00:01.82 bizzyweb Dave you ever hear a terms that sound purposefully vague in marketing. Yeah, one of the ah one of the new buzzwords that I think have really come into play in the last couple of years is the idea of customer experience. 00:05.66 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb All the time that's half of the point of marketing I thought. 00:17.90 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Yes. 00:19.91 bizzyweb Like what? Ah what does that really mean does that mean that you have to tip your waitress or does that mean that how does that function on a website it really means anything to a lot of different people and I know. Ah, ah, we're very blessed and we'll talk. Ah, we're gonna but unpack this quite a bit but um. 00:28.48 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Yes, for sure. 00:39.29 bizzyweb 1 of the people that have been really unsung and pivotal to the success of busy web has gotten promoted I think several times she's now the director customer experience for a software tool. We use called proposeify. So um and. 00:53.25 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Oh I Love Proposal fact. 01:00.60 bizzyweb I I for for for our listeners. You know I'm a little bit different and ah the experience that I had with her was always ah spot on and helpful. So as we were talking about customer experience I wanted to bring on somebody who I think really gets it and figures out why so our guest today. Is Melissa Gunn who is with 2 ends so we're gonna be affectionately titling this the gun show had to be done had to be done and Melissa is the head of customer experience for proposeify. 01:27.24 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Ah. 01:34.86 Melissa Gunn Hi Thanks for having me I Really appreciate it. Thank you. 01:34.94 bizzyweb Welcome Melissa so for for those of us for those people who are listening who aren't in the marketing can tell it tell the folks what exactly is proosify. 01:48.27 Melissa Gunn So proposeify is a tool that helps bring ah visibility control to the sales process. Um, we have ah software that will make it easy. And shorten your sales cycles for producing Proposals. So It gets the job done. It gets the deal closed and. 02:13.19 bizzyweb Excellent and so another way to say that is that it's ah it's a way to get customers to sign. Yeah electronically sign documents faster. 02:21.17 Melissa Gunn Absolutely, that's correct. You did a better elevator pitch than me. 02:24.31 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb For sure and and lot of the oh gosh. Yeah, but for for me and you know this this will be the proposal if I love to go for for a couple minutes I'm sure but um for me all of the templates and things that you have readily available. Get you started so much faster. 02:38.92 bizzyweb You know. 02:40.79 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb We were going through our document management you know tasks and trying to figure out how can we you know, get this a little bit cooler looking. We just went through all of the proposeified templates we like oo. We like that one and then as we've grown I know you guys have designed services to help. But. Yeah, we actually had 1 of our designers work really really hard on creating something. That's just crafted and gorgeous and it really is a leg up in competitive advantage for our clients. 03:10.79 bizzyweb So I think we we've talked about the flywheel before and the flywheel is is sort of a hubspot concept and it really really the idea of it is to and the customer journey is for for those people who are marketing mark marketing John a genre. 03:31.33 bizzyweb Into marketing like we are marketing nerdy like we are um what it really means is how can you? What is the quickest and most um E painless way for any customer that you want to deal with to get from I don't know you to care some money. 03:49.31 bizzyweb And what is sort of a unique talent I think is in the sales arena number 1 is asking for money is getting somebody saying this is how much it costs and yes I know it hurts a little but it's going to be worth it. Can I have the money and then we will. Do the thing or build you the thing and then if that's the first part of it is getting people to say yes, but any good sophisticated seller will tell you that that is only about 60% of the battle because you still don't have a name on a dotted line and you still don't have money in the. Money on the door and to me that's when you really have closed a deal is when you have a check in hand and you and you've got something signed so Melissa why is it advantageous for people to use an esign. Program and there's a number of different ones I know some of your competition is like panda doc or east side. But why or there's I think Adobe has one too. Ah what what. 04:56.00 Melissa Gunn So. 05:00.40 bizzyweb What's the competitive advantage for your customer to have a tool like that in their in their toolkit. 05:06.28 Melissa Gunn Um, well in all honesty I mean the days of sitting down with somebody to sign off on a document have Passed. We're in the electronic age. Everybody wants to be able to get stuff in their hands quickly. And have things move as smoothly and seamlessly as Possible. So having an ah proposal that's in an online world allows that to be done so Fast. We also break open moving past that like paper document. Once you put a paper document in somebody's hand and you leave that Meeting. You have no idea what happens after that with proposeify you have the opportunity that you can see when they've opened it. You can see how long they've stayed or they've spent on your ah your different sections. So If you have a customer who just never gets back to you. 05:42.14 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb For life. 05:57.71 Melissa Gunn But you see that they've spent an hour on your pricing. You kind of have an idea of what might be going on. Um, you can also have the ability to easily follow up with them and then after that deal is signed make sure that you get the metrics and analytics to follow your sales team. You can collect payment. 06:03.95 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Right. 