Market Development Funds - How Channel Partners Become Your Best Allies

A manufacturer providing a Market Development Fund (MDF) program would seem like a perfect solution for the company and its dealers, right? It's a cooperative endeavor that supports channel partner marketing campaigns to generate demand and a greater return on investment than what each company could have achieved on its own, yes? So why, then, did I hear this from one of our heavy equipment manufacturing customers - "We had MDF programs for years for co-op advertising, direct mail and other initiatives. But, we finally stopped. We couldn't take it anymore. It was too painful for us and our dealers."

Too painful? How can a program designed to help both manufacturer and dealer be too painful for both parties? The answer is that if MDF programs are not structured well they can be a nightmare for everyone and create channel conflict, rather than synergy. But there are ways to design and manage these programs that generate cooperation and allow your channel partners to become your best allies in your marketing efforts.

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Channel Partner Marketing
In their simplest form, MDFs pay dealers to advertise the products and services of the manufacturer in their territory. MDFs are commonly used for yellow page advertising, billboards, direct mail campaigns, local trade shows, and co-branded collateral. The strategic benefit of MDFs over other forms of advertising stems from the belief that both the company and the dealer can achieve their business goals more efficiently by working together to fulfill customer needs. Companies develop MDF programs based on their marketing needs. They allocate funds for specific products or markets they are targeting, and they structure the program to pay for efforts they feel are likely to drive sales.

So what's wrong with this? It sounds like a beneficial way to share resources and increase exposure. Sometimes it is. But other times, an MDF program can quickly become problematic for both the manufacturer and the dealer. How? Failure stems from how they are created and how they are administered. There are two main causes for the failure of MDF programs.

Creating MDF Programs in a Vacuum -- Creating an MDF program without initial dealer input and involvement is an almost sure way to fail. If there's no buy-in to channel partner marketing programs, there's no feeling of ownership. Manufacturers may know exactly what they want in their MDF program, but if dealers don't feel like they had some say in it, or worse yet, if it doesn't fit in with the dealers' marketing of the product in their territory, it will go unused. And even worse, the program will end up creating ill will and channel conflict.

Poor MDF Administration -- If the lack of dealer involvement in developing the MDF program doesn't kill it at the start, the partner management and administration of it usually will. Many programs are too complicated, too burdensome, and too onerous. Most companies, even large ones, use a manual process for submission, approval, and payment. Dealers don't usually have the personnel or patience to run the gauntlet to get approval and get paid, so they ignore the program completely. It simply isn't worth it to them.

A Partnership Relationship Management (PRM) System Can Help
But there is hope. Some companies today do operate successful MDF programs. Most of these use their Partner Relationship Management (PRM) system to create and manage them. A PRM system is web-based channel management software that unifies all facets of managing a dealer network into a single partner portal. An effective PRM solution can help the manufacturer in both creating the program with dealer input, and administering the program efficiently.

Creating an MDF program using a PRM System -- Creating a successful MDF program involves dealer input, communication and buy-in up front. A PRM system with a Collaboration component makes this a much easier proposition. Using internal forums, blogs and other communication tools, dealers quickly see that the manufacturer is listening to their input. Manufacturers still have to reach out to dealer councils and other groups to obtain ideas and buy-in, but open communication in the form of visible forums makes this much easier. Offering a formal collaboration tool in a PRM significantly improves the communication process and makes it easier for the program to be designed to benefit both the manufacturer and the dealer.

Administration -- Administering the MDF program within the PRM system is much more efficient than a stand-alone system because the components of dealer management are already incorporated into the PRM and can be blended with the MDF module. Dealers can create their own materials in the system. Automatic approvals can be set up since brand violations are avoided. The payment process can be automatic and timely. New programs can be added quickly since the back-end structure is already in place. On-the-fly reporting and tracking is easy with the internal dashboards that are available. Overall, administration is much easier for the manufacturer and the dealer.

MDF programs can work. They can be successful in selling more products. With dealer involvement in their design at the outset, and a PRM system administering it, MDF programs can be a true win-win for manufacturer and dealer. Make your dealers your best allies by letting them do what they do best - help them market your products in their territory - but make it easy.

Market Development Funds - How Channel Partners Become Your Best Allies

John Panaccione is the CEO of LogicBay Corporation, http://www.logicbay.com Founded in 2003, LogicBay provides Partner Relationship Management (PRM) solutions which enable organizations to manage and support an extended enterprise globally. By designing and launching powerful on-line communities which support collaboration and knowledge transfer between the Enterprise, Channel Partners, Dealers, Distributors and End-user customers world-wide, LogicBay optimizes engagement levels between disparate businesses resulting in measureable increases in productivity, revenues and profitability. Through his work in facilitating over 50 client implementations in Heavy Equipment Manufacturing, Technology, Financial Services, Retail and Higher Education, Mr. Panaccione has become a leading authority on best practices in the area of PRM and Channel Performance excellence.

