Archived Products

The following association-developed products are no longer being updated, but are still available to members to download at no charge:

Relationship Management

A Discussion on Processing Debit Memos (2008)
While debit memos seem straight forward, the process is much more complex. Distributors may or may not issue debit memos, instead opting to take a credit when making payment on an invoice. Manufacturers may be slow to process the debit memo, leaving the distributor with an unreconciled credit. The findings are compiled in this white paper that outlines the issues and offers suggestions for improving the process.

Guidelines for Managing Back Orders: Minimizing the Impact (2009)
While the actual resolution of back order issues rests with the distributor and manufacturer involved, guidelines can assist in minimizing the effect a back order has on business and business relationships.
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Guide to Establishing a Distributor Advisory Council (2004)
Who knows better than your customers or your distributors where your operations can be improved? This guide will answer the most common questions that companies have concerning the purpose for an advisory council and ways to ensure that the meetings are productive. 

Guide to Win-Win Sales Meetings (2004)
Successful sales meetings are a partnership between distributors and manufacturers. Contents of this guide include barriers to effective sales meetings, alternatives to formal sales meetings, target frequency and meeting length and tips for meeting facilitators.

Market Planning Guide (1997)
Enhance joint distributor-manufacturer sales and marketing efforts with this simplified process for developing strategic marketing plans for key and target accounts.

Partnership Planning Guide
Measurably improve business relationships with key channel partners with this simple, step-by-step process to identify and resolve points of tension.

Taking it Back: Inventory Returns (2007)
Best practices on inventory returns that can be implemented by both manufacturers and distributors in order to operate more efficiently and improve profitability. 

Vendor Managed Inventory: A Practitioner's Set of Guidelines (2013)
Gain perspective in regards to implementation, measuring results and benefits of VMI. Also included in this white paper is a case study, glossary of terms and a checklist of prerequisites for VMI participation.

Guidelines for Developing a Distributor/Manufacturer Agreement: A Component's Checklist (2010)

A comprehensive agreement template focused on the elements that need to be considered when entering a formal relationship. The “Guidelines” include practical, customizable language for 38 contract clauses grouped in six main sections: Introductory, Terms and Conditions, Product and Price Policy, Sales Policy, Inventory and Concluding clauses.

Guidelines for Successfully Launching a new PT/MC Product Through Distribution (2009)

Get down to the nuts-and-bolts of what it takes to achieve buy-in throughout the distributor’s organization. A succinct checklist of the recommended information and audiences ensures all parties are on board when introducing a new product.

Inventory Request & Response Guidelines (2011)
You get a call from a customer in need of a part.  You check your inventory, and you don’t have the part at your location or at any of your branch locations.  What do you do next?

Sales and Customer Service

Digital Marketing Comparison Guide 
Learn about Email Marketing, LinkedIn, Twitter, SEO and Video Marketing. The guide has an overview of each platform as well as strengths, weaknesses, key performance indicators and ease of development and maintenance.

Supply Chain Discovery Document 
Use the Supply Chain Discovery Document to uncover your end customer's supply chain needs and to assess your own ability to offer solutions. This tool provides the questions you need to ask your end customers to determine how you can add value and help them reach their goals.

Building-a-Value-Proposition 
While a lot of attention goes into developing a product or service, the "message" often gets overlooked. A clear, simple and concise value proposition focuses on the benefit the customer will receive. Use these six steps to develop a value proposition that you can take to market.

Customized Solutions Selling Toolkit (2009)
Identify the services that matter most to your customers, quantify the overall savings your services create and present those figures to the customer.

Quality Customer Service Workshop: An In-House Employee Development Program (2011)
Build customer satisfaction by developing the communication skills of your front-line employees. This program emphasizes listening, considering and responding in the style most appropriate for each individual customer. 
Facilitator's Guide
Participant Workbook

Industry Sales Guide: Coal Fired Power Generation
PTDA’s Industry Sales Guides offer an inside look at where and how power transmission/motion control (PT/MC) products are utilized in a variety of specific industries. PTDA member company employees can use this tool to identify new markets, increase add-on sales to existing customers and team training.

PT/MC Tech Tips
Offering tips, hints and techniques to educate you on power transmission/motion control (PT/MC) products, technologies and concepts. Tech Tips are based on the expertise of PTDA members and PTDA’s Power Transmission Handbook^®, the definitive resource and training tool on PT/MC products.
 

Industry Formats, Guidelines & White Papers

Concise Communications in Today's Impersonal World white paper 
This paper explores how to better service the customer by email. Email templates, sample questions and general guidelines are also included to aid representatives in the customer service communication process

Email Order Automation: What to Consider to Maxmize Results white paper 
Gain insight on the growing industry trend toward ordering via email and how digitizing email transactions to automate this process may be an option distributors want to consider. Understand the dynamics that should be considered when deciding whether email order automation will deliver the desired results for your company.

"Millions at Stake--Do You Have a Strategy Around Rich Attribute Data?" white paper (2015) highlights and describes the existing challenges and opportunities for solutions around rich attribute data. Implementing a data content strategy around rich attribute data is critical and necessary to every PTDA member company.

PTDA’s “Digital Asset Best Practices Guideline” (2015) serves as a reference as members work with the many forms of rich attribute data.  Whether upgrading website content, developing video to promote your solutions or enhancing your electronic catalogs, making good data choices about format and specifications is critical. This set of guidelines serves as a practical tool to assist you in engaging customers, suppliers and stakeholders in an efficient manner.

 

Market Trends

Sales History and Outlook Report (SHOR)
SHOR was a report developed in conjunction with ITR Economics and available from 2Q16-3Q20. A quarterly member survey collected quarterly sales data and presented the aggregated results in customized reports. An analysis highlighted major economic trends identified during the forecast process. The final report (3Q20) was published in November 2020. Member participants looking for past copies of the report can contact ptda@ptda.org for assistance. 

PTDA Business Index
The PTDA Business Index was the result of a quarterly survey combined with the Sales History & Outlook survey. The PTDA Business Index aggregated PTDA distributor and manufacturer input to provide top-line insight into the history and prevailing trends specific to the power transmission/motion control industry in key indicators on 14 end-user markets  including business activity, new orders, employment, deliveries, prices, inventory and backlog. The final report (3Q20) was published in November 2020. Member participants looking for past copies of the report (2Q16-3Q20) can contact ptda@ptda.org for assistance.