---
title: "Misconceptions and Solutions in Distributor Development and Management"
description: "As market personnel, distributor development and management is a required course, but many salespeople invest heavily in this area yet often stumble. Distributors, as the key link between production and end-users, play a crucial role in market management and maintenance. However, many enterprises are troubled by distributors in local markets. A sales manager from a distillery recently proposed a formula: first-class products + first-class distributors = super first-class market; first-class products + second-class distributors = second-class market; second-class products + first-class distributors = first-class market. At first glance, this formula seems correct, but in practice, it often plays out differently."
author: "方刚"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2014-11-17"
language: "en"
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original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/00ID67xgB0a7C9muqMM-ng"
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# Misconceptions and Solutions in Distributor Development and Management

> As market personnel, distributor development and management is a required course, but many salespeople invest heavily in this area yet often stumble. Distributors, as the key link between production and end-users, play a crucial role in market management and maintenance. However, many enterprises are troubled by distributors in local markets. A sales manager from a distillery recently proposed a formula: first-class products + first-class distributors = super first-class market; first-class products + second-class distributors = second-class market; second-class products + first-class distributors = first-class market. At first glance, this formula seems correct, but in practice, it often plays out differently.

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As market personnel, distributor development and management is a required course, but many salespeople invest heavily in this area yet often stumble. Distributors, as the key link between production and end-users, play a crucial role in market management and maintenance. However, many enterprises are troubled by distributors in local markets. A sales manager from a distillery recently proposed a formula:

First-class products + first-class distributors = super first-class market.
First-class products + second-class distributors = second-class market.
Second-class products + first-class distributors = first-class market.

At first glance, this formula seems correct, but in practice, it often plays out differently.

It should be said that this is a very simple formula, which can be simplified to:

**Products + Distributors = Market**

This formula is a typical representative of traditional channel warfare, and many enterprises have paid a heavy price for it. In this formula, products must pass through the bottleneck of distributors to enter the market, often resulting in distributors' leverage and constraints in the channel. "The customer is God" was a classic slogan popular during the transition from a planned economy to a market economy, and almost every manufacturing enterprise prominently displayed it. However, after 30 years of experience, some enterprises that have suffered greatly have quietly replaced this slogan, along with the slogan "Quality is Life." Many enterprises still in the product manufacturing stage continue to treat this slogan as a bible, unable to do business without distributors, even developing a dependency on them.

The crux of relying solely on distributors to do business is specifically manifested in:

1. Channels are like mountain strongholds. The performance of many enterprises' markets is not determined by themselves but by the strength and cooperation of distributors. In market management, weak liquor enterprises mostly rely on distributors to do business. When the market succeeds, distributors often overshadow the enterprise with their achievements and become overbearing, leaving the enterprise to swallow its anger. A vicious cycle begins. When the master is weak and the minister is strong, internal chaos is inevitable!

2. The strength of the channel determines the strength of the market; conversely, weakness in the channel leads to weakness in the market. Many channel members have grown with weak brands over more than a decade of cooperation. In local markets, distributors often have more say than manufacturers, acting like local emperors or warlords, doing as they please, valuing personal loyalty, and disliking the rules and regulations set by manufacturers as the regular army. These long-standing bad habits will inevitably be out of sync with the manufacturer's development, and over time, the "marital relationship" between the two will develop cracks.

3. When opening a market, seek out big players. Big players are what many enterprises desire, but seeking a big player is like pursuing a "beauty." If the enterprise does not have the confidence of "talent and beauty," but instead proposes marriage with the foundation of a "beggar," the result will be either a slap in the face or a lifetime of servitude, never to rise again.

4. China's commercial landscape has undergone tremendous changes. Previously, the main sales channels were department stores, wholesale markets, and retail stores. Now, the emergence of supermarkets, hypermarkets, hotels, and other terminals has led to the closure of thousands of retail stores. The rise of supermarket hypermarkets has accelerated the transformation of the wholesale industry. In economically developed coastal areas, traditional wholesale markets have gradually disappeared. The dominant position of traditional distributors in circulation has begun to weaken. The "thigh" that enterprises cling to is now not as thick as an arm.

**So, should enterprises really give up on distributors?**

That is impossible. The dispersion of the market and the uncertainty of consumption locations determine that distributors must assume the function of logistics and distribution. Enterprises should fully utilize distributors' small-area distribution capabilities to gradually penetrate the market, but in the market, enterprises should actively participate, cultivate intensively, enhance their own voice in the market, and change the role of distributors from "God" to partners, precisely speaking, a harmonious marital relationship.

**How to maintain this "marital" relationship?**

As enterprises and distributors, the purpose of cooperation is the same: to seek market benefits, just as the result of marriage is children (except for DINK couples). Enterprises can follow the following 16-character principle in specific market management:

**1. Empty their minds (虚其心):** Enterprises must have strong development momentum, enhance distributors' confidence in sustained operation, fully identify with the corporate culture, and form an unbreakable development alliance with the enterprise. Manufacturers must have a complete set of practices or models to help distributors improve their business management levels, thereby earning distributors' loyalty.

**2. Fill their bellies (实其腹):** Benefits are the foundation for maintaining manufacturer-distributor cooperation. Any cooperation that goes against benefits will not last. Distributors can only maintain long-term cooperation if they continuously gain benefits from operating the enterprise's products. When designing the sales model, manufacturers should arrange for the role and benefits of distributors in the execution process (i.e., price and promotion systems), and clearly define their own responsibilities in market promotion. High-quality products plus excellent management and credibility will inevitably stabilize the channel.

**3. Weaken their ambitions (弱其志):** Reduce distributors' competitive intentions, enhance cooperation awareness among distributors, reduce the occurrence of malicious competition, and achieve the enterprise's long-term system. Lower the low-risk nature of distributors' operations.

**4. Strengthen their bones (强其骨):** Enhance distributors' internal management capabilities. To a certain extent, the improvement of distributors' management capabilities represents the level of enterprise management. Enterprises must have mature management models to help distributors improve their operational levels, thereby gradually making distributors dependent on and loyal to the enterprise. Appreciation and mutual dependence are the highest realm for both parties. Appreciation is not because the other is perfect, but because both are pursuing excellence.

When enterprises develop markets, they should not attempt to stage the legend of "a beggar pursuing a beauty," otherwise, it will become a joke. The standard for marriage is "suitability," and only you know whether it is suitable.

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