Distribution Talk

"Wherever you're coming into a new place, look for opportunities to get curious, to ask questions, to be a learner - maybe even before you're a contributor." ~Katie Munro Powell Curiosity is the catalyst for Katie Powell. As president of Munro Companies, Inc. in Grand Junction, CO, she approaches leadership with an inquisitive attitude. Jason and Katie discuss the finer points of running both a distribution and a manufacturing division; as well her commitment to service, whether she's in the C-suite or leading the Girl Scout troop. "The more time that I spent with the team, and the more time that I understood the value that a business like ours brings to our community and our customers and our employees, I got hooked on wanting to make the business better." Katie's appreciation for the company her father and grandfather started in 1965 comes with a caveat: she didn't get hooked immediately. Instead, she struck out to find success on her terms, away from Grand Junction. Twenty years later, her marketing career at a crossroad, Katie dialed up her dad to offer her services - if he'd have her. Or, she'd chart a new course elsewhere. "He was silent," she laughs. "I want to say it was [for] two traffic lights." Not only was he thrilled to have her but, from day one on the job, he introduced his daughter as the future head of Munro. *** 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. http://www.distributionteam.com This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason Bader on LinkedIn. Connect with Katie Munro Powell on LinkedIn. *** His faith in Katie paid off. Her career achievements outside the company, coupled with her willingness to onboard so thoroughly upon her return to the family fold, has propelled Munro into the 21st century. She set ambitious goals, prompting employees to challenge their limiting beliefs and punch above their weight. Then she identified the key differentiators of each business and honed in on the needs of their distinct customers. Although the divisions complement each other, as separate entities, they offer Katie a unique perspective. "When I have my distributor hat on, it helps me to talk to my manufacturing partners in a different way because I also understand what they're after." Double the business, double the challenges. As the market shifts away from natural gas and coal production, Munro's distribution side has had to reevaluate. Still, Katie's not about to abandon the rewards of leading with a learner's mind. "Wherever you're coming into a new place, look for opportunities to get curious."

"I learned early on just being nice and kind to the customer can go a long way." ~Dale Hahs Dale Hahs has initiated dozens of innovations throughout his career at AIS Industrial & Construction Supply in Denver - from system upgrades to expanded product lines. And while technology has allowed him to implement cool features such as 360º virtual warehouse views, Dale attributes his company's success to strong customer relationships and peer networks. Jason chats with Dale about responding to the marketplace during COVID-19 and collaborating with Affiliated Distributors. "It's nice because we are so diverse and we sell into so many different marketplaces that when one thing is down, we can look at other avenues where we can sell that same product to a different vertical." That's the case with AIS' foray into eBay, a marketplace that has served the company well, especially during the pandemic. With eBay, AIS has found a way to move closeout items, overstock, and niche products. The endeavor allows AIS to gather instant feedback which doesn't happen on their general eComm site. That line of communication sits well with Dale, who believes that customer kindness promotes customer loyalty. To that end, when his customers began clamoring for hard hats, gloves, and vests AIS responded quickly, adding safety supplies to their extensive inventory of industrial and construction goods. "It's probably the fastest-growing category of anything that we sell." *** 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. http://www.distributionteam.com This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason Bader on LinkedIn. Connect with Dale Hahs on LinkedIn. *** Pivoting to new product lines or managing sales expectations are daunting tasks even without a pandemic adding pressure to every decision. In times like these, Dale's grateful for the camaraderie and peer knowledge he's benefited from as a member of Affiliated Distributors. He credits the network for creating an arena where peers can support and challenge each other, where they can innovate and educate together. Dale urges others to get off the sidelines to reap maximum rewards of membership in groups like AD. "The best way that I learned was being able to be part of the executive committee," Dale says of his stint as chairman of the network. These days, Dale's excited to watch his son work his way through the ranks at AIS. Eventually, he says, things will open up enough for father and son to attend AD events, reestablishing in real life those peer relationships that make a career in distribution so rewarding.

"So the agents are becoming more and more important within the manufacturer sales funnel… We have seen agents… do more marketing, do their own videos about the product, do much more in newsletters, do podcasts, do outdoor counter days, do tailgates." ~David Gordon, Channel Marketing Group David Gordon turns insights into actionable strategies for his distribution and manufacturing clients. With data at the ready and a wealth of experience to draw from, the founder of Channel Marketing Group shares his views on how COVID-19 is reshaping everything from C-suite occupancy to acquisition game plans to loyalty programs. The conversation concludes with a look at trends tracked by Channel Marketing's recent rep of the future study. "My first job was with a company in the performance marketing and incentive industry...and a good chunk of our business was in distribution." David parlayed early-career successes into a vice presidency. But his straightforward trajectory took a turn when the dotcom boom went bust. "The mother of necessity is invention," he laughs, recalling the events that prompted him to open his consultancy. Twenty years later, Channel Marketing's primary focus is on industrial construction trades, but insights in the areas of market engagement and strategic planning are applicable across many verticals. "Anything that can help companies gain information and develop strategies to help them accelerate profitable sales." To that end, David's expertise is readily available via Electrical Trends, a collaborative blog featuring over 1200 industry-related articles. *** 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. http://www.distributionteam.com This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason Bader on LinkedIn. Connect with David Gordon on LinkedIn. *** David has a lot of data at his disposal and a keen sense of how to interpret it. Take the growing number of COVD-related, or at least COVID-adjacent, retirements. He notes a rash of first-generation owners or senior leaders who've decided to bow out in 2020. The pandemic has hastened the ascent of many next-wave decision makers. Alternatively, this year has also prompted a lot of owners to try their hand at attracting buyers. "We've talked to a number of private equity companies who have all sorts of money who are looking for acquisitions." But David cautions owners counting on that golden parachute. "It's got to be something worthwhile for them to fund." As for Channel Marketing's rep of the future study, while the data was produced on behalf of NEMRA, the characteristics identified can impact a rep's survival regardless of industry. "A very high percentage of companies and a slightly lower percentage of sales actually go through third-party sales organizations, manufacturer reps, whatever you want to term them." You'll have to listen in to catch David's thorough explanation of each trait, however, and strategies to implement them. Want To Read What David Wrote? Start here: Make Sure You Don't Waste A Good Pandemic from the Electrical Trends blog. CONNECT WITH DAVID GORDON: Channel Marketing Group [email protected] LinkedIn Twitter Facebook

"The best advice I can give you is that you can't compete with them on their strengths. You have to compete on your strengths and until you identify and figure out what those are, I mean, you're going to take a beating. ~PJ Slauson PJ Slauson, president and CEO of CLK Supplies, LLC and Aero Lock, LLC, has grown his business from promising side hustle to profitable distributorship on his own terms. Jason chats with the 35-year-old entrepreneur about the value of a self-guided education, the art of asking for help, and the power of social media. Early on in PJ's college career, he had to make the difficult choice. Should he stay the course and complete his structured education, or tend to the growing number of business calls interrupting his day? He chose the latter, pouring all of his energy, time, and money into a lock parts distributorship. In hindsight, the decision made perfect sense. After all, PJ started cutting keys in his father's shop at six years old and sold his first business by age 12. He's a hands-on kind of guy who collects (and implements!) suggestions from myriad sources to support his professional and personal improvement. "That's what I've tried to do is, just take the different knowledge and information," he says. "I'm like, okay, how do I apply this to my life as an operating system to help keep my business and me personally, keep growing and going down the road?" Even the most voracious reader can't post 20% growth per year on average with advice gleaned from books alone. For real-life strategic planning, PJ leans into a key management strength: vulnerability. PJ got the answers his earliest asks from other small business owners. They readily shared with him their knowledge on everything from website development to warehousing set-up, all for little more than the cost of breakfast. *** 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. http://www.distributionteam.com This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason Bader on LinkedIn. Connect with PJ Slauson on LinkedIn. *** As you might expect from someone in his age bracket, PJ's an expert at leveraging his social media presence, a relatively foreign concept in the world of distribution. "To me as a whole, you know...it's a transactional business, but that's not necessarily very fun, right?" With a robust library of how-to videos on YouTube and fun locksmith tips via Instagram, PJ is returning the favor to fellow entrepreneurs, offering his vast knowledge for free. At a time when the pandemic has sidelined tradeshows and limited face-to-face interaction, PJs authentic online customer connection is as strategic as it is fun. Interested in reading what PJ reads? Here are his suggestions from the episode: The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey, The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley, and The E-Myth: Why Most Small Businesses Fail And What To Do About It by Michael E. Gerber. Interested in reading what PJ wrote? Lock Rekeying Made Simple CONNECT WITH PJ SLAUSON: CLK Supplies, LLC Aero Lock, LL YouTube Instagram LinkedIn

"One of the most important assets any distributor owns is their transaction data and it could make them a lot more money." ~Dave Roller, Profit2 If you haven't addressed your company's pricing plan in a while, Dave Roller says you're leaving good money on the table. As president of Profit2, Dave has built his career helping distributors optimize their strategy - even against e-conn's biggest names. Jason chats with Dave about the art and science of pricing as well as overcoming pricing challenges - even in challenging times. It's an episode dense with profitable information. There's little wonder as to why distributors avoid picking through their pricing. "There are very few businesses that have the scale [or] the challenge we have." To prove his point, Dave contrasts a restaurant's few hundred pricing decisions or a manufacturer's several thousand items against Profit2's average distributor client who makes upwards of 300,000 pricing decisions annually. For many family-owned wholesalers, even those with shaky margins, the task seems too overwhelming to bother. *** 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. http://www.distributionteam.com This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason Bader on LinkedIn, Connect with Dave Roller on LinkedIn. *** Much of the pushback is steeped in long-standing, first-generation traditions and ancient client relationships. But Dave sees a tidal shift happening as second- and third-generations take over decision-making duties. "When we start talking to the younger executives in distribution...there's a little bit different sensibility and a greater comfort with the concept of data mining and utilization." That robust ERP data presents opportunities for distributors to sort out their chaotic pricing methodology and make solid gains. Dave points to client stratification as an example. "You can use transaction data and a few other metrics to be able to enrich your customer stratification for pricing that allows you to differentiate what you charge, one customer versus another." Segmenting customers into groups based on various factors (such as profitability, revenue, loyalty, and cost-to-serve) minimizes the rote renewal of underperforming contracts. As for the importance of maintaining customer rapport, Dave says, "I think we all value the relationship, sure. but you have to also step back and take the bigger picture." Ultimately, Profit2 sees their role as helping distributors utilize data tools to break out of the cookie cutter pricing approach. A more potent pricing model - one that fits seamlessly into a company's culture - ultimately leads to better customer service. "That creates a profit annuity over time. It stays around. It keeps bringing you more over time." And that's a win-win on both sides of the sales counter. CONNECT WITH DAVE ROLLER: Profit2 [email protected]

"This industry is built on relationships and being able to help foster that makes a much better strengthening of best practices with all of the salons versus seeing each other as competitors." ~Sydney Berry, Salon Services Pro As with many distribution verticals, COVID-19 has altered the high-contact beauty supply industry seemingly overnight. But Sydney Berry sees possibilities in pivoting. In this episode, Jason chats with the founder and CEO of Salon Services Pro about her commitment to service and the company's strategies for translating an exceptional in real life reputation to the virtual marketplace. Whether it's teaming up with a competitor or her self-described over-communicating, Sydney Berry has built a successful, multi-state business on the strength of her relationships. "We've done a lot of outreach," she says, explaining Salon Pro's pandemic response. Doubling down on virtual sales calls is only part of the plan for this hands-on distribution vertical. *** 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. http://www.distributionteam.com This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason Bader on LinkedIn, Connect with Sydney Berry on LinkedIn. *** While stylists are inventing unique scenarios to safely interact with their clients, Sydney and her team are amplifying the company's online offerings to meet these hardworking entrepreneurs where they are. In addition to exploring avenues beyond B2B, Salon Pro is experimenting with coffee chats and happy hours, virtual connections to bridge the social distance gap. This unwavering dedication has made Salon Pro the go-to source for supplies, education, and business needs since 1997. Since taking over, Sydney has grown the company into 23 stores and two distribution sites across nine states. Gaining trust in new salon territories is not an easy task. The notoriously insular market requires the willingness and fortitude to learn local business customs. "You just think that you have an imprint and a reputation and people will understand that you are there for this purpose," she says. Embedding senior Salon Pro talent into the areas of expansion has made all the difference in gaining client trust. As an added benefit, that hyper-local knowledge has informed the company's COVID response. "It is amazing to watch because each and every state is unique in how they are as businesses." Service doesn't stop at the salon. Sydney is an avid, active member of professional organizations, having participated in programs with BBSI. As the recently elected chairwoman of the PBA, Sydney has found another way to continue her commitment. "I love our industry and I really want to see it thrive and I believe thriving can occur when we do connect in this way, because I've seen it. So that's why I stay involved."

