We wanted to title this “Looking Forward to 2010”, however, we debated on the word “forward” given the forecasts that we’re seeing. Consider: “There is so much uncertainty about the first half of next year that until you have a […]
According to the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, its purchasing managers index (PMI) increased last month, marking the eighth straight month this has occurred. Zhang Liquan, an economist with the Development Research Center, said “the survey indicates that China’s […]
Recently Reed Construction posting observations regarding contractor pricing strategies on its website in an article titled “Construction deflation’s impact on project cost estimates.”The article, which provides contractors with thoughts regarding how to target opportunities within dollar ranges and discusses the […]
In other words, a little bit of everything to end the week! August marks ElectricalTrends’ two year anniversary. During this time we’ve had over 28,195 visits resuting in 39,241 page views from 13,525 unique visitors (all numbers are according to […]
48 years ago, Pete Seeger wrote a song that is making a comeback in the electrical industry. While he called his song “Where Have All The Flowers Gone?”, in the electrical industry we might call this “Where Have All The […]
Consider these comments from senior managers. Do they sound familiar or are reminiscent of your market? “efforts to use limited discounts to lure customers to full-priced items don’t work” “aggressively marketed price reductions help keep sales momentum” “shoppers have been […]
No, we’re not being sexist! This was a term that a client used recently to describe today’s sales environment: PanicModeSelling Throughout their marketplace they are seeing distributors quoting projects at minimal margins and manufacturers providing pricing that is below what […]
We’ve been talking with distributors the last couple of weeks and a common refrain is the lack of profitability in much of their businesses. Many are attributing this to marketplace pricing strategies and some distributors’ desire to take share based […]
Recently we conducted research on the state of SPAs in the electrical market for a client, from which we then wrote a white paper. The client, Datalliance, is offering the white paper on their website. They didn’t have any input […]
A comedic thought for today. Recently we wrote an article for Electrical Wholesaling categorizing distributors as smart growth companies, cash flow companies or reactor companies (and yes, some may be toxic!). The article will appear in the June issue. (if […]
