What does the ideal supplier look like through the eyes of a retailer? Dmitry Motorin has worked in retail for more than seven years, and knows the iron rules of chain purchases, as he himself successfully participated in their creation.

Retail chains are growing even in times of crisis. For the largest Russian retailers, 2015 was a record year in terms of the speed with which their market share increased. According to analysts, the TOP-10 largest FMCG chains accounted for 24.3% of the market against 21.6% a year earlier. With a general drop in retail in the country by 8.5%, such achievements look impressive and change the balance of power in retail.

In 2015, the share of the top ten retailers in DIY retail exceeded 30%. The total retail volume of Hard&Soft last year was estimated at 1 trillion. rubles, with a total market capacity, together with B2B and construction, of 4.3 trillion. It is logical that, despite the decline in the market over the past two years, this sales channel is in demand among manufacturers.

However, as in the famous film “Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears,” one of the heroines says: “to become a general’s wife, you had to marry a lieutenant and wander around the garrisons with him.” Does this mean that the time of new producers of goods who dream of selling their goods to retail chains is gone forever? Not at all! Niches remain, the rotation of suppliers on the shelves in the chains is continuous.

Then the most tricky question of our days arises: “How to sell goods to retail chains?”. The author of this article has worked in retail for more than seven years, and knows the iron rules of network purchases, since he himself successfully participated in their creation. He has over eight years of experience in leading key retail clients and managing their sales. Therefore, the network - the supplier knows the entire process of communication in the first person and on both sides of the barricades.

My surprise with these methods was a good motivation for creating this article. Tactics elevated to rank strategic decisions, always made me laugh. The whole negotiation strategy is three to four meetings with buyers and their superiors in six to nine months. If there was no result at the second meeting, then in practice it is already impossible to change it.

From the personal experience of the buyer, I can firmly say: if the supplier is not needed, he will not get into the network! The worst option is to look for a way to put pressure on the buyer from above, through the authorities. In addition to problems in the near future and getting into a personal black list with a predictable result, nothing good should be expected. And you yourself will give a reason, you know yourself.

So that the role of negotiations in achieving results with the network does not become a key, decisive in the fate of the company, let's start with basic concepts. Here, a simple and logical system of supplier actions will be outlined to achieve a real result, instead of buying a subscription to annual staff trainings on effective negotiations with network clients. I appreciate good preparation for negotiations and specifics, but tactics should not be overestimated!

Let's start with the main question of this story: Why do you want to become supplier network retail? The answer is not as simple as one might think. The fact is that the retail network has two tasks - to increase the turnover of its sales and at the same time earn maximum profit.

The retail network solves the first task by reducing retail prices. It solves the second problem at the expense of the profit of the supplier, that is, you. Partially, the rotation of suppliers and goods on the shelf is a common process of replenishing the natural loss of suppliers, that is, their voluntary refusal to work with the network or outright bankruptcy.

According to my practice, if the share of retail chains in the manufacturer's sales is over 30%, this is a serious signal for the diversification of the entire business, at least you need to increase the number of other customers, look for a new product, develop your retail, make and sell a franchise. Sitting and waiting that everything is fine with you is tantamount to Anna Karenina's act at the end of the book of the same name.

If you passed the first test and are firmly convinced that the retail chains are the promotion channel you need, take the second step: estimate the cost of the retail channel. Do economic evaluation the cost and profitability of such work, determine the threshold value of marginality, which is within the power of your company. To do this, you should go to an introductory meeting with buyers, find out potential working conditions, or find out approximate working conditions from your industry colleagues, not competitors. It is not difficult!

There are always a number of optimists in the industry who, when negotiating, ask me the question: “Who do you know on the networks who you can call right now?” This question reflects a distorted soviet idea of ​​people about the "thieves' raspberries" of buyers or a romantic delusion about "guild fraternity". This is a dangerous factor! Even if the founders of your company include the wife or great-nephew of the CEO of the network. Everything changes and so do people, especially in leadership positions. And yesterday's "blat" will become a stone around the neck of the company, going to the bottom of ruin. Therefore, the best and most sustainable option is to maintain relationships with the network in such a way that “buyers” change and your product remains on the shelf.

So how do you get into the retail chain? There are only two civilized ways to enter the network. The first method is based on two key parameters: you have a product that is attractive from a network point of view attractive price. All other parameters of the 6P marketing mix are just as important:

• Place. For example, the possibility of delivering goods by the supplier to the distribution center or directly to stores,
• Promotion. For example, the ability and desire, in addition to the low delivery price, to give a special price for the product during promotions,
• People. For example, the presence of competent and efficient customer service managers who solve all issues on the principle of "one stop",
• Processes. For example, the possibility of prompt additional delivery of orders, or the speed and clarity of coordination, confirmation, processing of network applications, error-free preparation of sets of accompanying documents.
• At the same time, the Product-Price factor remains the main factor in this story. If neither the first nor the second parameter is anything outstanding from the point of view of the network, then do not waste your time and theirs. Engage in the refinement of your product and identify opportunities to change the price. The principles of creating and setting up a product are quite simple, but here you need a solid specialist in product creation, that is, a marketer.

If you have a product, its value for consumers / buyers has been tested and understood, then at a good price you become in a superposition. Any network will be happy to receive your product and make a profit on it.

If the first option is not possible for a number of reasons, and the product and prices are very close and similar to the conditions of your competitor on the network, then there is a longer, but just as effective pursuer strategy. You indicate your willingness and willingness to partner with the retailer and put yourself on standby when an opportunity for a replacement appears. Here you need to show tact, patience and perseverance. At least once a year, the assortment is rotated in the chains.

You must use this time to your advantage. Your task is to find out all the details of how a competitor (perhaps a circle of competitors) works with the network, talk to the maximum possible number of people in the network who work with their product. If you define exactly weak sides your opponent, then during the waiting time you will be able to strengthen precisely these moments in your work. At the next negotiations, now you will be able to show them as your solid plus.

There are still small tricks that can be applied so that your opponent's position in the network gradually weakens. In fact, knowing the rules and bureaucratic processes in the trading network, you can regularly attack a competitor with more interesting promotional offers. The likelihood of a quick network switch to you is small, and your daring prices can force the network to put pressure on the enemy, reducing their already low profitability.

Subsequent conflicts with buyers, as we remember, also have their effect. As a result, after some time, you are more convenient and desirable for the network than your unlucky colleague. However, be careful. Outright lies will be exposed and leave you with no chance of winning. In addition, when you stand on the shelf, you will also need to defend yourself from the attacks of competitors. Your strength is in your product. If the consumer loves you, strengthen this love and failures will bypass you.

There are uncivilized options for entering the network, again coming to us from a distant period of non-market relations, when goods were “gotten by pull”. In most networks, the procurement processes are set up correctly and the system does not respond to such proposals, since purchasing decisions are transparent and made by a large number of people.

About seven years ago, starting to share my experience in managing sales and purchases with my colleagues, I made an interesting material that describes the portrait of an ideal network supplier. This list at one time was sold for quotes and helped a large number of companies. Today I offer its more modern version to our readers.

The ideal supplier through the eyes of the retail network, in my experience and belief, should look like this:

• Provider is a brand. I call a brand not a trade mark, of which there are many on the market, but a stable perception of this brand by buyers, consumers, clients. If you managed to make the company's product strong, interesting, profitable for customers and consumers, congratulations! You own a valuable resource, you have a brand that people go to the store for and willingly buy it.
• Manufacturer. A controversial thesis if you distribute third-party products. But if you have exclusive distribution rights to a good product, that's also a pretty good position. Why networks are more willing to work with manufacturers. The answer is obvious - this is a sure sign that the network will get the maximum profit from working with you. The network is not interested in your profit at all, but if you produce yourself, there is a high probability that the price of delivery of the goods will be the lowest, and you will be able to survive at the same time.
• Logistician. Everything is pretty simple here. The networks have a large number of stores in different remote cities and regions. The goods in the warehouse or in the production of the network are not needed with very rare exceptions. If you have a developed and managed distribution network, can ensure uninterrupted and high accuracy of deliveries, have this important ability in our country to fulfill customer orders, then you are honored and praised from the network and consumers!
• Partner. The point is not key, but important. No matter how the formal process of your communication with the network develops, people are present in it. In the course of work, there are always moments when it makes sense to make concessions or help in a difficult situation. And in a ratio of three to one. For three times your real help, you can theoretically expect one step forward from the network. In other words, your way of working creates a subtle intangible asset called reputation. The higher it is, the stronger your position.

