“Selling Wholesale” – Why Distributors need to get customers to their facility.
As our products become more technical and demo units get more complex and, in many cases, harder to lug around, one might wonder how much time is spent handling the logistics of a customer demo. Thinking further, most distributors have moved out of run-down warehouses on the bad side of the tracks and invested in modern facilities equipped with classrooms, demonstration areas, and other niceties. Yet, many wholesalers struggle to convince customers to drive across town to participate in a demo or attend important seminars. Internal tradeshows and other selling events often fall between the cracks with important customers.
Forward-thinking distributors are maximizing their time and efforts by practicing what we call “selling wholesale”. Let’s spend just a moment defining the selling wholesale concept. The practice involves moving customers out of their own facility to meet you at some central point. In an ideal world, the central point is the distributor’s training room, but a hotel conference room, event center or even a local college facility are also acceptable. Customers are invited in groups ranging from a few people to several dozen to see a specific product presentation or demo. When customers come to you (and your equipment), the logistics are easier, and more people see your product and learn of your expertise.
Ten reasons for carrying out the Selling Wholesale process and why:
1. Demos are better performed with less chance of a malfunction dampening the message.
As demos grow in size and complexity, like Robot systems, each demo involves some assembly of pieces and parts. It’s also important to remember cables, connectors, laptops and other things that can easily be overlooked. It’s a complex system and forgetting, breaking or disconnecting a single piece ruins the flavor of the customer presentation. Lugging the equipment to the customer’s facility is often difficult while causing plenty of wear and tear on the selling team.
2. Customers are removed from trivial distractions of their jobs.Ever had a demo where people were needlessly interrupted by questions from their staff or with little problems on their shop floor? ‘Nuff said.
3. More efficient use of specialized technical resources.
Specialists and technical people are valuable commodities in the selling process. Many times, these demonstrations require their attendance. They lose valuable time transporting, setting up and dismantling demonstration equipment. When the customer meeting is held in your facility this time is minimized.
4. More opportunities for cross-selling other products.
When customers visit your facility, they are exposed to the other product displays and technologies you carry. Many of the more elaborate solutions outlined in your demo feature ancillary products. For instance, I have seen robotic demos that feature the conveyors, vibrating tables, sensors and safety equipment also provided by the distributor. These lead to meaningful conversations about both products and full-blown solutions offered.
5. Customers gain a firsthand impression of your company by seeing your facilities.
Is your office impressive? Why not demonstrate the professionalism of your business? Extending further, customers need to see your level of commitment to backup inventory as well as the value-added services provided in your company’s shop.
6. More people from your organization can interact with the customer.
If customers come to your facility, they can meet your management team, inside sales and customer services group and the others who provide backup and support. It’s great for your customers to put a face to a name.
7. Reach more customers in a short amount of time.
When properly coordinated, you can demonstrate elaborate solutions to more people in a shorter period. Some distributors schedule meetings every two hours throughout the day. In other instances, contacts from multiple customers can participate in the same demonstration. The result is more customers experiencing your potential solutions.
8. Cost-effectively provide a technical message to small customers.
As implied in the point above, it is possible to include more than one customer into your sessions. Often, it doesn’t make financial sense to set up a demonstration on the customer’s site. Inviting other companies is a perfect cost-effective way to deliver important messages to smaller customers who might be in the market for one of your solutions.
9. Supply-partners can participate, but the distributor still “owns” the presentation.
One common concern with the use of supply-partners delivering demonstrations to customers is the distributor's lack of “ownership” of the presentation. In some instances, the customer sees the supplier delivering much of the message and feels the distributor is only there for the introduction. Conducting the meetings in your own facility plants ownership firmly with the distributor team.
10. Builds the distributor brand.
Perhaps tied to the point above, a continued effort to provide this kind of activity builds on the distributor’s brand. Your facility, your invitation, and your message become: we are the harbingers of change in our industry.
