As a founder, most of the decisions you make from the moment you begin your business venture will affect your company’s future valuation. That’s why it’s beneficial to you and your team to begin planning your exit strategy from day one.
What are the steps you can take today to ensure that your business valuation explodes tomorrow?
Whether you have an exit plan in place or are thinking about constructing a strategy soon, business development analyst Simon Warman-Freed explains the importance of utilizing data to set your business up for success.
In this episode of Evolved Sales Live, host Jonathan Fischer sits down with Simon to discuss which techniques are most helpful in gaining the most from your future exit.
Don't forget to follow us on LinkedIn for more engaging sales insights and discussions! Happy watching!
Meet Simon:
Simon Warman-Freed has 40 years of experience in sales and marketing covering a range of industries including enterprise technology, IT, and service sectors across both Enterprise and SMB markets. He currently leads new business development at Network Sunday and also runs IBG International, a boutique sales and marketing consultancy that helps companies of various sizes focus on accelerating their growth using a data-driven approach.
Check out the transcription of this webinar episode below!
Jonathan Fischer 0:05
It's time for another evolve sales life. Welcome back. I'm Jonathan Fisher. Few trends in the venture space are getting as much buzz and attention today as artificial intelligence and data analytics and for good reason. According to Forbes magazine organizations are embracing these as key business drivers for intelligent decision making. And there's no no more important step you could take today to plan for the best possible exit. But a recent Forrester study found that 60 to 73% of all data is going unused for analytics to take away, most companies and founders are missing opportunities. According to today's guest, most data teams fall prey to shiny object syndrome working on the coolest tech welcome really missing essential business problems and opportunities. The solution, building a data strategy that actually works. Here to share with us exactly how to do that is Simon warm and fried. Simon brings a four decade career working with companies in a wide variety of industries, including enterprise technology, it service sector companies of all sizes, and a stint at Ernst and Young as a highly regarded business analyst. He is the founder and CEO of IBG International, a boutique sales and marketing consultancy built with a unique focus on helping business accelerate growth using a data driven approach. Simon, you sound like the man for the job today. Welcome to the show.
Simon Warman-Freed 1:21
Hi, thank you very much, Jonathan. Nice to meet you. And nice to meet everybody virtually.
Jonathan Fischer 1:26
Yeah, fantastic. So if you weren't for the sake of our guests, give us a little bit more on what you do every day there at IBC.
Simon Warman-Freed 1:34
Okay, so basically, I run a sales and marketing services business. And the aim always is to help companies accelerate growth, through sales and marketing. And using data at the forefront of being able to do that. Our goal is to help companies to identify how they can accelerate growth. So that is sort of the consulting services around strategy, looking at their current state versus where they want to get to, and they go to market planning. And then we actually help with the execution of that. So we are for some companies that outsource sales team, or part of their sales team. We do outsource marketing for a lot of companies and other services actually drive that growth and make it work inside the business. And the final bit is that we empower teams, we support teams, through training, and mentoring, and coaching. So and that's pretty much a range of things that we offer clients, and they pick whichever areas that they want. So they don't always go from cradle to grave, you know, they can they can select what's relevant to them at that time.
Jonathan Fischer 2:42
Sure. Makes sense. Sounds like rewarding work. So our topic today is steps we can take right now to plan for a better exit. And our focus is going to be on how we can do some data analysis in our companies that can provide for that better liquidity event or or however we plan to exit. Maybe we can start by defining terms, we're talking about business analytics, it is kind of a buzzword, as I mentioned in the intro, how would you best to find that what is it?
