WHAT DOES A DISTRIBUTION SPECIALIST DO?
Published: Dec 10, 2024 - The Distribution Specialist reviews open order reports, allocates and runs plans in SAP and HFA, and leads SAP expertise for DC and plant operations. Responsibilities include investigating corporate miss reports, managing expedited requests, coordinating with teams for execution, and handling inventory adjustments, cycle counting, and inventory reporting. The role also involves managing facilities-related issues, coordinating team meetings, and organizing team events such as birthdays and lunches.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Distribution Specialist
1. Distribution Specialist Duties
- Lead Management: Monitor Lead and Follow Up Buckets
- Response Time Management: Ensure leads answered in a timely fashion
- Task Allocation: Evenly hand out leads to available sales staff to work
- Workload Management: Ensure all sales reps have enough tasks to complete 20/20/20
- Customer Management: Mark customer lost who has no valid contact information
- Sales Coordination: Get in contact with sales managers and GM’s when sales staff is not properly following up with customers
- Credit Assistance: Help manage credit logs and credit apps
- Data Management: Merge duplicate leads
- Lead Reassignment: Reassign any duplicates assigned to salespeople who are off for the day
- Email Management: Ensure all emails are replied to in a timely manner
2. Distribution Specialist Details
- Pricing Strategy Development: Review customer requests and work with sales, marketing, and PLM teams to develop pricing strategies for individual opportunities
- Revenue and Profit Evaluation: Balance revenue and profit requirements when evaluating opportunities and creating proposed responses
- B2B Distribution Model Knowledge: Understanding the nature and the implications of a B2B organization using a distribution model
- Scenario Analysis: Create scenario analysis (including financial view) for each deal
- Deal Scoring: Complete individual deal scoring for each option evaluated and present results to other team members along with recommended offering
- RFQ Compliance: Ensure the bid is completed in the format and by the time specified in the customer RFQ
- Materials Verification: Verify the correct Bill of Materials/part number list
- Pricing Documentation: Document pricing strategy and decisions for future use
- Profitability Evaluation: Create actual prices for quotes evaluating profitability for each and in total
- Cost Inclusion: Incorporate standard costs and additional items such as cost-to-serve (e.g. freight, duties, payment terms) to ensure a complete profitability picture
- Price Escalation Evaluation: Evaluate prices vs established price levels to determine when escalations
- Escalation Approvals: Obtain escalation approvals and/or make adjustments to a proposal to fit within established levels
- Competitive Price Intelligence: Capture competitive price intelligence for future use and utilize existing data for specific opportunities to maximize win probability while maximizing profitability
- Competitive Environment Analysis: Understand the competitive environment for specific opportunities now and for the future to determine strategies/tactics to maximize the probability of success while maximizing Corning's profitability
3. Distribution Specialist Responsibilities
- Distribution and Transportation Management: Managing daily distribution and transportation activities
- Subcontractor Management: Managing subcontractors to ensure that the operation can be carried out in a healthy and error-free manner
- Performance Reporting: Managing and reporting the performance of subcontractors while ensuring effective communication
- KPI Reporting: Diligent preparation of KPI reports
- Delivery Coordination: Questioning and reporting delivery information, taking all precautions regarding safe and timely access to the desired destination and ensuring timely delivery of the necessary tools to ensure the safe and smooth delivery of the distribution services
- Invoicing Management: Ensuring that weekly or periodic customer invoices are arranged and distributed on time, creating weekly and quarterly subcontract invoice data, providing control, edit
- Financial System Transactions: Receipt of invoices to make Kuehne + Nagel financial system transactions
- Profitability Contribution: Contribution to profitable operation with proactive approaches such as arranging return shipments etc.
- Carrier Follow-up: Follow-up with carriers
- Inventory and Sales Coordination: Convey and organize with inventory and sales management
- Freight Bill Certification: Certify freight bills and process bills of lading
- Order Dispatch and Progress Monitoring: Observe, follow, and encourage dispatch and progress of orders on time and to meet delivery requirements
- Carrier Approval Guidelines: Monitor guidelines for approving carriers
4. Distribution Specialist Job Summary
- Order Review and Management: Review Open Order Reports and Systems for orders by due date, line fill, special requirements, and back orders
- Plan Allocation and Execution: Allocate and Run Plans in SAP and HFA
- SAP Subject Matter Expertise: Lead SAP Subject Matter Expert for DC and Plant
- Order Execution Support: Print Order Sheets and work with Picking/Cutting on execution
- Miss Report Analysis: Review Corporate Miss Reports, complete root cause investigation and report
- Corrective Action Leadership: Lead CCP investigations and corrective actions
- Sales Coordination: Primary Sales Contact and manages all expedited requests and coordinates with the various Leads and Teams for execution
- Inventory Control and Reporting: Investigate, control, and manage all adjustments, inventory maintenance and part number setup, and inventory reporting - i.e. PNC, CYC, MSC, lot corrections or updates, cycle counting, EOM reports
- Report Filing and Document Management: File away reports, receive PKLs, cut sheet and other adjustments
- Facilities Coordination: Key contact for facilities-related issues
- Meeting and Appointment Coordination: Coordinate and administer conference calls, meetings and scheduled appointments for the team
- Business Supplies Management: Order team business cards, stationery and collateral
- Team Event Coordination: Organize birthday celebrations and team lunches
5. Distribution Specialist Accountabilities
- Price Book and Order Guide Management: Manage the price book and order guide with third-party wholesalers and direct-to-store accounts, including regular, promotional pricing and booking pricing
- Promotional Pricing Accuracy: Ensure the promotional pricing and booking pricing are correct for all C-Store business units including Co-op, Western Nations, Tempo (independent)
- Purchase Reconciliation: Responsible for quarterly and yearly purchase reconciliations for all necessary stakeholders (both internal FCL and external suppliers)
- Electronic Data Exchange Direction: Provide input and direction for future electronic data exchange requirements from suppliers to FCL to support price upload, efficient reporting, data integrity and flow-through
- Micro Strategy Reporting: Provide micro strategy reporting for the C-Store department and identify necessary requirements and actions to ensure clean usable data
- Sales and Basket Analytics Reporting: Responsible for the development of new data requirements and reports to provide weekly, monthly and quarterly sales and basket analytics, this data is used to measure performance and support category management, operational and execution decisions for convenience store
- Nielsen Data Integrity: Collaborate with required stakeholders to ensure Nielsen data transfer and reporting integrity
- Central Billing Compliance: Ensure central billing requirements are met for Co-op, Western Nations, and Tempo (independent), for third-party wholesale and direct-to-store suppliers
- Supplier and Retail Account Set-Up: Responsible for new supplier and retail account set-up
- Invoice and Reconciliation Support: Manage, support and resolve invoice and reconciliation errors for convenience stores through collaboration with internal stakeholders (Finance, Accounting) and external stakeholders (suppliers)
- Analytical Support: Provides input and analytical support to Lead Operations Specialist Convenience Stores for ongoing C-Store projects and initiatives, C-Store strategy, supply and distribution, Emerald POS, price upload