June An: Turning Community and Relationships into Business Growth

Speaker A: You're listening to Tech Me Seriously with Sarah Tunisi, CEO of Tenisi Tech. Candid conversations with driven technology and um, business professionals who've always got something interesting to say.

Speaker B: Hi, I'm Sarah Tunisi, the host of Tech Me Seriously and the CEO of Tenisi Tech, an IT services firm headquartered in California. Today I'm thrilled to be speaking to June Ahn. June. June is Tenesi Tech's Director of sales. I love doing internal conversations so that people can get a sense of who we are as a team and kind of some of the challenges that we have in each of the roles that we have, um, internally, whether it's compliance or selling or whatever else it is. So June is a community builder. This is how I would describe you. You've built a business group of over 600 people. The group meets weekly to explore different business topics and highlight the companies that participate. And when June joined Tenis Tech, we spent a lot of time discussing community culture and what that means kind of in terms of selling and even in terms of selling as uh, like a services company. So here we are six months in and with his decades long selling experience and many, many conversations in his arsenal, we thought it might be interesting to explore the topic of selling technology in an AI age and really from the perspective of somebody that hasn't always sold technology. So the topic today is relationship selling in IT services. Welcome June. So glad you could make it.

Speaker A: Thank you, thank you. I'm excited to be on. And as far as that community goes, we're actually approaching 1,000 local business owners executives. Yes. You know, again, community, we've talked about it before. Community, to me is everything that's right.

Speaker B: And so, so for anybody local to Encinitas, to the San Diego north county area, like reach out to us and come be a part of this group. It's so funny because even before you worked here, I heard about the group, I heard about your work in the group and literally just two weeks ago I met somebody that's in the group and said, hey, you, you're Tenesi Tech and Jun works with you and I go to his group. And so I love that about you. I think that that's part of what is missing in the world in general.

Speaker A: Yes, absolutely. And especially with such a fast paced, uh, industry and the different industries, I mean the community connection, that's something that's kind of a rare lost art and I love it.

Speaker B: Exactly. So that' kind of why we're talking about this, right? I mean, when, when you said, hey, let's have this conversation. What was kind of on your mind when we decided to do this?

Speaker A: Well, I mean first, uh, it's, it's been extremely interesting because I, I, my background isn't technology. I've done sales for probably 20 years of my life now. And you know, I, I've, I've been a part of several different large corporations and different companies. And the way Tennessee has, does it internally, the culture, everything that you really built is so different. And it honestly, it's how it should be. I just, honestly I just wanted to make it public. I want more people to hear about it.

Speaker B: I love it. So what are some of the things you've observed and what's been most interesting to you?

Speaker A: You know, it's interesting because, you know, Tennessee Tech is a, I mean again, you started the company, it's grown and it's not an extremely large company, but we act like a uh, large corporation but with a family atmosphere. So that's one of those things where a lot of companies that you kind of reach that threshold where you start to become a larger company, you start dealing with larger companies and you lose that kind of family atmosphere. So we're efficient like a corporation is, but we still have the values of kind of that family atmosphere.

Speaker B: And you know, we've sort of, it's so funny. I don't know, we don't talk about this too much and we even, we even thought about doing a uh, kind of episode on what it's like to work with family, what it's like to, to grow a company. But at the beginning it was, it was me, my brother, my sister. You know, as time get, uh, went on, it might be some nephews and nieces or you know, some of these people that were starting to get into life. I always thought it was a great place to start, but for a long time we, we swept the family thing under the rug. It was like too small. Me, my husband, my siblings, it was, it felt too small. And I remember hiring that first kind of non family person and it was like at that point it was like, do we tell people right away or do we let them sort of figure it out naturally? Because I thing that I was always worried about is that when people would think that just because we're family, we're not a company, right? And, and like there was like, we were just giving jobs to family members. Now it's completely different. Most of us are not related. We're at like 35 people. But um, it was important to us to sort of want to come to work here. You know, I worked in, you know this because I've been on your podcast, but I worked in big companies and, and I really just got to the point where it was like, oh my God, I just can't get in there today. I just don't want to. And so when I started Tenisi Tech, I was really intentional about hopefully making a place where people wouldn't feel like that all the time. I know it happens for all of us sometimes, but you know what I mean.

Speaker A: Oh sure. No, you're exactly right. I mean, it's one of those things where, you know, I always tell people, whatever you do, do it with joy. And at Tenisik it, honestly I wake up, I'm m excited to be able to make the connections, the conversations and, and really speak on Tennessee Tech. And I mean you've done a great job internally. And I think that family kind of atmosphere, that family mindset, it doesn't mean that we're not professional because we do a lot of things, uh, to advance kind of our day to day productivity. And that's what's great about the leadership, that's what's great about the people in there. Everyone has that kind of getting better agenda. And you see people in all different parts of the company studying, getting educated, getting licensed and really advancing their education. So and what that does is, I mean, we can pass that on to our clients.

