I've been asked a lot of late "How can we start to sell our stuff on Social Media?"  Well, the first thing you're going to need to do is let people source and buy FROM Social Media!

If your network is locked down and there are different permissions for different people, you're going to have problems.  If your marketing people post something and get a technical question that they cannot answer they won't be able to kick it over to an engineer, because she WON'T BE ABLE TO SEE IT if your network is locked down.

Step 1: Open your network. Remove your firewall for your employees so that they can gain access to LinkedIn, Twitter & YouTube.  Some larger companies have some functions open and others closed.  As an example, if you can access LinkedIn, but not get into the groups, then there is not going to be ANY conversations. (remember, Conversations is one of the 4C’s discussed in What Are the 4 C's of Social Media?). Let your employees access Social Media!

Step 2: Appoint a Leader.  It’s going to be very important that someone take charge of the effort if it’s not going to be you.  Keep in mind you can make it a team effort and several people can be in charge of different efforts at different times. If you choose to go with the “Team” route be sure to set up a schedule for who’s doing what and when…. and stick to it.

Step 3: Create a Persona. There are several divergent schools of thought on whether or not Companies should have their logo as the profile picture, whether there should be a person’s name associated with the your social media sites, etc.  I suspect it really depends on the size of your company and what you hope to accomplish. ​

Give us a call and we'd be happy to set up a call to have that conversation!

If you recall in a posting not all that long ago entitled “Why Not  Facebook?” For Industrial Marketing"  I suggested that Facebook was probably not the best solution for industrial marketing.  Times change.

….as of this moment.  Facebook is changing pretty quickly. If you have 10 minutes then click on THIS LINK and learn a bit about Facebook’s Social Graph.  Facebook  just turned 3 years old and, if you have a Facebook account, you probably realize that to call it a “moving target” is an understatement.  I’ve been noticing that many companies in the industrial marketplace have been creating a market presence on Facebook.  A word to the wise, take your time and learn more about your options.  You can do one of three things on Facebook:

• Create a Personal page – You do need to do this first, if only to comply with the FB TOS (Terms of Service)
• Create a Group – Discussed below
• Create a “Page” – Discussed below and probably what you want 😉

Facebook requires that you have a personal page yourself in order to create a company page.  There are workarounds for this but you are actually better off creating a personal page as indicated in the link in this paragraph.

If you create a Personal Page that is actually a company page you are in violation of  the TOS at Facebook, which they are starting to take rather seriously with all of the privacy concerns raised about their recent changes.  It’s rather simple: People have created personal pages to reconnect with old friends and there may be some conversations that is “between them”  Unbeknownst to them though is that you have created a company page as a personal page… and they are now “friends” with you.  Which means that they are now sharing with industry colleagues information that they may not want to.  

You can understand how this can very very quickly harm your brand. Don’t do it.  If you have already please feel free to contact me and I’d be happy to discuss how you transition your “Friends”.
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The real decision is Page vs. Group:

There are a number of factors you need to consider when choosing which is right for your project, a Page or a group.

Personal vs. Corporate:
Due to their security features, and size limitations (only groups under 5,000 members can send email blasts), Facebook Groups are set up for more personal interaction. Groups are also directly connected to the people who administer them, meaning that activities that go on there could reflect on you personally. Pages, on the other hand, don’t list the names of administrators, and are thought of as a person, almost like a corporate entity is considered a ‘person’ under the law.

Facebook considers groups to be an extension of your personal actions. When you post something as a group administrator, it appears to be coming from you and is attached to your personal profile. Alternately, Pages can create content that comes from the Page itself, so that content doesn’t have to be linked to you personally.

Update: Also one key difference is that Pages are indexed by external search engines such as Google, just like a public profile while Groups are not.

Email vs. Updates:
As long as a group is under 5,000 members, group admins can send messages to the group members that will appear in their inboxes. Page admins can send updates to fans through the Page, and these updates will appear in the “Updates” section of fans’ inboxes. There is no limit on how many fans you may send an update to, or how many total fans a Page can have.

