How can you manage conflicts among direct sales channels?

1 Align your goals and incentives

One of the main sources of conflict among direct sales channels is the misalignment of goals and incentives. For example, if your online store offers lower prices or free shipping than your physical stores, your store staff may feel demotivated or resentful. Or, if your sales reps are paid by commission, they may compete with each other or your other channels for the same customers. To prevent this, you need to align your goals and incentives across all your direct sales channels. This means setting clear and consistent objectives, metrics, and rewards for each channel, and communicating them regularly. You also need to foster a culture of collaboration and trust among your channel partners, and recognize their contributions and achievements.

3 Differentiate your channels

A third tip to manage conflict among direct sales channels is to differentiate your channels by offering unique benefits, features, or experiences. For example, you can use your website to showcase your full product range, provide detailed information, and enable online ordering. You can use your physical stores to offer product demonstrations, trials, and returns, and create a memorable brand atmosphere. You can use your sales reps to provide expert advice, customized solutions, and after-sales support. You can use your events to generate buzz, build relationships, and collect feedback. By differentiating your channels, you can avoid cannibalization and confusion, and create complementary and synergistic effects.

4 Coordinate your marketing and pricing

A fourth tip to manage conflict among direct sales channels is to coordinate your marketing and pricing strategies across all your channels. This means ensuring that your brand message, image, and value proposition are consistent and coherent in every channel. It also means avoiding price wars or discrepancies that can undermine your profitability or credibility. You can use dynamic pricing, price matching, or bundle pricing to adjust your prices according to demand, competition, or customer value. You can also use cross-channel marketing techniques, such as email, social media, or mobile, to drive traffic, engagement, and conversions across your channels.

5 Monitor and evaluate your performance

A final tip to manage conflict among direct sales channels is to monitor and evaluate your performance regularly and systematically. This means collecting and analyzing data on your sales, costs, margins, customer satisfaction, and retention across all your channels. It also means soliciting and acting on feedback from your channel partners, customers, and stakeholders. You can use tools such as dashboards, reports, surveys, or reviews to measure and compare your results and identify areas of improvement or opportunity. You can also use experiments, tests, or pilots to try new ideas or approaches and learn from your successes and failures.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?