eCommerce continues to be a heavily discussed issue within the electrical industry with distributors, in aggregate, investing millions of dollars and manufacturers redesigning sites, investing to build, manage and enhance product content and considering the alternative channels that eCommerce is creating be it Amazon Business, Grainger and Zoro, HomeDepot.com, Ferguson.com, … [Read more...] about Revenue Generation, Content Key Takeaways from B2B Online Conference
Channel Strategies
Digital Distributor Starts with eCommerce Product Content
The term \"digital distributor\" is starting to be used more repeatedly. Granted it can be a consultant\'s way to drum up business but it\'s becoming a term used to express the further reaching impact of doing business digitally and recognition that not all business is going to be done via \"hunt and peck\" clicking on websites. Much of it, however, emanates from the need for … [Read more...] about Digital Distributor Starts with eCommerce Product Content
How Distributors are Adapting to Changing Buyer Demands
Customer expectations are changing how distributors are doing business. They expect more. Some of your competition offers more. And you need to offer more to retain customers and have a hope of capturing new ones. And the changes are much more than offering an online website. There are other technologies you currently own that need to be leveraged as well as data insights. … [Read more...] about How Distributors are Adapting to Changing Buyer Demands
State of eCommerce According to Electrical Contractors & Buyers
According to a recent study conducted by Channel Marketing Group titled \"State of eCommerce, Electrical Contractor & End-User Insights\", electrical buyers are accelerating their usage of online tools for product research, downloading of spec sheets, seeking pricing and checking inventory. While online ordering ranks typically 5th out of six usages, based upon segment, … [Read more...] about State of eCommerce According to Electrical Contractors & Buyers
Aligning Compensation with Channel Selling
A core philosophy in developing sales compensation models is to reward salespeople for what you want them to do ... which is sell. Salespeople need to be aligned with their company\'s, and in the case of manufacturer reps their manufacturers, goals. Historically for electrical manufacturer reps this typically related to selling to electrical distributors and their agreements … [Read more...] about Aligning Compensation with Channel Selling
Amazon Business Isn\’t the Greatest Threat, Customer Expectations Is
As electrical distributors launch, or prepare to launch, their eCommerce sites, they need to be aware of a key customer dynamic that is changing...the expectation of accuracy. While many have talked about Amazon Business being a key competitor (or threat), their biggest impact may be on customer expectations ... and the expectation that the inventory information on the website … [Read more...] about Amazon Business Isn\’t the Greatest Threat, Customer Expectations Is
Reps … Mega vs Medium / Smaller?
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?
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
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
