PUE Refrigerators: Sales and marketing
Summary
If your last mile distribution company is just getting started in sales of PUE (productive use of energy) refrigerators then this article will guide you in how to select your marketing channels, master product demos and craft your sales pitch.
Choose the right channels
After researching and fine tuning the product-market fit, in which the product’s benefits are in sync with the customers’ needs, the next step is to craft the sales pitch and deliver it through the right channels.
It is important to develop a comprehensive sales and marketing strategy that is tailored to this new product category.
Last mile distributors (LMDs) often sell through more than one channel, but the most common is through sales agents that promote the products within the community they live.
An Efficiency for Access and 60 Decibels study found that 40% of customers heard about refrigerators through word of mouth. Pursuing sales tactics like promoting brand ambassadors and client referrals in communities can help reach more customers.
LMDs can choose radio advertising to target local audiences or social media and SMS campaigns to engage a broader, tech-savvy population. Field group meetings can also be highly effective as they offer direct interaction and product demos that let LMDs foster community trust and engagement with the new technology.
Master product demos
LMDs and their agents can either bring the product to the customers or the customers to the product.
When last mile distributor SolarWorks started selling fridges they invited prospective customers to see the fridges at their stores. This meant their sales teams had to travel to fishing communities once a week and give potential customers a ride to the company shop. After they had sold a couple of fridges, these visits were no longer necessary because the refrigerators were on display at the nearest fish trader.
ENRAPOWER, another distributor, takes a different approach. After giving out product flyers they gauge interest among people in the community: when two to three people express interest in a product, the company sends a sales agent to give a product demonstration.
Craft the sales pitch
Once you have identified the marketing channels that let you reach your target customers, such as radio, social media, SMS, or in-person meetings, you can choose the content of the marketing materials.
A good sales pitch speaks to the pain points or aspirations of the audience. Sales agents should be engaged in this design process as they know their customers best and will deliver the pitch.
Through roleplay sales agents can master their sales pitch and gain confidence in selling this new product category.
Sales pitches should only be semi-structured, allowing agents to deviate from the script when necessary. For example, when they are speaking to an audience that requires more technical information than one would provide usually.
LMDs can use tools like the Bopinc ATEAR marketing and sales funnel to define strategies for each stage, starting with attention raising and trust building among
its customers.
What can manufacturers do?
Manufactures are invited to share proven sales and marketing practices with LMDs, based on what they have seen work well with other distributors. They can also provide companies with training materials on after-sales support, given that refrigerators require more maintenance than most other products sold at the last mile.
Evaluate sales agent performance
Once LMDs engage more sales agents with the sale of refrigerators, they can start monitoring the performance of the agents, including their conversion rates, average deal size, and customer satisfaction levels.
These will help distributors to identify areas where agents may need additional training or support. It also lets the lower performing agents learn from the higher performing ones.
LMDs may choose to onboard the best performing sales agents for a pilot with solar powered refrigeration sales. POPO Uganda found that such growth opportunities enabled them to attract reliable sales agents as well as ensure avenues for growth for the best performing sales agents.
Opportunities for both income and responsibility growth have proven to be integral to retaining the best performing agents.
Keep reading
Read more about selling PUE refrigerators:
- Consumer demand and value proposition
- Product and supplier selection
- Consumer finance
- Stock financing
- Logistics
- After-sales support
Read our full publication
Want to learn more? The above articles have been taken from our downloadable publication: How to Sell Refrigerators for Productive Use.
Photo credits
Top graphic: Contains the following edited images: photo of women by Freepik; fridge photo by muhammad.abdullah on Freepik; and shrimp icon by macrovector on Freepik
First photo: Photo by Amar De on Unsplash
Second photo: Image by kadirie781 on Freepik