The Wholesale Change hosts Ian Heller and Jonathan Bein dug into public distributors’ earnings reports from Amazon, Grainger, Applied Industrial and Avnet. Our hosts took a look at how your largest competitors performed in 2020 and their plans for navigating the market in 2021.

We had a frank conversation with Steve Ruane, Vice President of Marketing and Member Services for IMARK Electrical, about the role co-ops and marketing groups play in helping independent distributors compete in today’s fast-changing market. IMARK Group is a multi-vertical member-owned and member-governed group of independent distributors that bills itself as the “most progressive distribution group,” providing rebate income, facilitating enhanced relationships with manufacturers and service providers, employee training, meetings, benchmarking, webstore development support, sales solutions for national accounts and global networking opportunities.

Darren Rawson is the President of AZ Partsmaster, a regional facilities maintenance distributor. He joined Ian Heller and Jonathan Bein for a lively discussion about trends in the multifamily market, as well as the recent Home Depot-HD Supply acquisition.

Without buy-in from your entire team – including that salesperson that complains the most – a strategic pricing project will, simply put, not yield the results you need it to. Join Gregory Smith, Vice President of Strategic Accounts and Partnerships for SPARXiQ, as he shares the secrets to successful strategic pricing implementation with Ian Heller and Jonathan Bein in this episode of Wholesale Change.

They discuss why:

• A cross-discipline pricing committee that includes the CEO and VP of sales will result in a better outcome

• Incentives must align with strategic margin objectives

• Communicating both the current and future states will drive change

• To sustain success, you need monthly business-review meetings focused on pricing

Despite the obvious benefits, most distributors aren’t good at cross-selling. In this episode, Debbie Paul joined Ian Heller and Jonathan Bein to talk about what’s in distributors’ way, and how emerging technologies are making it easier to grow wallet share with existing customers.

John Tisera, president/CEO of Johnstone Supply, joined Ian Heller and Jonathan Bein in this episode to talk about how the distributor has built and cultivated its culture through Zoom, including adapting their onboarding process and holding a quarterly Coffee with CEO where he personally meets all new associates.

Distributors that are embracing customer loyalty programs are increasing mindshare and growing revenue with existing customers. In this episode Ian Heller and Jonathan Bein speak with Lincoln Smith, Chief Strategy Officer for HMI Performance Incentives, about why loyalty is a powerful emotion and how to leverage it in B2B, best practices in designing loyalty and incentive programs, and how to manage program success.

Shopping is defined as finding, researching and evaluating products. Buying is the transaction – whether that’s online, through a sales rep or with a CSR on the phone. While offering a transactional website has become a must-have in today’s environment, enhancing your shopping functionality has become even more critical to meeting customer needs. Learn why and hear how distributors are tackling this challenge in this episode of Wholesale Change.

We’ve conducted the research, and everyone agrees: Disruption is real. They recognize the effects of emerging technologies, as well as well-capitalized competitors, on the channel and on their businesses. We review the research and talk about how smart distributors are responding.

Each quarter, the Wholesale Change hosts Ian Heller and Jonathan Bein dig into public distributors’ earnings reports from across segments to bring you insights into how your largest competitors are navigating the market. Join our hosts tomorrow for a look at Grainger, MSC Industrial Supply, Fastenal, Motion and more for their latest results and where they’re going in 2021.