2016 seems to have been the “year of pricing”. A number of distributors either discussed, or undertook, pricing initiatives this past year. In many instances it was a desire to reverse an industry trend … eroding margins. Others recognized that if […]
Many electrical and lighting distributors have devoted resources to marketing, selling and managing utility rebates to support their customers and as a differentiator to earning lighting retrofit projects. Frequently utility rebates are used to support LED sales. The rationale essentially […]
We’ve just passed the 6 month mark for the year and while there has been much change, the past month highlighted many and accelerated some. Consider: Consolidation Shealy sells to Border States to create a $2B ESOP. Grove Madsen sells to […]
The first session of the NAED National was a session titled “Predator or Prey”. The challenge is that session attendees walked away asking “why was it titled that?” Perhaps the answer is in this quote. The “predators” were the panelists […]
Over the past month or so Allen and I have had a number of calls for data. Some are from owners / senior management, some from marketing personnel and some from operational staff. The calls are from manufacturers and distributors. […]
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 […]
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 […]
DSO Reports Virtually all managers and owners are aware of when orders are booked/placed and when extended credit has exceeded the company’s normal credit terms. These reports are affectionately known as a Daily Sales Outstanding report and can be for a Branch, Region […]
WESCO delivered its 2016 projections on Tuesday, providing some insight into how 2015 is finishing and what they foresee for 2016. The company issue a press release, a report that is available on WESCO’s website and held an analyst call. […]
Last week’s NAED epitomized much of the change that the industry is experiencing. Attendance, per NAED’s registration list, was 585 registrants (although some did not attend but did not cancel). The continuing result of consolidation? Companies scaling back expenses due to […]
David Gordon
Channel Marketing Group
919-488-8635