"I saw very clearly that this industry was the last bastion of this non-digitized space. I wanted to be the one that brought us into the new technological era." ~Lisa Fiore, Landscape Hub Lisa Fiore left the family business behind to transform an industry. In this episode, Jason speaks with Lisa, founder and CEO of Landscape Hub, about 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. *** 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. http://www.distributionteam.com This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Find out if creating a podcast is right for your business at their upcoming Launch Your Podcast online class: http://www.thecreativeimpostor.com/DTLaunch Connect with Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbader Connect with Lisa Fiore on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-fiore-69a6752a *** 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." *** Special thanks to our sponsor for this episode: INxSQL Distribution Software.

"Which is more important: do you want to be successful or do you want to be right?" ~Mike Marks Mike Marks has spent a lifetime in distribution and he's got the battle scars to prove it. In this episode, Jason chats with Mike about lessons he's learned at the helm of Indian River Consulting Group. Mike also offers suggestions to proactive leaders keen to close out 2020 on solid footing even as the ground continues to shift around them. "People are being much more cautious now. It's a complex process but look at it this way, what's happening is a lot of folks that basically just did the turtle strategy." Cutting costs, Mike says, is a wise strategy if performed with long-view intention in mind rather than quick-fix desperation. Middling distributorships default to the latter position rather than put forth the effort required by the former. *** 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. http://www.distributionteam.com This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Find out if creating a podcast is right for your business at their upcoming Launch Your Podcast online class: http://www.thecreativeimpostor.com/DTLaunch Connect with Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbader Connect with Mike Marks on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-marks-46a7081 *** Mike doesn't restrict his straight talk to the softly-managed, however. Companies with their eye on the ball should use this time to reinforce foundations and build market shares by asking themselves, which is more important: being successful or being right? These days, either answer leads to a bumpy road, but only one provides an onramp to effective change. A self-described distributor geek, Mike was involved with several different verticals before setting up his own consultancy in 1987. Since then, he's weathered crippling recessions, internet expansion, frenzied acquisition sprees, and, now a global pandemic. Through it all, he's seen wholesale distributors around the world meet and exceed growth expectations. He's doing his best to spread the word about this "giant secret" of a career option to young talent. That said, Mike is impressed by the agility and flexibility that industry veterans have shown over the last few months. Experience has led the way with innovative solutions. "They had the trust of their customers. They could do some very different things, and people would let him, and that's where all these new practices are coming out." Businesses positioning themselves for acquisition will enjoy Mike's insights, as will anyone seeking solid advice to carry their company through this new normal. If you're looking to come out stronger than before, this episode features tips and entertaining allegories as only Mike can share.

"I've made some business cases that were absolute just flops. So... I'm here to tell you, past mistakes are good, you know, if you can get unentangled from them and move on and don't let it scare you from getting back up to bat." ~Blair Franklin Twenty-five years after receiving an MBA from Pepperdine University, Blair Franklin, president and CEO of AmeriPipe Supply, Inc. headquartered in Dallas, TX, is picking up where he left off, returning to Pepperdine to complete his applied doctorate in workplace behaviors. Beyond the satisfaction of personal achievement, Blair hopes his post-graduate work will guide executives to make better decisions and enhance their leadership skills. "Can we do a better job of not only deciding who we bring into our family culture but, once they are there, how do we do the very best job we can at encouraging good behavior or mitigating bad behavior?" As head of a family-owned pipe, valve, and fittings distributor, Blair asks those questions in real-time, ever mindful that his answers directly affect the bottom line as well as the company's legacy. *** 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. http://www.distributionteam.com This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Find out if creating a podcast is right for your business at their upcoming Launch Your Podcast online class: http://www.thecreativeimpostor.com/DTLaunch Connect with Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbader Connect with Blair on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sbf44 *** As a doctoral candidate in the field of workplace deviance with 20+ years in distribution leadership, he's got a wealth of personal experience from which to draw. Ultimately, his role in the C-suite and his role as a researcher are two sides of the same coin; both involve observation and analysis of personality traits. "The thing that really fascinated me the most about our environment, at the end of the day, is understanding how people behave in the workplace." In the quest for hiring excellence, many inexpensive evaluation tools already exist. Taken on their own, however, these tests often provide limited information. "They just haven't been combined and analyzed in the way that we're going to do," Blair says of his research. He's striving for a more thorough assessment to find out how a candidate's personality - their moral identity, ethics, and views on workplace justice, etc. - impact their likelihood for deviance? And, how can employers use this robust data to better staff their organizations for the future? This inquisitiveness extends to his company and his personal life as well, with Blair seeking new hires with a hunger for knowledge and instilling an ethos of life-long learning in his children. CONNECT WITH AMERIPIPE SUPPLY, INC AmeriPipe Supply, Inc. LinkedIn

"I love wrecking things. I think when you get down to it... I love disruption. I love being the disruptor and I really don't like being disrupted. So I'd love to go help somebody go disrupt some stuff." ~Andrew Johnson In this episode, I catch up with Andrew Johnson, CEO of ShelfAware VMI, a system that monitors inventory consumption in real-time via RFID technology. His affinity for disrupting the family distributorship's systems led to a spin-off career at the helm of a virtually no-touch inventory solution. Andrew shares his company's fascinating origins story as well as its mission to provide an efficient, remote data reporting method with a low-cost point of entry. "We knew our data and our systems and our processes inside out and that hard, rough experience - really getting our hands dirty, it changed us." But prior to tackling a massive data migration project at the family's rubber and plastics distributorship in 2012, Andrew and his brothers-in-law weren't exactly systems engineers. Over the course of several months, however, the trio of self-taught technologists became intimately acquainted with the company's infrastructure. So much so that they followed up their successful data project with a massive systems overhaul, taking a match to every process they could get their hands on. "We would walk in, tear something down, burn it to the ground sometimes before we even really knew what we were going to put in place." No department was left unscathed - or improved. *** 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. http://www.distributionteam.com This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbader Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-johnson-supply-chain-innovator-5015b612/ *** "Inside distribution and small business in general, I think incremental innovation is the way to go," says Andrew of the three years the boys spent disrupting his father's rubber and plastics distributorship. That philosophy, coupled with a drive to design bespoke systems inside the family business, culminated in 2015 with the creation of an external innovation: the vendor managed inventory solution now known as ShelfAware VMI. The hardware/software combination takes inventory reporting out of the hands of the consumer and the customer service field rep, replacing barcode scanners and clipboards with an elegant, old tech-based solution. ShelfAware VMI uses RFID (radio frequency identification), the same system found in hotel key cards, to remotely track and collect all sorts of inventory data via intelligent packaging tags. That feedback has allowed distributors to greatly improve efficiencies with an added benefit of limiting field rep visits in the era of COVID. "It's been a wild ride," says Andrew and he's enthusiastic about ShelfAware VMI's growth across multiple distribution verticals as well as the future of socially-distanced managed inventory. CONNECT WITH SHELFAWARE VMI ShelfAwareVMI ShelfAware VMI YouTube

Katie Parris, CEO of The Part Works in Seattle, WA, is a second-generation owner who's managing her commercial plumbing supply company from the intersection of old-school knowledge and innovative thinking. I caught up with Katie to discuss her path to the C-suite and find out why her company's culture can top Amazon's low prices any day of the week. "Anybody can be the cheapest when the part's not on the shelf." But when a hospital risks losing $15,000 a day in revenue because a broken faucet prohibits the use of an entire patient room, they don't price check with the giant online retailers. More often than not, facilities managers ring up The Part Works' knowledgeable, responsive team and gets that part in hand within hours. With its single location, The Part Works doesn't bother paying too close attention to Amazon. Instead, they're focused on the value they bring to their own counter. Beyond the relationships they've built with customers, Katie's most proud of the connection and commitment flourishing behind the scenes. *** 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. http://www.distributionteam.com This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbader Connect with Katie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katieparris *** "My first, biggest challenge was shifting the company culture," she says. Initially, her collaborative methods caused some growing pains in opposition to her father's command and control style, even prompting some old-guard employees to exit. "I wasn't going to become my dad. I needed to build the future of the business around my own leadership style," she says. Today, the 25-employee company is a blend of long-time staff and newer recruits. The culture combined with Katie's ability to manage for the future helped The Part Works recently navigate a much-needed tech upgrade. "I would say 18 months of hell - but totally worth it," she laughs, secure in the knowledge that her self-inflicted headache has yielded the company over 50% growth in two years - with zero additional headcount. Katie's success points to a big generational shift coming not only to her industry but as across multiple distribution verticals. She has a tip for those looking for career advice. "I think distribution is very ripe for opportunity."

"I don't believe that a coach can be a good coach without being curious. I don't believe I have the only answer. Now, I may think I've got the right answer, but that doesn't matter. I'm curious enough to hear what somebody else has to say and have a conversation" ~Paul Glover Workforce development coach Paul Glover is no stranger to adversity. For 30 years, he suited up to do court-side battle as a labor employment lawyer. Then, in 1995, he was convicted of a variety of white-collar crimes. He served five years in federal prison for those missteps. Today, Paul's an expert in organizational resilience, a topic that's crash-landed onto the business landscape in the wake of COVID-19. "My moniker that I use is the no BS workplace performance coach." If Paul's bluntness doesn't immediately win you over, his origin story might not do the trick either - and he's okay with that. "I have an opinion. I have a recommendation. It's based on experience," says the self-described "recovering lawyer" and ex-felon. There's a knee jerk instinct by some C-suites to write off Paul's expertise based on his bio. The manufacturing and distribution organizations that he has had the pleasure of working with have benefited greatly from his no-nonsense coaching. Now, he's setting his sights on post-pandemic resilience, guiding privately-held, family-owned companies through this wildly unstable period. It's a population niche that he greatly admires, noting that his pragmatic candor and action-oriented style align with his clientele; both coach and client understand that "if you don't act that way, you don't succeed." *** 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. http://www.distributionteam.com This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbader Connect with Paul on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulglovercoaching/ *** With Resilience Edge Workshop, Paul's expertise has gone virtual. He's put his program through a rigorous personal test, building a successful nationwide practice by melding lessons learned at the top with those from his time spent at the bottom. "I took that experience and believe me, five and a half years in federal prison's an experience, and I first did a lot of reflection and made some determinations that I needed to understand my strong points but also my blind spots." His keen understanding of organizational psychology has propelled businesses like Ewing Irrigation from a $60 million West Coast distributorship to a nationwide powerhouse. With his winning combination of substance and showmanship, Paul's coaching clients through adversity by proving that shrewd actions and substantive words speak louder together. CONNECT WITH PAUL Paul Glover https://paulglovercoaching.com LinkedIn Facebook Twitter YouTube Amazon

"I think one of the common denominators to me for the successful people out there… is the word curiosity. The word curiosity means, to me, that you care...that you ask questions and you want to learn and you're still thirsty for growing each and every day." ~Greg Drouillard, Target Building Materials, LTD. If you're searching for a prime example of "a body in motion stays in motion," look no further than Greg Drouillard. As the owner of Target Building Materials, LTD. in Windsor, Ontario, he likes to be part of the action - in the office, on the trails, and out in his community. I had the chance to catch up with Greg to discuss some familiar Distribution Talk themes and look ahead at the business landscape, post-pandemic. I also discover what's at the literal heart of Greg's commitment to physical fitness and his motivation to stay curious, enthused, and grateful. "I never wanted to be a bleacher creature. I wanted to be involved and be on the playing field or on the ice... I didn't want to be a bench sitter and I've always put my hand up to say yes. I like to be involved." *** 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. http://www.distributionteam.com This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbader Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-drouillard-48b82112/ *** The desire to contribute has kept Greg in the game since he first climbed into the seat of a forklift as a teenager. As fun as those hours in his family's warehouse were, Greg had aspirations elsewhere. Up in the air, to be exact. Administrative opportunities and advancement at Air Canada followed but the family business eventually came calling so Greg went back - on his terms. "I said, I will enter into your business, based on the condition...I start from the rock bottom and I want to learn the business. I want no favors. I want no stripes on my shoulder until I earn them." That was over forty years ago. It's safe to say that Greg has since earned his stripes, leading by example from the field rather than the sidelines. He's participated in multiple organizations including ACDI/VOCA and STAFDA, for which he served as president). He's also served four tours of duty as head of TORBSA, the organization of independent Canadian building supply owners. Greg's a serious advocate for membership, pointing to organizations as encouraging spaces in which to build confidence, make connections, and gain access to elite minds in the business. Outside of his professional and civic engagements, Greg leans on his love of physical activity and learning to stay sharp. The current pandemic mirrors a health crisis he suffered several years ago in that the experience taught him to fully appreciate all he has and to seek out new avenues for strengthening overall wellbeing for the long haul. "The three words that I try to live my life by is balance, variety, and moderation." But he's not about to take a seat in the bleachers anytime soon. Greg knows that post-pandemic business will require marathoners, not sprinters. CONNECT WITH GREG Target Building Materials, LTD https://targetsupply.com/

