Looking Ahead: Staying Ahead of Business Trends

[00:00:19] Hello everybody coming to you from the United States again today. I am one of your hosts, Scott.

[00:00:25] And I'm Andy, the other host coming to you from my studio in the United Kingdom. I've just realized I've got all my CDs on display in the background.

[00:00:35] I keep forgetting we're all video as well. Well, I'm just hoping there's no embarrassing ones on the wall.

[00:00:44] Of all the things that I know of you, I don't think that's the most embarrassing thing, Andy.

[00:00:49] Andy Baqone Welcome to the Tea and Timbits Podcast, Global Perspectives on Business Development to Help You Prosper.

[00:00:57] Another episode in our series on strategic planning and how to think about business growth from that perspective.

[00:01:03] Today we are going to get into a conversation about sort of how to keep a finger on the pulse of the

[00:01:09] shifting trends in business in the market as you think about those plans and how to stay on top of

[00:01:17] where you need your business to go. We'll get into that in a minute. But Andy, what would you like to share with us today?

[00:01:24] Well, I had a story that may have tied into the topic of today, but I feel that that may actually impede on our topic.

[00:01:33] So I'm going to go to another one which is actually related to last week's conversation.

[00:01:38] Andy Baqone So we're going to go with that one. But essentially, one of the things that we mentioned in the conversation

[00:01:45] that we were having was the element of having, you know, if you are going to outsource that you still have some structure

[00:01:52] in-house to sort of manage that. And I had a really relevant experience with one of the companies that I was working with,

[00:02:00] because they were very much, you know, lean organization, I think is the term they wanted to use.

[00:02:07] So basically, they had in-house resources at the top, you know, focused on particular areas,

[00:02:14] but the rest of everything was outsourced to sort of experts and agencies and stuff.

[00:02:20] But one of the issues that they had is they decided to change their marketing agency that they were working with

[00:02:25] to generate more leads because they basically weren't weren't getting any leads and the sales team were,

[00:02:30] well, it was a couple of guys and they weren't going out and meeting customers and they weren't making

[00:02:33] phone calls. So, you know, it wasn't ideal.

[00:02:36] Andy Burtz Better to use the agency.

[00:02:38] Andy Burtz Yeah. So they got this agency, they trained them up, gave them the information to,

[00:02:43] you know, to get some leads and so on. And that was great. And then the marketing team and the sales guys

[00:02:49] sat back and they were like, oh, great, all the leads and stuff are going to come in and they'll be fine.

[00:02:53] Andy Burtz And they did. And this was the problem for them.

[00:02:56] Andy Burtz Oh, really?

[00:02:56] Andy Burtz Then they didn't know what to do.

[00:02:58] They had no process in place in order to pick them up. Once the leads came in, they didn't know

[00:03:03] what to do with it. So they weren't putting them in the CRM. They weren't following up with them.

[00:03:07] Andy Burtz Okay.

[00:03:07] Andy Burtz They weren't contacting them in a consistent way. They weren't actually going out and meeting them.

[00:03:10] Andy Burtz They weren't doing all of the other stuff. So it really highlighted all of the sort of the

[00:03:15] internal issues that they needed to put in place and that they should have already had it.

[00:03:19] Andy Burtz Sure.

[00:03:20] Andy Burtz But this is, this is really important,

[00:03:22] Andy Burtz If you are going to start working with an agency, if you are going to outsource something,

[00:03:26] Andy Burtz Especially in sales and marketing, which is, you know, the growth and, you know,

[00:03:30] Andy Burtz Foundation of your business, make sure you have a process in place to handle those leads

[00:03:34] and those opportunities when you actually get those leads coming in.

[00:03:39] Andy Burtz Well said. I, yeah, that's a very good point.

[00:03:43] Andy Burtz Yeah, that's, that's good sound advice.

