Great salespeople—the truly talented rainmakers—are about as rare as unicorns and just about as mythical, too. In many cases, they own their customers more than their employers do.

A few years ago I was making calls with a top-notch electrical supplies rep. As we pulled up to a major manufacturing plant, he said, “I took this account from $5,000 to $250,000 in one year.”

“Wow!” I said. “How’d you do that?”

“Easy,” he shrugged. “I used to work for another distributor and did $250,000 a year with this customer. They laid me off, their competitor hired me, and I just switched their sales over.”

No wonder many electrical distributor reps make so much money. If you own an account base worth millions and can take it to any distributor in town, you’re going to spark a bidding war for your services.

But look at what actually moved. Not a price file. Not a stocking program. What moved was his knowledge of those buyers: who signs, who stalls, what they run on the floor, what it would take to make them switch. All of it lived in his head, which is exactly why it left with him.

Around the same time I rode with another rep whose customers trusted him so much that plant engineers called him in to diagnose their technical problems. We spent three hours at one plant while he taught two engineers what was going wrong with a motor control system. He’s not an engineer. He never went to college. But he’s in his mid-60s and he’s been selling plant automation for four decades. He doesn’t just know where the bodies are buried. He buried them.

He was also unhappy. He was six months from retirement and management still hadn’t assigned anyone to take his place. “How can I teach someone about my accounts if they haven’t chosen anyone yet?” He loves his customers and wants them to succeed even after they stop being his responsibility. His own leadership had made it impossible for him to do right by them.

That’s the part that should bother you. Not the retirement. The waste.

Until Recently, You Couldn’t Have Fixed It

To be fair to leadership, the tools that have made it easy to capture what’s trapped in a veteran’s head didn’t exist until recently. The state of the art was putting the replacement in the truck for a few months and hoping he was savvy enough to ask good questions before the clock ran out. That’s not a process. That’s a prayer.

What changed is that you can now hand an enormous, messy pile of unrelated data to a Large Language Model  (LLM) and get back something organized. Your enterprise resource planning (ERP) transaction history. Customer relationship management (CRM) notes. Quote and bid history, including everything you lost. Customer service call recordings. Contracts and rebate agreements. Payment behavior. If you use our tools, DemandRX and Customer ExperienceRX, you can add category-level potential and satisfaction data on top of all of it.

But the most valuable thing you can feed it isn’t in any system. It’s one or more, recorded, sit-down interviews with the rep who’s leaving, plus the customer service people, inside sales reps and drivers who serve those accounts. Your ERP can tell you what a customer bought. Only the interviews tell you why the veteran did what he did. Judgment is the part that walks out the door, and judgment has never been in a database.

Think about what this used to require. Pull a dozen reports. Schedule, record and transcribe interviews with the rep, the CSRs, and the drivers. Put an analyst on trying to figure out the right business intelligence (BI) queries to surface a trend buried in six years of transactions, instead of just handing over all six years and asking what’s in there, which is what you can do this afternoon.

The old way was a project. Nobody launches a project every time a rep retires. Which is precisely why nobody has been doing this at all.

Try It This Week

Pick a rep who’s leaving. Better, pick one who might leave in the next two years. Gather what you can and paste this in:

You’re a senior sales operations consultant with deep experience in wholesale distribution. I’m transitioning a territory from a departing rep to a new one. Everything I’ve attached is the source material: [list it].

Rules: use only what I’ve given you, cite the source behind every factual claim, and mark what you don’t know as unknown. A blank is useful. A plausible guess about a real customer is a liability. Where my interview transcripts and my system data disagree, tell me about the conflict instead of smoothing it over. That gap is usually the most useful thing in the file.

First, analyze the territory. Revenue and margin trends, concentration risk, and a brief on each of the top 25 accounts covering who really decides, what they buy from us, what they’re clearly buying somewhere else, and the one thing a new rep would get wrong. Rank the specific customer-plus-category opportunities and show me your logic. Flag the at-risk accounts, including the ones that look fine in the numbers but not in the interviews. Tell me our service strengths and weaknesses in customers’ own words. And for every major account, tell me who besides the departing rep our customer could name at our company. If the answer is nobody, say nobody.

Then stop. Before you write any training material, give me your best clarifying questions ranked by how much the answers would change the program, tell me what data is missing, and write the interview guide for the follow-up conversation you’d want with the outgoing rep.

After I answer, build a 90-day onboarding curriculum with a knowledge check and answer key for each module, all written from real situations in this territory. Include a one-page day-one crib sheet and a first-90-days call plan sequenced by risk and opportunity rather than revenue. Finish with a gap register listing every open question and unverified claim.

Then argue with what comes back. Good prompting is a conversation, not a transaction. Ask it what other data would sharpen the analysis. Ask it to write the interview guides for the people you still need to talk to. Ask it to build the tests, then argue with it over the questions it wrote. Treat these systems like elite consultants: they give you better answers when you give them better material, and they’ll tell you what they’re missing if you bother to ask.

Two rules, though. Make it cite a source for every claim about a customer and state plainly what it doesn’t know, or you’ll get fluent, confident, wrong statements about real accounts that your new rep repeats in front of the buyer. And make the departing rep read the whole thing. He’s your fact-checker, and a playbook he signed off on carries authority with his successor that a generated document never will.

None of this replaces the ride-along. It makes the ride-along worth something because the new rep shows up already knowing which questions matter.

Start Before the Notice

Veterans slow-walk transitions when a clean handoff costs them income, and no prompt ever written solves that. Pay for the overlap. Tie a bonus to whether those accounts are still yours a year and two years later. Make mentoring a paid part of the job instead of a favor you’re asking for.

The balance of art and science in selling really is shifting, but the art was never really art. It was expertise nobody bothered to write down. We finally have a practical way to document expertise and pass it down, and the distributors who use it will start the process of owning their customers more than their reps do.

