Distribution Sales Managers: What Top-Performing Sales Teams — And How Leaders Create It
If you lead a sales team for an industrial supply distributor, you already know the pressure. Margins are tight. Competition is aggressive. The number of SKUs continues to grow. We win customers, or current customers leave, for a lower price or faster order turnaround. Customers expect speed, technical accuracy, and competitive pricing. And every year, sales expectations increase, regardless…
Spotlight
Stanley Black Decker Earnings: Margins Up, But Volume Softness Raises Channel Questions
What Stanley Black Decker Earnings Tell Us About Channel Demand The latest Stanley Black Decker earnings tell a split story. Margins are improving, but the volume…
Eaton Q4 2025 Earnings: What Distributors Should Know
What Eaton Q4 2025 Earnings Signal for Industrial Distributors Eaton Q4 2025 earnings delivered record numbers, but the real story for the industrial channel sits…
MSC Industrial Revenue Growth Hits 4% as New CEO Takes the Helm
MSC Industrial revenue growth of 4% in Q1 2026 looks healthy on the surface, but the details underneath tell a more nuanced story. The distributor, one…
Why Your Industry 4.0 ROI Remains Elusive
The Execution Edge:Building an Industry 4.0 Model That Actually Delivers Craig Martin, C3 Team President The promise of Industry 4.0 ROI has been dangled in…
Explore
MSC Industrial Revenue Growth Hits 4% as New CEO Takes the Helm
MSC Industrial revenue growth of 4% in Q1 2026 looks healthy on the surface, but the details underneath tell a more nuanced story. The distributor, one of the largest metalworking and MRO suppliers in North America, reported results on January 7 that beat earnings expectations while simultaneously raising questions about demand fundamentals. For industrial distributors and channel partners watching the broader market,…
Why Your Industry 4.0 ROI Remains Elusive
The Execution Edge:Building an Industry 4.0 Model That Actually Delivers Craig Martin, C3 Team President The promise of Industry 4.0 ROI has been dangled in front of manufacturers and distributors for over a decade as the “Great Equalizer” for manufacturing and distribution. The promise was clear: invest in IoT, AI, and Big Data, and you will unlock unprecedented levels of…
Fastenal Q4 Earnings: Growth Surges, Margins Slip
Fastenal closed out 2025 with accelerating momentum, posting double-digit sales growth in Q4 while navigating margin headwinds tied to its large-account strategy. The Fastenal Q4 earnings report, released January 20, showed quarterly revenue up 11.1% year-over-year to $2.03 billion. But the numbers also revealed the tradeoffs embedded in the company’s growth model: gross margin fell 50 basis points to 44.3%, driven by…
Visual Workplace Doubles Revenue with Forward Solutions’ Multi-Channel Transformation
ALPHARETTA, Ga., Jan. 08, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Forward Solutions today released a new case study showcasing how embracing a multi-channel sales and marketing strategy can deliver breakthrough growth for industrial manufacturers. With business buyers now expecting a seamless experience across distributor, direct, and digital channels, many mid-market manufacturers are rethinking their single-channel approach. The featured case study highlights Visual…
The AI-Enabled Distributor: From Pilot to Profit
Channel Marketing Group will release a new eBook, The AI-Enabled Distributor: From Pilot to Profit, on January 16. The guide is designed specifically for distributor leaders who are trying to make sense of artificial intelligence in a practical, business-focused way. AI is no longer confined to innovation teams or IT departments. For distributors, it is already influencing quoting speed, pricing accuracy, sales enablement, product content,…
Branch Leadership Blueprint for Distribution
If you work in wholesale distribution, you already know that strategy may be written at headquarters, but execution lives and dies at the branch. That reality sits at the heart of Foundations of a Giant: A Branch Boss’s Blueprint for Wholesale Distribution, a new book built around one core idea: strong branch leadership is still the most reliable competitive advantage in the channel. Written…
New Research: Rebates Ensure Profitability
In the industrial supply industry, we often talk about “backside dollars”, or rebates, as a necessary part of the business. But are they a strategic asset or just a “tax” on doing business? Earlier this year we (Channel Marketing Group) conducted research, sponsored by Enable, a leading rebate management reporting system. on volume rebates and are releasing a new research…
Converting POs to Digital Commerce, and a Christmas Offer
Last quarter’s Pulse of Industrial Supply identified a significant divergence in the percentage of digital sales for smaller distributors vs large distributors. Perhaps its the customer base? It could be investments in eCommerce technology and product data. It could be marketing. But it could also be that smaller distributors are not being customer friendly, technologically. When you dig into it,…
