April 4, 2025 • 43 mins
Revolutionizing Fleet Management with Azuga: A Conversation with Chris Johnson
In this episode of 'The Wireless Way,' the host welcomes Chris Johnson, Vice President of Business at Azuga, a Bridgestone company. The discussion delves into how fleet management solutions are transforming business operations and enhancing safety. Chris shares his journey, insights into the evolving telematics industry, and practical applications of advanced fleet tracking technologies. They explore the importance of strategic partnerships, the value of actionable data, and the emotional connections in business relationships. Personal anecdotes highlight the impact of these technologies on both business and personal safety.
00:00 Introduction and Recent Successes
00:22 Guest Introduction: Chris Johnson from Azuga
02:00 Chris Johnson's Background and Career Journey
03:46 The Evolution of Fleet Management Technology
07:29 The Role of Trusted Advisors in Fleet Management
08:40 The State of the Fleet Tracking Industry
11:47 Leveraging Technology for Fleet Safety and Efficiency
16:26 Engaging with Clients: Questions and Strategies
21:50 Emotional Connection in Sales and Marketing
24:06 The Importance of IoT in Fleet Management
25:40 Challenges and Misconceptions in Fleet Tracking
26:27 Target Markets and Ideal Clients
30:06 Personal Stories and Real-World Applications
35:00 Replacing Existing Solutions
39:00 Final Thoughts and Relationship Building
42:35 Conclusion and Call to Action
Check out my website https://thewirelessway.net/ use the contact button to send request and feedback.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (00:00):
Hey, welcome to another episode of
(00:02):
The Wireless Way.
Man, I feel like we've been on aroll lately.
A lot of great content, a lot ofgreat guests, a lot of, just
good solutions that are changingand improving the way we not
only do business, but franklythe way we live.
Let's think about it.
When business is going smoother,our personal lives are going
smoother, usually, right?
Glad you can make this episode.
(00:22):
I'm also grateful for ChrisJohnson.
He's with us today.
He's our guest from Aoga.
And before I bring him on, Ijust wanna tell you a little bit
about him.
He is, he's the vice presidentbusiness at Aoga, a Bridgestone
company a veteran and fleetmanagement solution sales with
over 20 years of experience.
He has a unbridled passion forenabling partners to provide
solutions that help commercialfleets to be safer and more
(00:45):
efficient, using best in classfleet management and safety
technology.
And I can attest to that just inthe short few times that we have
spoke.
I feel like I've met a kindredspirit when it comes to passion.
You gotta be passionate aboutwhat you do, when you believe in
what you're doing.
That's easy.
Clearly he believes in it and Ibelieve I'm right there with
him.
At Azua, the Bridgestonecompany, a leading provider of
connected vehicle solutions andsafety, telematics.
(01:08):
We'll be talking more aboutthat.
He believes in the power ofstrategic partnerships working
together to drive growth andrevenue while delivering
exceptional customer value.
Isn't that what we're all herefor?
That's why he is excited tointroduce, the Suga Partner
program.
I'm excited to be a part of thatprogram and not only empowers
your business with revenuegenerating opportunity, but also
(01:29):
enhances your ability to deliverexceptional value to your
customers within the fleet.
Tele telematics verticalleveraging their cutting edge
technology, dedicated supportand comprehensive training
resources to ensure mutualsuccess.
So yeah a lot there, Chris.
Thanks for being here, man.
I can't wait to unpack all that.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-20 (01:49):
That's awesome.
Thank you so much for thatwonderful introduction.
I feel I have a lot to live upto right now.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (01:54):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm confident you will and youhave been.
But as always is the firstquestion, man.
It's you know what's not in thebio.
Tell us a little bit more.
How did you get to where you aretoday?
What was the beginnings?
chris-johnson_1_03-21-202 (02:07):
Yeah.
What's not in the bio?
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (02:09):
I.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_1 (02:09):
am a proud daddy of four teenagers
here in Monroe Township, NewJersey.
So they are my passion and everyday I wake up in the morning,
I'm like, what cool things can Ido to help grow and scale aga so
I can make sure that these kidscould get a decent college
education?
So me and the wife, we have beenhere for about eight years and
it's been a really fun ridestarting to work with.
(02:32):
And something interesting aboutme is, I've been elevated very
recently to the Vice Presidentof Business Development, which
I'm very excited for.
And that was predicated on thesuccess that I had in starting a
reseller organization for Azuaand.
And I think the main reason whyis because I am not the best
(02:54):
prospecting salesperson, right?
What I was always able to do is,although I always got nervous
about trying to find anopportunity prospect for it,
whenever I was able to get infront of the customer, I was
actually pretty decent atclosing the deal, right?
So I was like, where can I theworld of sales?
Into a world of technologyadvisement and not have to,
(03:19):
heavily go to the direct salesmodel, which I just don't
personally feel comfortablewith.
Thank God for the wonderfulworld of the channel, right
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (03:28):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025 (03:29):
I've been.
Now taking AGA and Bridgestonein our fleet IOT technology into
basically a different place.
That's not traditionally whereyou'll see iot technologies like
this.
And we're really excited becausehonestly aligns with the way
that I operate.
But more importantly, I thinkwhat together, Chris, we can
(03:49):
help solve huge business problemHelp technology advisors be
comfortable positioning this asa non-traditional part of the
usual telecom portfolio.
So that's an interesting part ofthe bio for me.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (04:04):
No, that is and I wanna pull on a
little string.
So have you always been atechnologist or was there a time
that.
Technology was a new thing foryou, or have you always been a
techie guy or a gadget guy?
chris-johnson_1_03-21-202 (04:17):
Yeah, I always was a computer nerd.
I knew I loved technology incollege.
I studied telecommunicationsmanagement my first job outta
college was an at and t truckengineer.
And for all those in the telecomworld, it's not very exciting to
sit in front of a computer inthe early two thousands and just
do provisioning on trunks andcircuits.
(04:38):
So day.
Now I have that technotechnology and that telecom
background.
But one day the guy from BritishTelecom comes in and knocks on
the door and he has a beautifulRolex and a Beamer he just
pulled up in the parking lotwith, and I'm like, what do you
do?
And he told us he was theiraccount, account rep for at and
(05:01):
t for a specific partnershipthey had.
once I found out how much hemade.
I wanna transition into theworld of sales,
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (05:09):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_ (05:09):
For me, starting to work in the
telecom vertical first for a,actually one of the first GPS
navigation and trackingsolutions on a smartphone.
Nextel, believe it or not, wasthe first phone that had not
only a GPS chip, but also theability to run Java applications
and have a data connectivity.
(05:30):
So you actually saw like fieldservice management software,
location-based services,software show up back in 2005.
I gravitated towards that.
Then started working with thewireless carriers themselves.
I used to work for Sprint andthen I.
I tried to do a few differentthings, but world dragged me
(05:50):
back in, in a great way, intothe Fleet iot, fleet management,
fleet technology, fleet softwareas a service.
Because of all the solutionsthat I see out there, this is
the only one that I know from analtruistic perspective where me
and the partners that I workwith might have inadvertently
saved somebody's life.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (06:12):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_ (06:13):
the safety technology that we employ
that's really what my passion isand that's what I love, and
that's the word that I love tospread.
chris_1_03-21-2025_1 (06:19):
Fantastic.
And I can relate with you whatyou said earlier in your
comments.
I personally never considermyself a great salesperson
either, but yet I've made areally good living for, better
part of two decades.
And I've been really thinkingabout that.
Or I think being a salespersonhas evolved.
I've interviewed some some salestrainers and authors bill Sinek
comes to mind.
He and I did an episode, is coldCalling Dead?
(06:41):
And it's wow.
As a salesperson, that kind ofstings.
But then it occurred to me, I,the reason I don't feel like a
great salesperson.
I don't feel like I sellanything.
I solve problems.
And I make friends.
Those are fun.
Making friends is fun.
I.
Solving, helping your friendssolve problems.
That's fun.
And we get to make money doingthat.
Sign me up.
That's why I don't even, when Iwas I, I did, direct sales, I
(07:04):
was a manager for a team one ofthe first Comcast business teams
in Atlanta.
And I used to tell, people arelike, oh, I just hate going door
to door.
Every, everyone's so mean andthey don't wanna talk to me.
I'm like, look, we're not goingdoor to door selling anything.
We're not even soliciting.
We're just going door to doorintroducing ourselves and just
try to make new friends.
Hey.
And by the way, if we can help'em, we'll help'em if we can't
help'em, we made a new friend.
(07:25):
Thank you very much.
Next door.
Let's just keep going, but no,that's fantastic.
So you're here now aga aleadership role in business
development and, for me workinghere at Intelysis.
Working with traditional telecompartners.
One of the challenges that I,that I'm looking to tackle with
(07:45):
you is taking these traditionaltelecom, partners that are
majority been selling circuitsand connectivity and dial tone.
'cause when you say fleettracking and iot, that, a lot of
people would argue that wasnever a part of the original
telecom.
Conversation.
It was trunks, it was PRIs, itwas, coax and fiber and all the
traditional telecom.
(08:06):
But when you introduceconnectivity into a product, now
it's right in on a network.
There, there really is no fleettracking without connectivity,
right?
So now I tell partners, Hey,maybe 10 years ago you were
right, but.
Tracking asset and fleettracking is just as part of
technology Telecom channel asanything else.
It's a part of the tech stack issolving business problems.
