The Hidden Heroes of ICT: How Distributors Solve Complex Problems

Distribution companies serve as translators between stakeholders in the ICT industry, helping to bridge communication gaps and solve problems before they become costly mistakes. Anthony from Wise Components shares insights on how distributors add value beyond just supplying products, from emergency response to catching errors in orders and specifications.

• Distribution companies communicate with all stakeholders including manufacturers, contractors, project managers, and end-users
• Emergency response capabilities demonstrated by rapid delivery after the 345 Park Avenue incident in NYC
• Inside salespeople catch errors in bills of materials and project specifications
• Product expertise helps contractors avoid ordering wrong materials or forgetting essential components
• Distributors help resolve product issues, as shown in a case where 60,000 feet of defective cable was replaced
• Weekly follow-ups on large projects maintain communication and prevent problems
• Distributors offer free educational training events for contractors and industry professionals
• Distribution provides better quality assurance than general online retailers like Amazon
• Reputable distributors only carry products that meet certification requirements like UL and TIA

If you're watching this show on YouTube, would you mind hitting the subscribe button and the bell button to be notified when new content is being produced? If you're listening on one of the audio podcast platforms, would you mind giving us a five-star rating?

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Distribution as Translator
• 8:28 Welcome to Let's Talk Cabling
• 11:16 Distribution's Role in Emergency Response
• 24:50 How Distribution Adds Value
• 32:45 Low Voltage Nation Community Spotlight
• 38:16 Communication Bridges and Avoiding Rework
• 45:12 The Importance of Feedback Loops

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey Wiremonkeys, welcome to another episode of let's Talk Cabling. Today we're talking about how distribution can act as a translator.

Speaker 2: 0:08

Welcome to let's Talk Cabling your gateway to the world of ICT Get ready to dive deep into knowledge and power.

Speaker 1: 0:32

Welcome to the show as we tackle the tough questions submitted by apprentices, installers, technicians, project foremen managers, estimators, customers, even IT personnel. We are connecting at the human level so that we can connect the world. If you're watching this show on YouTube, would you mind hitting the subscribe button and the bell button to be notified when new content is being produced? If you're listening to us on one of the audio podcast platforms, would you mind giving us a five-star rating? Those simple little steps help us take on the algorithm so we can educate, encourage and enrich the lives of people in the ICT industry. Wednesday night, 6 pm, eastern Standard Time. What are you doing? You know I do a live stream on TikTok, instagram, facebook, linkedin, youtube, where you get to ask your favorite RCDD and you know I'm your favorite Questions on installation, design, certification, credentialing, even career path. But I can hear you. Now. I'm talking about talking with you. I don't want to get into an accident, take a breath, Relax. I record them and you can watch them at your convenience. And finally, while this show is free and will always remain free, would you mind clicking on that QR code right there? You can buy me a cup of coffee. You can schedule a 15-minute one-on-one call with me after hours, of course, and you can also support the show by buying let's Talk Cabling t-shirts through Amazon and some other places as well, too. So podcasts always need money to do our fancy trips.

Speaker 1: 1:59

I've always said that, even though we work in the communications industry, we suck at communicating. But what if I told you that we have somebody there to help us who'd be willing to jump in at any given point and help us clarify misunderstandings, whether it's a misunderstanding between the installer in the field and the project manager, or the project manager and the customer, or even manufacturers, and they do this for free. Oh my God. Yes, I said free. You heard that right. You heard that right. So we're talking about how distribution can be your best friend, yet so many people don't take part of that, don't utilize that for them. So I had to bring on somebody from distribution, and I couldn't think of anybody else better to ask this than my good friend Anthony from Wise Components. Anthony, how are you?

Speaker 3: 2:47

doing my friend? I'm doing well, Chuck. Thanks for having me again. It's a pleasure to be talking to you and all your guests at let's Talk. Cable Woo-ha, great, I love the attention that you're getting on social media LinkedIn, tiktok, all of it, you know to educate and enrich the lives of others in the ICT community. It's commendable, to say the least.