Simon Warman-Freed 3:10
Effectively, it's being able to take data from your different operational areas, and you can do it on a single operational area. But ultimately across the business is the golden objective in the longer term. And you're what you're doing is you are analyzing that data to come out with things that are going to tell you what's going on in your business, which you may not actually know. And it points to a lot of a lot of things that can add really quick wins and value to you. So for example, as we're talking sales, within your existing customer, or client portfolio, you'll be able to identify through analytics, which companies you can cross sell and upsell to, and what products and services to what companies that's based around the way in which you analyze your existing customers, and what good customers look like, and what they look like you then replicate that with your other customers, who at the moment aren't buying those products and services. And you'll be able, you're able to say right, okay, we've got a plan there to be able to account manage these people and grow the business in these levels. So that's one way you can also identify through the behavior and the analytics, who's going to leave you the churn of your customers. And therefore you might want to put a retention strategy in there to stop them. Or you might think actually, we're not making any money out of them quite happy to let them go. But in either way, you can make an informed decision. And you can therefore make an impact in terms of saving money from or rather not losing revenues. We you don't want to lose revenues. Okay? Excuse me. So you We also look at discounting. So a lot of salespeople try and do deals on the basis of giving companies discounts. And you can identify whether you're over discounting and who you're over discounting to, through this process. So there are lots of different applications. And these are just some of the ways that can make a big difference to increasing your revenue base, and also increasing margins as well, at the same time, and in a relatively short timeframe.
Jonathan Fischer 5:28
So it sounds like we have to pull in data from some disparate sources. And when you typically hear data analytics, I'm thinking the IT guys, I mean, it's the first thing that pops into my mind, who is best suited to do this analysis? Is this, like all hands? Or how do you propose companies go about this.
Simon Warman-Freed 5:45
So there are, there are two ways that you can do this. So one way is you can employ business analysts, and have one or two those people actually doing the analysis for you. Or like us, we provide a managed service. So we provide do all the work we put we give to our clients, the outcomes of what the data is telling them, we sit with them every month, we go through what the data is telling them, and then we help them to put an implementation plan to to improve or, or make changes, depending on what the what the data is telling them to do. So you've got two options. And for a lot of companies, the managed service option is the best one for a number of reasons. So one of the reasons is, actually, when you take on analysts, they're very expensive. And typically, they're always looking for more money, so they don't stay in companies for a long time. So your investment timeframe, by the time you've got them up to speed, by the time they're actually doing something decent, they'll probably leave. And then you've got to, you know, replace them. Also, it puts a lot of strain on the business to identify what needs to be done. So if you let the business go away, and do things, they won't necessarily do things, what's what's best for the business, they do things, what they enjoy or think might be interesting to go and analyze, as opposed to having a strategy about actually, okay, why where do we need to focus? What's going to make the biggest difference to our business? Let's go and analyze that, and then see the impact of that. So yeah, and that's,
Jonathan Fischer 7:30
yeah, it might be helpful on See, here's some examples where the analysts are just getting kind of pulled off to a sidebar, it's not a core essential opportunity for growth for the business. What are some of these were some of the shiny objects pull these guys to the side?
Simon Warman-Freed 7:46
So yeah, they basically, they come up with ideas, in their minds around, let's say, doing something in HR, that is just trying to think of something that we, that we came across. Now, you know, they were looking at people and the time they spend doing certain tasks and whatever. Now, in the, in the main scheme of things, a business was very efficient, it was very, doing very well, very profitable. And therefore, best use to time wasn't around looking at how people spent their day. It was, you know, could have been directed more to what type? Who should our target market be? Who should we be focusing on on there? Or, you know, how can we grow existing customers? Or how can we improve our customer service or whatever it might be, there's going to make a bigger impact to the top bottom line, as opposed to something that wasn't a problem at the time, you can always make, they thought it'd be
Jonathan Fischer 8:51
interesting, get a few percentage points on something and make you look good as an analyst that may not have an actual business process improvement that translates to better value, or better revenues, that kind of what you're saying.
Simon Warman-Freed 9:02
Yeah, and the other problem is that a lot of people don't really understand data, and don't really understand the value of data. So on the basis of that, it's, you know, they are unconsciously incompetent as leaders of somebody looking after data. So it's very difficult for them to sort of go and actually tell the business analyst what to do, because they don't really know themselves. So they rely on the business analysts to come up with the ideas and the thoughts, but their business analyst isn't a leader of business. So they come up with a say with things that they think might be quite interesting, which has absolutely zero value to the business or limited value to the business, necessarily zero.
