MDM Shift Delivers Thought Leadership & Ideas

A couple of weeks ago John Gunderson and I had the privilege to be invited to the NAW / MDM Shift conference. John was a conference presenter. Channel Marketing Group was proud to partner with NAW and MDM to promote the conference and provide our readers with a discount on the registration fee.

This thought leadership conference had about 175 distributor attendees. Market leaders from a wide array of industries.

The sessions were all thought-provoking sessions designed to help distributors differentiate themselves and profitably grow. There were also cohort groups for NAW members where non-competing distributors sit at roundtables and share challenges, opportunities, ideas, and build relationships that inevitably share best practices to help companies excel.

So, what does this have to do with the electrical industry? Some of the electrical distributors that attended included Graybar, Van Meter, Kendall, DSG Supply (Dakota Supply Group), CED, Turtle, Winsupply, Fastenal, and others. Senior management people from a variety of functional areas.

John shared an article on Industrial Supply Trends that overviewed much of the conference.

“Modern Distribution Management (MDM) Shift event was held last week (May 13-15th in Englewood, Colorado). The event has continued to evolve over the past 9 years, and it was once again attended by who’s who of distribution leaders.

Many leading distributors also presented at MDM Shift ranging from large public companies Ferguson & Motion Industries to family-held leaders like Kimball Midwest. The evolution of MDM Shift, led by the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) team has helped SHIFT grow and cover all the key functional areas of distribution. The event was well represented in the Electrical Channel even with NAED being this week with much of the top 20 distributors list represented.

MDM Shift this year had four tracks for the attendees to choose from:

• Hybrid Sales
• Data Analytics
• Digital
• Culture

I was fortunate to be part of the data analytics track and help lead the kickoff session. I also co-presented a tactical track session with Bill Sexton of Global Industrial on Customer and Product Segmentation. So, for this first article recap we will focus on just the Data Analytics tracks.

We decided to dive into publicly reported Customer and Product Segmentation in the Industrial Channel (Fastenal, Grainger, and MSC Industrial). These three publicly traded companies along with Global Industrial input from Bill gave us the opportunity to go tactical and show each of the companies’ unique approach to product and customer segmentation. We covered more than just high-level product and customer segmentation tactics. As a total segmentation approach provides the key ingredients you need to create and manage inventory positions and create better sell-side prices that drive sales and profits.

Data Analytics needs to be more than just a buzzword

Bill Sexton and I showed real examples on how top distributors are adding real value to their business with an organized data analytics approach in a session called The Power of Precise Customer Segmentation.”

Some other things that I felt were important were:

• There as a session on it and many distributors engaged in conversations about what they are doing with AI. Bottom line, it is being tested and used. Further, there were many service provider companies pitching AI solutions. Some paid to have booths and there were a number of start-ups pitching ideas and solutions.
• Surprisingly not much conversation in the sessions but reportedly discussed in the cohort groups.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll share feedback from some of the other presentations.

Service Providers exhibited and while a number commented that they wished for more traffic (as expected) all had booths and had an opportunity to engage.

MDM Shift Distributors … Market Leaders

According to John, who has attended other MDM Shift conferences since it was launched in 2017 (at that time it was called MDM Sales GPS), “MDM and NAW have taken the event to the next level this year and the attendance showed. The venue was packed for almost every session with some of the best discussions I have seen all year at industry events.”

Over the years I’ve been to many industry conferences. This was my first MDM Shift conference, which is now part of NAW. The conference was open to all. Presuming it is next year, if you’re a distributor seeking ideas to grow your business and fellowship with other like-minded distributors who you can share ideas with, you should be attending this conference. It was 2 ½ days of ideas (and in the words of a client who has since retired “it will make your head hurt” because you’ll be thinking and walk away with ideas plus the registration fee included all meals and was at a reasonably priced hotel … and reasonable priced for the value proposition.

Further, if you are an NAW member, you get to participate in the cohort groups. Distributors commented that this was a huge benefit … and many have developed strong relationships, enabling them to have informal advisory councils. I don’t know what it costs to join NAW, but it could be worthwhile to inquire as these relationships and cohort groups could be invaluable … along with the presentations.

In conversations with others who are acquainted with various building trade associations, the takeaway was MDM Shift was a strategic, thought-leadership conference whereas vertically-oriented industry association meetings are “strategically tactical” where this was defined as “strategic because it is focused on the industry and hopefully there is some market insights, usually generated through information sharing, and “tactical” because distributors meet with their manufacturers.

Attending MDM Shift, powered by NAW, can provide some of these distributors with a competitive advantage. Something to consider for 2026.