For more state of the art information on coaching and leading sales, don’t miss our upcoming webinar, State of Distributor CRM and Sales, Wednesday, August 26^th, 9AM PT, Noon ET. Leading sales training expert, Mike Kunkle, will join Jonathan Bein, Ph.D. from Distribution Strategy Group, to review best practices and deep research data about how to get better results and productivity from your sales force.

The post The Balance of Art and Science in Selling Is Shifting appeared first on Distribution Strategy Group.

Global Industrial Co. reported higher first quarter sales and profit as growth in strategic accounts, ecommerce and Canada helped offset rising transportation and fuel costs.

The Port Washington, New York based distributor said first quarter sales increased 9.2% to $350.4 million from $321.0 million a year earlier. Net income from continuing operations rose 13.3% to $15.3 million from $13.5 million.

Operating income increased 13.2% to $20.6 million from $18.2 million. Operating margin improved to 5.9% from 5.7%, while gross margin was flat at 34.8% compared with 34.9% a year earlier.

“We delivered a strong start to 2026 as we benefited from solid execution and continued momentum across the business,” CEO Anesa Chaibi said during the company’s earnings call. “We generated growth each month during the period and have seen this top-line momentum carry into the second quarter.”

Chaibi said results were driven by both price increases and volume gains, particularly among large strategic accounts and ecommerce customers. Canada revenue increased 24.4% in local currency, marking the third consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.

The company said it continues reorganizing sales and merchandising teams around customer verticals to deepen specialization and improve account penetration.

“Our sales realignment into customer verticals is progressing well, allowing us to better meet our customers’ needs through deeper specialization and tailored experiences,” Chaibi said.

Global Industrial also said it is expanding e-procurement and integrated ecommerce capabilities as more customers shift purchasing into digital procurement systems.

“We are also continuing to expand our e-procurement and integrated ecommerce capabilities, which are helping us to deepen relationships, improve retention, and position us to capture greater share of wallet over time,” Chaibi said.

Executives pointed out maintenance, repair and operations, or MRO, products, and consumables, as a growing opportunity for expanding customer spending.

“It is MRO. It’s natural adjacent categories for what we do,” Chaibi told analysts. “We’re not going to go too far afield and beyond what our core business is.”

Chief financial officer Tex Clark said the company expects revenue growth in the second quarter to remain in the mid to high single digits, though fuel surcharges and transportation costs are expected to pressure margins in coming months.

“We continue to closely monitor the macroeconomic and geopolitical environment, including developments in the Middle East and their impact on transportation and manufacturing costs, as well as the evolving tariff landscape,” Clark said.

Executives also said the company has adopted more dynamic pricing systems to respond faster to tariff and cost changes.

“What we have inherently in the business now is initiative-taking pricing,” Chaibi said. “We are watching real time and reacting dynamically from a margin perspective.”

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So, if they know, why haven’t they changed it? In many cases, the problem isn’t quite painful enough to force a different approach.

It’s just like the old story of a hound dog lying on a porch, whining. A neighbor asks what’s wrong. The owner says, “He’s lying on a nail.”

The neighbor looks puzzled. “Why doesn’t he get up?”

The owner thinks for a moment. “Doesn’t hurt enough yet.”

That’s where many sales teams are.

Reps are over-concentrated on the same top accounts. Remote tools that briefly expanded their reach during the pandemic have been abandoned by many. Some, but not enough, distributors have grown their inside teams to touch more customers more frequently.

The coverage model is still too narrow to capture competitors’ Critical Selling Events (CSEs), a disruption outside the rep’s control that makes a customer look for an alternative.

That matters more than most distributors realize. 90% of customers don’t change suppliers each year. The remaining share—the small percentage of business that moves—is always tied to a disruption.

Which means growth doesn’t come from calling on the same loyal accounts more often. It comes from being there when something changes. And most distributors, as they’re currently structured, aren’t.

The Comfortable Route

Field sales in distribution have always been self-directed. Reps decide where they go, who they see and how they spend their time. Over years, this freedom settles into predictable patterns, familiar faces, and reliable rhythms.

This is route mentality. And it works until it starts limiting what you can see. The same accounts get the most attention, not because they always need it, but because they are responsive, good for a fun conversation and unlikely to make the day difficult.

The pandemic broke that pattern. Reps who couldn’t make in-person visits adapted quickly. Remote engagement turned out to be surprisingly effective at expanding coverage. Reps were reaching more accounts, more often, with less windshield time. It wasn’t the plan, but it worked.

Then travel returned, and so did the routes, as if the past two years had been a temporary inconvenience rather than a working experiment.

In our research conducted with the Heating, Air Conditioning, & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI), more than half of distributors reported little to no focus on remote engagement after the pandemic ended. The tools were still there, but the habits had fallen away.

Why Nothing Changes

The gap between knowing and changing has structural causes.

Commission-based compensation is one of them. When a handful of top accounts represent a sizable portion of a rep’s income, protecting those relationships is a financial necessity. Time spent broadening coverage on accounts that don’t currently generate commission feels risky because it doesn’t directly pay the bills.

Sales management is another. Most sales managers came up as closers. They know how to win a deal. They’re less practiced at coaching reps on how to allocate time across a territory, or how to think probabilistically about where growth is most likely to emerge. Pipeline reviews tend to focus on specific opportunities, not on whether time is being invested in the right places across the full account base.

And then there’s the planning gap. In our research, fewer than 1 in 3 distributors reported doing any structured call budgeting — deciding in advance how selling time will be distributed across accounts. Most are logging into what already happened, not planning where time should go next. Useful for accountability, but it doesn’t change behavior.

What Moves Share

The deeper issue is a set of assumptions about how growth happens, and the data consistently challenges. Deliberate persuasion — a rep convincing a customer to switch suppliers — accounts for only about 2% of spend changes in any given year. Most share shifts come from something else: disruption events that cause customers to reconsider their options, not because a rep sold them on it, but because something happened. A supplier failed them. A key contact left. A new requirement forced a reassessment.