Experienced. The question is no longer a key one, although it undoubtedly adds advantages to your proposal. If you are currently working with one or another retail network, for the new network, this means that you will not have to explain a large number of common truths or answer questions that are irrelevant from the network's point of view. This is a certain marker for any retailer that the company is adequate and it is possible to work with it.

In conclusion of such a slightly chaotic article, I want to once again emphasize the main idea of ​​my answer to the question posed in the title. How to sell your product to retail chains? The answer is pretty simple.

There are two popular selling options:

1. First produce, and then think about where and how to sell it all. As funny as it sounds, 80% of your market does exactly that. This should inspire you, as you don't have to compete with the entire industry, but only with 20% of it.
2. A more complex option is based on the creation and constant work on your product to please consumers. This is what 20% of your market is doing. I recommend that you search for your business model only here. There are many advantages - more interesting, more effective and the effect lasts longer.

If you follow the path of implementing the second model, a situation may occur when the networks themselves turn to you for goods. Don't believe? And I remember such options and there are many of them. Good luck to you and your marketer!

Master R2, Business Architect

Retail chains very often use such techniques in negotiations, mentioning that they are opening new stores, thanks to which suppliers will increase sales and expand distribution. And the phrase “sales volume” is such a universal key to any seller, including a mechanism for arousing need. "Sales volume" - and that's it, the reaction went.

The next method by which negotiation is manipulated and based on need is "an image of a terrible future." This is not an antonym, but a logical continuation of the previous technique. The opponent is vividly drawn a picture of the suffering that awaits him in the event that he does not accept the additional terms of the contract.

When a person is already mentally immersed in that "Happiness" which awaits him under the condition of the conclusion of the contract, he is painted a picture of his nightmarish existence, awaiting the condition of not signing the document, with resistance to the "normal" terms of the agreement. From the lips of buyers, it sounds something like this: "Companies that are not represented in the networks will leave the scene in 2-3 years or will drag out a miserable existence, being raw material processors." The purpose of this technique is to show the slow-witted enemy how bad it will be for him, that is, to increase his need, but this time not at the expense of the promise of benefits, but vice versa. The effect of this technique is enhanced by the fact that people are very reluctant to think about the problems that may await them ahead. It is much more pleasant for a person to talk about a bright future, and he strives in every way to leave the “unpleasant” field. All insurance sellers know this. And there are two ways to leave the “irritation zone”: either accept the conditions of the enemy, or hold positions, defending the interests of your company. The first option is more often accepted, it is both safer and much less painful, especially if the negotiator is risking money other than his own.

At the heart of both of these techniques is the need that pushes the retail manager to go to his management and beat out additional discounts for customers. The desire to satisfy the need as soon as possible forces us to sign contracts on unfavorable, ridiculous conditions in advance. It is the need, correctly raised in the supplier, that is the factor that determines the work with the network; and good buyers, good negotiators skillfully use this.

How to deal with it? Details about negotiation techniques are discussed in my first book, “Techniques and Techniques for Effective Sales”, where a whole block is devoted to negotiations, methods of dealing with objections and manipulations. As part of this book, we will talk about conceptual things that determine the possibility of applying techniques that often predetermine the outcome of negotiations that have not yet begun.

How to deal with the influence of need on your negotiations?

First of all, you must get rid of it. It is not so difficult. The simplest thing you can do is to remove the word “need”, “necessary”, “strategically necessary” from the lexicon of all salespeople in your company. These are words that convey emotion and do not carry additional meaning.

When I start my seminars, I ask the audience: “Tell me, who needs networking strategically?” 95% of participants raise their hands. At the end of the seminar, when I ask the same question, no one raises their hands.

The words "necessary", "necessary" should be replaced with other words. Instead of the word "need" - "want", instead of "strategically necessary" - "such clients are important to us." These expressions retain the meaning of your statement, but change its very essence and emotional coloring. Feel the difference in the answer to the question of your opponents: “Do you need clients like us?” If you answer: “Yes, of course, they are needed,” you immediately fall into the trap and you will definitely feel it. With such an answer, you immediately convince your client - the trading network that you cannot do without it, you already show your need for their positive response.

But if you answer the same question something like this: “Yes, of course, such clients are important to us, but the interests of the company are much more important,” then the very atmosphere of negotiations will be completely different. You will change the role position from "weak - strong" to "equal - equal". When you change roles in the process of negotiating the terms of cooperation, change the words "need" and "need" to the words "important" and "want" or "not very interesting", you begin to change the very structure of negotiations. Many opportunities for manipulation disappear immediately, you move into another plane of interaction, into the space of partnership or, in other words, equal relations.

At the seminars “Effective work with chain stores”, I and the participants analyze many examples and situations that occur during negotiations between suppliers and chains. At the same time, we learn to select synonyms for the above words expressing need. After the seminars, many letters come in in which the listeners express their gratitude to me and their surprise at how much easier it has become for them to conduct a dialogue with network clients. They are amazed that a simple change of words helps them to significantly change their position in negotiations, to achieve much greater success in their conduct.

But need- this is the fate of not only the supplier, the need is inherent in all people, and people work in all organizations, including retail chains, which means that not only suppliers, but also their opponents - buyers can fall into these tricks and manipulations.

Your task as a seller is to overcome the need for yourself, to get rid of the complex of the needy. You must remember one simple truth: you do not have an urgent need to work with networks, you are just interested and would like to work with this network too.

Your next task is more difficult - arouse a need in your client. On the other side, people like you work, and you must structure your speech and negotiations in such a way that they begin to need the services of your company. And if you succeed, there will be much fewer problems in working with any client, and more pleasant moments.

I am very often told that this is impossible, networks do not need anything, and if they need anything, then competitors will quickly give it to them. I agree, it is impossible for someone who has already decided so. If a person has convinced himself that he will not succeed, then even with a surprisingly successful set of circumstances for him, he will fail the case. And the problem here is not in the clients, it is in the head.

HUMAN your strongest opponent, and the struggle with yourself is the most difficult of all. There is even a special term for this - self-sabotage. It has been described in detail in the literature. Some companies, when selecting their sellers, try to protect themselves from people with similar sentiments. They hold a special competition. It is simple: a representative comes out to the applicants and says, showing a large bill, that this banknote will become the property of the one who takes it first. Out of ten candidates, no more than three rush to the banknote. And the rest remain to sit, each of them then explains his behavior in different ways: from the words “that I’m like a fool ...” to “they would have cheated anyway.” In other words, a person forbids himself to achieve success in this or that enterprise.

The mechanism of self-restraint works constantly, people forbid themselves a lot, only because of one fear of failure. For clarity, I can give an example. One of the sources of information about the client may be your competitors: have you tried to talk about the client with them or are you afraid that you will be rejected? I ask this question at every conference where I speak, and there is always a person, most often one from the audience, who has tried, and so - he was always answered. Therefore, as soon as the voice inside says that you cannot impose the need for yourself on the buyer, do not believe it. Better try!

So how do you arouse the need for your services from the purchaser, or better immediately from the entire network as a whole?

Of course, first of all, a unique selling proposition, one that will meet all the fundamental interests of your customers. But this is not a matter of one hour and not one employee. If your company has not yet created a unique commercial offer that is of great interest to your potential customers, then in one week or even a month you will not have time to seriously change anything, so in this case you already need to think about technology in negotiations.

Such preparation begins as usual with studying your client, with a decision matrix in the network you are interested in, with the needs of this network, the needs of departments and employees personally. As part of this study, you will learn how everything works, who is ultimately responsible for the decision, how and for what the people with whom you communicate are paid money. If you do this all the time, then you will not have any problems, if you are not already doing it, it's time to start. All sales are based on understanding your customers and their needs at different levels.

