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Five ways to control sales channels


The sales channel is only one of the most important assets of the company, and it is also the most variable asset. It is the path that companies take in the process of transferring products to consumers. This path includes the company's own sales organization, agents, distributors, retail stores and so on. For the product, it does not proliferate the product itself, but increases the added value of the product through the service; for the enterprise, the sales channel plays the role of logistics, capital flow, information flow and business flow, and it is difficult to complete the completion of the manufacturer. Task. Different industries, different products, different scales and stages of development of enterprises, the form of sales channels are different, and most of the sales channels must go through the two links from dealers to retail stores. In order to meet the needs of retail stores, and to maximize their own profits, few dealers only represent one product, but have their own product portfolio.
In the past two years, the super terminals represented by a certain country, Shandong Sanlian and Nanjing Suning have surfaced, and even public and industrial enterprises have called for it. Some home appliance enterprises have to produce according to the order of the super terminal. This is an unstoppable historical trend. Although HyperTerminal is the target of corporate attention, in the actual marketing, domestic enterprises are mainly faced with problems at the dealer level. Dealers are not only distributing one product. Enterprises want to let dealers invest resources such as funds, personnel, and network into themselves, expand their local market share, and increase their local driving force. Some companies want to use some methods to control dealers, and strategic alliances with dealers to develop together, and even some companies and distributors form joint ventures.
We know that dealers are guarding a certain field, have sufficient social relations, have a sound sales network, and have a sales team that has passed the test of a certain field. His short-term interest is to make money, long-term interests are to develop, and the goals and manufacturers are not the same. So what means does the company have to "control" the dealers? The following five methods may give you the answer.
First, the vision is controlled:
As stated in the Fifth Practice, corporate vision is a top priority for business leaders. A company without a vision is a company without a soul, a company that only makes money, and has no future. Although the quality of domestic distributors is generally low, it is normal to have no long-term planning for themselves, but for manufacturers, they must have their own vision. Because every business must consider the development of their own home, a certain field opportunity is limited, I mainly do the distribution of the company's products, and also means that I am likely to give up the distribution of similar products. If a company has problems in operation a few years later, Company B is very prosperous. Then the dealer paid a huge opportunity cost when choosing to go home.
Based on this consideration of dealers, enterprises should use their performance on a certain field to prove their excellence. On the other hand, enterprises must constantly describe their bright prospects to dealers, and we call them "spits." The dealer recognizes your company's philosophy, the company's development strategy, and recognizes the company's main leaders. Even if the temporary policy is not appropriate, the temporary product has problems, and the dealer does not account for it. The specific practices are as follows:
1. Inspects and visits by senior executives: Directly communicate and communicate with the top management and distributors of the company to establish personal contacts. Through senior leaders to convey the company's development philosophy and look forward to the company's development vision, such initiatives can enable dealers to better understand the company's current situation and future development.
2. Publications within the enterprise office: Regularly publish the speeches of the leaders of the company and the status of a certain place in each place. It is best to start a dealer column and let the distributor's comments and suggestions become part of the publication. Regularly send the publication to the dealer's hands.
3. Dealer's meeting: The company regularly holds dealer meetings, and praises and motivates dealers with good performance at the meeting. The company's various policies are promulgated, and a discussion meeting of dealers must be held in advance. In this way, the dealer has the sense of participation of a member of the company, and feels that he is part of the enterprise, and his own development is inseparable from the development of the enterprise.
Second, the brand control:
The modern business society is a society in which products are homogenized. The only characteristic that often distinguishes products is the brand. The brand is the most important asset for many companies, so the owner of the Coca-Cola Company dares to say: Burn all my factories, just give me the Coca-Cola brand, I will make it to today's scale. Some brands, like McDonald's, Pepsi, and mtv, have existed out of the product, becoming a culture, becoming a kind of value, and becoming a religion.
From the perspective of channel management, product brands have an impact on the entire channel through the impact on consumers. As a dealer, we must also establish our own brand, but the dealer's brand can only play a role in the channel, and has less effect on consumers. Often the dealer's brand is attached to the brand of the main products, and without the support of the manufacturer, the value of the dealer's brand will be greatly reduced.
