PPAI Research published its look at the tariff effects in June, and the most useful finding was about behaviour rather than rates. In the words of PPAI's Alok Bhat, end buyers are responding "less with rejection, more by slowing decisions and increasing price sensitivity."
That matches what distributors are seeing on the ground. In ASI's Q2 report, theLogoShop's Jason Pond said "projects for summertime haven't been as robust as they have in years past," in a quarter where industry sales grew 2.5% while inflation hit a two-year high and container rates hit a three-year high.
The demand is there. It is taking longer to turn into an order, and it is more likely to ask for a second price along the way.
What a slower buyer does to the pipeline
A quote that used to close in three days now sits for ten. In those ten days, the supplier's landed cost may move, since the July 24 Section 301 rates added 10% to 12.5% depending on origin. The buyer comes back asking whether the number still holds, or whether there is a domestic alternative, or whether a smaller quantity changes the unit price.
Every one of those questions is a re-quote. Every day of silence is a chance the buyer's attention goes elsewhere. The rep's week fills with chasing, re-pricing and re-sending, which is the work that was already crowding out selling.
Follow-up is now the workflow
In a fast market, follow-up is a courtesy. In a slow one, it is the process that decides which quotes close. And it has three parts that repeat identically across every open proposal:
- Knowing which quotes are open, how old they are, and what was last said
- Checking whether the price still holds against current supplier cost
- Sending the right note at the right time, and logging that it went
None of that requires a rep's judgment. All of it requires a rep's time, unless it is handed off.
The tariff era did not remove demand. It added a layer of repeated, time-sensitive administration between the quote and the order.
What distributors are already doing
PPAI's research also found the adaptation on the supply side: 53% of distributors are concentrating on preferred, trusted suppliers, and 71% name tariff predictability as their top advocacy need. Fewer suppliers means fewer price sources to check, which helps. It does not shorten the buyer's decision.
How AltOps handles the slow buyer
AltOps runs proposal follow-up as an agent. It watches open quotes, checks the supplier's current pricing against what was quoted, drafts the follow-up in the rep's voice, sends it on the cadence the rep set, and updates the CRM. When a buyer replies asking for a re-price or an alternative, the agent prepares the new quote from the supplier portal and hands it to the rep for the one decision that matters: whether to hold margin or win the order.
The rep stays in every conversation that needs a person. The chasing, checking and re-sending run on their own. When buyers slow down, that is the difference between a pipeline that closes and one that quietly ages out.
Sources: PPAI Research, "The Tariff Effects, From Refunds to End Buyers and Operations," June 17, 2026; ASI, "Industry Sales Grow 2.5% in Q2 as Business Pressures Persist," July 2026; PPAI, "New Tariff Rates Set to Take Effect," 2026.
Written by Madhavam Shahi, teaching agents to run the back office at AltOps.
