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✊ #NeverHuntAlone 

THE SUPPLY CHAIN IS FALLING!

Freight, Fuel and Labor OH My!

– It’s like the Cowardly Lion produces the nightly news. 

THE SUPPLY CHAIN IS FALLING!

OR… Perhaps, we’ve simply defaulted back to early 2000 rules.  Do you remember the pre-digital days of “Manual Procurement?  Janitorial and Facility Supply companies were the first to make it easy for us. 

Those pre-online catalogues were HUGE! 

We’re talking about 20 pages of just doorknobs big. 

I felt so powerful.  All I needed to do was find a client and make dreams come true.  I caught a whale on my 1^st week.  The order was TREMENDOUS!  Item numbers, colors and quantities were ALL triple checked.

–       We can only get these doorknobs

–       We no longer carry ANY ceiling tile

–       We can’t deliver 100 washers and dryers to Florida

–       Those dispensers are on backorder until “I don’t know”

Just because it was in the catalogue, didn’t make it real.  The only way to find out if what you wanted was available was to submit your order.  Calling in your orders took FOREVER and often provided no insight on availability. 

These were supplier issues not, supply chain problems. 

Fast forward a few short years to Pre-Pandemic standards.  Almost overnight, Google and the Amazonian way of instant gratification made us soft.  Today’s procurement agents only know Photo – Buy – Delivered to your doorstep for FREE!

Almost every Procurement Specialist has Photo – Click – Buy – capabilities via one of the mega national distributers.  We have contracts with them all.  The last time I counted, we had access to nearly 40 fulfillment and distribution centers across America. 

Just because easy isn’t working, doesn’t mean the solution isn’t simple.

Supply is undeniably low but, everything we need is still here.  Deals still exist.  Our hotels were able to help the community with toiletries during the pandemic.  None of our friends ran out of baby formula.  In NYC, the supply chain is everywhere.  In the old days, it was called a network.

If we can’t find it locally, we have a few Floridian Aces up our sleeve.

The NYC Locals | The Orlando Locals

#NeverHuntAlone

 Fulfilment and distribution centers are the supply chain the Cowardly Lion’s crying about.  So… If the large national solutions can’t deliver instant gratification at wholesale cost… It’s time to rely on our professional networks. 

Of course, we have national printing services.  Wholesale and shipped to your doorstep.  Gas price hikes guarantee you’re not getting printing delivered for free – UNLESS, you have magical powers or local suppliers.

By magical powers, I mean communication skills.

A few months ago, we receive a phone call from a client in Florida.  They were three weeks away from their 1^st post-Covid weekend event.  Several hundred people in attendance.  Another estimated thousand attending virtually.  Guest speakers confirmed and everything was in place, EXCEPT for the Digital and PowerPoint presentations.

With three weeks to go, it seemed like everything was on track.

Until it wasn’t. 

You see, the print team was waiting for a digital copy that never came.  With three weeks to go and no presentation or workbooks, I thought they were finished.  Digital storyboard, workbook and printing delivered to your doorstep in under 3 weeks… IMPOSSIBLE. 

If we were going to deliver a solution, step one needs to be identified IMMEDIATEL!  The problem was I didn’t even know where to start.  This was a Medicare Event and I needed someone intimately familiar with healthcare to communicate with my client’s compliance officer.

This is a Nightmare.

Nothing is worse than not being able to deliver.  We have web and tech services but, good luck finding a healthcare copywriter.  We must have called 200 people in the next few hours.  NOTHING.  We were literally looking to order a Bigfoot from an exotic pet store. 

We were thinking outside of the box because, our project didn’t fit in any known boxes… YET.  Begging Medical Directors for insight wasn’t getting me anywhere until that last goodbye… “Paul, I know nothing about healthcare marketing.  Our team works on content with Insurance School.com”

JACKPOT!

We’re an optimistic bunch.

All we needed to do was convince The Insurance School .com to help us put a Medicare Presentation together, hire a digital team to build the presentation in enough time to have the workbooks printed and delivered.

DONE ON TIME

UNDER BUDGET & WE BEAT EXPECTATIONS!

Turns out the insurance school .com has a consulting division.  Like Real Estate Agents, Insurance Agents need to be licensed and complete 24 hours of Continuing Education every two years.  Turns out those Continuing Education classes are industry fundamentals, just like my client’s presentation.

Without exaggeration, we emailed the presentation outline to The Insurance School .com on Thursday evening.  The sent us a restructured outline the next morning and a COMPLETE WEEKEND OUTLINE on MONDAY.

When we followed up on Monday, our team was introduced to,

David King | #David2U

Digital Audio Video I Deliver 2U

            David’s team runs all things digital for The Insurance School .com.  The call starts and we begin throwing up all our timing issues.  David jumps in and literally says…

Þ   “My DUDE.  We host over 200 hours of insurance classes a week.  You only have 10 total hours of content to fill over three days… We got this”

We had no choice but to believed him.

Less than 24-Hours later, we received segment one of five ready for print.  The usual print wholesalers would only give us bulk pricing if the entire project was submitted at the same time.  This meant we would have less than a week to print and ship safely.  We couldn’t take the risk.

Our local networks came through again. 

We were personally introduced to a half dozen small reliable Mom / Pop Print shops.  If you introduce us to your people, the tribe gets bigger.  In the end we were able to make Event Dreams come true with collaboration.

Real entrepreneurs work together.

It’s EASY to be a Superstar when conditions are perfect.  Today, conditions are far from perfect, yet simple to navigate when you can rely on 30+ years of relationships.  Click – buy – deliver, we’ve got you covered. 

Need to create solutions out of thin air together?

– I’m your Huckleberry.

#NeverHuntAlone | The Power of We!

By: Paul Perez Jr.

Business Liaison | Integrated Systems Approach

Email: Paul@iCareNYC.com

Central Florida Insurance School

*Department of Financial Services Authorized

www.CFLIS.com 

#TheInsuranceSchool