06:17.67 Melissa Gunn Just makes it really really easy for sellers to connect with their clients look good doing it and get that sales process rolling. 06:25.50 bizzyweb 1 of the things that I think is sort of a universal axiom and I think is certainly true at busy web is that salespeople are to a large extent overgrown children and if things aren't easy for them that the and I will. Raise a hand and say I I'm the head of that table. Um, so if it's not easy for them then they don't really want to do it so what? Yeah what you said about the signing documents is great but I think propose if I there's a couple other sort of universal helps. And I think one of which is tying into the crm. So what's the value of having that tie into the crm. 07:07.82 Melissa Gunn Um, oh honestly, your data hygiene which that kind of sounds like a ah silly term but data hygiene is so so important. Um, it just means 1 less step like if you can go ahead and you can put. 07:14.61 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb You may. 07:24.63 Melissa Gunn A proposal into a certain deal stage that links up automatically with your crm and then as the stages progress. Everything just stays synced. It means that you don't need to go back. You know back and forth or forget something or have to chase after somebody who's not doing. Ah, those follow ups within you know Salesforce Hubspot whatever to make sure that everything coincides with one another. So again, it's just that taking out that extra step with the integration just keeps the process smooth and seamless and keeps everything in check. 08:02.40 bizzyweb So I know for us we are unabashedly hubspot but propose if I doesn't just work with Hubspot right? you work with ah all the different major crms. Okay, cool. So for us I think one of the things that we sort of get. 08:10.42 Melissa Gunn We sure do. 08:19.91 bizzyweb After we signed contracts is we get our operations team rolling their eyes going. Oh God What did you guys? do now and so having then the opportunity for visibility from the crm for not just the administrada of it is is. 08:26.50 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb And and. 08:38.31 bizzyweb Is helpful as well because a contract isn't just a sales thing. It's ah if you think about that the flywheel and that full lifecycle of a customer. It has to be referred back to over and over by other people in the organization. 08:49.87 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Right? Well and the other thing that I think as you're looking at your sales structure and your team and how to help them do more faster better is to make their job like Trickby said as easy as possible. So having the ability to implant. 08:51.79 Melissa Gunn That's right. 09:09.65 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Variables that come out of your crm so you can have company information. We actually have a playbook that we run from at busy web that autopopulates our proposals and then all we have to do is go in and fix and or end or tweak. It. So. In the olden days when we had to put together word Docs my lord Um, it took me maybe a couple hours to put together a good proposal and now I think I'm down to less than a half hour and have it much much cooler. So It's It's tremendously helpful. Ah, as you look at. 09:32.50 bizzyweb Yeah, yep. 09:45.97 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Proposals and I know that you've seen thousands of companies that that are doing this and doing it Well I'm kind of curious. What are some of the best tips to either get quick approval of proposals or to really have that pop to stand out from the competition. 10:04.34 Melissa Gunn Um, actually um I'm going to pull from one of our documents so we create annually a state of proposals where we go through and we review all of our customers and we take a look at what really works The best. 10:07.44 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb So many. 10:18.91 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb And. 10:20.83 Melissa Gunn And state of proposals 2023 is out ah you can get that from our website. Um, there's a lot of different things that you can really really do to stand out and have that competitive advantage and it does depend on industry. 1 thing that we're seeing trending now. Is actually using graphics like using gifs to draw the eye and engage. Ah your customers and your clients within your proposal. Ah, it's it's interesting, right? because it's ah. 10:48.80 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Amazing. So not this is england. 10:54.68 Melissa Gunn Nothing that you would ever think would belong necessarily in a proposal. But again, it's about that engagement. It's about drawing the client in um also making sure that you have a short contract believe it or not if you have to have a longer terms and service linking that out to a. Separate area is actually a lot more beneficial to you than having it. You know a 15 page turbans and services attached directly within the proposal itself. Um, keeping it to the point making sure that you're putting yourself on display without a lot of jargon a lot of you know bloat. 11:20.37 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Right? you. 11:31.92 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Maybe. 11:33.74 Melissa Gunn Within that proposal. Ah, Overall you got to understand that a proposal in the end is all about keeping attention and drawing that client into your business to close the deal. So anything that you can do to continue to keep them engaged continue them reading that proposal. Is in your benefit. 11:52.16 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Excellent. 