderson  00:49

Good weekend did well, I you know, I hate to tell you mine was stellar. If there was any battery, you might have to call the emergency room to find me because it was just phenomenal. So caught a little USA rugby. The United States rugby team played Scotland. We won’t say what the score was, but we’re proud of our wonderful rugby team showed. And it’s perfect. They were at the hotel that I was at. So that was that was Yeah. How cool was that? So got to see some of our USA rugby guys taken on the international team. So that was Friday night and then cut the savannah bananas, man, if anybody out there connect with Jesse Cole on LinkedIn, what he’s doing for baseball for kids across the country is just spectacular. But just talking about powerhouse businesses, man, we’ve got our dear friend. We’ve got a powerhouse on the stage here today. RJ Stephens RJ Happy Monday. How are you?

RJ Stephens  01:40

I’m doing fantastic. I’m excited. What better way could you start the week and with this? This power trio.

Curt Anderson  01:47

That’s right, man power, man. I like that. So hey, let’s dive in. So RJ I have a bunch of questions. Ecommerce extraordinaire. You know our show is called manufacturing ecommerce success. I don’t know if there’s a human being on the planet that really fits the title of this show better than you do my friend. However, we’re going to take a little step back in time if we could please. RJ when you were little guy growing up. Okay, now where did you grow up? Now? I saw that you’re fighting ally. Now. Did you grow up? Where did you grow up?

RJ Stephens  02:15

I did I Yep. I grew up in corn and soybeans, soybean fields of Central Illinois not that far from from Champaign. That was you know, small town USA a whole John Mellencamp song going on there.

Curt Anderson  02:28

Awesome. Well, hey, that is absolutely fantastic. Well, I’m a huge big 10 guy myself, so it’s little guy grown up in Illinois, please share with us who was your hero? Who’s your hero is a little guy growing up in the central part of Illinois.

RJ Stephens  02:44

Well, I mean, you got to think about the time that I was growing up but I don’t necessarily want to overly date myself but I think this may do it. So so at that time, you know, like my my sport a passion was football and so it’s probably not that much of a leap to understand where I’m gonna throw my allegiance there. So for me that time it was Walter Payton. Right like just somebody who embodied hard work determination came out of a tiny little school I think Jackson State that wasn’t highly regarded and became you know, arguably one of if not the best running back in NFL history and was just always you know, did so much community outreach and was just such a stellar pillar of the community and the organization’s I mean, he was someone to aspire to be in so many different ways

Curt Anderson  03:31

well phenomenal answer couldn’t agree with you more it even one step further. Possibly one of the greatest football players of all time and even more so what a great man he was about let’s let’s piggyback on that that right there. RJ How about his nickname? Could you please share have a little pop quiz

RJ Stephens  03:49

sweetness sweetness

Curt Anderson  03:53

you knew that one Damon so anyway, so any of our friends out there there are under an age a certain age right? My if the Google Walter Payton His nickname is sweetness. How would his tagline RJ Gino his tagline

RJ Stephens  04:04

his tagline? I do not know that I know his tagline that his Damon

Curt Anderson  04:08

any any

Damon Pistulka  04:09

writing new sweetness but I’m done after that

Curt Anderson  04:13

never die easy Mr. Walter Payton never die easy. So that’s I do a lot of workshops in Chicago so I need to know that answer. So that’s a little so sweetness never die easy. Look up Walter Payton, what a great way to kick off the program talking about inspiration. So let’s go here, RJ so you bring your talents, your skills, your passion, your expertise to the great state of Illinois, your fight in line I in Champaign, when you got out of college, what inspires you I saw if you go connect with RJ on LinkedIn, great what a what a fascinating journey, incredible career that you’ve had. Looks like you’re at Gold’s Gym at one point. What How did you transition into technology? How did you find yourself in E commerce?

RJ Stephens  04:57

Yeah, it’s interesting, right? I mean, when I When I first went to Illinois, I actually started in computer science and math, right, and I kind of probably didn’t realize I’ve maybe bitten off more than I could chew at that point, you know, you’re young, you feel like you can conquer the world. And, you know, the the same computer science program that I was in would be the computer science that Marc Andreessen went through before he, you know, created the Mosaic browser and all that sort of thing. I shifted over into business because that that’s something I could manage. And then, you know, I was very much into health and fitness for a long time. And I was in, you know, that led me into the space of being in running health clubs tried to actually start a chain of health clubs. And, and, and I’ve done that for a while and, you know, sometimes life This works in a funny way. And one day, a woman that that I had sort of, you know, sold a membership to No, she just came and said, hey, you know, have you ever thought about getting out of the fitness industry, because if so, I met recruiter, and I actually have a technology an opening at a technology firm, I think it’d be perfect for him, she had no idea that I had kind of a computer science background, or that’s where I started and, and that was my initial foray going into I was in recruiting. And very quickly, one of the first companies I called on called me back and said, you know, we’re not really looking for any staffing solutions, but we’d like to hire you as our first sales rep. But that was a US company back in 2000, I helped take that company public, and just kind of went on from there. And, and then over time, being in sales, leadership roles, CRO VP of sales, I just got to the point where, you know, I was being asked oftentimes to sell things or drive revenue, versus things really, that the client that I believed they needed. And so in order to really have a company that just, you know, aligned with my values and ideals, I decided the best way to do that was start one on my own. So that’s what I did. That’s my partner I have done and done very well. And it’s very client centric. And we, we pride ourselves on just giving honest advice. Just as if you had a dear friend in E commerce, what would they tell you? That’s why our name is friends of commerce is that we become your friend. And we just want to give you our honest opinion that has no sort of revenue outcome tied to it. And if we can end up helping you great. And if we can just give you advice, that’s fine, too. Wow, that’s fantastic. And

