How Product Master Data helps distributors create new value for principals and customers

Distributors play a crucial role in bridging the gap between chemical manufacturers and customers, yet they often face challenges in effectively managing and sharing product data. In an industry where technical specifications, regulatory requirements, and digital accessibility are becoming increasingly important, the ability to organize and leverage Product Master Data (PMD) is a game-changer.

What is a PMD?

In chemicals, Product Master Data (PMD) consists of four key layers:

1. Product documents like TDSs, SDSs, brochures, and digital assets store crucial data, though much remains in non-digitized formats
2. Product data includes technical descriptions, market categorizations, certifications, and chemical properties. This knowledge, gathered from sales, marketing, and R&D, is structured into a Product Information Management (PIM) system
3. Product templates define how different product types are cataloged, ensuring alignment across the organization and industry
4. The product data model establishes attributes, fields, and quality rules, forming the foundation for PMD governance and reliability.

How does PMD empower distributors to create value for their customers?

As purchasing habits shift towards digital self-service models, particularly since the pandemic, PMD becomes a strategic tool. Customers demand access to self-serve options and 24/7 availability. They prefer initiating searches independently, wanting autonomy in exploring the best technologies and products available for their needs.

Meet customers' expectations 24/7

PMD facilitates the creation and management of online catalogs, which essentially become sales tools in the absence of sales personnel. These catalogs offer a product-centric and reliable customer experience, allowing exploration at the customer's pace.

Access to accurate, updated information through digital platforms satisfies customers’ need for speedy and easy access to product and regulatory data that is always up to date, but also creates a powerful way for distributors to detect active customers.

Supporting a multichannel strategy

With PMD, distributors can also support a multichannel strategy, crucial for today's B2B buyers using diverse digital pathways. On corporate websites, PMD allows potential customers to find products through search engines, explore rich product options, and begin customer interactions seamlessly.

For existing clients, customer portals reveal more personalized and detailed data like sustainability documents, regulatory information, or confidential documents, further fostering loyalty and encouraging repeated engagements. Furthermore, PMD simplifies interconnections with digital platforms like SpecialChem facilitating broader reach and rich interactions, proving invaluable for lead generation.

Finally, PMD strengthens internal channels. By unifying disparate ERP systems, distributors can cross-reference products efficiently, allowing for seamless data integration with CRM systems and BI tools. The synergy created supports everything from sales recommendations to sophisticated product categorization and helps maintain cohesion and efficiency across organizational structures.

Strengthening principal relationships

Ultimately, PMD enables distributors to provide richer, detailed reporting beyond mere sales revenue without the need to manually create a report from various ERPs. Creating self-serve reporting capabilities.

Sales metrics are now richer, they include dimensions like market, application, and product type, offering insights that principals find extremely valuable in defining regional strategies and pipeline analysis.

Such enriched data enhances transparency and reduces the perception of distributors as 'black boxes.' It also enables distributors to better support more analog principals by offering to digitize their product data and help them create their PMD. Appearing as a service provider/marketing arm also enhances the digital presence of your principal in the digital space, generating new business potential. 

Ultimately, effective PMD is indispensable not only for streamlined operations but also for enhancing relationships with customers and principals. It enables a shift towards a digitally robust, customer-focused strategy that drives both immediate and long-term value creation.

To explore how Product Master Data can be tailored to your needs, consider a demo of our solutions.