Index:

• Will the new Green Technology affect the electronics industry?

• Will I plan to attend EDS 2008? My thoughts...

• Sales meetings...Are they a waste of time or a thing of the past?

• OK, so I attended EDS 2008. What did I think of it?

• Why can't the English learn to speak? (And the rest of us?)

• The election is over...So what else has changed?

• How do I get a 'Bail-Out?'

• Do You Remember?... Yes I remember

• Stormy Weather...  What to do about the recession.

• I have too many Friends!

 

 

 

Green Electronics

Jan/Feb 2008

 

I first began learning about GREEN when we in distribution were told that all materials used in electronics had to be ROHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) compliant by a certain date. This term has become most common in our trade today. Once again, I compare what is going on in my political life to electronic distribution. I recently attended on behalf of my town, a huge convention in Chicago at McCormack place called GREEN BUILD. I went because our town has decided to lead the way with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). I was surprised to see many familiar electronic names among the exhibiters. It seems that a new and potentially large industry is emerging that is sure to include all of us. A few examples: Wiremold was there showing wire ducting that meet LEED standards and are meant to accommodate some of the new materials that will be used in construction; Thermal imaging  devices for measuring heat loss in air-conditioned buildings as well as seeking appliances that generate heat or draw excessive power; BASF showing new chemicals for Green and Cooper Industries with lighting and power systems. I am sure there will be many more at future shows. The LED business is sure to explode as virtually everyone is switching to low power consumption lighting. Even the old familiar xmas tree  bulbs are becoming old fashioned compared to LEDs. Technically there were quite a few water related energy saving devices such as a urinal that uses no water to flush yet remains odor free; a toilet that allows you to select which type of flush is needed depending on what you have just deposited.

 

I had to wait in line over an hour to register at $350.00 a pop for the cheapest ticket. By the time I got my badge, the line was at least twice as long. There were dozens of seminars taking place at various rooms all over McCormack Place. The few that I got to attend were standing room only and not too much of that. Who was attending? Just about everyone. Landscape architects to learn how to dispose of waste water without wasting it, electrical guys learning about better lighting sources than the old incandescent bulb, and construction people viewing all the new and green friendly building materials. I walked by a booth that had cinder blocks piled high on the floor, except that when I lifted one, it was light as a feather and made only from recycled products.

 

Of course we in government are evaluating methods to force future construction to adhere to these ever changing standards. What applies one day my not be applicable tomorrow. One example is that there are now people saying that ethanol costs more to produce and transport than gasoline leaving a larger C0² footprint so that may not be an ideal answer.

 

If I were  a bit younger, I would be planning to attend the next one of these Green Shows and looking for opportunities to become a part of it. Any distributor looking for areas to expand into  that will be hot at least for the next decade should do likewise. For more information go to http://www.usgbc.org. or visit the many sites devoted to Green,

 

By Ernie Sochin

 

 

Will I be attending EDS 2008?

Mar/Apr 2008

You betcha!! If ever I had any doubt, it was brought home to me at a recent political debate. Yes, I am up for re-election in my town (all contributions gratefully accepted) and during the process the townspeople and my opponent look deep and hard for things to challenge. Just about everything that I do as a politician is for the good of the town and as you might guess, we receive very little monetary compensation. In other words we have to be totally dedicated or horribly dishonest. I like to think of myself as dedicated, or as some say ‘crazy’.

 

So what does the opposition pick on? The fact that I and several other Councilmembers attended a Green Convention at McCormack place in Chicago and also went to the State capital in Tallahassee to meet with all of our state representatives and their staff.  The nay-sayers in the community argue that there was no need to actually go to these events. “Why couldn’t we just get tapes of the seminars and view any new Green products on line… Why couldn’t we just send one person to gather information and present it to the rest of us?” And so it went. My response used as an example the EDS show. There is something that clearly would be absent were I and my associates not to attend. I learn a great deal from my conversations with other distributors and vendors. Face to face contact over a beer or a sandwich is worth more to me than hours spent on the internet. At the Green Convention I did the same thing with politicians from other cities and towns and vendors with a host of new products that neither I nor my colleagues had ever seen before.