(08:28):
So before I get on a rampagehere, I wanna get your opinion,
what is the state of theindustry when it comes to,
tracking devices and, assetmanagement in the IOT space?
chris-johnson_1_03-21-20 (08:40):
You're spot on in regards to what
you're seeing in the elu.
Basically an evolution, Of, ofwhat's going on with IOT in
general, but more importantlywithin fleet management.
So for me, in my industry we area software as a service
recurring revenue businessmodel, And we capture data from
(09:04):
a machine that happens to havefour wheels on it.
Bridgestone really loves, by theway, because we're fully a
Bridgestone company and extendedupon their vision for
sustainable mobility deploymentfor the fleets that they serve
worldwide.
So when you look at the solutionand then it takes that data and
(09:26):
puts it into the cloud through awireless connection and.
We render that via a userinterface on the web or a mobile
device, pure software as aservice.
That's really the core of thetechnology.
When you look at the fleettracking industry it's at an
inflection point.
It's evolved beyond GPS dots ona map, Which is where this all
(09:49):
started, which was GPSvisibility, vehicle location,
accountability.
sure your guys aren't hangingout at the local convenience
store for too long before, theystart their workday making sure
that their overtime costs werekept in check, the usual value
proposition of.
Accountability around engineidling and fuel usage like that
(10:12):
whole table stake stuff that theGPS tracking information
provided along with speedingalerts and all that stuff, but
now fleets demand moreactionable insights.
Chris, that's really what it is.
And it's those AI power dashcams that everyone hears about.
That everyone is that, oh myGod, this spy cam big brother
thing that's been installed inmy vehicle, right?
(10:33):
Which is actually a driverbehavior monitoring and coaching
solution.
By the way, that happens to be adash cam, believe it or not,
solution, that technology, we'reactually trying to sell
insurance on top of a customer'sinsurance because when you're a.
(10:57):
So you own or operate acorporate fleet and your
customers there, they havecorporate fleets that they own
and manage.
Think about sitting in youroffice, owning a business having
50 vehicles the road right nowwith your name on the side of
it.
And all you do is all you thinkabout is the risk associated
(11:20):
with the fact that, God forbid,one of those mobile billboards.
That happen to be servicing yourcustomers get into an accident.
And then nuclear verdict in onesecond could basically end the
company.
So the, when we talk about thistechnology, yeah.
(11:41):
You have location of thevehicles.
Sure.
It monitors engine health.
To better have a, visibilityaround the check engine light
being on, which believe it ornot, and many people would
actually tell you if it's nottheir vehicle, they won't care
that the tire and tire oilchange, so to provide the
visibility around location andengine health and maintenance,
(12:02):
to me it's all about that safetyspin.
And the state of the industry ismore about tapping into and
finally being able to help.
A client who has a corporatefleet peace of mind, right?
Get control and have theconfidence to know that their
(12:28):
fleet is being protected andbeing managed appropriately.
So that's what I'm seeing fromthis in the state of the
tracking industry.
What's fun, Chris, is that thistechnology.
It's probably the mostprofitable and mature iot
platform that's ever been outthere.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (12:47):
I agree.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025 (12:48):
it's what is it like?
There are 30 billion commercialvehicles in the us.
17 million of them already haveof some sort of a tracking
solution, which means there'sstill 45% white space.
The compound annual growth rateof this industry is at 15%,
(13:10):
right?
The bottom line is commercialfleets are either gonna need
this solution because of what Ijust explained for the control,
confidence, and peace of mind,it's being mandated by the
government
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (13:26):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_12 (13:27):
a trucking company or.
Sometimes now you're seeing itmandated or highly recommended
by your insurance companybecause of the fact that a
commercial automotive insurancehas lost money for the greater
part of 10 years and it'sbecause of smartphones,
distracted driving, morevehicles on the road, things of
(13:49):
that nature.
So the state of the industry is,this is not becoming, I'm gonna,
I probably should get thissolution.
It's.
Who am I gonna get it from?
Because of all those reasons.
And then obviously a trustedadvisor is in a great position
to help a company make thatdetermination.
(14:09):
So do you think so far about thestate that I see out there
today?
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (14:14):
Man.
No I agree with you.
I agree with your concept of, ofthis being the most mature iot,
a, a quick little side story.
I always love side stories haveyou ever heard the name Kevin
Ashton?
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_12 (14:25):
I haven't.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (14:26):
Yeah, so Kevin Ashton, if you're
listening, check the show notes.
I'll try to remember to put alink in there.
But Kevin Ashton is known asthe, the godfather of the term
IO ot, internet of Things.
He was working for ProctorGamble in 1999 and he was trying
to convince his c level thatthey needed to put trackers.
(14:47):
Their supply chain so they couldoptimize it.
'cause they were just, pre fleettracking.
It was just good old boysclipboards, checking, calling in
the dispatch and checking in.
It was all very manual, veryreactive, not proactive.
It's interesting.
That was kinda like the really,the first, commercially.
Widely deployed.
(15:08):
And then of course I got friendsof mine.
I know Steve Rumors is shakinghis head.
He was telling me like in the96, he was putting pagers inside
of Coke machines.
So when the Coke ran out, it, itwould send a signal back to some
knock or something that theyneeded to go refill the Coke
machines.
But but very interesting.
Now I love the story thereyou've shared with us.
(15:28):
Man.
Yeah.
You mentioned dots on the map.
You mentioned all the safetyreasons, all of the, I love the
actionable insights that thedata collection, I've even heard
a story of a delivery companywas, noticing they were using
the analytics going, Hey, wehave a lot of windshield time
and 30% of our deliveries are inthis quadrant of the state, but
(15:49):
yet our warehouse is way downhere.
And they were able to make abusiness case that made more
sense to build another warehousein that corner of the state
because so much of the businesswas out there and they cut down
the windshield time by havinganother distribution center just
by because of the analytics.
Knowing that trusted advisorsspent a lot of their time,
trying to save money on networkconnectivity and unified
(16:10):
communications or even mobiledevices, which I love and talk a
lot about.
What advice do you have forthem?
What kind of questions should atrusted advisor be asking?
How would they know that theyhave a good opportunity for you?
chris-johnson_1_03-21-202 (16:24):
Yeah, great question.
So a lot of times I've beenspeaking with and consulting
with tech advisors and this isdefinitely a new world for them.
Yeah, they've definitelypositioned traditional
telecommunications relatedsolutions data security.
Mobility enablement cool SD WANkind of stuff, And all the other
(16:48):
cool technologies that are partof a tech advisor solution
portfolio that they have accessto.
And then you can see in theproliferation of the iot, right?
And now what we find is can leadwith the solution to help sell
other complimentary productsassociated with it.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (17:08):
Yep.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-202 (17:09):
lemme give you an example first before
I go into answering the questionabout the, how You could start a
conversation, it's, we'reselling a solution that has to
operate on a mobile device,Because we have a driver scoring
and reward system.
Associated with the solution.
(17:30):
We wanna give the driver theirscore, how they're driving.
We score everybody, which is arisk way to manage risk.
And we wanna be able to providetheir score to them on their
phone, and wanna rank themagainst the other drivers.
Okay?
So we wanna start gamification,and what we find is that when
(17:51):
you gamify scores go up.
Less speeding, less hardbraking, less sudden
acceleration, risk, right?
And then you throw in a littlereward system on the mobile
phone where you can get a giftcard for the best driver for the
week or for the month.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (18:07):
Wow.
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025 (18:08):
It's am I talking about?
I'm talking about you need tofight a mobile device to deliver
this solution to.
So now you can have aconversation with the customer
about mobility enablement.
Most of the trucking companiesare gonna need a mobile data
terminal, a tablet.
To run the ELD for the hours ofservice that is demanded by the
government and mandated by them,which is a solution that
companies like azua provide.
(18:30):
But now you gotta get devicecontrol on that tablet or that
smartphone.
So now you gotta position amobile device management portal
or a solution, and then youdon't want'em to use the phone
while they're driving or thetablet while they're driving.
So now you wanna position asolution Locks the phone or the
tablet down while the vehicle'sin motion, right?
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (18:52):
Yeah.
An MDM.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-202 (18:54):
Yeah.
And then you could talk about,Hey, I just sold your cool
software as a service platformand you're gonna be using it in
your office.
You know what?
You probably should make surethat data secure, right?
You make sure you should haveenough bandwidth all that data
flowing in about driver behaviorand diagnostics.
Track and trace driver safety.
Now you're gonna have aconversation about.
(19:17):
telecommunications enablement.
I love the fact that if the besttech advisor I've been working
with have been leading with thesolutions first, and then
bringing in, the tech stack thatis part of, we, the meat
potatoes of it, if you will.
To answer your question about,the why, like understanding the
(19:37):
why behind.
fleet's operation.
All we really want our techadvisors to do is just ask the
right questions to generateenough interest and bring us in
and let us show you what we cando.
Not leading with tech specs, butleading with solving the
business problem.
For instance, say you're an HVACcompany I'm not gonna ask them
about what GPS tracking thatthey use.
(20:00):
But off, right off the bat, orhow could a driver safety
solution benefit you?
I wanna talk about getting moreservice calls done per day, What
can we actually do get you onemore service call, right?
For a construction fleet,talking to their language about
reducing downtime or keepingjobs on schedule.
(20:21):
And always looping in the humanside during those conversations,
asking them questions around thequestions you wouldn't expect
they wouldn't expect you to ask.
But what's your situation arounddriver retention, safety, of the
driver fleet, right?
Because in the end we also, wewanna be partners, not vendors.
'cause we all know the saledoesn't end when the contracts
(20:41):
signed.
Fleets need a trusted advisor.
