How Do Agents Choose ERP Vendors?

As a ERP agent, especially those who are ready to enter the new venture, how can they choose the most suitable partner for many ERP vendors? This article hopes to provide a reference.

1, about the brand: the manufacturer brand is too strong, the manufacturer will be strong, the agent has no bargaining room, the company that wants to sell the manufacturer product is very many, you do not do others to do; the brand is too weak, the user does not approve, is difficult to sell.

Therefore, it is best to be a national brand, but not a strong brand. The two sides can grow together and grow together. The result is that agents can earn money, and a number of agents with high loyalty can win a win-win situation.

2, about products: both sides believe that the stronger the function of the product is, the better the function will be to satisfy the more needs of the end user. Therefore, there are more customer groups who can sell a good price and have a better profit. However, the stronger the function, the more difficult it is to implement the service, the higher demand for the agent's ability, the less the number of agents who can sell, and the demand for the training support of the manufacturers.

In addition, I find that product function is inversely proportional to customer complaints, that is, the more powerful the function is, the more customers complain; on the contrary, the simpler the function, the simpler the service, the lower the ability of the agent, the less the customer complain, but the more intense the competition is, the smaller the profit.

Therefore, the good choice is: the product positioning is very clear, the stability is good, can satisfy the user most (60%--80%) demand, the agent can carry on the sale and the implementation through the moderate training, has certain threshold, and can guarantee both sides profit.

3, about the settlement price: there are two kinds of situations, one is the settlement price, the other is the rate of settlement.

First, the settlement price is high; the settlement price is too high; the agent has no profit; the agent will not have the motive power of the manufacturer, the settlement price is too low, the manufacturer can not survive, the manufacturer will die, and the profit of the agent will be high again. How to find a way to calculate the price and both sides are satisfied is very important. It is also an art of the manufacturer. Although the manufacturer has grasped the initiative to establish the settlement price, the agent is not without the right to speak. As an agent, the better the performance, the bigger the bargaining chip, the greater the bargaining chip, and the more support the agent receives from the manufacturer.

Therefore, a win-win settlement price system must be an agent who can earn a reasonable profit, and there is room for growth for the manufacturer.

Secondly, the settlement of the money back and forth, manufacturers hope that agents can give money first, it is best to pay once, agents want to wait for the recovery of customer's money and then give manufacturers settlement, so that there is no risk, but according to my observation, people in the IT industry like to have a piece of money will plan to spend two or even ten yuan of people, if the agents do not promptly give manufacturers settlement, and blind expansion, the consequences are more and more holes, dragging themselves across the company at the same time.

Therefore, the more ideal choice is: agents should not sell large quantities of goods (after giving money first), so that the risk of agents is too great. But when signing sales contracts, agents should pay attention to controlling risks, recover funds from the end user in time, and promptly settle accounts to manufacturers.

4, the size of the manufacturer: the larger the size of the firm, the greater the pressure on its own management and operation, and the higher demand for performance. The direct choice of direct selling is the choice of many large manufacturers. After all, the development channel has to go through a long time. However, if the scale is too small, the support and training of the agents can not keep up with the manufacturers. Therefore, it is particularly important for agents to choose a company with moderate scale and rising period.

5, about manufacturers' support: in fact, as an agent, it is not a simple matter to sell a product and provide services to customers. Especially, the service requirements of ERP are very high. During this period, we need a lot of support from manufacturers. According to our sales implementation cases, there are at least a series of support, such as product training, pre sale on-site support, program training, sales training, implementation training, on-site support and so on.

Does the manufacturer have such experience and patience?

It is the key to our choice of ERP manufacturers. We should not only see what they say, but also see what they do.

It is good to say what we say and see what is going on. Good training and support is an important way for our agents to reduce dependence and enhance their ability.

6, the manufacturer's channel strategy: how to innovate the channel strategy of the manufacturer, and can not escape from the following two modes: (1) direct selling and distribution are parallel; second, go all the way to distribution; there are huge differences between the two modes in operation; the strategy of parallel marketing and distribution will inevitably lead to conflicts between manufacturers and agents; in conflict, agents are always at a disadvantage, and the right to speak in the agency is very limited, because manufacturers can replace agents directly to customers directly, and agents are in an unfair competition environment.

There is no such concern for the manufacturers with full distribution, only the conflict between channels, but the conflict between channels is equal and fair.

This is why the companies such as speed and sky are striving to justification that they are completely following the mode of distribution.

In the immature market atmosphere of China, these two models should have advantages and disadvantages for manufacturers. However, from the perspective of agents, manufacturers who choose full distribution mode can better protect their interests.