Featured in NAW: Complacency will lead you nowhere
According to BigCommerce, more than 197 million people visit Amazon each month to browse more than 12 million products — and those numbers go up every day. But distributors don’t need to be afraid of Amazon. Rather, they need to innovate and sell to customers the way today’s customers want to buy.
In a recent guest post for the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, IRCG Managing Partner Mike Marks suggests that the most forward-thinking distributors will create a new strategy based on customer buying habits today — rather than overlaying good ideas or initiatives on top of existing organizational structures. This may involve a restructuring of their organizations to execute, but the gains will be great: fewer sales and profit declines in recessions, capturing share when the economy recovers, and higher growth when the market is doing well.
About the Author
Mike Marks
Mike Marks co-founded IRCG in April 1987. He began his consulting practice after working in distribution management for more than 20 years. Over the years, his narrow focus in B2B channel-driven markets has created an extensive number of deep executive relationships within virtually every business vertical in construction, industrial, OEM, agricultural, and healthcare.
Mike has led project teams that improve market access by aligning resources to growth opportunities serving manufacturers, dealers, and distributors. Clients have ranged from small privately owned firms to many of the industry’s market share leaders. Ownership structures have included owner-operators, private equity, ESOPs, and publically traded firms. Mike is proud of the teams work and the confidence clients have shown with additional project work.
He has written extensively, and is frequently quoted on many industry issues. He has substantial board experience on both public and private distribution firms. His contributions to the field include serving multiple terms as a Research Fellow with the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, permanent faculty at Purdue University’s University of Industrial Distribution, eight years as Graduate Adjunct Faculty in the Industrial Distribution Program at Texas A & M University, and rendering several precedent-setting expert opinions in contract disputes between manufacturers and distributors.
Prior to forming IRCG, Mike held the position of Executive Vice President at Lex Electronics, an $800 million vertically integrated electronics distributor in Stamford, CT. Mike’s path to management in his early career was through increasing responsibilities in sales and sales management. He also completed a tour of duty as a manufacturer’s representative.
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