Standing Out in a Shifting Market

Alana Muller:
Welcome to Enterprise.ing, a podcast from Enterprise Bank & Trust that's empowering business leaders one conversation at a time. Each week, we'll hear from top business professionals about lessons on leadership and entrepreneurship that they've learned along the way. I'm your host, Alana Muller, an entrepreneurial executive leader whose primary focus is to connect, inspire and empower community. We at Enterprise Bank & Trust thank you for tuning in to another episode.

Hello friends, welcome back to Enterprise.ing Podcast. Today, we have Greg Sanborn in the studio. Greg is Principal Consultant for ERA Group, a global cost management consultancy dedicated to uncovering hidden savings and optimizing procurement for middle market companies. With over two decades of experience in operations, supply chain and business development, Greg specializes in helping the middle market companies reclaim 10 to 30% of their spend without disrupting day-to-day operations. Greg Sanborn, welcome to Enterprise.ing Podcast.

Greg Sanborn:
Thanks, Alana. Appreciate you having me.

Alana Muller:
I'm so glad you're here. To start our conversation, tell us about ERA Group and what drives your passion for empowering leaders to turn expense leaks into strategic wins.

Greg Sanborn:
Yeah, appreciate that. So, as you mentioned, we are a global cost consultancy firm that started with the belief that many organizations are overpaying their suppliers by 10 to 30%, even with well-run purchasing departments. So, that was a problem that was identified by the founders of the company. We built a network of 1,000 consultants globally and about 200 here in the U.S. Really, we're a good fit [for] the middle market where there's enough spend to be worth everyone's time, but not enough spend to invest internally, middle market company that is seeing their margins being squeezed because of rising costs and inflation, but don't really have the internal bandwidth to dig deep and uncover savings or think that they might be leaving money on the table with procurement.

Not because the internal team isn't good, but because suppliers have more information and leverage. It's hard to know if you're optimizing those supplier relationships. Or, the big one that gets a lot of people's interest is trying to increase business valuation, maybe to gear up for a sale, change of ownership or lower the cost of capital and realize that expense structure plays a key role in that.

Alana Muller:
Yeah, it makes sense. Are you finding that your business is being not diverted exactly, but interrupted by the tariff situation right now, or are you seeing a geopolitical impact on your clients?

Greg Sanborn:
That's a great question and really relevant. Yeah, it's huge. We have had numerous clients that want us to speak to that. So, we've had special calls to discuss tariffs and how they're impacting it. Even one in particular client, we had been counseling them to diversify their suppliers in a particular expense category for a year, and they hadn't done that because again, we only provide recommendations and advice, but our clients control everything that's done, all decision making. So, yeah, it's been tough, but we've been able to navigate it and a lot of the importers and stuff have done some pretty clever things to try to get around some of those tariffs. So, it hasn't impacted any of my clients or many of our clients too negatively, but it is definitely on everyone's mind.

Alana Muller:
Yeah, for sure. Well, and you said that a portion of your consultants are here in the United States. You must have folks all over the world who are also contending with it from their point of view based on whatever country they're based in. Yes?

Greg Sanborn:
I did have one interaction with a Danish consultant at one time where we were going to do some work for [a] potential client, but yeah, I'm sure it is big in their world. However, we're in the U.S. silo.

Alana Muller:
Yeah, makes sense. Makes sense. Well, in a slightly different vein, I know that you and your colleagues at ERA Group pride yourselves in helping your clients improve manufacturing processes and driving operational efficiencies. How do you engage your clients and is there a formula that you use to assist them with their businesses?

Greg Sanborn:
Yeah, great question. So, it is. So, we do projects based upon expense category. So when you're speaking with manufacturers, primarily I've done a lot of work with chemicals, food ingredients, packaging and freight. A big key to our success is a typical company, if they're going to do an RFP or shop suppliers, let's say in packaging, they'll just choose three or four of the largest providers and send out an RFP. However, this process really gives an advantage to the incumbent supplier because they intimately know the purchasing patterns and history and more details on what's being bought. So, a lot of the competitors have to build in a premium in their bid pricing to account for that lack of information.