These moments are not predictable. They’re distributed across the customer base throughout the year. The best distributor positioned to capture them isn’t necessarily the one with the best pitch. It’s the one whose rep is already in the customer’s awareness when the moment arrives.

That’s a coverage problem. And coverage is a time allocation problem. The market’s share-shifting moments don’t wait for a rep to show up after months of absence. They resolve quickly, often within days, with whoever happens to be top of mind.

Getting Off the Nail

A few concrete shifts move the needle without a full organizational overhaul:

• Helping reps budget their selling time in advance across their full account base, not just their top accounts.
• Using remote touchpoints deliberately for mid-tier accounts, rather than treating in-person visits as the only legitimate engagement
• Building a management cadence on how time is being distributed across the market, not just what deals are in the pipeline.
• Revisiting compensation structures that inadvertently punish broad coverage by tying income entirely to the largest existing accounts

The distributors who move first on this won’t see the results in next quarter’s report. Market share in a mature industry shifts slowly. The effects grow over years, not months.

That’s partly why the nail doesn’t hurt enough — the cost of inaction is real but deferred, while the discomfort of change is immediate. But the nail is there. And it’s not getting more comfortable.

The post Sales Coverage Isn’t Working. It Just Doesn’t Hurt Enough to Fix appeared first on Distribution Strategy Group.

Introduction 

In B2B distribution markets, conditions have become increasingly volatile. Supplier increases, tariff pressure, supply chain delays, unpredictable lead times, and labor constraints affect everyone.

When the entire market is dealing with the same volatility, claims of reliability or availability no longer differentiate. Buyers shift their attention to something far more practical: how well distributors operate when conditions are not ideal. They judge communication, coordination, adaptability, and whether their work gets easier or harder because of you. For the examples, I’ll use electrical and industrial B2B settings, but the concepts we’ll cover can be applied to any sector.  

This article introduces the concept of Execution Value, defines it clearly, connects it to the other Value Drivers that buyers care about, and shows how to apply them in day-to-day distribution work. You will also learn how to use the Value Stack to maintain momentum through buying decisions, how to frame field-ready POSE stories, how to make the economic impact visible, and how managers can systematize these practices to escape price-driven conversations. 

What Execution Value Means 

• Execution Value is the value customers experience when you improve their ability to execute something that matters to them. People with this value driver look for better experiences and the ability to execute more efficiently and effectively.  

This may include improved skills, stronger capabilities, clearer or more reliable processes, and enhanced experiences such as customer (CX), employee (EX), or candidate (recruiting) interactions. It also includes better SOPs, reduced frustration or friction, and improved performance metrics that result from better execution. 

Execution Value can also extend to better experiences working with you as a vendor or partner. In this case, it is not a claim of perfect availability. It reflects the operating discipline that keeps projects, plants, and business moving despite market unpredictability. 

For communicating value to buyers and customers, Execution Value becomes even more effective when positioned alongside any of the other three value drivers (as relevant): 

• Business Value represents improvements to financial or operational metrics such as revenue, cost savings, profitability, efficiency, compliance, risk reduction, scrap rates, processing time, and downtime. 

• Purpose Value represents alignment with an organization’s mission, vision, values, brand priorities, and strategic initiatives such as sustainability, DEI, employee wellbeing, or community impact. 

• Personal Value captures individual benefits that make work easier or safer for stakeholders, including recognition, peace of mind, reduced stress, political safety, and reputation. It also includes personal motivators summarized by my PAM Orders Power BARS mnemonic: Purpose, Autonomy, Mastery, Order, Power, Belonging, Achievement, Recognition, and Safety. 

Execution Value is what customers feel in the day-to-day—fewer surprises, smoother coordination, and visible competence. Business Value explains the financial “so what.” Purpose Value ties the work to enterprise/cultural goals. Personal Value makes the decision comfortable, safe, and beneficial for the individuals involved.  

The Value Stack and Decision Momentum 

Customers move through decisions when they experience enough Awareness, Interest, and Relationship/Trust to advance to the next step in their buying process. These moments are called Decision Thresholds. Awareness means they know who you are and what you do. Interest means they see relevance and potential value. Relationship/Trust means they have confidence in you and your ability to deliver. 

If any part of AIR is insufficient, the conversation slides back toward price. To restore momentum, identify which part of AIR is missing and use the value driver that matters most to each stakeholder.  

How to Sell Execution Without Relying on Perfect Supply 

Execution Value can be delivered consistently using a short list of operational disciplines that customers feel immediately. Each maps directly to the definition of Execution Value—capabilities, processes, reduced friction, and measurable improvements. 

• Line-level order accuracy and completeness. Track accuracy and completeness by line item, not just at the order header. You eliminate avoidable delays and friction when the correct materials arrive together, as promised. 

• ETA accuracy standards and update cadence. Commit to a specific accuracy target, such as 95 percent accuracy within one day, and establish a proactive update rhythm. This reduces uncertainty for planners and supervisors. 

• Preapproved alternates and substitutions. Maintain meets-spec alternates by category and secure customer approval in advance. This allows frontline teams to pivot instantly when constraints arise. 

• Critical-path protection and delivery sequencing. Align deliveries to the job schedule or maintenance windows. Make the plan visible to procurement, supervision, and maintenance teams so they can plan confidently. 

• Coordinated handoffs across inside, outside, technical, and logistics teams. Use one coordinated plan and a single source of truth for open lines, alternates, risk flags, and changes. Customers notice when the left and right hands work together. 

These disciplines do not require perfect availability. They require thinking ahead and applying critical thinking to support predictable, disciplined execution. It’s the same principle used in Six Sigma’s FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis): When you know what is likely to go wrong, you can take steps to prevent it—or have a solid plan ready for when it does.  

