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Why do some distributors have manufacturers seeking cooperation every day? Why do some distributors have no brands to choose from? Why do some manufacturers fear certain distributors? Why are some distributors led by the nose by manufacturers? Why do some people raise their arms and get a constant response, while others beg and plead with no one responding? This is determined by one's standing in the industry. Standing in the industry stems from influence, and influence stems from comprehensive strength.
Let's take a look at what strengths a business leader with industry standing must possess.
I. Commercial Resources Commercial resources are directly manifested in two types: downstream resources and upstream resources.
1. Downstream Resources Downstream resources mainly refer to channel network resources, which are the second pillar of a distributor's foundation besides products. That is, the essence of a distributor's survival is the network. An excellent distributor must be both a terminal comprehensive service provider and a regional strong network operator.
2. Upstream Resources Upstream resources are not only reflected in how many excellent brands and products a distributor holds, but also in the degree of benign cooperation with manufacturers, the level of attention and support received, especially the relationship with current management and upper-level leaders. The subtleties, I think, everyone understands.
II. Social Resources Here I will only discuss two aspects of social resources: consumer resources and financing resources.
1. Consumer Resources How many core consumers, consumer consultants, and VIP members does a distributor have? These voluntary consumer resources from the grassroots are invaluable to distributors. As long as these core consumers and VIP customers are not transferred, no matter what situation the distributor is in, their brand status generally cannot be shaken by others.
2. Financing Resources What do distributors lack most? Money! Especially this year (2013), with sluggish consumption, manufacturers' inventory pressure, channel occupation, longer turnover cycles, and market share being cut, available working capital is increasingly scarce. At this time, capital interaction with banks, private capital, downstream channel capital, and manufacturer capital is particularly important.
III. Management Resources In management resources, I will only mention four aspects: talent, organization, skills, and information.
1. Talent Enterprise talents are divided into two categories: one is designer-type talents, who can create strategies, guide execution, refine models, continuously replicate, and enable ordinary people to create extraordinary value. The other is execution-type talents, who, under the guidance of relevant systems and methods, do their own work unwaveringly according to company regulations and fulfill their responsibilities.
2. Organization At different stages of enterprise development, there must be matching organizational structures and mechanisms. Organizational structure determines the speed of enterprise development and profitability. For example, in the initial stage, an enterprise basically only needs two departments: the finance department, managed by the most trusted person, and the business department, controlled personally by the owner. After growing larger, the enterprise must transition to corporate management. Whether it's finance, business, marketing, brand, or warehousing departments, they need to be correspondingly complete, and the company should be managed by systems and mechanisms. It's not necessarily unreasonable to appoint relatives; it's fine as long as the rule of law is greater than the rule of man.
3. Skills For distributors, employee operational capabilities also determine the enterprise's operational efficiency. Ineffective work basically creates costs rather than value. Improving employee skills and stimulating their learning ability is the most valuable management method in cost management. Higher profits are not saved but created by employees.
4. Information Now is the information age, the big data era. The establishment of information resource databases and big data databases, the sensitivity of market information, detailed data and meticulous analysis of various customers, consumers, and products, can all provide immeasurable support for sales and the strongest support for preventing emergencies.
IV. Brand Resources Regarding brand resources, I will also only discuss two aspects: product brand and commercial brand.
Without a product brand, it is impossible to create a commercial brand. The product brand is the foundation that determines the commercial brand.
1. Product Brand Product brand does not necessarily mean a famous brand; it can also be an unknown brand, but there is a prerequisite: this product must have become a best-selling brand product locally in your hands, otherwise it cannot create any value for you. Therefore, for distributors, first, they must have a product with scale, popularity, and dominance in hand, and then consider other complementary products or brands (channel complementarity, category complementarity, seasonal complementarity, brand complementarity, etc.). Otherwise, the more products you have, the more junk they become. When products have scale, you have the voice to control the network and the strength to make a louder sound.
2. Commercial Brand When distributors achieve scale in products, their corresponding strength also grows, and their status gradually becomes prominent locally. This distributor must make efforts in reputation, service, customer relations, industry, distribution circles, social circles, business activities, public welfare activities, etc., to add more glory to the company's operating value, gain more resources, and better shape the company's commercial brand value.
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