By Isabelle Piotrowski
Membership Manager
Members are the driving force of the association, and they inform everything FEDA does, especially in terms of its programming and initiatives. As a result, we’re continuously looking for ways to improve the quality and effectiveness of our member services.
FEDA membership grants access to all the association’s programs, events, tools and resources. Our in-person events are a great way to learn more about the industry while making connections with other dealers, manufacturers and companies providing services to our industry. In-person events include the FEDA Annual Conference, Young Industry Leaders retreats and our upcoming advocacy visit to Washington, D.C., which will be open to as many members as possible.
Speaking of advocacy, we will introduce a new take action tool for government outreach in the coming year. This tool will make it easier for FEDA members to add their signature to FEDA legislative messages or to email their representatives and senators directly. It will be another important addition to FEDA’s tools and resources, which already includes access to FEDA’s educational programs and, most importantly, the FEDA Data Portal, a growing database of product information used by manufacturers and dealers across the industry.
Also, we’ve made FEDA membership easier to maintain. Companies can now pay their annual membership dues directly on the feda.com website by signing into their account at the top right of the homepage, navigating to their company’s profile and clicking “renew now.” With many memberships set to renew at the start of 2024, we hope this streamlined process will make it more convenient for everyone.
Video Marketing Center
While we are thrilled to have even more companies participate in FEDA, it’s good to remember that our existing business services members are already providing strong support to dealers and manufacturers. One great example is Access Mobility 24’s Video Marketing Center (VMC), a platform that allows foodservice equipment and supplies manufacturers to share video content with distributors and dealers for the creation of customized marketing campaigns and sales team training.
Through the VMC, manufacturers can upload unlimited product videos and corresponding resources such as white papers and spec sheets into a virtual library where they can be accessed by dealers. Dealers can then select videos from the virtual library to create branded marketing campaigns for operators or assemble equipment training videos for their sales teams. These campaigns can be shared via a direct link or embedded into a web page.
Financial Benchmarking Survey
Every business measures its success by its performance, but without the ability to benchmark that performance against the industry, it’s hard to truly understand the business’ health — let alone identify ways to improve.
In 2024, we are once again working with Benchmarking Analytics to collect and provide industry benchmarking information to members. The data provided by members is completely confidential and viewed only by Benchmarking Analytics. Participants are given access to an individualized dashboard, which allows them to dynamically compare their company’s performance directly against others in the same region or sales volume group. Those benchmarking results provide operating insights and serve as a resource for management meetings, incentive compensation plans, budgeting and other uses. Many members share these results with their boards and business partners during year-end planning.
This past year’s FEDA Financial Benchmarking Report, now fully digital and conducted for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, saw dealers report their best results in at least a decade. We will be releasing the 2024 profit survey for dealers in March, and we encourage members to sign up to participate as early as possible. Please reach out to me at [email protected] if you are interested in participating in the 2024 survey.
On behalf of FEDA, we truly appreciate your company’s membership and support of the association and look forward to serving your company in 2024. As part of our mission, FEDA seeks to strengthen and promote the value that distributors and dealers provide to manufacturers, consultants, service representatives and customers through value-focused member services and targeted marketing initiatives. We are excited to further that mission through our membership services in 2024. As always, if you have any questions regarding FEDA membership or are interested in becoming more involved with FEDA, please contact me at [email protected] or 224-293-6504.