Help.
chris_1_03-21-2025_12500 (20:44):
Right.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025 (20:44):
when it comes down to selling advice,
basically tapping into thepsychological reason for any
solution sale, that's what Ilead with my own personal
opinion.
I'm trying to show that thissolution with the having to
(21:05):
manage and operate a commercial.
The safety concerns and themaintenance spend and the fuel
you gotta spend and everything,it's a lot, right?
But if you could show them thatyou have a solution and a best
in
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (21:22):
To.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2 (21:22):
trusted partner that could provide you
reassurance, protection, andempowerment, managing one of
their biggest assets, theirfleet, then they're gonna wanna
listen.
To the conversation and thepartner you wanna bring to the
table, right?
So that's the way I personallysales enable partners tapping
(21:45):
into and tapping theheartstrings, right?
Which was actually taught to meby my wife's uncle Phil
Dusenberry.
He was a creative advisor fromBBD and L, and that was a huge
advertising firm.
If you don't know who he is,he's the guy who wrote ge.
bring good things to life.
(22:06):
the choice of a new generationPizza Hut, making it great.
It's not tv, it's HBO.
So I knew that guy, right?
Yeah.
And hearing him telling mestories in his, either his
Hamptons spread or his penthousein New York, as you can imagine,
(22:26):
he was pretty successful becauseof him leading a creative team
that came up with all that, likehe taught me.
That advertising and marketingreally about all that emotional
connection.
if you can create that and it'sorganic and it's sincere because
I think all of us wanna helptruly help our customers.
(22:48):
Like you wanna go to bed atnight thinking I sold them
something, I believe in it.
I help them successful.
I do something where with aga,we did a study.
Where we try to determine ourimpact in reducing the frequency
and cost of accidents andclaims, right?
(23:11):
Third party comes back and says,this year alone, bazooka, you
guys are gonna prevent 11,000accidents in your own customer
base from ever occurring withthe technology that you provide.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (23:23):
Wow.
chris-johnson_1_03-21 (23:24):
coaching, the.
The reward system themonitoring, the video,
telematics, the whole thing.
And when you apply the 0.71fatality rate to commercial
accidents in the US today,that's where I say we
inadvertently save 117 people'slives this year.
(23:45):
Just little old luga within ourcustomer base of 14,000.
and 400,000 active vehiclesubscriptions, with the safety
technology, you're a seller.
into that.
a very easy conversation, butmore importantly, a very easy
(24:06):
sale.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (24:06):
Yeah,
chris-johnson_1_03-21-20 (24:07):
think, Chris?
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (24:08):
man.
I would almost argue with you onone point you said
inadvertently.
I feel like it's maybe veryintentionally.
That's why it's there, is tosave lives, save money, customer
experience.
On and on.
That I agree with you.
I mean that, this is definitelyone of the areas of iot that
should not be hard to sell.
There's a lot of other things Italk about, humidity sensors,
(24:30):
air quality sensors, noisedetection, pipe monitoring.
Yeah.
Those are all very niche.
You, not everybody needs'em,let's face it, we live in a
world where, just today I'vehad.
FedEx UPS and Amazon Drive by myfront office here and looking
out the window delivering to myneighbors and my home office.
But that's just, example.
And then I'm even noticingindividual drivers, for that are
(24:51):
working or contractors for mostof those Amazon trucks or
contractors, right?
They're not always owned byAmazon, but there's even some
like private personal vehiclesthat are out delivering.
And every now and I hearpartners go, oh yeah they use
their smartphone for tracking.
I'm like yeah, no, that'stracking the smartphone.
That's not tracking or measuringthe vehicle.
(25:11):
If that driver gets out todeliver a package, if someone
hops in and drives off, I.
The phone's still where it waslast, but the truck's gone.
Now, not to mention the truck,but all the stuff on the truck.
It's not always packages.
It could be, I was talking to awelding company.
These welding trucks out inTexas, in the oil and gas
industry, I.
They're couple hundred thousanddollars total, for the truck and
(25:32):
all the stuff on it.
And yeah, they were having pepeople were stealing'em and
selling'em on the black marketor whatever.
Yeah, there's a lot of reasonsto have it.
So let's transition and pivotjust a little bit.
We talked about, why and thestate of the industry and what's
a good fit.
Is there anything that's a badfit?
Is there like any minimums or isthere any deals that just might
not make sense when it comes tofleet tracking?
chris-johnson_1_03-21-20 (25:54):
Chris, that's a great question.
You always have really greatquestions, by the way
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (25:58):
I thank you.
I.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-202 (26:00):
yeah.
No one has ever asked me thatbefore a very wise podcaster
once told me to lose early.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (26:07):
God, that guy was good.
I know you're talking about,that was good.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-20 (26:10):
really good.
He's really good.
Very influential in theindustry.
And I'm talking about you
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (26:16):
Oh.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_1 (26:16):
I.
And I've actually taken that toheart because I don't know if I
ever truly operated that way.
But as we grow and as we scale,I probably should.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (26:26):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-20 (26:27):
Chris, I probably should not go after
police departments or firedepartments or.
Ambulances.
Okay.
Those are paramilitaryorganizations with a lot of and
regulations and probably alreadyhave their very military ish
(26:48):
point solutions already,
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (26:51):
yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_ (26:52):
are HIPAA compliant or are
ruggedized, or are on the,probably like the first net
network for the data for thegovernment.
That's probably a space that'sspecifically azua and most of
our peers in the mixed fleettelematics space, play in.
That's probably not where wewanna be.
Everything else is on the table.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (27:13):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025 (27:13):
it's got wheels, they're a candidate.
For AGA specifically, we thriveon the SMB, right?
We love the small fleets becausewe made our living handling.
Their business problems andgoing to an area that a lot of
our competitors just weren'twilling to go.
(27:34):
They got too big for theirbritches.
They put minimum commits, theypotentially priced themselves
out and we wanted to fill thatniche.
And a lot of our customers havebeen with us for numbers of
years, some since even ourinception in 2012.
And.
with and scaled with us, and oneturned to five, turned to 50,
(27:56):
turned to a hundred, turned to aprivate equity involvement and
then the rest of their business.
So you never know,
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (28:01):
Oh, you had to grow with them.
Yeah, grow with them.
Yeah, that.
So if I heard you right then.
There's really no deal toosmall.
If if they're, if they have ause case and a need and they're
willing to pay the bill they canwork with you.
chris-johnson_1_03- (28:14):
absolutely.
Yeah.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (28:15):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21- (28:17):
Favorite verticals, field service
management.
We cut our teeth on landscapersand HVAC technicians and the
trades.
And then it transcended intoafter the Bridgestone
acquisition showing up our techstack around transportation and
distribution, So it went fromvehicle classes one through
(28:39):
three, which mean like the worktrucks and they get a little
Ford f
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (28:42):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025 (28:43):
your tractor turnpike whenever I'm
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (28:47):
That never happens.
That never happens.
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21- (28:50):
Exactly.
And then construction, right?
Logistics, extension of thewarehouse,
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (28:57):
Oh yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-20 (28:58):
right?
So yeah, if it's got wheels, forthe most part,
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (29:02):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-2 (29:03):
candidate.
And the cool thing about thesesolutions is they are not spec,
they're built to support anyvertical, but.
When you get it, you couldstreamline it and purpose build
it, give an administrative feelto that specific vertical
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (29:22):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-202 (29:22):
their business needs.
And that's all.
The consultative component ofthe secret sauce that we help
sales enable our partners with
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (29:29):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-202 (29:30):
begin with the end in mind, right?
And you wanna tailor thatconversation specifically for
that customer, for theirproblems, for their vertical.
You don't show up and you throwup.
chris_1_03-21-2025_12500 (29:41):
That's right.
That's right.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-202 (29:42):
those questions that I've been weaving
into our conversation todayabout tapping into the fear,
unfortunately, of the unknownrisks of drivers making poor
choices, vehicle breakdowns,rising fuel costs, potential
lawsuits, and then how you couldsell a feeling of empowerment,
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (30:00):
Yeah,
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_12 (30:00):
a really cool software as a
service solution.
That really gets you there,
chris_1_03-21-2025_12500 (30:05):
that's right.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_1 (30:06):
So yeah, so I would say funny story
too, Chris, is I found thatanother vertical was a good fit
for me.
It was my vertical, it was ChrisJohnson's fleet.
So I have four cars.
of them are mine, by the way,because of my wife and my
(30:28):
teenagers who
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (30:29):
Of course.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_1 (30:30):
So
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (30:31):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_12 (30:31):
I wanna operate a fleet, and
you're darn right, I'm gonna putthis technology in those
vehicles to protect myself thesame way that I talk to our
partners, to talk to theircustomers too, because I need
peace of mind.
I got a teenage driver out thereon the road, don't want'em to
speed.
I don't want him to use hisphone while at he's driving,
right?
(30:51):
I don't want any of that.
And how do I know that'shappening?
I can monitor it.
I get real time alerts.
If any of that occurs, I can usethat information to coach.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (31:02):
All right.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_12 (31:02):
a driver's score, we can consult
with each other talk aboutthings we can improve.
So the second day, Chris Junioris driving, I get an alert on my
phone, says, Chris JohnsonHyundai Accident detected.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (31:16):
Oh man.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025 (31:18):
It's okay, I pick up the phone real
quick I call Chris.
I'm like, Chris, are you okay?
And he goes, dad, yeah, I'mfine.
I got into a little bit of afender bender over here.
How did you know?
I was like, come on dude.
What I do for a living?
