Have you heard the story about how to catch a monkey? Tie a jar with a mango inside to a tree. When the monkey tries to get the mango, his hand gets caught. Don’t be the monkey holding on to the mango.

At IRCG’s recent executive workshop, Sales GPS, we spoke with wholesale distribution executives about the need to rethink their distribution sales models to adapt to new market realities. We spoke about changes in how customers are shopping and buying; the growing need for a team-selling approach to meet customers’ needs more efficiently; where e-commerce fits in today’s world; and how to evaluate your sales process to identify gaps in how you’re serving your customers.

Only 1 in 5 e-commerce executives across industries rate their organizations as having a “world-class” data-driven culture, according to Clearhead’s 2016 Digital Optimization Benchmarking Study. While the study of 144 e-commerce executives found that most have analytics technology in place, staffing shortages, skills gaps and cultural barriers have meant that for many companies, “the technology that can improve customer experience, such as analytics, testing and personalization, sits on the shelf.”

Sales roles today are becoming less transactional as more customers move ordering activity online. In a recent survey we conducted with MDM, distributors have predicted that as this trend continues, sales reps will have a harder time getting in front of customers (see Amazon Effect Takes Aim at Relationship Equity). A million U.S. field sales positions may even disappear because of growing e-commerce, if Forrester’s 2015 prediction is to be believed.

A lot of distributors are worried about Amazon’s growing influence in B2B markets. Despite Amazon’s replacement of AmazonSupply with the somewhat less-threatening Amazon Business in 2015, the increased competition in B2B markets created by Amazon Business still outweighs the new selling opportunities it has created.

To give you a taste of of our upcoming Sales GPS event, we’ve put together a new whitepaper: The Sales Rep of the Future, now available for free download.

On a daily basis, you can get news on mergers and acquisitions and the quarterly reports of publicly traded companies. And it seems like every week a new report comes out outlining new industry trends.

Is your field sales team filled with market-makers or market-servers?

Most distributors would answer that question with “market-makers.” But they would be wrong.

The field sales function has been largely self-directed, with salespeople typically making their own decisions about how and where they go to market. Distributors must shift to a management-directed sales model.

Historically, the distribution sales process has been largely artisan – with field salespeople making their own decisions about how they go to market with little oversight from sales management. Here are three reasons why that has to change.

Join IRCG, Modern Distribution Management and your peers at Sales GPS on March 1-2 in Austin, TX, to reimagine the distribution sales model, and get the tools you need to transform your business to one that is more responsive to rapidly changing customer needs.

The University of Innovative Distribution (UID) has opened registration for its March 2017 program. IRCG's Mike Marks is a permanent faculty member at UID, and will be presenting four courses.

One distinction stands above all others in separating market-driven distribution companies from the competition: They set internal priorities based on an external, market perspective.

Every distributor says they are different because of their service and their people. But those are not differentiators: They are just the ante to play. If you have both, you get to bid. But if that’s your strategy, you’re going to be stuck competing on price.

If you embark on changes to your sales compensation plan, remember: Communication is key.