Darn Good Distributors

How to Build a Digital Roadmap That Leadership Will Actually Fund (with Sam Schwartz) | Ep. 40

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 03:00:00 -0400

Most distributors don't have a digital roadmap. They have a list of projects someone wants to do, a budget fight waiting to happen, and a general sense that they're behind. Kyler Nixon sits down with Sam Schwartz, B2B ecom expert, to walk through a real framework for building one. Sam presented this process at B2BEA in Scottsdale, where the RICE prioritization method she introduced reportedly had every person in the room writing it down. This episode gets into the meat of that: how to actually uncover what customers need, generate ideas worth acting on, attach financial outcomes to those ideas, and then rank them without politics getting in the way.

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📌 What We Cover

Why voice of customer is a spectrum, from five-minute phone calls to Google Analytics, and why you need both ends to make sense of anything
How to write survey questions that reveal actual customer behavior instead of just confirming what you already believe
Why your technology vendors are an underused idea source, including how asking a Shopify rep for a site audit surfaced features the team didn't know existed
How to build a business case when the ROI is fuzzy, using product data enrichment as a worked example
Why presenting conservative, target, and aggressive financial projections is more useful than a single number, especially in front of a leadership team
The full RICE method (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort): what each variable means, how to score them, and how the formula produces a priority ranking you can actually defend
Why effort scoring should include every team involved, not just IT
Why roadmapping is a cultural activity, and why change management is the part no framework fully solves

From 1% To 15% AI Traffic In Three Months (with Bob Goodliffe from Cyberweld) | Ep. 39

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 03:00:00 -0400

Cyberweld has been in business since 1938, online since 2000, and is watching AI-referred traffic climb from 1% in February to 15% this month, with 25% expected by summer. Kyler Nixon sits down with Bob Goodliffe, fourth-generation CEO of Cyberweld, to get into how a welding distributor builds product pages, runs retention, and survives a platform migration. Bob's philosophy on product copy hasn't changed in 25 years, but it turns out the same approach that helps his customer service reps answer questions is exactly what AI search engines reward. They also get into rewards programs in B2B, email as a retention tool, and the two-year organic hangover from migrating off a legacy platform.

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👤 Guest Bio

Bob Goodliffe is President and CEO of Cyberweld, the online welding supply business operated by J.W. Goodliffe & Son, Inc. Bob is a fourth-generation family employee. His son and daughter are fifth generation. The company started in 1938 in Elizabeth, New Jersey as a traditional welding supply distributor. Bob took it online in 2000 with 50 SKUs and went fully online in 2016 after selling the gas distribution side of the business. Cyberweld now operates from locations in New Jersey and Mesa, Arizona.

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📌 What We Cover

Why Bob built Cyberweld's product pages for his customer service team and how that same approach turns out to be what AI search wants
The 1995 marketing conference moment that put Bob five years ahead on e-commerce
How AI-referred traffic at Cyberweld went from 1% in February to 15% this month, projected at 25% by summer
A competitor running AI-generated product copy with disclaimers admitting the content may not be accurate, including on a $5,000 welder
Why specs belong in the first 200 characters of a product page and marketing fluff does not
Cyberweld's two-prong retention playbook: phone number on every page plus email replenishment to a 350,000-person opted-in list
The reality of a rewards program on skinny industrial margins and how the math actually works
The two-year organic search hangover after migrating off a 20-year-old e-commerce platform

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

Cyberweld
Episode 15 with Jackson Orrin from Reinders (B2B loyalty program deep dive)
Miller, Millermatic 200
Kyler Nixon
Bob Goodliffe

You Can't Market a Product You Don't Know (with Rich Ward from AcroMat) | Ep. 38

Tue, 26 May 2026 03:00:00 -0400

Most marketers in distribution and manufacturing can write a polished paragraph about a product they barely understand. Rich Ward, Director of Marketing at AcroMat, decided early in his career that path had a ceiling. So he made product expertise his first deliverable, before he built a single campaign.

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Kyler Nixon sits down with Rich to talk about how that decision shaped his career and grew AcroMat. They get into how Rich learned the product by sitting in on sales calls, walking the production floor a couple days a week, and cold-calling ergonomics consultants with one line: this is not a sales inquiry, I just want to learn. They also cover why simple before-and-after content has been a steady lead driver for AcroMat against bigger competitors, and how the company thinks about retention when their product lasts five to eight years.

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👤 Guest Bio

Rich Ward is Director of Marketing at AcroMat, a 20-year-old custom anti-fatigue mat manufacturer based in Lakeville, Minnesota. AcroMat makes precision-cut mats to any shape and size for facilities run by companies like John Deere, Toyota, and Boeing. The company has doubled revenue each of the past three years. Before AcroMat, Rich came up as a writer covering healthcare, business, and engineering content, and he's now four years into industrial marketing.

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📌 What We Cover

Why technical product knowledge is a real career multiplier in industrial marketing, not just a nice-to-have
The exact moves Rich made in his first year at AcroMat to learn the product (sales calls, surveys with webinar gifts, shadowing the production team a couple days a week)
How to cold-call therapists, ergonomics consultants, and 5S leaders without it being a sales pitch, and how those calls turned into blog content and customer relationships
Why AcroMat treats LinkedIn and Reddit as paid-channel substitutes when you can't outspend Uline and Grainger
The simple before-and-after photo format that became AcroMat's steady lead driver, and what makes it actually work
Curling as the most common anti-fatigue mat failure mode, and why open-cell construction is the root cause
Retention strategy when your product is built to last five to eight years (and why segmenting by buying window matters more than reorder cadence)
Kyler's framework for B2B email retention: sales-focused content for buyers inside the buying window, education and nurture for the 90 to 95% who aren't

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

AcroMat (Rich's company)
Reddit and LinkedIn as primary marketing channels for AcroMat
Uline and Grainger as the larger competitors AcroMat plays against
OSHA and Canadian MSD (musculoskeletal disorder) prevention resources Rich studied to learn the ergonomics use case
John Deere, Toyota, and Boeing referenced as examples of AcroMat's manufacturing customer base
Episode with Jeff Felton, Kyler's business partner at Forward Studios, where the buying-window segmentation framework was introduced

They Spent $18,000 on a Mailer and Got $39,000 Back (with Mark Ryan from Plush in a Rush) | Ep. 37

Tue, 19 May 2026 03:00:00 -0400

Most distributors spend a lot of time talking about retention. This episode goes the other direction. Kyler Nixon and Mark Ryan break down a direct mail acquisition campaign that Plush in a Rush ran to find new florist customers before Valentine's Day. The numbers are specific: 22,000 mailers, $18,000 all in, 130 new sales, $39,000 in revenue, and a gross profit of nearly $21,000 on the campaign alone. Not a loss-leader. Not a bet on future LTV. Profitable on the first swing. The conversation also gets into how Plush in a Rush blends D2C-style tactics into a strict B2B wholesale model, why keeping your minimum order quantity up is a feature not a bug, and where AI fits into a 30-year-old stuffed animal distributor's roadmap.

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👤 Guest Bio

Mark Ryan is Founder and CEO of William Ryan Group, a Dallas-based B2B brand strategy and research consultancy. His career includes over 30 years working with companies like Exxon, Texas Instruments, American Airlines, and McDonald's. He serves as fractional CMO for Plush in a Rush, a wholesale distributor of stuffed animals founded in 1992, and led the development of their "America's Plush Headquarters" brand positioning.

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📌 What We Cover

How Plush in a Rush built a direct mail campaign targeting florists for their biggest season (Valentine's Day), with a full cost and revenue breakdown: $18,000 spent, $39,000 returned
Why they buy a list of contacts that haven't heard of the company yet, and how they scrub for overlap with their existing email list
What's in the mailer itself: an eight-page, 8.5" x 11" product catalog focused on 50 to 60 Valentine's products, not the full catalog
The first-time buyer offer ($30 off) that doubles as an email opt-in, feeding new customers directly into a Klaviyo welcome series
Why B2B wholesale companies can apply D2C tactics like discount opt-ins and monthly giveaways without losing their B2B identity
The discipline of holding the $150 minimum order quantity and why Plush in a Rush has never broken it to chase retail volume
Todd Steinberg's roadmap for online logo uploading and visual approval for custom-printed t-shirt orders
Kyler's take on building a custom B2B popup tool using Claude Code and Lovable, and why Klaviyo's popup limitations frustrate B2B marketers

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

Plush in a Rush — wholesale distributor of stuffed animals and plush toys
Klaviyo — email marketing platform used for Plush in a Rush's welcome series, seasonal campaigns, and popups
Shopify — e-commerce platform powering the Plush in a Rush website
Lovable — AI-powered app builder Kyler used to build a custom B2B popup tool
Claude Code — Anthropic's coding tool, also used in building the popup tool
William Ryan Group — Mark Ryan's B2B brand strategy and research consultancy

What Are You the Best in the World At? (with Shane Hollenbaugh from ARCH Cutting Tools) | Ep. 36

Tue, 12 May 2026 03:00:00 -0400

When a company grows by acquisition, the obvious risk is fragmentation. Fifteen cutting tool plants, each built by an entrepreneur who spent decades doing things their own way, don't automatically speak the same language. The challenge isn't the products. It's getting every part of the business to pull toward the same outcome.

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That's the problem Kyler Nixon and Shane Hollenbaugh dig into on this episode. Shane joined ARCH Cutting Tools in October 2025 as Chief Revenue Officer, five months in when this was recorded, and has already added eight new sales reps, established weekly plant-to-salesforce alignment calls, and built a system around one repeating question: what are you the best in the world at?

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The conversation covers how Shane is deploying a salesforce across 15 manufacturing facilities, how platform-based load leveling cut carbide lead times to two to three weeks against an industry average of ten to twelve, and what actually separates a sales hire that wins from one that doesn't.

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👤 Guest Bio

Shane Hollenbaugh is the Chief Revenue Officer at ARCH Cutting Tools, a U.S.-based manufacturer of high-speed steel, tungsten carbide, PCD, and CBN cutting tools with 15 manufacturing facilities across the eastern United States. Shane brings nearly 30 years in the cutting tool industry, including 14 years at MAPAL and 11 years at YG-1 as Executive Director of Sales before taking on the CRO role at ARCH in October 2025.

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📌 What We Cover

How ARCH's acquisition model created a multi-plant alignment challenge and what Shane built in his first five months to address it
The "best in the world at" framework: why "we're good at everything" is a non-answer, and how pushing business unit managers to name one specialty changes how a salesforce gets deployed
Platform-based load leveling across ANCA, Walter, and Rollomatic grinding plants and how that gets carbide lead times to two to three weeks when the rest of the industry runs ten to twelve
The one interview question Shane asks every sales candidate, and what their body language tells him before they even finish answering
Why a candidate who asks about after-hours time during an interview is already raising a red flag, and what questions signal someone who actually wants to learn
The two rules Shane's first mentor drilled into him thirty years ago, including why being good at golf is grounds for termination

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

ARCH Cutting Tools - ARCH's website, products, and rep locator
Shane Hollenbaugh on LinkedIn - Kyler specifically calls out Shane's LinkedIn presence as worth following

Why 10,000 Products Doesn't Mean You Start with Products (with Amanda Clark from Barron Equipment) | Ep. 35

Tue, 05 May 2026 03:00:00 -0400

Most distributors know they need better SEO. Very few have actually built a process around it. This episode goes deep on what it really takes: the wrong moves that cost money, the weighted analysis that told one distributor where to start, and why knowing your products is a prerequisite for any of it to work.

