Budget Your Business

Smart Vendor Choices, Real Business Gains with Greg Klein-Hertzel

• Scott Geller • Season 1 • Episode 45

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E#45: In this episode, Scott sits down with Greg from ConnectivTech to talk about something every small business owner wrestles with—vendor selection, vendor management, and why choosing the wrong one can quietly drain your cashflow or derail your growth.

Business owners think about their tech stack, software renewals, marketing partners, and operational vendors annually. But Scott and Greg dig deeper into why vendor planning shouldn’t be a once-a-year event.

Greg shares practical advise for finding, selecting, and succeeding with vendors. 

Book Recommendation: What Would the Rockefellers Do? by Garrett B Gunderson

Find out more about Greg Klein-Hertzel: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregory-klein-hertzel/ 

Greg.kh@connectivtech.com

Find more episodes on Apple podcast, Spotify, Amazon Music and here: https://budgetyourbusinesspodcast.buzzsprout.com/

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Greg:

It's a delicate balance, right? Um getting making sure they have at least the input so you can go do a good job of selecting vendors is a major impactful thing that businesses can do, right? So uh either way, just keep in mind who's gonna be most affected by whatever vendor you bring into place and combine that with the decision, the best possible decisions you can make financially for the company. You know, that's a big that's a huge thing I see that's missed in every vendor selection that happens.

Scott:

Hello, and welcome to budget your business, the podcast for small business owners who want to learn how to financially plan for every aspect of their business. I'm your host, Scott Geller. Today I'm joined by Gregory Klein Herzl of Connectiv Tech to talk about the value of procurement. Hello, Gregory.

Speaker 1:

How are you?

Scott:

I'm good. Thanks for coming on board today.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for having me.

Scott:

So, Gregory, for folks that don't know you or or who are meeting you for the first time, why don't you share a little bit about who you are and what you do?

Greg:

Yeah, thanks. Um, so one, thanks for having me. Uh, it's great, it's such an important topic here. My name's Greg with Connective Tech. I am the founder and CEO. What we are is a rather unique business, actually. We are an outsourced procurement department for businesses. So our specialty is around vendor selection, around procurement services. So, really, anytime a company needs to go through that vendor selection process, they need to get multiple quotes and outsource something. We are essentially this vendor matchmaking concierge service, if you will. What we had found, and there's a lot of studies behind this, that there's just businesses were failing at selecting the right vendor for their company. Um, and sometimes in this SMB space, it could mean a very high financial loss, a lot of time lost, and that could be very risky to a business. Some businesses could close, some businesses can lose a lot of money because of this. And it's really all about surrounding yourself, your business, your people with the right people, right? And so hence connective tech was born. And so we have a list of over 600 vetted, approved, and tested and live environments potential vendors, right? We did a lot of work getting rid of the bad and creating a list of all the best ones in the country to essentially lean on every time a client engages us to say, all right, now who's got the specific criteria, price point, personality match, and so on and so forth, right? And so our job is to help clients find the right vendors in four areas of their business. The first one is tech related, marketing related, HR-related, and finance related. So those are the four areas in a business. Anytime a company is looking to outsource something and go through the vendor selection process, we're gonna bring them all the best matches possible, make sure they understand the type of vendor that's gonna come in and solve what they need, and then walk them through the quoting process with every single one. And that's what we do.

Scott:

Okay, great. Thanks for that. This time of year, so we're recording in in November, and uh the the typical practice of this time of year is annual planning and setting the annual budget. And that is okay, let's think about our vendors. Who do we have? Who do we need? Do we have pricing? Do you see a little bit heavy a little bit heavier lift this time of year because of that planning process?

Greg:

Yeah, I do. Uh, quarter four for us is always busier, and businesses are always planning for the next year, right? In January, February. So the decisions we make now is such a trickle effect, right? My favorite saying uh, what is it? Uh plans are worthless, but planning is everything, if you will, right? No plan ever works out a hundred percent the way you want, but if you don't use planning, then nothing'll ever work out. And so there's what that means as part of what we are doing in forecasting and budgeting for next year or the next five years, right? We are it's all about outsourcing, right? It's so hard for a business. Well, you can't. No business can operate independently. You have to use Microsoft for emails, right? You have to work with an internet and phone company or a VoIP product to program all your incoming and outgoing calls, right? Or maybe get uh consultants or cybersecurity companies, right? And digital marketing firms, right? And so there is a lot that's needed to make sure to get your business to the next level. Growth is the really key word right there. How are we planning to grow the business, right? And again, it all comes down to the people, right? Who are we contracting with? Who are our employees, who are our contractors? Can they help us get to that next level, right? So that's what I'm sure I don't know if you're seeing the same thing in the CFO world, but that's what usually we see with our clients.