Speaker B: Exactly. And I mean that's part of what I feel like I wanted to do was create a company that was enterprise level for smaller companies. You know, like, uh, we know how to run it because we've done it for companies and for larger companies and as individuals. So then we come together as an MSP and say, okay, how do we give the right level of service or that, that world class professional service as a smaller company to smaller companies. So that was, that was kind of the original goal. And like I said, it's been different because growing a culture with family, but then transitioning to a culture that feels like that with a bunch of other people is different. Right?

Speaker A: No, absolutely. Yeah. Uh, and again, you know, I've had several meetings now where, you know, with enterprise level, uh, companies, larger companies, and to be able to have the VP of operations, the Director of IT infrastructure on a call with me, the Director of Sales, I mean that's rare when you work for a, you know, enterprise level company. So to be able to have access to the executive leadership board, also more of the critical infrastructure, I mean that, that's just that honestly has set us apart.

Speaker B: Well, and I'm interested in that because we've not really had an opportunity to know how other MSPs are selling. I mean, we've hear from, you know, prospects, what's been different. You always get some intel that way. But what's interesting is that we, we really want the team to be accessible. We want our clients to know who we are. We want them to know that we're professional, that we, we have backgrounds in the types of work that we're doing for them. And I think part of that is letting them talk to people. And I know that in some other MSPs that's not really common. Like if a client of ours says, hey, I'd talk with your director of Infrastructure because I'd like to kind of talk about this specific part of our strategy. Um, that's, that's a okay with us. You're not going to get charged extra. And I've heard that that ends up being a big project call. So I don't know if you've been hearing that from prospects, but, but I want to kind of, before we get there, I want to talk about kind of your journey in selling and building relationships and transitioning to tech sales. Because you mentioned that that is uh, not an area that you've worked in before.

Speaker A: Yeah, no, absolutely. Again, as I mentioned, I've been 20 years of, of sales and you know, I've been working. My father was an immigrant from South Korea. I've been working since I was six, so to be honest, sales since I was six years old. And so for me it's always been about relationships. We had a, several restaurants in Southern Arizona and you know, the, the way we kind of built our brand and our restaurant was kind of that not only the family feel, but is to let every customer that came in feel like we knew them, feel like they were part of the family. So I've just carried that on into my sales experience. You know, uh, mortgages, uh, I was with a large PEO organization on the leadership side and I'm always just kind of carried on, kind of that, that old school family immigrant mentality of make everyone feel like they're at home, make, let everyone feel like they can ask me questions and then I actually care about what they need versus I'm just trying to sell this product so it carries over, it's carried over all these different, you know, years, different industries and um, it's, for me it's fun. I don't, I don't view it as a job. I don't view it as a kind of a, a difficult thing to do. It's really just being interested in the other party. And then you have a, you strike up a conversation. And if it comes down to technical talk that maybe is above my head even then, that's when I bring in the vp, OPER Operations or Director of Infrastructure. But I want them to know that, uh, hey, I care about it, I care about you, I care about your company, and I want to see you grow well.

Speaker B: And what's so interesting about that is it's like for so long in starting a company and running a company, you think about what that service set looks like, right? And at the beginning we were like totally vendor agnostic, which we still are, but we really sort of put it in the hands of kind of the technical leader of the companies that we worked with, whether that was a cio, a director of it, a, uh, cto, and said, okay, how do you want us to build this? And you know, a few years into that we realized, wait a minute, that's not why companies are coming to us. They're coming to us for the recommendations, right? So that's like kind of version two is, okay, here's the stack that we think you should run on, and here is the IT infrastructure, IT OP stack that we come with as, uh, a service provider so that you don't have to buy all of that. Right? So that was sort of version two. And I think where we're at now is in version three, you know, 14 years into this, where we've kind of come up with a married version of that. So here are the things that we are going to come to the table with. And what technology do you have? If it's technology you love, we're in. We're totally vendor agnostic and we'll support that. But if it's technology you don't, then we've got alternatives for you. And so that's something that we've also talked a lot about is kind of this idea of customizing services. And so is that something kind of with the, uh, the relationship building that helps or hinders sales, do you think?

Speaker A: Oh, it's been amazing. And surprisingly, it's been shocking to a lot of the prospects really, because a lot of the MSPs approach them with this is what we offer and that's it. You know, pick a, B or C. And that's really it. It's not really customized. Um, you don't really get to, again, as I mentioned before, you don't get to speak to leadership. And it's just pick this, pick that or pick this. We may be the cheapest, we may be the most expensive or whatever it is. And so this, this new approach, this new version of being really, truly consultative has really been eye opening because again, I've gotten responses from, uh, discovery calls and sitting down with, you know, prospects and other executive leadership, you know, different, uh, companies. And they've said, oh, you can do that, you can do this. And it's truly what we try to do is we try to honestly, we don't work for them, we work with them to help them. And it's been just that has really opened the doors for, for a lot of conversation.

