Distributor Positioning and Messaging
We need your valuable input on trends in marketing for distributors, and how marketing is perceived by the industry. As always, thank you in advance for your time and candor.
This article, the first in a two part series, explains why distributors hold this belief about value and shows how distributors can develop differentiated messaging around a broader set of features. The next article in the series shows how benefit-oriented messaging is used effectively by the largest and most successful distributors in the industry.
In a recent survey conducted with Modern Distribution Management, distributors ranked a list of attributes they believe are important in messaging. But when we analyzed content on websites of large and mid-sized distributors, there was something missing. We found little to no messaging on several attributes that were considered important in the survey including professional outside sales reps, onsite sales and service, warranties, speed of delivery and the sourcing of non-stock products.
Marketing Analytics
For distributors, growing existing customers is the overwhelming lifecycle management priority relative to customer acquisition and winning back lost customers. Up-selling and cross-selling are the two primary means of growing an account. Among these, cross-selling is paramount.
When we ask successful distribution company executives about the sweet spots in their market, they readily provide a confident answer. The problem with the answer is that it is usually incorrect or at best partially correct. A detailed, analytic look at their customer base shows that some market segments are over-rated by them, some under-rated, and others are ignored or undetected altogether.
One of the biggest challenges for any sales and marketing organization is when to reach out to a customer with an offer or promotion. The objective is to reach out according to a natural buying cycle. If it is done too frequently, it loses its impact or even turns the customer off. By contrast, if it is too infrequent, sales opportunities may be missed altogether.