Distributors often look to direct-to-consumer giants for website inspiration, but B2B buyers have fundamentally different needs. They are not shopping for entertainment: they are doing a job. Kyler Nixon sits down with Tari Elkin from Restek Corporation to break down exactly how to convert busy lab managers into loyal customers.

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The secret is not adding more features: it is removing the barriers that stop the sale. Tari explains why Restek moves past vanity metrics to focus on pure utility. She shares a specific case study in which shifting the burden of account verification from the customer to the internal team led to a 40% increase in conversion rates. Kyler and Tari also discuss the critical role of accurate product data in preventing costly downtime for clients and how to prepare your digital infrastructure for the upcoming shift toward "Answer Engine Optimization."

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Tari Elkin helps lead the digital experience at Restek Corporation, an employee-owned developer and manufacturer of chromatography products based in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. With a background in research at Oregon State University, Tari bridges the gap between technical scientific needs and seamless e-commerce experiences. She focuses on data-driven enhancements that simplify procurement for lab managers and scientists worldwide.

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1. The Utility Mandate: Why B2B buyers care more about finding invoices and tracking shipments quickly than they do about flashy website designs.
2. The 40% Conversion Win: How Restek changed their account linking process to remove friction at the cart level and drastically increased sales.
3. Customer Advisory Panels: A practical framework for meeting with your most vocal customers biannually to validate your roadmap.
4. Rethinking Subscriptions: Using subscription models to give buyers control and flexibility rather than trapping them into unwanted monthly orders.
5. The Cost of Bad Data: Why a wrong SKU is just an annoyance in retail but causes massive revenue loss and downtime in industrial and scientific sectors.
6. Roadmap Strategy: Organizing agile development into boulders, rocks, and pebbles to balance major innovations with necessary maintenance.
7. Future-Proofing for AI: Preparing product data for "Answer Engine Optimization" so bots and humans can find your inventory.

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1. Restek Corporation

Most entrepreneurs believe the distribution market is a "solved game" dominated by giants like McKesson and Medline. Kevin Finley disagrees. In less than five months, he launched Keystone Supply Group and is already profitable by doing exactly what the legacy players refuse to do. This episode is a masterclass in supply chain resilience and aggressive, scrappy sales tactics for new distributors.

Kevin reveals how he leverages public government data to build prospect lists from zero and why he purposefully avoids net-30 terms to secure unbeatable pricing. He explains the critical role of "secondary distributors" when Tier 1 supply chains break down, citing the recent Baxter manufacturing crisis as a prime example. If you believe the market is too crowded for a new player, this conversation proves that agility, cash flow, and direct manufacturer relationships still beat massive scale.

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Kevin Finley is the Founder and CEO of Keystone Supply Group, a rapidly growing distribution firm based in Wayzata, Minnesota. With a background forged in the high-stakes pressure of COVID-19 procurement, Kevin specializes in bypassing traditional supply chain bottlenecks to serve healthcare and industrial clients directly. He champions a "Partner in Preparedness" philosophy, emphasizing transparency, speed, and the elimination of unnecessary intermediaries to deliver essential supplies when Tier 1 distributors fail.

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1. The COVID Wake-Up Call: Kevin explains how the pandemic exposed massive lapses in the traditional supply chain. He realized that when the "big guys" run out of stock, the entire market breaks down, creating a significant opportunity for agile secondary distributors.
2. Capitalizing on Crisis: The conversation shifts to the recent impact of Hurricane Helene on the Baxter manufacturing plant. Kevin details how smaller distributors can step in to support downstream clients, such as surgery centers, when national supply lines are severed.
3. The "Ripple Effect" Sales Method: Starting with zero customers requires scrappy tactics. Kevin describes how he dissects a single win—such as selling gloves to a New Jersey wholesaler—to immediately identify and pitch similar businesses in the same region.
4. Hacking Government Data: You do not need to buy expensive lists to find leads. Kevin explains how he uses tools like BidNet and BidPrime to find public bid requests, using specific keywords to identify exactly who is buying which products right now.
5. State vs. Federal Bidding: If you want to enter the government market, do not start with federal contracts. Kevin advises focusing on state and local bids first, where the paperwork is manageable (5-10 pages) compared to the 100-page complexity of federal RFPs.
6. Building Systems to Scale: Kevin discusses the importance of documenting every process before hiring. He shares his strategy of recording screen captures for invoicing and shipping to ensure new hires can replicate his work without constant supervision.

B2B distribution marketing is changing fast. The old playbook of sending a catalog once a year and waiting for the phone to ring is dead. Today's business buyers are consumers first. They check texts between meetings. They listen to podcasts on their commute. They doom-scroll TikTok.

