Valued Industry Meetings … IMARK and Graybar … Field Focused

As the electrical industry’s distribution meeting season comes to an end, two of the industries more unique conferences recently concluded.  Why unique? Because both of them attract a “field-focused” audience and enable manufacturers to share their products.

Within the industry there is much focus on distribution management meeting with manufacturer management. There is much “talk” about goals, plans and parties part ways with intentions and a “commitment” to follow-up.

We know how much of that goes.

The recent IMARK Showcase and Graybar NTC are different.

Both attract management as well as field-level people … branch managers, purchasing staff, some salespeople, product specialists and similar.  Both also enable manufacturers to have product booths, hence showing their wares to those who actually buy / sell product.

IMARK Showcase

The IMARK meeting, held in Chicago (novel approach … an easy to reach location!) at the end of March, enabled:

• 240+ distribution companies to meet with almost 100 manufacturers
• There were over 7000 one-on-one meetings conducted by the parties
• There were over 500 distributor attendees and about 350 manufacturer participants (again, unusual that there are more distributor attendees than manufacturer personnel)

What is interesting about the distribution companies that attended is that most do not attend an NAED meeting, therefore manufacturers were able to meet many of their customers who they do not see at one of the NAED regionals (and the 240 is more than attend all of the NAED regionals, combined, and the largest concentration of distribution companies in the industry.)

Further, every manufacturer who attended also had a product display, hence the name “Showcase.”

In addition to product information and one-on-one discussions, IMARK Showcase

• Hosted member network sessions
• Manufacturer network sessions
• Keynote speaker
• Technology / eCommerce sessions that attracted almost 100 attendees

According to individuals we spoke with, each manufacturer, and many service providers, had between 50-100 one-on-one meetings. Feedback included:

1. “The Welcome and Keynote Address – “Leadership for the 21st Century” – was an engaging presentation from Jeff Eggers, an insightful author and academic with a fascinating military and diplomatic background.

An eCommerce workshop on Tuesday was well-attended and included discussions on best practices for digital marketing strategies and SEO, followed by brief presentations from technology providers Second Phase, XO Logic, DDS (Distributor Data Solutions) and Moblico.  

From our perspective, we found the format and location of the Product Showcase and one-on-one meetings to be a smart and productive setup. Distributors, manufacturers and service providers alike seemed to share the expectation and commentary that this is “the best (industry) meeting of the year” and “time well spent” having meaningful discussions with quality personnel.

2. The meeting started on Tuesday with sessions centered around e-Commerce and these were well attended.  Most Suppliers and MSP’s said there was very good booth traffic.  As you know, we had over 50 leads. The Wednesday speaker was very good as well. All in all, I thought it was a very good meeting.

3. I thought it was very well attended and there was some strong optimism from the distribution community. Most seemed to be finishing a strong Q1 with the exception of the MidWest and Great Lakes areas that had a difficult February due to extreme cold. Many conversations were more strategic in nature…. how to win project business together, what type of project business etc. 

Recognized concern for two main areas…

• Tariffs have impacted commodity costs in a number of products and it is driving costs into an unfamiliar price level
• The political environment not affecting sales much this year, but lots of concern for 2020.
• We had over 100 meetings at Showcase last week.

4. Mostly positive reports of performance from distributors, although more than the usual number of distributors were asking for lower goals due to unrepeatable projects.

In depth discussion at my network meetings about distributor return policies, and how each company handles.

5. The showcase was well attended.  We had > 60 1:1 meetings scheduled across all 5 regions.  Very solid 1:1 meetings.  Only a few no shows, Thursday afternoon (happens at every meeting, people plan flights before get schedules).

Lots of opportunity to partner.  Distributors seemed optimistic and upbeat.  Much better vibe than last year.  And of course, the weather was better this year.

No problems getting in the hall, setting-up or tearing down. 

6. There was a good turnout this year. Distributor brought more people this year than I remember seeing last year, but I don’t know actual attendance. It’s always hard to tell in the convention center.  Overall members are positive for the balance of the year. We had two meeting areas that were booked solid for the whole meeting. Many distributors we met with were upbeat and are forecasting mid-single digit to low double-digit growth (and few mid-double digits with project business in the pipeline) for this year in construction, commercial, institutional. Some of the smaller distributors more focused on residential are forecasting mid-single digit growth this year. There are concerns as the year closes and what 2020 will bring i.e. an election year and a slowdown or pulling back to see how it plays out, also slowdown of overall business.

7. We had 68 meetings and I got to meet more distributors in while I stood in our product booth area, which was great. Especially meeting field level people so I could get a deeper sense of how we are servicing them as well as listening to what they are hearing from their customers. The tradeshow format enables mingling and connecting with people we don’t have meetings with. With IMARK’s member breadth we were able to connect with small to mid-sized distributors that we don’t see at NAED.”

While we don’t know much about the Graybar NTC, which was held in Dallas, viewing postings on LinkedIn and Facebook, the conference featured speakers, breakout training sessions, corporate presentations and displays on company services (marketing itself to its branches and sales organization).  Viewing the photos highlights the learning, product displays and fun that the group enjoyed.  It’s also interesting to note that many in the photos represent “the next generation” as Graybar celebrates its 150^th anniversary.

Some thoughts:

• Both meetings appeared to have “energy”.
• The meeting formats provide manufacturers an opportunity to share product, gain awareness and educate. For an industry without a product tradeshow, these two meetings become beneficial and help differentiate these two organizations.
• Manufacturers were able to meet with people who impact the business daily and sell their products. The staff – branch managers, purchasing, sales management. In the case of IMARK they had access to companies that don’t attend any other meeting. Relative to Graybar manufacturers were able to “see” many branches.
• Continued focus on eCommerce and training.
• From the IMARK meeting it appears that business is strong, which confirms input we’ve heard from clients in spite of the weather.

If you attended either meeting, what were your observations?