11:52.34 bizzyweb I think one of the things that was a big difference maker for us and why and I'll just I'll just outwardly say this is there and I won't name the competitor but there's a competitor propose a five that. A tremendous amount of people in the marketing industry used and they're all wrong and they shouldn't be. They should be using proposeify but 1 of the biggest things that we had a huge problem with is and tying this back into your answer. Melissa is. Not only did can you create an online proposal but then you also have to account for the people who don't want to look at it online and so they would they would ah save it as a pdf and then print it out and what we found in using with the competition is. 12:32.56 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Yeah, oh. 12:44.65 bizzyweb Any time that we would go to click on save it as a pdf the pagination which is the funky way of saying where is the end of the page and where is the start of the page. It was all completely screw but screwy So What we found is we had this great leap forward where we went from word documents to. Online Proposal making and then we would end up spending less time than the word doc but then half the time would be spending messing with the pagination to get it right? because yeah, we had to get because you had it. 13:16.92 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb That's it's so tough. Okay. 13:22.15 bizzyweb In selling you have to be prepared for anything so you have to be prepared for the person you're sending to to might not be the decision maker. So how can you take advantage and how can you know whether or not they're looking at it or not well if you have a software that tells you who they're forwarding it to. 13:31.88 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Have you know different. What. 13:41.80 bizzyweb And who's looking at it then oh my goodness then that's helpful information have they downloaded it and are they reading it. That's helpful information. So let's talk about you a little because I I think we talked about this before we started recording. You and I have been friends and have been work proximity associates for I think going on 7 years and you were a customer service rep when we started working together. 14:14.20 Melissa Gunn Yep yep I was ah I started my career with proposeify I was working as ah, well recall back then a customer happiness expert I believe my title was and yeah, it's it was fun. 14:15.62 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb I've been. 14:24.31 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Through cool I like that. 14:24.35 bizzyweb Yes. 14:31.62 Melissa Gunn Um, and I remember very vividly. Ah busy web coming on to propose a fi and um, you had your customer success manager was pam at the time and she told me she's like Melissa there's this guy. You're really going to like him. 14:47.83 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Here. 14:49.76 Melissa Gunn Said just you wait until he writes into the cue the first time and here comes trig v in and it's just ah, friendly larger than life personality. But strictly in text and I grabbed it. 15:04.80 bizzyweb Was. 15:07.84 Melissa Gunn And from there we talked about everything because that's something that we actually really believe in it. Pro prosify. Um, not only is it about supporting your customer but it's actually creating a team and bonding with them. Um, because. It's always best to celebrate your wins with the people that you like and get through the tough times with the people you like to anyway from there on out. It was all caps Melissa exclamation point every time every time. Ah Trigg came into the queue. 15:36.00 bizzyweb Yes. 15:43.59 Melissa Gunn And it just came from there. We we became friends we got to know each other we learned about each other's families. Um, and we spent time and it was. You're still one of my favorite customers even though we don't talk as much. 15:55.81 bizzyweb All thank you and then it got to the point where because I would just I like I I she would get she got promoted into like the manager level and then I would get like the first level kids and I'm like no no, no, just no go get mom. 15:57.37 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb So. 16:13.41 Melissa Gunn And I even I went as far to make sure that every time like somebody new came in they got like the idea and I would personally hand trigger the off to somebody and be like make sure that this is a good personality match Because. We just meshed really really well and we got to talk about sports and everything like that. So I made sure that he was put in the appropriate Hands. So He was always very you know well-regarded and well kept with people that I knew he would like. 16:46.78 bizzyweb And exactly exactly if this is what I need more out of my life is is is women trying to make sure that my my needs are met and it just not happen a lot. 16:53.95 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Yeah, let's say you that. 16:58.94 Melissa Gunn See. 16:59.91 bizzyweb Um, and that's that group for the women who aren't actually taking care of me I Melissa I'll tell you there are literally tens of minutes in each day where a woman is not telling me what to do and it making it better but 1 of the things. I know Dave's got a question but I want to ask 1 thing I think one of the unique experiences that I've had with you was that you very plainly would tell me when I did things wrong and not in like an artful customer service way. So. 17:27.40 Melissa Gunn So. 17:34.58 bizzyweb Was that was that a conscious decision of yours or the companies to just speak in plain terms or is that something that you all had to evolve into because that's a very unique that well you can't be very unique that is a unique experience that I've had. Ah, proposal 5. 17:55.46 Melissa Gunn It's um, honestly so prior to working at proposed via I worked in a corporate job. It was very I worked with customers I was doing sales management at the time but my entire history was always working customer facing and I didn't love. The idea of treating I don't like I don't like okay hold on we're going to cut. Um I don't like the idea of not treating people actually like people just because your customer doesn't. Strip away the fact that at your court your person. Um, and I thought that it was always important to be genuine and to be honest, um, so when I came on. We always had a very kind of loose conversation style. Um, but I was like you know what. If somebody is mad if something happened weren't we weren't we sending that desk flip Gif where somebody is smashing their computer and relating to them. Ah, when somebody has messed up. Why aren't we just telling them you messed up but let's fix it. Um. 18:53.75 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Are. 19:04.61 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb A. 19:07.52 Melissa Gunn Just think connecting on that human level is what makes us special. We treat people like people and I don't think enough people in the industry understand the importance of treating people like people you can be professional. 