Two Role-Based POSE Talk Track Examples 

POSE Value Stories help communicate value in a structured, buyercentric way: Problem, Outcome, Solution, Explore. These examples are tailored for electrical and industrial distribution buyer roles but can be easily applied to other sectors.  

Electrical Distributor to Procurement Manager (Multiple Site Manufacturer) 

• Problem: A regional manufacturer we worked with struggled with inconsistent delivery completeness on project critical components. On a major panel build project, two partial deliveries caused a crew of nine electricians to lose half a day of productivity each time while waiting on missing line items. That added up to 9 × $94/hour × 4 hours × 2 events, or $6,768 in lost labor, not including schedule compression and overtime to catch up. 

• Outcome: After we stepped in, their next three phased drops arrived fully complete and correctly sequenced to their task plan. As a result, they avoided two additional delays that would have cost an estimated $6,000–$7,000 each. Across the full project, they attributed $18,400 in labor avoidance and schedule protection to the changes, and their project manager reported cutting two days off the final schedule float. 

• Solution: We created a critical path delivery plan with them, established a 95% ETA accuracy standard, implemented line-level accuracy checks before staging trucks, and built a preapproved alternates list that allowed the inside team to pivot quickly when supplier constraints appeared. 

• Explore: Would it make sense to build the same type of delivery and sequencing plan for your next two project releases so we can prevent similar delays? 

Industrial Distributor (Automation/Motion Control) to Maintenance/Reliability Leader 

• Problem: A large packaging plant running two high-speed lines was repeatedly missing maintenance windows because replacement drive components were arriving late or incomplete. One missed window forced the plant to take a line down during production hours, costing about three hours of downtime. At 450 units/hour and a contribution margin of $2.10/unit, that single event cost the plant $2,835 in margin, plus $1,200 in overtime for recovery. 

• Outcome: Over the next quarter, after implementing our readiness and sequencing process, they reported zero missed windows on 14 scheduled changeouts. Based on their historical miss rate, they would have expected four disruptions. Avoiding those four events protected approximately 4 × ($2,835 + $1,200) = $16,140 in combined margin and labor value. They also improved their maintenancewindow hit rate from 71% to 100% in that period. 

• Solution: We partnered with their maintenance planner to create a shared dashboard of open lines, lead-time risk, approved alternates, and delivery sequences aligned to maintenance windows. We also added early-warning triggers to flag components with risk before they threatened the schedule. 

• Explore: Would it be helpful to run a similar readiness and sequencing review for your next set of PM‑scheduled changeouts? 

Show the Math: One Avoided Delay Beats a Discount 

Economic comparisons need to reflect the real stakes in electrical and industrial environments. Delays don’t just inconvenience a team—they ripple through labor costs, overtime, throughput, project schedules, and even customer commitments. When you quantify the operational impact honestly, the comparison to a 2%–3% discount becomes obvious. 

Electrical project example
A commercial electrical crew of eight typically costs about $92 per hour per person when you factor in fully loaded labor. When a delivery arrives incomplete or late, the impact usually extends far beyond a simple two‑hour inconvenience. Crews shift to lower‑value tasks, supervisors scramble to re-plan work, and downstream subcontractors lose sequence. A four‑hour slip costs 8 × $92 × 4 = $2,944 in labor alone. That does not include the ripple effects on schedule flow, productivity on the following day, or penalties tied to contractual commitments. 

On a $20,000 materials drop, a 3% discount equals $600. One four‑hour disruption costs nearly five times that amount. 

Industrial MRO example
A packaging line running 420 units per hour at $2.15 contribution per unit generates roughly $903 per hour in margin. When a component arrives late or the wrong part arrives, the line may not slip by 90 minutes—it may miss a full production window. A three hour miss costs 3 × $903 = $2,709 in lost contribution, not counting labor premiums, downstream bottlenecks, or late-order penalties. A two percent discount on a $25,000 weekly parts buy is $500. Protecting a single three-hour window is worth more than five such discounts. 

These examples illustrate a simple truth:  

Execution failures are expensive, and the financial impact grows exponentially with scale and complexity.  

When you operate in ways that prevent schedule slips, idle crews, missed windows, and rework, you are delivering value that no small discount can match. 

Handling Price Pushback 

When concerns arise, respond using a simple model that keeps the conversation productive:  

• Acknowledge what the customer said, with empathy. Use “you statements” vs. “I statements:” Example: “You’re under pressure to ensure your projects run smoothly.”  

• Clarify the concern by asking questions to fully understand what’s behind it and get to the root-cause concern.  

• Categorize the concern (in your mind) as Disbelief (skepticism), Distortion (misunderstanding of the facts), Disadvantage (an unchangeable characteristic of the product, service, or solution that the buyer doesn’t like), or Disruption (something that has changed that makes the sale unlikely).  

• Respond with a relevant recommendation based on the type of concern. For Disbelief, offer relevant proof. For Distortion, clarify the customer’s need and explain how you can meet it. For a Disadvantage, weigh the one thing they dislike against all the things they do get and ask if they can still proceed. For a Disruption, explore what changed and whether you are still a good fit. 

• Confirm that your response helped and that the concern is resolved.  

Quick examples 

• If a competitor is 3% cheaper, acknowledge the desire for fairness, clarify whether the bigger issue is budget or risk, categorize whether it is disbelief or a narrow focus on unit price, respond with a concrete comparison of delay cost versus discount, and confirm whether this addressed the concern.  

• If availability is the concern, acknowledge the desire for assurance, clarify which items or windows feel at risk, categorize whether the concern is a misunderstanding about guarantees, respond by emphasizing how you manage volatility with ETA standards, alternates, and sequencing, and confirm whether this provides the needed confidence. (ETA standards—the accuracy and update commitments distributors make about when material will arrive—are a critical part of Execution Value.) 

