The hot new form of AI is rapidly spreading into the business world. Two distributors describe their AI journeys.
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Regardless of how we got here, what many of us discovered is a career that offers more than just selling and moving boxes.
WMS, LMS, OMS, WES, YMS: whatever acronym we use, they’re all tools, but they’ll never replace the need for leadership.
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Join us on June 4, 9 PT/12 ET, as we delve into strategies for leveraging these platforms to boost sales and stay competitive.
Join us on Thursday, June 5, 2025 at 9 PT/12 ET for a new AI News and Gurus: The Show for Intelligent Distributors
Join us on June 11, 2025 at 9 PT / 12 ET as we delve into the current state of distributor pricing and costing
Join us on June 18, 9 PT/12 ET, to explore the data infrastructure behind the electrical, HVAC, and plumbing industries, and where it’s headed
Trent Gillespie will detail approach to AI in a keynote entitled “Designing an AI-enabled business” at Distribution Strategy Group’s Applied AI for Distributors conference.
Whatever else happens in the world, your competitors will use AI to drive performance.
In logistics, we track everything: fill rates, dock turns, labor ratios. But leadership? That’s harder to quantify.
Recent Reports
Most distribution companies take a similar approach to touting their position in the supply chain, with 80 to 90 percent of distributors believing their
While distributors are growing their use of digital vehicles, it may not be quickly enough. Many still rely on trade shows, print flyers and
This article examines how distributors across sectors approach marketing, what they consider the most effective channels to be and the frequency with which they
Amazon is a machine. The online retail juggernaut has recently churned out the world’s richest man and, its tendrils of modernization are slowly reaching
We have talked to many distributors who are still determining whether to offer an e-commerce store front or not. We hear common themes
What if I told you you are losing 5-10% of revenue a year? Furthermore, you might not have even noticed. In this blog post,
The shift moving towards e-commerce maturity means the journey evolves as well. As noted in Part 1, the top e-commerce priorities are shifting to
69% of inside sales people are spending less than 10% of their time making proactive outbound calls. They are spending the majority of their time
The 2017 State of E-Commerce in Distribution survey indicates the percentage of respondents with a mature e-commerce offering (at least 10 percent of total
An analysis of distributor data often identifies a dozen or more variables, or markers, that segment customers in certain ways.
For the best customers, Distributors can devote resources to maximizing the business relationship, while for less profitable and less efficient customers, Distributors can find
A surprise for many Distributors is that a lot of accounts they consider “good customers” because of the frequency or regularity of orders, the
While most distributors learned long ago to avoid managing for top-line sales revenue as a measure of results, many of today’s distribution businesses still
To be successful, you need to make the case that your plan serves the company’s – and management’s – best interests. Emphasize results, not
Every organization experiencing success with marketing automation has a different answer to this question. Here are the three that surface most often.
Increasingly, we hear distributors say that their e-commerce site is not getting the revenue traction they expected. The distributor went into the initiative
For many distributors, multi-channel only means adding e-commerce alongside field sales. However, there is more to multi-channel than just field sales and e-commerce.
When shopping (finding, researching, and evaluating products), three methods are most frequently used including performing online search, going to a manufacturer website, and going
Millennials now outnumber Boomers and GenX in the work force (see Figure 1.) In 4 years they will significantly outnumber Boomers and along with
In the research we performed with over 3500 customers of distributors, we learned that three methods for purchasing (email, web, phone) were significantly more
Only 4 percent of respondents to the joint MDM-Distribution Strategy Group annual marketing survey said they are extremely satisfied with the results of their
Distribution Strategy Group conducted an electronic survey with Modern Distribution Management in September 2016 of 425 participants to better understand trends in distribution marketing.
Going to a distributor website to find what to buy is more popular than talking to a sales rep, customer service rep, or looking
This article examines the results of the 2016 State of E-Commerce in Distribution Survey and how the industry’s e-commerce offerings are maturing.
Results for the 2016 state of distributor e-commerce survey
Distribution Strategy Group, in partnership with Modern Distribution Management recently completed a survey about inside sales teams. The survey was designed to understand the
Results from the 2015 distributor marketing survey
Opportunities remain for distributors to improve marketing plans and measurement as a means to increase marketing effectiveness. The 2015 distributor marketing survey covered several
The type of products sold online have a factor, with MRO products generally having higher online adoption. However, the biggest and most important factor
Research from the previously published annual 2015 State of E-Commerce Study indicates that more than 41 percent of distributors are generating less than 5