I had the opportunity to somehow conduct a training on this topic with employees of one of the supplier companies. To my suggestion to arouse the need for clients, they answered: “Well, it’s impossible, at least for the networks, because the networks are megagiants, they can easily refuse us. It may be possible to arouse the need for small clients, but not for networks, especially large ones.

A few months after the training, the head of one of the departments of this company called me: “I would like to meet you. I have something to tell you." Here is what he told me. After training in his department, he began to establish a system for collecting and analyzing customer information. With the help of various tools, including the study of the behavior of buyers, he calculated the system of motivation for the buyer of one of the largest Russian federal chains. He realized that her buyer was getting a bonus for meeting their quarterly marketing budget collections from suppliers. Having learned this, he entered it into the client's card and continued to work.

And at the beginning of June, and this is the last month of the second quarter, this very buyer calls him and says: “Your company has a happy opportunity to get two positions into our matrix for only 40 thousand dollars.” The amount for the supplier company was acceptable, but all the same, even if the price was normal, it was a pity to give money just like that without a fight. My interlocutor agreed with the management of the company to allocate the specified amount so that it could be sent to the account of the network at any time, and the buyer gave the following answer: “Yes, of course, we are interested in this. We'll think about it and let you know our decision in a couple of days." Some time later, he sent a letter confirming his interest in the offer, but at the same time he noticed that the issue of money in the company was resolved, most likely, positively, but it would take some time to agree. Having permission from his superiors and reserved funds, he stopped all contacts with the buyer for two weeks. After that, the bell rang, the buyer showed up himself, of course, in order to clarify the date of payment. The head of the department told him that he was currently on vacation and would deal with the issue of money on the 22nd, after returning to work. Naturally, the baer was indignant: “Are you out of your mind? You are a bureaucratic office, you will do the documents for at least a week!” But he couldn't do anything. In the next 8 days until the end of the month, telephone negotiations took place every two days, both the buyer called, because the fate of his bonus depended on the supplier, and the supplier himself, in order to maintain the buyer's interest at the right degree. In recent days, contacts took place literally several times a day, because the buyer was already in need, he understood that these forty thousand were very important to him, and he would not have time to agree with other suppliers in a few days.

As a result, additional agreements were signed at the final negotiations, which significantly improved the company's position in the network: the necessary promotion schedule, additional display and other bonuses that were pleasant for the supplier were prescribed; and this is all within those 40 thousand dollars. Thanks to his talent, the manager of the supplier company has achieved unique conditions in the retail structure, which I have never heard of in relation to other suppliers in this network. For these 40 thousand, he received everything that was possible from the network. Yes, he paid money, yes, he entered only two positions. But the package that accompanied these two positions was much more than that, not to mention there was one at all. If this manager had not managed to hide his need for the network, if he had not been able to arouse the need of his opponent, he would have had to shell out an additional twenty thousand dollars for all the bonuses that now did not cost him a penny of additional funds.

The task of the seller is to find out the need of his partner and sell it to him so that he needs to conclude a contract more than the seller.

One more example. Today, the DIY market is rapidly developing. It is formed mainly by large international networks such as Leroy Merlin, OBI, IKEA, Castorama, and the supplier market in many sectors of this sector has not yet been formed. In general, the situation is now at the level of the late 1990s in the FMCG sector. For many vendors, barcode labeling is a major benefit of networking. In this market, there are many examples of how sellers arouse the need of network customers.

Take sales of wood materials or cement. These markets are partly scarce, and therefore the networks need suppliers who are ready to make additional concessions. Often they enter into agreements on production volumes, even with an advance payment, in order to receive their goods with a guarantee, because otherwise in the summer, at the height of the season, they may be left with empty shelves.

Draw your own conclusions, it is not easy, not at all easy to form a need and sell it to your opponent, but if it works out, then the work from the dues will turn into a normal profitable business for your company and the negotiations will take on a slightly different, more pleasant coloring.

Summing up all the above, I want to emphasize: do not need, desire, but do not need. Get rid of the needy complex! Retail chains can't live without suppliers, and vendors without chains can do it for now, don't give up too soon.

Rules for a retail chain buyer negotiating with a supplier

Later in this chapter, I want to draw your attention to the techniques used by buyers in negotiations with suppliers. Often, most of them are used at the initial stage of interaction, when the background of the entire negotiation process is created. During this period, a positional struggle takes place, dominance is established and the person who asks is determined, in other words, it is decided who will receive how much and who will pay for all this.

What is negotiations with a retail network? Today's market is a consumer market, not a seller's market, it is saturated with offers, and the buyer can already choose from a variety that he no longer needs. If we transfer this to relations with the network, then we see the same thing: there are much more contenders for one meter of a shelf than it can physically accommodate. Therefore, the position of the buyer is initially stronger than the position of the supplier, he is the buyer - the ion chooses. If we compare negotiations with chess, the supplier always plays with black in the absence of several pieces, the buyer with white, as a rule, with a handicap of 2-3 moves. The task of the latter in the negotiations is at the first stage to confuse the enemy, to force him to follow the track laid by the network, and immediately accept the imposed tactics of behavior. Bayer will do everything possible for this, use all the tricks that he owns. In negotiations, as in martial arts, surprise and the force of the first blow provide half the victory. Therefore, I suggest that you consider the conduct of the negotiation process from the point of view of the buyer, in order to understand the alternation of his methods, to see their meaning and possible consequences. At one time I was lucky, and I got a complete understanding of the concepts of negotiations and the system of training buyers.

Thanks to this, I had the opportunity to analyze how they negotiate, what methods they use and why.

Next, I want to focus your attention on the concept of negotiation purchaser with the supplier, at the same time, note that it does not belong to any one network, this is a combined “hodgepodge”, the general line of behavior of the buyer of the distribution network during negotiations with suppliers. In short, the concept is: by offering as little as possible, demand the impossible. However, there are a number of rules that clearly explain certain techniques and ways of influencing suppliers.

Rule number 1.Never be enthusiastic about a supplier. Never show any emotion, only skepticism. Don't make decisions.

Often, when you come to the network, a person is sitting in front of you with an impartial face that does not express any emotions. Carnegie also taught us to smile and show maximum attention to the person to whom we want to sell something. And you see a buyer who does not smile at you, is unfriendly, cold and even frankly shows his disdain. At the same time, he treats any of your proposals with coolness and constantly “dynamite”, saying something like this: “I need to think ... I don’t know if we need this ...”, etc.

At this point, you begin to realize that the situation is not in your favor. You try to somehow defuse the situation and make more and more mistakes that your opponent fixes and tries to lead you to the decisions he needs. At the same time, the more efforts the supplier makes, trying to defuse the situation, the lower and lower he lowers his status and the more mistakes he makes. This technique is simple, and its goal is also simple: to unbalance the opponent, make him fuss, make mistakes, and eventually lose.

The resistance to this technique is already the mere knowledge of it. It is enough to understand that this coldness is not directed against you personally, but at your company as part of his job responsibilities. If you experience this kind of behavior, you don't have to make an effort to defuse the situation, you are not a hired clown. Try not to perceive the emotional background, react to it neutrally, it will work like in aikido: your opponent, starting negotiations with such a move, has already planned aggression against you, she is already in it, you just need not prevent her from leaving, but you don’t need to help either. Let him cope, your task, given his behavior, is to achieve your goals.

Rule number 2.Always react negatively to the first sentence. Express your refusal out loud. Be surprised: “Are you laughing?” Express as many negative emotions as possible. Never accept the first offer, even if it's excellent.

The task of the buyer is to make you doubt, to get out of balance. He can achieve this by very negatively expressing his protest against your first, and maybe your second proposal. This is easily explained - accepting the first offer will disappoint both parties. The buyer feels that he could have demanded more, the seller regrets that he did not offer less. The task of the buyer in this case is to make the supplier doubt his offer, to feel uncomfortable that it turned out to be so “bad”. The buyer is working to destroy the position of the seller and his homemade preparations, he seeks to negotiate according to his own scenario, in which the opponent is assigned a far from heroic role. In a situation where home-made commercial proposals have been destroyed, the supplier has to come up with new conditions on the go. Any improvisation is good only when it is well prepared, in any other case it leads to additional errors.

