Kim Young and Andy Slawetsky

Andy: 

What’s happening. Andy here. I’m joined today by Kim Young of SalesChain. How are you? 

  

Kim: 

I’m doing great. How are you? 

  

Andy: 

I am awesome. It is great to see you. We visited you about a year ago up in your offices in Connecticut. And I thought, you know, it’s kind of a good time of the year to check in. Show seasons are starting up and let’s see what’s happening with SalesChain. So first off, maybe just a quick background, who’s SalesChain? What do you guys do? And then tell us what you do for them. 

  

Kim: 

Sure. SalesChain is a business workflow automation tool with a specific focus on office technology dealers. And that’s a mouthful. But we’ve got everything for the front end of the dealer workflow: sales reps, sales ops, everything, CRM, CPQ, links to all the other vendors out there. So I am the VP of sales for SalesChain and have been with them for over a year now and thoroughly enjoyed it. 

  

Andy: 

So, it is very nice that SalesChain isn’t something that’s brand new to our industry. Although it is specific to our industry. Right. So, you guys, last year you celebrated 20 years. I think that was last year, the 20th. Yep, that’s right. Oh, so 20-year anniversary. Tim started this company a long, long time ago and you’ve grown from just a very small little operation to how big are you guys now? 

  

Andy: 

What’s the size? I saw a really nice number that they wanted me to ask you about, so I’m asking, how did you guys do last year? 

  

Kim: 

You know, we did great. We had substantial growth, revenue growth, but also employee growth. We were definitely a VSB. And I’m going to say we’re still in SB. Yeah but moving in the right direction and well over 35% growth as far as our customer base and revenue, and close to matching that with our employees. It’s awesome actually. 

  

Andy: 

Yeah. The number I saw earlier. 25% employee growth. So, you guys are exploding. You had a pretty full office when I was up there. When we were there, Jake and I were out there last year. And so to add 25% on to that, I imagine you’re adding more developers, coders, things like that. Right? You added a marketing person. 

  

Andy: 

We’ve been working with Colton now for the last few months, so it’s been kind of neat watching you guys grow over the last year. One number that did jump out at me was the number of orders that are placed through your system, we’ll back into this. But at $1.3 billion. 

  

Kim: 

I was going to brag on that. If you hadn’t brought it up. 

  

Andy: 

I’m definitely going to bring it up again and you can brag on it. So tell us about that number $1.3 billion in orders from copier dealers. So that’s really all you work with in this channel, office equipment dealers, right? Yes. So your system is software that they use. Let’s back up and then we’ll talk about that number. So your system, it’s ECM. 

  

Kim: 

Yes. 

 

Andy: 

It’s ECM? What is it? It’s content management. It’s CRM specifically. That’s the main thing, right? It’s organized like a sales team. At least that’s what it started as, it organizes your sales team, and everybody gets on the same page you can build. I remember in the demo, one of the cool things I saw as the next sales rep building proposals and you know, if I’m a Ricoh dealer or a Sharp dealer or whatever dealer, they had a configurator where I could literally build the machine on my screen. 

  

Andy: 

It would add cost to it and everything. So but backup and just give us what exactly do you guys do for dealers? How do they use you? 

  

Kim: 

Sure. I mean, we really actually started, believe it or not, when Tim founded the company 21 years ago, it was in the leasing space to automate leasing. He was working for GE Capital when he came up with the thought that that needed some improvement so we actually didn’t even start in the CRM world. We’re put in that bucket because it makes the most sense, because it’s such a front end system, if you will. 

  

Kim: 

But it’s all business workflow automation. It’s CRM, it’s integration into all the industry standard marketing tools out there, but it’s also then full CPQ, like you said, dealers can do everything from one place. And the cool thing about our product is we continue to evolve, as you mentioned, office equipment dealers, and that’s imaging, that’s the imaging space, et cetera. 

  

Kim: 

And it’s what we’ve done and we do well. We’re all the way. We don’t even stop at CPQ. We go all the way through really to cash and even paying out reps, commissions modules. So we are all things workflow to the life of the sales process within an organization. Does that make sense? 

  

Andy: 

Yeah, yeah. So it’s great for our sales rep out in the field because it helps them run their day, right? It helps them keep their customer base, organize it, keeps their proposals organized and having a consistent flow, consistent feel from all the reps throughout the company. Right. Everyone’s proposals. I remember when we were doing this before we had tools like this, everybody’s proposals look however they wanted them to and some were good, but some you know, some needed some help. 

  

Andy: 

And so, if, you know, it’s a good way as a business owner for you to ask for consistency and what your reps are presenting, it’s also a good way as an owner, right? And you get some insight into what they’re doing, their activity levels. Tell us about that. From a management standpoint, how does your tool help them with that? 

  

Kim: 

Well, so here’s where we went in 2022 just to back you up just a teeny bit. You know, you mentioned office equipment and imaging is still such a core for the dealer space. Obviously right, but all we do in this space, as we mentioned a couple of times. So, as we saw all the craziness of the last couple of years, and really since I’ve been on board, it’s been as big a shift I think as from typewriters to email. 

