Many building materials companies have made large investments in digital marketing to grow their businesses. An important part of these digital strategies is understanding the buyer’s journey and translating it into a sales funnel.
Companies want to provide their prospect with the right information at the right time. They also want to involve their dealer or contractor partners at the right time. A well-constructed sales funnel helps them do that.
The problem, though, is that some companies don’t realize that there are holes in their sales funnels. Some of those holes are because of the locators that point prospects to a location where they can get your product.
How Dealer Locators Create Holes in Your Sales Funnel
1. A Poor Customer Experience
When a prospect goes to your locator, they are signaling that they have a serious interest in your product. Depending on the product, they might be in the research phase or they might be ready to buy.
Most locators do a good job of showing the prospect the locations of distributors who might have the product they want based on how far away they are. They usually also show the locations on a map and provide directions.
That’s helpful, but it leaves out a lot of important information that would help the prospect decide which location is better for their needs. This creates unnecessary friction by making the prospect do more work on their own.
How Locators Fail
Most locators don’t give key details that would help the prospect decide which location would best suit their needs. Like, does the location have a showroom? Do they offer design services or quotes? Do they specialize in a type of project? There’s no way to know from the locator.
Some locators have links to each location’s website. That’s only as helpful as the site it redirects to.
Some locators also rank the locations. They might classify each as silver, gold, or platinum, for example. These rankings aren’t as helpful as they seem. They simply tell the prospect that “this location is more loyal to us.” How does that help them?
I found several locators that tell the prospect to call the local big box or lumber dealer to see if they carry the product they are looking for. That’s the wrong solution. Can you imagine calling a big box? In that case, it’s far better to send the prospect to the store’s website so they can see if their location has the product or how soon they can get it.
I also found locators that asked me if I wanted to see locations that were 10, 20, or 50 miles away. When I selected 10 miles there were no locations, but when I selected 20 there were a number of them. How many prospects are going to take the time to try again? How many are just going to leave?
The locator should take me to a landing page that tells me about nearby locations in relation to the product. Instead, most locators provide such a poor customer experience that they drive potential customers to online sellers like Amazon, big boxes, or other services that are easier to deal with. That’s a big hole in your sales funnel.
If you’re interested in improving your dealer, contractor, distributor, or rep locator, I recommend that you check out Bullseye Location Software. I’ve been impressed with how they are helping building materials companies.
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