Speaker B: I love that because that's something that I feel like is inherent in the culture. And so it's fun to talk to somebody that hasn't been steeped in it like we have. And it's this idea that, that let's conversation like don't assume it's this way or the other way. Let's like talk about what it is you need. And when it comes to things like, um, being able to customize a solution, it's important that, that we're able to talk with our prospects and not be so rigid. And I think that rigidity in services in general, I mean, you've sold services before is really common, right?

Speaker A: Oh, yeah, no, no, absolutely. And again, it's building that relationship. And it's funny because I will. I've noticed that I catch especially in, in when we're speaking to software executives, it kind of throws them off, but in a pleasant way where I'll just text them, I'll text them, hey, how you doing? Happy Monday. You know, hope you have a great week. You know how. And if I know that they like a certain football team, I'll text them, hey, great game the other day. That, uh, isn't normal, uh, for me, that's very normal because, you know, I'm absolutely interested in building a friendship or relationship with them.

Speaker B: You're way more a relationship person than anything. I feel like, like it's kind of, you know, we've worked with other salespeople before and there's like the, you're all salespeople are, are um, working hard or hustling. I don't want, I don't mean a negative connotation of hustling. I mean like, like waking up in the morning and making your contacts and doing all that. And there's a set of activities that all salespeople do. But the fact that the relationship at the forefront I think is really interesting or, uh, the relationship being the forefront is interesting because just like you were saying, the idea of working with versus for is something that I've always kind of had a hard time reconciling in a services business. Right. Because when I hear people say, oh, Tanisi does that for us, it's like, no, can you just say it? Because you've given us your IT department. Right. We're responsible for your IT department. Work with your employees every single day. I want you to feel like we're in IT with you.

Speaker A: Right, right.

Speaker B: With you. For you, it's about you. It's not about what Tenisi wants to do. And I think that that's something. I love that you've noticed that, because that's something that I feel like is inherent in what we do, but maybe isn't as normal in this kind of tech sales like you're finding, right? Yeah.

Speaker A: Yeah. And it's a lot of. A lot of times, too, I'm having discussions with CTOs or Director of IT Services, and they're a little. I can tell that they're a little threatened, uh, by IT because they don't want us to take their position. But that's not what we do. We work with them. We actually enhance what they do. And, you know, there's only a certain amount of time. I mean, say they have a team of three, five, 10, even 20, you know, individuals within the IT department. Well, they have to figure out, uh, they already have what their plan is for this quarter, next quarter, and so on. If there's a new project that comes up or they're having issues, they don't have the time to divert that time and manpower to. To concentrate on this. And that's what we're there for. We're there to make their life easier. And I think that's the one kind of thing that I definitely want to, uh, that what I try to relate to all these prospects, uh, that I speak to is that we're here to help you. We're not here to compete with you. Take your position and so on.

Speaker B: 100%. And I mean, really, you're referring to the co source services that we provide, where we go in as a part of someone's existing IT team. So like you said, we work with people all the time like, that have IT employees. And I think for me, it's like one of these. The concept that I have on this is that we've done it many times, and if you're working in a company for the majority of your Career, you've probably not done mail migration after mail migration, you know, several a year. Right. So you don't know the gotchas that we had to painfully learn. Right. Same thing with things like building, you know, an infrastructure operations guide. Right. Like, like being able to document things is not necessarily everyone's strong suit. And so focusing on transparency, reporting, how we work together, I think are some of the things that we do a lot with existing teams. And like you said, projects come up all the time. What about compliance? Right, right. Compliance is another really big one that we talk to people about because internal teams don't always have the experience to tackle instituting a compliance framework.

Speaker A: Oh, absolutely. And one, uh, example, without actually naming names, it's a, uh, they're in the medical field and they've had the same staff for 10 to 15 years and they've been doing this migration and changing things in the last couple years. It's a heavy lift. I mean they have close to a thousand employees. It's a heavy lift to do that. So compliance is something that they know they need to do, but they don't have the manpower for it. And that's the discussions we're having right now that we can help with that. We can help with protection and compliance because that way you can hit your goals again. And most larger companies, uh, report to a board of directors, especially if they're a nonprofit. So they don't have the time to divert that manpower.

Speaker B: Exactly. And part of what I love about our co source clients is typically the existing team already has an incredible relationship with the end user base. Right. The employee employees of that company. And if they are working really well with the employees, that's the last thing we want to mess with because people already perceive it as ifix your computers. And what I always talk about is that's a really important piece of it because that is the face of it. Right. Something's not working. I've got to go to someone. But the other pieces, the strategy, the reporting, the compliance is not again, something that I think a lot of, um, IT employees have had the opportunity to implement from scratch. And so I just want to put a fine point on this is people shouldn't be worried to talk to a, uh, company like ours because we're interested in partnering, helping you scale, helping you grow, and putting in the right pieces so that you can kind of continue to provide that excellent service that you're already providing.

