The manufacturers rep role is changing. Territory coverage and relationships still matter, but manufacturers now expect stronger opportunity visibility, better data, more technical confidence, and a clearer reason to keep investing in the rep relationship.

In this episode of the Leadership in Manufacturing Podcast, Sannah Vinding continues her conversation with Walter Tobin, former CEO of the Electronics Representatives Association. This is part two of their discussion on the electronics channel, and it focuses on how rep firms need to evolve beyond traditional sales positioning.

Walter explains why the best rep firms are thinking more like consulting firms, how AI can help identify customers and opportunities, why digital presence matters, and why succession planning should be visible to principals before it becomes a concern.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why rep firms need to prove value beyond the line card
• How lead flow has changed between reps and manufacturers
• Why digital presence matters for customer trust
• How the consulting mindset can help recruit technical talent
• Why succession planning matters to principals
• What manufacturers often misunderstand about the rep model
• Why technical training matters for the next generation of channel leaders
• How AI can help identify customers and opportunities

About the guest: Walter Tobin is the former CEO of the Electronics Representatives Association. He spent much of his career in electronic distribution, including senior leadership at Future Electronics, before leading ERA and supporting the independent rep community across the electronics channel.

Hosted by Sannah Vinding, engineer and go-to-market leader focused on practical leadership in technical environments.

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Customers are harder to reach. Inboxes are full, LinkedIn pitches arrive too fast, and more outreach is not solving the problem.

In this episode of the Leadership in Manufacturing Podcast, Sannah Vinding sits down with Walter Tobin, former CEO of the Electronics Representatives Association, to talk about why sales training matters in the electronics channel. Walter brings decades of experience across electronics distribution, manufacturer relationships, and the manufacturers rep community.

The conversation covers how customer behavior has changed, why reps and distributors need to work together, what manufacturers risk when they bypass rep relationships, and where AI helps sales teams without replacing the human part.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why customers ignore most outreach today.
• How to think about value before sending the message.
• Why sales training is still missing in parts of the electronics industry.
• How reps and distributors can work together to win and keep the socket.
• Why AI helps with research, but not with trust.
• What it takes to become a trusted advisor in the electronics channel.

About the guest:

Walter Tobin is the former CEO of the Electronics Representatives Association. Before leading ERA, he held senior roles at Future Electronics, Pioneer-Standard, and Arrow Electronics. He is known for his work connecting manufacturers reps, distributors, and manufacturers across the electronics industry.

Hosted by Sannah Vinding, engineer and go-to-market leader focused on how leaders operate when complexity is high and the answers are not always obvious.

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Jeff Newell is the President of Mouser Electronics, a global distributor with more than 4,000 employees, 1,200 manufacturer partners, and customers in 223 countries and territories. In this episode, Jeff sits down with Sannah Vinding to talk about what leadership actually looks like at the top of a multi-billion dollar global business.

Jeff is direct, practical, and refuses to put himself on a pedestal. He is a servant leader. He does not ask his team to do anything he would not do himself. He believes the readiness of your successor is the most accurate signal of whether you are ready for your next role. He shares his own mistakes openly because he believes that is how trust is built. This is a conversation for senior leaders who are quietly asking themselves whether they are doing the work that actually moves people forward.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why building your successor is the real test of leadership readiness
• How to give feedback without making it personal
• Why a servant leader at the top of a global business gets more done
• How to step into a long-tenured leader's role without changing too much too fast
• Why being open about your own mistakes builds more trust than hiding them
• How to read industry cycles before they roll over *
• Why staying open is the career move most senior leaders stop making

About the Guest: Jeff Newell is President of Mouser Electronics. Before stepping into the President role in 2025, he served as Senior Vice President of Products for over a decade. He spent more than 20 years at Texas Instruments earlier in his career.

Hosted By: Sannah Vinding hosts the Leadership in Manufacturing Podcast. She is an engineer and go-to-market leader focused on how leaders operate when complexity is high and answers are not always obvious.

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What does the field sales rep actually deliver in a market where buyers research with AI before they engage? Lonnie Power, Customer Business Manager at Heilind Electronics, joins Sannah Vinding to talk about how the role has shifted from information delivery to translation, bridging, and problem solving.

Lonnie has spent close to three decades inside the electronics industry, working both the supplier and distribution sides of the table. He talks about why AI is a powerful tool but not a replacement, why it answers confidently whether the answer is correct or not, and what it takes to develop the next generation of talent in an industry where most people stumble in by accident.

