1263: A 3-Step Framework to Nail Your Pricing & Maximize Profits w/ Stephen King

WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:08.589 Welcome back to be tob growth. I'm Logan lyles with sweet fish media. 2 00:00:08.910 --> 00:00:13.109 Today I'm joined by Stephen King. He's the president and CEO over at growth 3 00:00:13.189 --> 00:00:15.750 force. Steven, how's it going today, sir? Great, Logan, 4 00:00:16.109 --> 00:00:19.670 awesome. We are going to be talking about a specific story one of your 5 00:00:19.710 --> 00:00:24.539 clients really turn things around by what you call solving the pricing problem, and 6 00:00:24.820 --> 00:00:28.859 we're going to be talking about not only that story but three key steps that 7 00:00:29.059 --> 00:00:33.420 businesses can do to learn from that growth story. Before we get into that 8 00:00:33.500 --> 00:00:36.890 story, though, Steven, give us a little bit of context background on 9 00:00:37.009 --> 00:00:39.810 yourself and what you in the growth force team are up to these days. 10 00:00:40.009 --> 00:00:45.850 So growth forces an outsource bookkeeping, accounting and controller service for companies that use 11 00:00:45.890 --> 00:00:49.649 quick books, zero or next week, and what we do is different about 12 00:00:49.649 --> 00:00:54.520 us as we focus on manage reporting and helping clients make data driven decisions that 13 00:00:54.679 --> 00:00:59.159 increase profits. So it's a team of a bookkeeper, of staff accountant in 14 00:00:59.240 --> 00:01:02.880 a controller to get the whole department or a let cart, pick and choose 15 00:01:02.880 --> 00:01:06.230 whatever you want to have us do project basis or monthly. I love it. 16 00:01:06.349 --> 00:01:08.989 Right now that's got to be in demand and a lot of people asking 17 00:01:10.069 --> 00:01:12.549 you for for your help and your guidance. So I appreciate you being a 18 00:01:12.670 --> 00:01:17.590 guest on the show today and sharing a little bit of your wisdom and knowledge 19 00:01:17.629 --> 00:01:22.420 for folks that are trying to remain profitable, contain costs and with everything that's 20 00:01:22.459 --> 00:01:25.420 going on. So give us a little bit of an overview of this one 21 00:01:25.540 --> 00:01:29.980 client that kind of turn things around by solving the pricing problem before we get 22 00:01:30.060 --> 00:01:34.530 into the three step framework. Sure. So it's a technology company in Queens 23 00:01:34.609 --> 00:01:38.689 New York. They had great success. They snagged a really big account, 24 00:01:38.890 --> 00:01:44.290 you know at a fortune one hundred client. That was, you know, 25 00:01:44.489 --> 00:01:49.680 headlined on their website, forty percent of their revenue and they struggled with cashflow 26 00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:53.920 problems. They couldn't figure out, no matter what they did, how to 27 00:01:53.560 --> 00:01:57.840 be able to sleep at night have the peace of mind that their business was 28 00:01:59.040 --> 00:02:02.629 doing well. And they came to us in sperity as a client of ours 29 00:02:02.670 --> 00:02:07.030 and is and we're a strategic alliant partner, and they're using in spurity for 30 00:02:07.109 --> 00:02:09.469 HR and Growth Force for and they wanted out stores not only the HR but 31 00:02:09.509 --> 00:02:14.189 also the accounting. So we met with them in immediately said okay, so 32 00:02:14.750 --> 00:02:19.500 what's the profit on your largest account and she said, well, I can 33 00:02:19.539 --> 00:02:22.939 tell you. It's, you know where, a six million dollar business and 34 00:02:23.060 --> 00:02:25.659 it's just under two million of revenue rights. Now that's not answer the question. 