For many small to mid-sized HVAC distributors, marketing has been an after-thought. Something to support sales. It’s understandable given the business started with salespeople and, for a business to succeed, orders need to be quoted, captured, and processed. That’s the role of sales. But, for companies to grow, it takes having a strategy and creating awareness so that … [Read more...] about Is Your Marketing a QSR or Fine Dining?
Coaching to Optimize Sales Performance with IR Theory
Last month HVACR Trends sponsored a sales coaching training workshop focused on driving sales performance through coaching. We shared “why” this is a critical skill that essentially every distributor and manufacturer rep needs to invest resources (at least thought process and time) into. Manufacturers may need similar, especially if they have a direct salesforce or sales … [Read more...] about Coaching to Optimize Sales Performance with IR Theory
Republic Companies Receives Investment from Graycliff Partners
Republic Companies, an electrical and HVACR distributors based in Davenport, IA, received an investment from Graycliff Partners. This New York-based private equity firm invests in small to mid-sized companies and they typically makes $10-50 million invest in companies. And the company is already seeking “add-ons” , indicating that they are seeking acquisitions in either, or … [Read more...] about Republic Companies Receives Investment from Graycliff Partners
Why are Salespeople Profit Adverse?
Having worked with many distributors over the years, one observation about many distributor salespeople are that they are customer pleasers. Most are profit adverse. Sure, many are on commission. And many of those commission plans are built around a percent of gross margin but, as soon as a customer hints that they want to negotiate, salespeople are willing to lower the … [Read more...] about Why are Salespeople Profit Adverse?
Coburn Supply Acquires Bay Electric, Adds HVAC
Coburn Supply, a multi-industry distributor headquartered in Texas serving the electrical, plumbing, HVAC and waterwork segments in eastern Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee through over 60 locations recently announced its second acquisition of the year, this time in the electrical industry. The company acquired the assets of Bay Electric Supply’s League … [Read more...] about Coburn Supply Acquires Bay Electric, Adds HVAC
Better HVACR Sales through Better Sales Coaching
Field level sales management is one of the most challenging roles in the industry, and, in many cases, one of the least effective roles in distributors. Why you ask? Because the people who are placed in these roles typically are: Top producing salespeople who have their process and think others should adopt “their way”. They come into the role with no sales … [Read more...] about Better HVACR Sales through Better Sales Coaching
Ferguson FYQ2 Performance Insights
Last week Ferguson shared their FY Q2 performance, which was the equivalent of Q4 2022. Not surprisingly, given the Fed’s interest rate hikes and the resulting impact on the residential market, Ferguson reported deceleration in its sales growth. After all, continuing to exceed performance over the past few years, given the confluence of supply chain issues, price increases … [Read more...] about Ferguson FYQ2 Performance Insights
The Master Group Acquired RSC; PE Strikes
Private equity firms, which always seem to have access to funds, are looking to acquire distributors, believing this is a growth segment for them In the electrical industry, within the past six months two independent distributors have been acquired by private equity firms with the previous owners remaining involved in the business ... professionally and financially. The … [Read more...] about The Master Group Acquired RSC; PE Strikes
Bringing Next Gen Data to the HVAC Industry
It’s been a number of years since Forrester Research and Gartner foreshadowed the demise of HVACR distributors and forecasted that the business would 1) go online and 2) be taken over by Amazon and national chains. The part they missed was talking to the customer. But, eCommerce is growing, especially when defined as electronic commerce and/or commerce influenced by … [Read more...] about Bringing Next Gen Data to the HVAC Industry
McNeill to Lead Conexiom as CEO
Conexiom is helping HVACR distributors like Woodhill Supply and Johnstone Supply, as well as numerous electrical distributors, scale their businesses by automating the ordering process, enabling repetitive tasks (data entry) to become digitized enabling staff to manage more and/or better serve internal and external customers. For many this is one of their steps on their … [Read more...] about McNeill to Lead Conexiom as CEO
