Online Growth Strategies for Construction Industry

[00:00:15] Fred: People are using AI where let’s say machines reversing. They’ve got these sort of AI scanners around the machine, and if someone walks in that scanner, the machine stops and the alarm goes off.

[00:00:25] Fred: So this AI is massively enhancing safety on site.

[00:00:29] Nital: A term they call it now. It’s a revenue team. It’s not like a sales team and a marketing team. Which one generate interest and second, just bring conversion. It’s like both working together. Consider it as a revenue team.

[00:00:42] Fred: We’ve done it like this for 20 years and it works.

[00:00:44] Fred: Why do we change now? But often, you know, as we see, that can be the most dangerous saying that any business owner can do. We, I think what we should be looking at is always looking to futurize our businesses.

[00:00:58] Nital: First of all, thanks for being [00:01:00] here. Really appreciate your time and your heart and soul of Telfer Digital. Amazing to see you focusing on such a niche, vertical, supporting lot of construction and environmental businesses to grow in London uk. Amazing to see you are passionate about like how passionate you are about.

[00:01:19] Nital: Specifically bringing growth and helping businesses for that digital journey because not many businesses or not many agencies who focus on this segment. And that’s what, I was really excited about it when I first. get to know about this that haven’t seen many businesses specifically focusing on built in environment sector.

[00:01:41] Nital: So welcome on board and great to have you Fred.

[00:01:44] Fred: thank you very much. No, thanks for having me. It’s, and yeah, you’re right. It’s, definitely a niche, a niche industry to, to go into, but an industry which is so important. And it really, really requires sort of, the, you [00:02:00] know, knowledge and expertise to sort of keep it, keep it sort of moving forward, especially in the digital world.

[00:02:04] Nital: Yeah. And I saw you, Fred, you also recently rebranded. What was the purpose was behind that? Would we love to know that?

[00:02:12] Fred: Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, so we, so, so we actually launched our rebrand on Monday, which was, which has been amazing. We basically, we got going, you know, we started out just short of two years ago and we basically, I had had these customers who were sort of wanting to get going straight away.

[00:02:28] Fred: As sort of a, a starter, what we basically did, we got this sort of Telfa digital brand up there and sort of available to sort of start operating straight away. And it was one of those, it was one of those scenarios where we, we had to get it done quickly and as sort of efficiently as possible.

[00:02:45] Fred: And so we didn’t sort of get the chance to spend a huge amount of time actually thinking on. Our brand, it was more about, oh, you know, let’s get as much together as possible so we can start helping our customers. And that’s basically what we did. [00:03:00] And so. After yeah. Now two years we’ve we’ve now fully rebranded and really focused, seriously harden our, on our new brand so we can really appeal to all businesses within the built environment sector.

[00:03:14] Fred: And so we really tailored it around that. No,

[00:03:16] Nital: no, no. Amazing. Amazing. And I remember our conversation from, a few months back that it’s amazing. It’s good that because you have that legacy. You have that visibility in the industry with your own presence and spending all these years in the industry, a brand to go with your name is the perfect way to get started.

[00:03:37] Nital: Right. So amazing to see. Absolutely.

[00:03:40] Fred: Yeah, for sure.

[00:03:41] Nital: Okay, great. So Fred, let me deep dial into a little bit specifics to digital marketing and the opportunity you see, how digital marketing can help, construction and environmental industry. Right. So someone who’s deeply invested into revolutionizing [00:04:00] the machinery.

[00:04:01] Nital: Construction industry through digital strategies. What do you see as the biggest marketing challenges, the construction that you face today, and how do you see digital marketing and can help overcome those problems or challenges?

[00:04:15] Fred: I think biggest, the biggest of the challenges in machinery construction, effectively is actually just getting started.

[00:04:22] Fred: Businesses in, machinery and construction. They have got such fantastic businesses and they reach out to these most amazing projects. And in fact, it’s always been sort of about the site, it’s always been about the machinery. And it’s only sort of recently come into, you know, relatively recently come into the fact that digital is an incredibly important part of those businesses.

