After a few years of ups and downs in supply chain reliability – wreaking havoc on distributor lead times – where do we stand now? 

Join us for this webinar on May 17 at 9 PT/12 ET when G. ‘Ravi’ Ravishankar will answer that question. 

He’ll provide an update on the current state of supply chains and what’s coming so that you can better navigate the road ahead. 

You’ll learn: 

• How conditions at major ports have changed over the past year
• Demand and availability of warehouse space
• Inventory levels and what they indicate is coming
• Trends in container pricing and chassis availability
• The emergence of Vietnam as a major player in the China +1 strategy

Bring your questions and insights on your corner of the market to the discussion. If you can’t make the live event, sign up anyway and we’ll send you the on-demand link after the event.  

Distributors often conflate digital with online sales. But digital capabilities are still essential to your success even if your business model means you won’t see a significant portion of your sales coming through a shopping cart in the near future.   

Generally, digital technologies can be applied across a distributor’s business:  

• Distributor to Customer: This may include online training, product search and selection, services information or scheduling, account management, chat, delivery tracking and much more.   

• Distributor Internal: Process automation, internal communication and project management.  

• Distributor to Supplier: Communication, shipment tracking, financial reconciliation and training. 

While a great digital strategy requires a website, that’s just the starting point. Building connections and communication from the customer to the supplier is necessary to drive sales, manage costs and optimize. 

Great warehouse management and delivery capabilities are table stakes for every distributor. Just to keep up with competitors, you must:

• Keep accurate records of what’s in stock
• Know where every product is in the warehouse
• Prevent shrink from poor picking practices or theft
• Maintain accurate addresses for all customer locations
• Track shipments in real-time to ensure they arrive on time
• Keep employees safe
• Drive warehouse and delivery productivity to manage costs 

It takes great technology solutions to be competitive on capabilities and productivity. But the technology options continue to expand and distributors need to understand what’s available and what’s coming next.  

Join us on April 19 at 9 PT/12 ET, when experts from technology leaders at Infor share best practices they’ve gleaned from working with thousands of distributors. They’ll also describe emerging options you can use to win business by providing customers with better capabilities than your competitors. 

All decision-makers know that data, rather than emotions, must act as the main driver for running their business. 

The challenge is that today’s business leaders are inundated with data – their own company performance metrics, market data, economic data, customer data and people data. There’s so much information available that it’s overwhelming.  

So, how can executives, business owners and management team members leverage the data at their disposal to improve their decision-making?  

This session – on March 28, 2023, at 9 PT/12 ET – will leverage Alex Chausovsky’s expertise as a multi-decade seasoned data analyst, market researcher and consultant to teach practical and actionable methods for leveraging data to improve decision-making at all levels of the company.  

Session attendees will learn how to:  

• Improve strategic planning by utilizing company revenue, unit volume, etc. to identify trends, track business-cycle momentum, and see around the corner for the next three to six months.  
• Leverage market intelligence and economic data to identify leading indicators and segments of the business that will under- and outperform in the short, medium and long term.  
• Deploy data for your No. 1 asset – people – to improve your business’s attractiveness to new talent, streamline your hiring activities and improve retention for your existing workforce.  

Research proves a direct correlation between how customers rate their supplier experiences and their likelihood to buy more – and more often. 

Small changes in loyalty can drive large increases in profitability. 

This is well understood in B2C but B2B involves more complex relationships and transactions. Distributors must understand customer expectations and then design and deliver great experiences to reap the profits of greater loyalty. 

On March 16, 2023, at 9 PT/12 ET, we’ll provide a practical and actionable way to think about and measure loyalty for distributors and demonstrate how this translates into lifetime value. Finally, we will cover how to improve your customers’ experiences so you can earn more sales and profits. 

Every distributor’s sales dollar takes a long journey from the top of the P&L to the bottom, where it turns into operating income after being eaten away by the cost structure.  

