Distribution Talk

Want to optimize talent, foster innovation, and inspire loyalty amongst your staff? Diane Dye Hansen, chief management consultant at What Works Consultants, Inc., says the secret begins and ends with your company culture. Too often, however, companies settle for buzzwords rather than developing a vision statement with input from all.

Diane joins Jason to discuss cultivating a healthy, productive work environment using research and data-driven assessment tools. She also shares one exercise guaranteed to help organizations define authentic company culture for themselves.

Companies committed to recalibrating organizational integrity can begin by asking their employees to complete the following statement: The way we work around here is… The answers are often revelatory.

From diagnosing internal struggles to highlighting opportunities for innovation, this simple ask can transform company culture for the better––and the future. Action-oriented, inclusive company culture goes further in securing and keeping quality employees than words emblazoned on a lobby wall.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

The Predictive Index

Good To Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't

LinkedIn

What Works Consultants, Inc.

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For full show notes and services visit: http://www.distributionteam.com

Distribution Talk is produced by The Distribution Team, a consulting services firm dedicated to helping wholesale distribution clients remove barriers to profitability, generate wealth and achieve personal goals.

This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios.

If you haven't considered a credit union as your next commercial lending partner, you're not considering all the options.

Mark Ritter, CEO of Nu Direction Lending, specializes in bringing traditional business financing to the credit union market, keeping the focus and funds local. Jason chats with Mark about what makes the credit union relationship unique and how wholesale distributors can benefit by securing their lines of credit, real estate loans, or general financing with a community-based lender.

In addition to keeping money flowing locally, credit unions offer their clients direct access to lending decision-makers. That's a win-win for distributors as personal relationships buoy a company's bottom line.

Not a member? No problem! Over the last ten years, credit unions have greatly expanded their membership criteria, welcoming more personal banking and small business clients into the fold.

Whether it's a line of credit, a real estate loan, or something in between, the opportunities for distribution businesses are endless.

When searching for fast, fair, and reliable funding, maybe it's time you took your business to a credit union––an organization that knows your company as well as your community.

LinkedIn

MarkRitter.com

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For full show notes and services visit: http://www.distributionteam.com

Distribution Talk is produced by The Distribution Team, a consulting services firm dedicated to helping wholesale distribution clients remove barriers to profitability, generate wealth and achieve personal goals.

This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios.

Special thanks to our sponsor for this episode: INxSQL Distribution Software, integrated distribution ERP software designed for the wholesale and distribution industry.

Companies in every vertical have become acquainted with safety distributors throughout the pandemic. But there's more to this partnership than "just" PPE.

Jason chats with Dave White, the purpose-driven co-owner of Quad City Safety in Davenport, IA, about back-to-basics accounting and why he favors educating customers at the expense of recording sales.

"A lot of the world operates selfishly," Dave says, explaining why Quad City Safety gives away so much of its expertise through both a YouTube channel and a podcast. "I think that through being unselfish, usually you're rewarded for being [so]."

It's doubtful that anyone who's had a conversation with Dave would accuse him of ulterior motives; he's that passionate about sharing life-saving products and safety information.

Of course, transactions keep the business viable enough to support those multimedia endeavors. That's where Dave's accounting background comes into play. Distribution companies are littered with emotional, sales-minded individuals who are sometimes swayed by bright, shiny decisions.

Accountant-minded folks like Dave aren't so easily distracted.

Dave and his Quad City Safety specialists continue to forge relationships through knowledge, regardless of how the numbers get crunched. They're committed to reliable, relatable customer care, from updating folks on the latest safety standards to demonstrating wearable gear and site-specific equipment. More often than not, those conversations result in a fall protection device ending up in the right place at the right time––and someone going home unharmed.

American Society of Safety Professionals

AD Safety Network

LinkedIn

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For full show notes and services visit: http://www.distributionteam.com

Distribution Talk is produced by The Distribution Team, a consulting services firm dedicated to helping wholesale distribution clients remove barriers to profitability, generate wealth and achieve personal goals.

This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios.

Special thanks to our sponsor for this episode: HMI Performance Incentives, providing innovative, data-driven B2B incentive solutions.

