Sales and Marketing Teams Plan to Build on Pandemic-Induced Flexibility

摘要

Distributors' traditional outside salesforces this year were hit with the double whammy of increased electronic sales on e-commerce sites as well as the surging COVID-19 Delta variant that has kept some of them away from face-to-face appointments. Looking toward 2022, distributors plan to focus more on inside sales team models to better support their customers across their e-commerce websites, according to MDM's 2022 Trends survey results. More than 100 distributors, manufacturers and service providers took the MDM 2022 Trends survey online, providing an insight into where the industry is headed next year. Key takeaways include distributors incentivizing both sales staff and customers to purchase products through e-commerce sites. For example, a sales rep receives a bonus for pushing a sale to the e-commerce site, while customers are offered discounts for going digital. Also, inside sales staff who work remotely can be located outside of their employer's existing footprint, which helps the company expand geographically.