User Control:
Groups offer far more control over who gets to participate. Permissions settings make it possible for group admins to restrict access to a group, so that new members have to be approved. Access to a Page, however, can only be restricted by certain ages and locations. Again, this makes groups more like a private club.

Applications
Pages can host applications, so a Page can essentially be more personalized and show more content. Groups can’t do this.
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Moderation
Neither Groups nor Pages have great moderation features. They can both be a little granular as to how things get posted, who can post, and what kind of media can be posted, but that’s about it.
If someone posts spam on your Group or your Page, you have to remove it manually, and you can also remove specific members

If you recall from a previous blog post “What’s all this about Social Media and where do I start?” , Twitter is a free social networking (micro-blogging) service that allows users to send and read messages known as “Tweets.”  Tweets” are text based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the authors subscribers “Followers”

What do you get out of it?
“Twitter’s like snack food: it’s fun, it tastes good, but there’s no nutritional value” as it was explained to me not too long ago.  In some cases this is true.  It really all depends on how you use it and what you expect to get out of it.  If you’re reading this, chances are you’re a business owner or manager and are probably on my LinkedIn network… so I have a pretty good idea of what you’re thinking. ? So before we go into ANY details on what Twitter is and how you can use it let’s start off with some of the backstory.

I recently returned from the ISA Product Show & Conference and heard a wonderful speaker, Robert Wendover who heads up The Center for Generational Studies.  He spoke ​about:

"As business to business continues to evolve, suppliers are discovering that the entry of young professionals into customer firms is presenting a number of unforeseen challenges. Veteran salespeople struggle to meet the demands of young purchasing agents who communicate in a digital world. They are confounded by the expectations of emerging professionals who expect to obtain instant quotes with the click of a mouse."

As I listened intently to the presentation I recalled an article from Fast Company in 2006, “Geny Y v. Boomer: Generational Differences in Communication”:

"….The biggest one, however, has been the advent of technology and its offspring, email, IM and txt. Gen Y has grown up in and around this world of virtual communication. Unlike their parents, they have not had to spend nearly as much time socializing face-to-face. Their social interactions have been conducted while sitting alone in front of a computer, IM-ing with several people at once. Therefore they did not gain much experience reading the nonverbal cues inherent in face-to-face or even voice-to-voice communication, aka, the telephone. This dependence on remote forms of communication has left many younger workers bereft of interpersonal skills that Boomers value such as deference and respect.
The Boomers, on the other hand, have had technology thrust upon them, and although most have learned what they had to in order to get by and stay current, they have largely left the “technological heavy lifting” to others. Boomers have stuck to many of the old ways of doing business that their parents taught them, calling on clients in person, networking at business meetings, showing respect and deference to those who are more senior or with whom they would like to do business."

During the course of the wonderful presentation discussing Gen Y’s “work to live” vs. Boomer’s “live to work” I posited a thought about what I believe was a critical element missing from the presentation.  I suggested that Gen Y’s actually work 24/7 because of their adoption of technology.  The morning after the presentation I reached into my files and found the following from a LexisNexis Technology Gap Survey, completed in July & August of 2008. Here’s some of the important parts, but if you’re like me and work in engineering you’ll want to click on the link for the real meat of the data.  It’s pretty insightful stuff.

Additionally, Gen Y workers multi-task at even higher levels than the other generations as evidenced by the amount of hours in each work day that they report accessing various devices and programs. And this is especially the case for programs and web sites that may not be strictly work-related.

• Gen Y workers report spending an average of 17.4 hours in a workday using a PC, a PDA and a mobile phone, whereas, Boomers report spending just 9.7 hours a work day using the same devices.
• Gen Y workers report spending an average of 20.5 hours a work day using e-mail programs, Internet browsers, instant messaging programs and Microsoft Office programs, while Boomers only report spending 11.9 work hours using the same programs.

