Dave: Welcome to unsuitable on Rea Radio, the award-winning financial services and business advisory podcast that challenges your old school business practices and the traditional business suit culture. Our guests are industry professionals and experts who will challenge you to think beyond the suit and tie while offering you meaningful modern solutions to help you enhance your company’s growth. I’m your host Dave Cain.
How well do you know your customers, prospects or competitors? What if you took the time to listen to your customers and peers? You may just uncover new ideas you need to innovate your products or services, or realize that there’s an untapped market, hungry for your offering. Joining us today are Mark and Kyle Stemple, principals in Rea & Associates’ New Philadelphia office. Today they’ll talk about the research call, a disciplined and structured process that helps their clients learn about their ecosystems, grow their networks and sometimes even generate leads. Welcome back Mark and Kyle.
Kyle: Thanks Dave, it’s great to be back.
Mark: Thanks Dave.
Dave: Apparently you guys missed the memo to stop by make up before you started today.
Kyle: I didn’t have time, I was getting my hair done.
Dave: As you can see normally we have one guest and you can see this is I guess an indicator of the success of unsuitable on Rea Radio that we have two guests, our budget’s going up. Thanks for joining us today. I also want to recommend or talk to you guys a little bit, maybe a little commercial that your expertise in manufacturing in the Ohio area has made you guys both famous in the industry. I appreciate that, congratulations on your work in the manufacturing segment.
Kyle: Thanks Dave.
Dave: What we want to do is talk about this concept called research call. My understanding is this was brought to your group by a consultant in the industry, Gale Crosley. I think both of you guys met Gale several years ago. This is where the research call was born. Gale is a sales consultant in the industry. That’s where this came. You guys took it to a new level, you embraced it. Let’s talk about right out of the gate what is a research call, high level?
Mark: The one thing that Gale taught us is you really need to learn your ecosystem, is the term that she liked to use. I like of it as you want to be a student of your industry. You never stop learning, there’s so much that you can learn from your customers, from your suppliers, from your competitors and really get out there, ask questions, anything that you want to learn. Don’t think that you have to learn everything on your own and take advantage of those people in your industry.
Dave: As experts, specialists in the manufacturing industry, you guys have apparently used this with your manufacturing clients. Let’s walk through a mini interview if you will of some of the questions you would ask your manufacturing client.
Kyle: You know some of the stuff that we normally talk to our clients about and some of what they’re even looking for is, clients are always looking to develop new products and making sure that they’re adding value to their customer base. It’s the same thing that we want to know from our clients is, what is a service or what is something that we can provide to add additional value? Clients are always looking to do that and one of the things that this research call is we’ve been able to bring the clients is, “Reach out to your sales people, reach out to your customers, ask them what they like about your product. What would like to see improved?” Too many times people are sitting behind a desk or sitting at their location trying to figure out all these things without going to the people and the consumer that’s using their products who have the answers.
Dave: Let me understand, this process, this is not a sales call, it’s not a cold call. It’s truly a research call. You guys are out doing research in the marketplace. Like you said, you start out with what’s the objective of the call and it is to find out a specific topic about a product or a service. I also understand you would ask the prospect or your client what associations they belong to. Is that a pertinent question?
Mark: Absolutely, you want to find out where people in your industry, where they congregate, where are they hanging out, and what organizations are they active in? It may be a group that you should be active in. That’s really what you’re looking for here. Is there a certain conference, a certain association that’s really the known leader in your industry that can be a great resource for you?
Dave: Basically why you go to the associations is that tells you a little bit about the market, where they hang out, what organizations they belong to. A manufacturing conference would be one example.
Kyle: If you’re going to learn about the industry you’ve got to be where those people hang out. What you’ve got to know is what’s going on in that industry, as well as what’s new, what’s out there that’s new. We live in an ever changing world, look at the results of the election. Things are changing and you’ve got to change as a company.
Dave: Are you a green belt?
Kyle: Yes.
Dave: That would maybe be a topic that you could discuss with a manufacturing client about green belt, black belt, Lean Six Sigma, any of that. Would that be a topic that you would maybe attack?
Kyle: Sure. It’s definitely a great conversation started with clients, with prospects. Everything we do in our lives is all about process. Every client has processes so it’s good. Yes, it’s definitely beneficial.
Dave: I heard you guys present on this topic a number of times. One of the questions you also try to do, or try to find out, in this research call process is what publications does the individual read. Can you comment on that? Why in the world would you ask that question?
Mark: I guess a couple things with that Dave. Publications may be important just because again it may be another good resource of information for your industry. Another term that Gale liked to use when she talked to us about research calls was thought leaders. If you look at who is writing articles in these publications, often times it’s thought leaders in your industry. Those are also good people to do research calls on because they often have a lot of industry experience and a lot of business experience, again, somebody to draw upon their experiences. What may be coming down the pipe for the industry, what you should be looking at doing in the future, maybe give you a little heads up as far as what direction you should be going.
Dave: Publications that could also be a situation where you should advertise.
