The concept of MDF or market development funds plays a very crucial role in generation of end user demand. MDF is the pot of gold whose sole purpose is to help partners improve their sales. These funds are provided by the vendors to help their alliance partners promote the products. For example we can say, when any international company ventures into a foreign land, it’s an obvious situation that they don’t have enough number of leads to work with. In this scenario, MDF fund will be a great financial help for lead generation activities. In case of sloppy sales too, savvy use of MDF will enable any company to reach out better to prospects through targeted marketing and nurturing activities that fill its pipeline.
The irony lies in the fact that despite so many advantages, annually a large portion of this market development funds pie goes untouched. Letting it go unused is not an ideal situation as it hinders the expansion of your business. Appropriate use of MDF fund is a win-win situation for both vendor and alliance partners.
But the onus of grabbing more market development funds from the vendor lies solely on the partners who become eligible for these funds. Let’s check out some simple yet effective ways to get hold of this pot of gold.
- Understand: the first and foremost step in the direction of grabbing MDF is to understand the expectations of the provider and chalk out your plan as per that.
- Plan: after you are armed with all the vital info, it’s time for you create a plan. The more specific your plan is, the better it demonstrates your efforts.
- Knit Close Working Relations: in order to get a constant flow of MDF fund from the vendor it is important to have a close working relationship with them.
- Get Them Involved: invite the vendor to participate in the different marketing activities you undertake for them. Working together lets your vendor build relationships with your team while seeing your potential to earn revenue.
- Constant Communication: it is your duty to get approvals regularly from the vendors or keep them updated about upcoming campaigns and even your roadblocks.
- Undertake Demand Generation Activities: focus more on activities which lead to better sales or lead generation like behemoth promotion approach which are more likely to yield measurable results.
- Get Your Compliance Right: All vendors expect MDF beneficiaries to follow guidelines and procedures. MDF Funds come with a list of does and don’ts. Make sure you comply with these guidelines to ensure your plans get cleared.
- Leverage Agency Expertise: A professional agency can provide the right marketing mix and can be tasked to ensure the marketing rupees available get expected ROI. They will also take care that all brands and other guidelines are compiled with.
- Go Digital: Budgets are tilting towards digital for many good reasons. Spending MDF allocations on Webinars and/or Podcasts etc. are becoming increasingly popular. It helps in garnering better results in less cost.
In the end, as long as you can show results and meet vendor expectations the market development funds trickle can grow into a healthy stream that can keep your sales pipeline full to the brim. Take it from us- when money is used in the right direction, companies will happily invest funds.
