Every supplier asks for the same thing: more focus, more placements, more attention. Most distributors answer with an over-the-top incentive and hope it sticks. Geoff Rifkin, VP of Sales at Dynamo Specialty Distributing in Texas, built something different.

We sit down with Geoff to break down Dynamo's Pay for Performance (PFP) program, the system that turned "please prioritize us" into real accountability on both sides. Each rep carries no more than four KPIs a month. Suppliers and Dynamo fund the goals together. If the team doesn't hit 80%, the supplier pays nothing, and Dynamo still pays the reps who hit on its own dime. Reps can straight-line their payout to 125%, and the team has averaged around 90% over the years.

We also get into how Geoff measures lift before and after a PFP month, how he picks CEs, placements, or distribution based on where a brand is in its journey, how to target the right accounts, and why simple beats over-engineered every time.

If you're a distributor sales leader or a supplier rep trying to get real execution out of your incentive dollars, this one is for you. Listen, learn, and enjoy what you do.

Non-alc beer was growing 18% a year ago. Today it's closer to six, and everybody who ran their models on the old number is feeling it. Now the same rush is happening in hard ades. In this news episode, Bud, Ross, and Mike work through six weeks of beer business headlines from the distributor's side of the table. We start in Colorado, where Constellation, Mark Anthony, and Sierra Nevada all terminated Coors Distributing Co., and ask what a franchise is really worth when winning supplier awards doesn't protect you. Then we get into Constellation buying SpikedAde, why momentum brands are suddenly back on the menu, and Ross's warning to watch the growth rate instead of the growth. Mike breaks down how PFP plans and incentives are shifting toward ades and what gets left behind. We cover the consumer squeeze, from real wages to gas prices, and close with the NBWA distributor panel and why "grow beer" isn't a strategy until you name the account, the brand, and the occasion you lost. If you're heading into 2027 budget season, this one is for you. Listen, learn, and enjoy what you do.

An annual salary is management math. Rep math is paycheck to paycheck. If the first check after a pay change comes in light, you’ve already lost the rep, no matter how good the year looks on paper.

A listener rolling out a new pay plan asked us what he’s going to hear from his team after the kickoff, and how to handle it. Bud, Mike, and Ross have been through more than 100 of these, and the pushback almost always comes down to four fears: you’re cutting my pay, I have to wait until the end of the month to get my money, I don’t trust the goals, and this is just another program that’ll be gone in six months.

We break down why a quiet kickoff isn’t buy-in, why reps need to see how goals get set, how pay calendars and draws keep cash flow steady, and why we’d rather wait for buy-in than rush a go-live. Technology is easy. People are hard.

If you’re getting ready to change how your reps get paid, this one is for you.

Listen, learn, and enjoy what you do. Share with a friend if you love it.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/0UTOjAJePFo
Learn more about VXP: https://vxptech.com
Questions for the show: info@vxptech.com