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.


Branding  / Customer Segments  / Distributors  / Growth Strategies  / Lighting  / Lighting2  / Manufacturers  / Marketing  / More Insights  / Supplier / Products
LEDs Become Mainstream; Graybar & Grainger Market
David Gordon Posted On September 11, 2014


LEDs, as distributors know, is becoming more and more mainstream.  They dominate new projects and are increasingly being requested for retrofits. The energy savings are significant along with other cost savings (i.e. maintenance, HVAC costs, etc). But you especially know something […]


Continue Reading
0
0

Channel Strategies  / Contractors  / Customer Segments  / Distributors  / Growth Strategies  / Industrial Market  / Industry News  / Manufacturers  / Marketing  / More Insights  / Research Reports
2015 Planning – Market Indicators & Planning Questions, Part 1
David Gordon Posted On September 8, 2014


This month begins meeting season.  National chains are holding their annual meetings (click here to see the agenda and sponsors for CES’ meeting), marketing groups are holding registration for their meetings and last week we received the invite for the […]


Continue Reading
0
0

Customer Service  / Distributors  / eBusiness  / More Insights  / Profitability  / Research Reports  / Technology
Planning for Security
David Gordon Posted On September 3, 2014


Before and over the Labor Day weekend there were several press releases and articles that rolled in regarding purchases and problems in business software. INFOR completes Saleslogix purchase: We’ve thought for a while that as some ERP software packages have attempted […]


Continue Reading
1
0

Channel Strategies  / Distributors  / Growth Strategies  / Industry Consolidation  / Industry News  / Lighting  / Lighting2  / Manufacturers  / More Insights  / Sales Channel  / Supplier / Products
The Crowded and Changing World of Lighting
David Gordon Posted On September 1, 2014


Welcome back from your Labor Day weekend. And with the unofficial end of summer brings the meeting and planning season.  The time when everyone starts asking what’s your forecast for 2015, and management asks itself, “what are we going to […]


Continue Reading
0
0

Customer Service  / eBusiness  / eMarketing  / Logistics  / More Insights  / Productivity  / Technology
The Evolving World of ERP Companies
David Gordon Posted On August 21, 2014


ERP companies are integral to the success of electrical distributors as they control, or impact (in no particular order) order processing, inventory, pricing, supply chain issues (EDI, VMI, SPAs), delivery (and routing), accounting / finance, purchasing, credit, invoicing, collections, customer […]


Continue Reading
0
0

Customer Service  / Distributors  / eBusiness  / eMarketing  / Growth Strategies  / Industry News  / More Insights  / Pricing  / Productivity  / Profitability
Worried About Amazon Supply? Start Planning Now!
David Gordon Posted On August 20, 2014


If you are worried about Amazon Supply, you probably already know something that you’ve been unwilling to admit openly. ….that is your product data base stinks. That is to say, you probably don’t have good images, UPC codes or even […]


Continue Reading
2
0

Contractors  / Growth Strategies  / Marketing  / More Insights  / Research Reports
Are you content or a risk-taker?
David Gordon Posted On August 14, 2014


The advent of August brings the end of summer.  Kids head back to school, the final weekend of the summer is only a few weeks away and management starts thinking about meeting season. August also is a harbinger of planning […]


Continue Reading
0
0

Associations  / Distributors  / eBusiness  / Manufacturers  / More Insights  / People in the News  / Productivity  / Profitability
IDEA Changes Leadership
David Gordon Posted On August 6, 2014


Late last week came news that Bob Gaylord, former president of IDEA, was leaving the organization to pursue “other interests” (which, as an aside, is a nice euphemism!).  Bob was a nice guy and contributed much time and energy to […]


Continue Reading
4
0

Distributors  / eBusiness  / eMarketing  / Growth Strategies  / More Insights  / Productivity  / Technology
Has Epicor Found a Buyer?
David Gordon Posted On August 3, 2014


On July 28th, Reuters posted an article that, according to sources, CVC (a private equity firm) has emerged as the front runner to buy Epicor from Apax Partner, LLP. for $3 billion.  The article emphasized that the deal is not finalized […]


Continue Reading
11
0

Branding  / Customer Service  / eBusiness  / More Insights  / Pricing  / Productivity  / Profitability  / Sales Channel  / Technology  / Training
Fax Machine Erodes Margins … Increases Need for Training
David Gordon Posted On July 31, 2014


Usage of the fax machine began to peak in the late 1980s and continued into the early 2000s, with email becoming prevalent in 1993. Now, why mention this? Consider about 35+ years ago.  Fax machines were not too prevalent. Contractors, […]


Continue Reading
3
0