Distributors in every industry are wrestling with the disruption caused by online retailers. This article is a perfect example: Guess what Distributors? Turns out that you can fight what you can’t see.
Modern buyers expect a sales representative to be a trusted business adviser. They demand a high degree of collaboration and insight. They are looking for sales people to address business issues and to propose solutions that impact their bottom line.
Rarely does a company have a clear price or product advantage. There is also increasing parity in “value-added” services. Buyers tell us that differentiation is no longer based on price, product or service. The seller makes all the difference.
Seller’s behaviors and actions have 2 to 3 times more impact on sales success than any other factor. However, only 2 in 10 sales reps have the required skills to succeed in the modern business-to-business sales environment.
The disconnect between the buyer’s expectations of a sales person and the sales person’s capabilities, results in buyers either moving business away from independent distribution or finding a distributor whose sales team can deliver.
The distributors that will succeed understand the new reality. Growing faster than the industry and more rapidly than your competitors begins by having the courage to evaluate your sales force capability. Diving deeply into the capabilities of your sales team to determine how well they are suited to selling in 2017 is the first step and the foundation of everything that needs to be done to succeed.
Since it is hard to know where to begin, we have made a suite of tools available at no charge. Free sales tools to quickly see how your team stacks up.
Beating well-capitalized foes with ubiquitous market presence is not easy. However, there is a tremendous opportunity for those that understand that the market has changed and are willing to adapt. Are you?