Whom to support? The rep alignment dilemma ... whom to align with to generate sales? End-users? National chains? Independent supportive distributors? Any distributor who will support the manufacturer? The manufacturer? But, the bottom line becomes, what will generate sales to meet manufacturer expectations? It's complicated, and channel consolidation and channel … [Read more...] about The Rep Alignment Dilemma for the Industrial Channel
Insights
The Road to a New ERP System
Deciding on an ERP system is one of the most challenging decisions for an Industrial distributor given its impact on business operations … everything from easy of doing business, ability to integrate with other tools, access to information, cost (acquisition, maintenance, training, productivity) let alone it touches every person who interacts with a company … associates, … [Read more...] about The Road to a New ERP System
10 Tips for Recruiting Talented Candidates for the Industrial Channel
One of the areas where we hear companies are continuously challenged is recruiting quality people that have some experience with the Industrial industry and targeted product categories. It's usually not too difficult to find people with specific skill sets. The challenge is finding people with a combination of the right skill sets. And while recruitment is a challenge in … [Read more...] about 10 Tips for Recruiting Talented Candidates for the Industrial Channel
Ecommerce Pricing is one of the biggest challenges Industrial Distributors and Manufacturers Face
The struggle with pricing your products online as an Industrial Distributor is never ending, but there is hope. Many manufacturer and distributor online teams attempt to use SEO, SEM, and paid search to drive traffic to their site, but then fail to covert that opportunity into a sales event. As a B2B distributor pricing leader I found one of our toughest struggles was pricing … [Read more...] about Ecommerce Pricing is one of the biggest challenges Industrial Distributors and Manufacturers Face
Driving Industrial Distributor Profitability Through Operational Efficiency
The past year has proven we are back to pre-pandemic industry growth rates and in many cases flat to single digit declines. Maintaining, and improving, net profitability in the face of slowing growth, increased cost structure, and stagnant (if not decreasing) margins, requires improved operational efficiency, inventory management, strategic price management, appropriate … [Read more...] about Driving Industrial Distributor Profitability Through Operational Efficiency
Challenging Convention, Embracing Disruption. Tomorrow’s Marketing Groups?
The past few years the recurring theme at many industry events have used alot of words - Shift, Adapt, Outperform and more. I would say the overiding theme if I hae to put into one single word is disruption. And one of the recent sessions’ I was at the speakers posed the question to consider of “what if?” Earlier this year I presented at a conference of marketing / buying … [Read more...] about Challenging Convention, Embracing Disruption. Tomorrow’s Marketing Groups?
Is Your Marketing a QSR or Fine Dining?
For many small to mid-sized Industrial distributors, marketing has often been an after-thought. Something to support sales. It’s understandable given the business started with salespeople and, for a business to succeed, orders need to be quoted, captured, and processed. That’s the role of sales. But, for companies to grow, it takes having a strategy and creating awareness so … [Read more...] about Is Your Marketing a QSR or Fine Dining?
Punchouts Drive eCommerce in the Industrial Channel
eCommerce is more than, in the words of an Amazon and MRO analyst, “click and ship”. eCommerce is about a methodology and a mindset to do business more electronically. In fact, the commerce element can be very diversified, especially for medium to large MRO buyers. Consider Amazon Business, Grainger and MSC. Companies such as Grainger and MSC report that over 30% … [Read more...] about Punchouts Drive eCommerce in the Industrial Channel
Using Digitalization to Optimize Operations & Drive New Business in Industrial
To combat the challenges of today’s marketplace, progressive distributors looking towards the future are investing more and more into digitizing their processes to optimize performance. These companies recognize that: Data can be monetized. This means that information in their ERP systems can be acted upon rather than remain in data silos and databases. Whether this is … [Read more...] about Using Digitalization to Optimize Operations & Drive New Business in Industrial
Why do strong B2B Industrial distribution websites fail? It’s often a much simpler answer than you might expect
Has your distributor digital transformation journey seemed like an endless race with hurdle after hurdle? I’ve been in the B2B digital race many times as a distributor in my career, and have crashed into more than a few hurdles. It can be a hard journey to make your ERP and tech stack work, build the right functionality, get the product attributes and pricing to work, but even … [Read more...] about Why do strong B2B Industrial distribution websites fail? It’s often a much simpler answer than you might expect
