Navigating Shipping Challenges and Solutions with Anthony Lautanen of Auspi Group

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In this episode of "Struggles," Chris Inman welcomes Anthony Lautanen from the Auspi Group to discuss the intricacies of shipping contract negotiation, specifically focusing on how the Auspi Group assists companies in renegotiating contracts with FedEx and UPS using data analytics and benchmarking. 

Anthony explains that their services are generally catered to companies with a shipping spend of over $500,000 to ensure substantial reach and savings. Throughout the discussion, Anthony highlights the importance of a combined technological and human approach in their operations, emphasizing the need for strong client relationships. 

The conversation further delves into the impact of the "Amazon effect" on consumer expectations around shipping timelines and costs. Anthony also shares his desire to connect with larger corporations in Cleveland and outlines the typical roles in a company that benefit from their services. 

The episode concludes with a call to action for listeners to support local sponsors like the Auspi Group.

Key Topics:

• Introduction and Sponsor Acknowledgment [00:00]
• Anthony Lautanen Discusses Amazon's Evolving Shipping Strategies [00:00]
• The Auspi Group's Role in Renegotiating Shipping Contracts [01:23]
• Identifying Discounts and Financial Assessment [02:20]
• The Amazon Effect on Consumer Expectations [04:05]
• The Role of Technology in Shipping Solutions [06:08]
• Connecting with Companies in Cleveland [07:32]

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Chapters

• 1:23 The Osprey Group's Role in Renegotiating Shipping Contracts
• 2:20 Identifying Discounts and Financial Assessment
• 4:05 The Amazon Effect on Consumer Expectations
• 6:08 The Role of Technology in Shipping Solutions
• 7:32 Connecting with Companies in Cleveland

