RHC Marketing Moment: Back to Basics- Your B2B Website Looks Great But Does it Work? By Desiree Grace, Special Projects Consultant Your graphics are fabulous, your people look clever, and the new logo is smart, BUT, are you functional? We see a lot of websites that look great but don’t have a solid foundation. One example of critical importance is a solid cross-reference. Many companies hesitate to put a cross-reference on their website. They fear the competition will use it, they fear if the cross isn’t perfect, it will irritate customers. Newsflash—the competition has already figured out how to cross your products and the customers are more irritated if they cannot self-service a basic requirement such as a cross-reference. You can and should use a disclaimer that the reference is form, fit, and function equal, or, if there’s a doubt, offer to send a sample or a salesperson. Viola! A sales lead! A well-done, efficient cross-reference will save your people and your customers time....

Here is a good news/bad news kind of story.  Distributors across North America are investing to create webstores and an enhanced online presence – that’s the good news.  Conversely, the bad news is many of them have yet to establish any real level of expertise in the whole digital experience.  Simply put, they’re online but not good at it. Unlike traditional distributor selling where customer experience is based on local competitors and the guy on the other side of town, the customer compares their online experience to global options.  Customer experience with Amazon, Target, Costco, and others sets the bar for expectations.  We can’t have a schlocky webstore and expect great results.     To set the stage, one of the megatrends of the pandemic has been growth in web-based buying.  For instance, according to emarketer.com (Oct 12, 2020), e-commerce sales have grown by 32.4 percent while brick and mortar retailer sales have declined by 3.2 perc...

Lately, Manufacturer and Distributor Joint Marketing Plans have been on my mind. This time of year I generally take a lot of calls from distributors and their supply partners on the topic. Allow me to share a few random thoughts. There are two varieties of plans which seem to go by the same name. Let’s look at both of types: Rebates designed to drive distributor behavior and reward performance. These plans typically create an incentive which comes as a rebate based on the distributor following some guideline. For example, if the distributor carries all of the manufacturer’s products, they get a bigger rebate than the wholesaler who simply cherry-picks the best of the supplier’s product line. Other versions of this type of plan incent distributors for having a specialist, properly trained staff, the right level of demo equipment or the proper inventory. I like these plans as they drive the behaviors and incent the distributor for being more than just a logistics arm for the ...

Many knowledge-based distributors are seriously considering the move into e-commerce. A few of the forward-thinking companies have already started their efforts. Along the way, these early adopters have discovered some of the pot-holes in the road to a credible e-commerce platform. The whole “e-commerce thing” is still developing. There are a million (well at least a couple hundred) misconceptions floating around. Based on the situation, we decided to share some numbers. 12,000+ Automation related Google searches per day: Just in the State of Ohio Why pick on automation? We used automation related terms because less spill over into other hobby or DIY topics was less than what might be seen with electrical, plumbing or other lines of trade. The assumption is simple: those searching for Variable Frequency Drives, Programmable Controllers and other automation equipment are industrially focused and most likely the types of customer contacts knowledge-based distributors serve. 81 P...

Gathering, contrasting and benchmarking information from a variety of sources drives clarity of thought almost as well as Santa’s famous “On Dancer, On Dasher and On Prancer” line drives a team of eight tiny reindeer. One big part of my role as a distribution consultant comes via interviews with wholesalers across a wide range of geographies and industry segments. Over the past year, I have interviewed leaders in the field from Asia to Alabama, from New Orleans to New Brunswick and all points between. I gathered some pretty amazing insights. But, none of these compared with what I learned from the guy who runs what is potentially the largest distributor on the planet and certainly the leading business of any kind north of the Arctic Circle, North Pole Industries Founder and CEO, Santa Claus. After at least a dozen phone calls and emails, my assistant, Jenny, was finally able to pull some strings and arrange for a rare face-to-face interview down at the local mall. It seems Mr....