 

Politics can be fun when I get the occasional praise from constituents for a job well done, but it sometimes becomes difficult to explain to an unknowing public why it is necessary to travel and attend trade shows and seminars. I always took EDS for granted, having attended for so many years. It took this attack on my spending of town money to remind me just how valuable a trade show is. I agree that much could be done to make EDS more enticing. The keynote speakers of late have not been too exciting in my mind and the topics not that relevant.  The exhibits leave a lot to be desired and I still feel that if you are exhibiting at the show you should be encouraging prospective customers to see your products in an open display without an ‘appointment only’ sign.  If you must have a suite with the obligatory Danish pastry, then have that as well but none of us is so smart as to know that we don’t need any additional business. Things change every day and I suggest you keep your doors (and booths) open to whatever may come your way. If need be, have one of your interns man the booth and arrange appointments with those that qualify.

 

The location of the show for my money (figuratively speaking) is the best. There is a plethora of places to stay and eat and you can spend as much or as little as you wish. Most of the after show activity is centralized so the chance of running into people you know is great. Use this time to your advantage.

 

Perhaps the show could be one day shorter. I used to be so busy on the first two days that I needed day 3 for a wrap-up but now Thursday seems to be a let down for the vendors who must wait to pack up their exhibits  while very little is taking place on the floor. See you in Vegas!

 

“There’s No Business Like Show Business So Let’s Go On With The Show!”

 

 

The sales meeting: A lost art??
 May/June 2008

 

I recently re-instituted at my company the ‘lost art’ of sales training. Prior to this change it was thought best that the rep or sales manager come in to our location and try to spend a few minutes with each of our salespeople between phone calls and customers to bring them up to date on new products and teach them about existing ones. The idea was to save on possible overtime pay and avoid keeping people after hours just to improve their selling skills and enhance future income. (Sarcasm mine).

 

One thing that I immediately observed by bringing everyone together is the rapid exchange of ideas between fellow salespersons;

“I had a guy who used this product for such and such.”

“I just got a call from a new customer who builds a device to test school buses.”

 And so it goes. Each person in the meeting began thinking about just who else they might call to offer these products to and the ideas expand. This doesn’t happen in one-on-one trainings.  With the advent of Internet training, many manufacturers and vendors think it is adequate to have a web site available or use webinars for training.  Being the old fool that I am, I still think that some of the old ways of doing things are still the best. (I still enjoy reading as opposed to watching TV but still do both)

 

Now the tough part; I have sat through probably more sales meetings than most of you and  spent a great deal of that time looking at my watch and waiting for them to end. Frankly, they can be very boring to say the least. They don’t have to be. A little training on the part of the meeting giver would help. I myself took one of those Dale Carnegie courses some time ago. I enjoyed it so much that I continued on as an instructor and would have possibly made a career of it had I not moved to Florida to take over a new business. But the training has always come in handy for me. I doubt that anyone ever fell asleep in one of my meetings. I learned what buttons to push and how to get everyone involved. It is amazing to see the lack of enthusiasm shown by some meeting-givers when dealing with their lifeline to future income and commissions. Some of the tricks that I have used in the past are tossing out silver dollars to those who can answer questions first about your product. Asking meeting-goers what their most unusual application was for a particular product. There are many hooks to get people involved but it all begins with the presenter. I suggest you spend the few extra bucks on your career and take one of the many courses available to learn these skills. I hear that the various toastmaster clubs will bring out the best in people. As well as selling and presenting skills you will learn to be better managers or employers. Getting your own employees to buy into changes you may make as manager are equally important in the success of a business. One of the phrases that stick in my mind from Dale Carnegie is the three “C’s. “Don’t Criticize, Condemn or Complain.”