[00:03:47] Andy Burtz I'm impressed that that was such a challenging problem. That's a good, good work on

[00:03:52] that. Andy Burtz Well, that's the thing. It's a, it's a, as people say, it's a positive

[00:03:57] problem to have, but at the time, it really wasn't positive because they were burning a lot of bridges

[00:04:01] in the way that they were handling a lot of these incoming opportunities.

[00:04:04] Andy Burtz Oh yeah. Well, yeah, you don't follow up and, and that's as, that's as bad as saying the

[00:04:10] wrong thing. And when you do follow up, thank you for sharing. So we're going to talk about sort of

[00:04:17] keeping a finger on the pulse of the market and shifting business trends. What do you want people

[00:04:23] to take away from this conversation?

[00:04:26] Andy Burtz Well, for me, it's just important that people actually realize that this is an important

[00:04:30] task and it should be part of your routine because not doing it. I mean, you'll end up somewhere like

[00:04:36] blockbuster video, you know, it's a, you miss that opportunity and you've just got a load of empty,

[00:04:42] empty warehouses and empty buildings all over the world. You go from being a world, a world domination

[00:04:49] to, to completely irrelevant in a very short period of time. And that is purely down to, you know,

[00:04:55] self-indulgent arrogance is that they believe they knew the market better than their customers,

[00:04:59] but the customers were moving on.

[00:05:02] Andy Burtz I wonder if they did think they knew the market or if they didn't,

[00:05:06] bother to look at it.

[00:05:08] Andy Burtz I just didn't care. Yeah, maybe.

[00:05:09] Andy Burtz Yeah.

[00:05:10] Andy Burtz Which is even worse, of course.

[00:05:11] Andy Burtz Or they just, or there's just some hubris that like, no, it's not going to shift

[00:05:14] that. Like they just, instead of evaluating the market, I'm sure there's business students out

[00:05:19] there who have already formalized this. You know, did they just sit back and kind of think,

[00:05:23] you know, we know what it's looked like before and, you know, we're pretty comfortable that we're,

[00:05:31] that we're no, that we know it's going to stay that way. As opposed to formally

[00:05:36] validating that assumption.

[00:05:38] Andy Burtz Yeah. Yeah, maybe.

[00:05:39] Andy Burtz That is an assumption. And maybe we're getting

[00:05:40] into the topic already.

[00:05:42] Andy Burtz Yeah, I think, I think maybe we are,

[00:05:44] but it's just such an easy one to reference that anyone in the world can recognize because,

[00:05:50] you know, people had blockbuster videos everywhere and then all of a sudden they were gone and

[00:05:54] they were replaced by streaming services and, you know,

[00:05:58] home delivery services like Amazon, even if people wanted the actual physical products.

[00:06:02] Andy Burtz And from, from where I sit, the big disruption

[00:06:06] right now is going to be AI. There's where I'm having all kinds of conversations at the moment

[00:06:12] at this conference that I'm, that I'm at. And there really is a split opinion on whether or not

[00:06:18] that's, um, the hype is, is over done that, you know, I don't think anybody disagrees that it's going

[00:06:26] to transform things and impact the way we all live and work. Um, what is, I think at, uh, in,

[00:06:34] in the debate is whether or not it's going to happen, um, and catch us off guard.

[00:06:41] Andy Burtz Yeah. Yeah.

[00:06:42] Andy Burtz And because it's come along very quickly and everybody's using it,

[00:06:46] Andy Burtz And everybody's embracing it, but it doesn't seem to be, um, um,

[00:06:54] truly disruptive. Um, it, it, it is helpful and it is adding efficiency and it is adding, um, uh,

[00:07:03] productivity. Um, but it's not, uh, so far I haven't heard of any stories of, of things fundamentally

[00:07:12] breaking down, uh, for a particular business or industry. I think that's coming. I, I think that

[00:07:18] that will happen very soon, but I talked to people who think that what I think is ridiculous.

[00:07:26] David Burtz Interesting. Interesting.

