Posts Tagged ‘sell your product’
Finding Distributors for Your Products
Wednesday, October 10th, 2007
If you don’t sell your products straight off the manufacturing line to your customers, you have to find a way to distribute them to a wider market through other means. You need a distributing partner on your side to get your products moving. But what exactly does a distributor do, and how do you find the right one for your business?
The following are some options for distribution you may want to consider:
1. Open bricks-and-mortar stores across the country and start selling your product that way. Of course, this is the most expensive and time-consuming option, but it is a possibility. You can only do this if you have tons of extra money lying around for start-up.
2. Sell your product through a mail order catalog. Unless your product is something truly unique, this option may not work out very well either. Although not as costly as opening up stores, it is still an expensive option.
3. A more reasonable idea is to approach stores and chains with the opportunity to carry your product line. This is a practical way to distribute, especially for new businesses, and has worked well in the past for others. At the same time, it does have its drawbacks in that you have to spend time convincing companies to carry your product and will have less time for the manufacturing end of things.
4. Contact more than one distributor and compel them to carry your products. This final option is the best one of all, simply because it gets the job done and allows you to focus on manufacturing a great product. It gets your product out to a larger audience without too much effort or hassle. Look for a distributor that sells other products related to yours, as this will only help move your product more quickly and get you in touch with key retailers in the industry.
So how exactly do distributors work their magic? The distribution process is invisible to most people, yet they are one of the main components in getting products from around the country - and world - to the consumer. They are the link between the people who create great products and the customers who want to use them. Distribution makes the economic wheels turn.
Basically, distributors transport the goods from large warehouses to retail establishments. As a manufacturer, the cost of moving goods all over the place is too much, but the distributors are set up for this. Retailers can’t afford to obtain products on their own, so distributors bridge the gap. Distributors also handle warehousing and paperwork, invoicing and collection.
How do you find a distributor for you? It will take a lot of grunt work, unless you have a really unique product that hasn’t been seen before. If you’re competing with the thousands of other products being distributed, you’ll have to do some heavy marketing directly to the distributors themselves. It’s your job to convince them that your product will sell well and is worth carrying. Use word-of-mouth referrals to find a distributor you can trust.
Tags: advice, distribution, dristributor, Generating More Sales, Sales, sell your product
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