Expert advice for finding a product distributor: listen to your customers.
Q: How do you find a distributor for your product?
A: Let’s consider the sage counsel offered by Robert Nadeau, who has spent 25 years figuring out how to improve the efficiency of distribution channels. Nadeau, managing principal of Industrial Performance Group in Highland Park, Ill., says the first thing entrepreneurs should determine is whether their companies even need distributors. These days, more and more do not. Anyone ever heard of Amazon?
Nadeau counsels his clients–mainly midsize to large manufacturers–to follow a simple rule: Listen to your customers. He says it helps to think backward through the distribution channel. “You have to think about how the customers want to search for your product, learn about your product and acquire your product,” he says. “You may not need a traditional distributor. You may need a logistical specialist. That’s what UPS is. That’s what FedEx is. Those are people who say, ‘I don’t know what’s in the box, and I don’t know how to sell it to you. But I can get it to where it’s supposed to go better than anyone in the world.'”
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