  

Kim: 

Right and these dealers, if they’re going to survive and they’re going to thrive and in doing so, they’re moving themselves into office technology, not office equipment. That’s my opinion. And we’ve moved with them, so we now have a bundled solution selling approach where reps (either different reps or the same reps) within every dealer does it differently. Right. 

  

Kim: 

But bottom line is you can see one single view of your customer, whether they’re I.T services, whether you’re selling them water, whether you’re selling them car chargers for their parking lot, not just copiers and all the things that go along with copiers, documents, imaging, production, all of that, but all the rest of it, too. So, we are now not an imaging space tool. 

  

Kim: 

We are an office technology dealers’ space tool, and we allow management one single view of their customer, because we have the CPQ tool and implement that into it. We also allow the management to see accurate forecasting. And so, it’s one single view across all aspects of their business with accurate forecasting which helps so much with the trickle down all the way back into the ECI and ERP systems and inventory and everything that goes along with it. 

  

Andy: 

Well, so you integrate into all that stuff, ECI and a lot of other partners out there, Great America leasing companies, right? So that’s our space. But you’ve mentioned you’re moving into other areas. And so, what are you doing in these other areas? Managed services? The big one, I think you guys are heading towards, if I remember correctly. 

  

Andy: 

Right. So, you started attending some shows last year. You’re attending some shows this year. And have you started integrating into some of the systems in that space?  

  

Kim: 

So attending the shows really is appropriate once you’ve got the product to show at the shows. And that was I would say our biggest besides our people, which I’m so proud of. So yeah. And I want to get back to that at some point. But I’d say our biggest technology shift really is two things: integrations and partnerships with other best in class vendors in the space. 

  

Kim: 

But then it also developed into a bundled solution. And that bundled solution means we integrate into whatever our customers need us to integrate into. Right. And I’d say ConnectWise Manage was the first and biggest we’ve done in that arena. But people are also wanting front end stuff like RingCentral for click to dial right inside the tools so they can track things from a marketing and an activity tracking standpoint more quickly and easily. 

  

Kim: 

There’s industry-specific as well as non-industry-specific marketing tools out there. Zoom Info, HubSpot Evolved Office, Dominic Pontrelli’s stuff, right? And the need to integrate into all of those things for imaging, but also for the I.T space is what we did in 2022. 

  

Andy: 

Very exciting, very exciting. 

  

Kim: 

So great. I love it. 

  

Andy: 

And your year is huge. We talked about that number before. Let’s bring it back up now that we’ve got a better understanding of what you guys do for the dealers. So, of all the dealers that you have, I don’t know if you’re allowed to say how many are with you or not, but those guys, those companies processed $1.3 billion in orders. 

  

Andy: 

Right. And so that’s an enormous number. Is that a record for you guys? 

  

Kim: 

I think it is the biggest yet and it will be beaten by this year easily, because of the number of onboarding we had in the second half of the year. So pretty exciting stuff. Our growth, we onboarded a bunch of really exciting new customers. 

  

Andy: 

And so, it’s only February and you’re going to have a record year in 2023. 

  

Kim: 

That’s right. 

  

Andy: 

That’s not bad. That’s not bad. So, what do you attribute to this? Why all of a sudden an explosion in growth for SalesChain? You know it’s been here for 21 years. A lot of companies have been using it for a long, long time. But over the last, you know 18 months it’s really taken off. What investments, other than obviously you coming on board, what are some of the key investments that you guys made? 

  

Andy: 

It was. 

  

Kim: 

All me. 

  

Andy: 

All you, and then also what else might it be. 

  

Kim: 

You know honestly, I believe that. So let me let me put it this way. I believe that dealers buy from people and companies that they know and trust, yes. You have to have the technology. We’ve proven that our technology is just phenomenal. It’s truly best in class out there for what these dealers are looking for to run their business as well. 

  

Kim: 

And while you said it’s a great tool for the salespeople, I want to say that I was just on a prospect demo this week, and I’m like, you know what, guys? This is actually more impactful to the sales ops and to the people behind the scenes supporting the salespeople, than it is even to them. And it depends on the dealer which it impacts more. 

  

Kim: 

But this tool impacts them all. But the dealers, the owners, they buy from companies they trust and from the people that they trust, meaning delivering on their word, and giving the right customer service. And I really believe that our messaging and more than our messaging, our revamping in the last two years has caused the attention to gain in the marketplace you know, one sec. 

  

Kim: 

Sorry, I’m recovering from a cold. You have to forgive me when I talk a lot it happens. So, you know, one of our challenges really has been to get the message out there. We are completely revamped, reorganized, and we’re firing on all cylinders since about 2020. And we’ve continued that process by hiring more people, as we’ve already discussed. 

  

Kim: 

So, you know, that being the case, what we have to do is get that message out there, using people like you, having Matt and you mentioned Colton on board. These are great things, and have really helped us get our message to the market about just how different we are. Every company goes through ups and downs, especially when they’ve been around for 20 years. 

  

Kim: 

Right. And we are in the best upswing we’ve ever been in, and it’s just being reflected by word of mouth in the market. 