Jonathan Fischer 9:44
Sure. Yeah, I mean, VC, analysts coming in or not looking at the same things your internal analyst is going to look at that it's going to be a revenue based look that they're giving it is what I'm hearing from you. So I'm interested in this account based angle that you You started us off with is that one of the missed opportunities? Would you say? Where company founders are not using data effectively? You know what, like how they get in there wrong, I would think that wanting to have, you know, a lot of good key accounts and keeping them happy would be pretty front and center. So how are they missing that? What can they do about it?
Simon Warman-Freed 10:18
So they're missing it on the basis that they don't realize what data they have available, and how to utilize that data to get that information back out. So it's most of the time, you're looking at it at the top level. So people look at, okay, revenues, profit, got a certain amount of money from these accounts, and they're either happy or they're not happy. And they're not seeing the underlying opportunities or risks within that. And, you know, that is because they because for most of the SME businesses, they're not used to data. The big corporate market, particularly in the b2c world, they live their whole life by running their businesses around data. You know, if you look at, in the UK, we have a big company called Tesco. They're a retailer, they built a loyalty program based on all the data that they were collecting from the shopping baskets of their customers, they were able to identify things like, okay, Jonathan, you drink, Heineken beer, you people like you like eating peanuts, so we're going to send you an offer around peanuts, and beer and so on, and so forth. And they built a loyalty program around that. And it took them to number one, as a result, because they knew their customers. And they, and they knew what works for people like yourself, you know, it's not always going to work 100%. But if it works, 90 or 80%, you've got a significant growth in you. Yes, so, but for the small businesses, small to midsize businesses, they have a lot of data, but they never had never worked with the data. You know, they just use financial systems, they use as a sales system CRM system. And that's how they measure successful or non success. But the devil is in the detail. And knowing if you can get to that level of detail, then you can actually identify any risks very early on and mitigate those risks, but also identify those opportunities. And by the way, because it's your own data, most of it is your own data. So it's not a lot of external, it actually gives you a competitive advantage. Because you are, you're the only ones who have that data. Sure. And, and it gives you advantages at two levels, number one at the sales level, because you know, your data is telling you what you can do with what customers as a result of this. But also, you can actually gain the data itself could be highly valuable if you get the right data. And if you've got the right data. So for example, we're working with recruitment business. Yeah. Now, recruitment is a two way process, you've got people who want the talent, and you've got the people who've got the talent who want jobs. And actually, within that, you've got a lot of rich data, because you, you can understand what the market is looking for. And be able to understand what the industry by sector by whatever is looking for, from a skills perspective, you know, and so on, and so forth. And that is a great, great value to a lot of companies. You've also got the people skills, element of it, and you're able to identify what skills are available and what skills could be available, been cetera. And, and that is worth a lot out in the marketplace, because you could resell that data to other businesses, or you could just use it for demonstrating that you are market leaders in this and presenting it in a way to businesses to say, look, you know, we know what we're doing. This is what this is what's going on in the market, it's standing out blardy blardy, blar. So, you know, it's thought leaders or whatever, but you know, there's so much you can get from stuff that you've already got most of your, you know, it's not like, you know that people are collecting this data all the time. And it's amazing. For example, when we start with businesses, we start with there, because most people say, Oh, well our data's not good. And, you know, we haven't got much data and all that they have a sales ledger, and they have a purchase ledger. And those have to be accurate, because if they're not, you've got a major problem in essence, and within within those in the sales ledger, you have so much information you have information on who were the customer who the customer is, where they're based, what they bought, what price and discount they bought from and sometimes we've more information and just that it starts to be able to show trends within the business based on your existing customer base as to who's doing what where the up seem bizarre whether it's
Jonathan Fischer 15:01
well in my head is immediately circling back to how we started the conversation if I want to look for a suitor what a great approach, right? If I have this data that validates that there's JV type of relationship already feasible, there's a business case for that, that definitely could open up that further conversation, it would seem to me Have you seen that actually take place in m&a space folks really leveraging? Did you have examples case studies have popped to mind?
