Full Transcript for Ep. 108 When Your Partner Becomes a Rival: Amazon vs. the Post Office

a shortcut where appropriate, absolutely. 00:02:29.579 --> 00:02:34.222 There is a little caveat, though, and that's you have to recognize that you 00:02:34.222 --> 00:02:37.393 are building your house on land that you don't own. 00:02:37.886 --> 00:02:42.716 And I heard that term first from Adam Witte at Advantage Publishing Forbes Books. 00:02:43.221 --> 00:02:48.582 We were talking about an example that I'll share later in this episode where 00:02:48.582 --> 00:02:53.412 I did this and it was not a good thing. So there is danger in building your 00:02:53.412 --> 00:02:57.139 business on land that you don't own or building your house on land that you don't own. 00:02:59.235 --> 00:03:02.718 Amazon just happened to grow enough to where they could just pick up and move the house. 00:03:03.908 --> 00:03:07.262 Yeah. Most small businesses aren't going to get that opportunity. 00:03:07.942 --> 00:03:12.383 Like if the sand shifts, your house is crashing down with it. Yep. 00:03:12.923 --> 00:03:16.922 So Amazon needed the post office before the post office needed Amazon. 00:03:18.042 --> 00:03:23.360 And that relationship goes back to the 1900s. You like that? 00:03:25.792 --> 00:03:29.611 Like the little memes online where, what year, blah, blah, 19, 00:03:29.611 --> 00:03:31.592 and then they aren't going to be old in the days. 00:03:33.240 --> 00:03:38.232 People that listen to this regularly are now aware of how much I watch like TikTok stuff. 00:03:38.877 --> 00:03:43.911 Yep. But Amazon originally was a book reseller based in Seattle, 00:03:43.911 --> 00:03:46.760 and they just shipped everything through the local post office there. 00:03:47.671 --> 00:03:52.721 And that allowed them to focus on selling, tech, marketing, getting customers, 00:03:52.721 --> 00:03:56.691 inventory, which inventories if you've ever read up on Amazon it's quite interesting 00:03:56.691 --> 00:03:59.901 they would literally go out and buy the books wherever they could get them oh wow, 00:04:00.621 --> 00:04:04.661 yeah they didn't necessarily have distribution in place for the to get the stuff 00:04:04.661 --> 00:04:08.649 and they liked having obscure so they they literally went out and bought them it was neat, 00:04:09.892 --> 00:04:13.944 Um, but post office had something they didn't, and that's a way to get to 160 00:04:13.944 --> 00:04:16.805 million households and addresses in the States. 00:04:17.543 --> 00:04:22.152 Um, so, you know, if you think about this, it sounds absurd, 00:04:22.616 --> 00:04:25.984 but if Amazon had to build out their delivery network before they could ship 00:04:25.984 --> 00:04:28.154 something, obviously it would never happen. 00:04:28.404 --> 00:04:31.544 Yeah. Like no way, not a shot in the dark. 00:04:32.607 --> 00:04:35.625 Uh, but instead they built on an infrastructure that was already there. 00:04:36.032 --> 00:04:38.424 And when you're thinking about the post office in this example, 00:04:38.424 --> 00:04:43.554 it sounds

obvious, but there are examples probably in your business as well. 00:04:44.054 --> 00:04:46.359 And you got to try and relate this back down on that scale. 00:04:47.474 --> 00:04:49.994 But they didn't build the roads before they started driving on. 00:04:50.334 --> 00:04:52.186 They found the roads that were there. Right. 00:04:53.454 --> 00:04:57.834 And the relationship was huge. Like, you know, the post office, 00:04:57.834 --> 00:05:02.640 the Jeeps are just full of Amazon packages for quite a while there. 00:05:03.430 --> 00:05:08.664 Um and this was during this transition period that packages and parcels became 00:05:08.664 --> 00:05:11.464 very important to the post office so, 00:05:12.399 --> 00:05:18.174 at inception post office was there to do letter delivery service right and that 00:05:18.174 --> 00:05:21.623 became unprofitable at some point and parcels, 00:05:22.737 --> 00:05:27.174 were to make up for that and that still is the plan by the way of the post office 00:05:27.174 --> 00:05:31.424 is that parcels are going to save this and make the revenue work because the 00:05:31.424 --> 00:05:37.215 letters even at 80 some odd cents it costs more than that to get it from coast to coast, 00:05:37.900 --> 00:05:42.374 and you're never gonna pay what it really costs yeah not getting that well you 00:05:42.374 --> 00:05:46.474 might if you had no option but there'd be so little mail it just wouldn't work yeah um. 00:05:47.913 --> 00:05:51.034 And here's something from the way back machine 2013, 00:05:52.719 --> 00:05:59.360 is when the post office and amazon combined together to offer Sunday package delivery. 