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Wholesalers responsibilities to the dealers?
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Bored - 8 posts
I am interested in everyones opinions on where they believe the wholesalers responsibilities to the dealer community should start and end? Are they just box shifters or is it incumbent on them to provide sales and marketing support? Your thoughts please?
Hannah Sabel - 8 posts
My argument would be that any marketing support which wholesalers supplied would be the same across the board; therefore not giving dealers a real competitive advantage.
Spicers do provide the click-n-print support for direct email campaigns or to print out for sales reps which is a bonus because not many independent dealers can produce those sorts of visuals without the support of graphic designers.
I would say: use the support that is there as a start but individual dealers need to build on it to differentiate themselves.
Leicesterguy - 5 posts
I agree with Hannah.
If you want to be more sucessful than your competitors then you need to stand out from the crowd, The wholesalers should give some support but just churning out loads of me too marketing material won't help the individual dealer. I appreciate that Graphice designers don't come cheap but teaching yourself or doing a part time course at coledge is not that difficult or expensive. Even if you only learn enough to be able to manipulate what the wholesalers do produce then that will help.
Red Pen - 8 posts
I get the point you are trying to make Hannah and Leicesterguy but surely by helping the dealer they are also helping themselves? The more we sell the more we buy from them.
Sparkly Donkey - 10 posts
In an ideal world, the wholesalers would support the dealer on an individual basis, but because of the number of dealers this is impossible. Each dealer would want something different so every job would be bespoke - that would push the price up dramaticallly. The wholesalers are not primarily marketing organisations, they are logistics organisations, and they do not have the inclination or the expertise to help dealers to this extent. I agree that by helping dealers, they help themselves but they need to make a profit. How much are you willing to pay for a marketing piece or mailer? I tend to agree with Hannah and Leicesterguy - take what you like from the wholesaler (and dealer group) but you must add your own identity - either develop the skills yourself or employ them.
AndyWhyte - 35 posts
The impression that I get is that dealers would 'generally' rather the wholesaler concentrated their resources on providing a better wholesale service than additional things like marketing, ecommerce, new innovations etc. That's not to say there isn't a need/desire from dealers for those things but what good is an ecommerce system from your wholesaler when they can't even deliver correctly ;).
Sparkly Donkey - 10 posts
I agree wholeheartedly with Andy. They need to get the basics right - if they do, dealers will spend much less time sorting out the problems their wholesaler has created for them, and can spend more time on effective marketing and selling.
Sales Man - 6 posts
I have to agree that maybe Wholesalers should concentrate on getting the main job right before branching out into any thing else! Could however dealer groups do more to help individual dealers. Really the only tangible gain of them is combined buying power. Wholesales have a functionable job (it can be questioned how well they do it) but they still do it in a fashion but what exactly do dealer groups do on a day to day basis?
Maybe, could the dealer groups be doing more to earn their money?
Dealer Guise - 21 posts
Wholesalers should provide a menu of marketing programmes that dealers can personalise. Marketing is no longer about catalogues and flyers featuring products. It is more about reaching beyond buyers to users with their local service brand which communicates a productivity message in a personalised way.
Wholesalers have a wonderful opportunity to help dealers achieve this, thereby maximising sales for dealers and wholesalers. Wholesalers main job is to provide an expanding range of business supplies supported by excellent delivery systems and personalised marketing systems.
Hannah Sabel - 8 posts
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I struggle to see how an ‘insert your logo here’ type marketing campaign, in any way differentiates dealers. It wouldn’t even contain their own branding. With the 1000’s of dealers wholesalers do business with I don’t see how any thing they produced could be more personalised than that.
Wholesale is defined as, ‘the selling of goods in large quantities to be retailed by others.’ Therefore is it not the dealers job to sell the products on and if they feel they need additional marketing to do this: produce it themselves or bring in the skills from else where?
I agree with Andy; the wholesaler should concentrate on their actual job and as much as dealers may like additional marketing support it’s just not practical to get it from wholesalers.
Dealer Guise - 21 posts
Hannah, It is not 'insert-your-logo' personalisation...it is tailored from a menu of personalisation options incorporating dealer's brand look and feel. OK, UK wholesalers don't offer yet, but United Stationers do.
Dealers need help in reaching beyond the buyer and it has to be a wholesaler's priority to help them compete with the megas by providing a single source marketing/delivery system. Remember, Amazon and Staples are the main competitors, not other dealers.
Jason Helford - 12 posts
The wholesaler/dealer channel is no longer an attractive route to the user for manufacturers. Amazon, Staples and Viking take weeks to market compared with 12-18 months.
As wholesalers broaden their business supply ranges e.g. IT, FM and wellness services, they will need to provide attractive user marketing and rapid delivery systems as 'basics' in order for dealers to beat their bigbox competitors.
AndyWhyte - 35 posts
As with a lot of things in this industry I find that the wholesalers are actually quite well advanced compared with other industries.
I've seen parralels to the OP industry selling other FMCG's where the wholesalers only offer cash and carry!
What's not being mentioned is the more variety the wholesalers put into offering more marketing support the more it will cost them to offer that service and ultimately dealers will pay that price!
So I guess the question is would you rather have lower margins/higher prices and better marketing, or the aptly put 'insert logo here' type marketing and lower prices/higher margins?!
Poacher - 2 posts
The wholesalers are fundamentally logistics providers and their first responsibility is to their shareholders then their customers. To add value to the logistics, wholesalers offer marketing, IT pricing, product range etc.
To get the most value wholesalers need to work closely with dealers. However, wholesalers do not employ people who understand their customer's business and therefore, will never maximise their profitability or sales revenue. The closest any of them have come to this is when Spicers employed a team to manage the early synergy dealers.
Wholesalers have offered excellent tailored marketing (at a price) for many years and some worked well but few dealers could afford this service.
In essence, unless wholesalers are willing to work closely with all their significant(80% of purchases) customers they might as well concentrate solely on logistics and cut costs. The dealer groups & manufacturers will fill the gap.
Since the 1980's the wholesalers have worked to increase their share of dealer's purchases. However, it appears that more and more dealers rely on manufacturers either themselves or via a dealer group.
It is not incumbent on wholesalers to provide Sales? and Marketing support but if they do they must do what the dealer and the consumer wants/needs.
Jason Helford - 12 posts
Mr. Whyte and Mr. Poacher. A couple of points to note:
1. The wider the range, the higher the order value, the lower the cost to serve is the actual experience of the #1 OP wholesaler - 40,000 sku's. Therefore more funds to create personalised marketing for dealers.
2. Dealer groups have lost massive share versus wholesalers in recent years, DG's don't offer differentiated marketing - it's all me-too stuff. Personalised marketing by definition is tailored to user needs (not buyers)
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