“Find a niche and work it!” “We are a niche player.” “Our niche is small.”  Work in distribution for any length of time and you will hear one of these phrases bandied about.  Generally, when distributions hear the word – niche – they think of a small company calling on a very narrow segment of business.  To illustrate the point, here is what many people would consider a “niche”:  A distributor who works exclusively in providing lighting products to gas stations.   Small, very narrowly focused and expert are all descriptions that come to mind. I suggest Specialists change their definition of niche.  What if we developed “niche products?"  We change the definition from customer types to product groups to achieve this new mentality.  When a full line Electrical Distributor takes on a product which has very limited application appeal, we have a “niche product."  The new niche would consist of products not destined to...