When I arrived in the manufacturing industry almost 20 years ago as a management & sales consultant, I quickly realized that our sector lagged behind most others in adoption of marketing and technology.  I had a conversation with a young engineer this past weekend who said to me: “We work with some of the most technologically advanced equipment and deal with complex engineering issues but we’re pretty far behind the consumer goods industries.  We’re not “early adopters” by any stretch of the imagination”

Technically, me being in my mid 40’s a and the last year of Boomer’s (or first year of X’r as the first use of Gen X indicated back Forbes in 1989) I must admit that understanding how to manage and deal with younger generations is a learningexperience. So I, like you, needed to think hard about Twitter. In the end we set up a Twitter accounts for Highlander Toolbut only after about a year of watching and learning about twitter  with my personal twitter account before jumping in to the conversation.  Here’s the bottom line on WHY we did it:

1. Search Engine Optimiztion  – as I discussed in the previous blog post
2. Generational differences – As I explained above
3. Get in now while the technology still evolving – This Social Media Space is evolving.  It’s going to be “something” so it’s better to get in and understand the evolution and be part of it than wait for everyone else.

If you decide it’s right for you please feel free to jump in and give us a follow. @Highlander Tool and I have a personal Twitter account as well @bernardtmartin.

If you need some more reasons, then listen to what Jeff Hayzlett has to say about it.  Jeff is the Chief Marketing Officer at Eastman Kodak. You can follow him at @JeffreyHayzlett

Ok, now that you’ve decided that you may want to give Twitter a try, take a look at this slide show to learn the basics.  Once again, open a new window and just click through as you go through it step by step:

I connected with a great guy named Norman Wright on Twitter months back and I found some of his blog posts at “Wright-To-Know” to be so absolutely SPOT ON that we ended up connecting on LinkedIn, exchanging some emails and ideas, and discovered that we where actually both based in Pittsburgh.
I had to opportunity to to visit his company, DimensionX, a few Fridays ago.  I got there in the late afternoon and we ended up chatting until later evening.  

I can’t say enough good things about Norm and his blog.  As luck would have it, he just tweeted a new blog this afternoon after I had been working on this posting for quite a few days and was trying to list out some do’s and don’ts.  I saw his Tweet, picked up the phone and  said “Norm, I’m going to embed your blog in mine with your permission! It’s fantastic!”

ONCE you go into the Twitter space these are the MISTAKES YOU DO NOT WANT TO MAKE!  Thanks much Norm for finishing up my post for me!

​I reposted his blog post earlier, but here's a link so you can check it out: 10 Twitter Mistakes Made By Marketers In The Manufacturing Industry

A while back I received the following email:

"Very interested in hearing about how you are using these channels for work, how you got into it, and where you see it going. Do you see the shops or suppliers leading the way? What role do you see original content providers like … providing. How are you using it with your distributors…
What other leading thinkers have you identified in this space?
So many questions, so little time!"

Perhaps this posting is the best place to answer some of those questions.  Social Media is so so much about conversation and sharing and giving credit where credit is due.  As I’ve already mentioned, I met Norm Wright via Twitter, I found out about Jeff Hayzlett’s video from Jennifer (Kelly) Altimore @jlkelly60 (Who, in my opinion, is the person most out-in-front of Social Media in our whole industry! In fact, she’s one of the very first people I followed on my personal Twitter account) and numerous other people have assisted me on Twitter in everything from social media, Italian cars to engineering conundrums.  I think that the best way to learn is to give a listen and pay attention. I would encourage you to give it a try.
“The young people who come to me in the hope of hearing me utter a few memorable maxims are quite disappointed.  Aphorisms are not my forte, I say nothing but banalities…. I listen to them and they go away delighted.”  ~Andre Gide

 In reviewing the analytics it seems that many folks have spent some time reading through the material on Social Media.  I hope that you’re finding it useful as there really is quite a bit to digest. I really welcome your comments and questions and. ​

Written by: Norman Wright
 “Wright-To-Know”
This article reposted by permission. 

