Printing Innovation Asia Issue 11 2020
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3 Ways to Influence a Dealer or Distributor Sales Force Question - Is there a proactive way to implement a program from manufacturers to encourage distributors to have their sales force sell our product instead of another? My intention is to have the salesperson give quotes for our product more frequently? And how can we appeal to retail users more? Especially ones that are taking bids from competitors that are not represented by our distributor? Historically, we’ve shown favor to our distributors and given them discounts. Unfortunately, the benefits seem to end up in their gross profits. They have not been passed along to retail. It then appears that we are either not competitive, or don’t have a price advantaged. Furthermore, our distributor network has come to expect lower costs on a regular basis. Your thoughts, please. A. I think too many of us operate on the assumption that money is
the only motivator, whether it is for a sales force or a group of dealer or distributor salespeople. I’m coming to appreciate more and more the power of other kinds of motivators.
Let’s start there. Don’t assume that more money in the deal is going to get you the results you want. What else can you do?
