The Mheda Journal

Well, Convention is fully underway now. Distributors and suppliers have been checking into the hotel all day long and this beautiful resort is really starting to take on a MHEDA feel now. This morning, I had several nice conversations with members of MHEDA’s Board of Directors, who kicked things off with a bright-and-early meeting at 8:00. It was nice to meet several of their wives and families who are along for the trip.

New technologies even impact the walking tour. A Segway tour was a highlight of Day 1's events.

It’s still only the first day and I’m already finding out a lot of the industry hot topics. One hot topic of conversation was the sighting of NFL star quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning, who were supposedly on site this morning to speak at a different group’s meeting. I can neither confirm nor deny those rumors; I didn’t see them, but some Board Members said they did.

Beyond that, one of the biggest themes of the conversations I’ve had with members is about how new technologies are impacting the industry. In addition to social networking, MHEDA manufacturers are starting to do a lot more to cater to users of mobile devices. At least two forklift manufacturers are in the process of building iPad apps to capitalize on the growing number of distributors and customers that are using iPads. The Web is still a growth area for a lot of members. In fact, Louis Coleman of Autoquip stopped by to do a video and informed us about all the hard work that has gone into a revamp of his company’s website. It’s just about completed and it’s more application-focused rather than strictly product-focused.

My colleagues and I spent much of the morning shooting MHEDA promotional videos in which distributor and supplier members are talking about the value of MHEDA membership, participating in MHEDA education, attending Convention and networking with other members. It’s really been interesting to hear what some people have to say and watch as members new and old continue to build relationships with each other. It’s, as always, fun to watch.

Tomorrow morning, MHEDA members will receive the first of four daily MHEDA Convention Connection e-newsletters in the inboxes. Stay tuned to the newsletter, to this blog and to that of my colleague, Steve Guglielmo, and our Twitter feeds (@liftmoveandstor and @MatHandlingEdge) to keep apprised of what’s happening here in Phoenix. We’d love to hear what you all have to say!

Today (April 15) has historically been tax day (although this year’s filing deadline has been extended to the 18^th), so it seems somewhat fitting that the federal government yesterday approved a law that will have an impact on the taxes for many small businesses.

President Barack Obama signed into law a bill that repeals a requirement in last year’s health care overhaul for business owners to file a 1099 Form with the Internal Revenue Service for all purchases of more than $600 a year. According to a Reuters article, “The tax reporting provision was meant to improve tax compliance and help pay for the healthcare law, but small firms and the self-employed complained it would bury them in paperwork.” So this would be good news for businesses of all sizes, small businesses in particular.

News of the repeal spread like wildfire on Twitter, and I was able to read several articles about the topic within a few minutes of the bill’s passage. Pretty amazing how far technology is come in the last few years. (And for the record, most if not all of the sentiments expressed by my Twitter followers found the repeal to be good news.) When awash in such rapid information, it’s sometimes hard to sift through to find the important, impactful details. Here’s one that I thought did a good job of breaking it down pretty simply.

So score one for the taxpayers. Hopefully, many of the MHEDA distributors who cited this and other government regulations as potential hindrances this year in our Industry Forecast can breathe a little easier. After all, it looks like things are looking up if the First Quarter is any indication.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

A few weeks ago, I posted a discussion topic in MHEDA’s LinkedIn group asking group members to tell me some of the reasons that customers keep them awake at night. A bit of a tongue-in-cheek phrasing, sure, but it was meant to coincide with the Second Quarter issue of The MHEDA Journal, all about customers and customer-related issues, which itself coincides with MHEDA’s Annual Convention.

Group members responded with some interesting perspectives. Reasons for losing sleep provided by the group included concerns about communication, finances, bidding procedures, service issues and more. One member responded simply, “Customers don’t listen.” Often, this is probably true, but what are some specific scenarios that cause problems?

Financial capability was an important issue. As one respondent noted, “When a major account experiences financial difficulties – our risk increases.” Another person added to that, saying, “Things could be sailing along fine, and then suddenly your customer loses a large account and they no longer need half the service you’re providing, and perhaps half the equipment, yet your business planning counts on this. I don’t own a multi-million dollar dealership with dozens of employees counting on my guidance, but I managed high enough in the corporate ranks to witness it and actually feel it in meetings. So I guess my final answer as to what keeps distributors awake is ‘the unknown.’”

But is it always the customer’s fault? Another unique viewpoint came from the member who wrote, “I believe that if you are staying awake at night because of an unhappy customer it is due to the fact that you did not present a clear explanation of the products, services, etc. being provided. You’ve assumed they thought it wasn’t included and they assumed it was, you need to take the time to present a complete scope of supply and not make any assumptions.”

