I thought it would be interesting to learn a few "out of the box" facts about our manufacturers. I'd love to hear your response!
Accurate Wirecraft: Did you know we've been working with Accurate Wirecraft for 20 years now and they are a woman owned business?
American Stirling: Did you know you can order the Stirling Engines direct from our stock at Fischer Technical?
Body Scientific: Did you know company president, Marcelo Oliver, is an accomplished and published medical illustrator?
Culture Media & Supplies: Did you know that CMS is a small, woman owned business and is soon going to launch a completely revamped website?
Denoyer Geppert: Did you know that Denoyer Geppert has been in business for over 100 years?
Feenixx Publishing: Did you know that all of Feenixx's posters are designed and printed in the USA?
Kerkau Mfg: Did you know that Kerkau Mfg moved into a brand new, state of the art facility a few years back?
Quincy Lab: Did you know that Quincy Lab still does all of their fabrication in the city of Chicago?
TrippNT: Have you ever thought of filling one of the TrippNT carts with lab supplies and offering classrooms to the chance to save money by sharing supplies....one of our distributors already has!
United Scientific: Did you know that United Scientific now offers a full line of Class A Glassware, Digital Bottle Top Dispeners, top quality lab coats, and tri pour beakers?
Fischer Technical Company: Did you know that Fischer Technical represents products that are made all over the world (3 continents) and our staff can speak Spanish, English, and German?
Now is a great time to add some of our products on your website. Contact me for pricing/images/literature/etc.
Safe travels!
John
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
Back from NSTA and Pittcon
It's safe to say that I've got a bit of "jet lag", albeit just the North American variety. In a 24 day period I went from:
Chicago to Puerto Vallarta
Puerto Vallarta to Chicago
Chicago to San Francisco
San Francisco to Denver
Denver to Chicago
Chicago to Atlanta
Atlanta to Chicago
Now that I've had a few days to clear my head from all of that, I thought I'd share my views of NSTA and Pittcon from last week.
NSTA was in San Francisco this week. This is a terrible idea. In times of budget cuts and overall cost cutting, there is no easier way to make sure that teachers from the east coast (note: most populous part of our country) don't get a chance to see what is new in the science education market than to put the yearly show in a very expensive and far out of the way city like San Francisco. Everything is overpriced and foot traffic at the show looked very light from my "eye test". I heard more than one vendor gripe about the cost and location and heard the show referred to as a "joke" more than once. As a manufacturer's representative, NSTA is invaluable to me as I get a chance to visit many of our distributors and see what our competitors are now offering. One of our European suppliers, NTL exhibited some very nice Physics Kits that we hope to bring to the North American Market very soon. My advice to distributors would be to strongly consider CAST in November as the foot traffic is much better, there is money in the Texas school budgets, and the booth costs are substantially lower. Frank Butcher does a fantastic job of organizing that show and we're proud to give him our support each year.
Pittcon was in Atlanta this year and I found the location and show to be terrific. While San Fran was prettier to look at, there were plenty of restaurants for all budgets nearby and plenty of close by hotels in downtown Atlanta. Foot traffic was very good and I heard many vendors mention that this was their best show in years. As always, the show is a great place to do business with South and Central America. I was able to have very positive and productive meetings with many of our distributors. This was the first year in a long time where I felt I could have used a third day at the show to cover everything I wanted to see. I'm looking forward to next year's show in Orlando as they also do a very good job.
Back on the road soon.....
John
Chicago to Puerto Vallarta
Puerto Vallarta to Chicago
Chicago to San Francisco
San Francisco to Denver
Denver to Chicago
Chicago to Atlanta
Atlanta to Chicago
Now that I've had a few days to clear my head from all of that, I thought I'd share my views of NSTA and Pittcon from last week.
NSTA was in San Francisco this week. This is a terrible idea. In times of budget cuts and overall cost cutting, there is no easier way to make sure that teachers from the east coast (note: most populous part of our country) don't get a chance to see what is new in the science education market than to put the yearly show in a very expensive and far out of the way city like San Francisco. Everything is overpriced and foot traffic at the show looked very light from my "eye test". I heard more than one vendor gripe about the cost and location and heard the show referred to as a "joke" more than once. As a manufacturer's representative, NSTA is invaluable to me as I get a chance to visit many of our distributors and see what our competitors are now offering. One of our European suppliers, NTL exhibited some very nice Physics Kits that we hope to bring to the North American Market very soon. My advice to distributors would be to strongly consider CAST in November as the foot traffic is much better, there is money in the Texas school budgets, and the booth costs are substantially lower. Frank Butcher does a fantastic job of organizing that show and we're proud to give him our support each year.
