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?
Chings Noodle Marketing Strategy
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:
Chings Noodle Marketing Strategy
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
Work Part Time At Home or Start a Full Time Business?
A critical issue which should be addressed early is whether to start your business work part time at home or whether you should go all out and start a full time business.
It is very common to have two full-time incomes in a household. If your spouse has a secure full-time job, evaluate your living expenses to see whether you can afford to quit your job to devote all your energies to your new business. If you can afford not to work for somebody else, you can devote yourself to creating positive cash flow in your new business as quickly as possible.
If you stay at your job while starting to work part time at home, do not compete with your employer. On the one hand make sure your employer continues to be happy; on the other hand, be as demanding of yourself in your own business as your boss is of you at your job. Remember that your business is your future. It is easy to let life get in the way of what you have to do in your business, especially if you work from home. You must have the ability to set your priorities and stick to them. On the other hand, pace yourself. You will be physically exhausted so schedule time off to fight stress.
Time Management is Critical
In either case, whether full time or part time, time management is of the essence. Change your views about time! We often get caught up in the mindset that There just isnt enough time in the day. There is enough timeand it is up to you to choose how to use it! One good technique is to write a to-do list each week and each day. These are the critical things you need to do to advance your business. Its so easy to be in emergency mode, constantly putting out fires. Your critical to-do list will keep you on track. Whatever is not done in a given day automatically goes to the top of the list the next day. For more ideas about time management skills, and a step-by-step guide to beating procrastination, click here.