In this episode, Kyler sits down with Damien Garber from Groomer’s Choice Pet Products to break down how a legacy distributor is aggressively pivoting to digital channels. Damien reveals why they didn't just start a podcast: they acquired an audience instead. He also shares the data behind their massive success with SMS marketing and why asking for a phone number on your website might not be as scary as you think.

If you want to modernize your marketing mix without alienating your core customers, this conversation is the blueprint.

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Damien Garber is the Sales & Marketing Manager at Groomer’s Choice Pet Products, a family-owned manufacturer and distributor based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Since joining the team, Damien has helped steer the company's commercial strategy, overseeing marketing initiatives and customer experience for independent salon owners. He plays a central role in the company's growth, including the recent 2025 acquisition of Showseason® Animal Products. Damien focuses on equipping professional groomers with the education and tools they need to run profitable businesses.

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Most companies try to start a podcast from scratch. Groomer’s Choice took a smarter route. They partnered with Joe Zello, an existing industry influencer with a 40-year track record. By bringing the "Hey Joe" podcast under their umbrella, they instantly tapped into a loyal audience.

The result: The email announcing new episodes has a 40% open rate. It replaced their generic "welcome" sequences and now serves as a high-value top-of-funnel entry point.

There is a myth that texting is only for B2C brands. Damien proves that wrong. Groomer’s Choice uses SMS for abandoned carts, re-engagement, and flash sales. Because groomers are often on their feet working with animals, they respond to texts faster than to emails.

The data: Open rates are as high as 97% for text campaigns. It is quickly becoming a top-three revenue channel for the business.

Conventional wisdom holds that asking for too much information on a sign-up form reduces conversion rates. Damien’s team tested this. They required a phone number alongside the email address on their site pop-ups. The result? Zero drop in opt-in rates. If customers value what you offer, they are willing to share their contact information.

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1. Why Groomer’s Choice partnered with an existing podcaster instead of starting from zero.
2. Moving from 6 catalogs a year to a digital-first ecosystem.
3. Seeing 40% open rates on podcast-related...

Manufacturers need great distributors and great distributors need great manufacturers, especially when the line between B2B and B2C keeps blurring. On this conversation of Darn Good Distributors, host Kyler Nixon sits down with Jonathan Costa from Rex-Cut Abrasives to highlight the relationship between a manufacturer and its distribution network.

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Jonathan shares how a full scale abrasive manufacturer with around 10,000 SKUs structures a business that is roughly 90 percent distribution and 10 percent limited B2C e commerce for mom and pop shops, garage guys, and hobbyists. He talks about distributors who are committed to finding the best solution for their customer, service that feels like a first name relationship, and why education over promotion matters in the abrasive world.

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Kyler brings the distributor perspective on product data, pricing, and big contracts, and both sides talk honestly about morals, ethics, quantity limits on web stores, and why everyone has to work together for the benefit of the customer.

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Jonathan Costa represents Rex-Cut Abrasives, an abrasive manufacturer that has been in business since around 1920. Jonathan describes Rex-Cut as a full scale, full service abrasive manufacturer known for cotton fiber abrasives, grinding wheels, cutoff wheels, non woven products, and high quality niche solutions for aircraft, aerospace, automotive, and other applications.

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Working with roughly 400 to 500 distributors and a smaller B2C web store, Jonathan focuses on relationships, service, education, and solving problems for end users while respecting long term distribution partnerships in both B2B and B2C settings.

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• Why the relationship between manufacturers and distributors matters and how that ecosystem should look when manufacturers sell primarily through distribution
• How Rex-Cut Abrasives reaches roughly 90 percent B2B distribution and 10 percent B2C through a limited web store, Amazon, and other supplier partners
• What makes a good partnership from the manufacturer side, including distributors who are committed to finding the best solution for their customer even when a current process already works
• Service as a differentiator, including answering the phone, dropping by shops, first name relationships, outside sales reps, and distributors who go to bat for a manufacturer
• Why Jonathan and his team focus on education over promotion, using distributor trainings, product composition, tips and tricks, YouTube, LinkedIn, video, photo, and content
• How product specs like size, grit, grain type, bonds, and clear data help distributors avoid incomplete product data sheets and support customers who need to fit a product to a machine, part, or job
• Frustrating moments when manufacturers and distributors compete for the same customer, including examples of lower direct pricing and big contracts that damage trust
• How quantity limits on a B2C web store, respect for the line in the sand, morals, and ethics help balance B2B distribution and B2C e commerce
• Closing thoughts on distributors and manufacturers working together, holding integrity high, communicating clearly, and driving value for the customer

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Acquisition costs are up, ad costs are up, and retention is a core focus of 2026 and beyond for distributors. On Darn Good Distributors, host Kyler Nixon brings on friend of the show and business partner Jeff Felten from Forward Studios to talk about going deeper inside your existing house file and getting second, third, fourth, and fifth orders from customers you already acquired.

