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?
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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:
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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
ITC bags another accolade for its IT Rural Transformation: e-Choupal
ITC e-Choupal has won the prestigious Stockholm Challenge Award 2006 in the Economic Development category. The ten-year-old Stockholm Challenge Award recognises initaitives that leverage Information Technology to improve living conditions and increase economic growth in all parts of the world. It focuses on social inclusion world wide and champions ICT projects that show clear benefits to people and their communities, wide impact and sustainable business models. This year a total of 1155 entries were received from across more than 100 countries and 26 of these were shortlisted as finalists in the Economic Development category.You can read the case study – “ITC eChoupal Case Study .. Rural Transformation “The Award was presented on May 11, 2006 at a glittering ceremony at the Stockholm City Hall, where Nobel Prizes are awarded. This award crowns a series of global recognition for ITC e-Choupal, making it the most lauded information technology-based rural transformation model. The project has been awarded the ICC-UNDP-IBLF World Business Award in 2004 for furthering United Nations Millennium Development Goals and the Development Gateway Award in 2005 for contributing to the economic development of rural communities. It is also a case study at the Harvard Business School.“ITC e-Choupal is playing a transformational role in turning rural communities into vibrant economic organisations — by fostering inclusive growth and enhancing their wealth creation capability. Recognitions like the Stockholm Challenge Award provide us impetus to pursue our sustainable development goals with added vigour”, Chairman Y C Deveshwar said.Present State: ITC e-Choupal, the largest Internet based intervention in rural India, empowers over 3.5 million farmers in 35,000 villages by enabling them to readily access crop-specific, customised information through vernacular websites.Vision: Over the next decade, the ITC e-Choupal network aims to cover over 100,000 Indian villages, representing 1/6th of rural India, and create more than 10 million e-farmers.More News on ITC Limited.Thats awesome. Hats off to ITC’s contribution to Rural India!!
