Companies with less than $50 million in annual revenue have limited capabilities with outbound telephone sales, in-store marketing and e-commerce that affect the bottom line, according to Jonathan Bein, Ph.D., senior partner at Real Results Marketing. Bein emphasized the importance of developing and refining a strong multichannel marketing strategy in a recent MDM Podcast, Sales Reps are Not Enough: Getting the Marketing Mix Right.
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According to Bein’s research and his own experience, smaller distributors that focus heavily on outside sales and inbound telephone sales are missing the boat when it comes to re-investing in, and diversifying, their marketing mix.
E-commerce is one area where smaller distributors struggle to compete. This may be due in part to distributors’ hesitancy around e-commerce platforms’ ability to accommodate complex pricing structures or multiple distribution centers, according to Kevin Cooper, director of sales and marketing for Insite Software in the MDM article, E-Commerce Evolves for Distributors.
According to a survey by Real Results Marketing and MDM, 40 percent of distributors have no revenue from e-commerce and almost 10 percent have no plans to ever enable an e-commerce platform. (See The State of E-Commerce in Distribution.) According to Bein, market leaders who do devote significant resources to e-commerce, and other non-standard channels, get better results.