The #1 tool to manage distributors

Build your Distribution "Qualitometer"

If you're a salesperson in charge of managing distributors, you know that you're faced with a number of difficulties.

The first is choosing your distributors. You will need to define selection criteria, and the better your distributors match these criteria, the easier it will be for you to succeed in developing your sales. With each distributor you recruit, you'll need to negotiate a certain number of efforts that will have a positive impact on your sales success in their region. You need to think about the list of efforts you expect your distributors to make to guarantee success. And ensure that these criteria are included in the monitoring table you will need.

This tracking table will be the cornerstone of your distributor management.

Thanks to this table you will be able to:

• choose for each distributor the objective of your next visit or telephone contact
• plan your actions with each distributor
• analyse the strengths and weaknesses of your entire distributor portfolio
• also analyse your strengths and weaknesses in managing your portfolio 
• analyse with your manager the strategy and action plans to be implemented.

If you are the manager of a team of distributor managers, whether you are defining the criteria or constructing the rating scale, I would advise you not to impose your ideas on your sales staff. Let them contribute to the work. You'll be the winner. Because it's important that the criteria and scoring system are understood and accepted by everyone.

This work can be done during a sales meeting, or during a specific workshop such as the ones I run.

In my experience, it can take anywhere from a few hours to a day to get to the end of the process and reach a relevant consensus.