So, what we do is really analyze everything down to the SKU level, create a market basket of goods of 80 to 85% of everything that's being purchased, and then we know through our experience of how to structure the RFP to maximize competitive tension and really have the best suppliers bubble up to the surface, including we asked very creative questions about given their knowledge, how could things be done differently in packaging? How can we eliminate some space or maybe even re-engineer some of the packaging to try to optimize costs as much as possible?

Alana Muller:
Oh, wow. That's great. It's a cool way to keep things fresh for your client, even from their branding, their look and feel and just keeping it up to date while saving money.

Greg Sanborn:
Yeah, it absolutely can be, especially because packaging can have a big impact on marketing and branding, as you mentioned.

Alana Muller:
Yeah, really neat. Well, so let me shift gears a little bit and ask about your professional relationships. I know that you talk about the importance of building relationships and what that means to you both personally and professionally. Tell us a little bit about the role that relationship building has played in your own success and the success of ERA Group.

Greg Sanborn:
Sure. Yeah. I came from corporate America and I've been doing this for seven years now. I've always networked somewhat to various or not a lot of success, but I've just refocused on that significantly the last year or so, and it's had a tremendous impact on my business. I think I wanted to lean on old habits of some cold outreach. My area director and business partner counseled me a year ago about how important relationships are and warm introductions in this business because it's just a sophisticated business and really nobody thinks that they need us. “We don't really have any competitors. Our competitor is not doing anything.” Or, “We've got everything handled. We don't need your services.” So, it's been big and the traditional networking I think doesn't bear a lot of fruit.

So, I've really been thinking about when something is bought or sold, what happened? Usually, there's a triggering event that occurs right before that transaction. So, the copier breaks, the lease is coming up, quality of service isn't good, and in your world, banking needs capital or their service with their bank. Whatever the case may be, there's some triggering event that causes someone to be in the market or something. So, trying to find out who are witnesses to those triggering events and who's going to see that.

So, when I'm in a networking event, I'm asking the person I'm with, "What are the triggering events for what you're offering? What do you see, and then who witnesses that?" And then try to introduce and try to give as much as possible to be able to help them find the witnesses, explain that logic and then try to help them put them in touch with folks that are going to be able to witness that. It's a lot more likelihood of, I think, success in that arrangement.

Alana Muller:
Yeah, it seems much more win-win as opposed to transactional. So, I think that it makes a lot of sense. Is there a particular way that you're going about connecting with people? Are you finding yourself in more one-on-one meetings or are you going to events with certain organizations? Is there any organizations that is drawing you in and the kinds of people that you want to interact with?

Greg Sanborn:
Yeah, great question. So, I'm part of a group of professionals where there's… where we get together and it's professionals once a month have bourbon tastings and so forth. So, I do that. I do a lot of one-on-one coffees and meetings as well. Then every once a while, I've got a group meeting for coffee tomorrow with [a] guy that I work with and keep in touch with regularly. He's putting on an event tomorrow to meet like a lawyer and stuff that's a good fit and he asks, "Hey, invite anyone else again." So there's going to be four or five of us meeting for coffee tomorrow, and I only know one of the guys. Yeah.

Alana Muller:
We want to know the people we know. So, it's almost like they come with instant credibility because our contacts are connecting us to them. So, I think that's really smart. It's a nice way to expand the pie and get to know some other professionals in the community.

Greg Sanborn:
It is a fun part of business and just getting out and meeting people, especially because I'm a solo operator in this business where I used to be more corporate and part of a team. So, that's one thing too, is the networking and relationship building part is a good opportunity to connect with people where otherwise maybe behind your computer screen too much of the day.

