(NASA/Getty Images)
New Orleans looms large seen from space, and looms large in the Louisiana economy as well, but doesn't dominate its state the way cities such as Phoenix, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Anchorage do.
New Orleans looms large seen from space, and looms large in the Louisiana economy as well, but doesn't dominate its state the way cities such as Phoenix, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Anchorage do.
New Orleans looms large seen from space, and looms large in the Louisiana economy as well, but doesn't dominate its state the way cities such as Phoenix, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Anchorage do.
New Orleans looms large seen from space, and looms large in the Louisiana economy as well, but doesn't dominate its state the way cities such as Phoenix, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Anchorage do.
New Orleans looms large seen from space, and looms large in the Louisiana economy as well, but doesn't dominate its state the way cities such as Phoenix, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Anchorage do.

Market Areas with More than 50% of Their States’ Sales Potential

July 25, 2014
This data is a double-check on where they should be making their investments. Electrical manufacturers can use it to figure out if they have adequate coverage in these MSAs from independent rep agencies and in-house field sales personnel, or if their sales through distributor locations in these dominant markets are up to snuff.

The 2014 sales forecasting season is fast upon us, and before too long sales executives will be scrambling to figure out which geographic areas hold the most market potential for their companies’ products and services.

With the help of the electrical sales multipliers that Electrical Wholesaling has provided as part of its Market Planning Guide each November for the past few decades, it’s been a pretty simple calculation to figure out which cities and metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) account for the most sales potential in key market segments like electrical contractors, industrial MRO (maintenance & repair operations), OEM (original equipment manufacturing) and factory automation. Just plug in the number of employees in an MSA, state or other geographic configuration from the data provided in the EW Market Planning Guide, and then multiply them by the sales-per-employee multipliers EW provides for electrical contractors, electricians, manufacturing employees and other market segments.

Electrical Marketing’s editors were recently looking at local market employment data for a new data product that we will soon be offering EM subscribers as part of their annual subscriptions, and we were struck by just how much certain MSAs completely dominate the employment data for their states. For instance, we found no less than a dozen MSAs that account for more than 50% of the electricians working in their states, according to May 2013 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The MSAs with the highest concentrations of their state’s total number of electricians include Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ (81%); Las Vegas-Paradise, NV (73%); Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA (73%); Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA (64%); Anchorage, AK (59%); Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI (59%); Denver-Aurora-Broomfield (56%); Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA (55%); St. Louis, MO-IL (52%); Salt Lake City, UT (52%); and Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA (50%). Some other MSAs are probably equally dominant, but EM’s editors found that because a high proportion of their employment come from multiple states, it was tougher to calculate their impact on any one state. These MSAs include Providence-Fall River-Warwick, RI-MA; New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA; Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH; and Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL-IN-WI.

The BLS manufacturing data from May 2014 didn’t show quite as many MSAs dominating their state employment totals, with only six MSAs accounting for a clear-cut 50% or more of manufacturing employment: Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ (75%); Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA (66%); Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA (66%); Albuquerque, NM (61%); Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN (60%); and Baltimore-Towson, MD (54%).

What do these numbers mean to electrical marketers? This data is a double-check on where they should be making their investments. Electrical manufacturers can use it to figure out if they have adequate coverage in these MSAs from independent rep agencies and in-house field sales personnel, or if their sales through distributor locations in these dominant markets are up to snuff. Distributors can also use this data to double-check their sales territory allocations and branch coverage. Electrical Marketing’s website (www.electricalmarketing.com) will be adding this MSA data in the near future.