“First, naked pricing operations can help distributors avoid the silent losses they often suffer in manufacturer expense verification, giving them relatively stronger control over costs and gross margins. Additionally, if a product fails, distributors using expense-inclusive operations often suffer heavy losses, which naked pricing naturally avoids.” By Deng Xuejun Topic: Naked Pricing Operations Regarding naked pricing operations, some distributors interacted in my WeChat group for distributor exchanges. Some praised it, some opposed it, and many were confused about the concept. However, among the distributors I know, it is not uncommon to see various forms of naked pricing in practice, and quite a few have "secretly" made good money by operating well. In people's imagination, manufacturers implementing naked pricing policies are generally smaller in strength, lacking the resources to develop and manage the market, so they have to hand over operations to trading companies that can recruit distributors, calculating their own gross profit fixedly. The gross profit seems meager, but there is no big risk, and if a brand asset can be cultivated, it still belongs to them, like temporarily fostering a child. Such perception is actually biased, as there are also large manufacturers and branded products implementing naked pricing. Large brands and manufacturers operating this way generally fall into three categories. First, markets they have never been able to penetrate, using limited SKUs with naked pricing to attract distributors as a lure. This practice often faces strong internal opposition, and it is usually the boss who makes the final decision. Remember, such contracts are definitely limited to specific SKUs, as everyone understands. Second, tactical disruptive products, not the manufacturer's main products, but imitations of competitors' leading SKUs to disrupt prices and cut off part of their sales. In the manufacturer's own words, it would be even better if they could mess up the market for that category and SKU. Third, some highly seasonal products, such as rare fruit products or local specialties. Manufacturers need to concentrate funds to purchase raw materials during harvest season, and the quantity is often fixed for the year. They calculate their expected profit, and the rest is up to the distributor to operate according to market conditions. If you can earn more, that's your skill and luck. In the above situations, smaller manufacturers somewhat rely on distributors and generally do not participate in market operations, nor do they have the ability to do so. In contrast, large manufacturers' naked pricing has clear tactical or even strategic intentions. While giving you the naked pricing policy, they are actually constantly monitoring your progress and providing market operation guidance. Sometimes the big boss will personally visit the market to check developments, or even summon you to headquarters for instructions: "Next, do this and that..." Regardless of the situation, for distributors, the most practical thing is to make money. So after receiving products with naked pricing, how to operate the market is certainly something to handle well. First, naked pricing operations can help distributors avoid the silent losses they often suffer in manufacturer expense verification, giving them relatively stronger control over costs and gross margins. Additionally, if a product fails, distributors using expense-inclusive operations often suffer heavy losses, which naked pricing naturally avoids. Suzhou distributor Fan Qidong has a preference for naked pricing operations, liking to deal with small manufacturers with good product strength. His experience is that such manufacturers are easy to get along with and allow him to make money smoothly. His secret weapon is: firmly cooperate with naked pricing, but never go low-price at the terminal! Peng Yun, a county-level distributor in Yueyang, also operates this way. He also focuses on selecting small brands with strong product strength. For example, he chose a snack product whose quality is much better than similar products. Naked price is 55 yuan/jin, selling at 90 yuan/jin, and the terminal also has relatively high gross margins with considerable volume. Everyone in the distribution chain makes money, which is called "secretly" making money. Of course, I also know several distributor friends who operate large manufacturer products with naked pricing, and several have privately messaged me about doing so. Because they are executing special tasks for manufacturers in special distributor ways, I cannot publicly disclose their company names or personal names. But you can probably guess the products they operate with naked pricing, such as almond milk, large Tetra Pak coconut juice, peanut milk, popular baked goods, etc. Some distributor friends asked me whether their market is suitable for finding naked pricing products to operate. Overall, the lower the market level and the more remote, the relatively larger the space for naked pricing operations, especially in inland county-level markets. If you can carefully find cooperative manufacturers with strong product strength but weak overall strength, there is also room for operation in prefecture-level city markets. As for accepting special SKUs with naked pricing to execute special tasks for large manufacturers, that is not a policy ordinary distributors can enjoy. First, you need sufficient strength (capital, network), and second, you need a deep enough relationship with the boss. Otherwise, the probability of this good thing—both a special mission and exclusive profit—falling on you is almost zero. The above is for distributor friends who care about and pay attention to naked pricing operations. This article is an original work by Mr. Deng Xuejun of Junzhong Consulting. Please indicate the source when reprinting. If you find Mr. Deng's articles helpful and inspiring, you can long-press this QR code to tip 10 yuan for fun. Welcome to the New Era of Distributors Distributor Alliance: Follow and Progress If you want to keep up with the theories, knowledge, and logic of distributor development under the new business ecosystem, and learn from related cases, please follow this WeChat public platform. Welcome to discuss together~~ You can leave messages directly on the WeChat backend. Please indicate the source when reprinting. For sponsorship and cooperation, please leave a message on the backend.