You got azua in your car, yougot the camera pointing at you.
I got the mobile application,the funniest part of the story
(31:40):
was a cop was right behind him,And it was a very minor fender
bender.
So I get the video and it's,Chris pulled into the
intersection a little too far,he backed up because he panicked
and then hit the guy that wasbehind him, right in front of a
police station.
Of course.
remember, I had the video inreal time, And when this guy was
(32:02):
saying My neck hurts, only was Iable to give Chris in a report
to show the.
Police officer when he was doinghis police report of the event
and the video of the event.
I was show him the GForce,which.
Could not have did the G forcesof that accident.
Could not have done anything totrigger any soft tissue damage.
(32:25):
So as soon as the other driverknew that I had video and then
we knew it was a minor event, hedidn't even bother to do a third
party claim.
I didn't have to have anyinsurance, anything, even though
his bumper was a little, dentedup.
chris_1_03-21-2025_12500 (32:39):
Scuff.
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-202 (32:40):
Yeah.
But the, and the, so the powerof that first notice of loss,
that peace of mind that I got,that my son was okay in an
accident.
And the information that I usedto exonerate myself was just a
prime example for me personally.
Of what On scale.
We can help do for our corporatecustomers who have corporate
(33:00):
fleets.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (33:01):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-202 (33:01):
Yeah, that's a cool personal story of
aga empowerment that shows youthat there's a family vertical
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (33:09):
Yes.
Hey man, that's even moreprecious cargo for sure.
Gosh, man, if we get intostorytelling I've heard a lot of
cool stories in this space.
One, one that's even, off thebeaten path pardon the pun, but
a, inca cab video camera pointedout, and the driver, the guy was
leaving the gas station turningon the road and bam, ran into
(33:31):
somebody.
One of the outward facing camerahad a full, view of the
windshield of the truck you cometo find and to look smoggy like
he hadn't been, come to find outthe guy had been smoking in the
vehicle.
And and it had a film on thewindshield and the way the sun
was coming in.
It blinded him for that while hewas turning.
But but it also came out with acompany policy.
(33:52):
No more smoke in ac companyvehicles, which you would think
is pretty.
Pretty commonplace nowadays, butlet's face it some, in some
industries, they're still 30, 40years behind when it comes to
work culture, these are roughguys, man.
Smoking in the vehicle with thewindows up.
What's the problem here?
I do this all the time, but, butyeah.
And then another one, a bigutility company truck those big
bucket trucks, was atintersection and the car in
(34:15):
front of him threw it in reverseand slammed, backed into him at
a high rate of speed, called thepolice, and of course, claimed
that he ran into him and all andand the customers, was telling
me that his driver.
Was just smirking and justsmiling the whole time, letting
the guy just get it all out and,tell the whole story to the
police officer when he got onthe scene.
And then the police officerturned him and says, so what
happened?
He goes.
(34:35):
He just said here's the video.
And had the whole thing onvideo.
And the guy, the other guy got aticket for false report.
And of course it was a buckettruck.
It scratched the paint, didn'teven do any damage to the truck.
But I thought, man, what a man.
How cool they had that.
'cause without it, it was hisword against, if there was no
witnesses.
It's going to court and they'reprobably have to settle, there,
(34:57):
there's so many stories andreasons why this is such a great
solution.
And so lemme ask you this as wewrap up before we get to the
last word, just one morequestion.
How often is it that you know.
A customer already has asolution, and you guys would
come in and replace them.
You would upgrade them in asense.
Does that happen And usuallywhat's the reasoning behind,
(35:17):
leaving one provider and maybeeven ripping, replacing it to
put in your solution?
Is that, do you see that happenmuch?
chris-johnson_1_03-21-202 (35:24):
Yeah.
It's, we know that withincorporate fleets in the US
there's a 55% penetration ratewithin telematics, but the way
it's skewed is the the fleet.
The more probable they alreadyhave a solution in place.
thing about software as aservice companies is that they
(35:45):
absolutely love to sign uplong-term agreements.
So the technology, the fastpaced technology and
technological innovations withinthis specific vertical is mind
blowing, So more than likelywill engage a customer.
Ask these.
(36:06):
questions.
Do you have a commercial fleet?
Do you have concerns with yoursafety policies for your
drivers?
You wanna get them back safe atnight?
Making sure that you'reoptimizing your maintenance and
mutual spend, all the usualquestions, right?
And more than likely they'll, ifit's a larger fleet, they'll
have something already, right?
But the good news is that.
(36:28):
More than likely the valueproposition you can now provide
through this partnership isgoing to be one of building upon
what they already have anadvanced solution solving
multiple business problemsaround safety, efficiency,
productivity, and compliance.
That probably their solution,when they got it, wasn't able to
(36:48):
check all those boxes, About 75to 80%.
more all the clients that youconsult about this are not yet
going to have right, the dashcam, and it's not a dash cam, it
is a dash cam, it's a driversafety coaching monitoring
(37:12):
solution in real time to yell atthe driver while he is texting
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (37:19):
Wow.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025 (37:19):
beep it up and give a visual warning
saying Stop texting.
Stop eating, stop drinking, stopsmoking, stop looking at in the
window, open your eyes.
And the funny thing is, we don'teven send the video for three
seconds.
We want them to correct theiraction and then we'll send that
video to the cloud and then youcan watch it and use it for
coaching and of course, recordan accident.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (37:40):
Sure.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_ (37:41):
I'm talking about is probably
functionalities that a lot ofthe customers that you engage
might not have yet.
And then obviously Azu has ownunique value proposition
probably being one of the.
Best solutions that couldprovide the data from an
insurance perspective to reduceautomotive insurance premiums.
So we wanna talk about quickROI,
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (38:00):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025 (38:01):
Azua is the number one insurance
telematics program provider inthe country, right?
Because of the way that ourdata, our solution, and our
enablement helps our customersand their insurance companies
reduce cost claims.
It's pretty cool stuff, So bigdifferentiator there.
And then obviously from an azuaperspective, we are Bridgestone,
(38:25):
are fully a Bridgestone company,so there are huge benefits
associated with facilitating thetires and the maintenance and
the service needs of the fleetas well through our partnerships
with our parent company.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (38:38):
That makes.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_ (38:38):
for you there very price competitive
across the board.
We always find spun the rightway, even if they have a
solution now.
We could either displace itfairly quickly or compliment it
before we displace it,
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (38:53):
As we wrap up then any last words, is
there anything we haven'tcovered or anything else you
wanna share with us before wewrap?
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_1 (39:00):
In the end, I love being in the
relationship business, right?
And whether you're sellingtelecom technology I OT or tires
at Bridgestone the focus has tobe on delivering value and
building trust.
And I know it's a cliche, right?
(39:21):
I practice it in real life, andit's true.
It, it really is back to Mr.
Uncle Phil Dusenberry andtugging out the heartstrings.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (39:29):
Yeah, man.
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_1 (39:30):
In the end, for me, this game of
telematics, it's not about trackand trucks.
It's not about selling dashcams.
It really is the passion that Ihave about protecting people.
And empowering businesses, andin fact, I lead with that
mindset, for me, is followed.
(39:52):
And I try to impart thatphilosophy on any partner of
mine who I've been able to workwith, add this product to their
portfolio, give them anadditional recurring revenue
stream and make a one plus oneequals three with them.
It really comes down to the factthat we focus together on that
(40:16):
relationship mindset of valueand trust and about people and
empowerment.
It doesn't matter whattechnology you sell, right?
chris_1_03-21-2025_12500 (40:25):
Right.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_1 (40:26):
Is what I love to incorporate.
seems that Intelisys absolutelyweaves into the value
proposition with everyengagement that they have with
the vendor supplier, or atechnology supplier, right?
And I love being part of thatecosystem and continuing to
expand upon that, to leveragethe power of technology to solve
(40:48):
business problems and savelives, which is, I get to.
So that's my last words, Chris.
What are.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (40:56):
Man, my last words are, wow you sp
you're speaking my language.
I love what you said there.
Going back to what we saidearlier, man, I feel like, if
you're solving problems, you'readding value and making friends,
you don't have to sell anything,even with good friends, I can't
help my friend unless I ask myfriend.
Good questions.
So it always goes back to, asadvisors we have to ask better
(41:17):
questions.
We need to drill, we need tounderstand the complete business
challenges.
And back to your point, youcan't open up the kimomno and
go, Hey, you wanna buy somefleet tracking.
That's not the, that's not howyou sell it, hey, what kind of
challenges are you having withinyour operations budget?
Is there a part of youroperations budget you would like
more visibility into?
If you could reduce the cost inany part of your business, what
would that look like?
(41:38):
So it's about asking betterquestions.
And I've actually taught courseson asking great diagnostic
questions.
Shout out to my a friend again.
Bill Stinnett sells excellenceusing this material for
diagnostic questioning.
It's just, you gotta have amethodology and, you can't just
wing it, sometimes, Hey I tellpeople all the time, three outta
four times.
It works all the time for mewhen I wing it.
But I obviously have a muchbetter close rate when I have a
(42:00):
plan.
I've done my research, I'veasked really good questions, and
I partner with the rightsuppliers and vendors and even
distributors.
Man great conversation, Chris.
I've enjoyed it, man.
Thank you.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_1 (42:14):
It was my absolute pleasure, Chris,
and I'm really looking forwardto working with you and getting
the word out and just showingeverybody with the power of
Azuga and Fleet.
can do to change the game, helpdrive more business and, help
people be a little safer alongthe way.
Why not?
