Why didn't the market take off even after recruiting a big distributor? Excellent large distributors are strategic resources in regional markets, a fact that is obvious. Being recognized by a major distributor in a region proves that the brand and its products have potential to some extent. Therefore, every company in its rapid growth phase has a stage similar to "big recruitment, recruit big distributors." If "recruiting big distributors" ultimately succeeds, the fate of the company and even the category can be rewritten. Of course, not only that, the rise of an excellent company often changes the fate of distributors, creating a batch of future big distributors. It can be said that "recruiting big distributors" is almost an inevitable stage for every growth-oriented company on its way to becoming a category champion, but only a few achieve ultimate success. Brands not selected by big distributors obviously failed to impress them in terms of brand, product, marketing, policies, etc., so discussing them is of little significance. What deserves attention is that some brands successfully cooperate with many big distributors, yet the market ultimately fails to develop. Being selected by many big distributors proves that the brand and product already have certain potential. In a regional market, a decent brand and product, cooperating with the best big distributor in that region, yet failing—where is the problem? For a growth-oriented company, cooperating with a big distributor is rare, and the opportunity cost for a regional big distributor to choose a brand is also significant. This article does not discuss how to recruit big distributors, but only explores the topic of "after recruiting big distributors, how to work with them to do well in the market." Can Change the Market The "bigness" of a big distributor is meaningful only to the brand Big distributors are strategic resources in regional markets, but if not used well, it is a huge waste of resources and greatly damages the brand's reputation in the channel. "Recruiting big distributors" is not the goal; successfully cooperating with big distributors to jointly change the brand's pattern and fate in the regional market is the goal. But many brands do not understand this, often treating the number of successful contracts signed with big distributors as the most important goal. This is putting the cart before the horse. If a billion-level big distributor does not value you, does not invest in you, and cannot bring fundamental changes to your regional market, what meaning does its "bigness" and "strength" have for you? None. If a brand regards "signing and paying" with a big distributor as an important sign of successful cooperation, it plants the seeds of failure. Because such cooperation is unclear, and the cooperation between the two parties may even be unequal. Does signing and paying prove that the big distributor values you? Is it possible that the big distributor is just occupying a slot? After all, the cooperation terms are negotiated well, and there is no risk. If it is originally a marginal market, and both the manufacturer and distributor have no expectations, such a laissez-faire cooperation is fine—ride the horse and wait for the wind. If this region is one that the manufacturer values, but the big distributor does not, then the fate of this market is predictable. How to Tell if a Big Distributor Truly Values You If a big distributor does not truly value your brand, it is impossible to do well. Then what does the "bigness" of the big distributor have to do with you? It would be better to find a small distributor with weaker strength but willing to go all out. How to judge whether a big distributor truly values your brand? Valuing is not verbal, nor is it patting the chest to promise how much investment or high sales targets, but whether the big distributor has made corresponding adjustments in its company organization and mechanisms for your brand, to ensure that all its promises are not empty. A certain mid-to-high-end liquor brand A cooperated with a well-known big distributor in Zhejiang. The big distributor's boss talked well with the distillery's general manager, smoothly signed and paid, but after half a year of launch, progress was very poor, and the expected main goals were not achieved. Upon careful analysis, although the big distributor's boss valued A and held several meetings to arrange work, he did not set up a corresponding person in charge and contact person for Brand A. Brand A's business was merged into other liquor business and sold incidentally. This situation led to the manager of Brand A finding it difficult to even identify a specific contact for business communication, and it was impossible to go to the big distributor's boss for every small matter. The market was thus delayed day by day. Therefore, in the suggestions for Brand A, the author proposed several basic requirements for the big distributor: First, the big distributor's company must have a management person at a sufficiently high level responsible for Brand A. This responsibility is not empty talk; this manager's KPI and bonus must be deeply tied to the development of Brand A. This person in charge should be of sufficiently high level and have enough influence to mobilize internal resources and drive the team. Second, for distribution and sales actions, when the scale is small, they can be merged into the existing sales team to reduce costs, but there must be a dedicated brand manager for Brand A. This brand manager, under the leadership of the person in charge, undertakes all business communication between the manufacturer and distributor, promotes the implementation of actions, and tracks progress. A company deputy general manager plus a brand manager is the basic team configuration requirement for a brand to successfully cooperate with a big distributor. If a big distributor company is unwilling to set up even these two people in its organization, do not believe whatever it says, no matter how eloquent. Do not think this is a ridiculous thing; the author found in market visits that this is a relatively common fact among small and medium-sized enterprises cooperating with big distributors. Cooperating with Big Distributors Brand Business Managers Must Not Be Hands-Off Having discussed big distributors, let's talk about the most common problems and solutions on the brand side in cooperation with big distributors. The first thing to clarify is that cooperation with big distributors must be based on the big distributor as the main body to operate the market, otherwise the big distributor model loses its meaning; but this does not mean that the brand's business manager becomes a hands-off boss, only responsible for collecting payments and placing orders. Many enterprises cooperating with big distributors, especially in categories like liquor, often have business managers focusing their work on the boss and senior management. Building good relationships with the big distributor's boss and senior management is certainly important, but it is not the most critical work. What distributor bosses and senior management value most is not relationships, but business and performance. The most critical work of a business manager is not to please the boss, but to find ways to help the distributor achieve performance for your brand. How to achieve it? The boss and leaders are not the most important; the big distributor's business team is the most important. A big distributor has many resources in the regional market. The boss often holds the best part of those resources, but definitely not the most. The most resources of a trading company are dispersed in the hands of each salesperson. A salesperson means he can influence more than 100 terminal owners. Therefore, whether a brand sells well in a big distributor's business team depends not on the boss, but on whether the business team supports it and likes to sell it. In the early stage of brand introduction into the big distributor's company, this issue is especially prominent and acute. From human nature, the product characteristics that salespeople are willing to sell more are: easy to sell, like to sell, and high commission. In the brand introduction period, among the three characteristics, "easy to sell" is naturally out of the question; "high commission" should be there, so the biggest and most critical variable lies in "like to sell." A big distributor has many resources, but if they are not tilted towards you, they have nothing to do with you. Salespeople naturally sell what is easy to sell and easy to complete tasks, which is not possible in the early stage. Therefore, at this stage, the most core and critical work of the brand's business manager is not to accompany the big distributor's boss, but to integrate into the big distributor's business team and gain their acceptance and high recognition. The business manager should go with the big distributor's business team to do market development and sampling, together tackle the most difficult customers, do the most basic market work together, face challenges together, and celebrate every progress with big bowls of wine. Another side of human nature is love for the house and its crow; because they accept the behavior, style, and character of the business manager, they will like the brand and company behind this person. Every distributor salesperson who identifies with you is willing to allocate a bit more resources to your brand product, and the market changes. With sales volume and market changes, this is the way for both manufacturer and distributor to win. Drinking with the boss every day while performance is terrible will not last long; if performance is good, even without drinking with the boss, the cooperation will definitely continue. At a certain stage, "big recruitment, recruit big distributors" is definitely an important strategic measure for growth-oriented enterprises. But only "big recruitment, recruit big distributors" is not enough, and may even lead to mistakes. It is also necessary to "recruit wisely and use wisely" to truly achieve the strategic goal of laying out and building a strong channel system.