Looking for a way to enhance company culture and boost revenue? Mike Mortensen, president and CEO of Alaska Rubber Group based in Anchorage, AK, has a proven solution: an employee stock ownership plan.

Jason chats with Mike about his entry-level start in distribution, his company's rapidly expanding physical and digital presence, and why owners of privately-held organizations should look to an ESOP when considering growth or exit strategies.

For many independent distributors, the thought of turning company ownership over to employees is as intriguing as it is intimidating. But ESOP options are endless; owners can choose the most suitable structure for their organization and their legacy. For Alaska Rubber, that meant pursuing a "beneficial ownership" model. "The trust owns the company, owns the inventory, the assets and everything like that. And as an employee and a participant in the plan, we own the right to the rise or fall of the share price."

To say that the ESOP has panned out for Alaska Rubber is an understatement. While the model wasn't an easy option for the company's original selling party to buy into, the long-term benefits outweighed those initial doubts.

Besides increased revenue, transitioning to an ESOP has provided the company with advantages in areas of recruitment, acquisition, and innovation. The company recently completed a massive website upgrade, for example and while on-site cash sales remains top tier, Mike says the fully integrated B2B e-commerce platform has captured business well beyond the counter. Mike also credits forward-thinking tech companies like data partner Proton AI with Alaska Rubber's success despite online pressure from behemoth pick-and-ship competitors.

Mike's good fortune in the distribution industry is one he's paying forward. He views his participation in both NAHAD (The Association for Hose & Accessories Distribution) and IDCO (Industrial Distributors Co-op) as a way to contribute to the industry's future.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

DT082: Benj Cohen of Proton AI on Leveraging Sales Data with AI Designed for the Distribution Industry

Proton AI

NAHAD - The Association for Hose & Accessories Distribution

IDCO - Industrial Distributors Co-op

Alaska Rubber Group

LinkedIn

LinkedIn

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For full show notes and services visit: http://www.distributionteam.com

Distribution Talk is produced by The Distribution Team, a consulting services firm dedicated to helping wholesale distribution clients remove barriers to profitability, generate wealth and achieve personal goals.

This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios.

Special thanks to our sponsor for this episode: INxSQL Distribution Software, integrated distribution ERP software designed for the wholesale and distribution industry.

During this holiday season, we are taking the opportunity to re-release some of the most popular episodes of Distribution Talk. Jason recently caught up with Lincoln Smith, chief strategy officer at HMI Performance Incentives. Although most people associate loyalty incentives with customer programs, now would be a great time to look at shoring up the relationship with internal associates. Distributors are not immune to the "great resignation" going on in North America and we hate to see associates jump ship for a couple of bucks per hour when we could design non-monetary performance rewards to keep them engaged.

Furthermore, Jason predicts that 2022 will be a great time to double down on increasing market share. If you have the inventory, you're in a great position. Loyalty incentives are just another arrow in your quiver. Lincoln has been a great resource to the Distribution Team's clients over the last 18 months. Enjoy this conversation!

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With everything you've got going on, here's a topic you might not have considered: loyalty programs. Business has been thrown quite a few curveballs over the recent months and Lincoln Smith says rewards packages could hit a home run for B2B pros looking to boost their profiles and bottom lines in the months and years ahead.

Many distributors and wholesalers are being forced to meet challenges that were at the tail end of their do-to lists. HMI is stepping in with innovative solutions for any size business. The drastic world and business changes of late might warrant a tactical refresh and programs like those built by HMI become much more relevant as your business searches for an advantage in the business environment of the very near future.

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Distribution Talk is produced by The Distribution Team, a consulting services firm dedicated to helping wholesale distribution clients remove barriers to profitability, generate wealth and achieve personal goals.

This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios.

http://www.distributionteam.com

Special thanks to our sponsor for this episode: HMI Performance Incentives, providing innovative, data-driven B2B incentive solutions.

During this holiday season, we are taking the opportunity to re-release some of the most popular episodes of Distribution Talk. The August 2020 interview with Lisa Fiore, co-founder and CEO of Landscape Hub, broke all download records for the show. People were intrigued with her ability to apply this digital marketplace to the highly fragmented legacy industry of landscapes.