Transcript

0:00

A client in 2020 pre Covid using a trial program with Amazon. And having seen it firsthand, it was very, very Neanderthal. Like, just because they are using phones to track. Oh, okay. They're not using, you know, scanners or RFD scanners or anything. So now they probably advanced a ton. But during COVID they capitalized on buying some, you know, airplanes that were not being used during the pandemic at low prices. So. So they're moving more into the shipping space. It's going to be interesting to see how they go about it with a third person in that space, but they're definitely going to be shipping. Welcome to another episode of Struggles, presented by ncbi, the podcast where we navigate challenges together. Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Struggles, presented by ncbi. I'm Chris Min with Idea Cleveland. This is Anthony Lautna with the Ossie Group. All right, so, Anthony, so you guys were an awesome sponsor of one of our social events in January. Thank you. And, yeah, thank you so much. And hopefully you guys all had a chance to come out, check out the social event. We had over 50 plus people there. It was quite an event. And you had a chance to kind of speak about your company, but it's kind of loud and everyone's at social and you probably met a few people. But we wanted to give you an opportunity to. To come on the show and talk about what you guys do. For sure. Yeah. I appreciate it, Chris. Thanks for having me. Again, in regards to. What we do at Osprey Group is really, we help companies renegotiate shipping contracts with FedEx and UPS by leveraging benchmarks and data and analytic points. I like to say that we're like the Zillow of the parcel world. We are going in, using comps and benchmarks to help them renegotiate and establish contracts to save them money, naturally. Now, do people need to be shipping a certain amount to get the discount? Yeah, typically we go over, you know, companies over $500,000 or more in spend just because under that threshold, we typically don't get a lot of reach in terms of, you know, the reps really don't, you know, they don't care as much, and that's bad to say, but they don't care as much with companies lesser than that value. All right, so that's always the first thing. So if you're spending over 503 on shipping. So. Okay, so how. How do you guys actually go about finding these discounts for these people to do these masks? Yeah, that's a great question. So what we do is we don't. We're not better negotiators than anybody else. Right. Like we, we know what we. And how to do it based on the negotiation itself. Right. So we've been doing this for over 10 years. We use data points analytics. So we're looking at your spend, we're looking at where you ship it to your box sizes, your zones, I mean, thousands of data points to then direct that against our benchmarking system, which is proprietary. We've had it for, you know, a decade plus now. And we're able to take that and actually leverage the two and say, okay, you're spending $500,000 now, but like shippers are spending 200,000, you should be spending 200,000. We know it's been approved before on a national level. Just a matter of going out and asking for it. So we're giving them actual targets to go for instead of just beating one another up on each side. That's cool. So when you're working with these corporations have these. What are some companies that you work with? Like, in the sense of what industries? It's a great question too. Yeah, so we work with all industries. The majority here in Cleveland obviously would be manufacturing just because of the nature of what we do here in Cleveland. But we're all over the globe, so we help companies, you know, E commerce, a lot of E commerce companies, a lot of subscription companies, a lot of companies that are shipping a lot to the consumer. We do business to business as well. But to the consumer is a really hard, you know, hard one for a lot of people because there's so many surcharges attached to a package. So if I ship a package to you, Chris, I'm expecting it to be 10 bucks, when in reality on the back end, we could be getting charged 25, $30, which is eating into their margin. So we do a lot with helping E commerce companies expand that margin percentage growth. That's a really interesting whole topic there because Amazon has built this thing where we as consumers believe shipping is free. Yes. That is the biggest thing in the world, the biggest disruptor. It's called the Amazon effect. In my world. What it is basically is it's a psychological principle where if you don't get a package in two days, you're pretty upset. Right, Chris? Yes. Also, I'm upset when it's like $12 to ship a hoodie to myself. Exactly right. So like a hoodie's 20 bucks, shipping's $12, a hoodie's 20 bucks. Where you buying that? Oh, that's true. Hoodie's 60 bucks. Yeah, there you go. Hoodie, 60 bucks. And it's 12 bucks for shipping. And you're like, man, that's 25% just in the shipping context. Exactly right. So then you do. Okay, well what about a$75 hoodie that's for free shipping? Yeah, that actually will go through more than the $60 hoodie with $12 shipping. So it's all about, you know, actually just honing in on those margin percentages and trying to get their shipping accounts as low as possible with spend to be able to then use that for free shipping and use it effectively. Because when you capture business coming into your company, you want to keep business. And if you're taking six days to get a product to somebody or eight days, you might not keep that customer for life. Yeah, I mean, it used to be okay. You would wait two weeks for something to get shipped across the country. It's not mentally okay. Now for consumers, it's not mentally okay. And it's kind of crazy that we're having this conversation today because last week UPS had their earnings call and they basically said we are going to cut Amazon basically out of the equation. They didn't say Amazon directly. They said we're going to cut our largest account by 50%. Amazon's quarterly earnings I think is next week. So we'll see what they have to say. But it's just interesting how all these dynamics are occurring because now UPS doesn't make up for all this volume. So how's that going to change the landscape? So you guys use a lot of technology to figure this out? Yes, so we have technology and a human approach. So a lot of folks in our industry are moving towards a SaaS based model where they're using a lot of AI analytics, predictive analytics, things like that. So people are, there's no interaction. People are just putting the data in. AI is running it through the software and spitting out an answer. Is that what you're implying? That's what I'm implying. So a lot of folks in our industry are just putting that stuff into a platform and then having the customer try to figure that all out is very difficult for them. So what we do at ospies, we use a, you know, two handed approach really, which is going to be the technological, you know, advancements with AI and all those things. But we also have analysts in the background that crunch all these numbers from a human perspective. And then the biggest thing for me is you want to be in touch with your customer. You want to build relationships and you want to build trust and you want to be able to be an advocate for them, not just with shipping, but with your overall sense of the business. So you want to be that person they go to when they need help with a box or box sizes or whatever it may be. And that's where I think the real differentiator is. That's awesome. So for our audience who's pretty well connected in the greater Cleveland area, who are some companies you would love to connect with and who are the roles in those companies? Man, there's so many in Cleveland. Cleveland and Ohio in general is just a hotspot for what I do. You can get anywhere in the country within two days. Right. So I would love to get into the American Greetings would be great. Right. Some of those larger corporations would be awesome to get into just to help them out and just learn more. Right. Do you have a relationship with Vitamix? I don't. So we know some people that are connected with Vitamix within our little NCBI world. I have. That's awesome, man. I have Vitamix at home. I went to Baldwin Wall, so I was close to their headquarters and I would love to be a part of them and try to help them out. But yeah, I mean, some of those businesses that are local here to Cleveland have a special place in my heart just because I'm able to help somebody locally. So what are some of the titles of people in the companies that connect you with? Yeah, so typically it's quite funny because when you say transportation logistics, you're thinking shipping, products, moving, pick, pack, sort all of those things. Hard hat type mentality, which I am. Right. I'm a lunch pail guy. I'm from Cleveland. But what we do is we do more of a financial assessment. Right. So we're talking to more controllers, CFOs, purchasing managers, folks that want to reduce spend in their company and that's their task. We want to talk with those folks. When we talk with folks in the shipping departments, they typically are very territorial in regards to their relationship with the carrier. And we don't want to impede on their territory by any means. So we try to go to the finance person and then loop the logistics manager in afterwards just because we want to make sure that we're a friendly person rather than coming in and coaching on their territory. Awesome. So how do people get a hold of you? Yeah, so I have, you know, my phone number obviously is on my, you know, LinkedIn LinkedIn is probably the biggest way to get a hold of me. I have, you know, a huge following on LinkedIn. For people that are listening. How do you spell your name and all that? Anthony Lautnan. L, A, U, T, A, N, E, N. Again, it's OSPY Group A, U, S, P, I. And yeah, I live in Menor on the east side. So you can call me, you can email me. Everything's on my LinkedIn. So if you want to get ahold of me, that's probably the best way to do it. Awesome. Well, thank you so much again for sponsoring our event. Absolutely. And thanks for coming in and having this conversation. Thanks, Chris. And for you guys that are all listening, you know, let's help out our sponsors. Let's help them grow their business, everything. They're supporting local businesses in our community. Let's support them. So we'll catch you on the next episode of Struggles. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Struggles presented by ncbi, where we navigate challenges together. Don't forget to subscribe, listen and share this podcast with others who might benefit. We'd love to hear about the struggles you're facing or have overcome, and we'd be thrilled to have you as a guest on a future episode. Let's continue this journey together.