Noob School - Episode 42: Never Stop Learning with Arch Thomason

Episode Date: September 12, 2022

It’s true: the day you stop improving is the day you start dying. Therefore, it’s crucial to never stop learning new things, even as you achieve a long-held goal. There’s always a lot more to learn at the next level. In this episode of the Noob School podcast, our host John Sterling talks to Sunland Logistics Solutions CEO Arch Thomason about his own sales journey, the lessons he continues to live by, and why it’s important to be a lifelong learner.  HIGHLIGHTSThere's always a lot more to learn at the next level No compensating for a missing value proposition with hard workYou need to work both hard and smartIt's important to continually be learningInquire before you advocate Prepare for the right things QUOTESArch on why he wants to be a lifelong learner: "The older I get the more I realize, 'I want people I can learn from.’ Everybody on my senior team, I learn from. If I'm not learning from them, then you know, we need to look at something. I learn from my wife everyday. I just think it's important to continually be learning because there's so much to learn, and we don't know. "Arch describing the biggest misconception he had about sales: "Different people value different things. I think it's important to really understand and spend time asking questions. I thought my job was to talk. I would listen to respond versus really sit back, learn what they want actually and give it to them."  Connect to Arch in the link below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arch-thomason-314a764/ Connect with Noob School and John by visiting the following links:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnsterling1/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnsterlingsalesInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnsterling_/Twitter: https://twitter.com/johnsterling_TikTok: https://twitter.com/johnsterling_Website: http://salestrainingfornoobs.com/

I was going skiing with Hunter and some other guys. I just didn't want any structure and didn't want to get a haircut for a year. And a buddy of mine that was a friend of mine growing up in Hilton Head called me and he said, Hey, what are you doing? I said, I'm going ski. And he said, well, I'm going to Czechoslovakia. I'm going to Prague. And I said, well, I'm going to ski.

And he said, well, let me tell you the deal with Prague. He said, rent is 20 bucks and beers a nickel. And I changed course. And so I went over there and we spent months teaching school on the Eurorail. And it literally was that cheap. And there were 10 guys in a two-bedroom apartment from Ohio State Clemson and the Citadel. Just getting different perspectives, man. First time I'd been in a room with all these different religions and backgrounds.

And it was, you know, I've grown up in the South. So I was pretty much used to that. Yeah. And, man, you talk about some paradigm shifts. It was good to have that experience. Yeah. It was fun. Welcome back to Noob School.

This is where we interview successful business owners. and we dial it back to the beginning and figure out what they did to make their revenue grow. Arch, welcome aboard. Yeah, man. Arch Thomas and was Sunland. This is a first for the podcast.

We've had about 50 of these now. It's the first time I've had a guest on who fired me, I guess, for lack of a better word. So Arch was using our Foxfire software at some of his warehouses. And I would say, he went to an ERP system that kind of already had it all included. So he just didn't need Foxfire anymore.

Yeah. That's just what you told me. Well, I think what kind of what with our strategy as a company, we wanted a tier one solution. Yeah. That's what we needed to go to market with. And so we actually had three, right? We had yours. We had Camelot.

And then we went to In4, which is obviously part of your story. Yeah. But we needed to go after the customers. This was a time when we were changing our strategy, going to bigger contract-type operations. And it was brand recognition, was a big part of it. And it just happened, just so happened, Hari. Our CLO had done a lot of work in India within force. So we had that knowledge base.

And then to be able to go to the tier one was really part of the strategy. But we stayed together for a while. We did. And I think we ended it well, or I wouldn't be here, obviously, for both sides. Yeah, now you're going to get my son Jack some business in the telecom world and what will be even. There you go. No, but that's the way business rolls. And I think it is a good lesson for the nobs that people can be collegial and friends.

Sure. Keep business business. Yeah. Sometimes you get the deal. Sometimes you got to move on and it's okay. That's right. That's right. Live to fight another day.

It's the whole deal, right? You put the big boy pants on. So what Arch is doing now, this is a pretty cool story. We'll get back around to it, but his business, Sunland Corporation, has a bunch of warehouses. I'd say, 10 or 11, big warehouses? Yeah, 15 now. 15. 15.

15. At last count, it was 11. Now it's 15. And a lot of servicing of automotive suppliers in this area? Automotive retail chemical. Okay. Are really the primary verticals we go after yet. So would, like the BMW and all the suppliers at a target market?

