[GUEST COLUMN] Bob Linderman
Maximizing the Value of National
and Regional Account Opportunities
With competition coming at the distribution industry from all angles right now, having a solid customer base comprised of a good mix of
company sizes, industries, and verticals, is one of the best
ways to ensure a steady sales pipeline. To get the most out
of those pipelines, independent distributors should look
to integrate both regional and national sales accounts
into their business models. The former focuses on working
with other distributors to service a specific customer on a
regional level, while the latter widens the scope and finds
a group of companies working to fulfill the needs of larger,
multi-location (and even global) customers. By pooling their
efforts and fulfilling one or more aspects of a customer’s
needs, independent distributors can effectively leverage
their strengths while providing service and support levels
that the big box retailers can’t touch.
The Power of One
Having special contracts with large customers isn’t a new
concept for independent industrial distributors, many of
which have been successfully working together to fulfill
the needs of large clients for decades. Both national and
regional accounts come into play when a large customer
has needs that outsize the capabilities of a single, independent distributor. By leveraging the “power of one,” and by
centralizing purchasing, payment, and support operations
under a single umbrella, the distributor effectively creates a
win-win proposition for itself and for its customer. Instead
of having to write multiple purchase orders, field multiple
invoices, and write multiple checks to dozens of different
vendors, for example, the customer uses the centralized,
national or regional account setup to work with a single entity (which, in turn, is supported by multiple distributors).
In addition to centralizing its purchasing, invoicing, and
payment operations, the customer wins on another, rather
significant front: the ability to tap a technical and sales
knowledge base that only a group of reputable, independent industrial distributors can provide.
The Choice is Yours
IBC is seeing continued interest in national accounts on
the part of large customers that want to purchase multiple
product and/or lines of products from a single source. This
trend creates both opportunities and challenges for inde-
pendent distributors. On one hand, the enterprising distrib-
utor that steps up to the plate, bids on, and then ultimately
lands the national or regional account comes out a winner
— but they must have a plan and the infrastructure in place
to service the account. On the other, the existing distributor
that opts out of the process can quickly find itself written
out of the relationship. It’s the phone call that no com-
pany wants to get; you’ve had the account for many years
and serviced it on a 24/7 basis, only to have your customer
consolidate its purchasing operations to a far-off corporate
office. What do you do? Mourn the loss of your long-term
customer, or find a viable way to keep it onboard?
Opening the Doors
National accounts aren’t just for distributors that are trying
to save existing relationships by broadening their scope.
In fact, they can be a particularly great tool for landing
that account that you’ve been calling on unsuccessfully for
years. You know that the opportunity is there, and that the
potential customer isn’t happy with its current supplier, but
you just can’t seem to break through the barrier. Enter the
national or regional account system — a setup that allows
you to gather a strong team and strategize on how to win
that elusive customer. Let’s say the targeted end user is
unhappy with its current supplier’s performance. Now, you
don’t actually know what’s going on behind closed doors,
but you do know that the dissatisfaction exists. This is the
perfect set up for a strong team of independent distributors
to make their entrance and show the customer how they
can do it better, provide more, cover a wider scope, and
otherwise beat the competition.
Independent distributors can either start making these
moves now, expand on their current efforts in this area, or
wither away as they hold out hope that the “old ways” of
buying and selling industrial goods come back.
Top 5 Best Practices
For the distributor that’s never been involved with a national or regional account initiative, the undertaking may
be daunting. After all, “independents” are independent for
a reason, right? Used to working in their own orbits, these
distributors often have to shift cultural mindsets in order