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (42:33):
Yeah, let's do it, man.
I'm all in.
And there you go folks.
Another episode of The WirelessWay.
Grateful you dropped in.
Check the show notes.
Get some good information there.
And as always, if any of thisresonated with you, you thought
of a customer, you thought of acolleague a friend in the
business, share this episodewith'em.
Tell'em about it, share theepisode.
(42:53):
And if you have any feedback, ifyou wanna, if there's any other
topics you'd like me to cover,just go to the wireless way.net
and contact us.
Link on the top there, clickthat.
Of course, you can also haveaccess to all the past a hundred
plus episodes of the podcastthere.
I'd love to hear from you.
And again, hey, thanks forchecking this out, and we'll see
you next time on the Wirelessway.
Hey, welcome to another episode of
(00:02):
The Wireless Way.
Man, I feel like we've been on aroll lately.
A lot of great content, a lot ofgreat guests, a lot of, just
good solutions that are changingand improving the way we not
only do business, but franklythe way we live.
Let's think about it.
When business is going smoother,our personal lives are going
smoother, usually, right?
Glad you can make this episode.
(00:22):
I'm also grateful for ChrisJohnson.
He's with us today.
He's our guest from Aoga.
And before I bring him on, Ijust wanna tell you a little bit
about him.
He is, he's the vice presidentbusiness at Aoga, a Bridgestone
company a veteran and fleetmanagement solution sales with
over 20 years of experience.
He has a unbridled passion forenabling partners to provide
solutions that help commercialfleets to be safer and more
(00:45):
efficient, using best in classfleet management and safety
technology.
And I can attest to that just inthe short few times that we have
spoke.
I feel like I've met a kindredspirit when it comes to passion.
You gotta be passionate aboutwhat you do, when you believe in
what you're doing.
That's easy.
Clearly he believes in it and Ibelieve I'm right there with
him.
At Azua, the Bridgestonecompany, a leading provider of
connected vehicle solutions andsafety, telematics.
(01:08):
We'll be talking more aboutthat.
He believes in the power ofstrategic partnerships working
together to drive growth andrevenue while delivering
exceptional customer value.
Isn't that what we're all herefor?
That's why he is excited tointroduce, the Suga Partner
program.
I'm excited to be a part of thatprogram and not only empowers
your business with revenuegenerating opportunity, but also
(01:29):
enhances your ability to deliverexceptional value to your
customers within the fleet.
Tele telematics verticalleveraging their cutting edge
technology, dedicated supportand comprehensive training
resources to ensure mutualsuccess.
So yeah a lot there, Chris.
Thanks for being here, man.
I can't wait to unpack all that.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-20 (01:49):
That's awesome.
Thank you so much for thatwonderful introduction.
I feel I have a lot to live upto right now.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (01:54):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm confident you will and youhave been.
But as always is the firstquestion, man.
It's you know what's not in thebio.
Tell us a little bit more.
How did you get to where you aretoday?
What was the beginnings?
chris-johnson_1_03-21-202 (02:07):
Yeah.
What's not in the bio?
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (02:09):
I.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_1 (02:09):
am a proud daddy of four teenagers
here in Monroe Township, NewJersey.
So they are my passion and everyday I wake up in the morning,
I'm like, what cool things can Ido to help grow and scale aga so
I can make sure that these kidscould get a decent college
education?
So me and the wife, we have beenhere for about eight years and
it's been a really fun ridestarting to work with.
(02:32):
And something interesting aboutme is, I've been elevated very
recently to the Vice Presidentof Business Development, which
I'm very excited for.
And that was predicated on thesuccess that I had in starting a
reseller organization for Azuaand.
And I think the main reason whyis because I am not the best
(02:54):
prospecting salesperson, right?
What I was always able to do is,although I always got nervous
about trying to find anopportunity prospect for it,
whenever I was able to get infront of the customer, I was
actually pretty decent atclosing the deal, right?
So I was like, where can I theworld of sales?
Into a world of technologyadvisement and not have to,
(03:19):
heavily go to the direct salesmodel, which I just don't
personally feel comfortablewith.
Thank God for the wonderfulworld of the channel, right
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (03:28):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025 (03:29):
I've been.
Now taking AGA and Bridgestonein our fleet IOT technology into
basically a different place.
That's not traditionally whereyou'll see iot technologies like
this.
And we're really excited becausehonestly aligns with the way
that I operate.
But more importantly, I thinkwhat together, Chris, we can
(03:49):
help solve huge business problemHelp technology advisors be
comfortable positioning this asa non-traditional part of the
usual telecom portfolio.
So that's an interesting part ofthe bio for me.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (04:04):
No, that is and I wanna pull on a
little string.
So have you always been atechnologist or was there a time
that.
Technology was a new thing foryou, or have you always been a
techie guy or a gadget guy?
chris-johnson_1_03-21-202 (04:17):
Yeah, I always was a computer nerd.
I knew I loved technology incollege.
I studied telecommunicationsmanagement my first job outta
college was an at and t truckengineer.
And for all those in the telecomworld, it's not very exciting to
sit in front of a computer inthe early two thousands and just
do provisioning on trunks andcircuits.
(04:38):
So day.
Now I have that technotechnology and that telecom
background.
But one day the guy from BritishTelecom comes in and knocks on
the door and he has a beautifulRolex and a Beamer he just
pulled up in the parking lotwith, and I'm like, what do you
do?
And he told us he was theiraccount, account rep for at and
(05:01):
t for a specific partnershipthey had.
once I found out how much hemade.
I wanna transition into theworld of sales,
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (05:09):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_ (05:09):
For me, starting to work in the
telecom vertical first for a,actually one of the first GPS
navigation and trackingsolutions on a smartphone.
Nextel, believe it or not, wasthe first phone that had not
only a GPS chip, but also theability to run Java applications
and have a data connectivity.
(05:30):
So you actually saw like fieldservice management software,
location-based services,software show up back in 2005.
I gravitated towards that.
Then started working with thewireless carriers themselves.
I used to work for Sprint andthen I.
I tried to do a few differentthings, but world dragged me
(05:50):
back in, in a great way, intothe Fleet iot, fleet management,
fleet technology, fleet softwareas a service.
Because of all the solutionsthat I see out there, this is
the only one that I know from analtruistic perspective where me
and the partners that I workwith might have inadvertently
saved somebody's life.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (06:12):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_ (06:13):
the safety technology that we employ
that's really what my passion isand that's what I love, and
that's the word that I love tospread.
chris_1_03-21-2025_1 (06:19):
Fantastic.
And I can relate with you whatyou said earlier in your
comments.
I personally never considermyself a great salesperson
either, but yet I've made areally good living for, better
part of two decades.
And I've been really thinkingabout that.
Or I think being a salespersonhas evolved.
I've interviewed some some salestrainers and authors bill Sinek
comes to mind.
He and I did an episode, is coldCalling Dead?
(06:41):
And it's wow.
As a salesperson, that kind ofstings.
But then it occurred to me, I,the reason I don't feel like a
great salesperson.
I don't feel like I sellanything.
I solve problems.
And I make friends.
Those are fun.
Making friends is fun.
I.
Solving, helping your friendssolve problems.
That's fun.
And we get to make money doingthat.
Sign me up.
That's why I don't even, when Iwas I, I did, direct sales, I
(07:04):
was a manager for a team one ofthe first Comcast business teams
in Atlanta.
And I used to tell, people arelike, oh, I just hate going door
to door.
Every, everyone's so mean andthey don't wanna talk to me.
I'm like, look, we're not goingdoor to door selling anything.
We're not even soliciting.
We're just going door to doorintroducing ourselves and just
try to make new friends.
Hey.
And by the way, if we can help'em, we'll help'em if we can't
help'em, we made a new friend.
(07:25):
Thank you very much.
Next door.
Let's just keep going, but no,that's fantastic.
So you're here now aga aleadership role in business
development and, for me workinghere at Intelysis.
Working with traditional telecompartners.
One of the challenges that I,that I'm looking to tackle with
(07:45):
you is taking these traditionaltelecom, partners that are
majority been selling circuitsand connectivity and dial tone.
'cause when you say fleettracking and iot, that, a lot of
people would argue that wasnever a part of the original
telecom.
Conversation.
It was trunks, it was PRIs, itwas, coax and fiber and all the
traditional telecom.
(08:06):
But when you introduceconnectivity into a product, now
it's right in on a network.
There, there really is no fleettracking without connectivity,
right?
So now I tell partners, Hey,maybe 10 years ago you were
right, but.
Tracking asset and fleettracking is just as part of
technology Telecom channel asanything else.
It's a part of the tech stack issolving business problems.
(08:28):
So before I get on a rampagehere, I wanna get your opinion,
what is the state of theindustry when it comes to,
tracking devices and, assetmanagement in the IOT space?
chris-johnson_1_03-21-20 (08:40):
You're spot on in regards to what
you're seeing in the elu.
Basically an evolution, Of, ofwhat's going on with IOT in
general, but more importantlywithin fleet management.
So for me, in my industry we area software as a service
recurring revenue businessmodel, And we capture data from
(09:04):
a machine that happens to havefour wheels on it.
Bridgestone really loves, by theway, because we're fully a
Bridgestone company and extendedupon their vision for
sustainable mobility deploymentfor the fleets that they serve
worldwide.
So when you look at the solutionand then it takes that data and
(09:26):
puts it into the cloud through awireless connection and.
We render that via a userinterface on the web or a mobile
device, pure software as aservice.
That's really the core of thetechnology.
When you look at the fleettracking industry it's at an
inflection point.