00:06:00.933 --> 00:06:04.967 Do you remember this changeover? Sort of. Where like nothing happened on the 00:06:04.967 --> 00:06:06.889 post office on Sunday whatsoever. Nothing. 00:06:07.051 --> 00:06:13.025 Then out of the blue, Amazon packages started coming on Sundays. Yeah. 00:06:13.849 --> 00:06:17.193 I remember I was a pretty big Amazon customer at that point. Yeah. 00:06:17.500 --> 00:06:21.957 And I noticed the shift. I'm like, wait, wait, something big has changed here. 00:06:21.957 --> 00:06:23.445 We're at seven days a week now. 00:06:24.310 --> 00:06:27.157 So in a previous episode, you asked me, oh, well, post office, 00:06:27.157 --> 00:06:28.657 they just stop Saturday delivery. 00:06:28.901 --> 00:06:32.587 Oh, we did the opposite. So we added it in another day. But only for one company. 00:06:33.563 --> 00:06:36.687 One special company. Yeah, I don't know if other stuff comes. 00:06:36.687 --> 00:06:38.697 I know Express Mail gets delivered Sunday. Yeah. 00:06:39.786 --> 00:06:43.019 I don't know if any other agreements are in place for Sunday delivery or not. 00:06:43.557 --> 00:06:47.524 Probably there are at this point. Yeah. But that was a big deal. 00:06:49.164 --> 00:06:56.449 Within a year, by 2014, post office had delivered more than 2.7 million Sunday 00:06:56.699 --> 00:06:59.033 delivery packages that

didn't exist prior to that. Yeah. 00:07:00.525 --> 00:07:04.142 And, you know, we always laugh here because at Jurassic Marketing, 00:07:04.142 --> 00:07:09.104 our office and production facility is literally across the street from post office. 00:07:10.051 --> 00:07:13.963 And there are postal holidays where we are working and the post office is closed. 00:07:15.078 --> 00:07:17.585 There's people working at the post office. You just can't go in the lobby. 00:07:18.432 --> 00:07:22.398 Like there is no such thing as a holiday there as far as the whole operation goes. 00:07:23.263 --> 00:07:26.432 And Amazon was one of those things that got delivered. Okay. 00:07:26.786 --> 00:07:28.152 But Express Mail as well. 00:07:28.692 --> 00:07:33.787 And at this point, I think it's a pretty big crew that's working on the weekends. 00:07:34.952 --> 00:07:38.832 Even today, even though Amazon has taken a ton of business away from the post 00:07:38.832 --> 00:07:44.120 office to use its own service or other carriers, they do use other carriers, 00:07:44.486 --> 00:07:47.341 they spend $5 billion annually with post office. 00:07:47.677 --> 00:07:53.999 So the episode last week where we talked about how the loss was X billion. 00:07:54.278 --> 00:07:57.602 Can you imagine if Amazon didn't do any business with the post office? 00:07:57.602 --> 00:08:00.682 Well, yeah, at this point, though, it's like doing a deal with the devil. 00:08:00.682 --> 00:08:03.922 Well, that's what I mean. Like, what's my question there is if they were able 00:08:03.922 --> 00:08:09.696 to move much of their business away from the post office, why wouldn't they just move all of it away? 00:08:10.177 --> 00:08:15.007 Ah, very good. So this was a debate online in kind of a postal community. 00:08:15.448 --> 00:08:19.132 Yeah, this is a thing. Did you just admit you're in like a forum for postal 00:08:19.132 --> 00:08:23.581 people? Hey, this is my world. I have to watch it. That's true. It is. That's true. 00:08:23.779 --> 00:08:30.779 But the rural routes that are expensive to deliver, Amazon still uses them heavily, 00:08:31.612 --> 00:08:34.077 to deliver that kind of last mile package. Okay. 00:08:34.762 --> 00:08:41.512 On the flip side, there is a service now where you can use Amazon. 