Electrical Industry Roundtable 2014 - 26

SENCICH: ABB does that around the world, including Canada.
Th ey place a great deal of emphasis on developing people-not only
internally within a certain division or country-but giving people
opportunities in other parts of the world, other divisions, and
other parts of the company to learn the various aspects on how
business is done in diff erent parts of the world, how business is
done with diff erent types of solutions and products.
KERR: But is there a role the industry could play by collaborating
on developing a curriculum for distribution personnel, for branch
management, for CET's that are coming in and the kind of things
that they have to deal with when interfacing with the end user. Are
there some best practices, things that could happen?
KERR: Sometimes we have to invest in the future.
In our industry this could be the best insurance
policy for us to address all of these things.
CHAMNEY: Mostly cost-cutting measures in
our industry have hallowed out our intelligence
base in a lot of our manufacturing and also
lowered our commission base so we can't hire
the people needed to supplement what's missing
... and I don't see this slowing down. Also, from
a rep's point of view, we are looked at to provide
more and more services regularly by both our
Steve Branscombe.
principals and our customers on lower dollars-so we have to
become more effi cient.
BERCIER: We are performing more services that weren't included
in the original package. Some very good principals that we
represent don't have any technical people. Th ey rely on us. How
can I improve my company by off ering diff erent services and
supporting technical issues? Some companies have their own
sales force and they call me for their specifi cations and to supply
catalogues. I also think diversifi cation is important - we have to
be diff erent and imaginative. We need to look at diff erent markets
like charging stations for electric vehicles.
BRANSCOMBE: Doing more for less, getting involved in things
that were traditionally others responsibilities-whether it be end
users or contractors or sometimes manufacturers. Case in point:
Some contrac tors that require quotations now send the entire
project fi le online with every PDF associated with it (to multiple
distributors at the same time),
26
Canadian Electrical Wholesaler JUNE 2014
www.electricalwholesaler.electricalindusrty.ca
http://www.electricalwholesaler.electricalindusrty.ca
Electrical Industry Roundtable 2014

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