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They focus on warm, consent based email lists that sit in tools like MailChimp, HubSpot, or Klaviyo and walk through three ways distributors are using email to drive retention in 2026. Jeff explains why segmenting customers as inside the buying window or outside the buying window lines up with real B2B buying behavior, how to match the right message to the right person at the right time, and why simple text based emails that feel like they came from another person can quadruple conversion rates. If retention, LTV, and AOV are front of mind, this practical conversation keeps your brand top of mind for business buyers.

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Jeff Felten is a friend of the show and business partner to Kyler Nixon. Together they run Forward Studios, where they help distributors leverage email marketing to improve retention, increase LTV, and increase AOV. Jeff works in the weeds with clients on warm, consent based email lists and practical campaigns so distributors can capture more high intent buyers and drive second, third, fourth, and fifth orders from customers who already purchased.

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• Cold email versus warm, consent based email and why this conversation is only about the list you already own
• Why standard demographic segmentation by vertical, job title, or engagement delivers an incomplete picture of B2B buying behavior
• Segmenting customers as inside the buying window or outside the buying window based on real buying signals and behavior
• How to hit customers inside the buying window with product recommendations, category recommendations, direct promotions, and clear brand positioning that help them move faster
• Nurturing customers outside the buying window with helpful tools, resources, blog posts, PDFs, checklists, finder tools, and off season examples like golf courses in Wisconsin
• The piggy bank picture of email marketing, balancing deposits of nurture content with moments when it is time to sell
• Why business buyers tune out flashy, heavily designed promos that feel like ads and respond to short text based emails that look like person to person messages
• Key metrics for email driven retention like revenue per recipient, revenue per campaign, conversion rate, AOV, and how stronger email can lift organic and direct revenue

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• Forward Studios
• Kyler Nixon on LinkedIn
• Jeff Felten on LinkedIn
• MailChimp
• HubSpot

Customer Smile Champion in a LinkedIn bio stopped Kyler Nixon while he was scrolling and turned into a practical conversation with Terry Brei, president of Sure Controls. Customer first sits as a key cultural pillar, with manufacturers literally lined down and production back up and running when components and parts arrive at the right time.

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Terry shares how autonomy, customer first, and creating smiles together shape decisions like overnight shipping, internal healthy tension between sales, finance, marketing and service, and a constant journey to meet customers where they are. From plant automation to make you smile to Sure University, internship programs, and very consultative support with web handling, thermal and fluid process control, autonomous mobile robots and micro automation, this conversation stays practical, people focused, and centered on working together as a team.

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Terry Brei serves as president at Sure Controls and proudly carries the Customer Smile Champion title in his LinkedIn bio. Customer first functions as a key cultural pillar, with Terry focused on empowering team members with autonomy to do what is best with the information they have so a customer is smiling at the end of doing business. He emphasizes creating smiles together through plant automation to make you smile, consultative service, and continual development through tools like Sure University and an internship program inside a very team oriented environment.

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• Customer first as a key cultural pillar at Sure Controls and what it means when manufacturers are literally lined down
• Autonomy that empowers team members to pick overnight shipping, resolve situations, learn, and avoid punitive responses when customers are taken care of
• Hiring for team players, service oriented people and using small signals like garbage on the floor alongside continual investment in EQ, negotiations training and customer service
• Extending service to every area of the business so accounting, finance, marketing, sales, operations and executives all serve internal and external customers
• Healthy tension between sales, finance, marketing and service and how working together, rowing the boat in the same direction, leads to the best results
• Meeting customers where they are with zero touch e-store buyers and highly relational customers who want sales team members in their facilities and plants
• Evaluating AI, ERP upgrades and customer relationship management systems to connect data, enable proactive communication and enhance customer care and order fulfillment
• Very consultative support in web handling, thermal and fluid process control, robotics, autonomous mobile robots and micro automation so customers feel like they finally got the right person on the phone
• Sure University, training hardware, a slitter packed with drive platforms and PLC platforms, plus internship programs that help grow people professionally and personally over time

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• Sure Controls
• Terry Brei on LinkedIn

Very few distributors have success with a rewards program, but this one is crushing it. Kyler Nixon sits down with Jackson Orin to talk about the Reinders Rewards program and a year long loyalty program designed to keep customers engaged all year instead of dropping off after seasonal online only campaigns.

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They walk through internal conversations about e-commerce, ERP, and platform selection, the decision to give greater point value for online purchases, and the move to a digital-first rewards dashboard tied to the website. Jackson explains points managers, account credits, gift cards, surveys, testimonials, newsletter signups, job site photos, and vendor co-op campaigns with double and triple points. The conversation also hits pre-launch and post-launch marketing, goals like 40 percent points manager signups, a 120 percent increase in online order values for customers who earn points, and lessons from returns, accounting, and credit that help make the user experience as frictionless as possible.

