NEMRA 2015 Delivers

Last week I attended the NEMRA 2015 Conference in San Diego along with almost 1800 manufacturer reps and manufacturers.  It is the largest single event in the electrical industry.  A short five years ago it had about 1000 attendees, which says something about more manufacturers seeking manufacturer reps, each company seeing value in the meeting and hence sending more people from their company and enhancements that NEMRA has made to become more relevant to its members.

Some observations, feedback and thoughts from the meeting (in no particular order):

• The first day, while “unofficial” given that it was arrival day, had plenty of “informal” meetings.  NEMRA oversold booths and it seemed like every one was filled. Plus every suite in the hotel was taken.
• I attended three of the educational sessions. Each had 100-200 people and focused on issues of interest to manufacturer reps and manufacturers. The three I attended related to marketing content, eCommerce (a repeat of the presentation that Frank Lynn & Associates has given at NAED regionals) and Manufacturer / Rep relationship best practices.
  • Interesting regarding the eCommerce session, which recapped findings from an NAED commissioned research project on Alternative Channels that Frank Lynn & Associates conducted. The research was reportedly conducted through 40-50 interviews that essentially said “eCommerce will not been much of an issue at this time due to generational issues, the need for quick order turnaround, distributor value-added services and that the customer base most likely to purchase online is small contractors.” Feedback from attendees was “surprised” and “doubted the research.”
  • An eBook on content marketing can be found here.
• Sales seem to be slow for many. Large metropolitan areas are performing better; southern California is strong; oil producing areas are starting to really hurt and construction in these markets is being curtailed.
• I spoke to a number of reps who are making commitments to marketing and demand creation.  They have e-newsletters for distributors as well as end-users; I spoke to about a dozen that have hired non-commission oriented ens-user specialists – some focused on lighting / LEDs, some focused on end-user training and awarding CEU credits; some essentially as sales engineers to help trouble shoot and provide technical expertise. Their interest is in helping end-users so that they can either “spec” in product or “control” the business.  The initiatives have generated results for each.
  • One shared a new corporate brochure that doesn’t reference their line card … selling their value-added
  • A number had marketing personnel
  • More are investing in technology through NEMRA Network, RepFiles, tablet and cloud technology and more

It’s interesting that the element of the channel that has the lowest gross margin (their commissions) is making these levels of investment to create demand … personnel and systems to upsell, cross-sell and generate opportunities for unbudgeted end-user initiatives.

• NEMRA is focused on 5 pillars as part of its Strategic Plan – Business Planning (including succession planning), Technology & Systems to increase productivity, Education & Training, Marketing and Creating End-user Demand.
• NEMRA announced the Institute for Sales Leadership for Manufacturers and Manufacturer Reps at Wharton (University of Pennsylvania).
• NEMRA reported on its State of POS (articles in Electrical Wholesaling and the Canadian Electrical Wholesaler. The executive summary of the report was distributed to attendees and the complete 80 page report can be obtained, for free, by emailing nemra@nemra.org.
  • A key observation … NEMRA’s management, along with its board, has a focused direction / vision for its membership and actively communicates it. The membership is very supportive of the association leadership. Ken Hooper has done a very good job leading NEMRA.
• There are a number of “older” reps in the industry but starting to see them hiring younger people, the industry becoming more diverse and reps actively considering their succession planning.
• General session was intriguing and interesting. A “futurist” who, while referencing the Frank Lynn info (the audience forgave him since he didn’t know any better), indicated that the key to success in the future is combining “analog and digital” in both pre-sale and post-sale and that “seamless service is the goal”. The key is “talking to customers.
• There was some discussion regarding acquisitions with there being an expectation of more manufacturer acquisitions, especially by foreign companies. Some manufacturers commented about Mayer joining IMARK (and some expecting more), Sonepar seeking more acquisitions, Graybar calling distributors about their acquisition interest as well as LEDs being their growth engine – it appears that all reps have at least one LED line, indicating that lighting is no longer exclusive to lighting agents.

From a Channel Marketing Group perspective, I attended to:

• Support NEMRA’s launch of the POS initiative as we conducted the research this past summary and will be staying engaged to support NEMRA on this initiative. If you are interested in learning more or participating on a committee or task force, email or call me.
• We had meetings with some clients and prospective clients.
• CMG launched our “Uncover for Manufacturer Reps” distributor customer satisfaction initiative where reps are able to solicit feedback on their performance from distributors (at all levels of their organization).  There is special pricing for NEMRA members. If you would like more information, email or call me.

There were about 375 manufacturer rep firms in attendance and the number of rep attendees exceeded the number of manufacturer attendees (one of the few industry events that I attend where this occurs).  In fact, I had a number of reps, and some manufacturers, inquire what it would take to have 1 industry association that could work to affect channel issues … which there isn’t and it is very doubtful if there could be.

Overall, a very productive meeting by all.