To the majority of small and medium-sized hardware dealers three tips to choose the manufacturer that suits you
author: Eva
2024-05-22
The vast majority of successful hardware dealers benefit from the support of manufacturers, but some dealers lose their lives at the hands of manufacturers. Whether the manufacturer's choice is reasonable or not is likely to directly change the fate of the dealer, especially in the hardware industry where market competition is becoming increasingly fierce. If the dealer conducts a comprehensive understanding and inspection of the manufacturer at the beginning of cooperation, it can get twice the result with half the effort for future business.
First of all, hardware dealers need to find enough manufacturer information. There are many ways, including: authoritative media in the industry, portal websites, professional exhibitions and recommendations from industry friends. In addition, off-site market inspections are also an effective way to find manufacturer information.
Secondly, after understanding the manufacturer's information, before deciding to cooperate with the manufacturer, you need to go through some processes to conduct some analysis and judgment on the manufacturer's situation, such as:
1. Filter and screen the collected manufacturer information, and select some companies with good product reputations as alternatives;
2. Conduct market surveys in person to understand the performance, operation, and sales of alternative manufacturers and products in the market;
3. Participate in the manufacturer’s regional and national market investment fairs or negotiate with sales staff to understand the normal distribution and market support provided by the manufacturer to merchants;
4. If you plan to have long-term cooperation with an alternative manufacturer, it is necessary to conduct an on-site inspection at the manufacturer.
The most important thing is that before deciding to cooperate with a hardware manufacturer, in addition to considering the manufacturer's most basic distribution policy, you should also conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the manufacturer, and examine the company's strength, reputation, and market capabilities.
1. Strength inspection
The more unknown a company is, the more important it is to examine its strength. Otherwise, the manufacturer will "shut down" midway. Not only will the dealer's initial investment be in vain, but there will also be no way to recover a lot of problems such as warehouse inventory and due rebates, resulting in huge losses. ! Questions to ask specifically about include:
Basic issues such as the number of employees, employee quality, and company history.
Sales status. Including annual sales, hot-selling areas, slow-selling areas, unstarted areas, etc.
Production operating rate. It can be estimated by understanding the production equipment capacity and actual sales volume. You can also ask to visit the factory and observe from behind the scenes. If the actual production operating rate of the company is less than 20% or 30%, it means that the current operating situation is very poor, the sales situation is poor, and the financial situation is poor!
Product line portfolio. Does the company have a rich product line? Will there be a shortcoming of high sales in the peak season and low sales in the off-season? Mature companies will inevitably have a scientific product portfolio that can meet the different needs of consumers.
2. Credibility inspection
When cooperating with manufacturers, it is very important to see whether the other party is sincere, reputable and reliable. Specifically, you need to know the following questions:
① Whether the return and exchange commitments are fulfilled in time, and whether the rebates and rewards are on time.
②Have there been any product quality problems and whether they have been actively dealt with. If the product quality is not up to par, it shows that the company is not strong enough. If it does not actively and responsibly deal with it, it will also show that the company's business style is not correct.
③Whether there is sincerity in cooperation. Has the manufacturer proactively proposed the area and time limit for your distribution rights?
④Whether we pay attention to contract culture. A sincere and reputable manufacturer will pay great attention to the contract culture and speak ugly words first, so that cooperation between both parties will be easy. If a manufacturer is careless about selecting new dealers and agrees to any request, but is unwilling to come up with a complete cooperation agreement, it means that the manufacturer has no sincerity or no operating capabilities at all, let alone credibility.
3. Market capability inspection
The ability of hardware manufacturers to operate the market is directly related to the success or failure of dealers to represent their products. Specific inspection issues include:
①Market performance. Understand the market performance of the company's products in other regions, such as: product series, price series, factory investment in business personnel, advertising fees, store support, sales volume, etc.
② Advertising investment. The manufacturer's advertising investment plan for the local market and investment in other developed markets; when, where, under what conditions and in what way it will invest in advertising.
③Personnel quality. For dealers, the supervisors and sales staff stationed by the manufacturer are direct collaborators, and their professional quality, professionalism and professional ethics are directly related to the quality of future cooperation. Good manufacturers and poor marketers cannot cooperate, but poor manufacturers and good marketers can consider cooperation. You can understand the quality of personnel from the following aspects: whether they have received systematic professional training, whether they are clear about the product characteristics, brand characteristics and other factors of the factory, whether they have a full understanding of the local market and competing products and can put forward their own opinions, and whether they have specific markets. Plan etc.
1. Strength inspection
The more unknown a company is, the more important it is to examine its strength. Otherwise, the manufacturer will "shut down" midway. Not only will the dealer's initial investment be in vain, but there will also be no way to recover a lot of problems such as warehouse inventory and due rebates, resulting in huge losses. ! Questions to ask specifically about include:
Basic issues such as the number of employees, employee quality, and company history.
Sales status. Including annual sales, hot-selling areas, slow-selling areas, unstarted areas, etc.
Production operating rate. It can be estimated by understanding the production equipment capacity and actual sales volume. You can also ask to visit the factory and observe from behind the scenes. If the actual production operating rate of the company is less than 20% or 30%, it means that the current operating situation is very poor, the sales situation is poor, and the financial situation is poor!
Product line portfolio. Does the company have a rich product line? Will there be a shortcoming of high sales in the peak season and low sales in the off-season? Mature companies will inevitably have a scientific product portfolio that can meet the different needs of consumers.
2. Credibility inspection
When cooperating with manufacturers, it is very important to see whether the other party is sincere, reputable and reliable. Specifically, you need to know the following questions:
① Whether the return and exchange commitments are fulfilled in time, and whether the rebates and rewards are on time.
②Have there been any product quality problems and whether they have been actively dealt with. If the product quality is not up to par, it shows that the company is not strong enough. If it does not actively and responsibly deal with it, it will also show that the company's business style is not correct.
③Whether there is sincerity in cooperation. Has the manufacturer proactively proposed the area and time limit for your distribution rights?
④Whether we pay attention to contract culture. A sincere and reputable manufacturer will pay great attention to the contract culture and speak ugly words first, so that cooperation between both parties will be easy. If a manufacturer is careless about selecting new dealers and agrees to any request, but is unwilling to come up with a complete cooperation agreement, it means that the manufacturer has no sincerity or no operating capabilities at all, let alone credibility.
3. Market capability inspection
The ability of hardware manufacturers to operate the market is directly related to the success or failure of dealers to represent their products. Specific inspection issues include:
①Market performance. Understand the market performance of the company's products in other regions, such as: product series, price series, factory investment in business personnel, advertising fees, store support, sales volume, etc.
② Advertising investment. The manufacturer's advertising investment plan for the local market and investment in other developed markets; when, where, under what conditions and in what way it will invest in advertising.
③Personnel quality. For dealers, the supervisors and sales staff stationed by the manufacturer are direct collaborators, and their professional quality, professionalism and professional ethics are directly related to the quality of future cooperation. Good manufacturers and poor marketers cannot cooperate, but poor manufacturers and good marketers can consider cooperation. You can understand the quality of personnel from the following aspects: whether they have received systematic professional training, whether they are clear about the product characteristics, brand characteristics and other factors of the factory, whether they have a full understanding of the local market and competing products and can put forward their own opinions, and whether they have specific markets. Plan etc.
The above inspection contents need to be carefully understood and analyzed by the dealer before they can make a reasonable judgment on the manufacturer and decide whether to cooperate with it.
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