How marketing with manufacturers can strengthen the sale.
It might be sufficient to conduct thorough research, produce detailed proposals and drop off a few catalogs when selling solutions to clients. But if the expertise of manufacturers is not added into the mix, it may not be enough.
When offering a complete solution sell these days, it is the teamwork between the distributor and manufacturer that can provide the extra power needed to win over large re-gional and national accounts—even ones that might have utilized directs in the past.
This was just the case for Jim Constantin, product manager for Source4, Roanoke, Va., who competed against Moore Business Forms, Stamford, Conn., for a project involving pressure seal forms at a major university.
According to Constantin, Moore offered an imprinting program with guaranteed pricing for an entire year—regardless of quantities ordered.
"This wasn't an easy bid to beat," said Constantin. "So, we handed over all the details of the job to [Fairhope, Alabama-based] PrintXcel which came up with a better pricing program that eventually won us the business. "Had PrintXcel not worked with us," conceded Constantin, "we wouldn't have gotten the job."
This is just one example of how manufacturers and distributors can work together to add more power to a sales presentation. Other examples include less direct means such as branded and non-branded collateral, prod-uct and service training seminars and facility tours.
Marketing director for PrintXcel, Martha Mason said that many salespeople make use of PrintXcel's non-branded bro-chures on which distributors' names can be printed.
"This way salespeople can go into their clients' offices and present themselves as total solution providers," said Mason. "It's just one way for us to support our distributors and help them speed up the sale."
Mason added that this same concept is used during educational seminars conducted for both distributors and their prospective end-users. "Instead of trying to explain where we fit in, we will simply act as the training arm of the distributor," she explained
The advantage to utilizing manufacturers for educational seminars at all, Mason continued, is that they have a different perspective to offer.
Kelly Smith, vice president of sales and operations, Print-Source, Spartanburg, S.C., agreed that manufacturers are an invaluable resource, stating that he often researches manufacturers' capabilities in order to find out exactly what type of business they are best suited for.
"This knowledge saves me a lot of time because it prevents me from trying to force a square peg into a round hole when selling to an end-user," Smith said.
In some cases, Smith said that his research involves visiting a manufacturer's facility, which can offer distributors the insight needed to match products with end-users.
By fully understanding the capabilities of two separate manufacturers, PrintSource was able to secure a complex long-term project.
"We dealt with a restaurant chain that needed us to develop a product containing several pages of arbitration agreements to go along with a two-part form application," said Smith.
Knowing that Peninsular Printing, Daytona Beach, Fla., was capable of saddle stitching the application, Smith contacted its president, Bill Maguire, for help designing the product. Both Smith and Maguire then contacted another manufacturer that could create the two-part forms needed for the job. Once those forms were manufactured, they were shipped to Peninsular to be saddle-stitched and then distributed by Smith.
"This solved a major problem for the restaurant chain," said Smith. "And the project turned out to be a good job for us, which we continue to handle now."
Knowledge Is Power
While the willingness to share ideas and capabilities is not a new concept, the idea of forming a council of industry professionals for the betterment of marketing products is.
Charged with helping to shape the forms industry by developing strategies to satisfy the demands of the distributor marketplace, a new advisory council, formed by PrintXcel, has met twice since the second half of last year.
According to Mason, the council consists of 10 distributors and several industry experts. "By discussing the trends and consumer demands that industry professionals are discovering these days, distributors will gain a marketing advantage," said Mason.
The advisory council, noted Mason, is just one form of education that PrintXcel is offering to assist with marketing. Another is a certification program being designed to educate distributors about PrintXcel's VariMail product—a personalized direct mail offering that involves the manipulation of customer and business databases.
"A higher level of education, selling strategies and product and market information is needed by the distributor in order to successfully sell VariMail," said Mason. "We are creating the certification program to provide the details they need to effectively sell this system.
"Through these programs we are establishing very deep relationships with distributors," she continued. "Though what we provide doesn't always have immediate yield, it continues to reinforce strong relationships, and that's what team marketing is all about."
By Sharon R. Cole
- Companies:
- Peninsular Printing
- PrintXcel
- Places:
- Roanoke, Va.
- Stamford, Conn.