Pittcon was in Atlanta this year and I found the location and show to be terrific. While San Fran was prettier to look at, there were plenty of restaurants for all budgets nearby and plenty of close by hotels in downtown Atlanta. Foot traffic was very good and I heard many vendors mention that this was their best show in years. As always, the show is a great place to do business with South and Central America. I was able to have very positive and productive meetings with many of our distributors. This was the first year in a long time where I felt I could have used a third day at the show to cover everything I wanted to see. I'm looking forward to next year's show in Orlando as they also do a very good job.
Back on the road soon.....
John
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
The joy of demonstrating science
Recently, my two boys (age 5 and 6), came to my office to visit me. As a member of the science community, I was very excited to hear my oldest son tell me that they are learning about solids, liquids, and gasses in school. He smiled proudly when he told me that water will only turn to steam if it gets VERY HOT.
He was a bit disappointed when I told him that he was not quite correct, but asked me to prove it (great question from a future scientist???). We have a Fischer Technical Company LAV-3 High Vacuum pump hooked up to one of our pump plates in our warehouse. I asked him to put some water in a beaker and lets put it inside the bell jar and remove as much of the air inside the jar as we can. He watched the water boil once the jar reached high vacuum and told me that I was cheating as I put the water in some kind of oven.
We turned of the pump and he jumped back when I "accidentally" spilled the water on my hand immediately after I took the beaker off of the pump plate. When I showed him that the water was still room temperature, he was amazed!
The moral of this story is that even though a concept may be for a high school level student or higher, kids are never to young to be exposed to science. Their reactions will amaze you!
I hope to see many of you at NSTA and at Pittcon in the next couple of weeks!
John Gura
He was a bit disappointed when I told him that he was not quite correct, but asked me to prove it (great question from a future scientist???). We have a Fischer Technical Company LAV-3 High Vacuum pump hooked up to one of our pump plates in our warehouse. I asked him to put some water in a beaker and lets put it inside the bell jar and remove as much of the air inside the jar as we can. He watched the water boil once the jar reached high vacuum and told me that I was cheating as I put the water in some kind of oven.
We turned of the pump and he jumped back when I "accidentally" spilled the water on my hand immediately after I took the beaker off of the pump plate. When I showed him that the water was still room temperature, he was amazed!
The moral of this story is that even though a concept may be for a high school level student or higher, kids are never to young to be exposed to science. Their reactions will amaze you!
I hope to see many of you at NSTA and at Pittcon in the next couple of weeks!
John Gura
Monday, February 7, 2011
Crippling Weather and show updates!
As I returned from my latest sales trip late last week, even the pictures I had seen while away could not tell the story of just how much snow fell in the Chicago area! This was the first time in a long time where I'd seen entire towns shut down!
I will be walking the floor at NSTA in San Francisco March 10-12 and would enjoy meeting with any of our distributors who will be attending. Drop me an email at jgura@fischertech.com and we'll arrange a time.
I'll also be at Pittcon in Atlanta March 14-16. Fischer Technical will not have a booth at this show, but I will be at the show much of Monday and Tuesday. Please contact me to schedule a time to meet and we can discuss new products and opportunities for us!
More soon....
Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/johngura
I will be walking the floor at NSTA in San Francisco March 10-12 and would enjoy meeting with any of our distributors who will be attending. Drop me an email at jgura@fischertech.com and we'll arrange a time.
I'll also be at Pittcon in Atlanta March 14-16. Fischer Technical will not have a booth at this show, but I will be at the show much of Monday and Tuesday. Please contact me to schedule a time to meet and we can discuss new products and opportunities for us!
More soon....
Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/johngura
Friday, January 28, 2011
What's the next big thing in the science education market?
Being a manufacturer's representative in the Science Education market, I've seen trends come and go. Some of them stick around and become staples. When I first started in the business, one area of growth was the inclusion of all encompassing kits into the science education distributor catalogs. Kits of general supplies (Glassware assortments, Hardware Kits, etc) began popping up in every catalog. These are still featured prominently in the catalogs today and proudly supplied by our principals.
Curriculum based kits were the next to grow. Many manufacturers/kit builders were seeing their product listings with the major distribution houses increase. Kits which included all materials on a particular subject matter or experiment were packaged with a teacher manual or instruction guide. Our principal, United Scientific features nearly 100 products of this type!