[00:04:44] Fred: And so I guess the biggest challenge is actually, you know, to people that are running these businesses is where do we start? And, effectively sort of how we’ve basically done this is put together, you know, a trial and tested, and proven strategy into how we can [00:05:00] actually get these, get these sort of businesses going and, and, and really how are they can then start making a big difference digitally.

[00:05:05] Nital: Yeah, yeah. No, no. Like us dealing with a lot of, B2B B2C businesses and us working with a lot of agencies globally, we always realize that. Working with B2B segment or businesses who focuses on B2B, that’s always requires very custom approach when it comes to digital marketing or generating interest from digital channels.

[00:05:28] Nital: Yeah. Beyond that, those challenges and hurdles with B2B when we go to B2B into construction and environmental space. I can imagine it’s gonna be a bigger roadblocks you’re gonna face, or you, I’m sure you’d be facing. So would love to know how’s that shift? How are you managing that shift and transition of a mindset of your customers?

[00:05:52] Nital: Because I can imagine traditionally it would be a lot to do with word of mouth. It would’ve to be a lot to do [00:06:00] with, referrals and, other channels, offline channels versus now leveraging digital marketing. How, how have you been managing, bringing that impact? Businesses.

[00:06:14] Fred: So I mean, you’ve, you’ve got that incredibly correct.

[00:06:17] Fred: It’s, has been in the past, and, you know, traditionally word of mouth and really knowing, sort of know, knowing people within the industry specifically. And there’s sort of come a point where there are, you know, the, the construction industry, an incredibly active. Industry, there is jobs everywhere from house building projects to, you know, anything, anything over sort of to quarry jobs, you know, waste and recycling, all that kind of stuff.

[00:06:43] Fred: And it really is, it’s really giving, I, I guess, one, the new businesses coming in, how are they gonna start to. Properly involved with these big, big projects, how are they gonna start sort of getting stuck in and with getting some great project projects under their belt? And what we realized is actually it’s been a major strategy and a [00:07:00] major step really has been digitizing.

[00:07:02] Fred: And so what we’ve basically done is help to bring on these businesses and to getting these new projects and getting their name out there. You know, you’ve got some massive, massive construction. Operating for, you know, hundreds of years. Getting these new players on board is so important. So that’s sort of how we focused, and it really is in the, in the construction industry.

[00:07:22] Fred: What, you know, machinery especially what we sort of learn is transparency is everything. Being transparent to your, to your audience is so important. And actually getting them to, getting your audience to engage in what you’re doing. People are. Completely fascinated by what actually goes on in a, in a construction site.

[00:07:40] Fred: And most of the time, you know, if, if, if, if you’re a business specializing in, in tech for example, the likelihood is you’re not really going to be able to see sort of what actually goes on. You know, the built environment sector really is sort of like a core foundation of, of the world. You know, your office, you know, you’re, you’re satin that’s had construction.

[00:07:59] Fred: So [00:08:00] it’s understanding the process from start to finish and sort of, and the way how we sort of effectively, like you’re saying, you know, get these companies to enhance the digital strategy and sort of get on board with that rather than just the word of mouth is opening up to their customers and sort of showing people what they can do and showing people what they do do.

[00:08:17] Fred: And that’s sort of how we’ve come in and that’s how we’ve sort of made our. Approach into the industry.

[00:08:22] Nital: Very interesting. Very interesting, Fred, and the way I have seen even the digital space has evolved these days or over last few years, where it’s not like those early days where it’s only about early generation and creating those lead magnets.

[00:08:40] Nital: Right. I think we have seen a bigger shift about building that brand, creating that authority in the space, having those social signals becoming very important as well. A lot of businesses, which are very tech focused. These list also talks about omnichannel marketing and creating that, [00:09:00] consolidated view of their user journey because businesses struggle to attribute what is my first touch or where the customer has entered, right?

[00:09:09] Nital: With all these changes, what we have gone through and still going through in the digital space, especially for construction and environmental industry, balancing that online and offline. Right. How do you see that landscape is evolving and how do you see it would evolve in next five years? Because I’m sure while you are going with the emphasis to bring that digital presence still, those offline elements, those social elements of trust, credibility, would be playing a very crucial role in

[00:09:47] Nital: interest. Right? It’s. Transaction or making that, that engagement to start, how do you see that shaping up, in next five years? Absolutely.

