Distributors traditionally fought for market share via relationship, service and price. The company with the best people, best service and competitive pricing that could provide their customers with access to credit typically won more business in a market. Since a […]
Distributors have been seeking opportunities to generate, or increase, their service revenue. While traditionally a complementary service for industrially-oriented distributors, construction-oriented distributors are also seeing opportunities. Some distributors have defined revenue goals, others look at this opportunistically (or give the […]
The essence of “channel marketing” infers that members within a channel (manufacturer, rep and distributor) are working together to market products, services and applications to generate demand from customers. The term doesn’t infer whom funds the initiative but frequently there […]
This week’s PCBC show, a residential builder show in California that used to be called the Pacific Coast Builder Conference, has an exhibit by Eaton that pulls together three of the company’s divisions and shows the potential that builders can […]
General Motors (GM) historically has been known as a “staid” company and the prototypical “old boys” company. And its had its share of “challenges” ranging from uninspiring design to consumers feeling there was “built in obsolescence”; from being extremely difficult […]
Much is talked about “innovation”. It’s a term that is loosely tossed around and requires a commitment, or perhaps a better term is “mentality”, that is infused into individuals and a culture. It’s a desire to “excel” and, perhaps more […]
At the NAED Annual meeting I asked distributors, manufacturers and others who typically hear about mergers / acquisitions what they were hearing. Not so much about specific companies but more in general … were they hearing of activity. All said […]
Over the past week we’ve spoken to a number of distributors, reps and manufacturers who attended LightFair. From listening to all it appears that LightFair, which euphemistically was called LEDFair a few years ago by many when LEDs first started […]
With recent quarterly reports from Rexel, Graybar and AD in addition to the recent WESCO quarterly report, we now have Q1 performance representing about 30% of sales and about 140 distributors. IMARK as well as CED, Sonepar, City Electric and […]
Much has been researched, written and talked about the emergence of alternate (alt) channels. Amazon Business is regularly mentioned and Grainger’s eCommerce initiatives are lauded. Now comes Zoro Tools, which many may recall Grainger purchased and has been promoting here […]
