Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: Drew Oldgaier has been in the technology space since 1991. Marine Corps background, 30 years in the industry, and for the last 10 years running Stargate and a network infrastructure company that's built its entire growth model on one thing. Letting other people bring the deals to the door. And here's why I wanted to bring Drew on. Because what he's built isn't a referral strategy. It's a referral system. He's got an 80% close rate. He has more leads than his sales team can actually handle. And Fortune 1000 clients like ConAgra, Tyson, and the Mark Anthony Group aren't going to be coming through cold outreach and paid ads. They're coming through a structured indirect channel. Warm introductions from people who already have trust inside those accounts.
Now, if you're an MSP owner or a B2B tech leader, you already know partnerships and referrals sound great in theory. The problem is most founders either treat them as passive, waiting for the phone to ring, or they're paying to show up at events and walking away with nothing more than a stack of business cards.
What Drew's done differently is built the infrastructure behind the introductions. And that's the part that no one talks about.
In this episode, we get into exactly how the channel works, what it costs to get in, and how he qualifies partners so he's not just a quote shop, and why his biggest growth problem right now isn't leads is keeping up with them. So, as per usual, no fluff. Let's get into it.
So, Drew, it's great to have you here on the episode. Why don't you start off by small introduction? Why don't you tell us who you are and what is it that you actually do?
[00:01:59] Speaker A: Sure. My name is Drew Allgaier, based out of the greater Cincinnati area. As our headquarters, my company is a project management company that specializes in land infrastructure, local area network. In simple terms, putting technicians on site all across the nation, all across Canada to install network appliances, run cabling, et cetera. I personally have been in the telecommunications and technology space since 1991 after I got out of the Marine Corps. And in 1998, I transferred fully into the technology space to help enterprise clients deploy and support their technology infrastructure.
[00:02:42] Speaker B: Fantastic. Well, listen, we're going to dive a lot more into that and exactly what you do, but let's give us a 10,000 foot view. I mean, you, you've had 10 years of business. This month with a company, you deal with Fortune 1000 clients. You have an 80% close rate, which we're definitely going to be talking about a little bit later on. You have more leads than salespeople can actually handle. That's not a typical growth story that we hear on this channel. Give us like the 10,000 foot view as walk us through of how you actually got here, and then we can dive more, you know, a little bit more precise into it later on.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: Okay, quick background. And back in the early, I'd say late 90s, there's a gentleman named Jay Sherman. Henderson III was my biggest mentor. He was the CEO of Unidow Lightyear Communications.
He came up with a concept of, you know, if I want to penetrate all these businesses, I can go knock on doors, I can make phone calls. It's going to take me a lot of capital in sales people, et cetera. Or I could find somebody who knows that business and just have them walk me in the door as like a warm referral. Right. And so he formed what's called the authorized agent channel, which is basically an indirect sales sales channel, where your everyday person who might not have even had any experience in telecom, could sell the services and get paid commissions for the services that we sold at the time.
And it was a beautiful model and it grew exponentially. And that was kind of the start of me learning about what we refer to in the business as the indirect sales channel, which is basically developing a network of people who already have relationships and, or who are already selling other products and services into a given enterprise and then saying, hey, I know that you're selling them X, Y and Z. I want to sell them A, B and C. Can you make an introduction? And that's how the whole thing kind of. That was the genesis of how the whole indirect channel started. And today it's massive. You've got big master agents across the United States that are basically aggregators for technology consultants who want to go someplace and say, I need this or I need that. Who do you know? And they'll say, oh, call Drew at Starkin or call Bob over there.
There are companies that are specifically in the business for helping technology advisors find service providers and, or hardware manufacturers for whatever their end client needs.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: You know, I think there's, there's. I can already see people nodding to this, and those listening just go, oh, that's.
Majority of them will go, yeah, I know about that. You know, we're in tech. We, we, we've got partnerships going, but obviously there's very few people who do an 80% conversion rate, very few people who have more leads than their sales can handle.
What is it in your opinion, Drew? What's the core principle behind the indirect channel that you think most, most founders tend to miss when they're trying to build out these partnerships?
