The Wholesale Change Show

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ian Heller welcomed Alibaba’s John Caplan to the Wholesale Change Show to discuss Alibaba’s capabilities and the marketplace’s long-term plans.

Amazon uses AI to create billions of sales and advertising dollars. In this episode, Jonathan Bein and Ian Heller will be joined by proton.ai Founder Benj Cohen to learn how Amazon does it and how distributors can fend off this B2B juggernaut with their own strategy around product recommendations, search relevancy and audience monetization.

When we talk to distribution employees, we often hear, in hushed tones: Our CEO just doesn’t understand why we should invest in digital! When we talk to distribution CEOs, we hear their frustration when they tell us: We’ve spent millions on our website and haven’t gotten any kind of return on that investment! What’s going on here? In our experience: Successful ecommerce in B2B is wildly more compl...

In this episode we explain why the old assumption that distributors can be “High Tech” or “High Touch” is a destructive myth. Distributors that will thrive in the future must be both! Join Jonathan Bein, Ph. D., and Ian Heller for a lively discussion on the disruption sweeping through the industry and how distributors should respond.

Do you feel like your ecommerce platform is broken – not delivering the ROI you expected? You’re not alone. Join hosts Ian Heller and Jonathan Bein as they talk with Jason Capshaw and Dean Mueller about how to uncover what’s really wrong (it could be you’re measuring the wrong thing!) and 6 steps to take to seize success from the jaws of defeat.

Some distribution verticals are much more vulnerable to disruptors than others. Why was office supplies hit so hard by marketplaces but building products has hardly been affected? In this episode, Jonathan Bein and Ian Heller will talk about how different product verticals – and business models – drive varying levels of disruption vulnerability. We promise a lively give and take where the hosts ar...

There is a way to get over the widely recognized “small-order” issue in distribution in a truly actionable way. Establishing and monitoring Minimum Order Quantities requires just small changes once the right building blocks are in place. The real challenge is upfront, in assessing the true cost-to-serve at the line level for every transaction. But taking action has an immediate impact on profitabi...

Many distributors have spent time creating a value proposition their companies rally around, but salespeople often stumble when it comes time to sell that value to prospects. Your company’s value is more than “better pricing” or “great customer service.” Instead, selling value involves a focus on the benefits for the customer. What’s in it for them? Join Wholesale Change hosts Ian Heller and Jonat...

Returned goods can hurt productivity, reduce profitability, and damage customer and supplier relationships. No wonder most distributors focus on reducing them – but they do it the wrong way! Often, distributors try to lower the rate of returned goods primarily by tightening up policies or by finding an efficient way of disposing of the merchandise, such as through liquidators. In a recent episode...

Every distributor should try hard to expand its customer base but if you really want to supercharge your sales, look no further than your largest customers. They know you the best and you likely have the best relationships with them. And you often have less of their wallet share than you think. Let the Wholesale Change crew help you strategize on how to get even more from your whale.

Distributors know that any digital initiative requires a great product database. Even after all these years, defining the requirements, nailing down the process, choosing the right technology and maintaining a product database is a daunting task. Ian and Jonathan will share their experiences in how some distributors do it right and how you can, too.

Where B2C brands are based on emotion and driven by advertising, B2B brands are built on rational, functional attributes that add value. B2B customers develop brand loyalty based on analytics and factors like: Quality of assortment Staff knowledge Support Customer service Reliability Delivery speed To determine if you’re stuck in a holding pattern, first look at the characteristics of your average...

CD&R is buying HD Supply Construction & Industrial – once and now again known as “White Cap.” The firm is combining White Cap with Sterling’s Construction Supply Group (CSG), which is made up of 17 regional distributors across the US and Canada. CD&R will own 65% of the combined entity, and Sterling will own the rest. According to press releases, the combined transaction is worth about $4 billion,...

Independent alternatives to popular third-party marketplaces like Amazon are emerging, and some distributors have found meaningful success selling through them. This has many wondering if they should build their own marketplaces. What makes great independent marketplaces work? And could you achieve similar results if you built a marketplace of your own? As defined so well on Wikipedia, a marketpla...

Put relevant offers in front of the right customers. While you segment customers, customers also segment you. They have an opinion about what you do and what they can get from you, and it’s hard to change that perspective once it’s established.  When you frequently send relevant messages to targeted customers, you’ll see: More frequent purchases  More first-time buyers Better customer retention Im...

Having a strategy around marketing co-op will help you to optimize your product mix, supplier relationships, and develop a strong sales and marketing game that will make you invaluable to the channel. Know where the co-op is coming from. Identifying the source of your funds is essential to an effective strategy. Optimize your product mix. Optimizing which products and suppliers you’ll carry is the...

Distributors worry that Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is assuming key distributor roles and erasing them from the equation. The service picks, packs, ships and even manages returns for retailers and distributors, as well as holds inventory in Amazon fulfillment centers. More manufacturers are also leveraging ecommerce to go direct to the end-user, rather than through the distributor. How concerned s...

Ian Heller and Jonathan Bein discuss their favorite profit-driving hacks for distributors: Learn the power of 1%. A  McKinsey study  from a number of years ago showed the power of 1% price adjustments. According to their analysis, a 1% increase in price, assuming volume remains steady, would generate an 8% increase or more in operating profits. What’s more, the authors point out that an increase i...

When most distributors talk about inside sales, they are usually referring to customer service agents. Yet, customer service personnel are generally more reactive than sales agents, because their goals are to make customers happy and solve problems. They are, like their titles, providing support and services to customers. Proactive inside salespeople, on the other hand, are set apart from customer...