From the outside, the world of distribution seems pretty easy and mundane. One Internet “expert” summarized the key to success in our business as product, pricing and promotion. I couldn’t help but laugh as I read his summary. As a matter of fact, I suspect the author hasn’t spent 10 minutes in our business. Distribution is a game of incremental gains, process improvements that yield small advances here and there, throughout the business. Some seemingly great ideas work, while others don’t fare so well. But in order to remain strong in our business, we need a steady stream of ideas for improvement.
Over the course of my nearly three decades in distribution, I have discovered a good many “secret sources” of thought-stimulating and competitive ideas. Once again demonstrating that I am both white-haired and long in the tooth, some of these have shifted delivery mechanism from paper and press clipping services to the Internet and all the wonders of electronic media. I would like to invite you to take a four-minute tour of the free mechanisms for keeping your business driving ahead. We’re going to start with the quick and easy technology-driven things, then turn to some tried and true methods shared by other distributors.