[00:05:44] Speaker A: Okay, so I'll give you an example. If you would have told me last year that I'd be sitting in front of ConAgra, Tyson croup materials, Cornerstone building, some of the largest or first service residential property, some of the largest global companies, you know, Fortune 1000, Fortune 500 if you would have told or the Marc Anthony Group, which is a brand new client, I would have said how? Not really. I wouldn't really say that because I know how because I get a phone call, I get an email from one of the people who've already been selling something, anything to that particular enterprise client for many, many years. And so I'll get a call from Luke. Hey Luke, what's going on? Hey Drew. Listen, Tyson Krup needs X, Y and Z. And you know, Ron's my best friend. I've known him for 15 years. I've been selling all kinds of stuff, managed services and WiFi and everything else. Internet connectivity or whatever. Can you get on a call next Wednesday because needs a big WI fi refresh project. Sure.
Boom. I'm in the door and Ron, the client is buying from me because of the association or the trust factor that he has in the partner that he's already buying technology services from. It's that it's really truly that simple.
[00:07:04] Speaker B: Well, this is the key thing, isn't it? Just because it's simple doesn't mean it's done well, you know, effectively. What you've just described in real layman's terms is a very strong referral system. You know, again, we all know referrals are great. We all know that tech companies specifically you are very good at building up their first year into referrals. Then referrals tend to dry out. You know, we all know of firms that have an over heavy reliance on referrals and they don't really have a good system behind it.
You've managed to make this into a system. You've managed to go, okay, it's not just wind. We're not going to be be passive about this and wait for the referrals. We're going to go out there and do that. So you work with master agents, what you call master agents, like Tellerists and Sander Partners. They send you warm introductions daily, that's the key word there, daily and not as and when.
How, how did you get into these networks? In the first place? And what does it cost for a founder who's listening to get started in something like that?
[00:08:04] Speaker A: So a founder could go to a Telaris, a Sandler Partners.
Intellisys is another example. They could go to them and say, hey, I'm a supplier.
This is my widget or this is my service. Right? It could be a service that doesn't necessarily have to be a widget, but, you know, a service, a software as a service or what have you, and say, this is what we do. I would like to be part of your ecosystem and become a supplier. And they're going to say, okay, great, fill this out, we'll get you signed up. And oh, by the way, you asked me the question, I'm going to give you the answer. And oh, by the way, it cost about $10,000 for you to be have a booth at our, at the very next conference. And next year after that, it's going to cost you $20,000. So you pay your dues to show up at the conference and sponsor the conference. You know what I'm talking about? You got all the booths with all the different suppliers and they make a little bit of money on that. But then they say, oh, no, by the way, you're going to pay us 3% off the top. Right? That's, that's going to be our permanent fee. Right? And we're just going to keep kicking deals to you. As long as you pay us our 3%, you pay the partner or you pay us and we'll pay the partner, but we're going to take 3% off of that. And you need to, you know, sponsor some of our events and stuff. That's, that's how you start to get into that. And I can, if anybody wants to call me or contact me after, I am happy to make introductions at the very top levels of those companies. For anyone who's interested in developing, developing an indirect channel. I, I'm going to pause for a minute, but there's something to add onto that with respect to the business process and the mechanism that, that you have to have set up behind that before you begin to delve into the indirect channel. So let me pause or I can continue if you like.
[00:09:50] Speaker B: Yeah, no, no, that. Thank you very much for the pause because this is the key thing, because there's what you said. Then I just want to break it down before you continue because I really want to. This is so interesting.
Everyone in tech already knows that events is one of the ways to build their business. It's one of the ways to create growth. So they are already already paying to be at these events. What makes this different, Drew, is that what you're doing now is paying to go to these events, sponsoring a booth, but in return you are now getting a constant flow of, of of leads. And I think this is what the biggest difference is. It's obviously knowing if you have got a budget. As I can only do X amount of events per year.
Look for something where you got master channel and master agents who can still pass you leads. Because a lot of these events you turn up to, you support them, you sponsor them, you paid your money and then you hope and pray that something comes back from it. Right?
[00:10:49] Speaker A: Yeah, but see, once you, once you're onboarded, you're on the list. So a technology advisor can go in and say, I'm looking for wireless access points, I'm looking for managed routers or whatever it is, or IT support, whatever.
