---
title: "Getting Started: How to Get Along with Distributors"
description: "For FMCG salespeople, getting along with distributors is an indispensable part of their work. Friendly and harmonious relationships can make sales work smooth, reduce unnecessary obstacles, and facilitate rapid market and channel expansion and sales growth. Conversely, poor relationships can lead to passive sales work and unnecessary troubles. This article aims to guide newcomers on how to get along with distributors effectively and avoid detours."
author: "New Distribution"
publisher: "New Distribution"
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telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2014-10-20"
language: "en"
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# Getting Started: How to Get Along with Distributors

> For FMCG salespeople, getting along with distributors is an indispensable part of their work. Friendly and harmonious relationships can make sales work smooth, reduce unnecessary obstacles, and facilitate rapid market and channel expansion and sales growth. Conversely, poor relationships can lead to passive sales work and unnecessary troubles. This article aims to guide newcomers on how to get along with distributors effectively and avoid detours.

Friendly reminder: Click the blue text above "FMCG Distributor Professional Consulting" to learn more about marketing and distributor internal management.

As a salesperson in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry, getting along with distributors is an indispensable part of business work. A friendly and harmonious relationship with distributors not only makes sales work smooth, reducing unnecessary obstacles, but also facilitates rapid market and channel expansion and sales growth. Conversely, it can lead to passive sales work and unnecessary troubles. For experienced salespeople, long-term work practice has taught them various tricks for dealing with distributors. But for a newcomer, everything is new, and they must start from scratch. If the approach is right, everyone is happy; otherwise, life becomes difficult for all. Therefore, this article aims to express how newcomers can get along with distributors, avoid detours, and get on the fast track.

_(Source: Chinese Marketing Communication Network, Author: Bo Jianxin)_

**1. Understand the Distributor's Personality and Characteristics**

We say "birds of a feather flock together." The foundation of good interpersonal relationships lies in compatibility or "getting along." Similarly, a newcomer needs this foundation when dealing with distributors. However, as the saying goes, "there are a thousand different people, each with different personalities." Distributors differ in their upbringing, education, family background, and development experiences, so their styles, principles, and temperaments vary. Therefore, at the beginning of the relationship, the newcomer's primary task is to make the distributor accept them from the heart, feeling that they are on the same page. To achieve this, the newcomer must start by understanding the distributor's personality and characteristics, knowing both the distributor and themselves, identifying weaknesses and opportunities, and adopting methods and approaches that are acceptable to the distributor. The saying "brine curd meets bean curd, one thing conquers another" applies here. Of course, there are many ways to understand the distributor's personality and characteristics, such as asking your predecessor, the distributor's staff, your end customers, or even your competitors.

**2. Communicate Effectively Up and Down**

In marketing work, we often see that conflicts between salespeople and distributors often arise from trivial matters rather than major issues. The reason is simple: both parties neglect effective communication on certain issues, leading to unnecessary misunderstandings. Distributors are an important link in the enterprise's marketing chain, responsible for logistics and market maintenance. They are important partners in the enterprise's development. For distributors, learning more about the company's development status, product promotion policies, new product launch plans, market development plans, and other related information is not just to satisfy curiosity but to plan the market and seek development opportunities. Sometimes, the more distributors know about the company, the deeper they understand the company's marketing strategies and the more thoroughly they implement them. Therefore, for newcomers, actively communicating effectively up and down when dealing with distributors can not only reduce misunderstandings but also gain the distributor's active cooperation, making business work smooth and achieving twice the result with half the effort.

**3. Put "Profit" First and Keep a Clear Account**

"The world is bustling, all for profit; the world is noisy, all for gain." For distributors, the purpose of distributing products is to make a profit. No distributor is willing to "learn from Lei Feng" (i.e., be altruistic). Even if they were, such a distributor would not last long. For newcomers, it is essential to understand that talking big and empty words is useless; focusing on the distributor's profit is the foundation of work. Therefore, when dealing with distributors, newcomers should always remember: put "profit" first and keep a clear account. First, calculate the distributor's profit account, including sales volume, gross profit, price differences, rebates, etc. Second, calculate the distributor's expense account, including personnel wages, distribution costs, return losses, warehousing costs, capital costs, and other expenses related to the company's products. Only with this account in mind will you know how much the distributor actually earns from distributing your products. Then, when the distributor complains about "not making money," you will be confident; otherwise, you will only feel uncomfortable.

**4. Plan Ahead with Two Plans**

Distributors' capital is never enough. No distributor will let their funds sit idle in the account. As long as they have money, they will use it to stock up or select new products to strengthen their lineup, contributing to their growth. This is determined by the distributor's nature and is understandable. However, in real work, we often see situations where the distributor's capital and demand for goods clash. Common manifestations include: shortage of goods due to insufficient funds, slow-moving goods occupying capital, or other manufacturers' goods tying up funds, leading to a shortage of funds for our goods. This causes unnecessary trouble for sales work. Therefore, for a newcomer dealing with distributors, it is essential to always pay attention to the distributor's capital flow and inventory levels, considering market dynamics, product variety, seasonal factors, logistics factors, etc. Plan ahead with two plans: the distributor's capital usage plan and the goods demand plan, ensuring effective coordination between capital, inventory, and demand, avoiding capital chain breaks and stockouts.

**5. Proactively Handle Three Issues**

Markets are always dynamic, and all kinds of problems can arise. Preventing problems in advance and handling them proactively is an effective principle to stay in a favorable position in market work. As a newcomer dealing with distributors, if you proactively attack problems rather than sitting back and waiting for the distributor to come to you, work will be relatively easier, and you will gain more understanding and become more proactive. As a newcomer, you need to proactively handle the following three issues, which are also the ones distributors care most about:

**1. Handling of Near-Expiry Products**

Returns, exchanges, and inventory buildup leading to near-expiry products are inevitable in the distributor's sales process and are one of the most headache-inducing tasks. If a newcomer can proactively help the distributor think of ways and ideas to handle these near-expiry products, even if it means some loss, the distributor will be grateful, at least because they lose less, which is understandable.

**2. Management of Distributor's Personnel**

Personnel management is a difficult problem for distributors. On one hand, they lack the energy to manage; on the other hand, they lack the capability. If a newcomer can think for them and help solve the distributor's personnel management problems, on one hand, it can improve personal performance by using the personnel effectively; on the other hand, helping the distributor solve problems will surely please the distributor, adding a bargaining chip in the relationship.

**3. Market Expansion**

Whether a market operates well or poorly is largely related to the distributor, but also closely connected to the salesperson. If a salesperson ignores the market, the market will certainly not yield good results. If a newcomer takes a proactive approach to market expansion, helping the distributor find problems and think of solutions, this will not only mobilize the distributor's enthusiasm to cooperate in completing the work but also earn a good evaluation or opinion from the distributor.

**6. Four Principles for Daily Interactions**

Finally, in dealing with distributors, you will face various temptations. Over time, the relationship with the distributor may change from a work relationship to a personal friendship. However, as a marketing professional, you must always remember the following in daily interactions with distributors:

**1. Work First Principle**: Separate work from personal feelings. Work comes first. Only then can the friendship last forever.

**2. Seek Truth from Facts Principle**: Respect the actual market situation, do not mix personal feelings. Give the support that should be given, even if it is more than what others get.

**3. Empathy Principle**: Consider problems from the distributor's perspective, putting yourself in their shoes when viewing and handling issues.

**4. Equal Treatment Principle**: Treat the distributor as an equal. Do not be self-deprecating nor arrogant. Treat everything equally, negotiate mutually, and cooperate amicably.

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