19:14.62 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb From here. 19:26.50 Melissa Gunn And you can be nice, but if you treat people like people all of a sudden it becomes less of a business transaction and more of a team like a team sport. We're working on it together. 19:35.14 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Right? And that's actually why I love working with you guys as well and that was that leads into the question I was going to ask before is empathy seems like 1 of the competitive advantages of certainly proposeify. But as a customer success manager and what you do in a daily basis is literally to empower your customers to like you more and that ties directly to brand. So how do you help foster that because we have a lot of folks that are on our. On our listener base that our managers c-suite level folks. How do you foster that sense of caring and empathy for your customers. 20:11.69 Melissa Gunn E. 20:22.85 Melissa Gunn It's an interesting question Dave so one of the big things that we do um for our team and I've I've as important as numbers are. As important as efficiencies are as important as everything is ah the 1 thing that we do with our staff is we treat them like people and that may sound like wild but within the context and realm or within within a lot of the service industries. 20:38.10 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb With it. 20:48.50 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb We think. 20:56.35 Melissa Gunn Treating your staff like people isn't something that necessarily happens so it really does start from the top down we treat our people with empathy kindness. We understand when they need something we work hard for them. They work hard for us. 21:05.91 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb 1 21:12.76 Melissa Gunn And in turn because we create that environment that is super supportive of our staff. Our staff treats our customers in the exact same way. So we basically model the behavior acting as our staff as our customers they model that to our customers. So the melissa. 21:23.40 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Well, both. 21:31.79 Melissa Gunn Sitting at the director level is the same Melissa that trigby is spoken to like it's it's never different. We're always very very real and very ah you know supportive and and and there for our people so that's that's. 21:37.99 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Little. 21:49.75 Melissa Gunn How it that's how it works. That's the secret sauce honestly treat people like people and they will work for you and do as you model. So. 21:52.36 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Oh. 21:57.61 bizzyweb I Think one of the other interesting things that I experienced that I think you pioneered is that proposeify was very much on the bleeding edge of using video to. A video screenhoing as demonstration tools. So if I made a mistake a it would be called out B it which was a which was unique and then B I would be told what I did Wrong. So I wouldn't do that again and then c. 22:16.11 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb A. 22:16.66 Melissa Gunn Who. 22:32.39 bizzyweb And we get a video of how to do it correctly. So how did that come and into play. 22:33.85 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Oh. 22:38.00 Melissa Gunn So So in my previous years I was actually a ah trainer at my my last job and I understand the different styles of adult learning right. And to sit back and say that people all learn in the same styles is just silly, um, some people are visual learners. Some people are are listeners. Some people are doers and if you're not providing that complete overall learning experience to the customers. How are you expecting them. To grasp the concept and learn it. Ah for future use right? So making sure that that complete answer including of showing you how to do it. Um is how we set up our customers for success and in all honesty is Busy. We are right? We want customers to write in but even less we want customers to not be frustrated and we want customers to be successful so making sure that people are in a good position to solve their own problems. That's the best way to do it. 23:43.30 bizzyweb So you got promoted I think you've gotten promoted 3 times since I've known you? Yeah so ah, the first I want to I want to say this because I think this is funny because the first time you got promoted was really on the beginning of. 23:45.68 Melissa Gunn Yeah, 3 4 maybe yeah. 24:00.62 bizzyweb Covid and so the person that I was starting to work with was a guy named George who isn't with company anymore and George was incredibly knowledgeable, incredibly helpful and incredibly ah just a super great guy. Great representative of the company. 24:05.45 Melissa Gunn And. 24:20.43 bizzyweb George is a dwarf and so my first covid experience a lot in dealing with people on video camera was talking to George and I was going is there is this a camera thing or is he a dwarf and it was a and finally I asked him and he was. He was really cool about it. But. 24:20.65 Melissa Gunn So. 24:40.20 bizzyweb What you you've set. It's grown to your role to um to director of customer experience. So what is your Day-to- day look like. 24:48.28 Melissa Gunn So From my my start here as a customer happiness expert I have gone and increased my reach within the company. So now. Not only am I running our support team but I run our customer success Managers. I Also ah run our professional services team and I sit on the executive leadership team now. Yeah. 25:10.54 bizzyweb Wow wow so Kyle really is starting to listen to you. 25:11.62 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Go. 25:18.40 Melissa Gunn Um, I think so I mean it's if he's always Kyle is is is wonderful actually because if there's somebody who always has an open door to listen even if you like be to knock on it and be like this is not this is not it. Kyle. He's always there for it. Um, but yeah, it's really I've been so passionate of our pro proposed bi since I started here and um to have a seat at the table to now not only just help with the company moving forward but actually point it in the direction. It's wild and I'm just like I'm super excited every single day that I go into work of what's the next thing that I'm going to learn and what's the next thing I'm going to teach somebody. 