Distributor counter areas have been spotlighted in the first month of the COVID-19 era. Counters represent between 5-30% of a distributor’s business with the importance of counter sales being directly tied to target audience, locale and business focus. What is their future? According to our Mid-April Electrical Market Sentiment survey, 56% of distributor respondents … [Read more...] about The Future of Counters
Sales & Marketing
Market Targeting – The story of Chicken Little
Chicken Little arrived in the US in mid-March and declared \"the world is falling\", and it started to … and has. Humpty Dumpty fell and he then said, since his horsemen were missing (probably unemployed), \"Carmen Sandiego will help in finding the pieces (after the government offers money to stabilize employment)\" So, let’s find the pieces and help you in … [Read more...] about Market Targeting – The story of Chicken Little
COVID Content, Concepts & Comments
Have you felt “overwhelmed” with the amount of COVID-19 information that has been arriving in your mailbox the past couple of weeks? Rather than post this information regularly, hopefully curating it to identify some key content and sharing some concepts makes it easier for you and, hopefully, more informative. Today is the last day to participate in our second COVID-19 … [Read more...] about COVID Content, Concepts & Comments
Increasing Sales Effectiveness, a COVID Opportunity?
A potential outcome of COVID-19 is a rethinking of sales organizations. You\'ve now had an opportunity to consider their effectiveness in a different sales environment and hopefully are starting to think about your sales organization \"post COVID\". Consider … prior to the pandemic outside salespeople believed that they needed to spend time behind a windshield and needed … [Read more...] about Increasing Sales Effectiveness, a COVID Opportunity?
Selling Services Requires a Plan & Marketing
Much is talked about how distributors needing to sell services to differentiate themselves. They need to create / provide solutions and will need to generate revenue from these services. While some of the discussed services are unbundling, what is currently provided / expected, others are more consultative in nature or services that customers / contractors can outsource to … [Read more...] about Selling Services Requires a Plan & Marketing
POS Integral to Rep Commission Model
Throughout the fall Channel Marketing Group surveyed NEMRA reps and also interviewed dozens of them on behalf of NEMRA for the upcoming Rep of the Future report, which will be unveiled at the upcoming NEMRA meeting. While the objective of the research was to identify the traits needed for the rep of 2025, we also gained deeper insights into the financial model of … [Read more...] about POS Integral to Rep Commission Model
Wants and Needs
You’ve heard the story, “there is a difference between wants and needs.” For example, especially this time of year you hear one parent say to the other “the kids ‘want’ the latest and greatest electronic, but do they ‘need’ it?” The same occurs with a number of distributor sales management. They “want” new accounts and believe that customers “need” them. Yes, I … [Read more...] about Wants and Needs