Distributors know that to get more of those sales dollars to turn into profit, they need state-of-the-art technologies:  

• Demand Generation: CRM, ecommerce, marketing automation  
• Pricing/Margin: Pricing analytics, price management, accurate costing  
• Vendor Management: Rebate and co-op management; efficient payables 
• Financial Management: Accounting, AR, AP 
• Inventory Management: Forecasting, purchasing, receiving 
• Data Management: Products, customers, employees, suppliers  

Distributors must have systems to manage these areas to maximize sales opportunities and cash generation.  

Developing and implementing these architectures takes expertise. Tune in March 14, 9 PT/12 ET, to hear from our experienced panelists, who will help you make the most of them. 

In addition to mapping your customers’ journeys so you can understand their needs, you must carefully define your technical requirements.  

Then you have to find the right technology partners.  

What’s more, the number of technology solutions required today to be competitive is enough to make your head spin – ERP, CRM, eCommerce, Analytics, Pricing, Business Intelligence, WMS, EDI, AI – the list goes on and on.  

Learn how other distributors have juggled these challenges on March 1 at 9 PT/12 ET. In our free annual State of Distribution Technology webinar, Jonathan Bein, Ph.D., and Ian Heller will present the results of our recent survey of distributors about their experiences with the technologies they use to run their businesses.  

They’ll also share recommendations you can act on right now to get a better return on your technology investment. 

The labor market continues to offer challenges to distributors and many of them seek technology alternatives to get work done and improve their operations. 

Whether you want to drive productivity, improve accuracy or grow sales with technology, this panel of experts will offer their expertise based on many years of working with distributors to achieve those goals. 

As customers’ expectations around their suppliers’ capabilities continues to grow, many distributors are realizing they need to upgrade their technology stack to remain competitive or differentiate. 

• Epicor will be represented on this panel to provide best practices about choosing and implementing a new ERP, including key lessons on how to drive rapid adoption and a great ROI.

• White Cup will explain the company CRM system that’s designed specifically for distributors. This makes configuration and start-up a lot easier and ensures better results over time.

This is a rare opportunity to listen to world-class technology leaders who have done analysis and engagements for hundreds of distribution companies. They will tell you how to find areas for improvement, obstacles to avoid and great ideas for ensuring smooth technology upgrades that drive sales and produce more profits.

Today warehouse management faces more challenges than ever before: 

• Labor costs are skyrocketing amid a shortage of qualified and motivated workers 
• Customers demand immediate fulfillment and shipment of orders 
• Supply chain issues result in unpredictable delivery of replenishment shipments 

It is important to develop comprehensive a plan that will lead to success in this challenging environment.  Join us for this informative and comprehensive webinar Jan. 31, 9 PT / 12 ET where Jon Schreibfeder and Matt Schreibfeder will discuss how to develop a plan to achieve the goal of effective management. 

This webinar will cover: 

• Developing effective policies and procedures 
• Training and motivating warehouse employees 
• Utilizing technology to improve productivity including 
• RFID scanning 
• Drones 
• Automated picking and put away  
• Guided vehicles 
• Carrousels 
• Voice picking systems 
• Efficient space planning 
• Warehouse Management Software 
• Labor Management Software 

Join us to dive deep into distributors’ most pressing warehouse challenges and to learn how to create a roadmap for future long-term success. 

Have distributors continued to adopt ecommerce at a rapid pace? How are they integrating digital channels into their go-to-market approach? 

Find out when you join us Jan. 18, at 9 PT/12 ET for the results of our exclusive 11th annual State of eCommerce in Distribution research, a leading benchmark in the industry for adoption and drivers of ecommerce. 

You’ll learn: 

• The proportion of sales from digital channels across multiple distribution verticals 
• Evolving expectations from distribution customers 
• What distributors need to meet customer demands 
• How distributors are getting, managing and maintaining product data 
• Technology best practices: ERP, CMS, PIM, CRM, etc. to meet those needs
• How digital capabilities are supporting performance of other channels 

In the third and final program in our series on the State of CRM in Distribution, Mike Marks, Founding Partner of Indian River Consulting Group, will host a panel of distribution leaders to discuss their experiences with CRM, including what’s worked best – and, of course, lessons learned.

