Teacher Pan Wenfu will launch the industry's first live training course on distributor internal operations management on the WeChat public platform on November 15. This platform is one of the first to broadcast the course. Distributors who want to improve their business management but cannot spare time for on-site training should not miss this opportunity. We have prepared several topics for this course, and distributors can vote according to their needs. We will select the most voted topic for the live broadcast. Once upon a time, in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector, the distributor group, mainly individually operated, was called the backbone of the circulation field and the protagonist in commodity economic activities. But now, the protagonist has become a supporting role. The reasons are not complicated: one is the change in external factors, and the other is the lack of change in internal factors. Let's first look at the changes in external factors: upstream manufacturers have begun to control the market, and downstream terminals are increasingly replaced by KA-type terminals. As for internal factors, many distributors still adhere to early business concepts, market concepts, and management methods, failing to make timely adjustments and progress according to changes in the external environment. This has turned distributors from the intermediate business entities in the circulation field into distribution and market service providers. The days of calling the shots in the local market have become memories, and the sharp decline in profitability is troubling every distributor. Where is the road tomorrow? This has become a question that almost every distributor is pondering. Crisis is opportunity. Some distributors calmly analyze the current situation and seek solutions from a new perspective, that is, to organize the distributor group, integrate it into a collective force, and in actual operation, it has indeed solved many problems. The author has visited several initiators of such distributor group organizations and compiled some materials on distributor organizations for the reference of interested distributor friends. First, let's look at the various problems faced by individual distributors:

  1. Information blockage Many distributors have limited information sources, and there are no relevant channels to provide them with sufficient information, especially industry data closely related to current business. Moreover, because they have to personally attend to business every day, they have little time to read books and newspapers, and even fewer obtain information through the Internet. They lack timely and effective industry information on new trends in market changes, and can only rely on personal experience to make judgments, often leading to directional errors.
  2. Unequal dialogue with KA stores Most distributors negotiate with KA stores in the name of a single supplier. They have limited product bargaining chips and limited negotiation experience, making it easy for stores to break them one by one and become targets of KA store exploitation.
  3. Unequal status in dialogue with the government In the past two years, once a product quality accident occurs, the most unlucky may be the distributors. Often, local governments get nervous and seal and detain all related products, causing heavy losses to distributors. For example, in the milk powder incident in Fuyang, Anhui, many local governments directly went to all milk powder distributors and sealed and detained all milk powder without distinction, then investigated and handled the matter, causing many legitimate milk powder distributors to suffer greatly. Moreover, in cases of misjudgment or mispunishment by government departments, distributors' appeals are also troublesome, either directly deprived of the right to appeal or having to pay high appeal costs. Even so, it is difficult to guarantee a reasonable ruling and compensation.
  4. Handling manufacturer relations Currently, in most regions, manufacturers and distributors are in single-line contact. If a negative incident occurs during cooperation, because manufacturers have greater strength and intellectual resources than distributors, distributors often suffer more. Moreover, manufacturers can easily find another distributor locally to continue their business, leaving the aggrieved distributor only to sigh.
  5. Fighting separately There is generally little communication among regional distributor groups, and most fight separately. Many information and resources cannot be shared, and many operating costs are repeatedly spent individually. Naturally, it is difficult to achieve cooperation and improvement, and they are easily looked down upon by external forces (manufacturers, KA stores, government departments, etc.). Moreover, due to insufficient communication among distributors, misunderstandings are prone to occur, leading to intensified vicious competition among distributors and damaging each other's profits.
  6. Lack of training in development strategy and expert guidance Many distributors now understand the importance of consulting and training, and also need experts to guide them in strategic development planning. However, because consulting companies charge high fees, individual distributors can hardly afford them. Some manufacturer training services for distributors are also biased, and there is not much targeted practical value.
  7. Interference from local criminal forces In many places, individual distributors mean wealthy individual businesses, which naturally attracts local criminal forces to come and cause trouble. Many distributors rack their brains to get a position as a local CPPCC member or people's congress representative, mostly for the purpose of ensuring their own safety. After all, they are single organizations, so they have to find ways to protect themselves.
  8. Talent attraction issues The development of distributors cannot be separated from the introduction of talent, but the stage and salary that a single distributor can provide to talent are relatively limited, and there are certain management difficulties. Moreover, it is difficult for a single distributor to attract talent, resulting in many distributors facing the problem of "cannot invite, cannot manage, cannot retain" talent.
