Distribution Opportunities in India

Indian distribution trade is in the brink of a massive upsurge. Major barriers against inter-state distribution like Octroi, state tax, sundry state specific restrictions, road permits, CST, VAT etc. are mostly gone with introduction of GST - opening up a vast Pan India market. Now is the time for every business engaged in manufacturing or importing to expand sales channels through network of dealers and distributors across India. This is absolutely essential for any business, for - without growing sales your business has no future. More sales means more customers. How do you get more and more customers ?  Obviously, your existing market - your town, locality, district or city - has a saturation level. You need to look out for greener pastures - new markets for healthy sales growth. If your product is selling good in local market - there's no reason why it shouldn't sell in other cities / states or even in overseas markets. Intermediaries like wholesalers and distributo...

Emails carry important information - but we lose control over them as soon as sent. What if emails had WhatsApp like ticker symbols ?  Ideally, we should be able to find if an email has reached destination, whether it has been opened. If opened, at what time and which location. How many times it has been opened, which link(s) in the email has been clicked etc. Collectively this body of intelligence can immensely help a business. I am going to explain how you can track emails sent from existing email clients (such as Gmail) and capture all these tracking intelligence easily, at zero cost. However, its important to underline how such tracking information can help a business before that. Send a perfectly timed follow-up mail as soon as customer opens your mail. You stand far better chance of receiving reply If you see customer clicking on a link to view a cover letter, proposal or your website - you know currently you are at the top of his/her mind. Reaching out at that exact mome...

Why our emails go unanswered ? We send emails to prospective customers everyday but how many of them get any response ? Why is it so ? Why people do not respond to emails ? The answer may be loss of data, spam filter, firewall and many other physical barriers on which we do not have much control. But it may as well be our own follies - may be our emails do not look professional enough or interesting enough to open. How to make sure our emails receive proper response - every time ? Essential preconditions for email response are - the email reaches its destination and the recipient reads it. Next challenge is to make the email interesting enough to deserve response. So, let's identify specific barriers in each of these 3 stages and how to overcome these to make sure customers read our emails and respond.  1. How To Make Sure Email Reaches Destination Though it looks simple, trust me, its not that simple. Assuming email address is correct, your mail may still get entangled in spam...

Manufacturers do not sell directly to consumers - they need distribution channels to reach markets. Wider the reach of distribution - larger is the customer base and resultant sales. No wonder, distribution is considered backbone of any market. However, building distribution network in India has remained an uphill task for small businesses for far too long. Hassles of inter-state trade, compliance with multiple taxation - VAT, CST,  state-specific entry taxes, Octroi, road permit  etc has hobbled Indian SMEs for long. As a result - only large companies like HUL, Colgate Palmolive, Maruti etc could afford to build pan-India distribution channels so far. However, introduction of GST has opened new opportunities  as hassles of inter-state trade is now mostly gone -  creating a level playing field for SMEs. India is now truly a Pan-India market.  To leverage the opportunity, SMEs need to have a plan of action to locate and appoint dynamic and resourceful di...

Selling, arguably, is the most important function in any business. However good its product - survival and growth of business depends greatly on sales performance. Distribution channel plays a critical function in success of sales strategy. Its extremely important for any entrepreneur to understand how distribution channels work in India and more importantly, how to build distribution channel at low cost and within short time frame. First the Good News - with introduction of GST from July 2017 India has become truly a single market and consequently building distribution channel has become easier, far less expensive and within reach of even small-scale manufacturers. Prior to GST India was, in effect, a collection of local, state-wise markets each having its own VAT rates, entry tax, octroi and sundry other taxation and compliance barriers. Selling across India was tedious, cumbersome and expensive because complying with CST, VAT, warehousing requirements and maze of ...

Still selling in local markets only ? Why not sell across India through distributors and dealers ? If your product is selling good in local market, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t sell elsewhere. All you need to do is to build distribution channels in target markets and nurture them for year round sales. Here's a step-by-step plan for you to do so.   Step 1 :   Make Your Product Distribution Ready You know how good your product is or how profitable could it be for resellers. However, potential distribution partners are not aware about it.   So, we create a distribution catalog for your products that provides distribution related information. The catalog has unique features like private/public properties where you may prefer to disclose certain information (e.g. distributor commission) only to private parties while other information could be public. Step 2 : Create Awareness Next step is to attract distribution partners towards your product by...

If 10 Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) are asked what's the greatest challenge they face - chances are 9 of them would say 'how to sell more'. SMEs in India face myriad challenges - non-availability of bank credit, govt regulations, deficient infrastructure, lack of productivity etc. - but they are brave and capable enough to face all these. However, one area that SMEs are consistently failing is to sell more and consequently lack of growth - leading to what is popularly called 'Missing Middle Syndrome' - SMEs are not evolving to become mid-sized enterprises for many years. With introduction of GST, a great opportunity opens up for SMEs to sell across India as hassles of inter-state trade is set to go from July 1. But how SMEs can make use of this opportunity without access to distribution channels ? SMEs do not have financial resources to open sales and distribution centers across India - even very large companies like Hindustan Unilever or Nest...