Twitter is one of the social media tools that can be used as a tool for your manufacturing company’s social media marketing strategy to generate online traffic and a pipeline for new business leads. It is the leading traffic generator to my Wright-To-Know blog.
​
Here are ten mistakes marketers in the manufacturing industry should  avoid if they want to generate new business through Twitter:

1. Signing up then not participate. A tell-tale sign that Twitter is nothing more than a check-off on your social media check-list. When you rarely post to Twitter it will show.
2. Self Promotional Tweets. Marketers that sound more like cars salesmen, constantly using promotional Tweets to tout their company’s new hires, new business acquisitions, awards, etc.
3. Hiding behind the Company’s veil. Using your company’s  name as the Twitter account without revealing who is doing the Tweeting. Even Ford Motor Company gets this right, having allowing @ScottMonty to be their social media spokesperson under his own Twitter name rather than through the company’s name. It’s awkward to try and engage with a company. Social media is about people. A lot of the same principals of face-to-face networking applies to social media networks such as Twitter.
4. Auto Responses. These drive not only me but will drive your prospects crazy. They are impersonal, and usually contain no value other than to clog up your Direct Message box forcing you to scan through dozens and dozens to reach those who have sent you a personal one.
5. Little if any value to your Tweets. 80 to 90% of my tweets are resources for my audience to help them with their new business challenges. They are a combination of posts from my blog and other resources that I usually find and pass on in my morning ritual of reading my RSS feeds in Google Reader. I use a tool called bit.ly to post an article, along with a shortened URL to Twitter.
6. Fail to generate Twitter traffic ‘to anything”. I have recommended to manufacturers that they should have a blog that becomes the “gateway” to company and generate traffic to the blog through tools such as Twitter. The blog serves as the central component to your social media strategy.
7. Failing to use 3rd party Twitter tools. These tools can help you identify your best target audience and build your Twitter account’s data base of followers within the ratios mandated by Twitter. Your company’s blog content can stay fresh with new postings but older posts have a very long shelf life from not only SEO but also through repurposing posts to Twitter using some third party Twitter Tools. At our firm we have a process in which we syndicate our clients content over and over again… very much like a traditional media schedule. It’s naive  to think if you have written a post and everyone has read it.
8. Using the reply function when you should use a direct message. Not every reply needs to be share with your entire Twitter audience. Almost all replies should probably be sent by Direct Message to the person.
9. Failing to engage in the conversation. It amazes me that most marketers in the manufacturing industry have reservations about engaging with their prospective client audience.  Social media and tools such as Twitter, provide the most efficient means of creating personal network with your agencies best prospects. I have thousands of followers on Twitter alone and it is easy to stay engaged and be part of the conversations without it requiring an undue amount of time. I probably spend no more than 15 minutes a day responding through Twitter.
10. Allowing the early adopters of Twitter to mandate how your company should use it. Face it, Twitter has superseded anything envisioned by its creators or early adopters “way back in 2006.”  It’s amazing that it was the celebrities, not ad agencies, that first figured out the value and potential of Twitter.

In this installment of “What’s all this about Social Media and where do I start?” we’re going to explore YouTube in some detail.  In this posting you’ll find out the following:

• Why – Why should you post it
• How – How you can create your own YouTube Channel

But first, the basics….
In the beginning we’re going to review some  information, then you can watch some video’s.  Again, it’s best to open a new screen to use the video and pause it as you begin to create your channel later on. 

I realize that this isn’t the greatest video you have ever seen.  BUT, this is the only video I have found that takes you through the set up step by step setup.
You might also want to check this video out:

Ok, now let’s remember that YouTube IS a social media outlet.  Probably THE most powerful outlet that you have at hand to get your message out in a clear and succinct fashion.
​
Remember when we talked about Search Engine Optimization in a previous posting?  Creating a YouTube channel and not subscribing to other video channels or not making another  a “favorite” is not following those simple words of wisdom on the sugar packets: Advertising: Shout it from the mountaintops.

