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) […]
The SNEAK PEEKYesterday Trade Service announced that they are bringing out an “eDataFlex Service Console (TM)” for their existing customers. We’ve heard from several clients that Trade Service has been working on this FREE Service Console for several months (maybe […]
Distributors – Section 179 Deduction, Has Been Increased to $500K and Bonus Depreciation is back Recently we were speaking with Stacey Pandeloglou from Distribution Technology Group about the state of technology in the electrical industry. He mentioned recently passed legislation that […]
A topic that is near and dear to all distributors’ heart is their “unique” pricing to their customers, especially over the past 18 months. For some distributors it is the only way they know how to “market” their company. And […]
A little bit of a reading roundup before this weekend’s NAED Leadership Summit. Recently there has been array of news from 3M, GE, Home Depot, Rexel, Square D, Datalliance, CED and Hilti to get us going (or at least cause some […]
Maybe … especially if we (the industry, not your specific company) want profitability. You may remember SAP’s marketing theme of a couple of years ago that basically of “The best-run businesses run SAP”. With a multitude of electrical manufacturers turning […]
A couple of tidbits ran across the desk today that shows the industry continues to seek ways to streamline processes to improve profitability. With manufacturers, distributors and contractors seeking to improve their productivity, technology will take the place of many […]
In talking to distributors as they plan for 2010 we’ve noticed that distributors are following into two camps The first is a large group of distributors that seem paralyzed by the marketplace. They either don’t have confidence in themselves, their […]
In a market that many economist project to be flat for a while, manufacturers and distributors are looking at their back office to identify where they can gain efficiencies. Many companies rely on older ERP systems and only utilize between […]
A little bit of a “mishmash” of things we’ve been thinking and seeing recently that we’d like your thoughts on marketing funds, Infor and GE Automation (and Industrial). Marketing Funds (Co-op and MDF) – distributors love them (and think they […]
