The Distributor Channel

With the Memorial Day weekend upon us and summer about to officially begin, I have been hit with at least a dozen emails, LinkedIn.com connects and calls from both distributors and students on the topic of Co-op programs in Distribution.   Co-op and Intern projects are good for distribution Back in our father’s day, companies made room for the kids of employees, family and friends in their business.  It was almost like a job benefit, work here and we’ll find a place for your son or daughter during the summer.  There were lots of “make work” projects.  Painting and scrapping, sweeping and shoveling, stacking and unstacking were all on the menu.  Readers who grew up in wholesaling families can probably relate to some of this.  The point is, there were a lot of jobs that nobody wanted and kids often got stuck with them.  It may still be happening… Today, business is different.  Our building is more professional (with fewer dark obscure rooms requiring paint), our warehouses b

Last week I threw out some thoughts on sales training for distributors.   The response was great, but I received more than a half dozen challenges from inside sales groups.   The overall feedback could be summarized as: Don’t forget about Inside Sales.   The comments reminded me of a couple of points: Outside Sale people may make the phone ring, but it is the service the customer receives when they call that keeps customers coming back (aka customer retention). Most customers gauge Distributor customer service by the quality of the Inside Sales team. Historically, distributors have focused on outside sales improvement… Experience shows when distributors invest in skills training (which is meager at best,) they tend to focus on the outside sales position.  A quick “Google Search” on the topic of “distributor sales training” brings up something like 28,600 results.  While I didn’t read all 28 thousand of them, I did look at the first twenty listings.  All were outside s

When I ask the question “Do you have sales meetings?” most often the answer is to the Without teaching about the science of selling, your meeting room may as well be empty affirmative.  Weekly, monthly, quarterly or something else is the standard answer.  But when it comes to content, a few follow up questions are often needed.  That’s when the truth comes out; distributor sales meetings are rarely about sales.  Oh, sometimes the numbers are reviewed.  Goals are generally discussed near the beginning and ending of each year.  And occasionally, distributors talk about the need for results on some supply-partner’s new product line.  Rarely, if ever, do distributor leaders actually talk about the science of selling. Over the past few days, I have participated in over a half dozen conversations (phone, email and social media) on the topic of sales meetings.  Allow me to highlight.  In one conversation a manufacturer asked one of their top distributors if they did sales training