---
title: "What Can You Offer to Distributors?"
description: "Distributors often complain, but behind their complaints there may be reasonable expectations. As a salesperson, you need to understand their true needs, distinguish truth from falsehood, and address them accordingly. This article outlines what distributors want and provides practical advice on what to offer to both old and new distributors."
author: "New Distribution"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2014-11-09"
language: "en"
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# What Can You Offer to Distributors?

> Distributors often complain, but behind their complaints there may be reasonable expectations. As a salesperson, you need to understand their true needs, distinguish truth from falsehood, and address them accordingly. This article outlines what distributors want and provides practical advice on what to offer to both old and new distributors.

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Distributors make one demand after another, and they are never satisfied. Behind their complaints, there may be a reasonable side. As a salesperson, you need to understand their true thoughts, separate truth from falsehood, and apply the right remedy for each case.

**What Do Distributors Want?**

Although many distributors earned their first pot of gold and expanded their local markets precisely because they distributed a certain manufacturer's products, few distributors feel grateful to the manufacturer. Instead, they often complain that the manufacturer has let them down. What do distributors really want? The author was once invited to provide consulting for a professional outsourcing company and found that distributors' expectations of manufacturers are comprehensive, which can be summarized into six aspects:

1. Strong brand and strong strength;
2. Rich product variety and guaranteed quality;
3. Price advantage and high profits;
4. Low investment and low risk;
5. Proven success model that can be replicated;
6. Comprehensive service and smooth terminal sales.

In business, pursuing maximum profit and minimum risk is probably the relentless pursuit of all businessmen. "The squeaky wheel gets the grease." As a manufacturer's salesperson, how should you handle various complaints differently?

**What Can You Offer to Old Distributors?**

For old distributors, before each visit, you should take stock of what this distributor might ask from you. In other words, visiting a client is like visiting relatives; you should think about what gifts you can bring before you go. If you come empty-handed, acting like an imperial envoy from the manufacturer, it is normal to be complained about.

What can you bring? Taking the durable consumer goods industry as an example, here is a checklist: (1) increased rebates; (2) larger territory; (3) advertising support; (4) providing demonstration units; (5) making display counters; (6) distributing gifts; (7) warehouse subsidies; (8) price adjustment compensation; (9) interest compensation for cash payments; (10) returns and exchanges; (11) expense settlement; (12) credit-based distribution; (13) senior management visits; (14) personal incentives; (15) bonuses and prizes; (16) salesperson training; (17) promotional plans; (18) deep distribution; (19) resolving legacy issues; (20) strategic alliances.

Although this list is not everything a distributor might ask for, it can help you address urgent complaints. As for how you "repackage" these offerings when meeting the distributor, that is up to you. You can say that you went through great hardships, spoke at length, and finally moved the company leaders to secure these hard-won "policies" for them. Of course, the premise is that the company actually has corresponding "policies," or the leaders have indeed approved "policies" for the distributor. Otherwise, if you make empty promises to distributors just to meet sales targets, you will end up in trouble.

**What Can You Offer to New Clients?**

When visiting new clients, you need different approaches for different new clients. Generally, because distributors have different experiences, backgrounds, and business styles, their focus when choosing a manufacturer also varies. We can categorize distributors into four types based on their focus: brand-oriented, product-oriented, price-oriented, and promotion-oriented.

Brand-oriented clients care about whether the goods can enter the market, whether they can sell, and how long they can sell. For brand-oriented clients, you should emphasize your brand, talk about how great your brand is, and win them over with brand benefits.

Product-oriented clients care about whether the product looks good, has many functions, and is of good quality. For product-oriented clients, you should tell them how great your product is and win them over with product performance advantages.

Price-oriented clients care about whether the price is high and whether the profit margin is large. If you encounter a price-oriented client complaining about your high prices, you can tell them the benefits of selling high-priced products (such as more variety, more new models, more advertising, more support) and the harms of selling low-priced products (such as slower earnings, lower profits, shorter-term gains, and more tiring work).

Promotion-oriented clients care about whether there are many activities, many display counters, and whether sales promoters are provided. In fact, not many clients focus on manufacturer promotions. If a distributor focuses on promotions, it indicates a quality client with a promotional mindset. If the manufacturer or the salesperson's own strength is also in promotions, there is a high chance of a perfect match. If your trump card for developing clients is promotions, but the distributor you meet does not like doing promotions, you can try to persuade them like this: "Whether a product can be operated depends on whether there are promotions. If the price is high and the promotional intensity is strong, the product can be done; if the price is low and the promotional intensity is strong, it is easy to do; if the price is high but promotions are few, then it cannot be done; if the price is low and promotions are few, you need to be careful, as such products usually do not last long."

Experience tells us that developing new clients is more difficult than revisiting old clients, so visiting new clients requires more preparation. Old clients want "policies," so give them good policies; new clients want "advantages," so highlight your advantages.

According to the size of the distributor, generally speaking, small distributors want a "consultant," while large distributors want a "nanny." To handle distributor complaints well, salespeople still need some basic skills. Practice has shown that new salespeople who want to stand out in the team and win the respect and cooperation of distributors must have a specialty, such as deep distribution, promotional promotion, or salesperson training. Forcing inventory is inevitable, and distributors have gradually become accustomed to manufacturers forcing inventory. They are not afraid of forced inventory; they are afraid that you only know how to force inventory. What they care about is how you help them digest the inventory after forcing it, so they can smoothly sell the products.

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