---
title: "It's Easy to Fill Up a Distributor's Warehouse, but Being a Responsible Manufacturer Is Not So Simple!"
description: "During the off-season, some manufacturers, instead of launching market activities to boost sales, focus on pressuring distributors to stock up just to improve their data reports. They push distributors to take more inventory, set sales targets, and collect payments, but ignore whether the products actually sell through. This article argues that manufacturers must take responsibility for helping distributors sell products to consumers, and outlines three key steps: planning, implementation, and review."
author: "New Distribution"
publisher: "New Distribution"
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published: "2016-11-25"
language: "en"
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# It's Easy to Fill Up a Distributor's Warehouse, but Being a Responsible Manufacturer Is Not So Simple!

> During the off-season, some manufacturers, instead of launching market activities to boost sales, focus on pressuring distributors to stock up just to improve their data reports. They push distributors to take more inventory, set sales targets, and collect payments, but ignore whether the products actually sell through. This article argues that manufacturers must take responsibility for helping distributors sell products to consumers, and outlines three key steps: planning, implementation, and review.

> Every year at this time, sales are somewhat sluggish. Some manufacturers, instead of organizing market activities to expand sales, find fault with their distributors just to get a good data report! The factory personnel are bent on forcing distributors to stock up, even to the point of not stopping until the distributor's warehouse is packed to the brim!

Nowadays, some company executives and salespeople seem to have reached a dead end in marketing. These companies only know how to push inventory onto distributors, issue sales tasks, and then collect payments, and that's it! Even worse, they bargain with distributors every quarter and month, requiring them to complete monthly tasks in exchange for rebates. Whether the goods sitting in the distributor's warehouse can be sold is the distributor's own problem.

In fact, when goods move from the factory to the distributor's warehouse, sales have just begun. The distributor must then sell the products to secondary wholesalers or retail terminals, and the retail terminals must sell to consumers. Only when consumers repurchase after using the product can sales truly be considered complete from a marketing perspective.

As a manufacturer's marketing personnel, you must consider how to help distributors and retail terminals sell the products. Otherwise, you won't even know if your products are sleeping in the distributor's warehouse. Because distributors carry many brands, where does your product rank in their minds? If your product is in the first position, you're in luck—you might be halfway to success. But if your product is ranked lower, you can only leave it to fate. So, to sell your product well, you must be responsible to your distributors, help plan and strategize how to sell in that region, which areas and channels to target, who to sell to, and how to sell.

Simply filling up the distributor's "belly" is irresponsible. You have the obligation and responsibility to sell your products to consumers.

So, how can you help distributors turn products into sales? I believe you need to do well in at least the following three aspects:

**First, Plan Well**

First, plan the channel strategy for the region. Channel planning means deciding which channels your products will be sold through: KA (key accounts), BC stores, circulation channels, or closed channels? This planning should be done before the product launch; the correct approach is to let the channel choose the product. Product-first-then-channel is a sales logic; channel-first-then-product is a marketing logic. When the channel selects the product, the product's sell-through power is stronger. Otherwise, it becomes hard selling, which is thankless.

Second, plan which products will be sold in the selected channels. Many large manufacturers simply push new products onto distributors without any consideration. They demand that you get the new product into 200 stores within a month, and 300 more in the next two months, regardless of whether they sell. They say, "You just need to get them in; I'll pay the entry fees. The company's goal is to get in first; distribution is the real deal. Display or shelf placement is a hard target; whether they sell is another matter." Distributors are not allowed to say no, and they must enter the stores since the money isn't theirs. Manufacturers have plenty of money, especially listed companies.

Third, plan the price differences. The gross margin for channel partners is very important. As the saying goes, "Rewards attract brave men," "Merchants don't get up early without profit," and "All the hustle and bustle is for profit." What incentives are there for the distributor's sales staff, including promoters?

The last and most important point is how to differentiate your product and push it out. What activities will you run? What support will you provide? Will you use in-store promoters or give rebates to buyers? Will you do buy-one-get-one or special pricing? Will you do in-store or out-of-store events? These are specific details. Only by handling these details can you sell your products out of the distributor's warehouse.

**Second, Implement Personally**

After making the plan, don't just issue orders and let the distributor execute. You must implement the plan yourself to see if it's feasible. Many executives of large companies only point and draw on paper, not understanding how fast the market changes, the actual level of competition, or consumer psychology and purchasing trends.

I once helped a company with marketing planning. After the product and sales plan were ready, the sales staff reported that distributors were unwilling to sell. When asked why, the sales staff couldn't explain. The boss and I went to the market ourselves to hear what the distributors said. They generally said the new product was priced too high. I asked them: "Is it higher than first-tier brands?" They said it was lower. "How much lower?" About 25%. "Higher than whom?" They said it was 10% higher than third-tier brands. Oh, so these distributors had been operating in the circulation channels of third-tier brands, so when they got the new product, they found it more expensive than third-tier brands. Seeing this, I suggested the boss hold regional distributor meetings, and I personally conducted an educational session, focusing on analyzing channel changes, the future of distributors, and their current situation. Then I suggested they try operating in some channels of first-tier brands. After that, some distributors felt enlightened, as if they saw a new world. Once they started, they no longer felt the product was expensive, and their salespeople went to negotiate with stores with confidence. I first selected a distributor who was willing to change, trained and coached his salespeople on-site, went with them to negotiate and enter stores, set up displays, run special offers, and organize activities. After more than a year, this distributor not only gradually moved into another channel but also clearly saw his future path and became better at selecting and promoting new products.

**Third, Review Timely**

Once the product is in the channel, is the plan reasonable? Is the product suitable for sale? Do distributors accept it? What is the shelf placement rate? What is the sell-through rate? What is the popularity rate? Every company needs to analyze and study these issues promptly.

It is necessary to review the feasibility of the plan in a timely manner. Keep daily, weekly, and monthly records of distributor inventory, help distributors sell the stock in their warehouses, and review why distributors are unwilling to stock up and why the goods aren't selling. Review is a summary, a reflection, and an indispensable means for progress. It is also a task that our sales personnel must seriously implement.

So, it's easy to get a girl pregnant, but it's hard to be a responsible man. Similarly, it's easy to fill up a distributor's "belly," but it's truly not simple to be a responsible manufacturer and responsible marketing personnel!

Liang Shengwei (12 years in marketing, 8 years in management, over 6 years of enterprise consulting experience, focusing on the survival and development of weak enterprises.)

-END-

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