Alana Muller:
That is true. We all have fallen victim to the home office or the virtual office. It's nice to get out.

Greg Sanborn:
It is.

Alana Muller:
Yeah, I get that. I know that you are also really devoted to your community. What does your involvement look like outside your professional role?

Greg Sanborn:
Well, I'm actually on the city council of Ellisville, Missouri, the little sleepy four square foot mile town here in West County, St. Louis, been involved with that. I was on the planning and zoning committee for seven years and have been on the city council now for four years and really enjoy that and work closely with the mayor and city manager and trying to expand and bring businesses to the community as well as keeping it a nice place to live for all the residents.

So, that's been interesting. Then I'm involved with Life Bridge Partnership as well, which is a great nonprofit charity that provides transportation and support for children and young adults with special needs and so forth. So, then a shout-out to Colton's Cause, an organization. A client of mine's wife runs Colton's Cause, which also provides support for families with special needs, great organization.

Alana Muller:
That's wonderful. I love that you're involved with that. What drove your interest in getting involved in public office, taking public office?

Greg Sanborn:
So this was probably 2014. We had a very controversial situation here in Ellisville where Walmart was trying to come into our town and we were offering a TIF, tax increment financing. I'm principally opposed to that because I think it gives an unfair advantage to large organizations that the mom-and-pop and smaller companies don't get those tax breaks. The mayor at the time was having some town halls to discuss it. So, I showed up and then afterwards ended up speaking with the council member at the time and he said there was an opening on the planning and zoning commission. So, I said, "All right, yeah, I'll join it." So he nominated me for that and really enjoyed it, really enjoyed being involved with the city. The City of Ellisville has just tremendous people that work for it, so it's really a pleasure. The city manager and city clerk and mayor and all the council members, it's just a lot of great people and I love this town. So, I've just really enjoyed it and I've stuck with it.

Alana Muller:
I love that. Anymore we seem to find ourselves or at least from my perspective, we find ourselves in such divisive times and a lot of people are running away from public office or running away from the concept of serving because it just seems like it would be more difficult than fun. I admire you for stepping into that and identifying issues that you wanted to champion and support and really putting your money where your mouth is and getting involved. So, bravo to you.

Greg Sanborn:
Well, thank you. Yeah, a quick point on that too, which is interesting on that is that one thing that I love about local politics is there are no parties, political parties at all associated. The interesting thing is it seems like every couple of years a state legislator, senator tries to bring up a bill that forces municipalities to declare political parties, and I just don't understand why they keep trying to do that because that would be just terrible. Yeah, because it's wonderful not really even knowing the political affiliation of a lot of the people on the council and work with. I mean, you can get a feel for it every once in a while, but that doesn't come into it. So, we can just do what's right for the city and we work so much better together not being affiliated with political parties.

Alana Muller:
Absolutely. Well, and you said it yourself, you said you got involved to make sure that Ellisville remains a nice place to live, and that's the point, not the political nature of it, but supporting the community. So, I think that's really nice that you're doing that, so congratulations.

Greg Sanborn:
Well, thank you. Appreciate it.

Alana Muller:
Yeah, really, really nice. What's something that you're working on personally or professionally that you're especially excited about?

Greg Sanborn:
Building my business. So, I am all in on just trying to grow. Yeah, there's tremendous opportunity in this. There's a lot of need because a lot of companies have pretty thin purchasing and procurement departments. I'm of the belief, and really adopted that, in most cases, it's not practical for companies to build sophisticated internal procurement just because it takes a lot of labor, a lot of expertise, benchmarking data and technology in a lot of cases. So, all the costs and investments and time and attention away from their core business just introduces too much risk and everything. I'm really just excited about that. So, really trying to just grow this business. It's a hard business.

