Gathering, contrasting and benchmarking information from a variety of sources drives clarity of thought almost as well as Santa’s famous “On Dancer, On Dasher and On Prancer” line drives a team of eight tiny reindeer. One big part of my role as a distribution consultant comes via interviews with wholesalers across a wide range of geographies and industry segments. Over the past year, I have interviewed leaders in the field from Asia to Alabama, from New Orleans to New Brunswick and all points between. I gathered some pretty amazing insights. But, none of these compared with what I learned from the guy who runs what is potentially the largest distributor on the planet and certainly the leading business of any kind north of the Arctic Circle, North Pole Industries Founder and CEO, Santa Claus. After at least a dozen phone calls and emails, my assistant, Jenny, was finally able to pull some strings and arrange for a rare face-to-face interview down at the local mall. It seems Mr....

In case you missed Frank's recent webinar hosted by Industrial Supply Magazine and sponsored by Epicor, here it is!  Let's  take a look at the value-added services that distributors offer customers. Distributors often boast of the value-added services they provide customers, but are they reaping the benefits? And don't forget our HALF PRICE BOOK SPECIAL, just in time for the holidays!  Get The Distributor's Guide to Annual Planning for just $20.  Already own the book?  Well send you a copy of our quick plan for more Gross Margin in 2019.  Get all the details HERE . ________________________________________________________

How often do the services you provide cost you more than money than they bring in? What determines why one customer access to free services while others are charged? Do any of your slow pay customers receive free services? Frank Hurtte answers these and other often controversial questions in the November 14th Webinar hosted by Industrial Supply Magazine and sponsored by Epicor.  Register here to join us !  This event runs from 12:00 pm-1:00 pm Central Time. ___________________________

Does customer attrition play a part in annual planning? How many of our customers will go away? In setting growth plans for the coming year, one should ask, “what percentage of my customers might go away?” Some will go out of business and they stop buying. Others might be folded into a larger organization. If that organization has a relationship with a competitor, your business could be switched to another supplier. Further, some aggressive competitor could make inroads into your account through hard work and/or better relationships, by way of a valuable new service or through jaw dropping price levels. This is hard to face, but it happens. The question is, how much would any of these affect your business? To the best of my knowledge, the only industry to truly study this phenomenon is the HVAC/R industry. Three years ago, HARDI (Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Distributors International) hired Mike Marks and Steve Deist of Indian River Consulting Group to do...

Few practices drive more value to your business than year- end planning, yet many distributors fail to put the proper effort into their plans. There are a thousand reasons/excuses ranging everywhere from the perennial, “We’re too busy driving business to spend time planning” to “Planning just doesn’t apply to our business.” A few don’t build strong end-of-year plans because they simply don’t have a workable model to use in their efforts. End of Year Planning is Important Once a year, it’s a good thing to pause and consider how things have changed in the past and the impact of those changes in the future. Like the proverbial frog in boiling water, slow and steady environmental changes are difficult to comprehend in “real time.” A subtle shift here, a little bump in the economy there, add a dash of personnel changes and before you realize it, your business is performing like a 1984 Renault Alliance (the crappiest car ever owned by anyone in our office). In reality, many d...

Make no mistake, customers are thinking and behaving differently today than just a couple years ago. When I was a  rookie sales guy, the primary source of product information for my customers was their favorite salesperson. Introducing customers to new products, providing catalogs for additional product data searches and demonstrations of new features (and benefits) of existing products was job one. Early on, I discovered the salesperson who provided the best and most valuable information held a position of grace and favor. #ASKGUDMUNDUR: The world's  first human search engine. Once I worked my way into the favored spot, I became the trusted “human search engine” used to find solutions and new products. Here’s how it went. The customer described their problem, I took notes, drew pictures and scurried off to research a list of possible solutions. A week or two later, I returned with a few catalog data sheets, a dozen or so pictures and we refined the “search” and ...

Viewed from outer space the Earth looks smoother than a billiard ball. What’s more according to the experts at Discovery Magazine, the looks are not deceiving. Lumps on billiard balls (diameter 2.25 inches) can be no more than 0.005 inches in height. Applying this theory to our little outpost in the universe the maximum “bump” cannot exceed 17 miles in size. With Mount Everest at 5.5 miles high and the Marianas Trench (the deepest spot in the ocean) at nearly 7 miles deep, Earth is actually twice as smooth as that slick black 8-ball we sometimes shoot for the corner pocket. What has this to do with year-over-year growth plans? Plenty.  Allow me to explain. Everyone likes strong dynamic growth. Setting and achieving aggressive goals is a thing of beauty. Applying this philosophy, manufacturers sometimes decide to build incentives into their channel plans. Here’s how it generally works. It’s a pay for performance thing. Grow your business by 20 percent and you receiv...

This post may seem a bit astray from my usual musings, but with so many down with a multitude of illnesses this season, I felt I should take a moment to share how my New Year has gone so far.  It ain't pretty. A few hundred of my closest Facebook friends already know this, but Mr. Distributor Expert Extraordinaire had the shingles. Yep, without warning, without prior notice, that little bit of chicken pox virus that has been in my system since the summer between first and second grade has decided now would be a great time to come back to life. Allow me to give you a four minute play by play of the disease in action. Let it be known, I like memorable birthdays. I have referenced this before, but old Frank’s birthday falls squarely over the top of National Pie Day. Typically, I skip past the birthday cake, ice cream and candles to have a gigantic slice of pie to celebrate. This year, I skipped the pie; perhaps missing the curative powers of a flaky crust and raisin filling. ...