In 2011, with Real Results Marketing, we surveyed MDM’s readers about the value they believe they provide to customers relative to the competition.
In that survey, we found that about 90 percent of distributors believed they delivered more value than their competitors for a comparable price, while more than 88 percent emphasized the same attributes.
Those numbers haven't changed much in two years. In the latest issue of MDM Premium, Jonathan Bein writes about the results of the 2013 survey on value and price, which found that just 12 percent of respondents believe they offer comparable value to the competition. That means that the rest believe they are offering more value.
Bein writes: “While it is true that, in an attempt to maintain price and retain customers, these respondents are delivering more value than before the downturn, so are other distributors. Clearly, it is impossible for the overwhelming majority to deliver more value than their competitors.”
In the article, Bein talks about how and why the “Lake Wobegon effect” applies to distributors, and provides some food for thought about what the leaders of distribution companies can do to uncover where they really add value.
Read more about it in this MDM Premium article: How Distributors Say They Measure Up to the Competition.
In a related article in the latest issue of MDM Premium, we spoke with the authors of a recent report on pricing challenges faced by distributors. The study – which spanned all industries – found that no other industry felt more pricing pressure than distribution did. Read about what distributors should do about it in Countering Price Pressure in Distribution.
