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 - Intro
2:54 - SPA Life Cycle
4:01 - Consolidating and Internalize Data
9:00 - Claims and Disputes
11:27 - Reconciliation of Claims
13:28 - Renewing Contracts
19:19 - Leveraging “White Space”
22:05 - The Hidden Margin
24:22 - New Customers/ New SPAs
29:02 - AI in Distribution
30:41 - 3 Most Important Features for Distributors to Know
31:52 - How to Prevent Leakage
33:02 - Most Important Characteristics for SPA Leadership
36:49 - Closing

Guests:

Tony | tony@profitoptics.com: 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 | scott@pricingfordistributors.com: 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.

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How SPA Data Chaos Destroys Profit—and How to Fix It