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Electrical distributors are looking at real estate in a whole new light, focusing on operations and marketing rather than facilities. The real estate to watch is the spaces in front of and behind the counter, where the focus is coming back to building relationships by creating face-to-face connections with customers. One way to do this is by using digital signage.
Digital signage at first glance may look like a cumbersome, complicated and expensive solution for customer interaction, but in fact it can now offer both simplicity and high performance with remote management and low cost of entry, even with top-of-the-line hardware solutions.
Digital signage is showing strong results as it’s increasingly being used to grow customer relationships in front of the counter, which in turn is growing sales behind the counter by sparking customer dialogue when meeting face-to-face.
Look how this changes the selling scene in each of the branches. What if a customer waiting in line to pick up materials during early morning peak hours is able to be creatively entertained by customized content that is playing in the background? When their time comes to stand at the counter, they are able to ask about what was on the screen, opening up a dialogue in which the employee can better relate with the customer. With the signage to spark the conversation, the counter salesperson can truly understand the customer’s needs in a way that builds a relationship that keeps that customer coming back over and over, rather than stopping at a competitor.
What if the marketing team can better market to that customer with triggered promotions based on the purchases at hand and then see the success of those promotions in real time so they can alter the running promotions based on the success rate?
TriggerPoint Media has been serving clients in the distribution space for more than 15 years and has created a solution that benefits all parties in the distributor-supplier-customer relationship. It starts with the client collaboration portal, where a supplier can easily drop graphics and videos into the electrical distributors library for each distributor to view, request and edit as needed to create their own digital signage “playlist” for their branches. This collaboration portal saves both the distributor and the supplier time and money, and the customer learns more about the products and promotions while being entertained by sports or weather feeds, motion graphics and ticker content designed specifically for the branch’s customers.
The value of digital signage can stand alone, creating a new dimension in the branches, but the real game changer is where what’s happening on the signage can be tied in with actual sales. The TriggerPoint Media Data iQ Dashboard provides key management with real-time transactional insights.
The key element that marketing has been missing is the knowledge it needs to make strategic decisions without relying on hindsight or hypotheticals. Many companies utilize comprehensive point-of-sale software to run counter area business, but these software programs provide data — not insights. Often that data is not timely, and the company’s marketing messages aren’t synchronized with what should be promoted and when. Data iQ gives distributors the insights connecting what’s shown on the signage with what’s sold at the counter in real time, and the power to trigger the digital signage platform based on what is currently being purchased. It also gives insights into what products are being bundled most often together, what is being missed, and where the products are being utilized in the area.
Marketing has been held to a standard without the tools to deliver and now with digital signage and Data iQ Dashboard everyone wins and not just subjectively but with the ability for the success to be truly recognized.
Tama Williamson is the founder & CEO of TriggerPointMedia.com, a provider of digital signage and content systems for the distribution market. You can get in touch with her at [email protected] or her team’s distribution representative at [email protected] 855-381-5563, ext. 117.