The next big boom came from an unlikely source, Mr. William Peterson. He may be better known the the TV viewer as "Gil Grissom". The immense success of television shows featuring forensic science, specifically the C.S.I. series, motivated manufacturers to develop CSI based kits. Open any science education catalog, they are featured in every one now! I have to think that these shows and kits have invited many young minds to consider a career in Forensic Science.
So what is the next "big thing" in the industry? My money is on Advanced Physics. Catalog placement is already growing at a rapid pace and we personally have had success with United Scientific's line of Advanced Physics. Would you like to offer these products on your website? Email me at jgura@fischertech.com and I can help get you started.
Have a great weekend and I hope to see many of you this Spring at NSTA!
John
Curriculum based kits were the next to grow. Many manufacturers/kit builders were seeing their product listings with the major distribution houses increase. Kits which included all materials on a particular subject matter or experiment were packaged with a teacher manual or instruction guide. Our principal, United Scientific features nearly 100 products of this type!
The next big boom came from an unlikely source, Mr. William Peterson. He may be better known the the TV viewer as "Gil Grissom". The immense success of television shows featuring forensic science, specifically the C.S.I. series, motivated manufacturers to develop CSI based kits. Open any science education catalog, they are featured in every one now! I have to think that these shows and kits have invited many young minds to consider a career in Forensic Science.
So what is the next "big thing" in the industry? My money is on Advanced Physics. Catalog placement is already growing at a rapid pace and we personally have had success with United Scientific's line of Advanced Physics. Would you like to offer these products on your website? Email me at jgura@fischertech.com and I can help get you started.
Have a great weekend and I hope to see many of you this Spring at NSTA!
John
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Need a Science Fair Idea?
Our principal, Culture Media & Supplies has been supplying students with their Student Bacteria Experiment Kit for nearly ten years now. This kit contains instructions as well as materials necessary to complete four experiments:
1. Who's mouth is cleaner, mine or the dog?
2. Does washing my hands really get rid of the bacteria on my hands?
3. Does brushing my teeth really get rid of the bacteria in my mouth?
4. What item around the house/classroom/office contains the most bacteria?
I don't know about you, but these all sound like blue ribbon experiments! How do these turn out? Contact me at Jgura@fischertech.com and I'll be glad to refer you to one of our distributors. I won't spill all of the secrets here, but lets just say our pugs feel a little bit better about themselves after experiment one was completed!
John
Thursday, January 20, 2011
It's not just pricing anymore!
For years, our primary competition in the wholesale market was by and large price. Lowest price from a trusted supplier got the business. Are things changing?
Our distributors are fighting through the rough economy by trying to increase margins and decrease costs in the absence of increased sales. One way to do this is to "farm out" the technical services department back to the supplier. I find myself taking more and more calls each day from distributors with their customer also on the line to answer technical questions.
Although this increases our workload, I'm in favor of this trend. We as wholesalers and manufacturer's representatives can now show our "value added" expertise and help our mutual customers chose the right product the first time. Direct customer service also eliminates a lot of "warranty voiding" amateur repairs on our more technical items.
During the last ten years I've spent in the Laboratory Supply and Science education market, I've based our company's success on three basic principals:
1. Having the right product
2. Having the right price
3. Being able to deliver on time.
It's safe to say that its time to add a number 4:
4. Be available to intelligently answer technical and maintenance questions from our mutual customers.
I hope to see you in Atlanta for Pittcon and San Francisco for NSTA to hear your take on this!
Best regards,
John Gura
Fischer Technical Company
Our distributors are fighting through the rough economy by trying to increase margins and decrease costs in the absence of increased sales. One way to do this is to "farm out" the technical services department back to the supplier. I find myself taking more and more calls each day from distributors with their customer also on the line to answer technical questions.
Although this increases our workload, I'm in favor of this trend. We as wholesalers and manufacturer's representatives can now show our "value added" expertise and help our mutual customers chose the right product the first time. Direct customer service also eliminates a lot of "warranty voiding" amateur repairs on our more technical items.
During the last ten years I've spent in the Laboratory Supply and Science education market, I've based our company's success on three basic principals:
1. Having the right product
2. Having the right price
3. Being able to deliver on time.
It's safe to say that its time to add a number 4:
4. Be available to intelligently answer technical and maintenance questions from our mutual customers.
I hope to see you in Atlanta for Pittcon and San Francisco for NSTA to hear your take on this!
Best regards,
John Gura
Fischer Technical Company
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)