How to choose your distributor

The relationship between resellers and distributors can be fraught with tensions and conflicts. The key is to turn the distributor into a partner. Will your distributors treat you the way you treat your customers? Will you treat them like that? If the answer is yes, it becomes the beginning of a true partnership.

The big myth of entrepreneurs is that they are there on their own struggling against an uncaring world and a brutal reality. But the reality is business no longer works that way. File sharing, email and even blogs are making businesses more collaborative than ever.

For resellers, the key to developing strong bonds with distributors lies in the relationship. More to the point, resellers need to treat the relationship with distributors as important as their relationship with customers. It's all about connection and creating a real partnership. The idea of a partnership is particularly important for the entrepreneur reseller who might be long on ideas and energy but short on the necessary infrastructure.

There are several key questions. The first is how focused will your company be on mine. That is a crucial question to ask when setting up shop and building a relationship with a distributor. The next question: who specifically do I have to deal with? Who will be working with me, and for me? Is it one person, or is it a team? Most resellers would say they prefer dealing with one person.

As a rule, there are two types of distributors. There are some, always the bigger ones, who have no time or interest in establishing a solid relationship with the small reseller. These distributors have one focus only: volume. Unless the reseller can provide them with that, they are not interested.

These are the distributors who will dictate terms to the reseller. They set up the rules and they do not really care about the kind of resellers they have, as long as they are pushing through the volume. This does not mean they will dismiss the small reseller altogether. When a small reseller needs help, they are sent to a team. But when the reseller starts buying more, they get an account manager.

Then there are the smaller distributors who are interested in relationships. These are the ones that resellers need to target. The smaller distributors are more flexible and creative. More to the point, they are more likely to understand what you're going through because they're going through it too. And because they are smaller, it is easier for them to form partnerships.

Most importantly, the small distributors are the ones who actually need your business. They have a vested interest in ensuring your business thrives.

There is, however, a trade off. Larger distributors as a rule have more products. They can have hundreds of different types of products. Smaller distributors, by way of contrast, tend only to have 20 to 30 products but may have a deeper knowledge of those products. At the same time, however, many smaller distributors might not have the systems in place to provide comprehensive service.

This gets to one of the key criticisms that many smaller resellers have about distributors: the lack of clear lines of communication. Many say that when they are dealing with a large distributor they will be dealing with a different person every time. Or they could go to two different teams with a large distributor and get three different answers.

The key again is that special relationship. It is about creating a conversation with one person from that distributor, an account manager, and having them on hand to answer all questions when they arise, and to help sort out any difficulties. Getting a clear and consistent line of communication is the biggest challenge facing many resellers and it is one of the flashpoints in any relationship between the reseller and distributor. Nine times out of 10, that communication is done by email or over the phone. Face to face communication can happen but that usually only happens at special training events put on by the distributor.

Talking to a person instead of being sent to a web site or a team is the critical point here. More often than not, it's the smaller distributors that can offer that single point of contact for the reseller.

Another critical issue that makes many resellers nervous is the quality and security of the customer relationships. Many vendors want information about customers that they can put on their database and, many times, that information is passed on to the vendors through the distributors.

That can create conflicts, particularly when boundaries are crossed. The reseller is required to pass on that information.; if the problems arise, they can only be sorted out when there is a close relationship. Creating that relationship requires the reseller to treat the distributor like a customer. It means getting to know the person at the other end, right down to personal details, even what football team they are following. The same as you would do for any customer.

In the end, success or failure of the partnership will come down to the quality of the relationship.