HARDI’s first three regional meetings this year focus on Sales & Marketing Optimization. Led by Barry Lawrence, Ph.D., Director, and Norm Clark, Associate Director of the Thomas & Joan Read Center for Distribution Research & Education, at the Industrial Distribution Program, Texas A&M University, these sessions will concentrate on findings and best practices from a Consortium research project concentrating on the distribution industry.
The dates are: Southeastern Region Meeting, April 18-20 in Amelia Island, FL; Northeast & Mid-Atlantic Region Meeting, May 17-19, Washington, DC; Central & Great Lakes Region, June 5-8, Oak Brook, IL; and Southwest & Western, June 13-15, Vail, CO.
Additionally, the SE Meeting will feature Tom Reilly, author of Value-Added Selling; and, Alan Beaulieu, Institute for Trend Research who will present the economic outlook for HVACR businesses in the region. The Northeast-Mid-Atlantic Meeting will also have an added session – the Energy Efficiency Exchange, featuring policy leaders on energy efficiency initiatives. Included in the Exchange will be an Energy Star panel that will cover HARDI distributor opportunities in Energy Star's product labeling, New Homes, Home Performance with Energy Star and Quality Installation programs.
Both the NE-Mid-Atlantic and Central-Great Lakes programs will offer a simultaneous program exclusively for the sales team from HVACR distributor companies. This Sales Manager Bootcamp (May 17 and June 7) will explore what high-performing organizations do to develop their sales organizations. This highly interactive session will move beyond concepts to working a Solution-Based Sales Process for distribution sales.
The annual HARDI Congressional Fly-In is being held immediately following the NE-Mid-Atlantic regional meeting. HARDI members are asked to participate in a structured agenda with visits to their congressional representatives. The 1-1/2 day program (May 18-19) includes an opening dinner with a political news media guest speaker, hearing from Hill staffers and meeting with Committee leadership from both houses of Congress. Full briefings on current legislative and regulatory activities affecting the HVACR industry will be part of this program.