Speaker 1: 3:13

It's making progress. You know there's that old meme that it's older than, I think, computers itself, Because I remember I used to see these things like composers on walls and businesses and it was a picture of an iceberg floating in the water. And the essence of the meme is, when people see success, all they see is the tip of the iceberg. They don't see all the stuff underneath that goes into it. I truly understand that, even more so now with the podcast, Because it's coming up on. It's going to be five years old this month, I think. Oh my gosh, Holy cow, oh, birthday party. It's going to be five years old and it's starting to get traction. You know, and there's the first year and a half. It was rough coming out with content all the time which felt like it just went unheard. But you know, I appreciate that, I appreciate the acknowledgement and, like I said, I put it out there to make everybody better and that's that's the whole key for the thing. So it's been a while since you've been on the show.

Speaker 3: 4:08

It's been a while Too long, it's been a day or so. Yeah, no, I've been quite busy with our company, wise Components, amongst other things that we do for non-for-profit charity, charitable work, and it's been keeping us us. You know what you said before can't get a kick in a fight.

Speaker 1: 4:32

Well, my point was is you know, my audience keeps growing, so there's probably a facet of my audience who doesn't know Anthony, and they don't know why it's component, so why don't you just go ahead and take, you know, 30 seconds or so and you tell us I'll give you the 30, foot view.

Speaker 3: 4:46

So the company is um incorporated since 1975. Uh, goes back dates back to 1937 when it was a commercial hardware store rca distributor, you know and then fast forward to 1975 when they were in bronx, new York, located in Bronx, new York, on Westchester Avenue, providing industrial supply electronic components. We, the forefathers of the company, decided to make that into an acronym known as WISE WISE Components Right. So since 1975, we evolved in what we are providing to our customers, but nothing has changed, as far as you know, the level of service and, as you pointed out, distribution plays a critical role in the whole construction aspect, you know, from design to delivery, as it's pointed out many times. You know, people don't think about distribution until something happens and goes wrong, and you know it's an unfortunate story that just happened recently.

Speaker 3: 6:00

Many people across the nation had heard about the mass shooting in New York City at 345 Park Avenue recently. Well, that was at the Blackstone office in New York City. We had got a call at 6 pm that the contractor that was working at 345 Park Avenue needed to do an install, an emergency install, and it was very odd. And then we put all things together. So many people, many of you viewers, might have seen the news on the 345 shooting where Blackstone office employees barricaded the doors for their own safety. Well, what was not said was they were ripping things off the walls, the furniture, everything to barricade, so TVs and digital signage and furniture, anything to block a doorway or an entry point. That's what they did. In turn, they kind of destroyed their office. So the contractor that has an SLA with the building. They had to not only install more camera system, you know, more cables for it to support access control and card readers and the other digital infrastructure that needs to be supported with category twisted pair cable infrastructure that needs to be supported with category twisted pair cable. So we got the call 6 pm that evening at 5 am Everything was picked, packed and delivered at 6 am the next day to the site so that people you know the contractor was basically installing during the crime scene because they were, you know so it was. You don't think about things like that and the need and many at times, you know, on lighter notes, because that is an awful situation, but in lighter notes.

Speaker 3: 8:17

We've worked with hospitals and data centers around the country where data centers around the country, where you know the smallest little item, something is a ladder, rack or a tray uh, it prevented the domino effect, right? So it was just one thing that just prevented everything from going the right direction. I know there was a story we were working with uh Cushman Wakefield and we were, you know, the pimple on the of of the gigantic elephant. You know, nobody cares about us, um, until something happens. Well, the spec was written that it was only to be provided one particular um product for the cable tray. And then what happened was, uh, that cable tray at that time was you, time was unavailable and it was a 16-week lead time and it had to be powder coated a certain color. So the consultant and I were talking and I said, well, I can do the due diligence, save you some time for free, look into what's available, what's cost effective and what could be delivered to both Tampa and Las Vegas in the timeframe that you need. And that's what we did.

Speaker 3: 9:30

And it was an expansion in Tampa General as well as Las Vegas General that was in conjunction with New York University's hospital in Gome and it went perfect. It went according to plan, but it wasn't, you know, nobody. I didn't get a trophy for it, didn't get an extra any money for it. It was all done by free because, at the end of the day, if we help out the community that we're serving it's we're going to be recommended again contact us and I know there's a lot of um unsung heroes, as we called, in distribution, not just myself but many other distributors across the across the land. Um, we do it better, but no, I'm just kidding um, but yeah, distribution is an afterthought in many cases and we, we, um, we work with so many different great manufacturers and wonderful consultants and design engineering folks, as well as end users.

