You may know the importance of a trade marketing strategy, but can you develop an effective strategy for your business? Trade marketing strategy development can be tricky, and there is little room for error when you are in a highly competitive market.

Unfortunately, many companies make the mistake of approaching a trade marketing strategy in the same way as traditional marketing methods. Alternatively, they rely too much on salespeople to visit customers on appointment, which is not the most efficient model to follow. In order to get the best benefits from trade marketing, you need to have a strong strategy with the right components.

The components of trade marketing strategy


An effective trade marketing strategy has several elements, including trade communications, trade events, trade coverage, and trade programs. Trade coverage is generally considered to be more important than most other components for the following reasons:

1. Most of the resources taken up by your sales structure are accounted for by trade coverage
2. It represents a significant portion of the selling, general, and administrative expenses of the organization
3. Trade coverage represents the relationship and communication pipeline to your current and prospective customers

Many people think of trade marketing strategies as large, complicated plots to best the competition and rise to the top of the company’s respective market. However, there is no magical or complex scheme to be made here. Trade marketing strategies are difficult to implement, but they generally work best when they are simple.
Trade marketing strategy can also be hard to understand and communicate to your entire organization, so the simpler it is the better. Develop a simple approach to marketing to your supply chain customers and stick with it. However, you still have to make sure that the following components are part of the trade marketing strategy.
Your target audience- you have to determine whom you are going to call on for your trade marketing. Define your target audience by various attributes instead of making a list of your existing and prospective customers. The attributes can include but not be limited to geography, channel, and type (wholesale, retail, or a hybrid).
Your customer contact points and processes- you have to define your sales force and how you will approach current and prospective customers. This includes deciding on field salespeople, customer service, technical and telesales reps, and a proper management structure to deal with them all.
Your sales process- how will you call your customers? You have to clearly define your sales process, including the methodology used and the steps in the process. If you have a call process, define it step by step.
Call prioritization- You have to determine the right time of the day or year to call them, but this component is about prioritizing customers according to the most suitable attributes. Focus on the best leads first and go down the chain.
Are you interested in trade marketing? You can read our next article, how you can integrate trade marketing with other marketing strategies?