Assessing the Quality of Intermediaries
- • Range and Depth of Distribution Network
- • Relevance to target consumer demographic
- • Length of time distributor has been established
- • History on quality of service provided (is there quality service mark)
- • If distributor is distributing a similar or analogous range of products or services
- • Financial stability and payment terms vs. market benchmarks
- • Fit with existing product/service portfolio and categories
- • Capacity to give sufficient time to new product/service ranges
- • Seeking recommendations from others using their services
Selection and Engagement
You are as much selling your product/service to the distributor as they are selling their service to the you, as such firms should:
- • Develop a simple product sheet with target market, portfolio, pricing, and key benefits vs. competition – value proposition. What is your USP – Pitch deck
- • Identify the most appropriate and effective channels through which the distributor can be contacted
- • Draft a sample outreach emails, written in the appropriate business language and using the specific business terms
- • Outline sample questions and a draft agenda for initial interviews and meetings
- • Identify potential conflicts, including competing products or services
- • Have a clear understanding of pre-transaction risk and conduct online research, due diligence and reputational screening of potential distributors in order to minimize these risk
- • Engage a lawyer to draft a contract including payment arrangements to ensure all legal requirements are met, in order to mitigate risks in dealing with the distributor. Some distributors may already have a standard contract which should also be vetted