Speaker 2: 10:33

Whether you're pulling your first cable or managing multimillion dollar installs, you're not alone. Welcome to Low Voltage Nation, the largest, most active community of low voltage pros in the game, with over 176,000 members on Facebook and growing. This is where ICT professionals connect, collaborate and level up together. Got a question? You'll get answers from real techs with real experience Facing a job site challenge. Someone here has solved it and will show you how. From fiber to access, control, estimating to entrepreneurship, low Voltage Nation is your power network. This isn't just another group, it's a movement. Join the community today at lowvoltagenationcom or jump into the conversation at our Facebook group, because in this industry, the strongest signal comes from those who connect.

Speaker 1: 11:36

Yeah, so you guys talk to a lot of people and that's why I kind of said that you guys are the hidden translator, right? And because, like you said, you pretty much talk to. You know, you study project management, you have this thing called stakeholders and most people can come up with the obvious ones, like the crew, the customer, the GC, but a lot of times they forget distribution. You know distribution can be that communications bridge, right, and you know, let's talk about a few things First. You know how you guys can help avoid miscommunications before it becomes rework, right? So, for example, where do you most often see the misalignment between? You know the project manager who's calling in the order to the field crew showing up at the will call to pick up the items.

Speaker 3: 12:26

Well, in a perfect scenario, if I may, you're in the process. We have a team of folks that's talking to engineers, the end user directly, as well as the manufacturer, and if we're in early stages of a project, we were able to set aside the material that's needed, ordered in advance to ensure that the material is going to be readily available and set aside, and we work with many customers around the country to support those evolutions. In a perfect scenario, that's what goes down. You bring in your team of manufacturers, because one manufacturer obviously is not going to provide power, cooling, electrical low voltage, everything. So we kind of are the supermarket, if you will. You're not going to go buy Heinz ketchup from the factory, you're going to go buy it from the supermarket of your choice. Right, and along the way you're going to get the buns, you're going to get the hot dogs and everything else. So having distribution there is in a perfect scenario from the early stages.

Speaker 3: 13:32

But going back to the transactional businesses, where you're, we get a contractor coming in and he just needs to go to our lock boxes and say, hey, we ordered six boxes of cable. Well, it's up to our sales folks to ask them hey, do you have pull string. Do you have the associated material, the jacks, the panels, all the ancillary things that coincide with that? And a lot of times we get these calls where somebody will say, hey, I need six box of cable. Okay, what are you doing?

Speaker 3: 14:10

Is the next question out of everybody's mouth here, because we want not that we're nosy, but we want to understand how can we help you along the way. Is it only six boxes that you need because you're in a pinch and okay, we'll, we'll fulfill that. But if it's something that you're forgetting to, you know, our, our team is, you know, well-versed. We have folks here that date back to the late 80s, that are still working here and have worked elsewhere and came back, and we have folks that you know have been end users and, as well as are RCDD certified and, amongst you know, other certifications that they hold. So we pay attention to details and I don't just say that from the gut. We're ISO certified shop.

Speaker 1: 14:58

Yeah, you know it's. It's far more efficient to only make one trip to pick up your materials than multiple trips, and and from a from a distributor standpoint. You know that guy is walking in, he's coming out of their van and he's coming into the will call to pick up the stuff. You don't know if that guy literally is only two weeks experience or 15 years experience. Right, two weeks of experience. What I'm saying is they may not realize they need pull string, they might need J hooks, they might need jacks and all that stuff. They're all they know. The boss just said hey, go pick up that cable.

Speaker 3: 15:35

What right and and what you said earlier is communication. And that could be internal on their end, where the boss, estimator, project manager, whoever is doing the estimation and takeoffs maybe they didn't communicate that. Hey, we have, you know, smith Street and we have floors four, five and six and these are the material that we have. But our, our people at the warehouses will say, well, same company, different project. They're going to talk to the guy and they're going to say, guy O'Grell, and they say, hey, you have this sitting in our lockbox, do you want to pick that up as well, you know. And then they'll say, oh no, that's Joe's job, so I'm not going to touch that. And then they'll say, oh no, that's Joe's job, so I'm not going to touch that. Or they'll say, oh great, this is, you know, saves me a trip, you know.

