The Expanding Role of Services

It must be the distributor--not the customer or supplier--who conducts the analysis, identifies opportunities, and defines the service(s).

Going forward, distributors must not only view services as important, but as the most strategically important component of their value proposition--the one they must master to succeed.  This holds true even in situations where services currently represent a relatively small proportion of total revenues.  Underlying this is an important shift in the nature of supplier-distributor-customer relations.  

It must be the distributor--not the customer or supplier--who conducts the analysis, identifies opportunities, and defines the service(s).  Distributors unable to achieve the required level of mastery may well still be profitable, but their ability to influence those profits will likely diminish.  In such cases, the distributor's customers and suppliers will largely dictate profitability.

ACTION POINT: Analyze and identify opportunities to master services that your customers need.