The 6-Step Strategy to Grow Your Pet Food Distributor Business

The pet food distribution industry is an ever-changing, ever-expanding business landscape. Pet owners are always looking for new and better pet food and supplies for their furry, feathered, and fishy friends. As a pet food distributor, you may be wondering how you can take advantage of this opportunity and grow your business. Here is a step-by-step strategy to build a growth plan for your pet food distributor business this year.

The 6 Steps to Grow Your Pet Food Distributor Business:

1. Specify your area of growth.

2. Conduct market/industry research

3. Set SMART growth goals.

4. Plan a course of action.

5. Determine growth tools and requirements.

6. Execute the plan.

Specify Your Area of Growth

• Expanding into new regions
• Adding new business locations
• Expanding your product line
• Growing your customer base
• Growth in revenue or profits

Your plan will likely have more than one area of growth, which is normal. Expanding your product line, for example, generally leads to a larger customer base and an increase in overall sales.

Conduct Market/Industry Research

Once you've decided what part of your business you want to grow, it's time to figure out how realistic that growth is and how much growth you can reasonably achieve. Your best bet is to research the state of your industry and your current competitors. You can do this by running surveys and focus groups with your current and potential customer base, or you can dig into the industry research that's already out there.

Set SMART Growth Goals

With a targeted area of growth in mind and solid research in hand, you can start to set your growth goals. Successful companies use the SMART model for their growth plan. Your goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-driven.

• Specific goals are clearly defined and make your overall goal planning more effective. Ask yourself what exactly you're trying to achieve. 
• Measurable goals are designed to be trackable. Ask yourself how you'll know when you've achieved your goal. It's not enough to set a goal of "more sales," for example. Set goals based on real numbers and real deadlines.
• Attainable goals are challenging but possible to achieve. Nobody can take over the world overnight. So be honest with yourself and ask if your goal is realistic. Attaining a smaller goal is always going to be better than failing a grander goal.
• Relevant goals align with the mission and larger objectives of your organization. Ask yourself how your goal fits in with the bigger picture.
• Time-based goals have a clear and specific deadline. It needs to be specific and realistic. Don’t just settle for “some day.” 

Plan a Course of Action

Now that you’ve come up with a solid set of business growth goals, it’s time to outline how you’ll achieve them in a detailed growth strategy plan. Your plan should list out action items, deadlines, teams or persons responsible, and resources for reaching your growth goal. Get started by downloading a free growth strategy plan template.

Determine Growth Tools and Requirements

It's almost time to implement your plan. The last step is to determine what tools and resources you'll need to do so. These can include funding, staffing, outsourced services, and more powerful technological tools and software. 

One tool to look into if your goal includes improving sales is a mobile sales enablement tool. This can streamline a lot of areas in the sales process. 

If your growth plan includes trade shows, the right software can streamline event registration, ordering, and analytics.

Execute Your Plan

With your research, planning, and goal-setting complete, you’re now ready to put your plan into action and start getting results. During this time, ensure you’re continuously comparing your results to your growth goals to see if you’re hitting your targets. This will help you determine if your growth goals are achievable and allow you to make any necessary adjustments.

Pet Food Experts, a pet food and supplies distributor, was able to use tools from Perenso to solve challenges they faced with product ordering management at their trade shows. This saved them time and helped them be more accurate with orders, speeding up their delivery process by two weeks. You can read more about it in this case study.

Redbarn Pet Products, a pet food manufacturer, used Perenso's field sales automation tool to increase the efficiency of its sales team and make data-driven decisions to improve its business. Eric Tiller, the VP of Sales, said, "It's as though I expanded my sales team by two additional people without the added expense. The visibility and transparency Perenso provides have helped improve all areas of our business." Watch the full case study here.

Perenso’s trade show software and sales force automation tools can help you streamline your operations so you can focus on growing your business more efficiently.

Ready to fetch your business more sales growth?