Practical marketing expert Shi Shunkuan WeChat group sharing notes on "Distributor Investigation Action Breakdown"
- Strength Investigation
- Store and office environment survey: Check whether the distributor's store is in a wholesale market, commercial area, or suburb; observe the store's decoration style, layout, hygiene, and the products sold and displayed to understand the store's business condition.
- Warehouse area and inventory product survey: Understand the warehouse area, the variety and quantity of inventory products, and the production dates to infer the distributor's business scale and financial situation.
- Transportation capacity survey: Look at the number and models of the distributor's delivery vehicles, and see if they have the vehicles needed for the channels you want to sell through.
- Visibility and network survey: Use channel reverse deduction to assess the distributor's visibility in the channels you want to sell through.
- Financial status survey: Ask peers, secondary wholesalers, terminal stores, and about inventory capital, etc.
- Social relations survey: Understand the distributor's social relations with local government departments, relevant law enforcement agencies, and local enterprises and institutions to judge their social connections and group purchase capability.
Distributors use their own money to purchase goods from manufacturers, not for their own use, but to resell them; they simply handle and resell. Therefore, distributors are the most important link in the sales channel chain from manufacturers to terminals and consumers. Their role in the market is enormous, and they can obtain the most market information.
Although distributor investigation is a separate part of market research, it involves almost all market research content, making it exceptionally important. In reality, faced with numerous distributors, how can a company conduct in-depth investigation of target distributors, select those suitable for long-term development, and achieve win-win through the distributor's network channels?
Marketing Awareness Investigation
Familiarity with their own business status: Current sales of each product category they represent, credit sales situation, etc. (e.g., how much of your product do they sell monthly, how much is owed to them, which category sells well).
Understanding of the local market: Local channel characteristics, consumer consumption patterns, consumption patterns for weddings and funerals, etc.
Attitude towards terminal promotion resources: What support they need, how promotional activities should be conducted, etc.
Service level to downstream customers: Visit their downstream secondary wholesalers and terminal stores to understand service conditions. Observe their company at opening and closing times to see vehicle dispatch.
Market Operation and Management Ability Investigation
Wholesale tier survey: Distributor → secondary wholesaler → street wholesaler → terminal distributor → terminal. Investigate the length of the distributor's network. A long network can increase volume but is not conducive to promoting new products; a short network can do market work but volume growth is slow. Decide based on your actual needs.
Network coverage survey: Look at the distribution rate of the distributor's existing products and the distribution rate in the channels you want to sell through to judge their network coverage capability.
Current brand operation survey: Check the target customer distribution rate, price order, product category promotion (full category promotion, new product promotion), and advertising and display vitality of the brands they currently operate to judge their market operation and management ability.
Special channel operation of current brands.
Company Management Ability Investigation Check the stacking of inventory products by category, personnel division of labor, assessment methods, employee business skills, and terminal customer database to judge the distributor's management ability.
Commercial Reputation Investigation Judge the distributor's commercial reputation by visiting downstream secondary wholesalers, terminal stores, and peers.
Cooperation Willingness Investigation
Whether the distributor warmly receives you.
Whether the distributor is "unyielding" on support that is conducive to healthy market development.
Shi Shunkuan Practical Marketing Expert Previously held positions as Sales Supervisor, Sales Manager, Marketing Manager, and Marketing Director, then entered the consulting industry, with 18 years of practical marketing and related consulting experience.
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