They’ll also share what they wish they had known at the beginning of their CRM adoption cycle.

If you’re looking to adopt a new CRM solution – or make the most of your existing one – who better to learn from than your peers?

Expect fun dialogue, straight talk, and a great give and take.

Bring your questions for Mike and the panel.

Distribution Strategy Group is excited to bring you this panel on ecommerce technology on Wednesday, December 7 at 9 PT/12 ET.

As ecommerce continues to be a substantial part of companies’ business strategies, we will talk with top ecommerce executives in the industry. They’ll share how they are using ecommerce. We’ll also discuss what manufacturers are looking for in their distributors when it comes to ecommerce, challenges distributors face and how they have solved them, and how they’re measuring ROI.

Panelists include:

• Steven Javor Global E-commerce Director of Schneider Electrics Energy Management Division
• Justus Eggers, Vice President and General Manager of the Americas, at Hoffman Group
• Coburn Flannery, Director of E-Business. 

Plan to attend the wholesale distribution industry’s first, invite-only, matchmaking event for distribution executives to meet tech founders from B2B’s most exciting innovators. This program is ideal for CEOs and leaders intimately involved in digital transformation and innovation. Learn more and register here: Innovators Summit | National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (naw.org)

In this webinar, Mike Marks, Founding Partner of Indian River Consulting Group, will rely on his experience working with dozens of leading distributors to talk about how to successfully implement CRM and how this will evolve in the future. He’ll use examples and define best practices to help you understand how CRM can benefit you today and what you must do to ensure you continue to gain benefits from this technology going forward.  

The proper use of data can create a powerful coaching tool for sales managers. The real power of a deployed CRM is the creation of a light touch but formal performance improvement loop. The idea is that a plan for the month is developed and at the end of the month both activities and results are examined to identify performance improvement actions for the subsequent month. In many cases, the sales managers need to develop some process-driven coaching skills. AI tools are also creating significant leverage for today’s sales manager. The long-term sales performance impact of a CRM improves on the same principle of compound interest. 

Distributors need to develop strategies for broadening the assortments they offer customers beyond what they stock. The old days of a website = one company’s inventory are fading.  

But the choices aren’t as simple as whether to sell on existing marketplaces or build your own. There are options in between – including drop-shipping from your suppliers to creating partnerships with distributors selling adjacent products and more.  

In this webinar, Ian Heller will set out a model for thinking about marketplace strategies in ways you’ve probably never considered. He’ll describe a variety of options you should consider to expand your offering so you aren’t stuck in the past as websites that sell just one company’s goods fall out of favor.  

Join us for a free webinar on Oct. 19, at 9 PT/12 ET to hear how distributors can compete in a landscape where marketplaces are quickly taking share.  

Distribution is the most purely competitive sector of the American economy. That reality makes it challenging to permanently and significantly increase profitability. The competitive nature of distribution also means that the difference between winning and losing is very small. 

Despite the challenges, distributors can embrace approaches that drive higher profits in a way that competition cannot easily match. Join us Oct. 5 at 9 PT/12 ET when Al Bates will share the small changes that can be made in two key areas of the business to exponentially increase profit. 

Mike Marks of Indian River Consulting Group has partnered with Distribution Strategy Group to survey distribution decision-makers to understand their experiences with CRM – good and bad. We asked them questions about how they choose, integrate, drive adoption of and use CRM systems.

Join us for this free webinar, where Mike will share results and define the real-world state of play today in how CRM tools work. The session will provide a framework around the five core processes in any CRM that will provide participants with the insight to select, deploy and recognize the implementation pitfalls that can trap a distributor into pilot purgatory.

The guiding principle driving the framework is that CRMs exist to provide data to the sales representative so they can make better decisions on where to spend their time and what to do.  In a fully deployed CRM, 80% of the information should come TO the sales rep and only 20% comes FROM the sales rep.

Use the framework to assess your own adoption position and identify the key actions to move ahead.

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.