35 00:02:25.780 --> 00:02:30.330 The question is what's the profit? And so they didn't know because payroll 36 00:02:30.490 --> 00:02:35.650 was washed one line item on the PNL right parall expenses and then pay all 37 00:02:35.689 --> 00:02:39.610 taxes and maybe officers salary was separated. But once we able to show them 38 00:02:39.729 --> 00:02:44.210 the profitability, turned out it wasn't their best client, it was their worst 39 00:02:44.250 --> 00:02:46.960 client. It was the one that was causing their cash flow problems. So 40 00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:51.319 we got them, after six months of Nashing of teeth, to go to 41 00:02:51.400 --> 00:02:53.919 the client and show them the out of scope work that they were doing and 42 00:02:54.439 --> 00:02:59.990 the value that they were delivering. And they gave the client and three choices. 43 00:03:00.669 --> 00:03:05.069 Either increase the fees for the work that your value you're getting, reduced 44 00:03:05.150 --> 00:03:08.349 the scope to cover what we agreed upon, or I got a transition you 45 00:03:08.430 --> 00:03:12.710 to another client. And the fear of losing that clients what took so long. 46 00:03:13.139 --> 00:03:16.139 They were worried about the cash flow problems of losing that giant girl a 47 00:03:16.219 --> 00:03:20.219 client and we were able to show them that. That's why they had cash. 48 00:03:21.300 --> 00:03:23.860 Yeah, after changing it, they ended up changing that account. They 49 00:03:23.860 --> 00:03:29.729 said yes because they were able to demonstrate the real value proposition and then they 50 00:03:29.770 --> 00:03:32.810 went back and repriced all their smaller clients based on the information. They made 51 00:03:32.849 --> 00:03:39.530 a million five last year in the first year after implementing the system and they 52 00:03:39.689 --> 00:03:46.280 grew top line because they were able to build for value, not what the 53 00:03:46.360 --> 00:03:49.919 pulls from their butt. Man, there were so much goodness in that story. 54 00:03:50.039 --> 00:03:53.240 There, you know, weeping and Nashing of teeth, having to have 55 00:03:53.280 --> 00:03:57.669 a very difficult conversation with what you think is your cash cow client, turns 56 00:03:57.710 --> 00:04:00.830 out it isn't. But it goes back to what you were talking about helping 57 00:04:00.909 --> 00:04:04.750 organizations make data driven decisions. And for some more context, you and I 58 00:04:04.789 --> 00:04:08.189 were talking a little bit offline. You mentioned that you guys work with a 59 00:04:08.229 --> 00:04:11.340 lot of marketing firms, a lot of marketing agencies, and I think for 60 00:04:11.500 --> 00:04:14.659 anyone in that world listening to this, I know we have marketers who are 61 00:04:14.740 --> 00:04:17.379 both on the brand side and from the agency side of things right now that 62 00:04:17.459 --> 00:04:20.459 are regular listeners to the show. I think both will get some value out 63 00:04:20.459 --> 00:04:24.850 of this, but especially for agency folks. So at a high level there's 64 00:04:24.889 --> 00:04:28.610 three steps to this framework, to the system that you called that you guys 65 00:04:28.689 --> 00:04:32.209 implemented to help this customer of yours turn it around. A lot centered on 66 00:04:32.290 --> 00:04:38.290 their big customer. It's all about calculating gross profit, job costing and then 67 00:04:38.370 --> 00:04:41.680 looking at the P andl by job. Let's break down number one. Let's 68 00:04:41.680 --> 00:04:45.000 get into the Nitty Gritty, Stephen. Let's talk about calculating gross profit. 69 00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:48.160 Yeah, so gross profit is the most important data point on a financial statement. 70 00:04:48.480 --> 00:04:54.389 It's why the shark teeth sharks always say how much did it cost? 71 00:04:54.550 --> 00:04:59.069 Fully landed in their mind they're looking at a gross profit percentage. How much 72 00:04:59.069 --> 00:05:01.069 do you make on each widget, each unit, each whatever it is that 73 00:05:01.149 --> 00:05:05.310 you do? We do service businesses and nonprofits, and the nonprofits that need 74 00:05:05.350 --> 00:05:08.899 to be run the same as a for profit, except reinvest the profits. 