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Kyler Nixon sits down with Amanda Clark of Barron Equipment Company to trace her journey from copying manufacturer content onto a new website to growing organic traffic by nearly 3,000% in seven years. They cover the weighted analysis framework Barron uses to prioritize which products to optimize first, how to build internal buy-in for SEO investment before the data exists, and why the relationship with your manufacturer vendors is a direct competitive advantage.

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👤 Guest Bio

Amanda Clark is Marketing Manager at Barron Equipment Company, a material handling distributor headquartered in Davenport, Iowa, founded in 1979. Barron serves Iowa and parts of Illinois and Nebraska, supplying everything from casters and dock equipment to industrial overhead doors. Amanda has been with Barron since 2018, driving the company's SEO, e-commerce, and content strategy. She holds a degree from the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business.

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📌 What We Cover

Why copying manufacturer product descriptions onto your website is a duplicate content risk, and what to do instead
The weighted analysis Barron built to decide which of their thousands of products to optimize first, factoring in margin, sales cycle, and keyword opportunity
How optimizing the industrial doors category page took Barron from one contact form per week to 12 per day
Why category and collection pages are lower lift and higher return than individual product pages for SEO
How Amanda built internal buy-in for SEO investment before she had hard data to back it up
The vendor relationship strategy Barron uses to stay ahead on new products, co-op funding, and content differentiation
Why product H1 naming matters, and how to use Semrush and Keywords Everywhere to find the name your customers actually search
Why web personas drive better content structure, from spec tables for engineers to different image types for safety managers
Why SEO principles carry directly into AEO, GEO, and LLM-driven search

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

The Loyalty Program That's Been Running for 11 Years, And Nobody's Copying It (with Nick Haertel from SupplyHouse.com) | Ep. 34

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 03:00:00 -0400

Most B2B distributors hear "loyalty program" and think DTC. SupplyHouse.com built one anyway — and it's been running for over a decade. Kyler Nixon sits down with Nick Haertel, Director of Growth Marketing at SupplyHouse.com, to break down the TradeMaster Program: what it is, who it's for, and how it powers retention across every owned channel the company has.

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The conversation covers TradeMaster's core benefits — free shipping, free returns, SKU-level discounts, and a dedicated customer service line — and then goes deep on the multi-channel strategy SupplyHouse runs to keep TradeMasters active: email, SMS, direct mail, surprise-and-delight gifting, and a brand-new inside sales team. The big idea: when a customer gets 10x as many touchpoints as they'd get from a competitor, there's really no contest for who wins the repeat order.

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👤 Guest Bio

Nick Haertel is Director of Growth Marketing at SupplyHouse.com, a pure-play e-commerce distributor of HVAC, plumbing, and electrical supplies serving over 7 million customers across the U.S. Before joining SupplyHouse, Nick spent several years at Uline as Director of Digital Marketing — one of the most sophisticated catalog and direct mail operations in the country. He holds an MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

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📌 What We Cover

What the TradeMaster Program actually is — and why it's built for trades pros, not typical B2B buyers
How SupplyHouse uses first-party loyalty data to show TradeMaster-specific pricing in Google Ads — and why paying to retain existing customers is a calculated call, not a mistake
The two-track email strategy: a longer welcome journey for new members who haven't purchased yet, and a faster re-engagement sequence for customers showing drop-off behavior
Why SupplyHouse measures TradeMaster success as a rolling one-year unique buyer file — not just opens or clicks
How Nick thinks about SMS in B2B: start with transactional texts, let customers opt into what they want, and accept that the timing and cadence rules from email don't apply
The direct mail playbook: predicting lifetime value from a customer's first order (SKU type, order size, cross-category behavior) to decide who gets a TradeMaster invitation piece
Why SupplyHouse launched both a dedicated loyalty team and an inside sales team in the same year — and why those two functions are designed to work together
Kyler's synthesis of the full strategy: retention is about touchpoints, and distributors sitting on large house files are already holding the advantage

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

SupplyHouse.com TradeMaster Program
Darn Good Distributors Episode 11 - Kristen Dean, Universal Companies (SMS in B2B — referenced in conversation)

Do What You Say You're Gonna Do (with Jeff Buster from Buster's Industrial Supply) | Ep. 33

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 03:00:00 -0400

Most sales playbooks tell you to follow the script, hit the cadence, and move to the next number. Jeff Buster did it that way for a while, too - until he stopped, started just being himself, and became one of the top sales reps in the nation at one of the world's largest industrial MRO companies.

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Kyler Nixon sits down with Jeff Buster, Owner and President of Buster's Industrial Supply in Fort Worth, Texas, to talk about what it actually takes to build relationships that last 20 years. Jeff walked away from a corporate career, started his own company in 2015, and has been taking market share in the DFW industrial market ever since - without a big ad budget or a national account team.

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The conversation covers the founding moment Jeff describes as getting fed up making the right call for a customer and getting reprimanded for it, why VMI now makes up 70-80% of Buster's revenue, and how Jeff approaches direct sourcing and building a proprietary product line on top of a distribution business.

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👤 Guest Bio

Jeff Buster is the Owner and President of Buster's Industrial Supply, a Fort Worth-based MRO distributor he founded in 2015 after nearly two decades in industrial sales. Buster's serves fleet, automotive, construction, manufacturing, and government customers across the DFW area, offering 50,000+ line items, VMI programs, custom product development, and a proprietary branded product line. The company was voted "Best of Industrial Equipment Suppliers" Fort Worth 2024.

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📌 What We Cover

Why Jeff ditched the corporate sales script - and how going off-book turned him into a national top rep
The moment he told his employer to get bent and launched Buster's Industrial Supply the same day
How showing up to a customer who said "we can't buy from you" ten times eventually turned into running their entire department with several thousand SKUs
Why VMI accounts for 70-80% of Buster's business and why that model still wins against national competitors
The stair-step approach to deciding whether to one-off a product, stock it for one customer with a purchasing agreement, or bring it into the full lineup
Quarterly warehouse turns as the core inventory health metric - and why that discipline protects profitability
Going direct to overseas factories for sourcing, preferring DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) to sidestep customs complexity, and why product knowledge is the real barrier
The Buster's Industrial private label product line - including a reverse-engineered non-acid concrete dissolver built to solve a real customer problem

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

Small Company, Big Technology: How To Out-Service The Giants (with Lynn Martin from Pineapple Hospitality) | Ep. 32

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 03:00:00 -0400

How do you stand out as a small distributor in a category dominated by massive conglomerates with sales teams bigger than your entire company? For Pineapple Hospitality, the answer isn't revolutionary: it's doing the fundamentals really well.

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Host Kyler Nixon sits down with Lynn Martin to talk about how her team has carved out a real position in the guest room amenities space by serving independent, boutique, and luxury properties that the big distributors can't (or won't) serve well. Lynn shares why they walked away from chasing big chain contracts, how relationships with manufacturers send referrals their way, why they skipped Google Ads, and what's behind their move from Magento to Shopify.

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It's a candid look at how a small team with big technology can out-service bigger competitors on the fundamentals.

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👤 Guest Bio

Lynn Martin is the owner and CEO of Pineapple Hospitality, a Fenton, Missouri, distributor of luxury guest-room amenities, dispensing systems, and other lodging supplies, founded in 2005. Lynn joined the company nearly 10 years ago, and her background spans finance, accounting, and systems work at startups across roughly 10 different industries. She's known for getting her hands dirty on ERP, shipping, and e-commerce integrations herself.

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📌 What We Cover

Why Pineapple intentionally avoids big branded chain accounts and the "red tape" that comes with them
The line on their website ("odds are, if you're here, you're looking for a change") and where it came from
How they serve everything from a one-room vacation rental to a 1,000-room resort waterpark, with an average customer around 100 rooms
Why manufacturers send them referrals and how the reciprocal relationship works when a deal is too big to route through them
How being the SEO "go-to" for specific retail brands in hospitality drives inbound leads, and why Google Ads didn't pay off
The move from Magento to Shopify, the agency relationship, and why Lynn insists on handling three-fourths of the integration work herself
How their ERP, website, and shipping systems are integrated so orders flow from click to tracking email in minutes
Why doing the fundamentals extremely well is the real way to stand out in a crowded space

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

Pineapple Hospitality
Magento (current e-commerce platform)
Shopify (platform they're migrating to)

Burning The HR Playbook To Build A Better B2B Team (with Brian Shoberg from Zirc Dental Products) | Ep. 31

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 03:00:00 -0400

Hiring marketing talent in the unsexy world of B2B manufacturing and distribution is notoriously difficult. How do you find people who actually care about selling industrial or dental products?

Kyler Nixon sits down with Brian Shoberg to challenge everything you know about recruiting and onboarding. Brian argues that the traditional HR playbook belongs in the trash. Instead of looking for perfect resumes, he searches for raw passion and adaptability.

Brian shares his unconventional interview questions and explains why clear expectations in the first 90 days are critical for new hires. The conversation also covers how a strong brand story can change not just your external marketing, but your internal company culture.

Guest Bio

Brian Shoberg is the Director of Marketing at Zirc Dental Products, a family-run medical device manufacturer known for its Color Method system. Before entering the dental manufacturing sector, Brian built a strong foundation in storytelling and media production.

He specializes in clarifying brand positioning and unifying cross-functional teams. His core philosophy is that clarity drives performance. At Zirc, Brian led a massive digital transformation and corporate rebranding to modernize the buying experience without alienating crucial B2B distributors.

What We Cover

Why the traditional HR interview playbook needs to be thrown out and set on fire.
How to interview for passion and why it matters more than experience in B2B marketing.
The unexpected elephant question Brian uses to test a candidate's adaptability.
Why paying above market value sets a standard of excellence for your team.
The 90-day onboarding strategy: picking 10 specific things for a new hire to focus on.
How implementing the StoryBrand framework changed Zirc Dental Products from the inside out.
Why a strong brand story gives employees a reason to be proud of their daily work.

Resources Mentioned

Book: No Rules Rules by Reed Hastings
Book: Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller
Company Website: Zirc Dental Products
Guest LinkedIn: Brian Shoberg

Bringing A Retail Pace To The B2B Space (with Andy Hall from US Foods) | Ep. 30

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 03:00:00 -0400

What happens when you bring a fast-paced retail playbook into a legacy B2B distribution environment? Kyler Nixon sits down with Andy Hall to find out.

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After spending 12 years building digital experiences at The Home Depot, Andy took his philosophy to US Foods. His core rule is simple: stay close to the cash register and the customer. But how does that actually look when you are selling to thousands of independent restaurants and hospitality managers?

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Kyler and Andy examine the reality of treating B2B e-commerce like a true software product. They discuss the difference between physical category management and digital merchandising, how to run agile sprints in distribution, and why a B2B buyer never checks their consumer habits at the door. If you want to know how a multi-billion-dollar giant rolls out artificial intelligence to enrich catalogs and predict out-of-stock events, this conversation has the answers.

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Guest Bio

Andy Hall is the Director of Digital Product & Strategy at US Foods, a leading American foodservice distributor generating over $28 billion in annual revenue. Before stepping into the food distribution sector, Andy spent over a decade driving multichannel e-commerce and online merchandising at The Home Depot.

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Today, his focus is firmly on bringing a retail pace to the B2B space. He builds frictionless user experiences and scales customer-centric digital products by blending heavy data analysis with direct field feedback.