Simon Warman-Freed 15:25
Yeah, so we've just been working with a with a business and we worked, we put this system in place. And the beauty about having a system like this or platform like this, is that the people who are looking to buy invest in the business are able to actually be very firm in terms of what the numbers are saying, because it's the data within the business that saying it so they can actually, they're not looking at high risk, stuff that they put together, they're actually looking at, you know, really solid numbers. So that means that for the people who are selling, it gives them a higher multiple on two levels. One, because they've actually got this nailed in terms of using technology and, and data to drive the business. And that gives you normally a bigger multiplier. But the other is the validation of the numbers within the business. So that it gives it a certainty and security, which they wouldn't otherwise necessarily have. So it means that typically people get a much bigger so on this particular occasion, instead of being a one, a one on one on turnover, it ended up being a seven on one turnover for the business, which gave them a very big, you know, obviously a much bigger return on that makes a
Jonathan Fischer 16:50
lot of sense. And you have you have the heart information instead of trying to generalize and yeah, it sounds feasible based on industry data, that's not nearly as powerful as the real analysis of that actual entity, it makes a lot of sense. Let's take a brief pause, reminder audience, we have some big questions started to come in on the chat line. Thank you for that audience. Let's keep them coming. When we get to the half hour, we will go into a q&a session for 10 to 15 minutes there. So this is your opportunity and some of the great things about coming and seeing us live to interact with the expert. So keep them coming, we're saving those and we'll definitely get into those after the half hour. So Simon, we've mentioned a couple of ways were doing effective business and analysts analysis. And it helps you in the m&a space, if you're looking for a suitor is looking to JV up, maybe you're maybe you're looking to purchase a company, maybe you know if they'll let you bring your analysts in. You mentioned earlier that this is a process that most don't do well. You offer this as a service. So you must have a pretty good process in place, I would imagine and I've come across, you have an 11 point analysis that you'll do at least a high level to build a good effective data strategy. And I guess I'm assuming, and you can correct me that this is a methodology you could use internally, or it's definitely something you might want to do even before hiring a managed services firms that would you agree with that it'd be good. It's a prior step.
Simon Warman-Freed 18:10
By yourself, yeah, if you know what you're doing, it's a great step. I mean, there are a number of things that you need to think about. And one of them is what data you can get when so a lot of people collect data, but they don't really know why they're collecting it, for example, on websites, you know, say right, you get your download this and you put your email in there, and whatever, depending on the value of the piece that you're getting someone to download, people might actually be willing to put a little bit more detailed data in there, that could be highly relevant. And it could be you know, their mobile number, so that you've got a communication on that. Or it could be something around their business that you know, you particularly want to find out. But whatever it is, you know, it's very, very important. When you when you start thinking about your business, and you start thinking about growth, actually, what you can do for yourself in order to help that process. And that's have a data collection strategy, product data collection, certainly, which is all around what data can you collect, when that's going to add value and help you and help your customers as well. So it's not just about you in a one way scenario, it's got to be a two way to nine, so it's gonna be a value to your customers. But ultimately, that brings in that level of detail so that you get to be able to know your prospect know your customer, and be able to then engage with them on the basis of what they need that engagement to look like because that's how they want it to be. So
Jonathan Fischer 19:47
it sounds like there's gonna be some work for multiple team members to do that. They may or may not see a direct correlation to their own career goals, at least in the short term. Is it a challenge sometimes to sell this internally? have you trained to, to really dive deep?
