Conference ilbbak::us_sales_service

    Just this week we had a distributor call our office:  "Could I send my
    distribution media to your office so that your software specialist can
    install it for a demo - it should only take 3 hours or so for the
    installation"....

    There have been times where more direct sales time was devoted to the
    sale than would have been necessary had the entire sale been done "up
    front" - i.e., direct Digital.  I'm trying to do a better job of
    "training" the distributor(s) to alleviate this distinct problem.  So
    far, marginally successful, but, I keep trying.

    The word has not filtered down to our resellers/OEMs/etc... that just
    because there's a customer in town does not necessarily mean that we
    can provide any sales/support for that potential customer.  This is
    particularly true of the national accounts.

    Just recently one of our OEMs sold the virtues of having a local Digital
    sales office ... BEFORE they checked with the local sales office.  We
    now have a "sticky" situation on our hands since the potential customer
    has found that their Digital sales support comes from 500 miles away
    and not the local office.

    This is a new partner and they're threatening to switch to another
    platform so that they have local sales and service for this new
    customer (city government).  Had this partner known "up front" that we
    weren't budgeted to handle this local customer, this entire problem could
    have been avoided.

    A larger problem is that of long term strategic accounts - the
    distributors tend to be more tactical than strategic.  There is a
    tendency for the distributors to not devote much time to the long term
    strategic accounts.  If a national account is involved, and we're not
    budgeted for that account, and, the distributor won't devote the time to
    the account ... ...

    This is not directly related to "cost of sales" but more so the issue
    of the "style" of selling that distributors classically present.

    I'm sure that in the long run we'll get the kinks worked out but I sure
    solicit any direction and advice that anyone can give.

    Jerry

    ref: base note
    I don't want this to be a forum fo back and forth discussion about
    distributors but it does seem to me that if our distributors (I deal
    almost exclusively with an end user) are doing something incorrectly
    and we "pay the price" in the post sales situation why aren't we as a
    company forcing the distributors to immediately make a correction to
    their P & P's or potential lose the distribitorship et al.? 
    
    I don't want to overly simplify this but if we continually pay for the
    distributors mistakes we will never teach them how to do do it right -
    and increase their business in the meantime throught a more enthusiastic
    customer!  8^)                                                       
    
    Dave Sampson

    I'm on the Xerox Account team.  This year, one-third of my effort is
    to grow all our business thru our CSO's, with over $1M from our two
    selected distributors.  We're spending considerable effort to develop
    a joint planning and joint selling effort with those two companies,
    who have agreed to treat Xerox as a national account.  They in turn
    will be treated as a team member, introduced into the sales campaign,
    giving our account managers a second salesforce to manage.  The goal
    is to gain "Feet on the Street" and cover more ground, with more
    profitable business.  There's considerable resistance to this, as you
    can imagine....we just don't see many realistic options around, are
    are dedicated to making  this work.  We kicked off a team contest
    called "Channel Master" to demonstrate how an updated mailing list,
    use of DMO, these two distributors, and others CSO's will add $X M
    to our business this fiscal year.  We think it will work, and the
    distributor managers think so too!
    

As we all have to learn the new behaviors of the New Management System, so 
too are distributors learning new behaviors:  how to be part of a Digital 
account team; how to handle the full sales cycle and cost of sale for 
business they are assigned to handle; how to communicate clearly so missed 
expectations do not result from their efforts.

At the top of the house, our distributors fully understand and are 
committed to having the best support resources in place and managing the 
full sales cycle.  It is not their desire to do skimming - looking for 
orders late in the cycle that they didn't earn.  However, their 
organizations, like ours, are large and we can expect that some people at 
the local level will not do the right thing.  When that happens, please 
raise it to the account manager or the local sales manager responsible for 
the distribution accounts.  They are listed below.  If that still doesn't 
work, feel free to call my office at DTN 296-4251.

ACCOUNT GROUP MANAGERS			

Name					 Telephone #			   

Randy Glickman (Pioneer)		 296-4627
Rich Tyldesley (Wyle)			 296-4079
Steve Woodward (Avnet)			 296-4100
Mike Murphy (Regional Accounts)		 296-4057
Dan Williams (Specialty Accounts)	 296-4093
Larry Miscowski (Channels Industries)	 296-4082
Steve Wentzell (MWBE)			 296-4387
Joe McFadden (Channels Sales/Govt.)	 337-4283

DISTRIBUTION SALES MANAGERS

Name					 Telephone #		Location

Beverly Badois				 433-3862		@DYO
Bart Dellinger 				 531-4424		@LAO
John Gingher 				 323-4297		@KYO
Geoff Litteral				 431-2878		@CLO
Dennis Macumber				 474-2595		@ACI
Mike McSweeney 				 521-4424		@WRO
Carol Morris 				 385-2772		@ALF
Stu Schlackman 				 486-6635		@DLO
Robert Waldron 				 274-6802		@MKO	   



Ed Kamins
Manager, U.S. Distribution

    Thanx much for the list - hope we won't have to use it -- but I'll
    pass it along to our local sales folk anyway.
    
    						David Silvers

    
    
       David,
    
       Just curious to who the distributor is/was. When I was up north
    (New England district) we delt primarily with Avnet. The G.E. team
    here in PA deals a lot with Pioneer. I don't recall any problems to
    the extent you mentioned, but like anything else, it's the individuals
    not the distributor.
       I sit right next to Joe McFadden (listed in note 32.4) and I see
    everyday the push towards using distributors. It's a great idea,
    providing it doesn't cost US money.
    
    
                                     Phil...

    I had a discussion with my account team the other day regarding
    distributors.  Some of the feedback I heard included a rumor that the 
    distributor program may change next year...i.e...
    
    someone found out that selling through disti's isn't as profitable as
    originally thought...
    
    Cheers,
    
    Gil

    I haven't heard anything, but I can believe it can't be very
    profitable.  What I see is distributors following SR's around and
    booking business that should be done by DEC.  Therefor, tying two reps
    up to book one piece of business.  Unfortunately, the DEC rep's are
    happy to let them do it.  The system should be established to increase
    the people selling DEC products to an increasing number of prospects
    without increasing the headcount by DEC.  I believe that is the intent,
    but not the fact.
    
    
    Ken Corbett