From the Proton team
February has been a wild ride, we’ve got tariff drama heating up at the Supreme Court, a masterclass on building inside sales teams that don’t fall apart, and some sneaky-smart AI tricks for training your team.
Let’s dig in.
In our ears
Ali Hasham’s advice on building the best inside sales team
Benj recently sat down with Ali Hasham, who’s built three inside sales teams from scratch across electrical, automotive, and industrial distribution.
Here are his top 3 takeaways:
If onboarding takes longer than 2 weeks, something is broken. Ali’s gotten new hires selling by day 7-10. His approach: hire for grit over experience, nail the first week of product knowledge, and let technology handle account prioritization.
Your “small” accounts aren’t actually small. Ali consistently found six-figure opportunities hiding in the SMB bucket that field reps were ignoring. Competitors are developing those relationships while your team chases obvious big fish.
AI-fluency is becoming a must-have sales skill. Reps spending 30-45 minutes researching before calls are getting lapped. The best reps are getting that same intel in seconds with AI, and making more calls, having better conversations, closing more because of it.
Listen to the full episode
AI, captain!
An AI prompt to help you write your inside/field rules of engagement in 10 minutes
One of the biggest headaches in distribution sales is inside and field sales teams stepping on each other’s toes. Who owns which accounts? When does an inside rep hand off to field? Who gets credit?
Most distributors know they need a clear answer to these questions but few have actually written them down. Here’s a prompt to help you get started.
Prompt to try:
“Help me write a rules of engagement document for an inside sales and field sales team at a [electrical/industrial/HVAC] distributor. Include: how accounts are assigned and tiered, when and how handoffs happen, how shared credit and commission is handled, and how conflicts between reps get resolved. Ask me clarifying questions before you start.”
The output won’t be your final document, but it’ll get you 75% of the way there in the time it used to take to open a blank Google Doc.
Things SKU should know
February news in review
Tariff Turbulence
The Supreme Court just tossed Trump’s tariffs in a 6-3 decision, but the drama’s far from over. President Trump is already promising a 15% global levy in response. Meanwhile, distributors who paid those tariffs are left wondering if they’ll see refunds and when.
Why this matters: Your supply chain planning just got a lot more complicated. Between potential refunds from old tariffs and new ones looming, you’re basically playing trade policy whack-a-mole. Start scenario planning now.
M&A Mania Continues
Distribution consolidation shows zero signs of slowing. Tavoron alone made three acquisitions already in 2026, while Ferguson powered through with $31B in sales and 8 acquisitions last year. Even smaller players like Wasserstrom are buying specialized firms to add design capabilities.
Why this matters: If you’re not growing, you’re getting bought. The mid-market squeeze is real, and specialists with unique capabilities are becoming hot acquisition targets.
Regulatory Wins
NAW scored a preliminary injunction blocking Oregon’s plastic recycling law, giving distributors breathing room on extended producer responsibility requirements.
Why this matters: State-by-state environmental regulations are coming whether you’re ready or not. This win buys time, but doesn’t solve the patchwork of compliance requirements building across the country.
Link(ed) in bio
An important consideration for your ERP migration
If your team is mid-ERP migration (or one is on the horizon), this post is worth two minutes of your time.
Most distributors treat migrations as a “survive go-live” moment. But moving bad product data into a new ERP doesn’t fix it. It just gives the mess a nicer home. And when your team can’t trust what’s in the system, the millions you spent on new infrastructure don’t deliver what they should.
Benj wrote about this recently, drawing on his firsthand experience watching his own family business go through an ERP migration. He breaks down the two-lane approach the best distributors use and where AI makes it actually feasible.
New on the shelf
Now announcing: Real-way, two-way contact sync
While most distributors are still wrestling with broken ERP integrations and data that never syncs properly, Proton customers just got access to real-time, two-way contact sync between their systems.
Curious how this could work for your team? Request a demo
Stay in touch
Just because our newsletter is monthly, doesn’t mean the insights have to be! Connect with Benj on LinkedIn to hear his latest musings and best practices weekly.
Got thoughts on this issue? Share ’em! Let me know what you liked, what felt off, or what you’d like to see more of. Seriously, I read every reply.
Until next time
Katie WhiteSr. Content Marketing Manager, Proton.ai