[00:09:59] Fred: Yeah. [00:10:00] really interesting question. And this really, you know, it’s, this is all about in-person teams and digital teams. And so, and this is sort of what we commonly see with sort of construction is that, ’cause it’s introducing the, the new way digital is, can somewhat be, you know, not, not taken at sort of a big interest to start off.

[00:10:19] Fred: And the way which one, which we’re seeing it sort of evolve is getting the sort of sales teams and in persons teams to work alongside the digital teams. And I think it’s what’s really important is that. Each team shouldn’t be sort of looking like one’s gonna take over. The other, both teams should be working together.

[00:10:37] Fred: And so the way I sort of see it evolving is the, you know, person communication as it always has been, is still just as important as the digital, side. The way how I see it evolving is that. Digital teams really need to work alongside sales teams effectively. The digital teams can bring in some interest of people that they might not have dealt with before, but the guys who hold the relationships are always the ones that sort of [00:11:00] bring in the, the full conversion.

[00:11:01] Fred: So it’s really working alongside each other and making an understanding your customer journey of sort of what can really help people to see my new, see my business. What can help to, I dunno, inquire And how easy is it to pick up the. So you’re using that digital sort of outgoing to bring people to your business or bring people to your website, but then to pick up the phone and there’s someone on the end of the phone that is just as important.

[00:11:25] Fred: And so it’s using both the in-person teams and the digital alongside each other. That’s how I see it working.

[00:11:32] Nital: Yeah, no, very true. Very true. So I’ve been hearing more often a term they call it now, it’s a revenue team, right? So now it’s not like a sales team and a marketing team, which one generate interest?

[00:11:43] Nital: And second, just bring conversion. It’s like both working together considered as a revenue team, helping business to generate revenue, retain revenue, right. And grow that revenue.

[00:11:57] Fred: Absolutely. Yeah. And you know, and this [00:12:00] purely goes back to the, the thought of both teams, both, both teams are trying to achieve the same thing and to achieve that and in the best way possible, working together, as, you know, as like you said, a revenue team really is the way forward.

[00:12:14] Fred: It can be, it can sort of be a, a point of sales teams might go, no, we don’t, we don’t need digital marketing. ’cause we can do it all ourself. And you know, digital teams might say the same. You know, we don’t need sales teams so we can do it all ourself. And neither of those are true. They both need each other just as much.

[00:12:31] Fred: So that’s, that’s the, that’s sort of where that is.

[00:12:36] Nital: Okay, great. Fred, before, you kind of, started with your own own entrepreneur journey, I, you have had a long sprint with, wanting JCB, right? I believe you have spent close to eight years there. Would love to know that. Why do you believe having a strong brand, well optimized website [00:13:00] is crucial?

[00:13:01] Nital: In this vertical and industry, to generate leads and establish credibility, like Absolutely. How, why website is so important.

[00:13:11] Fred: Absolutely. I mean, ultimately your website’s the first thing which people see. so 99% of the time, what will happen now is a user will visit your website before they call you.

[00:13:21] Fred: If your, if your website’s not established, then that speaks, that can speak a lot about your brand and the fact that they might have, you know, if your website’s established and your digital presence is good, then you’ve automatically got more trust from your potential customers. So, and what we sort of learned is along the way is, you know, and from, from my time at Watling where I was sort of trial and testing.

[00:13:45] Fred: Everything, sort of see what would work and what wouldn’t in terms of inquiries, in terms of customer support, in terms of part sales, it all comes down to transparency and having a strong brand behind you digitally. If you can have the confidence [00:14:00] to share your brand wherever you go, then like it is, your customers are always gonna have confidence in you.

[00:14:06] Nital: Oh, very interesting. Very interesting. Yep. Can you, can you help us with maybe one or two examples of what has. Work for you or what sort of campaign or what sort of strategies? Have worked significantly in your favor to boost your sales or overall credibility, while your digital channels are false?

