At any given time the distributor has over one million parts in stock. Products range from miniature bearings, which could be half the size of a thumbnail, to bearings that stand four feet tall for metal-shredding devices or paper mills.
Emerson Bearing President Steve Katz grew up in the family business, eventually taking the reigns from his father, Justin Katz, who, along with his army buddy Edward Green, founded the business in 1957. At that time, the company was called Action Bearing, and had a robust book of business focused in New England. Today, Emerson Bearing employs two dozen people and maintains a 28,000 square foot warehouse at its Boston headquarters.
Challenge: Expanding the customer base beyond New England, while developing business in growth industries In the 1990’s, as the New England based pipeline of business for Action Bearing slowed, the younger Mr. Katz devised a plan to find new sources of revenue in new geographies. He created Emerson Bearing as a mirror entity that would focus on finding customers in high growth industries on a national scale. Yet, because the Action Bearing brand still had significant cachet in the Northeast, he elected to continue with both companies.
“We wanted to take the success we’d had in New England and spread to new markets,” Mr. Katz said. “We identified the top 20 growth industries, like transportation, recreation, marine spares and power generation, and set out to show these prospective customers that we are experts in their space, and have solutions for engineering the specific applications and issues that they require.”
At first, Emerson Bearing’s sales process mirrored the approach followed by Action. Typically, if a salesperson were persistent enough to literally knock on enough doors, he could land a meeting with a potential customer, usually an engineer or purchasing agent. In today’s marketplace, though, practically no one conducts face-to- face transactions for bearing purchases anymore.
In addition, Emerson Bearing would mail catalogs to prospective customers. That process isn’t as simple as it sounds, however. Because bearings are a commodity product, Emerson Bearing might have more than one dozen catalogs by different manufacturers for any single bearing. The sales team would select which catalog to send.
Finally, mr. Katz and his sales staff would try cold-calling to bring in new business. However, even if he could identify the correct contact, it was rare, if not impossible to speak with him at the time the prospect was ready to make a purchase. “It was difficult,” Mr. Katz said, “to get in front of decision makers.”
Compounding the difficulty in developing customers was the fact that a down economy struck in 2008. “When everything crashed, business was terrible,” Mr. Katz said. “I took a hard look at our company and how were we selling. I knew that we had to be proactive. Instead of pulling the sheets up over my head, I realized we needed to come up with a better Internet strategy that would place our company in front of more people.”
Solution: An online strategy that develops sales in broad markets and showcases Emerson’s niche expertise Mr. Katz appreciated the expertise of ThomasNet’s engineers and consultants, who assured him that an online strategy could amp-up his sales efforts to meet his business objectives. “I know bearings, but ThomasNet understands the buying process that the engineers and purchasing agents we want to reach go through. They could help us by building a web strategy that not only brings these prospects to our website, but guides them to make a purchase.”
To begin, Mr. Katz sent ThomasNet’s web solutions team boxes of paper, documenting well over a quarter million parts. The team was able to organize the data to develop a single, online product catalog, which now serves as the foundation of Emerson Bearing’s new website. The information was organized to explain with precise detail each roller bearing, yoke roller, oil seal or mounted unit he’s got available, regardless of the amount of information provided by the manufacturer. That detail helps to drive Emerson to the top of search engine results.
“This was a huge job,” mr. Katz acknowledged. “Yet ThomasNet didn’t seem overwhelmed by it. They were able to re-sort and organize everything quickly, in an easy-to-manage way for our new website.”
The online catalog organizes Emerson Bearings products in several ways that appeal to the different prospects that may visit the site. The home page outlines the nine different product categories that the company offers. Available items are organized according to the top industries Mr. Katz wants to penetrate, with an Industry Solutions page. Typically an engineer calculating which bearing makes the most sense for his project will evaluate load, speed and the material with which it’s made – all data now available at Emerson Bearing’s website. The information online allows buyers from 16 industries – from concrete to wood products – to see the company’s recommended solutions for that market, and provides a phone number and email to speak directly with an sales person who is an expert in that area.
“It’s virtually impossible to get in front of a decision maker,” Mr. Katz said. “In this economy, everyone is working harder than ever and is pressed for time. I want us to be in front of someone when he chooses to look for an item and is ready to buy. The best way to do that is to be online.”
Results: Turning a profit in a down economy; New orders roll in from across U.S and global markets “We’ve seen a return on investment right out of the gate,” said Mr. Katz. “With ThomasNet, we’ve had access to new customers, and more importantly, access to customers on a national and international scale.”
Mr. Katz credits the new web strategy with increasing overall company sales by $50,000 last year. Emerson Bearing receives new inquiries every day from companies not just from across the u.s., but also internationally. In fact, global orders now account for four percent of the business, up from zero two years ago. Even more satisfying, many represent the growth industries Mr. Katz set out to penetrate. They include:
• A metal shredder in Atlanta, Georgia that sought rare bearings that reach four feet high to use for shredding cars into small parts, then sent to Asia; this became a $20,000 contract;
• A Guam-based company that services ships with spare parts for maintenance has become a weekly customer valued at $30,000 per year;
• A ship chandlery in Florida that services cruise ships found Emerson Bearing online and the engineering department orders products on-demand, around the clock, when a ship returns to port. The contract is worth $15-20,000 annually;
• A bottling plant based in the Philippines found Emerson Bearing online, and purchased bearing alternatives they could not find locally;
• A us-based pharmaceutical company placed a $20,000 order for a linear motion bearing order to help its packaging line run more efficiently, comparing items online to solve a mission critical problem; and
• An $85,000 contract with a spanish company that found Emerson Bearing online, and purchased parts for a printing press that was built in Germany and ultimately delivered to Chicago.
The online catalog allows Emerson Bearing to better service existing customers too, reinforcing what the distributor does best, and providing 24-hour-a-day access to information they normally would not have.
Thanks to the increased demand in business from its web strategy, Emerson Bearing created a new pump and compressor division this year. It is dedicated to servicing the oil and gas industry, with customers from the southern u.s. and even Russia.
“As a result of our online strategy, we have more credibility and stature than we ever could have had on our own,” mr. Katz said. “our new online catalog allows us to look like a $500 million company! I would recommend ThomasNet to anyone who wants to grow his business.”
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ThomasNet clients, go to www.promoteyourbusiness.
thomasnet.com or call (800) 879-6757.
February 2011
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