Mark: Another good point because people in your industry are likely reading that publication as well. It’s very easy to spend a lot of dollars on advertising. I talk to my business clients about this a lot, you look at expenses that they have in their financial statements and advertising is a place you can spend a lot of money in a hurry and not hit your target market. When you look at an industry specific publication, chances are the readers are people in your industry. You’re definitely hitting a better chance of hitting your target market.
Kyle: What’s been interesting is I have yet to be out talking with a client prospect in an industry that doesn’t have industry specific publications. They’re all over the place. They’re laying all over their vestibules and everything, they’re out there. It’s just a matter about asking the right questions.
Dave: Mark you had mentioned thought leaders, let’s go back to that area. Where do you find the thought leaders in manufacturing or construction or medical? Where do you try to find those thought leaders?
Mark: A couple different areas. One, you may look at somebody that’s been a business owner and been in management position in your industry for a long time. Typically if they’ve been in the industry a long time they’ve been successful, they have a lot of knowledge, a lot of information about the industry. Another area you may look at would be the associations we talked about a little bit ago. Typically the leaders, the presidents, the leadership team of those associations, they have a lot of contacts in the industry. They may be talking to, over the course of a month, 20, 30, 40, 50 different business owners, so they’re hearing what all the hot topics are, what direction the industry is going. That would be another good example of a thought leader.
Kyle: Dave I think it’s real important to note that if you are a young professional, a young business owner and looking to learn your industry, looking to learn your trade, it’s very important over the next seven to 10 years that you really get out and do this. Seven to 10 businesses are going to transact in the next 10 years and all the businesses are owned by baby boomers that are getting out of those businesses. Really the time is now, you really have to get out now because there’s so much knowledge that these people have that they can share with you to basically build on that knowledge and make sure that you can build on that knowledge and succeed into the future.
Dave: How do clients begin the research call? Obviously it’s a great concept, everybody loves to do the research but getting started I would imagine would be the hardest, finding people to talk to, getting your script together. Can you give some suggestions in that area?
Mark: One thing you mentioned earlier Dave is you said, “This is not a sales call.” I think that is very key, if you approach this as sales call, typically if somebody’s not looking to buy your product they’re not going to give you the time of day for that meeting, but if you approach it from a different aspect, that you explain to them what a research call is, “I’m just trying to learn a little bit more about our industry, what kind of direction our industry’s headed. I want to better service my customers.”
Depending on who you’re talking to, if you approach it that way and present it that way, as opposed to a sales call, you’re going to have a lot better opportunity to get that meeting first of all. You just talk to them about what your goals are. “Hey, I want to do a better job,” if it’s a customer or a potential customer, “Hey, I want to better service our industry. I want to look at what direction things are going. Maybe what products that you’re buying from a competitor that maybe we can help you with.” Again it depends on who you’re talking to but I think it’s important that you don’t sell it as a sales call, don’t present it as a sales call.
Dave: One of you guys mentioned, both of you actually, referred to the term ecosystem. Can you describe ecosystem? That’s a foreign term to a lot of our listeners but let’s see if we can identify what that means.
Mark: When I think of ecosystem I think it’s your environment that you live in with your business. It’s going to include again your competitors as a key part of that, your suppliers, your customers, your potential customers. Really anything that would impact the economics or the overall business environment of your system.
Dave: The ecosystem could be manufacturing, that’s an ecosystem all in itself. Manufacturing in Northern Ohio, Central Ohio, that could be another geographic ecosystem. Would that be proper term?
Kyle: Yeah, Dave you’re exactly right. There are so many, especially when you’re in the manufacturing industry, there are so many different types of manufacturing. There are plastics manufacturing association, metal manufacturing associations. As Mark talked about, digging into that ecosystems, that ecosystem can be different for every industry. You can get very specific in those ecosystems as well.
Dave: An interesting questions that you guys ask is, one of the research questions you ask is, “What issues are you faced with?” What issues are the business owners faced with. Can you guys begin to share some of the conclusions or what you’re hearing as some of the issues that business owners are facing?
Kyle: Dave let me give you a little example. I was sitting with one of my custom furniture manufacturers and we were talking about research calls because one of the things that they were trying to do is brainstorm new ideas for new models of what they were doing. What’s going on? What are people buying? They actually had a sales guys in the office and I said, “Bring him in here, let’s talk to him.”
One of the things that we sat down and I asked him, “Hey, these guys are looking to develop some new product, what are you seeing selling in the industry? What is it? Is it modern? Is it straight lines? Is it … What is selling?” Rather than like I said earlier, is that these people are trying to figure out what to develop and they’re just not going to the right … asking the right questions and getting to the right people to have the answers. They’re making it too hard on themselves that they have to come up with all the answers.
Dave: You not only look at product needs, what are you seeing, but there’s probably some economic issues that business owners are facing that as your client goes out and does a research call or you do a research call, that you’re going to uncover. Can you share some of the economic issues that business owners are sharing with you that you’re hearing?
