I decided to create a list of topics I believe should be included in discussions between distributor management and their purchasing groups. A good many are also not working at their full potential, vis a vis, generating revenue for their organization. Most are hardworking, trustworthy and loyal. These folks are critical to our organization. There are many purchasing folks working in distribution. This was a very good question and one I hadn’t thought about for quite some time. Do you have any recommendations for points we should intensify them on? Is it possible for them to do more than just enter orders with our suppliers?”

And while I certainly don’t push them to lie, cheat or steal from our vendors, I would like for them to be more proactive in helping our business make money. However, my organization (a distributor) has a couple of purchasing people. As a former sales guy, I tend to agree with most of what you say. “Frank, you often make sweeping generalizations about purchasing types. The Challenge – How to Incentivize a DistributorĪfter writing tons of articles on the sales process in distribution where I brutally vilify purchasing and procurement types, I received an email with the following:

The challenger sale workbook