Episode 12: Meet the sales team

"Sales" is a bit of a loaded word, isn't it? You’re probably picturing suits, aggressive handshakes, and people who won't stop emailing you. But at Wise, it’s a whole different game.

And this week, our sales team are taking over the podcast!

We’re hanging out with the people who actually grow our platform. We talk about everything from the high of that first closed deal to the "silver bullet" features that make prospects realise they're missing out. No corporate jargon - just the team chatting about how they actually get things done.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

We have the best processes in place.

SPEAKER_04 0:01

We're doing everything we can.

SPEAKER_01 0:03

If you were restricted and you could only sell one wise service or feature for the rest of the year, which one would it be?

SPEAKER_04 0:09

Interesting. Wise advantage. We saved 28 grand on one of our clients for just fuel cards.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

We don't just give them the system and say, good luck there you go. We offer complete ongoing support like the system training.

SPEAKER_04 0:20

What was your personal favourite WISE feature? And why? Great question. That's a great cat.

SPEAKER_03 0:29

The trust ID integration. The ability to actually digitally check someone has legitimate work.

SPEAKER_02 0:35

If you're individually sending bank transfers to those drivers every Friday, let's say, that is such a laborious task to have to do. Just a simplifying process of paying all those drivers in one go. I think that takes out all the markets.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

What is the biggest misconception that people have about salespeople?

SPEAKER_03 1:01

I'll put anyone I think. As you mentioned, head of sales. I've been in sales for the last ten years. Um I sold cars to begin with for five years. Yeah. And uh moved into software sales. Loved it since. This is the first software sales you've ever done. I did software sales before. What was that? Um it was to do with actual RD tax credits. Um completely different to what we do right now. Um but yeah, enjoyed it. Enjoyed I enjoyed the client types of clients we deal with. Right as in this job, no, you enjoyed it. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, did it for four and a half years now? That's that's it. It's flown by mate, it's flowing job.

SPEAKER_04 1:54

Been here a while on one of these chairs. What about yourself, man? Uh yeah, I'm a business development manager. Uh been here for 18 months now, I believe, 19 months. Uh just got promotion recently. I can't shout CTM out. Pretty much deal with the booking demos, doing demos, everything like that. Um, really love the place. I used to sell the water coolers that we have here, by the way. Did which is madden us. Um I can't slate the company on it. No, so um, it's just mental. I've gone from selling that product to actually selling a good product. Yeah. Nice.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Yeah. Well, I am a sales development representative. I'd never done sales before this, and I went straight out of uni to this. Um, so it's very different. I didn't know what I wanted to do, so I thought I'd try something different. I didn't like it for the first three months.

SPEAKER_05 2:50

I remember I remember.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

I think there was a point in time where I just like it clicked, and I like it now. And I really love the company. So yeah, my role is just to basically book the meetings for these two.

SPEAKER_03 3:03

Very good. Amelia?

SPEAKER_02 3:04

I'm Amelia. Um SDR as well. I've been here 10 months and I came with no experience, so thanks to you for taking a chance on me. Um, but yeah, I love it and excited to see where it will go.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

So, what made you get into sales then start with you, Simon?

SPEAKER_03 3:20

What made me get into sales? Um So I left University in America as we were.

SPEAKER_04 3:28

I was gonna say you never went to Uh He was meaningful.

SPEAKER_03 3:32

School college over there. Yeah, yeah. A little bit of a downgrade. But um I was studying. What are you studying? I was kicking a football. Okay. That was awesome. Um yeah, my uncle actually worked at Mark and uh he got me into sales there. That got me in sales and then ten years later. You're not what you know, see you now. Absolutely, mate. Ten years later I'm uh selling software. That's the old name. We've got you.

SPEAKER_04 3:56

You uh I uh I went travelling in Australia before that I did lots of work in hospitality, when travelling in Australia, obviously with backpacking, needed, so so started working in sales, selling gas and electricity. I did door-to-door sales, which was a mentor. Uh unless you're a female and you get given free stuff. And then it's genuine banana. So I used to work in door to door, um the girls would come back on the TV from one of the prospects that we okay speak. I always get told to go away. What who said it? Did they just say go away? No, I I can't tell you what they care. Uh so uh gas electricity. So basically, uh also worked in gas electricity until I moved the water coolers and then came in. Yeah, so yeah. Uh broad spectrum. And uh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:51

What's your what's your best story from uh a physical knock on the door? What's the best one? It's not a bad story, mate. PJ though.

SPEAKER_04 4:59

Someone spat on mate.

SPEAKER_03 5:01

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:04

I've got another doesn't matter. I know that's because that's your best story. It does, but there's no really good story.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Why did that happen?

SPEAKER_04 5:15

Because they didn't like me knocking on the door. Whereas a girl that came back with a TV, I guess. I wouldn't be able to do that. No, you wouldn't forget a girl. Oh you'd come out with TVs.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

I don't think I'd like to chance it to be honest.

SPEAKER_04 5:28

No, to be fair, I did go and have a couple of beers with some of the people in Australia. They didn't bother me there. So that's a bit weird. Someone knocked at my door, but like, if you ain't coming in, come in for a beer. I was like, okay, yeah, sure, I'll easily led.

SPEAKER_03 5:40

And then uh yeah, have a beer rather than then just leave. So any any clients watch you, you know, when we knock on the depot and we go, yeah. Do you want to go for a beer? Yeah. Or any potential prospects. Lily, what how'd you get into sales then?

SPEAKER_01 5:52

I don't know, I kind of fell into sales um because I didn't know what I wanted to do after uni, but I was looking for jobs for ages and I knew I wanted to something where I knew I could progress.

SPEAKER_04 6:02

What jobs were you looking for?

