Changes in the Role of Distribution
One major disruption is that distributors are changing their roles
- Manufacturers have built their GTM strategies around the paradigm; distributors are an extension of the manufacturer’s sales and marketing organizations
- However the role of the distributors may be changing through the services they provide; distributors are becoming an extension of their customer’s businesses
- Communication between manufactures and distributors has to increase to be successful in the face of market disruption forces
- “The manufacture-distributor conduit to the end-user is critical because the distributor hears things the manufacturer does not….Distributors see field problems that manufacturers don’t”
- As the distributors move more to customer service providers, their visibility to customer needs will increase
- For manufacturers to continue to successfully innovate they will need to get closer to these customer needs
- My goal today is to provide a framework that will guide manufacturer / distributor strategies for the future