Of the 56 sessions offered at the University of Innovative Distribution in 2020, IRCG consultants will lead eight. Senior Associate Consultant Dan Horan will be presenting as a faculty member for the first time at the 2020 University of Industrial Distribution (UID). With a background in marketing and advertising, Dan will dissect the four aspects of an effective and profitable branding strategy in his session, “B2B Branding Strategies for the 2020s.”

In the digital age, branding is no longer just advertising, or logos and slogans. Now, successful branding requires a comprehensive strategy and it has to include the entire customer experience. 

Your customers are used to making purchases online in their daily lives. And, more and more, they expect ecommerce in the working world, too. Too many distributors don’t focus enough on their B2B ecommerce – in some cases because they believe in-person field sales is their one and only go-to sales method, or because they feel they can’t compete with Amazon, so it’s pointless to invest in ecommerce.

If you’re still wondering whether your business should be on social media, it’s easy to learn the answer: Ask your customers.

If they’re using it, then you should be, too.

But don’t begin and end with that single question. Equally important is the follow up: Which social media platforms do your customers use most, and for what purposes?

Dan Horan offers distributors a pragmatic way to narrow the gap between their current brand and their ideal brand.

This is the second part of a four-part series on distributor branding.

IRCG Associate Consultant Dan Horan argues that a company brand is defined by much more than its logos or letterhead.

Today’s buyer takes a much more active role in the buying process. These customers – who would much rather do their own research than be interrupted by a salesperson – are turning to company websites and other sources for product and application information before they buy. Some buyers want very little to do with a sales rep in the traditional sense. Companies willing to adapt to these changes have begun to shift resources away from outside sales to inside sales and/or other specialized roles. But this only solves part of the problem.