Darn Good Distributors

SMS marketing shows up where busy professionals live, on their phones. In this conversation, Kyler Nixon sits down with Kristin Dean to unpack why hairstylists, massage therapists, and spa pros engage in the middle of the day, how product-focused texts beat education in SMS, and why webinars still win. Kristin shares the starting point, taking top-performing short emails and turning them into concise texts, then testing send times, segmentation by profession, treatments, and a simple benchmark approach to attribution. She details the move from SMS Bump to Klaviyo, low-cost tests, and a 75X ROI that ended internal pushback fast. The discussion expands to education as a funnel, cross-functional content with licensed staff, and company-wide momentum for brand building at a family-owned business. Listeners will hear practical send cadences, how engagement changed over time, and why knowing the customer shapes every message.

ㅤ

👤 Guest Bio

Kristin Dean is Revenue Director at Universal Companies. Kristin has led email and SMS programs, uses AI daily for copy and analysis, and partners with licensed staff across product development, sales, and the call center to create blogs and webinars. Her team tested SMS with product-focused messages, refined send times, and reported a 75X ROI. Kristin is focused on education as a funnel, cross-functional collaboration, and brand building for a family-owned company.

ㅤ

📌 What We Cover

• Why a B2B audience still acts like consumers, and how that unlocked SMS testing
• Turning top-performing, shorter emails into texts, then expanding into new arrivals roundups, discounts, and webinar signups
• Segmentation by profession and treatment types, mirroring email while adjusting for SMS engagement
• Send time insights, evenings for email, and the middle of the day for SMS between appointments
• Measuring ROI with low-cost sends, simple benchmarks, and realistic attribution expectations
• Platform shift from SMS Bump shutting down to Klaviyo to tie channels together
• Send cadence changes, weekly to every other week, as engagement settles
• Education as a funnel, webinars that get quick daytime signups, and company-wide support for brand building

ㅤ

🔗 Resources Mentioned

• Klaviyo
• SMS Bump

Branding can carry a mythical connotation, but the real signal shows up in how you communicate when the waters get murky. In this conversation, Kyler Nixon sits down with Andrew Haring to contrast blanket price increases with a customer-first stance that says we are here to serve our customers and we are in your corner. Andrew unpacks proactive pricing announcements, why trust and service trump price points, and how being natural, genuine, and authentic builds a single version of yourself that customers recognize. The discussion moves from personal brand to channels and tactics, including robust social, a strong email calendar, consistent point of purchase, printed catalogs, and create once and distribute everywhere. Andrew details segmentation by product brand categories and buying behavior, the role of quarterly specials and product launches, and a simple playbook focused on shortening lead times, regional support, and technical service that makes marketing easy to promote.

ㅤ

Andrew Haring is a Friend of the Glass Industry and CMO at FHC. He has 20 years in the glass, construction, and architectural industries with an emphasis on marketing, education, sales, and advocacy. He served as Vice President of Business Development at the National Glass Association and previously as Vice President of Marketing at C.R. Laurence. Recognitions include Glazier Nation’s Advocate of the Year and a USGlass Magazine Most Influential People mention. He is a calculated noisemaker who likes glass and values brand equity.

ㅤ

• Handling tariffs with proactive communication, mitigation, and a customer-first pricing announcement
• Trust and service outweigh price points, with actions that back partnership and support
• Authenticity over polish: fewer versions of yourself, what you see is what you get
• Channels that work in a squirrely industry: robust social, strong email calendar, point of purchase, printed catalogs, trade publications
• Create once and distribute everywhere with automation and programmatic advertising
• Email as both relationship and transaction: quarterly specials, product launches, staying top of mind for project-driven purchases
• Segmentation by product brand categories and buying behavior across commercial and residential profiles and company sizes
• A simple playbook for growth: shorten lead times, add locations for regional support, invest in technical service, and make adoption easier

ㅤ

• Kyler Nixon on LinkedIn
• Andrew Haring on LinkedIn
• FHC — Frameless Hardware Company

A big e-comm overhaul with brick and mortar, e-commerce, sales reps, and education moving together. Kyler Nixon sits down with Jeremy Ott to unpack a massive ecommerce overhaul. The conversation walks through a six to eight month RFP process, executive buy-in from a forward-thinking CEO, and the push for more core out of the box functionality, personalization, and newer technologies. Jeremy shares regrets around more beta testing, internal testing, customer facing webinars, and customer advisory boards. He explains how data and being more analytical driven met real feedback on features like requisition lists, brands pages, and a personalized my top products view. The team reworked a brand statement, rebuilt customer personas across product lines, and aimed for an omnichannel experience that feels cohesive in store, email, social, and the website. Education, sales rep specific emails, and training videos help customers learn and buy.

