Distribution

A decade ago, disintermediation was all the rage and the wholesale distributor model was under pressure. Today, distributors continue to provide a pivotal role in a manufacturer’s efficient go-to-market model—but the challenges have evolved. Margins are under constant pressure as traditional sales models exhibit diminished effectiveness. Growth must come from new sources such as private-label products and from more efficient and effective go-to-market structures as well. Sales and marketing functions have been particularly challenged by:

• Changing buying processes as customers adapt to macroeconomic pressure
• Aggressive nontraditional competitors
• Consolidation across all sectors
• Inflationary dampers on organic growth
• Evolving roles of channels and partners

In such a complex and changing market, customer focus is more important than ever. We have tackled these challenges head-on with many leading wholesale distributors, helping these businesses improve their sales and marketing effectiveness and productivity.

Our consulting engagements focus on creating sustainable competitive advantage for our clients in a dynamic global marketplace, and cover a broad spectrum of sales and marketing capabilities.

We work closely with our clients to:

• Create growth strategies based on fact-driven customer insights, competitive understanding and market opportunity assessment
• Develop go-to-market models built upon needs-based customer segmentation, customer-to-channel alignment and value proposition definition
• Design and optimize sales force structures, including sales force sizing, inside sales teams, deployment and streamlining of sales processes
• Build operational capabilities through effective expertise and tools that guide hiring, training and coaching practices; align and integrate performance management and compensation programs; and provide decision support grounded in rigorous sales and marketing analytics

If you would like to learn more about our experience with wholesale distribution, we would be happy to discuss our insights regarding key challenges, critical success factors and proven approaches.