Scott:

It is. And I have a I have a, it's not just me, but I follow more of a constant planning approach that I've come to appreciate over the years. I I understand why people always think about it in the fourth quarter. It's taxes and it's that old corporate regime, right? It's just been forced down people's throat of, oh, well, it's the fourth quarter. We have to plan for next year. Well, you know what? If you're planning in June or August through to the end of December, first quarter is going to be there regardless. Whether you're planning for it or not, something's gonna happen. And the approach I push and push is more of a continually planning. Maybe you're not going through a full detailed review of everything, but it's always forecasting, always looking out next 12 months. I'm I'm curious what's your opinion is, or or maybe if you have an approach around more of a continual throughout the year than during that fourth quarter. On the vendor side, of course.

Greg:

On the vendor side for sure. So absolutely. So one thing that's super important to know is that businesses change, right? And whether it's the client and they're going through a growth or something bad happens or they're going backwards. But it's important to remember that vendors is a vendor is a business as well. Their business has changed. So it's a really important to continuously evaluate all your vendors and to make sure that you're getting the best. There are vendors out there that kind of lure you in sometimes with great prices. Um, and then all of a sudden year two or three happens, and all of a sudden it's double, triple, quadruple what it costs, right? Um, and uh evaluating um when contracts are expiring um and what happens when they expire. Is it just the same? Um, do prices increase? Um I think that's a huge piece that's so overlooked. It's you know, out of sight, out of mind sometimes. And so it's important to, you know, use your Excel spreadsheets or use a piece of software to help with vendor management as a part, a piece of your planning for your business, right? Not the whole thing, uh, but it's a it's a piece that tends to be overlooked. You know, I think that especially in the SMB space, right? You surround yourself with the right people and right vendors, right? The business owner can then make themselves indispensable by making themselves indispensable. Vendors can help get you leads, vendors can help make sure you have the right software and your software is working perfectly, can help you hire the right people, can help you maintain those people, right? And so it's really about like what is the recipe for success for each company, and what is the right type of people or organizations you need to surround yourself by to get you to that next level. I'm a big believer in you know, surrounding myself with way smarter people, right? Uh, because I think that's the recipe right there, right? For success is you know, complement yourself with where you're not so great. Or if you are great, find even better people so you can continuously grow, right? And I don't know. I have you see have seen the same experience in in in your CFO world.

Scott:

Yes, I I agree. It's I I look at small businesses, particularly in small businesses, as they're expert at what they do. They may not they're they're the expert at their craft. That may not mean that they're expert at everything. Just like I am not an expert at everything. I try to be the expert in finance as a CFO. I see red flags with across the business. I may not know how to fix it, I may have an idea, but I I can see that, right? And I can work with the owners to bring in the right person or the right company or the right vendor to help those. But it is, it it's I think it's so valuable to understand your limitations and then finding people that can can fill those holes.

Greg:

I couldn't second that even more if I tried. It's so funny, you know. Being a business owner, you really have to be an expert everywhere in order to make sure you're making the right decisions for your business. But how can a manufacturing owner be an expert at website developments, right? And how could a private equity firm understand about cybersecurity, right? You can't, right? And so that's why it's how do we figure out who do we trust with these decisions? Who do we trust with our baby, our businesses, right? Um, and so I couldn't agree more. And I think that the business owners that try to be too involved and and try to be the expert everywhere tend to fall on their face, right? Or they grow to a certain extent, then they hit a ceiling, be like, how do I get to the next level, right? But you're doing too much. And I always whether you're trying to sell a business or run a business, you have to just run a business like you're going to sell a business, meaning like get the owner out of the day-to-day stuff, right? And so that way they are they are valuable. Can the business run by itself and still grow and operate successfully, right? And that's the real measure of whether a company's doing well or not, is if they can do that. Are they putting if the decisions they're making now will lead them down the path of removing themselves from a business? Now, I'm not trying to say we're being lazy, it's just the proper way to run a business. It can't rely on one person, it has to rely on the organization, right? So that's what I'm seeing. So I I totally agree with your point. That was very good.

Scott:

Well, thank you, Greg. And I guess how how where, or maybe where should a business start of, you know, I know I need XYZ service or ABC vendor. Where do they even, where should they really think about starting?

