End of Year Planning with Bonus

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 distributors do a bit of year end planning for their manufacturers. Most of us have done the quick fill-in-the-blank forms to appease our supply partners. Most of the time, these are done on the fly with little thought and certainly without ongoing review. While this exercise probably does have a modicum of value, the results certainly do not take a holistic view of the entire distributor business.

Planning pulls the entire distributor team together, explores some of the interaction between people, products and projected profits. Further, planning serves as a communications tool within the distributor and with suppliers.

Planning calls for the evaluation of suppliers. Wouldn’t it be nice to understand vendors whose policies impact your business negatively and create a plan for removing friction from the supply chain? How about marketing opportunities? Distributors who create real synergy between their supplier’s marketing team and their own generate more sales, which is the purpose of our existence.

For those looking for a place to start…. “We’ve gotcha Covered”
River Heights Consulting has the Distributor’s Annual Planning Workbook. This provides the user with a comprehensive guide for annual planning. It is designed for use by distributors selling into the manufacturing sector. These include the following categories: Automation, Electrical, Fluid Power, Industrial, Power Transmission, Safety, Pipe Valve and Fittings, and related lines of trade.
Based on years of hands on industry experience and the observation of industry best practices as a consultant, we have designed a working model for annual planning and development. There are sections on sales forecasting, developing inside sales strategies, marketing plans, vendor relations and accounting.


This isn’t heady academic stuff
This is designed for distributors by a real world distributor guy. Everything in the book is straight talk and common sense. No fancy research breakdowns, no flowery word – just action plans you can easily modify to match your business.





The best thing yet.
We are offering the book for half price. Just send along a crisp new twenty dollar bill with your business card stapled to it and we will send you your own copy. And since you are breaking some obscure law by stapling legal currency, we will send you our quick plan for helping you make more Gross Margin in 2019.

Send business card and money to:
River Heights Consulting
226 Hillcrest Avenue
Davenport, IA 52803


What if you already own the book?
We don’t want to keep you out of the loop on great deals. Send us a picture of you holding the book and we will send you a copy of our quick plan for more Gross Margin in 2019, just because Frank’s a nice guy.

Want some help with end of year planning?
Frank is offering end of year plan coaching at a special discount rate. Schedule an hour with Frank on any Saturday morning between now and Christmas for only $100.












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