For manufacturers, getting your message through the channel, let alone to end-users, can be a challenge. Most are conditioned (could be trained, sometimes it’s historical repetition) to promote features and benefits. And it is always the latest products (which is interesting given that, while they track NPI … the percentage of business driven by new product introductions … there are rarely channel tracking and incentives attached to drive this … topic for another day!)

Back to today’s topic for manufacturers … promoting your “why?”

Time, and resources, are spent developing collateral and sharing it with reps and distributors. Regional managers are “trained” and webinars are scheduled. Information is pushed.

Some is retained; much is forgotten until there is a need. But, when a need is identified and a project quoted and won, then product information is retained … mindshare is won!

But, until then, the goal remains the same for a manufacturer … how to win mindshare so that a rep and/or a distributor continues to promote your offering.

There are a few keys:

• Having a strong brand and being “known” for something. This could relate to product. It could be for expertise in serving a market segment. It could be for your services … especially being easy to do business with.
• The relationship your reps / salespeople have with your distributors. Are they “emotional favorites?”
• The business, or value, you bring to distribution. Do you help generate demand?

You need to be “wanted” before a product can be sold. Many products suffer from “sufficiency” and hence are viewed by the channel, and end-customers, as commodities … there is something that is comparable that can replace it.

Why You?

Given this, why you?

And the key to “why you” is answering this question regularly. Salespeople / reps are the human personification of marketing. Content marketing, disseminated through an integrated marketing communications strategy, helps drive this.

According to Gardner Business Media’s 2025 Industrial Buying Influence Survey, 64% of industrial buyers say they are moderately to a lot more likely to do business with companies actively creating and sharing new information about their technology.

A recent email from Garder shared some reasons why content marketing works:

• “Customers have questions, and more and more AI tools are providing the answers. The thing with AI though, it must be fed with detailed, informed, solutions-focused information. Your brand, your solutions, your content can feed those LLMs to be part of the answers.
• Trust and authenticity. As much as AI is generating answers, it’s also producing a lot of head-scratching content. Which means customers are turning to sources they know and trust for reliable, authentic information.
• ​There’s ROI in attention. Content performance gets lost in vanity metrics. But time and attention from genuine prospects, has immeasurable impact to your brand and your opportunity to win business.”

The bottom line is that if you want to increase your bottom line you need to break out of a product-only mentality. You also need repetition (what Channel Marketing Group calls “remembrance marketing”) and need to be visible. A “one and done” approach does not work.

In slow growth markets, driving your differentiation is key to retaining, and capturing, share. Channel Marketing Group helps manufacturers strategize on getting their message throughout the channel and to end markets. Give us a call if we if you desire a third-party perspective.

 

If you are a technology company or other service provider seeking to reach distributors, HVACRTrends and Channel Marketing Group have cost-effective solutions to help you deliver your message. Let’s discuss.