In the beginning of the twentieth century, the railroad was king. Automobiles were just being developed and airplanes were still in the design stages. The railroad people controlled vast amounts of capital for investment. If the railroads had been able to think outside of the box and focus on the future, they would have invested in the development of the automobile and the airplane. Imagine that. Is it possible there could have been a Union Pacific automobile, or Burlington Northern Airline, if someone could have just recognized that they were in the transportation business, instead of the railway business? Instead of benefiting from global industrial changes, the railroads let new technologies almost put them out of business.

As a rebuilder, how much are you missing by not recognizing the potential of your business? Are you a rebuilder or a profit center? New situations require new thinking. Do we, like the railroads, need to start seriously thinking outside of our normal parameters?

How much time do we spend thinking "outside of the box" for our company? What could we be doing that we have not done before?

All of you can quickly think of the names of the three or four of the largest auto parts distribution chains in the country, but you will also note that none of them are electrical specialists - yet. Those big chains have taken a lesson or two from each other. In recent years, they have attempted to enter the installer market that had previously been served by the traditional auto parts jobber and the rebuilder. All of the lines are being crossed. Let us look at the changes in auto parts stores in the last few years.

The Jobber and the Retailer: two kinds of auto parts stores, often in two different parts of town. There was a time when the two addressed the market in significantly different ways, and that made sense, since their customers’ needs were entirely different.

On any busy intersection, you would find the retailer, with its national name atop an expansive and expensive store footprint. Inside, it was well lit and consumer friendly. Faced, front-of-the- counter shelves were full of wipers, antifreeze and headlights.

In a very different part of town, often at the end of a dead-end street or on the industrial outskirts, you would find the traditional jobber store with its wood floors, delivery trucks at the ready.

At a retail counter, you’d find a smiling guy, sourcing parts on a computer, following a carefully crafted make, model, year formula to find what the DIYer wanted. By contrast, if you walked into a jobber store, you would see the counterman, two phones to his ear, nose in a stack of paper catalogs. If he did not know you, or even if he did, you probably would not get so much as a ’hello.’ You would consider yourself a regular if you got a nod of the head. From the outside and in, the jobber store was the opposite of the retailer: not well lit, not well merchandised. Of course, from the jobber’s perspective, all that was unnecessary. After all, they went to their customers, not the other way around.

Times have changed. Today, the once distinct line between the retailer and the jobber is blurred at best. Today’s jobber understands the importance of the walk- in retail trade and many of them are putting real effort into merchandising and store appearance. Really, they have no choice. For retailers, the opposite is true. They fully understand the importance of the professional trade. Recent market research shows that 86 percent of them now offer delivery, 83 percent extend credit and more than half have outside sales representation.

Considering the other similarities, one might erroneously contend that the only real difference between retailers and jobbers is the location of the store. Today, one may view retailers and jobbers as mere commodities, as each seems to offer the same things: same terms, delivery, caliber of employees and brands. Smart stores know better. They stand out among the crowd by offering expert service on a one-to-one basis. These are the intangibles, the real flavor of their business.

As a rebuilder, we need to take a page from the auto parts stores’ book. Your customers have more choices than ever - give them a reason to choose you. The smart ones will. Recent research reveals that retail stores consider reman electrical as their third leading sales category while jobber stores list reman electrical as their fourth largest category. It is interesting to note that neither listed reman electrical in the top five categories to DIY customers. Unless you supply one of these stores, they are your competition, especially for the professional installer.

Do you have any displays of your merchandise, or are customers expected to assume that you do good work? Retailers have a main aisle that attracts 95 percent of their customers to buy 100 per cent of whatever they put on both sides of that aisle. They display high-theft items away from traffic areas. Visiting some of these stores can be a learning experience. Walk in your front door pretending to be a new customer. Would you be impressed?

Many of our customers have visited our sales and warehouse facility over the years. We are proud of the constant upgrades we have made to our operation. We invite you to visit and see the ways we have learned to handle our products better and faster, to better serve you, our customer. Many of you have made big improvements in your remanufacturing operations to speed the flow of product to your customers. However, all rebuilders, and their employees, should read Paul Rupp’s article "Installer Stalled in Search for Rebuilder" in the June issue of Electrical Rebuilder’s Exchange.
You can access this article from the ERA website at
http://www.electricalrebuilders.org/eren/archive/ere_2006/ere_06_06_rupp_search.pdf It details one man’s search for a better product than is available from the retail giants and local jobber stores. Unfortunately, he is still looking for that supplier. It appears that many in the industry could do a much better job of merchandising their product and their company.

Every person in every business can influence the success of the company they work for by taking the initiative to discover how the efforts of the company can be improved. Most of the people in our industry, in the most responsible positions, came from a background of being a rebuilder. Those people took the individual initiative to set themselves apart from others by demonstrating they could "think outside of the box" and make a difference. What is stopping you now? It is the experience and vision of your company that will be the deciding difference in setting your company apart from the retail store and jobbers seeking to sell electrical reman products as a commodity.