  9. Obtaining support from the financial industry Capital and support from financial institutions are the basic guarantee for the business development of distributors. At present, commercial bank loans are mostly concentrated on business-to-business. Distributors are mostly small and medium-sized companies, and it is difficult for individual distributors to obtain loans. The required guarantees are also a problem. Helplessly, many distributors have to pay several times the bank interest to obtain loans from underground banks, which naturally increases operating costs. Facing the various problems of individual distributors, in some regions, some distributors with strength and strategic thinking have taken the initiative to establish distributor associations or similar organizations. Through the integration of distributor group resources, they have better solved some of the above problems. The author has summarized the management experience of some excellent distributor organizations for your reference.
  10. Entry point Choosing an appropriate entry point is very important. The relationships among distributor groups are very complex; they are both cooperative partners and competitors. In the early stage, it is not suitable to choose integrated operation as the entry point. Currently, the more successful entry form is the accident entry point. When some distributors have contradictions or disputes with manufacturers, KA stores, or government departments, solving problems is used as the entry point. Through the power of group superposition to solve problems, gaining recognition and trust from distributors, a basic distributor association organization can be established on this basis.
  11. Sharing consulting fees Consulting and training are needed by many distributors, but individual distributors can hardly afford the expensive fees of consulting companies. Using the group sharing method of the distributor association, this problem can be solved more easily, achieving what individual distributors find difficult to do. Moreover, some well-known experts can be invited, and everyone can benefit from consulting and training at a relatively limited cost. This is the second way to stabilize the distributor association organization and attract more distributors to participate.
  12. Proactive contact According to government regulations, social organizations need to register with government departments. On the basis of obtaining a certain distributor group, organizers can formally apply to government departments for registration, taking this opportunity to communicate and contact relevant government departments, informing them of the establishment of the distributor association. In this way, in future inspections and problem handling involving distributors, these government departments generally notify and communicate with the distributor association in advance, greatly reducing losses suffered by distributors in a completely passive situation. Government departments also welcome distributors to conduct self-inspections first, and many problems can be handled through negotiation. Living in the same city, government departments are also unwilling to seal goods at the drop of a hat. Now, through the distributor association as a contact point, they can notify and arrange in advance, reducing disputes and troubles in later work. The same effect can also be achieved in handling relations with local media.
  13. Information and resource sharing After forming a distributor group, everyone has a platform for information exchange. Organizers can also use the group's strength to contact some industry associations and obtain relevant information. In a distributor association in a city in Central China, the organizer commissioned a local small consulting company to obtain relevant industry information from the Internet and market research companies according to industry categories, compile it into documents, and regularly distribute it to relevant distributor members. In addition, all distributors' transport vehicles are registered, and internal borrowing and adjustment of transport vehicles within the distributor group are carried out to increase the utilization rate of each vehicle and reduce duplicate investment in vehicles.
  14. Human resources The high-end talents needed for distributor development are not actually for specific tasks, but to help teach distributor employees how to work more efficiently and scientifically. The distributor association takes the lead in hiring some talents with certain professional skills as consultants for the distributor association, providing internal rectification and training services for each distributor. The cost paid by individual distributors is limited, and there is no long-term management problem.
  15. Financial industry In terms of loans and acceptance processing from banks and other financial institutions, the power of the group is naturally much greater than that of individual distributors. The distributor association arranges some distributor members to provide guarantees, decomposing large risks, and the bank's approval rate is much higher.
  16. Safety issues A single chopstick is easy to break, but a bundle of chopsticks is hard to break. In ensuring the safety of the distributor group, the role of a group can be fully demonstrated, effectively deterring local criminal forces. Even if a single distributor has a safety problem, the distributor association, as a social organization, communicates with the public security department, and the effect is also greatly different.
  17. After achieving the above non-operational functions, the distributor association can gradually turn to some specific operational levels, and will play an incomparable role in joint negotiations with KA stores and manufacturer inspections and communication. Organizing a distributor group organization is not so much integrating group resources as it is distributors saving themselves. In today's ever-changing external environment, if distributors do not make corresponding adjustments and progress internally, they will inevitably be eliminated, with functional atrophy and profit shrinkage. This is a real problem many distributors currently face. From a commercial perspective, all problems have solutions; the difference is the cost of the solution. Individual distributors can hardly afford this cost. Relying on the power of the group to solve problems is a more suitable solution for distributors. Organize and strive for the future development of distributors themselves! Pan Wenfu: Born into a private business owner family, he operated a family distributor company for over ten years, and also served as sales manager, marketing manager, and trainer in several well-known manufacturing enterprises. He has the dual perspective and experience of a distributor owner and a manufacturer's distributor manager. His research fields mainly focus on internal management optimization of distributor companies, corporate transformation, innovative business strategies, operating cost savings, and manufacturer-distributor relationship optimization. He has the largest distributor topic database in the country and has maintained long-term material collection and solution research on more than 400 topics related to distributor companies. ●●●******** -END- Content Selection Click the title below to read directly: [Line Sales Representative Practical Operation Guide (with full PPT download attached)