A distributor's know-how lives at the inside sales desk and in the purchasing inbox. Every day your people turn a contractor's half-written request into the right part number, find a substitute when the line is on backorder, quote against a special pricing agreement, push back on a supplier's price increase and chase a drop ship that missed its window. Ten years of that in Prophet 21, SX.e or NetSuite, with the email around it, is a record of judgment almost nobody outside the building has seen.
AI buyers now license copies of records like these. OpenAI's GDPval benchmark has a wholesale trade sector built around wholesale sales reps, sales managers and order clerks, which is the work your counter and inside sales staff do all day. Pewter puts distribution among its strongest demand, and its deal list includes an industrial distributor whose communications, product knowledge, order history and supplier records brought $1.2M, as the licensing firm that published it claims, with nothing independently verified.
In our reading, pricing is the part to handle with care, since customer prices, supplier costs and rebate terms are the numbers a competitor would want most. Grepped says any system or record type can be left out, and Grepped and Nyne say the data is not sold to competitors, so decide early whether pricing goes at all. The quiz shows which buyers take a distributor your size.
- US wholesale trade firms with 10+ employees, 29,767 with 30+
71,9326
- industrial machinery and equipment wholesalers with 10+ employees
6,1857
- industrial distribution entry on Pewter's deal list, a licensing firm's own unverified claim
$1.2M1
- O*NET email score for order clerks; technical wholesale sales reps score 100
95/1008
Worth
What a distributor's data may be worth
Set for a typical distributor, 50 staff and 12 years of records. Move the sliders to match yours. Our estimate, not an offer.
Buyers
Which buyers want this data
Buyers whose own published rules fit wholesale distributors. We can introduce you to the ones we work with.
micro1
Names logistics and operations among its industries and buys SOPs, playbooks and CRM workflow data, from companies with 30+ employees.15,16,17
- $100K to $2M+, micro1 says10
Watch out for: Says it removes personal details only "when relevant", so ask exactly how.18
Polyshares
Takes Distribution and wholesale as its own intake industry with no headcount floor, and reads NetSuite, SAP, Business Central, Sage Intacct and QuickBooks exports.19,20,21
- $100K to $2M+, Polyshares says11
- None, Polyshares says22
- An offer in 1 to 2 weeks, then paid in 30 to 60 days23
Watch out for: Exclusive by default, and every deal it lists is exclusive with no end date.24,25
Mode
Buys email, CRM and billing records and lists NetSuite and QuickBooks among its sources, from businesses with 20+ full-time US office staff.26,27,28
Watch out for: The program launched in October 2026 and has no deal record yet.32
Pewter
Puts distribution among its strongest demand, has Wholesale and distribution on its offer form, and lists an industrial distribution entry and a logistics and distribution entry on its deal list.33,34,1,13
Watch out for: Its site was registered in October 2026 and names no people.37,38
Grepped
Has Wholesale and distribution on its intake form, says the data is not sold to the company's competitors, and lets you leave out any system, folder or record type.39,40,41
Watch out for: Its own site code calls its estimator "deliberately optimistic", so treat any estimate as an indication.42,43
Ventra
Names wholesale and distribution among the industries it says labs are buying from, and takes US companies with 30+ employees and 3+ years of records.2,44
- $100K to $2M as potential deals, Ventra says45
- None today, though it may add fees with notice46
- An offer in 3 to 7 days, then paid on net 30 or 6045
Watch out for: Its terms say delivered data may not be deletable.47
Who wants this
Do buyers want wholesale distributors?
No buyer publishes prices by industry, but their own intake forms show which industries they rate higher.
- Troveo puts logistics, field service or supply chain (our closest match) in its second of four demand tiers: "Your industry carries above-average buyer demand."48
- Polyshares takes distribution and wholesale, without marking it premium.49
- VMS, a broker, gives distribution or wholesale standard weight when it estimates value.50
Which buyers take a distributor your size
Shown for 50 staff, a typical distributor. Ask whether contractors and part-time staff count.
micro1
Polyshares
No headcount rule; the length and texture of the record matter more20
Mode
20+ full-time US office staff (accounting firms 10+, law firms 6+)28
Pewter
20+ staff and 3+ years; by industry, from 10+ (healthcare) to 50+ (manufacturing, finance)52,53,54
Grepped
No headcount minimum stated55
Ventra
30+ US employees and 3+ years of records44
Mercor
None stated56
Troveo
No minimum stated; its estimator starts at 2057
Nyne
20+ US W-2 employees and 3+ years58
Endless
Roughly 30+ employees59
Supersoniq
50+ employees and 5+ years60
What buyers value
What in a distributor's records buyers value
What buyers look for in your records, and what to talk through with your buyer before anything leaves your systems.
