Sales Growth Rate Analyze the growth of sales. In principle, a distributor with a significant increase in sales is considered excellent. The growth must be analyzed in detail. Sales representatives should compare the growth with market growth and the average growth of the company's products. If a distributor's sales are increasing but market share or the average growth rate of the company's products is not increasing or even declining, it can be concluded that the sales representative's management of this distributor is not proper.
Sales Statistics Analyze annual and monthly sales, and also check the content of sales. If annual sales are increasing but monthly sales fluctuate significantly, this sales situation is not healthy. Only when a distributor's sales show steady growth can the management of the distributor be considered complete. Balancing off-season and peak-season sales is a major responsibility of the sales representative.
Sales Ratio Check the ratio of the company's product sales to the distributor's total sales. If the company's sales are increasing but the ratio of the company's product sales to the distributor's total sales is low, the sales representative should strengthen management of that distributor.
Expense Ratio Even if sales are growing rapidly, if expenses grow faster than sales, it is still unhealthy. If the distributor only stocks up heavily when discounts are offered, and does not stock up even when inventory is low without discounts, and instead purchases from competitors offering higher discounts, this is not a good trading relationship. If the customer is not loyal to you, it indicates that your customer management is inadequate.
Payment Collection Status Payment collection is a crucial part of distributor management. If a distributor's sales are high but payment collection is not smooth or payments are significantly delayed, the problem is even greater.
Understanding Company Policies Sales representatives should not blindly pursue sales growth. They should ensure that distributors understand the company's policies and comply with them, thereby promoting sales growth. Some improper practices, such as disrupting market order through vicious competition or cross-regional selling, may increase sales but harm the company's overall interests and are harmful. Therefore, ensuring that distributors understand, comply with, and cooperate with company policies is an important aspect of distributor management.
Product Assortment First, the sales representative should understand whether the distributor sells all of the company's products or only a portion. If a distributor's sales are high but they only sell best-selling or easy-to-sell products, and are unwilling or not proactive in selling products the company wants to promote, high-margin products, or new products, this is not good practice. The sales representative should try to make the distributor sell the company's products in a balanced manner. Additionally, when distributors purchase, they usually categorize products as key products, cultivation products, or series products. To strengthen distributor management, the sales representative should try to prevent the distributor from categorizing the company's products as key or cultivation products.
Product Display Status The display of products in the distributor's store is very important for promoting sales. The sales representative should support and guide the distributor in displaying and showcasing the company's products.
Inventory Status Frequent stockouts indicate that the distributor does not value the company's products, and also show that the sales representative has insufficient contact with the distributor, which is a serious dereliction of duty. Stockouts cause the company to lose many opportunities, so effective inventory management is the most basic responsibility of the sales representative in distributor management.
Participation in Promotional Activities Does the distributor actively participate in and fully cooperate with various promotional activities organized by the company? If the distributor participates in every promotional activity and sales increase as a result, it indicates proper distributor management. If the distributor is unwilling to participate or does not cooperate with the company's promotional activities, the sales representative should analyze the reasons and formulate countermeasures. Without the participation and cooperation of distributors, promotional activities will only cost money without results.
Visit Plan Distributor management is mainly carried out through sales visits. The sales representative should review their visit activities. A common mistake many sales representatives make is to frequently visit distributors with large sales or good relationships, while visiting less frequently those with low sales but potential, or those with high sales but poor relationships. This practice should absolutely be avoided.
Visit Status The sales representative should analyze their visits to distributors. First, check whether the visit plan was seriously implemented. For example, if the plan is to visit several distributors per day, compare with actual results. If the monthly plan achievement rate is low, the sales representative should analyze the reasons. Second, the sales representative should make constructive visits, meaning each visit should help the distributor's management. If the distributor welcomes the visit and does not consider it a nuisance, then the visit is successful.
Interpersonal Relationships Good emotional relationships between the sales representative and the distributor can promote sales. Maintaining good relationships with distributors is an important part of sales work. The sales representative should regularly review their relationship with customers and try to deepen emotional connections.
Level of Support The sales representative should determine whether the distributor supports the company or competitors. For example, does the distributor give priority to the company's promotional activities? Are new product launches done according to the company's regulations? In an increasingly competitive environment where products and trading conditions are similar, whether the sales representative can win the distributor's support has a significant impact on product sales. Therefore, gaining the distributor's active support is one of the most important management tasks.
Information Transmission "Information transmission" means that the sales representative should convey the company's promotional plans to the distributor, and then check whether the distributor is actually following the company's methods or actively promoting the company's products. If it is found that the distributor is not following the company's regulations, it indicates that the distributor's operational system has problems. Sometimes, the sales representative must address "follow-up issues" and find ways to improve distributor management.
Exchange of Opinions The sales representative should frequently exchange opinions with distributors. The sales representative should reflect on whether they regularly exchange opinions with key distributors. If there has been no such opportunity, the sales representative should consider how to improve interpersonal relationships with distributors. Opinion exchange and negotiation should be conducted simultaneously to strengthen the relationship.
Degree of Concern for the Company Whether the distributor is concerned about the company and maintains a positive attitude towards it is also an important aspect of distributor management. The sales representative should regularly explain the company's policies and strategies to the distributor, keeping them interested and expectant.
Evaluation of the Company Is the company's position significant to the distributor? In other words, does the distributor actively expect to increase sales? The sales representative should establish their own position in the distributor's mind.
Frequency of Suggestions Each distributor has unique characteristics, so distributor management should be tailored to these characteristics to achieve twice the results with half the effort. What strategy should be adopted for each distributor, and what suggestions should the sales representative make based on that strategy, must be analyzed in advance. If the sales representative actively implements distributor management, the frequency of suggestions to distributors will also greatly increase.
Organization of Distributor Data If the sales representative can recite the distributor's sales statistics, growth rates, sales targets, etc., it indicates that they are doing a good job in distributor management and that management is comprehensive. Conversely, if the sales representative knows nothing about the distributor's data and only blindly promotes, any increase in sales will be short-term. Therefore, recording and organizing distributor data is a very important task.
The above are the 20 key points of distributor management. The methods for managing distributors are:
- Distributor Data Card. The sales representative must regularly check the distributor data card. Are the above items accurately recorded, organized, and updated?
- Analyze Distributor Data. All data related to the distributor should be analyzed in detail.
- Distributor Visits. Problems can be discovered and countermeasures found through conversations with distributors and observing store conditions.
- Others. Use opportunities such as distributor visits to the company, industry information, and sales meetings for management work.
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