Opposition to this technique is still the same emotional restraint, careful working out of pre-prepared options, which we talked about at the beginning of this chapter. It is important not to succumb to emotions, but to work with specifics, to find out what exactly does not suit you, what you would like to see in the proposal.

If you have prepared several scenarios, well studied the needs of the client and the capabilities of competitors, then this technique will not take you by surprise.

Rule number 3.Always ask for the impossible. This gives room for further maneuvers. It is possible that your sky-high request will coincide with what the supplier is willing to give. Insist on a very large margin, and it will be enough for you to reduce it a little so that the opponent agrees, confident that he is a skillful negotiator.

In my practice, I often meet companies that say, “Wow! We made them! When you start reading the contract, you understand that the situation that has arisen can be described as follows: “We traded - we had fun, we calculated - we shed tears.” I repeat: the buyer's task is always to demand the impossible. The more he demands, the easier it will be for him to negotiate in the future.

Here the so-called one out of six rule: if the buyer wants to receive a discount of one ruble, he must demand a discount of six rubles; and, perhaps, that they will agree with the seller on three rubles. For three! Despite the fact that initially he wanted only a ruble. In negotiations with such clients, I divide all their conditions into six, no less.

In my practice, there was such a case: together with the customer - the general director of the company, I analyzed the work of the network department. During the discussion, the director postponed the contract with one large German retail chain with the words: "Everything is fine here, I controlled it myself, we wringed out our conditions there." I nevertheless began to study the document with great interest and asked to describe the dialogue process itself. When we went through the third round of negotiations in our memories, the director, closing the contract, sadly said: “I realized where we made a mistake!”

Everything was as per the scenario: 110 thousand USD were requested from his company. e. for the contract, as a result of three-month negotiations, they managed to bring down the price to 95 thousand, but as it turned out later, the planned amount for their company in the retail network was 70 thousand c.u. e. Supplier negotiators were afraid that the network would not continue cooperation, and the company was caught between two fires: network pressure was reinforced by pressure from company employees who, under the influence of need, were afraid to defend their interests in negotiations.

When unrealistic conditions are demanded of you, you can accept them, or you can refuse, asking to promote such large sums, and if you defend your interests, then you are more likely to keep them.

Rule number 4.Tell the supplier to think about his offer. Let him leave and return with better conditions.

What is the purpose of this approach? Again, like the previous one, it is designed to unsettle the seller. After the buyer refuses to conduct further negotiations, after his urgent request to think over his commercial offer again, the supplier returns to his company and begins to revise his offer again, which he already did taking into account the market and the well-known requirements of retail chains. What does he think about in this case? About the price, about the terms of the contract: about the delay, about bonuses, additional services. At this moment, he enters into battle with his most terrible opponent, which is almost impossible to defeat - with himself. He acts as a buyer for himself, he "cuts" himself.

And if later he tries to analyze who pushed him to such a small profitable terms, he will come to a disappointing conclusion: he did it himself. No purchaser, no one else could “squeeze” him like that. Because if the supplier "fell for" rule number 4, he enters into a struggle with the inner "I", starts the battle of one hemisphere of the brain with the other.

Have you ever tried to play chess with yourself for money? Try it. I sometimes do this - I last no more than ten moves, then there is a threat of a split personality. Take the risk yourself and you will understand what happens to the supplier if he forgot about this buyer's rule.

How to deal with this technique? What can be opposed to him? Firstly, you should not immediately rush to remake your proposal, this turn of events should have been taken into account when preparing and developing negotiation scenarios.

Secondly, it is desirable to clarify what specifically does not suit the buyer in your proposal. Feel free to ask questions, if there are no answers to them, then there is nothing to discuss. For example, in such cases we acted in this way: we sent our proposal by mail, having previously written it on paper with watermarks, or painted it in a pattern, added decorations to the text already seen by the buyer. Our managers were asked: “What kind of circus is this?” To which they answered: “You didn’t have any specific claims to our commercial offer, to the conditions proposed in it. We decided that you were not satisfied with the design of the document, so we changed it.” Naturally, in most cases, further negotiations went on as normal, since both sides understood that this method pressure has not passed and you need to try a new one.

If you are not specifically told what and why you do not like in your commercial offer, you do not need to change your own conditions. Do not play against yourself, because under such conditions you will always lose.

Rule number 5.Feel free to use illogical arguments. This is a very strong technique, it confuses the enemy.

Illogical argumentation is a very interesting and sometimes fascinating device. Imagine the situation: you are negotiating with a person, selling him, for example, vodka. And they say to you: “You know, this year is the richest coffee harvest, prices on the world market have simply collapsed, and you don’t want to give us a discount on vodka! The coffee companies give us a 45% discount, and you don't want to give us 4%." When completely different things are trying to connect in this way, it is very difficult to understand who is in front of you: a person who is trying to “hack” your brain, or just a little strange gentleman.

COMMUNICATION when using rule number 5, it is very reminiscent of a joke:

“A girl is driving a car that has run a red light. The traffic police inspector stops her and says:

Girl, you ran a red light!

– Young man, look what color is my car?

- Red.

- What color is my dress?

- Red.

What color is my bag?

- Red.

“And how am I in all this and green?!”

If you come across such an argument in the process of negotiating with your buyer, perhaps the most effective thing is to accept his terms of the game and find the same absurd answer to his illogical argument.

As they say, a wedge is knocked out with a wedge, and for a manipulator it will be, at least, unexpected. To his remark about the coffee company's price drop, one can respond: "But Coca-Cola does not give even a two percent discount." Further, the conversation will be like a conversation between two crazy people, when one says one thing, and the other answers him completely differently, poorly connecting the parts of the conversation with each other.

Paying the buyer in his own coin, you begin to waste his time budget. As a rule, he is not ready for this, and necessary resources he most likely does not have this, his role position does not imply your use of exactly the same technique.

No matter how this tactic changes in relation to you, you must remember and understand that this is just a trick, the purpose of which is to confuse you. And any trick is effective only when it is unexpected, this is taught in all martial arts. When I was doing Greco-Roman wrestling, back in school, we had a guy in our group, Yuri, who was great at throwing over the hip and spinning. And at the competitions, he won the first two fights, but then he managed to do it more and more difficult, and the judges gave him warnings for passive combat, implying that he would use the same techniques. His opponents already knew his style and built their defense in such a way as to avoid his strong moves. Gradually, Yuri stopped winning fights only due to his favorite tricks: he did not make them worse, just the opponents were already ready for them. Therefore, when preparing for a negotiation, it is often enough to brush up on the most common dialogue techniques, such repetition makes you less vulnerable to their effects. Read this chapter of the book before you go to any network office and you will feel better.

We all have a bad habit of forgetting knowledge, so I strongly recommend that you put all the negotiation techniques in one notebook and be sure to repeat them before each business meeting. Remember: forewarned is forearmed. On the reception that you have noticed and about which you know, it is almost impossible to catch you.

Rule number 6.The broken record rule.

The next technique is the so-called broken record. During its use, the buyer repeats the same objection as if he was stuck: “You high prices! Your prices are high! Your prices are high! - well, or something like that. This technique is especially effective in combination with illogical argumentation. Each of us got acquainted with this technique in childhood, when someone asked to buy an elephant. Remember?

Buy me an elephant!

- Get off!

- Everyone says “Leave me alone!”, And you buy an elephant!

And so on ad infinitum. Almost the only way out was to shut up and ignore the "elephant worshiper" or go on an "endurance marathon" in the hope that he would get bored sooner.

Almost the same is true in business, in negotiations. And although we think that now each of us is much more solid and smarter, but try to get away from the child who will specially catch you on this old joke with an elephant. Despite the age difference, it will not be so easy.

If you see that this technique is being used on you, you can either use the “broken record” as a counter-technique, or ignore the monotonous claims, trying to present them as a ridiculous oversight of your opponent.