75 00:05:09.420 --> 00:05:12.899 You've got a separate out your labor cost of the people who are above the 76 00:05:12.939 --> 00:05:15.740 line from below the line. What does that mean? Above the line? 77 00:05:16.100 --> 00:05:21.569 The typical income statement is your income. Mine is your expenses equals profit. 78 00:05:23.129 --> 00:05:27.050 That's not actionable. That's designed to so your CPA can do the tax return 79 00:05:27.449 --> 00:05:30.649 and the bank is happy. And what we're what management accounting is about is 80 00:05:30.769 --> 00:05:33.850 taking your payroll, instead of having it a one line down at the piece 81 00:05:34.170 --> 00:05:39.120 and moving above the line the people who directly we're what you build the customer 82 00:05:39.199 --> 00:05:44.199 for, the direct Labor is what the customer directly paid for, and the 83 00:05:44.319 --> 00:05:47.439 direct materials, the stuff you had to buy to get the income. That's 84 00:05:47.439 --> 00:05:50.350 all in cost a good soul. So you got to move that above the 85 00:05:50.430 --> 00:05:55.029 line. Cost so you can see incomes. Cost a good soul gives you 86 00:05:55.189 --> 00:05:59.230 gross profit and you look at your gross profit as a dollars and a percent. 87 00:05:59.550 --> 00:06:00.910 For me, I'm really interested in the percent because it tells you how 88 00:06:00.910 --> 00:06:04.860 good is the business model. Everything else is below the line. It's overhead. 89 00:06:05.060 --> 00:06:11.660 It's not generating you any income, and so your gross profit tells you 90 00:06:12.420 --> 00:06:15.100 where you get the return on investment. It tells you are you pricing your 91 00:06:15.139 --> 00:06:20.329 jobs right and which clients need to be repriced. I love it. We 92 00:06:20.410 --> 00:06:26.370 actually just had a conversation with Tim Rester, author of the expansion sale, 93 00:06:26.410 --> 00:06:30.689 and he was talking about four must win moments conversations with current customers and one 94 00:06:30.730 --> 00:06:34.720 of those was about price increases. Will definitely link to that. So if 95 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:40.079 you're going through the steps here that Stephen is talking about, especially if you're 96 00:06:40.120 --> 00:06:43.439 an agency and you're having one of those conversations like we just mentioned in his 97 00:06:43.519 --> 00:06:46.430 story. Check out that episode. Will help you have those conversations. You 98 00:06:46.550 --> 00:06:50.069 make a really great point, Steven. Even us here at Sweet Fish we've 99 00:06:50.110 --> 00:06:54.910 gone through some of those changes, moving things above the line. You know, 100 00:06:55.069 --> 00:06:58.589 three months ago that was not in my vocabulary. I'm a sales guy, 101 00:06:58.990 --> 00:07:01.379 not finance, not operations. But thanks to the wisdom of our COE 102 00:07:01.819 --> 00:07:05.220 and a lot of things he's been doing, what you're saying here has been 103 00:07:05.339 --> 00:07:09.100 taking place a lot behind the scenes here at sweet fish. So I can 104 00:07:09.139 --> 00:07:13.139 attest to already you know what you're saying. If people aren't already convinced by 105 00:07:13.139 --> 00:07:15.610 the the drastic improvement you hope with one of your clients. So step number 106 00:07:15.610 --> 00:07:19.290 one is calculating gross profit, both in dollars and, more importantly, in 107 00:07:19.449 --> 00:07:24.529 percent step number two is getting into job costing. Tell us a little bit 108 00:07:24.569 --> 00:07:28.769 about where you see, especially some agencies, Stephen, where they're missing the 109 