EXECUTIVE COMMENTARY
A few Fall musings
Walter Tobin, ERA CEO
by Walter E. Tobin, ERA CEO
So, here comes the fall and the dreaded Q4 in our sales/fiscal year cycle. It’s probably chock full of requests of, “How will you finish the year?” and ”I need your budget for 2025,”etc.
We also anticipate the change in the weather…leaves falling and breaking out the sweatshirts and sweaters. Here in Boston, we will tolerate the “leaf peepers” and another year of no baseball in October.
There is a lot going on in our world — a U.S. election approaching (no politics here!), wars/conflicts galore, famine in the Sudan continues, uncertain economic times and excess inventory galore. How do you/we allow all of these factors to “marinate” into our 2025 outlook?
Let me take a moment to reflect on some things that we face together now and in 2025:
• Year-end close. Many of us will want to say good riddance to 2024. Many of us thought it was going to be a turn-around year because the excess inventory that many of us made our customers take (due to enforcing NCNR orders) would magically “burn off ” and would be back in the land of positive book-to-bill ratios and rising backlogs. What will we do in Q4 to try to save the year? Can it even be saved? Do we just want to “take our lumps,” turn the page and start fresh in January 2025? I don’t believe we can save the year in a single quarter. Be careful as to what strategy you choose.
• 2025. What will the new year bring? What “magic” could possibly take place from Q4 to Q1 to change our sales cadence? Probably not a lot. So, look for Q1 and perhaps Q2 to be flat to 2H 2024. We always expect things to get better “in two quarters” — when probably no one really knows. Perhaps the best advice is to: Tighten your belt and continue to march.
• By the time you read this, our annual Sales Training for Electronics Professionals (STEP) training will have taken place. Thanks to our exclusive sponsor, the TTI Family of Specialists, we had approximately 350 registered attendees. What better time to train our front-line sales and marketing professionals than in a flat/down market? I applaud the companies that made the decision to invest in their people now, so as to be better positioned when the market turns back up.
• electronica in Munich on Nov. 12- 15. Are you going? ERA will have a booth once again as we have for the past 30 years! Munich is a long way to go and participation is not cheap. However, we do not look at it as an expense but as an investment in continuing to take the ERA message to EMEA. There is a huge interest by EMEA manufacturers in how to go to market in the Americas. The rep model in EMEA is still predominantly the stocking rep model, who are really distributors. It is difficult if not impossible for this model to continue as the distributors have the financial size and scope to support the marketplace. We will have many reps from the Americas in our booth (#B4, 178) to talk with EMEA manufacturers who want to penetrate the Americas market. There are many manufacturers in the Americas who want to penetrate the EMEA market. We have a growing EMEA ERA chapter who will be at our booth to help plan strategies to help in EMEA. The world is so small and getting smaller thanks to the different technologies that we all use every day.
• ERA Conference – February 23-25, 2025. This is an unabashed plug for our annual conference. It will be sold out once again so register now and book your hotel room. Why come to our conference? To listen and to learn new ways to run your organization better, use new tools, get a peek into the economy and see old friends. The two-plus days are jam-packed with both general sessions and breakout sessions. No golf or boondoggles. (Shucks!) It is an educational conference held on the campus of the University of Texas. (Go Longhorns!) Come and prepare to be amazed!
• Your ERA team. We will end 2024 with some new faces in new roles. We lost our beloved Erin Collins but were blessed to find Kate Van Hise and Natalie Zullo. These two new faces are joining our “veterans” — Karin Derkacz, Clare Kluck, Ama Derringer and Susan Bannwart — to take us into 2025 and beyond. We are all working hard to continue to provide new and exciting benefits to our members. Stay tuned!
• ERA Rep Value Video. As a part of ERA trying to “skate where the puck is going,” we recently posted our first of many videos on the value of the rep model. This three-minute video was a collaboration with Jeff Boos of ANRO Associates and the keen eye of Clare Kluck. Look for videos in the near future.
Whew! So many things to look at. Every month and quarter, we are given ten targets to hit and only given seven arrows, thus missing three targets. And, these are usually the ones that get talked about or scrutinized. What about the seven targets we hit? They almost never get talked about.
Someone told me years ago to focus on getting and keeping the confidence of the customer, versus booking an order. If you keep the customer as your true north, you will book your unfair share of orders over the long haul. So many of us may have given into the pressure of taking the order off the street only then to not be able to fulfill the promises we made to the customer. We end up losing our status as a trusted advisor and lose the customer — perhaps forever.
We all know what to do: make our sales calls, follow up, be open and honest and remain committed to sales excellence.
Things will get better — they always do!
