Finding a good distributor for your products can make running a manufacturing company so much simpler and easier. A distributor allows you to focus on what you do best (which hopefully is manufacturing). These companies do away with the need for approaching individual retailers which most smaller manufacturers are forced to do in order to get their products out of the door.

Prove that your product will sell

Distributors are not charitable organisations. In order for them to carry your product, you have to prove to them that it will be worth their while. This means that you should at least prove that there are people out there willing to pay for your product. When you are trying to get an international distributor you can do this by showing them how well your product is doing in your own country.

For new local products, you can pitch your product directly to retailers before going to the distributors. A few retail chains allow their branches a certain degree of autonomy which you can use to your advantage. You can win over just one branch manager and then use this to help convince your prospective distributors to also carry your product.

Obviously pitching a new and unproven product to a retailer means that you will be negotiating from a weak position which will in most cases result in bad deals, but remember that this is mostly just a means to an end. So if you are able to deliver on the terms of the deal without overly risking your company’s future, you can just consider it as a stepping stone to greater things.

If you are unable to immediately win retailers over, another option is selling directly to consumers. This means either selling from your factory or via the internet. Whatever setup suits you best, remember that you are trying to move a product just so you can prove to distributors that a demand exists for it.

Make it lucrative and worthwhile for potential distributors

Small manufacturers who have in the past sold their own products and have virtually no economies of scale sometimes allow their unit production costs to veer dangerously close to what should be final retail prices. If you want to sell your products down a normal supply chain and reap the associated advantages you must give both wholesalers and retailers downstream ample room for a profitable markup without the product price becoming uncompetitive. If your product is unable to at least promise your supply chain a healthy profit you would have a far harder time getting them to order it.

Sometimes small manufacturers seek distributors when they can only produce a limited amount of units at a time. Distributors generally do business with companies who can provide large quantities. If you cannot or are dead set on producing limited volumes of products you should instead consider selling directly to retailers or end customers.

Get your product market-ready

You have to get your product ready for the market if you are going to impress distributors. This means that the days of shoddy packaging and labels that so many local companies seem to get away with are over. This is even more important if you are going to be approaching international distributors who will be even much less forgiving for unprofessional-looking products.

You should also follow packaging and labelling practices that have become common for your product category; e.g for food products you have to provide information that has become standard such as dietary information and the possibility of your product containing even trace amounts of allergens. Some of the smallest local manufacturers do not even put barcodes on their products. If you ever wish to grow and widen your market penetration, you must start following both national and international best practices.

Use a sales representative

Until such a time as when your company is mature enough to afford an in-house sales team, you will either have to hire a professional firm that will do the job for you or even contract individual professionals both locally or in any country whose market you want to penetrate.

Attend trade shows

Trade shows and fairs are more than just places for fun and games. You can exhibit and attract lucrative partnerships through these events. Do not limit yourself to local ones such as ZITF or the Harare Agricultural Show. In some cases, you can even team up with other small firms so that you can share and save on exhibition space. Sometimes government ministries and other organisations even assist small local firms to exhibit in foreign trade shows.

Network and ask the foolish questions

Sometimes in an attempt to grow both their business and professional networks, some entrepreneurs exaggerate their knowledge, capabilities and achievements. In this manner, they effectively lock themselves out of benefiting from the same networks they have worked so hard to build since they now cannot ask any ‘foolish’ questions that may put a dent in their carefully created personas. Sometimes the best way of getting things done is going out of your way to ask these seemingly foolish questions. You can also join associations of similarly minded individuals; in Zimbabwe there is at least one SME association. You can contact your peers in these organisations once you are a member and get a wealth of information that you are unlikely to ever get from your reading list. You can also find someone from a company that uses these same distributors that you are looking for and ask for tips and references.

Search for distributors online

You can search online for wholesalers, both specialist (if your product demands it) or general. You can then send your catalogues and product samples to them where possible. When you are the seller, only send unsolicited email as a last option even though this may appear to be the easier and cheaper option. This is because most modern companies are such heavy users of emails that unsolicited emails quickly get buried underneath more urgent mail or even worse get marked as spam. You can even call wholesalers to see if you can schedule a product presentation.

Give them a chance to come to you

Do not be proactive in chasing distributors while forgetting to put a sign outside your front door. This is an oversight that often befalls people who have gotten so used to chasing customers, suppliers and distributors that it never occurs to them that some of those same people may be looking for them. You should also ensure that your business is searchable e.g list it on online business directories, put your products on classifieds websites and social media. You should also create a website with enough information to contact you.

Finding distributors is not an impossible task though it may be time-consuming and financially exhausting. What is important is that you do not stretch your budget so thin that by the time you get a supplier your business is running on fumes. It is also important that you do not let your over-eagerness draw you into bad deals. Research any potential distributors beforehand (especially from others who have done business with them) and remember that even the biggest of them can prove to be unreliable. This is especially important for international ones since they will usually be outside of your own country’s legal system and smaller firms are unlikely to afford to seek legal recourse for deals gone bad with foreign companies.