Industry leaders in distribution are leaning into innovations and using new means to provide frictionless service and get ahead—because today, that’s what contractors expect. Successful companies are using new ways to engage customers, make business quick, and optimize their processes. But for distributors ready to innovate, it’s a challenge to know what customer expectations are and where to start.
That’s why we hosted our webinar, The Innovation Advantage: Quick Wins & Long-Term Strategies to Win More in 2024. In this discussion, we brought together a few experts to talk about current contractor expectations, the value of innovation, and how some of Prokeep’s top performers are using it to drive business. Here are some highlights.
Why Innovation is Key to Distributor Success
We kicked off the discussion with Prokeep’s Director of Marketing, Brooks Young talking a little about why innovation is so important to distributors today.
“It really comes down to being customer-centric.” Brooks shared. Innovation is understanding customer needs and focusing your efforts on being first to provide them with new experiences.
Understanding Current Contractor Expectations
Next, the president of Farmington Consulting Group, TJ O’Connor, shared his findings on what your customers want, derived from his annual study, The Voice of the Contractor.
TJ dove into the growing reliance on the counter rep and how this differs from the COVID-19 years when the outside salesperson was the most common point of contact.
“What we’ve seen is that contractors are turning more to the counter and inside sales people…. People they can rely on for immediate responses to provide technical support, order updates, and so on.” - TJ O’Connor, President of Farmington Consulting Group
Opportunities for Innovation in Distribution
Moving forward, Brooks went into a few opportunities for innovation or specific areas you can focus on to drive business. These included marketing, sales enablement, customer engagement, your digital ecosystem, and more!
Brooks went on to split these opportunities into short and long-term tactics. These are things you can start doing today to drive business as well as long-term innovations to plan and work towards.
Be sure to download the webinar on-demand here to hear every mentioned opportunity for innovation and its benefits.
Innovating and Driving Business with Prokeep
Then, I got to talk a little bit about how Prokeep is powering innovation and making change easy for distributors.
Innovation is only powerful if you can effectively manage the change that comes with it. That's why quick time to value is so key. If you lose your team's focus or adopting a new strategy is too heavy a lift, you run the risk of missing KPIs or desired results.
From instant communication to seamless order notifications, Prokeep is empowering distributors to meet contractor expectations and get work done while making the change simple. Today, innovation is more crucial than ever, and our solutions make it easy for you to provide better service and foster innovation.
And we had the chance to see it in action with AC Supply.
AC Supply Boosts Customer Engagement with Prokeep’s Broadcast Text Messaging
At AC Supply, they don’t shy away from change, and we got to hear Director of Marketing Kristin Jordan share just how they’re using Broadcast Text Messaging to power engagement.
AC Supply’s culture of innovation made it easy to jump on new opportunities, and by sending texts to mass populations of customers, they’ve been able to boost attendance at events and spread information more effectively!
“The amount of opens I get [through text] over what I would on an email, so if we’re having an event the attendance is significantly more if we send out a Broadcast Text Reminder.” - Kristin Jordan, Director of Marketing, ABC Supply.
It’s innovations like these that are making a difference for distributors. Be sure to watch the webinar on demand to hear the full discussion and see how you can get started. And if you’re looking for a step-by-step guide of innovations you can implement now, download our handbook!
And if you're ready to get the ball rolling and make communication as easy as pressing a button, book a demo with us today!
