The Distributor Channel

I love a good challenge.  While talking about sales training with a sales manager from another industry, I made the statement, “Our kind of selling is different.”  The sales manager, who fancies himself as an expert and comes from a consumer-based background, took offense.  He asked me to differentiate our type of sales from the sales background he experienced.   Transactional sales Thinking back on the several hundred books on selling that I have read, I would characterize all but a handful as focusing on transactional selling.   Transactional selling is focused on making a one-time sale and then moving on to the next customer.   This type of selling is often used for commoditized products or services.   Think about the last computer you purchased.   Did the company create or provide anything that caused you to want to continue your relationship?   In my mind, the salesperson's goal was to make the sale – period.     Our kind of selling focuses on building long-term r

Let’s start with two quotes from great thinkers from different and definitely not distribution backgrounds.      "A favorite theory of mine is that no occurrence is sole and solitary, but is merely a repetition of a thing which has happened before…"                  Mark Twain   “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”              Winston Churchill   There are no history books for those of us in the Knowledge-based distribution world.  While I consider myself to be a history buff, I am certainly not an official historian.  But, to quote the popular commercial, I did spend the night in a Holiday Inn Express.  Probably more than a thousand nights in various hotel rooms while earning a living in the distributor business.  So here is my attempt at writing history.   All the TV pundits are calling for a recession.  Other industries, like the semiconductor and software industries, are currently in recession.  A Wall Street Journal surve

True Confessions:  I have never really cared for the use of the term “adult” as a verb.  Over the past few years, after h earing lame and seemingly made-up excuses from several people, I have decided it is appropriate in many ways, especially in the field of Sales.  We know we all got a little too comfortable with working remotely in our PJs and some are still fighting the return to normal. You see, I spent my entire life in one way or another tied to the selling process.  I self-categorize myself as a salesperson. I love everything about the whole concept of asking questions and presenting potential solutions to engaged customers.  I have made it my job to help others get started and grow in the business.  In the process, a trend has surfaced. I would call it a lack of Adulting. "Alexa, order me an alarm clock on wheels" Adults get to appointments on time. Let’s start with the simple premise, you tell someone you will be at their office at 9:00.  Cool, be there on time.  Set