Marketing

Branding / Customer Segments / Distributors / Growth Strategies / Industry Consolidation / Industry News / Marketing

More Competition Coming

David Gordon Posted On December 16, 2011

Recently we were conducting some research on non-traditional competitors and unearthed some information that could represent opportunity (through insights) from a couple of companies: Grainger While many have heard the news of Grainger closing 25 locations and inquisitive minds have […]

Contractors / eMarketing / Growth Strategies / Marketing / Reps / Technology

Tech Tools to Drive Sales

David Gordon Posted On November 16, 2011

Technology will be a major driver of cost reduction as well as customer out-reach in the coming year(s). Here are some “unique” things to consider: RepFiles is a new service being co-launched by NEMRA and John Hoelz, who is also […]

Branding / Customer Segments / Distributors / Growth Strategies / Industry Consolidation / Lighting / Lighting2 / Marketing

What Would You Do With $500,000,000

David Gordon Posted On October 12, 2011

If you were Graybar? Yes, it’s a lot of money and many people are wondering, perhaps speculating, on what Graybar will do with a half a billion dollar unsecured loan. This gives them $300 million more than they had before. […]

Contractors / Customer Segments / Growth Strategies / Industrial Market / Industry News / Marketing / Sales Channel

Changes Coming in Servicing the Industrial Market … New Report

David Gordon Posted On July 17, 2011

The industrial market continues to power growth for many distributors. Recently we spoke with a number of manufacturers and distributors to get the current pulse of the industry. The result … industrial continues to grow fueled by the OEM market, […]

Associations / eBusiness / eMarketing / Lighting / Lighting2 / Marketing / Technology

2011 NAED Leadership Summit (aka National) Observations

David Gordon Posted On May 13, 2011

The following post was originally posted on Wednesday, May 11. It is being reposted as Google / Blogger had technical issues on Thursday and “lost” the posting. Last week I attended the NAED Leadership Summit in San Diego (yes, a […]

Growth Strategies / Marketing

Frequent Communications Drive Sales, and E-Marketing Generates Awareness

David Gordon Posted On April 26, 2011

Ran across a couple of things today that caught the eye….over 30 manufacturers are involved in ElectricSmart’s e-Cat launch (including some surprising names), ABB used a convention specific blog and did you know that good sales and marketing requires 14 […]

Contractors / Customer Service / Marketing / Technology

Adding Technology to Your Counter

David Gordon Posted On March 17, 2011

The key with counters is giving a reason for people to come to you vs. someone else, especially since competing distributors like to congregate geographically and that there are usually more than a few places (i.e. Home Depot and Lowes) […]

Associations / Industry News / Marketing / Reps

NEMRA – A Working Meeting

David Gordon Posted On February 21, 2011

Just returned from the NEMRA meeting which was held in Boston. And the powers above looked over NEMRA as the weather was great for winter in Boston (it’s snowing there today but last week was blue skies!). The meeting was […]

Marketing / Supplier / Products

Adding Value to Contractor Relationships

David Gordon Posted On December 1, 2010

A few years ago I helped a client with a speaker for their contractor trade show. We wanted someone who could present a value-added presentation … something to help them be more profitable. We hired Monroe Porter, Proof Managment, to […]

Channel Strategies / Growth Strategies / Lighting / Lighting2 / Marketing

Schneider Electric … Creating Demand … For Whom?

David Gordon Posted On October 29, 2010

Lately we’ve been having conversations with a number of manufacturers, and some distributors, about reconnecting with customers and better understanding their markets. Why? In an effort to either affect demand creation; to promote their brand; and to support new product development. One […]