Speaker 3: 16:20

So the communication is a key element of it and paying attention to details, what we do, you know, at the end of the day, chuck, as we've seen, not only manufacturers but just worldwide, in every industry, ai has been, you know, infiltrating every industry. So now, and I don't want to pick on the younger audience, younger listeners, but what they do, or, I said, the tendency, what they have to do is they look at their phone and they go let me search this on Google. Where can I get this?

Speaker 1: 16:55

It's not always right. It's not always right. I just saw a post just the other day. It was on Live Voltage Nation Facebook group. Somebody had asked chat GPT how many Cat6 cables can it put in a one-inch conduit? Which Cat6? That's a hard question, even for a seasoned veteran like me, because I'm going to ask you what is the actual cable type, what's the OD of the cable Right and how many bends are there and all that stuff. But listen to this. Chat GPT came back and said 40 to 50 cables. Yeah, yeah, you're not going to get 40 cables in a one inch condo. I think I don't care how much you put on it, you're not going to get it in a single pair.

Speaker 1: 17:39

Yeah, yeah, so. So AI is a great and fantastic tool, right, but you've got to be able to double check it. You have to have, you have to have enough knowledge to know.

Speaker 3: 17:48

Yeah, that's not right, I recall a doctor that my wife had years ago. He had a coffee mug on his desk and he said don't let your Google search ability replace my MD. And it's so true when you talk to experience, and that's one of the things that the team here at Wise Components they have years of experience they're going to ask questions, know questions not to pry, but to understand and help along the way. Right, you know, constantly we'll get guys that are in the field that I'll take pictures of things. They don't have a part number, they don't have any descriptive of what they need. They just say, hey, I have this box and I have to get two, two cables to here. What, what could I use? And you know they'll send a picture. Then our team will look at it and say, okay, what's the dimensions? And you know they'll say, well, this will work.

Speaker 1: 18:43

Yep, yeah, there's lots of resources out there if you know where to go, and that's actually another advantage of working with distribution. Right is they know those ins and outs. But I want to really focus on on on this, on this section. Here you know more about communication. You know from being, from being a distributor. You get a unique perspective of poor communications. You know what? What recurring poor communications do you see, quite often that can be avoided with better communications in our industry.

Speaker 3: 19:14

I think, lead times, both from a manufacturer's standpoint as well as project schedule times. So a contractor that's awarded a job from a general contractor in this scenario, the project schedule, let's say it's six months long, uh, to start. But then things shift and the painters didn't do what they needed to do, the electricians didn't do what they needed to do, the concrete and and, and it's a domino effect. So that's six months, now goes to eight months. So they don't want the material sitting in their warehouse or their trucks, because they don't want to aid to be damaged, they don't want it to be misplaced Right. And then distribution no matter if you have a million square feet of space or a billion square feet of space, you don't want it to sit on the floor just collecting dust, because distribution is a bank to some degree. Yes, agree, we pay for that material and we're in hopes that the customer is going to pay us eventually.

Speaker 1: 20:21

And a lot of companies don't catch that because and let me point this out yes, it's more prevalent in distribution, right? Because I'm just going to make up some numbers. Let's say that you pull out $100,000 out of your bank account to order a bunch of cable and it's sitting in your warehouse, right? Well, that $100,000 worth of cable in your warehouse is not increasing in value. If it's in the bank, at least it can be making some kind of interest. It's not in some, right. But the same thing's true for the small and large low voltage companies. But it's more critical for the small ones because you know they might have a storage shed where they store all the excess cable from leftover projects and stuff. That is money in the bank just sitting there and at some point what will happen is you'll get so tired of moving stuff around to get to the cable that's on the bottom. You're like, ah, I'm just going to throw this stuff away and that's money you're throwing away right.

Speaker 2: 21:13

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Speaker 1: 22:00

So let me ask you this, right? So how often on a weekly basis just give me a number, right how often on a weekly basis would you say that distribution might catch an error in, like a PO or an RFQ?

