Showing papers on "Customer delight published in 1976"

Do you Know who Your Customer Is

Abstract: Many companies cannot efficiently reach their end-users with a direct sales force, or with exclusive representatives, distributors, or dealers that do not sell any competing products. As a consequence, they have to rely on the network of warehousing distributors, brokers, and dealers who are already serving their industry-and who serve many of their competitors as well. These producers may mount well-planned marketing programs to create demand among the ultimate users of the product. They logically assume that if the customer comes into the outlet presold to ask for their product, a sale will automatically follow. This is usually true. But the product sold may be a competitor's! One reason is that there is not enough attention being paid to the fact that it is the distributor, not the end-user, who actually purchases the goods from the manufacturer. Therefore, in a real sense, it is the distributor, not the end-user, who is the customer. It follows, then, that it is important to pay as much attention to researching, motivating, and selling the distributor as is paid to the enduser, since in the pursuit of his own self-interests, a distributor will tend to favor those suppliers that better understand and cater to his needs. The following case histories provide some insights into how distributors think and act in deciding which competing product to recommend. I have selected examples from two entirely different contexts-industrial equipment and insurance -to demonstrate how universal the situation is. These cases serve as guidelines for the development of a marketing program aimed at maximizing your product's chance of survival in the distributor's process of selecting the brand to recommend.