| Data | Where it lives | Why a buyer values it | Raise with the buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quote and order history at line level | ERP (Prophet 21, SX.e, NetSuite, Acumatica) | What each customer asked for, what you offered, and whether the quote turned into an order. | Customer-specific prices and special pricing agreements. |
| Substitution and cross-reference notes | ERP item notes and inside sales email | How your people pick an equivalent part when the requested one is out, the product knowledge a new hire takes years to learn. | Nothing specific |
| Supplier and purchasing threads | Purchasing inbox in Outlook or Gmail | Price increases pushed back on, allocations argued over and late shipments chased, each with a result. | Supplier costs, rebate programs and line terms. |
| Returns, RMAs and credit memos | ERP and customer service email | What went wrong after delivery and how each credit was decided. | Nothing specific |
| Outside sales CRM notes and call logs | Salesforce, HubSpot or the ERP's CRM module | Account plans, visit notes and the reasons a contractor moved business toward you or away. | Contact names and personal mobile numbers. |
| Counter, receiving and warehouse procedures | Shared drive or a printed binder | Will-call, cycle counting, receiving and drop ship steps written by your own staff. | Nothing specific |
A week of records
A week of data at a distributor
- Monday: the inside sales queue fills with contractor requests by email, several carrying only a photo of the old part.
- Tuesday: purchasing gets a supplier's price increase notice and replies asking to hold current pricing on open quotes.
- Wednesday: a backordered breaker is swapped for an equivalent from another line, and the substitution is noted on the order.
- Thursday: an outside rep logs three jobsite visits in the CRM and prices a bid package against a special pricing agreement.
- Friday: returns are counted, two RMAs are credited and one is refused, with the reason written on the credit memo.
Process
How it works with each buyer
In each buyer's own words. Where a buyer publishes nothing, we say so.
micro1
- Internal docs, SOPs and playbooks, knowledge bases, project management workflows, internal comms, templates, CRM and workflow metadata, task histories16
- 30 to 200 employees51
- $100K-$2M+ per data package; over $1M for unique data10
- PII removed "when relevant"18
- The company keeps ownership of its data and reviews samples before release61
- Not published
Selling or closing
Selling or closing your distributor? License its data first
If a larger distributor or a buying group is looking at your company, one law firm that advises on these deals says a data license signed first will surface in its diligence, with questions about what was shared and what stayed out. No business broker or M&A marketplace we have looked at mentions AI data licensing, so you may have to raise it with your own advisor. Pewter takes firms that are operating, downsizing, winding down or closed, as long as the records still exist.3,4,5
FAQ
Distributors and wholesalers: questions, answered
Order records and inventory logs appear on both, but a distributor also holds technical quoting, substitutions and supplier negotiation, the work of the wholesale sales reps and order clerks that OpenAI's GDPval benchmark tests. Return My Time's ads single out distributors' supplier negotiation emails.65,66,67
Published ranges for operating companies mostly run $100K to $2M, as the buyers' own claims. Pewter's list includes an industrial distributor at $1.2M and a logistics and distribution company at $350K, both the publishing firms' own claims, which Pewter says are not independently verified.10,11,45,1,13
Every business is different, so this one is best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over it with you before anything is signed.
Every business is different, so this one is best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over it with you before anything is signed.
Before you sign
Questions to talk through with your buyer
Every business is different, so these are best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over them with you before anything is signed.
Questions for this kind of business
- Do manufacturer line agreements, rebate programs or MAP policies limit sharing the prices in our records?
- Do any national account or buying group customers have confidentiality terms that reach their order history?
- How are contractor contact details and jobsite addresses removed, and do we see a sample first?
- Do customer, vendor or platform contracts, NDAs or API terms restrict this?
- How does a license affect a sale of the business: reps and warranties, change of control, earnouts, exclusivity?
Questions for any buyer
- Is the license exclusive, and for how long?
- Can you sublicense the data, and to whom?
- Which AI labs will receive it, and will you tell us?
- How long do you keep it, and how is it deleted?
- What is your liability cap, and who indemnifies whom?
- Will the contract ban re-identification of people in the data?
- Who removes personal data, by what method, and do we approve it first?
Proof
Deals in this kind of business
- Pewter lists an industrial distributor paid $1.2M nine days from bid for communications, product knowledge, order history, supplier records and operating documents, and a logistics and distribution company at $350K. Both were reported by licensing firms; Pewter says its entries are the publishers' own statements and not independently verified.1,13
- Goldmined.ai's own ads claim a distribution owner made $290K licensing ten years of orders, invoices and supplier emails. That is Goldmined's unverified claim, and no company is named.14