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How Was Your First Half?

David Gordon Posted On July 16, 2015

After the first half of the year, you may be ready to sit back and make paper airplanes. The market is confusing. It’s been a unique first half. Some are up, some are down, some are flat. No rhyme or […]

Channel Strategies / Contractors / Distributors / Industry Consolidation / Industry News / Lighting / Lighting2 / Manufacturers / More Insights / Reps

Can you spell … Disintermediated?

David Gordon Posted On May 28, 2015

That was the subject line of an email received this morning from a distributor. The body of email had a link: http://creesolutions.com/Solutions/NoHassles. Which started a thought process of: Is this really disintermediation when there are a number of lighting manufacturers who […]

Associations / Contractors / Customer Segments / Customer Service / Distributors / Industrial Market / Industry News / Manufacturers / More Insights / People in the News / Productivity / Supplier / Products / Technology

NAED 2015 National Meeting – A Whirlwind Weekend in Chicago

David Gordon Posted On May 20, 2015

NAED held its 2015 Annual Meeting in Chicago this past weekend. 748 people registered. There were 93 distribution entities and 105 manufacturer entities (inclusive of divisions for each) but there were only 46 manufacturer strategic one-on-one booths where distributors could […]

Branding / Channel Strategies / Contractors / Customer Service / eBusiness / Growth Strategies / Industry Consolidation / Marketing / More Insights / Pricing / Profitability / Technology

Graybar, Sonepar … Creating / Fulfilling Demand

David Gordon Posted On March 18, 2015

Over the past couple of months we’ve been talking about growth, be it from demand creation or demand fulfillment. We’ve written an article on it for Industrial Supply, one for the Canadian Electrical Wholesaler and a couple here on ElectricalTrends […]

Contractors / Customer Segments / Distributors / eBusiness / eMarketing / Growth Strategies / More Insights / Productivity / Profitability / Research Reports / Technology

Could Software Determine Who Gets The Business?

David Gordon Posted On March 15, 2015

We’ve all heard how customers want to be self-sufficient, that they want easier ways of doing business, that software can create connectivity between customers, that customers want to buy online or get their own pricing or use data-mining software to better understand […]

Channel Strategies / Contractors / eBusiness / eMarketing / Growth Strategies / More Insights / Productivity / Profitability / Research Reports / Technology

Poaching your small and mid-sized contractors – The Big Sting

David Gordon Posted On March 11, 2015

Introducing Electrical Distributor Research Group, an Allen Ray Associates and Channel Marketing Group service to help independent distributors compete with national chains through end-user research and solution identification. Participation in this research relating to econnectivity to increase share from […]

Branding / Channel Strategies / Contractors / Customer Segments / Growth Strategies / Marketing / More Insights / Sales Channel

Customers are People Too – Know Their Demographics

David Gordon Posted On January 11, 2015

I know, it should obvious. Are your customers people or are they businesses? What differentiates one company from another is a mix of services, product availability, prize, credit, ease of doing business and yes, possibly relationships. But relationships are personal. […]

Channel Strategies / Contractors / Growth Strategies / Marketing / More Insights

Manufacturer and Distributor Promotional Ideas

David Gordon Posted On December 15, 2014

As the year begins to wind down, many in marketing departments are giving consideration to promotional / marketing ideas for 2015. To help provide some fodder for idea generation, we thought we’d share some promotions / marketing items that have […]

Channel Strategies / Contractors / Customer Segments / Customer Service / eBusiness / Growth Strategies / More Insights / Pricing / Sales Channel

Is Amazon Supply ready for Contractors?

David Gordon Posted On November 2, 2014

In the October issue of Electrical Wholesaling magazine we asked the question of whether Amazon Supply could compete with traditional distributors by using the traditional distributors inventory as a source of supply for MRO type of sales. Some have asked if […]

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 […]