In this month’s Top 3 in 5, ISA’s Brendan Breen and Evan Willmann with Cleveland Research break down October’s distributor survey results, including the first month ahead of plan since April, with sales up about 4% on a daily basis.
They also touch on how the month-long government shutdown skewed performance in certain sectors, and what the latest signals suggest for 2026’s 3–5% growth outlook.
There’s more underneath the surface than the headlines reveal… including some pockets of demand that may be turning a corner.
👉 Watch the full episode.
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About Top 3 in 5:
Through ISA’s partnership with the Cleveland Research Company, a premier consulting market intelligence firm specializing in channel research, we’re able to bring ISA Members the results of a monthly survey of industrial distributors to get a pulse on what’s going on in our industry. This quantitative data, supplemented with qualitative data collected by conversations with industry professionals, provides a great benchmark of the market, allowing us to get into the drivers of why things are changing and helping us identify changes quicker than the PMI or ISM.
