NEMRA – A Working Meeting

Just returned from the NEMRA meeting which was held in Boston.  And the powers above looked over NEMRA as the weather was great for winter in Boston (it’s snowing there today but last week was blue skies!).

The meeting was very well attended, and well-run.  Over 1300 people attended.  Reps sent multiple people from their company to enhance their communication with their manufacturers and better understand 2011 initiatives. There were many many one-on-ones and most manufacturers also had a group session.  The one-on-ones, be they for 30 minutes or 1 hour, were beneficial to all I spoke with.  And many of the reps came prepared to discuss issues, talk about 2011 goals and targeted distributor initiatives.

Unfortuantely I didn’t get to the general session due to meetings on behalf of a client.

From talking to manufacturers and reps, there were few discussions re: 2010; most everyone was focused on how to grow in 2011.  For the most part there is optimisim, albeit muted, with 0%-5% still being the range (although some manufacturers are looking for more growth due to new product and marketing initiatives.)  One rep commented that they are seeing more and more of their manufacturers focused on target markets as ways to generate growth, no longer solely “contractors, industrials, share taking within a distributor or opening new distribution”.  This puts more of a burden on the rep to understand their market to drive demand.  Many inquired about pertinent SIC codes. Some are subscribing to Dodge, or getting list support from their manufacturers.  One rep mentioned a manufacturer who wants their reps to spend 80% of their time at end-users.

And some reps are responding with refining their business models.  Some are adding to their sales force by hiring tech / application specialist; I spoke with another who wants to be “contractor-friendly” and offer everything that contractors will be bidding so he will be able to get something from every bid; others are adding marketing resources … many have ConstantContact subscriptions and are sending our e-newsletters to segmented customer groups (they are ahead of most distributors in this area – developing segmented contact lists).

This meeting was very effective not having it in a resort environment (something NAED should consider).  Part of the effectiveness was reps having multiple attendees (something distributors and manufacturers used to do at NAEDs when costs to attend weren’t so high).  I understand that the seminars were well attended and that NEMRA has some type of pre-registration for their workshops to guage interest / attendance (good idea.)

A few takeaways:

• Manufacturers are thinking in market segments; more distributors should
• Good reps are marketing to market segments; distributors should better understand their markets and customers to market groups of products to these segments
• Reps are increasing their focus on end-users; distributors and reps should consider their alignments to collectively leverage their combined resources