Speaker 3: 22:17

Let me use my fingers toes. So many of the folks again I credit the team that have years of experience. They look at it. I mean even the logistics of the zip codes and things like that. You know somebody will say, oh, it's a street versus an avenue and it's in a different county. And you know the sales folks look at that and the operations team kind of check them to say, hey, you put down New York, but this is not New York, this is, this is Connecticut. You know it's like it's a different, it's a different way to go altogether. So as far as mistakes go, they happen. We understand that. Nobody is infallible. Everybody makes mistakes. We try to help them along the way as best as we can.

Speaker 3: 23:11

And again goes back to communication.

Speaker 3: 23:14

You know that we go back to the estimator that that's talking to our sales team and said, hey, are you sure of this?

Speaker 3: 23:22

And as I was just saying and this is I'm laughing about it because this just happened today it went through a salesperson who then went through an operations person and now is going to make a delivery. And because the drivers as well. They're the tip of the spear. They see customers more than I see customers and they have a great disposition as well as a relationship with people that are on site. So the drivers then will call. If it's regular customers, they'll call ahead and they'll say hey, bob, joe, jill, jane, I got this delivery coming to you this morning. Do you want it here or do you want me to meet you at this other location? To make it easy for you, because they know that they're taking a train or something into the city, or if they know, so they build a rapport with the guys that are on, the people that are on site, to help you know. Again, going back to communication, right, because that is key.

Speaker 1: 24:29

It is absolutely key and that's what I said. You know, I have a list of one hundred and forty seven pro tips, and pro tip number two is communicate, communicate, communicate tips. And pro tip number two is communicate, communicate, communicate. For those who are wondering, pro tip number one is document, document, document, Black and white. Absolutely, yeah, yeah, exactly. Let's shift gears just a tiny little bit right. Let's talk about getting the right gear, getting it the right way and getting it right the first time. Right, because it's not just about parts. You know, distribution is also about help, solving pains, and you did a great job of just describing how you drivers do that Right Just a few seconds ago. Let me ask you this If you could speak to the installers, the people in the field, right now, what do you wish they would do better to communicate their material needs to distribution?

Speaker 3: 25:10

Well, it's a couple of step process there. I mean, the easiest way to say it is you know, just be honest. You know if you think that we're going to sell it on you, because that's what happens. You know, I was a contractor at one time and I'm not stringing anybody along, never would. But you get busy on your job sites and're juggling three, four, five projects as a contractor and you know you don't need or you don't have the ability to get to that job where you need that material. You're just going to push it off to the side, push it off to the side and then go back to the distributor at your convenience.

Speaker 3: 25:50

Meanwhile the distributor could have sold you know, sold the product, or and or, you know, staged it differently. You know that again, it boils down to communication, communication, communication. If the project manager is talking internally to their team, effectively with the guys, the people that are going to be on site, and they know the schedule is going to be on site and they know the schedule is going to be what it is. And it also goes back to accounting, because that's another thing that people don't talk about, you know, because we're not a 40,000 employee company, we're a lot more agile, right? So there, there's not layers and layers of management in a company like ours. So each individual that's responsible for an account, they really run their own little business unit, so they know what they can and cannot do for that customer before asking any management or even ownership of to where they're going.

Speaker 3: 26:49

So, with that said, you know, a lot of times people come across hard times. Maybe they lost the state contract, maybe they lost the bid and now they're still into you for a half a million dollars. Sure that they don't go under. And you know, way before I came on board in 2017, we have relationships that date back 40 plus years with some of these contractors and I've met a lot of these owners over the years that I've been here and they say, oh, I'll always buy from Wise because they helped me out in the pinch.

Speaker 3: 27:31

You know, there's been many a times where you know we've been in our rights to lean a building and we kind of get back to the basics. We just say people are people, let's find out what's going on. Are they again yachting? Because I've had those situations too, where a person will owe a couple million dollars and they show up to the meeting for a year owing that million dollars in their brand new Ferrari and you're like oh sorry, it took so long to get back to you, but I was yachting and I was like not cool.

