Buyer behavior is changing. Convenience is now a differentiator. Customers expect it. It\'s the new definition of service. It started in the consumer world and is quickly transitioning to B2B buyer expectations, and it will become distributor reality (and is defined as \"ease of doing business\" by distributors in considering manufacturers.) While customers expect competitive … [Read more...] about Convenience Will Deliver Sales and Loyalty
Branding
Football Fever
In the words of Hank Williams, “are you ready for some football?! The season for the most watched sport in America started this weekend with Miami vs Florida and will continue until early February. Whether peewee, high school, college or pro, football will take over most towns and conversations. Millions of conversations on Monday’s, Tuesday’s and Friday’s will … [Read more...] about Football Fever
Home Depot Orange Coming to Your Customer
The color orange signifies joy, happiness and creativity, however, it is also representative of fire and, given that the color is between yellow and red on the color spectrum it is, from a business perspective, between caution (yellow) and “bad” (red). And it’s the color of Home Depot and many distributors may be seeing Home Depot trucks visiting their contractors in the … [Read more...] about Home Depot Orange Coming to Your Customer
Embracing Digital Connections…Texting
Yes, we’ve all seen it and most of us have done it…multi-tasking by listening and texting, reading and texting, sending a quick text to touch base or share a piece of information and more. While many thought “texting is for our kids”, it is now mainstream and becoming further integrated into everyday business. We’ve heard of distributor salespeople getting texts from their … [Read more...] about Embracing Digital Connections…Texting
Slow Growth in Industrial MRO … Grainger Reports
The industrial MRO market appears to have slowed its rate of growth as evidenced by Grainger’s 2019 first quarter report. While Grainger is much more than electrical products, products commonly associated with the electrical industry (electrical, lighting, motors) represent 9% of sales with power and hand tools representing another 10% according to Grainger’s 2019 Fact Sheet, … [Read more...] about Slow Growth in Industrial MRO … Grainger Reports
A changing MRO environment?
Recently I participated in a networking group that included a number of MRO buyers. The subject was trends in the MRO space. Granted many of the attendees were larger MRO buyers, but the feedback indicated a change in buyer purchasing behaviors. Over the years I\'ve sat in a number of these meetings, albeit with different attendees. The buying and eCommerce trends centered … [Read more...] about A changing MRO environment?
What do your customers value the most from you?
Lately I’ve been thinking about “value”. Not necessarily from a financial / pricing / cost viewpoint but from a “what does your customer value THE MOST from you?” You may ask why I’m thinking about this? It relates to customer satisfaction, customer experience, value proposition, customer retention, lead generation, account penetration and potentially profitability … [Read more...] about What do your customers value the most from you?
Distributors. Has Amazon Business Been Good for You?
Conventional wisdom is that Amazon Business is not good for MRO and construction distributors.They are a technological behemoth that knows nothing about “our space” and are only successful because they can: throw money at the issue / opportunity have the most advanced technology and know-how to mine data have access to consumers who work in companies (and hence are … [Read more...] about Distributors. Has Amazon Business Been Good for You?
Protecting Price and the Channel in an Online Marketplace World (Amazon)
Amazon Business is talked about regularly within distribution industries in general and especially in the MRO space. Barely a meeting goes by with a manufacturer where the topic of \"what should we do regarding Amazon Business\" is not asked as is the question of \"what are distributors doing online (and to combat Amazon)?\" And then the discussion evolves to internal … [Read more...] about Protecting Price and the Channel in an Online Marketplace World (Amazon)
Employee Engagement Requires Internal Marketing
Much has been discussed about employee retention as well as recruitment. While some elements of both are truly in the hands of the employee / candidate and companies cannot impact, there is a key element that companies do control. it is their culture. And a key ingredient to achieving the desired culture, and sometimes recapturing it, is employee engagement. Essentially, do … [Read more...] about Employee Engagement Requires Internal Marketing