Speaker A: Exactly. And an important piece to that too, which is, is rare that I've seen in other companies. I'VE been with is that our leadership board, we're constantly looking to improve our internal operations, um, so 100%. So much so that so many companies out there, they do, they provide a great service for their clients, but everything that they have internally is antiquated. What work we constantly do, every Wednesday when we have our leadership meeting, it's constantly, all right, how can we make this more efficient? What can we do to improve this? And if we improve ourselves, we pass that along to our, to our clients. So it's one of the things where we actually do what we say 100%.

Speaker B: And what's also very interesting is if I think back to 14 years ago, it was going through this enormous kind of growth period with, uh, um, virtualization infrastructure, right? So that was still internal servers, it was still on premise applications, but on these internal servers that could run more than one application. It was a really big deal. Well, Fast forward. We're 100% a cloud company. We don't have any, we have like one management server for the whole company. Um, and I think that's part of it, right? Is this continually getting better running on modern infrastructure, keeping track of the, um, kind of the changes in technology? I definitely want to spend a little bit time talking about AI and selling and technology because that's been, been such a hot topic that's, you know, top of mind for people. But I think part of the interesting thing is that because we get to work across clients, we get to do this again and again and again, right? So kind of being at that forefront, but not too like, we don't need our clients to be running on the most current things, but we need them to be open to it. So you've talked a little bit about technical debt, right? And once you let your servers get old, once your applications are out of maintenance, once all this stuff starts to happen, we refer to that as technical debt. And it makes running your company, your infrastructure and scaling incredibly difficult because you've already not kept up. So how are you going to get, move forward quickly, right? And so I think that's an interesting. Like here I am talking all the technical bits about it, and you're like, no, but I, I'm seeing that. Right. And your clients, ah, you're hearing that about the prospects, like things are kind of old. What do we do?

Speaker A: Yeah, and, and, and the thing too is it's interesting because, you know, we do have a lot of large clients that are, you know, a few hundred, uh, employees higher. It's the, it's the companies that are under 50. That again, you don't know what you don't know. And they still have an internal server, which they think, well, because it's in our office, it's safer, it's more secure. Right.

Speaker B: I know. We're still seeing this, right? You're still hearing that?

Speaker A: Yeah, constantly. Constantly. And it's interesting. It's getting them to understand that, that, you know, at that stage they're on the stage of scaling. The thing that's holding the back is honestly their technology. A lot of it is. They've got old computers, old software, um, they have licenses for, you know, 10 different products when really they only need one. But they were told to get this, this, this and this. And it's not cohesive. There's. There's not a plan. That's what I love about what we do, our consultative approach is that again, we'll help you scale that. That will help you be more efficient. And everything come in stages. Because people, a lot of times they'll think that technology upgrades expensive. And yes, you know, it can be expensive.

Speaker B: There can be an investment for sure.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. We're not going to say, hey, you have to do all this. We'll say, all right, let's do this in stages. What's your budget? What are you looking to do? That's right. How much do you want to grow? And then we'll plan it out for the next year, next foreseeable future. And, and really, it's consultative. We'll help you through the entire process.

Speaker B: I mean, what you're, uh, I. I love this. And, you know, it's interesting because I'm talking to Cal State San Marcos, so I'm talking to Miracosta, because I want to do some, like, mentoring and teaching in the business school. And one of the classes I want to sort of develop is how do you build this IT strategy? Because what you were just mentioning is really all about the IT strategy. So you're at point A in your IT journey, which could include a lot of technical debt. What does that mean? Another thing that you talk. Talked about was shadow it. Right. You've got 15 tools that are. Let's not say, let, let me scale that back. You've got three or four tools that do widely the same thing. So let's standardize one. So the interesting thing about your investment in IT is that a lot of times we find money sitting on the table. If you're investing in this technology that's old and it's expensive, like, we very commonly find that $175,000 in annual licensing on the table, that we can actually take that, we can take you off of that tool, migrate you to something cloud, migrate you to something more modern, and then you can take that annual savings and reinvest it in it. And I think that that is something that is not super common. Um, when we go in and see prospects, even if they've had an outsourced IT company. And I think this is part of why outsourcing gets a bad name, right? Things are out of date, things aren't working well, things are broken. And part of what's really tricky, and I think it's one of the main parts of our job, is how do we articulate what that strategy should look like so an executive team can understand it.

Speaker A: Yes, exactly. That's the great part about it. And that's why our leadership board that we have, I mean, the team, they, they were constantly thinking about things like that. The other thing too is with technology, especially businesses or companies that are under 40s, to them, tech support is something you call when there's an issue. Yes, that's not what we do. We can do that, but what we try to do is we try to predict, all right, let's eliminate it. Have you had the kind of the same issues over and over? Okay, well, instead of just continually, you know, just fixing that, that problem every time it comes out up, let's figure out what. Why, why is it happening? What do we need to do?

