While many distributors claim to be the customer because they send the money to the manufacturer, and in some cases make the brand decision of what is sold to “the customer”, logic says that the customer is the individual who […]
With the electrical industry being challenged with staffing at all levels, it’s important for electrical distributors and manufacturers to invest in those who desire to be part of the industry (apprentices) as these are tomorrow’s customers … either as installers […]
Earlier this month, along with about 10,000 of my friends and 2-3,000 electrical apprentices, I visited the Philadelphia Convention Center to attend the NECA Conference. While this annual event is designed to support electrical union contractors, it may evolve into […]
In a “down” market, are contractors loyal? And the definition of “down” depends upon where you are and what you compare against. Versus the “go-go” days of the past year? Yes, then many are down, or not having the same […]
Last week’s Electrical Association of Philadelphia’s (EAP) Electric Expo was another testament to “customer engagement and showing product” is important. The show, typically held every other year by EAP, generated over 3,000 registrations of which 2250 attended (75% “show up” […]
Last week NECA held the electrical distribution industry’s largest conference of the year, the result of the convergence of contractors and manufacturers in Austin, TX. There were over 300 manufacturer, distributor, and software company booths in the Exhibit Hall. This […]
Copper, as every electrical distributor knows, is either a key component of sales (especially construction-oriented distributors) or a key component of many products. From a pricing viewpoint, if can be volatile. At times, as in the past few years, it […]
For years we’ve talked that eCommerce is more than trying to get people to buy via a website, especially when over 40% of total electrical purchases are via contractors with about 30-40% of this business being projects. And the industrial […]
It’s not often that the acquisition of a distributor’s “customer” would be newsworthy from a national scale but SJE’s recent acquisition of Horlick, a New England based system integrator caught our attention. Why? Because the acquirer, SJE, is also owned […]
My last article comparing the lighting and supply representation models produced discussions that continue. It was then requested we consider other channels to see what manufacturers and distributors could learn. I decided to look at the HVAC channel with given […]