These are only a few of the most compelling replies. I encourage you to take a look at the responses and chime in yourself. Here’s the link (you’ll need to be a member of the group to access it). I’d love to hear some more perspectives!

I’ve been referencing the Second Quarter 2011 issue of The MHEDA Journal in this space for several weeks now, and I’m happy to report that it is now at the printer, ready for distribution by mail in mid-April and at MHEDA’s 56^th Annual Convention at the end of the month. (By the way, once again this year, I’ll be blogging and Tweeting live from the show, so I hope you follow the goings-on even if you’re unable to attend.)

 This issue is all about the Convention and, more specifically, the Convention theme of “The Customer Convention.” The magazine features articles all about customer-centric topics such as how customer service can put money in distributors’ pockets, handling customer complaints, when it’s OK to say no to a customer, partnering with the manufacturer to handle difficult customers, using social media to engage customers, customer survey best practices, encouraging customers to go green, and much more! There’s even an interview with an end-user customer, who describes what he looks for in a distributor partner.

I’m a little bit biased, but I think this is a tremendous issue. It will be available in print and its full online glory within the next week or so. I hope you enjoy it. On to the Third Quarter!

After weeks of preparation, the First Quarter 2011 issue of The MHEDA Journal is now available online and being mailed to subscribers today. This was a challenging issue, mostly due to the breadth of our Annual Industry Forecast. We talked to dozens of material handling equipment distributors and suppliers in all segments of the industry to find out what their expectations are for 2011. You can read their full forecasts here, but the quick version is that 2011 should be better than 2010.

In addition, this issue also tackles issues like merging five independent companies under one brand, industry consolidation, niche marketing for distributors and much more. Meet the members of the 2011 MHEDA Board of Directors, including an in-depth profile of new MHEDA President Chuck Frank and his company, AHS Inc.

All this and more is in the First Quarter issue, housed at www.TheMhedaJournal.org, which will continue to be updated throughout the quarter with breaking member news, new feature articles, executive dialogues and more. We’re currently hard at work on our second quarter issue, which will be focused on MHEDA’s Annual Convention. I hope you enjoy this issue and hope to see you at the Convention in Arizona!

The First Quarter 2011 issue of The MHEDA Journal, is off to the printer. With that behind me, it’s time to focus on the Second Quarter issue, which will be distributed in April, just in time for MHEDA’s Annual Convention, which this year is taking place in Scottsdale, AZ, from April 30-May 4. This year’s theme is “The Customer Convention.”

With that theme in mind, the April magazine will be full of articles relating to customer issues, including encouraging customers to go green, when it’s okay to say no to a customer, when you should consider dropping a customer, new methods of customer engagment, the definition of customer service, using customer surveys and much more. If your area of expertise is in any of these, please let me know and we can use your knowlege in an article in the magazine. Or, maybe you know of a customer-related issue that isn’t on my list. Even better! You’re probably not the only one wondering about it, so let us know and we can turn it into an article for the magazine.

Remember, it’s your magazine, so let us know what we should be writing about and who we should be talking to!

For my last blog entry of 2010, let me say a quick thank you to all of you who have contributed material to The MHEDA Journal throughout the year. As we like to say around here, it’s your publication and we couldn’t do it without the input of all you out there in the material handling industry every day. Thank you for your ideas, contributions, feedback and support. We appreciate it.

2010 was a busy year in material handling, despite the economic slowdown that was still lingering for many throughout the year. In the first quarter, we published our annual industry forecast issue, featuring commentary from distributors, suppliers and other industry associations about their expectations for 2010. This special “10 issue” for 2010 also featured a series of Top 10 Lists to bring in the new year.

That cautiously optimistic outlook from most MHEDA distributors at the start of the year had most of you adjusting as you found out the hard way that The Rules Had Changed in the business world. Success depended on mastering new strategies and new ways of doing business. In the 2nd Quarter issue, learn how M & G Materials Handling (East Providence, RI) President Ken MacDonald has improved productivity by implementing 5s procedures, how Bill Rowan, president of Sunbelt Industrial Trucks (Dallas, TX), instituted more strict credit policies to ensure better cash flow and what Ted Springer, president of Springer Equipment Company (Birmingham, AL), did to diversify his product mix.

Of course, MHEDA Members responded to the challenges and were still able to succeed in the downturn using various strategies. As in years past, we used our Summer issue to salute those MHEDA Members who received recognition from manufacturers. This year, though, we took it a step further by actually interviewing 12 of those dealers and finding out how they were able to achieve such lofty goals despite what we all know was an economic stinker of a year in 2009. While all admitted that the revenue wasn’t as high as years past, they still were able to make some sales and maintain profitability. Also in that issue were two safety articles about the inner workings of making a company-wide safety policy.