[00:14:29] Fred: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, so I think there’s a, there’s a, a few, a few different strategies, but if we just go down, the machine sales route, for example, product information is the most important thing. You know, if you can, most of the time your customer knows what they’re looking for. So, or, or know sort of whereabouts and sort of what they want to look for.

[00:14:48] Fred: So if they’re looking for, for example, back loaders, they can, if they, if they can then visit every single product, product model on your site. And if they’ve got full, descriptive information as well as specification sheets, [00:15:00] videos, they have more of an idea before they actually call you than they did before.

[00:15:04] Fred: So they sort of, the process of being, you know. Phone call. I’m not really sure what I need, but can you help? It can massively, it can massively, you know, the conversion rate massively increases because they, they understand what they need. They know from straight away what’s gonna benefit them, what’s gonna benefit their business or benefit their job.

[00:15:24] Fred: So effectively, transparency in terms of machine product listings is incredibly, incredibly, you know, incredibly important. You know, a lot of, a lot of what businesses are doing within the industry now is. Allowing people to re, to, reserve reserve machines online. And so the likelihood of someone purchasing, you know, a backup loader, outright online is very, is very slim, because it’s obviously such a big ticket price, but the likelihood of them reserving.

[00:15:55] Fred: Is incredibly likely, and it’s, it’s similar to sort of the car, you know, the car models. [00:16:00] Now, if you are, if you’re gonna buy a car, you can, what, what, most of the time what you can do is actually reserve that car online. And so that again, is massively important. It, it plays a huge role. And further on from that, what we’ve also seen is most, most of the machinery companies will offer, you know, finance.

[00:16:19] Fred: In terms of higher purchase or maybe some lease options, what has sort of seemed to be more of sort of a, a trend now is these machinery companies are actually starting to embed finance calculators on their, on, on their website, so people can sort of tailor what package, what, what, what sort of package.

[00:16:36] Fred: Deal. They want to go ahead with straight away, you know, whether that be a 36 month higher purchase, the 10% deposit, they actually know exactly how much that’s gonna cost them before they call you. So giving them the ability to get that whole idea straight is, is massively important to give you, to give you a bit of an insight, we, what we sort of see is across machinery, businesses, sort of.

[00:16:57] Fred: Have these features, you know, product listings, full product [00:17:00] details, spec sheets, videos, finance calculators, that the, the average sort of conversion rate has sort of gone up by about 126%.

[00:17:10] Nital: Wow.

[00:17:11] Fred: Yeah. And so it’s, it’s massive. It really is huge. And so. That’s my, the biggest sort of piece of advice is transparency for your users.

[00:17:19] Fred: Allow them to view as much detail as possible

[00:17:22] Nital: and, and how have you been managing that mindset shift? Right, because I can imagine, I. Change is the constant thing, only constant thing, all nerve, right? But at the same time, it’s most difficult, thing to adopt. and especially for businesses who has been seeing certain way of operating and that mode of operations working very effectively for them for years.

[00:17:52] Nital: Changing that, I’m sure it’s gonna be, bigger a hustle. So would love to know, like amazing to [00:18:00] hear about these, calculators, these videos, the overall blog and content assets. But how do you get them into a zone of creating these on a regular basis if you Absolutely.

[00:18:17] Fred: I think, I think the, I think, literally goes into, in, in, into a, into a mode of give it a go.

[00:18:25] Fred: and the, the the give it a go. It’s trial and tested. It, it, it’s proven, it works. It can always be, it can always be a bit, bit of a done it. We’ve done it like this for 20 years and it works. Why do we change now? But often, you know, as we see. That can be the most dangerous saying that any business owner can do is we’ve done this and we, we don’t need to change it.

[00:18:47] Fred: I think what we should be looking at is always looking to of futurize our businesses and, and that is really the, the way of doing it and, you know, giving it a go. How can it work? And ultimately giving more information and the ability for [00:19:00] your customers to sort of look at these or, you know. Operate sort of through finance calculations and stuff.

[00:19:05] Fred: It’s not gonna, it’s, it’s not gonna damage your reputation. Only thing it’s going to do is, is, is basically improve your customer’s ux ui. So it’s massively important. And so effectively getting over that barrier of, no, we’ve done this for a while, we don’t want to change, is really important. And it’s at some point.

