by Jörg Pütz

Today the digitization offers manufacturers in multi-level distribution channels new opportunities to gain more pull through the demand by the consumer. In times of low interest rates the demand by consumers in the construction business is still relatively high. However generating more brand awareness and hoping that enough revenue will be generated at the end of the sales funnel by the end customer is less and less successful.

Therefore strengthening one's own brand and, at the same time, as a manufacturer, generating consumer leads and thus developing a B2B2C business is already practiced in the heating industry. In the sanitary industry with a large number of different products and components for a bath, this seems rather unusual. Thus the more manufacturers become full-range suppliers, the greater the chances of being able to implement the consumer lead for their own brand with the help of selected partners on the installer side. A prerequisite for this, of course, is a strong and genuine partnership with the installers. Unfortunately, many manufacturers today forget to deepen and consolidate their partnership with installers because of their multi-channel activities.

What are the interests of the installers, where are their pain points? Do you know them and how could you support them?

But the most important shift in the mind set of the manufacturer is to start with the needs of the consumer. He has to know the profile of his consumer, the pain points of the consumer, what is his consumers journey, what is he looking for in which phase of his jouney in order to offer the right messages with the right tools at the right time. And by this to work backwards in order to keep the consumer centricity together with his partner for installation.

In terms of methodology and technology, everything is available today to take the first steps: from persona through consumer journey to social selling and CRM systems, where the installer partners can be docked in. In this way, digital transformation also succeeds in multi-level distribution channels.The well-known three step sales funnel get revolutionized by the digitalization. Instead of a value chain a value network of different partners and acteurs arises.

When do you take the first step from B2B to B2B2C?