Nurturing distribution partnerships

As a manufacturer, you may be looking to expand your reach and increase your sales. One of the best ways to achieve this is by selling through distribution. Almost all manufacturers sell through distribution, and if you're not doing so already, you should seriously consider it. Selling to distributors simplifies your supply chain management and reduces the cost of goods sold.

However, it's not enough to simply sell to distributors and leave it at that. To ensure the success of your products and maintain a valuable partnership with your distributors, you need to learn how to manage these relationships effectively.

Think of this relationship as that of a parent and a child. To rear your child successfully, you must “enable” them and set them up for success. The same is true when it comes to the relationship of manufacturers and their respective distributors. Here are a few ways to nurture these relationships:

Educate Your Distributors About Your Products

Since the burden of explaining the ins and outs of your products to end-users now falls on your distributors, they will need all the support they can get when it comes to understanding your products. Make sure your distributors can answer potential end-user questions about your products. Odds are your distributors are selling other products in the same line as yours. Ensuring that they have a proper and thorough understanding of your products gives you an edge over your competitors. They are more likely to spend time showcasing and explaining a product that they know best, especially if end-users are asking for their input or recommendations.

Webinars, training sessions, certification programs, presentations, ebooks, etc., are great mediums for educating your distributors.

Provide Quick and Easy Access to Necessary Documentation

Make sure your distributors have quick and easy access to any necessary documentation needed to effectively and efficiently close a sale. All things being equal, distributors will always opt to push the product they know more about and can turn into a sale easier. This can be as easy as making sure they have quick access to all the relevant spec sheets on your site or putting together a quick reference part number selection guide so they can guide the end-user to the correct part number they need.

Create Well-Branded Sales and Marketing Collateral

Well-designed sales or marketing collateral such as fact sheets, spec sheets, flyers, brochures, and pricing packets can help distributors sell your product more effectively against the competition. Branding this collateral well will give your products an edge against your competition who may not have these put together as well as yours. Chances are these distributors are most likely to highlight attractive, catchy, well-designed brands that resonate with intended buyers.

Send Them Leads and Help Them Sell

There’s no better way to help ensure the success of your distributors than by sending them leads yourself. By doing so, I don’t mean shooting them phone numbers via email here and there. What you need is to implement a formidable lead generation and lead nurturing strategy as you would for your own business. The only difference here is that you’re letting your distributors close these deals. Nothing will get a distributor on board with your product faster than spoon-feeding them leads (aka money in their pockets).

In conclusion, selling through distribution can be a great way to expand your reach and increase sales. However, it's important to nurture the relationship with your distributors to ensure they can successfully sell your products to end-users. Educating distributors about your products, providing easy access to necessary documentation, creating well-branded sales and marketing collateral, and sending them leads are some ways to set them up for success. Implementing a lead generation and lead nurturing strategy for your distributors will help ensure a lasting and fruitful business relationship.