Thursday, September 13, 2007

Develop a Good Relationship With Your Wholesale Distributor

You must develop a relationship with your wholesale distributor to be successful. I assure you, they want to know a bit about you as both parties will be on a joint venture for money making success.

Never be afraid to pick up the phone and talk to a wholesale distributor, especially after you have gotten your account. You will most likely be assigned an account manager who will oversee everything involved with the transactions between your business and theirs.

The wholesale distributor will view you as a professional business owner, just like the owner and CEO of Wal-Mart or Exxon. Maybe you aren't that big, but you are a business owner, and your wholesale distributor will respect you as one.

Don't be afraid to be human. Ask question about the distribution process. Not only will you learn much from your distributor, you will be developing your business relationship. Wholesale distributor account managers know their business and are more than happy to help you in many ways. They want to see you succeed as this will make them look good to their bosses all the way up the ladder.

Another very important tool in the relationship building process is your email account. Send emails to your wholesale distributor account manager. I wouldn't suggest overdoing it. They will certainly be managing more accounts than yours. But, always stay in contact. I send my account managers at least one email a week. My tone is friendly and always professional. I will greet them personally but I never waist their time with banter. I get down to business immediately.

I suggest you do the same as I do above. Be friendly, but get down to business. Develop a relationship with your wholesale distributor. And then, watch your business grow.

1 comment:

Maine2u said...

Where does one get good sample wholesale agreements? We do not want to soley rely on the wholesaler agreement