Five Ways To Control Sales Channels

Sales channel is only one of the most important assets of an enterprise, and it is also the most variable asset.

It is the path through which enterprises pfer products to consumers.

This path includes the sales organization, agent, distributor, retail shop and so on.

For the product, it does not proliferate the product itself, but increases the added value of the product through service. For the enterprise, the sales channel plays the role of logistics, capital flow, information flow and business flow, so that it is difficult for the manufacturer to complete the task.

Different industries, different products, different sizes and stages of development, the form of sales channels are different, and most of the sales channels have to go through these two links from distributors to retail stores.

In order to meet the needs of retail stores, and to maximize their profits, few dealers only represent one product, but have their own product mix.

Over the past two years, the super terminals represented by Beijing Gome, Shandong Sanlian and Nanjing Suning have surfaced, and even openly and industrial enterprises are being challenged. Some home appliances enterprises must produce according to the order of super terminals, which is an irresistible trend of history.

Although super terminal is the goal of enterprises, in the actual marketing, domestic enterprises are still facing the problem of distributor level.

Dealers do not sell only one product. Enterprises want dealers to invest resources such as capital, personnel and network to expand their local market share and increase their local driving force.

Some enterprises want to use some methods to control dealers, combine with distributors to form strategic alliances, develop jointly, and even some enterprises form joint ventures with distributors.

We know that dealers are guarding the market of one side, have sufficient social relations, have a sound sales network, and have a market tested sales team.

His short-term interest is to make money, long-term interest is to develop, and the target is different from the manufacturers.

Then, what means do enterprises rely on to control dealers?

The following five methods may give you an answer.

First, vision control:

As stated in the fifth discipline, enterprise vision is the top priority that business leaders need to consider.

An enterprise without vision is a business without soul. It is a profitable enterprise and has no future.

Although the quality of domestic distributors is generally low, it is normal for them to have no long-term plans, but they must have their own long-term plans for manufacturers.

Because every businessman has to consider the development of his home, the market opportunities are limited, I mainly do the distribution of products of a company, and at the same time, I may give up the distribution of the same kind of products.

If a few years later, a company appeared business problems, and B company is very prosperous.

So the dealer paid huge opportunity cost when he chose home.

Based on this consideration of the dealer, the enterprise must use the performance of the market to prove its excellence on the one hand, on the other hand, the enterprise should constantly describe its good prospects to the dealers, which we call "spittle sticky bird".

Dealers approved your company's philosophy, enterprise's development strategy, and recognized the main leaders of the company. Even if the temporary policy is not suitable, the temporary products will have problems and dealers will not care about them.

The specific measures are as follows:

1, the inspection and visit of senior executives: direct communication and communication between top executives and distributors, so that they can establish personal contacts.

Through high-level leaders to convey the concept of enterprise development and look forward to the future development of enterprises, such a move will enable dealers to have a deeper understanding of the status quo and future development of enterprises.

2, the enterprise's internal publications: regularly publish business leaders' speeches and market conditions everywhere.

It is best to set up a dealer column to allow distributors' opinions and suggestions to become part of the publication.

Regular publications are sent to distributors.

3, distributors meeting: enterprises hold regular dealer meetings and praise and inspire good dealers in the meeting.

The company's policies need to be held in advance.

In this way, the dealer has the sense of participation of a member of the enterprise, and feels that he is part of the enterprise, and his own development is closely related to the development of the enterprise.

Two, brand control:

The modern commercial society is a product homogenization society, and the distinguishing feature of products is the brand.

Brand is the most important asset for many enterprises, so the boss of Coca Cola Co dare to say: burn up all my factories, as long as give me the brand of Coca-Cola, I will be the same today.

Some brands, like McDonald's, Pepsi Cola and MTV, have been separated from products and become a culture, become a kind of values and become a religion.

From the perspective of channel management, product brand can influence the whole channel through its influence on consumers.

As a distributor, it is necessary to establish its own brand, but the dealer's brand can only play a role in the channel, and has little effect on consumers.

Often the dealer's brand is attached to the principal brand of the agent, without the support from the manufacturer, and the value of the dealer's brand will be greatly reduced.

For dealers, what is the role of a brand loud product?

It is profit, sales, image, but the most important thing is the efficiency of sales.

Generally speaking, the prices of salable products are pparent, competition is fierce, and not the main source of corporate profits.

But the sales promotion of the salable products needs less, so the sales cost of the distributors is relatively small, and it will also drive the sale of other products.

In this way, we can find profits from other products, and at the same time, because the speed of sales is faster, the turnover speed of dealers' funds will be increased.

Therefore, as long as the enterprise establishes its own good brand image at the consumer level, it can exert influence on the channel.

Through this brand, the sales cost of dealers is reduced, and sales efficiency is improved and sales channel is controlled.

Three, service control:

Generally speaking, the management capacity of the dealer is weaker than that of the enterprise, and the quality of the dealer is worse than that of the enterprise.

The company has professional financial personnel and sales personnel.