The Distributor Channel

Distributors are on the move. Many of them have made the decision to create a sales presence on the opposite end of the state, 100 miles down the road or in the next pocket of business. With just a few exceptions, your company is an unknown commodity; name unrecognized and without existing customers. You are literally starting from scratch. As you read through this, you will discover many of the same tips we shared for working a Tarnished Territory . I know it seems repetitious, maybe even preachy. Even Jenny, who edits my work and generally makes me look smarter than I really am, gave me a squinty look and said, “How many times are you going to cover this?” The truth is, when dealing with a friend’s success (and if you read this I consider you a friend), I always err on the side of safety or money. In this case, consider it money. Now, the sad truth The thousands (or even tens of thousands) who faced your issues either failed to follow a process towards growth or, even w

The Tarnished Territory (Part 3 of series on new territories) Tarnished Territory - The Action Plan Over the last couple of weeks, we have spent some time exploring the amazing revelry and rigors of being assigned to a new territory.  We've outlined some of the strategic data tied to better understanding your situation.  In the case of a seller assigned to a formerly neglected territory, our journey has touched on who might help us better focus on accounts capable of generating faster results for our efforts; most of our discussion might be summarized as strategic lots of thought but nothing tied directly to sitting face-to-face with a customer.      Let’s get tactical Before we start, what we are laying out is not an all-inclusive list for selling.  Allow me to share a bit about my own experience so many years ago.  I had experience in sales.  I started selling tires and batteries for my fathers business at age 14 and I sold encyclopedias in college.  When I started in this

The Tarnished Territory Congratulations you’ve just been assigned to a new territory. More precisely, it’s new to you. There was a salesperson in place in the past, but you had no real overlap and no chance to conduct even a minuscule amount of territory debriefing. Reflecting on the situation, you don’t know if customers liked the guy, hated the guy or even knew him. The quality and quantity of their work is a mystery. All we can say for sure is they’re gone and you’re here. It’s fairly common for salespeople to change jobs. There is a laundry list of reasons for the departure; some good, some bad. There are a few points you should know about departed - but not dearly departed - salespeople: • Not everybody liked them. Customers may have done business, even considerable business, with them and still found they weren’t really the perfect match. • Those in your own company will often magnify their faults and flaws. Issues in the territory may be blamed on the person no lon