Introduction
Tim McLain, Director of Marketing at RepSpark, shares hard-earned insights from 35 years in B2B marketing and explains how wholesale brands can win modern buyers. He breaks down why inventory visibility, sales rep enablement, and clean digital ordering systems are now table stakes for brands selling into retail.
Tim also dives deep into what actually drives website conversions in 2026, from disciplined email strategy and HubSpot workflows to AI chatbots, LLM visibility, and pillar-page content designed for generative search. This episode is a practical playbook for B2B leaders who want fewer errors, better buyer experiences, and measurable growth across wholesale channels.
Rick: Pathmonk is the AI for website conversions. With increasing online competition, over 98% of website visitors don’t convert. The ability to successfully show you value proposition and support visitors in the buying journey separates you from the competition online. Pathmonk qualifies and conversely on your website by figuring out where they are in the buying journey and influencing them in key decision moments with relevant micro experiences like case studies, intro videos, and much more.
Stay relevant to your visitors and increase conversions by 50% by adding Pathmonk to your website in seconds, letting the AI do all the work and increase conversions while you keep doing marketing as usual. Check us out, pathmonk.com everybody. Welcome to today’s episode of Pathmonk Presents. Today were joined by Tim McLain.
He’s a veteran of marketing. Tim, what we were talking about offline, but I’ll let you do the intro yourself. Tim is the director of marketing at RepSpark and I’m super excited to talk to him. Today. We’re gonna touch on a few things. We’re gonna touch on RepSpark. Obviously we’re gonna touch on growth and marketing.
And then we’re gonna get to know Tim a little bit more in depth and apparently we’re gonna know more about what he’s reading. stay tuned. And Tim, please take it away.
Tim McLain: Yeah, it is great to be here. thanks for letting me chime in here. I think it’s an interesting time to have this kind of a conversation when I’ve been doing marketing now for 35 years.
I was literally sitting at my desk when the first web browser literally came online. The first website software. I remember making a webpage and showing my boss and saying, Hey, I made a website for our company. He goes, what’s a website?
All the way till today, where I think I have the same sort of feeling of the hair on the back of my neck standing up the first time I really leaned into ChatGPT.
So it’s been a wild ride over the last 35 years and there’s so much to talk about. And I love your software, all the other available software there that’s helping us be better marketers, especially in the B2B space, has all really changed in the last 18 to 24 months in a fundamental way.
So I’m really excited to talk about the different things that we’re doing to get in front of our B2B buyers at RepSpark.
Rick: Absolutely, Tim, thanks for the intro. That was amazing. And giving us the overview of where you started and your first website. It sounds super exciting.
But let’s start with the basics then. What’s the big idea behind RepSpark? If you were explaining this to a friend over coffee, how would you describe what you do?
Tim McLain: Yeah, and I’m glad you phrased it that way because I have seven different pitches. We’re getting ready to go to some big trade shows.
I would say RepSpark really is an online platform that helps brands sell their products to stores without all the chaos.
So what does that mean? Companies that sell high-end clothing, shoes, golf gear, or outdoor products don’t just sell direct-to-consumer. They also sell in bulk to thousands of retail stores.
That process is really messy at most companies. Orders come in through emails, spreadsheets, PDFs, phone calls, outdated portals. Sales teams and operations teams often reenter the same order multiple times.
Inventory tends to be a really big problem. A retailer orders 10 large shirts and the brand only has eight. Mistakes are super common.
RepSpark replaces all of that with one digital system. Brands and retailers can see products, check real-time inventory, place multi-day orders, track everything in one spot, and send orders directly into internal systems with almost zero errors.
The real value isn’t just speed — it’s clarity. Sales reps know what they can actually sell. Retailers know what they’re ordering. Operations teams stop firefighting. Leaders finally see what’s happening across the wholesale business.
Shopify helps businesses sell direct to consumers — RepSpark is similar, but for brands selling wholesale B2B.
Rick: Okay. Thanks for that. That was really concise.
Are there certain industries where your product really shines? And what’s the key problem you help solve?
Tim McLain: Yep. The key problem is inventory being wrong and no visibility into it. Direct-to-consumer is easier because Shopify can show sold out instantly.
