Partnering with distributors to stimulate sales: a case study

Business to business marketers tend to view distribution as the weakest link in the marketing chain. Furthermore, strategies to improve distribution tend to be under‐emphasized in the typical business marketing plan. These factors underline the need for more creative thinking about alternative ways to improve distributor performance. Building closer relationships with distributors can be one effective vehicle for accomplishing this and at the same time enhancing a company’s overall competitiveness. Using a case study, this paper reviews how one highly successful paper company has partnered with its distributors (paper merchants) in order to enhance sales performance.