Actual Quote: “Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain but it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving.”

One of the greatest management tools you may ever receive!

 

You never know when these new skills will come into play. As many of you know, I am into politics right now and just handily won my first vote for reelection. During the process of campaigning, I was involved in several debates. Needless to say, I clobbered the opposition, not because I was that much smarter, but I had learned over the years to judge audience reaction and what methods I could use to get them to buy into my ideas. One opponent actually said that the debates were unfair because I had the edge having taken these courses. Well too bad!! My point is that you can make yourself a better salesperson and well as just a better person by spending the few weeks necessary to take one of these courses. I don’t care how many degrees you have, people skills are sorely lacking in our and other industries, perhaps partially due to the Internet, but please don’t let us lose them completely.

 

 

“Another opening…Another Show”
Jul/Aug 2008

 

Once again, everyone asks me “What are you going to write about the show?” Well here goes!

Was it a ‘good’ show? From my and my parent company’s view…absolutely. Did we see who we needed to see and accomplish what we intended? For the most part …yes.

Was it as exciting as the ‘good old days’?  NO!! In talking to the few old timers who remember the good old days, we reminisced about the shows years back when there was a huge crowd at the ribbon cutting and a virtual charge towards the exhibit booths. You couldn’t simply walk up to an exhibitor on the floor and expect to talk to someone. They were just too busy. This year that was not a problem. There were too many familiar names simply not exhibiting. They are devoting their time and resources elsewhere. I certainly would have loved to see some of them at the show; not so much just for the ‘show specials’ but hopefully to see new products and learn from them what is happening in their particular segment of the industry. My loss as well as theirs.

 

My usual complaint still hasn’t been resolved. There were roughly 81 exhibitors in hotel suites upstairs, compared to 138 on the floor. Add to this roughly 60 Authorized Vendors, those who chose not to exhibit at all but merely take advantage of some space set up in the convention center should they want to have a meeting with potential customers. This places quite a burden on distributors with many appointments running back and forth between the three. Now some have taken to showing their products at hotels not even connected to the main location. I hope this trend doesn’t expand. I did get my usual assortment of pens and may open a stationary store soon to enhance my retirement income. The Danish and croissants were the same as usual and thank heavens the exhibitors offered them. Did you see the prices at the concession stands?

 

The keynote address by William Mitchell, President of Arrow Electronics was by far the best I remember. The topics were of interest to everyone and not just about Arrow. The talk should have given us all lots to think about. Kudos to Mr. Mitchell.

Can you imagine…standing room only!?  Learning about all the coming trends involving our industry i.e. the difficulty in finding qualified employees and how LED’s have gone from being a novelty light to a necessary part of the new GREEN initiative. I wrote a while back about how important GREEN would become to our industry and it is already happening. Panduit is building one of their new plants totally LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified.   Others I am sure will follow.

 

The Monday evening cocktail party was a bit of a surprise to me. It seemed that not very long ago I could walk through the crowd and know virtually everyone there. When I ran into a few other ‘old timers’ they had the same comment. It wasn’t necessarily that there were younger people replacing us, but rather new facets of the industry that we haven’t connected with. I could have done without the Liza Minnelli and Frank Sinatra impersonators. They were indeed talented but I was there to talk with my colleagues, not watch a show. What do you think?

 

 I admittedly found myself slightly behind the times. I always took pride in my ability to keep up with current trends and changes in electronics but this year I had a lot to learn. Silly me, I thought that with all these new Plasma, LCD and HDTV sets that you simply went to the store, bought one, took it home, plugged it in, connected the antenna and watched TV. Once I began to see amplifiers, baluns, a host of connectors and devices, I realized how far I had fallen behind. My kids may be right. I am becoming a fossil.

