---
title: "Seven Suggestions for Small and Medium Distributors to Improve Their Business Level"
description: "Many small and medium distributors work on the front lines year-round, like mountain-bandit-style warriors, capable of everything from delivery to negotiation. To elevate their business level, they must focus on team management, internal processes, and performance assessment, rather than just seizing opportunities."
author: "方刚"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2016-04-23"
language: "en"
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---

# Seven Suggestions for Small and Medium Distributors to Improve Their Business Level

> Many small and medium distributors work on the front lines year-round, like mountain-bandit-style warriors, capable of everything from delivery to negotiation. To elevate their business level, they must focus on team management, internal processes, and performance assessment, rather than just seizing opportunities.

We can see that most distributors work on the front lines all year round, somewhat like mountain-bandit-style "warriors." Many small and medium distributors are versatile: delivering goods, collecting payments, negotiating, dispatching, unloading... they can do everything, one person equaling N, and they are models of fearing neither hardship nor fatigue. Even if a manufacturer sends a truckload of over ten tons of goods, a husband-and-wife team can unload it all in one go and then go out to deliver. Moreover, too many distributors seem stuck in a "money hole": when the business is small, they can't afford to hire people, so they do it themselves. When the business grows, they are reluctant to hire, and even if they do, they only like "machine-type" salespeople who work without eating. The consequence is that they hire but can't retain. How small and medium distributors improve their business level depends not only on their opportunities and environment but also on their "wisdom" in managing their sales team.
**Vehicle Sales Visits**
The basic operational unit of distributors is mostly the 1+2 model, that is, one vehicle and two people: one driver and one salesperson. This is the standard vehicle sales model. What is the visit model? It's the 1+1 model: the salesperson rides a bike to visit terminal outlets individually to take orders, while the driver delivers goods by truck according to orders. The vehicle sales model has the advantage of simple management and immediate transactions; its drawbacks are that salespeople visit large stores (those with good turnover) but skip small stores (those with poor turnover), often missing stores or jumping around, casting a wide net but reaping little, with low efficiency and high costs. The visit model's advantages are development by area, meticulous operation, pervasive visits, and precise delivery with low costs. Its drawbacks are that managing the sales team is difficult, the cat-and-mouse game is played daily, and once the team slackens, order output drops, leading to management problems.
**Business Process**
The so-called business process refers to the distributor's internal management process, from warehousing and shipping, to delivery and payment collection, to financial management. Many small and medium distributors operate on a boss + boss's wife model, or boss + boss's wife + boss's wife's mother (mother-in-law or relatives). Some bosses are "Monkey King" types, capable of anything: warehouse management, finance, delivery, negotiation, even loading and unloading themselves. Such distributors mostly exhibit characteristics of the early entrepreneurial stage, often resulting in exhaustion, and even if they earn hard-earned money, it's like "meat rotting in the pot"—they only know they made or lost money, but not where the profit or loss came from.
**Salary Structure**
The vast majority of distributor salespeople are paid on a base salary plus commission basis. As long as attendance is sufficient, the base salary is guaranteed. The key lies in the commission part. Many distributors calculate commission based on turnover: turnover × commission rate = salary. In the early stages of this model, if the rate is set appropriately and salespeople can see and actually receive the commission, it benefits sales promotion. However, over time, distributors will find that salespeople only sell old bestsellers and ignore new or non-best-selling products. Worse, to achieve turnover targets, they may manipulate price promotions or even payment collection.
For distributors, it is essential to elevate the performance assessment model to a management level. Assessment is the "command flag" in the distributor's hands; where the flag points, the salespeople attack. It's normal for salespeople to have a "policies from above, countermeasures from below" mentality, but distributors must be "the priest is a match for the devil." For example, after discovering that the base salary + commission model is ineffective, distributors can introduce a category-specific target assessment method, or combine it with new products by adopting "special project" commissions, setting a commission rate per box of new product sold, and changing monthly commissions to same-day settlement. Continuously fine-tune assessment indicators so that while salespeople keep their eyes on commission, the distributor's operational focus is elevated with the changes in indicators.