Your name as a supplier will pop up and, or the sales engineers, people on the side of Telaris or Intelisys or Sandler, they'll say, oh, Bob, you need to call Jack over here, you know, at software advisors company he, they can do that or Spectra Tell or whatever. My point is is that going to the events is just the cost of doing business. You just, you have to show up. Right. It's not. You don't go there to hope that you get 10 new leads. You've already got plenty of leads. You go there to support the company that brought you there who wants to promote your name.
It's kind of an insult if you don't go. But I don't go shows to do, to do, to hope that somebody walks up to the booth and says, oh hey, I need this and that or whatever. It doesn't. No, I go there as a courtesy because that's the way the industry works, you know.
[00:12:04] Speaker B: And I think this is the key difference. Isn't it just there is that there is a psychological payoff that if we're going to write a check to sponsor a booth at an event, there's a psychological payoff that must mean, well, we're going to do whatever we can to try and get some leads. The difference in what you're saying is that you go up there as part and parcel of doing business and it's rude not to because the guys invited you and supporting you, but in return for that, they're actually going to pass you leads anyway and they're going to pass you leads every day.
[00:12:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
On any given show I retire, my retire My ROI and that event, travel plus lodging, plus meals and entertainment plus the booth costs. And I retire that after one or two deals. So it's not like, oh my God, I got to spend another $20,000. No, I could make that $20,000 in 30 days from now. You know what I mean? Yeah, makes sense.
[00:12:59] Speaker B: Well, this is the key thing, and I love controversy, and that's just one of the things why, you know, I wanted to talk to you about that today, but let's talk about another controversial thing about growth and where you're different. And, and so I believe I'm a great believer if one person can do it and one company can do it, there is a. There's actually.
It's absolutely possible for someone else to do it. They might have to be tweaked, but they can do it too. So we've talked about constant lead generation, constant lead flow. With you. The next thing we're going to talk about is close rate. Your close rate, you know, times we've been speaking before, better than 80%.
Most founders would absolutely kill for that kind of rate. You know, even half that. Get 40, 50% every single time.
You've been doing this a long time, Drew. What happens in sales conversations that actually makes the difference, would you say, you know, is it a warm intro, is it the pitch, or is it something completely different?
[00:13:54] Speaker A: So here's how it works every time. There's really hardly any exception. Drew, I want to set up a call next week with Bob so you can give your pitch about starkin. He has a project coming up and you can tell him that you can do it and what have you. Okay, great. We have the call. Hey, Bob, following up to our call. Yeah, we're going to work on, we're going to do a site survey. We're going to do this, this and this and or here's estimated pricing, et cetera. And then so the reason the close rate is so high is because right then the phone rings again and the partners call me saying, hey, just so you know, there's only one other competitor. We know who it is, and they're really unsatisfied with them. Or hey, just so you know, this is my brother in law's brother in law, right, And I hang out with him at picnics. Or hey, just so you know, you guys are about $20,000 below the closest competitor. Jack it up. 5,000, $10,000 and we'll still get the deal. Because they've already said, like Starkin and they really like Starkin's references So in the background, I have active business intelligence, intelligence occurring that guides me along that sales path. You know, it's. And that's again, once again, that's why you want to use or I'm not used, but network with and leverage and develop relationships with that indirect sales channel that already has those very embedded relationships. They want the deal. They know that if Drew closes the deal, they get paid. So they're all the more incentivized. Right. To give me scoop and intel or guidance to say, hey, this is what's going on.
Drop this down a little bit and we got the deal. You know, Cal Pesh said, drop this down by 5,000 bucks, and we've got it. And that's exactly how it works behind the scenes.
[00:15:39] Speaker B: It's the constant flow that I love about it. And every time I speak to you, Drew, it's just very invigorating. You know, as we spoke earlier, you said we could talk about business development all day long because it's just one of those passions about business growth. And that certainly comes out speaking to you, Drew, but there's other people that. That will look at it and go, yeah, Drew, you know, it's all well and good, you saying that, you know, I've got a network. It's not always. They don't always give me the right type of person. They don't always give me the right kind of deal. You know, there's always going to be half full and half empty. We know that. Right? There's always going to be that. But for those who are, let's call it half empty, you know, a little bit cautious about this, the glass half empty, it really works well, you know, when it's like peanut butter and jelly. When peanut butter and jelly comes together, both people need each other to make the whole sandwich. It works.