This conversation is for sales leaders, distribution executives, rep firm owners, and senior professionals who are rebuilding how their teams sell, support, and grow customers in a market where the rules are being rewritten week by week.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why AI speeds the search but judgment closes the deal
• How the field rep role is shifting from information to translation
• Why younger buyers default to Amazon and Alibaba, and what to do about it
• How to reframe the 80/20 rule for where the industry is going
• Why managing your personal brand is the one thing you control
• What it looks like to lead through pivot moments without losing momentum

About the guest:

Lonnie Power is the Customer Business Manager at Heilind Electronics with more than two decades of experience selling component solutions across the electronics industry.

Hosted by Sannah Vinding. She is an engineer and go-to-market leader focused on how leaders operate when complexity is high and the answers are not always obvious.

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AI can pull the datasheet, cross-reference the part, and draft the follow-up in minutes. What it cannot do is understand where a customer's roadmap is heading two years out, or know which application risk will surface before it shows up in testing. The rep who sees around corners is still the one who wins the business. The question is how you build that edge when the tools keep changing.

In this bonus episode of the Leadership in Manufacturing Podcast, host Sannah Vinding continues her conversation with Hunter Starr, CPMR, President at Performance Technical Sales, to explore what separates the reps who stay relevant from the ones who won't as AI reshapes the technical sales workflow.

This five-minute follow-up to episode 138 captures one focused exchange. Hunter shares how his team at Performance Technical Sales is actually using AI today: identifying cross-reference parts, building quick email templates, and gathering customer intelligence. Then he pivots to a framework he shared at a recent sales conference, drawn from Jensen Huang's take on who will be the smartest professionals in the next decade. The answer is not the coders.

Hunter and Sannah land in the same place. AI handles the front end. Judgment still closes the deal. The rep who combines two or three strong skills with AI fluency builds an edge that compounds over time. Hunter makes the case that the rep's role as a guide, seeing around corners for customers and anticipating pitfalls AI cannot see, is more important now than ever.

This bonus episode is for manufacturers reps, rep firm owners, field salespeople, FAEs, product marketers, and sales leaders in electronics and component distribution who want to understand where to invest their time as AI compresses the workflow.

In this episode, you will learn:

• How Hunter's team is using AI for cross-referencing, email templates, and customer intelligence
• What Jensen Huang said about who will be the smartest professionals in the next decade
• Why combining two or three strong skills with AI fluency creates a compounding advantage
• What AI cannot replace in technical sales: roadmap foresight, application risk, and human judgment
• Why the definition of "smart" in technical sales is being redefined in real time
• Where to shift your practice time now that research and first-draft work are no longer the bottleneck

About the guest: Hunter Starr, CPMR, is President of Performance Technical Sales, a manufacturers rep firm serving OEM engineers across the Carolinas. He supports customers across industrial, defense, medical, and agricultural markets, and was recognized as a Rising Star by the Electronic Representatives Association.

Hosted by: Sannah Vinding is an engineer, B2B marketing strategist, leadership educator, and host of the Leadership in Manufacturing Podcast. She helps leaders across electronics, manufacturing, and supply chain lead technical teams with clarity, trust, and confidence as complexity and AI reshape how work gets done.

Listen to more episodes, sign up for the weekly leadership newsletter, and explore insights at: https://leadershipinmanufacturing.com/hello/

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What makes technical training actually work? Not the slides, not the credentials of the trainer, and not the size of the room. According to Don Gillis, HVACR Technical Trainer at HARDI, it comes down to tone, trust, and whether the person delivering the material has genuinely thought about what the audience needs to retain.

Don has spent more than three decades in the HVACR industry, starting in the field before moving into service management and eventually into national technical training roles at Copeland, Emerson, and now HARDI. In this episode, he and host Sannah Vinding talk about the leadership side of technical teaching: how tone changes what people retain, how to handle wrong answers without shutting people down, and why trust in a training room is not a nice-to-have, it is the precondition for any learning to happen.

Don also shares the leadership lesson that took him the longest to learn, what it means to read the room in a technical training context, and how he designs programs that do not leave retention to chance.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why tone matters more than the words you choose when delivering technical content
• How to handle wrong answers in a classroom without shutting people down
• What listening as a leadership skill looks like under real pressure
• How to design training with retention built in from the beginning
• Why the difference between a good training session and a sales pitch is who the trainer is thinking about
• What the football coach analogy teaches about reading the people in front of you
• How Don built curriculum skills outside his job description through curiosity and persistence

About the guest: Don Gillis is an HVACR Technical Trainer at HARDI with more than 30 years of experience across field work, service management, and technical education. He has built training programs designed for real retention, not just coverage, for distribution counter sales, technicians, and OEM networks.

Hosted by Sannah Vinding, engineer and go-to-market leader, the Leadership in Manufacturing Podcast brings real conversations to leaders across manufacturing, distribution, electronics, and supply chain.

