Milnes Joins Forward Solutions to Support Electris360

When you have 11 different brands across many different industries, represent probably a 100+ manufacturers, sell to maybe a 1000 different distributors across the brands and tens of thousands of customers, let alone have 100s of salespeople, sales management gets complicated. It helps to have someone who can be an enabler … who can identify cross-channel opportunities, share best practices, and be another “senior management business card” in the right situations.

And that’s why Forward Solutions, the parent company of Electris360, whose brands are ElectroRep, Fields Electric, and RB Sales just hired Ray Milnes III as VP Enterprise Sales.

According to a Forward Solutions press release:

“Forward Solutions, the engine behind a national portfolio of outsourced sales and service brands, today announced the appointment of Raymond Milnes III as Vice President of Enterprise Sales.

In this newly created role, Ray will lead the development and execution of Forward Solutions’ go-to-market strategy with a focus on accelerating sales performance and cross-functional collaboration. His efforts will be key to connecting manufacturing partners across multiple divisions, empowering strategic distributors to champion Forward’s full brand portfolio, and helping large end users fully realize the value of integrated solutions from across the company’s commercial ecosystem.

Ray brings over two decades of sales leadership experience from organizations such as Cardinal Health, Medtronic, and Covidien. Known for building high-performing teams and transforming complex sales operations, Ray has a strong track record of driving profitable growth through scalable, customer-centric strategies.

“Ray’s leadership strengthens our ability to go to market as one unified organization while unlocking new opportunities across our entire network,” said Joe Orednick, President & CEO of Forward Solutions. “His experience and vision will help our teams sell smarter, faster, and with greater alignment—delivering more value to the manufacturers, distributors, and end users we serve.”

In addition to aligning divisional efforts, Ray will oversee the integration of newly acquired partners and optimize how Forward Solutions’ internal sales teams leverage technology and tools to execute with greater precision.”

Based upon this, the question becomes, “what does this mean for Electris360, its operating agencies, as well as its manufacturers and distributors?” Especially given the breadth of the company (and if you’re Ray you ask “where do I start?”)

So, I reached out to Bill Devereaux, President of Electris360, and asked him. Bill shared:

“Ray’s role is a newly created position designed to enhance alignment and elevate how we go to market as a unified Forward Solutions platform. For Electris360 specifically, I see him playing a few key roles:

• Strategic Support Across Divisions: Ray will help connect the dots between Electris360 and other Forward brands to identify shared opportunities, align messaging, and eliminate duplication in our approach to key distributors and national contractors.
• Manufacturer Engagement: He brings a strong enterprise sales background that will be valuable when working with large manufacturers—especially those looking to scale across multiple Forward divisions. Ray will be able to support us in aligning on multi-division strategies and making the most of those relationships.
• Contractor-Facing Coordination: As we work more closely with large regional and national contractors, Ray will help ensure we are positioning the full value of the Forward Solutions network and not just acting in siloed territory roles. This could open doors for bundled value propositions and stronger project wins.
• Sales Enablement and Tools: Ray will also be focused on how we leverage technology and data across the enterprise—tools like Sales Spark and eventually REVit. His role will help ensure these systems serve the divisions more effectively and support smarter selling.

In short, I see Ray as an enabler—not someone changing what Electris360 does, but someone who can help us do it at a higher level and in closer collaboration with the broader Forward ecosystem.”

Welcome to the electrical industry Ray.

Food for Thought

• The investment in this type of role highlights one of the findings from NEMRA’s 2025 Rep of the Future report (and for an early version, in PPT format, email me.) That finding is diversification. While Forward Solutions can offer end-users, perhaps contractors, diversification across multiple industries, other manufacturer representatives will seek diversification in other ways (such as how Yusen did in its recent merger with A.A. McPherson.)
• The diversification for manufacturers was one of the potential takeaways from NEMRA’s Manufacturer of the Future report which highlights what manufacturers may seek from reps.
• Multi-territory coordination is becoming more important with contractors traveling beyond their state, more frequently outside of a region, especially as some specialize in certain types of projects or as contractors are acquired (or are acquired by PE firms.) Different service models will evolve.
• Electrical distribution represents about 55% of total electrical material sales in the U.S. Aside from “retail” and direct, there are other channels that also sell some electrical material … think Grainger as an example or the plumbing and HVAC industries. And don’t forget the utility segment that goes to market direct but also through reps who sell direct as well as call on distributors. Electrical manufacturers have reps in these industries. Could a manufacturer work with multiple Forward Solutions brands for different industries?

Whether a manufacturer representative is very focused or has a broad reach facilitated by its scale, both can market their strategic emphasis as a strength. Much depends upon what is important to the manufacturer and, at the end of the day, the effectiveness of the agency. One is not better than the other. Perhaps “we” (the channel, manufacturers, customers) need both?