Content area
Full Text
Drilling down deep into the right niche markets for your company can produce some nice profits and complement your game plan for a down economy.
While winning teams have powerful offenses and stingy defenses, special teams frequentiy deliver the winning edge. Be it a kick-off return that positions the offense for the winning touchdown or a kicking game that provides the defense with strong field position, the little things win games. The first two articles in this series (EW- Nov. p. 53, and EW- Dec, p. 45) offered tips on how to pump up your sales efforts and refine your internal operations during a down market.
On this "third team" in the electrical industry are niche market opportunities that exist even in a down market. As we enter 2008, several specialty areas represent opportunities for distributors. Some of these niches are "knowledge based," in that they may require distributors to learn some new technical subject matter. Others are customer- or application-based. In many cases, these are new sales opportunities for products that you already stock. All are worthy to explore. With a strong offense (growth strategies) and a tough defense (operations), developing new niches can help differentiate and diversify your company and ultimately provide you with a winning year and an opportunity to take market share.
KNOWLEDGE NICHES
You can create new niches for your company by investing some time studying two subject areas of critical importance to electrical contractors and other end users: changes in the 2008 National Electrical Code and the new arc-fault requirements. These customers don't expect you to become an expert in this hyper-technical subject matter, but if you can draw together some educational resources for them on NEC changes covering arc-fault requirements, they will appreciate it.
Use changes in the 2008 National Electrical Code (NEC) to create sales opportunities. On page 50 of this issue in "Code Changes 2008," NEC expert Mike Holt discusses some key changes in the National Electrical Code that will offer sales opportunities for the products you sell. For instance, the new NEC requires ground-fault circuit interrupters (GFCIs) and combination-type arc-fault circuit interrupter (AFCI) protective devices to be used in more applications in dwelling units; they now also require tamperresistant receptacles in new dwelling units,...