Hardware dealers how to choose manufacturers

The vast majority of successful hardware dealers benefited from manufacturer support, but some dealers were killed in the hands of manufacturers. Whether the manufacturer's choice is reasonable or not is likely to directly change the fate of the distributors. In particular, in the hardware industry where the market competition is becoming increasingly fierce, dealers have conducted a comprehensive understanding and inspection of the manufacturers at the beginning of the cooperation, which can be more effective for future business.

First, hardware dealers need to find enough manufacturer information. There are many ways, including: the authority of the industry media, portals, professional exhibitions and industry friends recommend, in addition, off-site market inspections are also an effective way to find manufacturers information.

Second, after understanding the manufacturer's information, it is necessary to go through some processes before determining the cooperation with the manufacturer to conduct some analysis and judgment on the manufacturer's condition. For example:

1. Filter and filter the information collected from the manufacturers, and select some companies with higher reputation and better product reputation as alternatives;

2. Visit the market in person to conduct survey visits to understand the performance, operation, and sales status of alternative manufacturers and products in the market;

3. Participate in the manufacturer's regional and national market investment conferences or negotiate with sales personnel to understand the distribution policies and market support provided by the manufacturers;

4. If you plan to cooperate with an alternative manufacturer for a long period of time, it is very necessary for the manufacturer to conduct a site visit.

The most important thing is that, before deciding to cooperate with the hardware manufacturers, in addition to considering the most basic distribution policies of the manufacturers, they should also conduct a comprehensive assessment of the manufacturers, and should conduct inspections from the aspects of the company's strength, reputation, and market capabilities.

1. The more in-depth the strength inspection is, the more important the strength inspection is. Otherwise, the phenomenon of “stopping and stopping” occurs halfway through the manufacturer. The dealer not only fails to invest in the previous period, but also has a lot of problems such as stocks in warehouses and rebates. Discussion, a huge loss! Specific issues that need to be understood include:

Basic information such as number of employees, quality of employees, and company history.

Sales status. Including annual sales, strong sales areas, slow-moving areas, and unactivated areas.

Production operating rate. It can be calculated by understanding production equipment production capacity and actual sales volume. You can also ask to visit the factory and observe it in secret. If the actual production start-up rate of the company is less than 2% or 30%, it indicates that the current operating conditions are poor, the sales situation is poor, and the financial status is poor!

Product line portfolio. Is the product line rich? Will there be a strong sales season and a lack of diving in the off-season? Mature companies will inevitably have a scientific product portfolio to meet the different needs of consumers.

2, the credibility of inspections.

In cooperation with manufacturers, it is very important whether the other party has sincerity, credibility, and reliability. Specific need to understand the following issues:

Whether the return promises are honored in a timely manner, and whether rebates or rewards are on time. Rebate and reward delays for too long indicate that the internal business statistics and sales settlement management of the company are confusing, and cooperation with such companies is best not to advance the funds.

Has there ever been a problem with product quality? Has it been actively dealt with? However, the quality of the product itself indicates that the company’s strength is not good. If it is not actively responsible for handling it, it means that the company’s business style is not correct.

Personnel replacement is frequent. The frequent replacement of sales personnel (especially middle- and high-level executives) indicates that business operations are extremely unstable, and many problems become unresolved.

The first purchase proposal is reasonable. Manufacturers really want to do a solid market, they should be responsible for the dealers, the first purchase volume requirements should be realistic, and have a corresponding promotion plan, the kind of desperately encourage customers for the first time on a large number of manufacturers may be a one-stroke deal .

Is there cooperation sincerity? Has the factory initiative to propose your regional and time limits for distribution? If the factory says: "Do not talk about distribution rights first, do it first. If the dealer is competent, then sign the distribution agreement." Then such manufacturers are skeptical.

Whether to pay attention to contract culture. Problems such as factory out of stock compensation, payment settlement methods, quality assurance, rebate settlement period, and manufacturer's sanctions against irregularities, etc., can easily cause vendor disputes. A sincere and reputable manufacturer will pay great attention to the contract culture and will be ugly. This will make the cooperation between the two parties easier. If manufacturers are rushing to choose new dealers and what are promised, they are reluctant to come up with a complete cooperation agreement, indicating that the manufacturers have no sincerity or simply no ability to operate, let alone credibility.

3, market capacity inspection.

The ability of hardware manufacturers to operate the market is directly related to the success or failure of distributors to represent their products. The specific inspection issues include:

Market performance. Understand the market performance of the company's products in other regions, such as: product series, price system, factory input business personnel, advertising fees, store support, sales.

Advertising investment. The factory invested in the local market's advertising investment plan and other developed markets; what time, place, and under what conditions, in what way to put advertising.

The quality of personnel. For distributors, the supervisors and sales personnel assigned by the manufacturers are direct partners. Their professional qualities, professionalism and professional ethics are directly related to the future cooperation. Good manufacturers and poor marketers cannot cooperate. Poor manufacturers and good marketers can consider cooperation. The quality of personnel can be understood from the following aspects: whether or not they have received systematic professional training, whether the product features, brand characteristics and other factors of the factory are clear, whether they have a full understanding of the local market and competing products and can put forward their own views, whether there is a specific market Plan and so on.

The content of these inspections requires the dealers to carefully understand and analyze them before they can make a reasonable judgment to the manufacturer and decide whether to cooperate with them. There are many ways to understand this information, such as inquiries to industry peers, factory distributors, other hardware manufacturers, and factory sales representatives. You can also make use of purchases, business trips, and other business trips to conduct field trips. You can also ask the factory to provide written documents. .

As a hardware dealer, don't worry that the manufacturer will suspect you "too much" and look for other targets. Manufacturers are most welcome dealers who have brains, market knowledge, and rigorous responsibilities. Picky is the real buyer, and manufacturers understand this.