We talk with Matt Johnson of Spinstak Growth Agency. which helps industrial distributors and manufacturers adopt ecommerce and best practices around inbound and outbound marketing. He has a long history in this industry, growing up in a family-owned sign manufacturer, Accuform Signs. He’s also worked with a lot of family-owned distributors. It’s given him a unique take on how those companies can adapt to buyers’ changing expectations in the market.

Brad Telker, vice president of Applied Systems Group at HVACR distributor CFM DIstributors, and founder of CFM Sales Academy, talks with Lindsay Konzak about the value of developing and sharing useful content, and how it has helped the HVACR distributor grow and engage with customers.

We talk with Ranga Bodla, head of industry marketing for the cloud ERP platform NetSuite (a business unit of Oracle). NetSuite has recently launched Grow Wire, an online publication with articles, podcasts, video, research and more not for the goal of self-promotion but simply to provide resources to companies they want to reach. It’s the ultimate example of content marketing. Ranga also speaks with me about his philosophy when it comes to thought leadership – a phrase that is frequently thrown around, but not always executed well.

We talk with Jonathan Bein, managing partner of Real Results Marketing and one of the brains behind a number of research studies in wholesale distribution illustrating trends in marketing, digital adoption and ecommerce. Jonathan and his partners are also the authors of a must-read, "What Customers Want: A Distributor’s Guide to Customer Buying and Shopping Preferences," which is based on their survey of nearly 10,000 end-customers. In short, it’s a very powerful report on what customers want from their suppliers.

Nina Baker is a software marketing specialist at Tribute Software, a niche ERP provider in the fluid power distribution channel. She does a great job of engaging prospects even when they’re not in a position to buy or switch suppliers. That’s critical in software, which companies buy infrequently.

John Dupra is co-founder of Revel Woods at revelwoods.com. Revel Woods is a company that was borne out of his family’s business, Installers Warehouse, a hardwood flooring wholesaler-distributor. Revel Woods is a new approach to e-commerce and digital in a traditional industry. Dupra and his colleagues took inspiration from clothing delivery services like Stitchfix and Trunk Club. Looking outside your industry for ideas and inspiration is what needs to happen to compete more effectively, especially online, with big-box stores and online competitors like Amazon.

Dirk Beveridge is the founder of UnleashWD, a boutique consulting company out of Barrington, Illinois. His mission: to help distributors rethink what it means to be sustainable, relevant and profitable in this age of rapid change and disruption. He truly believes that the leaders of distribution businesses find themselves at a point and time in their career where they are being called to lead their companies into a new age, and it's going to require innovation, change, transformation, leadership at a greater speed than ever before.

In this podcast, we talk not only about Dirk’s mission to bring innovation to a traditional industry but also how he’s gained traction with his audience using events, effective and authentic email marketing, and thought leadership. He used to be afraid to “give too much away” but he’s now an open book, and as a result is reaching more companies than ever before.