NEW DISTRIBUTION RESEARCH TOPIC
How can distributors keep growing across fragmented channels?
Front-line analysis of product selection, organization, channel strategy, profit models, and business transformation for FMCG distributors.
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4622 articles · Page 116 of 193
Danone Sells Six Robust Plants, Can the New Owner Help Robust Return to Glory?
French food and beverage giant Danone has recently reached an agreement with Yingtou Holdings to transfer six Robust plants located in Guangzhou, Beijing, Tianjin, Chengdu, Chongqing, and Zhongshan, along with employees engaged in the Robust brand business, to Yingtou Holdings. This move marks Danone's strategic shift to focus on natural mineral water in China, while the new owner aims to revitalize the once-famous Chinese beverage brand.
New DistributionThe More Online Sales on Double 11, the Harder Offline Business Gets. What Should Distributors Do Next?
This year's Double 11 saw Alibaba's transaction volume surpass 120 billion yuan, prompting reflections on how online sales impact offline stores. The article advises distributors to face the internet with an open mind, avoid escaping or blindly joining platforms, and focus on data-driven operations, professional management, and team entrepreneurship to survive the changing landscape.
赵波Salespeople Disobey, Obedient Ones Don't Deliver, Deliverers Don't Make Money: 80% of Distributors Fail Due to Poor Management. How to Break the Cycle?
Distributors often lose money due to management failures, such as salespeople slacking off, intercepting promotional items, and misappropriating funds. Implementing sales management software can help, but success depends on the distributor's own management skills and a phased approach to change.
赵波Clearing Bad Inventory: A Table and Ten Steps to Manage New Product Distribution!
In the daily operations of distributors, attention to the market front line often outweighs attention to the warehouse, leading to neglect of warehouse management. The author observes that inventory problems often surface suddenly, and once bad inventory appears, it directly drags down the profitability of trading companies. When distributors carefully count remaining stock and calculate its value at a price that can be digested, they find that the profit originally designed to be earned is exactly the value of the inventory. Therefore, any mishandling of inventory makes losses inevitable. How should we prevent inefficient management or even eliminate bad inventory to improve profitability? The author believes that instead of organizing large-scale promotions after the fact or negotiating returns with manufacturers, it is better to solve inventory management from the source, starting with distribution management.
于秀伟The Mission of Salespeople: Not Collections, but Helping Distributors Make Money!
As competition intensifies and market operation models diversify, the relationship between salespeople and distributors becomes increasingly complex. "The customer is God!" is a phrase all manufacturers and distributors repeat daily. Some salespeople naturally interpret this as "the distributor is God," believing their interests align perfectly with the manufacturer's, but this leads to irregular management and ultimately failure. The real essence is that salespeople and distributors share a common god—the consumer—and the key to success is helping distributors make money.
朱志明Why Are Most Top Salespeople Outstanding Men?
A recent article about what makes an outstanding man caught my eye, as many of the criteria listed—such as resilience, confidence, empathy, open-mindedness, and the ability to see things from others' perspectives—are exactly the traits of a top salesperson. At the very least, top salespeople possess the following qualities: first, they are skilled at pleasing others; second, they can put themselves in others' shoes; third, they understand women's hearts; and fourth, they are open-minded.
梁胜威The 7 Tactics Second-Tier Distributors Use to Bargain with Sales Reps, and the 17 Ways to Counter Them
Second-tier distributors commonly use seven negotiation tactics to bargain with sales representatives, such as claiming the price is too high, asking for further discounts after a minimum price is offered, demanding freebies, requesting credit, and more. To counter these, sales reps should adhere to 20 principles, including never making concessions without conditions, never revealing the bottom price first, and always exchanging conditions for benefits.
张宇Can 'Universal Dealers' Save Want Want, Whose Market Value Has Evaporated by 100 Billion?
How long has it been since you bought Want Want milk or eaten Want Want snow rice crackers? Perhaps you can't even remember. But Cai Yanming, chairman of China Want Want Holdings, knows well—he retained his title as Taiwan's richest person on the 2016 Forbes global rich list. Yet, despite the title, Cai can't smile, as the company's total market value has evaporated by HK$100 billion over the past two years.
李三年Sales Representatives Are Degrading, 99 Out of 100 Distributors Agree!