26:04.23 bizzyweb Um, what is proposeify's definition of customer experience. 26:08.53 Melissa Gunn Oh man, that's a that's a good question trig. Um well I'll let you know it's something that chat Gpd is never going to replicate as much as we like to think um. 26:21.95 bizzyweb Um, ah. 26:24.46 Melissa Gunn Because in all honesty human first customer experience is is what we excel at and that's at the heart and soul of it. It is everything is human first. Um, it may not always be the customers always right? but it is human first. And creating that environment for people to establish trust for people to establish a partnership and to have a genuine sense of care that's in my eyes and what we stand for. For our customers is customer experience also quick knowledgeable like not all just the levy doy stuff because we do like the talk but we want people to get on with their day too. So make sure that your answers are are full quick ah to the point. Um. You know and that that customer is able to move on with their day knowing that whatever issue they encountered they are ready to go. Yeah. 27:33.11 bizzyweb What? Ah what is the training look like if you're going to bring on a new happiness person. Did they go to the hotel. 27:38.67 Melissa Gunn Oh so I wish I had a happiness so too. So um I'll let you know with a lot of our people who come on with us. They are coming from. 27:41.42 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb You Freema Sco but yeah 27:56.57 Melissa Gunn Kind of that contact centery corporate type world and um, we always used to say that we were kind of like the Spca or the Aspca where we we take kind of like these people who have been. 27:58.70 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Going. 28:05.60 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Yeah, yeah. 28:16.20 Melissa Gunn Just kind of sucked of their soul from corporate life and it is yeah and um and put the passion back into it because in the end you don't work with people unless you actually like people like it's really hard. Not it's hard to you know. 28:17.74 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Right? That's that's a rough gig in in that kind of role. So. 28:32.37 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Right. 28:36.20 Melissa Gunn So we talk to them about. We start off talking to them about our values. So one of the biggest values that a lot of people that we have that actually works super well with our team is start with a full trust battery. So people aren't used to autonomy people aren't used to being themselves. 28:51.21 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb 1 28:55.38 Melissa Gunn And that is the first thing that we kind of have to nail into people throw away your your corporate tone throw away that like contact center voice that you speak in because people have contact center voices and be you be true to you because we trust you to be true to you. We didn't hire you. 29:07.51 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um. 29:14.95 Melissa Gunn If we didn't trust you to do the the position. Um, so we rip out conformity from their lives. We put their personalities back into them and then we start trusting them to do really awesome stuff. Um, outside of that we have like standard onboarding. 29:32.72 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb A. 29:34.46 Melissa Gunn But I'll let you know that 1 thing is probably the hardest thing that we have to do and it's kind of a constant reminder within the first three months of you don't need to be professional bank tone where you don't need to be you know contact center film. Be you. 29:48.55 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Right? Do you have people from all over the world that you work with and how how does that work because yeah, you guys are you know pro proposed buys based out of just out of out of hatddlefas Nova Scotia and so a canadian company and I'm I'm sure. 29:49.15 bizzyweb Yeah I remember my. 29:53.81 Melissa Gunn Yeah, yeah. 30:01.11 Melissa Gunn So yeah. 30:04.26 bizzyweb Um, that's realtor off have act. 30:08.47 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Beautiful space. But um, yeah, so is is it all North American or how how do you space that don't I I'm I'm sure as as ah international as we are in just the business world Now you probably have folks all over the world right. 30:24.24 Melissa Gunn Um, we do yeah yeah we do so the majority of our our team itself is located within Canada we do have one superstar overnight. 30:26.77 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb So how do you manage that. 30:39.86 Melissa Gunn Ah, agent. His name is Andre he lives in the Philippines. He's been with our company for 3 years now um and he is an ah absolute joy. Um, and it's so funny because just from his own background again I think. 30:42.50 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb So yeah. 30:58.74 Melissa Gunn That we still need to revisit like Andre it's okay to be like be you like you don't you don't need to put that hat on just be you and um, so yeah, that's that's how we manage it and then honestly when it comes to. 31:04.94 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Move on. 31:14.40 Melissa Gunn Different people from different backgrounds and customer base within our world and stuff like that. Um, they all seem to I don't know. Maybe it's the Canadian us everybody just likes everybody just likes us. Um, you know we say please and thank you all the time so that must be it. But. 31:26.50 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, that's true. Absolutely. 