But in wholesale, you may have 20 different stores placing multi-day bulk orders at the same time. Inventory problems get amplified fast. And there’s no quicker way to get ejected from a retailer than constantly missing pieces from every shipment.
So solving inventory control is huge.
We’re also big in giving sales reps tools. Reps sit with retailers, open their laptops, order full product lines, break shipments into warehouses — all seamlessly done in our platform.
We’re known as the number one wholesale platform for golf brands. We also work in surf and swim, and we’re growing fast into outdoor lifestyle and tactical gear.
The tool works across industries, especially those with strong sales rep networks selling wholesale.
Rick: Got it. You’re basically giving a spark to those reps.
Tim McLain: Exactly. Well done.
Rick: From your experience, what makes a website convert? Our audience is always looking for frameworks, tech stack, tactics. What works today?
Tim McLain: Great question. Our website is still our primary source of inbound deals.
We love HubSpot at RepSpark — not just for marketing, but for the whole company ecosystem. We actually built our website in HubSpot. Their builder is amazing, their email tools are incredible.
We run multiple campaigns, workflows, and sequences across our TAM.
I’m still a big believer in email — but you must protect your domain health. My rule: never send more than four emails per month per contact.
We’ve built strong conversion assets:
ROI calculator
Custom brand report builder
Educational content
We also embedded an AI chatbot using SalesSpeak.ai. It’s been astonishing how long people stay with a bot if it gives good answers.
Half our traffic is retailers asking basic access questions — the bot handles it perfectly, unclogging inboxes.
Now the biggest shift: LLM visibility.
In 2026, marketers need to understand how visible they are on ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, etc.
We use a tool called GetVista, which shows share of voice across LLMs.
We then build pillar pages — Q&A structured pages, 600–800 words, designed specifically for AI ingestion.
In three months, we went from 3% to 26% share of voice.
That’s the future of B2B marketing: SEO + GEO (Generative Engine Optimization).
Trade shows still matter. Face-to-face still matters. But AI bots + LLM visibility are now essential.
Rick: Tim, I gotta tell you, I gotta go back to this and take notes. There was so much gold in there.
Now let’s switch gears and talk about you. Rapid fire style.
What are the main three things you focus on when you go to work every day?
Tim McLain: Collaboration is huge. I’m sitting in our office with our go-to-market engineer, product managers, head of sales.
We adjust messaging fast, get real-time feedback, operationalize quickly. Everything is rapid fire and cohesive.
Rick: What type of content do you prefer: reading, watching, or listening?
Tim McLain: Mostly listening and watching. I’m big into podcasts and audiobooks now.
Rick: What’s the latest piece of content that really stuck with you?
Tim McLain: Walking With the Wind, John Lewis’ memoir. Very moving, very emotional, helps me understand history and empathy in today’s world.
Rick: One repetitive task you’d automate forever?
Tim McLain: The AI bot on our website has already automated tons of repetitive inbound questions.
We don’t automate everything — we still let humans filter and personalize. AI accelerates, but humans guide.
And inside RepSpark, we’re rolling out AI thoughtfully.
Our first AI feature is Order Insights — it reads hundreds of orders and gives ops teams bullet-point highlights instantly.
AI should provide insights, not noise.
Rick: That’s such a great way to frame it.
Tim McLain: One more quick story: HubSpot Breeze AI helped me analyze why we lost deals last year. It summarized hundreds of deal notes into pure gold for our exec team. That’s the power of AI when used safely and thoughtfully.
Rick: Tim, thank you for that.
As we wrap up: if someone forgets everything today, what’s the one thing they should remember about RepSpark?
Tim McLain: If you’re a brand selling wholesale through sales reps into retailers, RepSpark should be at the top of your list in 2026.
We’re an 18-year proven platform, now evolving with AI in smart ways, helping brands eliminate chaos, gain visibility, and grow.
Rick: Tim, thanks again for all the value, insights, and experience. Wishing you a wonderful day ahead.
Tim McLain: You’re welcome. You too. Thanks everybody.
Rick: Bye. Thanks. Bye.