Security industry how to carry out channel planning?

In the current market environment, it has become increasingly difficult to rely solely on technological leadership and innovation to maintain the competitiveness of companies in the market. Channel construction was put on the sales development agenda. The products involved in the security industry are more professional than those of traditional fast moving consumer goods and civilian products. The number of buyers is small, the number of purchases is large, the amount of purchases is large, the frequency of purchases is low, and strong technical support is required. And service features. Therefore, security company channels have unique features. Channel construction as a foothold for corporate market competition, then how do security companies carry out channel planning?

As one of the company's most important resources, the marketing channel has a direct impact on the company's marketing performance and operating stability, thereby affecting the establishment and maintenance of the company's lasting competitive advantage. However, at present, the channel construction of security companies is not perfect or systematic. If you want to survive the long-term market competition, channel construction is imperative.

The Role of Security Enterprises in Channel Construction The selection of security companies in the channel marketing model mainly has the following characteristics: Channels are as flat as possible, channel levels are short, and direct sales and distribution methods are combined. Since most security manufacturing companies in China do not have outstanding advantages in terms of capital, brand, human resources, etc., most of them will choose the “channel agency distribution” sales model, that is, the distribution model.

In the entire sales process, the channel mainly plays the following roles:

Ownership transfer. The original product that the manufacturer directly sells to the end user is now taken over by the channel provider;

Communication bridge. The quality of communication between manufacturers and end users will directly affect the quality of after-sales service and the brand image of the product, and channel providers play a key role in this process.

information platform. Manufacturers release new products to rely on channel marketing for marketers, and feedback from competitors' information can also be obtained from channel providers.

Trading order platform. Channel members can make reverse communication to the manufacturer with purchase intention;

Business relationship solution. As channel providers have a wide range of local resources, they can make full use of their own strengths to help boost the market for commerce;

investment platform. Channel members collect and allocate funds to cover the costs of channel work, including: channel construction, operation, salary payment for employees, loan transfer between channel members, implementation of consumer credit, and so on.

How to cooperate with the channel business The direct sales model mainly relies on the strength of the company itself, and the distribution mainly depends on the market expansion capability of the agents authorized by the company. At present, security companies mainly adopt the "channel agency distribution" model, so the rational choice of agents and distributors for enterprises based on the channel agency distribution model is crucial to the survival of the company. When selecting the agents and distributors, manufacturers can not only look at the size of their company, but the most important thing is to see whether it is suitable for the positioning and development of the company. This is also crucial. At present, the selection of agents by the manufacturers is mainly through industry information, exhibitions, industry insiders, etc. In the case where the influence of the company's brand is not enough, many companies will subjectively think that they have found a large and strong distributor to represent the products. Can quickly push the company's products to the local market, so as to seize a certain market share in the local market. However, because it is the largest and most powerful agent in the region, most manufacturers are willing to submit their products to such companies. This results in a situation in which “supply” is far greater than “demand”, even if it is barely rewarded. The win will only occupy a tiny position in many brands, and it will also lead to the company's products too low profits. Because distributors have many brands, distributors can only use part of their energy in the products of our company, or even just complement their product lines, then how can our products quickly open the market in the local market? Therefore, when selecting a local agent, a company should first understand the sales system of potential partners, understand the other product brands and market positioning of its agents, determine whether its products can be used as supplements of partners, and determine cooperation. Whether the product positioning of the person is consistent with the positioning of our products, and whether the promotion of our products in the local market is consistent with the market demand, only after in-depth research and analysis can we choose the best channel provider, and then we can put our own products. Bring to market. Secondly, it is necessary to fully communicate with the channel distributors to understand and understand the full understanding of the situation, there will be the possibility of further exchanges and cooperation; third, to establish a mutual trust relationship, to understand the channel business as the company's internal customers or teams A part of marketing. Only if the degree of interdependence is getting higher and higher, cooperation will be more and more in-depth, stable, and lasting.