> A few Fall musings
EXECUTIVE COMMENTARY
A few Fall musings
Walter Tobin, ERA CEO
by Walter E. Tobin, ERA CEO
So, here comes the fall and the dreaded Q4 in our sales/fiscal year cycle. It’s probably chock full of requests of, “How will you finish the year?” and ”I need your budget for 2025,”etc.
We also anticipate the change in the weather…leaves falling and breaking out the sweatshirts and sweaters. Here in Boston, we will tolerate the “leaf peepers” and another year of no baseball in October.
There is a lot going on in our world — a U.S. election approaching (no politics here!), wars/conflicts galore, famine in the Sudan continues, uncertain economic times and excess inventory galore. How do you/we allow all of these factors to “marinate” into our 2025 outlook?
Let me take a moment to reflect on some things that we face together now and in 2025:
• Year-end close. Many of us will want to say good riddance to 2024. Many of us thought it was going to be a turn-around year because the excess inventory that many of us made our customers take (due to enforcing NCNR orders) would magically “burn off ” and would be back in the land of positive book-to-bill ratios and rising backlogs. What will we do in Q4 to try to save the year? Can it even be saved? Do we just want to “take our lumps,” turn the page and start fresh in January 2025? I don’t believe we can save the year in a single quarter. Be careful as to what strategy you choose.
• 2025. What will the new year bring? What “magic” could possibly take place from Q4 to Q1 to change our sales cadence? Probably not a lot. So, look for Q1 and perhaps Q2 to be flat to 2H 2024. We always expect things to get better “in two quarters” — when probably no one really knows. Perhaps the best advice is to: Tighten your belt and continue to march.
• By the time you read this, our annual Sales Training for Electronics Professionals (STEP) training will have taken place. Thanks to our exclusive sponsor, the TTI Family of Specialists, we had approximately 350 registered attendees. What better time to train our front-line sales and marketing professionals than in a flat/down market? I applaud the companies that made the decision to invest in their people now, so as to be better positioned when the market turns back up.
• electronica in Munich on Nov. 12- 15. Are you going? ERA will have a booth once again as we have for the past 30 years! Munich is a long way to go and participation is not cheap. However, we do not look at it as an expense but as an investment in continuing to take the ERA message to EMEA. There is a huge interest by EMEA manufacturers in how to go to market in the Americas. The rep model in EMEA is still predominantly the stocking rep model, who are really distributors. It is difficult if not impossible for this model to continue as the distributors have the financial size and scope to support the marketplace. We will have many reps from the Americas in our booth (#B4, 178) to talk with EMEA manufacturers who want to penetrate the Americas market. There are many manufacturers in the Americas who want to penetrate the EMEA market. We have a growing EMEA ERA chapter who will be at our booth to help plan strategies to help in EMEA. The world is so small and getting smaller thanks to the different technologies that we all use every day.
• ERA Conference – February 23-25, 2025. This is an unabashed plug for our annual conference. It will be sold out once again so register now and book your hotel room. Why come to our conference? To listen and to learn new ways to run your organization better, use new tools, get a peek into the economy and see old friends. The two-plus days are jam-packed with both general sessions and breakout sessions. No golf or boondoggles. (Shucks!) It is an educational conference held on the campus of the University of Texas. (Go Longhorns!) Come and prepare to be amazed!
• Your ERA team. We will end 2024 with some new faces in new roles. We lost our beloved Erin Collins but were blessed to find Kate Van Hise and Natalie Zullo. These two new faces are joining our “veterans” — Karin Derkacz, Clare Kluck, Ama Derringer and Susan Bannwart — to take us into 2025 and beyond. We are all working hard to continue to provide new and exciting benefits to our members. Stay tuned!
• ERA Rep Value Video. As a part of ERA trying to “skate where the puck is going,” we recently posted our first of many videos on the value of the rep model. This three-minute video was a collaboration with Jeff Boos of ANRO Associates and the keen eye of Clare Kluck. Look for videos in the near future.
Whew! So many things to look at. Every month and quarter, we are given ten targets to hit and only given seven arrows, thus missing three targets. And, these are usually the ones that get talked about or scrutinized. What about the seven targets we hit? They almost never get talked about.
Someone told me years ago to focus on getting and keeping the confidence of the customer, versus booking an order. If you keep the customer as your true north, you will book your unfair share of orders over the long haul. So many of us may have given into the pressure of taking the order off the street only then to not be able to fulfill the promises we made to the customer. We end up losing our status as a trusted advisor and lose the customer — perhaps forever.
We all know what to do: make our sales calls, follow up, be open and honest and remain committed to sales excellence.
Things will get better — they always do!