SPEAKER_01 6:03

I thought I'd be good at like data analysis. I did a couple, but like, you know, you get like through a couple of stages. What did you have? I did psychology. Okay. What's I got to do with data so in my dissertation? Like, but I got a first summer dissertation. What's everyone? So from that, I thought I'd be really good at analysing data. And then I did a week's work experience at an insurance company, and I absolutely hated it. And I was looking at all the data analysis, and I thought, that's not absolutely it's so hard. It's like what K does. Like, there's no way that I'd be able to go out K do difficult for me. So then I applied for a couple of sales jobs because I wanted something that I thought I could progress in. Um, and I thought I'd be good at it. So that's really why I got into it.

SPEAKER_04 6:56

A lot of confidence.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:57

But you're not good at it.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

What about you? Um, I've always kind of wanted to be in sales, but I didn't really know how to get into it.

SPEAKER_04 7:08

So why have you always wanted to be in sales?

SPEAKER_02 7:11

I my dad is in sales, and I saw the rewards it kind of gives, and the more work you put in better you get out. So yeah, I've always wanted to get into it, and then I was gonna go to uni and study economics, but I went travelling instead and kind of decided no, I want to earn money straight away. I don't want to be in debt. So yeah, found flourish, which we both went through and ended up here.

SPEAKER_04 7:37

Shout out flourish.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

Shout out flourish.

SPEAKER_04 7:40

I'm actually looking for two replacements.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Right, so the next thing is to talk about how the team actually functions. So to the outsider, sales sounds quite broad. So, how do our roles really differ from each other?

SPEAKER_04 7:58

I think you two should start with it.

SPEAKER_02 8:00

Okay, okay. So we kind of start off the whole part of the sales cycle. So we will cross back, find leads, um, find any companies that self-employed drivers, cold call them about 20,000 times before they pick up email, email, LinkedIn, bid yards, etc. So that's what our day-to-day kind of consists of, and then we pass over to Tom and Simon.

SPEAKER_03 8:24

What do you think the most successful outreach type is?

SPEAKER_01 8:28

I think call in.

SPEAKER_03 8:29

Call in.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Unfortunately, straight to the point, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:33

So yeah, basically my uh my job I've still outreach myself. Uh a lot of prospects, and the girlsman very busy and booking lots of demos for me. So if no predominantly just demoing and trying to get uh the basically the sales closed. Um and uh I've passed over to the big man, the box line.

SPEAKER_03 8:54

Be fair, I think my my my role has kind of progressed through the entire process. I think my fur my first year I spent I'd say 80% of my time on the phones. Just grinding the phones and trying to find new opportunities uh and kind of slowly the percentages has moved. I think I've only booked about three meetings this year. Well, is that optimistic?

SPEAKER_01 9:19

That was mine anyway.

SPEAKER_03 9:22

Um so yeah, in terms of my role, I'm um obviously making sure the team operates how it needs to. Um closing a couple of the sales and yeah, make sure, mate. Close it. Come on. Some more put yourself down, bringing on some new businesses, mate.

SPEAKER_04 9:35

How do we compliment monitor um monitor? Um like you say, obviously, we offer support all the time. So, but um, if we have a deal that's struggling to basically close, I'll always come to you. You'll put it checking call.

SPEAKER_03 9:48

Yeah, I mean, I look I always like to just follow up with a an opportunity and just make sure that the team have looked after them. And Tom looks after you.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

No, I'll be supposed to be genuine calls, don't do that.

SPEAKER_03 10:00

Uh do they understand what they've had explained to them? Do they understand the presentation? Do they have any questions? Because there might be a scenario where they'll say to you, Yeah, it looks great. Yeah. But they know you too well, they've spent two, three hours with you. There has been a scenario like that. And where I pick the phone, they don't know who I'm there, they go, Oh, yeah, actually, uh Tom, I don't quite get the products or I don't quite get uh how the system works. So it gives me an opportunity to touch base and just kind of introduce myself and and handle any questions. That's one of the old finishes. Absolutely it complements quite well. It does, yeah. But it it starts with obviously with the with Lily and Amelia finding the opportunities, and then sometimes there's times where you'll then help them out with making the booking happen, following it up.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

Or we even help each other, like if there's somebody that's not answering me, they've blocked my number. That happens a lot. Yeah, it does it does happen a little bit, but we help each other. Um so like you'll ring people for me to uh to get them back in. Yeah, but it does work, I think.

SPEAKER_04 10:58

It's good, just hearing from different people. So we've got um a lot of experience in different areas, so we can always help each other. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

And SK's been here for 17,000 years, right? He goes a lot. Like it's the granddad of the whole company.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Fantastic, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

So he's got a lot of expertise that he shares with the rest of us. Obviously, when me and Amelia joined, well, for me, I didn't know anything about the last mile logistics sector. No, not still don't, apparently. But SK's expertise and Tom's really.

SPEAKER_04 11:31

Oh, yeah, thanks. Just keep it.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

It's just because he's been globally for a little bit longer. But you know, he's like the Amazon industry like in the back of his hand, so I think that really helps us out.

SPEAKER_04 11:42

So basically, just walk us through like when we come into the office, so we have an office day. What's the first hour of the day like?

SPEAKER_02 11:49

The first thing we do is probably go and grab a cafe near own as a team.

SPEAKER_03 11:53

Yeah, I think I think for me, look, I've worked I've worked in environments where eight o'clock, you have to first of all, you've got to be there bang on eight o'clock. Yeah, which I don't agree with because two hours late. That'd be good for them. Um everyone's got to travel, all of us have got to travel nearly an hour to work, sometimes a little bit further. An hour and a half and we don't have a set time. We have a look, we have a flexible time whether you start between eight or ten, and you then you finish slightly later. But that first meeting, the second you walk through the door, you're never at your best. No, I like to start our day with walking over to the coffee shop. Shout out Caffeineiro and Vitality as well. I think we've ever paid for a coffee from Mel. Another work perk. Uh uh Caffeineiro feel vitality, absolutely. So we walk over, we'll mull over uh the stories of the weekend. That's the best part of the day to be fair.