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What We Cover

Why distributors must separate software product management from physical inventory management.
The exact method Andy uses to stay close to the customer through a salesperson in the Champions Group.
How US Foods uses agile sprints to test, iterate, and roll out digital features without the fear of failing.
Practical ways to use artificial intelligence for catalog data enrichment and supply chain predictability.
Why cross-functional change management relies heavily on giving your team a slice of the pie to own.
The reason B2B digital merchandising requires specs like nutrition and box weight to satisfy chefs.
How hyper-personalization ensures digital features actually serve local, geographic-specific customer needs.

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Resources Mentioned

US Foods
The Home Depot
Microsoft Copilot

Why We Traded Traditional Ads For Streaming Networks (with Jasmine Widmer from Industrial Supply) | Ep. 29

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 03:00:00 -0400

Marketing in the distribution world often feels like a constant battle for budget, attention, and sales team buy-in. How do you bridge the gap between building brand awareness and hitting targeted revenue goals? Kyler Nixon sits down with Jasmine Widmer to explore how a century-old business stays culturally modern while serving the heavy industries of the Intermountain West.

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They discuss the realities of running a marketing department as a one-person team. Jasmine explains why securing the ground-level trust of the sales team is the absolute foundation of a working marketing strategy. She reveals a highly effective media play: trading traditional TV commercials for hybrid audio-and-video streaming campaigns on platforms like Spotify.

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The conversation also highlights how B2B companies build dedicated customer e-commerce portals to simplify the buying process. If you want to learn how to stretch co-op funds with major suppliers while keeping your brand highly relevant, this conversation delivers exactly that.

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👤 Guest Bio

Jasmine Widmer is the Marketing Manager at Industrial Supply Company. She has spent the last eight years climbing the ranks within the Intermountain West's largest privately owned MROP distributor.

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Jasmine specializes in modernizing industrial marketing through digital campaigns and tightening the crucial relationship between sales and marketing teams. She holds an MBA from Western Governors University and is a strong advocate for advancing women in the heavy industry and wholesale distribution sectors.

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📌 What We Cover

How Jasmine built mutual respect and open communication between her marketing department and the boots on the ground sales team.
The surprising reach and targeting power of audio and visual streaming ads on platforms like Spotify and iHeartRadio.
Strategies for pooling co-op marketing budgets with major suppliers like 3M Company, DeWalt, and Milwaukee.
Why custom e-commerce catalogs and dedicated customer portals are massive revenue drivers that relieve pressure from sales reps.
How Industrial Supply Company uses tool allowances to bring direct value to large customer accounts.
Preparing for a 110-year company anniversary while navigating massive local infrastructure projects and the upcoming Salt Lake City Olympics.

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

Jasmine Widmer on LinkedIn
Industrial Supply Company Website
Affiliated Distributors
Spotify and iHeartRadio
3M Company, DeWalt, and Milwaukee

How Legacy Companies Can Avoid Timing Out and Stay Relevant (with Mordy Kurtz from The Boxery) | Ep. 28

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 03:00:00 -0400

Distribution companies often rely on legacy relationships and a 20-year-old logo to drive sales. But what happens when the digital age brings fierce competition right to your doorstep? Host Kyler Nixon sits down with Mordy Kurtz, Marketing Director at The Boxery, to explore why a packaging supplier needs a distinct personality.

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Mordy explains how branding goes far beyond a simple visual identity. He details how an effective brand operates as a medium of connection, driving nostalgia, trust, and even excitement for something as straightforward as corrugated cardboard. From creating engaging unboxing videos for third-party logistics companies to understanding why a strong brand must be backed by exceptional customer service, this conversation lays out the reality of modern distribution marketing. Listeners will hear exactly why consistency builds trust and how to align visual design, written tone, and leadership vision to stay relevant in a highly competitive space.

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Guest Bio

Mordy Kurtz is the Marketing Director at The Boxery, a premier provider of packaging solutions founded in 1998 and headquartered in Brooklyn, New York. Since joining the company in June 2018, Mordy has shaped their organic marketing, visual design, and social media strategy, proudly adopting the tagline, "Keeping corrugated cool since 2018." Before dedicating his creative talents to the corporate sector, he co-founded the award-winning Hasidic folk-rock duo, Rogers Park Band. Mordy believes in building experiential brand connections and famously states that designing ads is his happy place.

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What We Cover

The Power of Unboxing: Why The Boxery launched unboxing videos for their own boxes to capture the customer experience for creators and ecommerce sellers.
Defining a Brand: Mordy explains why a brand is much more than a logo and acts as a direct medium of connection to build emotional trust with buyers.
Branding in Distribution: The shift from relying strictly on long-term relationships to using visual identity to fight off cheaper digital competition.
Passing the Squint Test: How colors, fonts, and patterns combine to make your brand instantly recognizable from a distance.
The Fyre Festival Effect: Why selling a highly attractive image will ultimately fail if your company lacks the actual customer service to back it up.
Aligning Tone and Design: Why your written copy must match your visual aesthetics to keep the brand accessible for everyday buyers instead of coming off as rigid.
Getting Executive Buy-In: The practical importance of looping founders into the rebranding process early to ensure your goals for staying relevant are perfectly aligned.

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Resources Mentioned

The Boxery
Fiverr
Alan Peters' book on branding
Building a StoryBrand

Why Customers Care More About Speed Than Price (with Kristin Livesay from Component Supply) | Ep. 27

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 03:00:00 -0400

Most distributors view a fifty-dollar online order as a transaction. Kristin Livesay views it as a handshake. As the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Component Supply, Kristin uses a "starting point" strategy to turn small, urgent R&D orders into long-term custom fabrication partnerships.

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In this conversation, Kyler Nixon asks Kristin how her team bridges the gap between raw manufacturing and the engineers who need "onesies and twosies" to prototype life-saving devices. Kristin breaks down why their e-commerce platform functions primarily as a lead-generation engine and how personal follow-ups help customers transition from standard parts to volume production.

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They also discuss the counterintuitive approach Component Supply takes to trade shows. Instead of glossy, intimidating displays, they build booths that look like workshops to attract hands-on engineers. You will hear why "trick or treaters" at trade shows are a distraction, how internal branding builds culture, and why just because you have always done something doesn't mean it isn't stupid.

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👤 Guest Bio

Kristin Livesay is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Component Supply, a specialized supplier for the medical device industry based in Sparta, Tennessee. With over a decade of experience, she focuses on removing supply chain friction for researchers and engineers.

Kristin ensures that R&D teams have fast access to critical components like hypodermic tubing, wire, and Nitinol. She champions a philosophy where online efficiency serves as the entry point for deep engineering support and custom fabrication.

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📌 What We Cover

E-Commerce as Lead Gen: Why 60-70% of initial online orders are viewed as introductions rather than final sales.
The "Starting Point" Strategy: How a single piece of tubing leads to volume fabrication contracts.
Trade Show Strategy: Why building a booth that looks like a workshop attracts more engineers than a polished corporate display.
Internal Branding: How the Bits and Pieces podcast and newsletter foster team camaraderie and ownership.
Handling Logistics: The challenges of shipping 72-inch wires and absorbing the manufacturer's minimums for R&D clients.
Marketing for Retention: Using content to educate customers on capabilities they didn't know existed.
Strategic Partnerships: Expanding reach by placing products on other platforms without sacrificing service quality.

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

The Reality of Product Data: It Is a Major Time Suck (with Denise M. Foley from ULE Group) | Ep. 26

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 03:00:00 -0400

Most distributors treat their e-commerce site as a simple portal for existing customers to reorder. Denise M. Foley sees it differently: your website should be your best salesperson for acquiring new customers.

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In this episode, Kyler Nixon sits down with Denise to break down how ULE Group transitioned from 25 years of word-of-mouth business to a digital powerhouse. Denise pulls back the curtain on why she chose Shopify over Adobe Commerce (Magento) and BigCommerce, and how she found a systems integrator that actually understands the complexities of B2B.

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You’ll hear why "weights and dimensions" are the silent killers of a site launch, how ULE Group solved the account-based pricing puzzle on Shopify, and why they are testing geofencing to capture contractors on the job site.

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👤 Guest Bio

Denise M. Foley is the Executive Vice President of eCommerce at ULE Group, a full-line electrical and lighting distributor. She previously led digital strategy and e-commerce growth at Bollman Hat Company, Rite Aid, and Pet360. Denise specializes in building digital businesses that balance technical requirements with customer experience.

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📌 What We Cover

Shopify vs. The Rest: Why ULE Group bet on Shopify for complex B2B instead of sticking with legacy platforms like Adobe Commerce or BigCommerce.
The "B2B" Partner Problem: How to vet a Systems Integrator (SI) to ensure they aren't just a Direct-to-Consumer agency disguised as a B2B expert.
Data is Dirty Work: The reality of implementing a PIM (Product Information Management) system and why missing product weights will cripple your shipping logic.
Pricing for Pros: How ULE Group handled complex, tiered account-based pricing on Shopify using an iPaaS solution.
Acquisition Mode: shifting the internal mindset from "serving the regulars" to using the site as a marketing engine to find new electrical contractors.
Search & Discovery: Improving the technical search experience for specific part numbers using Algolia.
The 2026 Playbook: A look at ULE Group's upcoming tests with geofencing, cold email outreach, and LinkedIn advertising.
Prioritization Framework: Denise’s method for ranking tech requests by ROI, difficulty, and the "Want vs. Need" scale.

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

33 Years in Packaging: What a $12 Billion Giant Still Can't Do (with Don Esbjornson from Packaging HERO) | Ep. 25

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 03:00:00 -0400

Don Esbjornson started in 1993 with no customers, no suppliers, and a partner's shell company that had been sitting dormant since 1984. Thirty-three years later, Packaging HERO has four distribution centers, 25,000 SKUs, and a website that cost a quarter of a million dollars to build.

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Kyler Nixon sits down with Don Esbjornson, President of Packaging HERO, to discuss what distribution looked like before the internet, why custom packaging is their real answer to Uline, and what makes a customer stick so much that they never want to leave.

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Don also shares a live example from the week before recording - a $4,700 online order that he spotted, investigated, and turned into a potential national franchise account. It's the kind of story that only comes from three decades of watching orders closely.

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Guest Bio

Don Esbjornson is the President and owner of Packaging HERO, a Chicago-based packaging materials and custom packaging company, which he has led since 1993. He spent five years at Sealed Air before leaving to start his own distribution venture with one of his distributors. After buying out his partner, he has run the business solo ever since. Today, Packaging HERO operates four distribution centers across Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Dallas.

