Applied, Motion and AD Share Quarterly Performance
Applied Industrial Firing on All Cylinders For a Strong Start to Fiscal 2027 As Automation, Fluid Power and Manufacturing Leads Applied Industrial Technologies announced Q1 2027 earnings on October 27. AIT delivered one of the strongest industrial distribution quarters of the earnings season, providing further evidence that North American manufacturing activity, automation spending, and technical MRO demand continue to…
Spotlight
Put AI Where the Money Is: Why the Front Office Comes First
Nearly every distributor I talk to feels they should be doing something with AI, and much of that conversation starts in the back office, with…
MSC Industrial Finishes FY 2026 With a Bang
MSC Industrial reported fourth quarter results on October 22. Net sales accelerated 8.6% to $1. billion, driven mainly by price, contributing 6.9% and volume contributing 1.6%.…
Industrial Supply Growth Accelerates: What Distributors Should Expect in Q4
Channel Marketing Group’s Q3 Pulse of Industrial Supply survey finds stronger-than-expected distributor growth, improving digital sales, and continued investment in inventory. But pricing, tariffs, and…
Fastenal Firing on All Cylinders, Driven by Large Accounts, Market Share Gains and Data Centers
Fastenal delivered 15.5% revenue growth and record operating-income growth as large accounts, manufacturing demand, digital programs, and embedded inventory solutions drove market-share gains. Gross-margin pressure…
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Industrial Supply Growth Accelerates: What Distributors Should Expect in Q4
Channel Marketing Group’s Q3 Pulse of Industrial Supply survey finds stronger-than-expected distributor growth, improving digital sales, and continued investment in inventory. But pricing, tariffs, and economic uncertainty remain important considerations heading into year-end. The industrial supply market appears to have found its footing. After a relatively sluggish second quarter, distributors reported stronger sales in Q3, manufacturers described healthy demand, and…
Fastenal Firing on All Cylinders, Driven by Large Accounts, Market Share Gains and Data Centers
Fastenal delivered 15.5% revenue growth and record operating-income growth as large accounts, manufacturing demand, digital programs, and embedded inventory solutions drove market-share gains. Gross-margin pressure and moderating pricing remain watch items, but operating leverage, technology adoption, and data-center-related demand support the outlook. Fastenal announced their 3Q26 earnings on October 14. The company delivered another quarter of top-line double-digit growth, with…
5 reasons your sales incentive program isn’t working (and how to fix it)
Effective sales incentive programs help reps understand what to do, see their progress and earn rewards they want. Confusing rules or unclear communications discourage participation, even when reps value the rewards. Use sales rep feedback to identify what’s causing friction and choose a focused improvement for your next promotion. If your sales incentive program isn’t getting the participation you expected,…
Changing Sales Team Behavior with Targeted Guidance
TL:DR Sales dashboards reveal what happened, but they rarely change behavior on their own. Distributors can improve execution by turning ERP data into timely, specific cues that tell each rep which customer to contact, why, and what opportunity to discuss—aligning daily sales actions with strategic growth, retention, and inventory priorities. Lessons From a Sales Analyst One of my first career…
Joint Calls, Why Distributors Suffer from a Split Personality?
TL;DR: Joint calls create opportunity only when distributors balance supplier access with firm account ownership. Keep Factory Fred informed, use his application knowledge, set commercial boundaries before problems surface, maintain multiple customer relationships, and make the distributor indispensable through expertise, inventory, problem-solving, and relentless follow-through. Joint Sales Calls – Appease Factory Fred? I’ve been thinking about joint calls lately. You…
Why Industrial Parts Are So Hard to Identify and Match
Manufacturers maintain proprietary part-numbering systems, while distributors map products to their own SKUs, creating inconsistencies across ERP and product-data systems. A part fails. The line is down, and every minute costs money. The replacement might be on a shelf ten miles away. Before anyone can pull it, someone has to answer one question: what is this part? We call it…
Meridian360 – 5 Tools in 1 to Drive Sales Intelligence
Every salesperson has blind spots and no sales manager has enough time to coach their salespeople before each sales call like they would like to. Further, no salesperson says “boss, thanks for all of the reports you offer me that I am supposed to review, decipher, and determine what to discuss with my customer.” The reality is your sales team…
Your Best People Are Retiring and Nobody Wrote Any of It Down
While inventory may site on your balance sheet as your most important financial investment, every distributor owner and manager knows that their people are their biggest asset and can also be their biggest liability. They are an asset as they are the #1 differentiator within your business. Without them, a distributor is a vending machine. People interact with customers, with…
