Build Better Work

In the final episode of “Mastering the Hidden Margin", a special series on Build Better Work, our cast reveals where margin is truly lost—after the SPA agreement is signed. Join Tony Pericle,  Kara DeGraff, Scott Sinning, and Rick Wells as they break down how broken data flows, manual reconciliation, and missed renewals quietly drain 1–3% of SPA revenue every year. The conversation explores the full SPA lifecycle: digitizing supplier data, normalizing inconsistent formats, managing claim reconciliation, and enforcing renewal discipline. The panel shares side-by-side distributor and manufacturer perspectives, along with war stories from decades in pricing and contract administration. Practical guidance is offered on standardized templates, tolerance-based reconciliation, aging reports, centralized renewals, and preventing pricing chaos when SPAs expire unexpectedly.Time Stamps:0:00 - Intro2:54 - SPA Life Cycle4:01 - Consolidating and Internalize Data9:00 - Claims and Disputes11:27 - Reconciliation of Claims13:28 - Renewing Contracts19:19 - Leveraging “White Space”22:05 - The Hidden Margin24:22 - New Customers/ New SPAs29:02 - AI in Distribution30:41 - 3 Most Important Features for Distributors to Know31:52 - How to Prevent Leakage33:02 - Most Important Characteristics for SPA Leadership36:49 - ClosingGuests:Tony | [email protected]: Tony Pericle is the founder of ProfitOptics and one of the most innovative minds in the distribution industry. With over 30 years of experience—from frontline sales to leading AI-powered transformations—he’s helped major distributors unlock hidden margin, optimize operations, and scale pricing strategies. Cara | linkedin.com/in/caradegraff: Cara DeGraff is a VP of Production Management at Vistex and leads a global team that manages all aspects of product management and product education. Since joining Vistex in 2007, Cara welcomes the challenge of solving companies' problems and optimizing their processes through Vistex solutions. Prior to Vistex, Cara worked for both manufacturers and distributors with SAP as their ERP, and across a variety of industries managing and implementing a myriad of business processes.Scott | [email protected]: Scott Sinning founded Pricing For Distributors in 2022 after a 30-year career in wholesale distribution with Graybar Electric. As former VP of Pricing Strategy, he knows about the margin challenges and opportunities faced by distributors. He is a "business guy" that came up through the ranks, but his career also included lead roles on ERP and pricing software projects where he learned how to drive successful change at scale.ABOUT BUILD BETTER WORK PODCAST Build Better Work by ProfitOptics is a podcast about the power of technology to transform work and lives with our host Greg Stivers. The show is produced by ProfitOptics, a technology consulting firm that builds software and engineers data solutions to drive business performance for mid-size and enterprise companies. CONNECT WITH PROFITOPTICS ProfitOptics.com Follow us on LinkedIn

Returning to our conversation, “Mastering the Hidden Margin", a special series on Build Better Work, our panel dives into the heartbeat of SPA success: negotiation. Moving beyond history and systems, this episode focuses on how distributors should ask for SPAs—credibly, proactively, and with data that builds trust instead of friction. Joining us again is Tony Pericle, Scott Sinning and Kara DeGraff, in a conversation that outlines why SPAs are not about discounts, but about positioning distributors as true partners to manufacturers.The group breaks down what separates a strong SPA request from a weak one: clarity on customer and product, realistic volume commitments, competitive context, and a plan that can be tracked and validated over time. They explore who should own SPA negotiations at different levels of the organization, how sales teams should be coached, and why accountability and follow-through matter as much as the initial cost ask.Time Stamps:0:00 - Intro2:36 - Good vs Bad SPA Request4:19 - Relationships and Information6:06 - Information Distribution for SPA Success12:58 - What to Ask for & What to Ask for14:53 - How to Position Yourself to Ask for a SPA16:54 - What Does a “Legit” SPA Deal Look Like?20:22 - Get the Most in SPA Negotiation23:48 - ClosingGuests:Tony | [email protected]: Tony Pericle is the founder of ProfitOptics and one of the most innovative minds in the distribution industry. With over 30 years of experience—from frontline sales to leading AI-powered transformations—he’s helped major distributors unlock hidden margin, optimize operations, and scale pricing strategies. Cara | linkedin.com/in/caradegraff: Cara DeGraff is a VP of Production Management at Vistex and leads a global team that manages all aspects of product management and product education. Since joining Vistex in 2007, Cara welcomes the challenge of solving companies' problems and optimizing their processes through Vistex solutions. Prior to Vistex, Cara worked for both manufacturers and distributors with SAP as their ERP, and across a variety of industries managing and implementing a myriad of business processes.Scott | [email protected]: Scott Sinning founded Pricing For Distributors in 2022 after a 30-year career in wholesale distribution with Graybar Electric. As former VP of Pricing Strategy, he knows about the margin challenges and opportunities faced by distributors. He is a "business guy" that came up through the ranks, but his career also included lead roles on ERP and pricing software projects where he learned how to drive successful change at scale.ABOUT BUILD BETTER WORK PODCAST Build Better Work by ProfitOptics is a podcast about the power of technology to transform work and lives with our host Greg Stivers. The show is produced by ProfitOptics, a technology consulting firm that builds software and engineers data solutions to drive business performance for mid-size and enterprise companies. CONNECT WITH PROFITOPTICS ProfitOptics.com Follow us on LinkedIn