[00:07:27] Andy Burtz So, um, that's one example of what the, the horizon may have in store,

[00:07:33] but that's not what we're here to discuss. It is how do you keep a finger on that pulse? So what,

[00:07:39] what do you say about that, Andy? Andy Burtz Well, I think, you know, just having a simple

[00:07:46] daily routine of, uh, you know, sort of checking industry posts, um, looking at what's going on

[00:07:54] in your particular business, your particular industry, what's happening in, you know, in the

[00:07:58] wider, uh, beyond the industry specific research that you're doing, but, but also looking what's

[00:08:04] happening in the wider world. So for example, you may be working in logistics, you may be working

[00:08:09] in, you know, in it, you're going to have different levels of exposure to things like AI,

[00:08:16] like you were talking about, but also other trends and changes in the market. But those things are going

[00:08:21] to impact on consumer habits. They're going to impact on other things. So if you're in the logistics,

[00:08:26] that's going to impact on what you're doing because people may be buying more or less, people

[00:08:32] may have different demands and expectations. And the same with it, people will expect things to be

[00:08:37] more intuitive perhaps, but also maybe sometimes people will want to just have traditional workflows

[00:08:42] that they can manage themselves without AI. And having that understanding of where the market's going,

[00:08:48] what the, what the, you know, your customers and the wider market is looking at is very important.

[00:08:54] And I think just doing that on a, on a daily basis, just having a quick, you know, staying

[00:08:58] abreast of the news, keeping an eye on, on these things. There are of course tools where you can do much,

[00:09:03] much deeper research and things. And I think maybe, you know, once a quarter to go and do that.

[00:09:09] But if you've been doing these things on a daily basis and everybody in your team is doing it, you know,

[00:09:14] 10, 15 minutes a day, it doesn't take too much, but that's all that's needed. But just to keep

[00:09:18] abreast of things because you'll then be able to provide greater value to your customers who are

[00:09:23] not doing that task. Agreed. I think to add some more specificity to that, as I'm, as I was listening

[00:09:31] to you, you know, keeping an eye on the news. I mean, we're, we're not talking about the mainstream

[00:09:38] news. No, no, we're talking industry type, you know, stuff that's relevant for your industry.

[00:09:44] Right. And so in my case, I have a small handful of podcasts that I listen to on a regular basis that

[00:09:53] talk about technology, technology trends. And, and there are specific publications about technology,

[00:10:04] innovation, innovation, business that I also subscribe to for, for that specific reason.

[00:10:11] Yeah. So I'm not just, you know, I'm not just flipping to the technology article in the, in the

[00:10:16] economist. It is, you know, specific technology industry focused publications. And, and I'll say,

[00:10:26] you know what, it, they, they, they cost a premium. Um, they're, they're, we, you're looking for

[00:10:31] something that is well-informed, well-written, um, standup journalism. You're not looking for,

[00:10:39] um, the latest, you know, meme or, or, or social media thread here. Exactly. What Facebook's opinion

[00:10:47] is on things. Yeah. Yeah. Or what the trending topic on X is right, right now. Um, um, uh, and

[00:10:54] that's part of it though. I mean, you need to know what the cultural, um, uh, um, um, trends are.

[00:11:02] Yes. And I guess for some businesses, that's more important than for other businesses. Um, but, uh,

[00:11:09] but I think what, what we were thinking of by writing this topic down was, um, was the, was the sort of

[00:11:16] business climate itself. Um, and each business has to adapt to cultural trends, but we're talking

[00:11:22] about what it means to run, operate, um, um, facilitate, uh, a business. And, um, and part of

[00:11:31] that is, is, is go to market. But a lot of that is, uh, is operations, internal technology, um, um,

[00:11:37] you know, staffing expectations, resourcing, that kind of thing. Do you see value in, um, in sort of

[00:11:43] training as well, uh, for like teams and so on that, uh, that there are maybe com, you know,

[00:11:52] in-house conferences perhaps where you get speakers coming in and I'm just, I'm just trying to think,

[00:11:58] think, uh, about some, some additional ways that, uh, that you can get really, really good information

[00:12:04] to the whole team because there's going to be one or two people, but you can send out a newsletter.

