The following post was originally posted on Wednesday, May 11. It is being reposted as Google / Blogger had technical issues on Thursday and “lost” the posting.
Last week I attended the NAED Leadership Summit in San Diego (yes, a long way to go for 2 days, but if need to be where the customers are!) and wanted to share a number of observations.
Overall the feeling from many was “a good meeting”, although this posting will be sent to, and read, by more people than attended the conference. According to the registration list, there were 80 unique distribution companies in attendance (84 if you included divisions of Rexel). The distributor list seemed to have larger companies that are more industrially-focused, hence skewing marketplace feedback. There were some manufuacturers and distributors that were on the list but never seen … too busy in their suites having meetings.
Some thoughts, observations and comments that we heard:
- A number of people commented on the distance (although San Diego had great weather) and the fact that the meeting was only two days. The two days was an issue as most manufacturers and distributors were booked, having little time to meet with smaller manufacturers / distributors and no time for hallway meetings and networking. In fact, the second general session, which had a good speaker and an economic outlook panel, was poorly attended.
- Some asked about the branding of the meeting and felt that the name may make smaller distributors feel disenfranchised. Additionally, someone commented, regarding the brand, “where are the leadership type seminars to help senior management?”
- Showing the usage of technology, many were texting to confirming meeting times and places. The technological revolution has now hit the electrical industry!
- Heard from many distributors of manufacturers expanding into new product categories that are not their core and where they have no expertise – just looking to sell something or get on the latest craze. This creates conflict for distributors.
- John Burke from Kirby Risk presented their supplier evaluation report at the Manufacturer Advisory Council Forum. Very comprehensive and professional. Terri Dumas from Rab presented their thorough approach for business development with a distributor.
- Social media was top of mind with a keynote presenter discussing it and a session at the Manufacturer Council (which was open to distributors). This social phenomena is having implications for manufacturers and distributors in how they interact with prospects, customers and employees. The opportunity is there, however, the speakers didn’t share approaches or ideas on 1) how to develop an e-strategy, 2) setting goals for a social marketing initiative or 3) ideas for distributors / manufacturers to consider (afterall, everyone has heard of Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, a blog, Twitter, and Flickr).
- Overall business reports were encouraging with industrially-oriented distributors up 15-20% (and most have some type of energy initiative). Did hear of some construction-oriented distributors doing “decent” but they were in larger cities and had been recipients of larger projects. The resi / light commercial market is “nominal” – at best.
- On the lighting side, from speaking with a couple of fixture manufacturers, “LED, LED, LED” – and the product keeps changing requiring continuous education on the part of reps and distributor salespeople to stay even with customers.
- ElectricSmarts and IDEA announced a “strategic partnership” in conjunction with ElectricSmarts’ launch of its new catalog system on Saturday night. Unfortunately didn’t hear much about it during cocktail parties / at meetings. Here’s an interesting snippet from their press release “Through the strategic partnership, ElectricSmarts Network will provide manufacturer-authorized IDW data to end-users, and IDEA will offer ElectricSmarts’ SMART eCat web-based e-catalog to distributors for use on their websites.” The reality is that eCat will probably be syndicated to any distributor that wants it (not just IDEA members). It’s interesting that ElectricSmarts is looking to get IDW attributed data to use in its NetPricer product to reach contractors. Does this mean that IDEA has its eyes on the contractor market and is planning to compete with Trade Service’s TraSer SX (or let ElectricSmarts do it?) Also interesting that manufacturer content is being syndicated to a non-distributor. Wonder if manufacturers approve of this?
- IDEA announced a service that they are soliciting feedback on called B2B Partnership Rating Program (PRP) which is essentially a scorecard of a manufacturer’s data. They are seeking input and plan to release to the industry in Q3 2012! Sounds like a concept seeking approval. Interestingly, it was placed on general session attendee seats but there was no reference to it during the session … did it surprise NAED or not receive support?
That was the highlights that we heard (other than we had a number of very effective meetings). If you attended, what else did you hear or find interesting? If you didn’t attend, why and what would entice you to attend?
10 Comments
I can remember when this was a real meeting with value. Times have changed. It is named a “Leadership” meeting. The content of the meeting did not reflect that at all.
This meeting was like a trade show that very few showed up for.
It makes one wonder when the NAED meetings will go virtual. Do you fellows have any thoughts on that?