Share with us. How do you identify the right partner and make sure it's a generating real revenue rather than just good old boy handshakes?
[00:16:41] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So there's. There's a couple different things to consider here.
First of all, we qualify everything. You know, I always qualify everything. To really understand, are we just a quote shop? Are you just using us to get the third bid? You know what I mean? Because you're going to get the deal no matter what. You've already got two other providers lined up that compete against me, and you're just trying to see which one's going to pay you the most and, you know, so on and so forth. So I highly qualify everything before I really pursue it, because we have to invest a lot of time and resources in, like, engineering people that are specialists in different areas.
Secondly, what was I going to say?
That's part of the qualification process. The other thing is really doing a consultative sales process to the client, which is why I love to be on the phone with the clients, to really understand their needs and wants and everything. Because I've pretty much heard it all over the years, like, everything that could go wrong or everything that's gone right or whatever. And I can feel, really understand and identify and empathize with their pain points and then come back to them to answer those specific pain points. I don't think I answered your question fully. I think I answered part one.
But, yeah, no, it was, how do
[00:17:49] Speaker B: you identify the right partner? Which you've done. You've done the qualification. And it's really about making sure that partner is generating real revenue as opposed to saying, yeah, it's good to have. Right.
[00:17:59] Speaker A: Gary, I just remembered part two. Okay, so here's part two.
Expand your vision, right? Expand.
Now, let me give you an example.
We don't, how I say this, a lot of our business, I'd say 25% of our business comes from strategic partnerships. So let me give you an example. And I always say to my team, when I'm training up my team and everything, I said, understand where you exist in that continuum of technology services for any given client. Now, who's bumping up against you? Who can you talk to that might have other business? Let me give you a perfect example.
So a client says, hey, we're getting this DAC or DEC phone system put in, which is used a lot in the manufacturing space or the logistics and distribution space. They're a special type of handset and a special type of equipment and whatever. But the company that supplies it is VTEC. VTEC is the legacy equipment arm of AT&T. Okay. I've worked with them for many years. And so now follow me on this.
This is not a partner that I'm paying. This is. This is a strategic partner now that I'm talking about. So VTech calls me up. Oh, actually, I saw him in a trade show. And VTech says, hey, you guys put techs on site to install this hardware and hook everything up and make sure it works. I said, yep, that's what we do. And then we get on a phone call and they're. And. And they're like. And I, I said, you know, we have so many clients that have massive distribution centers, logistics centers, manufacturing plants, et cetera. Who would benefit by this. Now VTech is leaning up against the call going, oh, so in other words, I can refer my existing client, the IT director, the VP of it, the cio, the cto. And it's like I can say, hey, I was just on a phone call with another partner of ours. You need what they have. And now I've made a warm referral over to Vita or VTEC, right? Whereas VTech is now using me for all their installations, whether I've been involved with them or not. Does that make sense? In other words, I'm feeding them, they're feeding me, and everybody's just like, Bluebird Alley, let's go. Where's the next one? You know,
[00:20:19] Speaker B: you know, this is the key thing. It's just, it's constantly being active, and it does sound like hard work, you know, and then. And. And this is the key thing when it comes to business growth.
You've got it dialed in there, Drew.
And I love what you just said. Who else you're rubbing shoulders with? Not deliberately. Sometimes you just rub shoulders of people, but you're not letting that contact, and I mean physical contact as well, or hypothetical physical contact, go to waste. It's, hey, we've crossed paths. Let's have a conversation. And that's every single time. It's not as and when you need something, as and when the pipeline is dry, as and when you turn the faucet on. It's a constant part of the business growth. The business strategy.
[00:21:02] Speaker A: Right, exactly. Yeah, I know. We work. We do a lot of data center build outs. And of course, all the controversy these days is about the giant mega data centers and the power and the noise and all that other stuff. But I know a company that's launching a decentralized data center solution, and it's actually genius.