SPEAKER_02 12:46

But team bonding.

SPEAKER_03 12:48

Absolutely. But look, it just means it just means that we can kind of get out the the chit-chat of the weekends and go and get a coffee in a relaxed environment. And then when it means we get into the sales meeting at nine o'clock on a morning, we're all ready to hit the ground.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Yeah, it feels less regimented, like it's nice to be able to chill a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 13:06

As you said, I've worked in jobs where basically you come in at 8 a.m. and you're straight to a meeting like that. Like, what are you doing today? Like, you have to plan your whole day. But um, he's right.

SPEAKER_03 13:15

I've done I've done both where you've had to be really like in at eight o'clock, ready to talk about all sorts of stuff. What calls are you making today?

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Yeah, we still do that, but it's so nice to have the like relax before.

SPEAKER_03 13:28

Yeah, nice for you.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

That's really nice.

SPEAKER_03 13:30

I just feel like we I feel like we get better results out of a day when we're all kind of calm for the first hour of the day. Not pressure on each other, not too much pressure, not too intense, but then the second we get into that meeting, we're all ready to to get going.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

We're locked in.

SPEAKER_03 13:44

So that's what sets me. We're locked in, actually.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

You haven't been locked in since now.

SPEAKER_04 13:50

So in terms of uh talking about different teams here, so um, how is collaboration with marketing or uh account management work beyond the scene to basically make sure the client's experience is seamless. So when we're bringing on a client or like trying to get a client on board, how's that work with account management marketing?

SPEAKER_02 14:09

I think in terms of marketing, I think we're really close with marketing girls, so it's any ideas we either have or any anything new we want to maybe bring to the table, we feel comfortable to do so, whether that's between us for going to the marketing girls or maybe just us two. I think it was really good that we have such a close relationship and feel comfortable to be open with uh marketing, also account management. But I'll pass that on to you.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

Yeah, I mean, just when we we work closely with account managers to bring on the new accounts. Um I mean they support the clients and the drivers in all sorts of ways, like they go out to the depots. Um how would you say that we really tie in together?

SPEAKER_03 14:51

I think just bringing it slightly, I think when you ask the question about what got you into sales, but also joining boys, I think the opportunity to have your stamp on what we try and do and the ability that we actually could we can make a difference on uh some of the some of the things that we try and do. Whereas you join some certain companies and it's kind of a new that number, you do each calls, you do your numbers, you do your stats, you do your hours, and you go home. Whereas here it's uh anyone can have uh a decent idea and we'll mull it over. You said to a new starter earlier, um Ted.

SPEAKER_04 15:25

Shout out Ted. Uh just um they said any ideas, a great idea, we will always take their head. And shout out to um CTMEV, Marketing, Naya. Um, they brought some fantastic campaigns to help out with the marketing. There's got to be prospects we're gonna have got a hold of. So same with cameras, like the whole company is really close bonded together. It's such a cheesy thing to say, and I'm gonna cringe to watch this. Uh but it is close knit. Didn't you send out a Valentine's letter, Mike? Uh Alfred Trinsle as well.

SPEAKER_03 15:57

I don't know what you're all about. I'm not gonna say that.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

I think we should talk about this. You send a lot of stuff out to come and let us know what you sent out, Mike.

SPEAKER_04 16:08

So shout out to the Martin girls again. So come within Markt and Cante. Yeah, I didn't know who you are.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

It's not like this when you're not on the room.

SPEAKER_04 16:19

It's like this, it's me.

SPEAKER_05 16:29

Don't know.

SPEAKER_04 16:32

Oh, specs clients. If you're watching this, then you'd have received a Halloween of school. Bring us back.

SPEAKER_05 16:38

Please bring me up.

SPEAKER_04 16:40

Alpha Tins. Basically, CTM and Mark Tin was come up with Genie's idea where we're going to focus on more personal marketing stuff. So instead of just doing normal outreach, like emails, LinkedIn calls, which people get hundreds of the day. Yeah, they just delete the. F off, please. Oh I've done this job, you've got no chance, all right? So okay. Whereas this is going back to old school, that's receiving stuff in the post.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Yeah, and I think people like getting it. That was more personal.

SPEAKER_04 17:09

Yeah, we did. It's all over Halloween. Fantastic. We sent a kilo of sweets, uh, and a skull, I believe, which is quite morbid. Uh always Halloween, or a picture of Wheeler. Uh, that would have scared him.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

That would have scared them off the air. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 17:26

And then Christmas, we sent something from with a letter that said from Alfred Tinsel, and then my name underneath it. So big prospect thing. This is Alfred Tinsel. Yeah, Tovicer. Uh then also sent Easter egg out. Uh Love Hearts for Valentine's. We had to smash the egg with a hammer. The heart? Yeah, yeah, smash the heart, sorry. And then Easter eggs, but just genius marketing.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

We um and it has opened the door quite a lot of times for us, hasn't it? Because I've spoken I've never been able to get through to prospects before from calling, emailing, and they'll see something in the post, and it's just so much easier to do.

SPEAKER_04 17:59

So it's completely different to what they'd like to say.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

Something different.

SPEAKER_04 18:02

Yeah, LinkedIn message, like everyone gets LinkedIn like people asking about jobs every day. Like everyone made it.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

I also think it's rare for maybe like an SDR and a different company to put ideas forward. It might just be like people hire up, or we're lucky there's four of us, so we can really put forward what we think or exactly.

SPEAKER_04 18:19

Yeah, and like everyone's as I said, like no idea is a bad idea. Like and I think the marketing team are so clever in what they're doing, creative.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

Including this podcast. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:31

A little bit. Well, well, a great team needs a great product to sell. I only classify as a selling it because it's such a good product, easy product to sell, and everyone's a win-win in terms of what we do.

