Description

Outstanding distributors need to attract, retain, and inspire Gen-Xers—the highly educated and sophisticated individuals who bring career expectations and demands totally different from those of their Baby Boomer predecessors. They want and need to know how their company is doing and how their work affects the results of the business. Getting these “newbies” into high-output mode rapidly is an economic necessity today, whether the new hires are sales professionals, supervisors, or management staff.

Volume 1—Exploring the Financial Fundamentals of Distribution is here to help you in fostering that understanding across your company. It is the basic training portion of the three-volume Official Guide to Wholesaler-Distributor Financial Success. This book should be "required reading" for anyone fairly new to the business world or who has business experience but is new to the wholesale distribution industry. It will equip your employees with the knowledge they need to understand how wholesaler-distributors are organized and generate profits and how to read and use financial statements.

What Readers Have to Say

"I'm really pleased with the usefulness of this three-volume set. In volumes 1 and 2, Brent Grover has clearly succeeded in helping newer employees gain a clearer understanding of 'the big picture' of a distribution firm and how each department fits within it and works together with other departments. He's taken important financial concepts and woven them into each chapter, so readers learn what is actually going on behind the scenes. These books will definitely help shorten the learning curve for our newer employees and department managers. Even after 30 years in distribution, I picked up some new and different financial management concepts from volume 3."

— Dan Blaylock, President, Adams-Burch Inc.

"Brent Grover has done a very good job of targeting his specific audiences in each volume of this three-volume set. Each book will help its respective audience understand how distributors really work and make a profit. I plan to add these books to our inbound training package for salespeople and new supervisory personnel. Anything we can do to effectively train the next generation of managers and sales reps about how you actually make money in this business is work well done."

— Mark Kramer, President/CEO, Laird Plastics, Inc.

"The three-volume Official Guide to Wholesaler-Distributor Financial Success hits the right combination of sophistication and simplicity...it provides clarity and help for ALL the audiences within a distribution company. I plan to buy these volumes and use them for new hires and current team members."

— Julia Klein, Chair and CEO, C.H. Briggs Company

Extended Description

Extra Features for Training New Staff

In the back of volume 1, you’ll find a valuable tool—a glossary of distribution financial terminology, which includes many of the terms used in this volume and others your staff will find helpful. Additionally, chapters 1–3 conclude with a list of discussion questions to help you transfer what has been learned from our hypothetical wholesaler-distributor to your company. Taking time to answer these questions will pay off as you start the transition to more financially oriented thinking; and as the staff begins to see how your company makes its profits, how they contribute to those profits, and why profits are needed to stay in business. Sprinkled throughout the book, you’ll see a series of sidebars called “The Accountant’s Toolbox.” They provide an in-depth look into certain accounting and financial management concepts that can enhance understanding and appreciation. These information capsules can equip your staff with the language and know-how they’ll need to apply the approaches they will be learning about.

Give volume 1 to your new employees who have little experience in business or wholesale distribution. It will introduce them to the financial fundamentals of the wholesale distribution industry. No matter what their current job duties are, they are some of the people who make things happen at your company. Through reading volume 1, they will be better prepared to thrive in their work and contribute to your company's future success. Take the time to teach your staff by organizing groups to discuss the review questions and make the hypothetical examples in the book become real by plugging in data from your own company.

The Official Guide to Wholesaler-Distributor Financial Success offers a continuum of financial management information for people in the wholesale distribution business.

After your new employees have mastered the fundamentals of volume 1 and as they advance in their careers at your company, help them move to the next challenge by studying the ideas in the other two volumes:

• Volume 2—Distributor Manager's Guide to Departmental and Branch Financial Excellence
• Volume 3—Distributor Executive's Guide to the Art of Top-Quartile Financial Performance.

Buy the set of three volumes and save!

Order multiple copies and get a quantity discount: Employees get the most value from industry-specific training presented by people in their own company, and when they study and discuss ideas with their colleagues at work.