文档介绍：petitive Advantage Through Sales and Distribution Strategy
13>. petitive Advantage Through Sales and Distribution Strategy
Situation
Selecting a sales and distribution approach is a key element of a essful business model. The sales approach, or more broadly the overall process of selling and delivering products to customers, at once passes both pany’s connection to its customers and a significant portion of its total costs. Traditionally, companies selected from a defined, limited set of options (. direct sales, manufacturers representatives, distributors, dealers) and most firms in an industry made similar choices. Recently, the number of options has expanded greatly and the breadth of choices petitors has proliferated in parallel, creating potential instability petitive positions for current leaders and areas of opportunity for others. To make matters more uncertain, some of the traditional options no longer offer the same balance of services and costs and now cease to achieve the desired results. Therefore, panies are forced to rethink their approaches to sales and distribution.
Structuring an analysis of sales and distribution channel options is based on the fundamental logic underlying channel selection:
?? How do sales and distribution channel choices fit into an overall business model?
?? What is the history of petitive advantage with sales and distribution channels?
?? What were traditional channel options and why did they meet supplier and customer needs?
?? How are the underlying characteristics of sales and distribution channels changing?
?? What are new options open to suppliers and how should suppliers evaluate those options?
?? How can suppliers mange transitions between channel choices?
This paper will provide an overview of the changing nature of sales and distribution channels. It is the first in a series; subsequent ones will address each of the topics in greater detail.
1 The discussion here on sales and distribution chan