Silence is also quite effective. A pause is generally a very powerful tool, much more powerful than many others in a negotiator's arsenal. The person who knows how to pause, and for a long time, almost always wins. You can read more about this in my book "Effective Selling Techniques". In response to a “broken record”, you can not only say something or let it go past your ears, as if you didn’t hear it, but, on the contrary, make a significant pause, putting such an emphasis on a repetitive claim that your opponent did not expect, and then work with this “stupid objection” as if it were a real one, diligently driving the buyer into a logical trap invented by him.

Rule number 6 hits first of all the opponent's confidence, his time budget and all preliminary logical constructions.

When a supplier goes to negotiate, he expects to be engaged in a dialogue with him in the same way as he would conduct it himself. But there is a small but significant omission here. He imagines how he would negotiate about HIS business, that is, assuming that he and his product are needed by the client, and this is often not true. Therefore, when you are preparing for a business meeting, try to think like a person who is paid a premium for collecting extra money from people like you, and possible negotiation scenarios will sparkle with new colors.

Rule number 7.Be wise, pretend to be stupid.

Ask the supplier to explain the offer, say you just don't understand.

The good old trick, about which we know so much from literature and always laugh at those simpletons who fall for it. In movies and books, this technique is often used by beautiful girls who pretend to be stupid; and also Commissioner Colombo, who, although he does not look like a beautiful girl, masterfully masters it in his investigations.

The essence of the rule is to clearly and immediately give the opponent an advantage, to show that he is the smartest here, to make him feel special, chosen, like Harry Potter. As soon as a person, within himself, considered the interlocutor weaker or less intelligent, he had already taken the first step towards his defeat. You can not underestimate the enemy, in fact, as well as overestimate.

How does this approach manifest itself in negotiations? You may be asked to tell us more about the production of your product, about the specifics of the technology, about the details of your commercial offer. At the same time, often asking again about the simplest things that are obvious even to a child, each time asking to explain this “incomprehensible place” to “stupid me”. In such a situation, the supplier may feel superior, begin to reveal his offer further, coming up with new and new ways to convey information to his “less smart opponent”. Pretending to be an idiot, you can test your opponent's patience for a long time. The supplier, repeating the same thing several times, falls into a set trap and gives much more information than he originally planned. This primarily allows the buyer to use the seller's resources against him. Having received additional information, he already has greater freedom of maneuver and the ability to put pressure on conditions from new, previously inaccessible positions.

How to deal with this technique? No need to talk too much! Do not think that the meeting room is the place where you can spread the peacock's tail and sing spring songs. This is a high risk area for your budget. You must understand that it is not a weak-minded or just a stupid employee sitting opposite you, no one will put such a person in a responsible position, too much is at stake. Each buyer knows the techniques of negotiating, and his task is to get you the most favorable terms of the contract. And how he does it depends on his preparation, plan and how much you will help him with this.

Don't feel sorry for your opponent when you "feel like he's slowing down", respect him, remembering at the same time that he, like you, is a professional. And that is why you need to exercise maximum caution.

Rule number 8.Always be ready to interrupt the discussion.

Try to put pressure on the opposite side, because the supplier always faces a dilemma: make concessions to you or lose all business with you. Despite the fact that you led the negotiations to a conflict, the other side also feels responsible for this.

How is this to be understood? It's easy: if the buyer leads to a conflict, then most likely he will enter into it, and along with him, of course, you. At first glance you have little choice, because if you were dragged into such a situation, then you are to blame, and if you did not respond to the attacks, then you lost or admitted your guilt, which is basically the same thing.

And there are few options for a peaceful outcome of the case, you join - you lose, you do not join - you also lose. There are several ways to avoid rule number 8.

Option 1. If you see that things are heading towards a conflict, you can safely enter into it first. You will still be made guilty, otherwise you will really be the initiator, and maybe, if you play skillfully, even make the purchaser feel guilty in front of you, even a little. By being the first to confront, you will demonstrate that you do not need this client, that working with him is not as valuable to you as your dignity. If you continue to try to negotiate further, evading the conflict, try to extinguish it, find out conditions acceptable to your opponent, make concessions to him, then by doing so you will increase the visibility of your need. If you see that the confrontation was formed by chance, then, of course, you can try to extinguish it. If the situation was created on purpose, intentionally, as a manipulation technique, then all attempts to smooth it out will only aggravate your situation.

Option 2. Don't help the buyer. Both sides always participate in the conflict, each of which needs the reaction of the enemy, especially the aggressor needs it. He needs the “victim” to begin to evade, resist or show his weakness. If we consider this from the point of view of the internal energy of a person, then the attacking side needs to be fed by the weakness of the “victim” or its resistance. But since in most cases the rebuff is extremely sluggish, more like weakness, it is precisely this position of the defender that increases the pressure on him. So, without replenishment from the second side, the aggressor fizzles out.

You have probably seen or even participated in scandals and conflicts, both at work and at home. This is especially true for the latter: in shops, transport, on roads and other places. common use. Some person who either has little communication in life, or is simply angry at the world a lot, a scandal begins, and if he is ignored, then he retreats quickly enough, but if they begin to answer, then the real Waterloo unfolds.

How to avoid escalating conflict? Certainly, the best option it would be easy to silence by force, but in the case of a network, it is rare that a provider has such a resource. Each person, and even more so the negotiator, decides for himself what style of dialogue to follow, but to smooth out the conflict, if necessary, it is better, in my opinion, to be guided by the same rule as when extinguishing a fire - to eliminate the raw material base. In the case of fire, the raw material base is either a combustible substance or oxygen. Conflict is about human emotions and reactions. As soon as they are eliminated, the flame of conflict fades away.

This is both difficult and easy to do at the same time.

The difficulty lies in the fact that you need to abstract from the emotional component and not give your opponent a chance to use your emotions and actions to escalate the conflict.

No need to make excuses, no need to reassure, nothing personal - just business. In a conflict, the principles of "mental aikido" are fully revealed - use the strength and energy of the enemy against him, do not prevent him from getting bogged down.

And the simplicity is, "don't do what you don't like." If you don't like to swear, don't swear, don't argue - smile and be open to the world. Like that.

There is another option, which is to try to translate the conversation into numbers, facts, discussing only reality, not emotions.

In life, of course, all the possibilities are used in various combinations, because, fortunately, there are no uniquely correct methods and styles of behavior, there are an infinite number of them, and it depends on each individual.

Summarizing all of the above, I want to say the following: if you find yourself in a situation of conflict, then you need to choose a course of action only according to your inner feelings and negotiating style. See for yourself what to do and what to use: the distant smile of a Chinese merchant or retaliatory aggression.

Rule number 9.For negotiations, always seek to meet with the top management of the supplier.

Many retail chains invite the heads of the supplier's departments, and not just his managers, to the first negotiations.

What exactly are buyers looking for? Why do they do this and what does it lead to?

This requirement has one simple purpose - to put the supplier company in a more vulnerable position. Get access to the decision maker to have serious leverage on the sales manager and the company as a whole. You need to remember that a buyer is a line employee, he does not reach the rank of a commercial or general director of a company, he does not even stand on a par with them. So if the negotiations are considered from the point of view of the hierarchy, then to a simple purchasing manager, a commercial or CEO should never go. When this happens, when the buyer has direct contact with the top management of the supplier, he has the opportunity to work through the head of the seller, leveling all his attempts and efforts.

I often encountered similar situations when the sales manager is very tough in defending the positions of his company and the buyer is trying to invite the management of the supplier company to negotiations. At the same time, the manager is told something like this: “What kind of manager did you send us? He doesn't seem to want to work with us. You will first figure out in your company whether you want to work with us or not, and then come to the negotiations.” This often leads to the fact that the director reprimands his own employee and concludes an agreement on the terms of the network. This technique allows the buyer to get additional conditions, more favorable, because, regrettably, the weakest link in the negotiations is always the leadership.

Moreover, the higher the position, the more disastrous are the negotiations, except for those cases when "playing bosses" participate in them. This happens because any leadership has several disadvantages inherent in its position and capabilities.

First minus- managers rarely negotiate, because this is not their main activity, their task is to conduct business within the company, rebuilding its work, and in their structure, in any conflicts and discussions, they always have a stronger position than most employees. The lack of daily negotiation skills leads to the fact that people lose the so-called crust on the nerves, which allows them to defend themselves against tricks and negative blows to their ego.

