Getting the most from distributor feeds

Distributor feeds are how Salesbuildr keeps hardware cost current. A connected feed matches catalog products by manufacturer part number (MPN), supplies the buy price, and — with dynamic pricing — calculates the sell price from your markup.

Getting the most from those feeds is not “connect every distributor.” It is: connect the markets you actually buy from, keep one listed product per MPN, leave everyday catalog prices dynamic, and import special bids onto the quote instead of locking the catalog.

This article assumes distributors come after your Professional Services Automation (PSA) connection and category mapping. If you are still setting the workspace up, start with Set up Salesbuildr in this order.

1. Choose which distributors to connect

Connect the distributors your purchasing team already uses, in the countries you buy in. Each connection is scoped to a market, so Ingram Micro Australia and Ingram Micro United Kingdom are two connections with two price lists.

Each feed connects with your own distributor account, so the prices in Salesbuildr reflect your specific pricing tier with that distributor, not list price.

Do not connect every name in the list. Extra feeds add catalog noise, stale prices, and more “which cost is this?” decisions for quoters. Skip a distributor you never order from. If one is already connected, drag it to Ignored on the Priority tab so Salesbuildr never picks its cost automatically.

Add the connection

1. Go to Settings → Distributors → Connections.
2. Click Add Connection.
3. In Available Distributors by Market, pick the country, then the distributor.
4. Enter the credentials and follow the Setup Instructions in the right panel.
5. Click Add Connection.

Feeds can take up to 24 hours to appear after you save. Expanding a connection later shows Last inventory update, Last price update, and Last check — use those timestamps when a cost looks stale. How often Salesbuildr polls, and why a recent check can still show yesterday’s file, is in How often do distributor prices and stock levels update?.

Trial workspaces sometimes include temporary Tech Data or Ingram Micro connections so you can demo search. Those expire. After that, only distributors you configured with your own credentials keep returning prices.

If a distributor you buy from is not in the market tree, open your profile → Feedback → Distributor. Upvote an existing request, or submit Request a new distributor with the name, website, technical contact, and how they publish the feed (FTP, API, or email).

Cloud marketplaces such as Pax8, LeaderCloud, and KPN RoutIT are separate integrations. They do not appear as a row under Add Connection. Hardware feeds you configure here plus those marketplaces still match catalog products by MPN.

Set priority after you connect

When two distributors carry the same MPN, Salesbuildr needs a default cost. Open Settings → Distributors → Priority and drag each connection into one of three lists:

Three more fields on the same tab keep a stale or theoretical cost off the quote:

• Only consider incoming stock/ATP if it's within X days — incoming or available-to-promise stock beyond that window does not count as available.
• Only consider distributors that have been updated within the last X days — a price older than this is dropped before Salesbuildr picks a winner.
• If price from other distributor is % lower, select that distributor — a preferred partner keeps the win unless someone else is cheaper by more than this percentage. Leave it empty if you never want price to override preference.

You can still pick a distributor on a single product under Product Distributors. That manual choice wins for that SKU.

Full connection and credential detail: Distributors. Browse live results after a feed is up: Marketplace.

2. Why the MPN is the key field

The MPN (Manufacturer Part Number) on Product Detail → General Info is the field Salesbuildr uses to match a catalog product to every distributor feed. Search, import, Fetch info, and dynamic cost all key off it.

Treat it as a unique identifier, not a label:

• One listed product per MPN. If two catalog rows share a part number, the picker offers both and someone will quote the wrong one. Keep the product the team should sell Listed; turn Listed off on the extras.
• Matching is case-insensitive. ABC-123 and abc-123 are the same product on import. Fix typos in the source file; do not create a second row.
• No MPN, no feed. Dynamic pricing only applies to products that have an MPN. Services and other items without a part number keep the cost and sell price you typed.
• A missing or invented MPN will not match. Marketplace search can still find a name, but the catalog product will not pick up the distributor cost until the MPN matches the feed.

Fill MPNs in the PSA before the first product import whenever you can. Salesbuildr imports what is already on the PSA row; it does not invent a manufacturer part number for you. See PSA integration best practices.

On an existing product, use Fetch info after the MPN is correct. That pulls name, description, images, and specifications. It does not overwrite cost, sell price, or markup — those stay under your pricing rules or the values you already set.

When you search the catalog or the Marketplace, type the MPN first. Exact part numbers rank above a name search, which is what you want after an acquisition or a messy PSA import.

