“I love the smell of a warehouse in the morning!” I used to say back when I managed branches. This “Apocalypse Now” reference will resonate with those of you who’ve been around the sun many times; not so much those tender readers who have traveled fewer orbital miles on our home planet. 

I loved that my branch was the intersection between suppliers and customers — the hive of activity that put products into the hands that kept America running and productive, clean and functional, working and reliable. 

A Quick Primer on How Distributors Add Value

Academics tally the value-added functions of a wholesale distributor with a list boiling down to these elements:

• Assortment convenience. A wide assortment of products from many manufacturers allows customers to consolidate their purchases efficiently and effectively. 

• Fast fulfillment and delivery. By holding inventory, distributors can get products to customers quickly. 

• Bulk-breaking. Distributors allow manufacturers to produce efficiently in large quantities while allowing customers to buy small lot quantities effectively. 

• Demand generation. Distributors use websites, sales reps, email and other marketing tools to effectively advertise many manufacturers’ products to a large number of customers and prospects. 

• Customer service/technical support. When customers have questions or need service or advice, distributors have trained employees who can help them. 

• Credit and financing. Businesses prefer to buy on credit because it’s more efficient and cheaper than checks or credit cards. It also smooths cash flows for companies needing products for customers who will pay for them later. 

Let’s look at bulk-breaking. Here’s the intuition: How manufacturers optimize production efficiency results in outputs very different than what customers need to maximize purchasing efficiency. Manufacturers want to produce in container quantities while customers buy in small quantities. 

It’s why most trucks arriving at a distributor’s dock come from one manufacturer and are full of products only from that manufacturer. However, most trucks leaving distributor docks bound for customers are chock full of a mix of products from a bunch of manufacturers. 

Additionally, when a customer must place an order with 25 items on it, they don’t want to issue 25 purchase orders (POs) to 25 companies; sending it to one distributor that carries those 25 lines is much more efficient. 

If you go down the value-added functions list, you will see how distributors facilitate commerce between manufacturers and customers in many important ways. 

This is important work; essential, in fact. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, wholesaler sales were about $7 trillion in 2023 and U.S. gross domestic product was $27 trillion. Wholesale trade is this country’s largest industry. That’s not by accident; it’s because distributors provide incredible value in the supply chain. 

Intellectual Challenges

Distribution is a fascinating industry. Most distributors track dozens of data elements on every transaction, plus maintain enormous product and customer databases. Good distributors also do market research, collect Net Promoter Score data, keep scorecards on their suppliers, track employee data and more. 

The ability to do advanced data analytics is exciting. This is truly an industry that allows smart and thoughtful distribution executives to understand almost everything about their businesses and the competitive marketplace. 

I spent most of my career in marketing and e-commerce, and the challenges were continuous and intriguing. Distributor e-commerce is vastly more complex than B2C, and the marketing is miles more challenging. In the consumer world, every customer boils down to one individual, a credit card, a phone number, an email address and a home address. Plus, pricing is usually the same for all customers. 

In B2B, a single account often involves many locations and buyers, custom assortments, complex pricing hierarchies and much more complicated products that may require a wide variety of services such as kitting, fabrication, configuration, calibration and countless others. Even the transactions are complex, with blanket POs, bills of material and more. 

Not to mention that distributors carry credit for customers and thus have accounts receivable to manage; they deliver to complicated destinations such as jobsites and factories, and wield outside and inside salesforces that support customers with technical expertise. 

If you think working for Target is sexy but working for a distributor isn’t, then your priority isn’t solving difficult intellectual challenges; it’s wearing red shirts. 

The Distributor Self-Esteem Problem

When I worked for distributors, I successfully recruited in major markets such as Chicago and Atlanta; it never occurred to me that I couldn’t. Granted, you need a competitive comp package, but that’s only one of two essential requirements. The other one is to stop saying distribution isn’t sexy. It’s a great industry, it’s fun, it’s fulfilling and the average distributor’s culture is often miles ahead of most other employers. 

If you doubt this, watch Dirk Beveridge’s We Supply America series, now in season 3. Dirk, like me, rails against the idea that “distribution isn’t sexy,” and he travels around in an RV visiting dozens of distributors. The thread running through this series is that distribution is a great industry to work in; many employees feel incredibly loyal to their employers and believe their work is important. 

Dirk is leading the charge in completely overhauling how this industry perceives itself and I support him 100 percent. You should, too. 

At its heart, this is a self-esteem issue. I forbade anyone in my departments to say that distribution isn’t sexy; ultimately, we must stop thinking about it. First, as I have demonstrated, it’s not true. Second, it’s not helpful. Third, it’s contagious: if you say it, others will, too. 

I’ve been in this industry for almost 40 years and love it; I’m mystified when others don’t. However, people who don’t love it should work somewhere else and stop bringing down the rest of us. 

Distributors earn their margins by providing a wide variety of important products and essential value-added services that empower many other industries. It’s important, it’s fun, it’s challenging and if you work hard and do it well, you can make good money doing it. 

What’s sexier than that?