SPEAKER_03 18:41

I think for me it's more education, it's uh an education as to why they should be selling as to why they should trend. It's not a different thing for me. Selling selling cars back a day, it used to be like a sell the feature of that car. But no, people now it's it's so different.

SPEAKER_04 18:58

You say selling cars, people always come in. If they come to a garage or where you were, they would always want a car. I had to bring up scores of like, oh, do you want this water cooler? Why is it different? It does the same water. Well, it's very well there.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

Is that really difficult?

SPEAKER_04 19:12

Yeah. The water is much better, yeah. So um, so that's okay. You know you believe you've known the platform better than we do. So you've seen it from every angle. What was your personal favourite wise feature? And why? It's a great question, Mike. Okay, so that's a great question.

SPEAKER_03 19:39

Favorite that, yeah. I've got, look, there's there's a few things I could pull out, but if we're talking about the system, uh, I think the payment plan, the payment plan functionality, I think. Um there's a lot of scenarios where we meet a prospect and they'll say that they're deducting a self-employed driver for damaging a vehicle or driving over someone's fence, whatever it may be, and they owe them a thousand pounds for deduction, but they have no clear way of how much they're gonna take per week. Yeah. Uh the driver has no idea how much they've paid so far. The driver'll just leave. The driver just leaves. There's all sorts of things in place. But uh the payment plan said it again. Um the functionality itself, it just it makes it transparent for both parties.

SPEAKER_04 20:23

But I um I had a demo yesterday and he basically didn't do any deductions because I've put in like drivers on that. I think the drivers wouldn't turn up. Like you know, I showed them, he was like, it's gonna make my life so much easier. But I think that's why you'd come to the light.

SPEAKER_03 20:37

It helps them off their bottom line because there definitely are some prospects that we meet that don't deduct off their drivers. Which is mental. Because they have no processes in place to be able to deduct from.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

So you think they're just too scared to even.

SPEAKER_04 20:49

Yeah, because if they like saying to the driver, I'm gonna take it. You've got no transparency about how you're gonna see this like on the on the Wise Up, they got the nine photos, the driver sees it all.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

Yeah, it literally cuts out any questions that wise on my phone voice.

SPEAKER_03 21:03

Yeah. So I'd say that would be one of them. I think one of the most recent releases that we've done is the trust ID integration. Why is it for the right to work? So the ability to actually digitally check if someone has legitimate work. Why do we need that? Obviously to engage someone to work in the country.

SPEAKER_04 21:21

No, but I mean like why these are these are great questions, Tom.

SPEAKER_03 21:27

Um obviously look the legislations that have come in, uh it's it's more important than ever that we're checking that the the people that they're engaging to provide services to them, that they have a legitimate right to work in this country. Now, a lot of companies that we meet, a lot of prospects that we meet, they have um drivers that send them a WhatsApp photo of a passport. It's blurry and they go, Yeah, that's what that'll that'll do. We actually we actually met with someone uh in the last couple of weeks that said that they check uh someone's driving line. license as their uh right to work in this country. Now anyone can get a UK right to work uh a UK driving license, sorry. Um it's actually a requirement that if you uh live in the UK for longer than twelve months you can't drive past that 12 month period without a UK licence. So someone may have come over with a share code and have been here for an extended period of time um but their UK licence wouldn't be their right to work in this country so the exposure to getting this wrong uh well are there like the penalties so yeah so look if they get a right to work document wrong it can carry up to a £60,000 fine. But it's not just that if they actually if they knowingly use someone with an illegitimate right to work it now carries a criminal offence as well up to five years imprisonment. So the the the penalties that these companies can now face uh is is a lot more serious than it may maybe used to be before we had a client was um we found out they're giving depot storms are they yes I think there was a stat that was put out the other day by our our fantastic marketing team that you mentioned there was a flyer there was there were seventy seventeen and a half thousand enforcement storms mentally I think um you've seen it mate when we've gone for food for lunch and there's uh people who are voting pressure them on the bikes outside yeah yeah uh it is happening so the trust ID functionality uh it protects businesses and it kind of gives them a bit of a golden bullet of we have the best processes in place we're doing everything we can so you not only do they get the whole compliant platform the trust ID chapter absolutely got their matter all right fair well Tom if you were restricted and you can only sell one wise service or feature for the rest of the year which one would it be interesting okay because without good I don't reckon there's only one there's a two I want to mention so I was going to bring it back onto us but I'll start with this one so it's something we bought out I ain't gonna shout them out one of them's DR and EW as well came out with voice advantage so uh because the amount of clients and businesses we have it's like over 1500 is it?

SPEAKER_04 24:22

Yeah so we've been able to create a marketplace for our clients that they get fantastic rates on things such as van insurance, cheaper vans, fuel cards, um a new incident reporting thing for drivers. Am I allowed to say the company's names I'll bring them up so HRIV um there's uh autoglass as well so there's loads of 50% of your windscreen so honestly so not only the fact that the clients are getting all the compliant platform like streamlined payments on boarding etc they're actually saving thousands of pounds we saved 28 grand on one of our clients for just fuel cards and I think that's just a part isn't it there's not if another USP for the biggest one and then the other one I was going to talk about is compliance. So I don't think people realise how much of a big aspect compliance is in this industry you haven't got compliance you won't have a business. So we've got decades of compliance self-employment compliance experience which I'm sure Darrell will like me saying decades of self-employment compliance experience but there's companies that's easy mate that's real at the same yeah we spoke to a client of prospect yesterday who's had self-employed drivers for 11 years and they're not getting to re-sign SLAs which is mental madness so we basically we do a compliance call we'll review everything like I think it's the because some of your first if you haven't got compliance you won't have a business like our compliance value is worth at least 10 grand on the high street or something look I think we see all ends of the spectrum on compliance we see some companies that think they're doing it really well.

SPEAKER_03 26:12

Yeah but then when we get into a meeting with them we ask them a few usual questions and all of a sudden I think they think we're not compliments.

