Sales channels to reach your customers
Selling through retailers, wholesalers and other distributors
Selling through an intermediary may be a more cost-effective way of reaching your end-customers than selling to them directly.
If you are targeting business customers who prefer to deal with large suppliers, selling directly to them may not be a realistic option. Instead, you might aim to supply wholesalers who have existing relationships with those businesses.
If individual consumers buy low value quantities of your products, the best option might be to target retailers that sell similar products. Or you might choose to focus your efforts on a relatively small number of wholesalers who can in turn supply your products to many retailers.
Other distribution channels may also reach your end-customers. For example, technology suppliers often sell to resellers who can configure and install the technology to suit end-users’ particular needs.
Managing your distributors
You need distributors who will value your product. If they sell competing products, what will make them push yours?
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Think about how you set your prices. Distributors will be more enthusiastic if they can make a large profit – but setting too low a price will eat into your own margins.
Effective advertising and promotions can be vital. As well as marketing to the distributor, you can promote your products directly to end-customers. Distributors will be keener to stock and sell products that their customers are asking for.
The key terms of the supply relationship should be covered in a written contract. Key issues might include:
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how much stock the distributor will hold
what the distributor will do to promote your products
how quickly you can resupply and minimum order levels
whether the distributor has exclusive rights to your product (for example, in a particular territory)
what happens if either you or the distributor want to end the relationship
Business ideas, Marketing and sales , promotions and advertising ideas , articles
LinkedIn for Lead Generation
LinkedIn for Lead Generation
brianoconn
Business Tips, Social Media Marketing, Social Selling
May 5, 2015April 27, 2016
4 Minutes
LinkedIn can be a powerful sales tool when used as part of lead generation and networking activities. As social selling and reaching social influencers becomes ever more important in raising awareness of a company, brand, product or service it is important to use LinkedIn effectively.
However, before any lead generation can happen, it is important to build up your network and influence across the social groups on LinkedIn. Every business, marketing and sales person should focus on 3 key actions.
Give to receive: Share quality, relevant content and news from multiple sources.
Behaviour: Buyers are well informed and knowledgeable so be genuine and insightful.
Connecting: Invest time connecting to people you know plus customers, influencers etc.
Here is some pointers to maximize LinkedIn for lead generation:
Tip 1. Profile: Yes, it seems obvious that you need a profile but the point is you need a full profile (photo, career, articles, social pitch) that will support the lead generation activities, not just any profile mashed together.
Tip 2. Think of your profile as a commercial that clearly spells out what you do. So make sure you complete the entire profile (also state that you are open to connecting with people), you could also import your resume or CV.
Tip 3. Make sure maximize the section below your name by using keywords. Select keywords that promote your products or services. If a potential buyer is searching for someone to do sales and marketing they are more likely to find you than if you list your company name.
Tip 4. Spend time completing your work history, summary and employment sections (again using active keywords), highlight any accomplishments or achievements. This builds trust within the LinkedIn community.
Tip 5. On-line users can be very visual, so try to include Slideshare content, presentations or videos on your profile and not forgetting any articles you published on LinkedIn pulse. This builds authority.
Tip 6. Unless you are a major social influencer, it is best to keep your LinkedIn profile pretty open as you are using LinkedIn for lead generation, so the easier it is for social ties to connect with you, the better. This builds connections to business people and weaker social ties.
Build Relationships Steadily
The whole premises of using LinkedIn is to build relationships with business colleagues, potential buyers, existing customers, business people you know and to build connections with weak ties via group participation
LinkedIn suggest this 5 step process for building effective relationships based on social media best practices:
Establish presence (Give to receive)
Attract followers (Give to receive)
Engage followers (Behaviour)
Share your message (content, news, articles) through your network (Connecting)
Analyse results and refine your strategy
As I keep stating, you will attract more followers and connections if you post fresh, valuable content on a regular basis.
Use Content Marketing
I have written elsewhere on The Bitter Business site about the power of content marketing. On LinkedIn stories that have a social twist, that educate, that gives insights or have a human element will attract the highest readership.
Posting articles with a variety of content, on a regular basis on LinkedIn or indeed any social network is best practise. The content should consist of sharing blog (links) updates, as well as unique written content for LinkedIn to share with your connections.
Remember content marketing creates awareness of your company and puts you on the road as an authority within a group or subject. Also, as with all content marketing, make sure your content is SEO optimized. Without being overly promotional try to include a subtle call to action (CTA) in your LinkedIn posts. Including a link back to your company website is a great way to increase your lead generation performance.
Content marketing is not just about self-promotion, it also includes content curation and is a good way to encourage connections by sharing updates from social influencers and industry experts in your own updates. It is all about, giving to receive as you cannot expect sharing of your own content unless you are willing to share quality content written by others.
Try to give LinkedIn updates daily, maybe once or twice a day (with no more than a couple per day). Some social media gurus believe sharing posts in the morning works best, my own view is either late afternoon or just after lunch. Experiment to see what times work best for you.
Match the Buyers Journey
Content marketing is aimed at matching the needs of potential customers as they travel the buyers journey awareness, consideration and decision. We now know from studies that in todays on-line world, B2B buyers do most of their information and awareness gathering on-line, not waiting for some salesperson to ring them up. In fact, many B2B customers prefer to purchase on-line thats how Dell created a global business selling computers online.
It is critical that you DO NOT view your content shared on LinkedIn as some sort of teaser or preamble in B2B lead generation it is the main tool in creating buyer awareness!! Always give readers all the information they need to work with you, not just a few selected sound bites or customer success stories. Your tactics is to carry potential customers on the buyers journey from awareness to consideration, on to decision and through post-purchase. So the content shared should include information on using the product or service, answers about installation or how to use, any industry recommendations or awards plus encourage feedback on the articles are all important factors in providing for the entire buyers journey.
Analyse and Tweak
No lead generation or marketing campaign is complete without capturing data to assess performance and provide information to tweak the campaign. LinkedIn provides some good analytic tools to track performance of your LinkedIn company pages including clicks and other interactions. Make the most of these analytic insights by doing conscious testing article headlines, post types, post times not just monitoring passively. With patience and work, LinkedIn social selling can not only generate leads but also influence buyers considerations.
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Social Selling TipsIn “Business Tips”Online Lead Generation using Social MediaIn “Business Tips”What is Social CredibilityIn “Social Selling”
Taggedcustomer acquisitionlead generationLinkedInsalessales leadsales lead generationsales leadssales managementsellingSocial Sellingsocial selling LinkedInsocial selling training
Published by brianoconn
Online Sales training programs and online sales training courses via The Digital Sales Institute. Passion for helping salespeople succeed in their sales career.
View all posts by brianoconn
Published
May 5, 2015April 27, 2016
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