Expanding the distribution channel
In a distribution company, all japan phone number decisions depend on:
business owner;
commercial director;
Head of the Purchasing Department;
ROP or head of the food department;
product manager, purchasing manager;
and finally, sales specialists.
In the retail segment, the balance of power is similar:
owner;
Commercial Director;
Head of Procurement Department;
purchasing manager;
retail store operators, salespeople.
There are two possible opposite situations with intermediaries in the distribution channel. The efficiency of the distribution chain will be determined by employees in different roles:
A new channel needs to be developed. The products have never been received before.
Deliveries are already underway, but we need to boost sales and expand distribution.
In the first case, everything depends on those who actually make decisions about the product range, and can add new products and brands to it. But there is a difficulty here: it is never possible to say in advance, without a little research, exactly which positions in the company are responsible for this. In practice, proposals to expand the product range are usually sent to commercial directors (both in the wholesale and retail segments), heads of product departments (if there is such a structural unit in the distribution company), and owners of retail trading companies.
The second situation is more interesting. Analysis of hundreds of projects in the field of distribution channels clearly showed that sales success is influenced by people in two roles: those who are directly responsible for purchasing (heads of relevant departments, product managers and managers, heads of product departments) and the line sales personnel of retail outlets.
Distribution channels
Let's support this conclusion with examples. Let's assume that there are two Japanese companies - Senix and Orgson (both names are fictitious), which supply office equipment. In the first month of the second half of the financial year (which in Russia corresponds to October, for example, 2002), they occupied absolutely identical shares in the niche for selling MFPs. Their distribution schemes in the Russian Federation also coincided: each company worked with a dozen distributors who sold devices to corporations and retail buyers. Both enterprises invested approximately 300 thousand dollars each to expand their channel in the second half of the year.
Orgson's expenses were distributed as follows:
$ 100,000 for a “gift for service” program: the company gave gifts to its retailers, and distributors delivered them for free.
$ 130 thousand – the total promotional budget of all intermediaries and expenses for post-sales discounts during each quarter.
The remaining 70 thousand dollars were spent on a seminar on MFPs for dealers.
Senix spent the same budget differently:
It cost $ 150,000 to organize a marketing game for the sales staff of authorized dealer stores.
$ 80 thousand – another marketing quest, this time for purchasing managers and project specialists of distributors.
$ 70,000 was spent on an informational and entertaining event for sales representatives of intermediaries and authorized wholesale dealers with whom these firms cooperated.
By the beginning of the next fiscal year in Japan (and March 2003 in Russia), Senix's share of the Russian market had become twice that of its closest competitor, Orgson.