• If prior change-order issues surface, acknowledge the frustration, clarify where the breakdown occurred, categorize whether it was disbelief or disruption, respond with your change order SOP and update cadence, and confirm whether the approach prevents repeat issues. 

Executive Playbook: Making Great Execution a Habit 

Leaders play a crucial role in embedding Execution Value into a culture.   

• Publish an execution standard. Document ETA accuracy targets, completeness expectations, alternates procedures, critical-path sequencing, and the single source of truth for open lines and risk flags. Train to it, coach to it, and use it in reviews. 

• Measure and monitor the essential metrics. Track ETA accuracy, line-level completeness, alternate adoption, and time to escalation. These are the operational metrics customers feel and leaders can manage. 

• Coach to AIR and Decision Thresholds. In reviews, ask what each stakeholder needs to see or understand to advance (aka buying process exit criteria). Identify which value driver will build interest for that person and coach your team to deliver it. 

• Equip the field with role-based POSE value stories. Create ready-to-use POSE examples for common buyer roles and teach sellers to adapt them based on research and observation. 

• Involve customers as co-creators. Use implementation meetings and kickoff sessions to co-develop delivery sequences, alternates lists, and communication rhythms. Buyers support what they help build. 

This playbook serves a dual purpose. First, it fosters an operational discipline that will better serve customers and differentiate the company. Secondly, you are setting up the system that will support your sales force in selling execution value over negotiating price. 

Closing Thoughts 

Every distributor feels the pressure of price conversations. But in a volatile market, buyers rely on the partner who helps them execute reliably and confidently when conditions change. It’s like the old self-help saying that it’s not what happens to you that matters, it’s how you respond. 

If you improve the experience and ability to execute for your customers, and connect that execution to the financial, strategic, and personal outcomes they care about most, price becomes only one of many inputs. The more consistently you operate this way, the more you differentiate, the more trust you earn, and the more growth you unlock. 

Related Reading 

• The Sales Activity Trap: Why Sales Teams Stay Busy But Don’t Improve
• The Two Buyer’s Journeys in Distribution: A Practical Guide for Sales Leaders
• Over the Top: How Distributors Can Grow with Radical Customer Centricity & Extreme Coaching
• How Does Your Sales Methodology Compare to What Top Performers Do Differently?

The post Stop Competing on Price: How Distributors Can Sell Execution Value appeared first on Distribution Strategy Group.

Both firms say many distributors still rely on manual processes that push sales representatives toward low-value accounts while leaving higher-potential customers underserved. The partnership combines Proton.ai’s artificial intelligence tools — which rank accounts by likelihood to buy and recommend relevant products — with Revenue Optics’ structured inside sales processes and coaching.

“Most distributors have millions of dollars sitting in under-covered accounts,” said Ali Hasham, founder and chief executive officer of Revenue Optics. “This partnership helps unlock that value by giving sales teams the focus, process and follow-through to close more deals.”

Benj Cohen, founder and chief executive officer of Proton.ai, said the joint approach is meant to give sales representatives more clarity and direction. “Reps do their best work when they know exactly which customers to focus on,” he said. “Our artificial intelligence surfaces opportunities buried in their data, and Revenue Optics provides a clear playbook and experienced sales talent to turn those insights into better follow-up, better conversations and better performance.”

Proton.ai’s software analyzes customer and transaction data to identify accounts most likely to purchase and the products they are most likely to consider. Revenue Optics’ model focuses on turning those insights into consistent outreach and sales discipline — methods drawn from two decades of building and running inside sales organizations for distributors.

Both companies cite past customer results: Proton.ai reports distributors using its platform grew 2.6 times faster in their first year, while Revenue Optics says clients using its system have achieved 24% organic growth and tripled account coverage for small and mid-size customers.

The partnership brings together executives with deep experience in distribution. Hasham spent 25 years in the industry and built Motion Industries’ first inside sales team, scaling it to 90 sellers. He also led sales initiatives at WESCO and TruckPro. Cohen, a fourth-generation distributor, founded Proton.ai after studying data science and identifying gaps in how distributors use customer and product information.

Both companies are expanding to support additional customers. Proton.ai has recently launched Pronto — a tool that connects to enterprise resource planning systems, customer relationship management systems, and product databases to answer sales representatives’ questions in real time — and a product information management system that uses artificial intelligence to clean and enrich incomplete product data. The company has hired 37 employees in recent months.

Revenue Optics has added staff across finance, marketing, sales transformation, and analytics, including hires from Motion Industries, WESCO, McKinsey & Co., and Wokelo.ai.

The companies said distributors have already begun adopting the joint model, with more implementations underway.

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The distributor said sales rose 3.3% in the third quarter to $353.6 million, marking its second straight period of revenue growth. The improvement was driven by strong demand from major strategic accounts, offsetting softer activity among smaller and one-time buyers that the company has intentionally stepped back from.

“We delivered our second consecutive quarter of revenue growth and strong profitability, reflecting solid execution and proactive management of the business,” said Anesa Chaibi, chief executive officer on the company’s most recent earnings call. “Performance was once again driven by our largest strategic accounts, where we are seeing good momentum and progress.”

Global Industrial also continued to benefit from its expansion in Canada, where recent investments in logistics, supply chain operations, and local teams have fueled two consecutive quarters of double-digit growth.

For the first nine months of the year, Global Industrial’s sales climbed 2% to $1.03 billion, while profits grew at a faster pace. The company said these gains reflect ongoing efforts to strengthen relationships with key accounts, improve service quality, and make it easier for customers to do business.

Chief financial officer Thomas Clark said sales growth was strongest among national and regional accounts in both the U.S. and Canada. While smaller orders declined, he described that as a deliberate decision to focus on customers with long-term potential.