Curt Anderson  07:21

so what you got you, you jumped, you lead right into my next question. So you know, as CEO, co founder, friends of commerce, I like to take that one step further. And I love that it’s, you know, you pride yourself in just being that friend, that partner that Sherpa guide, that’s going to walk you through E commerce, we’re gonna dive into a Damon, you mentioned the title, the dire cost of doing nothing, that is typically one of the worst, most the biggest competitor, especially for manufacturers to get an E commerce. Walk us through RJ that early days, I think was it 2019? When you launch your company, can you walk us through? Like when you started the company? What did that look like? And we want to dive into how you help manufacturers navigate this whole ecommerce thing?

RJ Stephens  08:03

Yeah, you know, it’s interesting at the time, you know, my, my co founder, who’s my CTO had a company that was looking to go online, they didn’t know how to do it, you know, he’s a developer and solutions architect by trade, and he’s like, hey, I want to help these, this company. But I don’t really know how to do it from a business perspective. I was at, I don’t know, probably my sixth or seventh VC funded startup at that point in time. And, and I said, Yeah, let’s just let’s start up a company on the side, we’ll help this company, that company is still the client to this day, by the way. And, and so we helped them launch one site, we helped them launch a second site. And all of a sudden, we saw that there was just such a gap in the marketplace of companies for us, you know, we focus on mid market. And, you know, we started seeing that a lot of those companies just didn’t know what to do, didn’t know why they shouldn’t be doing it had didn’t have the resources to do it themselves. And so I kind of saw and I think I’ve had this conversation with both of you, gentlemen, like, I feel like we’re trying to save that section of the market in a way from themselves not that they’re trying to do anything, that they’re trying to do anything intentionally that’s that’s not helping their business, but that maybe the lack of understanding of why it’s so important to take steps forward digitally. And with the market changing as fast as the markets changing, I kind of felt not only was it a great business opportunity, but I really could aligned to our values of just helping companies thrive, survive, succeed all those things. So at that point in time, my my partner and I decided both to sort of quit our day jobs so to speak, because there’s so much opportunity there and just focus and the business has kind of taken off since then. Nice.

Curt Anderson  09:52

Nice fantastic. And you know, I love what you’re saying there RJ you know, not it’s not so much but you know, not being critical or what somebody is not Doing it just the lack of understanding or not having experienced it you know if you haven’t if you haven’t gone out and done something we’re talking about the savannah bananas if you haven’t seen it you’re like yeah that sounds kind of crazy but man once you experience it there’s a lot to enjoy a lot to appreciate and that’s to say, you know, hey I’ll quit Damon I’m going to quit the savannah bananas e commerce I was at There you go There we go. So ate our jam gonna share a couple of things Damon you know here’s a few comments that people share about RJ you know, we’ve got new RJ over the past couple of years here. We’ve been connected through our friends at Big commerce but people this is what people say about RJ RJ is honest, caring, thoughtful sales that are does the right thing. And it was something I really admired enjoy working with them. RJ comes with a wealth of E commerce industry experience as well as a solid approach to enter enterprise b2b sales. He’s a straight shooter who puts clients and company first before himself even if it seemingly puts an opportunity at risk. Next thing RJ listens and partners with his internal team to ensure success. RJ goes above and beyond RJ where does this come from? Is this from this is something they did you take a class at Illinois or how did you instill this this medication work ethic? What’s going on here?

