Author

David Gordon

Gordon is president of Channel Marketing Group. Channel Marketing Group works with manufacturers, distributors, manufacturer reps and technology companies in the electrical industry to help companies accelerate their performance through strategy development, marketing creativity and market research. CMG generates ideas that generate results.


Distributors  / Growth Strategies  / Manufacturers  / Marketing  / Marketing Groups  / More Insights  / Pricing  / Profitability  / Purchasing
Over a Billion Dollars in Rebate and Marketing Funding to Distributors
David Gordon Posted On July 30, 2018


Every year hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested / spent by manufacturers to solicit preference from distributors. In fact, about 10 years ago we estimated over $500M was spent in rebate funding. (Today we estimate over $1 billion!) […]


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Customer Service  / More Insights  / Productivity  / Profitability  / Sales Channel
Salespeople: Consultants, Relationship Managers or Order Facilitators to Contractors?
David Gordon Posted On July 25, 2018


The industry, as we know, is going through change.  In many people’s opinion, the three biggest drivers of this change are: Increased competition, especially through alternative channels (non- full-line electrical distributors) Personnel, with much of it stemming from an aging […]


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Growth Strategies  / Marketing  / More Insights  / Productivity  / Sales Channel
Are Your Sales and Marketing Teams Inhibiting Growth?
David Gordon Posted On July 22, 2018


We’re at the mid-year and we’re hearing a wide array of distributor and manufacturer performance. Industry forecasters state the market should be around 6% which begs the question, are you above the industry forecast and growing or are you letting […]


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Channel Strategies  / Distributors  / Industrial Market  / Industry News  / More Insights  / Pricing  / Profitability
Grainger Keeps Motoring Along; Amazon Business Out of Sight?
David Gordon Posted On July 20, 2018


Grainger shared its 2018 Q2 performance earlier this week and, given their industrial MRO focus, highlighted continued strength in this customer segment. And while they are not focused in the electrical space, they are about a $1B electrical player as […]


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Distributors  / Growth Strategies  / Industry Consolidation  / Manufacturers  / More Insights
Q2 Electrical Acquisitions … a Busy Quarter
David Gordon Posted On July 18, 2018


Looking back over last quarter there were a number of acquisitions in the electrical / lighting industry.  Reasons for the deals can be based upon: A desire for accelerated growth Expansion into geographic markets Desire to leverage infrastructure and/or support […]


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Channel Strategies  / Customer Segments  / Distributors  / Industry News  / Lighting  / Lighting2  / Manufacturers  / More Insights  / Sales Channel  / Supplier / Products
Acuity Delivers? Electrical Distribution Declines?
David Gordon Posted On July 13, 2018

Market Update

Last week Acuity released its latest quarterly report (covering Q2 2018 time period.) At the headline number the business met the feedback we received from distributors in our Q2 Pulse of Lighting study (or here to purchase the report for $19) and […]


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Channel Strategies  / Industry Consolidation  / Manufacturers  / More Insights
ABB Completes GE Deal … Now Work Begins
David Gordon Posted On July 11, 2018


Last week ABB announced the completion of its acquisition of GE Industrial Solutions.  The division is now part of ABB Electrification and is called ABB EPIS (Electrification Products – Industrial Solutions).  The $2.6 billion deal was announced last September and […]


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Jobs  / More Insights
Irby is Hiring – Outside Sales – Texarkana, TX
David Gordon Posted On July 11, 2018


Irby, one of the largest electrical distribution companies in the US, with nearly $1 Billion in annual sales and over 900 employees across 60+ branches in 25 states is hiring in Texarkana, TX. Irby is part of the Sonepar family […]


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Associations  / Distributors  / More Insights
NAED 2018 Women in Industry Conference Delivers Record Attendance
David Gordon Posted On July 10, 2018


NAED held its 2018 Women in Industry (WII) conference the last week in June and it was one of the most talked about conference that I have heard about in a while.  I received feedback from a number of clients […]


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Growth Strategies  / Industry News  / Lighting  / Lighting2  / More Insights
Q2 2018 Pulse of Lighting Report
David Gordon Posted On June 26, 2018

Q3 2020 Pulse of Lighting Report

Earlier this year we launched our quarterly Pulse of Lighting study in conjunction with William Blair, a leading investment analyst firm. The Q1 report may have surprised some of the larger lighting companies with feedback from distributors.  Now we have […]


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