Ok, Now the plain English: The more sites your site is connected to, the more chances you have of being higher in the rankings. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot more to it. But the basics remain the same. The more sites your site is connected to, the more chances you have of being higher in the rankings.

Now, Here’s the next important thing: What happens when you go to an industry event or reception?  The first thing you do is look around for people you know.  This is a very very common human trait.  You want to be comfortable.  You want to find who else you know that is there.  Pretty simple eh?
Social Media is THE SAME WAY! Just like we talked about on the LinkedIn posting:

• SHOW YOUR CONNECTIONS!
• SHOW YOUR FRIENDS!

​This is all under MODULES. In order for people to participate they want to know who you know, and who they might be introduced to.  THAT is the very essence of networking and social media is ALL ABOUT NETWORKING.

As a follow up to my previous posting “What’s all this about Social Media and where do I start?” Several people have written and asked for some more details.  I realize that I presented an awful lot of connections and links and it left some folks completely new to the subject dazed and confused.

I’m realizing that many of the folks connected to me only have a few connections, incomplete profiles and probably aren’t getting much out of LinkedIn. In this posting I’m going to explain what social media outlets we chose  as an industrial distributor. I’ll break this down into the social media categories, and then walk you through some of the basic steps of getting started.  I also try to give you a time estimate of how long it will take you to get the “basics” in place.
​
Out of all the social media sites available we chose FOUR outlets. Hopefully after you are done with all three parts of this posting you’ll feel less like the blind men discovering the elephant.

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Facebook

Start by clicking the link below.  Hit the back button when you’re done viewing.  It’s probably a good idea to open another window to edit your LinkedIn account while you go through the slides. I’m going to go into more detail below about slides 29 & 30 so don’t worry if you don’t get it at first.

LinkedIN Basics
View more presentations from Concept Hub, Inc.Getting started with LinkedIn is very simple, and, since you’re probably reading this from my LinkedIn profile connection you probably have at least the start of your profile complete.  Regardless, take a look at this slideshow and make sure that you haven’t missed anything.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been on LinkedIn since my neighbor told me about when she was a beta tester (Thanks Cindy!) It’s been interesting watching it evolve and content features been added.  However, that’s also a problem.  New features get added that are great and you don’t always know about them until you see the changes in your other contacts.  Which is a another good reason to look at your connections 😉
​
Ok, watch the slide show in the link above, Complete the basic steps and then we’ll move on. If you haven’t watched it yet.
——————-> LinkedIN Basics

Once you’ve mastered some of these basics you soon start to realize that maybe you yourself should start a group.  If you’re a manufacturer, you could start one only for your distributors, if you’re a machine tool builder, one just for your dealers, a distributor, one for your customers. Agents can start groups for their distributors… there are really endless ways you can use the group functions to create the “conversations” so often talked about in social media.

If you start a group. Your Invitation Filtering should look like what you see above.  Otherwise, your members aren’t going to be able to connect with you. There’s some great ideas on creating and managing your own LinkedIn Group at Mashable “8 Tips for Managing a LinkedIn Group”  The list is below and the details are at the link. It’s worth delving into if you want some more information.

1. Use a Personal Touch
2. Lay Some Ground Rules
3. Praise the Good, Deal with the Bad
4. Help Your Members Promote Themselves
5. Add Some News Feeds
6. Facilitate Connections Outside of LinkedIn
7. Take a Poll
8. Promote Your Group

One final note on Groups.  If you start a group be prepared to support it and get responses.  If you watched the Facebook F8 video above you’ll hear about a problem called the “rule of 5”  If someone comes into your group and they don’t see 5 people they know they’ll probably not participate.  So if you’ve got a email list of the members you want to invite, send them all an invite to LinkedIn, followed by an invitation to join the group.