Second minus They are accustomed to command and make decisions in their firm. It's good in running a company, but it's bad in negotiations. It is easy to put them in a situation of choice: either we make a decision now, or we don’t make a decision at all. In this case, it is better to postpone the decisive meeting, which is usually done by a person experienced in the art of negotiation, but not a leader who does not have such experience, and often also driven by additional ambitions.

Third minus- they have more backlash in terms of resources and capabilities. If a sales manager has a discount corridor from 3 to 10%, then for any director it is 10–20% and, accordingly, 10% for him is only half of what is possible, while for a sales manager 5% is already more than half. That is why the buyer always seeks to establish contact with the supplier's management, this allows him to receive the most favorable conditions for his company.

How to deal with it? You just need to prevent the buyer from having a direct dialogue with the top managers of your company, but if this happens, it is advisable for the management to follow a few rules.

¦ Never visit clients without a manager serving them, except for checks.

¦ Do not put your seller at a disadvantage, do not delete all his agreements in one fell swoop.

¦ In the event of a conflict between a manager and a client, consider the conflict from different angles, investigate its real causes, and only then make decisions.

¦ Look at the actions of the client in terms of his business and his interests.

If followed, these simple rules can greatly facilitate the life of your company. They are simple, but often, like everything simple, they are difficult to perform. It is they who will help you protect yourself from this last rule in this chapter.

So, we have reviewed with you the main points of negotiating with the network and some of the most common options for pressure on the supplier in the negotiations.

It should be noted that such a complex topic as negotiations with retail chains cannot be exhausted within the framework of this chapter, the dayine tried to do this. I tried to reflect my view on this topic, to show those techniques and those basic principles that must be applied in negotiations with such complex clients as retail chains. I hope I succeeded. There are a number of books on negotiating with difficult clients that you can always use. You can also read more about conducting a business dialogue, dealing with objections, identifying needs and price bargaining in my book. "Techniques and methods of effective sales", which is quite actively sold today in the bookstores of the country.

I hope that after reading this publication, many managers will look differently at the negotiations that they had a chance to conduct, and will take a different approach to those that are yet to come, and thereby increase not only the profits of their companies, but also, naturally, improve their personal well-being.

Summing up the fourth chapter, I would like to say the following: do not need, but desire. And each time carefully prepare for negotiations, even if it seems to you that you will win them anyway.

Fight for the result to the end, try all the ways, because we are talking about your money, do not give in until perseverance begins to cost more than retreat. It is important to remember that 80% good suggestions are done at the last stage, when both sides have already used all their tricks. Hold on and don't need it!

Organization of work with retail networks. What you need to increase your profitability

Negotiation, conclusion of an agreement with a retail network, introduction of the necessary assortment - all this is not the end of the story. It's too early to wipe the sweat off your forehead and shoot each other with champagne corks "with a feeling of deep satisfaction". The conclusion of the contract is not the end, but only the beginning of the hard work, which only exists in cooperation with networks. Now you are faced with the questions of fulfilling the delivery ratio, searching for required amount goods, timeliness of delivery, provision of after-sales service, and many others, the main of which remains pulsating like a sore tooth - "ensuring the rate of return when working with a retail network."

Pricing policy when working with networks

Even at the stage of concluding a contract, many companies unnecessarily recklessly declare: we need to enter the network at any cost. As we already know, this is a manifestation of the need factor, to the development of which the networks themselves put a lot of effort. Many suppliers, in order to bring their products into the network matrix, are ready to make many concessions. Therefore, they agree to most of the conditions of the buyers, and tired of long negotiations, but happy because they are in the matrix, they are even proud of it.

A couple of months or even quarters pass, the euphoria goes away, and the question arises: “Is it so good that they “entered”, what is happening with our bank account now?” And after small financial calculations, the eyes begin to water, and the hands tremble when reporting to the management or owners of the company about the financial results of the breakthrough for which the award was once received.

Often there is a situation when the prices of goods supplied to the network are directly unprofitable for the company, that is, the more sales in this network, the more losses they bring. And, unfortunately, these are not isolated cases. I know a lot of examples when, in the Auchan or METRO chain, for some alcohol suppliers, each bottle sold brought from 1.5 to 15 rubles a loss, and this fact had a negative effect on the mood of the owners and managers who worked with these networks.

This is how the paradox turns out: the company wants to enter at any cost, enters, and then asks itself: “What have we done, how can we get out of all this now.” The fact is that "at any cost - it is always expensive." After all, what happens is that when concluding an agreement with any large network, it requires discounts, luring the number of stores and the estimated sales volume. At the same time, buyers put pressure on the supplier by all available means, and besides, almost every business publication talks about the dominance of retail chains, about the dictatorship of networks and about the lack of shelf space for all manufacturers. As a result, merchants often subscribe to network terms that are not in their financial interests.

Let's imagine a certain manufacturing company enters the market and strategically necessary considers the presence of its products in all networks of the region. Let's assume that the first chain contracted with (and often trained on "rabbits") is quite small, and it simply requires a discount and a marketing budget in the form of a modest entry ticket and a small list of promotions in which our supplier will have to participate. And it’s good if during the negotiations it is possible to keep the discount within reasonable limits, because there are many examples of when the base price was 20% or more lower. Let's go back to our manufacturer, we have an agreement with a large number of stores at once, albeit with an additional discount, but still this is a quite profitable project.

Inspired by success, sellers go to the next network, which is already larger. Negotiations are being held with this retailer: it already has higher sales volumes and more stores, and as a result, it, of course, is more interesting. Yes, that's bad luck, in his contract there is a now fashionable clause on prices not higher than those of competitors, otherwise problems in the form of non-childish fines cannot be avoided. And everything would be fine, but he also has a retrobonus of 8-12%. And this is where the trouble comes in: you give him the price the same as the previous networks, and on top of that, also a rebate, and additional costs in the form of delivery to each store, which, as we have already mentioned, he has a lot.

Our company is in a bad situation - profitability is declining, and much declining. And then there is already a chain reaction, marketing departments function well in the networks, they closely monitor prices, and every negotiation is a struggle for a discount. Accordingly, if a company enters the network from smallest to largest, then, most likely, it will be “squeezed out” in price more and more. The larger the client, the worse the conditions will be for her.

But this is only part of the problem, if the company also operates in the regions, additional difficulties arise with the regional expansion of networks. It's no secret that, for example, the Auchan hypermarket chain today has low prices for most goods, and this chain plans to develop rapidly throughout Russia, and their prices in all stores will be the same. How then to be with regional partners? For many companies, the expansion of Auchan to the regions will become a significant problem, and they will have to make a choice. Since it is extremely difficult to raise prices in this network. The situation is the same for other large retail conglomerates - METRO, Perekrestok, etc., and the choice will have to be made, as the chains require constant price reduction, as well as their unity throughout the country. Many make the decision to stop working with networks that are out of the price range. Other companies try to solve this problem differently, someone simply reduces the quality of products in an effort to reduce costs, someone reduces the size or capacity of the product, someone works to minimize costs, increase process efficiency. Which of them will be right, time will tell, but, in my opinion, it is already obvious. Some companies, struggling with costs, reduce the staff serving this network, reduce merchandising costs, but all these ways are not effective, as they lead to a narrowing of the distribution channel or even to loss of sales due to reduced quality and loss of product reputation.

Where did the price problem come from? Why is it so painful for many companies and why do suppliers enter into contracts on unfavorable terms for themselves in advance?

The answer to these questions lies in the depths of centuries, in the history of building the post-Soviet retail. Very long time the main tool marketing promotion and the fight against competitors was a discount. The bigger the concession, the more competitive you are. And this was caused not so much by the demand of the market as by the lack of the ability of most companies to sell differently, using other, more advanced technologies. Back then, there were no hundreds of thousands of dollars of marketing budgets and retro bonuses that, when discounted, put a heavy burden on the sales economy.

