EXECUTIVE COMMENTARY
Walter Tobin, ERA CEO
by Walter E. Tobin, ERA CEO
EDS 2025 is now in the history books – did you go? Did you get a lot done? Have you reviewed your notes and action items? Have you reached out to those folks who represent the business cards sitting on your desk just waiting to be followed up on or responded to? Remember: the “follow up” shelf life is 2-4 weeks after any event or meeting. After that, don’t bother. You missed the window and wasted your time at the event or at the meeting. All of your travel woes, dinners, full days and nights will now be wasted. Remember the saying: “Never confuse activity with accomplishment.” You ran around for five days, but what did you get done?
What was the mood at EDS? Excitement? Candor? Nervousness? Are the other companies in my space doing better than I am? If so, why? Do I even believe them? Should I tell the truth when I am asked: “How’s your business? How is your year going?”
I sensed a lot of enthusiasm at EDS. Perhaps, if we tell each other a few fibs, perhaps we can all believe that things are indeed getting better! End-customer inventory seems to be leveling off; lead times are falling; book-to-bills are getting back in the positive ranges. So why am I not seeing the uptick? Or am I?
The topic of tariffs was also never-ending. What should we charge? How much can we lose if eating some or all of the tariff? What is my competition doing? What if my customer agrees to pay the tariff and then short-pays the invoice, paying only for the piece part and not for the tariff? Should I/can I put them on credit hold? What if they are my biggest customer?
The whole tariff discussion does have a bit of a silver lining: we are getting audiences with senior managers at our customers that we have never gotten! They want to understand our position and/or try and leverage their size and relationship with us to avoid paying any tariff. (Is that fair?) How we handle ourselves at these senior-level meetings will have a long-term impact on our presence at the customer.
Frankly, so many of us are just tired of this uncertainty and waiting for something to happen, for someone to declare: The market has turned! Happy days are here again!
There are now so many indices that represent how the market is doing. Book-to-bill ratio, lead times, end customer inventory levels, imports/exports levels, unemployment levels, new jobs created/lost, interest rates, deficit levels, inflation levels, interest rates…enough! How can I make sense of all of this? What is up is now down and what used to be good may now be bad. Sometimes I think we all need to just stop. Or at least pause.
We all know what our organization needs to do now to make it better:
• Plan for the future. Invest in new productivity tools – funnel management, lead follow up, etc.
• Use AI in all areas of your business – what are you waiting for?
• Train our people – when was the last time you did any training?
• Enhance your digital image.
• Hold performance reviews to help lower performers get better or have them exit the business — when was the last time you even did performance reviews?
The old maxim was that when business got tough, the three areas that most companies cut back on were advertising/marketing, travel and entertainment (customer visits) and training. Shouldn’t these be the three areas that you want/NEED to invest in?
Stop waiting for an excuse to put off these critical areas because when the market does turn, you will be stuck with the same systems, productivity tools, digital image, poorly trained sales teams and non-performing employees.
There is a saying: “A rising tide raises all boats.” Rising sales covers up a lot of barnacles and holes in any boat. Whew! Thank goodness no one saw how bad my boat was…but the high tides now cover a lot of sins.
When was the last time you asked your customers/ manufacturers to do a review of your company? How are you doing for them?
Have you ever proactively flown to visit your manufacturers’ headquarters to tell them what you are doing now for them, and then asked them for their feedback?
You want to stand out from all of your other competitors. Separate yourself from those who are calcified from fear of taking action.
Work now to make your company and your people stand out. Be the best you can be – invest, hire, train, improve! Be positioned now to be ahead of your competition when the market does turn.
INDUSTRY SURVEY RESULTS
> Four weeks until STEP 2025! View the 
> DTAM data is now updated through Q1 of 2025 for all territories/regions on the 
The Electronics Representatives Association (ERA) announces that CEO Walter Tobin will retire from the association after 10 years.
> You won’t want to miss the new 
You won’t want to miss the new
> Manufacturers’ rep best practices
FROM THE TOP
by Tom Griffin, CPMR
ERA President
We spend a lot of time at Catalyst Unity Solutions working on and promoting our brand, and ensuring our employees own the brand. An important part of this effort is communicating to new employees, and reminding experienced employees, about best practices. These include everything from call reports to emails, virtual meetings and principal visits and reviews.
Our best practices presentation has remained unchanged for years, until recently. Ken Bellero, formerly of Schaffner and a member of the ERA Executive Committee, assembled ERA’s Manufacturers Executive Council for its ideas on what they view as rep best practices.
Their list is brief, but impactful.
Rep digital marketing programs come highly recommended by the group. The group agreed these programs should be funded by the reps, but support materials should be provided by the manufacturer.
Rep report cards — The Council requested to start a process to standardize manufacturers’ rep report cards. The idea is to use these as a guideline for rep performance. It should include targets based on opportunities.
Succession planning is a best practice for both reps and manufacturers. Both parties should work to have a plan in place, and communicate that plan regularly.
Rep website content standardization — The Council agreed that manufacturers’ rep websites should include a listing of all their lines, and even links back to the manufacturers’ sites.
The work of this group resulted in our company improving our presentations, as well as adding this list to our best practices presentation shared internally.
I hope you find the work of this prestigious group as beneficial as we at Catalyst did. Our thanks to ERA Manufacturers Council members Ken Bellero, Caroline Wells, Holly Good, Robert Derringer, David Bennington and Bob Gourdeau.