00:07:28.810 --> 00:07:31.199 mark here or where they see challenges or where they see, hey, we 110 00:07:31.279 --> 00:07:34.000 can't do this or we don't have the time or whatever, and how they 111 00:07:34.360 --> 00:07:39.399 overcome those. Yeah, I think my last company was virtual growth and we 112 00:07:39.439 --> 00:07:43.279 raise forty three million. It became the very first outsourced accounting on the web 113 00:07:43.600 --> 00:07:47.550 and I built the business on a creative agencies in silicon alley, New York 114 00:07:47.589 --> 00:07:51.829 City's Soho district. All these were all these artists suddenly became web developers and 115 00:07:51.870 --> 00:07:57.069 had business, and the ones that succeeded versus the ones that failed, understood 116 00:07:57.110 --> 00:08:01.100 that a creative practice still needs to be run like a business, and that 117 00:08:01.180 --> 00:08:03.980 would that means, as you've got to have data to understand the big decisions. 118 00:08:05.139 --> 00:08:09.779 Pricing number one, hiring and firing clients and S and staff are number 119 00:08:09.860 --> 00:08:13.490 two. Where do you invest your sales and marketing is number three, and 120 00:08:13.569 --> 00:08:16.050 then how do you increase the productivity of your people? All those decisions depend 121 00:08:16.089 --> 00:08:20.250 on having gross profit at the unit level and the way you do that is 122 00:08:20.370 --> 00:08:24.569 through activity based costing. Now the good news is this is really easy and 123 00:08:24.810 --> 00:08:30.040 today's world, because everything's on on Iphone, there's an application called t sheets, 124 00:08:30.399 --> 00:08:33.240 which is magic. It's designed for people who hate time sheets and I 125 00:08:33.360 --> 00:08:37.600 think they're think they're their catch phrase. It's so easy to be able to 126 00:08:37.720 --> 00:08:43.070 just click three buttons and sit the start button and stop button and change through 127 00:08:43.149 --> 00:08:46.549 the day or just if you when we get back to work. It actually 128 00:08:46.590 --> 00:08:48.990 has geo fencing. You can just show up on sited. A lot of 129 00:08:48.029 --> 00:08:52.070 American say you want to start your clock now and it all sinks with quick 130 00:08:52.149 --> 00:08:56.340 books and into it. Payroll for the desktop has an integration with the payroll 131 00:08:58.100 --> 00:09:03.059 and the time sheets and quick books. Inspirity for quick books desktop and quick 132 00:09:03.100 --> 00:09:07.700 books online has the same integration between the payroll and the time sheets and quick 133 00:09:07.700 --> 00:09:13.370 books. And what that means is you can take somebody's payroll labor costs right 134 00:09:13.450 --> 00:09:18.809 off the invoice and say here's your total per cost per person, divided by 135 00:09:18.850 --> 00:09:22.570 the number of hours they worked, and then it comes up with a cost 136 00:09:22.649 --> 00:09:26.080 per hour paid and allocates it based on whatever they filled out on their phone. 137 00:09:26.440 --> 00:09:30.120 We have a clank called chief outsiders. They're an outstore CMOS across the 138 00:09:30.159 --> 00:09:33.320 country, sixty two CMOS. We do everything for them, the billing, 139 00:09:33.360 --> 00:09:37.679 the collections, the bill payment, the financial reporting, everything. We produce 140 00:09:37.799 --> 00:09:41.309 a dashboard that can show art sex be the CEO, the profitability of each 141 00:09:41.350 --> 00:09:48.350 CMO, the profitability of Austin or Euston, profitability of Dallas, profitability the 142 00:09:48.389 --> 00:09:52.350 central region, profitability the country, and once you have profitably at the customer 143 00:09:52.389 --> 00:09:54.899 level, you can slice and dice its based to whatever decision you want to 144 00:09:54.940 --> 00:09:58.580 make. He just asked I'm trying to figure