Today we’ve got a guest blogger talking about how small / niche manufacturers can succeed. It can be a hard road, but one that with some perseverance can be very important to a distributor (in serving their customer) and obviously to the rep / manufacturer. Our guest today is Hugh Daly. Hugh was formerly Director of Sales for Molex Industrial.
“With over 30 years in sales, I feel comfortable in stating that the primary goal of any sales team is to grow revenues in their assigned territory. Management sets quotas and publishes forecasts, yet in the end the dictate is to grow your business by outselling and taking market share from your competitors!
We all know the market leaders in our given market space, the ones who have mid double digit market shares and are the default winners of purchase orders just because they are the defacto leader in that segment. You may have heard the phrase “you won’t get fired for buying IBM”, (or Apple for the Millennials!) but how about such industrial market leaders as Eaton? or Hubbell? or Rockwell? So how do the “underdogs”, or small market share players, manage to get a toehold against the giants?
In my career, I have worked for companies that have been minority market share players and in some cases new entrants to the market just trying to make a splash with their products! The challenge is one that has made my life in sales exciting and at times exasperating, but in the end, much like AVIS trying harder in the rental car business, chasing the coattails of market leaders can be gratifying and lucrative when you achieve success!
What are the keys to achieving success as a non-dominant player in your market? Here are my three ingredients for small company success:
- Be present: It may seem very simplified, but your mere presence at your distributors’ branches is a huge factor in your ability to win business. I don’t mean the usual show your face and say hello to everyone as you “blow and go” in an effort to hit as many branches as you can that day. I am talking about quality time spent getting to know your distributors and their people. How often do you visit a branch and walk right past the inside sales desk to get to the manager’s office? Are you bringing value to the people that you speak to or are you just taking up space, and their valuable time, to make you feel like you are being productive? Calls at branches are not about you, they are about the distributor and bringing them information that can help them close sales with their customers!
- Build trust: This is an important aspect for successful sales people at their distributors and at the customer location as well! In my years of sales training, I have always loved the term, “trusted advisor”. This is the pinnacle of the sales process at work in your territory. You have to be dedicated to following a strict sales process (and hopefully your company has one, or you’ve developed your own) to ever achieve this position with your customers, but when you do, you and your distributor will reap the rewards. But how do you get to this point? This begins with being prepared, ALL THE TIME! Pre-call planning and preparation; learning as much as you can about the customer and their potential issues and concerns; asking key questions to identify issues and concerns impacting them today; bringing them information that will solve their problems and then following through on your commitments ALL THE TIME! This is not an easy task, but as I learned from my father, “Nothing good ever comes easy, son!” Become that “Trusted Advisor” to your distributor and you will find the opportunity to grow, and your business will blossom like the flowers of springtime!
- Exceed expectations: Again, not rocket science, as we all know that we like to do business with people that provide an extraordinary experience, be it your coffee choices, food choices or clothing choices. Why should it be any different for the distributors that we work with day in and day out? Once you show up, bring value and build trust, then following through on your commitments seems like the natural thing to do. Exceeding the expectations set for you is merely icing on the cake and is the “Trump Card” to assure that you become the preferred source for whatever it is you are selling! As sales trainer Jeffrey Gitomer likes to say, make these “WOW!” moments for your distributors be. EVERY TIME!
As with everything in sales, there is no easy street and no sure bets, but there is no doubt that your presence in your market can be greatly enhanced by using these 3 ingredients as you engage and interact with your distributors. Be the one who brings the WOW! to your distributors ALL THE TIME!”
If you’re a small manufacturer or represent a small manufacturer, do you agree or what do you find successful?
If you’re a distributor, what do you want from these types of manufacturers?
Hugh can be reached by emailing him at hdaly777@gmail.com.
1 Comment
This is in response to Hugh Daly’s blog. Hugh raises a lot of what I call “Sales 101” basics which unfortunately have sometimes been forgotten, ignored or neglected in the ‘information’ age. While we are for ever connected more today and ever in history, are we “communicating”? Industrial sales (especially thru distribution and rep channels) is one based on Customer, Channel and Product Intimacy. As Hugh states, make yourself “USEFUL” or you can be quickly passed over for the internet, social media or the 000s of inbound marketing tools available to a competitor. Some tips that have worked for my teams and I especially when you have to open, nurture, build and execute on global far away channel partners, OEMs and End Users are:
1. Humanize the Business – make yourself available for anything and try to “understand” the customer and his/her needs (Distributor too is a customer for the supplier)
2. Empower the Partners – Do not make the channel come to you – i.e. don’t cut off the field. They are your soldiers and make sure their guns are loaded and not just an empty gun.
3. Deliver by Taking Ownership – Under no circumstances, allow your distributor partner to look bad in front of the customer. Always, take ownership and adopt a “let’s make it happen” mindset. All errors and/or disagreements can be sorted out after the customer is happy.
Luck is not a strategy. Consistent delivery performance, empowering the customer either with information, technology and/or an edge and most of all, to always find ways to bring value to the customer and making his/her job easier. This will deliver close to 100% customer satisfaction and in the words of a former Honeywell President, Dave Larkin, Focus on this and the “numbers will always fall where they need to “.
Great Selling!
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