We recently wrote a whitepaper for the Distribution Strategy Group which could be summarized this way: Distributors provide a plethora of services.  Services that involve people are nearly impossible for Amazon (or others) to duplicate.  Some of the services customers expect, like credit or shipping, are available for free everywhere else.   Many services go beyond the “cost of doing business.”  The services most distributors added were put in place without a real strategic plan as to how they fit into the total business.  Distributors lack an understanding of both the internal cost of providing the services and the value to the customer.  Little management oversight is applied to services – sellers control who receives their services and when.   Distributors face significant roadblocks to establishing a strategy for services.  A strategy around services c...

I use Friday, March 13th, 2020 as the official start date of the COVID crisis.  Looking at the calendar, we are pushing toward the one-year mark of this little Global Pandemic.   Much has happened in our industry during this time.  For the first couple of months, we hunkered down expecting the winds of change to sweep this virus off to the side.  Optimistically, most of us felt the storm would pass by end of summer.  As the reality of the situation persisted, we carried on and survived.  Distributors found new and innovative ways to keep in touch with their customers.  Sales turned in an upward direction and businesses who were once down 30-40 percent versus pre-COVID times managed to end 2020 with a much smaller downward trend.  A few even managed to eke out a narrow margin of growth. I believe one thing fell to the wayside through all this illness and mayhem, that being full-blown product launches.    Amidst all the other struggle...