"It's all about endurance. We're in this for the long haul and we're going to need the grit, we're going to need to know that what we do is important enough that what we do contributes to so many lives and to society... We owe it to ourselves to dig deep and find that grit that gets us over that finish line." ~Dirk Beveridge Dirk Beveridge first appeared on DT episode 022, sharing his formidable insight into the steps distributorships could take to successfully navigate rapid changes. A prescient conversation in light of COVID-19. In this latest conversation, Dirk offers insight into what leaders can do now so their companies thrive in the brave new world of post-pandemic commerce. He also unveils Shift To Tomorrow, his latest program designed specifically for leaders managing through this (or any other) crisis. "I elect to create the future and I think that's what we have the opportunity to do." Dirk's irrepressible optimism is balanced by levelheaded foresight. He's under no illusions that post-pandemic transformation will take a lot of elbow grease, a commodity that's already in limited supply for even the most successful distributors. Shelter-in-place orders have obliterated some long-range plans while accelerating others and, suddenly, the future is a lot closer than we ever realized. "We know the world's going to change," says Dirk. "We got to identify those opportunities...we're going to have to seize an opportunity that's out there." *** 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. http://www.distributionteam.com This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbader Connect with Dirk on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkbeveridge *** Not one for perpetuating 'do as I say, not as I do' dogma, he's identified a need for community and solidarity in the midst of the pandemic and made a quick pivot of his own. Shift To Tomorrow was born out of his tremendous sense of service to the industry and the people he loves. "We said, 'What are we going to do?' And before we said [that], we said, 'What does our tribe need?' They need to be hugged. They need to be inspired. They need insight. And, they need connection." The virtual program, which began with his open letter to the industry, guides decision-makers through crisis management and future-proofing by reassessing five core points of their business: vision, culture, value proposition, business model, and transformative leadership. Dirk believes companies can effectively come out of crisis stronger than they went in by reinforcing that five-point foundation. "I think each of those five things are going to require change and in some cases, transformation," he says, but the C-suite couldn't ask for a better cheerleader. "The weight of responsibility they have, in good times and bad times, the risk they take, the vision they create for the future, what they create out of thin air…," he says, equally awed and inspired by their contributions, "I believe we take that entrepreneurialism for granted." It'll take renewed endurance and recalibrated plan but Dirk's in distribution's corner. BONUS! Check out the resources Dirk mentioned here: Innovate! How Successful Distributors Lead Change In Disruptive Times Conversation with Saul Kaplan: Using The Pandemic As A Launchpad For Business Innovation UnleashWD Shift to Tomorrow

"I've told our people over the years say, we're not just selling pipe valves...we're actually helping build automobiles and airplanes and chemicals that are used in just about everything in the country and I tried to paint a bigger picture of, you know, how important we really are." -Kip Miller Kip Miller, president and CEO of Eastern Industrial Supply Inc. out of Greenville, SC, shares with us some of the lessons he's learned about managing - and growing - through challenges. Our conversation touches on Kip's initial trial by fire and the question anyone who wants to become a better leader and a happier person should ask themselves: How do you want to live? "The only place where real, true learning takes place is trial and error through making mistakes." And, with that, Kip busts the myth that exemplary leaders are infallible from day one on the job. His story, and that of his company, is one with peaks and valleys to rival any great novel. The fresh-faced college grad lands a great job just before recession hits the early 80s and stays on through a buyout, loyal to the man who originally hired him. But his good fortune is followed by bittersweet opportunity when his boss is struck by illness and a massive heart attack, leaving the company in his hands. Kip was just 29 years old when he inherited Eastern Supply's 12 employees and debt load. "I certainly didn't have the leadership or the business experience I needed. But, I certainly went through a quick business education." The original dozen stuck by him, forging on and slowly paying down the debt. "Then we picked up a huge... project of a new textile mill being built. We were off and running and we've not looked back since." *** 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. http://www.distributionteam.com This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbader/ Connect with Kip on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kip-miller/ *** The company may not be looking back, but Kip has. As an introspective thought-leader, his posts are refreshingly transparent. He's not shy of detailing his struggles or discussing the changes he's put into practice on his way to becoming the leader - the person - he's always wanted to be. "I used to be a person that played their cards really close to the vest and didn't want anybody to see you sweat," he says about his earlier management persona, the silent intimidator. "So, I had to learn about who I was, what my personality type was, where I was challenged in those areas, and what steps I needed to take to overcome those." He credits his original employees for bringing some of those early management shortcomings to his attention and for helping him create a company culture that remains, to this day, steadfastly aligned with its five core values: caring, honesty, integrity, self-responsibility, and positivity. Kip views those principles as the bedrock of Eastern Industrial Supply's service to the country, painting the bigger picture as he reminds his staff that they're not just selling plumbing parts, they're actually helping to build all the industries that keep the country running. Kip's message is doubly important as the world ventures into the uncharted territory of a global pandemic. And now is the perfect time for leaders at every level to ask themselves his simple question: "How do I want to live? I think that's a tremendously important question." Listen in to find out how Kip's planning to live his answer. BONUS BOOK CLUB: Recommendations from Kip's own reading. The Man In The Mirror - by Patrick Morley Halftime: Moving From Success To Significance - by Bob Buford

"We oftentimes say it's not the incentive why people buy from you, it's the cherry on top of the cheesecake. But the incentive, if designed properly, puts a spotlight on the value that you bring." -Lincoln Smith With everything you've got going on, here's a topic you might not have considered: loyalty programs. Business has been thrown an unprecedented curveball over the last few weeks. Lincoln Smith, chief strategy officer at HMI Performance Incentive, 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. "At the end of the day, distributors are looking for opportunities to differentiate themselves, to create a stronger relationship with their customers and then drive behaviors that are in the interest of both the contractor [and] the customer." That desire to foster long-lasting connections has been with Lincoln since he began working with HMI 20+ years ago. And he's not just paying lip-service to our industry. He and HMI have serious street cred, having participated in NAW and HARDI. Originally the domain of consumer transactions - about 97% of us are passively or actively enrolled in some sort of loyalty plan - participation has expanded to include B2B incentivizing. This adoption rate makes sense given that HMI's data shows a direct link between good loyalty programs and overall margin enhancement. It's a behavioral economics win-win. *** 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. http://www.distributionteam.com This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbader/ Connect with Lincoln on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lincolnsmith/ *** Amplifying value-added services is another incentive program win-win, especially in situations where a company's natural humility gets in the way of communicating their full worth. "I think that a lot of wholesalers discount that value," says Lincoln. "I think that they could do a better job of highlighting it in a myriad of different ways." To that end, HMI takes an agency approach to their consulting, devising strategies for companies to enhance their messaging, maybe through something as simple as adding a services tab to their website. "These are just communication and engagement tactics to deliver that message on a more consistent or maybe a more meaningful way." 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. "These programs can really be designed to drive certain behaviors," says Lincoln. "As an example, it's now no longer just do this, get that. Here we are in April of 2020 and the world looks a little bit different, this month than it did just six weeks ago now." The drastic changes 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.

"We want to come out of this stronger, we absolutely do. And we want to, if we can, come out of this more connected, sharing of similar values, sharing of similar thoughts, and direction. I think that we do have a tremendous opportunity to change the paradigm going forward here." -Jason Bader "There's so much trust that is required to have an effective buyer-seller relationship. It's still an open question mark. Can you develop that kind of trust virtually as opposed to physically?" -Marshall Jones There's no question that a distributorship faces challenges from time to time. What happens to the industry landscape when the entire world is hit with the same crisis? As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to pass grim milestones, it's impossible to answer that question definitively. Only time can tell which practices our community will return to and which will give way to innovation. As my business partner Marshall Jones and I continue to watch events unfold, one thing has become clear to us: business has been forever altered in the span of only a few short weeks. In this episode, we assess the positive and negative impact of those changes. *** 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. http://www.distributionteam.com This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbader/ Connect with Marshall on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marshall-jones-89933240/ *** "I think it's very early to determine whether or not it's going to have a long-standing effect on how we communicate in distribution," says Marshall. The pandemic-related ubiquity of online meeting platforms like Zoom has become a lifeline in the age of social distancing, a tool for company survival. While not ideal for some companies, staff meetings are conducted remotely. But what about those clients with whom in-person contact was the norm? How does an outside salesperson's value translate via the screen? Has the pandemic brought us to an inevitable tipping point? "You know, the extinction of the outside salesperson has been predicted many, many times in the last, 50, 60 years. And they're resilient creatures. They keep coming back." Customer relationships aren't the only connections managers should be taking a close look at right now. How are team members handling remote work? While some may thrive on the noise and camaraderie of a typical office bullpen, I'm hearing that others - often those without children at home - are more productive at home, away from distractions. How will businesses reintegrate staff once shelter-in-place orders are lifted? And what does post-pandemic service look like will-call and walk-up windows? Are there deficiencies in your procedures that the crisis has exploited? Whether companies were looking to make changes or not, changes are coming. "Leadership really needs to spend a lot of time as people start to come back, listening to what went well during the quarantine, during the stay at home time, and what they struggled with." The environment we're facing now, the way that we're trying to connect right now and communicate right now, will have an impact. It's going to put a dent in tradition. When the current crisis is over, who will be satisfied going back to business as usual? As owners and managers, we want what's best for our customers and our employees. Take time now to ask yourself, what does our service look like in the future?

"You don't build consensus around what people think. You build consensus around why they think it." ~Terrence Metz Chances are good that you've got a meeting scheduled today. Assuming that it starts on time, how many of Terrence Metz's eight meeting killers will your team slay before agendas are abandoned, egos bruised, and goals sidelined? As managing director of MG Rush Facilitation Training and Coaching, Terrence has built a career helping businesses and organizations conduct faster, more productive meetings. His insights could revolutionize your next meeting and promote higher-quality outcomes. "We would be better off running more workshops and having fewer meetings," says Terrence of the stagnation prevalent in meeting culture today. He notes that once-productive sessions have devolved into little more than discussions. "The problem is most people can't get prepared well enough to know what they would do in a workshop environment. They use meetings to lift the fog high enough that they can figure out what they should do until the next meeting, and that's quite dastardly." It's no wonder that businesses and organizations waste precious energy trying to reach consensus when a majority of the decision-makers don't even have time to adequately prepare. Things rapidly disintegrate from there, often at the expense of the end goal which, in Terrence's view, is the only reason to have a meeting in the first place. "Know what done looks like," he says and work backward from there. *** 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. http://www.distributionteam.com This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbader/ Connect with Terrence on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terrencemetz/ *** Touching on the idea of consensus again, Terrence is clear about the difference between a kumbaya group hug and a workable agreement. "Yes, everybody has to agree. But they don't have to agree it's their favorite [decision]. They have to agree the resolution is robust enough that they will personally support it, that they will not fault it and try to unravel it." It's a level of understanding born from years of observing group dynamics and successfully coaching participants toward a common goal. And, yes, he's facilitated consensus-building across the great generational working divide. The key, he says, is for facilitators to acknowledge the diversity in the room. That's where younger decision-makers have the edge, Terrence says. Gens Y and Z are generally more willing to accept a broader range of individual working styles within the confines of a team goal than their older counterparts. So, what about Terrence's remaining meeting killers? You'll have to listen in! Then head over to the MG Rush blog for free facilitator resources and additional tips. Bonus book club recommendations mentioned in this episode: Harvard University's Howard Gardner PhD, and an old favorite The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey.

