---
title: "Assessing Distributor Market Performance: Start with Internal Management Precision"
description: "Distributors often operate on the front lines, resembling \"warrior\" figures akin to mountain bandits. Many small and medium distributors are versatile, handling delivery, payment collection, negotiation, and unloading, embodying a \"model\" of hard work. However, their success hinges not only on opportunities but also on the sophistication of their team management. This article outlines eight key aspects to evaluate a distributor's internal management, from vehicle sales visits and business processes to salary structures and performance incentives."
author: "方刚"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2015-08-19"
language: "en"
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# Assessing Distributor Market Performance: Start with Internal Management Precision

> Distributors often operate on the front lines, resembling "warrior" figures akin to mountain bandits. Many small and medium distributors are versatile, handling delivery, payment collection, negotiation, and unloading, embodying a "model" of hard work. However, their success hinges not only on opportunities but also on the sophistication of their team management. This article outlines eight key aspects to evaluate a distributor's internal management, from vehicle sales visits and business processes to salary structures and performance incentives.

We can see that distributors are mostly engaged in frontline work year-round, somewhat like "warrior" figures of mountain bandits. Many small and medium distributors are versatile: delivering goods, collecting payments, negotiating, dispatching, unloading... They can do everything, one person equaling several, embodying a "model" of fearing neither hardship nor fatigue. Even if a manufacturer sends a truckload of over ten tons of goods, a couple can unload it all in one go before heading out for deliveries. Moreover, many distributors seem trapped in a "money mindset": when the business is small, they can't afford to hire help, so they do it themselves. When the business grows, they are reluctant to hire, and even when they do, they prefer "machine-like" salespeople who only work and don't eat. The consequence is that they hire but can't retain staff. How small and medium distributors elevate their operational level depends not only on their opportunities and environment but also on their "intelligence" in managing their sales team.

First: Vehicle Sales Visits
Distributors' operational units typically follow a 1+2 model—one vehicle with two people: a driver and a salesperson. This is the standard vehicle sales model. What about the visit model? It's the 1+1 model: salespeople visit outlets individually by bike to take orders, while drivers deliver goods based on those orders. The vehicle sales model's advantage is simple management and immediate transactions; its drawback is that salespeople visit large stores (with good turnover) but skip small ones (with poor turnover), often missing stores, casting a wide net with low efficiency and high costs. The visit model's advantage is area-based development, meticulous operations, thorough visits, and precise, low-cost delivery. Its drawback is the difficulty in managing the sales team, with a daily game of cat and mouse; once the team slackens, order output drops, and management issues arise.

Second: Business Processes
Business processes refer to the distributor's internal management flow, from warehousing and shipping to delivery and payment collection, and financial management. Many small and medium distributors operate on a boss + boss's wife model, or boss + wife + wife's mother (mother-in-law or relative). Some bosses are "Sun Wukong" types, capable of anything—warehouse management, finance, delivery, negotiation, even loading and unloading themselves. These distributors often exhibit traits of the startup phase, resulting in exhaustion, earning only hard-earned money, and knowing only whether they made or lost money, not where the profits or losses came from.

Third: Salary Structure
The vast majority of distributor sales staff are paid on a base salary plus commission model. As long as attendance is sufficient, the base salary is guaranteed. The key lies in the commission part. Many distributors calculate commissions based on turnover: turnover × commission rate = salary. In the early stages, if the rate is set appropriately and salespeople can see and actually receive the commission, it benefits sales promotion. However, over time, distributors find that salespeople only sell old, fast-moving products, ignoring new or slow-moving items. Some even manipulate prices or payment collections to achieve turnover targets.

For distributors, it's essential to elevate the performance assessment model to a management level. Assessment is the "command flag" in the distributor's hands; where the flag points, the sales team attacks. It's normal for salespeople to have a "policy vs. countermeasure" mindset, but distributors must be "one step ahead." For example, after finding the base salary + commission model ineffective, distributors can introduce category-specific assessment indicators, or combine with new products to implement "special project" commissions, setting a commission rate per box of new product sold, changing monthly commissions to same-day settlement. Continuously fine-tune assessment indicators to keep salespeople focused on commission wages while elevating operational priorities with indicator changes.