31:30.97 bizzyweb Hard to be Matt Canadians 31:33.20 Melissa Gunn Yeah, it's it's true though because we just say sorry 16 times and then you have to forgive us. 31:39.86 bizzyweb Right? And what. 31:41.64 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, no doubt so for for back back on proposeify for a second. Yeah I know that one of the big things that you do as a service in proposeify is to literally save time. 31:56.93 Melissa Gunn And. 31:59.26 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb And another is of course to make the presentation more professional it occurred to me and you mentioned at the beginning the state of proposals for 2023 that you guys did is there anything that you really want any either salesperson or revenue. Um. Officer to know or to understand are there things that are changing like even post Covid now. Are there some things that are swinging back or any trends that you can spot. 32:32.81 Melissa Gunn Um, well I mean it's hard because in the changing state of the world like we went completely remote. So our office space doesn't exist anymore and. 32:40.33 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Yeah, yes. 32:45.99 Melissa Gunn There are more and more people who are working remotely. They don't have a home base or anything like that which is why it is such a good benefit to have an online proposal solution because it it means that you can reach out to anybody at any point in time they've got it in hand. 32:47.63 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb The way. 32:55.93 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Right? yeah. 33:04.89 Melissa Gunn Um, whether they're in an office or not um also the mobility aspect of it. So just having that be able to you know? Maybe you're emailing a ah job site not necessarily in you guys' world but like let's say blue Collar you're doing landscaping. 33:17.14 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb And. 33:23.84 Melissa Gunn You have um, somebody who's on site the boss on site and they need access to something want to sign off and and immediately they can access it from anywhere. Um, so just that capability of like getting it in somebody's pocket. No matter where they are because we don't all reside in offices anymore I think is a really big benefit. 33:39.40 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Oh. 33:43.84 Melissa Gunn To to getting that. Oh my God I'm lost cut. Sorry yeah, yeah, so getting it in the hands of people no matter where they are at any time I think is is one of the true things to understand like. 33:48.34 bizzyweb Go back. 33:50.60 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Ah, that's perfect, but fine you this is great. 34:02.73 Melissa Gunn I Don't think our world is going to go back to just being office spaces anymore. 34:05.61 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, for sure and that's probably 1 of the more surprising things that I've noticed is I'm I'm seeing people that are opening proposals at all hours of the day and night. 34:21.17 Melissa Gunn Oh. 34:23.18 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb So making sure that you have something that's instant and that's easily accessible is super helpful. Can you help us settle a bit um Trigvi and I have very different front pages on our proposals and I'm more traditional and you know i'm. 34:36.34 Melissa Gunn See here. 34:42.16 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb I'm a little bit older than trigby I'm like a year older but um, trigby likes putting video on the on the home page of the proposal and I'm a text guy so which is better. Oh you know trig these videos. 34:55.13 Melissa Gunn Ah I'd have to see the video I know I I like I like a video like again you have to think about engagement Also attention spans aren't. 34:59.84 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Ah, very, they're very fine I'm kind of setting him up as as ah as an easy gimmi. But. 35:12.39 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Yeah. 35:13.30 Melissa Gunn What they used to be like in in our world today like all the different facets of Multimedia and everything like that Tiktok generation I mean those people are coming up into the business world. You have to grab attention I'm not going to lie I like a good video sorry Dave. 35:17.61 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Spanish. 35:23.30 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Movement. Now. It shouldn't be like a 15 minute video where you're droning on but you know I I think one of my favorites trigby ever did was it was literally a 3 minute run through on the proposal and he said here's what we're talking about here's why we're awesome. 35:32.65 Melissa Gunn So no. 35:44.84 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Here's the deal here's what you're going to have to pay and here's where you're going to sign because you're smart enough to hire us and that was it. It was brilliant. 35:50.71 Melissa Gunn I Think that's great I Honestly again like engagement and bringing that customer in and honestly if you can save somebody from having to like again, we're not having those in-person conversations as frequently as possible. You basically reached his hand through the screen and was like. 35:54.76 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Woman. 36:06.75 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Yeah, yeah. 36:09.94 Melissa Gunn Here's here's my elevator pitch right? Good job. So. 36:13.23 bizzyweb Well I just I you know I just feel like people ah people who need people those are the luckiest people in the world. 36:22.22 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb All Now we're gonna have to pay commission to some like recording right. 