  

Andy: 

So, you know, looking at that and then we take a look at the year you had, and it was, it was awesome, right? You had great growth. You guys were at all the shows. I mean, I saw you, I felt like I saw you everywhere that I went. You were at a ton of BTA shows, and some of the other major conferences. 

  

Andy: 

So, you’re really investing in the BTA channel, clearly. With the traditional dealers, and you got a lot of success there which I think builds on top of that. Where you know, there’s a lot of peer groups and a lot of these guys talk to each other and when one starts using you and other one notices you guys. So, looking ahead to 2023, you’re already predicting a record year but what are you excited about? 

  

Andy: 

What do you have coming up? What shows are you guys going to be doing? And you know, what’s the big deal, what’s happening with SalesChain in 2023? 

  

Kim: 

Yeah. 2023 is on track to match the excitement of 2022. I think there’s tons of new features, not just the bundled solution and continued integrations, but we’re going to start 2023 out with a bang this weekend. We’re having our release 8.3 push to the market, and, I’m going to throw out there, it’s the biggest product release in our company’s history. 

  

Kim: 

We have implemented, listening to our customers as we do so much in how we grow our products, we are implementing a used equipment desk that is going to be so beneficial to so many customers out there. We are updating, we have even more updates to our user interface, because of some of the developers we hired in 2022 are focusing on that as well. 

  

Kim: 

With many new screens. We’ve improved our security: we have Azure SSO. So now the list is long and exciting, from a features and updates standpoint to our product, and that’s just this month. So, I will tell you that one of the areas that excites me a lot too is what we’re doing internally as a company. So in 2022 this growth, you have to make sure that as you grow, you’re still able to meet your commitments and deliver on what you promised. 

  

Kim: 

And you know, when you grow, sometimes there are times it goes like this when you’re getting there. And in 2023, actually this month, we’re implementing brand new tools internally for our own digital transformation. We’re moving away, just like we are spreadsheet killers for our dealers, right? We’re doing the same for ourselves and putting tools in place for statements of work. 

  

Kim: 

So we have very accurate onboarding fees and onboarding processes. We’re putting in a brand-new project management tool for onboarding that we’ll be able to share out with our customers and make it all automated. And also for customers and special projects. But then on top of that, we’re putting in place a product management tool to better track our product development and our roadmap and make sure that our improvements are trapped in a workflow that makes sense. 

  

Kim: 

So, all those things together, we’re doing our own digital transformation. So, we’re set up to continue this growth into the future with leveling this out. Right. You know what I mean? So yeah, it’s probably the most exciting. 

  

Andy: 

It is. It is amazing to hear all the stuff you’ve been working on. And what really strikes me is not just that you’re introducing new stuff, but that you have to go back to all of these current customers. Right. And explain to them that your solution now does more, and now you have to retrain, so it’s not like you just get to come out with a new version and keep moving forward. 

  

Andy: 

It’s going every time you come out with something and you have to re distribute, I don’t know, just rehash it with everybody. Go through each of your dealers, each of your customers and explain to them the new enhancements, the new benefits, how they use them, what a tremendous undertaking that must be. So this new version, when did you say that’s coming out or has it come out already? 

  

Kim: 

It’s pushing this weekend. We’re really excited about it. 

  

Andy: 

So we’re right on the verge. This is good timing for this interview. 

  

Kim: 

Yeah, exactly. 

  

Andy: 

So other things I know we’ll be seeing you guys at some better shows. Obviously, we’ll be down in Asheville doing our, now our annual, golf outing. 

  

Kim: 

So that’ll be so fun. 

  

Andy: 

Oh, that was a great time. Last year we were down there. We had some great dealers down there enjoying it with us. Dex and Utech and so, hopefully we’ll do another little mini golf outing and some dinner afterwards, just like last year. What else? Any other shows that you’re going to be at? Anything coming up sooner? 

  

Kim: 

I’ll be in Orlando. We’re going to the Sharp Dealer meeting. We’ve made a full commitment to the CDA meetings this year, and hopefully even going to be in Houston for the BPCA. So we’re definitely very committed to the BTA, but have some other user groups we like to work with a lot as well. 

  

Andy: 

Well, BTA is just sort of that central core to everything right? But then given those user groups, those peer groups are fantastic. And CDA I think is probably the biggest dealer and I guess I do agree with that. So that’s a great, great group to be in front of. 

  

Kim: 

Yeah, I had some real good success stories in 2022. 

  

Andy: 

If you have success with one of them, they tend to once you leave the room, they often talk about you. So, if you have somebody who likes you that’s very, very helpful in those meetings. So, this has been awesome. This has been really great catching up with you. I look forward to seeing you at BTA in a few weeks and good luck rolling out this new version. 

  

Andy: 

8.1? 

  

Kim: 

8.3. 

  

Andy: 

8.3. I’m already behind. So 8.3 coming out this week. And good luck with that. I hope it goes smoothly. Any last shout outs that you have for everybody before we shut it down? 

  

Kim: 

Just looking forward to seeing everybody and both dealers and partners and continuing to enjoy getting to know y’all. So thanks. 

  

Andy: 

Kim Young. This was great. Good seeing you. And we will talk soon. Take care. 

  

Kim: 

Have a good one.