Distribution & Wholesale marketing
Win The Reorder, Not Just The First Order
For distributors, wholesalers and channel businesses where the economics live in reorder rate, basket size and account retention rather than one-off acquisition.
Who this is for
Built For Distribution & Wholesale
Distributors and wholesalers selling to procurement teams and purchasing agents — businesses whose revenue depends on being the default supplier rather than the cheapest quote, and who are under pressure from B2B eCommerce and manufacturer-direct channels.
How these buyers actually buy
The Committee, And The Cycle It Runs On
Shorter than capital equipment but far more repeated — the real decision is which supplier becomes the default. Increasingly self-service: buyers check availability and pricing online and call only to negotiate or when something goes wrong.
Purchasing agent / buyer
“Price, availability and lead time — can you actually ship it?”
Procurement manager
“Terms, consolidation, and what does switching cost me?”
Inventory / supply-chain planner
“Does this improve fill rate and carrying cost?”
Operations
“Will this disrupt anything that currently works?”
Finance
“Total landed cost, payment terms, working capital.”
Executive sponsor
“Is this a supplier relationship worth consolidating into?”
Why it works
What A Named-Account Programme Changes
Own the default position
The account that reorders without shopping around is worth several that buy once on price.
Defend against direct and marketplace
Manufacturer-direct and B2B marketplaces compete on convenience. The answer is service, availability and switching cost made visible.
Grow share of wallet
Most distribution growth is already inside the customer base — more categories, more locations, more of the basket.
The problems we solve
Named, Not Generic
Reorder rate slips quietly
Nobody notices an account buying 30% less until the quarter closes. Account-level reporting surfaces it while there is still time to call.
You only hear from buyers when they want a discount
If the only touch is a quote request, the relationship is a price relationship. Lifecycle programmes change what the contact is about.
The catalogue is treated as one product
Thousands of SKUs marketed identically. Segmenting by margin, reorder velocity and strategic value puts the effort where the money is.
Channel partners get a folder, not a programme
Co-branded assets nobody uses. Real channel marketing runs against a shared account list with agreed ownership on both sides.
The system
How The System Works For You
Segment accounts by value, not volume
Tiering built on lifetime account value, reorder velocity and expansion headroom — so the top accounts get proportionate attention and the tail is served efficiently.
Sell to procurement in procurement's language
Availability, lead times, terms, total landed cost, consolidation and switching risk — the criteria a purchasing manager is actually measured on.
Make the reorder frictionless
Quote flows, account portals, reorder prompts and lifecycle campaigns wired into the CRM, so repeat business does not depend on a rep remembering.
Run dealer and channel programmes properly
Co-ordinated campaigns with and through your channel partners against a shared account list, rather than a folder of logos nobody uses.
Measure retention and share of wallet
Reorder rate, average order value, account penetration and net revenue retention — the numbers that actually describe a distribution business.
The services behind this: account-based marketing for the programme, LinkedIn Ads for reaching the committee inside named accounts, and CRM systems so coverage and pipeline are measurable rather than asserted — and where the account list has to be sourced and enriched at scale, a custom lead database underneath all of it.
Our methodology
The Account Engine
Every account-based programme we run moves through the same six stages, in the same order. It is the reason two different clients get the same rigour rather than whatever their strategist happened to prefer.
01 · Objective
The number the programme is judged on, the motion that gets there, and who owns each part. Agreed with sales and finance before anything is built.
02 · ICP
Firmographic, technographic and behavioural definition of accounts that can buy at your size and expand afterwards — not everyone who could theoretically use the product.
03 · Target accounts
A finite target account list, tiered 1:1 / 1:few / 1:many by what each account is worth, scored for fit and signed off by sales.
04 · Value proposition
What changes for the economic buyer, the champion, the technical evaluator and the blocker — each answered separately, because they are asking different questions.
05 · Playbooks
The channels, content and sequences that run against each tier, with entry and exit criteria so a play either earns its place or stops.
06 · Delivery & measurement
Account coverage, buying-committee reach, pipeline created and influenced, velocity and win rate — reported with the attribution window stated.
Straight answers
Distribution & Wholesale Marketing FAQ
Including the one about whether we have done this before.
Have you worked with distribution & wholesale companies before?
Our published client work is Ontario trades, retail, hospitality and e-commerce — we are not going to claim a distribution & wholesale portfolio we have not published. What transfers is the account-based discipline on this page, an in-house production crew, and paid media measured against pipeline rather than clicks. On the call we will tell you honestly whether your situation needs a specialist we cannot be.
How is this different from lead generation?
Lead generation optimises for volume of enquiries. A named-account programme starts from a finite list of companies worth winning and measures account coverage, buying-committee reach and pipeline. When the deal is large and the committee is six people, counting form fills tells you almost nothing.
What does it cost and how does it start?
Most engagements start with a paid diagnostic — a short, fixed-scope assessment of your ICP, target account list, committee coverage and reporting, ending in a written plan you own either way. Ongoing work is scoped and quoted plainly; there is no package tier and no public price list.
How long before we see pipeline?
Engagement signals — accounts moving from cold to active, more committee members reached — typically appear in 4 to 8 weeks. Pipeline follows your existing cycle, so on a twelve-month capital sale that is when revenue lands. Anyone promising closed enterprise deals in month one is describing something else.
Book A Call About Your Distribution & Wholesale Pipeline
Bring your target account list, your average deal size and your sales cycle. You'll leave with a written view of what to run first — hire us or not.
You'll talk to Cruz or Keegan — not a sales rep. Leave your strategy call with a written growth plan — yours to keep, hire us or not.