Strategic industry partnerships can be a key to growing customer satisfaction and driving additional sales or inventory turns for your business. Today you have more global competition and a much more complex supply chain for your products. For some of your clients, it’s not always “How much is it?”, often it is ‘How fast can it get here?”. We’ll unpack how to pull strategic levers in your supply chain for rare, out of production, overstock and dead stock in your push to operate more profitably and with higher fill rates per order.

1. Session 112
3/16/19 9:30am
PEER ALLIANCES CAN IMPROVE YOUR
PROFITABILITY

2. Strategic industry partnerships can be a key to growing customer satisfaction and driving
additional sales or inventory turns for your business. Today you have more global
competition and a much more complex supply chain for your products. For some of your
clients, it’s not always “How much is it?”, often it is ‘How fast can it get here?”. We’ll unpack
how to pull strategic levers in your supply chain for rare, out of production, overstock and
dead stock in your push to operate more profitably and with higher fill rates per order.
Attendees will engage this decision and leave with some reports and tools they can use now
with their business to drive more gross margin, operating profit, and net income.

3. PEER ALLIANCES & STRATEGIC LEVERS
• Who in your industry?
• What value do they offer?
• What value do you offer?
• What is the client facing value?

4. PEER ALLIANCES… EQUATE TO PROFIT
• Target profitability
• Marketable Solutions
• Inventory Backfill
• Systems & Controls to facilitate the alliance

5. STOCK STRATEGIES - SOURCING
• Dead Stock/Obsolete/Supersession
• Out of Production
• Alternate Vendor Solutions
• Drop Ship/Master Distributor Relationships
Consider Whole Goods as parts options

6. STOCK STRATEGIES- DIVEST
• Dead Stock
• Out of Production
• Alternate Vendor: Your Value Proposition
• Drop Ship/Master Distributor Relationships
Consider Whole Goods as parts options

7. REPORTING
• ERP Inventory Reports
• Investment vs. Sales and GP $ (By vendor, by Product line, corporate and by
location/region)
• Start with your Top 20 Vendors, Then your bottom 100 by PO total value in past 36
months
• Measure Backorders to target increase stock levels or drop ship opportunities.

8. GETTING STARTED
• Networking Events (TUG, NAED, ASHRAE, NASM, IFMA, IBMA, NGA)
• Existing Buying Groups
• Existing Client Referrals
• Master Distributor (Reverse Supply Chain Work)
• Existing Vendor Referrals (Specialty Distributor Introductions)

9. REMEMBER
• Networks Drive Results. Cast a wide net
• Reverse Supply Chains
• Do not shotgun your approach, do 1 well, then expand the effort
• Set Goals and measure effort vs results regularly (adjust accordingly)

10. Session 112
3/16/19 9:30am
Kevin Lawson
kevin.lawson@earnestassoc.com
PEER ALLIANCES CAN IMPROVE YOUR
PROFITABILITY