---
title: "It's Easy to Inflate a Distributor's \"Belly,\" but Being a Responsible Manufacturer Is No Simple Feat!"
description: "Some manufacturers, lacking know-how in market activities and sales expansion, blame their distributors and force them to stock up just to improve data reports. They only focus on pushing inventory, setting sales targets, and collecting payments, ignoring whether products actually sell through. True responsibility means helping distributors and retail terminals sell products to consumers through proper planning, hands-on implementation, and timely review."
author: "New Distribution"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2018-06-13"
language: "en"
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# It's Easy to Inflate a Distributor's "Belly," but Being a Responsible Manufacturer Is No Simple Feat!

> Some manufacturers, lacking know-how in market activities and sales expansion, blame their distributors and force them to stock up just to improve data reports. They only focus on pushing inventory, setting sales targets, and collecting payments, ignoring whether products actually sell through. True responsibility means helping distributors and retail terminals sell products to consumers through proper planning, hands-on implementation, and timely review.

Some manufacturers, not knowing how to conduct market activities and expand sales, always find faults with their distributors, all for a good data report! The factory personnel are single-mindedly 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, with no way forward. These companies only know how to push inventory onto distributors, issue sales tasks, and then collect payments, and that's it! Even worse, they haggle with distributors every quarter and every month, demanding that distributors complete monthly tasks of a certain amount, in exchange for rebates. Whether the goods sitting in the distributor's warehouse can be sold is the distributor's own business.

In fact, when goods move from the factory to the distributor's warehouse, sales have just begun. The distributor must then resell the products to secondary wholesalers or retail terminals, and retail terminals must sell to consumers. Only when consumers make repeat purchases 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 can be placed in the first position, then 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 products well, you must be responsible for your distributors, helping and planning what strategies to adopt for selling your products in that region, in which areas and channels to sell, to whom, and how.

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

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

**First, Make Good Plans**

First, plan the channel strategy for a given region. Channel planning means deciding which channels your products will be sold through: key accounts (KA), BC stores, circulation channels, or closed channels? This planning should be done before the product is launched; choosing products based on channels is the correct approach. Product-first-then-channel is a sales logic, while channel-first-then-product is a marketing logic. When channels determine the products, the products' sell-through power will be 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 differentials. The gross margin space for channel partners is crucial. As the saying goes, "Under heavy reward, there must be brave men," "Merchants don't get up early without profit," and "The world bustles, all for profit." What incentives are there for the distributor's sales staff, including promotional staff? These incentive plans matter.

The last and most important point is how you 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 direct 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 well can you sell your products out of the distributor's warehouse.

**Second, Implement Personally**

After making the plan, don't just issue orders for distributors to execute. You must personally implement the plan 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 salespeople reported that distributors were unwilling to sell. When asked why, they couldn't explain. The boss and I went to the market ourselves to hear what distributors said. They generally said the new product's price was high. I asked, "Higher than first-tier brands?" They said it was lower than first-tier brands. "How much lower?" "About 25% lower." "Higher than whom?" They said it was 10% higher than third-tier brands. Oh, these distributors had been operating in the circulation channels of third-tier brands, so when they got the new product, they immediately saw it was priced higher than third-tier brands.

Seeing this, I suggested the boss hold regional distributor meetings. I personally conducted "literacy" sessions for distributors, focusing on analyzing channel changes, future outlets for distributors, and their current situation. Then I suggested they start trial operations in certain channels of first-tier brands. After this, some distributors felt enlightened, as if they had seen a new world.

Once operations began, they no longer felt the product price was high, and their salespeople were confident and assured when negotiating entry into stores. I first selected a distributor who was willing to change, and I personally trained and coached his sales staff, went with them to negotiate with stores, entered stores, set up displays, arranged merchandise, ran special prices, and held events. After more than a year of operation, this distributor not only gradually moved the market into another channel but also clarified his future direction and became better at selecting and promoting new products.

**Third, Review Timely**

Once products are in the channel, are the plans reasonable? Are the products suitable for sale? Do distributors approve? What is the shelf placement rate? What is the sell-through rate? What is the fast-selling rate? Every company needs to analyze and study these in a timely manner.

It is necessary to review the feasibility of the plan promptly. Keep daily, weekly, and monthly inventory records for distributors, help them sell off the stock in their warehouses, and review why distributors are unwilling to restock or why 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 diligently fulfill.

So, it's easy to inflate a girl's belly, but it's hard to be a responsible man. Similarly, it's easy to inflate a distributor's "belly," but being a responsible manufacturer and responsible marketing personnel is truly no simple feat!

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