Delivering expert advice

Kevin Fitzpatrick, the sales manager of fictitious industrial distributor Primo Industrial Supply, felt the winds of change blowing through his warehouse. For too long, his salespeople focused on selling the lowest-priced product. After looking at 2004 revenues, Fitzpatrick realized Primo’s sales were on the decline.

His frustrated sales team looked to him for answers. Fitzpatrick responded with a flash of insight.

He would differentiate Primo from its competitors by asking his outside sales force to provide product application services to customers. But, he had a problem. Fitzpatrick’s salespeople were not engineers and felt unsure about how to dispense proper product application advice to customers.

Before jumping into a product-focused sales call, Primo should first get closer to its customer, and make sure it knows what its customer wants, says George C. Giessing, president of engineered equipment distributor Bruscho-Rich Inc. Primo needs to find its own, unique way of bundling three products: cost reduction, supply chain management and service.

“Then develop a sales strategy that allows them to present their case or demonstrate their capabilities in a manner that fits each customer’s specific needs,” he says. “Certainly you need good products and service capabilities, but without a business match with each customer, you’re just selling commodities, not solutions.”

Delivering complex products often involves a higher degree of technical knowledge and service.  Marina Milenkovic, inside salesperson for industrial distributor S&S Supplies and Solutions, understands that some distributor salespeople are not comfortable with this.

Inviting a manufacturer sales rep along on a distributor sales call can be a good approach, as long as the rep does not sell direct to the end-user, she says.

“Primo’s outside sales team can learn from the manufacturer’s rep out in the field along with the end-user by having hands-on contact with the product,” says Milenkovic. “Scheduled training of Primo’s outside sales force done by the manufacturer’s reps is the best way to go. It builds confidence in your customers by seeing that you have knowledge of the products you are selling.”

Glenn Robinson of GPM Industries, a distributor to the industrial pump and process market, suggested staying closer to home. In order to provide quality product advice to customers, Robinson says Primo should test its employees for technical abilities.

“Access the technical capabilities of the current staff,” says Robinson, who is president of GPM. “Establish a training program supported by the manufacturer to meet the required level of expertise by sales staff and begin to upgrade the sales team with more technically oriented people.”

This article was prepared exclusively for ValueAddedPartners.org. Copyright 2005.

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