When implementing the task of building a marketing channel, sooner or later, the question arises of how, in practice, to organize the company's work in sales and product promotion in the regions. In the practice of marketing, there are various schemes of such work, operating to some extent: on the development of the market, the alignment of ligistic channels, the weight of the brand, the financial viability of the company, the business plans of the company. We list the well-known principles of working with regions, without highlighting the most correct ones (there are simply no such). Consider a look from inside the company, not a difference in sales channels.
Sales team in the central office of the company;
Field sales representatives periodically present in the regions;
Partner company in the region, with the authority of a regional representative;
Own regional representative permanently working in the region;
Own regional office.
As noted above, there is no right, and there can not be a “favorite” tool for managing a marketing presence in the region listed above. The reasons:
The structure of the market segment, the presence of serious regional players in the market, the competitive environment dictate the choice of one or another way of managing the region;
Brand weight makes it necessary to redistribute efforts in managing the region;
Promotional strategy is also affected. For example, a large marketing budget and the focus of the company's efforts on sales logistics are also the determining factor of choice.
Often, the strategy of working with regions of a company changes depending on the stage of development of distribution and the brand.
We work from office
A typical and quite common option when working with regions comes from the central office: by e-mail, phone, or fax. The main thing here is not to be confused: remote work is not passive sales, when management interacts only with those customers who have contacted the company on their own, or have easily made contact. This style of work does not have the right to life and should be suppressed by the leaders. The work should be carried out according to approved work plans with clear indicators (it is the way control is exercised): number of cold contacts, number of contacts with reviews, number of shipments, repeated shipments, receivables, promotion actions, etc.
Work from the office is not only sales logistics for the "distribution" of goods by pre-orders, but also active sales, with the understanding that:
there is no more sense from a visual contact with a partner than from a properly formulated commercial appeal received by a client in a non-visual form.
if your products and services are extremely popular (brand weight).
there are more customers than sales resources of the company, this is possible for the reasons of the previous item, or from the fact that marketing costs provide knowledge and loyalty to your proposal without marketers.
Some questions still need to be addressed face to face. Of course, you can negotiate various bonuses by phone. And transfer the envelope with the forwarder. He will check the recipient's passport and give him the envelope. But here agree remotely about contracts for several million ...
Let's go on business trips
Regional sales representatives in the central office. The goal of a regional sales representative is to find dealers who are actively able and willing to work with your product in an effort to create a high-quality dealer network.
Key tasks of the sales representative:
to convince the dealer to start working with our brand?
to motivate the dealer to start marketing programs to encourage the buyer to purchase your goods from the dealer's shelves.
The only mistake that almost all sales representatives working in the central office, however, make is the definition of "our" dealer and (or) the number of dealers (see qualitative and quantitative distribution in the marketing specialist's dictionary), a clear manifestation of which is debit receivable. The reasons for the error are obvious:
the work must be done during the trip;
according to the sales funnel theory: the more initial contacts, the more likely the fulfillment of sales forecasts in the end;
the outgoing trade representative does not, in essence, know the region (position, creditworthiness, potential of dealers) and is forced to work out a previously prepared scheme of "entering" into the region.
Prerequisites for selecting a regional sales strategy through sales representatives can be the following:
understanding of the “misunderstanding” of the potential of the region and the impossibility of choosing a different strategy;
the company already has several sales staff (perhaps those who previously worked "on the phone"), and there is not enough time to create a regional team;
substantial one-time expansion of the sales territory, increasing the customer base;
understanding of the need for territorial specialization of sales (assignment of regional managers to a certain territory) instead of chaotic office work with those who areit’s a big potential of a number of regions, the need to create a high-quality dealer network in the region sustainable sales of this product group and active sales marketing