Distributors are the sales force of brand owners. Brand owners want distributors to conquer markets, secure shelf space in small stores, and push out competitors. They also want distributors to promote new products, maintain pricing, and execute promotional strategies. No matter how powerful a brand owner is, they need their own sales team and distribution channels. A self-controlled distribution network is the lifeline of the brand.

To achieve self-control, an efficient Distributor Management System (DMS) is essential. However, many brand owners find it difficult to get distributors to use their DMS. The problem is that many DMSs only meet the brand's management needs, not the distributor's own needs. It's like parents managing children: parents want kids to do homework and study hard, but kids won't buy it because they have their own desires, like playing games or other entertainment after school.

What do distributors want? Simply put: manage goods (assets), manage money (business), and manage people (efficiency).

So how to choose a suitable DMS product?

1. Help brand owners manage distributors and control the distribution network.

  • Control product prices and set promotional strategies to boost online sales. Different levels and regions of distributors determine different product prices and promotional strategies. For example, buy 10 boxes of braised beef noodles and get 1 box free; for sauerkraut beef noodles, spend 10,000 yuan and get 1 box of tonkotsu ramen, spend 20,000 yuan and get 3 boxes, or offer a 10% rebate for orders over 20,000 yuan. This requires the DMS to have flexible product control and price/promotion strategy settings.

  • Capture terminal order data to control the terminal. The distributor's biggest role is selling to stores. How much is sold to each store, which SKUs, store purchase volumes, and promotional strategies are all crucial. As a manufacturer, you definitely want to know. For example, you can one-click capture store order and delivery data to the manufacturer side, ensuring good insight into terminal data. Of course, orders for non-this-manufacturer products will not be captured; the system automatically distinguishes them.

  • Manage distributor sales reps' behavior, like an arm directing a finger. Many distributor sales reps are partly paid by the manufacturer, but whether they are working on the manufacturer's brand and doing their job properly is a headache. Manufacturers want the DMS to directly obtain from the distributor's system the daily visit records, visit times, on-site photos of stores, and paid display checks. This makes the money spent visible and more effective!

2. Empower distributors to improve their self-management.

Empowering distributors does not mean forcing a system that only meets the manufacturer's expectations, like only handling Coca-Cola products. What if the distributor also sells P&G products? Should they use another similar system? If so, distributors will never use the manufacturer's system as their primary system, and data authenticity will be low. In the end, they just fill in data to appease the manufacturer. So how to empower distributors?

  • Support multi-brand product management and provide an independent business management system. The system provided to distributors should first help them manage the sales process and business operations, and it must support multi-brand product management. Besides helping distributors manage people, money, and goods, the manufacturer can send promotional policies to distributors, allow them to check and verify promotions, claim expenses from the manufacturer, and enable terminal stores to place B2B orders directly with the distributor. This way, distributors and brand owners are both connected and relatively independent.

  • Help distributors analyze business data to improve business levels. The essence of brand empowerment is to help distributors with business data analysis, covering customers, products, sales, inventory, and prices. Also help with daily data analysis, including attendance, visits, joint visits, and checks. Through business and daily data analysis, truly empower distributors by providing a usable system, ultimately improving business levels.

A good DMS not only enables brand owners to manage distributors but also empowers them to improve their own management. Once such a system is built, the brand owner establishes a self-controlled distribution management system and network, like having a smart army that can strike wherever directed—whether a city, a product, or a small store. With such a distribution system, brand owners can face any market change or competition!

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