Dealer and distributor audits: what to check and how to ask

The word "audit" can make a dealer reach for the books and close the shutter. The visit you want is different. You walk in on a day the dealer knows about and look at six things with a written sheet. You leave having agreed two changes for the dealer and one for you. Whether it feels like support or a raid depends a lot on what you say in the first minute and how you end. Here is the visit in three scenes, with the sheet at the end.

Scene one: the first minute

Tell the dealer the date in advance, and what you will look at. Then open with what you will do for the dealer, not what you will check.

"I am here to see how our line is moving in your shop and what is holding it back. I will take a few photographs, if you are happy with that, and make notes. Afterwards I would like ten minutes to tell you what I saw and to hear what you need from us."

Ask about stock before you look at it, and let the dealer lead you to the shelf. Where you are taken first suggests what matters to the dealer. Where you are steered away from may tell you something too, though the back of a shop is sometimes just untidy.

Keep questions open during the walk and hold your corrections for the end. A correction at the counter, in front of a customer, undoes the whole visit.

Scene two: the six things you look at

Look in this order, because it follows the way a buyer meets the shop.

Display. Where does your product sit against rivals? Are boards and cards up, clean and not covered by a rival's? Photograph it.

Stock. Which of your lines are present, in what condition, and with older batches at the front or the back? Ask what sells fastest and what runs out.

Price. Compare the tag, and what is quoted to a walk-in, with your list. Ask when the dealer goes lower and why.

Claims. Listen to what the dealer says when a buyer asks about warranty, life or features. Write the words down as said.

Complaints. Ask to see the notebook or register of returns, what came back last time and how it ended. Count the open ones.

Paperwork. Look at invoices, warranty cards and returns slips. Which are filled in and which are blank?

Rate each from one to five and add one line saying what you would change.

Scene three: the last ten minutes

End every visit the same way, with three parts.

First, say what went well and mean it. The stock was current, the board was clean, the new model was known.

Second, agree two things the dealer will change, not eight. Write them on the sheet and ask the dealer to initial it.

Third, name one thing you will do: replace the faded board, send the missing line, chase the old complaint. Then do it, and say when.

Send a short note the same day with the two items and the date you will look at them again. That date turns an audit into a habit. The wider numbers behind it, such as billing and stock cover, are in how to measure dealer and distributor performance.

The sheet

Dealer / town / date / who visited:
Display     /5   photo taken Y/N   rival covering ours Y/N
Stock       /5   lines missing: ____   old stock: ____
Price       /5   tag ____  quoted ____  our list ____
Claims      /5   dealer's words: ______________________
Complaints  /5   open: __   oldest: __
Paperwork   /5   warranty cards filled Y/N
Two changes for the dealer (initialled):
One thing we will do, and by when:

When the claims line shows a problem

This is the row to handle with the most care. A dealer who tells buyers something wrong about your product is not always dishonest. The line may have come from a former salesperson, or been a guess.

Correct it with something the dealer can hold: a printed warranty card, a one-line sheet of what the product does and does not do, a sticker on the carton. Some claims could mislead a buyer in a way a regulator or consumer forum would care about, such as a health, safety or warranty promise. Say so plainly and ask your own adviser how to word the correction. Rules differ by state and body and change.

An invented example: a tarpaulin maker visiting Amravati

Take an invented maker of woven tarpaulins and plastic sheets in Surendranagar with a dealer in Amravati. The dealer's stock was current and the display held the best spot in the shop. The claims line told another story. A farmer asked how long a sheet would last. "Ten years, waterproof, no problem," said the dealer. The maker's own sheets carry no such promise, and the dealer had borrowed the line from a brand sold before.

The area manager did not lecture, and handed the dealer a card with the actual terms, put one on the counter and asked the dealer to staple one to every bill. The two agreed changes were to use the card and to move last season's stock to the front with a clear mark-down. The manager's own task was to send fresh cards.

At the next visit the cards were on the counter and the old stock had moved. The ten-year line still slipped out once in conversation, so the manager raised it again, gently. Two complaints about leaking seams were already open, and those had to be dealt with separately.

When to hold off

Not in the first weeks of a new appointment, when the dealer is still setting up. Use onboarding steps then. Not in a festival rush, when the shop cannot spare you. And never when you are unwilling to act on what you find. A sheet that records the same problem three times and leads to nothing teaches the dealer to ignore it.

Run it once before you roll it out

Pick a dealer you trust, announce the visit and run the sheet as written. Then take it to one who has gone quiet. Dealer and distributor audits is the service for running this across a network, and the rest of our sales work sits under sales. To adapt the sheet to your product and network, tell us what you need.