The Distribution Blog

Proton and Revenue Optics Partner to Fix Distribution’s Broken Inside Sales Model

November 13, 2025

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Proton.ai, the leading AI-powered growth platform for distributors, and Revenue Optics, an inside sales consulting firm with two decades of distribution experience, today announced a partnership to rebuild the industry’s outdated inside sales model.

For many distributors, inside sales is expensive and inefficient. Reps spend too much time chasing small accounts while overlooking high-potential customers. The result is uneven coverage, wasted effort and missed revenue. This new partnership helps distributors fix that by combining Proton’s AI technology, which identifies the best accounts to target and what to sell them, with Revenue Optics’s proven outbound playbook to drive organic growth.

The partnership delivers a modern inside sales engine that helps reps move faster and capture more revenue from existing customers.

A shared mission

“Most distributors have millions of dollars sitting in under-covered accounts,” said Ali Hasham, Founder and CEO of Revenue Optics. “This partnership helps unlock that value by giving sales teams the focus, process and follow-through to close more deals.”

“Reps do their best work when they know exactly which customers to focus on,” said Benj Cohen, Founder & CEO of Proton.ai. “Our AI gives them that clarity by surfacing opportunities buried in their data, and Revenue Optics provides a clear playbook along with high-caliber sales talent to turn those insights into better follow-up, better conversations and better performance.”

Turning AI into action

Proton’s AI technology analyzes customer and transaction data to help reps spot which accounts are most likely to buy and what products they’re most likely to want. That means less time chasing dead ends and more time converting real opportunities.

Revenue Optics helps teams translate those insights into a wider team strategy. Based on 20 years of experience building and leading inside sales organizations for distributors, its model gives inside sales teams the structure and coaching they need to stay proactive and productive.

Proton.ai and Revenue Optics have each helped distributors achieve stronger, more consistent sales results. Distributors using Proton.ai grow 2.6x faster in their first year, while those using Revenue Optics’s playbook see 24% organic growth and 3x more account coverage on small to mid-size accounts. Together, their experience gives distributors a proven path to build higher-performing inside sales teams.

Built by distribution experts

At the core of this partnership are two leaders who’ve reshaped how distributors sell. 

Hasham is a 25-year distribution veteran who built Motion Industries’s first inside sales team from the ground up, scaling it to 90 sellers and driving consistent double-digit growth. He’s also led sales programs that generated tens of millions in new revenue at companies like WESCO and TruckPro.

Cohen comes from a fourth-generation distribution family. While studying data science at Harvard, he saw how technology could help distributors like his family’s business compete more effectively. That insight led him to start Proton.ai, an AI-powered growth platform built to help distributors use their customer and product data to grow faster.

Scaling for speed and impact

Both teams are scaling quickly to support distributors.

In the past six months, Proton has launched two major AI innovations: Pronto, an  AI feature that connects to ERP, CRM and product data to answer reps’ questions in real time, and Proton PIM, a standalone product that uses AI agents to enrich and organize incomplete product data. The company has also added 37 new team members to accelerate development and deliver new tools to distributors faster.

Over the past 90 days, Revenue Optics has expanded its leadership and delivery organization to meet rising client demand — adding proven talent from Motion Industries, WESCO, McKinsey & Company and Wokelo.ai across finance, marketing, sales transformation, growth systems and analytics. This rapid buildout shows the firm’s ability to scale with speed and attract top-tier industry talent. 

About the partnership

Proton.ai and Revenue Optics are setting a new standard for inside sales in distribution. Together, they combine AI-driven focus with proven sales systems that help teams expand coverage, move faster and drive faster organic growth.

Leading distributors are already adopting the model, with more implementations underway.

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