Selling auto parts through distributors and mechanics: what each one is buying from you

Your new distributor took a full range of bushes and mountings when you signed. The second order is a fraction of the first. Retailers, the distributor says, are still testing. An aftermarket part moves only when two people agree. The distributor wants stock that arrives complete, a margin that survives your price changes, and defects replaced without a fight. The mechanic wants a part that fits first time and a name that can be defended to the vehicle owner. Work on both, and reach the mechanic through the distributor.

Two buyers, and only one of them places the order

You bill the distributor. The distributor supplies retailers in the parts market and the transport nagar, and the retailer sells to the mechanic, who fits the part and bills the vehicle owner. Only the distributor pays you, but the mechanic decides what the retailer asks for.

So a distributor's reorder is a late report on mechanics. When mechanics ask for your part by name, the retailer reorders and the distributor follows. When they do not, no scheme on the invoice moves the stock for long. Finding and appointing distributors is covered in how manufacturers can find dealers and distributors.

What the distributor checks before giving you shelf space

Whether you fill the order. A retailer orders across many part numbers at once. When eight lines arrive out of ten, the retailer buys the missing two elsewhere, and next time may buy all ten there. The distributor remembers which brand was short.

The margin after everything. List price minus discount is not margin. Freight, the cash discount given to retailers, credit days and scheme claims all come off it. And when you revise the list price, what happens to the stock already on the shelf? Answer that in writing before the first revision.

How defects come back. A mounting fails, the vehicle owner shouts at the mechanic, the mechanic goes to the retailer, and the retailer goes to the distributor. If the distributor must then send the part to your plant and wait, a replacement comes from another brand's stock to keep the retailer.

Write the replacement rule before the first claim

A distributor forgives a defect but not a claim that takes months to settle. Put this rule in the appointment letter, and give every retailer a pad of claim tags.

1. Mark every part with your brand and a batch code where the process allows, not only the box. Boxes are thrown away in the workshop, and a claim without a code becomes an argument.
2. The claim tag carries the part number, the batch code, the vehicle, the kilometres run, the mechanic's name and phone, and a photograph of the failed part.
3. For a clear defect with a code, the distributor replaces from own stock the same day and you credit the next invoice. Replace first, settle later.
4. Parts where misuse looks like a defect go to inspection before any credit. A clutch plate burnt by riding the clutch belongs here, and so does a bearing hammered in without a press. Name these parts in the rule, so nobody argues case by case.
5. Failed parts come back to you in one lot with a claim sheet. Every rejected claim gets a written reason, and the distributor has it before the next order.
6. Read the claims yourself: a run of failures from one batch or one vehicle model is a problem for your plant.

The rest of the agreement is in a dealer agreement checklist for manufacturers.

What makes a mechanic try an unfamiliar brand

The risk is personal. If your part fails, the vehicle owner blames the mechanic, not you. So a mechanic tries a new brand on one familiar vehicle, and watches.

Fit decides the second try. A bush that needs filing, or a mounting with a bolt hole slightly out, is unlikely to be fitted again, and word reaches the next mechanic at the tea stall. Print the vehicle list and the OE part number your part replaces on the box. That is what a mechanic checks, with the old part in the other hand.

Hold a mechanic meet at the distributor's godown or a hall near the transport nagar, and show something real. Cut your bush in half beside the incumbent's. Fit a mounting on a vehicle in front of everyone. Let the distributor explain the claim tag. Coupon schemes buy a first try, not a second one after a bad fit, so start them once fit and claims are right.

Imagine a bush maker in Sonipat

Imagine a maker of rubber suspension bushes and engine mountings in Sonipat, Haryana, for light commercial vehicles and three-wheelers. The details are illustrative. Its Kanpur distributor got a quantity scheme, an extra discount for crossing a target, and crossed it by loading the retailers. The next order was small.

In Kanpur's transport nagar, a pair of mountings had failed early. The retailer sent them back through the distributor, who posted them to Sonipat and waited. Meanwhile the retailer replaced them from the old brand. Nobody from the maker had met a single mechanic.

The owner changed the order of the work. A revised letter gave the distributor the replacement rule, claim tags for every retailer and a list of parts that go to inspection first. The quantity scheme was cut back, and part of its money paid for two mechanic meets with cut sections and a fitting on a three-wheeler. The cut scheme upset the distributor, who delayed one order in protest. Boxes were reprinted with the vehicle list and the OE number. Reorders picked up first at the retailers whose mechanics had come to the meets.

When to deal with mechanics directly, and when not to

Selling to mechanics around your distributor costs you the distributor: the news travels within days, and your mechanic price becomes the ceiling. So hold the meets together. Pass every mechanic enquiry to the distributor, and let the sales staff collect the claim tags. How to prevent channel conflict covers the cases where you must sell direct.

Skip the mechanic work for parts a fleet's own workshop buys on a rate contract; the buyer there is a purchase officer, as on the automotive components page. And if the part does not yet fit first time on every vehicle listed on its box, fix that before any meet. A meet only spreads the word faster.

Start with the claims you already have

Pull every claim from your two largest distributors and note how long each took to settle. If nobody knows, start with the replacement rule. That planning is part of the dealer and distributor programme. To plan it for your own network, tell us what you need.