It's evolved beyond GPS dots ona map, Which is where this all
(09:49):
started, which was GPSvisibility, vehicle location,
accountability.
sure your guys aren't hangingout at the local convenience
store for too long before, theystart their workday making sure
that their overtime costs werekept in check, the usual value
proposition of.
Accountability around engineidling and fuel usage like that
(10:12):
whole table stake stuff that theGPS tracking information
provided along with speedingalerts and all that stuff, but
now fleets demand moreactionable insights.
Chris, that's really what it is.
And it's those AI power dashcams that everyone hears about.
That everyone is that, oh myGod, this spy cam big brother
thing that's been installed inmy vehicle, right?
(10:33):
Which is actually a driverbehavior monitoring and coaching
solution.
By the way, that happens to be adash cam, believe it or not,
solution, that technology, we'reactually trying to sell
insurance on top of a customer'sinsurance because when you're a.
(10:57):
So you own or operate acorporate fleet and your
customers there, they havecorporate fleets that they own
and manage.
Think about sitting in youroffice, owning a business having
50 vehicles the road right nowwith your name on the side of
it.
And all you do is all you thinkabout is the risk associated
(11:20):
with the fact that, God forbid,one of those mobile billboards.
That happen to be servicing yourcustomers get into an accident.
And then nuclear verdict in onesecond could basically end the
company.
So the, when we talk about thistechnology, yeah.
(11:41):
You have location of thevehicles.
Sure.
It monitors engine health.
To better have a, visibilityaround the check engine light
being on, which believe it ornot, and many people would
actually tell you if it's nottheir vehicle, they won't care
that the tire and tire oilchange, so to provide the
visibility around location andengine health and maintenance,
(12:02):
to me it's all about that safetyspin.
And the state of the industry ismore about tapping into and
finally being able to help.
A client who has a corporatefleet peace of mind, right?
Get control and have theconfidence to know that their
(12:28):
fleet is being protected andbeing managed appropriately.
So that's what I'm seeing fromthis in the state of the
tracking industry.
What's fun, Chris, is that thistechnology.
It's probably the mostprofitable and mature iot
platform that's ever been outthere.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (12:47):
I agree.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025 (12:48):
it's what is it like?
There are 30 billion commercialvehicles in the us.
17 million of them already haveof some sort of a tracking
solution, which means there'sstill 45% white space.
The compound annual growth rateof this industry is at 15%,
(13:10):
right?
The bottom line is commercialfleets are either gonna need
this solution because of what Ijust explained for the control,
confidence, and peace of mind,it's being mandated by the
government
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (13:26):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_12 (13:27):
a trucking company or.
Sometimes now you're seeing itmandated or highly recommended
by your insurance companybecause of the fact that a
commercial automotive insurancehas lost money for the greater
part of 10 years and it'sbecause of smartphones,
distracted driving, morevehicles on the road, things of
(13:49):
that nature.
So the state of the industry is,this is not becoming, I'm gonna,
I probably should get thissolution.
It's.
Who am I gonna get it from?
Because of all those reasons.
And then obviously a trustedadvisor is in a great position
to help a company make thatdetermination.
(14:09):
So do you think so far about thestate that I see out there
today?
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (14:14):
Man.
No I agree with you.
I agree with your concept of, ofthis being the most mature iot,
a, a quick little side story.
I always love side stories haveyou ever heard the name Kevin
Ashton?
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_12 (14:25):
I haven't.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (14:26):
Yeah, so Kevin Ashton, if you're
listening, check the show notes.
I'll try to remember to put alink in there.
But Kevin Ashton is known asthe, the godfather of the term
IO ot, internet of Things.
He was working for ProctorGamble in 1999 and he was trying
to convince his c level thatthey needed to put trackers.
(14:47):
Their supply chain so they couldoptimize it.
'cause they were just, pre fleettracking.
It was just good old boysclipboards, checking, calling in
the dispatch and checking in.
It was all very manual, veryreactive, not proactive.
It's interesting.
That was kinda like the really,the first, commercially.
Widely deployed.
(15:08):
And then of course I got friendsof mine.
I know Steve Rumors is shakinghis head.
He was telling me like in the96, he was putting pagers inside
of Coke machines.
So when the Coke ran out, it, itwould send a signal back to some
knock or something that theyneeded to go refill the Coke
machines.
But but very interesting.
Now I love the story thereyou've shared with us.
(15:28):
Man.
Yeah.
You mentioned dots on the map.
You mentioned all the safetyreasons, all of the, I love the
actionable insights that thedata collection, I've even heard
a story of a delivery companywas, noticing they were using
the analytics going, Hey, wehave a lot of windshield time
and 30% of our deliveries are inthis quadrant of the state, but
(15:49):
yet our warehouse is way downhere.
And they were able to make abusiness case that made more
sense to build another warehousein that corner of the state
because so much of the businesswas out there and they cut down
the windshield time by havinganother distribution center just
by because of the analytics.
Knowing that trusted advisorsspent a lot of their time,
trying to save money on networkconnectivity and unified
(16:10):
communications or even mobiledevices, which I love and talk a
lot about.
What advice do you have forthem?
What kind of questions should atrusted advisor be asking?
How would they know that theyhave a good opportunity for you?
chris-johnson_1_03-21-202 (16:24):
Yeah, great question.
So a lot of times I've beenspeaking with and consulting
with tech advisors and this isdefinitely a new world for them.
Yeah, they've definitelypositioned traditional
telecommunications relatedsolutions data security.
Mobility enablement cool SD WANkind of stuff, And all the other
(16:48):
cool technologies that are partof a tech advisor solution
portfolio that they have accessto.
And then you can see in theproliferation of the iot, right?
And now what we find is can leadwith the solution to help sell
other complimentary productsassociated with it.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (17:08):
Yep.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-202 (17:09):
lemme give you an example first before
I go into answering the questionabout the, how You could start a
conversation, it's, we'reselling a solution that has to
operate on a mobile device,Because we have a driver scoring
and reward system.
Associated with the solution.
(17:30):
We wanna give the driver theirscore, how they're driving.
We score everybody, which is arisk way to manage risk.
And we wanna be able to providetheir score to them on their
phone, and wanna rank themagainst the other drivers.
Okay?
So we wanna start gamification,and what we find is that when
(17:51):
you gamify scores go up.
Less speeding, less hardbraking, less sudden
acceleration, risk, right?
And then you throw in a littlereward system on the mobile
phone where you can get a giftcard for the best driver for the
week or for the month.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (18:07):
Wow.
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025 (18:08):
It's am I talking about?
I'm talking about you need tofight a mobile device to deliver
this solution to.
So now you can have aconversation with the customer
about mobility enablement.
Most of the trucking companiesare gonna need a mobile data
terminal, a tablet.
To run the ELD for the hours ofservice that is demanded by the
government and mandated by them,which is a solution that
companies like azua provide.
(18:30):
But now you gotta get devicecontrol on that tablet or that
smartphone.
So now you gotta position amobile device management portal
or a solution, and then youdon't want'em to use the phone
while they're driving or thetablet while they're driving.
So now you wanna position asolution Locks the phone or the
tablet down while the vehicle'sin motion, right?
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (18:52):
Yeah.
An MDM.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-202 (18:54):
Yeah.
And then you could talk about,Hey, I just sold your cool
software as a service platformand you're gonna be using it in
your office.
You know what?
You probably should make surethat data secure, right?
You make sure you should haveenough bandwidth all that data
flowing in about driver behaviorand diagnostics.
Track and trace driver safety.
Now you're gonna have aconversation about.
(19:17):
telecommunications enablement.
I love the fact that if the besttech advisor I've been working
with have been leading with thesolutions first, and then
bringing in, the tech stack thatis part of, we, the meat
potatoes of it, if you will.
To answer your question about,the why, like understanding the
(19:37):
why behind.
fleet's operation.
All we really want our techadvisors to do is just ask the
right questions to generateenough interest and bring us in
and let us show you what we cando.
Not leading with tech specs, butleading with solving the
business problem.
For instance, say you're an HVACcompany I'm not gonna ask them
about what GPS tracking thatthey use.
(20:00):
But off, right off the bat, orhow could a driver safety
solution benefit you?
I wanna talk about getting moreservice calls done per day, What
can we actually do get you onemore service call, right?
For a construction fleet,talking to their language about
reducing downtime or keepingjobs on schedule.
(20:21):
And always looping in the humanside during those conversations,
asking them questions around thequestions you wouldn't expect
they wouldn't expect you to ask.
But what's your situation arounddriver retention, safety, of the
driver fleet, right?
Because in the end we also, wewanna be partners, not vendors.
'cause we all know the saledoesn't end when the contracts
(20:41):
signed.
Fleets need a trusted advisor.
Help.
chris_1_03-21-2025_12500 (20:44):
Right.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025 (20:44):
when it comes down to selling advice,
basically tapping into thepsychological reason for any
solution sale, that's what Ilead with my own personal
opinion.
I'm trying to show that thissolution with the having to
(21:05):
manage and operate a commercial.
The safety concerns and themaintenance spend and the fuel
you gotta spend and everything,it's a lot, right?
But if you could show them thatyou have a solution and a best
in
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (21:22):
To.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2 (21:22):
trusted partner that could provide you
reassurance, protection, andempowerment, managing one of
their biggest assets, theirfleet, then they're gonna wanna
listen.
To the conversation and thepartner you wanna bring to the
table, right?
So that's the way I personallysales enable partners tapping
(21:45):
into and tapping theheartstrings, right?
