Can You Afford Declining Margins?
2016 seems to have been the \”year of pricing\”. A number of distributors either discussed, or undertook, pricing initiatives this past year. In many instances it was a desire to …
Profitability
Do Vendor Published Rebate Programs Drive Decisions?
Rebates are a fact of life and the first marketing group rebate negotiation, in 1968, was designed to capture incremental revenue (for a wire company) with the distributors collecting the …
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Weak Jobs Report Impacting Electrical Industry?
Earlier this month the headline that many were commenting on was \”U.S. Hiring Slowed Dramatically in May; Jobless Rate Falls to 4.7%\”. The story emphasized that non-farm payroll was up …
Drive for Data
Over the past month or so Allen and I have had a number of calls for data. Some are from owners / senior management, some from marketing personnel and some …
Liening Up
Yes, we\’re talking about liens! They types that accounting / credit people like, not \”lean\” as in \”lean processes\” which we\’ll touch on in the near future when we discuss …
Ready for Growth?
As you sit around your corporate boardroom and and make decisions that impact growth either via acquisition or generating incremental sales, many don\’t give consideration to PRODUCTIVITY (in the back office). Why …
Industrial Margins Declining?
Feedback from manufacturers and distributors indicate a rather significant drop in sales but recent conversations indicate that margins could be even more significantly impacted. While industrial margins typically are higher …
Moneyball for Growth
If you are stymied with geographical growth and think that many of your customers are not buying all they can from you, the odds are stacked in your favor that …
Increasing Pressure and Competition in the Industrial MRO Market
Grainger and WESCO are typically good industry benchmarks to get a sense of the industrial MRO market. Grainger also sometimes provides insights into the institutional market, so let\’s look at …
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