Greg:

It's a great question. Look, it's it depends on the business and where you're at, right? If they're going to look at what is the biggest ROI impact, which is usually where a small business starts, like where do I start investing this and when I have some extra cash flow, right? Where do I, where can I find the cheapest vendors, right? And when do when it's important to understand when do you not cheap out and you have to invest in your business to get to the next level, right? So it everyone has different phases of the business and where to start investing in in order to get them to that next level, right? And so there is no one universal answer for that. It has to be customized for every business. But I can tell you this you know, engaging with a procurement service like Connective Tech, very valuable, right? So if you can't find a company like you, like us, and you want to do this on yourself, the one piece of advice I would give is don't rely on three quotes to make your decision, right? These days, everywhere is oversaturated, right? And the fact is, with these vendors, right, just take like, let's just use website development as a as a concept here, right? Companies think that if they get three vendors, three quotes, they'll be able to properly make their decision. Well, the fact is, is that that is a misconception out there. It used to be the case, right? But there's so much oversaturation out there with every industry. There's more bad than there is good out there. And especially if you don't know much about what you're looking for in a website or a website developer or a website development company, like getting three quotes doesn't give you enough information, right? The minimum these days, if companies are doing it themselves, is 12 to get 12 quotes, right? Who's got time for that, right?

Scott:

That's a lot of quotes. That's a lot of time to go through all that.

Greg:

So many. And the biggest reason that 12 is the number is that by 12, you actually start learning more about these companies, how you want it. Because the fact is, there's no such thing as competition, right? You can put a hundred website development companies right next to each other, and everybody does it differently. Different price, personality match, software, right? Some do photography, some don't, some do branding, some don't. So, you know, like everybody does it differently. There's no such thing as competition out there, right? Um, even implement implementing a piece of software, like think Salesforce, for example, right? And you implement Salesforce, let's say three manufacturers, let's say that do that that do the same thing, it's gonna look so different for every single company if you do it right, different operations, right? And so every company needs something, something new. So keep in mind is that you know, there's never too much, too many quotes, but no one's got time for that. That's why we exist uh in and whatnot at Connective Tech to help them with the three quotes and make sure they're only talking to the right resources because we've done you know the 12, 20, 50 interviews with these companies to get them out of the way. Um, it's so crucial. So I don't know if that answered your question, but I've seen that's what I've been seeing the trends are.

Scott:

It does. And it makes me maybe reading between the lines a little bit is it's not even just volume, but you need the volume to understand what questions to ask, maybe or what conversation to have. But I don't know, to me, it feels like if I talk to 12 different vendors, by the end of that, I know what question to ask. I know the conversation to really poke around and and and push. But then I'd almost have to go back to the first four or five because that's right. I I'm not asking the right questions at that point.

Greg:

That's right. Exactly. So you get your top three or four and re-ask them the questions now you know you want, and then you go through a price. So by the end, in you need at least two meetings with these vendors to then you know they can ask questions. And one of the biggest misconceptions out there is RFPs don't work, right? It's it's amazing that people vendors don't want to reply to them. There's not enough information on them. Usually the person putting together the RFP doesn't give enough information. Um, and they usually have already decided who they're going with, but they have to go through the process if there's an RFP. It's really funny these days. That's why we're we're trying to be the RFP replacement, if you will, uh, these days. So you're you're spot on with what has to happen with proper vendor selection uh these days to really to optimize your spend, because it all comes back. Like, what are we spending on? What are we trying to achieve, right? Um, how is this gonna help us grow? Or how is it, you know, gonna lower our costs even? Because you start looking at merchant services, you start looking at credit card processing, 401k plans, these are all areas and examples of hey, how can we spend the least and still get the most, right? But you start having that mentality with like digital marketing firms for lead gen, cybersecurity, uh, website development, it's gonna put you backwards, not forwards, right? Um, and so there are some vendors out there, hey, it's okay to cheap out, uh, and you'll still get good customer service. It's gonna take you a while to find that company, but you they they exist. Um, but some vendors, you know, it's gonna be exactly what you pay for, and it's not gonna help your business in the in the in the least. It's might might even hurt it, uh, actually, in some cases.

Scott:

Well, speaking of finding cost reductions, do you have any frameworks or parameters around what's realistic? I mean, I I know I I talked to some clients, like, yeah, I want half off this. I'm like, okay, well, we we need to be realistic about this. So, do you have any rules of thumb or or or kind of guidelines that you think through?