[00:12:08] Uh, you know, maybe have a chat with you people. It doesn't necessarily have the same impact as, uh,

[00:12:13] maybe having a, you know, proper, what they call it, a town hall meeting where you get everybody

[00:12:18] together and, uh, present some stuff with some different speakers and things, um, in-house in

[00:12:23] the company and maybe doing that together with some other companies as well, turning it into a mini

[00:12:27] conference. Uh, I love that. Uh, and you also, um, sort of, sort of touched on, on that similarly,

[00:12:36] um, in your points earlier about just sort of, uh, in internal discussion or making some time

[00:12:43] on a quarterly basis to, to dig deeper. Um, I, I think, um, at the very least, you know,

[00:12:50] as you started to describe that this point about training, I don't know that it's training, but it

[00:12:56] is definitely collaboration, socialization, sharing of perspectives, ideas, and, and, and, um,

[00:13:04] insights and learning in internally. Um, and, and, and there are things that, um, you know,

[00:13:12] we practice on a, on a weekly basis that are very tactical and, and, and, you know, project and,

[00:13:18] and client related, but we'll tease out some of those trends or, you know, oh, you know what? I'm,

[00:13:24] I'm hearing that too. Huh? Okay. My client said that also, like just hearing each other kind of,

[00:13:28] um, exchange updates, um, is, is part of that, I think, but then also on a, on a less frequent basis,

[00:13:37] we'll, we'll carve out, you know, bigger chunks of time to do some reflection, to, to talk about and

[00:13:45] workshop, um, some of those scenarios in more depth, in more detail. Um, and even, um, um, on a, on a,

[00:13:54] on an annual basis, do some, do some, some, some risk assessment, um, and, and specifically ask the

[00:14:00] question, um, you know, what, what, what, what do we deserve to be paying attention to that, um,

[00:14:06] we, we haven't been, or, uh, or we need to pay more attention to.

[00:14:11] Because I'm involved in, uh, several different industries, as I know you are, you know, even though

[00:14:16] you, you work within one particular one, but you're serving many different.

[00:14:20] Yeah. Yeah. Do you, um, do you feel sometimes that you can be a little bit overwhelmed by the

[00:14:27] information that you're, that you're looking at? Because, uh, you know, there, there, there is a

[00:14:31] lot of information out there and if you know how to look at it, then you, you can end up with a lot

[00:14:36] of information and, you know, end up in that, what was the term I have heard it before? Um,

[00:14:42] analysis paralysis.

[00:14:43] Analysis paralysis. Yeah. Yeah. That's where you're going. Um, I, I, I do, I do think,

[00:14:50] and I actually think that that's one of the reasons why, um, some people are not paying a

[00:14:54] closer attention to it and shifting technologies right now is because they're like, oh my God,

[00:15:00] like, I don't even know what that means. I, I'm going to let somebody else figure that out.

[00:15:04] You know, I'll, I'll, I'll face it when, when it's right in front of me. Um, and, and I, I,

[00:15:11] I do think that that's, um, uh, a real valid, um, you know, uh, obstacle here. I think it's really

[00:15:19] important though, not to let that slow you down from listening, um, and paying attention because I

[00:15:25] think sometimes to, to filter that, you just have to keep listening. And if, and if, and if you keep

[00:15:32] hearing, cause you won't, you won't hear in my hypothesis here is that you won't hear everything

[00:15:38] constantly. You'll hear, if you keep listening, the message will shift and some things will, uh,

[00:15:49] hit the repeat track and some things will drop off. And then when you start to hear certain things

[00:15:55] consistently time and again, those are, that's what, you know, um, is, um, something that,

[00:16:01] that you do need to genuinely pay attention to. And I suppose though, the risk is, and I've seen this

[00:16:08] too, that you, that you wait too long, that you, that you, that you hear that message, but you keep

[00:16:14] waiting for that one to change. You're like, Ooh, I don't know what to do about that. I'll, maybe I'll

[00:16:21] go ask the question over here and maybe they'll tell me, Oh, they said the same thing. I'm going to go

[00:16:25] keep looking for somebody to give me the answer that I've, that I want to, that I want to hear.