out where to invest my my 145 00:09:58.779 --> 00:10:01.940 sponsorship dollars. Can you tell me how much revenue I got from the investments 146 00:10:01.980 --> 00:10:05.860 we made in sponsorship last year? We said yes, but you're asking the 147 00:10:05.940 --> 00:10:09.570 wrong question. What questions should you been asking? How much profit did you 148 00:10:09.690 --> 00:10:13.490 make on your sponsorship dollars? He's like, I almost didn't do this because 149 00:10:15.250 --> 00:10:16.850 the timing wasn't right, it didn't feel right, but that at the top 150 00:10:18.049 --> 00:10:20.679 one was four times better than the next one. Roi On marketing spend just 151 00:10:20.840 --> 00:10:26.200 by creating a field in quick books that says lead source. So now you 152 00:10:26.440 --> 00:10:30.879 once I have job costing, I can do profitability any way you want to 153 00:10:30.919 --> 00:10:33.279 see it. I can see profitability by lead source and that and that. 154 00:10:33.559 --> 00:10:37.190 That's why it's so powerful. into it has it and inspirity has it all 155 00:10:37.269 --> 00:10:43.629 automated, integrating payroll, time tracking and then posting it back inside quick books. 156 00:10:43.190 --> 00:10:46.950 Labor cost by customer, by job, by what service did they put 157 00:10:48.029 --> 00:10:52.419 on a time sheet? What department are they in or class all off of 158 00:10:52.419 --> 00:10:54.419 an iphone and when you run the payroll it's automated. There's no book keeping. 159 00:10:54.539 --> 00:10:58.139 You eliminate the manual labor of having to record the payroll and psyclick books. 160 00:10:58.539 --> 00:11:03.220 So that's a game changer. Once they had that, then they could 161 00:11:03.259 --> 00:11:11.409 start to see exactly that their biggest plant was their worst. 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Sign up today at Directive Consultingcom Slash Institute 175 00:12:20.600 --> 00:12:26.240 and get your first four lessons on us. Once again, that's directive consultingcom 176 00:12:28.279 --> 00:12:31.549 institute to get for free lessons from the pros. All right, let's get 177 00:12:31.549 --> 00:12:37.750 back to the show man. So much they're Steve and I. I'm not 178 00:12:37.830 --> 00:12:39.389 even going to try and we camp. I'm just going to encourage listeners to 179 00:12:39.429 --> 00:12:43.379 hit that back button three or four times to go through what you just said 180 00:12:43.379 --> 00:12:48.460 there, because it has so many implications. You know, the other thing 181 00:12:48.500 --> 00:12:52.419 I think we talk a lot about when it comes to your MARETEX STAC is 182 00:12:52.539 --> 00:12:56.500 when you're looking at adding some new piece of technology, what integrations does it 183 00:12:56.620 --> 00:13:00.970 have? Not just what are the features and benefits of that new product that 184 00:13:01.049 --> 00:13:03.250 you may bring into the fold, but what does it integrate with? How 185 00:13:03.409 --> 00:13:07.570 well does it integrate? Not Just Hey, we have an integration. We've 186 00:13:07.610 --> 00:13:09.809 all heard a salesperson of any sort of stass come and he say, yeah, 187 00:13:09.809 --> 00:13:13.679 we integrate with that. Right, what does that mean? And you're 188 00:13:13.679 --> 00:13:18.279 pointing out some really good things to think through as far as the integrations that 189 00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:22.000 you want to look for, no matter what platform you're using, between payroll 190 00:13:22.399 --> 00:13:26.230 timekeeping and your accounting software, right, yeah, and the and the different 191 00:13:26.269 --> 00:13:31.309 payroll coup is. Everybody has an integration with quick books. What what you 192 00:13:31.429 --> 00:13:33.909 don't want is what most of them have, which is a journal entry posting, 193 00:13:35.309 --> 00:13:39.710 