The problems and pitfalls to Selling Wholesale
After visiting hundreds of distributor facilities, a few things become quite evident. First, most distributors have invested in very nice meeting areas/classrooms which are decked out with convenience ports for customers, state of the art audio-visual systems and all the amenities one would expect in a modern meeting room. Second, the rooms are often cluttered with leftover materials and stray sample pieces from previous internal meetings. Finally, the rooms are sadly underutilized. They mostly host internal meetings with just a handful of customer-centric meetings scattered throughout the year.
When I ask why more seminars, demos, and other events aren’t scheduled, I receive the same handful of answers:
• Our customers refuse to travel.
• Getting attendance isn’t worth the effort.
• We used to get lots of customers but over the years people have stopped coming.
• The same people come to every meeting.
At the same time, other distributors seem to have full rooms for each of their seminars. Since these distributors are selling similar products, we can safely say technology is not the issue. Instead, distributors with decent turnouts have learned how to attract customers. Here are a few points to consider:
The meeting needs a purpose, value, and agenda – not simply marketing.
Posting invitations on your website is not a guaranteed way of getting customers into the class. An eye-catching email blast isn’t enough either. A detailed agenda is a great first start, but typically the marketing team can’t develop it. Here is a list of questions that need answering prior to turning the event over to the marketing group:
• What is the agenda and purpose of the seminar?
• What understanding or knowledge will attendees gain?
• Will there be additional values?
• What are the responsibilities of the target attendee?
• Are there specific industries that could benefit more from the session?
As a solution-selling organization, you must have these questions thought through. Otherwise, the wrong people will show up, receive no value and label you as a timewaster. Before we move on, I want to stress one point-- all of these questions need to be answered before every sales presentation whether it is delivered to a single person across a conference room table in the customer’s facility, or in front of 30 people in your fancy meeting room.
Armed with this information, marketing (or somebody) in your organization can develop a message to use as an invitation. While this requires effort, much of the information can be recycled for later meetings on the same or similar topics. Getting started is the hardest part.
What is the sales department’s role in Selling Wholesale?
In many ways, the sales group is responsible for bringing in the right people in the right number. This is often one of the main stumbling points of this type of session as well as distributor events in general. Observations point to two main problems. First, sellers don’t understand the real value to their customers and, second, they leave promotions entirely to marketing newsletters, emails, and other passive promotions. Best practices indicate companies with success take a different, more pro-active approach.
Salespeople are held responsible for getting attendees. The sales manager assigns each seller a specific goal number of customer contacts to attract to the meeting. The number is based on territory size, location and types of industries served. Salespeople are evaluated and coached on their success in getting people to the seminars. This eliminates issues with sellers who, for one reason or another, don’t believe in the value of such activities. Believe it or not, these people exist.
Salespeople are asked to target the right attendees. Not every session is designed for your regular customer contacts. For instance, some products are primarily focused on non-traditional disciplines within the customer and require attendance by Safety Managers, Production Planners or Accounting team members. Armed with the right message, the sales team uses the seminar as a reason to introduce themselves to these important “other” contacts.
Sellers actively promote the sessions with their customers. This means discussing the value and purpose of the seminar, asking for a commitment and then following up with the customer. Sometimes it means personalizing the invitation by suggesting the customer join them for lunch or dinner following the meeting.
Inside sales, specialists and others in contact with customers
Selling Wholesale is a core skill of the future.
Allow me to recap a few points. One major advantage of our kind of distribution has over online players is local expertise. A local expert is demonstrated via live and interactive solution demonstrations. The more complex the demonstration, the greater the need for bringing customers to the demo as opposed to hauling sophisticated equipment across town for every live demonstration. It saves time and money for the distributor.
Customers need our expertise and access to demonstration devices now more than ever. While many of the seminars and demonstrations are sales-oriented, when properly done and presented to the right audience, they also add value. Experts tell us our customers suffer from a lack of trained people. A great way to change that is with firsthand exposure to real technology hardware. Developing relationships along the way is an added bonus.
Distributors who perfect this skill now are positioning themselves for the future.
Frank Hurttte is the Founding Partner of River Heights Consulting. He combines the battle scars of 28 years of front line "in the trenches" experience with over 13 years of service to knowledge-based distributors and their manufacturer partners.
Email or call today for a free 30-minute consultation!
Comments
通渠