Things I've Learned on My Journey to CEO of Batteries Plus with Scott Williams: An EOFire Classic from 2022

0:01John Lee Dumas:Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation, JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by HighLevel, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. On today's classic episode, we'll be breaking down things I've learned on my journey to CEO of Batteries Plus. And to draw these value bonds, I brought Scott Williams into EO Fire Studios. Scott is the CEO of Batteries Plus with over 25 years in retail and e-commerce experience. He's known for improving operations, revamping marketing, and driving strong business results. And today we talk about in leadership, basic principles often get overlooked.

0:33John Lee Dumas:Trusting your workforce pays off many times over and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Scott and our sponsors. Fire Nation, is your business stuck? Join Eric Trump and Clay Clark's life-changing business conference, November 5th and 6th in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Learn the specific proven systems Clay Clark has used to create thousands of success stories today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO fire. Again, request tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO fire. If you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. High Level gives you website hosting, funnels, email marketing, automation, calendar booking, payments, and course hosting all on one platform, plus award-winning 24-7 support.

1:14John Lee Dumas:Get a 30-day free trial and my full bonus stack that includes a 15-minute private call with me and much more at highlevelfire.com. Highlevelfire.com. Scott, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Well, as I've advanced through my career and tried to learn a little bit along the way, I've made a few stops and I have the belief that what makes you successful is primarily around leadership, strategy, motivation, teamwork. and many times folks are really focused on industry expertise and that they will always be a car person or they'll always be a battery person or they'll always be a retailer.

2:02And I found that I need to adapt the playbook from stop to stop and learn a little bit and understand I may not be the biggest expert in batteries or in my days at Cabela's I may not be the biggest expert in hunting and fishing but I'm certainly willing to be on a rapid learning curve. And I think the leadership skills trump the industry expertise, but you got to have a little bit of both.

2:25John Lee Dumas:Always be learning, Fire Nation. And that's the thing we're going to do today is we're going to learn from Scott because this is all about the things that he's learned on his journey to CEO of Batteries Plus. And we had a little fun pre-interview chat where I did mention that I often do drive by Batteries Plus right here in Caguas, Puerto Rico on my way to Costco. And after this conversation, Scott, I'm going to stop in that store and check it out because, hey, I want to support you. Please do. And we'll be glad to take your business. We appreciate the loyalty. I want to talk about your 25 years in retail and e-commerce.

3:02John Lee Dumas:Now, we do have a lot to talk about today, so let's keep it fairly tight. But I want to hear that journey. Well, I often tell the story that if you were to go back and think about setting up your career based on your undergraduate or graduate education. You pick out a field and then that's what you do for 25 years. And yet, if we dial back to into the late 80s and early 90s, they weren't teaching courses on e-commerce and we weren't talking about your digital strategy and omni-channel. And so what I think has become important is I came up through marketing and then eventually into e-commerce and retail.

3:37And as it's happened, it's really evolved. And you've gone from very traditional media, TV and radio and the three major networks to now streaming and what you can do with OTT and what you can do with Facebook prospecting, etc. And so it's been pretty fascinating that you end up in an industry that wasn't fully created when you started.

4:00John Lee Dumas:So one thing that you are going to get into today as we kind of go through this journey that you've experienced, especially with Batteries Plus, is that you've had some wins. You've also had some challenges. Let's start with the wins and really talk about what you've been able to bring to the table in your time as CEO. The biggest win that we've had within the Batteries Plus system is that we just reignited growth. We're so excited. We signed up 90 new franchise owners in a number of stores last year. And this year we'll open 50 new stores. So I had to kind of tell the team, we've got to create a new normal here.

4:40We have 700 stores growing to 750. And opening 50 stores in a year is literally one a week. And last month, we opened nine in four weeks. And so the speed of change and welcoming folks into our family, I think is the biggest thing. And it's not only new blood into the system, it's creating opportunity for valuations and exit of our long-term owners as well.

5:04John Lee Dumas:Now, you did share that win, but there's obviously been multiple challenges. So when you took over, what were some of the biggest challenges that you saw at the time? And what have been some challenges that have cropped up as you've gone forward? Well, I think one of the biggest challenges at the beginning was you just need to gain confidence from your franchise owners in new leadership. And because we have 280 franchise groups who have invested their life savings sometimes or their family investment in this business, there's certainly a fair amount of scrutiny and expectation that is absolutely deserved, right?