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What We Cover

Walking the beat in 1993: No internet, no email, just a binder of price pages and knocking on every door on both sides of the street. Don breaks down what belly-to-belly sales actually looked like when he started out.
Profitable in year one: Despite starting from scratch with a borrowed warehouse, borrowed truck, and borrowed staff, Conpac Group turned a profit in its first year - enough that Don bought out his partner in three and a half years.
Three website eras: From a BoxPartners white-label site in 2010 to a self-hosted bad build, to the $250,000 custom platform launched in 2020 that finally made digital marketing possible.
Why 93% of their revenue isn't commodity stock: Don explains how custom corrugated makes up over 70% of what they do - and why that's the real differentiator from Uline, not price or speed.
The customer survey that revealed their true edge: When they surveyed customers directly and asked why they buy from Packaging HERO, the answer that kept coming back wasn't product or price. It was: your people.
The $4,700 order and what Don did next: A custom tray order from a California franchise caught Don's eye. Two locations out of 20 were being bought. He's now working to bring the whole chain on board - with printed trays, truckload quantities, and a lower per-unit cost than what they started with.
Your existing customers are your best prospects: Don reflects on a salesperson who cold-called four days a week and never landed appointments - while an existing customer base sat largely untouched. He makes the case for putting that energy into the relationship where it already exists.
Down-gauging stretch film as a sales strategy: 20 years ago, everyone bought 80- or 90-gauge. Today it's 43 or 55 gauge. If you're not proactively showing your customers better technology, someone else will.
Moving all marketing to India: A few weeks into shifting SEO, paid search, and email marketing to an agency overseas - Don shares his early impressions and why he wouldn't have considered it even five years ago.

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Resources Mentioned

Packaging HERO - Don's company, packaging materials, and custom packaging solutions
Sealed Air - Don's first employer before moving into distribution
Uline - Referenced throughout as both a competitor and a catalog pioneer, Don helped build business early in his career
BoxPartners - White-label e-commerce platform Don used for his first website around 2010
Grainger - Mentioned as an example of a large competitor, distributors often face
Fastenal - Mentioned alongside Grainger as another major player in the distribution category

Is SEO Dead? The Shift To Answer Engine Optimization (with Wendy Sponaugle from SupplyOne, Inc.) | Ep. 24

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 03:00:00 -0400

Search engines are changing. The days of simply stuffing keywords and chasing domain authority are fading. Now, the focus is on Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). The goal isn't just to get a click: it is to provide the direct answer inside tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google’s AI overviews.

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Kyler Nixon sits down with Wendy Sponaugle, Vice President of Marketing at SupplyOne, to break down this massive shift in digital discovery. Wendy explains why distributors must move from generic product descriptions to conversational content that solves specific problems.

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They discuss why "zero-click" searches are becoming the norm and how to structure your website to survive the change. You will learn why context now beats keywords and how to find the exact questions your customers are asking—sometimes by looking in unexpected places like Reddit or even their browser history.

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Guest Bio

Wendy Sponaugle is the Vice President of Marketing at SupplyOne, Inc., the largest independent supplier of corrugated and value-added packaging products in the U.S. With over 15 years of experience in manufacturing, distribution, and logistics, Wendy specializes in data-driven demand generation and transforming complex operational capabilities into clear market narratives. She focuses on aligning product positioning with the "Voice of the Customer" to drive measurable revenue growth.

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What We Cover

Defining AEO: The critical difference between traditional Search Engine Optimization and the new world of Answer Engine Optimization.
The Conversational Shift: Why content must sound human to rank in AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude.
Three Key Content Pillars: Wendy’s strategy relies on FAQs, Case Studies, and specific Blogs to capture traffic.
Context Over Keywords: Why describing the job site or the problem is now more effective than listing product specs.
Mining for Questions: How to use sales team feedback and platforms like Reddit to identify what customers actually need.
The Search History Strategy: Kyler shares a bold tactic for finding out exactly how procurement professionals search for products.
Value-Add Services: How moving beyond "lowest price" and offering expert consultation creates sticky customer relationships.

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Resources Mentioned

The Call That Saved Us From Bankruptcy (with Craig Penland from Eurolink Fastener Supply Service) | Ep. 23

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 03:00:00 -0400

Most business leaders try to keep their personal beliefs separate from their professional lives. Kyler Nixon sits down with Craig Penland to discuss what happens when you do the exact opposite. Craig opens up about the terrifying winter of 2009, when he dropped to his knees in a quiet office to seek direction, only to receive a call that saved the business days later.

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You will hear how Craig navigates the tension of being a "faith-based business" without forcing it on his team. He explains why he refused to remove religious messages from his invoices, even when a sales rep warned it would cost him business. Kyler and Craig also discuss the "NASCAR smoke" visualization that changed how Eurolink handled the uncertainty of 2020: instead of slowing down, they accelerated. This is a candid look at building a company that prioritizes people over profits and service over volume.

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Guest Bio

Craig Penland is the Founder, President, and CEO of Eurolink Fastener Supply Service. Based in Greer, South Carolina, Craig launched the company in 2000 to solve a specific problem in the industrial market: sourcing hard-to-find metric fasteners. Under his leadership, Eurolink has become a premier "master distributor" known for stocking C-class items that larger competitors ignore. Craig is also an active member of C12 and partners with nonprofits, including JUMPSTART SC, to provide employment opportunities.

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What We Cover

The specific prayer in 2009 that preceded a company-saving order from a lost customer.
How Craig handled a sales rep who wanted him to hide his faith to win more business.
Why does Eurolink pay for a chaplain to visit the office every two weeks?
The "NASCAR smoke" analogy: How to lead when you cannot see what is in front of you.
Navigating the hiring process as a faith-led company without being exclusionary.
Why does Eurolink focus on "No Quote" and "No Stock" items rather than competing on volume?
Separating your personal identity from the financial success of your business.

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Resources Mentioned

The 15-15-15 Plan: Scaling to $15 Million Revenue with 15 Employees (with Andrew Johnson) | Ep. 22

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 03:00:00 -0400

Most family business transitions happen quietly behind closed doors. For Andrew Johnson, the handoff included a meeting he now calls "The Apocalypse." Before he became the CEO of ShelfAware, Andrew was just a son trying to modernize his father's legacy company, O-ring Sales & Service.

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Host Kyler Nixon talks with Andrew about the messy reality of entrepreneurship. They discuss the friction between founders and the next generation, specifically how Andrew and his brothers-in-law presented a massive growth plan that led to them being "fired" for a night. Andrew also breaks down how constraints—like wanting to compete with giants like Fastenal without adding headcount—forced them to invent the RFID technology that eventually became ShelfAware.

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👤 Guest Bio

Andrew Johnson is the CEO of ShelfAware LLC and an Owner at O-ring Sales & Service, Inc. Growing up in the family business, he started inspecting parts in the warehouse before earning an accounting degree to prove his financial literacy to his father. Today, he runs a connected ecosystem of industrial businesses in the Greater Kansas City area. Andrew focuses on "Digital VMI" (Vendor Managed Inventory), using RFID technology to help independent distributors automate replenishment and compete with national chains.

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📌 What We Cover

The "15-15-15" Plan: The specific goal Andrew and his partners set to hit $15 million in revenue with 15 employees in 15,000 square feet.
Surviving "The Apocalypse": The story of the night, the next generation presented a modernization plan to the founder, and nearly lost their jobs.
Founder's Syndrome: Why creators often treat their company like a "fifth child" that no one else is allowed to raise.
Practical Education: Why Andrew’s father forced him to get an accounting degree instead of a marketing one before joining the firm.
Competing with Fastenal: How O-ring Sales & Service needed a VMI solution that didn't require expensive field reps or branch locations.
RFID Smart Labels: Transforming standard inventory shelves into "virtual vending machines" to track consumption without hardware-heavy investments.
The "False Start" in Succession: The consequences of executing major business changes—like a new ERP implementation—without fully communicating the vision to the founder or the staff.

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

Reducing Friction: Why B2B Buyers Don't Want Flashy Features (with Tari Elkin) | Ep. 21

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 03:00:00 -0400

Distributors often look to direct-to-consumer giants for website inspiration, but B2B buyers have fundamentally different needs. They are not shopping for entertainment: they are doing a job. Kyler Nixon sits down with Tari Elkin from Restek Corporation to break down exactly how to convert busy lab managers into loyal customers.

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The secret is not adding more features: it is removing the barriers that stop the sale. Tari explains why Restek moves past vanity metrics to focus on pure utility. She shares a specific case study in which shifting the burden of account verification from the customer to the internal team led to a 40% increase in conversion rates. Kyler and Tari also discuss the critical role of accurate product data in preventing costly downtime for clients and how to prepare your digital infrastructure for the upcoming shift toward "Answer Engine Optimization."

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👤 Guest Bio

Tari Elkin helps lead the digital experience at Restek Corporation, an employee-owned developer and manufacturer of chromatography products based in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. With a background in research at Oregon State University, Tari bridges the gap between technical scientific needs and seamless e-commerce experiences. She focuses on data-driven enhancements that simplify procurement for lab managers and scientists worldwide.

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📌 What We Cover

The Utility Mandate: Why B2B buyers care more about finding invoices and tracking shipments quickly than they do about flashy website designs.
The 40% Conversion Win: How Restek changed their account linking process to remove friction at the cart level and drastically increased sales.
Customer Advisory Panels: A practical framework for meeting with your most vocal customers biannually to validate your roadmap.
Rethinking Subscriptions: Using subscription models to give buyers control and flexibility rather than trapping them into unwanted monthly orders.
The Cost of Bad Data: Why a wrong SKU is just an annoyance in retail but causes massive revenue loss and downtime in industrial and scientific sectors.
Roadmap Strategy: Organizing agile development into boulders, rocks, and pebbles to balance major innovations with necessary maintenance.
Future-Proofing for AI: Preparing product data for "Answer Engine Optimization" so bots and humans can find your inventory.

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

Restek Corporation

Starting A Distribution Business From Scratch In Under 5 Months (with Kevin Finley) | Ep. 20

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 03:00:00 -0400

Most entrepreneurs believe the distribution market is a "solved game" dominated by giants like McKesson and Medline. Kevin Finley disagrees. In less than five months, he launched Keystone Supply Group and is already profitable by doing exactly what the legacy players refuse to do. This episode is a masterclass in supply chain resilience and aggressive, scrappy sales tactics for new distributors.

Kevin reveals how he leverages public government data to build prospect lists from zero and why he purposefully avoids net-30 terms to secure unbeatable pricing. He explains the critical role of "secondary distributors" when Tier 1 supply chains break down, citing the recent Baxter manufacturing crisis as a prime example. If you believe the market is too crowded for a new player, this conversation proves that agility, cash flow, and direct manufacturer relationships still beat massive scale.

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About the Guest: Kevin Finley

Kevin Finley is the Founder and CEO of Keystone Supply Group, a rapidly growing distribution firm based in Wayzata, Minnesota. With a background forged in the high-stakes pressure of COVID-19 procurement, Kevin specializes in bypassing traditional supply chain bottlenecks to serve healthcare and industrial clients directly. He champions a "Partner in Preparedness" philosophy, emphasizing transparency, speed, and the elimination of unnecessary intermediaries to deliver essential supplies when Tier 1 distributors fail.

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Inside the Episode: The Knowledge Map

The COVID Wake-Up Call: Kevin explains how the pandemic exposed massive lapses in the traditional supply chain. He realized that when the "big guys" run out of stock, the entire market breaks down, creating a significant opportunity for agile secondary distributors.
Capitalizing on Crisis: The conversation shifts to the recent impact of Hurricane Helene on the Baxter manufacturing plant. Kevin details how smaller distributors can step in to support downstream clients, such as surgery centers, when national supply lines are severed.
The "Ripple Effect" Sales Method: Starting with zero customers requires scrappy tactics. Kevin describes how he dissects a single win—such as selling gloves to a New Jersey wholesaler—to immediately identify and pitch similar businesses in the same region.
Hacking Government Data: You do not need to buy expensive lists to find leads. Kevin explains how he uses tools like BidNet and BidPrime to find public bid requests, using specific keywords to identify exactly who is buying which products right now.
State vs. Federal Bidding: If you want to enter the government market, do not start with federal contracts. Kevin advises focusing on state and local bids first, where the paperwork is manageable (5-10 pages) compared to the 100-page complexity of federal RFPs.
Building Systems to Scale: Kevin discusses the importance of documenting every process before hiring. He shares his strategy of recording screen captures for invoicing and shipping to ensure new hires can replicate his work without constant supervision.
Profitability Over Revenue: While most distributors chase growth through credit terms, Keystone prioritizes immediate cash flow. Kevin explains that prepaying manufacturers allows him to negotiate a lower cost of goods sold (COGS) than competitors on net-30 terms can match.