RJ Stephens  11:13

I mean, you know, if I if I had to really think about it, I’d saved maybe it was just like the upper my upbringing, right? Like, you know, I come from a long lineage of farmers and you know, sharecroppers really people are they’re just renting land trying to, you know, scratch how to live and planting seeds up to weather, all that sort of stuff. And, and also in a, in a small Toon Town, there’s, there’s a lot of community so, you know, people helping people and, and, you know, you just, you know, that you sort of get what you give, so you’re out helping all the time. And, and if you need help, people are right there without hesitation, right. It’s like, you know, one of the things and I’ve lived in a lot of places, and one of the sort of like, things that I think about is sort of a test of a place is you know, if I called somebody up would they come help me move my sofa, right? And there’s, you know, there’s there’s places where, you know, small town America, you’d have a line of people saying, Yeah, I’ll busy but I’ll drop myself I’ll come over to help you How long do you need me? You can other places you get like, people like, Hey, I think my phone when I can’t quite hear your collec or, you know, whatever it is, and nobody’s coming right? So I this thing that sort of what’s instilled with me that sort of work ethic and and helping your neighbor and helping others and being a giving person was something I sort of, I saw examples all around me and I just grew up with and so it’s something it’s, you know, what’s what’s crazy to me, is that now becomes maybe a differentiator, which I don’t think is the is maybe the greatest statement about where we’re at. You know, societally and other things. But I just think if you just do right by people, you’ll be surprised at how that comes back to you.

Damon Pistulka  12:46

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. We’ve got some good comments here, too. I want to just hit those really quick. He got a little Aussie dropped in today said he was happy to make it and he heads see, it’s talking about making an impact. And we I camera was here today. And then any loss, he says I’m about that upbringing. That’s important. RJ that upbringing is awesome. Yeah. So yeah, it’s, I tell you, there really is something to be said about the just trying to help people. Because not not with looking for what it’s going to get you in the meet in the future. But just trying to help people because, you know, in people I’ve heard of before Zig Ziglar talked about it many times, if you help enough people you have everything you want. And I think when we’re younger, maybe or when we when we’re starting out in a business, it doesn’t feel like that. But it certainly is the way it works.

RJ Stephens  13:46

could not agree more could not agree more. And if you do and also, if you do it from your heart, if you don’t do it, like hey, I’m gonna help this person to get something you just do it because that’s what you want to do. That’s where you really come through and shine. And it may not come back to you, you know, the next day or the next week or the next month. But I think this the more of that you do, you’ll be surprised that the opportunities that present themselves to you because of that attitude you have.

Damon Pistulka  14:09

Yeah, yeah, I agree. Absolutely. So,

Curt Anderson  14:13

RJ, what I’d like to do next is I want to, I want to I want to pull up your website, just kind of familiarize with just introduce our friends out here to the Friends of commerce, and I just want to talk about your approach. And again, your dedication to being a fierce educator, helping people launch their e commerce journey. So Lippia Give me one second, let me dive in here. And so how about this? Can you guys see my screen? Yep. All right. So I’ve got friends of commerce and using a curated network approach. Just talk a little bit. Let me let me make this a little bit bigger. How’s that looks? That looks a little bit. So alright, just RJ just talk a little bit about your approaches. Say there’s a manufacturer out there and they’re like, man, RJ, you know you kind of You called my bluff man. You know, I’ve been we’ve been internally talking about this ecommerce thing. For a long time, not really sure how that would fit, kind of walk us through that first time engagement? And how would that discovery how you help people?

RJ Stephens  15:08

Yeah, well, you know, I know that you you guys have talked a lot about, you know, what mistakes to avoid in going down at technology project or something like that. So I don’t want to, you know, backtrack on some of that. But for us, the most important thing is planning, really getting in and understanding, you know, technologically, and architecturally, what systems are in place today, where identifying where there’s risk, where there’s manual process and inefficiency, where there’s opportunity, and just, you know, then working with a company to say, like, look, I mean, I think a lot of reasons why there’s maybe a hesitancy to to you know, embrace technology, or to make change is just a lot of mid market, you know, manufacturers and distributors and wholesalers, it’s just new to them, they just don’t know, you kind of fear the unknown, right? A lot of times, in our mind, we make something up to be way more difficult than it really is once you start doing it. And so for us, it’s just about breaking things down, getting a plan and breaking it down into small manageable steps that mitigates risk, that makes it easier to gather information as you go. So, so we go through that process with someone and when we go through that process, at the end of that process, we typically do that, right now we’re doing that at no cost, we invest a lot of time to give them that we’re like, Hey, if you want to take this and use it internally, you want to take it and go somewhere else, then then that’s fine. What we found is that we build up such an understanding and relationship with the company at that point in time, it makes for a really good kickoff for a partnership. So the other thing and you know the pages that you’re on here, one of the things that I think is a big differentiator for us is we take a fractional approach to our projects. So friends, a commerce is a fractionally staffed organization, we have probably 50 to 70, depending upon how many projects we got going consultants and teams on projects at any one point in time. But for our clients, they’re only paying for what they use. And so it enables a greater level of efficiency in the application of resources, because you’re not hiring a full time CIO or CTO or head of them. I mean, the cost to get talented people right now is is insane. So for us, it’s how do you use just a little bit of what you need when you need it to move the project forward. Target really is a very efficient delivery approach. And so that’s kind of the pages you’re on now. And I think that’s another thing that sort of sets us apart is that we’re able to do all the planning, we’re able to break it down into steps. And then we’re able to just to apply the resources necessary with incredibly qualified and curated and vetted experts that we orchestrate, to do a great job. And that’s sort of our approach to the project, whether that’s, you know, any aspect of of a b2b project from a commerce perspective.

