Distributor sales enablement basically means that you give distributors the means and material to sell your product well. Here’s everything you need to know to start enabling your distributors and boost their performance.
Ok, so distributor sales enablement means that you equip your distribution partners with the tools, resources, and knowledge they need to sell your product(s) well. The goal is to ensure that distributors are as informed and agile as your own sales team, that they can articulate your product message and value prop and get end-customers to understand what makes you and your products great.
Distributor sales enablement – in 3 steps
- Give distributors training and education: First things first: distributors need to be onboarded and trained to understand what they’re selling. Here, you may want to run training sessions and share material that helps them understand the WHAT, HOW and WHY. Remember, they don’t just have to understand how your product works, they also need to grasp the context – why your product beats the competition and how it fits into the market place. If you can give them access to a digital portal where they can always access the material they need to learn, this process can be much faster.
- Provide a digital tool that lets them share the right material – and follow traction: Your distributors are probably sharing everything from brochures and product demos to clinical studies, trials and blueprints. By giving them a way to share these pieces of material and see exactly what end-customers are looking at, they will be enabled to sell your product well. And, if you find a tool that lets YOU track what material they’re sharing and how end-customers are responding, you will get some extremely important information that can allow you to make truly data-driven decisions. For example, you may see that you should strategically expand in an area where end-customers are especially interested in your offering, or you may see that a certain distributor needs a push in the right direction.
- Communicate continuously: Giving distributors the right training and material will enable them, but to make sure they remain enabled you need to maintain a steady communication channel. So that your distributors can quickly get answers to their questions – and won’t lose sales momentum. Remember, maintaining distributor enablement is all about being there for your distributor at every step of the way, and providing the information they need at that moment.
Enabling distributors to perform better than ever
It’s not hard to see just what a difference a strong distributor sales enablement can make. After all, a distributor that does not get answers to their questions, or that struggle with outdated product material and a lack of marketing collateral, will probably also struggle to sell your product. All while a distributor that has access to everything they need – and get real-time updates and answers to their questions – can seamlessly get your product message across and successfully sell your product(s).
What may be more difficult is to see how you can achieve this enablement, which is where SP_CE comes in: We give you one portal to manage and enable ALL your distributors, where each distributor can get easy access to the training and material they need and where you and your team can get questions in real time and respond in seconds. Something that won’t just keep them enabled, but will also save you and your team an enormous amount of time.
Curious to learn more? Contact us today to see how it works in action.