Simon Warman-Freed 20:04
It is. And one of the reasons why is is because people don't understand it. And they, therefore they don't understand the value of what the data can tell you, when you've been in data for years, you know, as part of what I've done, data's been quite often at the heart. You know, it's second nature. So it for me, it's like a no brainer. And really, you know, driving your business by knowledge, and insight has to be the best way of doing it, don't get me wrong, a lot of people are very successful, and they don't do it at all. And, and you know, and you can't get away from that fact, but to be to be solid as a business to be able to know because this isn't just a one off process, you just keep evolving. Yeah. And, and so it's an ongoing, ongoing process. But the value is so high, you know, it takes a bit of effort initially to get people's heads around it. But once they start driving their business like this, and some of it is real time data as well. So, for example, in call centers, we use this approach, and where there are problems in call center that we can flag it straight off with a red, and that call center problem. And the customer, the end customer can be dealt with satisfactorily very quickly at that point, as opposed to looking at a report three weeks later, and say, Oh, my goodness, what happened there? You know, so, so there's a lot of value, you know, depending on on what business you're in, and so on, in actually having this mix of analytics for the sort of the monthly things that you drive monthly, and some of those things that you need to know, straight away? Is there a problem? Or, or, you know, what's the next best offer we could give someone? If, you know, we, if they don't want that particular offer? We have a next best? And you can have that? Sure, surely.
Jonathan Fischer 22:05
So some of the key KPIs that you focus on, when you're looking at your client companies would be what, give us just a few that, you know, translate to better valuation. Again, the theme today is getting to a better exit, can you give us sort of a list?
Simon Warman-Freed 22:23
Yeah, so I mean, obviously, you know, profit. So profit after tax is a really important measure. Also, revenue is also a key, a key measure for that. Usually, it's around longevity of customers. So if you've got people signed up, and you've got contracts, and, and, you know, they look and they look like they're going to be retained, and again, the data will tell you that, then that's really important. So, you know, making sure that you've got some form of longevity of contracts in play. Also, you know, your IP is important, but that's not data related, per se. But it is. But you know, when you're thinking about your, your valuation, it can't, it's not all about data, you have other things in there that are important, like your IP as well, that you need to think about. And you need to think, you know, very, very seriously, when you're when you're looking to exit a business, about your team, the quality of your team, that is really important. You've got a management team in there. So that it's not just about an individual or two individuals, because for a lot of people who buy in, that's a bit high risk, particularly if they're investing in it, as opposed to sort of buying the company where they've got an extra challenge
Jonathan Fischer 23:55
for a founding team, when they're, in many cases, they are the they are the geek that created the unique solution to get away from that owner dependency can be a challenge. Let me take a challenge. Let me challenge you just a little bit on something. So you mentioned profit being an important measure. Yeah, this image has been this trend in recent years of not even worrying about profit, just trying to build a huge customer base, and basically almost purely on revenues. And some of these companies are getting huge molds are selling for huge multiples. They're not even profitable. Is that is that a trend is continuing as am I am I a year later on that what what is the what's the current scene? Any person in this field right, because this is a analysis but I read all the all of the publications, what are you seeing on this front today?
Simon Warman-Freed 24:44
It depends on the sector. It depends on the industry. So some industries, some sectors, for example, you know, people who are involved with blockchain and things like that, you know, they're getting ridiculous valuations against Being unprofitable. I mean, if you've, if you think initially when the internet came in and you had companies who, who got ridiculous valuations weren't making any money whatsoever, just sucking in money, but you had paper millionaires or multimillionaires, but at the end of the day, most of them collapsed, because there is no sustainable business behind it. So it's depending on the sector you're in, if it's a sexy sector, if it's got all the hype, then absolutely, you know, because you're just going to get investment flowing through the door, and people are going to buy it, because they you know, for a ridiculous amount, just because the markets, right? Yeah. And they don't understand what they're investing even. Yeah, but for the majority of it, sure. Yeah, absolutely. Well, you know, one of the things I learned when I was at Ernst and Young, I worked with the corporate finance teams, okay. And they, they were looking at companies to exit versus float. And basically, what most people advice to most people would be, do a trade sale. Right? Why do a trade sell rather than, than float the business? The main reason is that people who invest on stocks and shares don't understand your business whatsoever. So all they all they care about, is turning a profit and making you know, money on their shares, ultimately, by selling them or by just, you know, the, you know, the the yearly monies that they earn. As a result, if you're profitable. When you do a trade sale, you have a situation where somebody sees your business in a different way. They understand your business, and they might buy your business for a completely different reasons. So for example, us to UK, your US guy, you might come to my business in the UK and get you know what, you know, you've got a customer base there, it could take me 10 million to go and build that. So I'll sell by your company for 8 million, even if it's not worth 8 million, just because it will still save you 2 million on doing it. And you've got a ready made business there. That's got the client base. Yeah. So people value the people who buy and trade stuff, understand the business, and they value things differently. So sometimes you can get an even higher amount because they base something in your business, which you didn't think was necessarily particularly valuable. But to them, it really is. And therefore they're prepared to pay a higher figure for it. So you know, around the exit, unless you're floating because you want to go global, and you want to be part of that whole process. And so it's April, really, trade zone is your is your best bet to exit.
