For the September issue of Electrical Wholesaling magazine I wrote an article for their Speaking Out section titled Mega Agencies vs Smaller Reps. In an industry where it has commonly been stated that 80% of manufacturers who represent 60% of industry sales go to market through independent manufacturer sales agents, needless to say, the agency world is important. And the trend … [Read more...] about Reps … Mega vs Medium / Smaller?
Distributor Perspective of State of eCommerce Research Report
Recently Channel Marketing Group surveyed distributors in the construction and industrial trades regarding their eCommerce experience. The intent was to gain a distributor\'s perspective of the state of eCommerce, how they define it, what results they are currently experiencing, where they have challenges and their opinion regarding the future of eCommerce. Over 230 … [Read more...] about Distributor Perspective of State of eCommerce Research Report
O+P=R and a Lower Cost of Sales … The Agent Management Formula
In the electrical industry, capturing business is a fight for market share. And to win that fight you need the most effective sales organization. One that can get into \"the right person at the customer\" (be they and end-user, contractor or distributor) to prove your difference. At the same time companies need to do this cost-effectively. There is a balance that needs to be … [Read more...] about O+P=R and a Lower Cost of Sales … The Agent Management Formula
Does your warehouse make you money?
There are two ways to make money. Either you sell more material / services for a profit or you need to reduce your loss (operating costs) in your warehouse (support services). The only ways to make your warehouse a profit contributor is to reduce costs by reducing people, reducing delivery costs or increasing output without increasing expenses. Alternatively you can seek ways … [Read more...] about Does your warehouse make you money?
What is Good “Product Content”?
For the past few years electrical distributors have been actively investing (in the hopes of eventually deploying) in commerce-enabled websites. This has necessitated that distributors become acquainted with, focus on, invest in and develop product content (data) to power their systems. And they\'ve had to learn the difference between product content that is sufficient / usable … [Read more...] about What is Good “Product Content”?
Acquisitions – Pieces of a Puzzle …Border States and Womack
Monday marked the day that Amazon closed on its Whole Foods acquisition and that Border States closed on its Kriz Davis acquisition. Both provided the acquirer strategic opportunities to increase their footprint and become pieces of a puzzle to become national. As many recall, last month Border States announced it was going to acquire the $200M Kriz Davis business while … [Read more...] about Acquisitions – Pieces of a Puzzle …Border States and Womack
2018 Planning Countdown
Electrical industry tradeshows start in 4 weeks with AD\'s North American Meeting, quickly followed by the IMARK Annual Meeting and the NAED Eastern, and not counting national meetings for national chains. And with the meetings comes talk regarding 2018 joint planning. In fact, Electrical Wholesaling\'s August issue was titled \"Marketing Planning.\" The 2018 planning season … [Read more...] about 2018 Planning Countdown
Home Depot Q2 – Pro Insights
Home Depot shared its Q2 results yesterday and, while the company continues to perform well as indicated with over $28B in sales, its Pro business, defined as contractors and its Interline business, outperformed the core business. NAED\'s TED Magazine, through its re-publishing relationship with The Associated Press, shared a credible overview of the company\'s financial … [Read more...] about Home Depot Q2 – Pro Insights
Distributors Need to Evolve from Being Product Companies
Distributors traditionally fought for market share via relationship, service and price. The company with the best people, best service and competitive pricing that could provide their customers with access to credit typically won more business in a market. Since a customer couldn\'t buy everything from one company (due to product lines or credit reasons), they shared business … [Read more...] about Distributors Need to Evolve from Being Product Companies
Service Agreements / Extended Warranties – Revenue Generator & Potential Differentiator
Distributors have been seeking opportunities to generate, or increase, their service revenue. While traditionally a complementary service for industrially-oriented distributors, construction-oriented distributors are also seeing opportunities. Some distributors have defined revenue goals, others look at this opportunistically (or give the service away to capture the product … [Read more...] about Service Agreements / Extended Warranties – Revenue Generator & Potential Differentiator
