Online Analytics And Independent Sales Reps: A Powerful Combination
By Bill King
Many companies in the water and wastewater markets sell their products through 3rd party representation. For overseas manufacturers, it has proven the means over many years for entering the U.S. market. Even for U.S.-based manufacturers whose executive talent prefers to focus on the engineering discipline of product innovation and development over the softer skills of persuasion and negotiation, independent representation remains central to their business development success.
To retain good representation, manufacturers have historically had to focus on a handful of deliverables. Most have involved time and reliability. Ensuring the goods sold arrive on time. Making sure that the goods sold reliably do what they were sold to do. And perhaps most importantly, making sure commissions are delivered reliably and on time for a hard job well done.
For years, the only connection many manufacturers have had with their end users has been through their distribution or independent sales channels. But with the onset of the Information Age and the power of online analytics, manufacturers are beginning to learn about their customers’ preferences, concerns, needs etc. firsthand through the study of their users’ online behavior.
It would be easy to conclude that one source of information would be better than the other. Easy to suggest that feedback from a real conversation in the market between a sales rep and potential customer would provide significantly more value than statistics on the read of a particular piece of content online. Or to determine that a year’s worth of big data analysis on the consumption habits of the industry would outweigh the feedback from a single frontline salesperson from a local event in a distant corner of the kingdom.
The reality is that capturing feedback regardless of source is valuable but sharing that feedback and analyzing it against other sources becomes incredibly powerful. For too long, independent sales reps have reluctantly embraced their principals’ marketing efforts in an attempt to protect their in-market value from becoming eroded. But what if a sustained focus on lead nurturing begins to identify opportunities for them?
And vice versa, could sales rep feedback begin to inform the types of content needed in the market to answer real customer questions? It’s time to align efforts. The whole to be won is significantly greater than what’s possible through siloed sales and marketing efforts.