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Resources & Mentions

Tools: BidNet Direct, BidPrime, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, GovSpend
Book: Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martel

SMS for B2B: How to Get 97% Open Rates (with Damien Garber) | Ep. 19

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 03:00:00 -0400

B2B distribution marketing is changing fast. The old playbook of sending a catalog once a year and waiting for the phone to ring is dead. Today's business buyers are consumers first. They check texts between meetings. They listen to podcasts on their commute. They doom-scroll TikTok.

In this episode, Kyler sits down with Damien Garber from Groomer’s Choice Pet Products to break down how a legacy distributor is aggressively pivoting to digital channels. Damien reveals why they didn't just start a podcast: they acquired an audience instead. He also shares the data behind their massive success with SMS marketing and why asking for a phone number on your website might not be as scary as you think.

If you want to modernize your marketing mix without alienating your core customers, this conversation is the blueprint.

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About Damien Garber

Damien Garber is the Sales & Marketing Manager at Groomer’s Choice Pet Products, a family-owned manufacturer and distributor based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Since joining the team, Damien has helped steer the company's commercial strategy, overseeing marketing initiatives and customer experience for independent salon owners. He plays a central role in the company's growth, including the recent 2025 acquisition of Showseason® Animal Products. Damien focuses on equipping professional groomers with the education and tools they need to run profitable businesses.

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3 Ways Groomer's Choice is Winning Attention

1. The "Acquire, Don't Build" Podcast Strategy

Most companies try to start a podcast from scratch. Groomer’s Choice took a smarter route. They partnered with Joe Zello, an existing industry influencer with a 40-year track record. By bringing the "Hey Joe" podcast under their umbrella, they instantly tapped into a loyal audience.

The result: The email announcing new episodes has a 40% open rate. It replaced their generic "welcome" sequences and now serves as a high-value top-of-funnel entry point.

2. SMS Marketing for B2B

There is a myth that texting is only for B2C brands. Damien proves that wrong. Groomer’s Choice uses SMS for abandoned carts, re-engagement, and flash sales. Because groomers are often on their feet working with animals, they respond to texts faster than to emails.

The data: Open rates are as high as 97% for text campaigns. It is quickly becoming a top-three revenue channel for the business.

3. The Pop-Up Experiment

Conventional wisdom holds that asking for too much information on a sign-up form reduces conversion rates. Damien’s team tested this. They required a phone number alongside the email address on their site pop-ups. The result? Zero drop in opt-in rates. If customers value what you offer, they are willing to share their contact information.

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Key Moments in This Episode

Why Groomer’s Choice partnered with an existing podcaster instead of starting from zero.
Moving from 6 catalogs a year to a digital-first ecosystem.
Seeing 40% open rates on podcast-related emails.
Why SMS is working for busy professionals (and the huge open rates).
The results of requiring a phone number on website pop-ups.
Why retention is the main focus for 2026: Fixing the "2.5 orders per year" problem.
The unsexy but necessary work of updating SOPs to save tribal knowledge.

Solving Problems for Distributors, Manufacturers, and End-Users (with Jonathan Costa) | Ep. 18

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 03:00:00 -0400

Manufacturers need great distributors and great distributors need great manufacturers, especially when the line between B2B and B2C keeps blurring. On this conversation of Darn Good Distributors, host Kyler Nixon sits down with Jonathan Costa from Rex-Cut Abrasives to highlight the relationship between a manufacturer and its distribution network.

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Jonathan shares how a full scale abrasive manufacturer with around 10,000 SKUs structures a business that is roughly 90 percent distribution and 10 percent limited B2C e commerce for mom and pop shops, garage guys, and hobbyists. He talks about distributors who are committed to finding the best solution for their customer, service that feels like a first name relationship, and why education over promotion matters in the abrasive world.

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Kyler brings the distributor perspective on product data, pricing, and big contracts, and both sides talk honestly about morals, ethics, quantity limits on web stores, and why everyone has to work together for the benefit of the customer.

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👤 Guest Bio

Jonathan Costa represents Rex-Cut Abrasives, an abrasive manufacturer that has been in business since around 1920. Jonathan describes Rex-Cut as a full scale, full service abrasive manufacturer known for cotton fiber abrasives, grinding wheels, cutoff wheels, non woven products, and high quality niche solutions for aircraft, aerospace, automotive, and other applications.

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Working with roughly 400 to 500 distributors and a smaller B2C web store, Jonathan focuses on relationships, service, education, and solving problems for end users while respecting long term distribution partnerships in both B2B and B2C settings.

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📌 What We Cover

Why the relationship between manufacturers and distributors matters and how that ecosystem should look when manufacturers sell primarily through distribution
How Rex-Cut Abrasives reaches roughly 90 percent B2B distribution and 10 percent B2C through a limited web store, Amazon, and other supplier partners
What makes a good partnership from the manufacturer side, including distributors who are committed to finding the best solution for their customer even when a current process already works
Service as a differentiator, including answering the phone, dropping by shops, first name relationships, outside sales reps, and distributors who go to bat for a manufacturer
Why Jonathan and his team focus on education over promotion, using distributor trainings, product composition, tips and tricks, YouTube, LinkedIn, video, photo, and content
How product specs like size, grit, grain type, bonds, and clear data help distributors avoid incomplete product data sheets and support customers who need to fit a product to a machine, part, or job
Frustrating moments when manufacturers and distributors compete for the same customer, including examples of lower direct pricing and big contracts that damage trust
How quantity limits on a B2C web store, respect for the line in the sand, morals, and ethics help balance B2B distribution and B2C e commerce
Closing thoughts on distributors and manufacturers working together, holding integrity high, communicating clearly, and driving value for the customer

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

3 Ways Distributors are Using Email to Drive Retention in 2026 (with Jeff Felten) | Ep. 17

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 03:00:00 -0400

Acquisition costs are up, ad costs are up, and retention is a core focus of 2026 and beyond for distributors. On Darn Good Distributors, host Kyler Nixon brings on friend of the show and business partner Jeff Felten from Forward Studios to talk about going deeper inside your existing house file and getting second, third, fourth, and fifth orders from customers you already acquired.

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They focus on warm, consent based email lists that sit in tools like MailChimp, HubSpot, or Klaviyo and walk through three ways distributors are using email to drive retention in 2026. Jeff explains why segmenting customers as inside the buying window or outside the buying window lines up with real B2B buying behavior, how to match the right message to the right person at the right time, and why simple text based emails that feel like they came from another person can quadruple conversion rates. If retention, LTV, and AOV are front of mind, this practical conversation keeps your brand top of mind for business buyers.

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👤 Guest Bio

Jeff Felten is a friend of the show and business partner to Kyler Nixon. Together they run Forward Studios, where they help distributors leverage email marketing to improve retention, increase LTV, and increase AOV. Jeff works in the weeds with clients on warm, consent based email lists and practical campaigns so distributors can capture more high intent buyers and drive second, third, fourth, and fifth orders from customers who already purchased.

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📌 What We Cover

Cold email versus warm, consent based email and why this conversation is only about the list you already own
Why standard demographic segmentation by vertical, job title, or engagement delivers an incomplete picture of B2B buying behavior
Segmenting customers as inside the buying window or outside the buying window based on real buying signals and behavior
How to hit customers inside the buying window with product recommendations, category recommendations, direct promotions, and clear brand positioning that help them move faster
Nurturing customers outside the buying window with helpful tools, resources, blog posts, PDFs, checklists, finder tools, and off season examples like golf courses in Wisconsin
The piggy bank picture of email marketing, balancing deposits of nurture content with moments when it is time to sell
Why business buyers tune out flashy, heavily designed promos that feel like ads and respond to short text based emails that look like person to person messages
Key metrics for email driven retention like revenue per recipient, revenue per campaign, conversion rate, AOV, and how stronger email can lift organic and direct revenue

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

Customer First, Autonomy, And Creating Smiles Together (with Terry Brei) | Ep. 16

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 03:00:00 -0400

Customer Smile Champion in a LinkedIn bio stopped Kyler Nixon while he was scrolling and turned into a practical conversation with Terry Brei, president of Sure Controls. Customer first sits as a key cultural pillar, with manufacturers literally lined down and production back up and running when components and parts arrive at the right time.

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Terry shares how autonomy, customer first, and creating smiles together shape decisions like overnight shipping, internal healthy tension between sales, finance, marketing and service, and a constant journey to meet customers where they are. From plant automation to make you smile to Sure University, internship programs, and very consultative support with web handling, thermal and fluid process control, autonomous mobile robots and micro automation, this conversation stays practical, people focused, and centered on working together as a team.

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👤 Guest Bio

Terry Brei serves as president at Sure Controls and proudly carries the Customer Smile Champion title in his LinkedIn bio. Customer first functions as a key cultural pillar, with Terry focused on empowering team members with autonomy to do what is best with the information they have so a customer is smiling at the end of doing business. He emphasizes creating smiles together through plant automation to make you smile, consultative service, and continual development through tools like Sure University and an internship program inside a very team oriented environment.

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📌 What We Cover

Customer first as a key cultural pillar at Sure Controls and what it means when manufacturers are literally lined down
Autonomy that empowers team members to pick overnight shipping, resolve situations, learn, and avoid punitive responses when customers are taken care of
Hiring for team players, service oriented people and using small signals like garbage on the floor alongside continual investment in EQ, negotiations training and customer service
Extending service to every area of the business so accounting, finance, marketing, sales, operations and executives all serve internal and external customers
Healthy tension between sales, finance, marketing and service and how working together, rowing the boat in the same direction, leads to the best results
Meeting customers where they are with zero touch e-store buyers and highly relational customers who want sales team members in their facilities and plants
Evaluating AI, ERP upgrades and customer relationship management systems to connect data, enable proactive communication and enhance customer care and order fulfillment
Very consultative support in web handling, thermal and fluid process control, robotics, autonomous mobile robots and micro automation so customers feel like they finally got the right person on the phone
Sure University, training hardware, a slitter packed with drive platforms and PLC platforms, plus internship programs that help grow people professionally and personally over time

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

Sure Controls
Terry Brei on LinkedIn
Kyler Nixon on LinkedIn
Sure University (internal training and development at Sure Controls)
E-store channel for zero touch customers at Sure Controls
ERP system and customer relationship management system upgrades at Sure Controls

Year Long Loyalty Program And 120% Online Order Growth (with Jackson Orin) | Ep. 15

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 03:00:00 -0400

Very few distributors have success with a rewards program, but this one is crushing it. Kyler Nixon sits down with Jackson Orin to talk about the Reinders Rewards program and a year long loyalty program designed to keep customers engaged all year instead of dropping off after seasonal online only campaigns.

