As channels evolve, distributors face growing competition from pure digital players like marketplaces. As a result, distributors must master digital competencies. However, it’s in value-added services where they can truly differentiate.  

We’ve hired Frank Hurtte – who literally wrote the book on value-added services – to develop and present a webinar for distributors on how they can use services not only to protect share of more complex relationships but to retain the simple, on-demand business, too.  

In Hurtte’s book, The Distributors’ Fee-Based Services Manifesto, he writes: 

A distributor’s livelihood rests on customer relationships. I firmly believe building a service-for-fee model builds customer intimacy and supercharges the relationship. Charging for service creates a new and different sort of customer model. The distributor positions themselves as a professional, a thoughtful advisor rather than just a seller. 

In this webinar, Hurtte will describe how to identify, document and market services in such a way that you can charge for some of them while increasing your importance to customers so that you become a more strategic partner.  

Sign up to join us live if you’d like to ask questions or access the recording and whitepaper later.  

Distributors have historically employed conservative financial practices. That means they have had a strong working capital position. However, accounts receivable and inventory have dominated their current assets.  

As a result, very few distributors are cash rich.  

As long as it is business as usual, with modest sales growth, the working capital position of most distributors is not an issue. However, as economic shocks impact performance, distributors must look harder at non-performing inventory and accounts receivable, as well as whether they are using supplier financing effectively. 

Join us Aug. 10 at 9 PT/12 ET as Al Bates explores working capital performance for distributors in detail. Expect some surprising conclusions. 

If you use traditional ROI models to determine how much you’ll invest in your website and how you’ll measure its success, you’re going about it all wrong.

Traditional ROI models typically don’t account for results outside of shopping-cart revenue. After all, in B2B, it’s not unusual for a customer to search online, research products on your website – and then call in and talk to their account manager to place the order. Or they may be getting product data from your website to put together bids.

None of that potential revenue is credited to the website in a standard ROI model. The data show that digitally engaged customers buy more than customers that aren’t engaged on your website.

Because of this, distributors need robust shopping and account management capabilities even if shopping-cart revenue is minimal.

Join us for this important conversation in a free webinar on Aug. 3 at 9 PT/12 ET. We’ll explore the B2B ecommerce opportunity, and a more inclusive way to think about ROI calculations. We’ll share real examples of how a website supports distributor growth, even when direct shopping-cart revenue makes up a small percentage of the total.

Distributors continue to struggle with driving value through analytics, despite recognizing its critical importance in their businesses.

But if distributors want to turn data into dollars, they need to stop playing catch up and get more strategic. Our speaker will share what distributors need to do to take their analytics programs to the next level and differentiate.

Join us July 13, when Senthil Gunasekaran, Co-Founder of Actvantage and author of seven best-selling NAW books focused on the use of analytics in distribution, will share:

• The types and importance of analytics by function
• Who owns analytics within distributor organizations, and how those resources are organized
• How distributors are benefiting from analytics
• The newest technologies that are driving analytics, including AI, machine learning and automation
• The blind spots distributors need to watch for when implementing analytics

Distributors’ marketers have a problem.  

Because distributors have multiple channels, it’s difficult to measure the return on their marketing effort.  

For example, product promotions succeed due to the efforts of marketing, sales, customer service and the ecommerce department – not to mention price discounts negotiated by merchants or category managers.  

How can you calculate how much to spend on marketing or measure the ROI in an environment where everyone is pitching in to make campaigns successful?  

Our Chief Strategy Officer Ian Heller has served as the senior marketing executive for four major publicly held distributors. He’s learned not only how to make marketing effective in a distribution company, but also how to set the optimal budget and measure the ROI of what you spend.  

Stop setting marketing objectives and evaluating results based on product sales. There’s a better way that your company will embrace. And it will revolutionize how you think about what marketing is supposed to accomplish and how you can tell if you succeed.

In this free webinar, take a deep dive into artificial intelligence, its impact on distribution and why distributors should be paying attention to it – now.

Benj Cohen, founder of proton.ai and leading voice on AI in distribution, will share four use cases – sales, inventory, operations and product – of how distributors are using AI today to drive profitable growth.

On June 16 at 9 PT / 12 ET, join us to learn: 

• What AI is, and why it’s different from any other technology distributors have seen
• The availability and maturity of AI applications, built in-house and by third-party vendors
• Where to get started with AI

Frank Hurtte joined Distribution Strategy Group to help share the results of our research into the current state of distributor sales. We shared how you can best integrate the best practices of those on the vanguard of change into your business to meet your customers’ demands.

In this webinar, we asked distributors about their strategies to mitigate the impacts of supply chain uncertainty. We’ll share what’s working in this webinar, as well our expertise on building resiliency in your supply chain.