"We don't have a warehouse. We have a distribution center. Warehouses [are where] things go in and they don't come out...So, again, that's another thing you don't say here." ~Paul Neustadt As a master distributor of HVAC controls, Neuco, Inc. stakes its reputation on two guiding principles: efficiency and effectiveness. I sat down with the company's president Paul Neustadt to find out how this third-generation family business manages to innovate while honoring tradition. "Our family has been in business consistently since 1907," says Paul. What started over a century ago as horse-drawn fuel, grain, and hay business in Chicago is now one of North America's largest master distributors, operating out of a brand new 145,000 sq ft facility in Bollingbrook, IL. What is a master distributor? "Neuco's model is to fill in the holes." Say you've sold seven items to a job but you've only got six and the manufacturer is quoting you four weeks until deliver? Neuco has you covered without you having to look to other brands for fulfilment. That level of supply chain management takes an investment in customer service and automation. Neuco has always doubled-down on both, taking the time to learn what they don't know and invest in technology. *** 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. http://www.distributionteam.com This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbader/ Connect with Paul on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-neustadt-0571b719/ *** "As a company, we are very hard on ourselves. Our feeling is, just because we're doing something one way does not mean that's the right way to do it." Paul says the worst thing anyone can say in a meeting is, "Well, that's because we've always done it that way!" That spirit of always striving, never getting too comfortable with where they're at, is part of Neuco's DNA. "The people that came before us challenged themselves when they changed industries. And we challenge ourselves to say: How can we do better? What can we do better? How can we do more?" More for the manufacturer; more for the customer. For Paul, these aren't mere transactions Neuco is making on both ends; they're relationships. Maintaining loyalty means everything from providing knowledgeable technical support across their brand catalog to seamlessly filling an oddball request. To that end, the company's new facility is state of the art. "The amount of automation that we do...we don't have robots but we have the picklist," says Paul. "And, the way we do inventory and the logic that goes into how we inventory, it's incredible!" Listen in to find out more about Neuco's incredible automation and the team-building magic of moving into a new facility.

If you think inventory-sharing is the silver bullet to your overstock woes, you're missing a vital aspect of its potential. Mark Tomalonis, president of WarehouseTWO, says the platform performs best as a collaborative space, one in which the power of peer inventories helps members source non-stock, difficult-to-purchase items. I sat down with Mark to uncover how inventory-sharing works and why it's good for business. "We help distributors of any size act as if he owns all the inventory in his catalog," says Mark, of the business he started on a whim back in 2005. The WarehouseTWO model doesn't just provide a second life for unproductive inventory or deadstock. Instead, it connects buyers with sellers, allowing both to defend against backorder delays, high-quantity minimums, and disappointed customers, all without having to keep the actual product in hand. "Inventory sharing increases asset efficiency and operational efficiency for a network of pure wholesale distributors." *** 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. http://www.distributionteam.com This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbader/ Connect with Mark on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marktomalonis/ *** While not the first company to come up with the idea, WarehouseTWO is one of the prime players in this small niche, managing to grow even as big names like IBM bow out of the market. In an age when it seems like everyone's out to shake up an industry, Mark credits his company's staying power to his philosophy of supporting authorized regional distributors. "WarehouseTWO exists to defend and support a manufacturer's assigned distribution channel," he says. "We don't exist to disrupt it." Nor does WarehouseTWO exist to solve inventory management problems in a vertical fashion akin to ERP models. He wants clients to think horizontally by exposing their inventory to tens of thousands of additional end customers, taking what's in stock and making it available to dozens of pure distributors in other parts of the country. Besides, to his way of thinking, there's only three ways to rectify surplus issues. "Number one: prevent it." Mark urges listeners to put systems, policies, and resources or talent into place so that you don't end up with the extra stock in the first place. "Number two: rent the dumpster." And his number three tip for avoiding inventory overload? "There is no number three," he laughs. "Nobody wants your purchasing mistakes." Listen in for more inventory insight from Mark and find out how WarehouseTWO can take the sting out of number three.

"In retrospect, of course, I didn't realize it then when he said, 'Son, I don't give positions. I give opportunities. We'll see what you can do.' But you know, now I sit here as the owner of the company, some 30 years later, and I've worked every position getting up to here, so I know how the company runs." ~Jim Henderson Faith and fasteners may not seem like an obvious fit. For Jim Henderson, president of Dynamic Sales Company, Inc out of St. Louis, his beliefs and his business couldn't be more compatible. Jim shares his levelheaded business advice as well as some refreshingly honest insight into the role religion plays in his Christian-based company. "The four points of our star logo are service, quality, commitment, and integrity. And those all line up with those principles that we gather from our faith." Jim isn't shy about his relationship with God. His religion is a tool for creating opportunities and maintaining an inclusive, successful family-run company. From tithing on behalf of the company to incorporating two scripture passages into the Dynamic logo, Jim's spiritual values are woven throughout the fabric of his life. The value of deep connections informs Jim's recruiting style as well. He's a master at finding the right people for the right positions through seemingly unconventional relationships, finding candidates in unlikely places: a car dealership and a newspaper route. "One of the things I try to find is what my brother and I used to term a servant's heart, someone's who is willing to serve the customer and put the customer's needs before their own." Jim still uses traditional resources like LinkedIn and Indeed but he's always on the lookout in his day-to-day interactions for fresh, forward-thinking talent. *** 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. http://www.distributionteam.com This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbader/ Connect with Jim on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-henderson-83280312/ *** The value Jim places on service and relationship-building is also evident when he speaks about STAFDA, the trade organization his father helped start. He's baffled by members who pay their dues but sit on the sidelines. "Being able to use my network - and I have used that from coast to coast, North, South, East and West - and being able to connect with people," he says, "they're always willing to help a fellow STAFDA member out." Likewise, Jim's commitment to customer service has seen the industrial sector of Dynamic's business grow considerably. That success is a credit to his expertise at pursuing relationships as avenues for growth, making sales calls instead of micro-managing from behind a desk. "I work on the big picture stuff," he laughs. "I don't worry about the minutia of everything. That's handled by everybody here and I just focus on customers and I enjoy it." If you're interested in the scriptures Jim quotes, they are John 14:6 and Matthew 6:33. He also mentions the following books: Business By The Book by Larry Burkett and Talk The Walk: How To Be Right Without Being Insufferable by Steve Brown.

"The gift is in the giving. And I will tell business people that when you give to a good cause...you give the gift in the giving." ~Steven Lazar Can surplus commodities become a driver for change? If you ask Steven Lazar, president of Lazco Corporation, the answer is a resounding "yes!". We began our conversation discussing the business of buying and selling surplus HVAC equipment but quickly expanded our focus to include family dynamics, getting young people involved in entrepreneurship, and the importance of personal altruistic pursuits. "I think once we recognize the value of community, even in the heating and air conditioning industry, that we have to be able to help each other, you know, and do things." But Steven isn't satisfied with just unloading a client's product for the best price - although that certainly is chief among his considerations when organizing a sale. What truly motivates him is the role he plays in his client's future - be it the buyers who get good products at great prices or sellers who would otherwise take a hit on a warehouse full of unused goods. "This is why my passion, to help distributors and manufacturers turn their surplus inventories into working capital." *** 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. http://www.distributionteam.com This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbader/ Connect with Steven: Lazco Corporation 480-265-9980 [email protected] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/Lazco/ Yeshua Messiah Ministries Send Prayer Requests to [email protected] Distributor Trends article: http://digital.bnpmedia.com/publication/?m=&l=1&i=627750&p=42&ver=html5 *** One thing that can upset a carefully crafted Lazco sale is emotionality. Ego often prevents sellers from accepting bids which have been coordinated with their best interests in mind. As Steven sees it, there's no reason not to consider a 70-cents-on-a-dollar deal when it could mean the difference between moving on to greener pastures or standing still -- watching your equipment depreciate. "Logistically, it doesn't make sense!" What does make sense is his ability to put sellers together with buyers and even renters. "This is perfectly good equipment that we can use to help save people money that don't have a budget to buy." Steven's commitment to his customers is matched only by the concern he has for his community. Veterans affairs are close to his heart. To that end, he's working to create his first subdivision of homes outfitted to serve veterans (and veteran families) in need. In partnership with Legacy Manufactured Homes, Steven hopes to open the first of these villages in Arizona in 2020. It's a footprint that features 30 modular units of various-sized dwellings with additional onsite support for personal and professional growth through community gardening, job training, and social services. If all works as he envisions it will, the goal is to set up additional communities to repay those who have given so much to their country. "One of the important things is the attitude of gratitude," Steven says. It's this philosophy that he applies to his business and philanthropic endeavors. Listen in to find out more about how Lazco might be of service to your business or how you can get involved with his homes-for-veterans project.

"The greatest thing to do, the best thing to do, is to be prepared… But if you're not prepared, it's going to bring down your business." ~Tom Held If you haven't given IT security much of a thought, this episode will change your mind about doing so...immediately! I got the chance to speak with Tom Held, Senior Consultant of Cyber Security and IT Risk Management with The Oakland Group, about intellectual property theft and why your business - yes, even a "small" nuts-and-bolts kind of distributorship - is ripe for ransoming. "The thing about ransomware that you don't hear about it because it's happening on these small scales," says Tom about the day-to-day business of hacking. Once the domain of basement-dwelling malcontents, the industry is now a profitable, illegitimate revenue stream. At one extreme are the organized crime syndicates from countries like Russia and China making big news by targeting large corporations and institutions. But a more likely threat to your business is posed by the 9-to-5 job con men. These criminals hit multiple small marks in a day, racking up millions of dollars a year with dozens of daily low-ransom hits - all from the relative safety of the internet. In addition to jamming company laptops, phishing tactics - those "help a Nigerian prince reclaim his kingdom" emails - have also become more sophisticated. Think you're too savvy to fall for a fraudulent bank notice, tax documentation request, or accounts payable issue? Think again. "We're vulnerable to our daily routines, right? We've got other things to worry about…," says Tom. Those day-to-day responsibilities can overpower our better judgement, especially when we're in a hurry. "That email comes in and, okay, fine. I'll click on this thing..." By the time you've realized what you've done, the damage is done and it will cost you not only money but lost time to repair your business. It's difficult to persuade small businesses they need cybersecurity but Tom has seen hacking's devastating consequences. He recommends three key actions for getting a handle on your exposure. *** 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. http://www.distributionteam.com This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbader/ Connect with Tom on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-held-0776a7126/ Phish testing strengthens employee susceptibility to socially engineered scams. A data inventory and risk assessment narrow down potential access points for hackers. Where's your going? Where's it being stored? Who's sending it? And creating policy ensures that protocols are in place before your company is forced to address a breach. Still not convinced? You may find yourself scrambling for Bitcoin and taking ransom instructions from a hacker's hotline. "In some cases, the customer service is so great that you're almost reassured that you will [regain access to your data] because they want future business," Tom says. "What's odd is, in this industry of ransomware, the big players want people to know that they will get their stuff back because then they're more likely to pay the ransom." That's a level of dark web client care we can all do without.

"I'm such a believer that my kids need to do something different, at least for a period of their life. Go apply for your own job. Negotiate your own salary. Negotiate your own working conditions and work hard and impress your own boss. Find out if that's right for you or if that's maybe not as easy as it appeared to be." ~Bryan Keen A century is a long time to be in business. While Bryan Keen, president of Keen Compressed Gas Co., takes those hundred years in stride, he doesn't take anything for granted. He's capitalizing on new markets and broadening the company's reach with 15 locations throughout the Mid-Atlantic. I got to chat with Bryan about family history, creating a knowledgeable workforce, and planning for Keen's future. "Managing through the changes every year is fun," says Bryan. "You look back on what you accomplished and where you were two years ago or three years ago, or even last year and you just ...you know, you've got to be proud of what you accomplished." Keen has succeeded where other companies have failed. A family-run operation whose first location opened in 1919 doesn't flourish into the 21st century without managing through challenges and proactively seeking areas in which to expand. *** 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. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbader/ Connect with Bryan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-keen-178b7511/ *** And they don't grow without a commitment to their people. Keen has a long history of supporting its employees for success through training and premiums. "You can't just be happy with what you sold yesterday. You've got to keep them fresh...you've got to get them excited about [new products], and you've got to compensate them for selling it." If you've listened to Distribution Talk in the past, or you're part of a legacy business yourself, you already know how Bryan's story goes. An adolescence spent watching his grandfather, his father, and extended family grow the business. Summer vacations in the warehouse while high school buddies were at the pool. And then a break from the familiar company confines he'd grown up in. "I went to work for the company that bought [the propane] segment of our business and I was challenged with the conversion, basically transitioning that business and those employees ...and I had to get them on board with the new corporate structure." Bryan says he learned a lot of incredible lessons from his three years away: negotiation strategies, leadership styles, purchasing plans--so much so that should his own children want to follow him into the business, he'll urge them to try something different before opting back into Keen. Bryan went "all in" on the family business early on. "I realized the opportunity that was in front of me," he says. He has a knack for sussing out market options and choosing the ones that will work the best for Keen. So, while the auto plants and steel mills slowly left the industrial Northeast, the company got busy aligning with new tech: pharmaceutical businesses, university research and development departments, convenience food packaging operations. Keen also just completed a major plant investment which has the company poised to reach new heights. After 20 years at the helm, does Bryan see an endpoint for himself yet? "You got to keep it fresh and keep having fun running the business and the day that you don't have fun running the business today, you really need to start looking at your options," he adds, "but I'm nowhere near that."