Speaker B: That's really common, right? That's really common is getting in that break fix nightmare.

Speaker A: Right?

Speaker B: Uh, this breaks every three months. My IT person comes in, by the way, they charge us a project fee for fixing it and it breaks again. And that's, you know, that's part of why I feel like the approach of let us take ownership of it with you. And what I mean by that is, is we're on the hook. It's not like we're going to tell you you can't do something. It's that we're on the hook. So if something breaks, we're not charging you to fix it because you've already given us the responsibility. So it actually behooves us to do it properly the first time because we're not going to charge you to fix something that's broken in an environment we run. And that's a little bit of a nuance that I'm not sure people realize when they first start working with us. Us.

Speaker A: Yeah, it definitely is something where they don't realize that. And the same thing goes for our cybersecurity or our uh, protocols.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: It again behooves us to stay protected because if they get compromised, we get compromised.

Speaker B: That's right.

Speaker A: So again, it's work. That's why we're constantly on this getting better agenda of. All right, let's continue to figure out how can we avoid this. And we'll have the team go in, um, do their research and they'll see issues where they'll say, hey, we need to take care of this. This is the process for us to migrate to this to be able to take care of that. So you avoid any issues in the future. Will there be issues? It's technology.

Speaker B: There are always going to be issues. Yeah, exactly. And I mean part of why there's issues is that everybody has a, ah. Different level of tech savviness.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: And that's another thing that we spend a lot of effort on is like, hey guys, just because you're working with somebody that's a little bit older, that isn't used to cloud technology, that maybe isn't used to their new iPad as their field device or whatever it is, like doesn't mean that we get to be condescending. Right. We're here as a service to them. Right. And that's something that I think we heard a lot of the time is, you know, tickets take too long to close and um, I feel condescended to and that feels terrible. Oh yeah, we try to be like, like personable IT people.

Speaker A: Yes. And that's the thing that we do the, we do the monthly, all employee, um, you know, call.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: It really is a family and everybody has a personality. And the thing too is, and even going, kind of going back to my previous company and uh, one of the prospects we just dealt uh, with, uh, that's a non profit. Whenever I had any technical issues I would call and I would honestly I would get nervous about the call because they would, it would make me feel like I would hate to ask the question because they would make me feel like I, I don't, you know, I'm um, I don't know what I'm doing. So that's why I'm calling you. But. Right. It would make me feel bad for calling about it and it was that kind of scenario. So then with this one prospect in particular, she uh, runs, she uh, runs operations for a non profit. She was again, we have a good relationship. So she was open to the call. We had the call but she was afraid to ask the questions and I'm like, no, go Ahead, let's have a conversation. You know, and because of the experiences that she's had with other MSPs that would kind of laugh at her if she asked the question.

Speaker B: It's awful. I hate to hear that, because it's kind of like it exists for the betterment of a company. It doesn't exist in its own. In its own, um, little silo. And the other interesting thing that I think a lot of people don't understand is it should be 100% aligned with business imperatives, I. E. Compliance, business goals, all of those things. There is no IT project for the sake of all ties into security, productivity and service. So why are we doing what we're doing? Well, we're doing it for one of those three reasons. And the service thing, I think, is huge. And it's kind of like, I feel like things have softened a little bit over the years because I don't know if it was Covid and us all realizing that need to be. You know, we need to put an emphasis on the human relationship or what it was. But it feels like there's a little bit more openness to the idea that we're all human, so we're all going to make mistakes, and we all need to treat each other like fellow humans above all else. So let's not worry about what, what skill you don't have. Let's just get you going on what you need to kind of do your job. I feel like that's sort of the underlying thought of that.

Speaker A: Oh, yeah, absolutely. And again, and I understand, I mean, there's. There's a point when a company scales where they become so large that, you know, it is difficult to have kind of that human element. And that's why a lot of companies have gone overseas. Um, and so that's why to me, again, you know, we separate ourselves because we do have. We have localized, uh, help support, you know, support desks.

Speaker B: That's right.

Speaker A: You're speaking to someone that's, you know, probably in your own city, um, somewhere on the West Coast. And it's something that they know how to speak to people and they know how to really be able to get them comfortable enough to ask the questions. And, you know, we always read out the reviews of our help desk.

Speaker B: And yeah, we get a lot of wizards and patients. And I, uh, love that that's part of. I mean, Jude's talking about when we have our monthly meetings, we read the good comments that we've gotten from our clients and that I always feel so good, like, if I'm having a bad day. I open good comments and I think, oh, we're doing great things. And it makes me feel really good. Um, so, I mean, I think this is a really good segue, right, because we're talking about kind of how we're humans, how we're local, how we're in the United States, like all of this stuff. And then, of course, a few years ago, you get AI and you fast forward to now, and now you have AI dialers who are calling for sales. You have, uh, AI phone screening. Who's screening those sales calls. It's so interesting. And you know, when I talk to Carlo and I don't know, I mean, people, he's our VP of ops, and I've interviewed him on the show before. You know, it's kind of interesting because he's like, I don't know what people are trying to do necessarily. Like, we're not even talking to each other anymore. So I mean, are you seeing that kind of impact? I mean, you're a relationship guy. So how is this impacting sales in general that you're noticing, if you're noticing at all?