ㅤ

Jeremy Ott is Director of eCommerce and Digital Marketing at Reinders Inc. Reinders is one of the Midwest’s largest full service distributors to the commercial green industry, a one stop source from growing grass to watering it, from mowing it to keeping it looking great. The team offers quality products and solutions with staff that includes degreed specialists in Turf, Plant Pathology, Soils, and Aquatics. Learn more at reinders.com.

ㅤ

• A big web overhaul that went live in September of 2023 after a two year migration and an ERP to the cloud
• Re-platforming from a homegrown solution to Rock Commerce, then to Adobe Commerce with open APIs and less customization
• A three to five month RFP build, six to eight month vendor selection, demos, and signing with Adobe in October of 2021
• Executive buy-in with leadership focused on customer experience, performance, speed, and integration with the ERP
• What Jeremy would do differently: more beta testing, internal testing, focus groups, user groups, and customer facing webinars
• Data driven decisions vs real customer insights on requisition lists, brands pages, and a personalized my top products view
• Reevaluating the UI UX across desktop and mobile using heat mapping and video recordings to find frustration and drop off points
• A refreshed brand statement and rebuilt customer personas across product lines to drive a cohesive omnichannel experience
• Educational emails, sales rep specific emails, and in-house training videos on equipment like fairway mowers and sprayers

ㅤ

• Adobe Commerce
• Rock Commerce
• AmericanEagle.com
• Google Analytics

“Customers are buying trust.” That line stopped the conversation and set the tone for a candid look at long sales cycles, culture, and product bets. Host Kyler Nixon sits down with Nic Breedlove to unpack a model that blends distributor and manufacturer, serves about 350 distributors, and manages operations in Indianapolis, Savannah, and Houston. The buying journey is often 90 days or more, and a custom order can take six months from order to revenue. Nic shares why passion and knowledge build credibility, why one-time buyers must be educated quickly, and how a seven-year nurture still converted. He opens up about a painful chapter of betrayal, the absence of checks and balances, and rebuilding with direct expectations, behavioral analysis, and daily core values in huddles and quarterlies. The conversation closes with new product development, a quick ship line that now represents about half of revenue, a new inspections app for owners and operators, and a three-year planning horizon tied to a big, hairy goal to reduce avoidable injuries on playgrounds.

ㅤ

Nic Breedlove is the founder and CEO of NVB Playgrounds. His team operates as a manufacturer and a distributor, supplying about 350 distributors across the United States and serving government and business buyers. NVB runs operations in Indianapolis, Savannah, and Houston. Nic is active on LinkedIn, leads a design and new product development team, and focuses on quick ship structures, software for inspections, and daily core values that guide performance and growth.

ㅤ

• “Customers are buying trust,” and how passion and knowledge show up in posts, safety, layout, and community
• A blended model, manufacturer and distributor, supplying about 350 distributors with operations in Indianapolis, Savannah, and Houston
• Sales cycles that average 90 days, custom timelines that push orders to six months from order to revenue, and cash flow strain
• One-time buyers on boards and school teams, why education must be quick, specific, and directed
• A seven-year sales story from catalog request to close, and the power of staying in touch with the same salesperson
• Trust inside the team, hiring fast in the past, direct feedback, behavioral analysis, and quarterly reviews
• The betrayal chapter, shell companies, missing checks and balances, silos, and rebuilding morale after terminations
• Core values in daily huddles and quarterlies, shout-outs, and scoring performance on growth mindset
• Quick ship as a distribution backbone, inventory across three locations, guarantees to distributors, and about 50 percent of revenue
• New product development on structures, reviewing thousands of orders, color schemes, components, and using tools like ChatGPT and Claude
• A new app for owners and operators, inspections and digitalized services, and a launch at the National Park and Rec show in Orlando
• Three-year planning, not ten, Cameron Harold’s perspective, and a big hairy goal to reduce avoidable playground injuries in North America

