How to choose a distributor: a visit checklist

A distributor who talks well in the office has told you nothing about whether your goods will move through a district. You find that out by turning up at hours the distributor did not choose and asking to see things that were not prepared. Plan the visit as a day with four stops, take the same sheet to every candidate, and visit at least two so that the scores mean something.

Stop one: the loading bay, first thing in the morning

Be there when the vans load, which in many trades is early morning. A distributor who is only available from eleven may be showing you the real working day.

Watch four things. How many vehicles load, and whose drivers are they? Is there a dispatch slate or register for the day, or only memory? Which brands fill the front of the godown? Are cartons off the floor, with older stock at the front and nothing damp or dusty?

The walk-away signs are specific. One vehicle, with retailers expected to come to the distributor. Rival cartons stacked to the roof while yours are promised "the front rack". No record of today's dispatch.

Stop two: the desk, mid-morning

Ask to see paper, politely and in the same way you would expect to be asked yourself. Three documents tell you most.

A few recent purchase bills from other principals, with the dates they were paid. If several show old dues "adjusted", expect that you may be treated the same way. A receivables list shop by shop, because a distributor who has lent heavily to a few large retailers may have no cash to buy your stock. And a stock report showing what sits longest.

Ask which three items the distributor reorders most often and which three have been in the godown longest. The answer shows where your product would land. If stock cover is very high and payments to principals are late, the principals may be financing the godown, and you would be one of them.

Some distributors refuse to open the books. Note what they say and score the refusal, but do not decide on the spot. A family firm may have good reasons.

Stop three: two retailers the distributor serves

This is the stop most owners skip. Ask the distributor to take you, or let you walk, into two shops from the distributor's list, one large and one small. Ask the shopkeeper three things: how often the distributor's salesperson calls, whether orders arrive when promised, and what happens to a damaged carton.

You are also testing a claim. If the distributor said they supply forty shops in a town, the two you meet should know the salesperson by name. A retailer who has to think before remembering the distributor's visit is telling you how often it happens.

If you are not allowed to meet any shop, that is itself a result. Score it and ask why.

Stop four: the sales team, late afternoon

Meet the people who will carry your product. How many call on shops, on which routes, and on what pay? A salesperson paid only on the largest brand's volume may not push a new one. Ask what they would say to a retailer who already stocks a competitor, and listen for a reason, not a slogan.

Also ask the owner a question with no rehearsed answer. Which brand loses the distributor orders in this town? What do those shops get that yours would not?

Scoring on the drive home

Score each stop out of five in the car, not in front of the distributor, and write one line on what would worry you in the third month. The sheet below is deliberately small.

Candidate:            Town:            Date and hour of visit:
Loading bay   /5   vehicles ___  dispatch record Y/N  rival stacks Y/N
Books         /5   payment pattern ___  receivables concentrated Y/N
Retailers     /5   met ___  knew the salesperson Y/N
Team          /5   sellers ___  paid on? ___
Worry in month three: ____________________________

Decide on the two stops that bite hardest in your trade. For many products those are the books and the vehicles, since a late payer may pay you late and one van cannot reach a district. For anything bulky or fragile, give the godown more weight.

An invented example: a broom maker in Faridabad

Take an invented maker of mops, brooms and cleaning tools in Faridabad, choosing between two distributors in Jodhpur. The first had a polished office, a wall of principal certificates and an owner who answered every question fluently. The second had a bare office, a handwritten ledger and a salesperson who was out when the maker's manager arrived at seven.

The manager nearly signed the first on that single visit, because the office said what the manager wanted to hear. The mistake was seeing only the office. At seven the next day, the first distributor's godown held two vehicles, one under repair, and the front rows were taken by a rival brand's buckets. The second had five vans on fixed routes and a ledger the owner offered to open.

The manager signed the second and sized the first order to the stock the distributor could rotate in a season, not to the number the distributor first asked for. The month-three worry, thin cover on the far side of the city, went on the sheet with a date to review it. The bare office also meant nobody answered the phone during the day, and the manager had to call twice for a first order confirmation. The first distributor stays on the list as a fallback.

When one visit is not enough

Do not decide after a single visit if the distributor is the only one you have seen. You will be comparing the distributor with the picture in your head. Do not decide at all if you cannot get to the loading bay or the books, since you are then scoring a performance.

Add a line about storage and licences for regulated goods such as food, medicines or electrical items, and check what applies with your own adviser. Rules differ by state and body and change.

Book the first two visits

Pick two candidates in the same town, tell the first you are coming, and keep the second for a morning call. Once the sheets are compared, the terms follow: territory, credit, minimum stock, and what happens if the distributor misses them. If you have no candidates yet, start with how manufacturers can find dealers and distributors. Distributor development is the service that helps with the search and the visit, and the rest of our sales work sits under sales. To start, tell us what you need.