In this first episode of Mastering the Hidden Margin, a special series on Build Better Work, host Tony Pericle pulls back the curtain on SPAs—special pricing authorizations and agreements, also known as deviations, chargebacks, ship-and-debit, and invoice verification. He’s joined by industry veterans Scott Sinning and Cara DeGraff, who bring decades of experience across electrical distribution, medical supply, high tech, and enterprise rebate/pricing solutions. Together, they trace how SPA programs emerged from messy manual workarounds into one of the most important—and misunderstood—margin levers in distribution.Tony, Scott, and Cara also share their experience to describe what “good” SPA management actually looks like. They explore how digitization, data synchronization, and better analytics can reduce leakage, shrink reconciliation backlogs, and free sales teams from spreadsheet purgatory. If you’re responsible for pricing, margin, or channel strategy in a distributor or manufacturer, this episode will give you the language, stories, and mental models you need to start mastering your hidden margin.Time Stamps:0:00 - Intro2:25 - Guests and SPA Highlights10:49 - Problems SPAs Solve16:24 - What is Invoice Verification17:05 - SPAs = Competitive Advantage18:33 - Magnitude of SPAs20:30 - SPAs as a Manufacturer24:31 - Bring Data to the Conversation26:21 - Charge Backs and Price Masking29:23 - Synchronized Data35:50 - ClosingGuests:Tony | [email protected]: Tony Pericle is the founder of ProfitOptics and one of the most innovative minds in the distribution industry. With over 30 years of experience—from frontline sales to leading AI-powered transformations—he’s helped major distributors unlock hidden margin, optimize operations, and scale pricing strategies. Cara | linkedin.com/in/caradegraff: Cara DeGraff is a VP of Production Management at Vistex and leads a global team that manages all aspects of product management and product education. Since joining Vistex in 2007, Cara welcomes the challenge of solving companies' problems and optimizing their processes through Vistex solutions. Prior to Vistex, Cara worked for both manufacturers and distributors with SAP as their ERP, and across a variety of industries managing and implementing a myriad of business processes.Scott | [email protected]: Scott Sinning founded Pricing For Distributors in 2022 after a 30-year career in wholesale distribution with Graybar Electric. As former VP of Pricing Strategy, he knows about the margin challenges and opportunities faced by distributors. His career also included lead roles on ERP and pricing software projects where he learned how to drive successful change at scale.ABOUT BUILD BETTER WORK PODCAST Build Better Work by ProfitOptics is a podcast about the power of technology to transform work and lives with our host Greg Stivers. The show is produced by ProfitOptics, a technology consulting firm that builds software and engineers data solutions to drive business performance for mid-size and enterprise companies. CONNECT WITH PROFITOPTICS ProfitOptics.com Follow us on LinkedIn

Part 5 of 5 in the Analytics Imperative series.Analytics isn’t a one-off project—it’s an organizational muscle. In this final episode of The Analytics Imperative series, Tony Pericle explores how to move from insight to action: framing recommendations, aligning teams, and building a culture of confident execution. If you want analytics to deliver real outcomes, this is where it happens.ABOUT BUILD BETTER WORK PODCAST Build Better Work by ProfitOptics is a podcast about the power of technology to transform work and lives with our host Greg Stivers. The show is produced by ProfitOptics, a technology consulting firm that builds software and engineers data solutions to drive business performance for mid-size and enterprise companies. CONNECT WITH PROFITOPTICS ProfitOptics.com Follow us on LinkedIn

Part 4 of 5 in the Analytics Imperative series.Even the most sophisticated analytics systems will fall flat without the right talent to bring them to life. In this episode, Tony Pericle unpacks the mindset and leadership required to turn analytics from an initiative into a true competitive advantage. If you’re ready to make analytics work, start here.ABOUT BUILD BETTER WORK PODCAST Build Better Work by ProfitOptics is a podcast about the power of technology to transform work and lives with our host Greg Stivers. The show is produced by ProfitOptics, a technology consulting firm that builds software and engineers data solutions to drive business performance for mid-size and enterprise companies. CONNECT WITH PROFITOPTICS ProfitOptics.com Follow us on LinkedIn

