In chemistry, activation energy is the minimum energy needed for a reaction to occur. In sales, it’s the effort distributors must expend to sell your brand.
Smart suppliers reduce this activation energy by:
Pre-building retailer relationships (as opposed to rolling in accounts cold).
Creating sales collateral that answers common objections and makes the business case for why a customer should stock your brand.
Providing market-specific data on similar brand successes.
Offering support rather than asking for it.
Simply, make working together as frictionless as possible.
The lower the activation energy required, the more likely your brand moves.
A tech sheet and an occasion ride-along don’t remove the barriers preventing distributors from building your brand.
Great suppliers make it easier for reactions to happen naturally.
Sales isn’t rocket science; it’s more like high school chemistry.