Curt Anderson  17:57

Yeah, and Alright, perfect segue. And I want to dive into this RJ, because I think there’s a big distinction between, you know, so a lot of manufacturers when they hear ecommerce like wow, you know, we’re in a b2b space, you know, we’re not selling individual widgets on Amazon, we’re selling, you know, we’re part of, you know, the supply chain line, maybe we’re a third tier, whatever that might look like. What I love is that you are truly a b2b expert, can you just share a little bit on what different differentiates you from say, you know, the folks on the street that are helping retail Main Street, that type of thing? Just, you, you speak b2b and you speak manufacturing? Yeah. Well,

RJ Stephens  18:38

and you know, in past lives, we’ve done tons of huge b2c You know, global brand work, but would be to see, its, I would kind of classify that more as it’s all about the sizzle. What does it look like and, and how snazzy is it and I want all these cool features, all sorts of stuff. Whereas with b2b, it’s, it’s more about the state. It’s the data, it’s the integration it’s doing. And those things can be very complicated. You can’t just have an average team execute that piece of the project that is the backbone. So understanding data and integrations is core to what we do, and really the foundation of all the b2b work, which enables the site to function and be, you know, high performing, you’re dealing with complex inventory, you’re dealing with complex pricing rules. You’re dealing with complicated buying processes, many buyers and different credit limits and different authorizations and budgets, and all that sort of stuff is nowhere in or on not usually in a b2c space, but in b2b, it’s all day every day. And the other thing is that each b2b company is unique. They all have their own nuance. It isn’t a cookie cutter, you can’t just hey, I did this for this company over here and do the exact same thing for you does not work. So you have to kind of get that core foundation built specific to that. particular b2b company, or else nothing’s going to work beyond them.

Curt Anderson  20:05

Yeah. All right. Absolutely. Fantastic. So one thing that I want to circle back on, you talked about that, if I heard you correctly, that phase approach, we’re so often it’s, you know, I don’t like that eat the elephant expression. Damon, I need a new one. But you’re just trying to tackle everything all at once. RJ Can you just walk us through a little bit. And again, this is for the manufacturer out there that this is completely new to them. They’ve been thinking about it, they want to go this direction they want they need to align with you walk us through, like that phased approach.

RJ Stephens  20:37

Yeah. And if you can just scroll to see that picture right there a little bit on your screen. Go No, go the other direction, please. Right there go down just a bit. The computer image? Oh, right there. Yeah, right there. So that is an example of a technology architectural diagram that we would build for a client, right? We go in, we understand what ERP are using what are using a product information management system, we’re using a warehouse management system, what are you using for, you know, where do you have CRM? Do you have, you know, what are all you have? And how is that all, you know, architected and where’s all the data going, and like I say, how many manual processes are in there, that sort of thing. So we would create a blueprint just like this. And then what we do is we understand, okay, what we would go, you know, the first phase would be what we would call an MVP, which is a minimum viable product, like, what is the necessary pieces, you have to have to have a good experience in your step one to where your, your customers would adapt to it, it’s going to meet their needs, and you can start to promote it to, you know, potentially new prospects. You know, I think the stats out there right now, or something like, you know, 75% of b2b buyers want to do all most all of their research online first, right? So your site needs to be there, your site needs to have content probably need to be doing some sort of search engine marketing stuff, what you can do along the way. And so, you know, building all that in there as in defining key, what is critical in phase one, and then getting that stood up, that’s going to minimize the budget, minimize timeline also. So you’re launching something in, you know, three to four months, and you could start to get your ROI, right, get that payback. Right, I saw another another stat recently, where it said, you know, b2b companies that are investing in in E commerce, achieve a 400% ROI in the first five years for that investment. So you know, if you start today, you’re gonna get that ROI faster versus starting your blog, you’re like, I’ll get around to it, I’ll get around to it. They never get around to it. Right. So like, So breaking it into that MVP, starting to get transactions, you’re also starting to see, what are people searching for? Where are they going on your site, you’re getting these insights you’ve never had before, to enable you to make better decisions, both online and offline, then that’s going to dictate what phase two looks like. Because you’re always going to find some things you didn’t expect, right? You’re always going to do that. So instead of doing this, you know, back in the day used to do this big bang, like somebody would go away for a year or so and come back. And the customer go, well, that’s not exactly what I wanted. That’s right. Yeah. You know, what breaking in the little stuff, mitigate risk, learn along the way, iterate as we go, it is just a way better approach that, that yeah, Java development,

Damon Pistulka  23:30

that’s a, that’s a great point to bring up in these kinds of situations. Because really, when you talk about e commerce, you talk about digital solutions for customer interaction, the, you really need to take a step by step approach. And this is where I think I’m just gonna say it, I think a lot of the ERP companies are really falling behind, because there’s all these technology pieces that have to come together. And you when you talk about interoperability, you talk about the changes in technology and stuff, your approach allows you to really harness that because you can do the first step and realize that the second step that you wanted to do in this process has changed completely, because technology has changed. And if we wouldn’t went through the whole thing, we would have built the house on old technology that we should have never even thought about.