"We're focused on delivering what our members are asking us to do. And what our members are asking us to do is train their people and help develop relationships between themselves and the manufacturers." ~Kevin Higginbotham Imagine running a company and having to answer to 58 bosses. As CEO of Evergreen Marketing Group, that's Kevin Higgenbotham's daily reality. I sat down with Kevin to find out how this cooperative of independent distributors works and what strategies Evergreen uses to promote long-term member success. You get the feeling that Kevin's heard this question before: Why would a contractor come to an Evergreen distributor member versus anybody else? As someone who started with the Texas-based cooperative twenty-five years ago, he's quick with the answer. "Because of the quality of the people. So as you walk into an Evergreen location, a branch, the people behind the counter know what they're talking about." That's on-brand for the group. Unlike other collectives, Evergreen's focus isn't on buying product; it's motivated by a desire to foster professional growth amongst members. Their approach is all-encompassing. Training and education, business development, and manufacturer partnerships. Evergreen delivers with product knowledge sessions and their Planning For Profit program. "[Planning For Profit] gets the distributors at the local level and the manufacturers' reps at the local and national levels together to honestly talk through, "how do we work together to grow the business?" Does the program meet member expectations? Kevin says Evergreen's data doesn't lie. "I've been able to demonstrate over time...hey, this is worth your time.'" *** 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. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbader/ Connect with Kevin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-higginbotham-3807a84/ *** Kevin shared a few tips from the Planning for Profit playbook. The first is simple: Always do what you say you're going to do -- on both the distributor and the manufacturer side. Second: Write everything down. Whatever that looks like to you -- pen and paper or a notes app -- just jot it down because you're more likely to get it done. His third tip is for manufacturers: Understand the nuances between clients. Even in a collective, customer A is not the same as customer B. Lastly: Set aside time in October or November for a thorough year ahead planning session -- then check in with your progress the first week of April. "The worst thing to do is continue to execute a plan that's not working and then to not know that it's not working until the third quarter." Wise words whether you're a large distributor or a small one. Want an in depth look at how Evergreen's model works? Listen in as Kevin and I break down the details and get dig deeper into Planning For Profit. Bonus reading suggestion for your management bookshelf: Working At Cross Purposes by Mike Marks.

30 episodes. Thousands of unique downloads. Dozens of interesting guests. Listeners in upwards of 30 different countries. It's been an amazing first year for Distribution Talk. I'm genuinely grateful for your support and your continued interest. Thank you! As for this installment, I've opted to go solo with a question: do you own a business or a job? As the year, the decade, draws to a close, there's no better time to see how you score. So, what's the difference between the two? A job requires you to be there (physically as well as mentally) in order for the operation to run smoothly -- or at all. You're the engine that drives every aspect of the day-to-day, from sales to administration. If you were to take a few weeks off to travel the world, your company would flounder or worse. A business, on the other hand, is set up to run efficiently and effectively should you step away for a month on a well-earned sabbatical. If the latter sounds impossible, hear me out. Not only does adopting a business mindset allow you to enjoy what you've built but doing so also prepares your company for a profitable sale (if or when that time comes). *** 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. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbader *** Experience has shown me that the litmus test for business vs job holds true whether we're talking about small family companies or organizations operating in the millions of dollars range. And the essential element for both is the same: build a great team. If there's one piece of advice I've heard over and over again from DT guests it's surround yourself with knowledgeable people. Ask yourself if you're merely filling a vacancy or recruiting talent for your company's future. Recruiting talent is an ongoing process, one that's conducted even when there's no position to fill...yet. If you've recruited the talent but still find yourself with a job, ask yourself if you're training them with an eye toward the future or directing them into stagnation and complacency. Critically assess your style. Path-centric micromanaging exhausts your attention and is a poor use of employee resources. Adopting a more goal-focused approach and ceding absolute control allows your team to grow in confidence and skill, ultimately creating the sustainability that supports time away and attracts interested buyers. So how and where do you start? If you've listened for a while, you've come to rely on this podcast as a genuine resource for practical ideas; 30 episodes worth of conversations with thought leaders, consultants, and distribution business owners just like you. If you need guidance, I hope you consider reaching out to me. Assisting distribution clients get there is both my profession and my passion. Here's to a bright, self-sustainable 2020! Have a wonderful holiday. http://www.distributiontalk.com

"Well, I think it's the author Jim Collins that talks about two business models: the genius with a thousand helpers model versus a solid management team. And, you know, when you're a genius with a thousand helpers, you have nothing to sell because when you walk out the door, the business is worthless." ~Jim Sobeck Jim Sobeck, CEO of New South Construction Supply out of Greenville, South Carolina, is a long-range thinker whose ideas have consistently placed him well ahead of the market. And, he's got a way with words! We had the kind of conversation that makes you want to lean in and take notes. "I was kicked off allowance at age 12 and had to start working in the warehouse sweeping." So begins the story of how Jim got his start in the business, sweeping, loading trucks, and doing anything and everything a boy could do in his father's construction company. After college, he made his way to Chicago and eventually Dallas. "I had the sales and marketing responsibility over six branches of Owens Corning, about $125 million of P-and-L responsibility at age 23. You know, you either grow or die when you're thrown into the deep end of the pool at that age." Grow he did. At 29, he got into the computer software business for lumberyards and contractors. He went on to grow that company into a $30 million business which he sold fifteen years later during the height of the internet bubble for a "ridiculous" amount. Today, his company New South Construction Supply has nine outlets, most with rebar fabrication shops in house, with locations in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. "What I love about it the most," he says about the business, "[is] we all learned in school there were only three needs: food, clothing, and shelter. Everything else is a want. And so, it's not a fad business. It's not a hula hoop. It's not a pet rock. People will always need shelter, so it's never going to go out of style. And I love that." *** 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. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. Connect with Jim on LinkedIn. *** He also loves finding new ways to sell smarter, often years ahead of his competition. In once instance, Jim championed an app rollout that his son was less keen on. "I said, I don't care if anyone uses the app... I don't want to be late to the party." Last year, New South reached a goal of 22,000 orders via their mobile app. Jim is equally canny in his ability to successfully manage acquisition outcomes. By his count, he's purchased eight companies on his own and several more in his days with the software firm. "Most acquisitions that fail failed due to a poor cultural fit," he says, recalling a study which marked the failure rate as high as 72%. "The most important thing by far is the cultural fit. That's the thing I always look for. You know, do we mesh?" Beyond culture, he's unwavering in his stance that audited financials are the only financials worth reviewing in an acquisition. "I was schooled by one of my early mentors: Run it like you're going to sell it." To that end, he also advises companies worth more than $5 million to put together a board -- and to pay attention to their advice. "Why not surround yourself with five other people that are smarter than you and shut up and listen!" That's my cue to step aside so you can listen in. Jim is one of the smarter people in the business. In fact, he wrote the book on it: The Real Business 101: Lessons From The Trenches. If you're in need of tips for successfully navigating a branch expansion, an acquisition, or a generational transition, Jim's the man with well-tested plans.

"At some point, we have to have a real assessment of whether these [social media] platforms are giving us what we want. And, the truth is, the more time you spend on them, the less happy people are." ~Curt Steinhorst Can I have your attention? You've probably got a million things (besides this episode of DT) vying for your notice. And I'll bet you're trying to devote fragments of time to all of them -- often all at once. Curt Steinhorst is a coach, speaker, and author who's literally wrote the book on how the infinite distractions of a fast-paced world are harming our psyche as well as our productivity. He offers simple, thoughtful strategies for regaining our focus - without ditching our tech. "What you pay attention to, you become." That's especially astute commentary coming from someone who was diagnosed with ADD as a child. It's no wonder that corporations and individuals seek Curt's positive, practical assistance to help them curtail attention deficits. Rather than wholesale dismantling of social media feeds or strict adherence to inbox zero, he's developed methods to minimize distractions and promote the natural human tendency toward inquisitiveness. "We are wired for curiosity," he says. "The base system of attention in our brain is that we're wired to seek out and explore new things. Uncover something that's interesting. Focus on it until something else comes about. So, we're not really made to just zoom in and focus efficiently, perfectly all the time." *** 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. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. Connect with Curt on LinkedIn. *** As we bounce from checking email to reading an influencer's piece on LinkedIn to hopping on Slack for the latest project update and back again to that inbox, we're constantly circling, never landing. "We're consuming about 500% the amount of information as someone in 1990 was. We simply can't process that. No one can process that. So we react by filtering arbitrarily." The key to meaningful filtering, says Curt, is personal (or organizational) assessment. "It's critical that we step back and ask the question how can I put the things in place that will support me focusing on what it is that I actually care about?" Curt relies on three effective filters to help him sort through the day's never ending data. The first is space -- setting up the physical places that are for particular work. "If you can literally say there's certain places that I'm going to do only certain things [in], then we call that sacred places in various forms." The second, and rather obvious, filter is technology itself -- but Curt points out that many of us fail to set even the simplest notification or inbox parameters. The third is people -- utilizing your admin, your co-workers, your boss to minimize distractions, making you more productive as a result. Ultimately, productivity thrives when humans are aware of their limitations and set boundaries to harness what is valuable.."I think we just have to realize technology is different than us and give ourselves a chance to just be very limited but excellent as a function of that." Easier said than done? Not if you listen in and you'll learn more about Curt's favorite filters, his book Can I Have Your Attention, and his company, FocusWise Inc.

"I never thought that I would be here 36 years later having worked in this industry as a woman, but I love it. I feel totally blessed. I love everybody I work with. Not every day is a great day or an easy day, but it's worked... it's been so good for my family. " ~Michelle Shearer-Rodriguez If you've listened to this show for a while (and, I know you have!)you've no doubt heard many guests reminisce on their formative years in the family business. My guest Michelle Shearer-Rodriguez, president of Shearer Supply, can relate; she's held every job at the company her father started in the mid-80s. That insight has proven valuable as she preps the next generation for success with her servant-style leadership -- whether they're blood relatives or not. Michelle's enthusiasm for the multi-generation company she heads extends well beyond the 13 family members currently working at Shearer. She's passionate about getting people into roles where they can succeed -- for their own good as well as that of the business. She's fervently commitment to staff education and takes advantage of support from HARDI, among others, to expand on the company's own in-house training. *** 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. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn. *** Michelle genuinely enjoys encouraging her team and creating space for them to grow. "Half of having your own business is putting the right person on the right seat on the right bus." She's noticed a lot of companies focusing all of their right person/right place spotlight on outside sales. She'd like to see more attention paid to branch managers and the job (or, rather, jobs) they do to support success. "You know, we hear a lot from our outside sales people...every single one of them would tell you that they can work for years on a customer, get a customer, and they can lose that customer overnight if that branch loads the wrong piece of equipment or you know, delivers short, something like that," she says. "My philosophy is: there's inside [sales], there's outside sales and no one trumps the other." There's also a dozen blood relatives working alongside the hundreds of employees who want to be a part of the Shearer Supply family because of the company's commitment to its people. As for the future, Michelle's thrilled that her three children have taken on roles in the family business. They've brought with them fresh knowledge and experiences as well as an enthusiasm for the business which is rubbing off on their friends. "The people that we've been hiring, they're people they went to college with. They never heard of heating and air conditioning and their coming into our industry. So I'm excited about that part. I think that is so cool!" Listen in to find out what else Millennials are bringing to the business, learn which character traits Michelle has dubbed the 3Es, and get a bonus book recommendation Ego Is The Enemy.