00:08:41.512 --> 00:08:46.442 I don't know if you can, but there are agreements in place where other companies 00:08:46.442 --> 00:08:48.756 can ship through Amazon's network. 00:08:49.180 --> 00:08:56.674 Amazon will deliver the package for XYZ company. huh, it's direct competitor now. 00:08:57.615 --> 00:09:01.852 Jeff Bezos is going to take over. So, you know, Amazon has all this... 00:09:04.657 --> 00:09:09.574 Logistics in place to deliver packages to all these houses, what do they have at the end of the day? 00:09:10.363 --> 00:09:13.782 They got a bunch of empty trucks going back to the facility. 00:09:14.195 --> 00:09:16.743 Why not just pick up more packages and go the other direction? 00:09:17.416 --> 00:09:21.575 I mean, that makes sense. That also can convolute your regular business model, 00:09:21.575 --> 00:09:23.390 which has already become super huge anyway. 00:09:23.581 --> 00:09:28.965 Well, it's true, but they're in hundreds, if not thousands of businesses already. 00:09:28.965 --> 00:09:30.085 No, absolutely. That is true. 00:09:30.385 --> 00:09:36.015 Not a bad done a bad move but again so so it's the little rural towns that are 00:09:36.015 --> 00:09:39.917 yeah but yeah yeah i mean those are the ones that, 00:09:41.118 --> 00:09:45.445 even ups would put a surcharge on okay like a fuel surcharge so yeah, 00:09:46.205 --> 00:09:51.305 the package volume exploding really benefited the post office um the problem 00:09:51.605 --> 00:09:55.715 problem according to the former postmaster general is they didn't modernize 00:09:55.715 --> 00:09:59.519 that quick enough okay they didn't build upon that quick enough, 00:10:00.024 --> 00:10:03.695 which allowed Amazon to come in and build their own stuff and not have to deal with all the legacy. 00:10:03.695 --> 00:10:08.315 So had the post office modernized quicker, do you think that Amazon would have 00:10:08.315 --> 00:10:09.323 built out their own system? 00:10:10.485 --> 00:10:16.025 It would have gotten more time. Yeah, as we'll say, as we'll share some other 00:10:16.025 --> 00:10:20.074 examples, Amazon has a habit of taking over any business that looks profitable. 00:10:20.382 --> 00:10:21.245 That is absolutely true. 00:10:22.045 --> 00:10:25.495 Yes. So what did they do? They started building their own land, 00:10:25.495 --> 00:10:27.928 right? They looked at it and said. 00:10:29.298 --> 00:10:35.481 Not only probably they can do it better and cheaper, but it's also critical to their business. 00:10:36.244 --> 00:10:40.324 It's a core function of what they do. I mean, they do make their own products 00:10:40.324 --> 00:10:42.654 now, but that's not what they were originally known for. 00:10:43.504 --> 00:10:46.014 So they started building. They got fulfillment centers. We have some big ones 00:10:46.014 --> 00:10:47.577 here. I think they're pretty much everywhere now. 00:10:48.184 --> 00:10:51.744 Sort centers, delivery stations. They have Amazon Flex drivers that actually 00:10:51.744 --> 00:10:54.398 deliver. Airplanes, tractor trailers, brands. 00:10:55.084 --> 00:11:00.708 I can remember when the first Amazon semi-trailers started to appear. 00:11:01.805 --> 00:11:05.144 Because all of a sudden there was a parking lot with 20 tractor trailers with 00:11:05.144 --> 00:11:08.986 Amazon Prime on the side. Mm-hmm. You know, and that was a big deal. 00:11:09.764 --> 00:11:13.798 Then in 2018, they launched Delivery Service Partner Program, 00:11:14.361 --> 00:11:21.112 which you might not even realize this, but the routes might not be owned by Amazon. 00:11:22.169 --> 00:11:25.834 Really? so they have flex which you might be familiar with which is where you

