---
title: "A Complete Guide for Distributors to Select Good Products"
description: "Choosing a good product can make a distributor profitable, while a poor choice can lead to losses or even severe damage. Product selection is crucial for distributors. Boss Chen, a renowned figure in City X's business circle, shares his practical experience on selecting products from six aspects: evaluating the company, understanding the product, knowing oneself, planning strategies, making cautious decisions, and adhering to principles."
author: "伯建新"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2015-05-24"
language: "en"
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# A Complete Guide for Distributors to Select Good Products

> Choosing a good product can make a distributor profitable, while a poor choice can lead to losses or even severe damage. Product selection is crucial for distributors. Boss Chen, a renowned figure in City X's business circle, shares his practical experience on selecting products from six aspects: evaluating the company, understanding the product, knowing oneself, planning strategies, making cautious decisions, and adhering to principles.

Choosing a good product can make a distributor earn a lot, while choosing a bad product can cause losses or even severe damage. Product selection is a very important issue for distributors.
Boss Chen is a well-known figure in the business circles of City X, and many competitors admire him because he does well in the market and has strong control over terminals. Any product he represents can be placed in streets and various terminals across City X within three days. What makes competitors respect him even more is his skill in selecting products. Over the years, he has chosen many products and almost never failed. Every product he selected performed well in the market, quickly becoming bestsellers. As a result, his business has grown larger. When discussing product selection, Boss Chen summarized his years of practical experience. He believes that a distributor needs to consider the following six aspects to select a good product:

**Evaluate the Company**
Whenever Boss Chen decides to take on a product, he often visits the manufacturer for an inspection. He believes: First, this is a way to spend a little money to save a lot, because blindly taking on a product costs more in payment for goods than the inspection trip, plus the personnel costs and energy spent on promotion, which are hard to calculate. Second, visiting the company allows him to understand its qualifications, scale, strength, production capacity, and product quality control, avoiding the risk of early efforts being wasted due to quality issues or stockouts after becoming popular. Third, visiting the company allows him to meet the person in charge. Through communication, he can learn about the company's goals and ambitions, which is crucial in the early stages of product promotion. Only companies with strong ambitions and clear goals will provide necessary support to distributors during product launch. He can also understand the methods and principles of the person in charge, their character and dedication, which is essential for future cooperation. Only with a strong sense of enterprise and good character can a company grow, and distributors can grow together with the company. Boss Chen has six criteria for evaluation:

**Look at Promises**
Ordinary manufacturers promise anything to get money; excellent companies may not give many promises, but they always fulfill what they promise.

**Look at Policies**
Ordinary manufacturers give any policy, not fearing market chaos; excellent companies have many rules and regulations, and policies are given through processes to ensure market stability and long-term product development.

**Look at Gross Margin**
Ordinary manufacturers give high gross margins; excellent companies offer lower but stable margins because they focus on long-term development.

**Credit Sales or Not**
Ordinary companies like to do some credit sales; excellent companies only do cash transactions, and even if they offer credit, they require collateral.

**Sense of Responsibility**
Ordinary companies only take responsibility for themselves; excellent companies have moral bottom lines, taking responsibility for both themselves and distributors. They always provide solutions before products, and if the solution is not suitable, they don't let distributors spend money.

**Look at Interests**
Ordinary companies focus on short-term interests; excellent companies do not harm consumer interests for short-term gains (such as reducing quality or price). They focus on long-term development and let distributors make money in the long run.

**Understand the Product**
Many distributors fail because they don't understand the product. Boss Chen pays great attention to understanding the product. He not only asks about the production process and assembly line but also takes samples to the market, asking terminal owners and channel members for their opinions. Generally, his understanding focuses on four points:

**Product Features**
Understand the production process and manufacturing flow, and know the product's features.

**Product Packaging**
Look at the external packaging and packing form, sometimes placing the product in retail stores to see if the packaging stands out.

**Product Targeting**
Understand the product concept and target consumer group, and see if the product is differentiated.

**Usage Method**
Understand the usage method and warranty period.

**Know Yourself**
"Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated." After in-depth understanding of the product and company, Boss Chen examines his own situation, reviewing whether his circumstances are suitable for distributing the product. He believes that if one cannot correctly understand oneself, even a good product will fail if rushed without the necessary capabilities and conditions, wasting manpower, resources, and money, and adversely affecting future development. Therefore, distributors need to correctly understand themselves, neither underestimating nor overestimating themselves.

In this process, Boss Chen repeatedly asks himself several questions: 1. Is there a gap or opportunity for this product in my market? 2. How are similar products selling in the market, and what is the competition? 3. Do my financial strength and scale support this product? 4. Are my current network channels suitable? 5. Can my team and product distribution meet the promotion requirements? 6. Can my current service and maintenance keep up with the product's requirements?

**Plan Your Strategy**
Boss Chen believes that whether a new product succeeds in a market depends not only on the product itself but also on good promotion methods. Especially when all conditions are clear, having a good strategy is key to the final push. Therefore, when taking on a new product and preparing to launch it, distributors must plan their strategy. If the strategy is correct, success is closer; if the strategy is flawed, they will only go further astray. When promoting new products, Boss Chen organizes his thoughts from the following aspects:

1. What promotion methods should I choose to quickly start the market? What support do these methods need, and can I provide it? 2. What channels should I enter to quickly distribute the product to streets and alleys? 3. What promotion methods are currently available? Should I do publicity or promotions first? Should I choose channel promotions or consumer promotions, or both? How should I choose? 4. What activities should my marketing team do, and what support do these activities need?

**Make Cautious Decisions**
Caution is not timidity but to avoid unnecessary risks. Even after considering all aspects, for safety, Boss Chen still convenes a small discussion with his business staff and core channel members before formally accepting the product. They conduct a comprehensive evaluation from all angles, allowing everyone to express their views, whether for or against. Only when no one can veto the product does Boss Chen make the final decision and sign the agency agreement.

**Adhere to Principles**
Finally, Boss Chen believes that besides the above points, the most important thing is to adhere to three principles when selecting products. Only by adhering to these principles can distributors not lose themselves and clearly understand their main direction.

**Category Consistency**
The selected product must be consistent with one or more of the products currently distributed, to increase the chance of success.

**Channel Sharing**
The product must be able to share the existing channels, so as to leverage advantages for new product promotion and avoid failure due to new channels or unfamiliarity.

**Combination of Hot and Slow**
Whether the product is a bestseller or not, it must complement existing products, so that hot products can promote slow products, turning them into hot ones.

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