Industry Insights
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Digital or Die: The Time is Nigh for Distributors to Embrace eBusiness
The gates are closing. It’s now or never for digital adoption in B2B markets. The sharp increase in online engagement with customers in March and April 2020 was more than just a one-off blip due to COVID-19. More and more surveys are emerging that are reinforcing the idea that while COVID-19 spurred the shift to…
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Marketing Mix: The Value of Getting It Right
Since the early 1960s, most companies have organized marketing activities into the “Marketing Mix,” or the “4 Ps”: Product, Place, Price and Promotion. Distribution Strategy Group shares how to get that mix right.
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Why Distributors Can’t Innovate – and How You Can Start
Distributors are learning how to build cultures that drive innovation; don’t wait. The disruptors are at the gate and the battle for distribution supremacy will likely go to the swift and not the strong.
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Is ‘Fulfillment by Amazon’ the Beginning of the End for Distributors?
Distributors worry that Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is assuming key distributor roles and erasing them from the equation. The service picks, packs, ships and even manages returns for retailers and distributors, as well as holds inventory in Amazon fulfillment centers.
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6 Keys to Outbound Success with Proactive Inside Sales
When most distributors talk about inside sales, they are usually referring to customer service agents. Yet, customer service personnel are generally more reactive than sales agents, because their goals are to make customers happy and solve problems.
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Wholesale Change Show: Does “Fulfillment by Amazon” Mean the Death of Distributors? (June 24, 2020)
If Amazon Business owns the customer, warehouses your products, does the picking, packing and shipping and handles the entire transaction – why do they need you?
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The Foundation for a Solid B2B Digital Strategy: Understanding Your Customers
Digital transformation has been a part of distributors’ language for many years. But the speed of transformation has varied: It’s hard, takes significant resources and in some instances, hasn’t been spurred by overwhelming customer demand.
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Wholesale Change Show: Are Inside Salespeople Really Salespeople? (June 10, 2020)
Distributors often call their customer service personnel, “Inside Sales Salespeople” – but are they?
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Grainger Disinvests in Europe as Amazon Business Expands: What This Means for the Industry
It’s fair to question whether these events are correlated or it’s just a coincidence that Amazon Business is (apparently) thriving in various international markets while Grainger is not.
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Why Traditional ROI Measures Shouldn’t Have a Voice in Distributors’ eCommerce Conversations
If you let potential ROI determine how much you’ll invest in your website and how you’ll measure its success, you’re going about it all wrong and you will not succeed.
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The Importance of Value-Added Services in Distribution Today
If you’re like most distributors, you already provide several value-added services at no cost to your customers. But have you analyzed the cost and value of those services? Chances are, you need to get more intentional about delivering, marketing and monetizing them.
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What Private Equity Ownership Means to a Distribution Employee
Private equity isn’t new – even if it’s new to you. Arguably, PE as an investment method has been around for more than 100 years.
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How to Use a Sales Call Guide to Drive Stronger Connections with Prospects
A sales call guide can be a useful tool to help salespeople connect with prospects and ensure they are firing on all cylinders with every interaction, whether in person or virtually.
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How to Grow Business in Small and Mid-sized Accounts
Small customers may not generate the sales volumes needed to support them as you would support your larger customers, but they usually generate higher profit margins and do not require as many resources.
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How to Get Customers to Buy More Product Categories with Cross-Selling
Increasing market share is good. However, increasing wallet share is even better because it is usually far easier to sell additional products to existing customers than it is to acquire new customers.
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Selling Value, Not Price: How Distributor Sales Reps Can Truly Connect with Prospects
We recently published an article on selling value internally along with selling externally to prospects. Because while many distributors have spent time creating a value proposition their employees will take to heart, salespeople often falter when it comes to selling the company’s value to prospects.
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After the Crisis: What Distributors Must Do Next
Despite the many columns and webcasts predicting distribution’s post-pandemic “new normal,” it’s going to be a long time before our industry settles back into a rhythm. For now, expect a “new abnormal,” where powerful forces will continue to transform the industry and redefine how you must compete to win.
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How to Acquire New Customers with Sweet Spot Analysis
Pursuing new customers in existing markets can be an expensive proposition if not done with proper planning, analysis and execution.
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How to Improve Customer Retention and Keep Customers from Leaving You
Well-run companies know that customer retention is critical to long term success as a business. For some companies, an annual increase of 1% in customer retention over each of the next ten years results in 20% increase in annual earnings. Retention is powerful for several reasons.
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Can Your Team Sell Your Company’s Value?
While some distributors have spent time creating a value proposition that employees can recite by heart, when it comes time to really talk about how to sell their company’s value, many salespeople falter.