SPEAKER_01 26:27

Yeah never in your underwear I think we're gonna wrap them up.

SPEAKER_02 26:31

Which feature usually gets the biggest wow from prospects I think there's loads but I think that from the prospects we usually speak to I think let's say you've got 200 drivers for example and at the moment you're doing everything manually if you're individually sending bank transfers to those drivers every Friday let's say that is such a laborious task to have to do and so tedious so I think just a simplifying process of paying all those drivers in one go I think that takes out all the manual has got 200 drivers where is it they'll get some hooked in I think if they're doing things manually like payments I think that is the key one. I think onboarding yeah that's great and expiry hub all of that is really good but I do think payment streamlines their whole process and they'll get back maybe four hours of their day on a Friday.

SPEAKER_01 27:18

And also it takes out that risk of manual error because we've seen it before where clients have sent it on the yeah but like clients have sent before using us a driver like what five grand for the week and the driver select it. Yeah so it just removes that manual error. But I also think to go off what you said about compliance when I'm on the phones with prospects I think when they don't have an SLA in place when they don't have vehicle hire agreements in place and they don't realise the importance of not having those I think that's a big welfare.

SPEAKER_03 27:51

Yeah because I think just even being able just to teach them about it they're like I didn't even know actually because we talk about it we know everything so exactly there's a few things that tie in both points actually so the actual element of compliant payments yeah there's a lot of companies that are first of all wasting how much time manually paying all their drivers however in the same way they're self-bidding those drivers so they're raising invoices on behalf of the drivers yeah they're probably not being self-bidding agreements signed. If they have are they getting it re-signed every time are they getting it re-signed are they following a legitimate process? Probably not most of the time so um it just ties in really well I think both areas save.

SPEAKER_04 28:34

It's basically it's just cutting all the way out for the pro like with protecting them it's a bit of a no-brainer. There's so many things that they won't think about like there's so much like so many loose ends in this industry that they could catch them up on. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 28:49

So if the prospect is currently using the competitor which feature basically wins them gets them back or brings them from I personally think carrot normally wise advantage I know you've touched on it already but I think carrot introduction is a massive one because I don't think maybe some of our competitors have the relationships we do with people like DPT etc so I think that is a major one the fact we can help you streamline your operations, help you save money through wise advantage but then the added benefit of carrot introduction is to help you grow and earn more money at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_04 29:19

There's a lot of fact you've said this when you spoke to some of your clients that you bought on all your eggs in one basket because if you lose that contract you've got nothing else.

SPEAKER_03 29:27

We've seen it Thomas Thomas we've had we've had some clients that have relied on one contract. Recently recently absolutely so there's there's some clients that have won a contract they're quite decent contracts they've run them for a few years but if that end parcel network doesn't like your operation it look it's self-employment at the end of the day they're a subcontractor so they can disengage I think that I think some of the notices are within a week so all of a sudden you're running a multi-million pound operation. So some some of the best companies that we engage with are the ones that they do have multiple contracts. So we we do have that ability where the relationships we have now look it works for all parties doesn't it because the parcel networks want to engage compliant good operators our clients want to grow and generate more revenue and we want our clients to grow. So it works for the entire market the parcel networks know that these potential people are compliant another great question now look the the only reason that these parcel networks take on our uh vouch for these businesses because they utilize our services they know that they're getting compliant uh webinars they know they're getting brought up to speed with the the latest legislations that are changing they know they're gonna have had service level agreement reviews they know they're onboarding drivers in a streamlined quick compliant way so who would you rather give work to someone that goes through the wise process or someone that they're not aware of so if you've got uh I don't know 20 routes coming out of Bristol would you rather use someone that you don't know or someone that's already in the Bristol region that uses Wise it works do you know it's been a really good feel factor for me actually is I've seen some of my clients that I've got great relationships with that I've seen them grow and I've seen them benefit from the introductions you put them on my table they've got 30 drivers now they've got about 100 it's just a great they also get me a drink when I say I've owned a few drinks actually shout out whoever owes me a drink so we've spoken about the tech let's talk about how we help our clients so once a client is interested how would you say Tom that we help them to map out whys to fit their current setup a lot of ways we go about this we're to find out the initial onboarding or the initial conversation we have what the need is for us.

SPEAKER_04 31:56

So just terms of compliance there's a lot we do.

SPEAKER_03 31:59

We offer semi-support so first steps would be a compliance call once we've um started implementing the system so we're this is where we spoke about our compliance I said we'll do the SLA reviews service agreement if you don't have one guys okay uh basically advise on any policies we have we even do like depot visits um onboarding so this is where the account managers come into their own so we'd actually fancy got multiple contracts we can create bespoke onboarding journeys so we can differentiate from that so instead of saying they're doing it money at the moment we have to collect different stuff store it elsewhere you're allowed to store it on one thing so we offer ongoing support everywhere it's a bit of a vague question to be fair but um it's just never ending a lot um so compliance onboarding we'll go to the depots we'll see them we'll speak to the drivers we need driver meets we'll turn up with some crispy creams for the drivers or basically anything to engage with them so Tom you've been to loads of depot visits up I've been all sorts yeah I've been up in all over the country and I took I took about 120 quid's worth of Craig's today oh Newcastle Craigs no way I thought what's this now you mentioned that you mentioned a really good word earlier which was um which was bespoke so when you talk about how we help implement these business these uh this software into businesses it's these systems are so configurable that no two businesses are the same so we'll meet one company that has a contract with APC overnight and the next one has one with AO or DX or whoever it may be um we're able to configure their systems completely around their needs and their requirements.