Speaker 1: 28:11

Yeah, I hear you. You know a lot of people don't realize, and you said it already at the beginning of the interview. You mentioned about how distribution is tied in to the end user, tied into the manufacturer, tied into the, the spec firms, tied into the contractor, tied into the installers. I can't think of any one stakeholder in our project management process that's more connected than distribution, right? So you kind of get to see everything. So let's talk about specifications versus reality, right? So how often, since you guys are involved a lot of times in that beginning phase, how often would you say the specs are different from when the rubber hits the road? The reality, yeah, exactly the reality.

Speaker 3: 28:54

So, because a lot of things that we do, so let's apply the 80-20 rule. I would say in our organization it could be different for other distribution, but in our organization 80-20. So I would say 80% of our customers are coming from the contractor world, right? So your electricians, your integrators, your security integrators, et cetera. The other 20% of those customers are your NASDAQs, nbcs, jpmcs, where they're doing moves, adds and changes, and they just need a dozen or two dozen patch cords, right, and they start to build a rapport. So, whether it be NBC, comcast or one of the financials that we deal with, they they say oh, I, you know, I have this problem and and they start, you know, divulging what they're coming, you know, coming across. And then, next thing, you know, they say well, you just need a PDU and this will help you solve this problem. You know? Or, hey, are you aware that Oberon has this uh little, uh enclosure so that your WAP doesn't get destroyed? You know?

Speaker 1: 30:05

And not even not even at that level, anthony. I mean, you know, um, I've I've relayed this story before. You know, I've talked about a lot of stuff over five years, but one of the stories I talk about when I was an estimator is I was I was estimating a project where we there was five of us bidding on this project, and so I submitted my bill of materials to my distribution. It wasn't wise components at that time, though, but I submitted to my distribution and my inside salesperson, and they called me back, because whenever I would send over our bill of materials or pricing, it only had the proposal number. It never said who the name was blah blah, blah blah. That was just an internal policy of the company I worked for, and the inside salesperson was so plugged in he called me up. He says, hey, are you bidding? I'm going to make up a name. Is that the ABC project over there in Silver Spring, maryland? He's like, yeah, why he goes? Yeah, you might want to check your takeoffs, because your numbers aren't right. What?

Speaker 1: 31:04

do you mean they're not right. Yeah, he goes because he, that inside salesperson, was also getting billed materials from two, three, four other people. And I tell you what? And I'm not winning that project, but had I won it, that would have been a huge mistake, a huge mistake.

Speaker 2: 31:21

Let's take a short break. Are you trying to reach the technicians, project managers and decision makers of the ICT industry? Then why aren't you advertising on let's Talk Cabling? With over 150,000 impressions a month across podcasts, youtube and social media? This isn't just a show. It's the go-to resource for the low-voltage industry. We spotlight the tools, training and technology shaping the future of structured cabling, and your brand could be front and center. Don't just get noticed, get trusted. Email, chuck at advertising at letstalkcablingcom, and let's connect your brand to the right audience today.

Speaker 1: 32:07

This is actually not one of the list of the questions I submitted to you, but I know you can wax poetic about it. A lot of the people who listen to my show are people who, just you know they're good technicians foremen. They just you know what. I'm going to hang my shingle. I'm going to have my own low voltage business company. So they but they're good at pulling cable, but they're not so good on the backside, the logistics, the business side of it and stuff. So their first go-to and I hate to say this, their first go-to to buy cable is from Amazon, not from distribution. So I'm going to limit you to 30 seconds on this, because I know you can wax poetic for a long time. Why should somebody go through distribution and not go through Amazon to buy their cable and stuff? Well, besides cost, I'm timing you.

Speaker 3: 32:52

I'm timing you, besides cost going to a reputable distributor, you're going to get the value add, like I said earlier, that they're going to provide you not only that, cable, on time, defect free, because a lot of the sources that Amazon's getting that cable from is not always reputable Right, so you could see that too. So now, with that said, you're getting reliable product, on time, defect free, from a reliable source, right. And if there is a and sometimes in the cable world there are, and I'll give you one case in point real quick About five years ago there was a college will remain nameless contractor installed 60,000 feet of cable. The cable all failed. Feed a cable the cable all failed, all failed testing. So the manufacturer was a reputable manufacturer, bought through us. We said let's get to the bottom of this. We all rolled up our sleeves and said, okay, we're going to make this right. And what we come to find out?