00:11:25.834 --> 00:11:27.968 can sign up and in your own vehicle you can deliver, 00:11:28.444 --> 00:11:33.471 but even the amazon vans are through this delivery service partner program that 00:11:33.796 --> 00:11:37.604 you can be quote your own small business in i see that every day in my neighborhood 00:11:37.604 --> 00:11:42.394 you can own this route white van and it's got an orange sticker it says delivery driver but he's 00:11:42.404 --> 00:11:46.344 got an amazon yeah so you have to buy into that it's kind of like uh fedex you 00:11:46.344 --> 00:11:48.846 can buy routes FedEx doesn't. Yeah. 00:11:49.369 --> 00:11:54.204 So, they claim they're helping thousands of small entrepreneurs create blah, blah, blah. 00:11:55.545 --> 00:11:59.334 It's a liability move probably is what it was. They're shifting the liability. 00:11:59.334 --> 00:12:02.714 Yeah, yeah. It also seems like a way to make $12 an hour. So, 00:12:02.714 --> 00:12:06.154 when the van crashes into someone and kills someone on a bike, 00:12:06.154 --> 00:12:11.045 you know, they can only sue the delivery service partner, not the global Amazon. Okay. But. 00:12:11.689 --> 00:12:16.684 Fair enough. Yeah. So, 2024, a couple years ago, they were doing 6.1 billion 00:12:16.684 --> 00:12:19.938 packages themselves of what was being delivered, plus all their other volume. 00:12:21.264 --> 00:12:25.554 Which has tripled in like five years, and I think it's just going to explode exponentially beyond. 00:12:25.554 --> 00:12:29.114 So then, back to my original question, like how long before the post office 00:12:29.114 --> 00:12:32.564 gets zero Amazon business? I think that, 00:12:33.660 --> 00:12:36.770 They will continue to see the unprofitable business. Yeah. 00:12:37.641 --> 00:12:40.430 As long as they're willing to take it. Well, for the post office. 00:12:40.430 --> 00:12:42.633 No, they claim they want to increase volume with the post office. 00:12:43.690 --> 00:12:47.130 Interesting. I mean, the question is which grows faster. Talk about a business 00:12:47.130 --> 00:12:52.270 that you, right, you can become a competitor to your main, you know, 00:12:52.270 --> 00:12:56.750 delivery channel and still continue to coexist and give them more business when 00:12:56.750 --> 00:12:57.953 you're tripling your own. 00:12:58.249 --> 00:13:02.010 So, you know what I think happened here is. They're so big that they need both 00:13:02.010 --> 00:13:04.560 of them. Well, the post office is tied to the government, so it's kind of a 00:13:04.560 --> 00:13:06.810 mess. It's behind the scenes. We talked with losing money and stuff. 00:13:07.450 --> 00:13:10.398 Were that a private company, they would have just been acquired. 00:13:11.054 --> 00:13:13.876 That's true. Yeah. No, that is true. Someone would have come in and just. 00:13:14.537 --> 00:13:19.410 Yeah. Amazon just would have bought it. Yeah. But. So is that even though it's 00:13:19.410 --> 00:13:22.624 tied to the government, does

Congress at some point be like, cut the ties? 00:13:23.129 --> 00:13:27.460 Jeff, Jeff wants it. I think the post office is mandated by the constitution. 00:13:27.460 --> 00:13:29.740 It'll be here in some way, shape or form. Is it really mandated? 00:13:29.740 --> 00:13:33.090 Yeah. This is one of the first things put in play. Oh. 00:13:33.584 --> 00:13:36.740 Well, that's where the first bureaucracy comes from. The first thing that founding 00:13:36.740 --> 00:13:38.215 fathers got wrong, evidently. 00:13:39.410 --> 00:13:42.743 So what happened? Post office didn't move quick enough on some things. 00:13:43.555 --> 00:13:48.350 They fell asleep at the wheel a little bit. I think the higher leadership would agree with that. 00:13:49.410 --> 00:13:51.218 Maybe not the frontline workers. 00:13:52.634 --> 00:13:53.755 But it's complex. 00:13:55.310 --> 00:13:58.735 What did they do that was good moves? They developed Sunday delivery. 00:13:59.769 --> 00:14:04.587 They changed how they route. They can do that dynamically based on what's on the trucks. 00:14:05.249 --> 00:14:08.770 They invested in package equipment, package sort and handling, 00:14:08.770 --> 00:14:12.749 which wasn't there before, and went toward the sort facilities, and I've seen that. 00:14:14.250 --> 00:14:17.860 They created Ground Advantage, which is kind of their competing product to like 00:14:17.860 --> 00:14:19.390 UPS Ground or FedEx Ground. 00:14:20.430 --> 00:14:24.720 A little cheaper package thing other than priority mail. They've updated their 00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:29.159 networks, and certainly they have more package capability than they did before. 