RJ Stephens  24:27

could not agree more. could not agree more. Yeah.

Damon Pistulka  24:30

So what are some of the things that you’re seeing now? That’s really exciting in what you’re doing?

RJ Stephens  24:37

Well, I mean, we are seeing, you know, I think something else, we’re seeing more companies that sort of are embracing, you know, what I would call digital transformation, but that’s also sort of a big scary term, right? The people think that oh, we’re going to, we’re going to, you know, turn our world upside down. No, we’re going to take one small step about moving you in a different direction, but I Uh, you know, the we are seeing companies? And look, I, I think that the market is forcing this in a way, right? Like, like we, you know, I just did some work the other last week we were doing some research on mid market b2b companies. And we found that in the the stats of 550 companies that we reviewed, there was only 100 that were doing, you know, digital commerce. So like, 18%. Right here. 80% still aren’t doing anything. Yeah. And I don’t think you know, and I know, I think Kurt, I had this, this conversation with you, I think it’s sort of the frog in the hot pot, right? The water starting to get hotter? And if you wait until it’s boiling, you’re you’re pretty much cooked here. You know, the goal is how do you sort of understand that the markets doing that the markets changing, like most larger enterprise, companies already understand that the demands of their customers are changing faster than they could innovate. But I think in the mid market, you know, it’s sort of a, there’s, there’s sort of a cognitive bias of just hey, I’m just going to focus on what I know, and what I’ve always done, but the market sort of eroding around you in that scenario. So I do think there are people that are starting to realize, hey, look, I’ve got to, I’ve got to try to catch up, or, or my company is in significant risk, which is true. And I don’t, you know, I know that people tend to move more from fear instead of, you know, getting some some positive feedback on it. But I think the market is really a forcing function there. And also, the the sort of generational changes that are happening in buyers right now. I think the average b2b buyer right now, like something like 75 80% of them are, Gen Z are younger, right? So it’s like, they expect to be able to be on their phone in order, they expect to be able to go to a self service portal at, you know, Saturday at 7pm. And look at all their past order history and where things are happening. And if you’re not doing that, you know, we’ve had companies come to us as well and say, hey, look, our largest clients are starting to leave. And they told us, they’d love this, they like our products, and they want to stay, but it’s just difficult to buy from us, and difficult to support us. I mean, these this one particular company I’m talking about, people would want a report, they would send them an email, give me a report of all these how these locations are doing for this product, the company would then somebody would read that email type up that what the report would be sent it off to their IT department there, it would run the report, it would take two or three days, they would send them an Excel spreadsheet, then that customer service rep when they’re there from nine to five during the day would attach that to an email and send it back to their customer. The whole thing took a week or so like, the only thing that they weren’t doing was sending a fax. But other than that wall, you know, in the stone age’s. Yeah. And in that, you know, buyers are demanding more, and they may not even tell you, they may just go away, oh, well, it’s, you know, revenues download revenues down, because you’re not making it easy to work with. And so, you know, I am seeing more companies that are sort of waking up to that, I think the goal for me for conversations like this is to get more companies just to start to consider, you know, the whole thing is like, you’ve got to break that inertia, and just start looking at things educating, thinking about it, that will sort of demystify some of these fears and apprehensions and things that, you know, they feel like they’re, they’re maybe going to lose control, you’re not going to lose control, you’re actually going to get more control and more insight. And, you know, you you will find that the journey isn’t as daunting as one would think beforehand. So I think that’s, you know, a good thing we’re seeing, but we need to see more of it. Candidly, especially in this big market space.

Damon Pistulka  28:46

Yeah. Well, that Damon

Curt Anderson  28:49

multiple multiple drop the mics in there, and I think the big one is RJ I first off kudos to you for that we need to like slice out what you just said. Yeah. And that might be replayed over and over here, Damon. But I think what’s so important is, you know, RJ one thing, Dave, and I love to say, you know, the E in eCommerce stands for easy and easy commerce. And if you’re not making it easy for your customer, I don’t care how much you have your friends with them, you send them holiday cards, or you know, birthday wishes or whatever golf course whatever it is you do, you can be best friends with them. But if you’re not making it easy, you’re just you’re just putting yourself at a severe disadvantage as you’re mentioning, that is such a powerful statement. Or if we could cite into I’d like to pull up an example if we could have one of your clients can Can we jump into

RJ Stephens  29:39

that now? Yeah, absolutely. 100%

Curt Anderson  29:42

Alright, let’s jump in. So hey, as I like to say we have i o wa customs Damon. So let’s go here. RJ what’s going on as a client of yours? This is somebody who’s dedicated to that digital transformation. You’ve talked about digital self serve, easy commerce. How are you Got a label it just what’s going on with this client?

