 I would change the presentation up to a minute before, if I felt like there was something crucial in it that needed to be updated so I could connect appropriately with that audience. Welcome to the Smarter Building Materials Marketing Podcast, helping you find better ways to grow leads, sales, and outperform your competition. All right, everybody. Welcome to Smarter Building Materials Marketing, where we believe your online presence should be your best salesperson. I am Zach Williams, along with my co-host, Beth Popney-Glove. Today, we're giving you some sales tactics, some ideas, some things that we see that are working, and more specifically, a manufacturer that has some really great insight about how to sell virtually how you can get your product in front of the right audience. It's going to be an awesome show. We are really excited to welcome Marcy Tyler. She is the Director of Building Science for TREMCO CPG, and she is basically a webinar and virtual sales expert. She does an incredible job positioning TREMCO as an expert guide, giving great insight into their products, and has been hosting webinars weekly for quite some time on a regular basis. So we're excited to hear what she has to share with our listeners. Marcy, welcome to the show. Thanks, guys. I'm so excited to be here. So we have tons of questions. But before we dig in, why don't you just spend a couple minutes and introduce yourself to our listeners? Tell us who you are and what you do. Absolutely. I'm so appreciative of this opportunity. So as Beth mentioned, I'm the Director of Building Science for TREMCO. So a lot of people are like, what does that mean? I like to position it as a way that I've always wanted to connect with our customers. And so that's just it. It's how do we engage with our customers and kind of connect them back to our systems and what that means related to performance. So I feel like I'm like holding the hand of the customer and holding the hand of our sales reps and kind of connecting to do is a lot of that. I mean, our gauge with these people every single day. And then when they need some additional guidance or education, they'll reach out to me. So that's kind of the gist of it. At TREMCO, we have a variety of different systems and services for the entire building closure. So really what we want is that opportunity to collaborate as much as possible with all of our customers. And obviously with COVID, virtual has come about and been a big deal. I know it's not new. It's not new to us, but it's certainly new to people in terms of how they have to embrace it because of our situation. We've definitely embraced it here at TREMCO. And I think there's many ways that we can talk about today of how you can make sure it's interactive. As Beth mentioned, I've been doing it every week since May of 2020. So every Friday, we've been doing this type of thing. So I can give everyone some pointers. I can tell you the dos and don'ts, I guess, of webinars as well. So as well, I'm sure you guys can too. Yeah, what I'm really curious about was a COVID that prompted this. Like the desire to get in front of people. Or were you talking about this before COVID? And you just kind of need to know because that's what changed the market. Well, what's interesting is before COVID, I would be in different cities like every week or every other week. And I would go out and work with our customers, go to different events. I did very little virtual engagements. It was more internal training, maybe, where I would record myself giving a presentation and give it to the sales rep just to see new kind of what the content was all about. But we used to do events here in Cleveland, at our facility, at our test facility, actually, we'd have anywhere between two customers to 35 customers come through our facility almost every week. And when COVID hit, we're like, wow, we're not going to have the interaction with our customers anymore. So what can we do instead? So a couple of us sat down and I was like, well, what if we did a broadcast with that same kind of format of just trying to connect to our customers? So we love it when we can bring a customer on and they can tell their story or we bring one of our sales reps or one of our colleagues on to tell their story. So I guess we embrace the virtual aspect because of COVID. But we've always been engaging and working with our customers as much as possible, just not in that virtual setting prior to. So we know pretty well that doing webinars looks really easy. Like how hard could it be? You're just talking about all the things that you already know. But there's a lot of lift that goes on to that goes in the background before you get to the actual broadcast. Can you tell us a bit about what that ramp up process looks like for you for the very first one? Yeah, so we were we try to figure out what was our goal, right? Like, so that I think that's important, right? Like, what is your goal of this broadcast? Who's your audience and how do you connect? And that was really critical for me, right? And I'm critical for everybody. I would change the presentation up to a minute before if I felt like there was something crucial in it that needed to be updated so I could connect appropriately with that audience. You want to use it on a time wisely. I never want someone to walk away going, I didn't learn anything from that or that was terrible, you know, like that would that would kill me. And I when I give like surveys, I'll be like, you know, honestly, what do you feel? And I'll hold on to that one comment or that, you know, a couple comments. There wasn't something right about it because, you know, you just want to be this is your opportunity to engage with that person. You want to make sure that you're connecting where they are at, solving their why versus my why. Yeah, I love that because a lot of people, they don't want to hear like what they're doing wrong. Like, no one really wants to know, like, hey, will you please give me like really harsh criticism? But you're saying, no, I know I've got to make this really, really valuable. Are you and that begs the question for me, like, what are you doing to measure ROI? Like, are you all just saying, hey, we know we're looking at attendees or we think that this is smart? Talk me through how your team is evaluating that this is a smart investment in terms of your time and resources. First of all, we really try to find to the resource part of it. I put the content together, you know, we do a rotating basis as to who's like involved in terms of being in the room with me or helping out from a recording perspective. So we really try to make sure that that's doable, right? Because every this is almost like a bonus job, right? It's not, hey, you know, someone's going to do a broadcast every week. You know, let's just add that to your plate. So those are two things that we want