00:14:30.408 --> 00:14:34.772 Um, but to my earlier point, they were designed to deliver letters. Uh, 00:14:37.211 --> 00:14:43.445 someone that's career post office letter carrier, their jobs change drastically in their career. Um. 00:14:45.709 --> 00:14:51.022 And they have handcuffs that Amazon doesn't have. So post office universal service 00:14:51.022 --> 00:14:54.730 obligation. That's, we have to deliver 260 million addresses six days a week. Yep. 00:14:55.032 --> 00:15:00.245 Yeah. All this legacy infrastructure and benefits obligations. Oh yeah. 00:15:00.992 --> 00:15:04.282 Labor requirements, right? They have Congress looking over their shoulder on 00:15:04.282 --> 00:15:07.312 everything, every little rate increase, every little service change has to be 00:15:07.312 --> 00:15:10.781 approved, just regulation restrictions everywhere. 00:15:11.350 --> 00:15:14.850 And they really can't iterate quickly at all. 00:15:16.155 --> 00:15:20.201 Like they're just, they're stifled from being creative because there's too many 00:15:20.201 --> 00:15:22.169 stakeholders on, on every side of everything. 00:15:22.808 --> 00:15:26.093 So Amazon's benefit, they didn't have a 200 year old system in the way. 00:15:26.569 --> 00:15:31.781 Yeah. Um, they got to start fresh, you know, the legacy was an advantage, 00:15:31.781 -->

00:15:33.690 but at some point it became a detriment. 00:15:34.456 --> 00:15:38.971 And this is always the benefit of the entrepreneur is being able to outmaneuver 00:15:38.971 --> 00:15:40.064 an existing competitor. 00:15:41.085 --> 00:15:43.121 Yeah. Startup can move quicker than a competitor. 00:15:44.708 --> 00:15:49.787 And there's danger in not changing and it's very easy to get comfortable i don't, 00:15:50.571 --> 00:15:57.154 post office is like a different definition of comfort right but same basic concept all right so, 00:15:58.326 --> 00:15:59.921 how this is relevant today uh, 00:16:01.467 --> 00:16:05.443 the end of september so i'm guessing that's within a month of this episode posting, 00:16:06.308 --> 00:16:11.231 contracts up oh boy amazon's contract with post office is up the end of september 00:16:11.231 --> 00:16:14.441 and No agreement as of the time of this recording has replaced it yet. 00:16:15.585 --> 00:16:18.411 So that guy in the little delivery van is going to be bringing all my stuff 00:16:18.411 --> 00:16:21.261 now? I don't know. So the negotiation at the table is Amazon says, 00:16:21.261 --> 00:16:23.508 hey, we want to increase volume with you. 00:16:23.723 --> 00:16:27.321 But we want it cheaper. Exactly. I'm sure. So how much do you think they're 00:16:27.321 --> 00:16:29.921 paying? I mean, like off rack rate. Oh, no. 00:16:30.261 --> 00:16:32.851 I mean, do you think it's like half? Oh, it's less than half. 00:16:32.851 --> 00:16:36.371 Oh, so it's all volume. Yeah, yeah. The people that walk up to the counter at 00:16:36.371 --> 00:16:37.549 the post office pay them. Well. 00:16:37.898 --> 00:16:41.181 Are subsidized. Pay the second most. The people that pay the most are the ones 00:16:41.181 --> 00:16:45.201 that go to a third-party parcel place. And then they market up. 00:16:46.541 --> 00:16:47.975 But they're trying to negotiate a new deal. 00:16:49.827 --> 00:16:53.191 We'll see how that shifts out, obviously. But there's a power shift, 00:16:53.191 --> 00:16:55.951 man. I think Amazon's the one with the power here now. 00:16:56.654 --> 00:17:01.031 Oh, yeah. Post office needs them more than they need the post office at this point. 00:17:02.627 --> 00:17:06.615 Yeah, the competitor's outpowering the person that helped build them there. 00:17:08.101 --> 00:17:12.966 Yeah, when the customer becomes bigger than the supplier. Yeah, I mean, that's... 00:17:13.894 --> 00:17:16.834 And they do this in other categories, too. So they've been known for a while 00:17:16.834 --> 00:17:18.411 to, like, bully products. 00:17:18.637 --> 00:17:21.586 And they claim they don't do this, by the way. So, asterisk, 00:17:22.184 --> 00:17:23.455 they don't use this data. 00:17:23.960 --> 00:17:29.454 But if there is a popular selling product, Amazon's been known to create their 00:17:29.454 --> 00:17:31.291 own version of that product and sell on their platform. 