By the fourth quarter, sales were still out there, and many distributors and manufacturers strengthened their partnerships with each other and wrote their own Sales Success Stories. In addition, this issue also tackled other sales and marketing topics of interest to material handling companies, including using vehicle wraps as a marketing tool, the importance of proper pricing strategies, identifying the personality of top salespeople and how to achieve sales success on the Internet.  This issue also features a section devoted to forklift tires. Distributors and manufacturers discuss the complexities of the tire market and the impact of new competition. Learn how one distributor uses tires as a way to break into previously unaccessible accounts. If that wasn’t enough for one issue, MHEDA members also explain how to create an effective social media policy at one’s company and discuss how to implement culture change after an acquisition.

It was certainly a busy year, and 2011 promises more of the same. Have a happy New Year and celebrate responsibly. See you in 2011!

Tomorrow morning (December 1), MHEDA members will receive The MHEDA Connection e-newsletter as they do on the 1^st and 15^th of every month. This time, though, they will notice some changes. The new Connection is the first issue to feature a new design that is shorter, more compact, more visually appealing and more user-friendly while still containing all the member and industry-related news as ever.

The new design is based on the look of the website at www.TheMhedaJournal.org, in order to provide uniformity across these two important resources for MHEDA members. The redesign is less text-heavy than the current Connection. Instead of reading full articles, shorter introductory paragraphs invite readers to click a link to read the full story. Not only does this make the page much easier to scroll through, it also ensures that our busy readers only have to read the stories most important to them without wading through items that may not apply to them.

The full stories are housed on www.TheMhedaJournal.org, where readers can easily share and comment on news items via convenient online networking tools. Also, you may notice that the “Overheard on MHEDA Media” feature is now called “Executive Dialogue” to encourage commentary among members. Along those lines, MHEDA is currently seeking four Young Professionals to start a new “Executive Dialogue” detailing their education as they learn the industry. Contact my colleague, Steve Guglielmo, at steve@datakey.org if you want someone at your company to participate.

The changes to MHEDA’s newsletter are meant to make it a more useful tool for members as a resource for news and events. Our number one goal, as always, is to serve the membership. Please let us know our progress toward that goal by leaving a comment here or sending feedback to me at chris@datakey.org or on Twitter @liftmoveandstor. I hope you enjoy it!

It’s that time of year again! We at The MHEDA Journal are in the process of contacting distributors and suppliers for comments for our annual Industry Forecast article that appears in the First Quarter issue. It’s a lot of work every year, but it’s always one of my favorte articles to put together. We usually try to talk to at least 50 members on the distributor side, and it’s always interesting to hear the different perspectives from distributors of different product lines or in different parts of the country.

We’re about halfway through on the distributor side, and some interesting trends are already starting to take shape. First, it’s clear that optimism has returned to material handling distributors.  In 2009, only 32% predicted a sales increase. Last year, that number was up to about 68%. So far, early returns look like that number will be even higher this year. The amount of optimism is still a work in progress, though, so stay tuned for further updates on that.

Among the issues and challenges MHEDA distributors see are the always-present high health care costs, managing growth and bank failures/lending issues.

I don’t want to spoil too much, and there’s still a lot of information to gather but we’re off to a good start. Any MHEDA members out there who have not yet been interviewed and would be willing to take part, feel free to contact me here or by e-mail at editor [AT] TheMhedaJournal.org. It looks like 2011 is going to be an interesting year, and I’d love to hear what you have to say!

After weeks of preparation, The Fourth Quarter 2010 issue of The MHEDA Journal is now available online and being mailed to subscribers today. This was a challenging issue, mostly because it’s so full of a wide variety of information.  This issue features a “Spotlight On Sales Success” and includes a collection of Sales Success Stories from material handling equipment distributors. Sales Success Stories are case studies of unique material handling equipment applications installed by MHEDA members.

In addition, this issue also tackles other sales and marketing topics of interest to material handling companies, including using vehicle wraps as a marketing tool, the importance of proper pricing strategies, identifying the personality of top salespeople and how to achieve sales success on the Internet. 

This issue also features a section devoted to forklift tires. Distributors and manufacturers discuss the complexities of the tire market and the impact of new competition. Learn how one distributor uses tires as a way to break into previously unaccessible accounts. If that wasn’t enough for one issue, MHEDA members also explain how to create an effective social media policy at one’s company and discuss how to implement culture change after an acquisition.

All this and more is in the Fourth Quarter issue, housed at www.TheMhedaJournal.org, which will continue to be updated throughout the quarter with breaking member news, new feature articles, blog entries and more. Take some time to peruse the new-look website, which allows for more frequent updates and better reader interaction.