The Art of the Ask A Distributor Channel Marketing Moment 🕒 3 min read By Desiree Grace Does your pre-teen daughter ever greet you with a hug? If so, like me, you know she wants something. I have to give her points for effort and leveraging affection as a potent negotiating tool. While that only works in our personal lives, there's much to be said for the art of the ask. I recently received a letter from a customer demanding "your very best pricing for our new distribution center." There is so much that was wrong with this request. 1. I did not know the person sending the letter. 2. No conversation, text, or introductory email preceded the demand. 3. Nothing reciprocal was mentioned, such as increased purchase volume, displacement of a competitor, or even preferential treatment during their next planning session. I had to wonder if the woman who sent the email was fresh out of college, having barely passed her Negotiation 101 course, or if she had simply had a bad start ...

A Perfect Failure Series Part 1: Stop Waiting to Feel Ready to Sell 🕒 3 min read By Frank Hurtte Early in the research for my book, The New Sales Guy Project , a new seller (sales guy, salesperson...) asked me a question I’ve now heard a hundred times since. "How much do I need to know before I start calling on customers?" It's a reasonable question. Every new salesperson worries about making a fool of themselves. Nobody wants to stand in front of an important maintenance manager, a techno-centric engineer, or a busy plant manager and discover halfway through the conversation that they've forgotten the one specification that really matters. The fear is real, maybe even excruciating for some. Unfortunately, the answer isn't all that soothing. "You’ll never know enough." For someone fresh out of a grueling engineering program, that thought was, shall we say, discouraging. But it's the reality of selling technical products. Forty-eight years ...

Selling With Heart: The Things You Can't Teach     ⏱️ 4 min read By Jenny (May) Shannon My dad, a lifelong salesman, passed away 5 years ago today. The timing always feels off, with the anniversary landing just after Father’s Day. But grief doesn’t have a calendar. Fortunately, this isn’t about grief. Frank likes to say no one is born a natural salesperson. And he’s right, for the most part. Most sales skills must be taught. But my dad was the exception that proves the rule. My dad was a lot of things: a salesman, a community builder, a man of faith, a guy who could make friends in the grocery store line, and someone who believed a bowl of ice cream could fix almost anything. He lived big, right up to the day he took his last ride on his Goldwing and finished his final scoop of chocolate. He sold for IFP long before CRM systems, smartphones, or even the idea of work-life balance. He carried a StarTac until we practically pried it out of his hands. He never met a stranger...

Make AI Your Friend: Hope Is Not a Sales Strategy in 2026 Customers aren’t waiting for salespeople to find answers anymore. They expect you to already have them. AI has automated the top of the funnel. Service expectations are rising. And “activity” is no longer the same thing as progress. In 2026, the salespeople who win won’t hope for an easier year; they’ll prepare for a harder one. If you want to read the full article published in Industrial Supply Magazine , click here . Frank Hurtte works with industrial distributors who want better sales performance without the hype. A consultant, speaker, and trainer, Frank focuses on practical sales strategy, customer expectations, and preparing teams for what’s next, not what was. He is the founder of River Heights Consulting and a frequent contributor to industry publications like Industrial Supply Magazine. ...

Israel and Hamas, Trump and Xi—we are surrounded by examples of Negotiations, both good and bad. Whether it’s geopolitical, life-saving measures, real estate transactions, or simply business, there are ways to negotiate that don’t burn bridges or result in image problems. Let’s discuss before, during, and after the negotiations, and how you can plan for success. Before we start, though, let’s talk about WHY you negotiate. Sometimes the situation is crystal clear. Negotiating pricing, closing costs, and closing dates are part of the process when buying a house. Sometimes you are faced with a situation where you SHOULD negotiate, or COULD negotiate, but don’t. We are often conditioned to accept business practices at face value because they have become institutionalized. Past practices do not mean you can’t negotiate and improve your situation. You have a responsibility to yourself and your organization to negotiate.  For example, conversations with distributors and their supply par...

“In playing ball, and in life, a person occasionally gets the opportunity to do something great. When that time comes, only two things matter: being prepared to seize the moment and having the courage to take your best swing.” – Hank Aaron “Batter up!” Baseball is in full swing and so is succession planning. Are you building your bench strength?  If not, START.  Easy to say, but where do you begin? One key element is learning and development for your current team. Employees STAY when they feel an organization is invested and investing in them. LinkedIn’s 2018 Workforce Learning Report  LinkedIn’s 2018 Workforce Learning Report found that 93% of respondents would remain at a company longer if it invested in their career. LinkedIn Learning’s 2021 Workplace Learning Report  LinkedIn Learning’s 2021 Workplace Learning Report confirms that this trend still holds true. Gen Z employees especially place a high value on learning in the workplace, and the associated career ...

It’s National Memory Day It seems like I discover a new holiday every day.  Today’s special day is promoted as a day to celebrate our memories.  As you might imagine, I have many memories.  For example, I still remember June 6, 1977.  On that fateful day, I walked into the main lobby of the Allen-Bradley building at 1202 South Second Street in Milwaukee.    I had on a newly acquired three-piece gray suit and a conservative blue tie.  The weather was warmish, I was nervous, and I can still recall feeling a bit uncomfortable in business. I can remember a few other important days in my career.  I won’t bore you to tears with the details, but memories, being little snapshots of life, have a way of sticking with us.  But the mind is a strange thing, while bits of minutia linger, other important points slip through the cracks disappearing forever.   What slips through the cracks? Routine and often repeated activities can be the first to go....

Since the launch of Industrial Supply Magazine nearly 14 years ago, I have had the privilege of authoring nearly 150 articles for their readers.   I love the publications because they serve the markets that I find most interesting.   I also know that many of my long-time friends read and find value in the messages contained on their pages.   Last year I was offered to host an ongoing column devoted to sales in our business and I accepted the new challenge.  Here is the good news, the bad news , and the great news . The good news – Quoting one of my heroes, Teddy Roosevelt, this column gives me a “Bully Pulpit” for talking about issues that I feel strongly about.  The Pulpit part implies preaching, which I promise to tone down.  But still, things like the sales process, getting paid for our knowledge, and fee-based services have been part of my lexicon since long before starting River Heights Consulting.  I guarantee I will constantly remind peo...

I love a good challenge.  While talking about sales training with a sales manager from another industry, I made the statement, “Our kind of selling is different.”  The sales manager, who fancies himself as an expert and comes from a consumer-based background, took offense.  He asked me to differentiate our type of sales from the sales background he experienced.   Transactional sales Thinking back on the several hundred books on selling that I have read, I would characterize all but a handful as focusing on transactional selling.   Transactional selling is focused on making a one-time sale and then moving on to the next customer.   This type of selling is often used for commoditized products or services.   Think about the last computer you purchased.   Did the company create or provide anything that caused you to want to continue your relationship?   In my mind, the salesperson's goal was to make the sale – period.     O...