00:17:31.639 --> 00:17:35.354 Okay. So as a third party, I can post something and I can sell it, right? Yeah. 00:17:36.004 --> 00:17:40.604 Um and they see that data even though they claim they don't use it for this analysis, 00:17:41.478 --> 00:17:44.747 and they'll cut out people they'll just start selling that product themselves, 00:17:45.548 --> 00:17:49.204 so the person that put it up there found the products created the demand took 00:17:49.204 --> 00:17:53.814 the risk got the inventory and did the initial advertising then amazon's like 00:17:53.814 --> 00:17:56.024 ah that's a pretty good idea i think i can do that better, 00:17:57.088 --> 00:18:00.464 nice and of course they're in charge of where everything's displayed in the 00:18:00.464 --> 00:18:04.814 search results so guess what happens yep so again they claim they don't use 00:18:04.814 --> 00:18:06.678 this non-public data for this but. 00:18:08.454 --> 00:18:12.663 You can still see public data shows you number one sellers in categories so 00:18:12.883 --> 00:18:18.717 okay my guess is they just make the data public that they want to use and they're good okay so, 00:18:19.658 --> 00:18:22.744 why does it matter to oh and this is amazon us by the way this is different 00:18:22.744 --> 00:18:25.104 in other countries other countries have real laws. 00:18:27.296 --> 00:18:31.427 But it's different when, like, someone owns the platform, the customer relationship, 00:18:31.427 --> 00:18:32.968 the transaction, the data. 00:18:34.037 --> 00:18:37.377 They know an awful lot about your business. Yeah. It's like the equivalent of, 00:18:37.377 --> 00:18:42.007 like, your landlord knowing your sales figures, your number one customers, 00:18:42.007 --> 00:18:43.393 exactly what's working. 00:18:44.497 --> 00:18:47.477 It should have nothing to do with the landlord, right? Can you imagine if Tom 00:18:47.477 --> 00:18:48.437 had known all those numbers? 00:18:51.648 --> 00:18:54.577 I don't have time for that story in this episode. Yeah, I know. 00:18:54.577 --> 00:19:01.087 That's a whole episode of itself. I promised the building my own business on 00:19:01.087 --> 00:19:03.629 other people's land. So the early days of Profit 911. 00:19:04.917 --> 00:19:08.099 I think everyone that's followed us knows it was a digital marketing agency. 00:19:08.860 --> 00:19:16.035 But the first major revenue from that came from being paid directly by Infusionsoft, 00:19:16.876 --> 00:19:18.473 to support their customers. 00:19:19.541 --> 00:19:26.860 So my company was paid to onboard, retain, and provide expert consulting services, 00:19:27.417 --> 00:19:33.158 to customers of Infusionsoft, which worked great until it did not. 00:19:34.226 --> 00:19:39.747 So it sounds like a business. It operates much more like a job. Okay. 00:19:42.127 --> 00:19:47.694 The long and short of it is Infusionsoft evolved and changed their customer target. 00:19:48.547 --> 00:19:55.857 To a much smaller business size, which did not have value in retention for me 00:19:56.277 -->

00:19:59.507 after the fact at massive no-show rates. 00:19:59.507 --> 00:20:04.325 And overnight, the land I had built on had been taken away, essentially. 00:20:04.517 --> 00:20:06.787 They didn't kick me out. They were thrilled if I would keep doing it, 00:20:06.787 --> 00:20:09.666 but it wasn't profitable anymore to do so. 00:20:10.891 --> 00:20:14.867 And that's the danger in building on someone else's land. It doesn't matter 00:20:14.867 --> 00:20:16.359 how great your castle is. 00:20:17.195 --> 00:20:21.877 It's on the other land You're still at risk And that's a lesson that Amazon 00:20:21.877 --> 00:20:27.987 understands well And uses to their benefit every day So it's okay to do so Sometimes 00:20:27.987 --> 00:20:31.757 you have to Sometimes it's quicker Sometimes it's the initial logistics to get you out the gate. 00:20:34.137 --> 00:20:36.308 Sometimes it bites you in the butt. 00:20:38.392 --> 00:20:42.559 So Amazon sellers learned it. To put this in marketing terms for you, 00:20:42.559 --> 00:20:47.071 this is also, think like Facebook advertising. 00:20:47.936 --> 00:20:52.139 All of a sudden, Facebook stops showing your stuff in the feed. That wouldn't happen. 00:20:52.818 --> 00:20:56.999 Or shuts down your account. Or it gets flagged. Oh, now you're paying. You can't reach anyone. 