SPEAKER_04 33:38

Exactly even if they don't have a contract with say an end carrier they've got bespoke contracts and they collect we'll show on a demo oh if you need to collect a shoe size we can actually collect that which is like it's always a terrible example I love mate why is it on because it's got a while but I think it shows that you let literally anything collect this image like well I think a lot of our trade plate businesses they like to collect photos of a driver's driveway to understand that they can park one of their vehicles overnight etc is that for insurance I think insurance just the capability that the car's safer off the road on the road um so yeah I mean yeah that's that's and it's just completely like so we don't just I always say this on a demo we don't just give you the demo give you the platform like oh here good luck with it we'll um we have field account managers like us four like we engage with like even the clients uh someone ringed me the other day after they were supposed to smit and say can you push this payment through from here I've been busy all day I was like yeah of course we can so we're on the phone whenever like people don't realise this misconception about sales we are working if like half half eleven a night and stuff like this um this um we offer ongoing support like onboarding we'll we're flexible in terms of how we onboard yeah everything like that I think I think our report uh a client rang me in the public it's like a Saturday that's mean uh give me a couple but he um he asked me to do something this isn't because we've all got it on our phones we're able to sort what we can but I've had it where I've been downstairs with my kid but half twelve at midnight and this is one of the prospect's clubs we bought on I've been messing with half twelve at midnight like it's fine since I'd never speak to I was like yeah it's it's not a nine to five business no I wish it was unless for everyone else maybe the marketing part of it but I do think that ties quite nicely onto the next question which is for the less tech savvy clients how do we support them with the actual technical setup and I think from what you were saying um we don't just give them the system and say good luck there you go.

SPEAKER_01 35:45

We offer complete ongoing support like the system training and I know the account managers would do and like literally as many system training sessions as needed.

SPEAKER_04 35:52

And that also ties into say not even less tech savvy so say none we've learned this industry like English also with demo is probably not a predominantly the first language for a lot of people in a lot of clients yeah a lot of the drivers we've got customer service teams out of them they do some hard work but they'll this is where they come in they have up the onboarding something like less tech savvy or not being able to understand the platform the customer service will come in and speak to them give them a call and I think each department is so knowledgeable like any any one of us would be able to help with a rollout do you think not me bar me butter okay so with onboarding obviously it involves covering compliance and regulations which is obviously a minefield to some so how do we help prospects navigate that boring but really important stuff I think it's a it's a really interesting topic so I think I've become I've become quite sad.

SPEAKER_03 36:57

I've always been sad I quite I quite enjoy talking about it because I I see because I've learned so much around but before I joined here I barely even knew what self-employment was um but yeah I've I've lived in it for four and a half years now and I've learnt how something should be operated versus quite a lot of the meetings that we have and how they actually do it in practice and there's a clear difference.

SPEAKER_04 37:20

When you're um talking about compliance with prospects on the demo you're not saying it's to try and get them as a deal you're asking the tenant to protect them as a business or giving them your advice you say even if you don't use us please go do this.

SPEAKER_03 37:31

I literally said one yeah which is bad I just sign us now from a sales perspective if if they knew that I was saying that I'd be like what are you saying that's what I'm right now why are you doing that genuinely like I I want them to look after their businesses and make sure that they're operating in a certain way that they don't get shut down or liquidate because of status claims that get brought to them so I actually say that on some of my to say look if you don't want to use us and you don't see the benefit in it just make sure that these 20 things that you just follow me you do terrible fix them.

SPEAKER_02 38:01

Have a look at them and we can solve them and scare them as well. So whether they use us or they actually go away and fix it themselves. Well no think where am I going to go find this and fix this?

SPEAKER_03 38:10

Why don't I just use that yeah I think I've met some I've met some people that they have seen the value in not what we do because they weren't aware of us but they see the value in trying to be compliant they'll then take it to a local solicitor who will charge them five six grand for just a contract yeah when we include that as part of our services and we've picked SLA as a part that solicitors don't I've seen some terrible yeah yeah I've seen some terrible ones that have come from a gen a pretty generic one that we bought on it's like I'll just pay four grand for this SLA and then uh we're doing a compliance call like ooh wow yeah there was notice periods in the there was all sorts of stuff in there that just would trip up a potential status claim so it might be boring but it's the most important aspect in this industry in my eyes and also you'll get Daryl so now Darryl I've got to elaborate on that Darryl Daryl has lived and breathed compliance for the last how old is he now 50 you said 55 now Daryl's great he's he's done self-employed compliance across both construction and final mile logistics so knowledgeable he knows pretty much everything there is to need to know and we've also we've added we've added chissy for the last year and a doctor of law doctor of law I'll put it up more linked to stealing doctor of unlaw for the I've had situations as well where I've needed to give maybe a prospect some compliant advice or they haven't used us because they've chosen to do something else.

SPEAKER_02 39:42

Yeah but I've been like just to let you know and I've reached out to Chrissy or Darrell and said I need some information on this so I can feed it back to a prospect. So even if they don't use us they're aware of the risk.

SPEAKER_04 39:52

Which is amazing like we we don't have to do that. Like oh like and like the prospect like whoever is really appreciates that.

SPEAKER_01 39:59

Yeah yeah I did it with a client we spoke to earlier today about um potentially coming on he was asking for a VHA it wasn't even a client by us and I was like yeah we'll we're looking together for that um we're signing up there we're not good um but yeah shout out Chrissy shout out down yeah absolutely okay so can we share an example of a time that the team went beyond the standard rollout to help get a client set up well should we get them in here for that if you really I think we're all thinking of the same thing.

