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Talk to a marketer about how to grow revenue and there’s a good chance you’ll get the following answer:
- Sell more products and services to existing customers
- Find new customers to whom you can sell products and services
- Raise your prices
This is all sound advice, but how do Los Angeles distributors bridge the gap between these fundamental principles and money coming into the corporate bank account? Technology can help in each case.
1. Sell more to existing customers.
A smart customer relationship management (CRM) system can help keep track of resellers needs. The CRM then lets Los Angeles distributors log reseller’s interests as they are expressed. It can even prompt customer service employees to offer real-time solutions likely to appeal to the reseller.
Similarly, marketing automation can filter out interested parties and send them information and offers that match their needs. Resellers may not be under pressure to buy, but they buy because the solutions correspond directly to what they want.
2. Find new customers for your products and services.
Marketing automation helps with new customers too, but it would be even better to locate prospects instead of having to wait for them to find your company. Online advertising is one way, with pay-per-click ads that can run on small budgets.
Software programs that monitor social media and look for certain keywords are another. Referral programs using existing, satisfied customers are a third way. And finally, creating content on your website to attract and educate resellers which is then shared in social media is yet another solution.
3. Increase your prices
Will resellers buy from you if they have to pay more? If you offer additional business advantages and create more profitability, the answer is likely yes.
Added value can be something such as faster shipping (for example, for medical supplies), availability (hot fashion items), pre-delivery assembly or configuration services (for instance, IT), customization (packing and protection of goods shipped), guaranteed quality (fruit and vegetables), or any other extra that lets your resellers retain their customers longer and boost their bottom lines.
Inventory management software, transport management programs, and automated picking and packing systems are just some of the ways technology can assist.
4. Any combination of the above.
Technologies are also talking to each other far more nowadays. While integrated business suites also exist both for use on premise for Los Angeles distributors or as a cloud solution, systems from different vendors now share far more common standards than before.
Today information flows better between your sales and operations activities, your logistics, your warehousing, and your accounting. Smart IT automation lets you map your distribution processes directly into IT actions, using natural language instructions (just like the language you speak every day) instead of complicated programming.
All that remains to be seen is how much extra revenue and profit can be generated from a given technology, and what the return on investment is for your Los Angeles distributor.
What do you prioritize in your distribution business – revenue increases or cost reductions? Give us your point of view by leaving a Comment in the space below.
To follow up on the tips in this article, download your free guide, How COOs at Los Angeles Distributors and Manufacturers Get More Done: A Guide to Productivity, Data, Staffing, Delegation, and Making It Home for Dinner Most Nights.
