This episode of Wholesale Change featured Newton Sears, Managing Director at Greenhill & Co., an advisory-focused investment bank dedicated to M&A, restructurings, financings and capital raising.

Newton and his firm work with many distribution firms and publish data about M&A activity within the industry. A frequent advisor to distributors, Greenhill offers expert insight executives can use to make better decisions about acquisition opportunities, recapitalizations, valuations and much more.

In our conversation with Newton, we talked about:

The state of the M&A market in distribution

How industrial distribution is perceived in the capital markets

What buyers of distribution markets focus on

What sellers should be prepared for when they consider putting their companies on the market

Whether you’re a buyer or a seller, a current or prospective investor or if you just want to know how an expert investment banker identifies what makes a distribution company great, you don’t want to miss this conversation.

On this episode of the Wholesale Change show, we welcomed Robyn Pollina, CEO of Palmer-Donavin. Robyn ascended to the CEO position in 2020 after 25 years at the building materials wholesale distributor, including serving as the company’s CFO. “I shifted from managing day-to-day tasks to establishing six growth initiatives,” she notes.

As the head of a leading distributor of building materials and an ESOP, Robyn’s job is to meet and manage the expectation of its many employee-owners while adapting the company to succeed in an evolving channel. Some long-term investments can affect short-term profitability but will pay off over time. A key part of Robyn’s job is to enroll the whole company into these strategies to ensure Palmer-Donavin’s success for many years.

Robyn views building a strong culture as fundamental to the success of the company. Her leadership team has distilled 28 “Purpose-Driven Principles” to serve the Palmer-Donavin’s mission “to deliver more and guide our everyday interactions with each other and our business partners.”

As one of a small number of women in a CEO role in distribution, Robyn serves as a great example to others who aspire to leadership roles in what has been a male-dominated industry.

On this episode, we’re joined by Marty Daley, CEO of Marco Rubber. In two years, Marty’s team has tripled the size of the business – organically and through acquisitions. Whether it’s a $400 seal for a critical application or a tri clamp gasket a customer needs quickly, Marco Rubber offers the kind of service that brings in new customers and keeps existing accounts coming back.

“Technology is woven into our DNA,” Daley notes. “Not just the front end, which is a source of technical information for serious buyers and engineers. We also aggregate supplier data, have an automated quoting tool for our internal team, interactive toolkits for customers and business intelligence tools to measure what we manage across all departments.”

While Marco offers great digital capabilities, they’ll take the order how the customer wants to place it and work closely with customers on specific applications. Business development managers perform a sales engineer role, and a group of technical sales consultants service thousands of customers all over the world.

After working for companies like Wesco, Sonepar, Interline Brands and True Value, Marty was ready to drive rapid growth in a smaller company by leveraging leading-edge technology in a technical business. He found that opportunity at Marco Rubber and he’s making the most of it.

“All customers should be treated special, just not necessarily the same…” -Marty Daley, CEO, Marco Rubber

Watch the Wholesale Change show on-demand as distribution legend Dirk Beveridge shares talent strategies he has learned in decades of working with the world’s best distributors. You need the best team to surpass competitors – and meet customer expectations, especially in the dynamic world of distribution.

As new challenges and opportunities arise, it’s crucial to evolve the way you lead. Dirk has compiled the top 10 human resource strategies for 2023: From solving the talent shortage to building a strong employer brand, adopting these principles will ensure you develop an energized, inspired and customer-focused team that wins in the market through an empowering, collaborative culture.

In this episode of Wholesale Change, host Ian Heller has a frank conversation with Kevin Short, President and CEO of master wholesaler ORS Nasco. He shares his take on the importance of trust in the distribution channel as it relates to better serving the end-customer. He also shares an update on ORS Nasco’s focus from 2023 onward, as they look to refine their value proposition to better support distributors of all types.

ConEquip Parts & Equipment is a rapidly growing B2B marketplace. They offer 500,000 parts, represent 3,000 suppliers and $52B in inventory – but you can’t order a thing online! How is this possible and why do they do it?

We talked with Ryan Loos, Chief Financial Officer of ConEquip Parts & Equipment, about the construction equipment parts distributor’s go-to-market strategy – including a decision not to invest in a transactional ecommerce system.

ConEquip has seen consistent growth over the past 10 years. Ryan shared their secrets, as well as lessons learned. It’s the perfect conversation to sit in on if you want to hear another point of view on channel strategy.

Watch on-demand as we’re joined by the CEO of COE Distributing, J.D. Ewing. J.D. grew the company to $100M+ in 13 years by building a company that creates terrific customer experiences. Most of this growth has been organic.

J.D. described COE’s culture as “inclusive, open door, good at listening and gathering feedback from across the organization,” and “adept at implementing ideas and suggestions in real time.”

In only three years, CEO Eric Chernik has grown Building Controls & Solutions by 700% while retaining the entrepreneurial culture of each company BC&S has acquired.

Eric knows that employee engagement drives customer engagement, so he enrolls his team in the company’s goals and strategy with transparency and a healthy culture. He embraces great internal communication and employee recognition.

In this episode of Wholesale Change we talked with Eric about his path to becoming a CEO and the leadership principles he has applied to achieve fast growth and strong financial results.

Tony Harris, founder of THINC B2B, brought his energy and passion for growth to the Wholesale Change Show.

He held nothing back in his conversation with hosts Ian Heller and Jonathan Bein on how and why distributors need to realign business intelligence, sales and marketing, finance and IT to drive growth in 2023. He’s a highly regarded CEO coach, senior executive mentor and thought leader.

He’s also the author of “FADS Marketing: Food, Alcohol, Drugs, Sex and the New Marketing World Order.” His career includes providing executive counsel to some of the most recognized global brands. Harris also advises for private equity firms, investment firms, family offices, and venture capital entities, evaluating and preparing recommendations on the viability of potential acquisitions, divestitures and roll-ups.

Some inside sales programs produce marginal results, while others are veritable home runs. What is different in the execution of these home run programs?

The superior performance happens in their day-to-day activities as inside sales reps contact customers and prospects, understand their needs, position your products against those needs, close sales and ultimately build strong long-term customer relationships.

Hosts Ian Heller and Jonathan Bein welcome Mark Peck to discuss the following core elements in highly successful inside sales programs.

Building and using a structured sales coverage model and plan

• Allocate your most valuable asset

• Apply the pareto principle

• Set expectations with inside sales staff

Managing with a systemic inside sales performance model

• Manage the elements of sales rep performance that drive revenue performance

• Develop an understanding of individual sales staff strengths and weaknesses

• Use the performance model to coach to achievement of high sales goals

Listen now to learn how these two business models can help drive superior execution in your inside sales program.