Greg:

Guidelines, rules of thumb, not not really. The the fact is that every vendor has a unique approach. You know, take workers comp, right? Um, you know, we do have a cost reduction portion of Connective Tech where in our finance area, we're gonna look to either replace vendors with cheaper ones or renegotiate vendors. I want, you know, look at manufacturing firms with a hundred and plus employees, right? There's a lot of workers' comp insurance alone that needs for that, right? And but your agent, your insurance agent isn't necessarily gonna understand. All right, you need this coverage. Yeah, they're gonna understand that, but there's codes associated with workers' comp. So that's actually a different skill set to actually reduce spend on workers' comp um insurance insurance for businesses, right? There's actually vendors that specialize in lowering workers' comp bills, right? And they're not agents, they're just workers' comp specialties to make sure your coding is accurate and they'll work with your current insurance provider to make sure that codings are accurate to the businesses that you're doing so you can optimize your spend, right? With telecom, man, it's about all the features that you need and how you implement this. And you can get the cheapest service out there for as many features as you possibly can. That does exist, it's a competitive industry, right? Um, and so it really all is about custom to your business, right? Um, really needs an a mind map of your own company on your operationally, what tech is doing what, um, in order to really make sure uh that you are spending the best thing possible. Let me give you an example. Uh I'm working, uh someone sent me recently an RFP, uh, and they're looking to select a CRM and implement it, right? The problem here, right, is that they're looking for a quote for for someone to help them select and someone to help implement, right? No way that can be done all in one sitting, right? You know, you need a full discovery to do software selection, then a phase two is then what is that gonna do? It's gonna help implement the software, what software that that may do, and who's gonna implement it and who's gonna oversee it, right? And so to do it right may mean a couple phases. Um, but really it's all about unique to your organization. What may be good for the rule of thumb is what may be good for your competitor may not be good for you, right? Make make sure it's custom for your own business. It's the only rule of thumb I could possibly give you, you know?

Scott:

All right. Well, that that's helpful. And we've really talked about finding the right vendor, and I want to flip that a little bit and ask what is the danger of using the wrong vendor?

Greg:

Hmm, yeah. You know, I've seen uh businesses put their trusts and their money into the wrong people. Um, what that means is a loss of money, especially when it comes to smaller businesses. Maybe they have to shut down the business, right? I've seen businesses um choose. The wrong cybersecurity provider, for example, right? Let me give you an example there. What that means is that a hacker got into the business, they got a hold of some data, maybe a piece of software, ransomware happened, right? They have a lot of legal requirements, they have to pay out a lot of money. That could mean a huge loss of income for the business. So vendor selection should not be taken lightly, in my perspective. And that's easy for me to say that's all we do, right? But to be honest, like they need to understand where to invest and where to not invest, right? Now, doesn't mean investing, you have to spend all the money you possibly can, right? Um, it just means you shouldn't be going with the cheapest option, right? Um, and everyone, and that's where we are helping. Like, what is the average industry rate? What's a good spending amount for where they are as a company? What types of vendors does that mean? You know, where you are at from that, you know, you know, zero to million may not be the vendor that you stay with from the million to five million, and so on and so forth, right? And so it does mean a constant evaluation. And it could mean sometimes it could mean the worst case. Um, that you wasted a lot of time, you wasted a lot of money, and it put you backwards. And so it's really should be given some serious thought on who you're trusting and who you pay.

Scott:

And and follow-up to that is some owners or some businesses just stick with a con with a vendor simply because it's hard to get rid of one or change it out. Do you have any thoughts around the process of changing out a vendor?

Greg:

Yeah, absolutely. You know, for certain vendors, let's talk, let's take software, because I already kind of gave a like a CRM example, right? Uh that's a huge lift for a company. It's very disruptive too. You have to get the adoption of the employees, you have to get project managers, it's a whole nother dedicated almost employee that you need to oversee this major, major lift, right? And it means the participation of everyone else in the organization. So, you know, with these major decisions for an organization on who to which vendor to trust, it shouldn't be just the more participation your your entire company can have, the easier change management's going to be, right? Um, you won't the adoption of this new vendor, whether it be a software, a marketing firm, an MSP provider for cybersecurity, you know, the employees buying in and participating in this change means that they'll accept it once when once it's implemented, right? Or maybe you need a consultant to help them oversee the change, right? Or a lot of training, right? This isn't just about putting a vendor in place for your business, right? If you have employ a lot of employees, they're gonna need to participate in this change. And probably they're gonna be the ones interacting with these vendors the most, right? And so how do we train them? How do we get them involved in these decisions without delaying the process, right? It's a delicate balance, right? Um, getting making sure they have at least the input so you can go do a good job of selecting vendors is a major impactful thing that businesses can do, right? So either way, just keep in mind who's gonna be most affected by whatever vendor you bring into place and combine that with the decision, the best possible decisions you can make financially for the company, you know? That's a big that's a huge thing I see that's missed in every vendor selection that happens.