Enterprises must strengthen self-building and control over the channels. From the perspective of the development of China's security market, due to the late start of domestic security products and the immature aspects of product technology and quality requirements, security companies are mainly engaged in the Chinese market. There are few companies that sell and operate security products in foreign markets, mainly in a few large companies in the industry. This basically shows that China's security companies also need to improve the technical content of products, strengthen brand awareness, and actively expand overseas sales channels, so as to gain advantages in the future sales competition; on the other hand, foreign security companies will also strengthen the Chinese Market sales offensive, some powerful security companies will enter the Chinese market, will have a certain impact on China's manufacturers. Therefore, the key to the development of security companies is to standardize market channel rules and improve corporate channel operations. At present, the overall domestic security companies have poor overall planning, insufficient propaganda, and few connections between customers and suppliers, which results in disconnection of information communication, long lead times, high prices, many purchase links, complicated procedures, etc., and therefore need to be standardized. The construction of marketing channels, strengthening the control and management of the entire channel, and preventing the chaos of channels have caused companies to fall into predicament. This requires companies to fundamentally understand the reasons for cooperation between channel providers and enterprises, strengthen their own construction, and actively provide channels for relevant support, so as to increase the dependence of channel providers on enterprises, in order to better control channels, in order to help The enterprise fully develops the market.

Therefore, companies must do the following: First, manufacturers must have their own brand image. Most channel dealers rely on big brands to sell their products. This will not only allow channel distributors to save on marketing costs, but will also obtain greater sales profits.

Second, manufacturers can provide higher profits than similar products on the market. All the channel providers are "for profits only," and they are favorable, but no profit is scattered. Under the same conditions, whoever provides the maximum profit for the product, the channel provider will push the product.

Third, manufacturers should be able to provide good after-sales service and technical support. If you can't guarantee after-sales service and daily technical support, channel providers will have to spend huge investment to train their own professional talents. If manufacturers support is not in place, and channel providers themselves do not have the strength to solve the after-sales and other challenges, so that their own corporate image and 2 The sales will have a big impact. This requires manufacturers to increase investment in brand building, cost control, and after-sales service, in order to ensure a viable relationship between channel providers and manufacturers.

Therefore, if a company wants to control its channels well, it must not only focus on its own construction, but also proceed from its needs, try to meet the requirements of the channel providers on the premise of win-win or even win, develop marketing strategies, and actively cooperate with the channel providers. The game between security manufacturers and channel providers translates into strategic cooperation. In this way, companies can easily straighten out the circulation of channels, so that the feedback to end users will be timely and accurate. Because whether it is direct sales, exclusive agency, or multiple dealers in a region, if there is sufficient control over the end-user market demand, and the project filing system is adopted in a timely manner, it will not make the market quotations confusing and lead to channels. confusion.

The implementation steps and matters needing attention for channel control can be divided into sales price management, sales area management, forbidden sales customer management, inventory quantity management, sales information management, and distribution aging management.

Sales price control: Different price groups are required for different customer groups. All partner units in our channel chain cannot violate the price principle.

Sales area management: According to the existing mature sales area management, the only way to maximize the channel resources. While managing channel distributors, we also expect to obtain more resources from channel distributors. For example, human resources, material resources, financial resources, and warehouses can provide support for manufacturers.

Forbidden sales customer management: Due to the special nature of security products, it is not easy to exceed two levels of agency in the construction of the channel, and the division of rights at all levels should be clear, such as requiring the secondary distributors to direct the product to the final terminal. Users can no longer distribute to other middlemen.

Inventory quantity management: The products purchased by the channel merchants cannot be flowed in the warehouse. For this reason, the manufacturers should try their best to provide support, exchange or give preferential price.

Sales information management: After the manufacturers and channel distributors have achieved a good relationship of cooperation, many resources of the channel providers can be used for the manufacturers, such as product flow information, competitors' information, and so on.

