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Generating Marketing Content for Your VMI Program
Introduction
For manufacturers looking to grow and expand their VMI program, Datalliance recommends that you
document and share the success a distributor has gained from your program with other distributors in
your network. The best way to approach doing this is a two-step process:
1. Document a well-structured ‘success story’ on a program participant, ideally an influential and
well-respected participant, and
2. Use that success story as the basis for a webinar where the distributor and you jointly present
those same results
Best Practices for Distributor Success Story Development
The following suggestions are based on Datalliance’s experience developing VMI success stories.
Examples can be found at www.datalliance.com/successstories.html.
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Select a distributor that is a good example of the size and type of distributor you would like to
attract to your program
Keep the story short and to the point – 800-900 words is usually enough to tell the story and fit
on two pages. This is about as much as people are willing to read today.
Put as much of the story in the form of quotes as possible to increase credibility; however, limit
to one person from the distributor and one person from your company (manufacturer) – any
more will be confusing for the reader
Recommended Outline/Structure:
o Brief profile of the distributor – this can usually be obtained from the ‘about us’ section
of their web site or press releases.
o Challenge(s) distributors typically face – examples:
 Why it is important to maintain high customer service
 Why it is also important to keep control of inventory investments
 How it can be difficult to manage replenishment of so many items
 Other typical distributor challenges your VMI program has helped address for
them
o Brief explanation of when & how they decided to participate in your VMI program as a
way of addressing these issues and improving performance
o Quote from your spokesperson about why you have put your VMI program in place – i.e.
your desire to mutually grow sales with key distributors by working more collaboratively
to improve end customer service levels while maintaining positive distributor metrics
such as inventory turns and time spent on inventory management.
o Summarize results in terms of the metrics that are most important to you and your
distributor:
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Sales (was there an increase?)
Service levels (was there a decrease in out of stock situations?)
Inventory turns (was there an increase in turn rate?)
Product mix (were you able to identify products that should be added or
dropped to improve overall sales?)
Inventory management time (was the distributor able to free up inventory
manager or procurement time for more value-added activities rather than reordering?)
Note: Although you will want to ask the distributor about the metrics they measure, you
probably want to have metrics available from the Datalliance system when you talk.
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Quote the distributor in a summary statement about why they are happy with the
impact of your VMI program. Include additional actions they are now going to take such
as expanding to more regions, etc. as appropriate.
Format your story into a 2-page format similar to the examples on the Datalliance website.
Include your logo, 1 or 2 product photos and your distributor’s logo.
Include a compelling headline to attract readers and consider adding two or three summary
bullets at the top or along the side pane.
Distribute the success story by including in a newsletter, directly mailing or emailing to distributors in
your network with a cover letter or handwritten note about why you are sending them the article, and
leverage any other means available to communicate with your distributors. Best Practices for a
Distributor Success Webinar
In addition to using a printed and PDF version of your success story as a sales tool for your program,
another good way to communicate that story is through an online ‘webinar’. Based on Datalliance
experience, things to think about when you plan a webinar include:
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Who to invite: Target distributors and senior management/decision makers since this is an
important decision for them
Date and Time: Select a time convenient for the majority of your target distributors.
Datalliance has found mornings, except Monday, to be best
Technology: GoToMeeting, Webex or a similar platform
Logistics: Depending on the size of the expected audience, you may want to arrange for
listening through computers or a way to automatically mute all phone lines except the speakers.
At a minimum, be sure to ask attendees to mute their phone lines at the beginning of the call
Invitations: Personal invitations from your account managers generally get the best results.
Send the initial invitation 30-45 days in advance. Send weekly reminders, and a reminder the
day before the webinar.
Outlook/Google calendar invitations: send to individuals who plan to attend with webinar login
and call information so that it is easily accessible from their calendar.
Length: 45-60 minutes including questions. Stick to the timing…any longer and you will lose
your audience.
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Speakers:
o Host who starts and finishes the webinar, and introduces the other speakers - this could
be someone from Sales or Marketing or perhaps the manager with executive
responsibility for the VMI program
o Spokesperson for the distributor
o Spokesperson for your company (probably your VMI program manager)
Q&A is recommended but can be challenging depending on the size of the audience.
o With less than 10 attendees, you can open the phone lines for questions but this can
catch your speakers off guard/unprepared
o Regardless of size of audience, a preferred method is to have attendees submit their
questions in writing through the webinar platform – always have a third person
(perhaps the host) reading and screening the questions for your speakers
o Another best practice is to have several prepared questions will likely be on the minds of
the attendees that you can ask the speakers – this serves several purposes:
 Avoids awkward silence if there are no questions
 Gets the conversation going and encourages other questions
 Allows the speakers to think about their answers in advance (but they should
not script their answers)
Recording: Recording the webinar is recommended so that you can offer it to other people at a
later time.
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Consider an outline similar to this:
Topic
Welcome, topic, speakers & logistics (e.g. please
mute your phone; anticipated length, etc.)
Speaker
Host
Time
5 min.
Introduce distributor speaker (name, title, role in the
VMI program)
Host
1-2 min
The distributor’s story (taken from success story
outlined above – follow similar flow from distributor
profile to results to date and future plans)
Distributor
spokesperson
15-20 min
Introduce your company’s speaker (name, title,
maybe background in your company, role in VMI
program)
Host
1-2 min
Outline of your program (objectives, benefits to
distributors, high level description of how it works,
high level description of what it requires from
distributor; initial steps to getting started)
Your VMI spokesperson
10-13 min
Q&A period or ‘anticipated questions’
Your VMI spokesperson
10-12 min
Call to action (e.g. send us your questions, request a
meeting, etc. AND/OR say what you will be
proactively to engage with them)
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Thank you to audience and speakers; we look
forward to working with you, our key distributors on
this valuable program
Host
1-2 min
If you have recorded the webinar, you may want to do several things with the recording, e.g.:
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If you have a secure distributor website, you might consider placing the recording there for
access ‘on demand’. (you may want to make it available as an open resource or put it on a
‘blind’ page that you can direct distributors to access only when you would like them to)
If the file is not too large, your sales people can e-mail them to specific target distributors when
the time is right.
Summary
Most company’s VMI programs are an element of a larger distributor support program, so you will of
course want to position it as such in anything you produce.
Although these suggestions are based on Datalliance experience working with many companies to
capture VMI successes and promote the benefits of VMI programs, you should consider them to be
guidelines only, and should not hesitate to put your company’s own ‘personality’ into what you put
together.
Finally, Datalliance is your partner in VMI. We are always available to provide additional advice or help
in promoting your program. Contact us at any time to discuss your goals and objectives and how we can
help.
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