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They walk through internal conversations about e-commerce, ERP, and platform selection, the decision to give greater point value for online purchases, and the move to a digital-first rewards dashboard tied to the website. Jackson explains points managers, account credits, gift cards, surveys, testimonials, newsletter signups, job site photos, and vendor co-op campaigns with double and triple points. The conversation also hits pre-launch and post-launch marketing, goals like 40 percent points manager signups, a 120 percent increase in online order values for customers who earn points, and lessons from returns, accounting, and credit that help make the user experience as frictionless as possible.

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👤 Guest Bio

Jackson Orin is from Reinders and works in a marketing position with a team that has pushed heavily into the e-commerce space for the last 10-plus years. He helps connect the website, rewards platform, and ERP, and works closely with sales teams, vendor partners, accounting, and credit to keep the rewards dashboard and points manager experience at the core of everything they do. Jackson brings experience with loyalty programs, online adoption, year-over-year numbers, and future plans for the rewards catalog and rewards landing page.

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📌 What We Cover

How feedback from sales teams, seasonal online only programs, and big drop offs in online engagement led to a year long loyalty program instead of short term campaigns.
What the team looked for in a rewards platform, including seamless integration with the e-commerce platform and ERP, a digital first rewards dashboard, and support for B2B structure, point calculations, and customer exclusions.
Why online adoption sits at the center of the program, with one reward point for every dollar spent online, one reward point for every four dollars spent offline, and a focus on keeping long time offline customers rewarded.
How the points manager model works so one person per company can redeem rewards while multiple users still access the rewards dashboard, track redemptions, and avoid miscommunications.
The redemption experience for account credits and gift cards, including Amazon, Apple, airlines, physical and digital gift cards, and clear visibility into bonus points from vendor co-op campaigns.
Extra earning activities beyond purchasing, like submitting testimonials, completing surveys, signing up for the newsletter, uploading job site photos, and moderation to handle competitors products or low quality images.
How vendor partnerships and co-op campaigns offer two times and three times points on specific brands like Rain Bird irrigation products and deliver strong year over year numbers for key categories.
The go-to market plan around January 2025, including teasing the program in September and October, multi-part email campaigns, poster boards in stores, graphics on TVs, website messaging, a blog, social messaging, flyers, and points manager signup ahead of launch.
Targets and early results, such as aiming for 40 percent of companies with online purchases in 2024 to have a points manager in place, being on track to hit that mark, and seeing about 120 percent increase in online order values for customers who earned points in 2025.
Lessons learned from returns, order numbers, excluded products, and automation that was not as automated as hoped, plus ongoing plans to revamp the main rewards landing page and improve the rewards catalog.
Why Jackson sees rewards as a win win win for customers, vendor partners, and grinders, and why internal conversations, understanding all business processes, and getting ducks in a row before demos are critical for other distributors considering a similar retention and growth channel.

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

Company website and rewards dashboard – online account access, product detail pages, homepage messaging, and rewards landing page tied to the e-commerce platform and ERP (company website)
Rain Bird irrigation products as a vendor example for two times points campaigns
Amazon gift cards as a redemption option
Apple gift cards as a redemption option
Airlines gift cards, including physical and digital gift cards
Jeremy Ott as a previous guest and early connector for the Reinders Rewards conversation

Make Supplies the Easiest Part of Your Day (with Jordan Lorenz) | Ep. 14

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 03:00:00 -0400

Supplies should be one of the easiest parts of a dental practice, not another problem on a long list of cancellations, staffing issues and insurance reimbursement. In this conversation, Kyler Nixon sits down with fellow Wisconsinite Jordan Lorenz from Green Bay to talk about what it really takes to run a dental distribution company that feels both fun and serious.

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Jordan explains how Dental City balances private label and house brand products with top manufacturers so practices can choose between infection control consumables and premium clinical materials without losing brand trust. He shares why the team chose a colorful, clean look instead of the typical sterile distributor site, and how that connects directly to a culture that is competitive, playful and focused on growth.

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From leading sales and marketing together to installing 21 robots in the warehouse, Jordan keeps coming back to the same idea: understand how people buy, keep the hurdle to purchase low, and get the boring stuff right over and over again.

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👤 Guest Bio

Jordan Lorenz leads sales and marketing at Dental City, a privately held dental distribution company in Green Bay. He works in an environment that is both fun and competitive, with fat tire bike races, obstacle courses, full court and half court basketball, a racquetball court and a workout facility on site. Jordan focuses on helping a dental distribution business that sells dental supplies across the country keep its brand colorful, clean and different from the sterile feel that often shows up in dental and medical distribution.

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📌 What We Cover

How a dental distribution company sells dental supplies across the country, from infection control products like gloves and masks to filling material and local anesthetics.
Private label, house brand and white label products in dental distribution, and why it is important to also carry really great branded product from some of the top manufacturers in the world.
The brand connection created when a house brand sits next to big names like 3M and Honeywell, and how that can produce retention and an element of separation while giving practices options on price and consumables.
Why Dental City chooses a colorful, clean, opposite of sterile brand presence with a fun logo, bold color and even a football player on the homepage to stand out in dental and medical distribution.
A culture that is fun and serious at the same time, with fat tire bike races, an obstacle course, basketball courts and racquetball, all inside a company that is pushing for growth and wants to win.
Jordan’s view of leading sales and marketing together so they are aligned on acquiring new customers and growing current customers while still operating on their own agenda with independent calls to action and flows.
How every customer who comes in from marketing channels like email, direct mail, flyers, LinkedIn ads or Google shopping still needs to be serviced on the sales end because dental practices are cyclical buyers, not one time transactions.
The mix of sales channels that matter right now, from picking up the phone and dialing to trade shows, catalogs and marketing pieces in the mail, along with digital paths where people find you on Google shopping and buy directly.
Why Jordan pays attention to consumer behavior like shopping on Amazon, preferring text messages and consuming media in small and short snippets, then expects those patterns to show up in B2B buying inside dental practices.
The reality that the person purchasing supplies in a dental office wears multiple hats like assisting a doctor, doing hygiene, patient scheduling and following up on insurance reimbursements, and may only have 20 or 30 minutes a week for supplies.
How Dental City thinks about making the hurdle to purchase as low as possible, keeping ordering easy and the outcome predictable so supplies become one of the easiest and most predictable parts of the day in a dental practice.
Why Jordan believes the days of the endless aisle for smaller brands are over, and why staying focused on dental practices instead of chasing every adjacent industry is a safer path than trying to sell all things to all people.
The story behind putting 21 robots into the distribution facility, and how that project showed the importance of planning, research, finding the right partners, implementation, execution and change management.
The idea that every day is a school day, sometimes with tuition that is more expensive, and how that mindset supports continuous learning from marketing risks, warehouse automation and strategic initiatives.
How a privately held organization can move quickly, pivot when market opportunities arise, and use core fundamentals so the team is ready when tariffs or other big changes hit the distribution landscape.

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

Dental City
LinkedIn
Amazon
Google Shopping
3M
Honeywell
Grainger
Uline
Fastenal

Weird Videos, Weekly Episodes, And Real Customers Who Already Know You (with Tyler Hull) | Ep. 13

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 03:00:00 -0400

A sign supply distributor with weird videos, a slightly serious podcast, and 82 straight weeks without missing. That rhythm shifts casual viewers into customers who already feel like they know the team. Hosted by Kyler Nixon, this conversation with Tyler Hull from Wesco Sign Supply walks through how consistent content, in person events, long form podcasting, and honest recommendations create real sales instead of vanity metrics. Tyler shares how post COVID trade show conversations moved into a long form format, why impressions mean nothing without quotes and orders, how customers walk into events already connected through the Slightly Serious Sign Podcast, and why showing up in more places with real faces, real teaching, and real stories still cuts through AI noise and traditional ads.

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👤 Guest Bio

Tyler Hull is the director of marketing at Wesco Sign Supply and host of The Slightly Serious Sign Podcast. He comes from sales into marketing and focuses on long form content, in person events, and honest conversations with vendors and customers. Tyler and his team are known for weird videos, weekly podcast episodes, and a style that helps sign shops learn tips, tricks, and products while getting to know the people behind the distributor.

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📌 What We Cover

How Wesco Sign Supply went from weird, funny videos to The Slightly Serious Sign Podcast as a long form channel for real product conversations.
The simple launch: buying a few pieces of equipment, recording episode one while “plugging everything in,” and not missing a week for 82 weeks.
How to get leadership buy-in when you are not a massive business by starting bare bones, proving results, and letting sales performance sell the idea.
Why impressions, clicks, and open rates are vanity metrics when they do not lead to quotes, equipment inquiries, or orders.
Stories of customers meeting Tyler at events, already knowing him from the podcast, and bringing real jobs and revenue because of that connection.
The idea that giving value, tips, and honest recommendations (even when a product is not the right fit) earns trust and makes the ask easier.
How omnipresence, video, and consistent content help a distributor show up in a customer’s day without feeling like an ad.
Why Wesco is shifting focus from broad trade shows toward regional events, trainings, and in person experiences that grow customer business and move spend away from competitors.

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

The Slightly Serious Sign Podcast
Wesco Sign Supply
Santa videos and other “weird” Wesco content
Buzzsprout (podcast hosting and distribution)
StreamYard (virtual recording and live stream tool)
YouTube monetization for long form video and podcast clips
Gary V
10X (omnipresence concept)
HubSpot
Marketing Against The Grain podcast

Phone Systems, Replatforming, and Aerospace Certification (with Mark Knight) | Ep. 12

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 03:00:00 -0400

A 40th year in distribution brings perspective on culture, leadership, and growth. Kyler Nixon sits with Mark Knight, CEO at Fibre Glast, to talk management style, respect, and giving credit where credit is due. Mark shares early lessons like “sometimes you just need to show people who’s boss,” and why he chose assertive, direct, and supportive leadership instead. He explains servant leadership and the step beyond it he calls servantcy, where leaders and teams serve each other. The conversation moves into day one at Fibre Glast in 2021, building core values with integrity and respect as must haves, and investing in people resources. Tactically, the team prioritized phone systems, CRM, and a risk-mitigating web replatform without breaking what customers love. Growth remains balanced, profitable, and sustainable, with high barriers to entry and a differentiated value proposition, including AS 91 20 B aerospace certification driven by customer feedback.

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👤 Guest Bio

Mark Knight is the CEO at Fibre Glast. His 40th year in distribution includes roles across industrial management, operations, and supply chain, growing into marketing and general management. He has led in large publicly traded industrial businesses and small privately held organizations. Mark stepped into Fibre Glast in 2021, created a set of core values with integrity and respect as must haves, and emphasizes servant leadership, conservancy, and building a healthy, supportive culture.

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📌 What We Cover

Management style and culture shifts from the eighties to today
Servant leadership and the team-first idea Mark calls conservancy
Hiring and leading for passion in B2B distribution
The pride moment when families recognize where you work
Day one at Fibre Glast in 2021 and creating core values with team ownership
Prioritizing phone systems, CRM, and people resources
Replatforming to mitigate risk without breaking SEO juice or customer experience
Balanced, profitable, sustainable growth with high barriers to entry and aerospace certification

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

Fibre Glast website: https://www.fibreglast.com
EOS and the L 10 meeting
PPG
AS 91 20 B aerospace certification

SMS That B2B Buyers Actually Want, 75X ROI included (with Kristin Dean) | Ep 11

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 03:00:00 -0400

SMS marketing shows up where busy professionals live, on their phones. In this conversation, Kyler Nixon sits down with Kristin Dean to unpack why hairstylists, massage therapists, and spa pros engage in the middle of the day, how product-focused texts beat education in SMS, and why webinars still win. Kristin shares the starting point, taking top-performing short emails and turning them into concise texts, then testing send times, segmentation by profession, treatments, and a simple benchmark approach to attribution. She details the move from SMS Bump to Klaviyo, low-cost tests, and a 75X ROI that ended internal pushback fast. The discussion expands to education as a funnel, cross-functional content with licensed staff, and company-wide momentum for brand building at a family-owned business. Listeners will hear practical send cadences, how engagement changed over time, and why knowing the customer shapes every message.