For dealers, what is the role of a brand-bright product? It is profit, sales, and image, but the most important thing is the efficiency of sales. Generally speaking, the price of the best-selling products is transparent, the competition is fierce, and it is not the main source of corporate profits. However, the best-selling products require a dealer to promote a certain field, so the dealer's sales cost is relatively small, and will also drive sales of other products. This can be used to find profits from other products, and because the sales speed is faster, the turnover rate of dealer funds is increased.
Therefore, companies can exert influence on the channel as long as they establish their own good brand image on the consumer level. Through this brand, the sales cost of the dealers is reduced, which leads to an increase in sales efficiency and a sales control channel.
Third, the service is in control:
Generally speaking, the management ability of dealers is weaker than that of enterprises, and the quality of dealers is worse than that of enterprises. The company has professional financial personnel, sales personnel, management personnel and a local promotion staff. The dealers may be relatives or friends. After many dealers have developed to a certain period of time, they really want to receive professional guidance in management, marketing, and human resources. Some of them want to use some university professors or professional consulting companies to help them improve their management level. In the end, they often find that the other party cannot To meet your own real needs, you can't meet your expectations, and the cost is higher.
Consultant sales advocated in modern marketing can be specifically used to solve this problem. The so-called consultative sales is that the sales representative of the company not only sells the products to the dealers, but also helps the dealers to sell, improve sales efficiency, reduce sales costs, and increase sales profits. That is to say, the sales representative is a solution to the dealer. This solution solves the dealer's current profitability problem and can also solve his long-term profitability problem.
The daily sales of enterprises are carried out normally on a fixed platform. Many companies have already achieved sales automation, and business assistants can complete daily sales. If the sales representative puts his energy into the continuous improvement of his own level, he will continue to accept the charging in the enterprise, carry out different training courses according to the needs of the dealers, and train the dealers' business personnel and management personnel. This can improve the ability of sales representatives, improve the professionalism of dealers, and promote knowledge exchange between dealers and improve the overall level of dealers.
In the implementation of such a solution, the company acts as a teacher, the dealer acts as a student, the dealer works according to the teacher's ideas, and the enterprise controls the dealer in the mind, such a teacher-student relationship It is unbreakable. Will there be a "rebel problem" in such a channel? For enterprises, training dealers, helping dealers to strengthen management, such investment, compared with the investment of a certain field promotion, a lot of certain.
Fourth, the terminal controls:
One of the most used methods in the consumer goods industry is to directly control the terminal and directly control the dealer's next home. Some companies are following a certain field, that is, they first find a suitable dealer in the local area, and gradually master the dealer's next home and local retail stores in the process of helping the dealers do business. There are also some companies that are doing backwards in a certain field, that is, the company has not found a suitable dealer, or the company has not found a dealer. The company believes that it is most important to do a certain field, and must first do a certain field to make channels. The company directly has a business relationship with the local retail store, and has sizzled the entire site by directly promoting the retail store's promotion activities, making the product a best-selling product. At this time, the initiative is in the hands of the enterprise, and then select the appropriate dealers to manage a certain field by means of investment promotion, and complete the construction of the channel.
Either way, controlling the retail store is the most fundamental purpose. Let the retail store first identify the product, identify the brand, and identify the manufacturer. Instead of first agreeing with the dealer, the manufacturer will have the confidence to retail when the dealer has problems. The store switches to a new channel without affecting sales. There are several specific means:
1. Establish a basic file: create a map of the distribution of retail stores, establish retail store files, create a file of the main store clerk, build a competitor's file, establish a dealer file, and establish a manufacturer's basic situation file. These files are updated frequently during regular meetings to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the underlying materials.
2. Establish a membership system for retail stores: Some companies have established a membership system for retail stores, and regularly hold events to increase the links between retail stores and manufacturers. Motorola not only has a membership system for retail stores, it even establishes a membership system for retail store clerk, regularly holds member participation activities, and rewards points based on the number of mobile phones sold by clerk.
3. Promotional activities: Enterprises should implement the promotion activities to the terminal, and even hold the activities of retail store clerk rewards and retail store rewards. Only the result of such promotion activities has the greatest effect. Only the development of such activities can enhance the terminal. The feelings with the business. Enhance the influence of corporate brands.
