Why Grow?

We’re in the business of helping companies grow. Whether it’s to increase top line sales, improve the bottom line, improve productivity  or all three, the bottom line why you engage with either one of us is that you want tomorrow to be different than today.

Yes, we know, you’re saying “that’s self-evident”.

But the unfortunate reality is that there are people in your organization who question why you need to grow. In some instances it is a  case of support staff expressing “why do I / we need more work?” Other times it is salespeople saying “I have enough business” or, feeling that they are making enough to support their lifestyle.

And they way we know this is that we’ve had it expressed to us by client staff’s and, in some cases, management who either is trying to refine their culture, expand their business or meet new corporate goals.

“Why grow” relates to the need for companies to:

• Improve sales, and profitability, to meet increased expenses in a marketplace where frequently margins are being eroded. For those not intimately involved in the financial side of the business, consider that wages increase, utilities increase, healthcare has increased significantly, truck expenses have increased, the continued need to invest in technology and much more. Although the government states that inflation is very low (less than its targeted 2% rate), business expenses increase.
• Fund increased investments in the business … and wages for everyone.
• Growth is needed for longer-term survive-ability for of a company
• Deliver a reasonable return on investment to shareholders / ownership
• Gain greater support from customers
• Gain greater support from suppliers (everyone wants to support a strong, growing company)
• Expand market share and “replace” business that either migrates somewhere else or is no longer available
• Deliver on customer expectations
• Invest in new customer services that are needed to retain business

And there can be other reasons … sometimes even personal ones.

So, why think about this?

As much as the electrical industry has experienced growth over the past few years, much of that growth is uneven throughout the country. It is more regional, in urban areas, some is product category specific and for other “niche-related” / local reason. Historically the industry is a slow growth market.  Getting ahead requires that you, and your company, think about how to grow today, tomorrow and longer-term.

Creating a mind set of capturing greater share of wallet from a customer, calling on (and opening) new accounts, selling an additional line-item, streamlining (and automating) processes, effectively marketing to customers, using analytics to identify opportunities, evaluating new product and service offerings, optimizing margins and more are essentially to differentiating your company from one that is complacent with its positioning within your marketplace (or the industry) and one that is viewed as a participant in tomorrow’s industry. Adding “growth” to your culture should be everyone’s job.

Why do you, or your company, want to grow? If you are a manufacturer, why is it important to you that your distributors grow?  And what is your company doing to communicate, internally, “why grow?”  If we (as an industry) can create a growth culture, perhaps we can then focus on creating demand for electrical products vs servicing the demand.

Your thoughts?

(and what drove these thoughts were a number of client interactions this month with issues that they are facing)