Don Esbjornson started in 1993 with no customers, no suppliers, and a partner's shell company that had been sitting dormant since 1984. Thirty-three years later, Packaging HERO has four distribution centers, 25,000 SKUs, and a website that cost a quarter of a million dollars to build. ㅤ Kyler Nixon sits down with Don Esbjornson, President of Packaging HERO, to discuss what distribution looked like before the internet, why custom packaging is their real answer to Uline, and what makes a customer stick so much that they never want to leave. ㅤ Don also shares a live example from the week before recording - a $4,700 online order that he spotted, investigated, and turned into a potential national franchise account. It's the kind of story that only comes from three decades of watching orders closely. ㅤ Guest Bio Don Esbjornson is the President and owner of Packaging HERO, a Chicago-based packaging materials and custom packaging company, which he has led since 1993. He spent five years at Sealed Air before leaving to start his own distribution venture with one of his distributors. After buying out his partner, he has run the business solo ever since. Today, Packaging HERO operates four distribution centers across Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Dallas. ㅤ What We Cover Walking the beat in 1993: No internet, no email, just a binder of price pages and knocking on every door on both sides of the street. Don breaks down what belly-to-belly sales actually looked like when he started out.Profitable in year one: Despite starting from scratch with a borrowed warehouse, borrowed truck, and borrowed staff, Conpac Group turned a profit in its first year - enough that Don bought out his partner in three and a half years.Three website eras: From a BoxPartners white-label site in 2010 to a self-hosted bad build, to the $250,000 custom platform launched in 2020 that finally made digital marketing possible.Why 93% of their revenue isn't commodity stock: Don explains how custom corrugated makes up over 70% of what they do - and why that's the real differentiator from Uline, not price or speed.The customer survey that revealed their true edge: When they surveyed customers directly and asked why they buy from Packaging HERO, the answer that kept coming back wasn't product or price. It was: your people.The $4,700 order and what Don did next: A custom tray order from a California franchise caught Don's eye. Two locations out of 20 were being bought. He's now working to bring the whole chain on board - with printed trays, truckload quantities, and a lower per-unit cost than what they started with.Your existing customers are your best prospects: Don reflects on a salesperson who cold-called four days a week and never landed appointments - while an existing customer base sat largely untouched. He makes the case for putting that energy into the relationship where it already exists.Down-gauging stretch film as a sales strategy: 20 years ago, everyone bought 80- or 90-gauge. Today it's 43 or 55 gauge. If you're not proactively showing your customers better technology, someone else will.Moving all marketing to India: A few weeks into shifting SEO, paid search, and email marketing to an agency overseas - Don shares his early impressions and why he wouldn't have considered it even five years ago. ㅤ Resources Mentioned Packaging HERO - Don's company, packaging materials, and custom packaging solutionsSealed Air - Don's first employer before moving into distributionUline - Referenced throughout as both a competitor and a catalog pioneer, Don helped build business early in his careerBoxPartners - White-label e-commerce platform Don used for his first website around 2010Grainger - Mentioned as an example of a large competitor, distributors often faceFastenal - Mentioned alongside Grainger as another major player in the distribution category