More of the supplier. base, yeah. Okay. Okay, cool. So you built a real nice business and you're also very big on YPO. Yep, YPO's been a really cool part of my career in life, really, ultimately. So yeah, I've enjoyed it. So we talked about this in the book a little bit, Arch, but, you know, that people don't stop learning and training and spending time and money to get better and smarter when they get out of school or when they get the time. Like in your case, you're the CEO, you bought the company, you're the big guy over there now, but you're still spending a lot of time and money with YPO to learn, right? Yeah, it's interesting, a lifelong learner, right? And in my undergrad and high school,

man, I was not a good student. We started late, didn't we? Bottom quartile, man. I mean, really bottom. And so it's interesting. And as the company's grown, I remember converting from a salesman to CEO. And I was unprepared, right? It's 2008. The market's crashing. I've got 23 people in my office lined up to buy paperclips, right? The day I buy the company.

So I was like, man, I better figure this out quickly. And it didn't necessarily exist in my company, right? Our former owner had kind of retired. Yeah. we were going in different directions. So for me, even as the company's grown and involved and we've had tremendous growth, there's a lot to learn at the next level, right, of leadership and what it takes to drive a $100 million company versus a $10 million company at the time is vastly different.

Right. So I've kind of had just to stay ahead of the game, really keep focus there. And YPO is Young President's Organization. Correct. I would say it's the number one for that type of person. person, but you have to be young, like under 40 and a president of a company over a certain Yeah, I think the mark was 10 million at the time. I think they raised it. And I started in Vistage, so I needed help, and I went into Vistage, which I don't know if you've heard of Vistage,

but it's a great group, by the way, in Greenville. And 16 business owners once a month get together and just talk shop. And so I learned a whole lot there. I did that for five years. And then I said, okay, let's go to YPO because I wanted to do. to learn about that next level of business. And so you have these groups that you meet with and you become tight, like Citadel tight with your, I have seven guys in my group, we meet once a month. And I have one of the smallest companies in my group. So I'm intimately know guys, three, four hundred million dollar companies, how you guys

handling HR issues, how you buy an insurance? So it really is a cool, cool network. I've enjoyed it. That's great. That's great. Well, good for you for staying on it. Because as I consult with businesses, Arch, one of the things I see is that they don't do that,

is that the owner becomes kind of, you know, comfortable, wherever level they are, and they stop making those investments, and they just kind of get stale. So that's cool. So let's back it up a little bit. We both went to the Citadel. Yep.

What year did you finish? 94. 94. So, okay, 94. That's a very good year. It was a good year. And when you graduated, you did what I recommend in my book,

which is to take a year off and go around the world. Yeah, I was actually going skiing. You know Hunter Garrett. Yeah, Hunter. Hunter was going to, I think he went to Vail. I was going skiing with Hunter and some other guys out West, Shane. I'm trying to get the Shane's last name. I just didn't want any structure and didn't want to get a haircut for a year.

And a buddy of mine that was a friend of mine growing up in Hilton Head called me. And he said, hey, what are you doing? and I said, I'm going ski. And he said, well, I'm going to Czechoslovakia. I'm going to Prague. And I said, well, I'm going to ski. And he said, well, let me tell you the deal with Prague. He said, rent is 20 bucks and beers a nickel.

And I changed course. And so I went over there and we spent months teaching school on the Eurorail. And it literally was that cheap. And there were 10 guys in a two-bedroom apartment from Ohio State, Clemson, and the Citadel. Wow. And it was awesome. And you talk. I loved your book.

by the way, a lot of great life lessons and just getting different perspectives, man. First time I'd been in a room with all these different religions and backgrounds and it was, you know, I've grown up in the South. So I was pretty much used to that. Yeah. And man, you talk about some paradigm shifts. It was good to have that experience. Yeah.

It was fun. Good. I think it's good too. I don't see anything, any downside to it. I know when I took that same type of, made that same type of choice after the sit of I was like, oh, I'm going to be a year behind everybody in business. Yep. It's like, it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter at all, you know. No. I had the same thought. Oh, I'm, you know, I'm a year behind. All these guys are getting their jobs. And in hindsight, do it. Do it for two years if you want. And a lot of the buddies that I came back with went to New York City for a year.

I wish, in hindsight, go to Manhattan, do something financial. Yeah. In hindsight, I would have done that. But, hey, it worked out. Yeah. Again. I think if you're smart and willing to work hard and you're honest and all those things, there's a lot of different paths you can take that will work out well.

They do. It just seemed to. You're right. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So you did that. And then you went to work for Mitsui.

Mitsui Soko down in Atlanta. How did you, how did that happen? You know, it was a, I was interviewing all over the place, mostly in Greenville. and my dad knew a guy that he grew up with named Carl Palmer, and Carl ran a freight, kind of a freight company in Atlanta. And I had done, my dad sold office furniture. So I went down and did the office furniture installation for the guy. And I'm just talking to the guy, and we hit it off.