If you remember how proposals were made before, then much becomes clear. Price lists were sent with prices depending on the selected volume. And when the networks became serious players, most companies, without going into the details of the contract, gave them prices on the same principle, large volume - a big discount, like a wholesaler. But a retail network is not a wholesaler who exports, promotes and sells himself, asking nothing for his work, except for a discount; the retail network tries to sell all its actions as a service, shifting all its internal costs, from delivery and display of products to service information bases, on their suppliers. Substantiating their position, large retail chains indicate that their activity is a complex technology for the sale of goods, which is an integral logistics and marketing complex for the movement of goods from the manufacturer of goods to the basket of the final buyer. All this significantly changes the economy and the final profitability of operations with this client. That is why the prices offered by retail chains should be significantly higher than wholesale prices, they should take into account all the additional costs that the supplier will have to pay.

Companies that have managed to understand this no longer suffer from price traps that others have set for themselves, they build a policy based not on the interests of networks, but on the interests of their end consumers and their strategic goals on the territory of the entire market at once, where they plan to work, be it Russia or the CIS.

Now it is very important to build a pricing strategy for a product, this is a criterion for the survival of a brand and even the entire company, without a well-thought-out cost policy, it is very difficult for a company to maintain not only its profitability, but also its image. When forming price offer for retail chains, it is necessary to take into account the cost of the product, how much money will be needed for its promotion and development, what expenses will be needed for its after-sales service, and only taking into account all these data, calculate the final figure. As for the price itself, as in most cases, it is important that it is within the corridor determined by the market, but it is up to you to decide at the bottom or at the top of it, depending on what you are selling - the benefits of working with you or cheapness. No need to flaunt low cost, low price - bad competitive advantage if it is not provided with highly efficient technologies.

Remember, when you offer discounts during negotiations, you simply reduce your profit. In the dilemma of “what to do” - to give a discount or a large marketing budget - real money always wins.

THAT MEANS what you give in the form of a discount, no one will consider as the cost of promoting the product; even if you offer the maximum low price, then with sluggish marketing activity, your rating in the eyes of buyers will be low! They need real money, they need sales volume, and it's better to do it all together.

I often ask buyers I know about the criteria by which they select their suppliers, and in most cases the price is in third or fourth place in importance, provided that it is within the corridor. Price competition, price wars - this is a bad way for the supplier, the network will always demand a low price, much lower than it is realistically possible, so you don't need to help it in "robbing" you. In this, as they say, a bazaar is a bazaar, one wants to buy cheaper, the other wants to sell more expensive, and they will agree in any case. That is why today the price must be defended to the end, and the most competent solution for all network customers would be give one price– the price for retail sales in this region, winning back the status of the client with marketing budgets and rebates. A single price for all removes the issues of equality of the cost of a product for customers, and also levels out discounts, since if a company presents one price for everyone, then this tool becomes unnecessary. In this case, you will have the resources to strengthen the position of your brand, you will be able to fill the advertising budgets of your customers by promoting your products, your sales will grow and you will always be a desirable supplier! It is important that by showing marketing activity, you strengthen your brand, and this, in turn, gives additional trump cards in negotiations on next year: the stronger the brand, the more accommodating customers and the shorter the negotiation cycle.

I repeat, in principle, for the buyer today, the price is not the main parameter, its value is significant. The importance of cost is shown only if there is a possibility of comparison, and uniform prices practically remove this possibility.

The company must focus on developing and enhancing the value of its product and offer both for the end consumer and for its business partners. And in this case, you can quite easily get away from long and tedious price negotiations, because the value is not calculated according to the formula “Cost + Markup”, this is a more complex multi-level concept. The value of the product is increased by strengthening the brand through marketing activities, through an advertising campaign and PR. Therefore, the money that can be given in the form of a discount is better spent on promotion.

It must be remembered that after you put your goods on the shelves of the store, the work is not over. The product needs to be promoted further, this requires funds, and if big discounts there will be nowhere to take them. Keep this in mind when developing your pricing policy, especially when interacting with large networks.

How to deal with fines in networks

One of the most common questions that I am asked as a consultant and author of the seminar "Effective work with chain stores" is: how to reduce fines when working with chains? As complicated as this question is, so simple is the answer. But let's try to figure out what it means.

How to get rid of penalties from your business partner? The answer is simple: in order not to pay a penalty - do not violate the terms of the contract. As the saying goes: “If you don’t give a word, be strong, but if you give it, hold on!” There are two options here: either you do not sign a contract with onerous conditions and fight to the last, sometimes at the cost of cooperation with this client itself, or, having already concluded a deal, fulfill the conditions in such a way as not to give a reason to apply penalties to you.

“How can you follow it! many will say. “There are such conditions that punishments are immediately imposed for any offense, often not commensurate with the violation.”

For example, while reviewing the contract of a well-known retail chain with my alcohol supplier, I came across penalties for underdelivery. Under the terms of this agreement, if 1-2 bottles were broken during transportation and, as a result, there was an underdelivery, then a fine amounting to hundreds of thousands of rubles was imposed. There were many such "cute" items listed there. Such "phenomenal" treaties are the result of needs, and a very great need, on the part of the supplier.

But before proceeding to the main topic of this section, let's try to understand more deeply what penalties are in network contracts. To do this, it is worth going a little deeper into the history of retail in Russia.

When chain stores first appeared, they were still weak and many wholesalers and manufacturing companies did not want to work with them. This was partly justified - a small number outlets, small sales volumes and, at the same time, complex contracts, in which even then entrance tickets were prescribed, albeit at first small, and fines for violation of deliveries, then also still insignificant. The payment of penalties for non-fulfillment of the terms of the contract, especially the attempt to collect them, were something surprising for the market of the late 1990s and early 2000s. At that time, few people thought about such “trifles”, many worked on an advance payment or upon delivery, because the return of money for the sold goods was sometimes no less difficult than the sale of this product itself. Most of the suppliers did not bother to take care of their customers and comply with the terms of the contracts, especially since almost all the documents were drawn up by the suppliers' lawyers. Naturally, since it is not necessary to strictly fulfill your obligations, you can not fulfill them at all. Story retail business knows many cases when seasonal item sold by wholesalers, ignoring retail. A vivid example is champagne, if some visiting client with a bag of money wanted to buy a car for cash, it was shipped to him without thinking about what was under New Year all retail customers will be left without the traditional drink. Then there was no need to think about retail chains, the era of the distributor reigned on the market.

The chains, on the other hand, proposed a new approach to cooperation, they announced a new era of retail dictatorship and began to prepare everyone for it, demanding the signing of their contracts and the imposition of sanctions for non-fulfillment of obligations. If you remember, at that time it was precisely “accustoming”, there were many non-working fines in the contracts that were not used, but the suppliers gradually got used to them, resigned themselves to the fact that they could still be.

Some companies have started working with networks and have faced both fines and lower profitability in this market sector. These factors have begun to force suppliers to improve their processes and improve their business. But while the networks were small and their sales volumes were also small, some companies did not think about such trifles, noting that networks are not income, but an image. And today, many more companies are rushing to the shelves of chain stores, because, in their opinion, it increases the rating of their product.

Over time, retail chains have become more and more profitable and become an increasingly important distribution channel. And as their importance grew, they began to actively fight for the sustainability of their business, requiring suppliers to fulfill contractual obligations, the basis of which to this day is the stability of supplies and price equality from producers in their region. And if it is still possible to work with the price, then there is an uncompromising struggle about the conditions for the stability and liquidity of the assortment, since the basis of the activity of any network is turnover, and it is possible only if uninterrupted supplies are ensured. Fines began to increase, and this spurred companies to develop.

When I worked as a sales director in an alcohol company, we signed a contract with Auchan for the supply of popular Russian cognac. During this period, the system of regional excise stamps worked, and in order to receive them and paste over products, it took from 25 to 35 days for each batch in our company. The instability of shipments was aggravated by the fact that our side purchased this cognac in the minimum quantities required, which is why it was constantly in short supply.

After another short delivery, Auchan, on quite legal grounds, fined us for several thousand full-weighted dollars. e., in rubles, of course. The management was surprised, paid the bill, but did not change anything. Only a few days passed, and the same network made us a New Year's order, a multiple of the previous deliveries. They handed it over to us in almost a month, but this did not save us, since it took us at least 45 days at best from the moment of purchase to the moment of pasting and getting on sale. The penalty for non-fulfillment of obligations in this case would already amount to tens of thousands of dollars. e.