5:42Because this is something that I want hope and a bright future for what has become from my investment. So when there's a new leadership team, I want to know where are you taking us and where is that different from where we've been? So some of the challenges when I joined where we had a couple of mature categories, smaller categories, but things like consumer electronics that might have been things like laptop batteries or cords that were kind of falling out of the obsolescence curve. and then talk about what are the opportunities that you can have with a brand like Batteries Plus to tap into new categories.

6:19And so we're lucky with our business model and with our naming that there are lots of places we can go. And most specifically, we've gone into programming of key fobs, huge business, and really to do it both for consumers and for car dealerships. We've also crafted a new partnership with Samsung, where we're their first ISP, independent service provider, where they literally can direct people to Batteries Plus to repair those phones. So two new burgeoning categories for us.

6:51John Lee Dumas:So what's been like a recent challenge? You know, maybe it's either through the pandemic or coming out of the pandemic that, you know, maybe wasn't in your initial vision, but that cropped up and you're like, we've got to deal with this. Well, there's two challenges that have definitely been since the pandemic and or even in kind of the recent economic times, both of which are challenges and both of which are somewhat of an opportunity. One is, you know, it's well documented across the country that staffing is a challenge right now, really in lots of industries, but specifically in retail. And the advantage for us is that the average Batteries Plus has five to six employees where a restaurant might have 40 and other businesses might have 100.

7:34Thinking about trying to attract and retain that many folks in this transitory work environment can be a big challenge. but it's actually having new franchise owners migrate into Batteries Plus from great brands in food and restaurants and other parts of telecom that are joining because they see our staffing as more attainable. The second piece is the subjects that are in the media about the supply chain. I mean, that's very real. There is backups at the ports on the West Coast. There's long lead times on containers. And the thing that's probably become an advantage for us is that we are a wholly owned supply chain that sources both domestically and internationally and runs a warehouse and distribution system for all of our franchise owners.

8:27So we as a franchisor invested in over four months worth of additional inventory, sometimes having 30 or 40 million extra in transit or in our warehouse so that when there are times for tight supply and demand in areas like golf cart batteries and marine batteries for boats, even some in auto, that we had the product when others were struggling a bit more. And that really insulated our franchise owners who are very much more of wanting the certainty and the consistency of sales levels.

9:01John Lee Dumas:So I want to talk about brands and brand growth. So first off, I'm just curious, you being a CEO, what is your definition of brand and branding? And then follow up with your vision of Battery Plus's brands. Well, I differentiate between naming and tagline and what I would call the overall branding. But specifically, I often get asked by people that say, now, Scott, are you batteries plus bulbs? And I noticed you changed to that some years ago. Now I'm seeing batteries plus. Well, we have what we call Project Volt. We've volted 580 of our 700 stores with a new interior design that says batteries plus power it, light it, fix it.

9:51And we really believe that that tagline is sort of an inspiration for how we execute on the brand promise. So people will come into our stores, they'll be holding something. It may be a key fob that's not working or a little coin cell battery that they don't even know what it is. They just want to be able to hand it to the retail associate. And can you find one for me? Can you pop open my hearing aid or my watch and drop it in for me? And so we found that that tagline of power it, light it, fix it, It's kind of action oriented and shows how we really drive our solutions. So we have some of our franchise owners that literally on their signature on their emails will put chief problem solver because essentially our brand is powering people's lives and getting them back up and going in a needs based business.

10:42So if your phone was broken or your car battery was down, you don't have time to wait. And so I feel like that's encompassing the brand promise along with the naming.

10:52John Lee Dumas:I love all of that. And, you know, one thing I will say that I've always appreciated about Batteries Plus is the brand colors. Like I just really, for some reason, resonates with the brand colors. The shade of green and the shade of orange that is used, I've just always liked and I've really felt have gone together. And I do feel like there's a lot of brands that I don't feel that way about where they really like these clashing, harsh colors that are, you know, frankly, just a little uninviting. But I just wanted to make a side comment. I might be the minority. It might be the majority. Or I might be somewhere in the middle.

11:24John Lee Dumas:But I've always been one that's been like, I feel like they nailed that part of what they're trying to do with their overall persona. And Fire Nation, we have a lot of things coming up when we get back from thinking our sponsors. Fire Nation, is your business stuck? Join Eric Trump and Clay Clark's life-changing business conference, November 5th and 6th in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Learn the specific proven systems Clay Clark has used to create thousands of millionaire success stories. See thousands of success stories and testimonials from real people just like you who Clay Clark has mentored and coached into prosperity at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOFire.

