Thoughts from the 2024 NAW/MDM SHIFT conference

Where is the channel headed in 2025 and beyond?

Last week, I was 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.

My key takeaways?

My takeaways for the electrical channel from MDM/NAW Shift 2024 to share are as follows-

1. Non-Electrical Channels like HVACR, Building Materials, Plumbing, Industrial, etc. are serving similar type customers and there is much to learn as an Electrical Channel leader that the “other channels” are doing that could be applied to your business.
2. 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 electrical channel business will not be affected in the short or long term, in my opinion this would be an unwise position.

Your culture is crucial to understanding 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 applies to most distributors business.

The Conference

Modern Distribution Management (MDM) has been hosting this annual event for Distribution Leaders called Shift (originally sales GPS) for about the last decade. I have been fortunate to attend 5-6 of these great in person events.

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 -13^th MDM which is now part of the National Association of Wholesalers- Distributors (NAW) had CEO’s and Senior Leaders present from electrical channel leaders such as WESCO, USESI, McNaughton & McKay, Graybar, and Schneider Electric at MDM Shift 2024. Overall, there were about 250 attendees. They were joined by leaders who presented from other channels including HVACR, Plumbing, Construction Supplies, Industrial, MRO 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.

Key Sessions at SHIFT

The sessions that really jumped out that were led by Electrical Channel leaders that I found very informative were-

• Designing an Ideal Distribution Technology Stack: Ramanujam Theekshidar, Chief Digital Officer, U.S. Electrical Services- moderated by Tony Pericle, from Profit Optics. The USESI approach was fascinating to hear in person and was very helpful.
• Sarah Feilher from electrical manufacturing leader Schneider Electric talked about Channel Innovation in depth in a great panel session and shared some key insights from the manufacturer side that were compelling.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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. Here’s an overview I recently shared.

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 electrical, and a few of the many great sessions that stood out, in my opinion, were:

• 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.
• 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.

Overall, it was a very productive, and more importantly, informative, couple of days.

If you are interested in more specific feedback regarding any of the sessions, feel free to reach out to me.

Note – for those unaware, I have expanded my collaboration with David Gordon and Channel Marketing Group. What started on HVACRTrends is now evolving and I’ll be periodically sharing insights and category management perspectives on ElectricalTrends while also supporting US Lighting Trends.