Mak­ing the most of EDS

EDS is two events in one, and both of the events have dimen­sions that make EDS much more than just a show. To get the most ben­e­fit from par­tic­i­pat­ing in this unique event, par­tic­i­pants have to under­stand its mul­ti­ple dimen­sions, and plan in advance to cap­i­tal­ize on its dis­tinc­tive features.

EDS is an appoint­ment-cen­tered meet­ing place, and becomes more so each year. Plan­ning for EDS should include con­tact­ing the peo­ple you want to see well in advance of your arrival in Las Vegas. Whether your pur­pose is to refresh an exist­ing rela­tion­ship or to cre­ate a new one, you should have a check­list of what you want to accom­plish at each meet­ing. Planned objec­tives, and prepa­ra­tion to meet those objec­tives, are the basic ele­ments behind every suc­cess­ful EDS meeting.

EDS is a mar­ket­place, where con­ver­sa­tion and con­fer­ence lead to com­merce. Every meet­ing at EDS has to explore or con­firm a ​“fit” between the prod­ucts a man­u­fac­tur­er offers and the mar­kets a dis­trib­u­tor or rep­re­sen­ta­tive serves.

EDS is a resource cen­ter and a forum. Your plan­ning should also allow time to vis­it Asso­ci­a­tion Cen­tral, where the three asso­ci­a­tions that bring you EDS also put their resources at your dis­pos­al. As a forum where indus­try trends are explored, EDS pro­vides both for­mal and infor­mal meth­ods of learn­ing what’s new, what’s hap­pen­ing, what’s going to be hap­pen­ing, and what it means to your com­pa­ny and your pros­per­i­ty. Keynotes, sem­i­nars, and net­work­ing events all put you on top of the trends that shape your future.

Most of the peo­ple wear­ing Man­u­fac­tur­er badges at EDS sell prod­ucts they man­u­fac­ture, or have man­u­fac­tured for them, through the dis­trib­u­tor chan­nel. They may be at EDS to find new dis­trib­u­tors, or to meet with their estab­lished dis­trib­u­tors, or pri­mar­i­ly to recruit man­u­fac­tur­ers’ rep­re­sen­ta­tives. Oth­er com­pa­nies with Man­u­fac­tur­er badges offer prod­ucts or ser­vices that the com­pa­nies attend­ing EDS use in their own busi­ness­es … soft­ware, Inter­net ser­vices, con­sul­tants, etc.

Dis­trib­u­tors of elec­tron­ic com­po­nents and relat­ed prod­ucts attend EDS from all over the world, and they include both those who do busi­ness pri­mar­i­ly in their own local mar­kets, and those who do busi­ness nation­al­ly and glob­al­ly. Some dis­trib­u­tors spe­cial­ize in par­tic­u­lar com­po­nent cat­e­gories, such as switch­es or bat­ter­ies, and some spe­cial­ize in par­tic­u­lar cus­tomer cat­e­gories, like light­ing or security.

Many man­u­fac­tur­ers par­tic­i­pat­ing in EDS out­source their field sales to pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions (rep firms) that serve a clear­ly defined ter­ri­to­ry, do not take title to the goods they sell, and are com­pen­sat­ed pri­mar­i­ly through com­mis­sions on sales results. (Many also receive fees for pro­vid­ing spe­cial ser­vices and/​or retain­ers for intro­duc­ing ​“mis­sion­ary” prod­uct lines — new mar­ket entries with­out an exist­ing cus­tomer base in the territory).

The two pri­ma­ry U.S. trade asso­ci­a­tions con­cerned with elec­tron­ics dis­tri­b­u­tion, Elec­tron­ic Com­po­nents Indus­try Asso­ci­a­tion and Elec­tron­ics Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Asso­ci­a­tion spon­sor EDS and have key per­son­nel on site in the Grand Ball­room to answer ques­tions about the indus­try as well as about the associations.

All of the major elec­tron­ics indus­try trade pub­li­ca­tions (print and online) that cov­er the chan­nel, and many of those that cov­er prod­ucts and tech­nol­o­gy attend EDS. Thus, EDS is a prime venue for inter­fac­ing with edi­tors and reporters. As with the oth­er aspects of EDS plan­ning, you need to tell the media in advance what you have that’s new and sug­gest a time to meet, either one-on-one, or through a press con­fer­ence in Media Central.