I mean, the failure rate is really hard. It's interestingly difficult to get people to hire us, even though on paper it seems like a no-brainer because we are only competent. We have a performance success model. So, we bear all that risk and we're only compensated when we produce meaningful savings and results that the client approves. At a minimum, we can do a bunch of work and verify that they're at or below market pricing and that there's nothing we can do. But there's a lot of factors that make it difficult for people to hire us, but we're growing tremendously. We just had private equity inject 70 million pounds because it's UK. We're headquartered in the United Kingdom. So, we've got a lot of investments in our business and just really excited about that.

Alana Muller:
Really cool. Well, so you talked about the challenges associated with growing a business. What advice do you have for small and mid-market size businesses who face challenges in their own work? Is there a particular way that you have found for yourself that you've been able to overcome obstacles and emerge stronger as a result?

Greg Sanborn:
Yeah, that's an interesting question. I would just say, just be intentional about how you do things and plan. I'm a big believer in planning. I mean, of course, you have to execute, that's the most important part. But planning and on the relationship and networking piece that we touched on a little bit earlier, I know I didn't really have a plan at all for years, if not decades, and networking and just meet with people and go through the motions and nothing ever came about it.

When I really sat down and thought through exactly what the objectives are, what we're trying to accomplish, and what the best way to go about it was, not only is it more motivating because you have a plan instead of just throwing stuff against the wall and seeing what sticks and you can measure it and see how your results are going, but it just works a lot better.

Alana Muller:
Let me ask you this, do you have a mentor of your own and is there a particular piece of advice that has stuck with you?

Greg Sanborn:
Yes. Yeah, I do. So, my area director and business partner who's over in Kansas City, but he's a pioneer, led our business, been doing it for 21 years. He's just been absolutely instrumental and really the only reason that I'm still succeeding and making it in this business. So, he has been great and really the one to really tell me to focus on relationships because warm introductions are just a lot more valuable. I come from a cold world. So, I tried that, a lot of cold outreach, and it's just really hard in this business because again, nobody thinks that they need our services. We're not a priority in often cases. Then I've got a sales coach as well. Shout out to JB Andrews, Sandler sales coach, he's tremendous, Lushin & Associates. I do that. He's been instrumental. Then I also have a business coach that's been helpful, too.

Alana Muller:
Terrific. I just love that. I love that. As we start to wrap up our conversation, there's a question that I ask every guest, and I'd like to ask you the same question. That is, if you could meet with one person for a cup of coffee, living, not living, fictional or non-fictional, who would it be and why?

Greg Sanborn:
All right, I'm going to go against our earlier conversation. So, this is a little bit controversial, but I'll explain why. But I would pick Donald Trump and only because I've heard from people on both sides of how engaging and curious and interesting and funny in everything that he is in person. Even Bill Maher had dinner with him and just said he wasn't at all what you would expect. So, just from a networking and relationship standpoint, I think it would be fascinating to see how he goes about captivating the room and being so engaging in person because I just heard that time and time again from people who meet with him.

Alana Muller:
Well, I hope you get a chance to do that. You'll have to let us know how it goes.

Greg Sanborn:
Yeah, I'm sure of that.

Alana Muller:
Well, Greg Sanborn, it's been such a pleasure to have you on Enterprise.ing Podcast. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and about ERA Group?

Greg Sanborn:
Yeah, yeah, appreciate that. Yeah, thanks for having me again. So, our website is eragroup, so E-R-A, group.com, and then we also have a website, SpendVue, S-P-E-N-D and then V-U-E.com where you can get no obligation, free cost intelligence analysis just with a little bit of an annual vendor list. If anyone out there is interested in having some insights and cost intelligence put to their spending and so forth, you can do that. Then I'm on LinkedIn as well, Greg Sanborn, S-A-N-B-O-R-N. You can find me there, and if anyone wants to reach out, I'd be happy to connect.

Alana Muller:
Terrific. Greg Sanborn, thank you so much for being on Enterprise.ing Podcast.

Greg Sanborn:
Thanks, Alana.

Alana Muller:
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