ㅤ

• PlaygroundEquipment.com
• ChatGPT
• Claude
• HubSpot training
• COO Alliance podcast with Cameron Harold
• National Park and Rec show in Orlando

Launching a business focused podcast under a distribution brand can open doors and still fall short of the sale. Host Kyler Nixon sits down with James Gilman, president of Perimeter Office Products and host of “Pushing the Envelope,” to talk about starting in January 2024, recording forty plus episodes, and choosing to pause when it did not drive what he thought it would. James shares why the show was an inexpensive way to brand the company, connect with the ideal client, and open doors for the sales team. He breaks down live show vs prerecord, the push for consistency, the couple grand a month reality, and why building a deep bench matters. The conversation shifts to people, core values, and clarity, with contests, town halls, and every person having a number. It is a look at attention, screens, and the need to communicate the why while you kill ambiguity and keep growing.

ㅤ

Check out Pushing the Envelope, hosted by James Gilman. Sponsored by Perimeter Office Products, the show highlights Atlanta’s business landscape through candid conversations with entrepreneurs, leaders, and industry experts. Each episode uncovers stories of growth, challenge, and innovation, offering a fresh perspective on what drives business forward in Georgia’s dynamic market. Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

ㅤ

James Gilman is the president of Perimeter Office Products and host of “Pushing the Envelope.” His background is in sales, with fifteen years of one-on-one conversations and meeting twenty new businesses every single week. He moved into the president role in 2022 and describes himself as a visionary who needs implementers and integrators. “Pushing the Envelope” carries a double entendre from the office supply industry and reflects his focus on moving the needle, trying new things, and celebrating wins and challenges.

ㅤ

• Why a company sponsored podcast can brand the business, connect with the ideal client, and open doors for the sales team
• The realization that sales did not just start coming in and why the show paused to focus on people, team, and processes
• Live show vs prerecord, blocking a morning to record three or four episodes, and why consistency is the number one thing
• The real cost and time tradeoffs, dialing back time, and spending a couple grand a month with outside help
• Account-based podcasting to celebrate decision makers, learn the landscape, and build relationships without a hard pitch
• Using a podcast to speak into the team, talk about culture, and let employees hear interactions on a public forum
• Core values that people can name, contests that nominate peers, quarterly town halls, and awarding people publicly
• Fighting ambiguity with clarity, start-stop-keep feedback, communicating the why, and giving every person a number
• Scaling Up vs EOS, cash focus, collections, and growing without outgrowing cash
• Attention and screens, going where the eyeballs are, and adjusting how you communicate

ㅤ

• Kyler Nixon
• James Gilman
• Perimeter Office Products: https://www.perimeteroffice.com/perimeter
• “Pushing the Envelope”
• “Fully Open” Podcast by Gil Welsford Jr
• “In the Mind of a Distributor” podcast by Proton CRM
• Proton CRM
• EOS and Traction
• Scaling Up by “Verne Harnish”
• Start-stop-keep framework

Welcome to Darn Good Distributors with Kyler Nixon. Today’s conversation with Eric Reffett centers on a 360 view of the organization, moving from a finance path to president, and building a team that is direct, respectful, and aligned. Eric explains starting in a space between a startup and an established company, doing invoice entry and reconciling accounts, then letting new people come in and own them. He shares how attribution, analytics, and pipeline make growth decisions simple, why an organic LinkedIn presence matters, and how core values shape a platoon mindset with open conversations. The team is launching a new website to give big buyers a B2C experience with pay terms, credit approvals, tax exemption, and self-serve customization. With a new investor, a move to 150,000 square feet, and a new operating system, the sky is the limit.

ㅤ

Eric Reffett is president at ePackageSupply. His background runs through finance and operations with early mentorship at Berry Global. He joined the company five years ago, grew from a space between a startup and an established company, and recently stepped into the president role. Eric is focused on connecting operations, sales, and B2B processes while keeping a 360 view of the business.