But you no longer have a big, giant Amazon Data center that's 500,000 square feet big. Now you have a data center that's the size of an ice machine at a hotel, and they're spread across 10,000 hotels in a small little corner that nobody's using. Right?
So it is beneficial in different ways. Here's the point. Is that in that. In that again, in the continuum, I said to them, well, you're going to have locations all across the US who's aggregating your wireless, I'm sorry, wan connectivity, your Internet, you know, who. How are you going to have one company be able to order circuits for all those different locations? Because you have to have a fiber connection into that tank where that server sits inside. Of dielectric fluid. How are you going to do that? And they're like, oh yeah, product development, right, Product development. One on one, you got to take it in the end. And they're like, hey, do you have any ideas? I'm like, yeah.
You know, these guys over here, they are an aggregator. They have all the relationships with every carrier and for any given location across the usa, they can get you a circuit and then I can go have my tech install it. Now we've just. I do so much product development for people, which by the way, is something I would like to circle back to with respect to developing the channel or strategic partnerships or the product in general. Cause I'm really big about business process and product development. Because you could just sell all day long, you can have referrals all day long, but if you can't deliver at a point, people aren't going to deal with you anymore. But my point is again, going back to the continuum, there's a piece that's needed to connect that tank to the wide area network, an ISP connection. And you need a tech on site to hook it all up and make it work. And you start putting all those pieces together, that's how you build a good product and that's how you start developing organic growth. Because now you've got a solid product to roll out and you have a pattern platform now you can replicate it. I don't want to say cookie cutter. Nothing's ever cookie cutter, but you know what I mean? You can replicate it and scale it. And that's the key how? Okay, great, we know it works. How are we going to sell more and how are we going to scale it when we do so we don't blow ourselves up?
[00:23:41] Speaker B: That's all, you know, and no, it's never all. Yeah, this is such a good point of scalability as well. There's growth and scalability, you know, they're two different things. I think more people that get to understand the difference that, you know, scaled growth for growth's sake can explode to the edges. Scalability is being able to step up and naturally grow with that. So let's stay on growth. You've been through, what is it now? 4, 5 M and A's, right?
Including Comcast acquisition.
In your opinion, what's the thing founders consistently get wrong when they're building a company they eventually want to sell or acquire? You know, we know it's scalability to a degree, but in your opinion, what have you seen? What are the mistakes that people tend to make when they have an intention of eventually selling or getting acquired.
[00:24:33] Speaker A: Yeah. So two things that come to mind immediately as a business development person at my core.
Number one is, number one, recognize the difference between organic growth from your existing client base, your existing book of business.
Number two, the difference between that and number two, the new sales, bringing in new logos, bringing in the next new client that you've never billed before. Right. So what I see a lot of people make a mistake is the burn and churn like they'll bring on a bunch of customers. They have crappy support, they have inadequate, you know, support in general account management, let's say. And so I always, you know, all, all the business owner groups that I attend, et cetera, we always say the same thing. Your sales guy is the point man out there. He should not be sitting at the desk. He should be. And that's a figure of speech. Did you get what I'm saying? He needs to be pounding the phones to bring in the next new deal, so to speak.
The account manager is always in the nest. She's the mother bird. She's guarding those eggs. She's guarding that nest. She's bringing worms back. She's feeding that existing client to help that client retain. You know, everybody knows this. It costs, the cost of acquisition is so much more than to retain your existing, retain and grow your existing client base. That's point number one on the organic growth point number another point on the organic client growth is what's called increasing consumption. There's a great author, Seth Godin, he wrote a book that I read back in 2020, 2002. It's called Purple Cow. Seth Godin, and he talked about this concept of consumption. How do you increase consumption? And as I studied it, it's like, let's say you go to the McDonald's. It's not about McDonald's selling you the drink and the fries along with your Big Mac. That's not increasing consumption. Increasing consumption is adding more product or adding a new twist or something else that they're already, they're buying something from you now. What else can you add to the mix to have them buy more of your services and products as your services and products develop. That's increasing consumption. That's again, that pertains to organic growth.
