Of course you are! Your salespeople are always talking to your customers and your customers are volunteering information … even to the point of answering the questions your salespeople don’t know you want them to ask, or, in some cases, are “afraid” to ask.

Questions like

• Who are your customers?

• What market segments do you focus on?

• What are your business challenges?

• How could we be easier for you to do business with?

• Does your company do any online purchasing? How about searching? Where?

• How many other companies do you purchase electrical products from?

• When we don’t have what you need, whom do you then call?

And more

Why do I mention this? Because recently I had three different experiences that, combined, get to the issue that many distributors (and for that matter manufacturers) typically don’t have the customer insights that they wish that they had (or need to develop business strategy to drive growth and serve their customers.

While the mantra nowadays is that customer analytics / data analytics provides the insights necessary to anticipate the customer, uncover opportunities, drive sales and profits, the fallacy, however, with this is that analytics are most regularly based, and modeled, upon customer experience with you. It presumes the past will guide the future. It does not tell you what you don’t know. It is quantitative with no room for qualitative input … or vision. It’s black and white. 1’s and 0’s. If the information is not in the database, it presumes that it is not relevant.

So, getting back to the three experiences.

1. I was reviewing a client’s email list to segment the list into essentially “appropriate prospect” and “not applicable” (at least for now). The research was anecdotal as I segmented the list based upon customer name to guess at a “first cut”. The companies I removed had a business segment we did not want to communicate to.  For many other suspects I looked at the company’s url and then checked out their website. Many of these companies had impressive and informative sites. More so than most distributors! These sites said what segments these contractors and engineering firms focused on. They said what differentiated the company. They were attractive.

Now, all of these companies were firms with reported revenues in excess of $5M. In electrical distributor terms, that is a customer whose total spend is $1-1.5M and hence is probably doing $100-750K with a single distributor (depending upon the distributor’s share.) Maybe not representative of all of your customers, but potentially all of your key customers.

And there is a lot that can be inferred about a company from their website – size, market focus, product categories that they should purchase, key differentiators, where they service, probably their interest in eCommerce and more. In fact, based upon the types of lists acquired, you could find prospects as well as information about technologies that they use, associations they belong to and maybe key personnel.

Perhaps an opportunity to enhance your customer intelligence? Your customer database?

2. The second experience was a conversation with a mid-sized distributor. They shared an overview of their business and a little regarding their goals. We discussed CMG assisting them with strategic planning, marketing planning, social and content marketing and eventually the conversation turned to eCommerce. This distributor is contractor-oriented. While this member of senior management felt that they should be looking at commerce-enabling their site, others, inclusive of their sales organization, felt there was no need. Why? Because sales said that their customers were not purchasing online! How did they know? Because, they know, otherwise their customers would be asking them for it! Need I say more. And we know what percent of the customer base the outside salesforce actively calls on, correct? And they call on all of the decision-makers at that customer?

Here’s the reality – outside sales typically only interacts with a few people within a customer. Most don’t embrace eCommerce because they are concerned that they won’t see something or will be asked a question. And your customers (yes, contractor personnel too) are using the web for product research, checking inventory, obtaining spec sheets, checking pricing to do estimates, and periodically placing orders (some more than others). The orders may not be going to you, but they are purchasing some tools online. Perhaps they are purchasing something from your competitor? They don’t need you to have an online site … because their online purchasing needs are being accommodated by someone else!

And you won’t find out because your salesforce is talking amongst themselves, talking to owners of their key customers and are not asking the questions. I won’t ask what you know about your mid-sized and smaller accounts (who could be larger with someone else or who could move some business.)

Worst case eCommerce is about omni-service. And it doesn’t have to be super-expensive to get started.

3. The third incident related to strategic planning. The client is “looking forward” to chart a path for accelerated growth over the next few years. We discussed talking to, and surveying, customers. The intent was to understand 1) how well the company was serving customer needs (and hence where it needed to improve) as well as 2) market segments and growth areas that customers were pursuing (or perhaps currently serving) – these could be expansion opportunities for the client.

Should I tell you the answer? Some are open to input and ideas; others feel that they’ve asked their “key” customers. However, today’s key customers may not be tomorrow’s key, or profitable, or “growth-drivers”. Remember, you only know what you know and what the people you talk to know. Expanding your information network can yield new opportunities.

While a stressed-out supply chain is occupying many, it is important to maintain some focus on longer-term goals. Achieving these requires continuous information input. DISC is projecting a return to “normal” growth rates later in the year and longer-term. The question becomes, what customer insights will help you generate above market growth longer-term? Asking customers, prospects, and others … always being in a learning mode and not having your vision framed solely by a few, is a key determinant of success.