"Friends in the rep business are very important. I mean, from acquiring lines to sharing best practices, it's not just one guy and in one territory. There's a bunch of people that know each other and work together." ~Dave Wright This episode is 30 years in the making. That's how long I've known Dave Wright, president of WG Wright & Associates. In that time, the company has transformed from a manufacturer's rep to a wholesale distributor and private label. Having covered the business from so many angles over the decades, you can bet this show ticks a bunch of boxes--past, present, and future. "We started as a manufacturer's rep, solely working out of my dad's garage." It's a common origin story: a garage, a guy, and a desire to build something good. But, unlike so many failed or consolidated shops, WG Wright has defied the odds, adding new chapters by differentiating itself from the competition, then diversifying to outlast them. *** 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. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. Connect with Dave on LinkedIn. *** "It was through our processes of understanding what's needed in the market and do what we could to fill it," Dave says of the company's early decision to move from manufacturer's rep to stocking inventory. Today, the company has, in his words, a whole bunch of different things happening within their menu of services. The cost of keeping inventory on hand is a hot topic. Customers get used to finding certain items on you shelves so when a manufacturer decides they're no longer interested in consigned inventory, you've got to punt. "They came to us and said, 'Hey...we need you to become a wholesaler. Put a program together.' So, we did." They followed that decision up with Mighty Tie cable tie line, their foray into manufacturing a USA-made branded product. "It's been a fun little product line," says Dave. Price, performance, inside sales, taxes. We unpack a lot in this episode. One of the most interesting was high emotion, low margin sales. Take cable ties for example.. "It's a thing you have, you know? No one cares about it…," Dave says. "It's a pretty easy thing to sell. It's a good commodity item...and most importantly, it's not emotional. If you try and sell a job box or a ladder, oh my gosh! You know how emotional those things get?" Taxes are another emotional subject -- and getting more so, from what Dave's witnessed. "States like Washington are coming back and taxing companies that ship into Washington. California is notorious for it.' He's not blinking yet. WG Wright has weathered storms since 1977. Want to know how they've done it? Listen in for Dave's insight on specification work, consolidation, Millennial buyers, and more.

"Ninety-nine percent of distribution sales people are going to tell me their purpose is to make a sale, right? I think they're wrong. The purpose of the world's top-producing sales organizations is to identify and then satisfy our customer's needs profitably." ~Dirk Beveridge By definition, innovate means to make advantageous changes to something established. My guest Dirk Beveridge, founder of UnleashWD and president of Beveridge Consulting Group (aka Leadership Today), wrote the book (literally) on how distributors can create new methods and drive success even in challenging times. Our conversation is packed with must listen material, the kind of anecdotes, tips, and resources for which Dirk receives hefty retainers as a sought-after keynote speaker. *** 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. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. Connect with Dirk on LinkedIn. *** "I did it absolutely wrong," Dirk says of his path to becoming one of the foremost authorities on innovation. He created his first UnleashedWD Innovation Summit without any idea of what truly innovation meant. "If I would've done it right, I would've done the research and wrote the book first and then [held] the summit." Happy accidents aside, Innovate! How Successful Distributors Lead Change In Disruptive Times, is a must-read as it lays out a model for remaining sustainable and profitable. He urges readers to focus on vision, culture, value proposition, business model, and leadership with a beginner's mindset, the theory that by setting aside years (decades...generations) of preconceptions, your business can thrive while others are still running their distributorships the same way they did years (decades...generations) ago. "I'm your guy to get people in the room to rethink what it means to break that same mousetrap" He's also the guy to get teams acquainted with what sets their business apart from the competition. "It comes down to product, service and relationships. [But] all three of those things have become commoditized." It's not just sameness that's threatening growth. It's the fear surrounding succession planning and the inertia that breeds. "I think the number one disruptive force that distribution is going to be facing...is this tsunami of presidents, owners, CEOs who are going to be transitioning the business to the next generation in the next three to ten years." He's observed aging companies firsthand and understands how improper planning affects their chances for survival. That's why Dirk's passionate about his new program. My Life's Work is an executive coaching system created specifically to guide businesses through this major leadership change. "We've developed a success path," he says of his three-year curriculum. Members meet quarterly to work on all aspects of their plan. When they graduate, they take with them a unique formula for their company. "If the business is going to be prepared for that transition, we have to focus on purpose. We have to focus on aligning around a strategic plan. We have to focus on growth of capabilities personally and the company. And we have to focus on making long-term decisions and investments." Ultimately, Dirk's goal is for participants to approach their company's next chapter with a beginner's mindset, to be open to new ideas, and engage in transparent conversations. That's how you leave a meaningful, lasting legacy. That's how we set the next generation up to lead change in disruptive times. Ready to launch your legacy, check out the inaugural My Life's Work session on January 16, 2020. Ready to for more great insight from Dirk? Listen in as we discuss ways to add more value to your business and find out about his work with National Association of Wholesale Distributors.

"You can't chase every single need, but when there's a consistency from one contractor or one customer to the other, that becomes an opportunity. And if there's a trust that you have built, the opportunity turns into profitability." ~Jeff Peterson, Geneva Supply, Inc. How does an affable guy who started out in the liquor industry become a leader in e-commerce strategy and fulfillment? When you meet Jeff Peterson, CEO and co-founder of Geneva Supply, Inc. out of Delavan, WI, the answer is clear: How could he not?! "I always wanted to own a sports bar…" And with that, Jeff's deep into the story of his unorthodox route into distribution. Although the twists and turns are many, the common throughline is his undeniable skill at building relationships. After selling the bar, Jeff went searching for his next challenge when the opportunity found him. "One of the guys that I knew, I was helping manage his band and he was the Greenlee Textron rep for Wisconsin…" That connection lead to a sales job with a family-owned tool distributorship and Jeff soon found himself driving to job sites in a company pickup truck selling items to contractors that he himself had no idea how to use. "Within six months, I ended up being the number two outside salesperson for this company." Jeff's ability to balance his inexperience with honesty in those early years made all the difference in his career. "I think the reason was because I went in there and asked a ton of questions and when they [contractors] asked me questions, I was honest with them. When I didn't have an answer, I followed up with them." It's a simple but crucial effort he credits with his success. "You don't have to be the smartest person in the room...but you've got to be the smartest person knowing they need an answer." He became so adept at finding answers that the family-owned distributorship he helped grow had no choice but to fire him and his future business partner. Once again, however, the relationships he nurtured while working for someone else came through to form the foundation for what is now Geneva Supply. These days, Jeff's still the guy finding answers and providing strategies for his clients e-commerce distribution challenges. Geneva has flourished as a one-stop shop for building brand strategy and supply chain infrastructure. "I was just telling our team this morning...Geneva Supply is a marketing company that does logistics." The company's gearing up to expand beyond the coasts, giving Jeff more opportunities to cultivate relationships internationally. Listen in to find out how Jeff got Geneva Supply up and running in a day (there's an airplane hanger involved!) and what's next for e-commerce. *** 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. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn.

"We go in and look at your program. We benchmark it to what we know we can negotiate on your behalf and, by the way, our contracts that we negotiate are in our clients' name. They're not in our name. That's important because the client owns the contract not us." ~Joe Barrer, Global Logistics, Inc. It's not often (if ever) that I get to say this episode comes with a free bonus offer! But first, I sat down with Joe Barrer of Global Logistics, Incorporated (GLI) to talk about the future of transport, inbound freight management, and what a fourth-party logistics company can do to boost your bottom line. "The fact that freight is free is a myth, quite honestly. There is no such thing as free freight and I think most distributors are aware of that," says Joe. What they might not be aware of, however, is the impact inbound freight analysis can have on a company's financial health. He certainly wasn't in his previous management role at an RV distributorship. That changed when GLI came onboard to analyze the company's freight expenses. "We were able to reduce our costs by $170,000 net the first year by taking over our freight," he says of the work GLI performed. In his current role as director of business development at GLI, Joe is an advocate for sitting down and doing the tedious, detailed work - there's just no way around it if you want to reap the savings. That said, he understands the barriers to doing so. "A lot of distributors simply don't have the time to do this type of analysis so that's where they get hung up. That takes a lot of time and effort." It might also require a cultural shift as changing the narrative between you and your suppliers begins well before the freight bills are scrutinized. "It absolutely has to be sold from the top down and mandated that this is the effort we're going to put in." Beyond not having time to dedicate to a line-by-line review, many leadership teams don't know how to review their data or negotiate on own behalf once results are in. For companies going it alone, he suggests reaching for the low-hanging fruit first. "You've got to see if your analysis is correct and that you're actually coming out ahead and also, quite honestly, some of the suppliers you might be buying from have better rates that you could ever get." Those experiences with smaller suppliers provide information what adjustments need to be made and when it's best to back off. So, what about distributors who are ready to lower their freight costs but don't want to perform the analysis on their own? That's where GLI comes in with an offer to evaluate shipping programs, benchmarked to the current market, free of charge. It's an excellent opportunity to see how a fourth-party logistics team can improve your company's bottom line. "It's a check-up from the neck up," Joe says. "You have a group of outside people with over 235 years of experience...looking at your program and signing off on it or letting you know what it needs." Want to learn more about how you can negotiate with your suppliers? Interested in how labor shortages are impacting your freight costs? Want to know when driverless freight will hit the road? Listen in! *** 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. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. Connect with Joe on LinkedIn. Get a free evaluation with GLI.

"Any organization that wants to create a sustainable future, if they're not spending a lot of energy and time as leaders on culture - defining it, refining it, enhancing it - in my book, they're missing the mark." ~John Wiborg John Wiborg, president and founder of Stellar Industrial Supply, believes there's only one thing separating your distributorship from the competition. It isn't price or fulfillment time or service. It's your company's culture. John and I discuss the intangible qualities that are the bedrock of his business. "Every team has a culture. But how do you really get intentional about institutionalizing it?" That's the question John posed to his management team several years ago during one of Stallar's multi-day management advances. He's resolute in his use of the word advance when describing these sessions over the ubiquitous retreat. "We don't retreat so we're not going to go on a retreat," he says. Stellar took advantage of a program offered through Affiliated Distributors to help them identify elements of culture already present at the company and outline practices they wanted to adopt. The coursework eventually became the framework for The Stellar Way, a booklet of twenty-six fundamentals that help his employees live successfully within the company's culture. John ran with the list and shared his insights with followers on LinkedIn in once-weekly posts entitled Fundamental of the Week until he'd addressed all twenty-six. Then he went further, minimizing any potential fade in enthusiasm by instituting a simple practice. "In the middle of the week, we'd have a little quiz around it and then every single meeting, whether its with outside parties or not...when we have two or more Stellar people in the meeting, we start the meeting in the Stellar Way. We read the fundamental of the week and we talk about it. It's really been powerful for us." John's ability to foster the company's culture inside and out has strengthened Stellar's relationships and its bottom line. "What I'm finding is, the execution of these fundamentals and the conversations we're having around them really are greasing the skids in many ways where things would get stuck before," he says. Beyond that, by institutionalizing the culture, he's able to take big steps back from the day-to-day operations and focus on scaling the business, secure in the knowledge that his team is living and promoting The Stellar Way. For John, that's the mark of a good servant-leader -- someone who stays focused on the essentials and advances the organization so the team can succeed and thrive in their roles. "I'm not there to play big boss and bark out orders," he says. Nor is he in business to promote his ego. "I decided I wanted to be part of a team, building something that's a good thing." With Stellar, he's done just that. For an episode clocking in at just thirty minutes, John and I go deep into company mindset! It's a fascinating topic with some surprisingly simple principles you can implement now. Listen in for some of The Stellar Way fundamentals and another book recommendation for your management ed bookshelf. *** 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. Edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. Connect with John on LinkedIn. Follow Stellar Industrial Supply on LinkedIn.