[00:26:53] Speaker B: Yeah, well, this is the key thing. The three, we've always talked about this before, you know, the three, the three ways to increase your revenue is to get them to buy more. Obviously, the more, the more new clients you get. You've got more clients, get them to buy more. Often and get them to pay more money for it. Whether you're packaging it or whether you're, as you say, consuming more of it, bundling it or whatever the case may be. If you can increase that ticket price more often at a more regular interview, then again, you've got those three ways of growing, growing the business. Which leads me to actually a really good question at this point. You're growing faster than your sales capacity can actually handle right now. You know, you're like a big balloon ready to pop, as it were, which is a great thing.
However, there is a problem, you know, because at some point you're gonna have to deal with it. What does that problem actually cost you as a business, you think? Not you personally as a business, but what do you think it costs business when it comes to not being able to fulfill or you can't get as many sales as you can. And how are you solving it?
How are you solving this growth issue?
[00:27:55] Speaker A: So that's a great question.
What happened to our company is that we grew, grew, grew and then we plateaued, right?
Because we, and this kind of goes to another point that I wanted to mention to you.
We plateaued. And that's the danger. Once you plateau, you don't reach that good to great, you know, rolling the, the Ferris wheel, rolling off its hinges and rolling down the road because you can never really reach after a certain level of revenue just because you don't have additional resources. Maybe you can't get angel investment or PE or, or whatever, you know, investment.
And so you're like, ah, we're just going to keep trudging along, trudging along, trudging along and then you plateau. So that's the big danger. And, and the, the way we're overcoming it is, is, well, the first and foremost is building the apparatus behind it. And this is kind of the other part I wanted to mention that's critical that I see. This is where I see a lot of failures in startups or fast growth companies is they got a great widget and it's really cool and they're able to sell it no problem. Maybe they already even have a network.
But guess what? Behind the scenes in the back office, they don't have sufficient account management, they don't have sufficient operational execution because they haven't staffed properly, they don't have the right headcount and skill set, et cetera.
Period. Right? So even if you have the best business process in the world, the best product and everything else, if you don't have, if you haven't Properly calculated or estimated, what is your expense going to be next year to add the next person and that you need to add them to now because they're going to need six months to ramp up, right? And they're going to do this in the, you know, in the. In the pod. They're going to be the account manager, they're going to be the. The.
The project coordinator or what have you. That's where I see most people fail that, if that makes sense.
[00:29:51] Speaker B: Yeah, it does. It does. Drew, the time. I can't believe where the time has gone today, Drew. You know, so we could. Guys, I said we could talk to them. Maybe you and I have to do a part two because there's so much more, you know, love change. It's so good. But listen, we've only got time for so much. So as a final question for you, Drew, for a tech founder or a tech leader, listening right now or been watching this particular road, who's been, you know, we've all done it. Knocking on doors, running cold outreach, trying to generate leads the hard way.
What's the first conversation in your opinion they should be having instead?
[00:30:29] Speaker A: You mean with a prospect?
[00:30:32] Speaker B: Just maybe, maybe with a team, maybe with themselves.
What is one thing they should be doing? We're coming into a new quarter. Think of it this way. We're coming into a new quarter. What should they be doing differently this quarter to start making things better for themselves?
[00:30:48] Speaker A: This might sound kind of corny, but my motto is seek to be of service, right? So seek to be of service. And if you get in your heart and in your mind and you're sitting there and you're doing kumbaya. Ah. And you say, I want to be of service, right? And you take the approach to your business of how can I help that end customer genuinely and not be the yucky Comcast or the yucky AT and T that everybody hates and hates to do business with. What would I do different with respect to my client? Communications, Right. Follow up and being personal, I can't stress that enough.
Again, back to the beginning of the phone call. My mentor, Sherman Nishin, was sit in his. His conference room, his private conference room all day long and write handwritten cards. Hey, happy birth. Everybody in the company got a birthday card. All of our clients, all of our agents, everybody. He would be picking up the phone all day long. Hey, just checking in. How's the weather in Colorado?
