5 steps to drive effective distributor sales growth
1. Nurture distributor relationships
Building and maintaining solid relationships with manufacturers is absolutely necessary to drive results. You´ll want to make sure that you and your distributors grow closer in time by communicating regularly, having an ongoing dialogue about challenges, sharing updates on market conditions and getting to know one another to become true partners that genuinely care about your mutual success.
2. Promote product expertise
A distributor that becomes a product expert will not just be likely to put your product first – but will also have a higher chance of closing sales. They need some help to get there, though, and can benefit from getting the necessary information about technical specifications, comparisons with other products and competitors, customer needs and market trends and news. By providing this type of information and making sure distributors go through it, you´ll give them the foundational knowledge they need to drive sales.
3. Define your value prop
Distributors must clearly articulate your value prop, which means they have to understand not just the product but where it fits into the larger market. By having an ongoing dialogue, discussing the value prop and giving them a chance to not just understand but articulate it, they´ll have a much higher chance of making sales.
4. Make it easy to reach marketing material
Distributors that have an easy time finding what they need will not just be more likely to put your product first, but will also run a lower risk of losing sales momentum.
5. Develop partner sales reps
Needless to say, a well-trained, motivated sales team will do better than a sales team that lack these things. In other words, you´ll do well to provide ongoing training programs, communicating performance metrics and having a crystal clear segmentation of partners to avoid channel conflict.