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👤 Guest Bio

Kristin Dean is Revenue Director at Universal Companies. Kristin has led email and SMS programs, uses AI daily for copy and analysis, and partners with licensed staff across product development, sales, and the call center to create blogs and webinars. Her team tested SMS with product-focused messages, refined send times, and reported a 75X ROI. Kristin is focused on education as a funnel, cross-functional collaboration, and brand building for a family-owned company.

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📌 What We Cover

Why a B2B audience still acts like consumers, and how that unlocked SMS testing
Turning top-performing, shorter emails into texts, then expanding into new arrivals roundups, discounts, and webinar signups
Segmentation by profession and treatment types, mirroring email while adjusting for SMS engagement
Send time insights, evenings for email, and the middle of the day for SMS between appointments
Measuring ROI with low-cost sends, simple benchmarks, and realistic attribution expectations
Platform shift from SMS Bump shutting down to Klaviyo to tie channels together
Send cadence changes, weekly to every other week, as engagement settles
Education as a funnel, webinars that get quick daytime signups, and company-wide support for brand building

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

Klaviyo
SMS Bump

Be Natural, Genuine, and Authentic with Your Customers (with Andrew Haring) | Ep. 10

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 03:00:00 -0400

Branding can carry a mythical connotation, but the real signal shows up in how you communicate when the waters get murky. In this conversation, Kyler Nixon sits down with Andrew Haring to contrast blanket price increases with a customer-first stance that says we are here to serve our customers and we are in your corner. Andrew unpacks proactive pricing announcements, why trust and service trump price points, and how being natural, genuine, and authentic builds a single version of yourself that customers recognize. The discussion moves from personal brand to channels and tactics, including robust social, a strong email calendar, consistent point of purchase, printed catalogs, and create once and distribute everywhere. Andrew details segmentation by product brand categories and buying behavior, the role of quarterly specials and product launches, and a simple playbook focused on shortening lead times, regional support, and technical service that makes marketing easy to promote.

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👤 Guest Bio

Andrew Haring is a Friend of the Glass Industry and CMO at FHC. He has 20 years in the glass, construction, and architectural industries with an emphasis on marketing, education, sales, and advocacy. He served as Vice President of Business Development at the National Glass Association and previously as Vice President of Marketing at C.R. Laurence. Recognitions include Glazier Nation’s Advocate of the Year and a USGlass Magazine Most Influential People mention. He is a calculated noisemaker who likes glass and values brand equity.

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📌 What We Cover

Handling tariffs with proactive communication, mitigation, and a customer-first pricing announcement
Trust and service outweigh price points, with actions that back partnership and support
Authenticity over polish: fewer versions of yourself, what you see is what you get
Channels that work in a squirrely industry: robust social, strong email calendar, point of purchase, printed catalogs, trade publications
Create once and distribute everywhere with automation and programmatic advertising
Email as both relationship and transaction: quarterly specials, product launches, staying top of mind for project-driven purchases
Segmentation by product brand categories and buying behavior across commercial and residential profiles and company sizes
A simple playbook for growth: shorten lead times, add locations for regional support, invest in technical service, and make adoption easier

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

Big eCom Overhaul and Brand Cohesion (with Jeremy Ott) | Ep. 9

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 03:00:00 -0400

A big e-comm overhaul with brick and mortar, e-commerce, sales reps, and education moving together. Kyler Nixon sits down with Jeremy Ott to unpack a massive ecommerce overhaul. The conversation walks through a six to eight month RFP process, executive buy-in from a forward-thinking CEO, and the push for more core out of the box functionality, personalization, and newer technologies. Jeremy shares regrets around more beta testing, internal testing, customer facing webinars, and customer advisory boards. He explains how data and being more analytical driven met real feedback on features like requisition lists, brands pages, and a personalized my top products view. The team reworked a brand statement, rebuilt customer personas across product lines, and aimed for an omnichannel experience that feels cohesive in store, email, social, and the website. Education, sales rep specific emails, and training videos help customers learn and buy.

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👤 Guest Bio

Jeremy Ott is Director of eCommerce and Digital Marketing at Reinders Inc. Reinders is one of the Midwest’s largest full service distributors to the commercial green industry, a one stop source from growing grass to watering it, from mowing it to keeping it looking great. The team offers quality products and solutions with staff that includes degreed specialists in Turf, Plant Pathology, Soils, and Aquatics. Learn more at reinders.com.

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📌 What We Cover

A big web overhaul that went live in September of 2023 after a two year migration and an ERP to the cloud
Re-platforming from a homegrown solution to Rock Commerce, then to Adobe Commerce with open APIs and less customization
A three to five month RFP build, six to eight month vendor selection, demos, and signing with Adobe in October of 2021
Executive buy-in with leadership focused on customer experience, performance, speed, and integration with the ERP
What Jeremy would do differently: more beta testing, internal testing, focus groups, user groups, and customer facing webinars
Data driven decisions vs real customer insights on requisition lists, brands pages, and a personalized my top products view
Reevaluating the UI UX across desktop and mobile using heat mapping and video recordings to find frustration and drop off points
A refreshed brand statement and rebuilt customer personas across product lines to drive a cohesive omnichannel experience
Educational emails, sales rep specific emails, and in-house training videos on equipment like fairway mowers and sprayers

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

Adobe Commerce
Rock Commerce
AmericanEagle.com
Google Analytics

“Customers Are Buying Trust” (with Nic Breedlove) | Ep. 8

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 03:00:00 -0400

“Customers are buying trust.” That line stopped the conversation and set the tone for a candid look at long sales cycles, culture, and product bets. Host Kyler Nixon sits down with Nic Breedlove to unpack a model that blends distributor and manufacturer, serves about 350 distributors, and manages operations in Indianapolis, Savannah, and Houston. The buying journey is often 90 days or more, and a custom order can take six months from order to revenue. Nic shares why passion and knowledge build credibility, why one-time buyers must be educated quickly, and how a seven-year nurture still converted. He opens up about a painful chapter of betrayal, the absence of checks and balances, and rebuilding with direct expectations, behavioral analysis, and daily core values in huddles and quarterlies. The conversation closes with new product development, a quick ship line that now represents about half of revenue, a new inspections app for owners and operators, and a three-year planning horizon tied to a big, hairy goal to reduce avoidable injuries on playgrounds.

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👤 Guest Bio

Nic Breedlove is the founder and CEO of NVB Playgrounds. His team operates as a manufacturer and a distributor, supplying about 350 distributors across the United States and serving government and business buyers. NVB runs operations in Indianapolis, Savannah, and Houston. Nic is active on LinkedIn, leads a design and new product development team, and focuses on quick ship structures, software for inspections, and daily core values that guide performance and growth.

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📌 What We Cover

“Customers are buying trust,” and how passion and knowledge show up in posts, safety, layout, and community
A blended model, manufacturer and distributor, supplying about 350 distributors with operations in Indianapolis, Savannah, and Houston
Sales cycles that average 90 days, custom timelines that push orders to six months from order to revenue, and cash flow strain
One-time buyers on boards and school teams, why education must be quick, specific, and directed
A seven-year sales story from catalog request to close, and the power of staying in touch with the same salesperson
Trust inside the team, hiring fast in the past, direct feedback, behavioral analysis, and quarterly reviews
The betrayal chapter, shell companies, missing checks and balances, silos, and rebuilding morale after terminations
Core values in daily huddles and quarterlies, shout-outs, and scoring performance on growth mindset
Quick ship as a distribution backbone, inventory across three locations, guarantees to distributors, and about 50 percent of revenue
New product development on structures, reviewing thousands of orders, color schemes, components, and using tools like ChatGPT and Claude
A new app for owners and operators, inspections and digitalized services, and a launch at the National Park and Rec show in Orlando
Three-year planning, not ten, Cameron Harold’s perspective, and a big hairy goal to reduce avoidable playground injuries in North America

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

PlaygroundEquipment.com
ChatGPT
Claude
HubSpot training
COO Alliance podcast with Cameron Harold
National Park and Rec show in Orlando

Account-Based Podcasting, Clarity over Ambiguity, and Building a Deep Bench (with James Gilman) | Ep. 7

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 03:00:00 -0400

Launching a business focused podcast under a distribution brand can open doors and still fall short of the sale. Host Kyler Nixon sits down with James Gilman, president of Perimeter Office Products and host of “Pushing the Envelope,” to talk about starting in January 2024, recording forty plus episodes, and choosing to pause when it did not drive what he thought it would. James shares why the show was an inexpensive way to brand the company, connect with the ideal client, and open doors for the sales team. He breaks down live show vs prerecord, the push for consistency, the couple grand a month reality, and why building a deep bench matters. The conversation shifts to people, core values, and clarity, with contests, town halls, and every person having a number. It is a look at attention, screens, and the need to communicate the why while you kill ambiguity and keep growing.

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Check out Pushing the Envelope, hosted by James Gilman. Sponsored by Perimeter Office Products, the show highlights Atlanta’s business landscape through candid conversations with entrepreneurs, leaders, and industry experts. Each episode uncovers stories of growth, challenge, and innovation, offering a fresh perspective on what drives business forward in Georgia’s dynamic market. Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

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👤 Guest Bio

James Gilman is the president of Perimeter Office Products and host of “Pushing the Envelope.” His background is in sales, with fifteen years of one-on-one conversations and meeting twenty new businesses every single week. He moved into the president role in 2022 and describes himself as a visionary who needs implementers and integrators. “Pushing the Envelope” carries a double entendre from the office supply industry and reflects his focus on moving the needle, trying new things, and celebrating wins and challenges.

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📌 What We Cover

Why a company sponsored podcast can brand the business, connect with the ideal client, and open doors for the sales team
The realization that sales did not just start coming in and why the show paused to focus on people, team, and processes
Live show vs prerecord, blocking a morning to record three or four episodes, and why consistency is the number one thing
The real cost and time tradeoffs, dialing back time, and spending a couple grand a month with outside help
Account-based podcasting to celebrate decision makers, learn the landscape, and build relationships without a hard pitch
Using a podcast to speak into the team, talk about culture, and let employees hear interactions on a public forum
Core values that people can name, contests that nominate peers, quarterly town halls, and awarding people publicly
Fighting ambiguity with clarity, start-stop-keep feedback, communicating the why, and giving every person a number
Scaling Up vs EOS, cash focus, collections, and growing without outgrowing cash
Attention and screens, going where the eyeballs are, and adjusting how you communicate

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

Kyler Nixon
James Gilman
Perimeter Office Products: https://www.perimeteroffice.com/perimeter
“Pushing the Envelope”
“Fully Open” Podcast by Gil Welsford Jr
“In the Mind of a Distributor” podcast by Proton CRM
Proton CRM
EOS and Traction
Scaling Up by “Verne Harnish”
Start-stop-keep framework

Core Values, Direct Conversations, and a Platoon Mindset (with Eric Reffett) | Ep. 6

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 03:00:00 -0400

Welcome to Darn Good Distributors with Kyler Nixon. Today’s conversation with Eric Reffett centers on a 360 view of the organization, moving from a finance path to president, and building a team that is direct, respectful, and aligned. Eric explains starting in a space between a startup and an established company, doing invoice entry and reconciling accounts, then letting new people come in and own them. He shares how attribution, analytics, and pipeline make growth decisions simple, why an organic LinkedIn presence matters, and how core values shape a platoon mindset with open conversations. The team is launching a new website to give big buyers a B2C experience with pay terms, credit approvals, tax exemption, and self-serve customization. With a new investor, a move to 150,000 square feet, and a new operating system, the sky is the limit.