Which was actually taught to meby my wife's uncle Phil
Dusenberry.
He was a creative advisor fromBBD and L, and that was a huge
advertising firm.
If you don't know who he is,he's the guy who wrote ge.
bring good things to life.
(22:06):
the choice of a new generationPizza Hut, making it great.
It's not tv, it's HBO.
So I knew that guy, right?
Yeah.
And hearing him telling mestories in his, either his
Hamptons spread or his penthousein New York, as you can imagine,
(22:26):
he was pretty successful becauseof him leading a creative team
that came up with all that, likehe taught me.
That advertising and marketingreally about all that emotional
connection.
if you can create that and it'sorganic and it's sincere because
I think all of us wanna helptruly help our customers.
(22:48):
Like you wanna go to bed atnight thinking I sold them
something, I believe in it.
I help them successful.
I do something where with aga,we did a study.
Where we try to determine ourimpact in reducing the frequency
and cost of accidents andclaims, right?
(23:11):
Third party comes back and says,this year alone, bazooka, you
guys are gonna prevent 11,000accidents in your own customer
base from ever occurring withthe technology that you provide.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (23:23):
Wow.
chris-johnson_1_03-21 (23:24):
coaching, the.
The reward system themonitoring, the video,
telematics, the whole thing.
And when you apply the 0.71fatality rate to commercial
accidents in the US today,that's where I say we
inadvertently save 117 people'slives this year.
(23:45):
Just little old luga within ourcustomer base of 14,000.
and 400,000 active vehiclesubscriptions, with the safety
technology, you're a seller.
into that.
a very easy conversation, butmore importantly, a very easy
(24:06):
sale.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (24:06):
Yeah,
chris-johnson_1_03-21-20 (24:07):
think, Chris?
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (24:08):
man.
I would almost argue with you onone point you said
inadvertently.
I feel like it's maybe veryintentionally.
That's why it's there, is tosave lives, save money, customer
experience.
On and on.
That I agree with you.
I mean that, this is definitelyone of the areas of iot that
should not be hard to sell.
There's a lot of other things Italk about, humidity sensors,
(24:30):
air quality sensors, noisedetection, pipe monitoring.
Yeah.
Those are all very niche.
You, not everybody needs'em,let's face it, we live in a
world where, just today I'vehad.
FedEx UPS and Amazon Drive by myfront office here and looking
out the window delivering to myneighbors and my home office.
But that's just, example.
And then I'm even noticingindividual drivers, for that are
(24:51):
working or contractors for mostof those Amazon trucks or
contractors, right?
They're not always owned byAmazon, but there's even some
like private personal vehiclesthat are out delivering.
And every now and I hearpartners go, oh yeah they use
their smartphone for tracking.
I'm like yeah, no, that'stracking the smartphone.
That's not tracking or measuringthe vehicle.
(25:11):
If that driver gets out todeliver a package, if someone
hops in and drives off, I.
The phone's still where it waslast, but the truck's gone.
Now, not to mention the truck,but all the stuff on the truck.
It's not always packages.
It could be, I was talking to awelding company.
These welding trucks out inTexas, in the oil and gas
industry, I.
They're couple hundred thousanddollars total, for the truck and
(25:32):
all the stuff on it.
And yeah, they were having pepeople were stealing'em and
selling'em on the black marketor whatever.
Yeah, there's a lot of reasonsto have it.
So let's transition and pivotjust a little bit.
We talked about, why and thestate of the industry and what's
a good fit.
Is there anything that's a badfit?
Is there like any minimums or isthere any deals that just might
not make sense when it comes tofleet tracking?
chris-johnson_1_03-21-20 (25:54):
Chris, that's a great question.
You always have really greatquestions, by the way
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (25:58):
I thank you.
I.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-202 (26:00):
yeah.
No one has ever asked me thatbefore a very wise podcaster
once told me to lose early.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (26:07):
God, that guy was good.
I know you're talking about,that was good.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-20 (26:10):
really good.
He's really good.
Very influential in theindustry.
And I'm talking about you
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (26:16):
Oh.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_1 (26:16):
I.
And I've actually taken that toheart because I don't know if I
ever truly operated that way.
But as we grow and as we scale,I probably should.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (26:26):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-20 (26:27):
Chris, I probably should not go after
police departments or firedepartments or.
Ambulances.
Okay.
Those are paramilitaryorganizations with a lot of and
regulations and probably alreadyhave their very military ish
(26:48):
point solutions already,
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (26:51):
yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_ (26:52):
are HIPAA compliant or are
ruggedized, or are on the,probably like the first net
network for the data for thegovernment.
That's probably a space that'sspecifically azua and most of
our peers in the mixed fleettelematics space, play in.
That's probably not where wewanna be.
Everything else is on the table.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (27:13):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025 (27:13):
it's got wheels, they're a candidate.
For AGA specifically, we thriveon the SMB, right?
We love the small fleets becausewe made our living handling.
Their business problems andgoing to an area that a lot of
our competitors just weren'twilling to go.
(27:34):
They got too big for theirbritches.
They put minimum commits, theypotentially priced themselves
out and we wanted to fill thatniche.
And a lot of our customers havebeen with us for numbers of
years, some since even ourinception in 2012.
And.
with and scaled with us, and oneturned to five, turned to 50,
(27:56):
turned to a hundred, turned to aprivate equity involvement and
then the rest of their business.
So you never know,
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (28:01):
Oh, you had to grow with them.
Yeah, grow with them.
Yeah, that.
So if I heard you right then.
There's really no deal toosmall.
If if they're, if they have ause case and a need and they're
willing to pay the bill they canwork with you.
chris-johnson_1_03- (28:14):
absolutely.
Yeah.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (28:15):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21- (28:17):
Favorite verticals, field service
management.
We cut our teeth on landscapersand HVAC technicians and the
trades.
And then it transcended intoafter the Bridgestone
acquisition showing up our techstack around transportation and
distribution, So it went fromvehicle classes one through
(28:39):
three, which mean like the worktrucks and they get a little
Ford f
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (28:42):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025 (28:43):
your tractor turnpike whenever I'm
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (28:47):
That never happens.
That never happens.
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21- (28:50):
Exactly.
And then construction, right?
Logistics, extension of thewarehouse,
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (28:57):
Oh yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-20 (28:58):
right?
So yeah, if it's got wheels, forthe most part,
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (29:02):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-2 (29:03):
candidate.
And the cool thing about thesesolutions is they are not spec,
they're built to support anyvertical, but.
When you get it, you couldstreamline it and purpose build
it, give an administrative feelto that specific vertical
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (29:22):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-202 (29:22):
their business needs.
And that's all.
The consultative component ofthe secret sauce that we help
sales enable our partners with
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (29:29):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-202 (29:30):
begin with the end in mind, right?
And you wanna tailor thatconversation specifically for
that customer, for theirproblems, for their vertical.
You don't show up and you throwup.
chris_1_03-21-2025_12500 (29:41):
That's right.
That's right.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-202 (29:42):
those questions that I've been weaving
into our conversation todayabout tapping into the fear,
unfortunately, of the unknownrisks of drivers making poor
choices, vehicle breakdowns,rising fuel costs, potential
lawsuits, and then how you couldsell a feeling of empowerment,
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (30:00):
Yeah,
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_12 (30:00):
a really cool software as a
service solution.
That really gets you there,
chris_1_03-21-2025_12500 (30:05):
that's right.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_1 (30:06):
So yeah, so I would say funny story
too, Chris, is I found thatanother vertical was a good fit
for me.
It was my vertical, it was ChrisJohnson's fleet.
So I have four cars.
of them are mine, by the way,because of my wife and my
(30:28):
teenagers who
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (30:29):
Of course.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_1 (30:30):
So
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (30:31):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_12 (30:31):
I wanna operate a fleet, and
you're darn right, I'm gonna putthis technology in those
vehicles to protect myself thesame way that I talk to our
partners, to talk to theircustomers too, because I need
peace of mind.
I got a teenage driver out thereon the road, don't want'em to
speed.
I don't want him to use hisphone while at he's driving,
right?
(30:51):
I don't want any of that.
And how do I know that'shappening?
I can monitor it.
I get real time alerts.
If any of that occurs, I can usethat information to coach.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (31:02):
All right.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_12 (31:02):
a driver's score, we can consult
with each other talk aboutthings we can improve.
So the second day, Chris Junioris driving, I get an alert on my
phone, says, Chris JohnsonHyundai Accident detected.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (31:16):
Oh man.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025 (31:18):
It's okay, I pick up the phone real
quick I call Chris.
I'm like, Chris, are you okay?
And he goes, dad, yeah, I'mfine.
I got into a little bit of afender bender over here.
How did you know?
I was like, come on dude.
What I do for a living?
You got azua in your car, yougot the camera pointing at you.
I got the mobile application,the funniest part of the story
(31:40):
was a cop was right behind him,And it was a very minor fender
bender.
So I get the video and it's,Chris pulled into the
intersection a little too far,he backed up because he panicked
and then hit the guy that wasbehind him, right in front of a
police station.
Of course.
remember, I had the video inreal time, And when this guy was
(32:02):
saying My neck hurts, only was Iable to give Chris in a report
to show the.
Police officer when he was doinghis police report of the event
and the video of the event.
I was show him the GForce,which.
Could not have did the G forcesof that accident.
Could not have done anything totrigger any soft tissue damage.
(32:25):
So as soon as the other driverknew that I had video and then
we knew it was a minor event, hedidn't even bother to do a third
party claim.