Distribution and aging management: When the market appears to be out of stock, whether the first-tier distributors and second-tier distributors can timely deliver the products according to the requirements of the manufacturers, which is related to the execution capabilities of the channels.

Channel management is basically understood as the above six aspects. However, if we can get a high degree of ideologically high recognition and support from the management and decision makers of companies and channel providers, and can clearly recognize the importance of channel construction and management for the future development of the company, it will play a catalytic role in the entire channel construction and management and control. In addition, for the channel management of branded products, the work must be carried out in a step-by-step manner, with plans, and in a gradual and orderly manner. It is also necessary to carry out the orderly connection between the various links and the design of key points for each measure.

Channel Planning and Construction of “Branding Effect” We first give a case. Caterpillar and Komatsu (China) are two world-leading companies in the machinery industry. They have different distribution channels and strategic positioning in the Chinese market.

Caterpillar sells the manufactured products directly to four distributors, who sell directly to users within the exclusive agency sales area. Komatsu (China) has more than two levels of distribution channels. First, Komatsu (China) has offices in each region. They have sales responsibilities for their respective regions. This level of design is due to doubts about the sales ability of distributors. , technical level, service quality. Second, Sumitomo Trading Co., Ltd., who bought products from Komatsu (China) and resold them to distributors. The direct reason for increasing the number of channel members at this level is because of the weak scale of the distributors, so that the distributors obtained Komatsu from the Sumitomo Corporation. (China)'s products, but delayed payment to Sumitomo Corporation. However, loose channel relationships and their own interests have driven some distributors to make use of the time difference in the payment process to make other financial transactions and earn high returns. In this way, the channel model not only presents financial risks that are difficult to recover from purchases, but also leads to trade robberies between Komatsu (China) business managers and Sumitomo Corporation and other distributors, as well as benefits between Sumitomo Corporation and distributors. Conflicts make the entire channel full of risks.

Why are multinational corporations using different channel models in the same market environment? The biggest factor affecting the channel planning of the two companies in this case is the different goals: Caterpillar insists on the company’s profits and the return on investment, while Komatsu (China) continues to expand its market share as its business goal. Therefore, Caterpillar chose exclusive distribution, and Komatsu chose to combine distribution and direct sales, and its different channel model led to different distributors' choices. The company has established a good channel management mechanism while selecting the right channel provider, and it can well control the circulation of the entire channel and promote the common development of the enterprise and the channel provider. In the entire channel construction, the company's “brand effect” has always been consistent, this effect not only refers to the production company's brand, but also in the entire channel process channel brand establishment, channel participants personal brand building is a “brand effect” Organic components.

How to establish and maintain the "brand effect" in the entire circulation process? This requires manufacturers, distributors and participants in the entire channel to actively support the construction and promotion of product brands.

As a core component of the brand effect, security production companies have a direct influence on the circulation of the entire channel. This requires that enterprises must first cultivate internal strength, that is, the enterprise product itself must be perfect, but also close to the market demand; at the same time, companies must increase investment in soft power, such as the company's honor, advertising, publicity, product design, etc. In addition, we must continue to diagnose and correct brand building, and make scientific decisions.

Channel vendors also play an important role as a complement to the "brand effect." Channel brand establishment is mainly reflected in the strength of the company, including capital and personnel strength, etc. Secondly, after-sales maintenance and technical support of the end-users by the channel provider will directly affect the reputation of the channel distributors, and indirectly affect the security manufacturing enterprises. Word of mouth in the industry.

Channel participants, as the executive layer of the entire channel, put forward certain requirements for each person. Only according to the specifications of each link of the channel construction, the participants must continuously improve their business abilities and professional qualities so that they can be exposed to all aspects. The people of the company have a high appraisal of the product brand, which will make the products produced by the company be as good as the market. “In order to get the channel to get the world”, in the current market environment, it ensures the smooth construction of the channel, and will remain invincible in the competition.