Since the interview, Landscape Hub has grown dramatically and they're continuing to add more robust search features for the end user. From a fingernails in the dirt family business to technology-driven service provider, this is a really cool innovation story. Enjoy!

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Lisa Fiore left the family business behind to transform an industry. Jason and Lisa discuss the challenges that have shaped her management style and the tech she's created to revolutionize a stodgy wholesale vertical.

"Their version of the story is that I grabbed the business and took it from them. My version is they gave it to me," Lisa laughs, recalling the series of events that ultimately lead to her taking over the family's century-old landscape supply business in 2010 - at the height of the Great Recession.

Throughout that crisis, Lisa maintained an honest dialogue with her staff and her family about the painful adjustments to come. Fostering that level transparency taught her a great deal about the value of vulnerability, an attribute that has prepared her for the current pandemic. "We all have deep scars from the recession and I guarantee you we're all gonna have deep scars of living through this…[but] it's informed my instincts."

Challenges should beget meaningful change. That's a takeaway Lisa has run with throughout her career. After shoring up the family business, she left the company to realize her dream: the creation of an online marketplace connecting buyers and quality suppliers across the country.

But optimizing a fragmented ecosystem is not an easy task - or a quick one.

Imagine an industry in which the established common names for products change from region to region, where orders are often taken via pencil and pad. That's what Landscape Hub is up against. Three years in, however, Lisa is as enthusiastic about her tech as she was the first time she pitched it to venture capitalists. "This is the future of the industry and I have to be a part of it and I have to see this thing through."

Under her guidance, Lisa and her team will no doubt do just that. An entrepreneur at heart, she's happiest laying the foundation for future innovations. "We are doing something that is genuinely going to change this industry. We don't know necessarily what role we'll play in terms of the finished product, but I guarantee you, what we're doing today will make a difference."

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Distribution Talk is produced by The Distribution Team, a consulting services firm dedicated to helping wholesale distribution clients remove barriers to profitability, generate wealth and achieve personal goals.

This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios.

http://www.distributionteam.com

Special thanks to our sponsor for this episode: INxSQL Distribution Software, integrated distribution ERP software designed for the wholesale and distribution industry.

If a trade association is only as good as its leadership, then HARDI––the Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Distributors International Association––is very good indeed, thanks to the energetic and innovative direction of CEO Talbot Gee. Jason chats with Talbot about his formula for providing consistent, top-notch value to HARDI members. The equation includes plenty of workforce development, government advocacy, and gratitude for the biggest little industry most folks know nothing about.

"You could be a supremely educated college graduate, or you could be someone who never once even considered or wanted to go to college. Maybe [you] barely got through high school." Talbot confides, before revealing distribution's best-kept secret: "You could end up being a multimillionaire in this industry if you got the right stuff and work hard at it." He has the stories to prove his supposition, committed to video for the documentary Hot Commodity, a behind-the-scenes look at young people finding success in the HVAC industry. It's one of the many workforce initiatives that Talbot has been involved in, a concerted effort to build relationships with the next generation of decision-makers. In doing so, he's securing the current and future health of the industry.

Whether he's promoting the HVAC industry, pushing the envelope of member offerings, or expanding his organization into Mexico, Talbot is laser-focused. HARDI's membership appreciates his work, especially regarding the many congressional fly-ins he's participated in on behalf of sector-specific issues. It's a form of advocacy that Talbot has helped foster. "I know people get uncomfortable when you talk about the connection of money in politics," he says, "but there's a reason that all exists. I'm not saying it's perfect, but it's not all bad."

One of HARDI's strengths lies in its ability to drive member engagement, reaching out rather than waiting for membership to respond. Talbot says the organization continues to lean into and learn from those efforts. "That's kind of one of those dynamics of just how our business is so different now than the way it was before," he says, referencing not only the period just before the pandemic but also HARDI's overall evolution.

The organization has grown to three times the size since Talbot first arrived and has become a more consultative entity in the intervening years. That growth suits Talbot, who's constantly tuned into creating mutually beneficial strategies and partnerships for the people he serves. "Man, when you solve a problem for them," Talbot says, "it's like best friends for life. They're the absolute most gracious people you could ever meet."

Watch Hot Commodity, the documentary mentioned in this episode, for free.

