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Best Practices in Distributor Management
Overview
Great product, great sales strategy – but can your distributor deliver?
The best products and strategies in the world can fall victim to a poorly designed and managed distributor network. Learn about strategies for overcoming common challenges faced in establishing, managing and motivating a network of international distributors at the next MITA meeting.
Speakers Linda Gorchels, director of Executive Marketing Education at UW-Madison, and Paul Baumgart, general manager for Asia-Pacific at TomoTherapy, will share their first hand experiences with:
-Evaluating international distribution structures
-Identifying and qualifying distributor candidates
-International distribution agreements
Managing and motivating distributors
-Techniques for managing distributors from different cultures
Date(s)
4/14/2009
Time
11:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Location
Sheraton Madison Hotel
706 John Nolen Drive
Madison, WI
Cost
$18 for MITA members
$35 for non-members
The special member rate of $18 is the 1979 price, offered in honor of MITA's 30th anniversary meeting.
Registration
Online registration is available at the MITA Web site.
Or you may register by sending an e-mail to Jill Carmichael, MITA treasurer, at jcarmichael@johnsonbank.com by Friday, March 6. Payments are accepted at the door on the day of the event.
Sponsors
Madison International Trade Association (MITA)
Co-sponsors
UW-Madison Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE)
UW-Madison Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER)
Speaker Biographies
Linda Gorchels is a member of the executive education faculty of UW-Madison’s business school, where she has conducted training for more than 10,000 corporate executives from across the United States and globally. Her position as program director requires responsibility for designing, staffing, and managing 30+ professional development seminars in marketing each year. In addition, she has facilitated strategic planning sessions for several organizations (public, private and non-profit), and has provided counsel in pricing and product management implementation.
An award-winning author, Ms. Gorchels received the Excellence in Thought Leadership distinction in 2006 from the Association of International Product Marketing & Management for the 3rd edition of The Product Manager’s Handbook (2006). She co-authored The Manager’s Guide to Distribution Channels, which has been translated into multiple languages.
Prior to joining the university, Ms. Gorchels held numerous marketing positions with VEREX Assurance, Wm. C. Brown Publishers and Lear-Siegler, Inc. She was also on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, earning the distinction of being on the top-20 list of excellent teachers.
Paul Baumgart is currently general manager, Asia-Pacific for TomoTherapy Incorporated, a Madison-based global healthcare company that manufactures and markets advanced radiation treatment solutions for radiation oncology. In this role, he has full P&L responsibility for Asia and Australia-New Zealand, and is responsible for leading sales, distributor management and customer service and support efforts to bring TomoTherapy’s revolutionary cancer treatment system to hospitals and treatment centers through out the region. The company markets its products internationally through a combination of direct operations, sales agents and full service distributors.
Previously, Mr. Baumgart served as global general manager, respiratory care for the Clinical Systems division of GE Healthcare. His extensive international experience includes distributor selection, contracting, and performance management and termination; development and execution of regional expansion strategies; and involvement in a wide range of issues from product planning and development, to regulatory compliance, sales, marketing, service and customer and distributor support related issues.
Mr. Baumgart is an ad hoc faculty member in the U.W. Executive Education program, and he has been an adjunct faculty member of Edgewood College. Paul holds an M.B.A. degree with a concentration in marketing and finance from the University of Wyoming and a B.A. degree in social work from the University of Wisconsin in 1973. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin.