I was fortunate to once again be able to attend and present at the NAW/MDM SHIFT conference, and it is interesting to see how the construction and industrial channel continues to evolve.
Modern Distribution Management (MDM) has been hosting this annual event for Distribution Leaders called SHIFT (originally MDM Sales GPS) for the last decade.
Some of the best and brightest distribution leaders come to SHIFT to share ideas and proven programs on how to grow sales, expand digital, Ai, and much more.
Last week, Wednesday Sept. 11 -13th MDM which is now part of the National Association of Wholesalers- Distributors (NAW) had CEO’s and Senior Leaders present from HVACR channel leaders such as Reece USA (MORSCO), First Supply and many leaders from adjacent channels like Wesco, ABC Supply, Graybar, Schneider Electric and more.
The event kicked off Wednesday afternoon with a great workshop session led by Tom Gale from MDM and Mike Marks: Benchmarking Your Innovation & Transformation Levers. This was a workshop where distributors could benchmark progress and exchange insights with industry peers while utilizing comprehensive assessment tools covering Hybrid Sales, Digital, and Data Analytics.
The program over the three days built on this kickoff workshop foundation with session tracks for Hybrid Sales, Digital and Data Analytics (I co-presented a session with industry leader James Dorn from the Dorn Group). It was impossible to get to every track session as a single attendee, so many companies sent multiple attendees.
The event buzz was excellent as the MDM/NAW events are one of the few industry events where an HVACR leader can sit by an Electrical, Plumbing, Industrial, MRO distributor, and so on and have open conversations with each other.
The sessions that really jumped out that were led by HVACR Channel leaders that I found very informative were-
- Kevin Fitzpatrick from Reece USA (formerly MORSCO HVACR in the US) shared some great insight on Lessons Learned on the Hybrid Sales Transition Journey.
- Kathryn Poehling Seymour President and CEO of First Supply talked about Channel Innovation in depth in a great panel session with other leading distributors that also shared some key insights from the manufacturer side that were compelling.
- Tracie Sponenberg (formerly with HVACR channel leader The Granite Group) had a couple of great sessions including an excellent How to Build an Innovation Culture.
- Caroline Ernst VP ecommerce with Affiliated Distributors moderated a great session on the New Risk-Reward Equation for Distribution Tech Stack Strategy that was very informative.
It has been very interesting to see how MDM and NAW have evolved this annual in person event to be more than sales transformation into a business model innovation program. The three-day event covers everything from Strategy (from Mckinsey and Gartner) to Hybrid Sales, Digital, and Data Analytics from industry leaders.
In my opinion, NAW events are unique for the channel as they bring Building Material, Grocery, Industrial, Electrical, HVACR, Plumbing, MRO, Jan/San and many more channels (MDM publishes an annual top distributors list for 19 channels today) together in one place.
It was informative to hear from many industry leaders outside of HVACR, and a few of the many great sessions that stood out in my opinion were:
- Data Analytics – Distributor Data Analytics Best Practices. This panel with Stefanie Lee from McNaughton & McKay, Dennis Shaw of Graybar, and Pat Hashimoto of MSC Industrial that was moderated by Donnie Williamson from NAW/MDM Analytics. This session delivered some great practical insights from each leader on how they are using in-depth analytic best practices to grow.
- Dave Mathey from Baird discussed the economic outlook for the channel. Baird and MDM have collaborated for 15 years on many economic outlook surveys and reports. I would recommend you contact MDM/NAW to learn more about their forecasting programs.
- Mike Marks and Mike Emerson from Indian River Consulting had a great session on sales enablement and compensation. Mike Marks and Tom Gale co-designed the original MDM Sales GPS program that has become MDM SHIFT so their perspective on the changing sales channel is excellent.
- Keith Rozolis from Building Materials leader ABC Supply had a great session on his companies Innovation Journey. ABC Supply is one of those quiet giant distributors that you should follow.
- Nick Pericle from Profit Optics had an excellent AI Workshop: How Distributors Can Get the Most Out of ChatGPT that was very informative and popular with every distributor who attended.
- John Engle Chairman, CEO and President of WESCO had a great session on Redefining Distribution: Wesco’s Journey of Innovation and Growth that was moderated by Tom Gale. This was an excellent session to attend with some strong insight shared on the Wesco culture and approach.
MDM Podcast: Wesco Case Study Debrief – Modern Distribution Management
Note: MDM published my three-part series on Wesco, a special report, and an MDM podcast episode on the series. The link to all the series articles, report, and podcast from MDM can be found following the link above and much of what Wesco is doing can be implemented in the very similar HVACR Channel.
My takeaways for the HVACR channel from MDM/NAW Shift 2024 to share are as follows-
- Non-HVACR Channels like Electrical, Building Materials, Plumbing, Industrial, etc. are serving similar type customers and there is much to learn as an HVACR Channel leader that the “other channels” are doing that could be applied to your business.
- Digital and Ai are evolving quickly with growing applications for your business. They may not be clear to you yet, but sitting on the sidelines doing nothing is dangerous. If you feel your HVACR channel business will not be greatly affected in the short or long term in my opinion this would be an unwise position.
- Your culture is crucial to understand what new programs and ideas you can bring to your organization that will be successful. I was at tables where one distributor shared a program that had failed that they launched, and across the table another distributor launched a very similar program that was successful. You must execute on only the best ideas that fit for your business and your culture. As Peter Druker said “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”. This probably applies to most distributors business.
As always we appreciate your feedback, so please feel free to reach out with any comments or questions.
