Maximizing profitability is another key area of interest for the Foundation’s research initiatives. There are a host of business practices, major trends, and channel issues that can affect a company’s bottom line. For those reasons, the Foundation also looks to identify and analyze a broad spectrum of factors that impact efficiency, productivity, and ultimately, profitability. The studies listed below provide information on ways to maximize your existing resources and evaluate possible new ventures for increased revenue.
HR Strategies - Hire Today for Tomorrow: The world’s workforce is predicted to change dramatically over the next
10 years and the electrical distribution industry is no exception. As
you grapple with shifting employee demographics and changing business
practices, how do you develop talent and hire for future expectations?
How will these changes impact the organizational structure of your
company? This study will consider the
projected state of electrical distribution and the expertise your
company should have in place to handle future business.(Available in Summer 2013)
Maximize Your Marketing Efforts: Marketing is essential to a company’s
visibility, and ultimately, the bottom line. It is also a major expense for
most companies as they continually develop and launch new marketing efforts.
There are a variety of factors to consider when formulating a marketing
strategy, and for distributors, their efforts are twofold: 1) how to market the
company and 2) how to work with their channel partners to co-market. This study examines the industry’s current marketing practices and provides
recommendations to streamline and improve efforts. Sue Smith, longtime industry
marketing professional currently teaching at Syracuse University, is conducting
the study. (Available in Spring 2013)
Maximize Your Sales Efforts: Among a company’s chief expenses
are those related to sales, yet the means to determine the true impact of sales
efforts by distributors, particularly within the sales structure of the supply
chain, often remains difficult to gauge. Moreover, excessive expenses and missed opportunities to
develop customer connections can lead to losses. This report addresses sales
efficiency within the channel by examining current sales practices and offering
“best-in-class” benchmarks to measure and improve sales. (Published in 2011)
Emerging Trends and Traps in Residential Construction - The NAED Roadmap to Future Opportunities: Answers the question, “where is the residential market headed?” This project, presents electrical distributors with a determination of both the risks and opportunities for entering the residential market, along with firm recommendations for distributors specifically and the channel in general so they can begin taking action on the findings. (Published in 2008)
Managing Customer Profitability: Electrical distributors are aware that they lose money on a large number of their customers. The real problem is that by having identified this, distributors do not have the affordable tools for measuring their customers' profitability or directed action plans for improving it. (Published in 2006)
Value-Added - Assessing New Service Offerings of Electrical Distributors: Electrical distributors who work to improve services will be rewarded with reduced processing costs and better customer satisfaction and revenue streams from customers who value service. Research conducted by Scott Benfield of Benfield Consulting educates electrical distributors on the best practices in service offerings. (Published in 2006)
Research projects are generously funded by the NAED Education and Research Foundation's Channel Advantage Partnership.