If your product/service is sold direct to the end-user, you can stop reading here.  

For the rest of you, there are some things worth consideration in your 2027 budgets.

Most successful products go through distribution channels, meaning there is a “first customer” who controls the eventual sale to the buyer. When the dealer or distributor is first convinced of the value to their customer, things happen.

Distribution or retail is critical cog in the marketing machine. But it’s also the most overlooked and starved-out area during budget-building time.

More Sales Requires More Outlets

We’ve been told that the only way to find sizable sales growth is through additional distribution outlets — the dealers, supply shops or distributors that stock your product and actively promote and sell.

Signing on more outlets doesn’t “just happen,” even with industry-changing innovations. Dealer communications, including dealer recruitment and retention, deserves a marketing strategy and budget, too.

Why It’s Important

In most retail or supply shops, adding a new line is not an easy decision. It involves capital to inventory the product and its parts, product training, new systems and procedures, shelf space, protected territories and more. So when a door opens, you’ll have wanted that retail decisionmaker to know something about your company, product and USPs long before the need arises — and before a competitor gets the nod solely because of familiarity. Familiarity you could have also been working on.

Consider the 3-year financial impact of just ONE eager, qualified and well funded dealer, and you’ll readily see why distribution deserves a sizable marketing investment. Each new dealer represents an open order to decades of sales. Companies who understand the notion of CLV or Customer Lifetime Value (the revenue you can expect a single customer to spend across the entire relationship) can easily calculate the value of each new dealer.

Conversely, you can also get there by asking for the revenue lost after the last time a dealer cancelled your line.

Softening the Beachheads

The best recruitment program gets a dealer to raise their hand for a meeting. While impressive and rapid results can occur, more common is the brand marketing that softens the beachheads for your reps walking into that store and looking for a few minutes’ time.

Yet only a rare few companies allocate specific marketing resources toward distribution – for recruitment, retention and the vital communications that keep a network informed. We know of on-the-ball network managers who upon seeing timely opportunity, have to wait in line at the marketing manager’s office only to hear that there’s no budget for “distribution marketing.”

Advertising with relevant messaging to the distributor or dealer in their business magazines also indicates commitment, leadership, and a desire to support the retailer. Dealers say marketing and advertising support is a key factor in evaluating suppliers, and an advertising presence by itself shows commitment. 

The retail outlet is where the sales happen, or don't. The distributors and dealers expect the same quality and support as the end users, but expect other factors too. The following is how dealers in the equipment industry measure current and prospective suppliers. 

• Product availability
• Product quality
• Product technical support 
• Parts availability
• Parts quality
• Return privileges
• Communication with management
• Warranty procedures
• Warranty payments
• Marketing and advertising support
• Company responsiveness to dealers needs

So as you start thinking about your 2027 budget — or if you want to make the most of what's left of 2026 — consider how distribution marketing efforts should play a role. This infographic further outlines why marketing for a wider reach can help the bottom line.