Developing those relationships on a personal level. And I know that for technology, in the technology industry, that's not, you know, it's I'm not saying everybody's a computer geek type person. That's not a motive. But the more that you can reach out and ping them and have a constant communication which goes back to account management, that's what your account manager should be doing every week. Hey, Bob, checking in. How's it going? Oh, did you see that snowstorm? Just any kind of communication, I would say communicate, communicate, communicate. Because let me tell you, my boss, Henry Hunt, who was a VP of Chichis, VP of Marketing for Chi Chi's, he said, drew, we need to start a campaign to start reaching out to our customers routinely. Some sort of drip campaign. I said, okay, Henry. And he goes, listen, I'm going to tell you something. He goes, if your customers aren't talking to you, they're leaving you. And that stuck with me forever. And it's true. Because if you're not having effective ongoing communications to know exactly where that customer stands, they're leaving you. They're looking around or they're shopping somebody else. That's all.
[00:32:46] Speaker B: Do you know what, Drew? I just think what a great place to end this interview on. Because what you've brought back in this day of modernization, of AI, of automation, what you've brought back is the old ways still work. You know, I love that old phrase, you know, if they're not talking to you, they're leaving you.
And we tend to forget about that and tend to automate it and then do the follow up afterwards once it's too late. And this preemptive of the old way of doing things, there's nothing wrong in it and I think we should all bring it back and I think it's an absolute fantastic way to finish this on Drew.
[00:33:19] Speaker A: On that note, real quick, cherry on top.
People don't remember what you said. They don't remember where they saw you last, but they remember how you made them them feel. And if you make them feel happy, if you make them feel like they're the center of your universe, they're going to tend to do business with you. So Gary, I really appreciate being on here today.
[00:33:40] Speaker B: Really do not at all. But Drew, it's been great to have you here. If people want to get hold of you, if they want to potentially work with you, they want to network you, what's the best way they can do that? Drew?
[00:33:50] Speaker A: They can just go to starkontech.com s t a r k k e n tech t e c h starkentech.com and hit the button for sales inquiry and that'll come Right to me and my entire team. And that's the quickest, easiest way versus trying to spell out my name, which is going to drive everybody nuts. Yeah,
[00:34:12] Speaker B: well, that's Brad. I'll make sure that those links, my team will put those links in the show notes so they can do it for you. So thank you once again, Drew, for sharing your time, your expertise and your insights. It's been great having you here today.
[00:34:23] Speaker A: Thank you, Gary. I hope you have a great rest of the week.
[00:34:26] Speaker B: Thank you. And thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for joining us for yet another episode of the Growth Focus podcast. And again, as per usual, if you've been here with us for the last two years or so now, you would know that obviously, if you've picked up anything from Drew, please make sure you like it, but please make sure you share it. Make that so that other people can say, do you know what? That's a really good idea. Perhaps I should be using that too. So, until next time, keep working hard, be smart, be profitable, but always have fun. Until the next time. We'll see you on the next episode. Bye bye.
[00:34:55] Speaker A: Bye bye, everyone.
[00:34:57] Speaker B: Drew left us with something that's been knocking around my head since we wrapped up the episode. His old boss told him, if your customers aren't talking to you, they're leaving you. Simple, a bit uncomfortable maybe, and almost certainly true for more businesses than want to admit it.
The whole conversation with Drew was really about one thing. Underneath all that channel strategy and all the close rates and the partner networks, it was about proximity, staying close to people who matter. Whether that's a master agent who passes you live intel mid deal, a strategic partner who refers business because you're constantly in each other's orbit, or an existing client who stays because someone on your team is actually checking in with them.
The businesses that grow consistently aren't the ones that generate the most leads.
They're the ones that don't lose what they already have. And that's exactly the type of thing that comes up in the revenue leak audit. Not the top of funnel stuff, but what's quietly leaking after the lead comes in.
Handoffs that don't happen, follow ups that fall through, clients who drift because no one's checking in on them.
Now, if any of that landed for you today, then the audit is a free 30 minute call. No pitch, just a straight look, straight diagnostic at where revenue is walking out of your door. As per usual, the links are in the show notes. And send this episode to someone who needs to hear it. Until next time, be profitable. We'll see you soon. Bye.
[00:36:27] Speaker A: Bye.