Scott:

That's a really good point. And before we wrap up here, I I'd like to ask one more question because this is a requirement for every podcast that's on. I see a lot of software that says AI. Everything has AI in it. Everything. Do you have, and again, we I'm sure you could probably spend another 30 minutes talking about this, but do you have any recommendations for kind of I don't know, I look at some of these things and like I don't feel like that's AI, but it says it's AI, so who knows?

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Greg:

I'm so glad you brought this up. We have a whole division dedicated for AI and automation. That's the first thing to note is that a lot of people are confusing AI with automation. Sometimes that can be one and the same, a lot of times it's not. How do we connect software together, get rid of spreadsheets, automate a lot of mini processes to really streamline an organization? The other thing to note is that every company may need a unique solution. There's a lot of different types of technology out there that can be a solution, or you may need a mix of technologies for this. Additionally, there are some very recent discoveries that these some of the open AI platforms out there have some major cybersecurity risks. So please be very careful about entering information and using information when utilizing AI platforms for your business. I think if you leverage properly and implemented properly, it could be a game changer for businesses. But there's definitely some security risks out there. And then I would say the only other thing to really keep in mind is that a lot of businesses these days are leveraging the word AI to just sell something because it's trendy and popular. Sometimes there is even no AI involved in what they're selling, but because they put an AI in front or behind the word, it's it's causing a lot of flow, right? So you really have to be very careful on who to trust these days, right? Because just because it has the word AI in it doesn't necessarily mean there is AI, or if there is, that it's good for your business. So just be very careful out there. It's a great question.

Scott:

Thanks. Yeah, that that that's kind of what I suspect. Again, looking at some of these that says AI, I'm like, I don't really think that's AI, but I'm not the expert. So thanks for yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Good question.

Scott:

Well, well, Greg, this has been great. And I appreciate you coming on. I I like to wrap up all of our shows with one to three takeaways that a business owner could put into place basically immediately as soon as they turn out the podcast. It might be something you already mentioned, it might be something that you you've used in running your own business at ConnectTev. So uh what can you share with us today?

Greg:

Yeah. Um, one, if you are going through the vendor selection process yourself, just make sure you're getting enough quotes. I think that's one of the biggest takeaways. Three is not enough these days. Two, that you can tell a lot by organization by how they show up, how they talk to you. Are they on time for meetings? What type of technology are they using to put together their proposals? How quickly do they do that? So when you evaluate a business, the services and price is actually the easiest thing to evaluate, right? It's really about the people at the organization, right? Just like any employees of a business make up the company. It's the same thing with vendors, right? Who is who's going to be servicing the account? What is their operations like? Um, can they retain clients, right? All these questions help evaluate a business much more than price and service, right? But don't ignore price and service. Obviously, you need that, but there are some underlying costs if you're doing this yourself. And most of all, I've said it a million times on this: trust the right people and use your gut, use your instinct on that. Is this somebody I can really get into bed with? Can they help my business and then leverage that person? Surround yourself by much smarter people. I think that's the key right there. So that's what I'll leave you with.

Scott:

All right. I like it. We also enjoy a good podcast or book recommendation. What do you have for us?

Greg:

Yes, um, so I will admit, my financial advisor gave me this book, and it's called What Would the Rockefellers Do? So every good business owner should be doing a lot of personal financial planning and figuring out how to generate generational wealth is really the hot topic there. And so in my personal financial planning, um, that's a book that I'm I'm reading, and I'm gonna be leveraging a lot of concepts for my own family, my own uh business.

Scott:

Well, Greg, we're we're coming up on our time here. This has been great. Tell us where can people find out more about you and or or maybe Connective Tech?

Greg:

Yeah, that's a great question. Um, so my website, connectivetech.com, great way to reach out. Greg Kleinhertzel, you can find me on LinkedIn, message me there. Um, my email is Greg.kh at connectivetech.com, and that's connective without an e. And so you can reach me any way that you can.

Scott:

Great. Well, thanks for coming on today, Greg. Really appreciate it.

Greg:

Thank you so much for having me, Scott.

Scott:

All right, folks, that's it for today. If you like the show or learned something, share it with a friend or throw it a like in your favorite podcast app. I'm Scott Keller, and I hope you join me next time for budget your business.