Click to read the original article for details. Almost everyone is subjective, habitually viewing others from their own perspective, with "I think" being paramount, and personal values often replacing worldview. Empathy is theoretically possible but practically difficult, and mutual understanding is even more unlikely. In manufacturer-distributor relations, this is also the case: manufacturers don't understand distributors, and distributors don't understand manufacturers. Not to mention understanding, even basic knowledge may be lacking. The many conflicts and contradictions between manufacturers and distributors, at their root, stem from insufficient mutual understanding and asymmetric perceptions of many issues. Both sides believe they are right, which inevitably leads to disputes. However, in manufacturer-distributor cooperation, manufacturers often hold a dominant position, as products, brands, overall market planning, development direction, and market resources are in their hands. Some factory owners also believe that manufacturers are above distributors, acting as leaders, and that distributors should primarily cooperate and follow orders. As for in-depth understanding of distributors, most factory owners have no interest and see no need, viewing distribution as a simple business involving only execution. They see distributor owners as mere individual operators lacking strategy, overall planning, and tactics, so they should just follow the manufacturer's arrangements. If senior management holds this attitude, the attitude of middle and grassroots business personnel is predictable. It's one thing not to understand distributors, but the key issue is that factory owners have several mental hurdles they struggle to overcome when dealing with distributors, such as: 1. Requiring business personnel to control distributors This means being able to handle distributors, making them cooperate (obey), and considering such personnel as excellent. Under the guidance of senior management, many young people in their early twenties, fresh out of school, attempt to control distributor owners who are in their fifties or sixties and have been in business for twenty or thirty years. They feel superior, seeing themselves as market managers and managers of distributors. As for understanding distributors or objectively viewing cooperation, they have no interest. They make various demands, requiring distributors to cooperate in various ways. If distributors don't obey or cooperate, they find ways to discipline them. Even during the recruitment phase, factory owners still require business personnel to select distributors according to set standards, demanding that distributors meet various criteria and pass various reviews and approvals, as if many distributors are clamoring to become their distributors. 2. Insisting on delayed benefits for distributors So-called delayed benefits mean insisting that distributors pay first, such as making payments, stocking goods, and distributing to retail outlets, then maintaining terminals, and only later reaping benefits. On the surface, this seems correct, but for distributors, there are two problems: First, after such upfront investment, will there definitely be benefits later? It's uncertain. Second, during the initial investment phase, distributors are losing money; shouldn't the manufacturer provide some compensation? Objectively speaking, distributors' operational focus is shorter-term compared to manufacturers, emphasizing quick returns. So why not consider distributors' actual characteristics and introduce some upfront benefit measures? For example, when distributors just purchase goods or sign contracts, provide some direct benefits beyond the product itself, such as helping with current cost control. 3. Focusing only on sales growth, ignoring cost increases Most manufacturers set higher performance targets for distributors each year, lecturing them that the market has great potential and that strengthening terminal operations can yield more. They argue that selling more goods means making more money. However, manufacturers only see sales growth, not the corresponding cost increases for distributors. To meet manufacturers' growth targets, distributors need to increase capital investment, hardware like vehicles and warehouses, add personnel, increase employee workload, face higher accounts receivable, and higher tax costs. Additionally, distributors generally have lower management levels and limited ability in cost control and efficiency improvement. While sales volume increases, costs rise even faster, meaning that although sales revenue goes up, distributors' net profits go down. This is a major reason why many distributors are reluctant to increase sales. Most manufacturers choose to ignore the increase in distributors' operating costs, or consider it the distributors' own business, unrelated to them. 4. Focusing only on their own product sales, ignoring distributors' overall operations The saying "Without the skin, where would the hair attach?" is well understood. But factory owners forget this when dealing with distributors. When facing distributors, they mainly consider their own product sales and whether performance targets are met, showing indifference to distributors' overall operational status, existing problems, actual net profit levels, and future development directions. For some factory owners, distributors are just sales tools: use them if they work, replace them if they don't. Why bother caring about more? 5. Believing distributor recruitment should be quick and decisive Recruitment is an ongoing task for many manufacturers. Factory owners think recruitment should be fast, ideally that as soon as they advertise, distributors will flock in, and they can negotiate directly, decide immediately, and finalize. So when assigning recruitment targets to business personnel, they often set time limits and goals, such as recruiting 100 new distributors within three months. However, distributors are increasingly cautious about taking on new manufacturers. They naturally need to inspect, research, evaluate, and test-sell, which takes time. With so many unreliable manufacturers out there, if they make a mistake, pay for goods, and the product or manufacturer or their personnel turn out to be unreliable, cleaning up the mess later is extremely troublesome. So they must be careful and not rush. This leads to situations where distributors have multiple contacts with manufacturer personnel but delay confirming cooperation. This is distributors' way of testing and verifying through repeated interactions. But some manufacturer personnel, under pressure from recruitment targets, give up after two or three contacts if no decision is made. 6. Believing distributor profits are given by the manufacturer Some factory owners like to boast about how many distributors were small individual operators years ago and became wealthy, worth millions, through distributing their products, achieving life success. They also emphasize how their product pricing system has left ample profit margins for distributors. From the manufacturer's perspective, this calculation seems correct. But objectively, distributor profits are not given by the manufacturer; they are earned from downstream customers. Moreover, the manufacturer not only doesn't give distributors any profit but actually takes money from them first, profiting from them. Although it's through the platform of distributing the manufacturer's products, distributors also make money selling other manufacturers' products. So distributor profits come from downstream customers, not from the upstream manufacturer. This article is by Pan Wenfu. Born into a private business owner family, he managed a family distribution company for many years, during which he also served as business manager and trainer in several production enterprises. His research focuses on internal management of small and medium-sized private enterprises, with main topics including personnel management, cost control, management backend setup, and integration of retired military personnel into private enterprises. He has continuously broken down over 400 topics related to internal management of private enterprises and maintains ongoing collection of materials and updates of solutions.