8 Questions with New England’s Newest Rep Firm, New England Solutions Group

Earlier this year, New England Solutions Group (NESG), a new New England rep firm and lighting agency, launched under the leadership of industry veterans with deep distribution and market expertise. Following the firm’s press release, I spoke with co-founder Mike Berube for US Lighting Trends, a Channel Marketing Group publication, about the vision behind NESG, how the business was funded, and how the team is approaching line acquisition and growth. To read the full article, click here.

1. Why start a rep firm?

“The opportunity to support an aging and evolving channel sparked an excitement I had honestly been chasing throughout my entire career. There is a real energy that comes with being in a position to shape how a market moves, and starting a rep firm felt like the clearest path to doing that on my own terms and at a meaningful scale.

As an agent, you have the ability to drive real change in your market. You’re not siloed into one brand, one product category, or one type of customer conversation. You’re connected across the channel — to manufacturers, distributors, contractors, engineers, and end users — and that breadth of relationships gives you a unique vantage point and a genuine opportunity to influence outcomes every day. The ability to reach nationally while staying deeply rooted in your regional market is something very few roles in this industry can offer, and that combination was incredibly compelling to me.

The timing also felt undeniable. With so much transformation happening simultaneously across lighting and controls, power solutions, electrification, and infrastructure, the channel is at an inflection point. The needs are evolving faster than many traditional models can keep pace with, and that creates real space for a firm that is built intentionally, staffed with experienced people, and focused on bringing something more than a transactional presence to the market.

More than anything, starting NESG gave me the chance to truly think bigger — to stop operating within someone else’s framework and start building something that reflects what we know this industry needs and what we know we’re capable of delivering.

2. What were some of the first steps in developing the firm?

The first steps were hard. There were a lot of late nights researching the marketplace and having candid discussions with agents, contractors, utilities, and manufacturers — all of which gave me real insight across local, regional, and national markets. The hardest part was making sure the initial business plan was clean and flexible enough to move with the changes the channel would inevitably bring.

Throughout my career I’ve been fortunate to work with some incredible people, and I leaned on the best of them to pressure-test the idea. During that discovery phase, there were always three people I trusted to advise, support, and challenge my vision — and those same three are now my partners in the agency.

Once the four of us committed to making the move, we got to work building a plan to turn the ideas into reality. We explored several financial models — do we start from scratch, acquire a lighting firm, a power company, or a NEMRA agency? After conversations with trusted friends in the channel, we landed on a blend of startup and acquisition, and that decision brought us to where we are today. I have relationships with some strong Venture Capital and Private Equity contacts who shared M&A frameworks we were able to apply to our advantage. That led us to the acquisition of PESCO Power and a clear direction: drive sales and revenue in a different way than the channel has traditionally seen.

As for lines — getting lines in general hasn’t been the hurdle. The real challenge is landing the right lines; the ones that reflect who we are and who we’d be proud to represent. Many of the major lines in our market have been represented for 20-plus years. That’s not going to change overnight, and we know that. Representing a conglomerate takes time, effort, timing, and proof of concept. Our focus is on building a great business, aligning with the right partners, and letting our growth open those conversations naturally.

The expansion from a traditional NEMRA model into a broader specification focus is the natural next step when the time is right. Building that segment requires a trusted team and a sales cycle that typically runs 18 to 24 months — so it’s firmly in our three-to-five year plan, though the right opportunity could accelerate that. It helps that Ray, Sharon, and I all came from distribution with proven sales and business development track records, so some of those conversations have already started coming to us.

3. What were some of the challenges in starting the firm in the early stages?

Underestimating startup costs was an early reality check — I come from the sales side, and that’s honestly where my instincts have always lived. The financial and operational demands of standing up a business from the ground up required a level of discipline and planning that goes well beyond closing deals and building relationships. Fortunately, building the right team around me from the start allowed us to navigate most of the pitfalls that others in our position might not have anticipated. Roshan and Sharon are operationally sharp, each having managed and run multiple P&L businesses across their careers. Their experience created a strong foundation on the business side, and while challenges have certainly come up, very few have caught us completely off guard.

The hardest part has been introducing our vision and agent model to distribution partners and the broader channel as the new guys on the block. Agents traditionally work across all channel partners, and we are no different in that regard — however, our relationships tend to run wider and deeper than most. We have clients throughout the channel requesting support on a variety of opportunity types, which we strategically filter through distribution. This approach drives both sales opportunities and specification growth, leveraging the relationships our clients have built within the channel and connecting them to the right solutions at the right time.

Most of our key customers in this new venture — distribution — were past competitors in a previous chapter, and now the agents in the market have stepped into that competitive role. It’s an interesting and rewarding dynamic shift. New England is a market that rewards hard work, consistency, and effort, and we’ve been fortunate to find that even among new competitors, there is a spirit of mutual respect and, in several cases, genuine support. It’s a large geographic market, but at its core it’s a close-knit industry community. Reputation travels fast in that kind of environment, and how you show up matters. Communication, transparency, and follow-through are everything.