[00:19:24] Fred: Your business is gonna have to go to this futuristic stage, so you might as well get going ahead now rather than wait for five, 10 years where you could sort of be left behind in, in, in, in other sort of competitive wakes.

[00:19:35] Nital: Very interesting. And because these product purchases are expensive, at times, may require finance as well.

[00:19:43] Nital: I’m sure if I’m not wrong, that the Biden cycle or the conversion cycle is gonna be pretty long. How does content PCs. to increase credibility and move that buying funnel [00:20:00] further down, because one is to generate interest, getting an inquiry, and then from inquiry to conversion, I’m sure they’re gonna be longer cycle.

[00:20:10] Nital: And how does these, all the content videos, calculators, blogs, are helping to improvise this conversion funnel?

[00:20:20] Fred: Yeah, massively. And, and I think, I think this, this, this actually goes back to, you know, this, so the, how we’ve always done it. Phase of, let’s say, not having a digital sort of, the transformation is the fact that your conversion cycle will, it’s always gonna be, it’s always gonna be slower.

[00:20:38] Fred: Because what you are giving with these videos and these finance calculators and these mis transparency on the page is you are giving your customer as much detail as possible upfront. So in fact, they know a huge amount more about the machine already. If they were just to call you up without any idea, you know, the, the transaction process will be a lot longer and with machines as, as machinery, businesses [00:21:00] know, machinery tenders can go on for months, whereas it can bring that down considerably if your customer knows exactly what they’re looking for straight away.

[00:21:09] Nital: Yeah. Very interesting. That reminds me of where we’re trying to implement a marketing framework called taa, TAYA. They ask you answer, at vallas. And, that framework is all about you handling all the objections on and possible questions of your prospects, of your customers ahead of the time, because there was an interesting study done.

[00:21:40] Nital: Where the stats was indicating that 80% of customer have made their decision before even they speak to a human sir. And in that entire education process of your buying decision is [00:22:00] done before even you are speaking to the human over a call. So I can imagine the importance of all these content you are.

[00:22:08] Nital: Suggesting Right, how much impact they would be able to bring in the. Buying cycle before even they speak to a salesperson.

[00:22:17] Fred: Yeah, absolutely. And in fact, you know, I find one of the most interesting things is what, what it’s what I think the car industry do so well. They, they have, you know, build your car.

[00:22:28] Fred: So you’ve chosen that you’re having tinted windows, you’ve chosen that you’re having Apple car CarPlay, you’ve chosen that you’re having a particular set of tires. Once you’ve chosen that, the likelihood is you’re 95% already there to buying it. So ultimately giving that transparency is just so crucial.

[00:22:46] Fred: And, and that’s, and I think, I think there’s a, there’s actually, there’s a lot to be learned from the car industry. They are, they’re very advanced and they are always, and it’s massively competitive. So getting that, getting, you know. [00:23:00] Allowing that information there so people can actually do all the good stuff and help and get excited.

[00:23:04] Fred: You know, it’s, it’s an exciting thing buying something, whether it’s personally, whether it’s your business, it’s, it’s always an exciting, exciting sort of part, is buying something new and instead of buying something, which is gonna help your business grow. So why not make it interesting?

[00:23:18] Nital: Yeah, no true world.

[00:23:22] Nital: All of us spends good amount of time on social media, right? Hmm. How do you see the social media platform has evolved, especially in this segment, for construction and environmental space? How effectively you are able to leverage those social media platforms to increase your customer engagement and have more visibility?

[00:23:48] Fred: Yeah, absolutely. again, super crucial. ideally, I mean, what, what I always say is construction businesses, machinery businesses, they should be posting daily if that’s on, you know, client [00:24:00] testimonials, case studies, um. New machines that you have in stock. So it really, it, people are interested to sort of see what you’ve got.

[00:24:08] Fred: And, you know, again, it, it goes back to this car world. You know, people are so interested in cars. The same thing happens with machines and construction. People are massively interested. So what your social media platforms gives you is, is the ability to keep your audience. Sort of keep your, keep your, your audience interested all the time and they can sort of keep a, keep a log of sort of what you guys are doing and see your progress as a business.

