Full Service Distribution?

Many electrical distributors promote that they are “full service” electrical distributors, inferring that they offer a range of electrical products.  Many successful distributors have expanded the definition of “full service” to mean:

• they sell electrical products that are applicable for “all” market segments, and/or
• that they offer services that complement the products that they sell (i.e. conduct energy audits, arc flash audits, storeroom managment, kitting, staging, product assembly, etc…)
• that they offer an array of value-added services such as training, product demonstrations, delivery, extended credit, project take-offs, project design and more

And now, due to the growth in the energy efficiency segment of the market, some distributors are offering installation services, enabling them to quote, to end-users, a turn-key solution.  In these scenarios distributors are:

• developing preferred relationships with selected contractors
• considering acquiring or starting contractor (installation) businesses
• developing joint ventures with a contractor in their market
• or they may already have installation / contracting resources in-house.

While some will express liability concerns, these can be handled based upon corporate structures and with insurance. The key questions become:

• Does this differentiate a distributor?
• If you are not contractor-focused, where is the downside?
• Will this become a diversification strategy for tomorrow’s distributors?
• Will manufacturers, and marketing groups, discriminate against these types of companies (or in the case of manufacturers, embrace them)?

Obviously offering installation services only works if the customer either is looking for a turn-key budget or does not have a contractor preference.

Do you think this trend will expand? A number of lighting-oriented distributors already offer these services.