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Introduction: Marketing supervisors often need to establish contact with key distributors and communicate with them at appropriate times. However, distributors are normally supposed to be visited by sales representatives. What should supervisors pay attention to when communicating with them? How can supervisors control most of the market by managing the 20% key distributors? Key distributors have a different mindset compared to regular ones, and supervisors may feel cautious and hesitant when dealing with them. Therefore, before interacting with them, supervisors must make thorough mental and material preparations.
These mental preparations include:
The distributor sees that a "boss" has come, which is a good opportunity to negotiate for better policies. They may have prepared a "Hongmen Banquet" for you. You should be mentally prepared that this meeting may not be a practical market communication session but could turn into a "talkfest" where the distributor vents grievances and you only respond. You must have countermeasures ready, such as listening more and speaking less, and preparing answers to potentially tricky questions. Undoubtedly, when the distributor sees the supervisor coming, they will not let you off easily!
After finding ways to deal with the distributor (of course, if the distributor is not as scary as described above, it's better to travel light), you should think about the purpose of your visit. Is it for the second-year plan before the end of the year, or to check market and distributor reactions after each promotion, or to discuss a specific issue like cross-regional selling, price undercutting, or product quality problems, or is it just a routine visit during the salesperson's execution? If the supervisor goes to a key distributor with nothing to do, the distributor may doubt the quality of employees in your company!
Prepare in advance to discuss and communicate market issues with the distributor in at least one aspect, reflecting the principle of manufacturers and distributors jointly strategizing for the market. This should be somewhat forward-looking, as it is highly beneficial for the supervisor to return to the office and use the insights for future sales decisions. For example, if the company is about to implement market reforms, you could discuss competitors' or other product manufacturers' experiences with the distributor without them noticing, thereby learning from them without prematurely leaking secrets.
Consider the extent of policy approval authority within your own power, so that you can make reasonable and responsible commitments at the time.
If it is a particularly large distributor, you need to be very cautious when visiting. You may communicate with your immediate supervisor in advance to hear their views and opinions on the distributor. If possible, discuss a possible policy support limit with your supervisor beforehand, so that you can engage in a possible policy "tug-of-war" with the distributor.
Decide in advance whether to visit with the salesperson or go alone. Generally, it is best to have the salesperson accompany you; try not to isolate the salesperson and communicate with the distributor alone.
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After these mental preparations, you need to make material preparations. All material preparations are to provide more sufficient support for the visit. These material preparations mainly include:
- Extract key sales information from the company's sales information management system. Distributors may easily tell the supervisor things that are not the actual situation to gain more understanding and support. But if the facts are not as they say, the company will suffer losses. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to understand their region, product variety, pricing, second-tier wholesalers, terminal conditions, and cross-regional sales reports.
Sometimes, it is also necessary to compare with the company's targets for them and other distributors. If you can obtain the sales situation of other products they sell, that would be even better, as it can reveal their investment intensity in your company's products and potential problems.
- Understand their personal and basic business situation, even their finance, warehousing, sales, and distribution, to the point of knowing them like the back of your hand. Of course, it is better to get a comprehensive understanding from complete customer profile cards and the salesperson's descriptions.
If the distributor does not exclusively sell one company's products, when the supervisor visits and communicates, they will basically talk about other companies' investments and the difficulty of managing multiple products. At this time, the supervisor needs to understand more about the internal situation of these key distributors. If you don't understand enough, the distributor may use other companies' investment support, insufficient warehousing, or distribution capabilities to pressure you, putting you in a very passive position.
- Understand the accounts receivable and special support from the company. This is a special issue. Many key distributors have received special support approved by company leaders, sometimes involving issues from previous leaders or supervisors. Therefore, when visiting a distributor, the supervisor must understand their special relationship with the company, special payment terms, and the extent and content of special support.
Sometimes, it is necessary for the supervisor to collect all financial statements between the distributor and the company, understand the patterns, and be more effective in pursuing payments from such distributors. Sometimes, it is also necessary to study these special supports and find a better and more beneficial method for the company.
With the above material and mental preparations, the supervisor will feel more confident and have more confidence to discuss difficult issues with the distributor. However, when visiting key distributors, there is always a preparation to meet the distributor's needs. Therefore, it is necessary to fully understand and explore the distributor's needs. These needs include policy, market, payment, sales profit, and so on. Of course, if the supervisor is capable and can learn in advance about the distributor's requirements and prepare to meet them, it will undoubtedly smooth the communication. For example, if the distributor has financial difficulties and often needs credit, you can find out their capital operation patterns and arrange purchases in a reasonable and orderly manner; if the distributor has no time to participate in the company's travel rewards, but the supervisor finds that the distributor lacks a delivery vehicle, you can negotiate with the leader to help fill this important resource with an equivalent amount, etc.
The above is about the things before visiting the distributor. Of course, with these careful preparations, communication with these key distributors should not be a big problem.
However, after arriving at the distributor's place, there are still some issues to pay attention to for smoother communication.
- Clearly state your position: yes or no. Let the distributor clearly feel that your decision is not wavering and that you are not trying to muddle through.
Many times, if the supervisor is vague and indecisive, it will give the key distributor an excuse to communicate with your superior, making future communication between you and the key distributor very difficult. Be careful not to block the path of seamless communication yourself. Because if you are clear in your position, even if the key distributor is dissatisfied and complains to your superior, at most they will find another solution. The boss will not think that your communication with the distributor is a big problem, and you may still keep your position.
Learn some methods to handle objections and problems, such as using the excuse of going to the bathroom, brief silence, appropriately changing the topic, giving appropriate praise, finding their interests and letting them change the topic themselves, and so on. Of course, more often, we should use our thoughts, concepts, and market operation level to inspire the distributor, thereby handling objections and problems well.
Protect the salesperson
At this time, if the key distributor ignores the salesperson, you should pay attention to protecting the salesperson; if you only focus on communicating with the distributor and neglect the salesperson, that is even worse.
The salesperson is still the daily contact person for the distributor, and all communication with the distributor is handled by the salesperson. If the supervisor, due to one visit, excludes the salesperson from such communication, it will be an unforgivable mistake.
- After reaching an agreement, express appreciation and thanks to the distributor
"Always be grateful and sincere to others." When reaching an agreement or a new intention of cooperation with the distributor, you should, together with the salesperson, thank the distributor for their support and understanding. Only in this way will the distributor welcome you more next time. At the same time, distributors are used to the bullying style of some large enterprises. If you behave like this, the distributor will definitely remember you and may even treat you as a friend!
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