[00:24:29] Fred: So an example, we do, we do a lot of work for plant hire companies. And what these plant hire companies basically do is they help machines in stock and they, and, and they, and they rent ’em out to customers. So that’s, you know, groundwork is to quarry sites, waste recycling. With what, what we found with social media and plant hire companies, that if you’re actually showcasing your, the spec of your machines, if you’re, if you’re showcasing what you guys can do, whether you guys can offer operated plant hire, if you can offer, you know, non-operated plant hire, [00:25:00] this is really important to your audience and it gives, again, your, you’re educating your audience instead of what your business can, can do and sort of.

[00:25:10] Fred: Your social media platforms is just as important as your website. It, it all ties in together. Again, transparency. I know I keep going on, going on about it, but it’s, it really is. That’s how important it is. Yeah.

[00:25:22] Nital: Yeah, that’s true. Like when we, when we talk about changing the world from in-person, physical conversation to digital conversation.

[00:25:33] Nital: Right. Right. I totally hear you, that that transparency plays a very crucial role. How do we, do we make things real? Like how, how do we make that experience as real as possible?

[00:25:46] Fred: Absolutely. And, you know, a, a thing, a, a thing, which is, which has started working really well. you’ll see on social media all the time, people are sort of explaining their day in their life.

[00:25:57] Fred: We’ve actually, we’ve, we’re actually just doing a, we’re just doing a piece [00:26:00] of work at the moment, for, you know, a day, day in the life of a service engineer, which is really cool. So a service engineer, basically what they do is they go out to. Machine, which require services

[00:26:14] Fred: day. Your audience in that sort of industry are massively interested and actually incredibly, it’s incredibly helpful for careers as well because it entices people into sort of thinking actually, you know, I really want to do that job and what can I expect from that? And so that’s sort of, yeah.

[00:26:30] Nital: Great, great.

[00:26:31] Nital: Fred, help me understand, with the ever-changing technology world, right? And like four out of 10 times, when we talk about technology these days, AI. Comes into conversation. yeah. But yeah, keeping ai, ar, vr, all those new advancements and innovations happening in overall technology space, how do you see [00:27:00] they’re gonna ha contribute to the growth of, again, construction and environmental machinery space?

[00:27:08] Fred: Yeah, absolutely. So start off with ai. I think it’s a, AI is so important and a AI is not going anywhere. Let’s just, let’s just get that. I think sort of what, what can be the immediate thought is, I don’t wanna use it because we don’t, we don’t need to use it. Our business, we know we’ve run our business for 45 years, we’ve never used it or something.

[00:27:27] Fred: AI’s not going anywhere. So. Befriend it, you know, work with it. How can you make your business better? How can you make it more efficient? There? There are ways that machinery, sort of companies, you know, tech companies are doing, work with, which, which is really cool. You know, machine safety, for example, is a big, a really, really big point within the industry.

[00:27:45] Fred: And safety. Safety of your employees, safety of the workforce is massively important. So people are using AI where if a, you know, let’s say a machine’s reversing. They’ve got these sort of AI scanners around the machine, and if someone walks in that scanner, the machine [00:28:00] stops and the alarm goes off. So this AI is massively enhancing safety on site.

[00:28:05] Fred: And so that is, for me, that is an unbelievable piece of tech, and I would really, you know, take that as, as something which, if you can, companies should do. It’s really, really important. And so, yeah. So things like that really enhance it, take it in. I think it’s really great. It’s also being used for precision.

[00:28:26] Fred: You know, if you are doing, doing sort of housing, a housing job and you’re sort of having to dig out specific, dimensions using, using the AI technology to get yourself really accurate. Trenches or whatever is massively important. You’re then pretty much removing any risk of, or a lot of risk of, of

[00:28:45] Nital: Interesting.

[00:28:45] Nital: Interesting. And do you see anything to do with ar vr? Can we leverage, for this industry, for, making the buying cycle or buying journey or experience of the user better?

[00:28:59] Fred: I [00:29:00] think AR is, I think AR is amazing. I think it’s really cool. And in fact, lots of manufacturing companies are actually using AR when they’re designing prototypes.

