Often, we see small and medium-sized enterprises imitating the market strategies of large companies: hiring talent at high salaries, conducting pre-sales training, emphasizing distribution rates and visibility, focusing on professional steps for visiting terminal customers, assessing execution, and managing processes. They believe this will quickly open the market and generate sales. After investing substantial human, material, and financial resources, market performance may improve rapidly, but later management issues arise, hindering normal operations and wasting the initial groundwork.

The most common and troublesome issue is distributor non-cooperation. Salespeople often complain that the distributor they found is uncooperative: refusing to stock the full product range, frequently running out of stock, delaying deliveries that cause orders to be missed, marking up prices excessively (e.g., adding 5 yuan per case when 2 yuan would be profitable), and not executing promotional purchases as planned.

Distributors, on the other hand, have their own grievances:

  1. "Your brand is unknown, turnover is slow, why force such large inventory?"
  2. "Those items are at risk of expiring soon, yet you still ask me to stock them."
  3. "Delivering case by case to small accounts doesn't even cover gas money."
  4. "Last month you promised a promotion at that store (a large KA), but nothing happened. They said if we don't do it, they'll remove us."
  5. "Those small accounts haven't settled their debts for two months, and you don't seem concerned."

Such a gap between the two sides will inevitably affect the next steps in the market. The worst scenario is when mid-level management listens to only one side, either blaming the salesperson's incompetence or the distributor's lack of capability, leading to frequent changes of salespeople and distributors, ultimately making the market chaotic and unmanageable.

To avoid this, our salespeople must manage distributors with a more professional process. In essence, the distributor provides a competitive stage, and manufacturers are dancers. The one who dances better and more innovatively attracts more audience (terminal customers) and earns more ticket revenue (profit) for the stage owner (distributor), thereby winning the stage owner's trust and gaining more time and space to perform. But if you're not a famous actor (well-known brand) and your choreography isn't novel (low profit margins), how do you win the distributor's heart?

First, we must put ourselves in the distributor's shoes, treating their business as our own, and understand their needs. Distributors carry our products mainly to gain:

  1. Greater profits;
  2. Control (or maintenance) of terminal network customers through our products;
  3. Learning more advanced and scientific management concepts and market operation methods from manufacturers;
  4. ...

So we should focus on these points.

Second, avoid factors that negatively impact distributor profits, such as:

  1. Overly risky inventory loading;
  2. Rebate fulfillment, and reasonable control and handling of near-expiry and damaged goods;
  3. Helping distributors maintain customer relationships and manage accounts for terminal customers.

Finally, we must also monitor and correct bad habits of distributors, such as:

  1. Slow delivery and service;
  2. Withholding market funds;
  3. Not distributing the full product range, high markup on new products;
  4. ...

Often, it's not that our salespeople aren't hardworking, nor that distributors lack capability or cooperation, but rather a lack of effective communication and shared responsibility in the partnership, with each side only emphasizing their own perspective. For better cooperation, the manufacturer should proactively strengthen training for salespeople on distributor management, implement steps, identify and resolve cooperation issues one by one, and ultimately win the distributor's trust for better collaboration.

Eight Steps for Distributor Visits

1. Work Plan Deployment

  • Our company's work plan
  • Help the distributor create a work plan

When visiting the distributor, communicate our company's recent work focus and give advance notice. Our work plan might include: this week we need to distribute a new product, requiring you to maintain safety stock and provide personnel and vehicles; next week we'll develop the catering channel and hold an outdoor event at the largest KA store with purchase gifts and prize exchanges...

Actually, helping the distributor create a work plan is the most important, because their work process is often disorganized. We help them analyze not to command them, but to instill effective and time-saving work methods and steps, prioritizing tasks: what to do first, what later, what is urgent and important, and what yields immediate results.

  1. Urgent and important: do as soon as possible
  2. Important but not urgent: do well
  3. Urgent but not important: do cleverly
  4. Not urgent and not important: do last

Initially, the distributor may dismiss your advice, but over time, once they adopt it and succeed, they will respect your professional expertise. (This requires salespeople to not only have work plans, analysis, forecasting, and summarization skills, but also to observe the distributor's work process and content, identify gaps, and provide timely feedback.)

2. Price and Promotion Communication

Salespeople should create a monthly price and promotion execution table, as well as a competitor price and promotion survey table, and post them on the distributor's wall to prevent excessive markups or inadequate promotion execution. Salespeople should also record the purchase quantities and rebates for promotional low-price goods. If the distributor complains about low profits, this becomes a persuasive tool. Moreover, when competitor prices are higher and promotions are weaker, it can boost the distributor's confidence in our products.