Hot Commodity

DT069: Steve Deist on career paths and recruitment strategies in wholesale distribution

HARDI

LinkedIn

LinkedIn

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Distribution Talk is produced by The Distribution Team, a consulting services firm dedicated to helping wholesale distribution clients remove barriers to profitability, generate wealth and achieve personal goals.

This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios.

http://www.distributionteam.com

Special thanks to our sponsor for this episode: INxSQL Distribution Software, integrated distribution ERP software designed for the wholesale and distribution industry.

In order to compete in business, you need to be willing to change your ways. Jason talks about recruiting and retaining talent in the digital age with Marc Beerman, President and CEO of Beerman Precision in Beerman Precision is a New Orleans based rental, sales and service company focused on the industrial construction market.

Marc learned the importance of understanding finances early on from his father, Ralph, who founded the company as a side hustle while working full time and raising a family. Quoting a lesson from his dad, Marc says, "Don't let tax returns fool you. Sometimes you make money on paper, but you have no cash." This insistence motivated Marc to go back to school after completing his engineering degree to get another degree… this time in finance.

Marc came into the business in the early 1980s when the business was crashing due to the bottom dropping out of the oil industry. His solution was to stop buying inventory. "I said, 'We need to be cash rich, inventory lean'… so that when things turn around we have enough capital to make it through." And make it through, they did, but it wasn't until the 1990s that they were able to start growing again.

Over his 3+ decades of leadership Marc has weathered storms (literally and figuratively) and has navigated changes in branches, technology, and more. Like many DT guests, he says one of the best business decisions he made was joining the board at STAFDA, eventually even serving as president. "You learn tremendous amounts from being around people who know a lot more than you."

One of the things that lights Marc up is seeing young people coming into STAFDA. He and Jason agree that they need even more young folks entering distribution as a career. Marc says the problem is that distribution isn't a visible industry, rather it's more behind the scenes. Jason quips, "We're boxes in, boxes out!"

The corner Marc is turning now is to focus more on e-commerce, an area where he sees some companies excelling and a lot who are lagging behind. He feels like this is an area where there is opportunity for smaller companies to play. The challenge is to recruit and retrain a different type of talent than what they have previously been accustomed to. Pitching your company to a potential candidate can be a bit of a role reversal. For Beerman, Marc is asking the critical question "What makes us a valuable place for someone to make a career?"

His solution is giving young candidates a career path, helping them see what the future may hold for them when they come to work for Beerman. He cites Evergreen Marketing Group as a valuable partner, providing members with financial incentives toward investing in training for their employees. He sees this as part of his pitch to attract talent, and says, "It's been a great win for many of our employees, but it also was a win, believe it or not, for some employees that didn't stay with us." Ultimately, he says regardless of the risk, it's worth the investment either way.

Beerman Precision

LinkedIn

LinkedIn

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Distribution Talk is produced by The Distribution Team, a consulting services firm dedicated to helping wholesale distribution clients remove barriers to profitability, generate wealth and achieve personal goals.

This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios.

http://www.distributionteam.com

Special thanks to our sponsor for this episode: HMI Performance Incentives, providing innovative, data-driven B2B incentive solutions.

There's no question that artificial intelligence is poised to revolutionize distribution, and incorporating this vital tool is a lot less daunting than it once seemed. Jason chats with Benj Cohen, founder and CEO of Proton AI, about extracting the gold that's buried deep in our systems. From uncovering hidden sales opportunities to onboarding new reps quicker than ever before, AI's ability to dig into data can help our legacy industry close more sales and meet future market challenges.

"The median Proton AI customer sells 687,000 different skews," says Benj. With all those items in play, it's difficult for reps to figure out what customers need to buy now and anticipate what they'll want to buy further down the sales stream. "We have a ton of data that we're not leveraging to solve this problem." Enter Proton AI, the post-graduation project he set up to find a solution that would apply to the family's dental distribution business and other verticals.

Having grown up in and around distribution, Benj is sensitive to AI skeptics amongst salespeople and owners. "We're very far away, in my opinion, from AI taking over the world, especially taking over the world of distribution," he says, allaying those fears by explaining how the tech supports growth. "What we do is ingest all of the customer data, product, data, transaction data, quote data, online browse data, truly everything we can get about what a distributor's customers are doing."