SPEAKER_03 40:34

Yeah there's there's there's loads there's so many scenarios where the entire team myself I don't when you took Marius I took I got a couple examples for this um there was uh one of our clients that were on boarding they said that one of their depots in Oxford was predominantly Romanian and their their English wasn't very good and I said well great news I've got uh a chap called Marius again shout out newly married Marius newly married yeah congratulations and the missus yeah yeah yeah definitely congratulations um I took Marius to the depot with me and I pretty much sat back and didn't do anything because I'm normal then eh most days most days mate but um the fact that we have the ability to to bring someone that can speak their uh their their their local language it just went a really long way um there's a this is a funny one I think there's a level one one of our account managers he's a uh a great guy bad golfer supports a awful football team supports terrible teams awful accent uh so Sheffield Wednesday are the big team of Sheffield yeah he supports a Sheffield Sheffield United United Dan Pegg uh our mate Dan Pegg he um willingly organised a depot willingly reinforced so the first bit was very willing he organised this depot rollout and now they were it so bearing in mind that he lives near Barnesley or Huddersfield way Barnes Barnswide Barnes he drove all the way up to Newcastle which is a good hour and a half two hours um to go and meet a point at three in the morning four in the morning uh to go and roll out the software to the drivers and explain how the system works and how the products work so look another one I was thought of um MM doing Millennium rollouts modern milk money chart yeah so another one chloe um shout out Fowler God's sake not Fowler anymore eaton eating mess uh sorry joke and yeah shout him out um we're doing 1am rollouts yeah the milk delivery drivers um that's just some of the stuff we do we can cater to anything I can't link name of the milk then recognition I like this isn't just uh I get asked this question quite a lot actually this isn't just a can I have a a username and a password and better now it really is a it's a it's essentially a managed service where if they need advice from compliance if they need advice on how the system works or if they've got a slightly difficult driver that doesn't understand XYZ that they've got that constant support from an account management team that again they're field based you mentioned Ted earlier uh we've noticed a a slight gap in the uh the map on the obviously the country as to where we can facilitate and look we've always been down in this region but uh Zach again shout out Zach on Zach Zach has had to travel from best part of Cardiff all the way down to Bournemouth which is full of from a dumb to a nice place um just to just to go and see uh obviously clients and well then he gets a round of golf in the game

SPEAKER_01 44:00

Because you definitely don't they get all the actual support of the system, but I think also we have such a great relationship with our clients. Like you guys went to Ain Tree a couple of weeks ago.

SPEAKER_04 44:11

Scarlet races. That's not all of our children.

SPEAKER_01 44:12

Tom and SK get taken to the nice client events. We don't get them out there.

SPEAKER_03 44:17

You've got to ruin his jobs first to be fair. Okay. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 44:19

What do I have to do?

SPEAKER_04 44:20

Bombie's been here for like nine years, so she's earned a few of the uh she was drinking war at half ten on the train to on the bus to channel now in the morning, by the way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:34

But no, I think no, I do agree, it's it's not just a login, it's not just a username, it's uh it's not a community. You get a you get field you get a field account manager come out and actually have that face-to-face interaction, taste the name. Plus, we like to do regional client events. When's the is the next one a golf one? I don't play golf. Oh, no, you don't play well. I turn up with a set of clubs and just do the best.

SPEAKER_01 44:56

Um again, one that's not tailored to me and Amelia.

SPEAKER_03 44:59

Play golfing?

SPEAKER_01 45:00

We don't like golf, no. I'd be useless at golf.

SPEAKER_03 45:04

Same as your jobs.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

We've been doing that in.

SPEAKER_04 45:11

Oh yeah. This is how we got clients now and just take them out on the rad. So absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 45:18

Right, we'll do some uh rapid fire questions. What would you three say that why can't you answer this? Because I'm I'm the host, so I'm the host. I've got the iPad. I've got the iPad and I'm the host. So I want each of you to say one word for the wise symbol. One word each. One word each, please.

SPEAKER_04 45:37

One word each. I'll go last.

SPEAKER_03 45:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 45:40

Okay, I'll go outgoing. I think we're all very outgoing. Yeah. Yeah, we all worked out going.

SPEAKER_03 45:46

I'm gonna say unfiltered. Um passionate. Passionate, oh that's cute.

SPEAKER_01 45:55

I agree.

SPEAKER_03 45:56

I like that word. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 45:58

The next question, what is the biggest misconception that people have about salespeople? Oh, I'll take it.

SPEAKER_02 46:05

I'll take it in the I think when I tell people I work in sales, they're like, oh, you could sell this pen to me. I've had that so many times. And I think it's not just as easy as selling a pen, you have to have something that actually you can see a solution to to help somebody else. I don't think it's as easy as sell me that cut, sell me that pen, etc. I think you genuinely need something that you can also see the benefit of. And otherwise it's hard. It would be hard to do it if you couldn't see the benefit yourself.

SPEAKER_04 46:31

Nay, I'm not uh I was like I sell watercoolers and I just like while I'm ringing people up saying, I don't care about this watercooler, man. I've come to this job, somehow this idiot's giving me a chance like that. Um it's actually there's so much benefit for everyone, the drivers, the MCs, like it's uh I do actually I don't feel like I've been in sales job I put commission on stuff and I feel like I'm robbing people or stuff like that. Like you've worked you worked at car sales, but um this is a product that I actually care about and I can see this going places it's helping other people out, yeah. Like I yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 47:08

It's a good point. So again, you mentioned car sales. I did work in car sales.

SPEAKER_00 47:10

Anyway, recognitivity car sales, nothing.

SPEAKER_03 47:16

Um and we used to be commissioned on selling uh paint protection and like um an interior cough protect uh protection, and I just didn't believe in it. So like my percentages were always really low. So I'd be like, get rid of this. Like you don't need let's sort the car out. You can't sell something. And I just didn't believe in the product, whereas here it's like I'm I'm trying to give it on, I'm trying to educate on why it should be used and should be in place because I actually believe in what we're trying to achieve.

SPEAKER_04 47:45

I don't believe it's time though, because you're actually trying to help the business up in terms of yeah, it's not really you're streamlining the or helping them out, you're giving them time back to focus on growing their business. We also save them thousands of pounds on their bottom line, we help them grow their business. So why would we not use wise guys?