Clark also noted that the company has continued to adjust pricing to manage rising costs, particularly following the government’s latest round of tariffs on steel and aluminum products. Despite these pressures, he said the company maintained healthy product availability and stable operations.

Transformation and Customer Focus

Chaibi said Global Industrial is during reshaping how it serves customers. The company is rolling out new tools, including a modern customer-relationship system, to give sales and service teams better visibility into customer needs. It is also expanding its range of products and solutions to deepen relationships with existing clients.

At the company’s trade show in September, Chaibi met with manufacturers and business customers from across North America. She said those conversations reinforced the company’s role as a trusted distribution partner. “By better showcasing our capabilities and telling our story with greater clarity, we will be well positioned for even greater success,” she said.

Chaibi said the company is managing through an uncertain market environment — including supply-chain and pricing pressures — by focusing on what it can control and by investing in its people, technology, and customers.

“We are advancing the transformation of our business model and putting the customer at the center of everything we do,” she said. “These efforts will better position us to grow, capitalize on new opportunities, and expand the markets we serve.”

With improving momentum among large accounts, a stronger position in Canada, and ongoing investments in customer experience, Global Industrial said it expects to finish the year on solid footing and carry that strength into 2026.

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Revenue for the quarter ended June 30 rose 3.2% year over year to $358.9 million, up from $347.8 million a year earlier. Net income from continuing operations increased 24% to $25.1 million, compared to $20.2 million in Q2 2024.

Operating income jumped 26.9% to a record $33.5 million, with operating margin improving to 9.3%, up from 7.6% a year ago. Gross profit rose to $133 million, and the gross margin hit a company record of 37.1%, up from 35.2% in the prior year period.

“We delivered an excellent second quarter performance with record profitability,” CEO Anesa Chaibi told analysts during the earnings call. “I’m pleased with how the team executed, especially given the disruption and uncertainty from the current tariff environment.”

For the first half of 2025, sales reached $679.9 million, up 1.3% from $671.2 million in the same period last year. Net income from continuing operations rose 15.9% to $38.6 million, while operating income increased 18% to $51.7 million.

U.S. revenue grew 3% in the quarter, while Canada saw a 7.4% gain in local currency. The company’s largest strategic accounts continued to lead growth, while transactional and lower-retention customers saw a decline. Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Tex Clark said Global Industrial has intentionally reduced promotions aimed at lower-value buyers to focus on more profitable, long-term relationships.

“Sales grew each month during the quarter, and we’ve seen that momentum carry into July,” Clark said. “We’re focused on managing what we can control—pricing, supplier diversification, and inventory positioning—as tariffs continue to evolve.”

Global Industrial ended the quarter with $55.1 million in cash, no debt, and $120 million in available credit. Operating cash flow was $31.8 million. The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.26 per share, payable August 18.

Looking ahead, Chaibi said the company is evolving its go-to-market strategy. “We’re becoming much more intentional in how we approach and attract new customers,” she said. “We need to make it easier for customers to do business with us—and we’re realigning the organization around that goal.”

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Automating the Quote and Order Process  

One of the most time-consuming tasks for reps has traditionally been the quote and order process. In the past, reps spent hours manually entering data, verifying details and navigating through cumbersome systems. This not only slowed down operations but also left little time for meaningful customer engagement.  

AI is changing the game. By automating the quote and order process, reps can now process requests in seconds. Advanced tools analyze customer purchase orders, BOM uploads or even text messages to instantly generate accurate quotes and orders. This year, Gartner expects AI-driven automation tools to handle 80% of routine tasks for inside sales teams.   

This level of automation reduces errors, accelerates turnaround times and frees up reps to focus on what truly matters: building relationships.  

Spending More Time with Customers  

With the administrative burden lifted, reps can dedicate more time to understanding their customers’ needs and making tailored product recommendations. Instead of being bogged down by spreadsheets and order forms, they can engage in meaningful conversations that build trust and loyalty.  

AI doesn’t just automate– it informs. It provides reps with insights into customer buying patterns, preferences, and potential needs. Companies that leverage AI insights “see a 20-30% improvement in customer satisfaction and engagement metrics,” according to McKinsey. This enables proactive communication and positions the rep as a valuable partner rather than just a transactional point of contact.  

Anticipating Customer Needs  

Imagine knowing when a customer is about to run low on a critical item or identifying a new product they might need before they even realize it themselves. AI makes this possible. By analyzing historical data and market trends, AI tools can predict customer needs and recommend optimal times to reach out.  

“Predictive analytics powered by AI has revolutionized the way sales teams operate, increasing forecast accuracy by up to 50%,” according to research by Forrester. This level of anticipation ensures that customers always have what they need when they need it, strengthening the relationship and increasing customer satisfaction.  

Upsell and Cross-Sell Opportunities  

AI doesn’t stop at predicting needs; it also uncovers opportunities. By identifying patterns in purchasing behavior, AI tools can suggest complementary products or upgrades, helping reps present compelling upsell and cross-sell opportunities. According to a study by Harvard Business Review, “AI-driven upsell and cross-sell recommendations can boost revenue by 10-15%.” 

This not only increases order value but also positions the rep as an expert resource for their customers.  

Driving Higher Commissions  

Ultimately, all these advancements translate to increased earnings for reps. With more time to spend on strategic activities and the ability to offer well-timed recommendations, reps can close more deals, capture larger orders and secure higher commissions. Thanks to AI, the modern distributor inside rep can truly “work smarter, not harder,” as the old saying goes.  

Embracing the Future  

The evolution of the inside sales role is a win-win for both reps and customers. Reps gain efficiency, insight and earning potential, while customers receive a seamless, personalized experience. As the distribution industry continues to embrace AI, the possibilities for innovation and growth are endless.  

The question is no longer whether to adopt AI-driven tools but how quickly you can implement them to transform your team. As noted by Deloitte, “early adopters of AI in sales report productivity gains of up to 40%, showcasing the transformative potential of these tools.” 