11:59John Lee Dumas:Clay's proven business coaching program is month-to-month, and it costs less money than hiring a minimum wage employee. Yes, it's month-to-month and costs less money than hiring a minimum wage employee. schedule your free personal 13 point assessment with clay clark himself today at thrivetimeshow.com slash eofire because clay only takes on 160 clients it only allows 300 attendees to each business conference you will interact with clay directly see thousands of real success stories and learn about attending the thrive time show today in-person workshops featuring football star and entrepreneur tim tebow and president trump's son eric trump today at thrivetimeshow.com slash eofire.

12:34John Lee Dumas:Become the next success story. Schedule a free consultation and request tickets to join football star and entrepreneur Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump, at Clay Clark's next business conference today at thrivetimeshow.com slash eofire. Fire Nation, if you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. That is why High Level is Entrepreneur on Fire's featured partner. High Level gives you a website builder and hosting, funnels and landing pages, email marketing, appointment scheduling, payment processing, course and membership hosting, and so much more. Everything you need to succeed, all under one roof.

13:07John Lee Dumas:No duct tape, no juggling five platforms, just one clean system for your business, and their award-winning 24-7 support has your back when you need it most. When you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you also get my exclusive bonus stack, a 30-day free trial, a private 15-minute call with me, JLD, access to my weekly live office hours, a digital copy of my book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, my 50 Days to Something execution roadmap, and more. Visit highlevelfire.com and start building your something today. So Scott, we're back and there have really been some exciting developments and partnerships with Batteries Plus.

13:46John Lee Dumas:I mean, you've already mentioned one with Samsung and some other cool things you have in the pipeline. Can you talk about those and how you brought them together as a CEO, like kind of what that process looked like? Yeah, I think as we looked at it, we felt like there were two different pieces of our strategy that needed to be brought together in sort of a cohesive way, one of which is our product strategy. And as we look at the combination of brands that we carry, and most retailers will categorize them as sort of good, better, best, and what are national brands versus owned brands versus licensing brands.

14:22And so I feel like we've defined that much better in the last several years. Specifically, we've had a brand we call X2. And X2 is the best in the market on being able to be out there specifically in marine and other applications. And we use the tagline with it, relentless. And we've really romanced that brand, which was already the highest performing brand in the market, and started using influencers and going into competitive bass fishing and folks that are out on the water showing the reason why that's important to have this best-in-class brand. Yet in our licensing arrangements, we're still a huge, huge partner of Duracell and a big fan of theirs.

15:05And so we utilize a licensing agreement where we actually manufacture the brands in a partnership with Duracell to meet those specifications and then some. And then we have some ongoing brands that we have being able to bring up and to be able to develop. One is for B2B called Worker, and another one's called Nuon for the next generation of smart home and what we're doing in consumer electronics. So on that piece, you need to walk into a store and feel like there's some cohesive understanding of are you a house of brands and what are the good, better, best? So I'm excited about that. The second part of your question is that I feel like we needed to prove that we are a best-in-class franchisor.

15:51And frankly, that's a journey we haven't completed. We just try to get better every month. But we've introduced new programs. So we have one called Inventory Planning as a Service, where we will run inventory and make orders for our franchise owners. Another one's called Commercial as a Service, where they can do sort of a shared sales representative, because 30 % of our business is commercial or B2B. And as we go forward, we also have a new cool BI tool, so business intelligence tool called Looker that will give our franchise owners alerts, rankings by categories, rankings by storage, and really allow them to focus as much time as they can on the customer while making the reporting suite really powerful for them.

16:39John Lee Dumas:I love all of that. And one thing I really want to end with a bang here is tips and advice for other CEOs. Because Scott, you're living the life right now of a CEO. You're doing the things we talked about. You're running the company. You're mixing it up. And I think it's just really cool for our listeners who are either CEOs or aspiring CEOs, or frankly, you know, are solopreneurs running their own businesses and companies. Like, what are your tips and advice specifically for other CEOs? Well, my first tip is that I believe that trust in your workforce pays off multiple times over. As we got into, I was even doing this before the pandemic, but as you thought about the whole remote work environment, I think a lot of times everybody wants to really define that.