36:26.53 bizzyweb But now we're gonna pay like to pay licensing I think one of the way reasons why I use video is is a couple of reasons and and I think more more the point Dave there's a couple of things that we very purposefully do in our proposals is number 1 is. Um, if you don't have a good sense of humor. You're really not going to be a long term fit for working with us because we are um I forget how Melissa rephrased it but we are an island of misfit toys unto ourselves. And so if you don't if you can't laugh at that things boy that's going to be hard for you to work on term with us and second one of the things that we have a problem with is our sales staff is almost exclusive is exclusively male and ah. 85% of the rest of the company is exclusively female and so when in our proposal we have the best of the best of with women staff on there so you know hey once you get past me, there's a whole lot of really smart. Ladies who are gonna be telling you what to do so but I think more to the point I think the the value of the video is it's another way to to show and who you're gonna be working with and who you're gonna be dealing with and it's. 37:52.58 Melissa Gunn Yeah, you can't You can't always express that through text and you know how much of a challenge that can be and um I think that that's actually really, really amazing that you do that and good on you guys for having all those ladies behind you because. 38:08.70 bizzyweb Right? Yeah and so and and when you have we have a great women's staff. So well, we great. Great staff period So listen So what are some of the what are some of the customer success initiatives and customer experience initiatives that you are undertaking in your new role. 38:09.60 Melissa Gunn Love a good woman staff. 38:11.70 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Would be lock in. 38:27.40 Melissa Gunn Um, oh there's a lot of different things that we're working on all the time. Um, so we currently have ah something that we're working on that's called collaborative accounts. So we have um, a subset of accounts that don't currently have customer success managers. But we do want to give them um, an added level of touch so additional touch points. Um outreach for optimization calls specialized messaging to them that would give them um, a better look at. Um, what we're doing within proposeify and how to use proposeify. Um, we also have an increased or I'm sorry a decreased sla for them. So their response times are quicker. So for example, when busy web writes in to proposeify you guys have first response 10 minutes or less these customers would get. Something like 15 because they are of a higher caliber than are small small accounts. Ah but not as important as you guys to us. So um, but yeah, that's that's one of the big things that we're currently working on to get them that extra touch. And just that extra sense of care. There's um, some initiatives going on regarding our knowledge base and um, making more content for that and making it a bit more inclusive to all learning styles and accessible. 39:48.70 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb May move. 39:58.84 Melissa Gunn So that's another thing that we're working on and then there's some other stuff under the hat that I can't quite release just yet. But you'll see soon. 40:05.57 bizzyweb You You talk you? you made made it funny about chat Gp earlier which is you should use disparaging a former a former guest of the pod by the way we we did an episode where where where. 40:09.72 Melissa Gunn 1 40:15.16 Melissa Gunn Oh sorry yeah. 40:15.94 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb It. 40:22.68 bizzyweb We had we literally Dave and I literally asked chat Gpt quite interview questions for 45 minutes and then had somebody read out the answers. It was actually really fascinating. Um, what? ah. Do you you find that ai is going to be helpful in in providing a better customer experience or you are you evaluating it? How are you looking at that as a potential solution. 40:43.53 Melissa Gunn We are looking at it. There's been some interesting integrations that have come out within our platform so we use that we use Zendesk for our our customer support platform. There's been some interesting integrations I will be very honest Ai is is scary to people who are. 40:53.89 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Strength. 41:02.30 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Okay, here. 41:03.18 Melissa Gunn In our world. Um, you know, um, Ai can generate really great responses Ai can mimic that humor and stuff like that. So while we're looking towards it as a means to help important. Maybe make our lives a bit easier for our agents when it comes to locating really great answers or anything like that I'm ah I'm going to be cautiously optimistic about introducing it because while I don't think it could ever replace us. It is a little it's in intimidating. 41:24.92 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb And with that. 41:31.70 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb I. 41:39.19 Melissa Gunn It's intimidating when you're in a customer-facing position with Ai. So. 41:41.14 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb And there's there's a real opportunity or a real danger for a race to the bottom with Ai as as at least as as it's set up right now because if it's an echo chamber and like everybody's talking about the first version of chat ebt that came out. 41:45.48 Melissa Gunn So. 41:59.23 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb And GPTThree was very circular and it was based off of at least 2 or maybe 3 year old data. So everything that you were asking. It was sort of out of date and so what what I've found and we're in the middle of writing our own um guidance. 42:08.92 Melissa Gunn A. 42:17.66 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb For our clients and and internally but I think the the proper use and knowledge to understand. It's a tool. It's not a solution and it's not the end result right? so. 42:27.17 Melissa Gunn Oh. 42:34.26 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Like I'm I'm all about if you need help to brainstorm a topic or if you need help in consolidating a few things that are that are all there and that you've got like real datasets that it can that it can use but just asking broad ranging questions or trying to let it do too much. Is very very Dangerous. So I agree completely. 