Distribution management of distribution

Taking industrialized products as an example, today's industrialized products have gone through seven stages: market research, product design, research and development, production, marketing, sales and after-sales service. Among them, the process from the factory to the user's purchase is to complete the sales and service of goods with the help of external resources such as distribution network. The management of this process by enterprises is distribution management.

As most enterprises whose main sales channel is distribution, with the continuous expansion of their business, many enterprises have distribution networks all over the country. Dealers are not only their partners, but also the forefront of their market, sales and service. Therefore, it is the expected goal of every enterprise to know the business situation of dealers in time and give necessary cooperation. However, due to the inconsistent development of information technology, a lot of information exchange still needs a lot of manual intervention. Under the traditional methods such as manual, telephone and fax, enterprises often can't accurately understand the business and financial information of dealers, which leads to problems in distribution channels. For example, corporate headquarters cannot monitor the operating conditions of branches, offices and business outlets in real time; The feedback of data information such as ordering, sales and inventory is not timely, and enterprises cannot effectively determine the production scale and delivery time of goods; There is often a backlog and shortage of goods, which affects the normal turnover of funds; At present, the collection of documents and business data is seriously lagging behind and the accuracy is poor, which is not conducive to statistics, analysis and processing; Customer demand and market information are not fed back to the headquarters in time, which makes it very blind for enterprises to make production forecasts and commodity allocation plans, and lacks accurate data and information support for business decisions. The result even affects the decision-making and strategic deployment of the whole enterprise and becomes a bottleneck restricting the development of the enterprise. Therefore, distribution management plays a very important role in the process of enterprise management.

Through distribution management, enterprises can have strong macro-control ability in supply chain management, and can provide customers with complete comprehensive management functions of transactions, goods, funds, bills and other information. It is of great significance for enterprises to reduce manual business processing, promote information sharing among departments, realize on-demand production, reduce inventory and improve competitiveness. There are many distribution business models in distribution management, including: channel structure, sales mode, settlement mode, storage and transportation mode, training system, advertising, promotion mode and so on. People often seldom emphasize the business model, and their focus is on how to sell goods to dealers. It is seldom emphasized that the consequence of business model is to hoard goods to dealers and block access. In order to replenish blood, dealers have to stock up on goods, which will inevitably disrupt the price system of enterprises. Therefore, in order to occupy the market for a long time, we must consider the interests of consumers, distributors and production enterprises and build a sound network from the business model.

2. Electronic information management

It is a highly intelligent enterprise distribution business solution based on enterprise business process optimization, with sales and inventory integrated control management as the core, and integrating functions such as purchasing, inventory, sales, promotion management, finance and enterprise decision analysis. IT is suitable for all kinds of enterprises with multi-site distributed distribution network, whose branches and distributors are the main executors of the system operation, and consumer goods enterprises with cross-regional management needs will be the biggest beneficiaries of the system (such as IT electronic products/communication industry/electrical appliance industry/daily chemical industry/food industry/clothing industry, etc.). ). As the name implies, it is a distribution mode in which manufacturers are deeply involved and occupy a dominant position in the operation of distribution network. In an ideal deep distribution model of consumer goods, manufacturers are responsible for business personnel management, network development, terminal maintenance, display and promotion, and dealers are only responsible for part of logistics and capital flow. But in reality, this is only an ideal situation, and no enterprise can fully achieve this goal.

4. Key account management

Modern retail channels are more and more developed, and a few retail giants occupy a higher and higher market share. In this case, manufacturers are forced to use a lot of resources to support these channels, and set up a special working group for them to be responsible for inventory distribution, terminal vivid management, terminal promotion implementation and so on. In order to stand out from the competition of all brands in these terminals and occupy a more favorable position. Refers to the ability of enterprises to control distribution channels. If the company has strong control ability, it can better manage the sales staff and understand the changes in market demand, so as to sell its products and services more effectively.

Although the enterprise has invested a lot in establishing its own distribution system, it can ensure the company's control over the distribution channels. The longer the distribution channel, the weaker the company's control over price, sales, promotion means and sales methods. There are two ways to strengthen the control of distribution channels. One is to establish their own distribution agencies near customers, and the other is to shorten the distribution channels as much as possible. The specific choice depends on the company's capital and management ability. Three goals of market coverage: reaching the target sales volume; Achieve the target market share; Achieve satisfactory market penetration. Sometimes, due to various reasons, enterprises cannot achieve the above three goals at the same time, but always focus on one thing and lose another. At this time, enterprises need to provide these three.

