Some distribution sectors will feel stronger tailwinds than others from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
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Laura Phelan is steering the company’s digital marketing and merchandising, demand generation, digital in-store experiences and content marketing.
Sonepar USA Digital Analytics Manager Kayla Repp is passionate about the company’s digital transformation journey.
Digital commitments are paying off for the 2021 MDM Digital Innovator award winners, thanks to their quick action and customer-centric initiatives.
Gary Knight is integral to Loeb Electric’s digital initiatives for its sales staff and customers, such as Walmart.
The distributor’s CMO Klaus Werner helps the company to thrive online during COVID-19 adversity.
The industrial distributor’s technology manager Matt Hanlon has been driving digital transformation for his entire career.
Three key themes from conversations with executives at Fastenal, Winsupply, Lawson Products and W.W. Grainger.
Distributor focused on e-commerce growth, new bin technology and converting pandemic-purchasers into long-term customers.
Chicago-based industrial distributor has a straight-forward approach for fueling its growth through the remainder of 2021 and beyond.
Industrial distributor drives growth across business, maintaining top rankings.
President John McKenzie credits company’s change management capabilities.
As we start to come out of our COVID-19 fog, many elements of life and work are changing with urgent pace. As a result, it feels like anything is possible.
Working with FedEx and FedEx’s ShopRunner, Adobe is building out an e-commerce sales and distribution ecosystem tapping into FedEx’s network.
Even the largest plumbing distributor in the U.S. has faced supply issues, yet Ferguson posted a strong 3Q.
California-based distributor Devil Mountain Wholesale Nursery has seen a marked increase in sales this year to its landscape customers.
A well-thought-out plan is critical to any business initiative. The latest issue of MDM Premium features several success stories, each driven by a plan that did not make assumptions and skip the basics.
What distributors need to know about developments in e-commerce platforms as the pandemic accelerates digital transformations.
Distributors are in a war for talent — here’s the latest intel on how to successfully attract the best and brightest of Gen Z.
The MRO distributor’s training and development programs have been honored with several awards in 2021.
Join us live on Tuesday, June 29 for the latest on digital customer experience, technology and change management, and future innovation.
Who is responsible for creating preference for a product as well as for where the product is purchased? A new economic formula demands that we devote scarce resources to fewer partners.
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Distributors looking to grow and compete in the digital landscape need to take a structured approach and build a system. This excerpt from the book Digital Branch Secrets: eCommerce Playbook for Distributors outlines a critical component of this system your product content.
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Like it or not, how customers interact and buy is changing.
Branch managers in distribution are often stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place.
The rise of Amazon, other digital platforms and fast-changing customer expectations of the buying process have disrupted the role of the traditional field salesperson. More than 100 distribution industry leaders met in Denver in late June at MDMs Sales GPS 2018 event to discuss the evolution of the distribution sales model to one that adds more value and helps them adapt to a changing market.
This article includes:
- The traditional sales force as a margin killer
- Why customer size doesnt equal customer potential
- Proceeding with caution
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Three key warning signs that your outside sales team is running your business.
Product and customer mix are the key levers.
Project selling is a value-added service that building products distributors can offer their customers that truly differentiates them from pure digital (online only) competitors. Who will sell the project of building moats for your company?
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- Top Trends for 2018
- When Good Distributors Do Bad Branding
- Key Drivers for E-commerce Demand
Project selling – an area where there is room for simple, high-value improvements – stands out as one of the most critical and lucrative ways a distributor can create a value-added service component. Here’s a primer on how to develop project selling as a competitive moat and some important keys to success.
This article includes:
- Helping Customers to Shop
- Annuity from Follow-on Sales
- Project Selling = Competitive Moat
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- MDM-Baird Distribution Survey: Storms Stunt Distributor Growth
- Distributors Up Search Marketing Efforts
- Amazon Business: The Burning E-Platform
In the prior two articles of this series, we explored the pitfalls of bad branding and damage branding agencies can do. We outlined the Branding Matrix and how you can use it to understand how much time and money to focus on developing your branding strategy. For the final article in this series, lets talk about the branding strategy itself how should you develop your slogan and your supporting messages?
This article includes:
- The Branding Process
- The Branding Ladder
- Defining the Role of Branding in Your Company
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- MDM-Baird Distribution Survey: Storms Stunt Distributor Growth
- Distributors Up Search Marketing Efforts
- Amazon Business: The Burning E-Platform
When pricing projects fail its often the distributors fault.
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- MDM-Baird Distribution Survey: Storms Stunt Distributor Growth
- Distributors Up Search Marketing Efforts
- Amazon Business: The Burning E-Platform
In part one of this three-part series, MDM President and COO Ian Heller explored the dangers of working with a pure branding agency and how the wrong partner can do more harm than good for a distributor. In part two, Ian uncovers how you determine the value of branding for your distribution company.
