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Category: Sales & Marketing
Boost Customer Confidence, Strengthen Sales Relationships in Distribution
Customers increasingly want a rep-free buying experience, but satisfaction levels drop when they go it alone. Sales reps play a role in increased customer confidence, and related buying satisfaction, by accurately diagnosing problems and providing technical expertise. To create a compelling online experience, first develop a thorough understanding of the customer’s buying journey. Do distributors’ […]
Why Price Visibility is Important for Distributors
I constantly see companies with great revenue management, pricing and go-to-market strategies that produce mediocre results. The problem? Price execution. A strategy is only as good as the execution. This is especially important for companies with complex route to market structures; going from distributors, wholesalers, retailers and other partners means everybody takes a piece of the […]
John Brooks Turned COVID into an Opportunity — and Turned Sales on Its Head
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5 Strategies to Create B2B Sales Agility
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed B2B sales forever. Remote selling has become the norm, and, according to McKinsey, more than 80% of B2B professionals expect remote selling to stay with us. This is an inflection point in B2B sales. To remain competitive, B2B sales organizations can reassess their sales infrastructure and identify new strategies to […]
Data Storytelling: 3 Easy Ways to Identify What Your Customers Value
We all want to know what our customers value so we can better focus our value creation strategies. Customer needs and pain points are the best drivers for a company’s growth strategy development and resource allocation. However, learning what customers value and aligning our offerings to those values is easier said than done. An organized […]
Boost Customer Confidence, Strengthen Sales Relationships
To continue reading this article you must be a paid subscriber. Subscribe to MDM Already Subscribed? Click here to log-in | Forgot your password? The post Boost Customer Confidence, Strengthen Sales Relationships appeared first on Modern Distribution Management.
3 Practices that Prevent Healthy Pricing in Distribution — and How to Fix Them
With the economy in flux, pricing, volatility and cost are all major factors that impact distributor profitability. However, distributors can find ways to maintain profitability despite these challenges. Over the past 18 months, many companies focused on meeting customer demand and managing profitability through targeted cost savings. Pricing remained an afterthought as they focused on […]
Earnest Machine, Gustave A. Larson Embrace Sales Team Restructure
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4 Types of Distributors We’ll See in 2022
Distributors have experienced market disruptions, uncertainty, new coronavirus variants and constraints none of us could have forecasted over the last year or so. We can no longer rely on how we have always done business. A recent McKinsey study indicates more than 60% of CEOs restructured their organization in response to the pandemic and many […]
Gustave A. Larson Charts a Course for Sales Transformation
When Matt Wisniewski joined Gustave A. Larson Company three years ago, the distributor had many outside sales employees. After implementing an “inside-out” sales transformation, the number reduced by 80%. While Larson culled a large number of its outside salespeople during the move to an integrated sales model, it has picked up additional employees across new […]
The Sales Infrastructure That Adapts to Changing Demands
Agile manufacturing is a well-understood concept that allows companies to compete more efficiently by adapting quickly to changing customer and market needs. Just as you have to compartmentalize and adapt production processes for agile manufacturing, distributors can create a compartmentalized sales infrastructure that adapts to changing demands. When you consider how complex and fragmented industries […]
Why Key Account Programs Need Constant Measurement
Key Accounts are a sizable and important segment for most mid-sized and larger distributors. While the exact definition of key accounts differs depending on the distributor, we’ll define key accounts as large volume customers with multiple locations (e.g., branches, dealerships) that span multiple sales territories or regions. Key accounts often involve multiple buyers and influencers […]
Break Free from the Constraints of Traditional Gross Margin-Based Sales
To continue reading this article you must be a paid subscriber. Subscribe to MDM Already Subscribed? Click here to log-in | Forgot your password? Distributors can break free from the constraints of traditional gross margin-based sales models and liberate their salespeople to achieve breakthrough performance. Leaders can leap ahead of disruptors by transforming customer experiences. […]
Keys to Adopting a Customer-Centric Distribution Sales Strategy
Market research shows that business-to-business selling continues to evolve and the purchasing journey has changed drastically in recent years, hence the need for a customer-centric distribution sales strategy. B2B buyers are smarter and understand more about their procurement needs than ever before, requiring sellers to be more agile and adaptable to meet their needs. Research […]
Fighting for Customer Loyalty in 2022
As we move through the final quarter of this year, there’s a crazy mix of positive and negative signals. While continued growth is forecast, markets have never been in such flux as inflation, supply chain and talent issues challenge distributors to keep customers close and happy. Every disruptive business cycle produces an increase in churn […]
Do You Have the Right People, in the Right Roles, with the Right Distribution Sales Skills for Today?
Many distribution CEOs, CFOs and sales leaders have restructured their sales organizations in response to the sales challenges brought on by the pandemic. They have reduced marketing expenses, operational costs, experienced a reduction in sales expense and overhead across the organization, and now they are forced to strategically retool sales. Reorganizing and retooling your distribution […]
Questions to Ask to Test the Effectiveness of Your Sales Team
Many distribution CEOs, CFOs and sales leaders have restructured their sales organizations in response to the sales challenges brought on by the pandemic. They have reduced marketing expenses, operational costs, experienced a reduction in sales expense and overhead across the organization, and now they are forced to strategically retool sales. Reorganizing and retooling your distribution […]
Everything Distributors Always Wanted to Know About Sales Comp (But Were Afraid to Ask)
Changing a sales compensation plan is one of the most significant challenges in the sales transformation process. And companies that are either stumbling through that leg of the journey or have been hesitant to take the first step might need help navigating what could quickly become a stressful and confusing situation. Thankfully, experienced guides await […]
Weyerhaeuser Opens AZEK Portfolio in Texas
Sustainable outdoor living manufacturer the AZEK Company (NYSE: AZEK) and timberlands proprietor Weyerhaeuser Company (NYSE: WY) on Wednesday announced an expansion of Weyerhaeuser’s product portfolio with AZEK Building Products, a wholly owned subsidiary of The AZEK Company. Weyerhaeuser will now expand its full product line of low-maintenance and environmentally sustainable TimberTech Outdoor Living products and […]