to be super respectful. But I think the biggest thing that came out of it was just the need for people to engage no matter what it is. So I think our biggest goal is to make it kind of light. We call it like wind down your week with us, you know, kind of light, educational, you know, if it's if something funny goes on, we keep it in. You know, if there's a blooper, it's going to stay. We want it to feel as real as possible. So it is like you and I sit and have in a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and just talking, because that's what we are missing when we aren't engaging with people is that is that intimate connection or even that real connection that you get from sitting across from somebody. So it's really hard to do. And I don't know how well we're achieving it, but we're trying. And are you only providing this to existing customers? Or do you find people who are potential customers might jump on or you're targeting them in some capacity? Because to me, I look it down like, OK, you could view this as a client or customer retention, you know, strategy. And you could also leverage and go, like if I'm a potential customer or someone who's considering Tremco in some capacity, there's no better outlet for me as a person to look at, OK, like, well, what are other people in the industry who are like me? Do they like the product? Do they like the service? Do they like the people? And it kind of peels back the curtain a bit there for individuals to see that. I'm not trying to encourage you to do that if you're not. But I'm just curious, like, are you seeing this as a sales generator as well as or most mostly about customer retention? I think there's a couple of things there. One thing we've really learned from this is it works really well internally. So if we aren't engaging with our internal colleagues as much as we used to, this is helping solidify that, too. At Tremco, we are combining all these different brands together. Derive it, Nadura will feel with our existing brands. And we don't have that same kind of, you know, we aren't having regional meetings regularly or we aren't going to meet up at trade shows. This kind of provided that that connection point to so many times afterwards you get a new guy or even a season's rep going, Marcy, that was great. I didn't know that or that was hysterical or can you send me those slides? That'll be helpful to me. So to me, that's my most amazing ROI. I'm kind of energizing my own colleagues. The next step is pumping up our customers. So if there's a customer out there that, you know, had a really tough challenge on a project that he learned a lot and he wants the ability to showcase his project, you know, let's let's give him that ability to do that. So we'll rise up that customer into that setting or maybe it's a brand new customer and they're like, I don't know about these Tremco people. What I'm hoping to do is provide a little bit of insight that, you know, we are your partner. We're going to be there from the beginning all the way to the end. And hopefully we can have a little bit of fun along the way. And that's what we're hoping we're providing. You know, no one wants to sit there and be bored either. So we're hoping to provide a little bit of energy, a little bit of excitement throughout the work day as well. It's really interesting that you mentioned you're keeping the bloopers in. You're doing an unpolished show and with intention, not with, not due to lack of resources. And I'm interested that you mentioned, you know, like you could give the do's and don'ts. I'd love to hear what your, you know, what's your top list for do's and don'ts for manufacturers looking to potentially do more of these types of either webinar or kind of virtual events. Well, especially when you're going live, always have a backup plan. Always have a set of slides ready or a topic ready that you can go through just in case that that customer can't log in or the power goes out or, you know, the dogs barking, always kind of have your plan beat. But also be able to just kind of laugh about it too. You know what I mean? Like we're all when it's live studying, you know, there's there's not so much you can do when something like that happens. So kind of embrace it and be flexible. We've had these super flexible with our content at times and just kind of change gears, you know, maybe with eight minutes to spare before, you know, going live. But like I said, we never have fun with it. I wasn't going to call you out, Zach. I was never do that. Yeah. Marcy said she was you will change PowerPoint up until the minute before. And I'm like, making dagger eyes at that. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. It's it's not for everybody. I know that. And that's I think that's what I've had to learn where there's understanding your customer to like that's going to be on the broadcast. You know, are they OK with that kind of setting? Do they need a little bit more planning? Do they need a couple practice, you know, or just getting on the platform ahead of time? So making sure that, you know, they're comfortable is important. And it's it's interesting because I had a guy that was super nervous about it and he loved it. He was like, can I do it again? So, you know, trying to make it as easy for whoever it is that's participating, I think it's the key part. Are there any don'ts, anything that you've done, if you're comfortable sharing that you're like, well, we're never doing that again. I'm a master at the spin. So I will find the silver lining. So even if it kind of I will figure out a way to pull it back up again and breathe back, breathe life back into it. I did have a guy once calling in from his car while he was driving. And I was like, OK, Nana, you. Yeah, that's a don't. That is a don't. Yeah. No guests in their car. No, no, no moving vehicle. I want to ask you logistically really quick. How do you decide what you're going to talk about and then talk to me about how you promote and get people on to actually be a part of listening? Because those are two really important things like deciding the topic. And how do you actually make people show up? Because you have a great topic, but nobody show up like, how are you doing this logistically on your team? I think it was easier to get people engaged earlier, maybe when we were more at home. Right. So I think what we end up seeing now is the live participation kind of varies. You know, we've had suggestions, you know, why Friday at three o'clock? Why not at eight o'clock? Why not on Thursday night? You know, you could try to move it to wherever it's going to work, but there's going to be someone who probably has a conflict. So from accessibility perspective, we always then put it onto YouTube. So that's that's part of it. The topics themselves, I'm always looking at like LinkedIn or I'm looking at, you know, if