Summer 2026 – ERA XCOM Digest

What if we kept some of that graduation-day mindset?

By Tobi Cornell, CPMR

Your future is bright! You can do anything! We can’t wait to see what the future has in store for you! Looking forward to seeing you embrace life and live it to your fullest potential! The future has so much in store for you!

These are all things that we say to graduating seniors, whether it’s from high school or college/university. We impress upon them that the world is their oyster, and they can be anything they want to be. We try to inspire such passion in the young, and we push them to believe in themselves, to know that they can do absolutely anything. I have just done this as well with my own son, who graduated from high school in May. Every graduation card I picked up to read had the same sort of message — praising the student for their achievements and letting them know that the world is waiting for them to make their mark upon it. It is a beautiful thing to think about.

It made me wonder…do we still push ourselves in this same way? Do we push our teams this same way? Do we remind ourselves and encourage each other with endless inspiration and belief in what we/they can do? Do we share our passions with our team, and the desire to be our best selves, or have we become jaded and beat down, and have found reasons or excuses for why we aren’t achieving the things that we want to achieve? Do we even still believe in ourselves?

I really hope that we do. Each of us has a responsibility to get energized in our own skin. We need to remember what it was that brought us into this industry, and what we loved about it when we first started. Think about why it is that you stay in this industry, and why you still love it. Use that passion to drive yourself to be better at what you do every single day, and find a way to share that internally within your own organization. If your team isn’t energized, how can you turn that around, or how can you get them through this slump they may be in? How can you help your team tap into what brought them to this industry, and what made them love it? What questions do we ask to learn what inspires others, and what behavior do we display that shows our dedication to our teammates and our organizations? It’s just something to really think about.

One of the speakers at my son’s graduation ceremony said that reaching graduation does not mean that your goal is done. No matter what your next path is, each day is a new goal, and you continue to evolve and grow so that being a better version of yourself each day is the real goal; it is never done.

The working world teaches us an equally important truth to what is heard at graduation: you can become things you never even knew existed. So, continue to be curious, resilient and create opportunities. Always choose to do your best, and to inspire the best in your colleagues. Motivate others with passion and compassion, and strive to be your strongest self. You will never be unhappy or dissatisfied with your performance if you have done your best.

So, here’s to our amazing industry! Each of you can do anything you put your mind to, and the world is out there waiting for you to continue to make your mark on it. I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for you.

The Rep Council, revisited

By John Guetens

If you have consistently conducted Rep Council meetings over the years, much of this article may already be familiar. But for manufacturers who have never held a Rep Council, or whose program has quietly disappeared over time, it may be time to take another look.

Count E-T-A among the latter. It had been several years since our last Rep Council. Looking back at the agenda from that meeting was almost like opening a time capsule, with discussions centered around the challenges of virtual sales calls, hybrid work schedules and navigating business during the pandemic. It was clearly time to jump-start our commitment to the Rep Council and refocus on the challenges and opportunities shaping today’s markets.

If you’re considering launching a Rep Council, I recommend starting with ERA’s Guidelines for Establishing and Benefiting from Rep Councils, available on the ERA website. (Use the QR code on this page to access it.) It provides an excellent framework for organizing and operating an effective council.

A Rep Council is meant to be a strategic planning forum, not a sales meeting. While it can be helpful to open the meeting with a high-level review of sales trends and business conditions, spending too much time on territory performance or detailed sales activity can distract from the council’s real purpose. The discussion should focus on strengthening the supplier-representative partnership and identifying opportunities to improve the effectiveness of the relationship. Focus on topics that generate the most valuable conversations and takeaways.

A Rep Council should never feel like a report card for either the manufacturer or the rep. Instead, it should function as a collaborative planning session where both parties work together to identify opportunities, solve problems and position the business for future growth.

What’s working? What isn’t? Where should we focus our efforts?