00:20:57.419 --> 00:21:01.619 You've got to pay then. Or the Google slap happens and the algorithm changes 00:21:01.619 --> 00:21:03.743 there. Or what's the newest one? 00:21:04.370 --> 00:21:06.976 Google just wants to serve up AI summary results. 00:21:08.160 --> 00:21:11.765 Oh, we were doing really good at organic listings. Now that's like, 00:21:12.102 --> 00:21:13.640 you've got to scroll to get to those. Yep. 00:21:15.079 --> 00:21:18.842 Building on someone else's land. So, it's tough. 00:21:20.779 --> 00:21:26.224 For some businesses, it's how you have to start, but the ability to not live there forever. 00:21:26.706 --> 00:21:29.765 Yeah, and almost everything's finite. It's going to disappear. 00:21:30.919 --> 00:21:34.209 Some quicker than others. Digital iterates rapidly. This is one thing I love 00:21:34.209 --> 00:21:37.022 about the post office. You know, there is a love-hate relationship, 00:21:37.538 --> 00:21:39.616 but they can't move very fast. Yeah. 00:21:39.762 --> 00:21:42.519 So, you know, I can keep up with what's going on. 00:21:42.739 --> 00:21:45.829 You always know where they're going. I can see the horizon, no problem. 00:21:45.829 --> 00:21:47.919 Yep. The icebergs are bright red. 00:21:48.379 --> 00:21:54.159 Yeah, they do. They know where they're going. Yep, yep. So, it works great until it doesn't. 00:21:55.772 --> 00:21:58.924 Having one customer that's 70% of your revenue sounds great. 00:22:00.033 --> 00:22:03.479 Right up until they change vendors. Yeah. So that's red flags. 00:22:03.479 --> 00:22:06.232 And we've identified them in our business and you should as well. 00:22:06.755 --> 00:22:10.000 And they're not just supplier red flags, but customer red flags. 00:22:10.412 --> 00:22:15.699 Where are the danger points? Okay. You know, if this particular thing or relationship 00:22:15.699 --> 00:22:18.597 goes away, you know, can it crash the business? 00:22:19.099 --> 00:22:21.819 Be very careful about this. Some of them take years to solve, 00:22:21.819 --> 00:22:23.989 by the way. These are not quick fixes. 00:22:24.511 --> 00:22:28.209 Wow. All right. All right. so the takeaway it's not, 00:22:29.085 --> 00:22:34.419 you know never depend on anyone else this is dan kennedy right never i'm never 00:22:34.419 --> 00:22:40.259 having employees again right yeah yeah well i suppose but that might not be 00:22:40.259 --> 00:22:41.502 the takeaway for everyone, 00:22:42.135 --> 00:22:46.216 um but your business has to depend on certain things softwares vendors suppliers 00:22:46.436 --> 00:22:49.079 customers platforms you know, 00:22:49.763 --> 00:22:52.149 use these things don't get trapped by these things, 00:22:52.944 --> 00:22:56.429 you know i even wonder about this on some of the ai builds we've done okay what 00:22:56.429 --> 00:22:59.254 if the ai switches and it can't support what it built, 00:23:00.293 --> 00:23:04.479 oh we're in trouble so make sure you know these things and yeah amazon used 00:23:04.479 --> 00:23:08.861 post office they used fedex they used ups they continue to use those things they scaled, 00:23:09.447 --> 00:23:12.594 then they took their billions of dollars and they created their own alternative, 00:23:13.145 --> 00:23:16.609 um they built more bridges they didn't get rid of the other ones they just used 00:23:16.609 --> 00:23:19.959 them where they were best suited i don't know if you've ever noticed like fedex 00:23:19.959 --> 00:23:21.857 ground hauls all the super heavy stuff, 00:23:22.679 --> 00:23:25.189 you want to order something that's 100 pounds you're almost guaranteed that's 00:23:25.189 --> 00:23:26.350 coming fedex ground yeah um. 00:23:27.519 --> 00:23:32.109 The amazon partners have limits on weight okay for a single person and they're 00:23:32.109 --> 00:23:35.409 higher over at fedex okay that makes sense and they're not they don't want to 00:23:35.409 --> 00:23:40.259 do partners in the vehicles if they don't have to right yeah all right so what 00:23:40.259 --> 00:23:42.331 do we do figure out who owns your customers, 00:23:43.289 --> 00:23:46.900 and you reach them directly there's someone else a gateway to that. 00:23:48.845 --> 00:23:53.343 If I have to go through Facebook, there's a gateway. Yeah. I mean, 00:23:54.464 --> 00:23:57.471 can't necessarily fix that. You need to be aware of it. You need to add some other ones, right? 00:23:58.162 --> 00:24:01.919 What happens if my biggest marketing channel disappears? We get people that 00:24:01.919 --> 00:24:05.627 come to direct mail because all of a sudden there are other stuff broken. Yeah. 00:24:06.352 --> 00:24:12.250 Yeah, that, I mean,