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Surviving In A Changing Market

The market is always changing and in order to keep up with the changes you have to modify your own marketing techniques. The easiest way to stay ahead of the competition is not merely to make changes to what you already have but to keep adding something fresh. Every time you add something to your products and services you are creating new opportunities to increase your sales figures. Sometimes this can mean something as simple as adding some new useful information to your website. It may not sound like much but something as small as an information change can do the trick.

That is nothing compared to what can be achieved by adding a new product or service. Making such additions helps you increase your customer base because you can appeal to new customers in addition to existing ones. Your existing customer base will become more loyal through repeat purchases and it is in your interest to have as many repeat customers as possible. You can also outdo your competition by bundling an older product or service with the new one and making a strong value addition to your latest offering.

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Another thing to do is to shape oneself into a valuable resource for everyone. Nothing goes as well as something offered totally free. This can be information. Offer helpful newsletters or website updates. You can do all this quickly and quite economically. Every time someone visits your website for information they can see your products and services and this increases your potential sales.

You must also give yourself a unique touch. This will be the reason why anyone looking for something will come to you rather than go to your competitor for a similar product or service. You can do a number of things to make yourself unique. Make sure you deliver fastest, keep your policies simple, give personal attention to all your customers, and stand by your guarantees and offers. Depending on your niche there will be several factors that can help you become unique and you must utilize them for maximum benefit.
This will automatically boost your sales.

A common mistake often made while marketing is promoting the product or service. You should remember that when someone buys something they are not interested in that product as a product but more interested in what that product can do for them. In other words they are looking for a solution to some problem or some tool to make their job easier. You should promote the benefits of your products and services and not the product or service itself. Tell your prospects and customers how their lives can be made easier by using your product or service and they will pay more attention to you. There are very few people that buy a car for the "cool" factor or as a status symbol. Most people are simply looking for a means of private transportation.

Construct your website and sales page around these principles and you have a much better chance of surviving in a changing market.

Surviving In A Changing Market

William King is the director of UK Wholesale Suppliers & Drop Shipping Wholesalers Directory, Pakistan Property & Pakistan Real Estate Properties Portal and Dubai Property & UAE Property & Dubai Real Estate Portal. He has 18 years of experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping retailers and startups with their product sourcing, promotion, marketing and supply chain requirements.

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How to Create Multiple Routes to Market For Your Training, Coaching, & Consulting Enterprise

Create Multiple Routes to Market

There are two kinds of business model: The diving board theory of business and the parthenon theory of business. Almost every business..... operate(s) using the diving board model. It has one primary method which is generating 90 or 100% of the revenue. The parthenon method, on the other hand, has different pillars each of which is a revenue generating activity. If you can move your business from the diving board model to the parthenon model, you will no longer be dependent on that one primary activity. Ironically, that one activity will actually improve as all the other activities will reach out and impact that activity. If each pillar adds a mere 10% to your business, the overall effect will be geometric.

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Jay Abraham

When I heard about the parthenon method I began to wonder how to create multiple pillars or multiple routes to market. Here is the process that I created:

Step 1: Brainstorm Ideas

A good starting point is to aim for half of your routes to market to be online and half to be offline. Begin by simply brainstorming possibilities. You may end up with a list that looks something like this:

Online routes to market

social networking site web site micro blogging site email online networking site blog

You may begin to find out which social media is used by people in the market you are aiming for and do some additional research to identify your market precisely. A good idea is to use a keyword research tool on the internet which will tell you what search terms potential buyers are keying into Google. One of your routes to market may be a web site that contains the key word that you are aiming for.

Offline routes to market

magazine advertisements radio networking shop joint venture direct mail

Step 2: Research which Route to develop first

Consider: Where do people in your market get their information at present? Do they read particular magazines, go to specific web sites, read particular forums or blogs, do they go to exhibitions, is there an exhibition for your stuff, do they go networking, do they watch particular tv programmes, how old are they, where do they live, what clubs do they belong to? Then choose two or three routes to market to start with and...

Step 3: Develop your message

Put yourself into the position of your client or potential client and see the world through their eyes. What do they identify with? What is their worldview? How can you associate with their experience, beliefs and values? You may need to vary your message for each medium.

Step 4: Take one route at a time

Get each route to market working before you move on to the next one. How will you know that a route to market is working? Well you may create criteria for each route to market so that you will know when it is working and track where your business is coming from.

Step 5: Keep on going until you have 10 routes to market

You may find that you need to chop some and add others as one thing that used to work stops working or does not yield the results that you anticipated. Keep on going until you are getting the response that you want. Enjoy.

How to Create Multiple Routes to Market For Your Training, Coaching, & Consulting Enterprise

Graham Constantine from Whole Being is an NLP Trainer and with his partner Claire Towers he specialises in helping Graduates who are unemployed to make the transition from education into employment or setting up their own business or volunteering or work placement or further education. Go to http://www.nlpbusinesspractitioner.biz to get more information on how to transform your business.

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