Prioritize the goals and make clear which is the most important core goal for the company's long-term development. For example, due to the limited channels and funds, some enterprises do not require all markets to be taken into account in the actual marketing process, but strengthen market penetration in densely populated areas. The characteristics mentioned here include company characteristics and target market characteristics. The former mainly refers to the nature of the product, such as physical properties and technical content, and also includes other company-related contents besides the product, such as the company's scale, reputation and financial status. These attributes determine what kind of channel sales the company is suitable for. For example, insurance products need to be sold through short channels, while standardized products can be sold through long channels. For another example, high-end cosmetics are suitable for sale in department stores or cosmetics stores with elegant shopping environment.

The characteristics of target market include customer characteristics, middleman characteristics and competitor characteristics. If customers buy less and buy less frequently, companies should adopt longer distribution channels. Factors such as whether the middleman bears the cost of storage, transportation and advertising should also be taken into account. In addition, the company should also determine its own channel strategy according to the situation of competitors. Market research institutions predict that the emergence of internet commerce makes the position of channel middlemen in jeopardy, because electronic channels make direct transactions between suppliers and customers possible. Looking back on the distribution process of IT industry in the past 10 years, in the early 1990s, domestic distribution channels just sprouted, and the channel market was dominated by products. Dealers have obtained better general agent rights for products, and can easily open up the situation by relying on their local advantages in a certain regional market. Dealers in this period did not emphasize nationality, and most of them were located in a corner, but emphasized regional advantages, so the number was considerable and the quality was mixed. With the gradual maturity of the domestic IT market, by 1996, the first round of elimination of distributors appeared. Powerful distributors with standardized management and adapting to market development began to expand their territory one after another, and set up branches all over the country, changing from regional distributors to national distributors, and the number of large domestic distributors decreased from the previous mixed fish to dragon to 10.

By 1998, with the maturity of domestic IT channel system, caring for users has become a trend. As more and more foreign IT manufacturers turn to customer-oriented sales, dealers also turn to customer-oriented management, and specialized distribution has become the mainstream. During this period, distributors either held high the application banner (such as Lenovo Technology at that time) or began to cooperate with foreign distribution giants (such as ingram micro, China and Du Jia International). They began to integrate their own channel resources with internal networks in order to pursue "the big one is Evergrande, and the strong one is strong". Super dealers began to appear, and the number of active super dealers began to shrink to only about five. The most typical feature of distributors at this stage is the application of ERP fever.

Network distribution refers to making full use of the channel characteristics of the Internet, establishing a product distribution system on the Internet, and distributing goods to all parts of the country through the Internet. Network distribution can be divided into "consignment" and "wholesale" two forms:

(1) Online consignment: generally for personal online stores, etc.

Online distributors display products through their online distribution platforms, and distribution members add pictures and information of products to their online stores. When customers need it, the distribution members are responsible for introducing the products and promoting the success of the transaction, and then inform the online distributors to deliver the goods on their behalf. Distribution members earn their income mainly by the price difference, which is a "zero risk" entrepreneurial model for individuals.

(2) Network wholesale: generally targeted at individual online merchants, physical stores, online specialty store, etc.

Online wholesale is the same as traditional commodity wholesale, only through the network. Online distributors display goods through their own online distribution platforms, and "distribution members" directly place orders for a specified number of goods online, and pay for the goods or pay for the goods.

The development trend of network distribution;

First, B2B is much larger than B2C in scale.

For a simple example, the exchange and circulation of consumer goods can be simply described as B2B raw material procurement, B2B online distribution and B2C retail. So from the perspective of sales scale alone, B2B is much bigger than B2C.

Looking at a set of data from the US Bureau of Statistics, the sales revenue of manufacturers accounts for 42.0% of 4,436 billion yuan, the sales revenue of middlemen (B2B e-commerce) accounts for 5 1660, and the sales revenue of retailers only accounts for 4.0% of 3,638 billion yuan. Therefore, from the perspective of sales, B2B has a far greater impact on enterprises than B2C.

Second, B2B online distribution will become a new trend of e-commerce.

The domestic e-commerce market is constantly expanding, and the Internet is triggering a revolution in the era of consumption. B2B online distribution will become a new trend of e-commerce.