because there's no items in a journal Entry, or an if upload, 194 00:13:39.710 --> 00:13:43.220 which is an intuit interchange, because it doesn't sink. If you have Steve 195 00:13:43.299 --> 00:13:45.860 here and Steven here, it's going to add both. But this is off 196 00:13:45.860 --> 00:13:48.860 the shelf stuff now, right, this is there's no custom integration work. 197 00:13:48.179 --> 00:13:52.220 You just quick books online. You just, you know, just subsubscribe to 198 00:13:52.379 --> 00:13:56.769 APPs and they're there. You know, I love that anytime I can just 199 00:13:56.970 --> 00:14:00.610 subscribe to an APP and it's there. Man, maybe I'm just a lazy 200 00:14:00.610 --> 00:14:03.570 millennial, but I just expect stuff to work when it comes to technology. 201 00:14:03.809 --> 00:14:07.809 Anyway, go for a see then that's it. Yeah, so all the 202 00:14:07.850 --> 00:14:09.039 last part is really the fun part, though, is the reports that come 203 00:14:09.080 --> 00:14:13.360 out of it. Yeah, absolutely, so, we talked about calculating GP 204 00:14:13.559 --> 00:14:16.720 by dollars and, more importantly, percentage job costing. If you're using the 205 00:14:16.759 --> 00:14:20.399 right text sac, it might not be as hard as you're anticipating. And 206 00:14:20.480 --> 00:14:24.590 then three, looking at the PNL by job. Take us through what this 207 00:14:24.750 --> 00:14:28.429 looks like for some of the customers you work with, Stephen sure, in 208 00:14:28.470 --> 00:14:33.549 quick books under reporting there is you go to the customer level menu and under 209 00:14:33.590 --> 00:14:39.940 the customer reports there's a job profitability detail and a job profitability summary and if 210 00:14:39.980 --> 00:14:46.139 you allocate your Labor to the jobs, you can see exactly what the profitability 211 00:14:46.220 --> 00:14:50.899 is in on each customer, on each job. And then it's nice about 212 00:14:50.899 --> 00:14:54.570 that report is you can filter it. So then you can add a custom 213 00:14:54.649 --> 00:14:58.570 field like lead source to the customer record and then you go to the filter. 214 00:14:58.610 --> 00:15:03.409 You just filtered by lead source and now you can see profitability by lead 215 00:15:03.490 --> 00:15:07.240 source. Right now, one of the biggest impacts on cash flow is sales 216 00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:11.000 reps who come in and say I'm in a competitive bit here. I got 217 00:15:11.159 --> 00:15:15.080 to give a ten percent discount and we'll close this and then we'll keep we 218 00:15:15.200 --> 00:15:18.039 have people on the bench and we got keep the competitors out and I'll make 219 00:15:18.080 --> 00:15:22.429 it up in parts. That's what causes cash flow problems. And so you 220 00:15:22.549 --> 00:15:26.029 can run profitability by sales rep and see which of your sales reps are selling 221 00:15:26.070 --> 00:15:30.830 you as a commodity and which ones really understand the value of your business. 222 00:15:31.230 --> 00:15:35.309 All inside quick books. And you know, for marketing I want to look 223 00:15:35.309 --> 00:15:37.779 and see who's my most profitable industry. You know, we do service businesses 224 00:15:37.899 --> 00:15:43.659 and nonprofits. nonprofits are not as profitable as other businesses, doesn't matter. 225 00:15:43.740 --> 00:15:46.259 It's part of our mission. So but I've seen clients who said, you 226 00:15:46.340 --> 00:15:48.700 know what, do I go after these like one right now we've got in 227 00:15:48.740 --> 00:15:52.250 New York City? Do I go after the government contractors or do I go 228 00:15:52.289 --> 00:15:58.570 after universities? and seeing profitability by the decisions you're trying to make. What 229 00:15:58.769 --> 00:16:00.929 you what you want to do is fair. What are the decisions you've got 230 00:16:00.970 --> 00:16:04.720 to make right now to increase profits, and then what are the drivers of 231 00:16:04.799 --> 00:16:10.399 those decisions, and then look at profitability based on the driver. Sales Reps 232 00:16:10.480 --> 00:16:12.879 create sales. Okay, which of my sales PEPs are generating the most profits? 