Channel Strategies Archives

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Welcome to 2017 Planning Season

David Gordon Posted On September 6, 2016

Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer as well as the unofficial beginning of the 2017 planning season in the electrical industry. While we know a number of manufacturers and distributors who have started to embark on their planning […]

Channel Strategies / Distributors / Growth Strategies / Industry News / Manufacturers / Marketing / More Insights / Reps / Research Reports

Survey Finds Joint Business Planning Partners “Dissatisfied”

David Gordon Posted On August 23, 2016

Following the completion of 2016 planning cycle, we heard a lot of frustration with the current Joint Business Planning (JBP) process. In response to this issue, Channel Marketing Group, in conjunction with Verde Associates, fielded a JBP survey to a […]

Channel Strategies / Customer Segments / eBusiness / eMarketing / Growth Strategies / Industry Consolidation / More Insights / People in the News / Technology

What can be learned from Crescent Electric and Walmart?

David Gordon Posted On August 10, 2016

What do Crescent Electric and Walmart have in common? They both have recently made eCommerce acquisitions … and probably for the same reasons. And both, probably, have been frustrated with the pace of their eCommerce initiative. Consider this: Walmart just […]

Channel Strategies / Distributors / Growth Strategies / Lighting / Lighting2 / Manufacturers / More Insights / Reps

Changing Lighting Relationships

David Gordon Posted On August 1, 2016

Monday was “movement day” for lighting relationships. And the changing relationships may say something more about the manufacturers than their partners. WESCO Moves to Current by GE WESCO has been synonymous with Eaton and Phllips Lighting and was / is the […]

Channel Strategies / Distributors / eBusiness / eMarketing / Growth Strategies / Industry Consolidation / Industry News / Lighting / Lighting2 / More Insights / People in the News / Pricing

An Industry Undergoing Change

David Gordon Posted On July 5, 2016

We’ve just passed the 6 month mark for the year and while there has been much change, the past month highlighted many and accelerated some. Consider: Consolidation Shealy sells to Border States to create a $2B ESOP. Grove Madsen sells to […]

Channel Strategies / Customer Segments / Lighting / Lighting2 / Manufacturers / More Insights

Acuity Delivering on All Cylinders in Q3

David Gordon Posted On June 30, 2016

Acuity announced their Q3 results yesterday. In an electrical materials market that continues to be rather anemic, the lighting market continues to outperform and Acuity remains the leader among large lighting players. It appears that Acuity is delivering on all cylinders. […]

Channel Strategies / Distributors / Growth Strategies / Manufacturers / More Insights / Sales Channel

Is Joint Business Planning a Dying Art or a Growth Differentiator?

David Gordon Posted On June 3, 2016

An issue we’re starting to hear more and more about is Joint Business Planning (JBP). We started hearing rumblings just before the NAED National from some larger distributors and manufacturers that the planning process was taking too long (not getting […]

Channel Strategies / Contractors / eBusiness / Growth Strategies / More Insights / Productivity

Driving Your eSales Rate

David Gordon Posted On May 26, 2016

As mentioned last week, one of the topics of various sessions, and with distributors, was eCommerce and eSales. The companies that are viewed as more progressive, perhaps more profitable and who are positioning for future growth are driving their business […]

Channel Strategies / Customer Service / eBusiness / Growth Strategies / Industry News / More Insights / People in the News / Pricing / Productivity / Technology

NAED National Session: Predator or Prey?

David Gordon Posted On May 19, 2016

The first session of the NAED National was a session titled “Predator or Prey”. The challenge is that session attendees walked away asking “why was it titled that?” Perhaps the answer is in this quote. The “predators” were the panelists […]

Channel Strategies / Growth Strategies / Marketing / More Insights / Pricing / Productivity / Profitability / Research Reports

Drive for Data

David Gordon Posted On April 15, 2016

Over the past month or so Allen and I have had a number of calls for data. Some are from owners / senior management, some from marketing personnel and some from operational staff. The calls are from manufacturers and distributors. […]