Distributor onboarding means that you bring new distributors on in a super-smooth and simple fashion, giving them the foundation to sell your product well. Here’s how to make it happen:
Onboarding new distributors is just as crucial as onboarding new employees or customers. Why? Well, just like your own sales force, you need your distributors to get a strong grasp of your value prop, your pitches and marketing material – and just like your customers, distributors need to know enough about the products and how they work. You need to make sure that they are all ramped up, have everything they need and that they’re ready to sell your product well.
In this post, we want to go through everything you need to know about onboarding new distributors – and where to start.
Five steps to make your distributor onboarding amazing
1. Start before they become distributors
Before you get a new distributor, there are probably a number of documents that they need to share with you. In the same way, there’s probably a lot that you need to share with them, too. By giving them a simple, accessible, digital portal where both parties can share material and ask questions, you can create a smooth experience for new distributors that starts right away.
2. Share relevant training material
To share the training material that a new distributor needs is crucial. This training can beneficially be provided in some digital repository – where it’s easy to find what they need. In other words, you may want to structure the training material you share so that new distributors only get what they really need (i.e. if they’re only selling Product A, you don’t want to share a large folder that contains material about Product A, B and C).
3.Give them access to everything they need
New distributors probably need an easy way to access marketing and sales material, product images, tutorials, certificates. This should be made available digitally – and preferably be packaged in such a way that distributors can easily share it with end-customers. The easier you make it to work with your product message, the more likely it will be that distributors get a strong start and actually work to get your product out there.
4. Check in continuously
Set up scheduled calls or meetings to check in on progress – and keep in touch between calls. By maintaining a continuous communication, you’ll be able to answer questions quickly, and help distributors maintain momentum.
5. Keep an eye on the data
As distributors start interacting with end-customers, you’ll want to keep an eye on how they’re doing. If you can get data on how new distributors interact with customers – and how customers interact with your material – you’ll be able to help them move forward while also sharing important feedback to your own marketing and product teams.
Distributor onboarding: at least as important as internal sales onboarding
With the above points, you can have an easier time managing your distributor onboarding, and getting new distributors up and running. Something that can make a huge difference; in fact, we could almost make the claim that onboarding distributors is more important than onboarding internal sales teams. After all, you usually have a good view of how your sales teams are doing – while distributors are oftentimes working in your blindspot, a few steps removed from your watchful eye.
By removing this blindspot, you can set the foundation for a strong partnership that truly delivers, where distributors can easily be managed and where they start selling from the get go. Sounds rather good, wouldn’t you say?
SP_CE gives you one tool that lets you seamlessly onboard new distributors, manage each and everyone throughout their journey – and enable them with the right material and product message. Contact us today to see how it works in action.