Part 3 of 5 in the Analytics Imperative series.Pricing decisions at scale can’t run on spreadsheets. In this episode, we go deep into the prescriptive engine—a parameterized rules framework that compresses weeks of work into hours of decision-ready insight. We explore how to turn analyst instincts into codified playbooks, enable business users to drive change without code, and create real-time scenario models that give teams confidence and control.ABOUT BUILD BETTER WORK PODCAST Build Better Work by ProfitOptics is a podcast about the power of technology to transform work and lives with our host Greg Stivers. The show is produced by ProfitOptics, a technology consulting firm that builds software and engineers data solutions to drive business performance for mid-size and enterprise companies. CONNECT WITH PROFITOPTICS ProfitOptics.com Follow us on LinkedIn

Part 2 of 5 in the Analytics Imperative series.Analytics starts with the right foundation—and that means data attribution. Tony and Nick share how a Fortune 500 distributor digitized 40,000 contracts, tagged over 100 unique clauses, and protected $1B+ in margin. This episode unpacks the hidden power of structured variables, AI-assisted contract parsing, and why “progress over perfection” beats the myth of clean data.ABOUT BUILD BETTER WORK PODCAST Build Better Work by ProfitOptics is a podcast about the power of technology to transform work and lives with our host Greg Stivers. The show is produced by ProfitOptics, a technology consulting firm that builds software and engineers data solutions to drive business performance for mid-size and enterprise companies. CONNECT WITH PROFITOPTICS ProfitOptics.com Follow us on LinkedIn

Part 1 of 5 in the Analytics Imperative series.Tariffs aren’t the problem—they’re the litmus test. In this opening episode, we expose why most distributors face paralysis during disruptions like tariff hikes: fragmented data, manual processes, and rigid pricing systems. Tony Pericle explains why this moment demands not an evolution—but a revolution—in analytics. Because when cost moves fast, your data has to move faster.ABOUT BUILD BETTER WORK PODCAST Build Better Work by ProfitOptics is a podcast about the power of technology to transform work and lives with our host Greg Stivers. The show is produced by ProfitOptics, a technology consulting firm that builds software and engineers data solutions to drive business performance for mid-size and enterprise companies. CONNECT WITH PROFITOPTICS ProfitOptics.com Follow us on LinkedIn

This is the first episode in a special series on pricing, disruption, and analytics readiness for distributors.In this kickoff conversation, Nick Pericle and Tony Pericle unpack why so many distributors were caught flat-footed during the last tariff wave—and why it’s not the tariffs themselves that cause margin erosion, but the slow, disjointed responses caused by outdated systems and siloed data.Tony introduces his five levels of analytics maturity and explains why most companies remain stuck in reactive reporting, unable to move into the predictive, prescriptive decisions that disruption demands.You’ll hear a real-world case study where Tony’s team helped a $ 1B+ distributor analyze over 40,000 customer contracts to protect margin and act decisively during the 2020–2022 inflation surge.This episode sets the stage for the rest of the series, exploring how distribution leaders can build disruption-ready analytics strategies before the next wave hits.If today’s conversation sparked ideas or urgency, share it with your company's colleagues responsible for pricing, finance, or margin protection.Connect with us:Nathan: [email protected] | https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickpericleTony: [email protected] | https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonypericleShow Email: [email protected] ABOUT BUILD BETTER WORK PODCAST Build Better Work by ProfitOptics is a podcast about the power of technology to transform work and lives with our host Greg Stivers. The show is produced by ProfitOptics, a technology consulting firm that builds software and engineers data solutions to drive business performance for mid-size and enterprise companies. CONNECT WITH PROFITOPTICS ProfitOptics.com Follow us on LinkedIn

In this thought-provoking episode of Build Better Work, host Nick Pericle goes into how generative AI is reshaping the wholesale distribution industry. Drawing from his recent presentations at events like the HARDI Annual Meeting, Nick shares actionable insights on using AI tools to streamline quoting, optimize pricing, and enhance customer interactions. He demonstrates how smaller, incremental implementations can be as impactful as large-scale investments, making advanced technologies accessible for distributors at all levels.Connect with us:Nathan: [email protected] | https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickpericleShow Email: [email protected] 📚 TIMESTAMPS00:00 Introduction00:35 Getting Started with Generative AI in Wholesale02:43 Historical WWII Lessons of Technology09:17 Technology is For Solving Problems Differently14:40 Solving Common Distribution Problems with AI17:41 The Need to Get Hands-on with Generative AI21:03 “Take Action This Day”23:17 People-Powered Tech for Business Growth at ProfitOptics.comABOUT BUILD BETTER WORK PODCAST Build Better Work by ProfitOptics is a podcast about the power of technology to transform work and lives with our host Greg Stivers. The show is produced by ProfitOptics, a technology consulting firm that builds software and engineers data solutions to drive business performance for mid-size and enterprise companies. CONNECT WITH PROFITOPTICS ProfitOptics.com Follow us on LinkedIn