[00:16:31] Exactly. Exactly. I mean, uh, advice for our listeners would be then, you know, start small,

[00:16:43] keep it simple, maybe. Yeah. Have some little chats with, with people in your industry and keep,

[00:16:51] keep your ears open to what's going on, subscribe to maybe one or two industry newsletters and

[00:16:57] follow one or two thought leaders in your industry on, you know, on social media,

[00:17:01] or something to see what they're saying. Um, what about Google alerts? Do you, do you think that

[00:17:06] that's something that people can use as well? Uh, I've never used them. Some people do.

[00:17:11] That's not really a trend thing. You can't really set up a Google alert to tell you about what you don't

[00:17:16] know. You can tell, you can set up Google alerts to monitor hits on your particular company brand or

[00:17:22] some other topic. Yeah. Yeah. Um, it would end up being quite a lot of work, I guess. Yeah. I think we

[00:17:29] skipped over a point though, that I want to come back to that you made, which was socializing this

[00:17:33] and talking about it with other groups and external partners and things like that. Um, you know,

[00:17:38] I'm, I'm at a conference trade show right now for that very reason. Um, and, uh, I, I, I think you,

[00:17:43] you just, it doesn't have to be a big expense, um, or travel involved necessarily. What's, what's

[00:17:49] around you, what meetups can you find? Um, what other colleagues, uh, can you, uh, can you chat with?

[00:17:56] Um, and absolutely there's, there's, there's, there's meetups, there's groups, there's masterminds

[00:18:03] that involve your competitors who don't need to be labeled that way. They could be your contemporaries.

[00:18:10] They can be your friends and allies as, as well. And, um, and I was just at an event similar to that,

[00:18:16] um, a month ago and, um, and, and we all sort of sheepishly were dancing around,

[00:18:23] you know, the same question and the same challenges until somebody said it out loud. And we all kind of

[00:18:28] went, oh yeah, me too. And then it was like, oh, oh, so then we could all kind of take a little bit of a,

[00:18:34] of a sigh of relief, not let off the gas, not any of us trying to stop solving that challenge,

[00:18:41] but just knowing that, oh, it's not just me. I'm not doing something, um, stupider than everybody else.

[00:18:47] Everybody else is facing the same issue and trying to solve it together. So.

[00:18:51] I think, you know, one, one of the ways without going to conferences and stuff to, to keep an eye on

[00:18:57] those sort of things as well, and interact with people in that, in that way is, uh, is, you know,

[00:19:01] joining industry specific LinkedIn groups or, you know, Reddit groups and things like that. You

[00:19:05] know, uh, there's, there's, there's ways of, of seeing it online, which will give you a hint.

[00:19:10] I mean, of course it's not always going to be good, but I like your idea of like fall,

[00:19:16] following other industry leaders, following industry, uh, influencers. I actually am not too,

[00:19:21] too hot on, on, um, LinkedIn groups, Reddit. Yeah. Maybe. Yeah.

[00:19:26] Anyway, fair enough. Very good. We covered a lot of ground there, Andy. Thank you.

[00:19:31] We did. We did. And this is just, uh, just one reminder before we close out though. This is not

[00:19:36] a one-time task. This is a sort of a daily task, but keep it short, keep it simple. Uh, and, uh,

[00:19:43] you'll find a way of, uh, adding value to your life and to your customers' lives as well by doing that.

[00:19:47] There you go. I love it. Thanks everybody for tuning in again. Uh, you can find all the back episodes,

[00:19:53] you can send us, uh, feedback, you can ask questions. Um, you can share with your friends if you go to

[00:19:58] T and Tim bits.com. See you next time, Andy. Thank you. Scott.