Jonathan Fischer 27:48
It's been a very fast paced and very fascinating conversation already, Simon in the next minute half or so could you share with our audience how they could go a little deeper with you and maybe learn more about how they can do business analysis today to provide a better exit tomorrow.
Simon Warman-Freed 28:05
Yes, so please feel free to email me at Simon.warman-freed@ibg-world.com That's best or you can contact me on my UK mobile number, which is 0044 double 78523230
Jonathan Fischer 28:35
Excellent. In a friendly reminder that our show is sponsored by overpass.com. Overpass is the world's leading solution for hiring high quality salespeople fast with 1000s of highly qualified ready to work professionals waiting to meet you. Overpass allows you to hire a whole team in just days instead of weeks. create your free account and see just how easy it is for yourself@overpass.com. Did you enjoy the content here on evolve sales live, check out our podcast the Evolve sales leader for an entire library of relevant and actionable insights. Find the vault sales leader wherever you'd like to get podcasts or wherever you were. Let's move into our q&a session now. So we got a good list of interesting questions from our audience. And Andrew here is asking a question. I kind of alluded to it earlier. But maybe you can go a little deeper on this. Will buyers acquire a company without revenue? If it has a huge user base? Does that still have value that's still worth chasing? Or using as a business model?
Simon Warman-Freed 29:35
Or? Model? Yeah, absolutely. Because the user base as long as they feel that the user base can be monetized. That's the key ultimately. So it's all about monetization. So you may not have the money, the money now but as quite often, a lot of companies struggle with that. I remember in the early days, I think Facebook struggled with that for a long period of time. You know, how do you monetize Something that you are giving away for free. And so, you know, building that base, as long as there is a route map to monetize at some point that either you as a business know, or the people that are coming in have thought about it and able to do that, then yes. The only other thing is you might say, if you're in a hype industry, then that probably doesn't probably doesn't matter. As long as you've got a big user base, I go and buy it, because I think, you know, there's a great opportunity there anyway. Yeah, yeah, I hope that answered the call
Jonathan Fischer 30:33
is asking about the technology you would use for the data management. Is there a specific database database management system that you like? Or? I mean, could a company conceivably send over the data to a team who builds an Excel dashboard? I mean, how sophisticated does this need to be? And what are some of the tech tech stack recommendations that you make on this front?
Simon Warman-Freed 30:58
So we use Microsoft typically. So we use as your for the security elements of, of the thing. And then and then we have, we have our own database, so that we can take the data from our customers, and we can then analyze that and we build reports for them that they then get access to, and we sit with them each month and do that. It's a managed for service for that a lot of technology that's available is very expensive. So and but then you also need the analysts to be able to, and there's
Jonathan Fischer 31:37
a lot of people out there and people I'm sure, and MySQL, all those people. So it's good to have somebody who has a specific competencies. Yes, I would gather.
Simon Warman-Freed 31:50
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So SQL for databases, we know, quite, quite popular.
Jonathan Fischer 31:56
Have a comment here from Josh, who says data is the new oil? I think he might be onto something there.