RJ Stephens  30:02

Yeah, so this climb climb makes custom manufactured accessories for semi trucks as you can see here. Yeah, very successful company based out of Iowa, as you said. And terriers are their CEO is it has an engineering background. So he understands technology to an extent which what was fascinating about this company is they had already sort of Applied Technology to their manufacturing process, they had robots doing their manufacturing, leading efficiency. But before we met them, if you went to their website, you could either do one or two things, if you wanted to buy some from one is they had a downloadable catalog, which I still have there. Right? That was it. There was no dealer portal, there was no online ordering, or to you called the. And if you call the company and you press one for sales, it rang the CEO cell phone, right? Like, how do you write like, he’s like, I am the bottleneck, we are the bottleneck, we need to make it easy for our customers to buy from us. So we went in, we learned everything we needed to know about like that, when you actually downloaded their catalogue, they would ask their their clients now they don’t sell direct to truck drivers, they sell to distributors. Yeah, they would ask their distributors to to be able to call them in with a SKU now distributors had to know how to build a SKU. So you had to go, Okay, I want a Mudflap. That’s, you know, seven, five, dash j. Two, I want it for this type of truck, a Peterbilt, that’s for seven why. So now those two things go together. And I wanted in stainless steel, that’s s s x. So they had to know all that stuff and call it in and make an order, right. Like, you know, the other thing I saw is that the amount of data input airs in is like 5%. And each heir costs hundreds of dollars, time and bad customer experience to your customer. So but they were that’s just what they did, right. So now we build them an online dealer portal where the dealers can go in and reorder what they’ve ordered in the past put in a new order, you know, they have authorized people that can either make orders or that can, that can set up a cart, and somebody in finance can actually make the order. So it’s basically been providing them more the sales and interaction technology piece, where they’d already solved the manufacturing technology piece. And this is going to unlock a lot of growth opportunity for them. The other thing I would say is, you know, when I was talking to Terry is they had trouble finding people that wanted to do the data entry, or that were sophisticated enough, I don’t mean that but to understand the complexities of their product, and he’s like, look, I, I am having a hard time hiring people to do this. If I could put it online, and do it through, you know, a commerce platform, that’s a win for me, because now I don’t, you know, I don’t need to hire as many people, which I couldn’t do anyway. And it’s better for my clients. So there was a lot of other wins that came from this from an efficiency perspective. And the last thing I would say is, you know, for companies that are out there that are most almost exclusively relying on their customer service people to take orders. You know, there’s tons of studies out there that talk about client retention and client or employee retention and employee satisfaction with their job, they want to be learning new things, they want to have stronger skills. So if you’re keeping them you doing things that are decades in the past, as far as your business goes, you’re also risking, you know, employee attrition.

Damon Pistulka  33:37

Yeah, yeah. Well, in, in, like you said, Here, the the way that you can set up configurators. Now, even for a distributor to understand how to make the appropriate SKU that they want to order, if you make that a simple process that said, and prompt them through it all. That’s the the reduction in errors, I’ve just finished a project with a client that we literally spent. I don’t even want to say how much money cleaning up five years of bad data in a situation like this, where you can’t use the data, the data leads to tons of mistakes, tons of lost cost and time down Road, where a configurator type situation where it makes you only you’ve got certain choices in each section that matches all the way through their manufacturing process. You get the product you really wanted to order.

RJ Stephens  34:36

Well in go look at you know, pick a handful of mid market sites where it says request a quote I would just do in this day, I clicked on it, and it took me to a phone number. Yeah, yeah. You can build that online right now. Almost irregardless of the complexities of what it takes.

Damon Pistulka  34:52

Yeah, I was on a site and this brought this up in a previous episode where we’re looking at bigger companies hoz H AAS me sheen center manufacturing company in us they do 1000s of machines every year, you can order a $200,000 machine on there right down to the you know, the color of the tray in the back or whatever the heck you want to do. And place your order. Push the button. Yeah,

RJ Stephens  35:17

yep. Yeah. And then, and then I bet all of the supply parts and all the additional stuff, you just okay, they know what goes with that model. Now you’ve got a curated list of those things, makes it easy to find those, oh, I need this. You know, I mean, it’s I did a project a long time ago, for a company that was like a recycled paper company, they had a machine the size of a football field. Wow. And and, you know, there was I don’t know how many millions of parts, but you could just go and if you make, you know, especially now with some of the enhances enhancements in in search capabilities, and product structure capabilities, you can make it pretty easy for somebody in a couple of clicks, to get to the exact part they want. Instead of them flipping through a catalog or calling customer success, taken hours, whatever it is, make it in near instantaneous, that’s going to be a satisfied customer, that’s going to be a repeat buyer. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  36:13

