manufacturer-dealer relationships. Merck and Company, for example, is purposefully entering a series of highly committed relationships with channel partners who per form research, sales, and other distribution functions.
How do suppliers project their organizations into their respective distribution channels? How do suppliers make the organization and the channel into one? One means of achieving such a goal is, again, for the supplier to foster a sense of partnership with intermediaries. Upon choosing a distribution network and determining the type and numbers of intermediaries needed, the business marketer must next consider what is expected from channel members and expect in return. Four methods for promoting channel cooperation are presented here.
Use of Missionary salespeople. Missionary salespeople aid the sales of channel members and bolster the overall level of activity and selling effort the channel. Training of resellers' salespeople and executives is an effective weapon of cooperation. The channels operate more efficiently when all are educated in the promotional techniques and uses of the products involved.