Speaker 3: 34:02

That particular batch of cable was part of something that was supposed to not be distributed Right, not through us but through the manufacturer. Right for his labor on the install of the initial. But they then paid for the install of the secondary and also provided cable for that. We did that without hesitation. Our company did that without hesitation. We provided the contractor with the cable that they needed because they knew it was bad, they knew it had to come out and they knew they were going to get new cable. So we provided them the cable without hesitation because we knew we deal with reputable manufacturers Right. And the reputable manufacturer wrote a check, made it right, yep.

Speaker 1: 34:57

And people don't realize it's a numbers game. It is truly a numbers game. In the manufacturing world they always try to strive for what's called the four nines right 99.99% accuracy, and that sounds pretty good, until you're making a billion feet of cable. Because if you're making a billion feet of cable and your error rate is 0.01, that means and that's a realistic number, because there's a company I'm aware of that sells a billion feet of cable every year. Right, if 0.01% is bad, that means 100,000 feet of cable going out the door is bad.

Speaker 3: 35:33

I can tell you with certainty.

Speaker 3: 35:35

I'm only here eight years at Wise Components, but in the time that I'm here, we represent a lot of reputable manufacturers, all which will remain nameless. But if you look at our line card, go for it. Every one of them had a situation similar to the story I just said, but every one of them stepped up to the plate and hit it out of the park and nobody got hurt. Nobody lost money. And nobody got hurt. Nobody lost money. You know they all.

Speaker 3: 36:05

So I get and switching gears, I get harassed. My partners and I, we get harassed daily, weekly by many manufacturers from all over the globe saying hey, you need to sell our component, you need to sell our cable, you need to sell our WAP, you need to sell this, that and the other thing. You need to sell our cable, you need to sell our WAP, you need to sell this, that and the other thing. And we go, we put it through the standard operating procedure guidelines like are you certified? Are you this, are you UL, are you the ET? You know we go through the gamut with them and they say no, no, no. We're like no, no, no. It's that simple.

Speaker 1: 36:42

Yeah, no, absolutely. Let's talk about feedback loops and lessons learned and how distribution can help with this right. How can distribution maintain a solid feedback loop between the outside salesperson, the inside salesperson, the warehouse, the contractor and the manufacturer? What's your best recommendation?

Speaker 3: 37:06

there Weekly follow-ups. If it's a project, it's a weekly follow-up schedule call that we should have with both internal and external folks. If it's a large project, we deal with transportation, like New York City Transit Authority or New Jersey Transit Authority or Metro North. These are ongoing large projects or the transportation hubs like JFK LaGuardia Airport. You know these are internationally known airports A lot of moving parts, a lot of people on site. You have multiple contractors on the same job sites. So you're trying to help your little part. You know, again, distribution is like the unsung hero. Unless something goes wrong, they really don't need to talk to you. But case in point that we've made is that the earlier we're involved, the better situation. You know the project situation stays.

Speaker 1: 38:04

Let me ask you this, because you know the project situation stays. Let me ask you this, cause you know I can, I'm my, my, my ears are burning, and the reason they're burning is cause I can hear. I can hear that project manager out there oh, that's all feel good stuff, that whole communication stuff, that stuff, nobody, I talk, nobody ever lives. I can, I can, it's burning, I can hear it, I can hear him saying it. Right. Let me ask you this have I'm saying right.

Speaker 3: 38:35

Let me ask you this have you ever, or how often, have you seen feedback from from a project or from a contractor actually get incorporated in future purchasing decisions or maybe even project designs? Well, we've had several recommendations from many large design engineering firms where they've written distribution us into the specification. We've come across situations where large entities in transportation have gotten education on the products, on the features, functions, benefits, lead times, costs, et cetera, accessories and all that and in turn, what, et cetera, accessories and all that, and in turn, what they've done for us, and I know they've done for other distributors, is they've made part numbers that are associated to distribution. So we have a number of accounts where our part, the part number, starts with a W, and it could be a number of manufacturers. So it's all brought to you by us but manufactured by others.

Speaker 1: 39:33

You know, nobody's perfect. We all make mistakes. Hence I refer to that 0.01% mistake thing, right? So if a contractor or a field personnel see that there's an issue and there's a mistake, whether whether they made a mistake in ordering the wrong stuff, or the wrong stuff got delivered, or or the manufacturer did the uh, you know, had a problem with whatever, what would you say? Well, give me, give us a brief. What would that resolution process look like?