"It was a line-of-duty death that created this business," says John Tragiai, former owner of Keeprs, a law enforcement supply company based out of St. Cloud, MN. A s origins stories go, Keeprs stands as the most heartbreaking ever featured on Distribution Talk. John's arc within that history - from broadcasting major to police office to successful businessman - is one of the most inspiring. "It gives me goosebumps right now when I'm sitting here talking about it," John says while relaying the events that eventually lead to the creation of Keeprs. "Like a lot of entrepreneurs, planning isn't always part of the process when you get into a business." And failure is rarely an option - especially when you've set out to serve those who protect and serve. If you're like me, you probably assume that all law enforcement agencies outfit their members with the gear they need to do the job. More often than not, however, officers are given a stipend to purchase their own supplies. Like any gear-heavy industry (think restaurant chefs or construction workers), they're motivated to supplement the basics with customized items. Enter Keeprs, the shop created by law enforcement pros for law enforcement pros. They sold everything from boots to holsters to body armour and they did so with a highly personal customer service ethos. The company expanded beyond individual consumers to become a multi-state business. Eventually, their clients included whole agencies looking for a supplier who could reliably deliver bespoke uniform and patch combinations in bulk. Although Keeprs operated within an uncommon niche, John faced challenges inherent to most distributorships. At one point, he found himself at the helm of a growing company but with little experience combatting bloated inventory, outdated software, and non-existent cash reserves. "I was a cop that was supposed to be a broadcaster," he laughs. John's solution was to lean into his vulnerability and rely on trade organizations for guidance. "I don't mind being vulnerable and asking for help. When I came onto Keeprs, I didn't know the difference between AR and AP!" That changed with assistance from the National Association of Police Equipment Distributors and the National Shooting and Sports Foundation. "You know, you have to be vulnerable so you can go out there and just learn. Find the resources and learn. That's it." Two decades later (and wiser), John successfully sold Keeprs to a motivated buyer. Looking back on his wild ride as he puts it, would he do anything differently? You'll have to listen in to find out. *** 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. Edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. Connect with John on LinkedIn. Thank you to our sponsor, INxSQL, software built for distribution. Learn more at http://www.inxsql.com.

"Every business has to change." That's what Brenda Puckett, president at West-Lite Supply Co. says when asked about navigating turning points in the wholesale lighting industry. West-Lite Supply was founded in Los Angeles, CA in 1981 with the purpose of becoming America's premier distributor of lighting products. What was then a commodity based business selling lamps and fixtures, has now transformed into a rapidly changing electronics-driven service specialization. "Now we're not even in the lighting business. I tell all my customers and my sales reps that we're in electronics now. Think about it -- LEDs… we're controlling these things with our phones. We're controlling the colors of them. We're controlling how we interact with them… lighting really is turned into an experience rather than a commodity." Being ahead of the curve at West-Lite is important to Brenda. The challenge lies in how you manage inventory when you are selling less of a particular item and you don't want to get stuck with cases of outdated product, yet you have to balance that with keeping items in stock for your best customers and contractors. In order to compete with the bigger companies in lighting, Brenda coaches her sales force to focus on the consultative side, providing a high level of customer service. She says, "Don't go in looking for an order. Don't go in wondering what they need. You have to go in and educate them and show them and give them the options." Another big challenge is recruiting top talent. Lighting isn't historically the industry that students are coming out of school and running toward. But that is shifting a bit as the industry becomes more electronics-driven. The concept of engineering environments with customized lighting for particular events or moods is appealing to the younger generation. In terms of hires, Brenda's looking for people with a little bit of experience and a lot of willingness to get out there and help customers. Sales isn't just about going out to see customers -- it's about doing your research, pre-qualifying and finding out exactly what they need. Of course, it wouldn't be an episode about wholesale lighting distribution without a discussion on SPAs, or special pricing agreements, which Brenda says can be both a nemesis and also an opportunity for companies like hers. (And we gather that Jason really isn't a fan!) Brenda also shares her personal journey from college, to the New York Times, back to the family business at West-Lite. She surprises us with the story behind why her son does NOT work in the family business and shares what's lighting her up most about the future of the industry. *** 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. Edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. Connect with Brenda on LinkedIn. Thank you to our sponsor, The Distribution Team's seminar: Turning Branch Managers Into Business Managers. November 14-15, 2019 in Atlanta, GA. Get details & register: http://www.distributionteam.com/training

Carolyn Quinn never wanted to be known as a child employed by the owner of a business -- she wanted to be the chief executive officer. Now president at Pike Systems, Inc, a cleaning supply and equipment company based in Illinois, Carolyn leads an effective sales team that is intensely focused on providing value for their clients. From support tools to on-site training, Pike Systems is committed to find the proper program for the proper client to ensure their ongoing success. "I've read all of the materials on inside sales teams and how that should function and our janitorial supply industry is just not there yet… people still don't know how to use our products and until they know how to use them, we have to be out in the field." Listen in to hear how Pike divides their sales process into three distinct roles, the importance of building strategic bonds both within and outside of the industry, and how Carolyn believes in contributing to the success of her customers through education every single day. "We have to know more than the manufacturer does and not only know that, but know how to integrate one manufacturer's products with another… the amount of satisfaction in knowing that program that you put together is producing results, saving money, in some cases saving lives, and just making things easier for people is really rare." Get the full show notes at distributiontalk.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. Edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. Connect with Carolyn on LinkedIn. Thank you to our sponsor, The Distribution Team's seminar: Turning Branch Managers Into Business Managers. November 14-15, 2019 in Atlanta, GA. Get details & register: http://www.distributionteam.com/training

Third-generation leaders face challenges -- if the business survives long enough for them take the helm at all. Lauren Roberts, president of cfm Distributors, Inc. of Kansas City, is one such leader who's applying digital native solutions to her company's customer experience challenges. But she's not stopping there. She sits down with me to discuss why it's good for everyone in the industry succeed -- and what she's doing to make that happen. What Lauren's good at is dovetailing old with new, melding tech with legacy, and serving her peers. To that end, she's on the board of directors for Women in HVACR and is an active member of HARDI. "I'm passionate about giving back. I also believe that if we all improve, all the companies in our industry collectively, we will all succeed together." Listen in to hear more from this remarkable leader including how this employee-owned company weathers potentially contentious decisions and what it's like to operate out of a hundred-year-old, seven-story building. Get the full show notes at distributiontalk.com. "When I first joined the company… it was always, you know, you're the boss's daughter and… you're just here to hang out and you're going to have an easy ride. I had to work very hard to prove to everyone that I was here to work and I was going to add value." ~Lauren Roberts *** 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. Edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. Connect with Lauren on LinkedIn.

I caught up with Gian Marco Palazio, a serial entrepreneur, author, and business leader based in Managua, Nicaragua. Our conversation is packed with insight into measuring success and learning through failure, creating rituals that invite growth, and nurturing a legacy that honors the past while serving the future. "[It's] a lot of trial and error, you know? University doesn't teach you how to be an entrepreneur, at least they didn't back then. They taught you how to solve problems but you had to get into [those] problems on your own." Gian Marco laughs now, decades after graduating from Georgia Tech. And why not? He's built several successful businesses, written a book, and is an active part of a family legacy. In 1997, however, he found himself headed back home to a country he hadn't lived in since he was an infant to work in his father's agricultural business. Enter an uncle with a duffle bag full of safety gloves and a need for a distributor and Gian Marco's vision for what is today CASCO Safety took off. He's also proud of the legacy he and his family have created with Café Las Flores, a coffee farm, roaster, and eco-tourism business. Vulnerability is not a word that you hear often on Distribution Talk. Gian Marco says it's the key to his success. Listen in as Gian Marco delivers distribution life lessons, including candid talk about his personal struggles and the steps he took to get where he is today. Get the full show notes at distributiontalk.com. "I highly recommend if you don't have a morning ritual that takes you to a place of gratitude...and also be able to find spaces for your darkness of your fears of your doubts of whatever holds you back, I highly recommend you start finding a process to do that. It's never too late." ~Gian Marco Palazio *** 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. Edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. Connect with Gian Marco on LinkedIn.

Think your DIY customer survey produced the data you needed? Are you confident in your ability to analyze that information and implement those client recommendations? I sat down with Martha Brooke, chief customer experience analyst and founder of InterAction Metrics, to find out how better questions translate into meaningful customer insights. "Just because you have a platform like SurveyMonkey doesn't mean you have a good survey." Take Martha's word on that; she's been in the business of creating customer listening mechanisms since 2004. She's also used her LinkedIn blog to call out some of the biggest companies in the world for their abysmal client questionnaires. Beyond the questions, there's the mechanism; not all businesses benefit from surveys. Martha says that companies with inside sales, tech support, or customer service find call recordings or client interviews more helpful. "That's a great way...because the customer will drop little clues about what they're looking for." Interested in eliminating bias from your DIY surveys? Looking for simple ways to encourage worthwhile feedback from your best customers? Martha shares more tips and tricks in our conversation so listen in. Get the full show notes at distributiontalk.com. "Honestly, without getting those kinds of insights...you're sort of running rudderless... you're in the dark and it's hard to steer the ship." ~Martha Brooke *** 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. Edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. Connect with Martha on LinkedIn.

When things go badly, rest assured the situation can always get worse. That's what happened to Steve Cohn, president of Premier Beauty Supply. If you think salon sales has nothing in common with your distribution business, hang with this episode. My conversation with Steve yields some great advice for everyone, regardless of industry, about resilience and reinvention -- especially when things go from bad to worse. It's impossible to hear Steve talk about the challenges his company faced in 2007 without feeling retroactively panicked for Premier. "We had one manufacturer that wound up selling [their] business to another and, at the end of the year, that manufacturer told us they were gonna go with their own distribution chain." The situation at Premier was difficult at best; a disaster at worst. But challenges are a part of doing business. "You know, things happen," says Steve. "We didn't do anything wrong here and I just felt we had another one left in us." With that mindset, he and his wife set out to start from scratch again, rebuilding on top of the hard lessons of that year and a strong foundation of twenty years in business. Steve shares tips, talks letting go of staff (78 team members in one day!), and what he loves best about having a kid in the business. Get the full show notes at http://www.distributiontalk.com Thank you to our sponsor INxSQL, software built for distribution. "At the end of the day, the salesperson's role is to sit with the customer and really help them grow their business. We know the more we can help them grow...the more they want to do business with us." ~Steve Cohn *** 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. Edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. Connect with Steve on LinkedIn.

What have you done to secure your company's future? Beyond upgrades to your tech, your warehouse space, and your fleet, what investments have you made in your people? Michael Meier, VP and COO of Meier Supply Company, discusses how his own professional growth has translated into a passion for training company talent and clientele. Michael laughs when he tells his origin story and it probably resonates for a lot of listeners. He spent his post-college years as an HVAC tech, happily turning wrenches for six years when... "My dad offered me a position at the company. I took the job - and a $2 an hour pay cut!" After six months, the then 26-year old Michael told his father he needed to get back out into the field and turned in his two week notice. A week later, his brother had convinced him to stay. Since then, he's been a champion of professional development. "I realize the importance of coaching this next generation, this wave of employees," he says, pointing to his own challenges as the impetus for his drive to educate the future. "I originally struggled calling on customers and that wasn't my specialty. I really had to learn to talk and to deal with people." Get the full show notes at http://www.distributiontalk.com Thank you to our sponsor INxSQL, software built for distribution. "The better we make our contractors, our customers, the better it's going to be for us and, of course, for them...It's about what can we do to make a contractor more profitable, what can we do for them?" ~Michael Meier *** 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. Edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. Connect with Michael on LinkedIn.

Want to know the secrets to a successful expansion? For Dan Esch of Esch Construction Supply based in St. Paul, Minnesota, a company's mission is just as important as the advanced field work and the financial analysis. "This business is all about service." That's a sentiment you'll hear Dan repeat throughout our conversation. He's positioned Esch within the concrete cutting niche as a key collaborator, the customer's go-to source for products, service, and information. "We go out and solve problems and ask contractors how we can help them. That deep knowledge of that niche is where you can really add value and that's really where the fun of this business is." Service may be one of Dan's guiding principles but he'd never intended to make his mark in distribution. Listen in to find out how low unemployment is affecting Dan's future recruitment plans and why the company's successful rapid fulfillment service is a bit of a dual-edged sword. Get the full show notes at http://www.distributiontalk.com Thank you to our sponsor INxSQL, software built for distribution. "That deep knowledge of that niche is where you can really add value and that's really where the fun of this business is." ~Dan Esch *** 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. Edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. Connect with Dan on LinkedIn.

Ankit Sharma, CEO of Kitply Industries LTD. in Vancouver, British Columbia, didn't just take a leap of faith when he started his distribution business a decade ago; he set fire to all of his bridges for good measure. I caught up with Ankit to find out what motivates this award-winning entrepreneur and why he's on a mission to make wood sexy. His strategy to attract the same employees that typically head into consumer marketing and high-end tech companies is to operate more like those businesses - inside and out. His blog, makewoodsexy.com,is a modern hub for woodworkers and way to connect with young people in colleges and high schools, to reach them in a style that they can relate to. Ankit's working on scaling his business, seeking out areas for expansion and opportunities where he might purchase existing distribution companies, all while adhering to the core values that got him here. "Everyday's a journey of gratefulness." Want to know why he's an advocate for professional organization membership? How recruiting scorecards can help your hiring process? What punching above your (business) weight class can do for your business? Listen in! Thank you to our sponsor INxSQL, software built for distribution. *** 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. Edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. Connect with Ankit on LinkedIn.