Subscribe to the newsletter at https://leadershipinmanufacturing.com/hello/

AI is making reps faster. But faster is not the same as better. The rep who brings value still wins. The question is how you build that value when the tools are changing.

In the Leadership in Manufacturing Podcast, host Sannah Vinding speaks with Hunter Starr, CPMR, President at Performance Technical Sales, to explore how the manufacturers rep role is evolving as AI reshapes research, outreach, and customer engagement in the electronics and component industry.

The conversation focuses on practical AI adoption at the field sales level — not theory, but what Hunter's team is actually doing. From using ChatGPT with curated manufacturer data to improve cross-reference accuracy, to building shared industry-specific messaging templates that scale across the team, Hunter shares a grounded view of Phase 1 AI integration in a rep firm.

Hunter also gets specific about what AI cannot replace: the judgment call after the research, the follow-through after the meeting, and the trust that builds over time with engineers and purchasing teams. He talks about leading without a formal title, running open Monday team meetings where nothing is off limits, and why persistence is still the most important skill a new rep can develop.

This episode is for manufacturers reps, field salespeople, FAEs, and sales leaders in electronics and component distribution who want to understand how to adopt AI tools practically without losing what actually builds business.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why access to engineers has changed and how to adapt your approach
• How to use AI for part cross-referencing with better accuracy and less risk
• Why constraining AI to curated manufacturer data produces more reliable output
• How to build messaging templates that your whole team can use across verticals
• What manufacturers are building with AI that will change how reps interact with customers
• Why follow-through and persistence still outperform speed in technical sales
• How to lead a team and build trust without relying on a formal title

About the guest: Hunter Starr, CPMR, is President of Performance Technical Sales, a manufacturers rep firm serving OEM engineers and purchasing teams across Eastern North and South Carolina. With nearly a decade in manufacturer representation, Hunter supports customers across industrial, off-highway, defense, agricultural, and appliance markets. He is a Certified Professional Manufacturers' Representative and was recognized as a Rising Star by the Electronic Representatives Association.

Hosted by: Sannah Vinding is an engineer, B2B marketing strategist, leadership educator, and host of the Leadership in Manufacturing Podcast. She helps leaders across electronics, manufacturing, and supply chain lead technical teams with clarity, trust, and confidence as complexity and AI reshape how work gets done.

Listen to more episodes, sign up for the weekly leadership newsletter, and explore insights at: https://leadershipinmanufacturing.com/hello/ Stay curious. Keep learning. Keep leading forward.

The autonomy of a startup feels freeing, until the guardrails disappear and every mistake is amplified.

The structure of a large enterprise feels slow, until you realize some of those constraints exist for a reason.

Most leaders do not get to stay in one type of organization their whole career. The question is whether you adapt or just repeat what worked last time.

In the Leadership in Manufacturing Podcast, host Sannah Vinding speaks with Chris Lanier, Managing Director, Americas at Exein, to explore what actually changes when you move between large and small organizations, and what leadership skills travel with you no matter where you are.

Chris has built and led global go-to-market teams across Microsoft, Wind River, and Exein over a 25-year career, giving him a rare vantage point on how leadership instincts shift with context. In this conversation, he shares his trust-first philosophy, how he hires for attitude and aptitude over deep experience, and what it takes to lead cross-cultural global teams with clarity.

Chris also breaks down the cybersecurity challenge facing IoT and manufacturing leaders today: why centralized security is not enough when devices are scattered across facilities, what the EU Cyber Resilience Act means for device makers, and why a casino fish tank thermometer became the entry point for a major data breach.

This episode is for engineering leaders, operations managers, and technical sales leaders navigating organizational growth, scale, or transition who want to lead with clarity and trust regardless of the environment.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why autonomy in small companies amplifies both your best and your worst decisions
• How to extend trust from day one, and when to recalibrate
• Why in-person time with global teams compounds over months of remote work
• How to hire for attitude and aptitude when deep experience is hard to find
• What distributed device security means for IoT and manufacturing leaders
• Why the best leaders combine vision and confidence with genuine humility
• How to recognize when your leadership style no longer fits your environment

About the guest:

Chris Lanier is Managing Director, Americas at Exein. He spent more than 20 years at Microsoft in multiple director-level roles leading Americas and worldwide sales organizations across IoT, cloud, automotive, and embedded platforms. He also held executive leadership roles at Wind River. Chris is known for his people-first approach, his commitment to transparency and trust, and his track record of building high-performing globally distributed teams.

Hosted by:

Sannah Vinding is an engineer, B2B marketing strategist, leadership educator, and host of the Leadership in Manufacturing Podcast. She helps leaders across electronics, manufacturing, and supply chain lead technical teams with clarity, trust, and confidence as complexity and AI reshape how work gets done.

