| Who belongs to
PTRA, and what do our members want from the Association?
PTRA surveyed its membership in
1998, both to develop a better profile of the companies who
belong, and a better understanding of how well we are serving
our two constituencies -
- Our Representative members - manufacturers'
representatives
- Our Principal members - manufacturers of power
transmission and motion control products
It quickly became obvious when the survey results were
tabulated that both categories take PTRA seriously. Almost
two-thirds of the members - both Representatives and Principals
- took the time to fill out and return their questionnaires.
This not only gives us confidence in the validity of the
statistics, but even more in the importance these companies
place on their membership.
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Let's profile our Representative members
first.
Virtually all are president/owner/ceo of their firms, and they
have been members of PTRA for 11.6 years on average. About 15%
have joined in the past three years, and an equivalent number
have been members for over 20 years. This tends to correlate to
the length of time they have been in business.
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Business Orientation
51% Mechanical PT/Bearings
40% Motors, motion control, electrical
9% Other |
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Customer Base
50% distribution
43% OEM
7% other |
Not surprisingly, the older
firms tend to be the larger firms. Annual sales for all
Representative members average $8.5M, while firms that have been
members more than eleven years average $9.8M. Annual revenues
average $739,000, or just under 10% of sales; but 53% of the
respondents report their revenues are $500,000 or under.
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# of lines represented
Five or under 19%
Six to ten 51%
Eleven or more 30%
Average is 10.4 lines |
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# of sales offices
One 51%
Two 20%
Three 16%
Four or more 11%
None 2%
Average is 2.1 sales offices |
On average, PTRA Representative members have 3.5 outside
sales employees, and 2.2 inside sales. Just over half of the
PTRA members maintain warehouses, and those that do have an
average of 2.3 employees.
PTRA members are computer-literate, with about 75% using
computers for sales analysis, customer contact management, and
accounting.
Longer term members are more likely to take full advantage of
PTRA programs, especially annual Conference attendance and other
educational opportunities. Some 84% also attend IDEAS training
programs, and close to half the respondents have completed or
are enrolled in the Certification program of the Manufacturers'
Representatives Educational Research Foundation. Just over half
maintain membership in MANA alongside their PTRA membership. To
keep current, about two - thirds read PT Distributor, PT Design,
and Agency Sales, about half read Industrial Distribution, and
about a third read Today's Distributor.
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Now let's look at the characteristics of our
Principal members.
As you might expect, they are larger companies, with average
annual PT/MC sales of $25,684,000, and with an average of 348
employees. They have been in business on average 40 years,
boasting nearly twice the longevity of their rep firms. Almost
all of them (87%) are publicly owned. About half of them are
also members of PTDA, which correlates with deriving 50% of
their sales from distribution. Their products sold in the U.S.A.
are overwhelmingly made in the U.S.A. (69%).
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Customer Base
50% distribution
45% OEM
5% other |
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Product Orientation
54% Mechanical PT/Bearings
26% Motors, motion control, electrical
20% other |
On average, Principal members work with 14 rep firms, and
half have had their rep firms five years or less. Four out of
ten also employ a direct sales force. The executives who
participate in PTRA are largely (73%) sales and marketing
oriented; only 27% are in the president/owner/ceo category.
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