Distributor Marketing Activities
🕒 7 min read
By Frank Hurtte
Over the past year, I have been called on to help distributors and their supply partners develop new and innovative marketing plans. I laid out a few of these plans in an article for Industrial Supply Magazine called It's Time to Rethink Joint Marketing Plans.
It seems at least a few others are thinking about distributor marketing as well. Rivet/MRO, a blog sponsored by an organization that provides software to track co-op funds, picked up on my article and said this: "The fact is, most independent distributors have limited marketing expertise…" They went on to explain how and why distributors spend money on logoed promotional items, and how to make better use of co-op funds in general.
As my Industrial Supply article suggested, it is time for distributor marketing to move forward. First, it needs to move into a position of strategic thinking. Second, it needs to become a tool whose effectiveness can be measured.
With that in mind, here is our list of the top responsibilities for a distributor marketing department.
Author's Note: After giving the topic a day to percolate (seven hours on a plane will do that), I decided to add this quick summary. Marketing for distributors has three major responsibilities:
Identify and create communication tools for new contacts at existing customers.
Why? It is 5 to 12 times easier to sell more to existing customers than to sell to new ones. At the same time, busy salespeople often lag in discovering new contacts at existing customers. Some of the people they miss are critical buying influences, like safety managers, production leaders and others not yet engaged with their products.
Marketing should not only develop a plan for identifying who these people are. It should also spend time with sales management, specialists, supply partners and others to develop a "script" salespeople can use in their first meetings.
Provide leads for new customers.
Why? Let's face the truth. Most salespeople (even the "really good" ones) are not great at prospecting. Armed with a plan to use special offers on LinkedIn to attract qualified leads, a marketing department can move the needle on sales growth.
Produce customized sales collateral for specific customer segments.
Why? Think about the power of walking into a plastics plant armed with a brochure outlining the products and services your company has tailored to that industry. Instead of flipping out a line card that speaks only about your company, what would happen if the seller could steer the conversation toward the customer's specific issues?
Salespeople who talk about the customer and their problems are more successful at opening doors to new accounts and at impressing existing customers with their knowledge of the customer's situation.
Position the distributor's website for e-commerce business.
This one is new to my list. So why add it? E-commerce is on the move, and distributors need to do more than throw up a webstore and forget about it. New product promotions, search engine optimization and accurate product data have become mission-critical tasks.
I also recommend paying close attention to which products customers search for and how they behave on the website.
Handle logistics for in-house and extension events.
Why? Many of our clients' product specialists have heard the message: sell your products in a wholesale fashion. What does that mean? Instead of spending two hours setting up an elaborate demo at the customer's location, invite customers to your office (or, in remote cases, a hotel meeting room). With the right coordination, the specialist gives a better demonstration, customers aren't distracted by their daily work and, most important, you can do several detailed demonstrations in a single day.
If marketing handles the logistics, invitations and other details, the sales team is free to work its magic by selling.
Coordinate all company logos and branding.
Why? In days of old, distributors relied on the brand recognition of their supply partners. But with saturation distribution, big-name suppliers being bought and sold regularly and new trends in e-commerce, distributors need to stand for something.
That starts with a logo and tagline and ends with a clear explanation of what makes you different from the other 10,000 buying options.
Manage co-op funding and joint marketing campaigns.
- Make it easier for salespeople to make sales.
- Find new people, a new selling audience, for salespeople.
- Nurture e-commerce and other avenues to create sales to customers who aren't called on.
Identify and create communication tools for new contacts at existing customers.
Why? It is 5 to 12 times easier to sell more to existing customers than to sell to new ones. At the same time, busy salespeople often lag in discovering new contacts at existing customers. Some of the people they miss are critical buying influences, like safety managers, production leaders and others not yet engaged with their products.
Marketing should not only develop a plan for identifying who these people are. It should also spend time with sales management, specialists, supply partners and others to develop a "script" salespeople can use in their first meetings.
Provide leads for new customers.
Why? Let's face the truth. Most salespeople (even the "really good" ones) are not great at prospecting. Armed with a plan to use special offers on LinkedIn to attract qualified leads, a marketing department can move the needle on sales growth.
Produce customized sales collateral for specific customer segments.
Why? Think about the power of walking into a plastics plant armed with a brochure outlining the products and services your company has tailored to that industry. Instead of flipping out a line card that speaks only about your company, what would happen if the seller could steer the conversation toward the customer's specific issues?
Salespeople who talk about the customer and their problems are more successful at opening doors to new accounts and at impressing existing customers with their knowledge of the customer's situation.
Position the distributor's website for e-commerce business.
This one is new to my list. So why add it? E-commerce is on the move, and distributors need to do more than throw up a webstore and forget about it. New product promotions, search engine optimization and accurate product data have become mission-critical tasks.
I also recommend paying close attention to which products customers search for and how they behave on the website.
Handle logistics for in-house and extension events.
Why? Many of our clients' product specialists have heard the message: sell your products in a wholesale fashion. What does that mean? Instead of spending two hours setting up an elaborate demo at the customer's location, invite customers to your office (or, in remote cases, a hotel meeting room). With the right coordination, the specialist gives a better demonstration, customers aren't distracted by their daily work and, most important, you can do several detailed demonstrations in a single day.
If marketing handles the logistics, invitations and other details, the sales team is free to work its magic by selling.
Coordinate all company logos and branding.
