5 Ways to Help Your Distributors Sell More
Optimizing the distributor sales channel has huge benefits. Follow these five tips to improve distributor loyalty and increase revenue.
1. Simplify the feedback process
2. Use technology to your advantage
3. Prioritize your leads
4. Automate your lead management process
5. Make data-driven decisions
The Hidden Cost of Lost Opportunity
Companies that sell through independent sales reps and distributors understand the difficulty in tracking their leads and opportunities throughout their sales channel. Lost opportunities cost real money both in terms of the expenses incurred to create sales leads and lost revenue resulting from missed handoffs between producers and their distributors and manufacturer’s representatives.
1. Wasted marketing expenditures
2. Lost revenue
3. Operational inefficiency
Five Steps to Maximize Your Distribution Sales Model
How do you know if your investment in a channel sales model is working and delivering the results you expect? It requires a methodical approach and the attention of the executive team on a routine basis to ensure the investment and partnership is being maximized and the business is benefiting from the approach.
The following five steps provide a framework for that regular executive review and can quickly surface and resolve issues where performance is not being maximized. Watch the video for additional details.
1. Understand the costs of the channel and maximize profitability
2. Deliver in context training and product education
3. Incorporate the ‘Voice of the distributor’ into decision making
4. Standardize systems and processes
5. Align incentives and support around desired outcomes
The Distributor Sales Gap – Survey Results
A resent survey conducted by LeadMethod reveal gaps in communication and collaboration among manufacturers and their distribution partners and independent sales representatives around lead sharing, follow up rates, and feedback provided.
Roughly half of surveyed companies indicated that they do not know if the leads they are providing their distributors and/or independent reps are even being contacted for follow up. Two-thirds of surveyed companies indicated either less than 20% feedback on shared leads or not knowing if feedback is ever provided.
Key findings from the survey include:
– Only 37% reported 75% or more of leads shared actually receive follow up from a distributor or independent rep.
– 47% of companies that sell 75% or more products through distributors or independent reps do not know if their shared leads are even being contacted.
– 50% of companies that have more than 50 distributors or independent reps do not know if their leads are being contacted.
– 64% of companies that generate more than 50 leads per month either “Don’t Know” or get less than 20% feedback on these leads from their distributors or independent reps.