The Distributor Channel

Photo:GM Everyone knows Santa Claus-- red suit, long white beard, familiar belly laugh and long-time leader of all things North Pole.   For some strange reason, most don’t have a clue as to the early days of his career.     So let me break it to you, Santa got his start in sales.   A long time ago, hundreds of Christmases before occupying the big chair in the corner office up at the North Pole, Santa worked on the selling side of North Pole Distributing. Like many hardworking sales types with hundreds of years under his belt, Santa leveraged all the lessons learned out in a territory to move up in his organization.  Playing a front and center role in a global distribution organization with customers around the globe, Mr. Claus puts those lessons to work almost every day.  It’s difficult for a lowly industry consultant to get an audience with big time executives, but last week I leveraged over six decades worth of being on the “nice list” to grab a rare opportunity to speak

Let’s start with two assumptions. First, your company sells solutions, not a hodge-podge pile of parts. Second, some of th e products you sell fit together nicely to solve customer issues. Some reasoning has been applied to the building of your product offering. As you set out to create solutions, you started assembling the right parts and pieces to address customer issues. But I have a question. Are your customers connecting all the dots? Most of us assume our customers realize how all the stuff in those gigantic catalogs fit together. Experienced customers probably rely on you to carefully select just the right products for their particular applications and offer them up in a solution format. A few might bring you into the equation by sharing business concerns and problems before they have fully analyzed the whole situation. Newer, and even some existing, customers are different. They may not fully understand your brand of solution selling. Some may not yet trust yo

Are your salespeople headed to a knife fight with fingernail clippers? photo: jokeoverflow I travel for a living.  Delta Airlines loves me.  Over the course of the last decade of travel, the fine folks at the TSA security checkpoints have managed to confiscate over a dozen of the fingernail clippers I inadvertently left in my computer bag.  Dangerous weapons?  Somehow, I have my doubts, but the point is to the TSA Security team they fall into the same category as a 17 inch Bowie knife.  Would I want to take on someone armed with a real knife, switchblade or anything thing else?  Heck, no!  This brings us to the question, are we sending our sales teams into a virtual knife fight armed with a measly manicure set? Allow me to get real. Our salespeople go into negotiations with professional buyers on a daily basis, most without real negotiation training.  Further, many sellers and their managers don’t really believe negotiations play a role in their world.  But they do.  Allow me

Looking back at the nearly 200 articles posted to this blog, most were designed to provide insight, suggestions and training for distributors and their supply partners. Our mission has been, and continues to be, creating a catalyst for better ideas within the distributor channel. But, for just a couple of minutes, allow me to take a look back in time. We are celebrating out 10th Anniversary River Heights Consulting was formed ten years ago on November 13, 2005. After many years of consideration and sleepless nights, I decided to take my gathered knowledge and skills to launch out on my own. It was my long-time dream to consult in the distribution world. When I first launched, I had no clients, no prospects of clients and very little idea as to how to find new clients. For a couple of days, I felt like Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk, somewhere deep within my consciousness I heard voices say, “Jack, you traded the cow for these three magic beans? How stupid of you…” Bu

Do you have salespeople who seem to create their own pricing rules?  Are you missing out on margin by those who are afraid to miss out on the deal?  Strategic Pricing Associates is hosting webcast coming up on December 8th at 2:00pm Eastern to address such issues.  How to Stop Undisciplined Discounting and Track Sales Force  Accountability  features Sid Hendry of Gulf Controls and Dave Lienert of SPA .  It's only 60 minutes out of your day and will be well worth it!  Click HERE for more details and registration.

The original CRM with notes scribbled on the sides of business cards Sales experts have extolled the virtues of building a personal relationship with customers since the invention of dirt. Arguing that sellers devote time and resources on activities not expressly focused on business, they encourage salespeople to learn about the customer’s family, hobbies, personal interests and more. Many years ago, Harvey MacKay developed the MacKay 66 , which was used by many organizations to understand and log customer interests. But that was back in the “olden days” before the internet, Amazon.com, big data, global competition and all the rest. The question really becomes this… In the age of big information does customer friendship matter? Let’s think about three points: 1. Most of us think of ourselves as (or aspire to be) “solution” providers. Why? Because solution sellers are able to command a little higher gross margin than “parts sellers." 2. There is a certain risk to ev

Let’s start out with the premise you are actively engaged in selling.   Your card may carry a slightly different title.   It seems like nobody has a card with the title “Sales Professional.”   Instead, you could be listed as any one of the following: Sales Engineer Field Engineer Account Manager Account Executive Product Specialist Customer Service Resource Branch Manager Inside Sales Channel Manager Customer Omnibus Person Business Development But somewhere in the details of your job description, you are measured on your ability to grow the number of purchases made by customers under your direction.  This makes you a Sales Professional. As a professional, you have the intrinsic responsibility to perform better than someone who is a selling amateur. With this fact in mind, we must ask the question: “What are you doing to improve your professional skills?" We ask this question often and the answers are shocking.  Most

Out on a lonely street of the seldom used two-lane highway between Dubuque, Iowa and Madison, Wisconsin, there once stood a ragged and paint-worn billboard with these words emblazoned in three foot letters: “Eliminate the Middle Man and Save!” While the sign has likely fallen and the once flourishing cheese factory is gone, the legend lives on in the hearts of untrained purchasing professionals everywhere. It’s one of their dozens of negotiation tools and they’re not afraid to use it on the unsuspecting manufacturer’s sales executive. Allow me to set the stage for the typical play of this tool… The purchasing guy’s company uses your product and has for a considerable amount of time. One day, you get a call from the purchasing department. The buyer asks for a meeting but specifically requests you come without your distributor. During the meeting, this procurement guy describes how his company likes your product and wants to strengthen and expand their business relationship with

An Open Letter to New Salespeople Maybe the word "slimy" comes to mind. Last week I had the opportunity to interact directly with a young person thinking about a career in distributor sales.  They were put off by the image of being a “salesperson,” but because of the experience of one of their friends, they were taking a fresh look at the industry. Their questions revolved around a handful of unknowns.  ·       Is sales a position that taints your ability to do something else later in life? ·       Do customers see salespeople as valuable or as sleaze-ball characters to be avoided? ·       What is this commission thing all about? ·       Do I need to be a natural born salesperson? ·       How hard is the job?  It seems like a lot of people “used to be salespeople but quit.  For the benefit of everyone just starting or considering a distributor sales opportunity, allow me to answer these questions. Does Selling have a future? The answ