Joint Calls: Are You Leaving Money on the Table?
Stop Chasing Today's Order and Build Tomorrow's Business
🕒 6 min read
By Frank Hurtte
I've been making joint sales calls for almost half a century. First as the field rep for Allen-Bradley, then as a distributor trying to build a business where none existed before, and finally as a consultant assisting distributor salespeople to expand their skills.
Some were great. Some were a waste of everybody's time. And a few left me wondering why we didn't just meet for breakfast and save the gasoline.
Joint calls are nothing new in distribution. A supply-partner salesperson comes to town. The distributor salesperson clears some space on the calendar, lines up three or four customers, everybody jumps into a nondescript sedan, and off they go.
But here's my question:
Why are you making the call?
If the answer is, "Because Fred from the factory is in town," you have already flunked the first test. Each call needs more reason to exist than checking a box in somebody's CRM.
There are two very different reasons for making joint calls. One is tactical. The other is strategic. Most distributors are semi-good at the tactical stuff, but we leave a lot of money lying on the table by not thinking strategically.
Tactical: There's Business on the Table
Tactical joint calls are easy to explain. There is an opportunity, project, or problem, and we want to drag the thing across the finish line and keep the money flowing. Hard to argue with that concept.
Maybe the customer has a technical question the distributor salesperson can't answer, so we bring in factory Fred. Perhaps a competitor is trying to knock us out of the specification, and we need a heavy hitter from the factory. Maybe we need special pricing, engineering support, a field trial, or somebody with enough technical horsepower to convince the customer to wait for our next-generation product. The common denominator is simple: There is a defined opportunity, and we're out to win it.
That's Tactical Selling 101. Distributors must do it well. But here's the rub. Most distributor sellers are so focused on the order sitting six inches in front of their nose that they forget to position themselves for the future.
Strategic: What Happens After This Order?
A strategic joint call asks a completely different question. Instead of asking: How do we win this order? We ask: How do we put ourselves in a better position to win business that doesn't even exist yet?
This proposition changes everything. The best customer to visit might not be the one with a massive quote sitting in the system. There might not be a quote anywhere on the horizon. A customer with no immediate order might be the most important joint call you make all month because strategic selling starts long before a project opportunity comes into view.
By the time the customer identifies an actionable opportunity, somebody else may have already defined the project, influenced the specification, discussed the technology, and shaped the customer's thinking.
If that person wasn't you, you just get to dance the purchasing department's price-shopping polka.
Get Positioned Before the Next Order
One of the best strategic uses of a supply-partner salesperson is helping the distributor get to other contacts and uncover what is coming next.
What technologies are being considered? What equipment is facing obsolescence? What competitive challenges does the customer face? What machines will be modernized? What does the five-year plan look like?
Notice something? None of those questions are about an order. They are about where future orders will come from. This is where a good supply-partner salesperson can be worth their weight in cheeseburgers.
The good ones have visited hundreds of customers in diverse territories. They know applications and what other companies are doing. They may recognize an opportunity that the distributor salesperson walks past every Tuesday without noticing.
I saw this firsthand when the regional VP of an automation supplier joined me on a call with the head of production at one of my target accounts.
During the conversation, the production manager mentioned that upper management had decided to go "all in" with lean manufacturing. That comment sparked a discussion about investments and expected outcomes.
As we got into the car afterward, my supplier friend told me he could "predict the future" for plants moving into lean mode. Based on what this plant manufactured, he suggested we start positioning systems that would automate the time-consuming, mostly manual setup of specialty machines. It turns out he was right. We scored big on those projects over the next two years.
There was no request for a quote sitting on my desk that day. We weren't there to close an order. We learned something about the customer's future and positioned ourselves accordingly. That's a strategic joint call.
Create Demand Instead of Waiting for It
Nearly every distributor in the world talks about being a solution provider. Yet most sit around waiting for the customer to describe in detail what solution they want.