233 00:16:14.279 --> 00:16:17.200 PROFIT AND LOST BY SALES REP? Everybody's already got a sales rep field 234 00:16:17.240 --> 00:16:19.710 inside quick books because you got to calculate, Commission I just take the job 235 00:16:19.750 --> 00:16:26.309 profitability report and filter it by sales rep then now you're starting to slice and 236 00:16:26.389 --> 00:16:30.470 dice profits. That makes sense absolutely. I mean I love the way that 237 00:16:30.629 --> 00:16:33.740 you're looking at this. Once you head down this path, there are so 238 00:16:33.899 --> 00:16:37.940 many different ways, different lenses or different ways to slice and nise the data, 239 00:16:37.940 --> 00:16:41.259 as you put it, to give you the information that you need. 240 00:16:41.419 --> 00:16:45.659 And I think especially, you know, organizations across all industries are trying to 241 00:16:45.740 --> 00:16:48.889 make these tough decisions right now, especially marketing agencies that are may be dealing 242 00:16:48.970 --> 00:16:52.169 with with both sides of things. You know, they maybe have, depending 243 00:16:52.210 --> 00:16:56.570 on the industry they serve, they might be feeling more ripple effects. On 244 00:16:56.649 --> 00:17:00.210 the other side, they may have customers, like we've seen, coming to 245 00:17:00.330 --> 00:17:03.720 them and saying, Hey, we've got to move this event strategy digital, 246 00:17:03.879 --> 00:17:07.559 and so they're seeing an uptick. And so, especially when you're seeing a 247 00:17:07.160 --> 00:17:11.079 lot of moving parts, it makes it tough to make these decisions, but 248 00:17:11.119 --> 00:17:15.150 they are very crucial decisions and I love the way that you're giving some tactical 249 00:17:15.230 --> 00:17:18.509 ways to get to the data that you need, which it's all centered around 250 00:17:18.869 --> 00:17:22.230 that gross profit which, again you've got to look at that the right way 251 00:17:22.309 --> 00:17:26.630 and calculate it, not, like you said, just like your accounting wood 252 00:17:26.710 --> 00:17:30.539 for doing your tax or turns, but looking at it above and below the 253 00:17:30.619 --> 00:17:33.460 line. Steven. Anything else that you want to add to folks out there, 254 00:17:33.460 --> 00:17:40.180 especially for marketing agencies, as they think about the impacts of these different 255 00:17:40.220 --> 00:17:44.019 tactics on their business, especially in these, you know, varied, Tumultuous 256 00:17:44.059 --> 00:17:45.369 Times? I don't know how else to say it. Yeah, yeah, 257 00:17:45.369 --> 00:17:48.329 I mean I think you know, now is the time not to work from 258 00:17:48.369 --> 00:17:52.849 emotions. I've got a cousin WHO's a nurse in a hospital and Queens, 259 00:17:53.529 --> 00:17:57.680 so you know, anytime anything's tight bad, I just think I'm not strapped 260 00:17:57.680 --> 00:18:03.640 to a ventilator in a hospital and Queens. So and I'm I'm really grateful 261 00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:07.559 actually, to see so many marketing agencies responding well to our shifts online and 262 00:18:07.720 --> 00:18:11.279 having success. I think the you have to have data, though. You 263 00:18:11.279 --> 00:18:15.589 can't run based on emotions. That's the key thing, because this is just 264 00:18:15.710 --> 00:18:18.309 the difference maker. And you know, pricings the number one decision. Once 265 00:18:18.430 --> 00:18:23.230 you know your gross profit, now you can really hone in on what drives 266 00:18:23.349 --> 00:18:26.859 the success of your company. Yeah, absolutely, as