3. Dynamic pricing: distributor cost plus your markup

For hardware with an MPN, the usual setup is:

1. Cost comes from the preferred distributor feed (the winner from Priority).
2. Sell price is calculated from that cost using your markup or recommended-retail-price (RRP) rules.

Set the percentages once under Settings → Financial → Pricing Rules, then override families that are not the catch-all (hardware, cloud licenses, professional services) on the category. Do not type a sell price on every product “just in case.” An explicit cost, sell price, or markup on the product locks that field. The feed will keep updating in the background, but the locked value wins until you clear it.

On the Dashboard, after a PSA is connected, admins see a Configure dynamic pricing tile. Yes, I want my prices to be dynamic (best practice) clears leftover manual cost, sell price, and markup on products that have an MPN so the feed and your rules can take over. No, keep the prices as is leaves those locks in place. Step-by-step: Dynamic Pricing. Strategy options: Pricing strategy.

A sell price is copied onto a quote line when the product is added. Changing a markup or a feed later does not rewrite lines that are already on a draft or a sent quote. Add the product again on a draft if you need the new cost.

Customer-specific pricing books still win over the dynamic catalog price for the companies (or classifications) you attach them to. That is the right override for a standing negotiated rate — not a typed sell price on the catalog product.

4. Stock levels and availability

Feeds carry stock as well as cost. Quoters see that availability on catalog products, the product page, and quote lines as badges.

On a quote line, the badge follows the distributor on that line. On the catalog and product page, it reflects the preferred (or manually selected) source. Open the product editor Pricing tab to compare Stock, Last Updated, and Cost per distributor, and use the refresh icon for a live check of that product.

The red Unavailable badge means Salesbuildr has no usable quantity to show: no distributor units in stock, on backorder, or on ATP, and no internal warehouse quantity. It does not mean the product is unlisted or cannot be quoted. Bundles show a bundle indicator instead of Unavailable. Services without an MPN show no stock badge.

Low-stock alerts are emails to administrators after a PSA inventory sync recalculates warehouse totals — not a notification from the distributor feed. Set Alert when product internal stock is less than on the product Admin tab. Distributor quantities never send this email. Full rules: Stock levels, the Unavailable badge, and low-stock alerts.

Stock also decides which distributor Salesbuildr picks for cost. A feed that reports zero stock, or incoming stock outside the ATP window you set, is skipped in automatic selection. Those windows and the preferred / ignored lists live on Settings → Distributors → Priority — see Set priority after you connect. You can still pick a distributor on a single product under Product Distributors.

How often those numbers refresh (hourly poll vs the distributor’s own publish schedule) is in How often do distributor prices and stock levels update?.

5. Special bids and deal-registration pricing

A special bid or deal registration is a short-lived, negotiated price from a vendor or distributor — often for one opportunity, one end customer, or a renewal window. It is an exception to the everyday feed-plus-markup path, not a reason to turn dynamic pricing off.

Do this:

1. Open the quote you are building.
2. Use Import products and load the supplier spreadsheet (CSV, Excel, or Paste data).
3. Map at least MPN, Category, and Cost / Sales price. Category must already exist in Salesbuildr.
4. On Sample data, leave Overwrite pricing information with the values from the import on so the bid prices land on the new quote lines.
5. After import, enter the special bid number on the quote line (or on a pricing book if this customer uses that program regularly). The spreadsheet importer does not write that number for you.

Importing from Products → Import products updates the catalog only. It does not add lines to a quote. For a one-off bid, start from the quote editor.

If the same negotiated rates apply to many quotes for that customer, import the products once, then attach a pricing book to the company. Future quotes pick up the book price automatically. A pricing book can also store the special bid number so procurement has the reference when you place the order.

Do not type the bid sell price onto the catalog product unless you intend to lock that SKU for everyone. A catalog lock survives after the bid expires and blocks the feed. Keep the catalog dynamic; put the exception on the quote or the pricing book.

Walkthrough, template, and troubleshooting: Importing Special Bids and Deal-Reg Pricing.

See also

• Dynamic Pricing — enable feed-driven cost and calculated sell price
• Importing Special Bids and Deal-Reg Pricing — load a bid or deal-reg spreadsheet onto a quote
• Stock levels, the Unavailable badge, and low-stock alerts — warehouse and distributor stock badges
• How often do distributor prices and stock levels update? — polling vs the distributor’s publish schedule
• Quoting best practices for new quoters — catalog, markup rules, and templates
• Set up Salesbuildr in this order — PSA, categories, then distributors
• Distributors — connections, priority, and markets
• Marketplace — search and import from connected feeds
• Pricing Books — standing customer rates and special bid numbers