RTM: Your reseller channel in Europe has changed completely in the last four years, hasn’t it?

CR: Yes. In 2000 Trimble acquired Spectra Precision resulting in over 500 resellers selling into the surveying and construction markets in Europe. Of course, most of them only understood part of the enlarged Trimble-Spectra portfolio, most were non-exclusive and a lot of them were quite small. 

RTM: Sounds a familiar picture!  Were most of the resellers’ running lifestyle businesses?

CR: A lot of them were. There was a mix of older style resellers  used to serving an established user base with more traditional products and services, who were perhaps less keen on finding new customers; and an entrepreneurial group with a more youthful mindset.  

RTM: Some suppliers would see this sort of diversity as a good thing. They would argue that it enables you to properly cover the waterfront.

CR: I’d argue the exact opposite!  We had little idea of their real skills or market segments. All of which meant that our market knowledge was limited. We couldn’t drill down and do any serious comparisons between resellers within a country or between countries. This meant that we had little idea of where we might have gaps and weaknesses. To cap it all, we also had a mixed business with some direct selling in a number of European countries .

I think having a diverse range of partners also makes it hard to build any real traction with them. If they all behave differently, and perceive you as a supplier in a different way, then account management is much harder. And it is impossible to expect them to project a consistent image of your brand to the market.

Running distribution on this scale is a major investment. And, with such a diverse mix of capabilities and attitudes, it is certain that a fair proportion of this was not targeted optimally.

RTM: So how did you benchmark them?

"We had little idea of their real skills or market segments."

CR: Well it was fairly rigorous with a lot of elements. It covered everything from the resellers’ financial history, credit status and payment behaviour through to who their people were, their skill sets and levels of training. We took a very detailed look at which market segments they were selling into and with which products.  By default, we also gained a clear picture of what they were not selling within their portfolio, and of which market segments were not being addressed. We also had a history so we could look at their own objectives setting and how they performed against their plans. We could also look at the history to see how aligned they were to Trimble.

RTM: I suppose you looked at their skills level.

CR: Yes, and in depth. We analysed the personnel within each reseller organisation as to their capabilities and skills in areas such as sales management, solutions demonstration,  technical support and service. Some of this was subjective, some was objective.

We also analysed their marketing activities, looking at everything from planning, investment and follow through. We were particularly interested in how they projected themselves and our brand.