The G.O.A.T.

I typically never know what I’m going to say during speaking engagements until an hour or two before I take the physical or virtual stage.? This year, the inspiration for my National Sales Meeting comments came earlier than normal, in the middle of the Super Bowl.? Early in the game, a sports gambling commercial highlighted how everyone qualifies to play… except Tom Brady.? Feeling slighted, Brady asks, “Why me?? What did I do?” and is told… he’s simply won enough.

So when I took the stage at the opening of our National Sales Meeting, having traded my ruffly coat for a TB12 Buccaneer jersey, I knew some of our team would hate, hate, hate (yes, I acknowledge the Swiftie reference).? Yes, Brady’s given the world a lot of reasons to hate him.? Deflate gate… married and divorced a super model… seven Super Bowl Rings…

Love him or hate him.? It’s hard to argue, he’s the greatest quarterback of all time.? Now, time will tell, Mahomes may give him a run for his money; but for now, Tom Brady is the G.O.A.T.

For the record, I started watching football long before Taylor Swift in part because of Tom Brady.? I became a football fan sometime after deflate gate and before the legendary Patriots comeback over the Falcons.? I remember watching that game in a hotel room with my dad, the night before a board meeting, in awe of Brady’s sheer will to win.? He’s far from the most physically gifted player on the field.? When he ran the ball, you kind of held your breath expecting something bad to happen.

Time and time again, Brady fought back from deficits that seemed impossible because he expected to win.

Like Tom Brady, Follett has given our customers a lot of reasons to hate us.? But I shared a side-by-side photo illustrating what a difference a year makes.? A year ago, I was growing a baby and Brady hadn’t yet retired.? Today Holden turns 10 months old and managed to wake up just in time to watch the overtime portion of the Super Bowl.? And he had to stay up because I wasn’t retreating to the nursery until the game was over!

A year ago, we were emerging from the label crisis where due to supply chain issues, we ran out of the materials that make a book a library book.? We had to ship our orders without processing and mail the labels later, forcing our customers to do the work they typically pay us to do.? They could hate us for that.? But instead, they asked us to never run out of labels again because they don’t want to ever have to process their own books.? Today we have a rolling 18-month supply of labels.? And the crisis reinforced the role we play in our customers lives.

A year ago, we were struggling to retain warehouse team members.? We had hired 700 people and were not net positive one person. Orders were taking months to get to our customers.? So, we adjusted the compensation and incentive plans to reduce turnover, encouraged our existing team to be more efficient, and made Follett a more desirable employer.? Today we are retaining 50% more of our warehouse labor.

We’ve changed owners.? Changed email addresses.? Changed business names.? Changed sales territories.

And yet, our customers love us.?

In my presentation, I shared with the sales team the results of a recent third-party market study that indicates 95% of librarians are aware of Follett… a percentage that far outnumbers direct competition and is ahead of household brands like Scholastic and Amazon.

And not only are they aware of us, but they also think about us fondly.? A 47 Net Promoter Score (NPS) is unheard of.? Many of the companies with which we do business in our personal lives, have a negative Net Promoter Score.? Follett’s NPS is 13 points higher than the nearest competitor.

And finally, not only do they think of us and think of us fondly, those who do not do business with us say they are considering shifting their business to Follett. Of the customers who purchase books from someone other than Follett, 69% said they would consider shifting some of their spend elsewhere.? And 45% said they would shift those dollars to Follett.

As I look at 2024, we have an unprecedented opportunity to take business from our competitors.? We emerged from the pandemic quicker and stronger and can now ship orders within five days.? Outside rep, Randy Thompson , who recently returned to Follett after a brief sabbatical told me about ten times over the course of the sales meeting that we must shout from the rooftop… five days!?

The sales team members in the audience nodded as I mentioned, how much easier it is for them to walk into schools or pick up the phone, knowing the person on the other end not only recognizes Follett, but thinks about us fondly.? But all of us should be proud of and take advantage of the position we find ourselves in the market.?

Our competitors will say we shouldn’t be able to play… because we always win.? We win thanks to our loyal customers and our desire to support them and their students.

Because of those customers, like Tom, we will continue to find ways to win and win again.? We have for 150 years.? And things that are around a long time, generally stay around for a long time.?

And that’s a G.O.A.T. worthy story…