Additionally, salespeople should memorize the prices and promotions of the distributor's other main brands and competitors, and occasionally mention them in front of the distributor. This will impress them, showing that we care about their other products and truly have their interests at heart.

3. Update Inventory Reports

Salespeople should establish inventory reports for the distributor's products to manage inventory professionally. A distributor often handles several brands and lacks time to focus on each. When best-selling items are out of stock or slow-moving items have excessive inventory, they may blame your ordering. You need to order based on safety stock (previous inventory + previous order - current inventory = safety stock). Update the inventory report at every visit. Only when you manage your own inventory well can you comment on the distributor's other brand inventories.

4. Handling Near-Expiry and Damaged Goods

When distributors carry your products, near-expiry and damaged goods are inevitable, regardless of cause. We must take them seriously. If it's the company's fault, exchange or handle immediately. If caused by terminal customers and the distributor had to exchange, find funds or fast channels to absorb the cost. If the distributor caused it, agree to exchange only a certain percentage (this tells them that helping is already out of goodwill). After handling, have the distributor sign a receipt to acknowledge. In daily work, educate them on inventory management and handling precautions. Finally, always destroy any handled near-expiry or damaged goods on the spot; otherwise, they may bring it up again later, and you'll have no recourse.

No matter how much profit distributors make from your products, they never say it's enough. But if a couple of cases are damaged or expired, you can imagine what they'll say.

5. Account and Expense Reconciliation

This step is the most critical as it directly affects distributor interests. It can be broken down into three points:

  1. Reconciliation of accounts receivable, promotional expenses, rebates, and promotional items between distributor and company;
  2. Reconciliation of market expenses advanced by the distributor, accounts, rebates, etc.;
  3. Management of accounts receivable from the distributor's downstream customers.

Each item requires formal written communication with both parties' signatures. This management prevents company resources from being embezzled or withheld by the distributor, ensuring they are effectively invested in the market. But we must not let the distributor lose a penny; it's just a matter of clear accounts between brothers.

Account and expense reconciliation should be done regularly; don't be afraid of the hassle. If delayed or recorded carelessly, when problems arise, you won't be able to explain clearly. Thus, financial management is also a test for salespeople.

6. Terminal Network Maintenance

We create network customer cards to quickly build relationships with customers and tap into the sales potential of each channel customer. Distributors also see market development as a land grab; the larger their territory, the more advantage they gain. A complete customer database is crucial for them. So when building network customer data, we should segment by region, channel, and sales potential. When you hand over complete customer lists, they'll be grateful. It also greatly helps your own work.

7. Market Feedback

To correct distributors' self-willed behaviors in delivery, service, full-range stocking, promotional expense distribution, exchange of near-expiry products, and product markups, we should record issues during each terminal customer visit and report them to the distributor. Tell them that without timely correction and handling, they will quickly lose customer trust, and customers may lose confidence in other brands they represent and stop ordering.

At the same time, bring back market opportunities to share and study with the distributor, acting as their marketing consultant.

8. Performance Review

After each market campaign, review and summarize successes with the distributor. For example, "You see, last time you exchanged a few near-expiry bottles for customer A, and this time they ordered several more cases and praised your service. Last week's promotion reached every customer, resulting in 200 extra cases, earning you an additional 500 yuan."

Performance review is a crucial part of distributor work, clearly showing them their strengths and weaknesses: how much they earned from our products, how many new customers they developed, growth compared to the previous period, reasons for growth, and next steps for improvement.

This requires precise sales figures, broken down by time, product, and channel, presented as sales growth curves, and reviewed with the distributor using SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis.

The above are the eight steps for distributor visits. They require salespeople not only to execute and communicate but also to fill out forms, preferably posted on KT boards in the distributor's office or warehouse, and updated truthfully at each visit.

Initially, it may seem cumbersome and impractical, and the distributor may not listen. But if you persist, it will yield results, earn the distributor's admiration, and strengthen their support for your work, giving you a larger stage and more time to perform, making your dance more beautiful.

Editor's Note: The editor has selected 1,067 articles from nearly 1,900 published on this official account, categorized into 14 major categories and 57 knowledge points, systematically compiling frontline marketing management content into a library for learning. From market to customers, covering practical combat and management, all are valuable. Follow the account and reply with the number "1" to browse the following content: Sales Improvement Techniques (73 articles), Sales Supervisor Skills (74), Terminal Visit Management (82), Distributor Market Operations (118), Distributor Development (91), Distributor Internal Operations Management (89), Team Management (53), First Lesson for New Salespeople (96), Efficient Distribution Techniques (117), Sales Manager's Eighteen Skills (90), Managing Distributors (47), KA Operations (35), Internet and Branding (47).