[00:29:10] Fred: So effectively what they can do is the design team will sort of almost wear these headsets where they can have their, they can sort of see the machine through their headsets, but the machine’s not actually there. So they can sort of see how good the design is, what they can improve. And so I think ar in.

[00:29:27] Fred: The buying cycle. It can absolutely be there. I mean, I think it’s an incredible thought. It’s, you know, if building the functionality somehow through, headsets or whatever, so people can actually almost do a full look around of machines from, from, from the world, go Again, it’s bringing out that transparency of what actually they can see and operate and sort of how the machine looks.

[00:29:50] Fred: Yeah, AR I think is just the coolest thing. And like I said, design teams are, are using it a lot, which is, I just think massively impressive. [00:30:00] VR again, massive VR is really important. Again, going back to the safety side, a lot of people who are, if you know, if training, if they’re wanting to get experience, sort of what’s it like operating.

[00:30:09] Fred: Operating these machines, what it can basically do is, rather than having sort of get into a physical machine, you know, a 50 10 excavator, which is a, which is a massive machine, it’s incredibly dangerous, especially if you haven’t operated or trained. So u using VR is incredible because it affects you.

[00:30:26] Fred: You’re operating that on a screen. Nothing can, you can’t injure people because you’re, you know, you, you, you, you’re doing it, dig, doing it digitally. So that’s, again, massively important. And I think all of this comes in and what we’re sort of looking at at the moment is really looking at how this a ar. VR can really, again, improve the buying cycle because it’s, it’s giving that extra, extra sort leverage of what, you know, why would we, why, why would people like these machines?

[00:30:55] Fred: What, what would work for them? So, yeah.

[00:30:57] Nital: Yeah. No, interesting. And, and that’s all these [00:31:00] initiatives are kind of. In an industry, stay ahead of the cloud, kind of build that authority and that positioning of by leveraging cutting edge check, cutting edge technology to stay ahead of of competitors.

[00:31:14] Fred: Absolutely.

[00:31:15] Fred: Yes, completely.

[00:31:16] Nital: And Fred, help me understand, that. Any businesses are going through a transition from offline to online, and even businesses going through a transition within online digital space from one channel to other. There’s always hesitation and there’s always a question. That how much they should look at this investment as a long term success versus a short term win.

[00:31:47] Nital: Absolutely. How, how do you see, you’re able to manage the expectation, of an audience. you deal with day in, day out to balance out their quick wins while it’s still [00:32:00] there investing. Long term success because we love to know what’s your strategy behind that?

[00:32:06] Fred: Yeah, absolutely. And you know this, especially if you’re bringing on sort of businesses from scratch almost, which are sort of offline.

[00:32:14] Fred: And sort of done the, you know, the traditional over the phone, word of mouth thing. If you are bringing them on digitally, it’s all about, it’s all about having a good firm strategy in terms of what’s most important, what’s your goal, what, how, you know, how do you want to achieve it. And so having it, having a sort of a firm strategy in place, you know, making your business from offline to online, it’s not a quick fix.

[00:32:35] Fred: It’s not just a overnight, we’ll switch it over and do that. It takes a lot of work and it’s, there is investment that you know that there is investment, which is required for it, but you are futurizing your business. and so having that strategy in place and, and, and also one of some of the key things which I actually have day you have communications on daily with customers is there’s never, there’s not an end [00:33:00] point.

[00:33:01] Fred: There’s not a point where you build a website and that’s it, you’re done. That’s, that’s not how it works. It works of, you build a website and then you look at the steps behind it in terms of advertising, SEO, you know, general lead generation, how, how it can benefit your sales teams and use it as a, again, a piece of a piece of tech to leverage your business.

[00:33:22] Fred: Common sort of mistake, which which occurs. A lot is a business will build a website and then do nothing with it and almost expect it just to work. It did it like it doesn’t, it doesn’t work like that. You’ve really got to use your digital strategies behind it and, and enhance your sort of teams with it, bringing in that revenue team in terms of digital and sales working together.