And a couple months later, he says, I need a salesman. So I went down and interviewed and got the job. And that's what I was looking for. And I had freight managed basically from Far East, Southeast, Southeast, Asia into the Southeast. So I got a company car and a credit card and tore out throughout the Southeast and tried to bring in containers from Far East Southeast Asia into the Southeast. Did that for a year.

And I got to tell you, man, first thing I learned is I worked my butt off. But we didn't have a differentiated position. Like I pounded my, I pounded calls. And we didn't, I would go into a customer. And I wouldn't have a great value prop against other. companies that did what we did. And it took me a year of pounding my head to say, all right, look, we got to do this a different way.

And so that was a valuable lesson for me is go into a customer with a differentiated position. Right. Then I thought, okay, they'll like me more than other people. It doesn't work like that, right? You need to come in with a value prop. And so that was kind of what I learned is I better roll in there with something of value to our customers that I didn't have.

I felt like at Mitsui. Interesting. That's a good lesson to get early on. You can't overcome it with just making more calls or being more charming or... That's right. That's right. To the Braves game. Yeah, I mean, we did all that, but how do you work smarter?

Yeah. It's kind of the thing that I... And so how did you go from there to Sunland? So there was an entrepreneur in town named Sam Cole. And he was such a great guy. He started Sunland about a mile away from here. He worked for a competitor in town. They cut his commission.

They said you're making too much money. And he had a Cadillac as a company car. They took his Cadillac away. Don't ever do that to a guy like Sam Cole. Can't go backwards. You can't go backwards. They thought he was making too much money. So he opened on his own with no customers.

Brax Cutchin. Yeah. Helped him get into business. Okay. Two guys meeting a bar in Newark, New Jersey. And Sam was interviewing with a competitor, and Brack said, well, I'll get you the money. Why don't you do it yourself? That's how Sunland started.

We just celebrated 40 years, and that's how it starts with two guys. So anyway, ran into Sam. Sam and my dad were buddies. I house sat for Sam. I would fix stuff around his at condo in Hilton Head, and I'd have parties there on the weekends when he was out of town. And he said he needed a salesman. And so I came up here, and I said, man, I need a job. And he had known me from being at the Citadel, and I'd come over to his house.

And I went to work with him in 96. As the only sales guy, it's the way kind of that industry works in our business. And he had been the sales guy, obviously running an operation. So I went to work for him back then. That's how it started. And we were just in Greenville. Yeah. And pretty small at the time.

But yeah, he was a good guy and a good mentor to me. Yeah. So you were the salesperson and then eventually the main salesperson, sales manager. And then it got. And then you just start talking to him that he was going to want to retire and find a way. You know, I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur, a small business entrepreneur, my dad was one, my stepdad was one. If I'd have gone to work for a hearing aid company, I'd have figured out that's what I wanted to do. Sure.

And so Sam had started the company. And look, the industry, as you know, was fast moving. Yeah. The big guys were getting bigger, smaller guys were kind of losing some market share. We lost a couple of big customers. and because they were more professional and more streamlined, better IT. And I was just like, all right, we got to do something here. So let's make a move.

And either I'm going to buy the company or I'm going to exit. And it was kind of where it came down to after about a two-year negotiation. And he was ready to retire. And didn't want to make some changes. He had a lot of family in the business. And he didn't want to make those hard decisions that needed to be made. So we did the deal together. and he still remained an equity partner, a minority equity partner for a long time.

Good. But that's how the transition happened. It was fun. Good. Well, good for you. It's just an amazing story. I mean, it sounds like a quick story. It's not been quick.

No, it's not been quick. I mean, from 93 to now, I mean, how long is that? That's like 20 years. Well, 27 years with the company last month. Yeah, it's been a long. But you had the one year around the world. Yeah. And then the one with Mitsui.

Yeah. And since then you've been with one company. And for a long time, you were slogging it out as the sales guy. Yeah, for 12 years. Yeah. And then the last 14 and a half is the, yeah. Yeah. And that's been, I assume the hardest part is the transition to being a growth CEO.

Yeah, unprepared at, you know, is kind of what. Interesting, though, attitude-wise, that, you know, you could, you certainly hadn't had the training for all these things, but you're able to get it on the fly. You can get it. Yeah, and you know, it's interesting. And you mentioned it in your book. Your book's great, by the way. I mean, I'm going to make that required reading for my kids. Whether they going to sales or not, because it's got good life things in it.

But mentorship, man. And, you know, I counted it up a couple years ago. I had to go speak at USC. They have a sales class, by the way. You need to talk to for this podcast, teaches sales, Citadel Guy. Yeah. And looking at it, I counted up about 41. mentors that I'd had.