Social media is about connecting and building relationships – talking to people. Taking part in discussions gets you noticed as well as keeps the conversation going and the sharing of information, viewpoints and knowledge

So, for goodness sake, if you start a group and ask questions and topics start rolling for goodness sake answer and respond!
​
I hope that you found this informative.  Please feel free to add any comments.  I know I’ve barely scratched the surface of Linkedin so if you have some observations or insights please feel free to leave a comment (and yes, I’m working on unlocking it so your comments post immediately but I’m still learning about all the WordPress functions so bear with me)
Thanks for reading 🙂

According to Neuro-Linguistic Programming Model people learn in different ways. This is often called the VAK Model (visual / auditory / kinesthetic). According to this model the general population learns according to the following percentages:

• Visual – 75%
• Auditory – 6%
• Kinesthetic – 19%

It would then follow that since 81% of people learn via visual and auditory ques, as the theory goes, video is the best method of communicating a message.

Why YouTube is Awesome!
Until the advent of YouTube, where you are creating your own video channels, there was no way to utilize this in marketing for the manufacturing sector.
​
This social media platform is probably the BEST one that we have found for communicating with our customers about new products AND for our salesforce to learn more about the product. Here’s why:

1. Statistically, knowledge retention from a sales meeting is about 20% at the termination of the meeting. Without “refreshment” and “review” this tracks down to a 5% after 14 days. (That’s why it’s important to have simple bullet point sell sheets, but that’s a topic for another time)
2. The more the salespeople show the video, the more they learn about the product. Kind of like my old college friend who saw Monty Python’s the Holy Grail so many times that now, 20+ years later, he can still recite the lines verbatim.
3. At the distributor level, creating a YouTube channel and “favoriting” your vendor’s video’s allows the salesperson to cross-sell other products because of the “wow, what’s this?” factor
4. SEO! Again, you are cross-linking by “subscribing” or “friending” others. Hence you are creating broad cross-links which raises YOUR profile in searching.

Where do your customers LAND somewhere when they search the Internet?
​
The Common Actions Desired of Your Company Landing Page:

• Get a visitor to click (to go to another page, on your site or someone else’s.
• Get a visitor to buy.
• Get a visitor to give permission for you to follow up by email or phone.
• Get a visitor to register for a newsletter or updates.
• Get a visitor to tell a friend.
• Get a visitor to learn something, which could even include posting a comment or giving you some sort of feedback.

Ok, Now let’s take a look at your options to drive traffic to your website:

Facebook
It started in 2004 and was originally limited to Harvard students.  In 2006 anyone over the age of 13 could join. In 2007 Facebook created an area called Pages that enabled companies to create profiles for themselves. And in 2009 they introduced a LIKE button for users to click on and let people and companies know what they liked.

LinkedIn
LinkedIn is fast becoming THE business tool of social networking. Rather than summarize why just click this link to find the 33 Ways to Use LinkedIn for Business

At a minimum create a company profile page for your company.

You can take a look at the company profile we created for Highlander Tool Company here. It’s pretty simple to create. One thing you will notice is that we have taken our brand message very seriously. The message we set up is to communicate what we do and who we are. …and we’ve used essentially the same message for every social media profile. (So once you create ONE you can cut and paste, albiet with some editing, for all of your Social Media sites.

YouTube
Creating a YouTube channel was really driven out of necessity.

Below is an excerpt of an email I sent to everyone in our company when we launched our YouTube channel:

“I wanted to make you aware that this weekend I worked on finally getting a central place where you can show customer’s product videos from their computer while visiting their facility."

This presents some pretty big cross-selling opportunities!

So, How Do You Get Customers to Land Where You Want Them To?
Each one of the above social media website always you to let people who follow you about new products and to direct them back to the exact landing page you want.

There are some common denominators in why some new product launches fail, while other, inferior products, are successful in industrial sales chanels marketing programs.  This article breaks out some o nth more common causes of the failures.

​Below you will find six key points to think about. Think of these six as cylinders in a car. If five of them are working but not all six you've lost all forward momentum.
​
Marketing Materials
Are catalogs, price lists, flyers, trade show schedules, advertising schedules, lead processing all provided in a timely fashion? Does the vendor send in 25 catalogs for a sales meeting with a salesforce of 5 people and a customer base of 250? What is the package quantity of literature? Does the literature have a part number? Is there a literature request form? Who is that sent to? Are the marketing materials “intuitive”? (are all of the components needed to complete and order listed in the catalog? Is the catalog easy to use and find all related products? What about videos? Social media sites? Brand exposure?