The future of distribution belongs to those who empower their inside reps with the tools to succeed in a modern, customer-centric world. 

The post Why Process Automation and Higher Commissions Are the Future of Inside Sales appeared first on Distribution Strategy Group.

But imagine if, every morning, your sales reps walked in and found a ready-made task list, with the day’s highest-priority accounts, cross-selling opportunities and follow-up reminders all lined up for them, courtesy of AI. Sounds dreamy, right? 

This is more than just wishful thinking. AI-powered tools are capable of analyzing past customer orders and serving up tailored daily tasks, so your inside sales team is always working on what matters most. Here are six things AI can do to guide the daily grind and turn your sales team into a productivity powerhouse: 

1. Pinpoint Cross-Selling and Upselling Opportunities

AI can dig through past orders and buying patterns, uncovering what each customer hasn’t yet bought but probably would if they knew it existed, and then serve up useful recommendations on a silver platter. It’s like having a magic “customers also bought” button that’s tailored to each account. 

With these suggestions on their daily list, reps don’t waste time guessing or feeling out the customer. Instead, they can dive straight into conversations about products that make sense and add value. The outcome? Happier customers, bigger orders and a lot less “Well, maybe next time.” 

2. Catch Potential Churn Before It Becomes a Breakup

It never feels good to lose a customer, but it’s often preventable if you catch the signs early enough. AI helps with this by monitoring customer activity for anything unusual, like a regular account suddenly ordering less or skipping their usual reorders. Then, it adds these “at-risk” customers to the top of each rep’s daily task list, along with a nudge to reach out. 

Instead of leaving churn prevention to chance, you can use a system that puts those customers front and center before they slip away. Reps can check in, find out if there’s an issue and show the customer some love. Sometimes, that’s all it takes to keep them on board. 

3. Prioritize Sales Tasks Without the Guesswork

How much time do your reps spend each morning figuring out where to start? AI can help them cut to the chase by automatically turning an overwhelming to-do list into a targeted, actionable game plan. By taking things like recent order volume, seasonal trends and potential sales value into account, AI can generate a list of the highest-priority tasks for each rep. No more staring at a hundred names in the CRM wondering who to call first. 

With a daily, prioritized task list, reps can work more efficiently, focusing on the accounts and activities that are actually likely to pay off. No more random calls or “just checking in” emails that don’t lead anywhere. 

4. Customize Quotes and Discounts in Seconds

Tailoring quotes and discounts takes time, and it can often feel like a shot in the dark. But AI streamlines this process, using each customer’s buying habits and order history to suggest relevant quotes and discounts. It then pops these recommendations right onto the rep’s task list for the day, so they’re ready to talk numbers without missing a beat. 

This way, your reps aren’t just offering personalized pricing– they’re doing it quickly and confidently. AI makes sure quotes hit the sweet spot: valuable enough to secure the sale but profitable for your company, too. 

5. Generate Timely Reorder Reminders

If you’ve got customers with recurring needs, AI can spot their buying patterns a mile away. When it’s time for a customer to reorder a product, AI flags it and adds it to your rep’s task list for that day, reminding them to reach out at the optimal time or even to suggest automated reordering options. It’s a thoughtful touch that keeps customers stocked without them even needing to ask. 

For the customer, it’s a win—they don’t run out of crucial products. For your reps, it’s even better—they get to be proactive and valuable, not just order-takers. 

6. Gain Real-Time Market Insights (and Pass Them Along)

AI doesn’t just analyze customer data—it tracks market trends, price changes and product demand spikes that might impact each account. These real-time insights pop up on your rep’s daily task list, giving them talking points and positioning them as knowledgeable advisors. 

This transforms customer calls from “Just following up” to “Hey, here’s something new I think you’ll find helpful.” Customers appreciate the heads-up and are more likely to stick with a distributor who knows their stuff. 

So, Why Use AI to Power Your Daily Sales Tasks? 

Leveraging AI can produce a number of positive outcomes, including: 

1. Productivity That Packs a Punch
   AI isn’t just a time-saver – it’s a priority-setter. By giving reps a structured task list that highlights the day’s best opportunities, AI takes away the busywork, allowing reps to dive into meaningful conversations and close more deals. 
2. A Customer Experience That Feels Personal
   With a daily list of targeted, relevant outreach tasks, reps can approach customers with genuine value. It’s less about pushing products and more about helping customers with products that make sense for them. That kind of personalized service builds loyalty and trust. 
3. Consistency and Accuracy, Every Single Day
   AI removes the guesswork and standardizes best practices, so reps know they’re reaching out at the right time, with the right offer, for the right reason. Customers get consistent, accurate information, and reps look like they’re on top of their game. 
4. Increased Revenue (Without the Extra Effort)
   By pinpointing cross-sells, upsells and optimized quotes, AI helps reps focus on what drives revenue—without the endless calculations and second-guessing. With high-priority, revenue-generating tasks highlighted each day, AI takes your bottom line seriously. 
5. Empowered Inside Sales Teams
   At the end of the day, AI transforms inside sales reps into trusted advisors, not just “order takers.” They show up prepared, with a targeted list in hand and insights ready to share, which makes their work not only more effective but far more rewarding. 

If AI is the brains of the operation, then your reps are the heart, and together they make a powerful team. AI doesn’t just make their work easier – it makes it more impactful. And for distributors looking to grow smarter, that’s about as close to a superpower as you can get. 

The post How AI Can Turn Inside Sales Reps into Superheroes, One Daily Task List at a Time appeared first on Distribution Strategy Group.

In this article, I’ll discuss three key steps you can implement with your account managers to accelerate territory growth and improve overall effectiveness. By guiding them to make intentional decisions about where they focus their efforts, setting clear objectives for key and growth accounts and leveraging AI to uncover hidden opportunities, you’ll empower your team to achieve faster and more sustainable results. 