Here are a few practices I would suggest:

• Hold the meeting at an off-site location. It eliminates distractions and creates a setting that invites a more honest and open exchange of opinions. Creating the right environment is critical to maximizing your return on the meeting.
• Consider a pre-meeting survey to gather thoughts from both supplier and rep sales teams. They are in fact the most important stakeholders in the relationship. Having that feedback before the meeting helps ensure discussions focus on the issues that matter most.
• Have a structured agenda and plan for your meeting. Here’s where survey feedback can be most valuable, allowing for more focused and productive discussions.
• Leave enough flexibility in the agenda to allow important discussions to develop naturally. Some of the most valuable conversations won’t be the ones you planned.
• Don’t overlook the value in planning informal time together, whether dinner or a shared activity. Sometimes the best ideas are shared after the day’s formal discussions have ended.

Perhaps the greatest measure of a successful Rep Council is what happens after everyone goes home. Action items should be documented, responsibility assigned and progress communicated back to both the representative network and the supplier’s sales organization. When reps see ideas implemented, trust grows and future discussions become even more productive. Indeed, the fastest way to undermine the efforts of a Rep Council is to ask for honest feedback and never act on it.

Ultimately, the value of a Rep Council is measured by stronger partnerships, better informed business decisions and tangible improvements that benefit both the manufacturer and its representatives.

When manufacturers make a genuine commitment to listen before the meeting, foster open dialogue during the meeting and follow through afterward, a Rep Council becomes much more than an annual event, it becomes a strategic advantage that strengthens the interests of everyone involved.

In the end, after several years away from the process, our biggest takeaway wasn’t simply the value of conducting another Rep Council—it was realizing we should never have paused holding them in the first place.

Beyond the data sheet: Why the best reps never stop being students

By Lori Bruno, CPMR

I’ve spent 33 years in this industry, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: The moment you think you’ve “graduated” from learning is the moment you start becoming obsolete.

When I started back in 1993, I didn’t have a background in electrical engineering. I had a degree in human development and a fascination with how people tick. At the time, some might have seen that as a detour. Today, I see it as my superpower. Why? Because while data sheets tell you what a part does, curiosity tells you what a customer needs.

But raw curiosity alone isn’t enough to scale a business or navigate today’s supply chain. To turn that curiosity into revenue, you need a structured framework.

This is exactly where the ERA Education Initiative comes in.

When we talk about the value of ERA, it’s easy to focus on networking. But as your SVP of Education, I want to challenge you to look at our association through a different lens. The ERA is the premier global campus for the electronics industry, designed to give our members a distinct competitive advantage through continuous professional development.

Our educational framework is built on three pillars that transform how we do business:

• Professionalizing the “moxie” (CPMR & CSPC): Grit and hustle get you in the door, but university-level certification is what keeps you at the table. Through the Certified Professional Manufacturers’ Representative (CPMR) and Certified Professional Sales Consultant (CPSC) programs, we don’t just teach people how to sell—we train them how to architect and run highly profitable businesses.
• The “holy trinity” masterclass: The electronics marketplace is a complex ecosystem. Our educational programs bring manufacturers, distributors and reps into the same classroom to solve real-world channel friction. We don’t just advocate for the representative model; we actively educate the entire supply chain on how to optimize it.
• STEP & NEXGEN empowerment: Knowledge gaps are business risks. Through targeted initiatives like STEP (Sales Training for Electronics Professionals), we provide continuous learning opportunities required to keep independent firms agile. This is where we equip everyone—from the 40-year veteran adapting to new tools, to the NEXGEN leader just finding their wings—with the tactical skills to win.

We are operating in an industry that moves at a breathless pace. You cannot rely on yesterday’s knowledge to solve tomorrow’s supply chain challenges.

As we look toward the final quarter of the year, I’m asking you to make a deliberate commitment to your team’s development. Don’t just view ERA as an association you belong to— view it as your organization’s external training and development department. Invest the time, utilize our resource library, enroll your people in the STEP sessions and commit to certification.

The data sheets will always change. But the value of being the most curious, besteducated professional in the room? That is an absolute constant.

Andiamo—let’s keep learning.