Listen to more episodes, sign up for the weekly leadership newsletter, and explore insights at:

https://leadershipinmanufacturing.com/hello/

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The tools are changing.

But leadership is what determines whether they create impact.

In Part 2 of this conversation on the Leadership in Manufacturing Podcast, host Sannah Vinding continues the discussion with Tom Walker, Co-Founder and Vice President of Spectron Components, shifting the focus from tactics to leadership.

In Part 1, Tom shared how AI-powered workflows are helping modern manufacturer’s reps identify better targets, prepare smarter, and demonstrate real return on investment.

In this episode, the conversation goes deeper.

• How do you build trust when AI becomes part of your workflow?
• How do you stay relevant without losing the human connection?
• How do small rep firms scale intelligently without losing culture?

Tom shares how AI is reshaping preparation, account strategy, and multi-line selling. He explains how tools like custom GPTs and data-driven targeting allow reps to walk into meetings focused on the customer’s real problem, not guessing.

But the bigger theme is this: preparation builds trust.

You’ll hear how Spectron Components maintains a strong culture while adopting new tools, why compatibility matters when choosing lines, and what mindset shifts reps need to stay competitive in the next five years.

This episode is for leaders in manufacturing, distribution, and the manufacturer’s rep community who want to modernize their approach without sacrificing credibility, relationships, or long-term thinking.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why trust is built before the meeting ever starts
• How AI helps reps identify real customer pain points faster
• How multi-line selling becomes smarter with structured data
• Why company culture matters even more as tools evolve
• How small rep firms can compete with larger organizations
• What mindset shift is required to stay relevant in the next 2 to 5 years
• Why long-term relationships still outperform short-term wins

About the guest:

Tom Walker is Co-Founder and Vice President of Spectron Components, an award-winning manufacturer’s rep firm in Southern California. With more than three decades in the electronics industry, Tom brings a practical, grounded perspective on how reps can adapt, stay human, and build lasting relationships while integrating AI into their workflows.

Hosted by:

Sannah Vinding is an engineer, global product marketing and go-to-market leader, and host of the Leadership in Manufacturing Podcast. She helps leaders across electronics, manufacturing, and supply chain lead technical teams with clarity and trust as AI reshapes how work gets done.

Listen to more episodes, sign up for the weekly leadership newsletter, and explore leadership insights at:

https://leadershipinmanufacturing.com/hello/

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The role of the manufacturer’s rep has changed.

Access is more limited. Expectations are higher. And the old playbook no longer works the way it used to.

In Part 1 of this two-part episode of the Leadership in Manufacturing Podcast, host Sannah Vinding is joined by Tom Walker, Co-Founder and Vice President of Spectron Components, to break down how the modern manufacturer’s rep role is evolving in response to these shifts.

This conversation focuses on execution. Tom shares how reps are moving from traditional technical support into a more proactive, data-driven “hunter” role. You’ll hear how AI-powered workflows, custom GPTs, and smarter targeting are helping reps identify the right accounts, find verified engineering and purchasing contacts, and support principals more effectively.

Rather than chasing volume or relying on cold outreach, Tom explains how Spectron uses curated drip marketing, physical and digital mini-guides, and Salesforce reporting to build trust, reduce noise, and create real return on investment for both customers and manufacturers.

This episode is for leaders across manufacturing, distribution, and the manufacturer’s rep community who want to understand what effective rep partnerships look like today and how AI can support smarter, more focused execution without losing the human connection.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why the manufacturer’s rep role has shifted from support to hunting
• How limited access is reshaping sales and marketing workflows
• How AI and custom GPTs can identify target accounts and verified contacts
• Why curated drip marketing outperforms cold outreach
• How reps can demonstrate ROI and accountability to principals
• What modern rep effectiveness actually looks like in practice

About the guest:

Tom Walker is Co-Founder and Vice President of Spectron Components, an award-winning manufacturer’s rep firm in Southern California. With decades of experience connecting electronic component manufacturers with OEM engineers and buyers, Tom brings a practical, real-world perspective on sales, marketing, and AI-enabled workflows in the rep industry.

Hosted by:

Sannah Vinding is an engineer, B2B marketing strategist, leadership educator, and host of the Leadership in Manufacturing Podcast. She helps leaders across electronics, manufacturing, and supply chain lead technical teams with clarity, trust, and confidence as complexity and AI reshape how work gets done.

Part 2 continues the conversation with a deeper look at leadership, skills, and what the future manufacturer’s rep model requires.

Listen to more episodes, sign up for the weekly leadership newsletter, and explore insights at:

https://leadershipinmanufacturing.com/hello/

Stay curious. Keep learning. Keep leading forward.