Distributor Ingram Micro held their ONE event this week, and announced they achieved their plan for the year. Profits rose 2.1% in the third quarter, despite a modest dip in revenue.
That growth hasn’t been across the board. Revenue in industries hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, like retail and hospitality, has suffered, and the company expects Ingram’s data center business to be down through the first or second quarter of 2021.
The company also indicated that they are seeing mid-single-digit growth in the S of SMB.
On the plus side, fewer partners than Ingram once feared have experienced real financial distress. “We haven’t seen some of the things we were concerned about around bad debt and things like that,”
Quoting Channel Pro:
Aggressive steps taken by Ingram’s financial solutions group early in the pandemic, which included offering extended credit terms and rolling out tens of millions of dollars’ worth of incremental credit capacity, partly explain that fact, he asserts. Indeed, channel pros have been benefitting measurably from those actions all year.
“Partners who used our financial services grew by 11% on average in a time when most businesses declined,” Inspiring more partners to leverage financing is one of Ingram’s objectives for this week’s conference.
Why do we care?
Ingram was nice enough to invite me to attend the event, and I’ll give them kudos for a really well executed online event. Sessions were short and to the point – 15 minute sessions. The lesson – less is more when doing virtual.
Executives at the company are being pretty transparent about their insights – and saying the same thing I am and focusing on analysis of industries. Follow their lead.
I’m also highlighting the value distribution brings in financial support – let them be the bank. Do not finance your customers, and let your distributors do that. I’ve traditionally undervalued that aspect of their business, and implore you not to make that mistake.
Source: Channel Pro Network
Source: Channel Buzz
