December 2004              return to newsletter contents page

New NAW Book Provides Pricing Strategies for Wholesaler-Distributors

A new book on pricing and margin management for wholesaler-distributors has been released by the Distribution Research and Education Foundation (DREF) of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW).

“Price for Success: A Practical Guide for Improving Margins in Wholesale Distribution” is a resource guide on pricing for distributors interested in driving higher margins. Its author is Anthony Pericle, Founder and Principal of Advanous, Richmond, Va.

"We developed this book for distributors who want to strengthen margins by adopting better and smarter

pricing strategies,” said Pericle. “Our book comprises strategies, tactics, and case studies to help executives, sales managers, and pricing managers take steps toward building a pricing foundation for improved margin management and long-term profitability.”

The book draws from three primary resources: survey responses from 200 wholesale distribution executives, in-depth interviews with 50 senior distribution executives, and the experiences of Advanous' team members, who have provided margin management services to numerous distributors across diverse lines of trade.

“In an industry facing shrinking margins, pricing management is of critical and growing importance,” said DREF Executive Director Ron Schreibman. “Advanous takes a commonsense approach to pricing by sharing methodologies and best practices that have proved successful in the marketplace. We encourage all wholesaler-distributors to read this report and apply its pricing principals to their business.”

“Price for Success” is available at http://www.nawpubs.org or by calling NAW at 202-872-0885.

NAW (http://www.naw.org) is a Washington, D.C.-based trade association representing the wholesale distribution industry.

Advanous (http://www.advanous.com), a division of EnterBridge Technologies, Inc., helps distributors generate higher profits through more effective margin management. Advanous delivers increased profits to its clients through Point to Profit™, a margin-enhancement service that combines technology, analytics and industry expertise to increase margin performance across a company's business.

Facing the Forces of Change

Facing the Forces of Change: The Road to Opportunity provides strategic insights into key issues impacting the wholesale distribution supply chain through 2008. It covers key industry demographics, four major trends impacting wholesaler-distributors, competitive threats to distributors, the latest developments in supply chain technology, conflicting salesforce concepts, evolving manufacturer relations and much more.

Click here to read an article based on findings from the book

 http://www.naw.org/pdf/Fein-FTF2004O.pdf

Adam J. Fein, Ph.D., conceptualized, researched and wrote Facing the Forces of Change: The Road to Opportunity with the staff of Pembroke Consulting. Fein is President of Pembroke Consulting and leads the firm's work with wholesale distribution executives. He is the author of many publications for NAW/DREF, including Winning Strategies for a Consolidating Wholesale Distribution Industry and Facing the Forces of Change: Future Scenarios for Wholesale Distribution. Fein was also Executive Editor for Facing the Forces of Change OUTLOOK 2003 and NAW Economic Forecast 2004. He serves as the first Fellow of NAW's Distribution Research and Education Foundation and as a Senior Fellow at the Wharton School of Business Mack Center for Technological Innovation.  He will also be a speaker at AVDA’s 2005 Annual Conference, April 17-19 at The Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Florida.

Pembroke Consulting works with senior executives at wholesale distribution, manufacturing and B2B technology companies to build and sustain market leadership.