Mark: Having just finished up with the election season, that was one thing that was very high on the list for business owners when they looked at concerns. People were very interested to see how the election was going to come out and what impact that would have on their business, definitely an economic impact of that. Other areas that may affect the economics would be the tax structure. That’s a common answer that we get when we talk to business owners about their economies, their economy in the business world. Health insurance is another area. Anything that may impact their future expenses and future budget is going to impact their ability to, whether it’s develop new product, hire new employees, it varies by business owner but those are just a few examples.
Dave: Healthcare is still one of the top things that you’re running into as an issue, recessionary issues, probably talent pool. You guys in the manufacturing segment, I would expect you’re hearing comments about the talent pool.
Mark: Yeah, the number one answer by far that I hear when we ask business owners, “What are your top two or three issues?” Is, “Finding and keeping good employees.” Hear that I would say eight out of every 10 business owners we talk to have the same answer. It is the talent pool, typically the good employees are taken and the ones that are out there looking for jobs are not quite as qualified, tend to maybe job hop a little bit more and like I said, it’s just a big issue these days.
Dave: What are some other questions that you would suggest that an individual would ask during one of these research calls?
Kyle: It’s going to definitely depend on the industry but in regards to the talent pool there’s definitely, “Where should we be finding them?” I’m spending a lot more time with clients progressively planning for the future in regards to we know, we have a good feeling where sales are going to go, but it’s more of a capacity analysis in regards to when are we going to need people. Rather than in rehiring much more proactively. I tell every single client, “If you find a good person hire them, the work will come.”
Dave: Mark you had an additional comment.
Mark: Yeah, I think another valuable question to ask somebody would be, “What do you value?” I had this conversation with one of my manufacturers about a year ago. They were bidding on a lot of jobs and not having a very successful or high win rate. I said, “One of the things you need to do is go out and find out what is important to them? Is price their number one factor they look at? Is it service? Is it quality?” You need to learn that, it’s going to help you better market your product, present your proposal and determine what to focus on.
Too many manufacturers or business owners in general, they want to be very secretive and I understand that. It’s a competitive industry, you don’t want to give away your secrets, you don’t want to put too much out there, but at the same time you want to be a student of your industry, you want to get out there and learn as much as you can. If these are your customers, or potential customers that are buying your product, they’re the best ones to talk to. What do you need to change? If I’m not winning what should I be doing differently? What are my competitors doing that I’m not that they’re winning these type of bids? I find too many times people are afraid to ask those questions. They want to stay in their own world and not ask questions. It never hurts to have a good honest discussion like that.
Kyle: If I had a dollar for every time Mark and I got a blank stare after we told a client to go back to their customer, prospect, after they lost, we wouldn’t be sitting in this room. It’s amazing, everybody gives you that blank stare because they’re afraid to find that out. That’s the only way you get better, is figuring out why are you winning or why are you losing.
Dave: As far as research call, let’s talk about a number of calls that have to be made or should be made before the research that you gather, that a trend is beginning develop. Is it two calls, is it 12, is it 24? I know you guys in the past have made a boatload of these calls but I think you have to have a volume of these calls. What do you recommend?
Kyle: Depending, I spend a lot of my time in the manufacturing industry, a lot of manufacturers, so when you start getting to half a dozen people telling you the same thing, that’s when it starts clicking. We’ve been very good in this firm about being progressive when we’re hearing those things, taking that information and doing something with it.
Dave: Our guests today are Mark and Kyle Stemple, principals in Rea & Associates’ New Philadelphia office with a heavy concentration and experience in manufacturing. I’m sure if our listeners visited our website at reacpa.com they may find a white paper or additional information on research calls. If not, they can contact us, contact our website and we can certainly get them some additional information because we have found that is a tremendous tool for growth. Guys before we wrap up we always like to ask a fun question to get a little more insight of our guests. Here’s your question for the day, Mark we’ll let you start, if you had your choice of three professions which ones would it be? CPA, professional athlete or a scientist who will invent the next best technology?
Mark: Very good question Dave. I never did care for science so that one is definitely out. I’m going to have to go with the professional athlete. I do love the CPA industry but always loved the sports world, love watching good competitive games. My choice is to be a professional athlete.
Dave: What sport?
Mark: Basketball.
Dave: Basketball? Kyle here’s your question, you have three choices. Number one is a CPA, number two is a country music star and three is an exotic dancer.
Kyle: Wow, that is a toss-up Dave.
Dave: I think in your area they call that stripper.
Kyle: Yeah. That’s a toss-up Dave. As good as my moves are, let’s see, I would love to be on stage with a guitar in my hand. I’d get to show those moves every night.
Dave: Those guns. Thanks again for joining us on unsuitable, Mark and Kyle. Thank you to our listeners for tuning in. We have a lot of great leadership and management resources for you at www.reacpa.com/podcast. If you have any questions email us at podcast@reacpa.com. We’d also love to hear what you think about unsuitable on Rea Radio, comment on this episode on SoundCloud or review the podcast on iTunes. Until next time I’m Dave Cain, encouraging you to loosen up your tie and think outside the box.