So many things to unpack. And David, I’m reading our good friend, we just had a guest recently, RJ, his name is Luis Velasquez. And he talks about the difference between efficiency and effectiveness. And we talked about looking at the effectiveness that you just listed. And I think the big thing is we start winding down here, for any and every manufacturer out there, you could be a small machine shop and you’re like, hey, wait a minute, you know, I just have small amount of customers, right here, you should be strongly considering in their case, they call it the dealer portal, you actually be strongly considering a customer portal. Yeah, it is RJ just described, you’re making it easier for your customer, you’re reducing internal mistakes, you’re reducing your cost of labor for for a task that most people don’t want to do. Anyway, there’s you’re preventing tons of mistakes, you’re creating a much, much more robust customer experience the list, it’s there’s endless wins here with no downside, and just it is no longer a nice to have. This is mission critical right here. So RJ is we start winding down any other things that you want to share as far as we go with our friends at Iowa customs on their website?

RJ Stephens  37:25

No, I mean, but I think it’s just indicative of like, there’s there, I have not run across a single type of company that couldn’t benefit from adding digital to their mix. And, and, and whether it’s an you know, like, in this case, you know, I’ve had companies that come on, and they start with the portal first, because the customer service customer support pieces is really what the squeaky wheel is. And they add the sales piece later. I’ve worked with other customer companies where it’s the sales side, they need to make their sales, you know, more frictionless, make it easier, that sort of thing. And then the portal kind of comes as a fast follower, doesn’t matter where you start, pick a side, pick which one and just get started doing something and just doing it in manageable steps. And it can just, you know, one of the things that I always say also is, you know, there’s there’s no, there’s no static, there’s no steady state, you’re either moving forward, or you’re moving backward. And if you don’t know which one you’re going back, or because the competition is going forward. Yeah, competitions making improvements. And if you’re not, if you don’t know if you are, you’re not, you’re not, and you’re going to be the frog in a hot pot. So it’s important just to get started. And once you once you get started, you’ll be amazed at the opportunities there for improvement, the improvement in efficiencies, and how that really sort of, you know, gives you a path forward as a company, in a way in more areas than you could imagine.

Curt Anderson  38:59

Yeah, I’d say what, what a powerful session again, I just want to wind down. Our friends out there. We’re with RJ Steven CEO, co founder of friends of commerce, just a high level eCommerce extraordinaire, all sorts of wonderful solutions. Are James we I’m going to stop sharing, we’ll start winding down a quick question for you. Platform Do you have I know we’re mutual friends through through the wonderful, amazing people at Big commerce do? What platforms if somebody’s out there listening? What platforms do you recommend for our friends and be in b2b or manufacturing?

RJ Stephens  39:33

Yeah, I mean, we’re, we’re an agnostic agency. We’ve worked on pretty much all the platforms that are out there we have, we have a ton of customers, especially in b2b that are on big commerce because big commerce, they’re sort of open SAS technology, I think is really a great hybrid between, you know, having sort of the scalability and privacy and security where you need it, but the customizations and flexibility where you want it right so So that’s a great tip we have, we have customers on Shopify, we have customers on, you know, I tend to say Magento. But it’s Adobe, we have, you know, companies on custom develop solutions. There’s so many platforms out there right now that we’ve worked on most of them, we oftentimes also get brought in to help with an assessment of platforms. So we can do that for a company and try to help them figure out which platform best fits their needs in our area, too. But, but um, you know, we work across all the major ones, depending upon the specific use case for the client. Yep.

Curt Anderson  40:36

Love it out. Awesome. Damon, any comments that we want to grab before we wind down here?

Damon Pistulka  40:41

No, I Well, comments. Yes, there’s Lucy. There’s a few of them. And there’s a lot of networking going on in the comments. Thanks for doing that. Everyone. That’s great to have it we had earlier we had sadiya dropped in I want to she said hello. It said, Hey, everyone, or they’re just wanting to make sure we recognize her and coming into the chat.