This article includes:
- Sizing the purchase
- Emotional attachments
- The Branding Matrix
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- MDM-Baird Distribution Survey: Storms Stunt Distributor Growth
- Distributors Up Search Marketing Efforts
- Amazon Business: The Burning E-Platform
This three-part series examines why distributors struggle with branding. In this, the first article in the series, MDM President & COO Ian Heller contrasts the difference between what branding agencies promise and what they actually deliver. He outlines why such agencies have objectives that conflict with yours, and why you should consider pure B2B advertising agencies that do more than just branding.
This article includes:
- Convincing distributors to rebrand
- The myth of branding
- The reality of branding
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- MDM-Baird Distribution Survey: Storms Stunt Distributor Growth
- Distributors Up Search Marketing Efforts
- Amazon Business: The Burning E-Platform
Over the last several years, private equity firms have invested billions of dollars in distribution. This analysis examines how consolidation has impacted the foodservice sector and the opportunities private equity sees in the segment.
This article includes:
- PE Impact on Foodservice Distribution
- Market implications: threats & opportunities
- Call to action
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- MDM-Baird Distribution Survey: Storms Stunt Distributor Growth
- Distributors Up Search Marketing Efforts
- Amazon Business: The Burning E-Platform
In October 2017, we surveyed MDM readers about how they use or plan to use CRM. This article looks at the strategies employed by companies that reported ROI with those that didnt to uncover best practices that lead to success, as well as common problem areas that may sabotage initiatives.This article includes:
- Thinking beyond outside sales
- Why outside sales buy-in is critical
- Prioritizing features that fill gaps
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- MDM-Baird Distribution Survey: Storms Stunt Distributor Growth
- Distributors Up Search Marketing Efforts
- Amazon Business: The Burning E-Platform
Tips to help distribution CMOs transform their companies and stay employed.
Online giants continue to disrupt distribution, making effective pricing strategy more important than ever. In the recent MDM Webcast, What Distributors Need to Know about Pricing Disruption, Brent Grover, managing partner of Evergreen Consulting LLC, discussed how distributors can improve their approach to pricing in order to survive disruption.
This article includes:
- Implementing your pricing strategy
- Communicating your service strategy
- Keeping the barbarians from crossing your moat
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- Distribution M&A Playbook, pt. 3: Integration Best Practices
- Grainger’s Pricing Initiative, pt 2: The Quest for Optimization
- Commentary: Harvey’s Stark Reminder on Disaster Planning
Since the January launch of its pricing initiative, Grainger has seen significant declines in profitability. While this margin trend is expected to reverse in 2019, its existence may signal that the pricing process Grainger is pursuing is less than optimal. This article, part 2 in a series, analyzes the challenges Grainger faces in implementing its pricing approach and provides additional lessons for other distributors looking to improve their pricing strategies.
This article includes:
- What we know to be true
- Are Grainger’s web prices more optimal?
- Did Grainger miss the boat?
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What can other B2B distributors learn from watching Grainger’s pricing story unfold? Three tips for distributors.
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- Distribution M&A Playbook, pt. 2: The 8 Fatal Flaws in M&A
- Top Trends for 2017
- MDM Interview: Watsco Aims for ‘Bigger, Better, Faster’
Customers today demand more services, and distributors need to evaluate what they offer – and at what cost. This article examines the drivers behind these changing customer expectations and steps a distributor can take to give customers what they want while remaining profitable.
This article includes:
- ‘Amazonification of the supply chain’
- Which services to add?
- Create services as a line-Item charge
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- Distribution M&A Playbook, pt. 2: The 8 Fatal Flaws in M&A
- Top Trends for 2017
- MDM Interview: Watsco Aims for ‘Bigger, Better, Faster’
Distributor excels in difficult environment with streamlined technology and new 3D printing capabilities.
MDM’s new report, Markets Forecast, offers quarterly revenue projections for the wholesale distribution industry, plus breakouts for select categories, for the current calendar quarter and the next fiscal year. The inaugural Forecast looks at post-pandemic projections for distributors as a whole, plus specific sectors.
The last few times a customer told you they found a lower price on a product at one of your competitors, how often did you lower your price in response?
MDM’s quarterly survey in partnership with investment banking firm Baird reveals that distributor revenues decelerated sharply in 2Q but not as bad as feared at the beginning of the pandemic shutdown. One consensus among more than 550 participants: Distributors began rethinking the way they manage talent.
A granular approach to forecast adjustment during a period of revenue decline can help distributors better understand demand shift and adjust for variability.
Distributors are making advances in areas that have long been on the to-do list, such as improved technology adoption, better communication and more streamlined operations
What does the new normal look like in a socially distanced business environment? MDM examines what’s on the horizon for both strategic and financial deals, as well as for prospective buyers and sellers, in a world still dealing with the COVID-19 coronavirus.
