Article at a glance:
Increasingly sophisticated customer purchasing organizations, greater pricing transparency, and downstream consolidation have disrupted sales channels for industrial products. Suppliers can improve their performance by using some of the same tools that caused these disruptions to obtain information and insights about their customers, their distribution economics, and their competitors. Companies that gain this knowledge will be able to decide whether and how to restructure their channels, to select new partners, or simply to manage existing ones better.
The take-away
Fundamentally shifting from one form of distribution to another is rarely the right move. Instead, suppliers should subtly shift their emphasis by learning more about their economics, customers, and competitors.