Merger or Messy Marriage? ⏱️ 4  min read By Desiree Grace We all know this scenario. You’ve done your due diligence. The financials check out. The employee agreements and golden parachutes are tolerable. You have complementary skill sets, and each of you brings new customers to the party. It seemed like a match made in heaven. Then, after the paperwork was signed, money exchanged, and announcements made, you realized, with a jolt, that there was far more work ahead than anyone expected.  You also had a few surprises along the way. It’s not exactly buyer’s remorse, but… Integration has its challenges. When companies buy another company, or even merge, the real work begins after the hullabaloo dies down. Much like marriage, the real relationship starts after the honeymoon. The sad truth is that studies consistently prove most acquisitions fail to achieve their expected value. Rarely is it because the “legal beagles” missed something in due diligence. Most times, it is because e...

How Do You Know if Your Sales Strategy is Broken? By Frank Hurtte Many distributors struggle when asked to explain their sales strategy. With  a great deal of hand waving and stuttering , the conversation quickly turns vague and squishy. Sales leaders talk about relationships, service, responsiveness, and “taking care of the customer.” All important, of course. No customer enjoys working with an unresponsive supplier or a company that creates problems instead of solving them. But those statements rarely explain why customers actually buy. Listen closely, and you’ll hear familiar catchphrases: “Our strength is our relationships.” “Our people care more than the other guys.” “We give great service.” (What does that even mean?) “We go above and beyond supplier expectations.” True? Possibly. Strategic? Not even close.  You can bet your bottom dollar that every competitor can make the same claim There’s a simpler way to test the strength of a sales strategy. Instea...

The Five North Stars of Value‑Driven Selling In a previous article, I argued that the biggest barrier to value‑driven selling isn’t compensation or field capability. It’s a leadership mindset. Let's be real, you can’t train your way out of a leadership problem. Many distributor leaders say they want value‑driven selling, yet they continue rewarding behavior rooted in reactionary, relationship‑based selling. They ask for new outcomes while protecting the old model. Let's face it, it's hard to move forward when your incentives are stuck in the Clinton era.  Back in the prehistoric days of the 1990s, at least if you measure by the absence of email, smartphones, or Google, I found myself wrestling with the same problem. After some soul‑searching, I developed five “North Stars” to guide how we should operate.  At the time, I wasn’t trying to define value‑driven selling. I was trying to keep the business from sliding into commodity territory. It wasn’t a theory. It was a necessit...

The Real Barrier to Value‑Driven Selling (Hint: It’s Not the Salespeople) Abridged Every distributor says they want value‑driven selling. Fewer are willing to change the behaviors, measurements, and habits that keep the old model alive. And that’s the real barrier, not the sales team. Most leaders genuinely believe in value‑driven selling. They just want it layered neatly on top of the relationship‑based model that made them successful. They want better results without discomfort, disruption, or delayed revenue. That’s understandable. It’s also unrealistic. Traditional selling feels good because it’s familiar. But today’s buyers, especially younger ones, care far less about tenure and far more about insight, data, and financial impact. Even long‑time customers are under pressure to justify decisions internally. Loyalty doesn’t disappear, but it does get audited. When value‑driven selling stalls, leadership often blames compensation or field capability. But compensation plans simply en...

The Real Barrier to Value‑Driven Selling (Hint: It’s Not the Salespeople) When distributors talk about shifting from their old sales model to something more data‑driven, knowledge‑based, and value‑centric, the discussion usually turns into a heated three‑way debate. Is the problem leadership mindset? Compensation structure? Or field capability? Everyone has a favorite culprit. Conveniently, it’s rarely the one staring back at them from the mirror. In my experience, the biggest barrier is leadership mindset. Not because leaders don’t believe in value‑driven selling, but because many want it without the discomfort of changing anything meaningful. They want the benefits of value‑driven selling layered neatly on top of the old model that made them successful. They want change with minimal disruption and results by next quarter. Setting a strong goal? Maybe. Wishful thinking? Perhaps. A real strategy? Definitely not. Old‑school, reactive, relationship‑based selling feels good. It’s familia...

Tacos, Tinsel, and the New Sales Guy A Conversation with Santa Claus Every December, I carve out a little quiet time to talk with my North Pole pal, Santa Claus. Please note this is not the cheap department-store imposter, but the honest-to-goodness Jolly One. Despite his age and high-cholesterol diet, Santa remembers names, recognizes patterns, and isn’t afraid to point out bad habits. He knows exactly who’s been working and who just looks busy. This year, we agreed to meet somewhere neutral: No workshop No sleigh No pesky elves Just tacos So there we were at my favorite spot, Rudy’s Tacos, just a block from my East Davenport office. We slid into a booth after long days, me locking up River Heights Consulting , Santa still smelling faintly of peppermint, plastic pine needles, and retail exhaustion. “Hard day?” I asked. Santa nodded. “You wouldn’t believe how many people ask for things they aren’t ready to take care of.” I smiled. “That sounds familiar.” Santa took a bite of his ...

Leadership Qualities: Keep Calm and Carry  Lead On. By Desiree Grace   “Control your emotions and actions,” said Chad Williams, a former Navy SEAL, while discussing the importance of self-control in leadership. I couldn't agree more. A leader sets the tone for their team, whether they choose to fight, flee, freeze, or, even worse, panic. There is tremendous value in emotional self-discipline and keeping calm, even in the most challenging circumstances. It’s not easy, but it is achievable. We’ve all seen this popular poster, created in 1939, to keep the British people motivated when under threat of air attacks. The situations we face are not quite as dire, but the point remains. Let’s talk about three ways you can keep calm and demonstrate self-control when dealing with challenging work situations. Imagine an important customer is involved in a tense negotiation, and the situation escalates, raises his voice, pounds his fist on the conference room table, and makes derog...