Simon Warman-Freed 32:10
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, no, definitely. No, it is. And, you know, people, people don't realize they probably got that, you know, you could have a business and part of your value. So I did some work with a company called bounty in the UK. And bounty primarily were a distribution company. So what they did was they worked with big companies to be able to distribute their products when a woman gave birth, the sort of day after the woman had given birth in the hospital. Okay. And part of that process as a limited area was that they collected the data, so the name of the mom, the name of the child, the date and the birth, and the date of the mother, okay. And they used to do a bit of work with these companies, like Johnson and Johnson, people like that, to, to actually do a bit of work on their behalf in terms of marketing to them. And when I got involved with them, I was looking at their valuation was that 15 million pounds or something like that. And we looked at changing that to not just babies back to young families. And that opened up a whole data marketplace for them. Because all of a sudden, you got you talking about mothers, as a mother, as a as a woman, as opposed to just a mother, you're looking at all the children, different ages and different products that are relevant to them father's as a man as well as a father. And so. So the value of the business changed dramatically, because the value of the data took precedence over the valuation of the business overall, even though it was primarily a distribution company helping those companies distribute their products at birth to
Jonathan Fischer 33:57
interesting case in point really is, especially with all the logistics issues. Yeah. But here, even still, the data was more what I've read a value in the marketplace. question here about from Jay Michael, asking, how would the company's people add value? In terms of this whole question of evaluation? What are some recommendations and what how does it work? Right? You've got the team, you've got, like, how does maybe this analysis impact your human capital element?
Simon Warman-Freed 34:30
So data, the thing about data is gives you questions or it gives you pointers. The human element is actually the implementation of doing things that are going to make the difference to improve your business. So the data will only give you information, but in itself, it's a waste of time if you don't actually act on it. So the team, the leadership team, the people within the business, need to act on it in order and make those decisions and fall Have them through in the business to make sure that it has the relevant impact and, you know, delivers what you hope that the analysis would
Jonathan Fischer 35:08
good stuff would help you to question from gap here. So what? Like, what are like the best next steps? Like? Here's what I'm hearing from the question. You kind of got, I'm thinking in terms of three elements here, right? You kind of have the whole data strategy piece, you've got kind of getting your people on board to implement what's needed. And then there's the tech tech solution piece, at least, is that kind of those three components? How do you start? I mean, if you're a founder and you, you got your own data, guys, you we started the whole thing by saying they're probably doing it wrong. So what, what do you recommend to founders listening to this today?
Simon Warman-Freed 35:50
So I think I think I would initially pick one area. So pick sales, pick marketing pick, supply, in as suppliers, which is, which is the biggest area either have opportunity, or have something that you feel isn't doing well in your business, and then focus in on what data you currently have. So for example, if, as I say, if it was sales, or if it was your supply chain, then you've got the sales ledger, you've got the purchase ledger, and you can run it, get analysis run on that. And that will give you a lot of insight relatively quickly, to start with. And then and then that will give you a quick start to getting some value back in terms of what sorts of things you need to do in order to grow your sales, reduce your churn, target more effectively, those sorts of sort of things. But then you then you need to think about okay, well, what else do I want to know? And then And what then what data? Do I have available already? that I need? That that will enable us to be able to find that information now? Yeah. So And usually, once once you start that process, it becomes quite an intuitive process, because people who are running it now start to see what the art of the possible is. And then they're asking, well, actually, okay, now I know this. Now, what if? Or what about that, you know, I'd like to like to see if we could actually do this or do that. And, you know, more often than not, that's the data can tell you that. It's just the way in which you enter in analyze it. And
Jonathan Fischer 37:31
that makes sense. That makes sense. That's, that's another technical question. coming in.
This is basically the recommend on site or off site solutions. Yeah. When you're doing the, the initial site or cool site for Dr. And what do you recommend on like, you know, like, the data site site that set up and ready to go? Or should it be, you know, outsource pretty What do you recommend there?
