Stephen Martin

Managing distribution through partners and succeeding as a channel partner

Stephen is not a professional speaker. He is a competent speaker and expert on what some industries call channel marketing, although others might refer to selling through partners meaning distributors and dealers. As such he works primarily with major corporate household name manufacturers. Which are not MD2MD members!

He has however agreed act as gamekeeper turned poacher and share his knowledge both of the way such organisations think and behave (or should) for the benefit of those on the receiving end of their strategies, as well as sharing insights for those members that do sell via reseller and distribution channels some best practice models from those large companies.

With the familiarity of actual channel management, Stephen interprets the diversity within customer and channel behaviour to help clients develop and implement channel strategies across EMEA and globally. He provides pragmatic consultancy based upon customer and market insight that can radically improve company sales and market productivity. Recent clients have included Armstrong, Barco, DeLaval, DuPont, Kimberley Clark, Honeywell, Toro and Xylem.

Stephen’s experience means that he contributes strongly to understanding and influencing complex organizational decision-making, as well as having the management expertise to understand the benefits of simple messages, clear targets and straight forward recommendations.

Stephen was previously the Marketing Director for Reliance Security and of OKI Systems in the UK. He holds a BSc in GeoChemistry and an MBA from Cranfield.

Little-known fact: Stephen has Geocached the world and has a black belt in hitting people with a bamboo sword (kendo)

Comments from members who attended this session:

• Good slides, good builds, well spoken and obviously founded on vast experience.
• Relevance for our business and the importance of having the right distribution strategy.
• Liked the interaction and examples used by Stephen.
• Interesting insight into Stephen’s thoughts on the further you are away from the customer the less in touch you are with reality.
• I liked the slide showing the margin evolution through the various stages. Very useful.
  Good efficient covering of the ground.