At Qupact International, we specialize in identifying and engaging with the optimal sales and distribution partners on behalf of our clients according to their specific business needs. It is a practice we have grown highly proficient at over our 14 years in business and we take great pride in being able to help grow our clients business through management of their sales channels in foreign markets. However, we also add significant value to those companies that prefer to manage their own sales channels but have difficulty finding the right distribution partners for their business and enacting an efficient, cost-effective distribution sales strategy. We carry out a bespoke sales partner search in our clients target market. We generally identifying between 30-60 potential partners, that are input into our web-optimized application, dataPACT, along with a pre-requisite guided rating and complete company profile. dataPACT constitutes the backbone of our service being the ideal platform on which to present and interpret complex sales data.
dataPACT has a number of tools that our clients can use to generate a comprehensive sales strategy or add value to an existing one. Primary amongst these is our Market Map. The Market Map is a visual representation of your target market and all the players in it so that you know immediately who to engage with and how to approach them. Traditional databases provide customers with endless lists and spreadsheets of companies, dataPACT‘s Market Map shows the relationships between those companies; it is the transformation of raw data into intelligent, useful information. The importance of being able to identify the relationships between potential partners, competitors and suppliers of complimentary products cannot be overstated and is often the difference between success and failure during market entry, dataPACT‘s Market Map put this information into our clients hands.
Figure 1 – Market Map Interface
Supplementing the information presented in the Market Map is the Strategy Pyramid. The Strategy Pyramid is all about routes to market and clearly defines precisely how to engage with potential sales channel partners turned up in the partner search. The Strategy Pyramid defines clear stages along the sales path toward the end-customer and end-user. The strategy is also tiered according to the different categories of partner sought; for example the strategy used to engage with retailers will differ significantly to the one used to engage wholesale distributors. Where the Market Map presents the results of the bespoke partner search, the Strategy Pyramid provide a concise and clear strategy on how to utilize those results.
Highly rated potential channels and pertinent competitors will be given a comprehensive Company Profile, a summary of the critically relevant information regarding that company. This provides fundamental company information regarding structure, size, headquarters, management and contact details. The company profile also includes financial data, which is absolutely crucial in determining the sustainability and growth potential of a sales channel. The last thing you need on market entry is to sign an exclusive contract with an unsustainable company that could fold leaving you stranded! A summary sales analysis, “next-action” function and comments sections complete the company profile.
In considering whether or not to take on a competitor in the market place or even within a single distribution partner, it is quintessential to objectively compare your competing product or service. The dataPACT Competitive Analysis tool allows our clients to do just that. This feature facilitates a spec-by-spec analysis and comparison of multiple products across multiple competitors. The client is in full control of the parameters being compared and these can be altered at any time to keep up with market dynamics.
dataPACT also a range of other features such as a partner prerequisites documents, interactive dashboard, structured partner proposition document formats and an extensive e-learning facility for early entrepreneurs and seasoned business people alike. All dataPACT features also allow for PDF export to assist clients in their own presentations. Whilst Qupact remains committed to utilizing dataPACT to manage our client’s sales channels as effectively as possible, we also want to make dataPACT available to those clients determined to develop their own sales channel strategy.
If you need reps, distributors, VARs or retailers, visit us as www.qupact.com and see what dataPACT can do for your business.
Article Written by Brian English CEO of Qupact International, Brian English is an internationally renowned expert in sales channel development. A former Vice President at Emerson(St. Louis) and group Managing Director at XP Power (London), he currently delivers on a number of prestigious management development programs such as International Selling and Endeavour as well as lecturing at business schools, universities, industry events and company meetings. After a 20 years career in international business, he set up Qupact International in 2003 and launched PACT – a program to guide companies through the complex task of setting up and managing third party sales channels in international markets.