Simon Warman-Freed 38:04
Absolutely. Yeah, so I recommend outsource because the business if, unless you're used to doing it already, which you know, is a different kettle of fish, but for most businesses, they're not. So you could invest a lot of money trying to do it yourself, and actually not succeed, and just to spend a lot of money. So using a third party accelerates how quickly you get value out of it, and also ensures that you're getting the right things answered, and actually working with them then to what you want on, you know, on a regular basis in terms of output. And the output would change from day one today, day 100. Because in 100 days, you will, you'll know certain things, and you'll want to know new things, and you know, so so you can do that. And you don't have to make the whole investment in the process of having business analysts and lots of technologies, a technology stack and all this sort of stuff. You don't need all of that you've got it there for you. And it's all managed for you. But more importantly, you're dealing with people who know what they're doing. And therefore, it takes all the pain away. And it allows you to focus on running your business and implementing the outcomes of what it says rather than trying to worry about how do you get to the point where the you know
Jonathan Fischer 39:25
what, well, you're good man, you worked for years with managed IT services. So you still see value in that. Obviously, how important is like your overall disaster recovery plan is a logical question with that as well. Like, is that something that maybe, you know, is it maybe not looked at as close as it should be and how closely do you know, potential, you know, venture capitalists or other buyers? Look at that.
Simon Warman-Freed 39:57
To be honest, most people these days disaster Recovery is really important, you know, what's going on with hacking and god knows what else, you know, it is a big, big challenge. The difficulty is, for a lot of businesses, and there is a lot of risk, just in the fact that, you know, people work from home now, people are moving PCs and stuff even more than they ever did before. Everywhere you go, there's a potential risk of security risk, cyber is this risk is at risk. So having a program in place that, you know, mitigates that is, if you can do it really, really important. And we have something called GDPR not so if you have it in, in the US, but it's all about data protection. So if a business so for example, if you've got customer data in there, and people's personal data, or, or business data, whatever, you could be fined significantly, if that data was breached. And, you know, went outside of your own domain, so to speak. So, you know, the just the data itself can be, can cause companies a lot of problems if they're holding data that belongs on people and companies and stuff. So
Jonathan Fischer 41:26
I think we have the GDPR here in the US. I think what we have is the California Consumer Privacy Act, who is going to be the nearest thing? And yeah, so I mean, the EU is is maybe a little ahead of us on certain respects on some of these issues. That would seem
Simon Warman-Freed 41:45
well, you know, you could say ahead, I would say it's to some extent, I would say that, in Europe, they're trying to make it harder for you to do business. You know, it's a bit like the, you shouldn't cold email people in, you know, and but they do put a rider in there at the moment that basically says, Unless you've got something that is of real value to that person, right. But but the but the principle is that like, for example, in Australia, so in Australia, you are not allowed to to contact anybody who hasn't already given you prior acceptance that you can communicate with them. How do you do that? For new business? You don't know these people? They don't know you? So how do you get their approval? Well, you can't get them.
Jonathan Fischer 42:42
You're gonna have to try something else, I guess. Yeah. Maybe it might be less on. Unfortunately,
Simon Warman-Freed 42:49
yeah. What ends up being because the way because people say they have that opted, but why did they do that through partnerships, but actually, the person who if I opt in to you, you say, I've got loads of partnerships. I mean, you know, I don't necessarily mean except the fact that, you know, all your partners should have access to being able to market to me. But, you know, they they use that as a as a way of saying, well, we've got implied permission, but it's not actually the case. It should be a one on one if they really want to implement it properly. It should be company has
Jonathan Fischer 43:29
come to read. Well, Simon too many times. It's been a very interesting and wide ranging conversation today. Thanks so much for coming and be with us here on the show. Hey, thanks so much for coming in.
Simon Warman-Freed 43:40
Pleasure. Thank you for having me and
Jonathan Fischer 43:44
for the whole team to come back and Overpass and evolve sales. Thanks for being here. Everyone, go and make it a great rest of your weekend weekend.
Simon Warman-Freed 43:55
And thank you very much for listening, everybody. Thank you. Cheers.
