If you’re involved in marketing for a manufacturer that sells its products through distributors only, you may wonder how a supplier discovery platform like XPRT (Environmental XPRT, Energy XPRT, Agriculture XPRT & Medical XPRT) could be of any help to you. After all, isn’t it your distributors’ job to make sure your products reach the appropriate end users? Yes and no.
Yes, your distributors should know their geographical markets inside and out and have the right contacts to ensure your products are successful in those markets.
But no, your distributors should not be entrusted with all the advertising in their respective regions. After all, distributors typically have lots of manufacturers’ product catalogs to look after, and they will gravitate towards products that are easiest to sell, with the largest profit margins.
XPRT can both make your products easier to sell in markets where you already have distributors and help you discover and penetrate new markets. Here’s how:
XPRT automatically distributes buyer requests to your distributors
By listing your distributors (you can do this here) on your XPRT storefront, any buyer requests you generate within your distributors’ regions will automatically be copied and forwarded to your distributor in that region.
For example, if a buyer from Australia requests a quote for one of your products via your XPRT storefront, and you already have a distributor in Australia linked to your profile, both you and your distributor in Australia will instantly receive the request for quotation by email. Won’t those extra buyer requests make it easier for your distributors to sell your products?
And if you’re short on time, we can add your entire distributor network to our system for you as part of XPRT Premium.
Your XPRT storefront generates leads among end users
While your primary goal in manufacturer marketing may be to ensure your distributors have the resources and training they need to sell your products efficiently, your products’ end users will also find and contact you directly, whether via your own website or through other platforms like XPRT. In the same way you may already be capturing these buyers’ contact details on your own website, XPRT captures these types of leads as well.
Any time an end user of your products attempts to view one of your brochures, spec sheets, videos, white papers, etc. on XPRT, you will be notified. These are what we call soft leads. At the free level, you can reach out to all of your soft leads or forward them to your distributors for follow-up.
Distributors are much more likely to push your products if you’re already generating quality leads for them.
Gain a better understanding of where you need to expand your distributor network
Since your XPRT storefront allows you to directly reach end users from all around the world, you can use it to measure demand for your products in markets not currently covered by your distributor network.
For example, let’s say you currently cover the Americas only but would like to find out if there’s a demand for your products in China. Simply add China to your company’s locations served in order to appear when buyers filter their search results on China or request XPRT to match them to a supplier that can serve China. You will now receive RFIs and RFQs from China and be able to better evaluate the need to establish distributors there.
XPRT can help you find new distributors
Following the previous example, let’s imagine you decide you have a need for a distributor to cover the Chinese market. Finding a reliable distributor in a new market can be a daunting task. Luckily, XPRT’s email blast service lets you send an email targeting distributors with experience in your industry based in China, or anywhere else in the world for that matter.
Note that the public tool for building your distribution list won’t allow you to filter specifically on distributors, but our team can help with that. Simply contact us with who you would like to target, and we’ll work with you to filter our database so that your email reaches the right audience.
Let XPRT help you get more out of your distributor network
If you’d like to learn more about how we can help you sell more through your distributors, simply book a convenient time for us to give you a call. We can build and optimize your XPRT storefront to maximize lead generation in whatever markets you wish to target.
