Sales channels to reach your customers
Selling through retailers, wholesalers and other distributors
Selling through an intermediary may be a more cost-effective way of reaching your end-customers than selling to them directly.
If you are targeting business customers who prefer to deal with large suppliers, selling directly to them may not be a realistic option. Instead, you might aim to supply wholesalers who have existing relationships with those businesses.
If individual consumers buy low value quantities of your products, the best option might be to target retailers that sell similar products. Or you might choose to focus your efforts on a relatively small number of wholesalers who can in turn supply your products to many retailers.
Other distribution channels may also reach your end-customers. For example, technology suppliers often sell to resellers who can configure and install the technology to suit end-users’ particular needs.
Managing your distributors
You need distributors who will value your product. If they sell competing products, what will make them push yours?
kitchen king masala Sales Promotion operation
Think about how you set your prices. Distributors will be more enthusiastic if they can make a large profit – but setting too low a price will eat into your own margins.
Effective advertising and promotions can be vital. As well as marketing to the distributor, you can promote your products directly to end-customers. Distributors will be keener to stock and sell products that their customers are asking for.
The key terms of the supply relationship should be covered in a written contract. Key issues might include:
kitchen king masala Sales Promotion operation
how much stock the distributor will hold
what the distributor will do to promote your products
how quickly you can resupply and minimum order levels
whether the distributor has exclusive rights to your product (for example, in a particular territory)
what happens if either you or the distributor want to end the relationship
Business ideas, Marketing and sales , promotions and advertising ideas , articles
Warranty Management – Meaning and its Components
Warranty Management – Meaning and its Components
Warranty Management had been traditionally viewed by companies as a cost of doing business. The costs of warranty management were found to be costing between 4 to 5 percent of the total sales revenue of the company per annum and were considered to be the cost of providing customer satisfaction and as an opportunity to building customer relationship.
However over the last few years, many organizations have realized the underlying value that can be realized in this area. Today Warranty Management is considered to be a separate revenue stream. The process of Warranty Management has evolved over a period. The benchmarking of best practices have led to reduction in cost of service delivery of parts with increase in customer satisfaction and an independent revenue stream of warranty services.
What is Warranty ?
Warranty is a statement of assurance or undertaking issued by the manufacturer of a product concerning the performance of the product and parts supplied by him by way of sale transaction to the customer, for a certain period as stated in the Warranty Card accompanying the product. In other words, it is a performance guarantee for the product given by the manufacturer. In case of any poor performance due to the nonperformance of any part or defect in any part of the product, will be made good by the supplier/manufacturer with either replacement of the part or product or repair of the product.
Important Components of Warranty Management System
Warranty Management is today a separate function of Service Parts Management Stream in the organization. Service Parts Managers are P & L heads of their department and the entire business unit functions as a profit center with its revenue and cost budget.
Service Parts Management Team
Service Parts Management Teams and structure are the Service Support Delivery owners and function as primary contact points with the customer. At the first level Service, support teams comprise of Customer Desk, which is the first point contact for the customers to register the service request. Technicians and Engineers as front end site supports and second point contacts to the customers. Parts Support Managers oversee the functioning of the operations and take responsibility to close calls and for delivery performance.
Warranty Management and Claims Processing System
The entire business process and workflow management are driven by the Internet and e-commerce enabled system application that generally consists of the following modules:
Service Warranty Database and Tracker (Database information uploaded from Sales Module)
Service Request Registration, authorization, service job ticket issue, job ticket closure & Report functions.
Parts procurement request, parts issue authorization
Parts Inventory Management, Purchase Order Management, Repair Management, Vendor Management etc.
Logistics Service Management and Parts Supply Chain Management processes are driven outside the above system, managed by 3PL service providers and Logistics teams.
SME Experts
Service Parts Teams are supported by a team of Subject Matter Experts. Escalation processes determine the nature of technical support required to be assigned and timelines for service issue closures.
Parts Procurement and Logistics
Parts Procurement and Logistics may be handled by a single department or by separate teams depending upon the volume of business and the management structure.
These functions manage parts procurement functions, inbound logistics, parts warehousing and distribution on the outbound cycle.
Reverse Logistics functions managed by the team involve – Parts collection, parts segregation, inventory holding of defective parts, parts repair, warranty replacement with OE manufacturer, Re-Export, and Waste disposal or Scrapping functions.
Warranty Management is Cross Functional Team Effort
? PREVIOUS ARTICLE NEXT ARTICLE ?
Share the knowledge!
Similar Articles Under – Supply Chain Management
Logistics Solution Design Document
Inventory Migration
Inventory Migration Scope
Supply Chain Network
Supply Chain Network Design
VIEW ALL ARTICLES
Authorship/Referencing – About the Author(s)
The article is Written By Prachi Juneja and Reviewed By Management Study Guide Content Team. MSG Content Team comprises experienced Faculty Member, Professionals and Subject Matter Experts. We are a ISO 2001:2015 Certified Education Provider. To Know more, click on About Us. The use of this material is free for learning and education purpose. Please reference authorship of content used, including link(s) to ManagementStudyGuide.com and the content page url.
