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Compete for Grainger’s Business: eProcurement

David Gordon Posted On July 12, 2019

Many industrially-oriented distributors lament that they can’t compete versus Grainger for MRO business at their accounts. They say “we now the ‘decision’ makers and can beat them on price but we can’t get the business. The same occurs with large […]

Channel Strategies / Contractors / Distributors / Growth Strategies / Manufacturers / Marketing / More Insights / Profitability / Sales Channel

Reducing Tax Implications of Incentive Travel Programs

David Gordon Posted On June 26, 2019

This week WESCO is taking 800+ people on an Alaskan cruise as part of their WESCO VIP incentive program. It looks like an exciting adventure (check out this pre-program video and follow them on their program Instagram page or on […]

Branding / Channel Strategies / Distributors / Growth Strategies / Manufacturers / Marketing / More Insights / Reps / Sales Channel

3M Changes. Striving for Control?

David Gordon Posted On June 23, 2019

3M’s recent decision to terminate most, if not all, of its remaining manufacturer reps may have represented the culmination of a decision to drive the business in a different direction where the company believes that its brand is strong enough […]

Distributors / eBusiness / eMarketing / Growth Strategies / Industry News / Marketing / More Insights

eCommerce in the Channel

David Gordon Posted On June 21, 2019

During recent calls with distributors to get the pulse of the industry, one area we touched on is eCommerce and specifically the activity that they are seeing from their customers, the investments that they are making and how it is […]

Associations / Branding / Channel Strategies / Contractors / Customer Segments / Distributors / eBusiness / eMarketing / Growth Strategies / Industry News / Marketing / More Insights / Profitability

Home Depot Orange Coming to Your Customer

David Gordon Posted On June 5, 2019

The color orange signifies joy, happiness and creativity, however, it is also representative of fire and, given that the color is between yellow and red on the color spectrum it is, from a business perspective, between caution (yellow) and “bad” […]

Distributors / eBusiness / eMarketing / Growth Strategies / Industry News / Logistics / Manufacturers / Marketing / More Insights / Pricing / Productivity / Profitability / Technology

Does it feel like we’re heading into a recession …

David Gordon Posted On May 14, 2019

Or are we talking ourselves into a recession? Since the fall and the beginning of planning season there have been some economists who have been warning of a second half 2019 slowdown leading to a 2020 recession. Their prognostications were […]

Branding / eMarketing / Marketing / More Insights / Productivity / Technology

Embracing Digital Connections…Texting

David Gordon Posted On May 14, 2019

Yes, we’ve all seen it and most of us have done it…multi-tasking by listening and texting, reading and texting, sending a quick text to touch base or share a piece of information and more. While many thought “texting is for […]

Branding / Channel Strategies / Customer Segments / Distributors / eMarketing / Growth Strategies / Industry News / Marketing / More Insights

Slow Growth in Industrial MRO … Grainger Reports

David Gordon Posted On April 23, 2019

The industrial MRO market appears to have slowed its rate of growth as evidenced by Grainger’s 2019 first quarter report. While Grainger is much more than electrical products, products commonly associated with the electrical industry (electrical, lighting, motors) represent 9% […]

Channel Strategies / Contractors / Customer Segments / Distributors / eBusiness / Growth Strategies / Industrial Market / Industry Consolidation / Industry News / Manufacturers / Marketing / More Insights / Technology

Amazon Business is a Nominal Electrical Distributor Competitor

David Gordon Posted On March 4, 2019

Interesting article in Electrical Wholesaling, “Amazon Business is Growing. Do Distributors Have a Plan” written by Unilog essentially saying you need to either join or fight Amazon Business because they are / will be taking over the distribution business (and […]

Associations / Channel Strategies / Customer Segments / Customer Service / Distributors / eBusiness / eMarketing / Industry Consolidation / Industry News / Manufacturers / Marketing / Marketing Groups / More Insights / Reps

NAED South Central … Productive

David Gordon Posted On March 1, 2019

Feedback from this week’s NAED South Central conference was positive with many reporting productive meetings between their suppliers / customers, which is the key, and in many instances, sole reason for attending the conference. Surprisingly, there was also decent chatter […]