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Moneyball for Growth

David Gordon Posted On February 16, 2016

If you are stymied with geographical growth and think that many of your customers are not buying all they can from you, the odds are stacked in your favor that they aren’t. Why? Because you don’t know. Unless you have […]

Channel Strategies / Distributors / Growth Strategies / Lighting / Lighting2 / More Insights / Profitability / Sales Channel / Supplier / Products / Technology

Selling Lighting or Selling Data?

David Gordon Posted On February 16, 2016

Recently we touched on how the emergence of connected lighting is opening new opportunities for manufacturers and could for distributors. The reason for “could” is that the opportunity potentially can be much more than selling fixtures. It could explode into […]

Channel Strategies / Contractors / Customer Segments / Distributors / Industrial Market / Industry News / More Insights / Profitability

Increasing Pressure and Competition in the Industrial MRO Market

David Gordon Posted On February 14, 2016

Grainger and WESCO are typically good industry benchmarks to get a sense of the industrial MRO market. Grainger also sometimes provides insights into the institutional market, so let’s look at their end of year / quarterly reports where they also […]

Distributors / Industrial Market / Industry Consolidation / Industry News / More Insights

Rexel 2015 Performance, 2016 Outlook and 5 Year Guideline

David Gordon Posted On February 14, 2016

Rexel has had a busy first part of February. They’ve Purchased a Rockwell distributor Released their 2020 roadmap (essentially a strategic plan) And provided their 2015 annual results which generated shares “plunge(ing)” last Thursday So, as we typically do, we’ve […]

Branding / Customer Segments / Distributors / Growth Strategies / Lighting / Lighting2 / Marketing / More Insights / Renewables

Utilities Investing in LEDs

David Gordon Posted On February 11, 2016

The growth in the LED market has been remarkable, coming from zero to probably at least 50% of new construction in a short time period is phenomenal for a “new” product. And the retrofit market continues to move to LEDs. […]

Growth Strategies / More Insights / Reps / Sales Channel / Training

B All You Can B For Sales Effectiveness

David Gordon Posted On February 11, 2016

Earlier this week I was speaking with distributor and we were discussing sales effectiveness. Throughout his career he has been in sales roles, inclusive of sales management. One of the areas we discussed is the attributes of successful salespeople. He told […]

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

Sales Persistence Pays

David Gordon Posted On February 1, 2016

Recently I saw a posting on LinkedIn that shared these sales statistics. Having been in sales, managed sales teams and consulted with clients regarding their sales organizations, it struck a cord. Common perceptions of most distributor sales organizations include: Not too […]

Branding / Channel Strategies / Customer Segments / Customer Service / eBusiness / eMarketing / Growth Strategies / Industrial Market / Industry Consolidation / Industry News / Lighting / Lighting2 / Marketing / More Insights / Pricing / Productivity / Profitability / Purchasing / Sales Channel / Technology

16 Distribution Industry Trends for 2016

David Gordon Posted On January 27, 2016

Over the past month, Allen and I have discussed our observations regarding the industry and shared trends we see that we think will impact business for distributors and manufacturers in 2016. We’ve agreed upon 16 sales, marketing, profitability and operations opportunities that we’d […]

Jobs / More Insights

Engineered Products Company Seeking EVP

David Gordon Posted On January 25, 2016

This newly created executive role has been developed as a part of our organization’s succession planning process. This position will be a Key Driver in the future accomplishments and direction of our organization; and will be responsible for overseeing and […]

Branding / Customer Service / More Insights

Service as a Differentiator

David Gordon Posted On January 25, 2016

Many talk as service as a differentiator, however, when you begin to ask questions … or essentially peel back the layers … you find that their services, for the most part, are carbon copies of their competitors. While everyone may […]