Speaker A: Yeah, you know, it is definitely, uh, I'm seeing it. You know, I speak to a lot of different, um, you know, sales representative from different industries, and they've all implemented different strategies of AI and it does. There's a little balance we definitely need and we're actually implementing within our system here, you know, with the leadership board. So. And it's necessary. But as far as the human contact goes, it, it, it isn't there yet. Uh, being able to build the rapport, be able to build, have speak to somebody that's face to face via zoom or face to face, uh, that isn't there. So it really, it really has to be kind of a balance. Do I use it? Absolutely. Do I use it to make my dials? No. Right.

Speaker B: And I think that's the big part of this. And I was just talking to a woman in my women's President's organization group, and she was talking about these AI sales calls that you can sign up for and you can have somebody make, you know, an AI robot, make, you know, I don't know, 2,000 calls a day, and hopefully they hit on a real person like two or three times. And then you got to figure out where you do that transition point and blah, blah, blah. Right. And the example I had is, you know, Apple releases a new update and it screens calls. So every day. This is like, literally, I think I've had two so far today, an AI dialer calls my phone, my phone screens it and says, oh, it's somebody that trying to give you a loan. I get like tons of these all the time. And I go, okay. But it's literally machines talking to machines.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker B: And so I think where is that ever going to go? Because there's something interesting about all of the AI. And you're exactly right. We're automating, we're implementing AI where it makes sense. And also, you know, I've talked to Brian on this podcast too, and also Josie Haynes on the podcast about AI and how you should implement it in a way that makes sense. And so I just think we're still in this weird kind of, you know, time frame of does it actually make sense? And oh, by the way, at Tennessee Tech, I'm not trying to not have employees, I'm trying to have efficient employees. So this for me is not about reducing the number of team members we have. It's about clearing out the busy work. And I, I feel like that hasn't been arrived at for everybody yet. That.

Speaker A: Yeah, and, and I mean, it's brilliant. It's, you know, it is a new technology and every, I mean honestly, before it used to be year over year it would improve, but now it's week after week.

Speaker B: I know.

Speaker A: And it continues to improve and change. So the advancement, you know, what we talk about today, it may change in three months, may change in six months. But yeah, I mean I, I definitely am keeping an eye on it and you know, speaking with uh, a lot of prospects and a lot of contact, you know, every, you kind of have to. It's, it's really.

Speaker B: So that's what I was going to ask you. What are prospects saying about AI and, and what are their, I mean, uh, what. Just what are they telling you?

Speaker A: Yeah, it honestly is how they can utilize AI to make themselves more efficient. Kind of like what you said, they're not looking to scale back their employees. They're just trying to make it so that their employees a lot more efficient so that the day to day operations is run more efficiently, whether it's, it's customer service service, uh, delivery, whatever it is they're trying to figure out, um, you know, kind of like we are of, you know, what they can utilize AI for.

Speaker B: Yes. And I love that. And I, I mean we don't have to have this conversation again because I've had it. But um, and people could listen to it, but I feel like it's one of those things where like, once again AI, the use of AI is a business imperative. This is not an IT project. This is what in your business could be automated, could leverage AI to take the strain off of your, uh, day to day employees. So those things where mistakes are made, the repetitive tasks, it's like, where are your business use cases? And that's something that I think Tenesi Tech is going to be really excited to start diving into with our clients is. Let's kind of take it, take a step back because I think a lot of what happened over the last few years is AI is here. Use it to do your job. And it's like m. What do you mean? You know, it's like everybody kind of lost their mind on how you do a rollout. And like you said, it's just kind of a, uh, new technology that needs to be rolled out appropriately. So I think that that's going to be a really exciting place where we start spending a lot more time with our prospects. But I do think it's about, hey, you don't have to be doing this right this minute. You have to think about where you need it. Right. Because if you're talking about documentation, if you're talking about, you know, my, my favorite pet example of this is, you know, categorizing tickets, which is what Tennessee Tech is doing. But I think we calculated it saves us something like 15 hours a week.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: Uh, is that. It was something like that. Right. I mean, that's like, that's crazy. That's like a whole, you know, that's half of a person essentially, and that we don't need to just do some clicking. And by the way, nobody wants to do that anyways. So that's for me, like where I want, want people to find that balance.

Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I mean, even on the, even on the sales side. I mean, we utilize HubSpot for our CRM and a lot of it, you can set up cadences, but it's still, um, kind of manual. You still have to kind of go through the process, set it up, and then, you know, it'll go on a repeat. It'll set out reminders. Well, the future with AI, it'll be automatic from start to finish, from first contact to closing. The deal will be automatic. You know, once AI technology, we can figure out how to implement it. But yeah, so I, I see a lot of benefits. And they'll cut out a lot of time for myself as well.

Speaker B: Yeah, a lot of busy work. Right, right, right. But what's not going away?

Speaker A: Oh, the human contact.

Speaker B: The human contact the relationship. And I think that that's part of why this conversation is so important. I know that, you know, I've called places, I called a plumber and I spoke to their AI agent. And actually the language part of it was pretty fantastic. It's like, hey, you're speaking to this AI agent, Ali. You know, they always name them and what do you need? And like, I, I spoke in plain English and that was kind of cool. Nobody called me back, by the way. So there's the relationship falling apart with AI, do you know what I mean? I never got the call back like that I was expecting. Um, even though Allie said she was going to send the, you know, message out to whoever I was trying to get a hold of. But the point is, like, I think that human element is never going to go away, right?

Speaker A: No, you're absolutely right. There's a difference when. Whatever, you're right. If I call and say I can tell it's an AI agent or a recorded message. Ah, kind of like, okay, great, I gotta, I gotta listen in. I gotta press 1, 2 to get to so, so on. I'm trying to get to the customer Service. So I'm hitting 0,000 exactly.

Speaker B: 0, 0, 0999.

Speaker A: Yeah. And then once I get to the person, then I'm like, okay, now I can get my question answered. But until then, it's, I need that human contact. Yeah.

Speaker B: And I guess, like, in your experience, when you think about kind of relationship selling, which is what you've done your whole life, and I mean, that's the thing, I think when you look at sales, when you read about sales, they always talk about the relationship being kind of paramount to the experience that, um, both parties have. Right. So let's, let's talk about, let's be pricing. And if you know, your first quarter of services, you feel like that doesn't feel right. Let's have a conversation about it, guys. Like, it's not that big of a deal. Right. So I think, like, when you think about relationship selling and how a company is focused on culture and community impact, the way you sell, what does that mean for you as like a relationship person?

Speaker A: Well, you know, I, I think there's. There's definitely people that are very good at sales, but it's not necessarily. They sell the product.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: And it's not the relationship. The thing about what I've seen kind of historically is they're gonna have a hot first six months and then they don't sell again. The people, the sales representative like myself, that Sell on relationship, we get repeat business. We get. We get happy, right? Yes, exactly. And that's your biggest endorsement. Is.

Speaker B: Is.

Speaker A: And that's why I, uh, you know, besides really building that relationship, I love to really have clients. Whenever they refer other clients, potential clients, to me, that's the. That's the best.

Speaker B: Referrals are the best.

Speaker A: Yes. So I don't need to sell it. It makes that process easier because, hey, I was just referred by one of their friends, one of their colleagues, like,

Speaker B: hey, and then as a relationship salesperson, does it help you feel more confident if you feel like the company culture is behind you in that. Do you know what I mean? Because there's always that big kind of transition from sales to ops.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker B: And so if the ops culture isn't quite where the relationship culture is, then how does that work out? I mean, I think that's part of the big win, right? In working?

Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. In previous situations, uh, again, I could, you know, build the relationship. I could get the sale, I can close the deal, and then now it's all right. Fingers crossed. Let's hope the operations can deliver on what I just said.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker A: And so. And you know, and I don't exaggerate what the opera. The company can do, so. Because I want to keep their expectations, you know, in line. But inevitably, a lot of operations, they fall back, they forget, they push things back, and they don't deliver on what I had initially really, you know, built the relationship on the great. Again, as I said, Tenisi Tech, the leadership board, everyone in the community is looking to. They have that getting better agenda. So I'm fully confident every time onboarding has been great. I mean, being able to. To get, uh, my contacts, you know, messaging me saying, hey, that was. That was easy. That was great and so fun.

Speaker B: Is that. I love hearing it.

Speaker A: Yeah. And it's funny because. Because they're so used to what they've experienced in the past that they expected that onboarding to be such a large lift. And sometimes it is a large lift. But the great part about the team that Tennessee Tech has is they make it as easy as possible. They'll take you step by step. They'll have, you know, a lot of times, too. Companies will set limits on how many times you can call customer support or get assistance. You only get an hour of this time time. Tennessee Tech will get it done right, you know, the first time. And if it's not done, they're going to put as much time as needed.

Speaker B: I guess that's another thing like for the services that you've sold before, when people call, do, do they get a human being like right away? Because we've got all the channels, right? We've got. You can email us, you can chat us, you can call us. Like we measure that to make sure that you're talking to a human. You know, like you were talking about playing that whole 000999 game to get to a person. Like that makes a difference, I feel like too.

