2020 Planning
We’re in the midst of meeting and planning season and with it comes the perennial question of “what’s the outlook for 2020?” While no one has a crystal ball, it’s …
Marketing
Convenience Will Deliver Sales and Loyalty
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 …
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 …
Grainger Q2 Sales Slow … Industrial Indicator?
Grainger frequently is a good bellwether for the industrial market given their MRO focus on Fortune 500 industrial accounts. Grainger\’s performance highlights that the industrial MRO rate of growth decelerated …
Is your supplier finding leads and business, online, for you?
ABB recently launched a new initiative, eFinder, that enables visitors to its website to purchase material online. But they are not disintermediating the channel. Instead they are providing distributors with …
Is your supplier finding leads and business, online, for you? Read More »
Compete for Grainger’s Business: eProcurement
Many industrially-oriented distributors lament that they can’t compete versus Grainger for MRO business at their accounts. They say “we now the ‘decision’ makers and can beat them on price but …
Reducing Tax Implications of Incentive Travel Programs
This week WESCO is taking 800+ people on an Alaskan cruise as part of their WESCO VIP incentive program. It looks like an exciting adventure (check out this pre-program video …
Reducing Tax Implications of Incentive Travel Programs Read More »
eCommerce in the Channel
During recent calls with distributors to get the pulse of the industry, one area we touched on is eCommerce and specifically the activity that they are seeing from their customers, …
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 …
Does it feel like we’re heading into a recession …
Or are we talking ourselves into a recession? Since the fall and the beginning of planning season there have been some economists who have been warning of a second half …
Does it feel like we’re heading into a recession … Read More »