As we look to 2023, the economy is top of mind. Distributors that invest in tools and technology to streamline sales and distribution processes will see an increase in employee productivity and will have a distinct advantage over their competition. Equipping employees with the right technology also improves overall job satisfaction. Meanwhile, distributors that invest in unifying both the customer and employee experience will reap the benefits of a total experience strategy.

This webcast will look at ways distributors can accelerate their path to productivity and explore the “Why” of streamlined efficient processes; enhance the “Total Experience” for both buyers and sellers; and upgrade systems to take advantage of most recent innovations. 

There are real opportunities for distributors that get out in front of the competition.

A very common obstacle to the success of a distributor’s digital sales transformation is getting the sales team onboard. Salespeople are often concerned they will either be burdened with extra administrative responsibilities, or worse, lose their jobs to a computer. When all critical components of a sales enablement program are in place, neither can be further from the truth.

In this webcast, the misconceptions born of these understandable concerns are turned on their head as Susan Merlo reveals in detail the real-life benefits both the company AND the salesforce will reap when six critical and almost always forgotten components are not overlooked.

To ensure your digital presence is elevated to its highest and most profitable level of success, don’t miss this webcast where Merlo shares the six steps from The Digital Distributorä Program. She will explain why they are so critical to distributors in their stive to maximize efficiencies of digital strategies, generate more valuable leads and increase sales cycle trajectory.

Many forms of automation have helped distributors manage the challenges of the past two-plus years, which include staffing, supply chain and inflation. Hear the stories of how distributors are leveraging specific automation tools – from lead funnels to warehouse to delivery – to reduce costs, mitigate risk and increase the quality of customer experience. 

Join Infor’s Kelly Squizzero and Will Quinn and Midwest Wheel’s Steve McEnany as they share how automation is proving pivotal for distributors today.

Following MDM’s SHIFT 2022 | The Future of Distribution, which focused heavily on technology for distributors, White Cup is partnering with MDM on October 6 to continue this important conversation.

Join us as Tom Gale and Brian Friedle discuss real-world examples that illustrate the value of using data-based technology vs. the serious financial impacts of leaving sales decisions to gut instincts.

You’ll come away with strategies to:

• Decide the most impactful technology for your team
• Use technology to improve the sales process for top-line growth 
• Change outdated sales behavior that impact pricing, margin and profit

If you are a distribution or sales leader tasked with finding tech solutions that grow revenue, increasing bottom line profits and building winning sales teams, this webcast is designed for you.

Adapting to growing customer expectations for the buying experience is something every distributor is trying to get right.

A differentiated buying experience is vital in a changing buyer landscape and leveraging eCommerce allows you to deliver self-service tools to buyers and free up your sales teams to focus on highest value activities.

Join Ed Kennedy, Product Marketing Lead for Adobe Commerce, Jason Capshaw, Director of Demand Generation for the Dorn Group, and MDM Executive Editor Mike Hockett as they engage in a lively discussion about how to make the most of a changing distribution eCommerce environment.

In this webinar, you’ll learn:
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• The importance of b2b ecommerce experiences to increase revenue and improve operational efficiency
• Which digital selling channels are best for your business including ecommerce, EDI, e-procurement and more.
• How you can use product information, pricing, and ecommerce to meet your customers digital expectations
• How self-service b2b ecommerce portals help your sales team make more money, not less.
• What are leading distributors doing in this space? What is one game-changing best practice that I can use?

Register now and learn how to adapt to your customers’ buying experience expectations.

In early 2022, Epicor contacted hundreds of distribution sector decision makers about their current ERP, across all deployment types – from cloud to hybrid and on-premises. The distributors were asked about their ERP journey, how satisfied they were with their ERP, and what they wanted to see for the future. The result is Epicor’s 2022 Distribution Industry Insights Report.

In this webinar, Product Management expert Meredith McCusker will share the results from this new survey of your distribution peers. You may relate to what they’ve disclosed or you may find their experiences insightful as you embark on your own journey for a new ERP or cloud solution.

If you’re currently taking stock of your ERP – this webinar is for you. 

With most businesses now running hybrid ERP, the report reveals some interesting statistics, along with what hard-working distributors really require from their ERP partners and solutions. Find out:

• What percentage of distributors are running cloud-based ERPs?
• What are the top triggers that cause distributors to re-evaluate their current technology and consider a switch to a new ERP or the cloud?
• What stage of the purchasing journey is most difficult?
• What’s the biggest concern about the buying process?
• What are the benefits (and drawbacks) of migrating to the cloud?
• What do distributors want and expect from an ERP partner?
• How important is industry-specific knowledge in an ERP partner?

Register today to discover the biggest insights from this year’s report and make sure your ERP journey is on track to meet your objectives for the future. 

Economists say we’re in for a bumpy ride compared to the past two years of robust industrial growth. And with all the noise out there, it’s easy to lose focus of data as your source of truth. This webcast will detail how distributors can leverage their CRM and business intelligence tools to not just navigate all the uncertainty, but find new markets and ways to grow regardless of what the economy has in store. This session is valuable for anyone in your organization who has revenue responsibilities and will include a Q&A.

In this 45-minute webcast, we’ll discuss:

• How CRM and BI can provide clear action and insights to help grow your business 
• The fork in the road: offensive vs. defensive business strategies
• How a willingness to “fail fast” drives growth

You’ll come away with solid examples of where your business can expand strategically, despite challenging economic factors.

The landscape of digital platforms, networks and marketplaces has become more complex, more fragmented, and more threatening to traditional distribution channels. VCs, startups and tech monopolies are all investing heavily – and distributors risk being left behind. But there is also more opportunity for innovators. Join Alex Moazed and Nick Johnson of Applico, along with MDM’s Tom Gale, as they examine the current state of distribution tech innovation and investment, the evolution of B2B marketplaces, and effective strategies for distributors to mitigate risk and capture growth opportunities.