Speaker A: Oh, it's huge. It's huge. In the past it's been a toll free number. You're not sure if you're gonna get the same person. Um, the onboarding process is something that's scheduled in advance and you know, far out in advance and you're not sure. It's. You're not really prepped for what you need, what it's going to be like. And so it's, it really has been a hassle, uh, to be able to get through that process. And tenisi, it's been again, if you need a, if you need to call us 10 times, you know, before the actual onboarding, because, hey, you have questions on this, somebody's there to answer and typically it's the same person.

Speaker B: Yeah, call us 10 times. In fact, call us one time. We'll give you an hour and we'll talk through all your concerns. Right. I mean, it's like, let's hash it out. So I guess like with your perspective, um, and kind of the way that I'm feeling about this conversation so far, or the conversation in general, is that companies who are, I feel like every business group I'm in, every CEO circle I'm in, everybody wants to sell more. Right. Companies want to grow. That's what we love to do as founders. But it feels like the culture, the attention to detail when it comes to customer service and continuous improvement and the engagement of all levels of a team end up making your job that much easier. So for me it feels like the big, uh, uh, at least my big nugget from this conversation is work on your culture. Because how many times do I still talk to CEOs that are like, no one cares about that. What does that do for your customers? I feel like we're understanding not only what it does, but how to articulate it.

Speaker A: Oh yeah, no, you're absolutely right. Because, uh, say for example, like the onboarding process, if the culture within Tennessee Tech wasn't good, that customer service call, that initial onboarding wouldn't probably go well. They'd be disengaged they just wouldn't really be interested. But as soon as you speak to any individual within the company, everybody's engaged. Everyone really wants to, again, do their job and really partner with you to make your company better.

Speaker B: I love that. I love that this has been your experience, and I look forward to continuing this conversation as time goes on. I think as a CEO and as somebody who's been interested in culture for a long time, it's kind of heartwarming to hear that it has an outward effect, right? Because I was really focused on the inward effect. Like, how do our people feel when they're coming to work? How do they feel when they're working with our clients? And by the way, clients that don't match the culture don't get a stick around either, right? It's like employees who don't match the culture don't stick around, neither do clients. Because I think having that human experience is worthwhile. And so it is really encouraging. It's almost like a good checkpoint for me to have somebody like you, who's focused on relationship, who's focused on community, come in and feel really confident in talking about us with the people that you have relationships with again, regardless of what company you work at. And so this has been really fun for me because it's been kind of a, uh, uh, I don't know, I feel like I just got a gold star from our new guy. So. I totally appreciate that, June.

Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And the thing too is, and the truth is that the economy right now is very difficult. A lot of companies are having issues, and it's kind of a scary outlook as far as the economy goes. If you have a poor culture, it's going to reflect on how individuals within the company speak about the company and speak to other companies. Companies. You're not seeing that with every, all the, the, the family, I like to call it the family of Tennessee Tech. Every time you speak to any individual, they're hopeful, they're. They're looking to see, okay, how do we get better? They're not, they don't have this doom and gloom idea, um, that, that, honestly speaking, with a lot of different companies, there's a lot of people out there that, that are looking at that horizon, looking at it kind of in a doom and gloom mindset. Um, and it's, it's, um, the culture, it goes back to the culture.

Speaker B: It's so interesting too, because that whole economic pressure that we're all feeling, including Tennessee Tech, right. It's interesting because it is one of the reasons why we want to look at how we can leverage AI to do, you know, to take care of the busy work, not just throw a person at it. Figure this out. But the other thing that I think a lot of companies are probably still exploring is the idea of outsourcing and how they actually end up saving money because you get the skill sets you need when you need them, without paying for the expertise of a really well seasoned person full time or many people full time. And so I think there's uh, also when we've talked about outsourcing in the past, there's also been that economic benefit. So I think it's kind of like the culture plus the economic benefit can really end up helping people out. And so I think that. But you know, uh, again, it's heartwarming to hear that you're getting nothing but good feedback. Obviously we're going to have people that are upset and we're going to deal with those issues as they arise. But like, the fact that overall it's been a positive experience is very encouraging. And I mean, what else can we do but hope that the economy is going to feel better to people and you know, let's help our clients get there. At least with technology.

Speaker A: At least you're right. And again, kind of going that consultative approach. We're here to help. Um, you know, obviously there's been prospects where we've done presentations and they're just like financially it's, they're not there yet. And again, we're very flexible, uh, in our pricing as well because, you know, we can peel back things. But for me, again, building that relationship, I know they'll be back because at some point they're going to want to, uh, re. Engage with.

Speaker B: They'll be ready because of that relationship.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Yeah. Well, June, I appreciate so much you coming to chat with me about relationship selling and how things are different with AI and the economy and all of that. And it's just been a complete, um, pleasure to have you on board and I just look forward to years to come. Thanks so much.

Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here and look forward to see what 2026 brings me.