20 part 2: Data at the Forefront: The Strategic Impact of Parcel Spend Management

Mike McComb: 00:00:00

Now the problem is every month seems to be a change and it's like you're hitting me with drones and I can't swat them down fast enough.

Voiceover: 00:00:07

This is Outside the Box with Asendia USA, a podcast educating US based brands, marketplaces and e tailers on international shipping topics and how they can expand their global e-commerce footprint.

Nick Agnetti: 00:00:20

To another episode of Outside the Box with Asendia USA podcast where we continue the conversation where we left off last week.

Mike McComb: 00:00:27

We have about a 97% client retention rate and I think it's.

Nick Agnetti: 00:00:30

We just see why though. Just hearing, you know, you talk about it, I can completely understand why.

I mean, you're, you're setting expectations, you know, kind of creating standards almost. And, and we're either meeting those or we're not. And then, then at that point decisions have to be made.

Mike McComb: 00:00:48

Right.

Nick Agnetti: 00:00:48

You know, so which is, which is fair? That's business. Yeah.

Mike McComb: 00:00:52

It's also, again, give you the opportunity. What do you, what can you do to fix it?

But also, you know, the numbers are the numbers and if there's something wrong with that, like we, we try to get together because obviously if one of our shippers is experiencing something, maybe another one, another one, another one. So we try to work with the carriers as much as possible. Hey, let's make sure it's not going across all the customer.

Jason Rowland: 00:01:15

So it's in terms of those carriers, kind of the opposite of the first question is, what are companies that get it right? What are they doing? Well, what are they doing better than the others that kind of set them apart.

Mike McComb: 00:01:26

The carrier or the shipper carriers?

So number one, data is important. And if you think about the data which would also translate into what does that invoice look like? A lot of the couriers, it is what it is, right.

You got fuel changes, accessorial changes. I think many shippers are quite frustrated that it used back in the day. Right.

I actually had somebody out of the Bay Area tell me it used to be you get this one service guide every year and then it would change, but they would kind of hit you with this missile. Right. It was literally like coming in, here's your rate increase, here's whatever changes. He said once a year.

Now the problem is every month seems to be a change. And it's like you're hitting me with drones and I can't swat them down fast enough. That's a really good analogy.

Nick Agnetti: 00:02:10

Think about peak coming up.

Mike McComb: 00:02:11

Absolutely.

Nick Agnetti: 00:02:12

Surges and different things like that. I mean, you know, it's just taking package costs and you know, per piece going up minimum 30 plus cents per piece for some of these guys.

Mike McComb: 00:02:22

Well and sometimes I think some of these surcharges, the carriers need to be very careful because if they're also not accurate, if they tell you, hey this is what this new fee or charge is going to be and they run some quick analysis, boy, we can look back a full year, get down to the penny and say, well this is exactly what you would have paid.

And if the carrier is not being fully transparent in that and they're using, you know, the shipper uses somebody like us, hey, we're going to catch them again. We don't.

I'm not here to bash any carriers but when you're asking who's who's best in class, the ones who are best in class are actually trying to say, look, let's share with you the full impact of what this new change is going to be. That's the type of carrier that most shippers want to work with and they understand it's a business. Right.

And gosh, as a shipper you want to make sure that your carriers are healthy. They should make a fair margin at the business. Why not, you know.

Okay, well how many carriers have gone out of business in the last three years alone? Right, sir, if you're a shipper, you want to make sure that your carrier can sustain itself and be not falling.

Nick Agnetti: 00:03:23

Absolutely, absolutely.

Mike McComb: 00:03:25

Yeah.

Nick Agnetti: 00:03:26

That's good stuff. Good content here, Mike.

Mike McComb: 00:03:29

I love it.

Nick Agnetti: 00:03:29

Much appreciated. Yeah, hey, good stuff.

I do have maybe one more and I don't know if you've got another one too but I want to talk a little bit from your perspective on what you've seen. You know, it's been a wild year in cross border.

Jason Rowland: 00:03:42

Yeah, yeah.

Nick Agnetti: 00:03:43

The geopolitical state right now is pretty wild. So from Green Mountain's perspective also, if I'm going to quick. How long have you been with Green Mountain?

Mike McComb: 00:03:50

Two years.

Nick Agnetti: 00:03:51

Two years. You are a wealth of knowledge.

Mike McComb: 00:03:54

I started in this industry in: 1993

Nick Agnetti: 00:03:56

Okay, all right.

Mike McComb: 00:03:58

I love logistics. Wisdom. Wisdom.

Nick Agnetti: 00:04:00

You've got some wisdom.

Mike McComb: 00:04:01

I've seen some things.

Nick Agnetti: 00:04:02

So in terms of your guys experience right now when it comes to cross border. So us based on. Let's go US outbound, not so much North America, you know, are there?

I hate to even have you boil it down but just for the sake of viewers, listeners, but maybe three things or trends that you've noticed on the cross border side that you could talk to.

Mike McComb: 00:04:22

Yeah, absolutely. Clearly people are looking at the right skus. Right.

And so maybe you would look at in the domestic market, maybe you're not selling everything that you're selling in America overseas. Right. So there's definitely.

When you think about what's that cost to ship it, maybe, maybe it even gets into the packaging as we're talking about earlier. But you have to rationalize, if I'm going to export something, does it make sense? And, and so we have brands that are really looking at this. Right.

Sometimes it's very unique. Maybe it's a very regionalized. Hey, it's barbecue sauce that comes out of Nashville. Okay. What other.

You know, where are you going to get that from around the world? If you're literally saying like it's made in Nashville as a. For example. Okay, well that's.

And plus it's small footprint, that's probably something great. You know, good margin. I can export that versus what if it's some type of widget that is easily available in other regions of the world?

Why, why, why are you even trying to export and what's your cost? Right. What. And so I think a lot of our brands, as they're thinking about what should we do?

We are seeing this, their e-commerce strategy, which lends itself right into then their shipping strategy.

I think those, those, you know, the supply chain leaders are getting involved and tying up with their e-commerce folks to say, okay, we've got to make sure that what we're doing is actually, it makes a lot of sense. Right. For what we do on our website. And maybe you restrict it. You know, a lot of, a lot of websites do what? Oh, we recognize that you're in Denmark.

You know, you're calling. So we're going to show you the Danish site and maybe that Danish site does not show you. That item may not be available 100%.

And therefore, what do you do? You can protect your margin that way. Right. And you get. You actually are delivering a better customer experience as well.

Nick Agnetti: 00:05:58

That's a good point. Make sure the juice is worth the squeeze.

Jason Rowland: 00:06:01

That kind of analysis at the customer level of what are we selling, where are we selling it. It and how he's doing it. I think that kind of analysis helps those customers just take advantage of low points in the market and avoid high points.

Absolutely. Yeah. It's in their wheelhouse. Yeah. That's fantastic.

Nick Agnetti: 00:06:17

All right, Mike, we've taken up about 20 minutes of your time and we want to thank you for being on Outside the Box with Asendia USA Podcast.

Jason Rowland: 00:06:25

Thank you so much for your time.

Nick Agnetti: 00:06:25

Any closing thoughts or anything before signing off?

Mike McComb: 00:06:29

You know, look, I appreciate it and I know some of you guys are doing a really good job with a lot of our customers, so keep up that good work. We look forward to keep working with you as well to make sure that our customers and their customers as well have a great experience.

Thank you so much.

Nick Agnetti: 00:06:43

Thanks so much.

Voiceover: 00:06:44

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