It was a wasted weekend away from family.
True I met with some suppliers. But they were also at our buying group.
NAED has just lost a lot of value. NAED seems to think they can train people and we certainly don’t think so.It just seems like they are going through the motions.
As a manufacturer, agree that this was the tone. Haven’t figured out the benefit of social media to us (why would a bunch of contractors come to our Facebook page?)
We were swamped with meetings and stayed in our suite. Would have been good to get some hallway time to network with other manufacturers and see some of our other customers.
The ElectricSmart thing is interesting. Didn’t know that IDEA was giving our data away without our permission. Will need to ask someone about that
ElectricSmart giving away manufacturer data?….Hmmmm. We will ask around. Seems like there was a fee involved.
And then there is the Net Pricer issue of trying to get into the contractor business with IDEA. So far Net Pricer has created a lot of non-productive work for my people.
IDEA and NAED blew up the effectiveness of what IDEA could have accomplished. Game is over fellows.
But then we never bought into the “For the Good of the Industry” sales pitch.
Now IDEA, with the help of NAED again, is trying to re-invent the data wheel AGAIN. Come on…do something that has value. A suggestion is that you give all the manufacturers their money back.
From a manufacturer point of view, I noticed that the original post(s) didn’t mention the ‘elephant in the room’…namely that the EDI services that IDEA and Activant currently offer, actually cost more than what can be done point to point. So my question to the readers is this: Isn’t IDEA actually adding more cost in the channel? We certainly think so.
It is true that the NAED National meeting needs to go away. It is strange that now when manufacturers, as a group, start to complain, that NAED sends out a thank you for attending. Bit late isn’t it? We see everyone we want to see at the regional meetings. But NAED is like a hunk granite…..you can dump water on it and it runs off. They just don’t listen.
But as you said the weather in San Diego was great.
Did anyone on the IDEA Board think that maybe Trade Service was a better option to reach the contractor than Electric Smarts?
Trade Service only reaches contractors with estimating systems. That is the extent of their reach.
Probably Electric Smarts can probably reach more contractors.
Mea culpa. I must have either fallen asleep, been distracted (I was sitting next to another consultant!) or zoned out during Tom Naber’s general session presentation (sorry Tom). Mike Wentz from IDEA has shown me the error of my ways and that Tom did mention IDEA’s B2B Partnership (scorecard program), and he’s provided the copy from the script. Here it is:
“Our partners at IDEA are working on a project that will change the way distributors and manufacturers work together on eBusiness. Currently in development, the B2B Partnership Rating Program is a collaboration tool that measures industry standards adoption and compliance… enables distributors to communicate their exact data requirements… and evaluates Industry Data Warehouse (IDW) content. The program also takes a look at manufacturer and distributor processes and is designed to work in conjunction with the current NAED scorecards.
The report results will assist manufacturers and distributors in identifying necessary improvements needed to provide and sustain data quality and employ best practices. The Partnership Rating Program will include benchmarking statistics to allow IDW subscribers to see how they measure against key competitors. It also measures and identifies Business System Solution Providers that fully support the industry standards.
Currently the Partnership Rating Program is in pre-launch phase with several manufacturers and distributors participating. We applaud these participants for leading not only their company to new levels of sales opportunities, operating efficiency, and customer satisfaction, but also for leading the industry to ensure that our channel remains the first choice for buyers.
Data affects your bottom line. Several years ago, IDEA and NEMA completed a study that showed manufacturers can generate an additional $97,000 in profits for every $10 million in sales, and distributors can generate an additional $73,000 in profits for every $10 million in sales annually after synchronizing their product and price data through IDW. The ROI calculator uses a conservative 5% estimated growth but actual results are typically in the 10 – 15% range.
A brochure with more information about the Partnership Rating Program is on your chair. Representatives from IDEA and DATAgility are here today by the registration desk. I encourage you to visit with them after the General Session to find out more about the benefits and the specific ROI high quality data and standards adoption can have for your business.”
I stand corrected, thanks Mike.
This is interesting that IDEA is seeking to grade manufacturer data. So now they are attempting to be the data police?
Trade Service currently reaches over 20,000 contractor desktops and while we do enjoy very good alliances with the estimating systems and their customers, our reach into the end user community goes way beyond them.
Leave a Reply
Trending Now
Pulse of Switchgear