ㅤ

• Using finance as an opportunity to get into all aspects of the business
• Doing everything from invoice entry to reconciling accounts, then letting new people own them
• Breaking away from native finance tasks to connect operations, sales, and B2B processes
• Pushing the growth lever with data, attribution, analytics, and pipeline
• Building a visible team with an organic LinkedIn presence and strong core values
• A founder’s Marine Corps ethos, direct conversations, and a platoon approach
• Treating B2C and B2B customers the same with a seamless online and personal experience
• A new website for big orders, pay terms, credit approvals, tax exemption, and self-serve customization
• Adding an investor, moving to 150,000 square feet, and launching a new operating system
• Bundling in-house design as part of the offer, growing with customers, and the role of AI

ㅤ

• Darn Good Distributors by Forward Studios
• Kyler Nixon
• Eric Reffett
• ePackageSupply

When distributors talk about a website overhaul, it usually stops at dreaming. For Kyler Nixon and his guest Faith Tank, the story is different. Faith, Director of Marketing and Events at Zip’s AW Direct, shares how her team transitioned from a brochure-style site into a fully integrated e-commerce platform.

ㅤ

From the challenges of merging brands and sub-brands, to navigating a multi-year replatforming process, to mapping journeys for both mom-and-pop towing operations and global corporations, this episode is packed with lessons. Faith also opens up about restructuring a 30-person marketing team, aligning product management with marketing, and rolling out HubSpot to unify sales, service, and marketing. The conversation highlights both the complexity and opportunity of building an online presence that scales across diverse customer groups while staying true to brand identity.

ㅤ

Faith Tank is Director of Marketing and Events at Zip’s AW Direct. She oversees a team of 30 marketers, product managers, creatives, and strategists. Faith has led the company through a major website overhaul, integrated multiple sub-brands, and driven initiatives around SEO, e-commerce, and HubSpot adoption.

ㅤ

• How Zip’s AW Direct evolved from a truck-focused brochure site to a full e-commerce platform
• The multi-year process of replatforming, redesigning, and launching a new website
• Managing messaging complexities across six sub-brands under one umbrella
• Serving both local mom-and-pop shops and the largest towing companies in the world
• Shifting from marketing-led direct sales to a hybrid sales-and-marketing approach
• Restructuring a 30-person marketing team into brand-aligned pods that operate like an in-house agency
• Why product management now lives under marketing — and the SEO benefits of that decision
• Lessons from an eight-month HubSpot rollout across sales, service, marketing, and operations
• Upcoming initiatives including taxonomy restructuring, shop-by-brand improvements, and mobile-first conversion

ㅤ

• Zip’s AW Direct
• Faith Tank on LinkedIn
• Kyler Nixon on LinkedIn

Kyler Nixon welcomes Jason Hugo, founder and president at Quick Response Fire Supply, to explore how a decade of blogging and long form content reshaped a distribution business. Jason traces the journey back to 2012 when a single conference sparked the idea that consistent SEO-driven articles could attract the right buyers. Early experiments showed nothing—until the concept of “marination” revealed that content needs time to gain traction.

ㅤ

What started as an SEO traffic play grew into something much more. Today QRFS content powers training for industry partners, sales enablement, and customer education. Jason explains how translating dense NFPA fire code into accessible guidance built trust with end users and professionals alike. He also shares how the company is rethinking itself as a data business, preparing for a future shaped by AI, centralized product information, and scalable catalogs.

ㅤ

Jason Hugo is the founder and president of Quick Response Fire Supply, a distributor dedicated to simplifying fire safety system maintenance, installation, and compliance. On a mission to make fire protection simpler so nobody gets burned, Jason has led QRFS through more than a decade of consistent blogging and content creation that now totals nearly 500 articles.