Those patterns, many of which are too sophisticated for the human brain to recognize efficiently, are analyzed to make reps smarter. "The challenge with traditional CRMs is that they are just taking from the rep but not giving." Proton AI's approach delivers sales opportunities and creates a unique partnership between reps and its technology––via a system that your company's salesforce will actually want to use. "We're trying to be a helpful partner, to make their lives easier so they can spend more time with customers."

Benj is a tech CEO with distribution in his DNA; he views the playing field from every angle and devises solutions accordingly. "Distributors need to be ready to compete with this next generation of digital-first companies," he advises, adding, "I don't think we should be beating ourselves up as a distributor saying, 'Oh, geez! We're backwards. We don't think technically!'"

Ultimately, it's about tools that, to this point, haven't considered the industry's business model. Instead, they've simply overlaid their rigid systems onto distribution's expansive terrain. "Distributors already have a ton of data at their disposal," he says. Proton AI helps any size distributor analyze that information to their long-term advantage.

ProtonAI

[email protected]

LinkedIn

LinkedIn

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Distribution Talk is produced by The Distribution Team, a consulting services firm dedicated to helping wholesale distribution clients remove barriers to profitability, generate wealth and achieve personal goals.

This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios.

http://www.distributionteam.com

Special thanks to our sponsor for this episode: INxSQL Distribution Software, integrated distribution ERP software designed for the wholesale and distribution industry.

When Tyler Yelland, vice president of sales and marketing at Primco, approached the company's president, Cam Overacker, about starting a podcast, the pair quickly realized the show's potential beyond sales. Jason chats with the Canada-based duo about telegraphing Primco's company culture via Know Where You Stand (KWYS), their trendsetting podcast in the ordinarily conservative floor covering industry. From honest talk about podcasting's ROI to its power as a vehicle for inspiring the next generation of distribution professionals, Cam, Tyler, and Jason share their experiences and insights with the pod-curious.

There's a simple explanation for how a Primco podcast came about: a marketing consultant proposed a blog. "I just wanted to do something more unique and something different [in] the market," says Tyler. Ten episodes into recording KWYS, his instincts have proven sound. The show comes across exactly as intended––an informative chat among colleagues who just happen to be friends. "It doesn't feel like work. It's just like Cam and I having another meeting except, instead of talking KPIs, we're just talking about what we would normally talk about."

"I had no idea what I was getting in for," Cam jokes. All kidding aside, he quickly embraced a bigger picture mentality. "The transparency that the podcast gives us is, 'trust us, this is really who we are, and this is what we're going to say.'" Cam and Tyler aren't product reviewers; they're industry advocates inviting manufacturers, retail partners, and, yes, even consumers behind the scenes. "For me, it's more about that one person that you turn to, maybe, being open to hearing more about the Primco story and our products... To me, that's more important than any stat you can get," Cam says.

Still, KWYS has an impressive reach thus far, and it's easy to understand why. With episode topics running the gamut from technology to shipping (a top-of-mind consideration given COVID import delays across every vertical), KWYS is a data-driven listen as well as an engaging access point for future business leaders. Tyler agrees. "There were so many times when I was younger and just thought I knew everything," he says. "It would have been nice to be able to flip something like this on and just listen to it and get ideas and get those juices flowing."

When asked to share their number one podcasting tip, the Primco guys echo one of Jason's own: "Call Andrea," Cam says, a shoutout to Andrea Klunder, producer of both KWYS and DT. The response is also a nod to Cam's overall business investment strategy. "When we look back on [Primco's] failures over 74 years of business, it's the times when you can see that [we] didn't go all in."

The Q and A Sales Podcast w/ Paul Reilly

V Strategies - Calgary Video & Production

Surfaces: The International Surfaces Event

NAFCD

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LinkedIn

LinkedIn

LinkedIn

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Distribution Talk is produced by The Distribution Team, a consulting services firm dedicated to helping wholesale distribution clients remove barriers to profitability, generate wealth and achieve personal goals.

This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios.

http://www.distributionteam.com

Special thanks to our sponsor for this episode: HMI Performance Incentives, providing innovative, data-driven B2B incentive solutions.