Align and Conquer
RB: Distributors may not have the ability to see all the applications, designs and markets that we see coming through the plant. We push this knowledge out through our INSIGHTS newsletter, social media, white papers, videos, blog and our website. Besides this education, we also offer onsite Lunch and Learn programs, online education and will certainly make joint sales calls.
MC: Label Art hosts Label Boot Camp twice a year. Distributors join us in a day of education and training on products and services that Label Art provides. Label Art also launched an updated website late January 2015. The new site has a marketing section where each of the unbranded marketing pieces we offer to our dealers can be downloaded and personalized. These sales tools are great for prospecting or as cross-sell tools to existing customers. In addition, our sales staff attends joint sales calls or more frequently joint teleconferences. Our customer service staff is also regularly cross-trained on the different products we offer, so sometimes calling in for a quote can turn into an educational experience for our dealers.
AS: We do whatever is needed, but, more specifically, joint sales calls. We have had distributors who’ve gone on vacation or are unavailable for a certain amount of time and we’ll tell our distributors to give me, Dick Kline [our vice president of distributor sales], or any number of people over here at Datatel a call if they need something, and we’ll step in. When we’re needed at a customer’s location, if we’re generally given 24 hours notice, we’ll find a way of being there.
P+P: In order to get the job done—and done well—what do you need from your distributor partners?
RB: Accurate information. This may sound like an SOP, however, we often only get enough information to produce a product, not provide options for better solutions. The more information we can receive on how a document is used, what’s not working, what are the customer’s goals and what is on their “wish list,” the better we can provide the best solutions to benefit the client and potentially elevate our distributors position within the account.
MC: Communication is key for us to deliver a job that not only meets a customer’s needs, but exceeds them. Most transactions are very smooth—as technology becomes more accessible, our partners have become even more knowledgeable and comfortable asking for what they want. But when a problem arises, be it budget or time constraints, our partners should feel comfortable calling us with their situation and letting us offer solutions. We’re not just offering labels, we’re offering years of expertise to find an answer that will keep their customer on time, on budget, and most of all, happy.
AS: We need our distributors to do what they do best and that’s to sell and create relationships. Contrary to what you hear sometimes, we’re not the selling experts. If we’re brought along, and we should be brought along in certain opportunities, we can certainly help. We’re very good in front of customers, but we are a low-cost, wholesale manufacturer—sales is not what we do best. So, what we need our distributors to do is to get out there and sell (even if it’s an existing customer), to support the relationship on a consistent basis, to call on us and include us when it’s strategically best to do so, and to make sure that that relationship is maintained. We can support and we should support. We can answer technical questions. We can offer suggestions on ways to improve their efficiency. Probably the most important thing we can do is we can give the end-user the comfort level that there is a very reliable team backing up the proposal. I know the end-user likes to see the integration of the distributor and manufacturer and how the two of them are going to support their business. End-users are more and more open to how that relationship between a distributor and a manufacturer works, so if you can get in front of the customer and demonstrate that, there are many customers who are open to that. We call it the triangle between the distributor, manufacturer and end-user. If we can connect them, then we’ve done a good job. It’s about being in front of a customer and having them feel very comfortable with the people who are in front of them that they can get the job done. That can be a very strategic discussion about efficiencies and processes, or that can be a dinner and a night at the ball game where you just get to know each other.
P+P: What lessons have you learned from your various partnerships along the way? Is there anything you would’ve done differently?