Crescent and Cembre Endorse NEMRA POS Standards

Recognizing the economic importance of POS to independent electrical manufacturer representatives, both Crescent Electric, a leading national electrical distributor, and Cembre Americas, a manufacturer of cable glands, identification and labeling systems, connectors and more, have endorsed the NEMRA POS Minimum Reporting Standards. (Crescent press release, Cembre press release)

Both companies affirmed their commitment to independent electrical manufacturer representatives and strongly believe that reps should be compensated for their efforts in support of distributors.

The companies join over 50 manufacturers and 50 distributor entities from national chains to leading independent distributors, in supporting this initiative designed to ensure that independent manufacturer representatives are appropriately compensated for their efforts in supporting a distributor and manufacturer in the local market.

POS, which represents 10-40% of an independent electrical manufacturer representatives compensation, is important to the financial support of reps. Further, with larger distributors developing / expanding their RDC (regional distribution strategies) and expanding into new territories, accurate, simple, reporting is essential to ensure that a rep supports these growing distributors.

While POS can be defined as “point of sale” and refer to customer-specific information, the NEMRA standard redefines POS to “place of sale” as reps are focused on “where” the product is sold and hence only the selling zip code it required. Sharing of customer-specific information should be a commercial decision between distributors and their manufacturers … reps know the customers in their market (which is a significant part of their value proposition) but need the information of what is sold in their territory to ensure appropriate compensation from their manufacturers.

The NEMRA initiative also helps distributors streamline reporting processes as endorsing manufacturers will accept the same information, and reporting format, at a minimum. Hence distributors can use 1 format for most, if not all, of their suppliers.

Crescent Electric’s Debra McCashin, National Vice President of Supplier Partnerships, shared that Crescent has provided POS information to manufacturer of its manufacturers for a while. She stated ““We recognize the importance of POS data for our rep community. It is critical to our success as we stand up DC’s across the country.”

Desiree Grace, President of Cembre Americas, commented “It is critical that we have accurate sell-to and ship-to data so we can pay our Rep Agents accurately and fairly. They work hard on our behalf, and the POS data helps us compensate them properly. Having been in the electrical industry for many years, independent manufacturer representatives are an important element of the channel and, as a manufacturer, are critical to our success. They connect us to our distributors and to the end-user market. POS information helps us ensure they are compensated for their efforts.”

Jim Johnson, President of NEMRA, shared his, and the membership’s appreciation on both companies endorsing the standards and, more importantly, their commitment to supporting their reps. Regarding Crescent’s endorsement, Johnson also said “As companies grow through acquisition and by transitioning to an RDC model to serve their branches and customers more efficiently, the importance of POS reporting becomes more vital in ensuring independent manufacturer representatives are compensated for providing local support. Every distributor that does business with manufacturers in multiple territories can benefit by adopting the NEMRA POS standards.”

Through an extensive process, NEMRA identified the key fields that distributors are willing to share and that manufacturers need to compensate their reps. The information is shared via a standard format with, ideally, the information in the same columns. Given that most prefer Excel, this is the recommended format, although, since the standards were developed, some distributors have developed portals that allow the information to be downloaded. It remains at the distributor’s discretion as to which manufacturers to share information with and, at their discretion, if they desire to share more detailed information. Endorsing manufacturers are encouraged to share their commitment to their reps and to be transparent on the information that they receive, at the zip code level, to there is transparency in the commission compensation process.

The NEMRA POS Minimum Reporting Standards endorsing companies are on NEMRA’s website. There is no cost to endorsing the standards. For more information on the standards and the research that led to development of the standards, contact the NEMRA facilitator for this initiative, Channel Marketing Group . For more information, contact CMG or NEMRA