When commonsku launched 10 years ago, our goal was to make it easier for distributors and suppliers to sell, easier to grow.
We envisioned a world where distributors would spend more time doing the work they love, working with clients on the creative and project side of the business, and far less of their time on the admin and production side of the business. And a world where suppliers could collaborate with distributors easily, in a way that would be a win-win and support everyone’s growth.
We knew technology could automate the unnecessary and frustrating parts of the business in order to liberate the enjoyable parts, creativity and solution-selling.
Today, we’re doubling down on that commitment with a new distributor benefits program, in partnership with the industry’s top tier suppliers, launching January 1st to kick start the new year.
Simplified pricing with all commonsku suppliers: The pricing in our industry is unnecessarily complex, with too much time spent hunting through information and trying to remember what pricing level applies. We have worked with our supplier partners to provide commonsku distributors with simplified pricing - EQP where possible, and automated pricing for our fully Connected Suppliers.
Clearer benefits: commonsku distributors are the fastest growing distributors in the industry. Due to this growth and the production simplicity realized through a connected workflow, our amazing supplier partners have committed to bringing a broader and deeper set of benefits to distributors who are on commonsku. These benefits are unique to each supplier and will be launching Jan 1 in our new benefits portal.
Ideas at your fingertips: Distributors waste precious time searching for the right product, stumbling through the right keyword combination and scrolling through hundreds of results. We have worked with our supplier partners to create Collections, curating their product knowledge around outcomes your clients are trying to achieve. We want you to be able to get ideas out faster and move on to land the next sale.
Less time following-up: There are an average of eight manual touches on every order a distributor submits to a supplier. Through the launch of our new Production Report, we are automating order status and ship notifications directly to you. We want you to have the key information you need, live at your fingertips, rather than having to email or call the supplier.
The supplier partners on commonku are committing to work with our distributor community more strategically, creatively, collaboratively, and in a way that is integrated and easy.
If we are going to grow this industry back, in a way that is a win-win for both distributors and suppliers, we need a partnership that is profitable on both sides. Many legacy arrangements in this industry have required the suppliers to give and give and give, with a nebulous promise of sales in return.
If the supplier is going to give on pricing and benefits, the distributor needs to bring something to the table as well, primarily, sales growth, but they can also bring a reduced cost to service. By leveraging the technology tools in place, the distributor can deliver cleaner purchase orders to suppliers and reduce customer service costs by accessing order status and ship notifications digitally. The combination of all of these things creates a win-win foundation that can make 2021 the best year this industry has seen yet!