4. Training clerk: The clerk of the retail store plays the biggest role in sales. A product with a very good performance-price ratio, if the clerk does not actively recommend, or even hit this product, its fate can be imagined. Training of the clerk can increase her recognition of the company and increase her recognition of the product. Help the staff to fully understand the performance and indicators of the product and increase sales skills.
The above are just a few ways to control the terminal. The most fundamental thing is to have a good file, which is the basic database of the local situation of the local area. Based on this database, it will carry out visits to the terminal and various activities of various direct terminals.
5. Control of interests:
The above method can be said to control the dealer in terms of service, and consider long-term cooperation with the dealer. But every business is guaranteed by certain benefits, especially short-term benefits. How much does this short-term benefit give to the dealer? We often hear sales representatives and companies want policies: give more rebates, give a good price, if not, customers will not do with us. Is this really the case? If the dealer does not do with us, he is still operating other products. The variable cost of the dealer will not be reduced in the short term. Fixed expenses such as rent will occur, and depreciation will occur. If the profit of the cooperation is lost, his overall profit will be reduced, and the cost will not be reduced. That is to say, he is likely to lose money, so the conversion risk is too great, he is not willing to take it. At this time, we will fully respect the opinions of the company. That is, when the company controls the dealer, then when is the risk of the dealer small? If the profits that the company brings to the dealers are small, he and the company will not be able to cooperate, and they will still be profitable. Then, such a relationship does not matter to the dealer, and the company does not control the dealer. Therefore, the dealer's control in addition to the above services, but also in the interests of control, to give dealers enough benefits. In other words, the profit of the company to the dealer is greater than the profit of the dealer. Only at this time will the dealer feel the pain when it "breaks up" with the company. It is the company that has the final say and control of the dealer. There are five specific methods:
1. Increase your rebate and discount, and increase your own profit to the dealer.
2. Increase the sales volume of your own products.
3. Reduce sales of other products of dealers.
4. Reduce the unit profit of other products of dealers
5, increase the dealer's cost above the five methods, the first two methods are used by the general enterprises, through continuous promotion activities, continuous channel incentives to stimulate channel sales and unit profits. The essence of the two methods in the middle is to crack down on competitors' products and reduce the sales and profits of the opponents. The fifth method is to make a big loss to the dealer. It is best not to use it because the value of the channel can be distributed at a lower cost. If the dealer's cost is too large, its existence is unreasonable, and there is no control over it. significance.
The above analysis is only a perceptual understanding, and the method of inconvenient measurement, the sales analysts are most exposed to the specific sales volume, not the profit. The following quantified method is used to indicate that "the profit to the dealer is greater than the net profit of the dealer." Assumption: the total sales volume of the dealer is y, the sales volume of the manufacturer is *, the unit profit of other products is t2, the unit profit of the product is t1; the net interest rate of the customer is m.
The formula for the manufacturer to control the dealer is: **t1"m[**t1+*t2].
Change the formula to become: */y"1/[*t1/t2+1]
From the above formula, we know that the company's sales volume should account for the proportion of the total sales volume of the dealers. For example: the example of the mobile phone industry, the unit gross profit of other products is t2=20 yuan, the manufacturer's unit gross profit is t1=20 yuan, the dealer's pure interest rate m=1/3, then */y=66%, which is this If the manufacturer wants to control this dealer, his sales volume should account for 66% of the dealer's sales.
The above formula is only a rough estimate, and the actual operation of business is not so simple. Every sensible business or manufacturer must think twice when making channel changes. When the manufacturer switches the dealer, the customer has already been selected. When the merchants switch manufacturers, they have already chosen a new family, and there are few sudden changes without warning. But no matter what, the above formula */y is the direction of every sales representative.
If the company has established a great vision and made the distributors agree; if a good brand image is established in the minds of consumers; if the company cultivates a team of customer consultants and truly serves the enterprise; if the company controls the terminal, and Established good communication with the terminal; if the company can bring the benefits that the other party can't refuse. The future of this company's development is ambitious. The first-class channel that is established through the control of dealers can grasp the development of the industry, realize the real network as the king, and establish the style of industry leaders.

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