Seven years ago, I made a presentation to a well known distribution research board1 on two related subjects called Transactional Distribution and Quantifying and Adjusting Service Value. The presentation followed
In my early career, I spent a good many years in field sales and sales activities in the plumbing and HVAC industries. Maybe I was more lucky than smart but,
Some days I believe I have been in Distribution for too long. I have seen way too many things including stuff that doesn’t work, never really worked all that well,
It’s been popular in recent press and, contrary to the hard times, to inject positivism by saying “there’s no better time to be in distribution.” I would, for the most
Most distributors are, unfortunately, realizing what we have been saying since December and that is the current economic downturn is severe and protracted. Coming out of this environment to an
The recent and severe Recession will likely rival anything we have seen since the Great Depression. The downturns of ’73-’74 and ’81-’82 are similar in impact but their causes were
In the most recent five years, the headlines for distribution markets were chock full of news regarding Private Equity Funds and their consolidation of old-line distribution companies. There was seemingly
Given the collapse of the Great Bubble Economy and the outrageous imprudence or outright fraud at all levels of financial and business management, my hope is that Americans and American
In the quest to increase profits, distributors have
assumed for several decades that rewarding all or part of sales compensation on
margin dollars equates to higher pretax income.