4. Describe your vision for the firm.

Our vision was rooted in something we identified early on as a genuine and largely unmet need in the market. From the beginning, we weren’t interested in simply adding another rep agency to the landscape — the goal was always bigger than that.

We set out to position NESG as the most trusted technical education and agency partner for electricians and electrical distributors in New England. That distinction matters to us. The word “trusted” isn’t marketing language — it’s the standard we hold ourselves in every interaction and every relationship we build. Trust is earned slowly and lost quickly in this industry, and we treat it accordingly.

What separates our vision from the traditional agency model is the commitment to being more than a rep firm. We want to be a genuine resource — an advisor and trainer that helps our partners not just move product butt truly thrive. We want to be the agency people call when they need real answers.

We also remain deeply committed to maintaining the brand integrity and standards our manufacturing partners have worked hard to build. Representing a line is a responsibility we take seriously, and our goal is to be a true extension of each manufacturer’s team in this market — informed, professional, and genuinely invested in their success alongside our own.

5. What has been some of the biggest challenges in recruiting manufacturers? What are manufacturers looking for in a new firm?

The biggest challenge has been navigating toward the right manufacturers for our vision. We want a balanced line card — strategic manufacturers who bring real value to end users, contractors, and engineers, alongside strong key lines that serve the daily needs of distribution and channel partners.

What we’ve come to believe is that most manufacturers are looking for something beyond a transactional relationship. They want demand generation — whether that’s conversion opportunities at distribution, specification, and project growth, or simply a more engaged agent who’s focused on the future rather than just reacting to requests. We can deliver all of that. Bringing a strategic mindset to every opportunity means we’re adding value through service and solutions, not just price.

6. What has surprised you the most from distributors in the new role, especially since you competed against them?

Most of the distribution partners we’ve met genuinely understand the value of having an agent in the market who has walked in their shoes. I’ve been on the other side of plenty of competitive projects and situations as a distribution salesman, but at the end of the day, this is a people industry. Now we’re an ally in the field and a strong resource with our line card.

Distribution is also where most industry professionals truly learn about the business. It’s a remarkable part of the channel, and it’s where I tell younger people to start. You can build a fantastic career in distribution, especially given how many areas there are to specialize in under one banner. That’s part of why we structured our line card the way we did — Power, Lighting and Controls, Electrification, and Contractor Solutions mirrors the natural departments within distribution: Lighting, Switchgear, Inside Sales and branch support. We wanted it to be clear that the NESG team can support a distributor’s team, regardless of the department.

7. What do you wish you had known beforehand about starting an agency?

There are a lot of opinions in every market, and plenty of voices that will encourage you to stay within the norm — to do it the way it has always been done and manage expectations rather than push beyond them. Early on, that noise can be harder to filter than you might expect, and it’s worth being prepared for it.

Berube, and NESG team, were inspired by the NEMRA ROTF model

What I’ve learned is to trust the vision you’ve built from real experience. That doesn’t mean being closed off to feedback — good counsel from the right people is invaluable, and we’ve leaned on it throughout this process. It means knowing the difference between perspective that genuinely sharpens your thinking and opinion that would simply pull you away from what you know to be true about the market.

Build your agency on industry knowledge, strategic thinking, and a genuine passion for the channel and the people in it. Those three things, working together, create something that’s difficult to replicate and even harder to compete with over time.

And always keep sight of what truly your role is in this ecosystem. At the end of the day, you are the marketing arm of your manufacturers — their presence in the market, their connection to the customer. The agencies that embrace that responsibility fully, and show up for it consistently, are the ones that earn lasting trust from manufacturers, distributors, and customers alike.

8. What have you learned as a rep owner that would help manufacturers? Help distributors?

For Manufacturers:

Listen to the market. So many reps I’ve worked with over the years defaulted to telling their partners what they should be selling and focusing on, rather than actually stopping to listen. In doing so, they missed the signals that were right in front of them — customer requests, utility programs, national trends, emerging technologies making their way into the regional conversation. Sometimes it’s a localized trend that’s about to catch fire, and simply being tuned in means you have the opportunity to be first to market with the right solution. That kind of awareness and responsiveness is what separates a good rep from a truly great one, and it’s something we take seriously in how we approach every manufacturer relationship we build.

For Distributors:

The market is constantly evolving, and the distributors who thrive are the ones who evolve with it. Taking the time to learn about new technologies — controls, energy management, and periphery channels like Mechanical or Building Management Systems — can meaningfully expand the support you’re able to offer the electrician standing on the other side of your counter. Don’t overlook new products that may solve the same problem more efficiently or cost-effectively than what you’ve always carried. Educate your team and your customers based on core value, not just price point. And always remember that for most contractors, availability is the deciding factor at the end of the day.”

Thank you Mike for sharing these insights and good luck. There are many markets throughout the country where the channel needs more reps. To learn more, here’s how you can connect with Mike.