I didn't have to have anyinsurance, anything, even though
his bumper was a little, dentedup.
chris_1_03-21-2025_12500 (32:39):
Scuff.
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-202 (32:40):
Yeah.
But the, and the, so the powerof that first notice of loss,
that peace of mind that I got,that my son was okay in an
accident.
And the information that I usedto exonerate myself was just a
prime example for me personally.
Of what On scale.
We can help do for our corporatecustomers who have corporate
(33:00):
fleets.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (33:01):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-202 (33:01):
Yeah, that's a cool personal story of
aga empowerment that shows youthat there's a family vertical
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (33:09):
Yes.
Hey man, that's even moreprecious cargo for sure.
Gosh, man, if we get intostorytelling I've heard a lot of
cool stories in this space.
One, one that's even, off thebeaten path pardon the pun, but
a, inca cab video camera pointedout, and the driver, the guy was
leaving the gas station turningon the road and bam, ran into
(33:31):
somebody.
One of the outward facing camerahad a full, view of the
windshield of the truck you cometo find and to look smoggy like
he hadn't been, come to find outthe guy had been smoking in the
vehicle.
And and it had a film on thewindshield and the way the sun
was coming in.
It blinded him for that while hewas turning.
But but it also came out with acompany policy.
(33:52):
No more smoke in ac companyvehicles, which you would think
is pretty.
Pretty commonplace nowadays, butlet's face it some, in some
industries, they're still 30, 40years behind when it comes to
work culture, these are roughguys, man.
Smoking in the vehicle with thewindows up.
What's the problem here?
I do this all the time, but, butyeah.
And then another one, a bigutility company truck those big
bucket trucks, was atintersection and the car in
(34:15):
front of him threw it in reverseand slammed, backed into him at
a high rate of speed, called thepolice, and of course, claimed
that he ran into him and all andand the customers, was telling
me that his driver.
Was just smirking and justsmiling the whole time, letting
the guy just get it all out and,tell the whole story to the
police officer when he got onthe scene.
And then the police officerturned him and says, so what
happened?
He goes.
(34:35):
He just said here's the video.
And had the whole thing onvideo.
And the guy, the other guy got aticket for false report.
And of course it was a buckettruck.
It scratched the paint, didn'teven do any damage to the truck.
But I thought, man, what a man.
How cool they had that.
'cause without it, it was hisword against, if there was no
witnesses.
It's going to court and they'reprobably have to settle, there,
(34:57):
there's so many stories andreasons why this is such a great
solution.
And so lemme ask you this as wewrap up before we get to the
last word, just one morequestion.
How often is it that you know.
A customer already has asolution, and you guys would
come in and replace them.
You would upgrade them in asense.
Does that happen And usuallywhat's the reasoning behind,
(35:17):
leaving one provider and maybeeven ripping, replacing it to
put in your solution?
Is that, do you see that happenmuch?
chris-johnson_1_03-21-202 (35:24):
Yeah.
It's, we know that withincorporate fleets in the US
there's a 55% penetration ratewithin telematics, but the way
it's skewed is the the fleet.
The more probable they alreadyhave a solution in place.
thing about software as aservice companies is that they
(35:45):
absolutely love to sign uplong-term agreements.
So the technology, the fastpaced technology and
technological innovations withinthis specific vertical is mind
blowing, So more than likelywill engage a customer.
Ask these.
(36:06):
questions.
Do you have a commercial fleet?
Do you have concerns with yoursafety policies for your
drivers?
You wanna get them back safe atnight?
Making sure that you'reoptimizing your maintenance and
mutual spend, all the usualquestions, right?
And more than likely they'll, ifit's a larger fleet, they'll
have something already, right?
But the good news is that.
(36:28):
More than likely the valueproposition you can now provide
through this partnership isgoing to be one of building upon
what they already have anadvanced solution solving
multiple business problemsaround safety, efficiency,
productivity, and compliance.
That probably their solution,when they got it, wasn't able to
(36:48):
check all those boxes, About 75to 80%.
more all the clients that youconsult about this are not yet
going to have right, the dashcam, and it's not a dash cam, it
is a dash cam, it's a driversafety coaching monitoring
(37:12):
solution in real time to yell atthe driver while he is texting
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (37:19):
Wow.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025 (37:19):
beep it up and give a visual warning
saying Stop texting.
Stop eating, stop drinking, stopsmoking, stop looking at in the
window, open your eyes.
And the funny thing is, we don'teven send the video for three
seconds.
We want them to correct theiraction and then we'll send that
video to the cloud and then youcan watch it and use it for
coaching and of course, recordan accident.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (37:40):
Sure.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_ (37:41):
I'm talking about is probably
functionalities that a lot ofthe customers that you engage
might not have yet.
And then obviously Azu has ownunique value proposition
probably being one of the.
Best solutions that couldprovide the data from an
insurance perspective to reduceautomotive insurance premiums.
So we wanna talk about quickROI,
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (38:00):
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025 (38:01):
Azua is the number one insurance
telematics program provider inthe country, right?
Because of the way that ourdata, our solution, and our
enablement helps our customersand their insurance companies
reduce cost claims.
It's pretty cool stuff, So bigdifferentiator there.
And then obviously from an azuaperspective, we are Bridgestone,
(38:25):
are fully a Bridgestone company,so there are huge benefits
associated with facilitating thetires and the maintenance and
the service needs of the fleetas well through our partnerships
with our parent company.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (38:38):
That makes.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_ (38:38):
for you there very price competitive
across the board.
We always find spun the rightway, even if they have a
solution now.
We could either displace itfairly quickly or compliment it
before we displace it,
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (38:53):
As we wrap up then any last words, is
there anything we haven'tcovered or anything else you
wanna share with us before wewrap?
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_1 (39:00):
In the end, I love being in the
relationship business, right?
And whether you're sellingtelecom technology I OT or tires
at Bridgestone the focus has tobe on delivering value and
building trust.
And I know it's a cliche, right?
(39:21):
I practice it in real life, andit's true.
It, it really is back to Mr.
Uncle Phil Dusenberry andtugging out the heartstrings.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (39:29):
Yeah, man.
Yeah.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_1 (39:30):
In the end, for me, this game of
telematics, it's not about trackand trucks.
It's not about selling dashcams.
It really is the passion that Ihave about protecting people.
And empowering businesses, andin fact, I lead with that
mindset, for me, is followed.
(39:52):
And I try to impart thatphilosophy on any partner of
mine who I've been able to workwith, add this product to their
portfolio, give them anadditional recurring revenue
stream and make a one plus oneequals three with them.
It really comes down to the factthat we focus together on that
(40:16):
relationship mindset of valueand trust and about people and
empowerment.
It doesn't matter whattechnology you sell, right?
chris_1_03-21-2025_12500 (40:25):
Right.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_1 (40:26):
Is what I love to incorporate.
seems that Intelisys absolutelyweaves into the value
proposition with everyengagement that they have with
the vendor supplier, or atechnology supplier, right?
And I love being part of thatecosystem and continuing to
expand upon that, to leveragethe power of technology to solve
(40:48):
business problems and savelives, which is, I get to.
So that's my last words, Chris.
What are.
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (40:56):
Man, my last words are, wow you sp
you're speaking my language.
I love what you said there.
Going back to what we saidearlier, man, I feel like, if
you're solving problems, you'readding value and making friends,
you don't have to sell anything,even with good friends, I can't
help my friend unless I ask myfriend.
Good questions.
So it always goes back to, asadvisors we have to ask better
(41:17):
questions.
We need to drill, we need tounderstand the complete business
challenges.
And back to your point, youcan't open up the kimomno and
go, Hey, you wanna buy somefleet tracking.
That's not the, that's not howyou sell it, hey, what kind of
challenges are you having withinyour operations budget?
Is there a part of youroperations budget you would like
more visibility into?
If you could reduce the cost inany part of your business, what
would that look like?
(41:38):
So it's about asking betterquestions.
And I've actually taught courseson asking great diagnostic
questions.
Shout out to my a friend again.
Bill Stinnett sells excellenceusing this material for
diagnostic questioning.
It's just, you gotta have amethodology and, you can't just
wing it, sometimes, Hey I tellpeople all the time, three outta
four times.
It works all the time for mewhen I wing it.
But I obviously have a muchbetter close rate when I have a
(42:00):
plan.
I've done my research, I'veasked really good questions, and
I partner with the rightsuppliers and vendors and even
distributors.
Man great conversation, Chris.
I've enjoyed it, man.
Thank you.
chris-johnson_1_03-21-2025_1 (42:14):
It was my absolute pleasure, Chris,
and I'm really looking forwardto working with you and getting
the word out and just showingeverybody with the power of
Azuga and Fleet.
can do to change the game, helpdrive more business and, help
people be a little safer alongthe way.
Why not?
chris_1_03-21-2025_125000 (42:33):
Yeah, let's do it, man.
I'm all in.
And there you go folks.
Another episode of The WirelessWay.
Grateful you dropped in.
Check the show notes.
Get some good information there.
And as always, if any of thisresonated with you, you thought
of a customer, you thought of acolleague a friend in the
business, share this episodewith'em.
Tell'em about it, share theepisode.
(42:53):
And if you have any feedback, ifyou wanna, if there's any other
topics you'd like me to cover,just go to the wireless way.net
and contact us.
Link on the top there, clickthat.
Of course, you can also haveaccess to all the past a hundred
plus episodes of the podcastthere.
I'd love to hear from you.
And again, hey, thanks forchecking this out, and we'll see
you next time on the Wirelessway.
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