1. Limitations of traditional distribution model

The traditional distribution mode is generally carried out by region, and the manufacturer-general agent-regional general agent-local agent-retailer. After layers of links, products finally flow to consumers, during which many problems such as staffing and management defects are highlighted.

Online distribution does not have these restrictions, which not only breaks through the geographical restrictions, but also enables agents and products to realize information and data management. Through the database, a lot of energy is saved, the input of manpower, material resources and financial resources is greatly reduced, and a lot of costs are saved, so the distribution is simpler and more convenient.

2. Potential of online distribution channels

Through the online distribution system, enterprises can save a lot of costs, use limited resources, cross the time and geographical restrictions, and get more benefits. On the internet, there is enough space and market for brand promotion and product promotion; Online distribution can also have direct contact with consumers, reducing intermediate links; Can control the price market and avoid price wars and bad competition patterns; We can develop various channels and agents to expand the distribution market. ...

Third, the object of B2B online distribution.

Personally, enterprises with the following conditions can carry out e-commerce online distribution:

1, traditional wholesaler

Through online distribution, on the one hand, it can serve the original downstream agents, distributors and retailers, on the other hand, it can expand the scope of channels and develop new distributors and retailers, that is, mid-range retailers in 4-6 tier cities, with wider profit channels and richer long tail income.

2. Traditional chain business

Traditional chain business can integrate sellers' resources through online distribution, expand sales opportunities and be more attractive to upstream suppliers. MRO means maintenance, repair and operation (maintenance, repair &; Operations) refers to the distribution of industrial supplies that do not produce raw materials.

In the United States, MRO distribution industry is a big market of more than $250 billion. In developed countries such as Europe and America, non-productive raw materials are mainly provided by some large MRO suppliers. They can provide almost all non-productive raw materials needed by general enterprises through a product catalogue with thousands of pages, and there are tens of thousands of products. This MRO supply model is quite mature in the west, which directly enhances the competitiveness of western industrial manufacturing.

There are dozens of large MRO suppliers in the United States, the largest of which is Grainger:, which was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2007 with sales of $6.4 billion, and is known as the Wal-Mart giant in the world. As a Fortune 500 company with a history of 80 years, Guan Jie's core business is to provide enterprises with one-stop procurement services for industrial MRO supplies. DRP (Distribution Resource Planning) distribution resource planning (Distribution Resource Planning) is a system for managing the distribution network of enterprises, aiming at enabling enterprises to respond to orders and supplies quickly and continuously replenish inventory.

DRP organically connects suppliers and distributors through the Internet, which provides a brand-new model for business operation and cooperation with trading partners. Suppliers and distributors can submit orders in real time, inquire about product supply and inventory status, obtain market, sales information and customer support, realize end-to-end supply chain management between suppliers and distributors, and effectively shorten the supply and marketing chain.

With the extension and convenience of the Internet, the new model makes the business process no longer limited by time, place and personnel, and the work efficiency and business scope of enterprises have been effectively improved. Enterprises can also quickly build a B2B e-commerce platform, expand existing business and sales capabilities, achieve zero-risk inventory, greatly reduce distribution costs, improve turnover efficiency, and ensure a competitive advantage in one step. Integrated distribution is to subdivide customer groups, integrate the resources of enterprises and channels for different customers, and provide better products and services for customers; According to different customers, enterprises, channels and channels will further clarify the division of labor, realize complementary advantages, and then cultivate their respective core competitiveness. Specific measures include: implementing the general manager responsibility system for dealers; Clear the positioning of dealers, clear the products, regions and customers of dealers, and reduce conflicts between dealers; Establish a "locked relationship" between power grid industry representatives and channels, and clarify responsibilities. and

Compared with the past "mixed marketing", the essence of "integrated distribution" has not changed much, but at least in terms of expression, "integrated distribution" redefines the main position of distribution-but it is integrated and different from the previous distribution. Through effective communication with consumers and guided by the value of meeting consumers' needs, enterprises determine their own unified distribution channels and sales strategies, and at the same time coordinate the use of different means of communication, give full play to the advantages of different means of communication, form a powerful propaganda offensive and promotion climax at a lower cost, and help enterprises achieve differentiation and win more customers.

As a management theory, integrated distribution is an important part of enterprise development strategy and business strategy. Through the integration of various resources and elements inside and outside the enterprise, the enterprise has truly completed the transformation from production as the core to marketing and customer service as the core.