Industrial Market Archives

Channel Strategies / Customer Segments / Distributors / Industrial Market / Industry Consolidation / More Insights

Graybar’s Acquisition; Benefit for SQD Automation Distributors

David Gordon Posted On March 26, 2015

This week’s news that Graybar made an acquisition was a surprise to many. The words Graybar and “acquisition” have not gone together for many many years (according to a reader, who’s been in the industry for “many” years, he recalls […]

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NAED 2015 South Central Observations

David Gordon Posted On February 26, 2015

It was always said that the South Central regional should be in a warm weather location. Unfortunately, while warmer than Chicago, it was colder than what Floridians are used to. This must have been the coldest South-Central I’ve attended … […]

Channel Strategies / Customer Segments / Customer Service / Distributors / eBusiness / eMarketing / Growth Strategies / Industrial Market / Industry Consolidation / Industry News / Marketing / More Insights / Pricing / Productivity / Profitability / Sales Channel / Supplier / Products / Technology

Demand Creator or Demand Fulfillment agent?

David Gordon Posted On February 13, 2015

Virtually all want to grow their company’s profitability. Whether it is a manufacturer, manufactures rep or distributor or the distributor’s customer. In fact I haven’t found anyone that wants the status.But, in today’s market here are two different worlds for […]

Branding / Channel Strategies / Customer Segments / Customer Service / Distributors / Growth Strategies / Industrial Market / More Insights / Pricing / Productivity / Profitability / Supplier / Products

Handing over Demand Creation

David Gordon Posted On January 22, 2015

As a note from Allen Ray: This is a Duplicate Post from 1-22-2015 due to some technical difficulties. All comments previously submitted have been re-created. It tis the New Year of 2015 and most distributors have successfully handed over demand creation […]

Channel Strategies / Customer Segments / Distributors / Industrial Market / Industry Consolidation / Manufacturers / More Insights

Sonepar Scores Big … and Other September Acquisitions

David Gordon Posted On September 29, 2014

September was a busy month for Sonepar and shared insights into an evolution of Sonepar in the U.S. and potentially communicated a message to Rockwell distributors. And these were just two of the deals done this month. Sonepar #1 – […]

Channel Strategies / Customer Segments / Distributors / Growth Strategies / Industrial Market / Industry News / Manufacturers / More Insights / Profitability / Research Reports

2015 Planning, Part 3, Home Automation, Industrial Outlook, Home Building

David Gordon Posted On September 22, 2014

Welcome to the third installment of “Time to Plan” to help with your 2015 planning and more planning questions to ask your distributors / suppliers.. According to a new survey of the Business Roundtable, CEOs of the largest companies are […]

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 […]

Branding / Contractors / Customer Service / Distributors / eBusiness / eMarketing / Growth Strategies / Industrial Market / Manufacturers / Marketing / Marketing Groups / More Insights / Pricing / Productivity / Purchasing / Research Reports / Technology

Electrical buyer / influencer mobility usage

David Gordon Posted On July 10, 2014

Much is made of distributors needing commerce enabled websites … and it is true and is becoming a customer expectation. While ERP companies say they can support distributors in this endeavor, few distributors speak well of their ERP companies providing […]

Channel Strategies / Distributors / eBusiness / eMarketing / Growth Strategies / Industrial Market / Marketing Groups / More Insights / Pricing / Productivity

Amazon: Friend or Foe minefield

David Gordon Posted On June 22, 2014

Amazon Supply can represent different threats to different types of distributors. It could depend on where you are located and what type of vertical you are in. If you sell into the large projects market, you may not feel threatened, […]

Branding / Contractors / Growth Strategies / Industrial Market / Marketing / Marketing Groups / More Insights / Supplier / Products

SupplyForce, AD, Border States, ElectricSmarts and DISC Deliver Sales & Marketing Tools

Brad Justus Posted On April 15, 2014

Over the past couple of weeks there have been some interesting industry announcements that either could represent interesting “tools” for companies or have longer term impact in the industry. This is somewhat of an eclectic mix of topics. Please share […]