Author: Mark Dancer, NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence Fellow
7 Strategic Findings Regarding the Adoption and Use of Digital Tools
We have identified seven strategic findings for wholesaler-distributors, especially for the leaders who will set visions, define goals, and drive execution: 1. Digital tools hold promise and peril for distributors. As intermediaries between customers and suppliers, distributors hold the knowledge, information, and data that drive the value chain. Digital tools can help harness those data [...]
Top Concerns Distributors Have About Adopting Customer Relationship Management – CRM
We found that wholesaler-distributors that have not adopted CRM are cautious, seeking greater assurance that their investments of time and cash will deliver results for their businesses. Few distributors reject the premise that there is a fundamental need for automation of the sales management process, much as automation has improved other aspects of their business. [...]
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6 Customer Buying Behaviors in the Era of Digital Tools
We asked wholesaler-distributors to share their views on evolving customer buying behavior in light of e-commerce and other digital tools, and then we organized responses into six common descriptions, as shown below. These findings are a starting point for each distributor to understand its own customers and for beginning to develop strategies for a new [...]
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4 Ways to Utilize Data Collected from CRM Analytics
Our conversations with executives and sales leaders for my book, Getting the Most Out of CRM, identified four immediate analytical uses for the data that CRM can provide: 1. Account profitability: One wholesaler-distributor is already using data to segment customers on two dimensions: valued services and account profitability. On the first dimension, valued services, sales [...]
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3 Benefits of Adopting CRM for Sales Leaders
Our interviews with principals and sales executives for my book, Getting the Most Out of CRM, identified three primary benefits of CRM for sales leaders, each of which helps to stretch the sales leader from tactical execution to strategic contribution: 1. Improving sales forecasts: In many distribution sales organizations, a salesperson’s goals are determined by [...]
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3 Success Factors Helpful in Building Your List of CRM Vendor-Selection Criteria
When I interviewed wholesaler-distributors for my book, Getting the Most Out of CRM, most executives described selection processes that are practical, flexible, and not overly burdened with formal requirements or procedures. That’s not to say that these approaches were necessarily swift, however. Some were, but almost all wholesaler-distributors emphasized that making the best possible choice [...]
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Your One-Two Punch for Digital Competitiveness
In today’s fast-changing markets, the adoption and use of digital tools are helping wholesaler-distributor executives position their companies for increased profits through superior customer experiences and differentiated, productive, and efficient services. Success is about having a digital strategy and following through with smart execution. It’s about knowing where to go … and how to get [...]
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3 Reasons Why Successful Distributors Adopt CRM
In writing my book, Getting the Most Out of CRM, I asked distributors to describe the rational for their “go” decision to adopt Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and they gave me three: 1. Adopt it because it’s the right thing to do Even if a wholesaler-distributor can’t envision how CRM will immediately improve the performance of [...]
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3-Step Process for Developing a Value Strategy
Here’s a three-step process for developing a value strategy for leveraging information, improving productivity, and positively affecting a wholesaler-distributor’s business results. Step 1: Define Your Core Value Our interviews with wholesaler-distributors revealed fundamental decisions around the range of solutions offered to customers (supply-focused vs. business-wide) and productivity or relationship tradeoff s (transactions vs. interactions). It’s [...]
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12 Benefits of Digital Tools Identified by Distributors
Digital tools: 1. Strengthen the firm’s offerings 2. Provide a platform for competitive differentiation 3. Enhance solutions offered to customers 4. Help to expand the base of served customers 5. Better the customer experience 6. Capture value through margins and growth 7. Assist to improve business process quality and efficiency 8. Enrich organizational collaboration and [...]
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