In the past, distributors would often sacrifice margins to gain market share and drive the topline. However, such tactics negate a strategic pricing process, rendering it nearly nonexistent. Without process, your people must make pricing decisions in a vacuum. As hard as they might try to compensate for and cope with inefficiencies, and as effective as their efforts might be in the short-term, you can’t expect them to sustain healthy margins in the long run.
The coronavirus accelerated a number of changes in distribution talent management that were already underway, including new evaluation criteria for job candidates and an expanded view of work-from-home productivity.
This is the third article in a three-part series for distributors to improve long-term financial performance. Part one addressed steps to create an appraisal of your firms current financial position. Part two tackled profit improvement variables and key mistakes distributors make.
By focusing your resources on your profit core, and emphasizing your key people and relationships, you can make sure that your initiatives and actions are both practical and timely under todays fast-changing conditions.
We all have a hefty task on our plates, to manage through a crisis the global scale of which has never been seen before.
To promote the best possible work environment while helping to slow the spread of COVID-19, experts recommend distributors prioritize regular and consistent staff communication using a system that employees are already familiar with.
We all have a hefty task on our plates, to manage through a crisis the global scale of which has never been seen before.
Many employees are no longer working under the security of their employers protected networks. This reality, coupled with cyberthreats trending upward, makes it a good time for distributors to review IT-related preparedness plans and policies.
Zoro merchandises its nearly 4 million products thanks to help from its behind the scenes partnerships with a variety of distributors, from small businesses to larger outlets, operating in conjunction with a range of online channels -- except Amazon.
Distributors are responding to customer concerns and increased demand on staff in a variety of ways, including limiting new business to meet existing customer demand; open communication on shortages and supplier allocations, and discouraging panic by not accepting returns beyond normal usage patterns. Face the crisis with a sense of flexibility and resilience, experts say.
Known for his engaged and strategic perspective and strong leadership qualities, the 37-year-old Florian Ostendarp is leading the charge to automate as many processes as possible for the distribution company. Already about 80% of purchase orders are automatically processed and 67% of order confirmations are completely electronic.
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Through his AI-driven company proton.ai, 23-year-old Benj Cohen is creating digital capabilities targeted specifically for the needs of the distribution market with the goal of enabling reps to make more orders not just take them.
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Like many functions in the realm of distribution, the role of a master distributor has become increasingly complex as lines continue to blur and end-user expectations force channel partners to rethink traditional models. Wholesalers are uniquely positioned to grow if they can figure out how to be more, says Consultant Mike Marks.
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Petra Schindler-Carter has been with Amazon Business since it rebranded from AmazonSupply in 2015, and she is a major reason for the division's success.
Though a relative newbie to the distribution industry, Finlayson has brought a solid business acumen to the company she bought from her parents a few years ago and is now seeing the industrial supplier thrive.
Mazzarella's rise to the top at Grayber is legendary, and she is out to help distributors learn from her experience and expertise.
As the chief human resources office for Crescent Electric Supply Co., Swambar is leading the charge in the company's "war for talent," but she brings much more to the electrical distribution business.
ADI Global Distribution vice president of global operations helped carry the company through the complexity of COVID-19 with "creative and unique" solutions.
Carrie Kessel learned the distribution business by osmosis, as she grew up doing everything from mowing the lawn to counting inventory to filing documents.
Jennifer Murphy’s advice to women just starting out in the distributor industry is to continually cultivate their networking opportunities.
Jessica Yurgaitis follows in the footsteps of her grandmother and great-grandmother at one of the largest industrial suppliers in the Intermountain West.
Joyce Lansdale was instrumental to the creation of VICKIE, an acronym for “Voices Inspiring Change, Knowledge, Innovation and Empowerment,” Vallen’s employee resource group designed to recruit strong, diverse candidates into leadership.
Rose Chen is driving new growth opportunities by promoting cross-collaboration with emerging technology partners across artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), and digital technologies.
Rosana Chaidez crafts NB Handy’s Future Leaders program whereby the company hires college graduates each year to develop them into sales or operations leaders within the company.
Robyn Pollina rose through the ranks from accountant to CEO, ensuring along the way that company culture and giving back to communities are core values for the employee-owned business.
Nancy Goedecke and her three siblings are the third-generation owners of Mayer and, along with their spouses, make up what is now known as the G3 (Generation 3) Group.
Lauren Roberts, CEO, doubled the company's net profit during the pandemic without having to let any employees go.
During the pandemic, Julie Copeland expanded the company’s bottom line by selling directly to consumers via a new consumer division.
Distributors are rethinking how they recruit, develop and retain employees and the ways they frame their companies in the process.
NAW fellow Mark Dancer shares how distribution companies can adapt to a post-COVID-19 world.
Challenge your thinking and embrace new ideas to rethink your company’s path forward.
Here’s what distributors need to know about the post-pandemic talent acquisition market.
MDM’s first-ever Future of Distribution Summit will take place online on Tuesday, April 13.
Investment Banking Directory
The MDM Investment Banks in Distribution directory is a listing of firms with expertise in the wholesale distribution industry.
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