When the Fluid Power Distributors Assn. meets in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., this month, every seminar, speaker and workshop will attempt to arm distributors with tools for differentiation: How to become indispensable to your customers and suppliers. That quandary is not unique to fluid power/motion control distributors, of course. Every industry faces the same problem.

In the case of fluid power, one positive aspect in recent years has been the technical product explosion, which keeps customers hungry for better ways to automate systems and speed products along assembly lines and out to customers. Still, FP distributors need to differentiate themselves as aggressively as anyone. Customers have many choices in electromechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic systems, as well as choices in individual products used to build systems.

The focus of the FPDA Annual Meeting, held at Disney's Beach Club and Resort, March 2-5, is to help distributors learn to be the best in their regions, and prove it. That's not an easy task, but one which must be addressed by every distributor, says FPDA executive director Kathy DeMarco.

"We changed the meeting format to give members more time to network," DeMarco says. "It's been a tough year, with a lot of uncertainty. We're trying to help members focus on where they need to be upon recovery and how to get there."

In an effort to bring "real world" distribution problems and solutions to the forefront for everyone, the annual meeting will for the first time feature a distributor and supplier who have first-hand experience differentiating themselves from competitors. They will speak in a general session, along with two other industry experts. Professional consultants will still have an important part in the presentations, DeMarco says, which will be as comprehensive in topics and formats as possible.

Focus groups help bring audiences into discussions, DeMarco adds.

"We started choosing specific topics for focus groups two years ago, and it was 'standing room only' at the fall convention," she says.

While training is an integral part of FPDA's approach to helping distributors throughout the year (programs include the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology Robotics Competition (FIRST), in which secondary school teams compete with robots, with the help of fluid power professionals), the annual meeting is the only place to get so much educational diversity in so little time, DeMarco says.

A distributor, manufacturer, logistics expert and fluid power customer representative highlight the opening general session on Monday, March 3, at 8 a.m. Tom Berger, president of Fuchs Machinery, a distributor in Omaha, Neb., and Colin Haase, president of Burr Ridge, Ill.-based Holland Applied Technologies, will present their experiences differentiating their companies from all others in their fields.

Offering perspectives on logistics is Kathy Krueger, president of Perrysburg, Ohio-based Kenakore Solutions, which provides demand fulfillment services and also has experience as a fluid power distribution professional. She will discuss the role logistics plays in becoming a better provider of on-time shipments and service. Lastly, a fluid power/motion control customer, yet to be named at this writing, will discuss many of the attributes that make a distributor the 'supplier of choice.'

Scott Dickson is an outside salesman at Teco Pneumatic Co., headquartered in Pleasanton, Calif., and chairman of FPDA's Young Executives Advisory Board. Differentiation means being able to deliver a higher perceived value than the next distributor, Dickson says. The most valuable differentiator for distributors is the knowledge of their customers and the applications of products.

"While it is an overused cliché, failure to deliver a higher perceived value to customers will make it very difficult to justify relevance in a globally competitive, cost-sensitive world," he says.

Knowledge of your customer goes well beyond the superficial, Dickson says.

"Knowing that Jim Bob likes his tubing red and his valves black may seem silly, but not to the competitor offering yellow valves," he adds.

Young executives should be particularly interested in the problem of differentiation. At the meeting, the key is "networking, networking, networking," Dickson says, echoing DeMarco's sentiment that this is the one place and one time of year to make so many contacts, face to face.

"I think for young executives this is even more true, since they benefit from both general networking … and listening to older, more experienced managers and owners who have been through the business cycles and have probably dealt with similar issues," he says. As the chairman of the Young Executives committee, Dickson adds that his focus is to recruit young employees and encourage their firms to send them to the meeting.

Registrations for the meeting were well ahead of last year in Mid-January, with about 150 delegates planning to attend and more expected to register, DeMarco says.

"We expect close to 200 delegates and 150 spouses and other guests. The 2002 spring meeting was dismal, with a total of 135 delegates attending," she says.

Those who are able to attend will find the speakers, discussion and networking opportunities invaluable in a time of unprecedented competition and economic uncertainty, DeMarco notes.

Scott Dickson agrees with the urgency of the situation.

"Failing to provide a differentiated product or service in the current marketplace can only result in an early retirement," he says.