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Jackson Orin is from Reinders and works in a marketing position with a team that has pushed heavily into the e-commerce space for the last 10-plus years. He helps connect the website, rewards platform, and ERP, and works closely with sales teams, vendor partners, accounting, and credit to keep the rewards dashboard and points manager experience at the core of everything they do. Jackson brings experience with loyalty programs, online adoption, year-over-year numbers, and future plans for the rewards catalog and rewards landing page.

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• How feedback from sales teams, seasonal online only programs, and big drop offs in online engagement led to a year long loyalty program instead of short term campaigns.
• What the team looked for in a rewards platform, including seamless integration with the e-commerce platform and ERP, a digital first rewards dashboard, and support for B2B structure, point calculations, and customer exclusions.
• Why online adoption sits at the center of the program, with one reward point for every dollar spent online, one reward point for every four dollars spent offline, and a focus on keeping long time offline customers rewarded.
• How the points manager model works so one person per company can redeem rewards while multiple users still access the rewards dashboard, track redemptions, and avoid miscommunications.
• The redemption experience for account credits and gift cards, including Amazon, Apple, airlines, physical and digital gift cards, and clear visibility into bonus points from vendor co-op campaigns.
• Extra earning activities beyond purchasing, like submitting testimonials, completing surveys, signing up for the newsletter, uploading job site photos, and moderation to handle competitors products or low quality images.
• How vendor partnerships and co-op campaigns offer two times and three times points on specific brands like Rain Bird irrigation products and deliver strong year over year numbers for key categories.
• The go-to market plan around January 2025, including teasing the program in September and October, multi-part email campaigns, poster boards in stores, graphics on TVs, website messaging, a blog, social messaging, flyers, and points manager signup ahead of launch.
• Targets and early results, such as aiming for 40 percent of companies with online purchases in 2024 to have a points manager in place, being on track to hit that mark, and seeing about 120 percent increase in online order values for customers who earned points in 2025.
• Lessons learned from...

Supplies should be one of the easiest parts of a dental practice, not another problem on a long list of cancellations, staffing issues and insurance reimbursement. In this conversation, Kyler Nixon sits down with fellow Wisconsinite Jordan Lorenz from Green Bay to talk about what it really takes to run a dental distribution company that feels both fun and serious.

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Jordan explains how Dental City balances private label and house brand products with top manufacturers so practices can choose between infection control consumables and premium clinical materials without losing brand trust. He shares why the team chose a colorful, clean look instead of the typical sterile distributor site, and how that connects directly to a culture that is competitive, playful and focused on growth.

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From leading sales and marketing together to installing 21 robots in the warehouse, Jordan keeps coming back to the same idea: understand how people buy, keep the hurdle to purchase low, and get the boring stuff right over and over again.

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Jordan Lorenz leads sales and marketing at Dental City, a privately held dental distribution company in Green Bay. He works in an environment that is both fun and competitive, with fat tire bike races, obstacle courses, full court and half court basketball, a racquetball court and a workout facility on site. Jordan focuses on helping a dental distribution business that sells dental supplies across the country keep its brand colorful, clean and different from the sterile feel that often shows up in dental and medical distribution.

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• How a dental distribution company sells dental supplies across the country, from infection control products like gloves and masks to filling material and local anesthetics.
• Private label, house brand and white label products in dental distribution, and why it is important to also carry really great branded product from some of the top manufacturers in the world.
• The brand connection created when a house brand sits next to big names like 3M and Honeywell, and how that can produce retention and an element of separation while giving practices options on price and consumables.
• Why Dental City chooses a colorful, clean, opposite of sterile brand presence with a fun logo, bold color and even a football player on the homepage to stand out in dental and medical distribution.
• A culture that is fun and serious at the same time, with fat tire bike races, an obstacle course, basketball courts and racquetball, all inside a company that is pushing for growth and wants to win.
• Jordan’s view of leading sales and marketing together so they are aligned on acquiring new customers and growing current customers while still operating on their own agenda with independent calls to action and flows.
• How every customer who comes in from marketing channels like email, direct mail, flyers, LinkedIn ads or Google shopping still needs to be serviced on the sales end because dental practices are cyclical buyers, not one time transactions.
• The mix of sales channels that matter right now, from picking up the phone and dialing to trade shows, catalogs and marketing pieces in the mail, along with digital paths where people find you on Google shopping and buy directly.
• Why Jordan pays attention to consumer behavior like shopping on Amazon, preferring text messages and consuming media in small and short snippets, then expects those patterns to show up in B2B buying inside dental practices.
• The reality that the person purchasing supplies in a...