The Manager's Guide to Distribution Channels

Valuable tools to manage and maximize each link in your firm's "go-to-market" chain

In today's every-penny-counts, globally competitive business arena, effective management of distribution channels is vital to a firm's competitive success. The Manager's Guide to Distribution Channels examines how today's most innovative corporations are literally rewriting the rules for channel management and redesigning their distribution strategies to take full advantage of ongoing technological and operational innovations.

Filled with market-proven tools and techniques for creating and managing channels that work in sync with your channel partners and end users, this real-world guidebook will show you how to:

• Stay on top of changes in how customers want to buy and receive your product
• Evaluate your channel in a step-by-step process
• Align your firm's overall objectives with its channel objectives, and ensure a solid supporting infrastructure

Your markets and their needs change everyday. And while your firm's distribution strategies must be flexible enough to change with it, they must also be clear enough to be understood by each channel member. The Manager's Guide to Distribution Channels provides the knowledge and insights you need to create a profitable channel strategy, and expertly manage each channel relationship.

• Dell Computer revolutionizes the computer industry by selling direct to end users, then successfully expands its distribution strategy to meet changing consumer demands
• Avon goes beyond its legendary in-home sales channel, launching boutiques in established department stores to reach a younger, working market
• Huffy relies on costly focus group results to launch a new bicycle line, yet overlooks one small but vital distribution detail—leading to what its CEO terms "a $5 million mistake"

In each case, a leading corporation made or attempted to make distribution channel decisions to better serve its end-customers and strengthen its long-term competitive position. Yet, as the market would prove, reliance on weak channel knowledge and market insight can derail even the most ambitious plans.

The Manager's Guide to Distribution Channels is your bottom-line guide to ensuring that your firm successfully tailors its channel strategy and management to the realities of the channel and needs of the marketplace. A step-by-step handbook to formulating your channel structure, strategy, and relationship management so that it is both market-driven and results-oriented, this easy-to-implement manual is divided into three equally valuable sections:

• Part I provides an executive overview of distribution channel issues, and the myriad decisions necessary to improve the flow of product from raw material to end user
• Part II defines channel and coverage requirements, while dealing with domestic and foreign channel design issues and selecting profitable channel partners
• Part III covers strategies for making and managing strong channel relationships, from establishing mutual performance expectations to monitoring channel performance, and adjusting plans when necessary

Channel management is much more than simply the shipping and receiving of goods. It is the lifeblood of your business, and the key to its short- and long-term success. The Manager's Guide to Distribution Channels tells you everything you need to know to maximize the operational effectiveness and profitability of your marketing channels and distribution programs. It helps you manage your distribution relationships both individually and as a whole, and transforms your channel management program from an operational chore into a strategic competitive advantage.

Linda Gorchels, Chuck West, and Edward Marien are on the School of Business faculty and program directors at the University of Wisconsin (Madison, WI). Gorchels is the author of The Product Manager's Handbook.

Linda Gorchels, Chuck West, and Edward Marien are on the School of Business faculty and program directors at the University of Wisconsin (Madison, WI). Gorchels is the author of The Product Manager's Handbook.