Why? In days of old, distributors relied on the brand recognition of their supply partners. But with saturation distribution, big-name suppliers being bought and sold regularly and new trends in e-commerce, distributors need to stand for something.
That starts with a logo and tagline and ends with a clear explanation of what makes you different from the other 10,000 buying options.
Manage co-op funding and joint marketing campaigns.
Why? Every year, distributors miss the chance to capture what is essentially free money from supply partners. Many who do have joint marketing funds put off spending them and end up with golf balls and shirts. I'm not criticizing golf balls or logoed shirts, but I wonder if they're the best use of the money in the age of prospecting on LinkedIn and other channels.
I also encourage distributor marketing professionals to work with their suppliers to develop special programs designed for their specific market.
I also encourage distributor marketing professionals to work with their suppliers to develop special programs designed for their specific market.
From Our Book
In The Distributor's Annual Planning Workbook, we shared these thoughts on what a distributor needs to consider to move its marketing forward. I'm sharing them here as a service to the industry.
Chapter Five: Building a Better Marketing Plan
Let's have a difficult discussion. The cold, hard fact is that most distributors do a lousy job with marketing. Over the years, distributors leaned on the brand recognition their supply partners developed. In a few cases, where the biggest supply partners use limited or exclusive distribution, this strategy may even work. But with just a couple of exceptions, meaningful exclusive channel partnerships are slip-sliding away. That leaves distributors needing to crank up their own marketing efforts.
In distribution, marketing has three basic components, ranked here from easiest to hardest: sales aids, sales events and brand building. Marketing people on distributor payrolls lean toward the keeper-of-the-trinket-closet-key and event coordinator end of the spectrum. We are not bashing them. They work hard, and they get a lot accomplished. But their objectives need to be expanded a couple of notches.
Let's look at how to move your marketing effort forward in the coming year. Somebody needs to invest about one hour thinking through the answers to these questions.
The Distributor Brand
Before we leave marketing
The best distributor marketing plans use the power of the companies that supply our products to create a unique and more powerful story. This is especially true with the select group of manufacturers who actually want to help us grow. In the next chapter, we look at the unique position of the distributor as the middleman. For a quick seasonal checkup on your own marketing, read Is Your Marketing a Haunted House?
Let's Talk Marketing
We want to talk about marketing, and we want to talk with marketing professionals working in the channel. If you work in a marketing-related role in the channel (which I'll define as a distributor, manufacturer's agency or supply partner), I'd love to hear how you see marketing changing over the next three to five years.
In The Distributor's Annual Planning Workbook, we shared these thoughts on what a distributor needs to consider to move its marketing forward. I'm sharing them here as a service to the industry.
Chapter Five: Building a Better Marketing Plan
Let's have a difficult discussion. The cold, hard fact is that most distributors do a lousy job with marketing. Over the years, distributors leaned on the brand recognition their supply partners developed. In a few cases, where the biggest supply partners use limited or exclusive distribution, this strategy may even work. But with just a couple of exceptions, meaningful exclusive channel partnerships are slip-sliding away. That leaves distributors needing to crank up their own marketing efforts.
In distribution, marketing has three basic components, ranked here from easiest to hardest: sales aids, sales events and brand building. Marketing people on distributor payrolls lean toward the keeper-of-the-trinket-closet-key and event coordinator end of the spectrum. We are not bashing them. They work hard, and they get a lot accomplished. But their objectives need to be expanded a couple of notches.
Let's look at how to move your marketing effort forward in the coming year. Somebody needs to invest about one hour thinking through the answers to these questions.
The Distributor Brand
- What makes us different from the competition? Please don't use the same worn-out phrases about good service, caring employees or local presence. Be realistic. Everybody makes those claims.
- How do we want to be seen by our customers?
- Can our salespeople relate to our brand?
- How does our brand play into the supply partners we have aligned ourselves with?
- Which of our product lines are strategic to long-term growth?
- Which customer segments offer the easiest path to growth in sales and market share?
- How do our marketing plans directly impact our targets?
- With whom at each customer do we have the best relationship? Are there people we should be reaching out to?
- How could marketing help the sales team connect with targeted new customers, or with new contacts at existing customers?
- What updates do our website, newsletter and other electronic communication tools need to appeal to our target group?
- Are there vendors who require specific marketing activities? Do these activities build brand awareness for the vendor or for our company? How can we use this work to tell our story instead of repeating the vendor's message?
- Who offers co-op dollars to fund certain activities?
- How easy is it to take advantage of the dollars available? Who is responsible for tracking them?
- Which vendors have marketing materials we could adapt into our own?
- Which major events should be on our calendar?
- What resources do the events need?
- What is the timeline for developing materials (invitations, promos and so on)?
- What promotional items did we buy last year?
- What was their purpose?
- Did any prove more or less effective than others? How do we know? Is that based on measurement, or on a myth spun around something that happened in 1991?
- Should any promo items be discontinued?
- How have technology trends affected the impact of our promotional items?
Before we leave marketing
The best distributor marketing plans use the power of the companies that supply our products to create a unique and more powerful story. This is especially true with the select group of manufacturers who actually want to help us grow. In the next chapter, we look at the unique position of the distributor as the middleman. For a quick seasonal checkup on your own marketing, read Is Your Marketing a Haunted House?
Let's Talk Marketing
We want to talk about marketing, and we want to talk with marketing professionals working in the channel. If you work in a marketing-related role in the channel (which I'll define as a distributor, manufacturer's agency or supply partner), I'd love to hear how you see marketing changing over the next three to five years.
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