Be clear about what you want !

Negotiate the implementation of your business key success factors

Whenever I ask a company what motivates their distributors, the answer is always the same: firstly, the prospect of making a profit. Then the popularity of the product, the ease with which it can be sold and the guarantee of good support from the supplier.

So let's be pragmatic. When we approach a distributor, let's use a presentation framework that meets these expectations: Present your product by demonstrating why it meets the expectations of your distributor's market, show as much as possible that it will be easy to sell, demonstrate the profitability for the distributor of promoting and selling your product, and detail the support that your company is prepared to provide.

If the distributor is interested, this will be the moment - don't miss it - to ask them, in return for a partnership, to commit to respecting your way of working, and to putting in place all the key factors for their future success. There are several of these that I advise you not to compromise on:

• setting up your qualitomer success criteria,
• complete training for your sales staff in your products and how to sell them,
• setting up visit reports for yourself
• and holding regular business reviews with you.

I also recommend that you factor these commitments into the price you charge the distributor. There will be a "distributor base price", and "preferential pricing options" based on the above criteria. I'll leave you to think about it. That's easy.

Anchor these conditions from the outset. After that it's too late, or it will become more difficult. The best advice I can give you is the one I received early on from my mentors: "Be credible and demanding". Without credibility, it's difficult to ask for anything. Not to ask is to lose credibility.