Quality of Product
Does the product have “walk away reliability” or does it suffer from a myriad of quality issues. This goes beyond the product working as it was marketed to work and includes horseshoe nail problems (no torx screws in the box, partial shipment of all components. Is the distributor going to spend all the money that would have been made on the margin servicing the customer and trying NOT to get "egg on their face" in the process which will affect other product lines and the relationship with the customer?

Competitive Pricing
Does the product provide a good ratio of price to performance? Is the vendor adaptable and responsive to price corrections in a short time frame? Has the vendor provided all of the necessary sales information to “sell” the value added? 

Availability
Is there stock? If so on what products? Many times distributors have heard on new product introductions that “there is plenty of inventory” only to find out that “Well, we have three pieces of everything”. If there is a stock out problem, is the vendor proactively responsive contacting the distributor on late deliveries before the distributor calls to expedite? ​

Customer Support
Are the field support and customer support team trained and up-to-speed on all of the products? Can they technically support the product line? Can they crossover competitive information? Do the support people say “I don’t know the answer to that” and end the conversation with “Are your happy with my your level of service today?” or do they say “I don’t know the answer let me find out and call you back in 10 minutes”. Are they responsive? Are they proactive? What is the SOP on quote turnaround ( 2 hours, 24 hours, 2 weeks)? Customer service can take on many variations. I've listed a few for you to ponder.  

You can read more at: Customer Support: How it Can Cost You Sales

Perhaps, more than any other item on the list, this TRUST IS THE MOST IMPORTANT. 
​
Trust
Is there trust in the relationship? This is the "gut feeling" stuff. It comes out in the one-on-one conversations. Is something being held back? Are direct answers given? Is the manufacturer asking lots of questions as if he where going to handle the business directly or take it through a competing distributor? Is the manufacturer "throwing his weight around" and not really acknowledging that the distributor runs their own business? Does the agent or manufacturer call the end-user directly....and not tell the distributor or independent rep? Do they visit the end-user on their own? 

The most successful brands are built on a foundation of trust and loyalty. Each party knows where the other stands. You can actually watch the relationships grow. In the early phases it may be that the distributor or the agent calls up the manufacturer and asks for something... The reprimanding parent response is "You know we can't do that! We can do xxxx." To which the smiling reply is "I know, but I had to ask." Later, as the relationship evolves, when the distributor or agent calls up they say "Hey, we just promised this program and that promo with this product, I know I need you to approve it but I already quoted it while you where on vacation" and the response "Great Job, what else ya need?" 

Read more at: Trust: The Most IMPORTANT Factor in the Supply Chain

Buyers conduct

• Research on the Internet
• Contact suppliers
• Request quotes online
• Compare supplier offerings using content found online
• Submit purchase orders online

Buyers use

• Search engines,
• Online catalogs,
• Supplier Web sites,
• Portal sites

Today, buyers gather data, review product specifications, view drawings and more—all online. They bookmark Web pages, download content, and print out information to share with other decision makers.

​Even traditional sales through offline channels such as purchase orders often are the result of buyers using online methods to move through the stages of the buy cycle.

How to Get Found Early in the Buy Cycle
In order to make the final short list of potential vendors, suppliers must get found in the early Needs Awareness and Research stages of the buy cycle.

A GlobalSpec survey found that 42% of buyers evaluate four or more suppliers during the Research stage, but only 26% of buyers get quotes from four or more suppliers during the later Procurement stage.

The conclusion is that as buyers move through the buy cycle, they eliminate suppliers from contention, as opposed to adding new potential suppliers to their short list.

That’s why it’s so important to be found early

• 70% of buyers review four or more pieces of content for purchases greater than $10,000
• 17% of buyers review that much content for purchases under $1,000.