Selling directly to consumer has its limitation – growth comes at the expense of more investment in sales staff, customer relationship, delivery and logistics. On the other hand – selling through intermediaries like distributors, dealers, wholesalers mean a fixed cost towards intermediary margin but huge saving on salary of salesmen and other infrastructure cost. So, companies prefer to build distribution channel for long time, sustainable growth.
The first step in building distribution channel is to look for distributors in surrounding areas. Entrepreneurs may approach them directly, explain one-to-one USP of product, negotiate price and other terms, conditions and even give samples for test marketing. Once local distributors start work – delivery cost in local area will be negligible. Higher sales in local area may fuel the investment for larger distribution channel.
How To Locate Neighborhood Channel Partners ?
Finding distributors in India is a formidable task. Distribution market in India is highly unorganized and fragmented. There’s no reliable published directory of channel partners. Companies in India has been following a bottom-up approach by visiting retailers to find its stockist, from stockist to distributor, then to super stockist etc. This is a tedious, time consuming and expensive job – very few small businesses can afford to spend so much for channel building. As a result, only large corporate in India has nation-wide network of distributors, dealers, stockists etc.
Online platforms like vanik.com has made the job easier by offering details of verified channel partners – state-by-state, district-by-district or city-by-city. Using this platform – one can easily make of list of channel partners engaged in business of certain product area-wise.
However, what happens if one needs channel partners around him/her in a circle of radius x km ? The circle may spread over states, districts etc. For example – if one wants to find distributors in NCR Delhi – which is made up of 3 states – Delhi, UP and Haryana ?
The PIN Code Based Search Of Surrounding Areas
Vanik.com has introduced PIN code based search of surrounding areas. This is a simple search where the searcher provides his/her PIN code and distance in Km – for searching in a circle of radius x Km around him/her. The search result gives list of channel partners within that circle cutting across states or districts. The searcher then contact channel partners of his/ her choice and start communicating.
Though looks simple – the search uses Latitude/Longitude and complicated algorithm to arrive at result. The search is incredibly fast and allows searcher to select/deselect from search result for detail result. Interested readers may try it free here – Locate Channel Partners In Your Surrounding Areas
Conclusion
PIN code based search of surrounding areas is an invaluable tool for businesses looking to start distribution or strengthening local network. Vanik offers many other facilities like guidance, mentoring / hand-holding by experienced distribution trade professionals for successful negotiation. Vanik has been helping Indian small business to build distribution channel and compete with large brands for last 10 years. It has created many success stories of small businesses competing with large brands across India