The playing field: The ultimate training ground for a career in sales

By Kingsland Coombs, CPMR, CSP

As society considers how to best support children in a fast-paced, technology driven world, I often think back to my own childhood. I was fortunate in the ways that mattered most: I was safe, secure, loved and well educated. Those who know me will not be surprised that my character was also shaped by something else.

I began playing youth hockey at age five because my best friend, Scott, played. I later devoted myself to baseball and tried soccer, tennis and lacrosse. One of the saddest days of my life was hanging up my skates after college.

Is playing sports required for a sales career? Of course not. But for children who are interested, sports offer a direct path to developing foundational sales skills:

Competition. The best salespeople I know love to compete—not at the expense of collaboration, service or long-term thinking, but as a complement to them. Winning creates a natural high; once you experience it, you want more.

Discipline. Mastering a physical skill takes determination and repetition. I believe my work ethic in sales grew directly from the discipline I learned while perfecting my slapshot and fastball.

Teamwork. I mostly played team sports, and my teammates became like brothers. When we truly played as a team, it felt like a symphony and left a lasting memory. Together, we experienced something greater than any of us could have achieved alone.

Conflict. Even the best teams face internal struggles. The lesson is to set ego aside and put the team first.

Coaching. As a young athlete, I experienced the full range of coaching styles and learned what worked for me. In my career, that helped me recognize mentors who could inspire me. As a leader, I try to model the coaches who brought out my best.

Support. My father never pushed me into sports. He used to say he did not need to because I pushed myself. But my parents drove me everywhere, and for that sacrifice, and many others, I would not be who I am without them.

I am fortunate to have two grandsons. My hope is that each of them finds a passion, whether in sports or somewhere else, that I can help support, something that builds character and teaches foundational life skills.

What sports gave me came from real human experience—not virtual, digital or artificial. My wish for all children is that they live in real time, in the physical world, with engaged human beings. There truly is no substitute.

Building tomorrow’s leaders: An update on MentorUP, COLT and STEP

By Ellen Coan, CPMR

By the time you read this, ERA’s MentorUp has launched and you are either in or out of our first mentorship cohort!

My first SVP of Industry initiative is mentoring, as it is near and dear to many of us – Eddie Smith, ERA CEO, especially – as we monitor this endeavor. Our industry is rich with experienced people and they all have wisdom to share. Our ERA mentors are great listeners and have a unique perspective influenced by their own career path, while building confidence and mutually fostering growth. This is reciprocal mentoring at its finest as we all learn from each other.

On the flip side we have new talent entering our industry, anxious to hear how to do their best in their career as they advance in ways a title does not reflect. We all have a story and listening and sharing that story can move us all forward in every situation. We will learn from this first cohort and repeat the process each July through December.

The MentorUP program is guided by a virtual platform called Chronus that contains features such as mentor training, goal setting, conversation paths, note-taking, video meetings and more. There are ideas for meeting questions based on the goals of the mentee and virtual forums for mentees and mentors to exchange best practices. As you contemplate joining the next cohort, a good podcast to listen to on this subject is Brene Brown speaking with Janice Omadeke as they discuss, “The Mentor Method and Why Values Matter.”

Quarterly chapter leadership meetings will continue to help keep the communication flowing from ERA National to all chapters, as we share best practices. Ama Derringer and I will encourage less active chapters to find their champions to carry the ERA message forward, while recruiting for new talent at college job fairs and encouraging participation in all ERA programs.

• COLT – ERA’s Chapter Officer Leadership Training will take place Dec 1-3, 2026 and there are so many testimonials from past trainings about the value of this program, as chapter leaders learn practical knowledge about running a chapter, member recruitment, hosting events, using ERA National resources, organizing educational sessions and more.
• STEP – ERA’s Sales Training for Electronics Professionals will be held Sept 29 – Oct 1, 2026 where reps, distributors and manufacturers will come together to future-proof their skillsets with tactical takeaways on a virtual platform that is recorded. (If work gets in the way of education – you can listen and learn later.)

I look forward to the challenges ahead with you all by my side.

Together, we are better!