---
title: "Why Do You End Up in a Bloody Fight When You Cut Off Your Distributors?"
description: "Distributors in China are a mixed bag, to say the least. The most extreme form of manufacturer-distributor conflict is termination, which often leads to violent confrontations. This article offers practical advice on how to handle distributor terminations with caution, using strategies like delaying decisions, verifying facts, and following three key principles to minimize conflict and avoid creating 'wrongful convictions.'"
author: "黄润霖"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2016-11-06"
language: "en"
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original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/W26_EnRZYkco4YJ0cirjOg"
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---

# Why Do You End Up in a Bloody Fight When You Cut Off Your Distributors?

> Distributors in China are a mixed bag, to say the least. The most extreme form of manufacturer-distributor conflict is termination, which often leads to violent confrontations. This article offers practical advice on how to handle distributor terminations with caution, using strategies like delaying decisions, verifying facts, and following three key principles to minimize conflict and avoid creating 'wrongful convictions.'

> ### What kind of group are distributors in China?
> It's a bit too much to say they are a den of iniquity, but it's apt to say they are a mix of dragons and snakes. It's common for people to not follow rules, not play by the book, and resort to bullying and violence. A colleague of mine was beaten bloody and suffered a comminuted fracture of the radius over a distributor termination more than a decade ago; to this day, three steel pins remain in his body. Another colleague was beaten so badly by a distributor over a stocking dispute that he lost teeth and had bumps all over his head, and he still dares not return to that place.
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> The highest form of manufacturer-distributor conflict is termination. Once it comes to a showdown and each side starts settling scores, the distributor who used to invite you to drink, dine, and sing karaoke will no longer be gentle.
> **How to avoid creating wrongful convictions?**
I once managed over 10,000 distributors, and facing a monthly customer termination rate of about 5%, my hand trembled as I approved the paperwork—this meant hundreds of distributors were parting ways with the company! Sitting at headquarters, you have no way to confirm whether a customer should be terminated or not, or whether the process should be approved or not.
Later, to comfort myself, I added a customer termination report form, requiring regional staff to submit it along with the termination request. But I found that this form didn't seem to be of much use. If a salesperson wants to terminate a distributor, you can have a hundred thousand reasons why, and they'll have a hundred thousand and one reasons for you.
If this problem were a dead knot, the distributor community in China wouldn't have grown to its current scale. Every knot has a solution. In practice, I've found two effective methods to solve this problem:
**One is to delay.**
When a regional salesperson submits a termination request, don't rush to approve it. Wait a bit and let the bullet fly. Many salespeople haven't thought through the termination issue themselves; they're stuck in a simple either-or choice.
Many salespeople actually lack the courage to face headquarters' questioning and inquiries, so after submitting the request, they're also watching headquarters' attitude. For those processes where termination is optional, over time, the salesperson will gradually think it through and voluntarily withdraw the request.
**The second is to directly call and verify.**
When a process is submitted, the supervisor will directly call the distributor being terminated to confirm their awareness, including the termination matter, reasons, and the distributor's stance. If the distributor has voluntarily given up or there are natural reasons like store changes, the process can be completed quickly. But if there's any discrepancy with what the salesperson reported, I either use the first method or directly reject it.
> **Three principles for terminating distributors**
**1. If you can avoid termination, avoid it.**
Many salespeople making regional market adjustments think they must remove old customers to let new customers grow better. Of course, often they're also forced by promises to new distributors to clean up the unfinished market.
Any distributor failing to complete tasks or achieve sales targets means the salesperson also bears some responsibility. Before deciding to terminate a distributor, ask yourself: Will this market definitely be better after removing this distributor?
**2. Even if you terminate, do it slowly.**
In human resource management, there's a concept called "slow in, fast out." What does it mean? When someone enters a company, you should spend a lot of time evaluating them and not rush to bring them in; if you decide to dismiss someone, you should make them leave as quickly as possible.
Many people apply this theory to distributor management, treating distributors like employees, but forgetting that distributors are not employees. Distributors have inventory, capital investment, and network operations. If you cut them off without warning, even a deity would get angry. Unless the market absolutely requires it, giving time for rectification, inventory clearance, and follow-up will always yield better results with goodwill.
**3. Even when terminating slowly, use the right methods.**
What's the harshest move many salespeople use when terminating a distributor?
Cutting off supply, and doing so without explanation.
This directly hits their lifeline and forces them to rebel. Some distributors are unreasonable, but most are legitimate businesspeople. If you're going to terminate someone, at least tell them: "Mr. Zhao, I have no grudge against you, but you keep failing to meet targets, and the company is putting pressure on me. Now we're in a market adjustment period, and you're temporarily removed from our core customer list. I won't assign you sales targets, but all market support will also stop! As long as you don't engage in cross-regional selling or price undercutting, we'll still supply you normally. But if we verify you're doing so, the company will blacklist you! I can only help you this far!"
For many non-exclusive businesses, as long as distributors follow market order, they don't necessarily have to be eliminated. Downgrading and adjusting support is essentially a process of letting the distributor slowly fade away, without igniting conflict in the short term.
> **What if you encounter a troublemaker?**
Headquarters personnel handle such people relatively easily. The company operates in a national market and doesn't rely on any single city or territory. When facing such a rogue, you can choose to put that market on hold. If they engage in cross-regional selling, issue a notice nationwide, especially to surrounding areas, stating that anyone supplying goods to distributor XX privately will be treated as an accomplice and severely punished.
Distributors also need to make a living. Making a fuss for ten days or half a month is normal, and two to three months is tolerable, but how can they sustain themselves long-term by price undercutting and cross-regional selling? If they really make a fuss for six months or a year, they'll exhaust themselves; few distributors can outlast that. Once the distributor calms down and the market eases, the manufacturer can then turn around and work on the market—it's not too late.
Regional salespeople suffer because they only have their own small territory. If they don't produce results for six months, they might be done for. At this point, there are two methods to try:
**One is to find a distributor with stronger local connections to take over.** This is essentially fighting fire with fire, but it still involves two issues: Is there a distributor willing to wade into this mess? And what if the new distributor also has problems later?
**The second is to find a distributor with official connections.** In this society, local bullies may not fear "gang leaders," but they usually keep their distance from those with official backgrounds. And having someone with official connections as a distributor offers unique advantages in the building materials and home furnishing industry.
Some might say, "What if I can't find a distributor with official connections and still want to get rid of the original one?"
I say, then you'll just have to "make do." As I always say, in sales, nothing is absolutely necessary. If it is, it's a matter of "man proposes, God disposes." When forced to choose between two difficult options, it means there's no choice at all.


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