Appoint distributors, expand your business

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Bikky Khosla | 24 Dec, 2013
Sales is the lifeblood of any business -- as an entrepreneur you know this more than anyone else. It is a continual necessity not only for success but also for survival and you want to leave no stone unturned to reach new customers, expand to new markets and bag new deals. But a tight budget often comes in the way -- it restraints your capability to hire new staff, open a new office or even to do market research. This is where appointing a distributor can make a big difference for small and medium enterprises -- you can increase your sales without taking on the financial challenges.

The concept of appointing distributors has not yet gained much popularity among our businesses while in countries like US the story is whole different. According to a recent article, wholesale distribution contributes 7 percent to the value of the private industry GDP in the US -- there are approximately 300,000 distributors in the country, contributing $3.2 trillion in annual revenues. These figures tell a lot about how US businesses are benefiting from appointing distributors and I think Indian businesses also can gain a lot from this approach.

The benefits of appointing distributors are quite clear -- first, it helps expand to new markets you could not otherwise target due to lack of funds, and even when your business is doing great you can take this as an opportunity to reach a wider market; second, your distributors communicate your marketing messages to a wide group of customers; third, besides adequate funds, local marketing knowledge is equally important to explore new markets and here again appointing distributors proves beneficial; fourth, by following this model, you can pass a significant degree of risk to your distributor.

Appointing distributors for your business may involve some challenges such as less control over selling process, distance with customers and divided attention by distributor (as they may represent multiple products) but these disadvantages can be avoided to a significant level by choosing a partner carefully and forming a mutually beneficial relationship. Overall the benefits of appointing distributors outweigh the drawbacks and for those businesses, which are serving or want to serve regions beyond local markets, this will result in significant marketing and distribution benefits.

Considering the challenges SMEs usually face in getting their products placed in the market and how this big hurdle can be overcome appointing distributors, Tradeindia.com launched an online platform GetDistributors.com in June this year and since then assisted many businesses in finding and appointing distributors and thus expand to new areas of the country. On the other hand, many entrepreneur-minded individuals have also benefited by getting themselves appointed as distributors. I invite you all to join this platform and be a part of it.

Further, I take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas.