Managing a Distributor and Reseller Network in One System
Companies that sell through distributors usually know how much they shipped, but not how much actually reached consumers.
Two different numbers
Sell-in is your sales to the distributor. Sell-out is the distributor's sales to end customers. Running a business on sell-in alone leaves you surprised when partner warehouses fill up and orders stop abruptly.
What to organise first
- A partner list with tiers, territories and responsible contacts.
- Tiered pricing by partner level, rather than manual discounts on each order.
- Targets and achievement per partner per period.
- Payment terms and credit limits visible to sales before an order is raised.
Getting sell-out data
Partners rarely hand over raw data. What usually works is a fair exchange: you provide a simple portal or a short reporting format, the partner submits monthly sales and remaining stock, and in return they get supply priority, promotion programmes or transparent incentive calculations. Portals like this can be built with Zoho Creator.
Reports that change decisions
- Sales per partner and territory against target.
- Products moving slowly at particular partners.
- Partners whose orders have fallen three months in a row.
- Receivables ageing per partner.
All of these can be combined in Zoho Analytics.
Start with your ten biggest partners
Do not wait for the whole network to be ready. Start with the partners carrying the largest share, prove the value, then expand. See our implementation service.