Wow. From when I got out to college to now. And they can be on HR, they can be on finesse, they can be on leadership, they can be on sales. But there have been so many people that have given customers have taught me about so many things. And it's amazing who you can learn from. And as I get older, we just made a decision on a VP of IT this morning and I'm looking around my room. The older I get, the more I realize I want people I can learn from.

Everybody on my senior team, I learn from. If I'm not learning from them, then, you know, we need to look at something. But that's kind of as I've looked at it. My wife, I learn from my wife every day. She'll tell me, right? But I just think it's important to continually be learning because there's so much to learn that we don't know. I know. What's your sales team like now?

Oh, we got a rock star sales team. Elijah Ray runs it. marketing, a couple of other salespeople, still small, you know, sales group of about five, which includes marketing, but they're much more competent at sales and selling big deals than I ever was, but really, really great sales team. And Elijah is just an industry pro. And lured him in, look, he worked for, he was head of sales for a $400 million company and came to our little company, which at the time, we were doing.

and $15 million. I saw, I watched your video. Yeah. With you and Elijah, when he kind of talked about that story. Yeah. That's an awesome story. It's still one of my biggest sales jobs is, I mean, he sold deals bigger than our company, like multiple deals.

And I still say in my career, it's one of my best sales jobs. Because it was hard. It was a hard sell. That's great. He's a good guy. Yeah. A few times. He's a good guy.

A couple more questions. I know you've got to get out of here, but give the nobs one thing that you assumed about sales when you started that turned out to be incredibly wrong. Wow. I did think that, you know, I grew up in the food and beverage business. I was a bartender and a waiter, which I think is a great pre-sales job. Okay. And I thought, look, if I can make people like me, they're going to tip me more money. I thought the same thing about sales, right?

If they like me, it's about giving them what they need. and they'll like me. But I think in business, again, back to what we talked about, I got to bring something they value. Yeah. And different people value different things. I think it's important to really understand and spend time asking questions. Yeah.

Like, that's not some, I thought my job was to talk. You know what I mean? About the company? Yeah, the company. And, you know, I would listen to respond versus really sit back, learn what they want, actually. Yeah. And give it.

to them and I thought it was just project, project. And we talk a lot at our company about inquiry versus advocacy. Now, as a salesperson, and you are too, and I am, I want to advocate my position. But by gosh, I need to spend about 70% inquiring. What is their need before I advocate? And so I think that's a big one. Today, I can still go there, right? What do they really want? And how do I get it to them? So I think just really understanding that, really, really. understand what their needs are before you prescribe. Yeah. That's a good one.

I can remember as a young salesperson is just showing up and filling the void of silence with information about how long it took to write the book and, you know, and stuff like that, you know, and about the company and, you know, you see this look in their eyes. Yeah. And now I know what the look is. Right. I didn't know what it was. Yeah.

So, Ars, what close things out. Tell us what's your favorite. word is. You know, as I look and I'm just, I'm kind of going in the business arena, but it's about preparation. I think the more I found growing as a leader is the guy who's the most prepared wins or girl. You know, any meeting. We're coming in here today. Be prepared. Know what your subject matter is. And meetings that you go to, sales calls, do some homework, because most people don't. Right.

Most people show up and wing it. Right. And if you know something about somebody's business that the other three yokels you're going against, it's a differentiator. They've taken time. They've done preparation. I mean, those are the people in our company that move up. Mm-hmm.

Are the ones that really prepare for the, you can't prepare for everything, but prepare for the right thing. So preparation to me. And it's a challenge for me, but I think it's something that really differentiates. That's a great word. That's a great word. Well, thank you for being here. Sure, man.

It's been fun. Appreciate you as a friend and proud of all you're doing with Sunland. Yeah, and I tell you, this right here, I wish I would have had this when I started. Yeah. Because I didn't. I mean, I flew, and most salespeople have been my experience, we kind of fly by the seat of our pants. We're comfortable in that. But the older I get, it's more about a process and a plan.

Yeah. And I didn't have a process or a plan. I mean, nothing, right? Yeah. Let's go. Beer's cheat. Let's go to Europe. But you talk about good life lessons.

I love one thing before I go that I thought really hit home with me was understanding finance, understanding the building blocks because so many people don't understand what makes their business work. And you want to sell, you better understand the business and the financial aspects of your customer. Because if you don't get that, you're missing, to me, you're missing the basic framework of the business, right? You say it. How do I save you money? How do I increase revenue? You talk about a differentiator. That's a differentiator that really all these other things. I don't care how much they like the other person. That goes away if you can crack that code. So I just think you had some really good stuff in there. And yeah, my kids are going to read this book.

Good. Good. Good. If they have any questions, I'll give you a private panel discussion. All right. Good thing. Well, thanks for being here. Hey, man. Glad to be here. Good to see you. Yes, sir. food.