Insights

Nourishing dealers, agents and distributors

Author - Daniel Owen
23.07.2020

The marriage of the manufacturer and dealer is an age-old traditional tale. Manufacturers who sell through distribution, always think they can make a better margin by selling direct, while dealers are always anxious that their manufacturer could go over them and do just that. 

Distributors are sales agents and not manufacturers. That isn’t to say that manufacturers have no success in selling direct. However, in emerging territories it makes commercial sense to partner with a good agent who has an established network on the ground. 

If handled correctly, distributors will do everything to champion your brand and get close to the customer. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, but by giving good ones the best material in the industry, they will amplify their efforts and deliver many times more value. 

All the best salespeople want to do is sell, and creating marketing material isn’t on the agenda, because distributors see that as costly downtime. 

The best manufacturers make selling for their distributor effortless. Rather than worrying about brand positioning, marketing material and market intel, they just need the ammunition to warm the lead and make the sale. 

In developing a marketing campaign, we can box it up for dealers, agents and distributors to personalise and localise. This gives them a constant stream of new material to use and keep in close touch with their customer base. And new doesn’t always mean innovation, as the same products and services can simply be packaged under a different guise. 

When our customers sell through distribution, we always engage them with a distributor marketing programme. Aimed at educating them on the products and services, it highlights the value-added benefits, as well as gives them the marketing tools required to generate leads and execute sales.