Speaker 3: 40:09

From the moment they realize, oh, this is wrong, yeah, so that happens, like, let's say, in case in point, there's times where people are ordering armored when they know they don't need to be ordering armored fiber, you know, and there's a price difference associated with that, you know. Or Planum versus R riser, again price difference with that. So it comes down to the wire, as long as it doesn't leave the facility and isn't installed, we'll, you know, we'll. We'll work with the contractor and or end user to say don't worry about it, we'll, you know, it's not going to be a restocking fee and you know hassle. We want to have happy return customers and if it becomes a constant occurrence, we recommend training both internally as well as

Speaker 3: 40:58

externally. And speaking of training, that's another thing that we do and we mentioned about it a couple of times. You know, over the years we've done many countless educational training events that have been free to to our attendees as well, as they can earn CECs for attending these, these trainings with the manufacturers. We try to make it, you know, both informative and entertaining. So we we've had, um, we've had events where there's been music tied to it and or magic tied to it as well yes, I remember that one, I remember the magic one, because you guys put on these cool events all the time.

Speaker 1: 41:40

And new york's not my backyard, that's. You know, that's a, that's a plane trip for me. Yeah, and, and you and I were talking before the, before I hit the record button, we were talking about I I really should hit record as soon as I'm making it, because we're talking about robotic dogs, oh yeah, all kinds of cool stuff.

Speaker 1: 41:54

But, and I told you, one of these days, show up, it's in my schedule, you'll always announce I'm gonna hop on a plane and I'm just gonna show up at one of your events because they always look. When you did that magic one, I was like, oh, I want to go see the magic show that that man, uh, his name is david levitan uh, not levitan, but levitan.

Speaker 3: 42:18

He's been doing magic for like the last 30 years and he was, he was mental like he they call him the mentalist and people left like saying, how did he do that? Like?

Speaker 3: 42:32

it's just amazing to me how he was able to come up and pull these things out of out of thin air. You know, he had two people stand side by side just real quick. He had two people stand side by side, just real quick. He had two people stand side by side real quick and he says I'm going to channel the two of them into one, so whatever he feels he's going to feel. And so they basically blindfold these two people side by side after he did his hocus pocus thing. And they're not in on it, they're just random people from the audience, they don't even know each other. And he starts like touching one of them on the head and the person that he's touching on the head he doesn't feel it. The other person goes oh, you're touching me, what it was so?

Speaker 1: 43:20

crazy. It was so crazy.

Speaker 3: 43:22

Yeah, no, and he went on about a number of things where people were just stunned.

Speaker 1: 43:30

You mentioned something earlier and maybe you've told me this before and maybe just Chuck's thick head didn't pick up on it. I just assumed you were a regional distributor for New York, New Jersey. You're talking about Tennessee and a bunch of other places.

Speaker 3: 43:44

So we're, as I said, we're a longstanding, reputable distribution company Based out of New York and Connecticut. We have our warehouses and a fleet of vehicles, both vans and trucks. We have unions and non-union drivers, as well as union and non-union employees, depending on the situation. That being said, we also have a e-commerce platform known as Datacom Tools since 1999. So Datacom Tools if you go to Wise Components website and it says shop now, if you don't want to talk to one of our reliable, knowledgeable people, you could just do it online and Datacom Tools will send you that tools. We send it to Hawaii University or other places around the globe. The other division that I don't normally talk about with the contractor world, which is also logistics, is our OEM division. So our OEM division, which doesn't fall into the ICT community, works primarily with medical manufacturing companies such as Abbott Laboratories, Siemens Health, roughly in about 30 countries since 1970s.

Speaker 1: 45:02

Anthony, pleasure having you on the show show. I look forward to catching up with you at beyond big c in vegas. Um, we'll have to get a cup of coffee, maybe break some bread together. Do something In the world of ICT. Let's ride this tide.

Speaker 2: 45:28

Thank you for joining us on let's Talk Cable and stay tuned for more episodes filled with innovation. Keep connecting, keep achieving. Until next time, I'm.