A sales narrative a drives maker's direct team and distributors can both carry
The corporate deck listed specifications, while distributor leaflets sold the like-for-like swap the direct team argued against. The new narrative holds from the breakdown call to capital approval.
- Challenge
A specification-led deck, and distributor leaflets contradicting the direct team's efficiency case.
- Approach
A narrative spine built around how plants buy, with distributor and direct modules.
- Result
Plants hear a consistent argument from the breakdown call to the capital request.
The situation
Motor and drive makers selling direct and through distributors often find the stories collide. Distributor leaflets promise a like-for-like motor from stock today; the direct team tells the same plant such swaps lock in wasted energy on fans and pumps. The corporate deck lists efficiency classes, though ecodesign rules now set minimum classes for most new motors. Maintenance heads hear a contradiction, energy managers never hear the case, and efficiency projects lose to the cheapest swap.
The question that mattered
What should plants hear from distributors and the direct team at each stage of buying?
What we did
- 1
Lay the materials side by side
Compare the deck, distributor leaflets and sellers' slides with the questions maintenance heads, energy managers and procurement ask.
- 2
Write the spine
State the argument plainly: for a motor running most of the day, electricity is most of its lifetime cost, so a failure is the cheapest moment to fit the right motor and drive.
- 3
Script each buying stage
At the breakdown call, get the plant running and flag the application for review. At the site survey, show measured load against motor size. At technical evaluation, answer harmonics and controls questions. At capital approval, give finance the energy saving and payback method.
- 4
Build the distributor version
Keep the distributor's stock-and-speed strength, add a review question at the trade counter, and set how flagged applications pass to the direct team.
What we delivered
The evidence and working documents the team kept.
- Side-by-side review of materials in circulation, contradictions marked
- Narrative spine from problem to next step
- Stage modules: breakdown call, site survey, technical evaluation, capital approval
- Distributor module with counter questions and hand-off rules
- Proof library: measured-load surveys, energy-saving examples, plant references
The outcome
Distributor counter staff
flag failed fan and pump motors for an efficiency review
Direct sellers
build meetings from the stage modules and retire their own slides
Energy managers
invited to the site survey, before procurement sets a price frame
The corporate deck
cut to the spine, specifications in an appendix
A plant calling its distributor about a failed fan motor now hears the efficiency argument the direct team makes at the site survey.
What changed in the GTM motion
Product marketing owns the spine and stage modules, updating distributor and direct versions together at a quarterly review. A new drive range adds its proof to the existing modules, so no parallel deck appears.
Services in this programme
Case studies
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