We are honored to have Frank Hurtte, founder of River Heights Consulting and author of several books on distribution, including The Distributor’s Fee Based Services Manifesto, speaking at Tribute's User’s Group meeting (TribNet) next month in our hometown of Cleveland.

Frank brings over 30 years of distribution industry experience and a lifetime in sales. Growing up in a family owned business, he was selling car and truck tires wholesale before he turned 14. During his career, Frank has gone through nearly every aspect of the wholesale business.

He served as manager of a rapidly growing start-up location, ran a cluster of branches where he worked to develop future leaders and was called on to build a winning team after the merger of two companies with dissimilar cultures.

Frank successfully established sales strategies in emerging markets and coordinated the efforts of a diverse group of product managers to establish a corporate-wide blueprint for success. In his role as VP Technical Sales, Frank developed and implemented a model for tracking and measuring the value-adds provided to customers.

After graduating from the University of Illinois with a degree in Computer Engineering, Frank decided to pursue a career in the business side of Automation. Frank served in Sales Management roles supporting distributors with Allen-Bradley (now Rockwell Automation). In 1991 Frank joined Van Meter Industrial first as Branch Manager/VP and then as full time Vice President of Technology.

Frank has served on the Board of Directors of the Association of High Technology Distributors (AHTD) and as the president of that organization. Over the years Frank has served on numerous Manufacturer/Distributor Advisory Committees and defacto problem-solving groups. Upon founding River Heights Consulting, Frank has put his broad range of experience to work helping others with Sales, Marketing and Distribution based issues.

We look forward to receiving some of his insightful expertise at our TribNet meeting. Frank’s Blog, The Distributor Channel, and the River Heights Consulting website have a wealth of articles drawing upon his years of experience.

Some we think you’ll find useful:

• Distributor-Supplier Etiquette
• More on Distributor-Supplier Etiquette: The Supply Partner Side
• 5 Questions about Newsletters
• 6 Thoughts on Re-engineering your Organization
• Good Times, Uncertain Times, Modern Times
• Cost-Plus Pricing – The Monster that Devoured Profits

Tribute, Inc. is a provider of ERP business management software for industrial distributors, fabricators and system integrators. Still reachable by phone, Tribute’s knowledgeable staff provides support from our Hudson, Ohio offices.