Bad times lay just ahead... or at least so goes much of the economic news these days. Distributors across most lines of trade are being told - 2008-10 will be the Katrina of Economic low pressure cells. Yet MRO giant W. W. Granger has announced the end of a pretty good February. 2008 vs 2007 February Sales by Segment listed as: Grainger Branch-based +6 % Acklands - Grainger (Canada) +25 % Lab Safety Supply +3 % What does this mean for other distributors? Well, it gives you a benchmark to compare your business against a known commodity.

Some companies are technology friendly and some are not. Last month I had the opportunity of visiting one of those very friendly and rare early adopters. They are wholesalers-make no mistake about it. Their building says distributor. Observing the first two or three folks walking in the door in the early morning hours, it seemed like any other wholesaler in America. But once in the door - things were different. Very noticably, every person had two monitors on their desk. I've seen this set-up in software developer's offices and in the system administrator's cube at another client's office. But here everyone uses two screens. I asked why and they told me, information is their competitive edge. And, adding a second monitor was the best productivity investment on the market. I immediately purchased a second monitor and put it to the test myself. After a couple of days "getting the hang of it", I found myself effortlessly moving back and forth from web to word doc...

For the past few years I have encouraged distributors to get into the training business. In spite of their best efforts, community colleges and other traditional technical training organizations continue to fall short of the needs of our customers. They have a difficult time hosting anything besides the most fundamental of courses – technology manages to keep just a few car lengths ahead of them. There is a growing demand for training. To illustrate this point, the US Department of Labor recently announced that America will need to train more than 270,000 new electrical workers by 2016. This statement mirrors those made related to a number of other skilled trades. No one understands the local needs of customers like distributors. Often distributor Specialists have not only a working knowledge of products, they have deep understanding of the problems faced by their customers. I believe using Specialists to conduct training offers a number of benefits: 1. Students (customers) h...

Today everything is turning green. Gigantic companies (like GE) are spending barrel loads of money to convince the public that they are a green company. I personally believe the path to a "Greener" tomorrow comes via economics. Gas prices at $3.20 a gallon have done more for fuel efficient car sales than a zillion dollars in ad campaigns. Early on in the advent of compact florescent lighting - Distributor Product Specialists did a grass roots effort to convince business to switch to compact lighting. It made economic sense and the Specialist proved it to customers one by one. The same thing happened with recycling of mercury content from lamps. It was driven by wholesalers and driven in the right direction. Today, much of the "green lighting" is coming from Asia. It has been mandated and some silly decisions are being made. Check out the recent article in the Wall Street Journal for more..... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120114002163112121.html?mod=home_...