What are you selling? Beyond the parts and pieces, what differentiates you from your competitors? Don't answer, at least not until you've listened to my conversation with Paul Reilly, president of Tom Reilly Training. His company has been on a 40 year mission to show sales teams that value-driven conversations can help them sell more profitably. The message has never been more relevant than in today's market. "My father Tom started the company back in the early 80s. What really got us started was that value-added selling message and, in distribution, it's all about finding unique ways to add value, create value for your customers." Technology has changed many of the physical elements required to make a sale since Tom Reilly wrote the first edition of Value-Added Selling. But tech hasn't gone so far as to disrupt the general principles outlined in the book and taught at Reilly Training seminars. "People try to convince you that things have changed," Paul says. "They're stirring the pot a little, saying that everything's changed in sales and you can't go to market the same way." He doesn't buy it. Distributorships have faced pricing pressures since the beginning and the companies that have survived make relationships their goal, not price. Paul put that value-driven principle into practice before joining the family business. He worked at Hilti for six years, selling products priced 20 to 30 percent higher than the competition's. "You have to learn how to communicate that message of value and translate not only the product and services and what they do, but you have to translate that into meaningful impact to the customer." The fourth edition of Value-Added Selling blends Paul's fresh experiences with new insights and ideas developed through Reilly training seminars. As with previous editions, however, the company aims to move sales teams past price. How? "I would say the first tip is to just have better conversations with your customers." he says. For instance, make a point of showing your clients how you can help them reduce their total costs, be they logistical, labor, time, etc. "Cost is a much better conversation to have than price." Paul shares a few more tips in the episode including strategies for shifting a customer's short-term gain mentality to one where the long-term solution benefits both you and your client. "Asking these questions gets the customer thinking bigger, thinking long-term and all the while they're taking the focus off price." Ready to experience the bottom-line benefits of value-added sales for yourself? Then you've got to listen in! We talk about the number one attribute customers look for in their sales people as ranked by Reilly's internal research, what Aristotle had to say about Millennials (yes, Aristotle), and add two authors to your summer reading list: Mike Weinberg and Daniel Pink. Thank you to our sponsor INxSQL, software built for distribution. *** 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. Edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. Connect with Paul on LinkedIn.

What does your sales force look like in five years? In ten? If you don't have an answer yet, my chat with Eric Wessinger, president of Richards Supply, will definitely spark some ideas. Officially, he's lead the company for a little over six years. Unofficially, Eric's been in and around the distribution business since childhood. As a second generation leader, he's drawing on his decade of outside work experience as well as his lifetime of insider knowledge to tackle the company's million-dollar sales question. "We've talked about it a ton with both the leadership and the management team," Eric says regarding the future of sales and service. Challenges inherent to smaller businesses can thwart creative problem solving, especially when overshadowed by the seemingly limitless reach of the national brands. In search of guidance, Eric looked to Richards Supply's core values. "We've been around for eighty-five years so we're doing something right already. So how do we take that foundation and move it forward?" Communication has always been key for the company. "I think outside sales, and face-to-face relationships, is still a differentiator for us." To that end, Eric and his sales force check in with its customers and refine the partnership by asking clients how they want to interact with the company. "I talk to customers all the time," he says. "If you looked at the top fifty, top one hundred customers, we do business with each one of them very differently. I think that's been a strength for us...being able to ask the right questions and listen to the answer and try to adjust accordingly." Although customization looks vastly different today from when the company began, the principle has stayed the same: meet the customer where they are. "If you ask a customer how they want to be served, you better be ready to say 'yes' to whatever the answer to that question is." For Richards Supply, that means an omni-channel approach to service options: outside sales, counter service, and a newly revamped website with a robust presence all its own. "You have to consider your website as an extension of your business, basically as a branch," Eric says. "You would never open a branch without inventory in mind or a sales methodology or a plan." The company's relationship driven, tech minded culture is a modern, practical approach to figuring out the future of sales. "It's a massive challenge and exciting. And it's fun but it's definitely something that's not snap of the fingers kind of thing." It's clear, however, that Eric and his staff have given Richards Supply a good head start. Dive deeper into the company's massive website overhaul and find out how Eric's years as a recruiter have helped him bolster the company's hiring process. Listen in! Thank you to our sponsor INxSQL, software built for distribution. *** 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. Edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. Connect with Eric on LinkedIn.

Yes! It's possible to remain laid back and move your business forward. Bill Morse, former owner of Constar Supply out of Clovis, California, is proof. Bill sat down to discuss the philosophies that have lead him to create solid banking relationships, honor employee freedoms over management scrutiny, and find the right corporate fit for his company's next chapter. There's a lot to learn from a guy who's been around since the dinosaur years, when deals were made over coffee and a handshake and banks came calling with capital to lend. "We moved banks two or three times in the early years," Bill says, "because banks were wooing us back then...and we wanted to keep the pace of growth going." It became apparent that building relationships with the people who greenlighted loans was crucial to avoiding the curse of a successful failure. Like many of us, Bill found that capitalizing on those relationships wasn't one of his strengths. "If you don't know it or if you're not comfortable with it or you just don't want to do it," he says, "find somebody who does...because that's essential!" Regardless of how friendly you are with your banker, Bill admits that the Great Recession has changed the banker-business relationship. Still, some aspects of applying for funds have stayed the same. "In every business, whether you're a doctor, a professional, or just a contractor, you really are in some part salesman and you have to sell your whole idea." To that end, Bill says that the work put into creating a forecast and outlining your vision comes down to selling yourself, otherwise, "they're not going to buy into it. And banks these days are especially tough. You really have to give them a real argument." Personnel is another challenge that's been a near constant since the beginning. When he started out, Bill says, "I had connections so I was able to pull some people away that had been in the industry for a long time." But there's a difference between finding an employee and finding the right employee. Once found, Bill gives his outside sales team their independence. "I don't put our salesmen on call reports. I don't track them. I don't give them too many barriers to making the sale." The payoff for Constar has been staff loyalty and a healthy bottom line - as well as a successful corporate buyout. If you've been in the industry for decades or are just starting out, give this episode a listen. It's a quick half hour of amazing insight on what it takes to stick around and stay successful. There's even a barista analogy. Thank you to our sponsor INxSQL, software built for distribution. *** 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. Edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. Connect with Bill on LinkedIn.

If the prospect of business growth makes you uneasy, you'll find a lot to relate to in this episode. Jason chats with Michelle St. John, owner and president of IBS Incorporated, a self-proclaimed risk-averse leader whose company continues to find creative solutions to industry challenges in spite of, or perhaps because of, her conservative mindset. Maintenance, repair, and operational supply has proven to be an almost recession-proof market for IBS. "When there's a recession, people are maintaining their own equipment and we get business. When times are booming and people are building their breaking bolts and tearing up roads, we're making sales in that environment." But Michelle is acutely aware that when challenges arise, they may require solutions that exist beyond her comfort zone. "What we're experiencing right now is some growth to a degree that has caused us to sort of expand at a rate that is a little bit uncomfortable." It's a space that IBS wants to be in, however. So Michelle, who shares leadership duties at IBS with her brother Derek, relies on the lessons learned while watching her parents who started the company in the family's basement. "Derek and I both watched our parents really closely and we took a lot of lessons away from my dad." One of the most important was the 72-hour rule, the idea that if you haven't implemented an idea within 72 hours of learning it, the tendency for it to produce any change at all become zero the longer time goes on. "So, by the end of the 72-hours," she says, "chances are good It's not going to influence your culture your environment." The rule is a core value that IBS impresses upon its sales management team. "It's really important that they're in the field with our reps as soon as possible to reinforce that training." To that end, IBS has committed to putting people in leadership positions who'll challenge the status quo and help the company reach the next milestone. Michelle says, "We're challenged with making sure that we're surrounded by people that can continually stretch us and expand us." Michelle recently wrapped up one of the greatest experiences of her life, a year-long tenure as president of STAFDA, Specialty Tool & Fasteners Distributors Association, proving that not all growth has to leave you feeling anxious. Trade associate participation has played a key role in her family's professional development from the beginning. "We devoured the education. We took advantage of all the consultative access." That access and exposure are just two of the reasons why she's enthusiastic about association membership. "I know for me, times are evolving so quickly and keeping pace is really important," she says. "We need ideas from people who are in the trenches and figuring it out every day." Michelle has so much insight to share that you'll definitely want to tune in! Find out how IBS private label products created customer loyalty, learn which assessments her team relies on to gage candidate potential, and how her experience in the corporate world enhanced her leadership abilities. Thank you to our sponsor INxSQL, software built for distribution. *** 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. Edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn.

"If you live by that example, those around you will do the same and the more people live that philosophy, the stronger your team becomes. And the stronger the team is, the stronger your business becomes." ~Cameron Overacker When it comes to the family business, there's the clan you're born into and the people that you surround yourself with. Jason talks with Cameron Overacker, president of Canadian flooring distributor Primco, to learn how DiSC assessment has helped his company get the very best from both. It's not easy to step into a family business. But, as Cam points out, many of the challenges that second or third generation leaders face come from self-doubt rather than external forces. "You always felt like you were being measured...because you were in the family business. Everybody expected you to be perfect." In truth, however, Cam says that he was probably harder on himself than anyone within the company. "That's not the way most people were thinking [about you]. And those that were probably didn't have good intentions for the relationship they had with you anyway." Still, he didn't take the easy road back into his father's company. He credits manual labor work for the oil and gas pipelines as well as the year he spent back-packing around the South Pacific for providing invaluable life lessons. The years he spent outside of Primco helped him develop his leadership style. "Different people mature at different ages," he says. And life experience has a lot to do with what someone brings to their role. "I don't have a post-secondary degree. My father quit school at grade eleven yet he was very successful in setting up this company." Cam built upon his father's success by facing challenges with honesty and humility. "The biggest thing is to surround yourself with good people and ensure that those people have your back and you have their backs." But it can be tricky blending old-guard employees, those that have the experience in years, with fresh hires. An executive coach has helped him better utilize the unique talents of each group by asking him to evaluate his own behaviors first. DiSC assessment helped Cam recognize his strengths and weaknesses and the effect they had on Primco's culture. The exercise had such a profound effect on him that now everyone in the organization, not just the sales team, takes the assessment. The DiSC profile doesn't just highlight weaknesses. The questionnaire also helps participants understand how their skill set fits within the team dynamic and to appreciate the unique contributions of their fellow employees. "Always be humble and willing to learn from anybody and everybody, at any level of an organization," Cam says. It's a strategy that's worked well for Primco. Thank you to our sponsor INxSQL, software built for distribution. *** 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. Edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. Connect with Cameron on LinkedIn.

"Most business owners try to grow our way out of our problems. But the result is simply a bigger monster. You can't grow out in your profit problem. You need to fix the profit first, then you grow." -Tully Brewer In this episode, Jason and Tully Brewer, president of Littlejohn, Inc., chat about the profit first approach and planning for a healthy succession. Littlejohn, Inc. began selling tank trailers in the 1930s but it wasn't until the family firm opened its parts business in the late 80s that things really took off. Eventually, opportunities gave way to challenges and Tully admits to having had a myopic view when it came to finding solutions for his middling bottom-line. "We try to grow our way out of problems, hinging salvation on the next big sale customer or investor." He credits Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine by Mike Michalowicz for helping him refocus and post record profits. "You need to fix the profit first," Tully says, "Then you grow." To sustain that growth, Tully has cultivated a mindful, hands-off approach for developing the company's next generation of leaders, which includes his son Zach, 31, and son-in-law Thomas, 29. He offers them guidance, support, and works through management books like Ego Is The Enemy by Ryan Holiday with them. For the most part, however, "they make decisions and move on," he says. "It allows them to grow and develop and think strategically without me having to be there to tell them what to do." What would Tully do differently if he could go back to his early years at Little John, Inc? Listen in to find out. Thank you to our sponsor INxSQL, software built for distribution. *** 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. Edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. Connect with Tully on LinkedIn.