42:55.31 Melissa Gunn Yeah, ah 1 thing that we tend to use it for and it's just we use it as a second set of eyes. So if we have maybe a knowledge base article is this written as clearly as it could be is there any kind of terminology you know stuff like that. So well, we're. 42:59.48 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Yeah, written. My. 43:12.29 Melissa Gunn Relying on ourselves to be the creator and then and like Ai just to be sort of that check and balance I think it's an incredibly powerful tool because I I do believe that it makes everybody a bit better writer. It makes everybody you know, just a little bit more um you know. 43:24.30 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Fred. 43:30.13 Melissa Gunn Just they come off just a little bit smarter. 43:31.59 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Right? right? I kind of feel like it's It's like having a Robot Butler not a robot Chef you know I don't necessarily want someone to to create my food and and think about it. But if they want to bring it on by and drop it on my table cool right. 43:46.16 bizzyweb Well god Dave now I want a robot chef. 43:51.99 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Let's let's figure something out I'm also kind of hungry because it's almost lunchtime where we're recording. So. 43:55.85 Melissa Gunn So. 43:56.28 bizzyweb Um, um I want to sort of wrap up because I wanna give a shout out to propose if I and talk about a bad time in their and their life. There was a time where you had a layoff. What did the company do to the people that. 44:09.38 Melissa Gunn And. 44:15.49 bizzyweb Well I need to rephrase that because ah, that sounds vindictive. Um, the company was incredibly ah, notably kind to the people that had been laid off what. 44:17.62 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb If. 44:27.57 Melissa Gunn And. 44:31.18 bizzyweb What was the what what were some of the things that the company did to soften the blow as much as possible. 44:38.26 Melissa Gunn Well, ah, we were very lucky because not in in this day and age not everybody is lucky but we were lucky enough to be able to provide severance to the people that were included in that layoff I know some companies nowadays just don't have the ability to do that. So that was something um, my Ceo Kyle got out on Linkedin and put people's names out and got people connected with um opportunities. Ah, we were also and I don't know if I can phrase this as lucky because I don't think. There's any lucky with it. But we fortunate yes, we had our what we would like to call a right sizing. We right? sized at that time. Um towards the like before everyone else was doing their layoffs so there was still. 45:14.77 bizzyweb Fortunate. 45:33.90 Melissa Gunn The job market was still quite good at that time. Um, so because we kind of did that in advance of the downturn of the job Market. We were able to get people into jobs pretty quickly. Um. You know, reaching out to people that you knew I don't know how many times I was a referral for people um to tell them just how wonderful they are because it wasn't about performance. It was just about making sure that we had the right size to move forward and continue to be successful. It was hard I lost. 1 of my entire departments I lost I had a knowledge management team and they were gone and it still Hurts. It's still like it makes me sad but you know what those people now looking back. They're in new positions and they're doing well and um, you. 46:15.30 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Yeah, yeah. 46:15.46 bizzyweb Yeah. 46:28.25 Melissa Gunn They're being successful and it sucks. It's not with us. But I'm so happy for each and every one of them for landing on their feet and finding a new path. 46:35.59 bizzyweb I think I think what you just said is an incredibly classy way to to sort of sum up the experience you get with proposify is even though it sucks that wasn't with you but you're still happy for them and that's a human feeling and a surety that. 46:48.26 Melissa Gunn Oh yeah. 46:50.24 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Other. 46:54.35 bizzyweb Hey it didn't work out but please go be successful and and we we we want you to be as successful as possible. So that's as a as a longtime customer. Um it it was great found as a longtime customer. It was great to see I'm gonna say that again. 46:59.83 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb So that's not. 46:59.90 Melissa Gunn Not not. 47:13.88 bizzyweb As a longtime customer. It was really great to see a company that I have leveraged in my professional world to be so kind to people and that's really I Guess what I'm taking away from this dave is that the technology is available and make your life better. But it doesn't replace the human connection. 47:35.33 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Absolutely yeah and Melissa it's so great to to have met you and thanks for your continued partnership through proposeify. How can folks find you and proposeify. 47:47.10 Melissa Gunn So ah, you can find us online at proposeify.com and that's where all of our information. We also have a Youtube channel. Ah you can check us out on their socials too. So we're located on Linkedin Facebook Instagram all that wonderful stuff. So. 48:02.24 bizzyweb Does the guy with the bow ties still work there. Excellent god go on the website see if you can find the guy who looks like Bill Nye the science guy but slightly canadian. 48:02.26 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Cool. 48:07.74 Melissa Gunn Um, for now. Ah we love Pee No lies. 48:10.65 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Ah. 48:16.35 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb I love it and we did mention the state of proposals and that's available at proposeify.com and then if you go to the resources section. It's right on the top of the screen. 48:28.17 bizzyweb Super helpful if you take away anything from that take um but take a moment and go download that because it will change how you think about online online the ah proposal writing Melissa thanks so much. 48:38.80 Melissa Gunn Thank you? so.