No one teaches you how to run a distribution business. There’s no playbook for navigating shifting markets, growing sales, or making the right bets on technology. The best distributors figure it out by talking to the right people and learning from experience.
That’s what In the Mind of a Distributor is all about. Each month, Benj Cohen—founder of Proton, the CRM built for distributors—sits down with industry leaders, from owners to operators to sales pros, to break down what’s working, what’s not, and where the industry is headed.
If all goes well, listeners will leave each episode a little sharper, a little more informed, and a step ahead of the competition.
No one teaches you how to run a distribution business. There’s no playbook for navigating shifting markets, growing sales, or making the right bets on technology. The best distributors figure it out by talking to the right people and learning from experience.
That’s what In the Mind of a Distributor is all about. Each month, Benj Cohen—founder of Proton, the CRM built for distributors—sits down with industry leaders, from owners to operators to sales pros, to break down what’s working, what’s not, and where the industry is headed.
If all goes well, listeners will leave each episode a little sharper, a little more informed, and a step ahead of the competition.
In this episode, Benj sits down with Brian Walker, Chief Product Officer at Grainger, to unpack how one of the largest distributors in the world approaches merchandising at scale.
With over 2 million SKUs in their core business and an endless assortment model through Zoro, Grainger’s merchandising strategy is anything but simple. Brian explains how they decide which products to carry, how they use customer context to guide those decisions, and what it takes to make the right products easy to find— both for customers and for sales reps. They also talk through the role of brand and how Grainger uses AI to stay ahead.
If you’re thinking about how to sharpen your merchandising strategy, make your product catalog easier to navigate, or turn product data into a real competitive advantage, this episode is for you.