Building real relationships in a digital world
Can distributors better serve their communities by emphasizing trust over transactions?
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This edition begins a collaboration with Justin Johnson—a sharp and thoughtful voice on the future of distribution, especially where it intersects with digital automation and artificial intelligence. Johnson founded Motivate, a startup building transformative tools designed for how B2B buyers want to shop. We’re both writing on the Distribution Strategy Group blog. Below, I share excerpts from our recent articles—the passages that point to a common cause. Next up: We’re recording a video to carry the conversation forward. I’ll share it here soon. As always, I welcome your thoughts; please drop a comment below.
Beyond automation
When building relationships with writers and innovators, I’m all in on “yes, and …” Do you know that mindset? It comes from improv—the art of advancing a scene by building on whatever came before. “Yes, and …” keeps conversations moving forward. It opens space for curiosity, momentum, and common ground. Thoughtful users avoid the less productive cousins: the passive-aggressive “yes, but …” or the rejectionist favorite, “no, because …”
When innovating communities, “yes, and …” isn’t just a mindset. It’s a necessity. Communities are where we unite to do what we cannot do alone, building on what each other brings to the table.
In Johnson’s article, I see the possibility of a “yes, and …” conversation. Here’s why:
A persistent ghost haunts distributors: the idea that automation exists to cut jobs. But that’s not what’s happening. The best minds in distribution aren’t downsizing—they’re empowering. They’re freeing their teams to do what machines can’t: talk with customers as fellow humans. Johnson shows that means offering timely, on-target quotes. It means surfacing neglected needs at just the right moment. Most of all, it means understanding the customer’s business and earning their trust.
Johnson captures all of this through the voice of Tighe Greenhalgh, President at Central Components:
I would never terminate half my inside sales team just because we implemented automation. That’s not the point. The point is to help them spend more time selling, quoting, and building real customer relationships. That’s where the value is.
He’s right. The real win isn’t efficiency. It’s what efficiency makes possible.
Possible for people, that is. Not automated business. Humanized business.
Does everything happen for a reason? More and more, I believe so. I published my first article on the DSG blog a week before Johnson’s. There, I shared this:
Today, we stand at the edge of a new era. Digital technology offers not just better performance but the potential for reinvention. And yet, most distributors are applying AI to reinforce their existing model rather than rethink it. What if distributors stepped into a new identity instead of simply modernizing—becoming platforms for possibility, engines of community well-being, and intermediaries of knowledge, not just products?
This isn’t a utopian vision. It’s a practical response to the unmet needs of communities in the digital age.
Our articles point to shared beliefs and the potential for collaboration.
Johnson focuses on the practical power of AI to empower customers and enable distributor productivity and profits. In doing so, he pushes back against the tyranny of efficiency—the belief that automation must always mean cutting costs, which almost always translates to cutting people in the name of growth and scale.
I pick up where he leaves off, embracing the “yes, and …” mindset. I wonder aloud: How should we use the time unlocked by artificially intelligent automation? Of course, driving sales and profits matters. But can’t distributors be more? What if they chose to innovate in a human-centered way? What if they used reclaimed time for real conversations—person to person, not buyer and seller—helping customers buy more easily and work more meaningfully? What if trust mattered more than transactions?
And what if distributors, in pursuit of growth and scale, began to see customers not as accounts or segments, but as part of something more meaningful? What if they saw them as communities? Distributors have always been local businesses. They hire from a community, live in it, and grow alongside it. Their customers aren’t targets. They’re neighbors. Citizens. Friends, even. In healthy communities, people share identity, trust, and responsibility. When distributors serve that whole, they build not just a brand but a bond.
We need a new language.
We need a vocabulary not from the language of marketing, where customers are users, objections are overcome, and loyalty is measured as repeat purchases or share of wallet. That’s all good—but not good enough. Not in the epochal times we’re all living through. Not at the advent of a world enabled by generative AI. Not if we hope to build something that matters—something enduring.
In a more human language, with words that are simpler and truer, we might talk about living in alignment. With people. With purpose. With growth that comes from a shared investment in the common good.
It’s food for thought, and I hope for discussion. It’s the spirit we’ll bring to our video: an invitation to explore what’s practical and possible.
A way forward
If you’re reading this on Substack—whether you’re a subscriber or somehow found your way here—I’d love to hear from you. What do you think of the ideas above? Do you see the potential for collaboration? If not you, who? Please share this edition with anyone who should be part of the conversation.
And to distributors—whether part of the Substack community or the Distribution Strategy Group network—I offer three ways to take this forward:
Define your culture in behaviors. What do you want your people to say and do with the time freed up by automation? Be specific. Clarity is where change begins.
Watch The Last Repair Shop. For context, read what I wrote for DSG here. Then watch the film and let it challenge you. Ask yourself: If I understood my customers more fully—as people, not buyers—what else would I ask my team to do?
Join the conversation on Substack. Launch a newsletter if you’re inspired. Or simply follow along with me and others. Share your insights. Let us know what you try, what works, and what you learn. Let us know that distributors can be more than they are.
And as for me, here’s what I’m doing next:
Make the video. It’ll be short, maybe 15 minutes, laying the groundwork for what’s next. Viewers might connect with Motivate to implement more intelligent AI. Or they might connect with me—challenging, expanding, or building on what I’ve written here.
Reach out on Substack. I’ll use Notes and DMs to contact other authors writing (and podcasting!) about art, science, technology, or whatever—people who are willing to explore the common good and innovate communities, together.
Convene a gathering of authors. This is new. But I’m thinking: What might happen if we bring together authors writing mindfully for distributors with authors writing thoughtfully for society? Could we learn something from each other? Could we imagine a better future, both practical and possible?
Let’s find out.
Because yes, and … isn’t only a mindset for improv. It’s a human way forward—for business, for community, for collaboration. And it starts here.
Signing off for now. If you’d like to talk, I’d be delighted to hear from you. You can email me at mark.dancer@n4bi.com, send a DM on Substack, or leave a comment at the bottom of this newsletter.
Together, let’s build thriving communities, one innovation at a time.