Recently we’ve been contacted by a handful of individuals, whom we’ve known or who have been referred to us, who have decided to start rep firms. Each of the individuals were either in sales / marketing management for manufacturers or […]
A little unabashed advertising (after all, we need to pay for the blog!!)With only 5 months remaining in the year (and about 30 days till the end of the summer), many manufacturers are beginning to think about their 2010 planning.2009 […]
We’ve been talking with distributors the last couple of weeks and a common refrain is the lack of profitability in much of their businesses. Many are attributing this to marketplace pricing strategies and some distributors’ desire to take share based […]
Lately the lighting world has been in the news. Some recent articles of note: TCP has announced that it is going to offer its own branded line of CFLs, putting them in direcvt competition with the Big 3 for CFLs […]
Recently we conducted research on the state of SPAs in the electrical market for a client, from which we then wrote a white paper. The client, Datalliance, is offering the white paper on their website. They didn’t have any input […]
No, we’re not talking bankruptcy (although GM did file today), but dealer management.Over the past month, Chrysler and GM have essentially reduced their dealer networks by about 1900 dealerships, (about 800 out of 3200 for Chrysler and 1100 out of […]
The NAED National Leadership Summit (formerly the NAED Annual) begins on Saturday and ends Tuesday evening. From conversations with manufacturers and distributors, there are a number of thorny issues that promise to add spice to many meetings (after everyone comments […]
Over the past month we’ve talked to a number of distributors and manufacturers who are sensing a change. While business for many has been “challenging”, for some the steep decline has been mitigated. A number of these companies are transitioning […]
A recent Washington Post article focused on the declining inventory levels throughout the economy. And while this can be good for each company as everyone wants to reduce inventories to ensure that they carry what they are selling, it can […]
Earlier this year we surveyed manufacturers about their 2009 sales and profit drivers. We had over 130 responses from more than 75 companies. Manufacturers said: Their highest priority is new product introductions, albeit other questions in the survey inducate that […]