it's a good reason, but it also was not unforeseeable. True. 00:24:13.789 --> 00:24:16.272 Number three, what am I building that I actually own? 00:24:18.095 --> 00:24:21.759 Oftentimes, the only thing that can be is your relationship with your customer. 00:24:22.750 --> 00:24:26.396 True. Everything else gets commoditized. All right. Where should I build redundancy? 00:24:27.116 --> 00:24:31.980 Story of my life running this company. Yep. You know, what people, 00:24:32.097 --> 00:24:35.969 systems, machines, products need redundancy? Where can I add that? 00:24:36.778 --> 00:24:40.228 So make sure you're building redundancy where it matters. And again, 00:24:40.228 --> 00:24:44.874 that's why I love direct mail is you can build your customer database. You can own it. 00:24:45.222 --> 00:24:48.008 You get their name, address. You know where they're at, how to find them. 00:24:48.008 --> 00:24:49.936 You know what media they're responsive to. 00:24:50.453 --> 00:24:54.738 And you're directly in charge of that. And hell, even if the post office went 00:24:54.738 --> 00:24:58.342 away, you could use FedEx or UPS. You could get to them. 00:24:58.532 --> 00:25:02.538 Yeah. If they're geographically close, you could knock on the doors or hand 00:25:02.538 --> 00:25:03.455 out flyers. You could do it. 00:25:03.978 --> 00:25:08.228 So Amazon built this giant business using other people's infrastructure. 00:25:08.766 --> 00:25:10.701 Great. Absolutely brilliant. 00:25:12.511 --> 00:25:15.522 The mistake probably was if the post office assumed that would always be there. 00:25:16.608 --> 00:25:21.194 Yeah, don't you, knowing the history of the post office and all the other decisions, 00:25:21.681 --> 00:25:24.858 you have to think, well, this Amazon people never get that big. 00:25:24.858 --> 00:25:29.007 We got, they're, they're bringing us a bunch of business. They'll never, they need us. 00:25:29.222 --> 00:25:31.278 Well, I mean, I'm sure they were thrilled to have the business. 00:25:31.278 --> 00:25:37.221 We have time periods here in my company where one customer disproportionately 00:25:37.506 --> 00:25:39.149 utilizes our resources. Sure. 00:25:39.723 --> 00:25:44.646 And, and I look at that as a double-edged sword. I'm like, ah, this is, this is great. 00:25:45.081 --> 00:25:48.634 Yeah. We're serving, we're making good money, they're getting results. 00:25:49.272 --> 00:25:54.148 And then the other side of me is like, oh, the higher they go up on the pyramid 00:25:54.148 --> 00:25:56.006 here, the more risk they become. 00:25:57.109 --> 00:26:01.498 Oftentimes it's just an awareness exercise, but it's like, don't build the overhead 00:26:01.498 --> 00:26:03.398 to match a single relationship, right? 00:26:04.918 --> 00:26:06.124 So make sure you own something. 00:26:08.725 --> 00:26:13.027 I'd suggest it's your list and your customers. And we're going to talk more about that. Oh. 00:26:14.674 --> 00:26:21.007 Next episode, your mailing list. We're going to talk about dirty mailing lists. Ooh. 00:26:21.936 --> 00:26:23.527 Interesting. And you know what? I'm just leaving it at that. 00:26:23.527 --> 00:26:26.707 All right. So like, subscribe, share. Hope you got something out of this. 00:26:26.707 --> 00:26:30.098 I'm guessing if you're still listening, you probably work for the post office or Amazon. 00:26:30.787 --> 00:26:36.268 And that's totally okay. You know, sound off. Put your comments on the episode. We'll respond. 00:26:38.236 --> 00:26:43.117 Thanks for listening to the triceratalks podcast be sure to subscribe and leave 00:26:43.117 --> 00:26:48.827 your comments for more information on how jurassic marketing direct mail can help grow your business.