Sales channels the name itself already formulates the essence of such a term. In essence, this means mechanisms or, more precisely, ways of marketing (selling) an enterprise of its products. And the profitability of an enterprise depends in many respects on the effectiveness of such channels.
How to determine which of the available sales channels can bring maximum sales, and provide the customer with quality service at the same time. One of the main characteristics of distribution channels is their bandwidth.
Often , distribution channels arise completely randomly. In this situation, spontaneous sales channels are characterized by a lack of producer control over prices. This is due to the appearance of a huge number of intermediaries in such distribution channels. In addition, in this situation, sales channels cannot be analyzed by the manufacturer for the quantity and quality of the customer base, tracking customer service support during the work of intermediaries. This situation often leads to uncontrolled sales processes and the inability to subsequently fulfill sales plans through such channels.
In order to change the situation and make the sales channels meet all the requirements of the manufacturer, many enterprises follow a certain scheme of comprehensive assessments of sales channels. The main goal of this method is to develop the main sales planning not on intuition and intuition, but based on the information received on the prospects of certain areas.
The first thing that is done with this technique is to make up a complete list of possible channels full. For example, it can be: wholesalers, enterprises engaged in the delivery and delivery of goods to retail outlets, companies that combine the first, second and retail chain of stores. At this stage, it is necessary to fully analyze all the possible options, often there are 2-3 more channels that can bring quite a significant profit.
Next, we will talk about the evaluation criteria. The most commonly used criteria used to evaluate sales channels are their profitability, customer satisfaction, the controllability of the channel by the manufacturer (we are talking about controlling the price and movement of goods), the level of competition of this channel when working with it, and the prospects of such a channel in the long term.
Each of the above criteria has a point system. And using this, you can determine how successful this channel will be in a given situation. How loyal it is for your product, and how profitable and durable this cooperation between your company and partners involved in such a sales channel will be.
However, in addition to points, experts recommend coming up with a special weight coefficient for each criterion. This coefficient is determined by the orientation of the company in strategic planning, and its location in the market. That is, in other words, the coefficient expresses the degree of importance of some criterion specifically for a given company or for a particular group of goods. After each criterion is evaluated and summed up all the points, you can judge the quality and effectiveness of such a channel. And based on the results, we can say which distribution channels are priority and which are not. This approach works with both direct and indirect distribution channels. By the way, you should understand what is the difference between them. An indirect sales channel is when in the chain the producer - consumer there is also an intermediary one or more is not important. And vice versa, when a chain is a short producer - a consumer and that's it, then such a channel is called direct. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.