NEMRA Delivers in Dallas

Last week’s NEMRA meeting engaged almost 2000 electrical industry manufacturers and independent electrical manufacturer representative sales in discussions about the business and in how to achieve 2019 sales objectives.

There was much optimism in the air as many reps reported that business is good and that their first half outlook.  Second half, especially Q4, many said, appears a little murky with them being told by their manufacturers to expect a slowdown.  Some are seeing / sensing some end-user slowdown; others don’t see but a comment that was made is “all manufacturers are listening to the same two brothers” (economists at ITR).  In essence, perhaps a groupthink mentality based upon October economic forecasts (or pre whatever may happen with tariffs and pre-Fed Reserve restraint on rate increases.)

This year’s NEMMY Awards went to:

• Manufacturer Choice Award                    Bell & McCoy
• Rep Choice Award                                      Bridgeport Fittings
• PowerPact Partnership of the Year          Fields Electrical Sales & Legrand

NEMRA has experienced significant growth over the past few years as the membership now represents over 4000 sellers and includes 206 manufacturers (and a manufacturer member has to have a minimum number of agencies to belong to the association.)  Surprisingly, it was mentioned at the member meeting that the association has not had any membership dues increase over the past decade!

This year’s conference was Ken Hooper’s farewell conference. Ken’s brought much to the association over the past 10 years and many openly expressed appreciation for all he has done to promote the vision of the rep, to develop the association, to help them get the most out of their company by providing a roadmap to success and the association developing tools to help them.

In Ken’s farewell speech he emphasized reps will

• Need to get faster.  Speed will win and process improvements need to continue, but faster … and faster execution and decision making amongst all parties.
• Harness employee energy and address increased stress due to technology and expectations technology places on service expectations
• Share useable data to support sales growth as well as collection and utilization of POS information to ensure compensation accuracy. Data analytics needs to not be a time waster and motivation killer.

Through his leadership, NEMRA espouses 5 Strategic Pillars for reps:

• Strategic & Business Planning
• Deploying Technology to Harness Data
• Agency Brand Building
• Training and Business Development
• End-user Demand Generation

And next year, 2020, NEMRA will celebrate its 50^th anniversary.

Some additional observations about the conference:

• Everywhere you went there were meetings … in the hotel’s multiple lobbies, meeting rooms, suites, one-on-ones and in the booth area.  If you haven’t been to the Hilton Anatole, it is massive and the NEMRA conference utilizes much, if not all of the space.  And for those who are familiar with the NAED one-on-one booth set up…multiply it by at least 5 in length … so lot’s of walking.
• There were a number of companies at the show seeking reps, and yes, many of them were lighting lines, but the stability / quality of the lines was the best it has been. Perhaps NEMRA did a better job being discriminating, which is good for the membership.
• Reps are investing in technology.  There were three rep business management solutions companies exhibiting, RepFiles and Rep Data Exchange (RDX) by DDS.  Utilization of technology to improve operational efficiency and support marketing is part of NEMRA’s strategic pillars to support reps.
• According to reps, every manufacturer they met with discussed a desire for increased end-user activity.  The objective is not only demand generation but also ensuring that their brand is pulled through back through the distributor. And with brand recognition there is the hope that the brand is recalled for future needs.  More reps are adding end-user specialists (contractor as well as vertical and application (lighting, tools, etc).
• NEMRA had a workshop speaker on strategic selling mindset which, according to reps who attended, was very well received.
• The keynote speaker, Mel Robbins, shared a technique for interrupting “negative” patterns called the 5 Second Rule.  Essentially, a science-based process to support refocusing one’s efforts by counting 5-4-3-2-1.  One of the better motivational keynotes.  Some of her key points:
  • Seizing opportunities takes courage and a willingness to change
  • Knowing what to do and doing are two different things
  • Ask “what do you need to change?” AND “Will you change?”
  • Autopilot … are you and/or your company on it?

At the conference NEMRA introduced the second phase of its POS initiative.

NEMRA POS Initiative

Phase 1 focused on development and voluntary adoption of POS standards to support more accurate rep compensation while protecting distributor customer anonymity. POS was redefined as “place of sale” and distributors only need to provide zip code level information.

To date over 40 manufacturers / brands have endorsed the standards and are open to distributors supplying information to them in this format.  A number of national chains have also endorsed the standards with some adopting system-wide to streamline their process. (for more information go to https://www.nemra.org/point-sale-initiative/).

At the conference NEMRA introduced Phase 2.

In Phase 2, distributors will be able to upload all of their POS data, in the NEMRA format, for participating manufacturers in 1 data feed. The information will be cleansed against IDEA / manufacturer databases and then be available to participating manufacturers who will receive 1 data feed encompassing all of their reporting distributors. At the same time, local reps will have access to zip code level information and this information will be available to be imported into their business system.

The system is run by Jigsaw Systems who currently manages POS for other manufacturers and is a known entity to many distributors.

NEMRA has invested funds to support some system enhancements and needs 8 manufacturers to be early adopters. LED (Light Efficient Design) and NSi both committed, at the conference, to support the initiative. Once NEMRA receives eight, the system will be live 90 days later. (Note: NEMRA will be meeting with manufacturers and distributors at the NAED South Central regarding the POS initiative.)

To learn more, contact Ken Hooper, David Oldfather (Jigsaw) or David Gordon (NEMRA POS Facilitator).

Overall a very busy 3 days in Dallas. Reportedly it was nice one day and cold another (30 degrees) but 2000 people never seemingly left the building!  An very productive planning meeting for manufacturers and their sales organizations.