[00:33:42] Fred: But the way I see it, you, you know, businesses will, will pay for sales teams and, you know, sales teams have salaries. Obviously digital’s the same. Digital should be looked at the same. It should be also be looked at making them better. You train your sales teams. Your same thing must happen with digital.

[00:33:55] Fred: You must keep building a digital.

[00:33:56] Nital: Interesting. Interesting. Great. [00:34:00] Any, any piece of advice or your 2 cents on, your vision, about how industry would be, let’s say, five years down the line? Like how do you see the overall landscape? If we, if we, if we try visualizing what could be the idealistic end state, five years down the line when it comes to digital and machinery and construction space.

[00:34:24] Fred: Yeah, I would say purchasing process. Make your purchasing process easy. Going back to the, you know, you sell machines, machines also have spare parts. being able to buy those genuine parts online is incredibly important. It means your customer, you know, 99% of the time. Or 90% of the time your customer will, they’ll be so busy in the day, they won’t really have time to pick up the phone and speak to you.

[00:34:46] Fred: So the time which they can actually, actually think about what they actually require is actually in the evenings. It might be nine o’clock at night when they go, oh, I need a, I need a rubber track for my mini excavator. So having the ability for their team, [00:35:00] you, them to buy those rubber tracks online, incredibly important e spare.

[00:35:09] Fred: So we’ve actually, we’ve actually just built this, piece of tech, which basically does exactly what it says on the team and found people can book their service on services online. And so the way we’ve built this, we’ve built it for machinery dealerships. The fact that, again, what happens is the customers might not have time to, to, to call dealerships during the day.

[00:35:30] Fred: Yeah. So what this, basically, this piece is software gives them, is the ability to book it. But their server 24 7 have a full, interactive diary with the businesses. So the engineers, so they can select specific times and sort of when the, when the engineers can turn up on site service their machines.

[00:35:46] Fred: And so it’s giving that to a digital, all around digital transaction process. So reserving machines online. Online booking service. Of on the phone during the day, [00:36:00] online twenty four seven. It’s giving both options and working together with that.

[00:36:04] Nital: Amazing, amazing. Great, great, Fred, that’s all I have. Amazing, amazing insight and intel and I’m sure a lot of good, learning a lot of good pointers to keep into consideration for anyone in from machinery, construction, environmental space who’s trying to empower their businesses with the digital channels.

[00:36:25] Nital: Great. Great. Anything else to towards concluding this, interaction you wanna add?

[00:36:34] Fred: No, I just think, thanks very much Phil, for, for having me on. It’s been, it’s been great and, it’s, you know, I’m so passionate about this industry. It’s, it’s, it’s really, I think one, one more thing is, to businesses who are wanting to digitize is make sure that if, make sure your digital teams understand where you’re wanting to go.

[00:36:54] Fred: Understand your business. It’s part of the, part of the digital process of actually making that your [00:37:00] business better online is the agency must understand your industry. They must understand your business. So for example, we wouldn’t, we, we wouldn’t go out and if someone came to us, you know, looking for a, a fashion website, we actually wouldn’t go and we would say no because our expertise do not lie there.

[00:37:19] Fred: And so we wouldn’t be able to give what, you know, expertise we have. So we would probably say, go elsewhere. So I think my biggest piece of advice is go somewhere with people who, who, who understand. Understand your industry, understand your business, understand your goals.

[00:37:34] Nital: No, very true. And especially in today’s competitive world, unless you don’t build that authority, unless you don’t build that in depth positioning, kind of showcasing your expertise, being the thought leader in your space.

[00:37:50] Nital: For any brand to be a thought leader or on the journey to become a thought leader, it’s important to work with an agency who understand that domain, understand their [00:38:00] business well. Otherwise, that journey can be a little bit crooked and you, you, you never know you can make most out of your investment or not.

[00:38:08] Fred: absolutely. And you know, like we sort of said. The digital investment. It’s, it’s not, it’s, it’s not sort of quick fix and it needs work. So understanding your, your industry and your business is so important.

[00:38:20] Nital: Yeah. No. Great. Great, Fred, really appreciate your time and thanks for having you today.

[00:38:28] Nital: We really appreciate your brilliant.

[00:38:31] Fred: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much.

[00:38:33] Nital: Right.