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👤 Guest Bio

Eric Reffett is president at ePackageSupply. His background runs through finance and operations with early mentorship at Berry Global. He joined the company five years ago, grew from a space between a startup and an established company, and recently stepped into the president role. Eric is focused on connecting operations, sales, and B2B processes while keeping a 360 view of the business.

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📌 What We Cover

Using finance as an opportunity to get into all aspects of the business
Doing everything from invoice entry to reconciling accounts, then letting new people own them
Breaking away from native finance tasks to connect operations, sales, and B2B processes
Pushing the growth lever with data, attribution, analytics, and pipeline
Building a visible team with an organic LinkedIn presence and strong core values
A founder’s Marine Corps ethos, direct conversations, and a platoon approach
Treating B2C and B2B customers the same with a seamless online and personal experience
A new website for big orders, pay terms, credit approvals, tax exemption, and self-serve customization
Adding an investor, moving to 150,000 square feet, and launching a new operating system
Bundling in-house design as part of the offer, growing with customers, and the role of AI

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

Darn Good Distributors by Forward Studios
Kyler Nixon
Eric Reffett
ePackageSupply

Rebuilding a Distributor Website from the Ground Up (with Faith Tank) | Ep. 5

Tue, 23 Sep 2025 03:00:00 -0400

When distributors talk about a website overhaul, it usually stops at dreaming. For Kyler Nixon and his guest Faith Tank, the story is different. Faith, Director of Marketing and Events at Zip’s AW Direct, shares how her team transitioned from a brochure-style site into a fully integrated e-commerce platform.

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From the challenges of merging brands and sub-brands, to navigating a multi-year replatforming process, to mapping journeys for both mom-and-pop towing operations and global corporations, this episode is packed with lessons. Faith also opens up about restructuring a 30-person marketing team, aligning product management with marketing, and rolling out HubSpot to unify sales, service, and marketing. The conversation highlights both the complexity and opportunity of building an online presence that scales across diverse customer groups while staying true to brand identity.

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👤 Guest Bio

Faith Tank is Director of Marketing and Events at Zip’s AW Direct. She oversees a team of 30 marketers, product managers, creatives, and strategists. Faith has led the company through a major website overhaul, integrated multiple sub-brands, and driven initiatives around SEO, e-commerce, and HubSpot adoption.

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📌 What We Cover

How Zip’s AW Direct evolved from a truck-focused brochure site to a full e-commerce platform
The multi-year process of replatforming, redesigning, and launching a new website
Managing messaging complexities across six sub-brands under one umbrella
Serving both local mom-and-pop shops and the largest towing companies in the world
Shifting from marketing-led direct sales to a hybrid sales-and-marketing approach
Restructuring a 30-person marketing team into brand-aligned pods that operate like an in-house agency
Why product management now lives under marketing — and the SEO benefits of that decision
Lessons from an eight-month HubSpot rollout across sales, service, marketing, and operations
Upcoming initiatives including taxonomy restructuring, shop-by-brand improvements, and mobile-first conversion

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

Plan to Win, Publish Consistently (with Jason Hugo) | Ep. 4

Tue, 16 Sep 2025 03:00:00 -0400

Kyler Nixon welcomes Jason Hugo, founder and president at Quick Response Fire Supply, to explore how a decade of blogging and long form content reshaped a distribution business. Jason traces the journey back to 2012 when a single conference sparked the idea that consistent SEO-driven articles could attract the right buyers. Early experiments showed nothing—until the concept of “marination” revealed that content needs time to gain traction.

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What started as an SEO traffic play grew into something much more. Today QRFS content powers training for industry partners, sales enablement, and customer education. Jason explains how translating dense NFPA fire code into accessible guidance built trust with end users and professionals alike. He also shares how the company is rethinking itself as a data business, preparing for a future shaped by AI, centralized product information, and scalable catalogs.

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👤 Guest Bio

Jason Hugo is the founder and president of Quick Response Fire Supply, a distributor dedicated to simplifying fire safety system maintenance, installation, and compliance. On a mission to make fire protection simpler so nobody gets burned, Jason has led QRFS through more than a decade of consistent blogging and content creation that now totals nearly 500 articles.

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📌 What We Cover

The 2012 conference that inspired the first QRFS blogs and why “marination” became a guiding principle for SEO
How early content paused, then proved itself as traffic surged through Google Analytics
The evolution from simple product problem-solution articles to translating NFPA fire code into accessible insights
Why QRFS content now supports both end users and professional contractors, and even trains manufacturers’ teams
The challenge AI presents to SEO, traffic, and brand association with solutions
The role of email in bridging discovery, purchase, and long-term education
Why Jason believes every distributor must think like a data company to compete in the future
The foundation QRFS is building to scale to a million SKUs with consistent product data
Jason’s advice for distributors starting content today: plan to win and commit to consistency

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

Marcus Sheridan and The Sales Lion
Quick Response Fire Supply
NFPA 25 fire code
Jason Hugo

A Letter to Customers and a Head of AI (with NataLee Allen) | Ep. 3

Tue, 09 Sep 2025 03:00:00 -0400

Core values that feel obscure turn into core actions that live in the fabric of a company. Host Kyler Nixon sits down with NataLee Allen, Visionary and CEO at ClearBags, to walk through a practical shift from five words to 26 behaviors that repeat every week. NataLee shares how she stepped into leadership after 2019 without the “everything falls on me” fear because the business runs with a great team. She explains how EOS helped redefine values, why “enjoy your life” made the list, and how a core action message plus employee videos unify teammates across three states. The conversation moves to tariffs, inventory moves, a long letter to customers, and a transparent approach to pricing. It wraps with a new Head of AI, a plan to meet every employee, HR chat bots built from the handbook, and AI as a partner that can lift productivity by 30 percent.

👤 Guest Bio

NataLee Allen is the Visionary and CEO at ClearBags. She stepped into the role in 2019 after learning that a business is only as good as their team. With EOS in place, she led a companywide shift from five core values to 26 core actions, including her father’s motto, enjoy your life. She champions weekly core action messages with employee videos across three states. NataLee recently designated a Head of AI to help every employee use AI as a partner, including an HR chat bot built from the employee handbook.

📌 What We Cover

Redefining core values with EOS by asking, what are they, not what should they be
Turning five values into 26 core actions, including enjoy your life
Core action of the week emails, employee video shares, and unifying teams in three states
Hands off leadership made possible by a great team and shared accountability
Preparing for tariffs with extra inventory, vendor options across 10 countries, and transparent pricing communication
Writing a long letter to customers and using email as a personal, relational channel
Designating a Head of AI to meet every employee and increase productivity with AI as a partner
Building an HR chat bot from the employee handbook and using projects in chat to speed collaboration

🔗 Resources Mentioned

EOS, the entrepreneurial operating system
Gino Wickman
A letter to customers via email
Employee handbook chat bot
“chat, GBT, just five just came out”

Why Relationships and Referrals Outperform Branding in B2B (with Marta Dalton) | Ep. 2

Tue, 02 Sep 2025 03:00:00 -0400

Explaining B2B to someone who only knows consumer brands can feel like a challenge. Kyler Nixon sits down with Marta Dalton, VP of Customer Growth and Data at PetSafe Brands, to explore the core differences between B2B and B2C eCommerce and where they overlap.

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Marta shares how pricing, catalogs, checkout, and delivery look completely different in the B2B world and why customer-specific journeys matter so much. She explains why Invisible Fence operates like a B2B despite being a consumer-facing brand, and how she balances the emotional pull of consumer marketing with the financial and operational focus of B2B.

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From podcasts and print mail to re-engagement cycles and referrals, Marta outlines the channels, data strategies, and retention frameworks shaping growth today. This conversation highlights how distributors can move beyond spray-and-pray marketing toward precise, data-driven approaches that strengthen relationships and increase customer lifetime value.

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👤 Guest Bio

Marta Dalton is VP of Customer Growth and Data at PetSafe Brands. With a career that includes leadership roles at Unilever and Coca-Cola, Marta brings deep expertise in global eCommerce, data analytics, digital marketing, and customer experience. At PetSafe Brands, she focuses on building strategies that keep pets happy, healthy, and safe while driving customer growth across both B2B and B2C channels.

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📌 What We Cover

The distinct differences in products, pricing, checkout, and delivery between B2B and B2C
Why Invisible Fence functions like a B2B despite being a consumer brand
The “big B vs little b” concept and how business size affects buying behaviors
How emotions drive consumer purchasing while logic and business needs shape B2B decisions
Channels fueling growth marketing today, from podcasts to local events and print mail
Why timing and targeting are critical to effective email and print campaigns
How referrals outperform branding as a growth strategy in B2B
The role of adoption and re-engagement in retention and lifetime value
Using frequency data and missed buy cycles to prevent customer churn

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

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👉 Ready to grow your distribution business with smarter marketing? Learn how Forward Studios helps B2B distributors drive demand through email and digital strategies.

Legacy, LinkedIn, and Leadership (with Gilbert Welsford Jr.) | Ep. 1

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 03:00:00 -0400

In this episode of Darn Good Distributors, host Kyler Nixon sits down with Gilbert Welsford Jr., the CEO of ValveMan.com, to explore how a third-generation valve expert is reshaping the way an entire industry thinks about marketing, sales, and customer experience.

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Gil shares how he’s leveraged LinkedIn, podcasting, and thought leadership to build brand authority in a $22B industry that has historically lacked visible thought leaders. From embracing storytelling to creating an omnichannel customer experience, Gil explains why he’s in it for the long haul—building a business not just for today, but for the next generation.

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What you’ll learn in this episode:

Why LinkedIn and thought leadership are undervalued tools for B2B distributors.
How to “just start” building a content presence without overthinking it.
The shift from an e-commerce business with relationships to a distribution business powered by e-commerce.
Why customer experience in B2B needs to match (or beat) the best consumer brands.
How legacy, family business, and faith shape Gil’s long-term vision.
The evolution of customer service from order-takers to technical experts.

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👉 Connect with Gilbert Welsford Jr.

👉 Learn more at ValveMan.com

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🎙️ This show is brought to you by Forward Studios — helping distributors build brand, create content, and grow through storytelling.

Welcome to Darn Good Distributors

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 03:00:00 -0400

Welcome to Darn Good Distributors, the podcast for B2B eCommerce professionals who want to hear what’s really working in distribution today.

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Each week, host Kyler Nixon sits down with CEOs, marketers, and operators who are driving real results and redefining success. These are the stories, lessons, and strategies you won’t get from consultants—just boots-on-the-ground insights from leaders in the trenches.

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Whether you're scaling your team or trying to keep up with a fast-changing market, this show will give you the clarity and confidence to move forward.