SPEAKER_02 48:00

I think another misconception is probably that you have to be maybe the loudest in the room. I mean, I probably don't sound the loudest in the room but too right now. But like I was always really quiet growing up, but I don't think you always need to be loud. I think as long as you listen to your prospects, you listen to you take in everything you're talking to about your prospects, you can genuinely help them. It doesn't need to be you're the most confident or you're the loudest.

SPEAKER_04 48:23

Exactly. And I think people a lot of people buy into you as a person instead of like so. If you come across like loudest, people I won't buy over here, like no, I mean and also a lot of misconceptions about of like people look at this and think it's a DOS job, I reckon.

SPEAKER_03 48:39

Yes, mate, but I was like as I said I always welcome people, but if anybody would like to try sales, it's actually so hard.

SPEAKER_01 48:45

I didn't realise how hard it was, I hated it because I hated it. I thought I thought not everyone does it, yeah. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 48:52

It's a proper graph, like the the stuff that you two don't. Me never but done it if you've been there like your job is uh is hard.

SPEAKER_01 48:59

This is why you're terrible at no, but it is the constant rejection as well, especially at our level, like every day it's hard, yeah, it's hard to get on with it.

SPEAKER_04 49:07

Built mentally different do it. I think like you generally are that it does make you resilient, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:12

I think so. But then I feel like it also makes the rewards much better 100%.

SPEAKER_04 49:18

You booked like five you're having like a bad week, and it came to Friday but five demos in one now. It's like look, that's it, it'll change. You're like, uh, look at me now.

SPEAKER_00 49:27

So flexible.

SPEAKER_04 49:28

A little humble flex. I was trying to think that.

SPEAKER_03 49:32

Half bad. So good so far.

SPEAKER_01 49:36

Right, we'll move on. So everybody has to give an answer for this one. So if your individual sales style was a movie character, who would it be? Amelia. So slavery. Who's your movie character?

SPEAKER_02 49:48

I would say Miranda Priestley from Devil Worth Prada. Because, well, first of all, I'm watching Devil Worth Prada 2 tonight, is that level in my head. But second of all, I think she's quite when it comes to cold calling, I'm quite probably similar to her character. I can be quite black and white and stern.

SPEAKER_01 50:07

This is a sport we get from our management. Yeah, isn't it just a couple of things?

SPEAKER_04 50:10

Oh, you're drawing.

SPEAKER_02 50:13

I think I can be quite black and white and stern when it comes on to a cold call. I think that I can be maybe harsh, but it's because I only want the outcome that I do and I'm not gonna back down to someone else telling me to go away or also you're educating these people you're on the phone to them.

SPEAKER_04 50:26

So you're actually doing them a favour, but they didn't realise at the time.

SPEAKER_02 50:29

Yeah, they might be a bit um standoffish or like yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:33

Yeah, but I'll go if you run me up, it's not gonna say. So who is your action hero? Action hero, right? Who is your action?

SPEAKER_01 50:42

I just have to go with someone blonde. So have you got I was gonna say that, but I think Elle Woods. What? Elle was from Legally Blonde because she's quite underrated at the start. A bit like you were. I've waited for a big breakthrough.

SPEAKER_04 51:06

So we had a few big demos recently. How would you get you hyped up yourself hyped up before that?

SPEAKER_01 51:11

Specifically, what song do you listen to before your big demo?

SPEAKER_03 51:16

I think the only song that I could ever listen to before a demo is either Keep Right On. Birmingham song that we should all know.

SPEAKER_01 51:26

Any singer?

SPEAKER_03 51:28

No. No, no. Or shift on the villa. No, I can't.

SPEAKER_04 51:32

If you know any Ice T on the villa, sugar.

SPEAKER_03 51:37

They're my two songs that get me going before a demo.

SPEAKER_01 51:40

And what about you, Tom?

SPEAKER_04 51:42

Um, mine's a bit of made of my own karaoke song, so Rock DJ by Robbie Williams. Yeah, but please sing. So I've changed it. Mine is a TK, so it's like I don't wanna rock TK. That's yeah, I usually you two sing it to me.

SPEAKER_00 51:58

So we have it.

SPEAKER_03 52:01

Don't laugh. About these pairs? Yeah. Before booking a call.

SPEAKER_01 52:05

Um, I don't that's not really my style. I just no, I don't really know.

SPEAKER_03 52:08

Do you have a style?

SPEAKER_01 52:10

Um I've been told that I've worn my dad's suit trousers today.

SPEAKER_04 52:15

So yeah, just beat and she's wearing crowd shoot trousers.

SPEAKER_01 52:20

Right, okay. The next question, which is the last one, is give me a 30-second elevator pitch for why somebody should come work for this team.

SPEAKER_03 52:28

That's all you need. I'd just say after watching this, if people have watched it, is you could work in part of this. Look at it. Oh, let's probably have to live.

SPEAKER_01 52:37

I'd just be careful because if SK's tyre pops in the morning, you won't want to work for him.

SPEAKER_04 52:42

I wasn't very happy that also comes in on a Monday morning anyway.

SPEAKER_02 52:46

Yeah, uh don't talk to me.

SPEAKER_04 52:48

Hang on, this was meant to be a sell. Oh, generally, you go, listen, good company to work for.

SPEAKER_03 52:55

We're going go-kart. Great. Go-karting, drink, go-kart and go. Drink go-kart. If you like a drink, we're selling a product that we all clearly believe in. It's not selling the product. We're giving a product to do. We educate a product that should be used. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:09

A software.

SPEAKER_03 53:10

Um and look, it's it's it's good fun to work in.

SPEAKER_04 53:12

And also, look how well we've done. We've got the carriers are buying into it. We're dealing um there's something going right, isn't it? So also, why is not convert with these two these two? Yeah, that's all I can say. If that's chapucha.

SPEAKER_00 53:31

Okay, I think that sounds good.

SPEAKER_04 53:33

Fantastic. Thanks, guys. Thank you for not going to win now.

SPEAKER_00 53:37

Yeah!