you've talked about how 267 00:18:26.980 --> 00:18:32.859 to price those deals, looking at the most profitable sales reps, looking at 268 00:18:32.900 --> 00:18:37.700 the most profitable channels from a marketing perspective, just a lot of different ways 269 00:18:37.779 --> 00:18:41.140 to licenseise it once you go through these steps. But, Steven, this 270 00:18:41.180 --> 00:18:44.049 has been a great conversation. I'm sure that there are a lot of folks 271 00:18:44.089 --> 00:18:45.369 who are probably going to want to pick your brain or ask a few follow 272 00:18:45.369 --> 00:18:48.609 up questions or maybe just follow along with some of the content that you guys 273 00:18:48.609 --> 00:18:52.930 are putting out over at growth force. What's the best way for them to 274 00:18:52.049 --> 00:18:56.160 reach out or stay in touch with you guys? Email is the best way 275 00:18:56.200 --> 00:19:03.519 to reach me. It's Steven Stephan at growth forcecom. I'm on Linkedin as 276 00:19:03.640 --> 00:19:11.269 Stephen Kings CPA and twitter at at s King Gf. So there's two, 277 00:19:11.349 --> 00:19:15.069 Geez Ski andng G force. Awesome. And you guys have been in putting 278 00:19:15.150 --> 00:19:19.109 out some content on your own podcast as well. Steven Tils, where people 279 00:19:19.190 --> 00:19:22.109 can find that? We will definitely link to it in the show notes, 280 00:19:22.150 --> 00:19:26.819 but I know anybody listening to this might be interested there too. We've got 281 00:19:26.220 --> 00:19:32.059 growth FORCECOM. We've got a podcast called put your numbers to work where I 282 00:19:32.180 --> 00:19:37.259 invite people that I really respect about how good they are with managing numbers and 283 00:19:37.460 --> 00:19:41.930 talk about it with our listeners and and and what our clients are dealing with, 284 00:19:42.210 --> 00:19:47.650 share the answers of what how we're helping our clients get better at dealing 285 00:19:47.690 --> 00:19:51.890 with their numbers. It's fine, awesome, morcom awesome. I love it, 286 00:19:51.930 --> 00:19:53.720 Stephen. Thank you for making it easy for people to take next steps. 287 00:19:53.720 --> 00:19:57.519 If you'd like this episode, definitely check out the podcast from growth force. 288 00:19:57.559 --> 00:20:00.079 Will Link to that in the show notes. Will also link to the 289 00:20:00.440 --> 00:20:06.640 tsheets tool that Stephen mentioned here, as well as that that previous episode a 290 00:20:06.880 --> 00:20:10.349 few days, maybe a week or so back with Tim Reaster, Co author 291 00:20:10.470 --> 00:20:14.710 of the expansion sale for must win conversations to keep and grow your customers. 292 00:20:14.750 --> 00:20:18.789 That was a fantastic episode. That ties really well to Steven's point here about 293 00:20:19.029 --> 00:20:23.259 having tough conversations if the numbers end up surprising you well, Stephen, this 294 00:20:23.339 --> 00:20:26.099 has been a great conversation. Thank you so much for being our guest on 295 00:20:26.099 --> 00:20:32.380 the show today. My pleasure. Thank you, Logan. I hate it 296 00:20:32.460 --> 00:20:36.650 when podcasts incessantly ask their listeners for reviews, but I get why they do 297 00:20:36.690 --> 00:20:40.849 it. Because reviews are enormously helpful when you're trying to grow a podcast audience. 298 00:20:41.210 --> 00:20:42.930 So here's what we decided to do. If you leave a review for 299 00:20:44.049 --> 00:20:47.569 me to be growth and apple podcasts, and email me a screenshot of the 300 00:20:47.609 --> 00:20:51.839 review to James at Sweet Fish Mediacom, I'll send you a signed copy of 301 00:20:51.920 --> 00:20:55.680 my new book, content based networking, how to instantly connect with anyone you 302 00:20:55.759 --> 00:20:57.599 want to know. We get a review, you get a free book. 303 00:20:57.880 --> 00:20:59.519 We both win.