As a distributor, dealing with manufacturers' sales representatives is inevitable. Since 1992, I have encountered over a thousand such reps from various companies. Overall, there is a clear decline in their competence and personal quality over the past two decades, a sentiment shared by many fellow distributors. This article contrasts the capabilities of sales reps from ten years ago with those of today, analyzes the reasons for this decline, and suggests that the root cause lies with the manufacturers' owners.
潘文富Year-End Inventory Loading: Load Well and Profit, Load Poorly and Struggle Until March
As the year ends, companies are busy with market operations, eyeing the Spring Festival peak season. Year-end inventory loading becomes the most critical part of seasonal marketing. Companies compete fiercely, but despite various strategies, results often disappoint. This article explores the reasons behind inventory loading, its risks, and how to do it scientifically to benefit both companies and distributors.
New DistributionHow Are Distributors Being Killed by B2B?
Recent media reports have highlighted incidents of B2B platforms engaging in cross-regional selling, disrupting local distributors' sales and prompting extreme reactions such as blockades and complaints. The article argues that this trend will intensify, with B2B platforms increasingly bypassing traditional distribution channels, undermining regional protections, and ultimately squeezing distributors out of the market.
赵波Why Do Distributors with Annual Transaction Volume of Tens of Millions Still Lack Money?
This morning, while chatting with a manufacturer's salesperson, I asked if their products were entering the peak season as the year-end approached. The salesperson replied with just seven words: "Distributors all lack money." As year-end approaches, manufacturers introduce attractive promotional policies, especially in November when major brands start new rounds of inventory pressure, hoping to recover more cash from distributors. Consequently, some distributors give all their money to manufacturers to meet year-end tasks. For distributors, regardless of size or financial strength, they always feel short of funds because they must pay upfront for goods, while large supermarkets and chain stores often use credit sales and long payment terms, tying up large amounts of capital and burdening later operations. Thus, at the year-end peak season, distributors often face cash shortages as manufacturers come to collect payments, and if terminal customers delay payments, it severely impacts the cash flow.
李青林Countdown: 9 Days Left! B2B E-commerce Study Tour Starts Soon - Distributors Seeking Transformation, Register Now!
The fifth B2B e-commerce study tour will officially commence from the 19th to the 24th of this month, visiting Beijing, Tianjin, and Tangshan to inspect Beiquan, Tongying Tianxia, Quanshihui, Zhongke Shangruan, and Huimin Wang. Through on-site inspections, face-to-face exchanges with peers, and professional training, distributor friends gain an initial understanding of domestic B2B e-commerce, and some have found methods and paths for business transformation after the study tour.
赵波The Fate of Traditional Distributors Depends on the Manufacturer's Health: From a Duet to a Three-Way Drama, a Lesson Learned the Hard Way, and the Golden Chamber Pot
For manufacturers, traditional distributors are like a chamber pot, and distributors are willing to play that role. For years, the chamber pot has accompanied manufacturers through endless nights, as manufacturers have always been 'kidney-deficient' and needed it every night. But when the internet's 'hormones' cured the manufacturers' deficiency, the chamber pot became anxious. Distributors' anxiety is not unfounded: they have no products, no brands, no markets—everything belongs to others, making them seem like 'people with nothing.' But does that mean distributors have no value? Obviously not. Their value lies in the supply chain.
李海平Five-Step Method for Distributors to Build a Base Market
Survival first, development second. This is a market strategy aimed at using limited space to create local advantages, win a larger market share, effectively resist competitors' attacks, and preserve and strengthen oneself, making it a sharp tool for distributors to win in competition. Before developing a regional market, distributors must first plan and coordinate comprehensively, systematically planning the regional market. However, in actual surveys, we found that most distributors, when developing markets, have not yet established a base market for survival, i.e., a clear and stable regional market, before expanding the overall market.
师顺宽How Distributors Can Seek Efficiency from Management
After years of development, as company scale expands with increases in sales, products, personnel, and vehicles, large distributors in the increasingly competitive FMCG industry must strengthen management to increase profitability. This article refers to large distributors located in first- and second-tier markets, with numerous brand resources, many vehicles and sales staff, and annual sales exceeding 100 million yuan, operating as companies. Despite company scale and sales growth, their actual profits have not increased correspondingly. Case: In a prefecture-level city in Hebei, Boss Zhang's company operates over a dozen beer and liquor brands, with a warehouse of over 2,000 square meters, nearly 100 employees, and more than 20 delivery vehicles. With sales exceeding 100 million yuan, operating costs have risen faster than performance, leading to shrinking net profits despite growing business.
