NEMRA Doubled Down and Won Blackjack Twice

Last week’s NEMRA 2024 Annual Conference was a rousing success with 1975 people registered for the conference. Attendance eclipsed 2023’s numbers of 1916 … congratulations NEMRA. The conference was held for the second year in Las Vegas … and turned up aces.

With a packed house, there were over 110 manufacturers ensconced in modular offices that ranged in size from 10 x 10 to perhaps 30 x 30, of which a number were branded. These “remote offices” held two to two and a half days of planning meetings between independent manufacturer representatives and electrical manufacturers.

The conference had a soft launch with two sets of pre-conference workshops. An 8-hour Demand Generation workshop launched on Monday afternoon with about 40 attendees. The session, encompassing Monday and Tuesday afternoons, was led by Dr Jeffrey Magee who guided attendees through a fast paced, energetic discussion filled with ideas to help agencies drive demand. A key emphasis was emphasizing the difference in philosophy between leads and demand generation as well as hard and soft demand generation. ABB also shared its demand generation approach.

On Tuesday morning, Josh Linkner help a NEMRA Emerging Leaders workshop.

Tuesday evening started with a NEMRA State of the Union presentation.

Jim Johnson highlighted NEMRA successes.

Retiring Board members were recognized. They included:

• Joe LiPuma – Yusen
• Tony Munden – Munden Enterprises
• Corey Collins – Agents West

Retiring NEMRA Manufacturer Group (NMG) members were recognized. They included:

• Philip Gerrard – Panduit
• Melissa Kidd – Atkore
• Goran Haag – Champion Fiberglass
• Chuck Oldaker – Service Wire

Incoming BOD and NMG members were recognized. They included:

• Matt Santilli – Arthur A Boyle Co.
• Derek Schouten – iPro Martin
• Mike Hodges – Adanac Sales
• Brock Klein – ElectriFlex
• Steve Reynolds – Hammond Power Solutions
• Deni Miller – ABB
• John Hargis – Mersen

Aside from thank you, and congratulations, to these individuals, thank you to their companies for letting them serve and lend their insights to the industry.

NEMMY Awards were presented. The awards, nominees and winners were:

• Rep Choice Award
  • Arlington Industries
  • Atkore
  • Rab Lighting – who won the award
• Manufacturers Choice Award
  • Tri-Tech Sales
  • Lex Associates – who won the award
  • LaSalle Reps
  • Bob Jones & Associates
• Partnership of the Year Award
  • Agents West and Eaton Power
  • ??? and ElectriFlex (sorry, I couldn’t write fast enough and will add afterwards)
  • Yusen and MaxLite – who won the award
  • Ascend Sales & Marketing – Light Efficient Design

A highlight of the conference was Wednesday when six distributor leaders (Steven Guidry – AD, Steve Ruane – IMARK, Bob Kalkowski – Sonepar, Brad Selby – CED, Andy Ciccone – Graybar, Scott McDowell – WESCO) were on a panel where they discussed the role of the rep and how “they” (individually and as distributors) align with reps.

They had so much input that we’ll leave it to a separate posting.

And then the planning meetings started.

Additionally, manufacturers and distributors shared:

• A number of reps and manufacturers shared that they’ve been “busy” albeit with quotes and customer service as business was down in December and January. They didn’t have anything specific to attribute the slowdown to other than possibly the way the holidays fell and the weather (bitter cold, some areas with snow / excessive rain.)
• Many are projecting 0-3% “growth” this year. Some reps shared that manufacturers set 5% goals but without much conviction (“couldn’t communicate less, or negative”). Many manufacturers are betting 2024 on their success in pursuing business tied to data center construction.
• Some shared that messages from the distributor panel permeated a number of their meetings. Key topics were the need for POS, demand generation efforts, alignment with specific chains due to manufacturer strategies, transparency in manufacturer goals / plans for a chain, quality of relationships with a chain in a territory, and manufacturers asking about a reps inside sales group.
• Some national / large distributors are seeking to better understand some of the large super-reps and setting up meetings to share their strategy and understand the reps’ strategy. Part of this reason is due to the size of the rep; part is due to the lines they are repping to see if there is alignment at the branch level … which could affect how / if the distributor aligns with the factory.
• Reps commented how some “domestic” manufacturers are “complaining” about foreign manufacturers, especially in the conduit and other commodity spaces. Feedback is “quality is much better than historical for imports”, “contractors are willing to buy it, hence quality is sufficient”, and it gives them a line in the product category. And some of the companies are transitioning to also offering domestic made product as EZ Weld is reportedly planning to build a factory in the southeast.
• According to manufacturers, the quality of rep presentations was the best it has been, indicating pre-meeting preparation time. One rep also developed a QR code so that the factory could easily bring it back to their team to share the presentation.
• While new construction is slowing, some factories are seeing an increase in commercial renovation.
• On the technology front, a number of reps inquired about AI to help them, especially from a customer service, administrative and business development viewpoint. Upon follow-up, RepFabric shared that it is investing in AI. TradeTech Solutions is investing its efforts into its OrdrTrak initiative with IDEA.
• The rep acquisition market, reportedly, is still strong, with more expected this year. On a similar front, reps commented about expanding into other territories (acquisition and organically). In some instances, they have been “asked to consider” by some manufacturers. In other instances, they are adding a person and then pursuing lines that are not represented in the market due to a lack of agencies in the market. This is creating some challenges as some manufacturers have reservations about a rep carrying competing lines, even if in different territories (communication is key as well as open-mindedness.)

A jam-packed week. In the words of a few people, “the best one yet.”

If you attended, your thoughts?