Dis­trib­u­tor atten­dees are look­ing for new lines to car­ry which are com­pat­i­ble with the needs of their dis­trib­u­tor base, or for new prod­ucts from their exist­ing ven­dors, and/​or to build rela­tion­ships and to find out what’s going on in the indus­try. Be pre­pared to tell them who uses your prod­ucts, and how they dif­fer from sim­i­lar and/​or com­pet­i­tive prod­ucts. Dis­trib­u­tor atten­dees expect new ven­dors to have a pro­gram in place, includ­ing rec­om­mend­ed inven­to­ries, sell­ing prices, return poli­cies, lead gen­er­a­tion and mar­ket­ing support.

Rep­re­sen­ta­tive atten­dees are at EDS to facil­i­tate dia­logue between the dis­trib­u­tors that they call on and the man­u­fac­tur­ers whose prod­ucts they bring to mar­ket. They may also be look­ing for new line oppor­tu­ni­ties, and to meet with their cur­rent prin­ci­pals for review and plan­ning. Rep­re­sen­ta­tives who are look­ing for prod­uct lines want to be sure that a new line will fit well with the oth­er prod­ucts they sell and they gen­er­al­ly want exclu­siv­i­ty in their clear­ly defined ter­ri­to­ries. If you do not have an estab­lished cus­tomer base, expect them to want to be paid fees for intro­duc­ing your mis­sion­ary line.

Man­u­fac­tur­er atten­dees may be look­ing for new dis­trib­u­tors, new rep­re­sen­ta­tives, or both. They may be at EDS only to inter­face with their exist­ing chan­nel net­work or they may be plan­ning to intro­duce new prod­ucts for their dis­trib­u­tors to sell, or new strate­gies and pro­grams. They know that at EDS they can get more done at less expense than via any oth­er meet­ing of their chan­nel partners.

Ask for it. Make a list of who you want or need to see, and call or email with a suggested meeting date and time. Use the Who’s Here page of this website beginning in February to search a list of registered companies and use EDS Matchmaker to assist you with making appointments. Tell them what you’ll have at EDS, and what it can mean for them.

The experts tell us it takes three repetitions to get an idea across. Use your own contact list, too — and don’t worry about crosschecking it with the EDS list. Your invitation may be the tipping point for someone who hadn’t previously registered.

Every appoint­ment needs an agen­da, although it won’t nec­es­sar­i­ly be the same agen­da for each meeting.

Ask the dis­trib­u­tor or rep you’re meet­ing with what they want to talk about and inte­grate your agen­da with theirs. Have nec­es­sary sup­port data on hand, includ­ing sales his­to­ry, mar­ket share/​competition, new prod­uct infor­ma­tion, busi­ness plans, and be pre­pared to dis­cuss fore­see­able prob­lems and opportunities.

Here are some of the issues that are like­ly to be on any agen­da. Be pre­pared to answer them as well as to ask them.

• How’s busi­ness?
• What’s affect­ing busi­ness in your mar­ket area?
• What are your fore­casts for the year ahead?
• How are we doing? How can we improve our ser­vice to you and your customers?
• How have you been impact­ed by the major trends and issues in the marketplace?
• Glob­al­iza­tion and man­u­fac­tur­ing mov­ing offshore
• Impact of e‑commerce and indus­try consolidation
• Envi­ron­men­tal pres­sures, tech­nol­o­gy advances — wire­less and others

Don’t talk about your prod­uct — talk about what your prod­uct can do for your vis­i­tor and their customers.

Don’t scare peo­ple away because you’re so busy talk­ing to your own staff.

Take notes, col­lect busi­ness cards — and fol­low up.

An indus­try sage once remarked that the two basic ele­ments that make EDS tick are new oppor­tu­ni­ties and old friends. Cer­tain­ly the EDS envi­ron­ment is con­duc­tive to adding a per­son­al ele­ment to every busi­ness relationship!