**Territory Division**
In the early stages, distributor management is mostly "bandit-style": on the mountain, the distributor waves his hand and says, "Brothers, outside the mountain are fine wine and treasure, go!" Then a group of salespeople scatter, fighting and eating meat and drinking soup! They don't distinguish between east and west of the city, and after completing distribution, they fight among themselves: you took my job, I fought for your territory. Several vehicles fly around, and the money earned isn't enough for gas. After adopting territory division management, not only are the above troubles solved, but the key is that the distributor can let his subordinates show their talents, discover and remedy local market problems in time, and master resource allocation within the sales team.
**Assessment Results**
At the end of the month, the distributor pays his subordinates and asks, "Zhang San, how much did you get?" Zhang San: "1,860 yuan." Ask: "Do you know how this salary came about?" Zhang San: "I don't know!" This is the problem of a chaotic financial system. If the distributor company can also establish a transparent financial system and processes, this problem can be solved, allowing employees to be clear, stable, and fully focused on their work. For example, Zhang San might answer: "This month, my base salary is 900 yuan, plus sales commission of 360 yuan, and for selling 2,000 boxes of new product X beverage, a commission of 700 yuan, minus a 100 yuan penalty for exceeding the fuel quota." This is the ideal state.
**Commission Orientation**
When the sales team is immature, commission-based management is a common tool. Once the distributor's management matures, they mostly adopt a "contract system," where the vehicle and market are contracted to subordinates, and the distributor just sits in the warehouse, only responsible for contacting the manufacturer. Under the commission model, small and medium distributors, due to overly simple management systems, are lucky to have a simple ledger, and face difficulties in data aggregation and information transmission. Commission rates are mostly set by experience. Assessment models often remain unchanged for years, resulting in a situation where working more or less makes no difference. Salespeople appear diligent in the warehouse, but once out, they play hide-and-seek, even using the vehicle for personal errands, sneaking off to internet cafes, or gathering for mahjong, while the distributor is kept in the dark, sitting at home listening to salespeople complain: "The market is tough, harder than climbing to the sky!"
The main reason for this phenomenon is the distributor's "big pot" assessment mechanism. The base salary accounts for more than half of the salesperson's income, and commissions on bestsellers account for the other half. Everyone is harmonious, and salaries are similar. With the guarantee of old bestsellers, everyone can earn about the same with their eyes closed, without much worry or effort!
The distributor's initial commission model: base salary + turnover commission; intermediate model: base salary + category commission + new product special project; advanced model: turnover commission + category commission + performance improvement commission. For example, the distributor can set up an annual performance growth commission, adding a 1,000 yuan bonus to reward the top few salespeople with the fastest annual growth, or reward those with the fastest month-over-month improvement. As long as methods are diverse, rewards are in place, salespeople's enthusiasm is mobilized, reward standards are clear, and assessments are daily, everyone will have the desire to improve, and the team will be a "howling" sales team.
**Driver and Salesperson Salary Composition**
In the distributor's 1+2 business model, the driver and salesperson form a combat unit, more like two grasshoppers tied to the same rope. Without coordinated action, efficiency is low and internal friction is constant. When setting assessment indicators, the distributor must consider the integrity of this combat unit, clarify the superior-subordinate relationship between the two, and link the driver's salary to the salesperson's salary—that is, the driver's salary level depends on the salesperson's salary amount.
For distributor salespeople, even if the boss grabs their ears every morning and shouts, "Sell goods well!" they will turn a deaf ear once out the door. Because distributor salespeople are unwilling to do what is "hoped for"; they only do what is assessed. Only assessment determines their income. Therefore, distributors must work hard on the internal assessment system, perfect it, and strive to enhance market competitiveness through improved internal management.
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