Partner scorecards: what to put on one page

Take an invented kitchen-sink maker whose sales head has a spreadsheet with forty columns for every dealer and has never shown it to one. Reviews are phone calls about overdue payments. A partner scorecard fixes that by shrinking the sheet to a single page the partner can read in two minutes, over tea, with a customer waiting. It has six lines, each marked red, amber or green, and it exists to start a conversation, not to hand out a rating.

How this differs from tracking

Our post on measuring dealer and distributor performance explains what to collect across the whole network. This post covers the one sheet you carry to one partner. A tracking sheet can hold fifty columns because you read it alone. The partner's page has to be readable by someone standing at a counter.

A filled page, to see how it works

Here is a page for a Gwalior dealer, with illustrative figures.

PARTNER SCORECARD   Dealer: Gwalior   Period: last quarter
                    Target    Actual    Mark   Note
1 Sell-in           100       104       G      stock building, see line 2
2 Sell-out/stock    90        70        A      count at visit
3 Display + range   8 of 8    6 of 8    A      two sinks missing from wall
4 Complaints        2         3         A      one open 5 weeks
5 Payment           on terms  14 days   R      waiting on a builder's cheque
6 Growth: new town  1 visit   0         R      not started

What the dealer asks of us: new sample board for the steel range
We will do (name, date): send board, Asha, by the 15th
Dealer will do (name, date): clear overdue, Rao, by the 20th

Notice what the page does. Line 1 is green while line 2 is amber, so the sell-in is flagged as stock building and not as a good quarter. Line 5 is red, but line 3 shows another cause, which the conversation can reach. The last three lines hold a named action on each side with a date. A review that ends without two named actions is not finished.

The six lines and where each comes from

Sell-in comes from your invoices. Sell-out comes from the partner's stock sheet or your own count at the visit, and it is the line most worth the trouble of collecting. Display and range comes from your field visit sheet. Complaints come from your log, with the number and how long the oldest has been open. Payment comes from your accounts as days beyond terms. The sixth line is the thing you agreed to build at the last review: a new sub-dealer, a new town, a new range.

That sixth line is the reason to meet. It changes each time, which stops the review becoming the same figures read out again.

Setting red, amber and green

Decide the thresholds with the partner when you set targets, and write them in the margin. Green is at or above target. Amber is within a stated distance below. Red is beyond that. The distance depends on your trade and how lumpy orders are, so agree it with two or three partners and then keep it.

Then watch for lines that flatter. Sell-in above target with sell-out below it is a warning disguised as green. The dealer is stocking up for your scheme and not selling. Mark it green if the invoice says so, and write "stock building" beside it.

Running the conversation

Begin with something that is going well, and mean it. Then ask the partner to read the page and say which line surprises them. The answer shows what the partner believes about the business.

Pick one or two lines that are red or amber, and ask for the partner's reason before giving yours. A dealer who says "the sample board is from a model you stopped" is giving you the fix. Agree one action on each side with a name and a date, and leave.

Do not compare a partner with others by name. If you need a reference, say "dealers in a town your size".

The same sink maker at a Gwalior shop

Return to the invented sink maker in Rajkot, with about twenty dealers across Madhya Pradesh. The sales head's first scorecard visit was to the Gwalior dealer whose sell-in was green and whose payment was late. The sales head had assumed the dealer was in trouble.

When the dealer read the page, the dealer pointed at line three. Two of the eight sinks were missing from the display. The sample board sent showed a discontinued design, and customers asked for the new one, which could not be shown. The payment delay was a builder's late cheque. The weak display was holding sales back too.

The sales head agreed to send a new board by a named date, and the dealer agreed to clear the overdue amount by a date the dealer chose. Both went on the page.

The limit of the story is that it is one visit. Over the next rounds some meetings were useless because the dealer's numbers were wrong and had to be agreed first. The sales head learned to send the draft page ahead, so the argument over figures happened before the visit.

When not to use a scorecard

If you have only a handful of partners, a notebook will do. If the data is so poor that the sheet is mostly guesses, collect better numbers for a few cycles before you present anything. And never use a scorecard to punish. A partner who sees it only before a cut in terms will hide the numbers.

Draw the page for your three largest partners

Fill what you have, mark where you have a gap, and send each draft page to the partner before you visit. If a partner's territory overlaps another's, read preventing channel conflict first. Channel performance management is the service that builds the sheet and the review routine with you, and the rest of our sales work sits under sales. To begin, tell us what you need.