ㅤ

• The 2012 conference that inspired the first QRFS blogs and why “marination” became a guiding principle for SEO
• How early content paused, then proved itself as traffic surged through Google Analytics
• The evolution from simple product problem-solution articles to translating NFPA fire code into accessible insights
• Why QRFS content now supports both end users and professional contractors, and even trains manufacturers’ teams
• The challenge AI presents to SEO, traffic, and brand association with solutions
• The role of email in bridging discovery, purchase, and long-term education
• Why Jason believes every distributor must think like a data company to compete in the future
• The foundation QRFS is building to scale to a million SKUs with consistent product data
• Jason’s advice for distributors starting content today: plan to win and commit to consistency

ㅤ

• Marcus Sheridan and The Sales Lion
• Quick Response Fire Supply
• NFPA 25 fire code
• Jason Hugo

Core values that feel obscure turn into core actions that live in the fabric of a company. Host Kyler Nixon sits down with NataLee Allen, Visionary and CEO at ClearBags, to walk through a practical shift from five words to 26 behaviors that repeat every week. NataLee shares how she stepped into leadership after 2019 without the “everything falls on me” fear because the business runs with a great team. She explains how EOS helped redefine values, why “enjoy your life” made the list, and how a core action message plus employee videos unify teammates across three states. The conversation moves to tariffs, inventory moves, a long letter to customers, and a transparent approach to pricing. It wraps with a new Head of AI, a plan to meet every employee, HR chat bots built from the handbook, and AI as a partner that can lift productivity by 30 percent.

NataLee Allen is the Visionary and CEO at ClearBags. She stepped into the role in 2019 after learning that a business is only as good as their team. With EOS in place, she led a companywide shift from five core values to 26 core actions, including her father’s motto, enjoy your life. She champions weekly core action messages with employee videos across three states. NataLee recently designated a Head of AI to help every employee use AI as a partner, including an HR chat bot built from the employee handbook.

• Redefining core values with EOS by asking, what are they, not what should they be
• Turning five values into 26 core actions, including enjoy your life
• Core action of the week emails, employee video shares, and unifying teams in three states
• Hands off leadership made possible by a great team and shared accountability
• Preparing for tariffs with extra inventory, vendor options across 10 countries, and transparent pricing communication
• Writing a long letter to customers and using email as a personal, relational channel
• Designating a Head of AI to meet every employee and increase productivity with AI as a partner
• Building an HR chat bot from the employee handbook and using projects in chat to speed collaboration

• EOS, the entrepreneurial operating system
• Gino Wickman
• A letter to customers via email
• Employee handbook chat bot
• “chat, GBT, just five just came out”

Explaining B2B to someone who only knows consumer brands can feel like a challenge. Kyler Nixon sits down with Marta Dalton, VP of Customer Growth and Data at PetSafe Brands, to explore the core differences between B2B and B2C eCommerce and where they overlap.

ㅤ

Marta shares how pricing, catalogs, checkout, and delivery look completely different in the B2B world and why customer-specific journeys matter so much. She explains why Invisible Fence operates like a B2B despite being a consumer-facing brand, and how she balances the emotional pull of consumer marketing with the financial and operational focus of B2B.

ㅤ

From podcasts and print mail to re-engagement cycles and referrals, Marta outlines the channels, data strategies, and retention frameworks shaping growth today. This conversation highlights how distributors can move beyond spray-and-pray marketing toward precise, data-driven approaches that strengthen relationships and increase customer lifetime value.

ㅤ

Marta Dalton is VP of Customer Growth and Data at PetSafe Brands. With a career that includes leadership roles at Unilever and Coca-Cola, Marta brings deep expertise in global eCommerce, data analytics, digital marketing, and customer experience. At PetSafe Brands, she focuses on building strategies that keep pets happy, healthy, and safe while driving customer growth across both B2B and B2C channels.

ㅤ

• The distinct differences in products, pricing, checkout, and delivery between B2B and B2C
• Why Invisible Fence functions like a B2B despite being a consumer brand
• The “big B vs little b” concept and how business size affects buying behaviors
• How emotions drive consumer purchasing while logic and business needs shape B2B decisions
• Channels fueling growth marketing today, from podcasts to local events and print mail
• Why timing and targeting are critical to effective email and print campaigns
• How referrals outperform branding as a growth strategy in B2B
• The role of adoption and re-engagement in retention and lifetime value
• Using frequency data and missed buy cycles to prevent customer churn

ㅤ

• PetSafe Brands
• Invisible Fence
• Marta Dalton on LinkedIn
• Kyler Nixon on LinkedIn

ㅤ

👉 Ready to grow your distribution business with smarter marketing? Learn how Forward Studios helps B2B distributors drive demand through email and digital strategies.