--- title: "The Art of Borrowing People for Distributors" description: "Case study: Xue, a 32-year-old distributor in a city in Jiangsu, has been in agricultural materials distribution for over three years. Starting as a mom-and-pop shop, he gradually grew to a small scale with two drivers and three sales staff, and recently obtained the distribution rights for a well-known brand, aiming to transform into a formal operation and pursue growth. Besides financial pressure and market expansion challenges, Xue faces a shortage of personnel due to high turnover. He then thought of leveraging the manufacturer's human resources..." author: "New Distribution" publisher: "New Distribution" email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com" telephone: "+8615854817671" published: "2015-09-01" language: "en" canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/the-art-of-borrowing-people-for-distributors-07f81b72/" markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/the-art-of-borrowing-people-for-distributors-07f81b72.md" original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/5aM80dDjyRkA93IkFPR_Xg" translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E7%BB%8F%E9%94%80%E5%95%86%E7%9A%84%E5%80%9F-%E4%BA%BA-%E4%B9%8B%E6%9C%AF-07f81b72.md" attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/the-art-of-borrowing-people-for-distributors-07f81b72/" usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt" --- # The Art of Borrowing People for Distributors > Case study: Xue, a 32-year-old distributor in a city in Jiangsu, has been in agricultural materials distribution for over three years. Starting as a mom-and-pop shop, he gradually grew to a small scale with two drivers and three sales staff, and recently obtained the distribution rights for a well-known brand, aiming to transform into a formal operation and pursue growth. Besides financial pressure and market expansion challenges, Xue faces a shortage of personnel due to high turnover. He then thought of leveraging the manufacturer's human resources... Case: Xue, a 32-year-old distributor in a city in Jiangsu, has been in agricultural materials distribution for over three years. Starting as a mom-and-pop shop, he gradually grew to a small scale with two drivers and three sales staff, and recently obtained the distribution rights for a well-known brand, aiming to transform into a formal operation and pursue growth. Currently, besides financial pressure and market expansion difficulties, Xue faces a shortage of personnel. Recruited staff have high turnover due to salary and other reasons. Later, Xue thought of utilizing the manufacturer's human resources for his own benefit, which could save costs and improve efficiency. However, manufacturers invest based on results, so Xue took a series of measures to build good relationships with all levels of the manufacturer, demonstrating his excellent distribution practices in many aspects, winning the manufacturer's trust and support. In just two years, he achieved a remarkable transformation: doubling channel network points, increasing staff by over 10 people, sales growth of 60%, and profit growth of 20%. At a favorable time for development, Xue used his wisdom and hard work, coupled with the manufacturer's personnel support, to successfully upgrade his company and channels. Small and medium-sized distributors face weak strength and relatively weak brand pull, resulting in incomplete channels and mismatched resources in people, vehicles, and finances. At this time, we should learn from Xue in the case: besides conventional marketing innovation and market development, we must learn to "borrow people" from manufacturers. How to borrow people more easily Manufacturers providing personnel support to distributors is a significant matter. First, manufacturer personnel are generally of higher quality; second, they quickly develop a sense of belonging, with lower turnover rates. Sales staff also have a certain satisfaction from being manufacturer employees, which boosts work enthusiasm. Distributors can boldly request personnel support from manufacturers. If the manufacturer already provides support, they can ask for additional support. This can quickly increase staff and share part of the distributor's personnel costs. Normally, the manufacturer covers the basic salary, and the distributor pays commissions. Of course, many manufacturers will exchange support for task volumes, channel construction, and other requirements. Some manufacturers have limited resources, making "borrowing people" quite difficult. There are also manufacturer regulations such as: what level of market can receive personnel support, what annual sales volume qualifies for personnel support, etc. For markets that do not meet the manufacturer's support standards, distributors can try the following: 1. Use market performance as leverage, proving continuous efforts and good results. Manufacturers not only look at sales performance but also value market construction and performance. The author once saw a distributor make a report to the manufacturer using PPT, mainly listing this year's network point growth of 50%; sample store increase of 30%; sales increase of 20%; new product sales increase of 30%, etc.; if the manufacturer gives such support, I expect next year's growth to be at such a level; I will make these adjustments and actions, and the report included detailed data and photos, with pictures and truth, and phone numbers for verification. Many manufacturers, seeing such customers who do meticulous market operations, value their brand attention and good cooperation, and generally give additional support. 2. Seize the favorable opportunity when manufacturer headquarters personnel inspect the market. Sometimes, due to limited authority of the business manager or regional manager responsible for the area, some personnel requests cannot be approved. Distributors should seize the favorable opportunity when mid-to-high-level management from the manufacturer's headquarters visit distributors and inspect the market. Take these leaders to see the better-performing market areas and stores, especially places with highlights, which is more effective. Because these leaders prefer to see markets with characteristics, highlights, and innovation. Actively inviting them to see the market with some on-site highlights makes it relatively easier to request personnel support. Manufacturers need market innovation models. Even if your market is not the largest in sales, if your market has some innovations worth learning and promoting, that is also feasible. 3. Handle relationships with personnel at all levels of the manufacturer and establish a good cooperation reputation. Distributor bosses should maintain respect and effective communication with manufacturer grassroots personnel. When problems arise during cooperation, try to communicate with the primary responsible person to eliminate misunderstandings and conflicts, and avoid skipping levels in communication or complaints. Establish good hierarchical cooperation so that manufacturer personnel will be diligent and responsible, and upstream enterprises can promptly learn about various market information from distributors, making support and development smoother. How to use borrowed people? Borrowed people are essentially dedicated personnel serving the specific brand you distribute. First, as terminal sales representatives supported by the manufacturer, they carry dual management functions. Distributor bosses must not be overbearing and forget that these people also belong to the manufacturer. Do not take all management authority into your own hands. In daily communication with manufacturer managers, maintain a mindset of respecting manufacturer leaders and thanking them for support to build good cooperative relationships, because good cooperation and personnel management are also a form of accountability to the manufacturer. Additionally, manage jointly with manufacturer personnel, truthfully report the employee's sales data and task completion, progress and shortcomings in work, and cultivate such personnel into the backbone of your sales team, thereby realizing their value. The author often encounters large enterprises assigning a full-time salesperson to a distributor for a county to run orders for the distributor. However, these manufacturer salespeople often cannot resist the temptation of the distributor's multi-brand operations and assist the distributor in selling and transporting other brand products, becoming almost a full-fledged distributor employee. Obviously, such manufacturer full-time salespeople do not devote most of their energy to selling their own products. When the manufacturer discovers this, for serious cases, they may replace the person, dismiss them, or even cancel personnel support for the distributor. Therefore, distributor bosses must know when to stop during the borrowing phase and not completely treat borrowed people as their own. Unequal cooperation between manufacturers and distributors can cause many hidden dangers. When small and medium-sized enterprises urgently need manufacturer resource support for development, integrity is the key. The art of "borrowing people" during the development stage can act as a catalyst for struggling distributors, helping them move faster. **Editor's PS:** The editor has selected 1,067 featured articles from nearly 1,900 published on this official account, categorized into 14 major categories and 57 knowledge points, systematically organizing frontline marketing management content into a library for everyone's learning. From market to customers, covering practical combat and management, all are valuable. Follow the official account and reply with the number "1" to browse and view related content. --- ## Copyright and AI use This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL. Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671