Home Meetings & EventsCanadian Conference Overview

Session Summary: Industry Panel on Distribution Channel Efficiencies

Facilitator: Don Latham, Belterra Corporation (and past president of the PTDA Board of Directors)

Distributors

• Francois Arbique, KINECOR LP
• Ali Moghadam, Canadian Bearings Ltd.
• Tim Osmond, Ontario Belting
• Dermot Strong, BC Bearing Engineers Ltd.

Manufacturers

• Randy Breaux, Baldor Electric Company
• Sean Hickey, Lafert North America
• Tom Karch, SKF Canada Limited
• Jos Sueters, Tsubaki of Canada Limited

One of PTDA’s five strategic goals is to champion manufacturers and distributors, operating in concert, to effectively and efficiently serve their mutual customers. This panel of some of the industry’s top executives discussed the challenges and opportunities for improving the distributor/manufacturer-supplier relationship.  The respect that exists between the members of the group was quite evident throughout the discussion—with  agreement and disagreement on particular points or the effect of suggested solutions—but all were focused on building a more efficient channel through reduced costs, streamlined transactions and jointly navigating the minefield that is the result of  the recession.

The discussion kicked off with a back-and-forth on inventory management.  Working together to identify “A” items, getting those items on the shelf at the distributor in sufficient quantity and with just the right amount of lead time, allowing distributors to view suppliers’ inventory and to treat it as their own and allowing manufacturers to monitor distributors’ inventory and create replenishment orders were all part of the conversation. 

The panel also addressed the distributor’s role in creating value beyond the lowest price.  For some distributors, that role has evolved to being an integrated supplier, acting as the customer’s one-stop shop for all industrial products.  For others, the technical knowledge and expertise they provide to the customer to help that customer streamline production adds value.  Each customer-distributor relationship is different, and it is incumbent upon the distributor to “know the customer.”  One point of view expressed was that the manufacturer’s salespeople should be the product experts and the distributor’s salespeople should be the customer experts.

With that, the discussion turned to training the salesforce.  Panelists recognized the need to keep their employees educated on new products, new markets and new processes.  For many distributors in a difficult economy, it’s tough to ask salespeople to stop selling in order to participate in training.  Training and education need to be earmarked as an investment in your company’s future. 

In the end, those eavesdropping on the panel’s conversation walked away with a better understanding of the issues—both from their colleagues and from their channel partners.