you're if you're looking at what what presentations are being given, you know, what are the buzzwords? What is what are the challenges that people are facing? And that's what I'm trying to do is try to figure out what those hot topics are to get people of interest. And really, getting the customer to come on speaks so much more than anything I could ever say, because then they're speaking from their personal experience on. You know, my gosh, this this was such a difficult challenge. Like we had this one glazing contractor in DC that did all this restoration work. And he had he had to figure out how to like build his scaffolding so that it could move appropriately across this huge skylight area at the airport. But yet he was at the airport with high security, you know, like that's just telling their story. I think it's so it's so interesting. And it's almost like, you know, people that like to see how things are made. It's it's almost like that, right? It's that that individual telling their telling their story. And these guys all have amazing stories. You know, one guy from Florida, his his scenery of all his projects are beautiful, like you could see the ocean in the background. And, you know, his his his projects end up being like masterpieces. And to hear it directly come from them. I think it's inspiring. Have there been any results from all of this effort? Because you've been doing it every Friday for about a year and a half. That's a significant in time investment. Any results that have surprised you? I think an absence flows in terms of, you know, attendance, per se. But I think what it does is it gets us out there. I went to two shows recently and the amount of people that came up to me like, oh, no, I watched your Trump go live, you know, this program. And I was like, I was kind of shocked because you don't know who's seeing it. You know, if it's on YouTube, you only get a number. You don't know who it actually is. And I think that's what's kind of interesting. And I'm truly dedicated to educating the industry at every level. You know, we're working on a program. One of my colleagues is starting a program for high school students. So those are the things that I think inspire me. I remember in college, I would go to different grade schools and we would show them different chemical experience experiments and just to see like they're they were so excited about it. And that's truly what we're trying to get even from this, is, you know, just a light, easy way to wind down the week and give somebody a little bit of education they didn't know about or an idea or some way once again to educate the industry on doing things the right way. Very passionate about that. Do you have a favorite show like you've been doing this almost two years? Which one is still out? You must not like to ask you that. I deal with the president of our company, Paul, who's a woman. He always says one of my favorites. He'll always say it's one of my favorites. Honestly, I think my favorite show was when I had two of my colleagues on in the industry, Keith Nelson and Keith Simon. So they're two consultants and we talked about male salability. And so anyone outside of building science arena would be like, what are they talking about? It was the longest program we had, but it was so much fun to do because there's just so much about this test that people don't understand and we had a lot of fun, I think, talking about it and bringing it to life. And that's honestly, for years, like when I when a new person would start, they'd come and ask me a question. They'd come and ask me a question. They're like, where is that information? I go right here. I go, unfortunately, it's right here. It's experience, right? And I think that's what I'm dedicated to, you know, sharing what I've experienced and also bringing about other people's experiences to life. But having the two Keith's son was my favorite. That's great. So what's what's next for you? Like, you've been doing this a little while. How are we going to take your webinar to the next level? No pressure. Right. You know, what I'm trying to do, I was just visiting my daughter in London and the chaos that is London, like when you're when you're going from place to place to place, that's what I want to be able to do. I kind of want to take this Trump go live on the road more like I want there to be chaos either prerecorded or something going on around me while I'm sharing that information. So it's a little more energy. I want to put a little more energy into it. So I think in I think February, March, April, we're going to start doing some segments in other cities. So we're going to take Trump go live on the road. It's a great idea. Yeah. So we're going to, you know, like I said, we might prerecord some segments and then it'll be Paul and I live I don't know. And we're also working on a studio, which I'm so thrilled about. I don't know how soon that'll be done. But we've been we're just sitting in an executive conference room. It's like, you know, a banner behind us and we're working on and some some sports center looking and a whole educational building actually for training. You should tell your co-workers that you needed to take the road show to like Tuscany, guys, you know, it's an emergency. Emerging, emerging market. We need to do a tour through through Tuscany all the way down the coast. It's going to be big. Absolutely. There, I think that's I think that's a great suggestion. Marcy, this has been awesome. If someone wants to connect with you and reach out, what's the best way for them to do that? It would be through my email, which is Tyler at tremcoink.com. We're always looking for people to come on Trump alive or even, you know, tour our facility in person where we do a lot of this type of testing. A lot of our our our Trump go live kind of is based on performance and based on system testing. And we tend to loop it back to our building science laboratory where we do a lot of this assembly testing. And we have a new piece of equipment there that is an environmental chamber that we're really excited about being able to utilize. Once again, it's taking a big piece of your structure and evaluating it for performance as built. So a lot of tests that we see are there's a lot of assumptions being made in those test methods that we want to kind of bring bring those assumptions to life and make sure that people can see what are those points of concerns that they should be addressing when they when they're doing testing, as well as just building those buildings that we all live in, live and work in each and every day. That's great. Well, we'll make sure we link to your email in the show notes to Marcy. And for our listeners, if you enjoyed this content, make sure you go to Venvio.com slash podcast to subscribe. Until next time, I'm Zach Williams alongside Beth Popney Glove. Thanks, everybody.