1. Stop Making “Milk Runs” and Start Being Purposeful 

Many account managers rely on a familiar cycle of visiting their top accounts, whether or not there’s a pressing need for a meeting. These so-called “milk runs” are comfortable because they give the illusion of productivity, but in reality, they limit growth by ignoring higher-value opportunities and leaving little room for proactive, strategic actions. 

Take Tom, an account manager who has been working his territory for several years. He has built solid relationships with a handful of key customers, but over time, his visits have turned into routine social calls. He drops by once a month for a brief check-in and leaves without any clear outcome. While these customers continue to place orders, there’s no growth in the business, and Tom misses out on expanding relationships or addressing unmet needs in his territory. 

Now, imagine Tom adopts a more purposeful approach. Before each visit, he reviews his account data, identifies new opportunities and sets a specific objective for the meeting, such as introducing a new product line that aligns with the customer’s industry trends. Instead of just checking in, Tom asks targeted questions to uncover pain points and unmet needs. By providing valuable insights and recommendations, he turns a routine visit into a strategic meeting that drives new business. 

Takeaways: 

• Be strategic: Replace routine visits with strategic, value-driven interactions. Prioritize accounts based on growth potential or current challenges, and tailor your approach accordingly. 
• Set clear objectives: Know exactly what you want to achieve during each visit, whether it’s closing a deal, introducing a new product, or gathering information that will lead to future business. 
• Maximize every visit: Come prepared with data and insights that add value to the customer, ensuring that each meeting is productive and moves the relationship forward. 

2. Set Logical Account Objectives and Create Actionable Plans 

A common mistake account managers make is failing to set clear objectives for their key and growth accounts. Without a defined plan, it’s easy to become reactive — addressing only immediate customer concerns — rather than proactive in driving account growth. 

Consider Sarah, an account manager with a portfolio of key and growth accounts, along with a mix of B, C and D accounts. While she has strong relationships with her customers, she lacks a formal plan for growing each account. Instead, she waits for customers to reach out when they have an issue or need to reorder, or she drops in haphazardly. As a result, her business remains flat, and she misses opportunities to expand her footprint within her accounts. 

So, Sarah decides to take a more proactive approach. She starts by analyzing her key and growth accounts, assessing each customer’s potential for growth based on purchase history, current engagement and market trends. For her largest account, she sets an objective to increase wallet share by 15% over the next year. She creates a plan to introduce complementary products and services that align with the customer’s business goals. By regularly tracking her progress and adjusting her strategy based on account feedback, Sarah is able to grow her largest account by 20% within six months. 

Takeaways: 

• Analyze account potential: Not all accounts have the same growth potential. Identify which of your current accounts have room to expand and which might need more attention to prevent churn.  
• Create actionable plans: For each key and growth account, set clear, measurable objectives and a plan to achieve them. This could be increasing product adoption, growing wallet share, or improving customer satisfaction. 
• Execute and track progress: Consistently execute your plan, tracking results along the way and adjusting as needed based on account feedback, market changes and performance. 

(For more detail and a step-by-step process for analyzing account potential, setting objectives and creating logical plans to achieve those objectives, read this article.) 

3. Use AI-Guided Selling to Uncover Hidden Opportunities 

Territory management can feel overwhelming, especially when it comes to analyzing large volumes of transactional data. AI-guided selling tools can help make sense of this data and uncover trends or opportunities that would otherwise be difficult to spot. With AI, account managers can focus their efforts on the accounts and opportunities that offer the highest likelihood of success. 

Imagine Paul, an account manager asked with managing a large territory. His accounts generate a huge amount of transactional data, but Paul struggles to sift through it all and get value out of it. As a result, he misses key buying signals and overlooks upsell opportunities. Without the ability to analyze the data efficiently, he’s reactive rather than proactive, and his territory remains stagnant. 

This motivates Paul to adopt AI-guided selling tools to assist him in managing his territory. The AI system analyzes transactional data and reveals that one of his mid-tier accounts has been steadily increasing their purchases of a specific product. It also flags a potential opportunity to upsell a related product that could improve the customer’s operations. Armed with this insight, Paul reaches out to the customer, recommends the upsell and secures a new order. The AI system continues to track patterns, enabling Paul to focus on the most promising accounts and opportunities, leading to a 30% increase in territory revenue over the next year. 

Takeaways: 

• Leverage data insights: AI-guided selling tools can process vast amounts of data quickly, uncovering trends and opportunities that might otherwise be missed. 
• Spot trends faster: With AI’s ability to detect changes in buying behavior or emerging needs, you can take proactive steps to address these shifts before your competition does. 
• Enhance decision-making: AI helps you prioritize your efforts, ensuring you invest time in the most promising accounts and opportunities. 

(For more detail on combining the power of AI-guided analysis with buyer-centric consultative selling, read this article.) 

Closing Thoughts 

As a senior sales leader, you can likely see the synergy in these recommendations—they all reinforce one another. Accelerating territory growth across your team requires a shift from reactive habits to proactive, strategic planning and sound tactical execution.  

By guiding your account managers to abandon routine “milk runs,” set clear account objectives and leverage AI to uncover hidden opportunities, you’ll position your team for greater success. Following these steps will not only drive faster territory growth but also foster stronger, more productive customer relationships. Territory management is no longer just about covering ground — it’s about ensuring your team focuses on the right actions, in the right places, with the right tools, to deliver sustainable growth. 

Additional Reading 

In addition to the two articles mentioned above, these articles support territory management and account management through improved sales effectiveness and sales coaching: 

• Sales Coaching Excellence is a Competitive Differentiator 
• Grow Faster with These 10 Advanced Skills for Your Sales Force 
• The Timeless Tenets of B2B Sales Effectiveness 
• Modern Sales Foundations (includes account management methodology) 

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