Great Ideas Roundtable Session

During NETWORK2023 in Orlando, Florida, ASA conducted its third annual Great Ideas Roundtable Session where members shared best practices, innovative thoughts, and just plain GREAT IDEAS on how businesses can do things better.

At this highly interactive session, attendees shared ideas on how to deal with four critical ideas facing them in 2024. More than 100 ideas were collected from the hundreds of attendees participating in the 90-minute session. Participants walked out with key takeaways that were new and could be immediately implemented when they returned to their offices.

Knowledge Transfer
Attendees discussed how companies are ensuring that the decades of knowledge and experiences are being transferred to the next generation of leaders, with the escalation of critical labor leaving the PHCP/PVF industry, and along with it, a brain drain of critical knowledge.
 

• Make sure that new leaders feel seen, heard, and appreciated — let the next generation have a voice.
• Have new employees work side by side with seasoned teams.
• Crosstrain new leaders on all aspects of the business and employ a robust on-boarding process.
• Ask retired/seasoned team members to come back and help train the next generation of company leaders.
• Work with seasoned team to give as much notice as possible — 2-year notice if possible, to give time for transition.
• Prior planning for retirement and succession — can’t begin too soon.

Sales Model
Attendees discussed how their companies are organizing their sales teams. During the pandemic, many were recommending a proactive inside-out approach to sales to reduce the need for outside salespeople on the street. Has this changed in a post-COVID environment?
 

• Directive selling: Establish clearly defined sales goals.
• Give higher commissions for growth targets.
• Monday.com is a CRM = 20 contractors with a 25% conversion rate.
• Partner with a local college to help develop a pure sales certification.
• Regional sales managers need to ride more with outside sales for pure listening sessions. Provide reporting and establish training based on feedback. 
• Are ride-alongs strategic or just a milk run? Be strategic.

AI/ChatGPT and Generative AI: What does it all mean exactly?
Attendees discussed what AI, ChatGPT and Generative AI really mean and how others are beginning to tap into it to support their key roles such as marketing and finance.
 

• Use ChatGPT for job descriptions and applications, presentations and summarizing “Teams” meetings and marketing/branding.
• Microsoft AI (Co-Pilot) gives the ability to answer phones with specific responses to order status.
• Call tracking software “Call Rail” gives the ability to track shipments.
• Use AI for job quoting, product data mining, pull-off schedules, pricing modules. The challenge is tracking jobs, wins/losses, formatting Excel spreadsheets.
• Younger generation of employees are beginning to dip their toes into AI on their own — tap into their expertise.

Commodity Trends and Devaluing Inventory
Attendees discussed what strategies their companies are using to manage inventories and the impact that factors, such as commodity trends and inflation, are having on their margins.
 

• Lower inventory to enable faster turns.
• Don’t focus all your attention on the “big guys,” get a little from a lot of smaller customers.
• Have multiple commodity lines to keep vendors competitive.
• Having local reps with inventory helps with commodities.
• Incentivize sales team to maintain margins.
• Limit time that orders are held for customers.

By Mike Adelizzi
CEO
madelizzi@asa.net