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Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Essential Qualities For Successful Electrical Distributors

If you expect to thrive in an increasingly competitive marketplace as an electrical distributor, embracing a new generation of technology services is key.

A new Infor white paper, Survival and Growth for Electrical Distributors, states, “It wasn’t long ago that electrical distributors could rely on regional and territorial advantages as a means of maintaining a steady stream of regular customers.” Unfortunately, this is no longer a reliable advantage.

With the Internet turning smaller markets into a single, global exchange, “it’s more important than ever to not just understand your customers’ specific needs, but to also have the flexibility to adjust your business practices in order to meet those needs.

In the paper, seven promising practices are suggested to help electrical distributors survive and grow against mega-competitors like Amazon Business and Grainger.

Here are the qualities that can get you there:
1. Seize the moment: You need to be nimble enough to seize competitive opportunities when they present themselves.
2. The right tool for the job: The best way to visibly pay attention to a customer’s needs is to deeply understand their business and deliver the solutions they’re looking for.
3. Get the pricing right: Your unique inventory determines the pricing model you put forward to your customer. Your ERP has to be able to keep up.
4. Always offer more: Value-added services are a powerful differentiator for specialized distributors, empowering you to better support your customers’ active manufacturing and assembly operations.
5. Sweat the details: The right ERP solution should make it easier for you to meet complex job management requirements, even for projects that take place over a longer period of time or in several locations.
6. Operate on all channels: Omni-channel sales and fulfillment is the new price of entry for any electrical distribution business. Without mobile and social at the center of your ERP, you start out at a disadvantage.
7. Boost that SKU count: Industrial Supply Magazine reports that distributors with high SKU counts are “growing at a minimum of twice the GDP of 2.5%, whereas distributors with smaller content show only slight growth.” Whether your inventory grows organically or suddenly spikes because of a merger of acquisition, you need an ERP system that can carry the load.

To read more of the article, investigate Infor case-studies, and download white papers, visit the Infor blog.

The Brown Smith Wallace 2015-16 Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guides are currently available for download. Please contact snelson@bswllc.com for more information about these latest editions.

Click to download the: 2015 Distribution Software Guide
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