 

As for new and exciting products there were a few that caught my eye. Velleman never lets me down with their variety of products and new innovations from the orient. They now offer ultrasonic cleaners, auto accessories and even a blood pressure monitor. For a while I thought I had died but later learned that they had neglected to install the batteries in the monitor device. Being a flashlight freak, NTE surprised me with an incredible line of flashlights unlike any I had ever seen before. Even Linrose finds themselves on the precipice of a boom market with LEDs. They simply need to find new applications and markets for this hot new GREEN product.  I ran across the usual assortment of Asian exhibitors who I had difficulty communicating with and who weren’t quite sure why they were there but they will learn, I am sure.

 

I felt bad for the reps at the show. I only had two from my area there and it seemed that I was their only customer at the show. Not at all as it used to be. I even saw a few lines at the show which we use quite extensively and yet no one ever called for an appointment nor had I seen their rep in at least a year. Shame on them. (Sorry, no names)

 

Again I broached the subject of combining EDS with another show such as the Security Show or CEDIA. The argument against it was that the attendees at these shows are in many cases the end user, who many our customers might like to sell to. The trouble is that I think they are now establishing their own channels of distribution while we remain in the background. A conundrum indeed! In the meantime it is our only show and attend we must.

 

I tried to buy Tom Queeney another beer this year but he insisted on buying. I guess I’ll have to live with his teasing for another 20 years. Oh Boy!! 

 

 

“Why Can’t The English Learn To Speak?”

(And the Americans too)

Sep/Oct  2008

 

I am among the fortunate few who actually feel more comfortable speaking to a group, the larger the better. I am actually more ill-at-ease when I am at a small cocktail reception where I am not the center of attraction and must go about, drink in hand, making my own contacts and creating my own conversations.

 

I know this may sound strange to most of you. Having spent many years in sales, as a radio talk show host, and most recently as a politician, I get to observe many others attempting to speak to an audience in an attempt to sell a product or an idea. The truth is that our entire life involves selling in one form or another, whether it be pursuing your dream lifetime mate, a one night stand, a new job, or getting that next commission check that allows you to survive.

 

The ability to speak and hold someone’s interest whether it be a few individuals in a buying office or an audience full of potential voters requires the same basic talents.

In my new world of politics I am exposed to a plethora of public speakers, from politicians like myself to attorneys and city planners trying to get ideas across..

 

It is pitiful that some of these well educated individuals are simply unable to speak without quivering or stumbling or using a lot of ahh’s and uhh’s between words or worse yet, read from a prepared scripts. Power point presentations are nice to drive home a point or two but boring as hell when they are used as teleprompters for the speaker. Don’t do it!

You would think that law schools would make it mandatory that future lawyers learn to speak publicly even if they are not necessarily trial attorneys. I am a graduate of Dale Carnegie and went on for a brief time to act as an instructor. I have recommended this to just about everyone in the business as a great investment for salespeople and or those in management positions.

 

Of course I am still a strong believer in sales meetings as opposed to the new trend of webinars etc. but it takes a certain amount of skill to deliver a good presentation and that is a skill that I urge you to acquire. I have developed the ability to speak extemporaneously at the drop of a hat (or my name). As an example, I was recently invited to a Pentecostal church for what I thought was just a lunch gathering.  I heard the bishop announce the honored guest who would be speaking to the congregation. I looked around to see who it would be. Surprise…it was ‘yours truly’. I am not sure exactly what rolled off my tongue that day but I did get 4 “amen’s” so something must have gone well.

 

While attending a league of Cities convention in Florida, one of the featured guests was an eloquent speaker, James C. Humes, who was a speech writer for five U.S. presidents and wrote a book about Sir Winston Churchill from interviews with Churchill’s grandson Winston Churchill II. The speaker looked, dressed and sounded like Churchill, cigar and all. I learned so much from his 90 minute talk that I wish I could share it all with you, but some of the key things that stuck in my mind were the following:

• Don’t start out a talk by saying how uncomfortable you are at public speaking. People will see that for themselves soon enough.