Fourth: Territory Division
Early distributor management is often "bandit-style": on the mountain, the distributor waves a hand and says, "Brothers, beyond the mountain are fine wine and treasure—go!" Then a group of salespeople scatter, fighting and feasting. East and west of the city are indistinguishable; after stocking, they fight among themselves—you take my job, I fight for your territory. Several vehicles fly around, and the money earned isn't enough for gas. Adopting territory division management not only solves these issues but also allows the distributor to let each subordinate showcase their talents, promptly discover and remedy local market problems, and control resource allocation within the sales team.

Fifth: Assessment Results
At month-end, the distributor pays staff and asks, "Zhang San, how much did you earn?" Zhang San: "1,860 yuan." "Do you know how this salary came about?" Zhang San: "I don't know!" This reflects chaotic financial systems. If the distributor company can establish transparent financial systems and processes, this problem can be solved, making employees clear, stable, and fully focused on work. For example, Zhang San might answer: "This month, my base salary is 900 yuan, plus sales commission of 360 yuan, and for selling 2,000 cases of new product X beer, a commission of 700 yuan, minus a 100 yuan penalty for exceeding the gas allowance." This is the ideal state.

Sixth: Commission Orientation
When the sales team is immature, commission-based management is common. Once management matures, distributors often adopt a "contract system," contracting vehicles and markets to subordinates, with the distributor merely holding the warehouse and liaising with manufacturers. Under the commission model, small and medium distributors face difficulties in data aggregation and information transmission due to overly simple management systems, often relying on experience to set commission rates. Assessment models often remain unchanged for years, leading to a situation where working more or less yields the same result. Salespeople appear diligent in the warehouse but play hide-and-seek once outside, even using vehicles for personal errands, sneaking to internet cafes, or gathering for mahjong. The distributor remains in the dark, listening to salespeople complain: "The market is tough, harder than climbing to heaven!"

This phenomenon is mainly caused by the "big pot" assessment mechanism. The base salary accounts for over half of salespeople's income, and commissions on fast-moving products make up the other half. Everyone gets along harmoniously, with similar salaries. Thanks to the guarantee of fast-moving old products, everyone can earn similar wages with eyes closed, without much worry or effort.

The distributor's initial commission model: base salary + turnover commission; intermediate model: base salary + category commission + new product special project; advanced model: turnover commission + category commission + performance improvement commission. For example, distributors can set annual performance growth commissions, adding a 1,000 yuan bonus for the top few salespeople with the fastest annual growth, or reward those with the fastest month-over-month improvement. As long as methods are diverse, rewards are substantial, and salespeople's enthusiasm is mobilized with clear reward standards and daily assessments, everyone will strive for progress, and the team will become a "howling" sales force.

Seventh: Bottle Return Commission
Beer distributors are well aware of beer's bulky, low-value nature in logistics. The key is that bottle recycling occupies an important position in the business process. If distributors don't invest effort in the bottle return link, they'll face "one-off deals": terminals accept goods, but bottles are either unwanted or sold as scrap glass for a few cents each. If distributors set inappropriate bottle return commissions for salespeople, they may only deliver without collecting bottles, leading to increasing terminal complaints, loss of outlets, and inevitably declining sales.

Eighth: Driver and Salesperson Salary Composition
Under the 1+2 business model, the driver and salesperson form a combat unit, like two grasshoppers tied to the same rope. Without coordinated actions, efficiency drops and internal friction increases. When setting assessment indicators, distributors must consider the unit's integrity, clarify the superior-subordinate relationship, and link the driver's salary to the salesperson's salary—meaning the driver's wage depends on the salesperson's earnings.

For distributor salespeople, even if the boss grabs their ears every morning and shouts, "Sell wine well!" they'll ignore it once out the door. Because salespeople don't want to do what's "hoped for"; they only do what's assessed. Only assessment determines their income. Therefore, distributors must invest in improving their internal assessment systems, aiming to enhance market competitiveness through improved internal management.

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