Industrial Supply Trends

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Q1 Pulse of Industrial Supply Survey Results are In

Industrial Supply Trends is pleased to introduce a new service to the industrial supply channel … our Pulse of Industrial Supply report.  Launched last month, the Pulse of Industrial Supply, sponsored by William Blair, is a quarterly report.  Each quarter we’ll survey distributors, manufacturers, and manufacturer representatives to gather insights into the past quarter, projections for the next quarter, and…

Building on the skills of your Inside Sales Staff

The role and responsibilities of the Inside Sales team are evolving and changing faster than any role in the Industrial Channel. The distributor inside sales team usually has the most direct contact and interaction with industrial end customers. Our friend Frank Hurtte | LinkedIn from River Heights Consulting is one of the leading Industrial and Electrical Channel voices on the…

ISA25 Recap – Headwinds, Tailwinds, and Uncertainty

ISA 25 last week (March 31- April 2nd) in Nashville brought together close to 700 Industrial Channel Leaders to the annual meeting to meet in person. I really enjoy this ISA industry event as it brings together Manufacturers, Distributors and Manufacturer Representative Firms at one meeting together. For other key B2B channels like electrical, HVACR, Automation, Power Transmission, and many…

What were the hot topics at ISA25 this year?

ISA 25 is wrapping up today and the packed agenda over the three days was wrapped up by great presentations by NAW’s Brian Wild and ITR economics. As expected, the hot topic was TARIFFFFS… and the impacts of current, potential, and future tariffs. It was great have National Association of Wholesaler leader Brian Wild -Chief Government Officer (2) Brian Wild…

Part 2 – Fastenal Investor Day Insights – Opinion

Fastenal Investor Day Slide – March 13, 2025 It is unusual for a large B2B publicly traded distributor to share details at the level Fastenal did on their Customer Segmentation metrics recently. In this analysis of Fastenal’s Investor Day presentation, I wanted to focus on the customer segmentation part of the presentation and on the very large end of the…

Pulse of Industrial Supply Survey early returns are eye opening

The impact of tariffs announcements is unsettling the market and the short term and long-term impact and prognostications are dominating the news cycle for the Industrial Channel. The tariff impact on sentiment is clearly having an effect on channel planning and programs. Our Industrial Supply Trends Q1 IST Pulse of Industrial Supply survey early returns are interesting and informative and…

What Do Industrial Manufacturers, Distributors and IMRs Want to Know from Their End Users? 

As we close in on ISA25 next week, we wanted to share with you some preliminary findings from the recent survey that ISA completed with manufacturers, distributors, and independent manufacturer representatives (IMRs).  Brendan Breen from ISA shared some detail on the survey results and a preview of what to expect at ISA25 March 31- April 2nd in Nashville. By Brendan…