• Don’t start out with a joke. Most people have probable already heard it and unless you are a masterful joke teller, you will get only courtesy laughter.

* Don’t start by giving credit to and praising the person who introduced you. It is meaningless at that point. If your feelings about the person are sincere, work it into the body of your talk and relate it to something meaningful.

 • Start with a moment of silence. This is a killer. Everyone will be on the edge of their seat waiting for your first words. Then BANG. Get their attention quickly with a dynamic statement. “I have a product that will change the way you have been doing everything, save you money, improve your sex life, and guarantee your future!”

 

Of course be familiar with your topic to the best of your ability and don’t be afraid to get back to someone who stumps you. No one (except my wife) knows everything. I generally have with me a few 3’ x 5’ cards or a sheet of paper with just a prompt word of each item I want to address so that I don’t inadvertently leave out something important.

 

• End with a good closing remark and don’t drag it out.  “Amen brother”

 

It’s Over!! 
 Nov/Dec 2008

 

As I write this, the long awaited national election is finally over. No more vitriolic attack adds, no more promises and no more “You betcha’s” It seems that the people of this country wanted change and hopefully that is what we will get. It was not that many years ago (51) that I took my first trip to Florida from Boston. As I entered Florida and got on the Turnpike I stopped at the first rest area that I came to. There were two water fountains there: one for black and one for white. I had never seen anything like this before so just for the fun of it, I drank from the black fountain just to see what I might catch from it. I was a rebel even back then. Who would have thunk that we might ever have a black president!

 

Our industry too apparently needs some change. The changes that I have seen for the most part seem to be drifting away from the distributorships that I remember; in other words they are basically gone!

Electronic distributors used to be a place or business where anyone involved in manufacturing, repair, design, or just plain having fun, could go to and find what they wanted, whether it was a ham radio set, music system, or parts to build a new thingamajig.

 

I recently took one of my many trips back to the Boston area to visit family or just get an authentic New England lobster. Each time I do, I feel compelled to visit a place called You-Do-It Electronics in Needham Mass. just outside of Boston.

Believe it or not, as old as I am (same as John McCain) I still get a charge out of seeing just what these fantastic guys are doing. If you haven’t been there, you owe it to yourself to stop by and take a look.

They haven’t changed! They still offer just about anything you might ever want to buy that has wires, or batteries connected to it, including now an entire floor dedicated to consumer products. It was a weekday afternoon and the place was jammed with people buying stuff. The conversations that I overheard were much the same as I hear at Electronic Components and Equipment, which I manage. “Wow, I never knew a place like this existed. This is fantastic, etc etc”. The Ahigian family who has run this place for as long as I can remember now have their second and third generation family members working there, and I mean working! They are all there actively involved in what is going on. You hardly see an empty peg hook and they have perhaps the greatest assortment of just about everything electronic that I have ever seen. This is a real throwback to the olden-days of electronic distribution. Yes they have changed but not in their original concept. In talking to the factory reps that occasionally call on me, it seems that they and ECE Miami are some of the only remaining people doing business like this. It seems a shame. Imagine what the EDS show would be like if there were more. I remember when I was traveling nationally some years ago, asking many distributors why they didn’t attempt to do this. The answer was always the same. “We tried it and it didn’t work” Yes they tried it…they had a guy or two behind a counter, with hardly anything on display where customers could touch and feel what they wanted. Not very encouraging for someone shopping for new products and ideas.

 

Well sometimes change is not so good! I recently became a member of the GPS revolution. It is great having a voice tell you “Turn right in two miles etc.” I used my device in New England to guide me to a remote restaurant that someone had recommended. It got us there with no trouble but when I turned it on again to get us back, I had lost the satellite connection. With no maps or any idea on how to get back because I had relied on my gadget, it became a nightmare of wrong turns, dead ends and my wife and I shouting at each other for not remembering how we got there. I wish gas stations still offered free maps with their $3.00 per gallon gasoline!