Key takeaways:

• Distributor platform innovator case studies
• Current state of marketplaces across distribution verticals
• Wake-up call on B2B tech investment and funding
• Guidance on marketplace strategy for distributors

Implementing and adopting a CRM presents a unique set of challenges for distributors. When done right, a CRM will help sales teams crush their quotas, accelerate sales cycles and collaborate across the company. Join us on May 5 as we discuss the importance of finding the right CRM for your business and methods for fostering user adoption. 

In this webcast, we’ll cover:

• How to overcome the challenges that distributors have with CRMs
• How sales reps find value in a CRM
• How to drive CRM adoption

You’ll come away with solid tactics on how to make your CRM a revenue-driving engine that your team will use for the long haul.

Many distributors focused on e-commerce in the first round of digitizing the organization. What’s next? There are great digital power tools – AI, ML, BI, automation and more – available today, but are we in danger of putting the cart before the horse? Of pointing tech at specific problems without looking at the bigger picture? Join me for a conversation with John Wiborg, President & CEO of Stellar Industrial Supply, and Aaron Howard, CEO of Mass Ingenuity, as we discuss ways to create high-performing distribution organizations with common-sense digital deployment focused on business outcomes.

We’ll deconstruct digital transformation into street-level components that translate into results – process improvement, metrics, customer engagement, talent and leadership.

Questions we’ll explore:

• How do leaders build visibility and accountability to manage more dispersed and virtual distribution organizations?
• What are the meaningful processes and digital tools to create a higher-performance distributor?
• What are the metrics that matter in a more digital-enabled organization?
• How do you make sure your team is creating better outcomes, not focused on shiny objects?
• What’s the definition of digitally-powered continuous improvement in a distribution organization?

What are the requirements for an engaged customer experience in 2022? In this webcast, MDM will share the results of its latest research to benchmark how innovative distributors are transforming customer service and engagement strategies today. In a distributor panel discussion, we’ll also explore what an integrated customer-service strategy looks like, and the shifting formula of people, process and technology that provides the best results for customer retention and delight.

Questions we’ll address:

• Are there new requirements for an engaged customer experience?
• What are the elements that produce first-class customer experience for a distributor?
• Are distributors doing the right things to keep customers engaged in increasingly noisy markets?

Supply chain shortages and inflation pressure consumed most of our attention this past year.  What can we do to stabilize operations in the midst of market turbulence, while harvesting margin buried in our data?  Join ProfitOptics Founder Tony Pericle and MDM’s Tom Gale in this interactive 60-minute webcast as they explore the power of analytics to enable your team to be agile, do more in less time, and prioritize their time to grow revenue and margin.

When Tony started in medical products distribution sales in the early 1990s, he worked his way from ranking 204^th out of 207 sales reps to the top 25 within three years. After several years working in sales operations for a $2B distributor, he founded his analytics and technology solutions firm.  This webcast shares his ideas that have been the driving force to enable his company’s clients generate $1 billion in profit.

Webcast takeaways:

• Methods to make your team nimble to proactively solve product availability challenges
• How to design a simple, yet powerful customer profit model
• SPAs: How to go from defense to offense
• Automation: The key to keep ahead of inflation
• How to identify analytics talent
• How to increase sales 20% without making one cold call!

The challenges distributors faced these past two years are setting the agenda for 2022 – supply chain, shifting customer and workforce dynamics, margin pressures and more. Join Brian Friedle of White Cup Solutions and Tom Gale of MDM for this free one-hour webcast on Feb. 10 as we explore the analytics and KPIs helping distributors become more proactive and predictive in managing market instability.

We’ll cover the critical elements of business intelligence tools – inventory analytics, revenue management, customer engagement and more. We’ll also look at the most meaningful KPIs high-performance distributors are using in 2022 – metrics for customer service, cost-to-serve, sales and cash cycles. Agility in 2022 is being defined by having real-time visibility into every critical part of the business to make faster and better-informed decisions.

Benchmark your sales and growth expectations for 2022 with MDM’s annual industry forecast, review of macroeconomic and distribution-specific trends, and the latest exclusive Baird-MDM MarketPulse survey insights. Join Baird Senior Research Analyst David Manthey, NetSuite VP Ranga Bodla and MDM CEO Tom Gale for the data and insights on how to best navigate the conflicting market signals shaping 2022.

With turbulence and instability defining current market conditions, many distributors are either using 2021 or even 2019 as a roadmap for 2022 sales targets. Ouch. Join the MDM Analytics team in this free 60-minute webcast at 1 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 6, as we share the tactics and templates high-performing teams are using to plan, forecast and focus on the highest-potential accounts.

We’ll share models to track inflation and market shift impacts on sales goals, external benchmarks for your market sectors, how to uncover missed opportunity with sweet spot and wallet share analysis, and actionable internal/external metrics to strengthen your 2022 revenue plan. Join Bob Jordan, VP Analytics , Donnie Williamson, Analytics Manager and Tom Gale, CEO at MDM at 1PM Eastern, Thursday January 6^th.

Security, agility, flexibility – these are defining competitive advantage in today’s disruptive markets. In this webcast, we’ll explore key drivers for cloud-based ERP adoption and how distributor IT teams are migrating to strengthen competitive positions while lowering operational costs. Maturing cloud-based ERP platforms are enabling distributors to be more strategic, cost-effective and customer-centric. Please join us to learn more.

Takeaways:

• Top 5 questions to ask about moving ERP to the cloud
• Ways cloud-based ERP is defining the future of distribution today
• How the cloud provides better security, agility, performance and cost savings for distributors
• Specific attributes of multi-tenant clouds that create value for distributors