Most electrical distributors are quite familiar with their top suppliers of wire and cable, conduit, lamps, lighting fixtures, ballasts, switchgear, motor controls, distribution equipment, gear and the dozen or so other product lines that produce most of their sales. But what about the other 100 to 200 equipment manufacturers that typical electrical wholesalers stock in their warehouses?
Electrical distributors tend to focus on their largest vendors, and I think you will agree that most distributors probably don't know very much about these other equipment manufacturers or the products they sell.
Electrical Wholesaling's 2008 Source Book can help. Now in its eighth year, the EW Source Book lists hundreds of manufacturers of electrical and electronic equipment that use electrical distributors to sell products to electrical contractors and other end users.
To create this resource for Electrical Wholesaling's readers, Penton's directories and books department surveyed manufacturers of electrical products that sell through distribution. Electrical Wholesaling's editors added additional manufacturers that are members of major electrical trade associations, the industry's buying/marketing groups and from trade show exhibitor lists.
Instead of spending hours searching through aging heaps of product literature, cut-sheets or catalogs or going on a scavenger hunt on the Web, Electrical Wholesaling's Source Book can help you get the key information you need to find electrical or electronic equipment in just a few minutes.
Locating products is easy in the Source Book. If you are looking for the phone number or Web site address for a certain manufacturer, use the alphabetical section beginning on page 22. If you need to know who manufactures a certain electrical product, just flip to the product section on page 50 to find the category you need. Then get that company's contact information in the alphabetical listing.
In addition, the 2008 Source Book has a robust list of business resources such as industry consultants, software companies and trade associations that focus on the electrical industry, which begins on page 6.
We also published our picks for the most useful online and “offline” resources for market forecast information on page 12. Do you want to redesign your warehouse, sell your business, move into a new market area or refine your marketing strategy? The consultants and other resources that start on page 6 can help.
Another related tool is “Evaluating Vendors” which is available online in a PDF format at www.ewweb.com. Developed over the years by Electrical Wholesaling's editors and published in The Electrical Marketer's Survival Guide, this checklist on page 17 can help you evaluate new or existing sources of supply.
Find a good hiding spot in your office for Electrical Wholesaling's 2008 Source Book. It's a keeper, and there's a good chance that once your co-workers see how handy it is, it will “grow legs” and walk away. If that happens, give me a call at (913) 967-1743, or e-mail me at [email protected]. I will be happy to send you another copy.
EW Wins ASBPE Awards
EW's staff recently won three awards from the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE). The editorial staff won a national ASBPE award for the 2008 Market Planning Guide in the “Original Research” category. In the “Individual/Organization Profile ” category, Doug Chandler, EW executive editor, won a national award for his feature article on Solar Depot, a distributor of photovotaic products. Doug also won a regional award for his feature article, “Bad Guy Bulbs,” which explored the attempts to ban inefficient incandescent lamps. It's the second year in a row that Electrical Wholesaling has won national ASBPE awards.