Curt Anderson  41:02

About this last one from Alan Bazi says, with a computer science background, I’m loving the modularity. And that was a tough word for me out on Monday. Yeah, yeah. and ease of the E commerce solutions. RJ is sharing right now. Super exciting. So yes, and let’s drop let’s drop our Jays you know what if rate on those posts where you are on Damon’s you have these are Jays LinkedIn profile is right in there, we strongly encourage you, we invite you to connect with RJ on LinkedIn, checkout, friends of commerce, he has all sorts of just a wealth of information here, RJ. Yeah, one

RJ Stephens  41:39

thing I’d add is we actually one thing we just launched is we did launch sort of a digital readiness, you know, sort of survey on our site a couple of weeks ago. So if you don’t know where you sort of sit, it’s I think it’s like 10 or 12 questions takes a couple of minutes. And it’s going to come back with a score. It’s going to say, here’s where you’re strong. Here’s where your risks are, here’s where your opportunity is. And it’s a good way just to sort of see because there’s, there’s a bunch of different facets of the of, you know, any commerce solution, whether it’s the ease of selling, whether its accuracy, whether it’s the ease of support, you know, whether it is your own internal efficiencies, but pretty simple. I think it’s a good first step for companies that want to think about it. So come to the site, it’s there, it’s free. It’s just a way to get some information. No, you know, no issues. I think we all you need is your email address, just so we can send it to you. Yep.

Curt Anderson  42:30

Perfect. Awesome, RJ. So ours as we wind down on this wonderful, amazing, beautiful summer day. Last question for you, my friend, as a CEO, co founder of friends of commerce, could you please share love this love? I can’t wait for your feedback. What is the best business advice that you have ever received? To help you be such a success with your company? What is the best business advice that you’ve ever received? Yeah,

RJ Stephens  42:57

I think it’s really, really appropriate for this for this topic. Right? I remember, back when I was working at Demandware, which is now Salesforce commerce cloud. And I had a vice president and his he was a hockey player. Right? And, and he was talking about, you know, his dad was pretty, you know, honored to be a hockey player, and he come back from hockey, practice, frustrated, whatever. And it’s dad would just say, just move your skates. Just move your skates, and just take action, right? Just if you keep moving, you’ll be surprised where you’re gonna be in the puck will be there sometimes. And you’ll be like, Oh my gosh, look where I’m at. Don’t stand still, you got to move your skates. So I think just, you know, getting moving. I think that’s really important. I think it’s very appropriate for this topic that we have is the dire cost of doing nothing, just start doing something and you’ll be surprised at how that starts to take on a positive life of its own and take you in directions and provide you know returns and all the things from that. So I guess that would be the thing that I think is is most relevant for today.

Curt Anderson  44:01

Right trapped on Mike they’re trapped a Java POC and move your skates man. How about that one? So, RJ? How about our friends out there? First off, huge, huge thank you to our friends out there. And for those of us join us how about I got a huge round of applause for RJ for just chopping tons of value and incredible information and just your passion, your energy your expertise. RJ we thank you we appreciate you we applaud you commend you on how you’re helping our manufacturers be more competitive in his E commerce space. It’s daunting overwhelming, we can just reach out to RJ he’s got your back. Damon your parting thoughts?

Damon Pistulka  44:39

What do you what do you know I just that you know, listening to you today just just reinforces my thoughts around you know, modularity, think of modularity, get to things you know, one step at a time, and keep going because you’re gonna as soon as you get to where you think the end is. You’re gonna need to start again because there’s a lot more opportunities once you figure out where you know, you’re there. So, yeah, good.

RJ Stephens  45:03

I, I just appreciate both of you, gentlemen, for inviting me on. I think you’ve got a great platform here. I think you’re doing great work. So it was certainly an honor for me to participate in and I think, you know, we all share that same value just helping, right. It’s like, I think any one of us your contact us, give you advice, help out in any way we can, you know, no strings attached. Just, you know, I hope that’s something that people take away from this is reach out, find somebody you can talk to, they’ll have a conversation with you. And that’s usually that one step will start a string of other steps. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  45:39

Amen, man, amen. What a way to wrap up. So hey, on this wonderful Monday, in middle of summer, we wish everybody just an incredible amazing week. And just you know, Damon, like we always like to say just go out and be someone’s inspiration. Just like our friend RJ was for us today. And just you’re gonna make the world a better place. So even once you close us out, and God bless everybody, we’re gonna be back here we have another we have a killer guest on. Yeah, we have a family. We have a we have a wife. We have a son and we’re gonna be talking about how to run a thriving family business. Can’t wait for Friday. So wishing everybody great week. Damian once you close this out. All

Damon Pistulka  46:16

right, everyone. Thanks for being here today. I want to say Oh, Lu MD Sadia, come rule. There’s so many people are in the comments today. Thanks for being here today. Thanks for listening. If you got into this late, always go back to the beginning. And listen, RJ dropped a ton of golden nuggets. We went through some of the web examples of what he’s been doing just a lot of good stuff in here today. Go back to the beginning, start started over, watch it all the way through connect with RJ on LinkedIn too. If you’re interested in talking about this, and go to his friends of commerce website and download or get the readiness, digital readiness, I’m getting tongue tied here. Do that. Because it’s well worth it. You’ll get some great information from that. We will be back again later this week. Doing it again. Thank you, everyone. RJ hang out we’ll finish up offline.