师顺宽Rising Costs and Expenses: How Should FMCG Distributors Navigate the Current Phase?
An online article once went viral, titled 'It's Not That the Old Have Turned Bad, but That the Bad Have Grown Old.' The bottleneck in the FMCG market is similar: 'It's not that customers have decreased, but that channels have aged.' Comparing e-commerce platforms from ten years ago to today reveals a world of difference, yet comparing terminal stores from ten years ago to today shows little change, not even a year's worth. Since we've fallen behind, we must catch up. FMCG distributors now face declining channel sell-through rates, rising market expenses, increasing personnel wages, and high trial-and-error costs.
丁律宇Sorry, Business Is Tough This Year, No New Brands!
Distributors may slow down or stop taking on new brands, but have they carefully reviewed their existing ones? The deeper reason behind this is that under the new economic normal, distributors have failed to adapt quickly to changes in channels and terminals, and have not adjusted internal management to cope with fierce competition, leaving them passive and seeing their business shrink.
New DistributionThree Basic Principles for Marketing Personnel to Operate Terminals and Build Vivid Point-of-Sale Displays
Marketing has three transformations: terminal mediaization, sales communication, and PR implementation. These are the three basic principles for FMCG marketing personnel to operate terminal retail stores and build vivid point-of-sale displays. In increasingly fierce market competition, achieving these requires good customer relations and sufficient market expenses, but almost all sales personnel feel funds are insufficient. Fan Xianguo, chairman of Jinmailang, once joked: 'If I give 2 jin of beef with every pack of braised beef noodles, what do we need marketing personnel for?' Indeed, a marketing person's value lies in maximizing sales with minimal market resources.
张宇Who Stole the Distributor's Last Kilometer Cheese?
The article discusses the concept of the 'last kilometer' in distribution, emphasizing that distributors who abandon their terminal retail presence lose their competitive edge. It argues that the responsibility for last-mile delivery is returning to distributors, and that professional service, not casual labor, is essential for success.
黄润霖Boss, How Long Has It Been Since You Personally Visited Clients? Are Your Clients Yours or Your Salespeople's?
As distributors grow, they become increasingly dependent on employees, but few bosses can effectively direct them. The basic profit model for distributors is simple: buy from manufacturers and sell to downstream clients for a margin. Downstream clients choose to buy from a distributor based on factors such as product strength, recognition of the boss, recognition of the sales staff, and the distributor's operational systems. To sustain growth, distributors must build operational systems that reduce reliance on individuals, starting with rebuilding personal relationships with clients and centralizing client management.
潘文富Distributors Upgrading to the Internet: Look Here!
Since April this year, our official account has organized four B-end e-commerce inspection tours, leading over 400 domestic distributors to visit more than 10 representative B-end e-commerce platforms. Through on-site inspections, face-to-face exchanges, and professional training, distributors have gained a preliminary understanding of B-end e-commerce, and some have found methods and paths for business transformation. The fifth B-end e-commerce inspection tour will officially start from the 19th to the 24th of this month, visiting Beijing, Tianjin, and Tangshan, with inspections of five B-end e-commerce platforms: Beiquan, Tongying Tianxia, Zhongke Shangruan, Quanshihui, Huimin Wang, and Aixianfeng (pending). Interested friends can register by long-pressing the QR code or clicking the original text link.
赵波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.'
黄润霖Wahaha's Growth Slows to 2% in First Half of 2016, Seeks Breakthrough by Repairing Channels
Wahaha's development is hitting a ceiling. Zong Qinghou publicly told media that the beverage industry is facing a downward trend, with Wahaha's growth rate dropping from over 20% in previous years to over 4% last year, and only over 2% in the first half of this year. China's beverage market has entered a cold winter, and slowing growth is an indisputable fact. Hangzhou Wahaha Group, which has dominated China's beverage industry for decades, faces challenges in the mobile internet era that traditional store operation models cannot solve. With weak internal innovation and fierce external competition, Wahaha attempts to restructure its channels, but can this change become a breakthrough?
吕进玉