17:32Like, okay, are you in three days? and which three days are you in and what time do you start on Monday and what do you do on Friday and what happens if people are checking out early and all of the negative ways of which you could feel like someone is not going to give their all to the system. And what I've found is sort of the opposite to be true, and that is some trust and faith in the good-hearted, you know, strong work ethic of folks will often be really rewarded. In fact, I think they oftentimes feel an extra obligation that I'm not being overly supervised here. And I frankly enjoy that work environment in a time that I can move between companies so easily.

18:14And people will ask, well, how do you know if they're doing a great job if you don't monitor them? Well, it's output, it's work performance, it's participation on Zoom meetings, it's helping with strategy. I mean, there's lots of ways to analyze that. So one is, I believe, putting faith and trust in your leadership team and your overall employee base pays off. The second is that I think as a CEO, I've had to continue to make sure that I find places where I garner energy and garner motivation as much as I put back into the company. So there's a lot we do as a heavy pace of leading off meetings, doing podcasts, And what I found is that I can draw a lot of energy from what others may view as a detriment.

19:03And that might be extra travel or having regional roadshows. And I found that when I get out with folks who have trusted their family business to Batteries Plus, that you many times draw a lot of motivation for how hard they work, how much they appreciate, how much they appreciate recognition and winning our MVP award. award or winning, you know, award for being over a million two in sales. And that ends up being what seems like an output of energy that's actually a re-energizer and to find those ways to draw that energy for yourself.

19:40John Lee Dumas:Scott, I love when you talk about energy, and I kind of want to go with that theme as we draw to a close here. What is the one thing you really want to make sure Fire Nation gets from our entire conversation here today? What are we walking away with and any ways you want us to connect with you, with your brands, whatever that might be, social media, share that, and then we'll say goodbye. Well, the one thing I would say is that from a leadership point of view, some of the basics that you read seem so basic that they're easy to overlook. And that is build a world-class team, get the people in the right place on the bus, drive a strategy, get a cadence of meetings, allow everyone to know how to win together and to share in the fruits of that success and then get out of their way.

20:28So I think that those five or six things sound so basic, but the relentless execution against those, making sure there's no flaws in the teamwork. I use the sports analogy. You can't lose the locker room. Everyone needs to be winning together. those are easier said than done and I the focus on that is the single most important thing a CEO can do as far as closing I would just say that there's a ton of energy at batteriesplus.com and we think there's momentum so for those that are out there that would love to partner with us come see us at batteriesplus.com we also have batteriesplusfranchising.com is where many many are choosing to join our new family and to sign in for new territories and agreements.

21:14We have a lot of our existing franchise owners that are growing as well. And if you are a vendor supplier with a new product idea, we can go lots of places with this brand. It's a very diverse brand that covers a lot of categories, doesn't have any real specific competitors that are all the areas that we service. So feel free to look us up and feel free to always find me out there on social media or on LinkedIn. So really enjoy this great podcast today.

21:42John Lee Dumas:Thank you. We enjoyed it as well. You shared some great value bombs, some great calls to action there. So Fire Nation, definitely check this out if you want to learn more. Check out Scott on the social medias. And you're the average Fire Nation. Of the five people you spend the most time with, you've been hanging out with SW and JLD today, so keep up the heat. And head over to EOFire.com. If you type Scott with two T's in the search bar, his show notes page will pop right up. And Scott, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side.

22:15Thank you.

22:16John Lee Dumas:Hey, Fire Nation, today's value bomb content was brought to you by Scott and Fire Nation's successful entrepreneurs accomplish big goals. That's why I created the Freedom Journal to guide you in accomplishing your number one goal in a hundred days. And we're talking step by step. Visit thefreedomjournal.com and I'll catch you there or I'll catch you on the flip side. Fire Nation, is your business stuck? Join Eric Trump and Clay Clark's life-changing business conference, November 5th and 6th in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Learn the specific proven systems Clay Clark has used to create thousands of success stories today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO Fire.

22:52John Lee Dumas:Again, request tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO Fire. If you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. High Level gives you website hosting, funnels, email marketing, automation, calendar booking, payments, and course hosting all on one platform, plus award-winning 24-7 support. Get a 30-day free trial and my full bonus stack that includes a 15-minute private call with me and much more at highlevelfire.com, highlevelfire.com.