There is a trick to improve distributor performance. First of all, you need to give them the right conditions, the material, knowledge and systems they need to successfully sell your product. Secondly, you need to continuously engage them. They need to want to sell your product, in order to sell it well.
How to make this happen? Here, we’ve gathered 10 tips that can help you boost distributor performance on these two levels:
10 ways to boost distributor performance
1. Provide the right training
Your distributors need to know your product(s) to sell them well. To make sure they perform well, it can be beneficial to provide them with two things: (1) the fundamental training they need and (2) a relevant repository of training material. I.e. you’ll want to give them access to training that is relevant to what they sell.
2. Give incentives
A great incentive can work wonders – and having a strong incentive program can help boost distributor performance substantially. Here, you may want to find a system that allows you to segment your distributors, track performance and engagement and give select distributors access to select material and privileges. Something that can make it so much easier to manage your incentive program.
3. Communicate consistently
Make sure you can communicate with distributors efficiently – and allow them to communicate with you in real time. This can help clear up any questions and make sure they don’t lose momentum.
In the same way, you’ll want to give distributors the tools they need to communicate with end customers, and show your product in the best of light. This could, for example, be a microsite that perfectly shows your product message and makes it easy for distributors to communicate it.
4. Provide marketing support
Your distributors need access to your great marketing material. Otherwise, they may fail in their efforts or try their hands at creating their own (which can easily turn into a marketeer’s nightmare). With that, you may want to provide them with an easy-to-reach repository of marketing material, a repository that you always keep updated as new versions and material are released.
6. Give them a way to analyze performance
By giving distributors a way to see how potential end customers are interacting around their material, and how engaged they are in the sales process, your distributors can make truly data-driven decisions that get results.
7. Create a customer feedback loop
Encourage your distributors to gather and share customer feedback. It will allow you to collaborate with distributors to become even more attractive to potential customers, and can help the both of you to improve results.
8. Nurture solid reltionships
The relationship you have with your distributors needs to be nurtured. You need to be there for them, listen to questions and answer as soon as possible. In other words, you need a structure and system for nurturing distributor relations and helping them grow stronger with time.
9. Get out of your inbox
Oftentimes, distributor questions can come via emails, and responsible partner managers (or equivalent) may spend hours a day sending responses. This takes a lot of time that could be spent enabling distributors in other ways, and increases the risk that a question is missed. Something that can stop your distributor from pursuing a sale.
By finding tools that allow you to communicate directly with distributors (like the digital rooms in SP_CE), you can make sure that no question is left unanswered – while saving a lot of time.
Your distributor experience is as important as your customer experience. How easy it is to work with you, to sell your product and engage with your organization, will directly impact distributor performance. With that, you’ll want to streamline your distributor experience and make it as smooth as it can possibly be.
