Advance Components is pleased to announce the promotion of Brad Burel from Director of National Sales to Vice President of Sales. Brad has been with Advance for 16 years, where he started in Account Management, transitioned to the role of Regional Sales Manager, and several years ago was promoted to Director National of Sales. 

“Advance is excited that Brad will be leading a new initiative to merge the company’s sales and account management teams into a new single unified sales team,” says Gary Cravens, Advance’s President. “Our goal remains to be a customer-focused company, and Brad is key to continuing and expanding our mission.”

Here is a preview.

As distributors respond to COVID-19, they are noticing the limitations of traditional recessionary responses such as cost reduction and working capital preservation. These responses may not be optimal due to the inherent constraint of this recession: social distancing. This constraint directly affects face-to-face sales. Transitioning sales teams to work successfully in this new environment is key to revenue recovery.

A few weeks ago, NAW launched the NAW Podcast Series: INNOVATE TO DOMINATE, sponsored by PROS. So far we’ve launched three episodes in this limited series to help distributors face the forces of change through innovation: Check out Episode 1: An Introduction to the Innovate to Dominate Podcast Series to get an overview of the series and highlights from subsequent episodes.

All the remaining episodes in this series can only be accessed by subscribers, so please subscribe today! As a subscriber, you'll receive exclusive episodes directly to your inbox. In addition, every subscriber has a chance to win a FREE electronic copy of NAW’s Innovate to Dominatebook with compliments from PROS!

NAW is pleased to introduce the new NAW Podcast Series: INNOVATE TO DOMINATE, sponsored by PROS.

In our first episode, “An Introduction to the Innovate to Dominate Podcast Series,” you’ll learn about INNOVATE TO DOMINATE and what it means for you in the context of COVID-19. Watch or listen to this podcast – Check it out!

Endries International is pleased to announce that it has acquired All-West Components & Fasteners Inc.

All-West was founded in 1978 in Seattle, Washington with the help of Rick Peterson, the current CEO of the company and past president of both the Pacific-West Fastener Association and STAFDA. Mark Peterson, Rick’s brother, joined the organization in 1982 and has been the company’s president since 2015. Over the past thirty years All-West has been focused on serving the original equipment manufacturing market and providing technical fastener solutions to their customer base. Operating under ISO 9001 accreditation, the company’s twenty-four associates operate from a headquarters in the Seattle suburb of Auburn, Washington and branches in Spokane, Washington and Boise, Idaho.

From the NAW Blog

Each of your customers brings value to your business. Some already provide a considerably high value that your business relies on, while others have significant potential that you haven’t fully tapped. Then there are the customers who cost more to serve than they provide in value. The question is: Do you know which customer is which? And are you adjusting your approach accordingly?

Watson Woodrow Stanley, 96, Purple Heart Recipient and a resident of Howell, MI passed from this life Monday, May 18 of natural causes.

Watson was preceded in death by his wife Bette Ann Eckert (deceased in 1997) and will be sorely missed by his wife Elizabeth (daughter Alicia).  He was the loving father of 3 children, William (Barb) Stanley, Robert (Lana Kenny) Stanley and Judy (Jim) Cash. Watson cherished his 10 grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren. He was the brother of Mae (Max) Stevens and Patricia (David) O’Donnell.

From the NAW Blog

Distributors are a strategic go-to-market asset for manufacturers and many are stepping up to reinvent the traditional distribution business model for the digital age. My recent conversations with manufacturers indicate that many suppliers have not noticed and very few have actively engaged with even their most influential distributor partners. The partnership between distributors and manufacturers remains as crucial as ever, but it will die without proactive collaboration around emerging innovation opportunities.

From Industrial Distribution Magazine

Commercial fastener distributor and importer Industrial Threaded Products, Inc. announced May 14 that it has acquired Construction Tool & Threading Co., a custom manufacturing company that has been serving the construction and industrial market for over 80 years. Construction Tool & Threading Co.’s service offering and team will become fully integrated with Industrial Threaded Products.

From the NAW Blog

The United States is entering a new phase of crisis management. For the first time in weeks, restrictions are easing instead of intensifying. The economy is reopening. And for distributors, that means the biggest changes are yet to come.

After careful consideration and due to the escalation of COVID-19 in the United States, Reed Exhibitions announced on May 8, 2020 that the next edition of Fastener Fair USA will now take place March 23-25, 2021 at the Huntington Convention Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

Initially optimistic that the event could be held in late July, as the pandemic has continued to escalate and the challenges it has brought to the industry, it is clear that July is no longer a viable option.

From the NAW Blog

We’ve been tracking weekly sales in our Pandemic Revenue Index, in which distributors are reporting double-digit declines week over week. A lot of distribution companies have been handling the COVID-19 crisis moment to moment, with barely a chance to catch their breath.

From the NAW Blog

“Technology is capable of doing great things. But it doesn’t want to do great things. It doesn’t want anything. That part takes all of us.” — Tim Cook, CEO, Apple

From the NAW Blog

At a recent conference, I noticed that many distributors viewed AI as a purely digital phenomenon and were split on how the technology affected salespeople; either AI did not apply to sales teams, or it was going to replace them entirely. AI does have a big impact on inside sales, but not in either of those ways. It does not replace sales reps, but instead supercharges them. I’ve watched AI-assisted sales reps outperform unsupported reps by a factor of ten, and in this article, I’ll explain how.

Leaving the Kids in Charge

Denny Cowhey,  who founded Computer Insights in 1981, is turning the company to its executive team upon his retirement this year.

From the NAW Blog

Distributors may avoid outsider disruption by being human, but only if they make concrete plans to work with customers where they live and work — in communities. A new mindset is required. Segmenting customers is about selling. Serving communities is about collaborating. Relationships are built on trust, and at its core, building trust is a very human endeavor. As distributors transform digitally, they risk losing touch with customers. A distributor’s innovation plan needs to include human-centric innovations, and community outreach is the most powerful place to start.

From the NAW Blog

In NAW’s Optimizing Human Capital Development: A Distributor’s Guide to Building a Sustainable Competitive Advantage through Talent Strategy, my coauthors and I talked about how goal setting is directly linked to profit, performance and productivity. When goals are well set, they can provide guidance and direction, facilitate planning, motivate and inspire employees, and assist with performance evaluation and management.