A strategic joint call can introduce a technology, concept, application, or solution the customer hasn't considered. This happens before a project is identified or funds set aside. The customer may not even know they have a problem, at least until you explain it.
Then somebody says: "You know, we ought to take a look at that."
Those nine words are magic and can be worth mega-bucks. Now we're not responding to an opportunity. We're creating one. That's the difference between being a Market Maker and a Market Server.
There Are Two Customers, and One is in the Car
Here is another part of strategic joint calls that distributors sometimes miss. The end user isn't the only person you are selling. You're selling Freddy too.
Joint calls also sell Freddy on the distributor. Does this salesperson know the customer? Do they understand the application? Can they uncover opportunities? Do customers listen when they talk?
The distributor salesperson who drives around the territory, pulls into the customer parking lot, and says, "Freddy, why don't you tell them about the new gizmo?" isn't going to earn a lot of kudos.
Supplier salespeople are busy. They have multiple distributors, territories, customers, internal meetings, forecasts, reports, and assorted corporate nonsense pulling them in 47 directions.
After a few calls, they figure out which distributor salespeople are worth investing in.
You do want to be invested in... Right?
Because when Fred from the factory hears about a project, gets a lead, discovers a new application, or has an extra day in the territory, you want him to think about you and your company. Nobody is positioned better to give you "free" business than dear old Freddy.
When joint calls are properly planned and executed, you aren't just strengthening your position with the customer. You're strengthening your position with the supplier.
And when the distributor, supplier, and customer develop the right three-way relationship, everybody brings something to the party. The supplier brings technology, engineering, and factory expertise. The distributor brings local knowledge, application understanding, logistics, service, and customer relationships.
Working together, you become mightily hard to displace.
Don't Waste the Windshield Time
A great joint call doesn't begin when you walk through the customer's lobby and end when you give your final Adios.
Spend five minutes before the call deciding what you want to accomplish. Who are we meeting? What do we know? What do we need to learn? Who leads the call?
Then spend five minutes afterward comparing notes.
What did we learn? What did we miss? Did somebody mention a name we don't know? Did we uncover something that could become an opportunity six months from now?
And most importantly: Who is going to do what next? Otherwise, all that brilliant sales work has a nasty habit of disappearing somewhere between the customer parking lot and lunch.
Stop Just Filling the Calendar
The next time a supply partner says, "I'll be in town Thursday. Can we make some calls?" don't immediately start filling time slots.
Certainly, look at the opportunities you're trying to close. Tactical calls matter. But save some windshield time for strategy. Ask: Who should we visit where there isn't an order today, but where we'd like to be much better positioned a year from now? Maybe it's engineering. Maybe it's plant management. Maybe it's the guy working on the next generation of machines.
Then apply this final test:
If there wasn't an open order on the table, would this customer still be worth making a joint call on?
If the answer is yes, congratulations. You may have just stopped chasing today's order long enough to start building tomorrow's business.
River Heights Consulting works with distributors to develop strategic sales approaches that position your team for growth beyond today's transaction. Whether it's training on customer value assessment, strategic account planning, or supplier relationship management, we help you build the partnerships and processes that drive sustainable competitive advantage.
TL;DR
Joint calls come in two flavors: tactical (closing today's
order) and strategic (positioning for tomorrow's business). Most distributors
excel at tactical but miss the bigger opportunity to uncover future needs,
build three-way relationships with suppliers, and create demand before
customers even know they have a problem. The best joint calls are planned,
followed up on, and intentional- not just calendar-filler.
About the Author
Frank Hurtte is a Founding Partner at River Heights Consulting with nearly 50 years of
experience in distribution sales, management, and strategic consulting. He spent formative years as a field rep for Allen-Bradley and later built a distribution operation from the ground up. Frank still thinks joint calls over cheeseburgers beat conference rooms, but only if somebody's actually paying attention to the future.
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