Does your B2B strategy include E-Commerce? Make sure it includes your dealers, too.

At this evolutionary moment in time, we’re all still figuring out how to do business. The pace of change has us a bit fatigued, and new challenges have us scratching our heads. One of the faster-moving trends in sales and marketing is the integration of E-commerce in industrial B2B sales. Everyone knew it was important. […]
Let’s Make the Dealer the Hero of Your Brand

Your dealers should be catalysts that propel your brand forward. Marketing and brand directors will likely nod along and say, “Absolutely, they should be. But they aren’t.” I’ve witnessed frustration on both sides of the fence between dealers and the manufacturers they represent. Like any relationship it requires effort from both parties. But dealers are required to serve many masters, so for better or worse the lion’s share of the effort in this relationship belongs to the manufacturer. Of course, the manufacturers also reap most of the rewards.
Helping Your Dealers Starts with Understanding Their Business

Heavy equipment and truck dealers manage a lot of competing priorities: Staffing, sales and marketing, evolving technology, and dealing with market forces. Brands often want to help, but many run into an obstacle that prevents them from making a difference. They just don’t understand the dealer’s business from the dealer’s perspective. Understanding that perspective means […]
Handing off a warm lead to a dealer is precarious. We can fix that.

Only one out of three independent dealers respond in a timely manner to an inbound lead generated from a brand’s marketing campaign. Let that sink in: 66% of inbound leads—your leads—end up in a digital black hole. Marketing campaigns get complicated when your brand sells through independent dealers. You put in a lot of time, […]
A Common Sense Guide to Evaluating Your Dealers: Part II

A Common Sense Guide to Evaluating Your Dealers: Part II Questions & Answers (During our webinar on dealer evaluations, which we adapted for our last article, we got a lot of good questions. This time, we’re giving brands the floor and offering our answers to their burning questions.) “How many people should be on the review […]
Five Things That Will Make Dealers Sell Your Brand

Brands that sell through dealer networks rely on them to close the sale. So at a key moment – when money is about to change hands – dealers are in control of the brand promise and presentation.
The Right Way to Reward Dealers

Awards. Rewards. Incentives. Whatever you call them, brands struggle with the right way to use them to engage and motivate dealers.