Dealer Development: Do Not Let "One Place, Two Businesses" Become "One Place, Two Injuries".

Most of the manufacturers in China rely on distributors (agents) as the main channel providers. The common practice is to develop an agent or distributor in a region (such as provincial capital, prefecture level city, county seat, etc.) as an exclusive agent or distributor in the region.

In addition to this traditional mode of dealer development, some manufacturers have also made some innovative attempts in terminal channels: developing two agents at the same time in one area, referred to as "one place and two merchants".

But from the actual operation results, "one place, two merchants" looks very beautiful to the manufacturers, but it is a bitter pill to eat.

"Two businesses in one place" often become "two wounds in one place".

The manufacturer has a "leisurely life" of "one place, one business". However, why is it so hot that we develop "one place, two businesses"?

There are probably two motives for manufacturers to develop "one place, two businesses".

First, the bigger the dealer, the more difficult it is for the manufacturers to control the dealer.

This kind of distributor is generally done in the local market, and it feels like this is the market that is built by itself.

Basically ignore the instructions and plans of the manufacturers.

Due to the lack of checks and balances on the existing dealers, the manufacturers do not have the weight to compete with the existing dealers, so they are very passive. In order to grasp the initiative, the development of second Dealers - the dealer is a choice for manufacturers.

The two is the mentality of dealers.

The local market has huge capacity, and local dealers have made some efforts and earned some money in the local market. Then there is a mentality of "easy to get ahead".

And most manufacturers' sales targets are higher year by year, and stagnation is a step backward, which is not acceptable to most manufacturers.

Therefore, manufacturers introduce competition mechanism, through the development of two dealers to compete for the pressure of one business, stimulate a business, and through the two business together to seize the bigger market cake.

The successful operation of the "one place, two businesses" can take some effective measures.

There are two commonly used methods.

First, two distributors will be sold in different regions and in different channels.

A sub area, such as a distributor, is responsible for the east of the city. A distributor is responsible for the division of the west of the city. Sub channels, such as a distributor responsible for the retail channel, a distributor responsible for the engineering channel, a distributor responsible for the supermarket channel, and a distributor responsible for the department store channel.

This sub regional, sub channel sales, the purpose is to let two dealers as far as possible "well water does not make the river", we manage their respective sites, safe and sound.

The second method is that it is difficult to divide the channel, or in order to further reduce the possible conflicts between the two vendors. The manufacturers provide two sets of differentiated product lines to two vendors to avoid possible conflicts.

These two methods are often used together for most manufacturers.

Even if the sub channel or sub product line planning is carried out, the success of "one place, two businesses" can not be guaranteed.

The successful operation of "one place, two business" depends on two additional conditions: first, the strong control ability of salesmen to distributors, and the two is to solve the problem of dealers' "pity on investment".

"One place, two businesses" put forward higher requirements for the business team.

Require business personnel to have stronger communication, coordination and control ability.

Otherwise, it is very easy to cause interest disputes and market conflicts between the two businessmen because of suspicion and discord between the two businessmen.

This requires salesmen to have a bowl of water in most cases.

Most salesmen, under the pressure of factory sales, can hardly deal with the relationship between the two businesses fairly, fairly and openly. It is easy to have their own subjective (global brand network) color, which often becomes the fuse between the two dealers.

"One place, two merchants" is very easy for the distributors in the same area to appear in the two dealers' "throw in" phenomenon.

That is to say, which dealer is unwilling to make big investment in the local market, and is unwilling to invest in advertising and other markets.

Because two businesses are afraid of their own investment for another businessman to do a wedding dress: planting trees, others enjoy the cool.

If we can successfully solve the problem of the management ability of the business team and the dealer's "cherish the investment" problem, the dealer development strategy of "one place, two businesses" can be successful.

But for most manufacturers, the requirements of the two are too high. It is very difficult for the manufacturers to solve these two problems in the short term.

Therefore, for most manufacturers, "one place, two business" is a double-edged sword. If it is not good, it will kill one thousand of the enemy and hurt itself eight hundred.

It may be a more realistic and safe choice to withdraw business or change business (remove the original dealer and replace a new distributor).

Although this will result in temporary sales decline due to withdrawal and resellers, sales will be sluggish.

For most dealers, we must always wake ourselves up, not to be modest, nor to think we are great.

Their ability is so great that they sometimes can't jump out of the palm of the manufacturer's palm.

A more realistic approach is to communicate well with the manufacturers, understand the strategic intentions of the manufacturers to the local market, and strive to cater for the market moves of the manufacturers, so that the manufacturers can regard themselves as the allies of the iron industry, and stifle the idea of "two merchants" in the bud.