This amount “cheered up” the management and the entire required volume of cognac was ready for sale in just 15 days. The company has built new technology work with government agencies, supplier and assortment, which allowed to carry out activities in a short time.

Needless to say, without a fine from the client, a new scheme of work would hardly have been born. Our market knows a lot of such examples, I think, they are in every company working with the network.

Now the market is gradually filling up, networks are starting to compete with each other, of course, not everywhere yet, but the trend is already evident, which means that they will soon begin to fight for the end client. This will lead to tougher requirements for the quality of suppliers' work: from the stability of supplies to the level of pre-sales preparation and after-sales service. Which, in turn, indicates that fines will increase and they will be taken more and more often. If today there are often situations when networks do not require their partners to pay a penalty, only pointing out such a possibility and thus trying to correct the work of partners, then every day, with increased competition between networks, retailers will “train” their suppliers more strongly.

There is only one way out - to comply with all the terms of the contract. This, of course, is easier said than done, and readers will not be satisfied with this conclusion of this section. When the fine is issued, nothing can be done, except to “cry and ask for forgiveness.” But you can work to ensure that punitive measures are not applied to you at all. What to do, what technologies can be used to still reduce penalty payments, if they cannot be completely avoided.

To do this, I propose to work out the following aspects of cooperation with the network as best as possible.

1. Agreement. The contract itself is good tool, and there are plenty of opportunities for constructive work with representatives of the network and defending their interests. Using them, many companies operate quite calmly, without undue stress and losses.

But how can you benefit from this document for yourself?

The first rule is that you need to know the contract very well. When I was a sales director, I made network managers memorize the text of the agreement, now I recommend it to clients. A good knowledge of all points enables the employee to easily operate the provisions of this document during negotiations.

I will not be much mistaken if I say that the vast majority of managers working with chain stores are very poorly versed in the text of contracts and annexes to them. This statement is almost as true in relation to buyers, they also know their contract not by heart. Most often, both of them know quite superficially the point about the conditions of cooperation, and even then in the most “interesting” places. “Juggling” in a conversation with the provisions of the contract involuntarily arouses respect, demonstrates the seriousness of preparing for negotiations and reduces the desire to “rip off” the company whose managers understand the situation. After all, it is much easier to do this with those who, apart from their sales plan, do not read other documents.

Studying contractual obligations is not the most exciting thing, but 3-4 hours spent on understanding this text can save a company hundreds of thousands of rubles.

2. Conclusion of additional agreements. As with any contract work, additional agreements are born in the negotiation process. If at the first stage of the dialogue it was not possible to remove penalties completely or reduce their size, then, in order to protect yourself from a sudden increase in sales and shortages of goods, agreements on the volume of supply are concluded, which indicate the volume of sales and the price of supplies, as well as all possible the details of their changes.

Often such agreements are verbal, networks are reluctant to formalize them, but they do not become less effective because of this, and you can always appeal to them when analyzing controversial cases. At the same time, it is not worth putting your technical shortcomings into such agreements, the partners will not agree, and this will not help you either - you need to fight against inefficiency.

3. Conclusion of partnership agreements with the client. I have already talked about affiliate programs and their importance for developing interaction with customers such as retail chains in previous chapters of the book. Private-label and many other common programs may well be joint projects. When choosing them, it is enough to be guided by the knowledge of the client and common sense, so as not to turn yourself into an appendage of your own client. The presence of such agreements and the holding of joint actions does not give you a "golden label" that guarantees immunity, but it gives you freedom of maneuver.

4. Planning your work with the network. This item relates directly to the efficiency of the company, and it gives a greater chance of avoiding such an unpleasant procedure as paying a fine. Its essence is in a simple action - planning and forecasting your cooperation with chain stores.

After answering the question “why do you need this network?” you already clearly see your goals and expected results from this cooperation. Before concluding an agreement, you should thoroughly study your client (chain), its processes, sales and buyers of this network, find out how many people pass through each store of the network with which you plan to cooperate per day. As a result of the study of all this, you will already understand which assortment is better to sell through this network. And of course, you must calculate how much you can sell, what resources you will need to ensure the necessary flow of goods. By doing this analysis, you will almost immediately see the weaknesses that can expose you to penalties, and accordingly you can come up with risk mitigation measures in advance. With this preparatory work, it is very important to be critical not only of the client, but to a greater extent of yourself, because failures in your processes are most often the cause of fines. Such targeted planning will save you from many problems: payment of penalties, loss of reputation, wasting time on apologies, etc.

To illustrate, I will give an example, again from the alcohol business. One Russian company importing Spanish wines to our country, after a trip to Spain, where they were given a good reception, was waiting for a return visit from their partners, and in order for the second round of negotiations on cooperation to be more successful, the management decided to please their colleagues - to start their products in Auchan, with which they had previously had a good relationship.

The goods were placed on the shelves, the Spaniards were happy, but then problems began. The stock of the item that was brought into the network was enough for 4 weeks of sales, and the delivery cycle from Spain was 2.5 months after the order. In other words, already at the beginning of cooperation on this name, a shortage of products was laid. Tears where thin, and the Spaniards delayed the shipment for 2 weeks. As a result, when 20,000 bottles of wine arrived at the company's warehouses, the batch, taking into account the sales of a large hypermarket chain, the supplier was fined, and the item was withdrawn from the assortment. This is how the history of the divergence of this company with the Auchan network began.

The lack of competent planning in the example I cited led to large losses, primarily reputational losses - the loss of respect in the network, the surprise of foreign partners who could not understand why orders for goods for hypermarkets stopped, financial - fines and losses on "frozen" in this product money. All this damage could have been avoided if the company's management had taken the trouble to calculate the consequences of its curtsy and the introduction of this position into the assortment matrix.

Sales in networks after the conclusion of the contract

What happens after the conclusion of the contract?

Managers, burning with joy, place an order, which is sent to the network's warehouses. And everything seems to be fine, and only a bright future lies ahead. Many companies still seriously believe that, having concluded an agreement for the supply of goods to a retail network, they have made a sale, and now all that is required of them is only to ship. This is not entirely true, or rather, not at all.

Having put the goods on the network and considering the process of robots completed, you can stay with your nose and fly out of the outlets in a couple of months. To agree with the buyer on the supply of products to this retail chain is only the first stage. The next one starts after the delivery of products to the landing stage of the store. Today, the logistics in many chains are far from perfect, and sometimes your product can lie in the bowels of the supermarket for several days before it gets on the shelf, where the buyer can take it. But, even after hitting the counter, the product may not be sold. After hands have reached him, they poke him on the shelf, they really poke him, where there is a place, and there are no good places empty in stores. Accordingly, the stage of after-sales service of the goods begins - the implementation of merchandising and BTL events.

Companies that have their own merchandising service, actively conducting trade marketing activities, have a strong advantage over those who leave it at the mercy of network managers. According to our statistics, at least 40% of sales volume depends on who and how displays your products in the store. Work with the goods at the client should not stop for a day. This is the only way to achieve high sales in retail outlets.

Today, the so-called product rating is becoming more and more relevant in networks, and in order to be in its top lines, you must sell more and better. In addition, when making decisions on cooperation, chain buyers have an internal chart of suppliers according to the marketing activity parameter and a number of other criteria (large companies often use special supplier evaluation cards. See the following table). Because it’s not enough to pay an entrance ticket, it’s not enough just to put the assortment on the shelves, for successful work you also need to carry out promotions and monitor the display of your products.

Today, the dominance of network operators in the market of the Moscow region has become obvious, their requirements for suppliers to hold promotional events in support of their product have become not so much persistent as ultimatum. And all companies supplying their product to these customers have to spend serious money on conducting various events. Moreover, their organization and holding become the subject of bargaining when concluding a cooperation agreement. The manufacturer has the choice between independently conducting various marketing campaigns in support of his product or a banal transfer of a large amount of money to the account of the retail network. In any case, part of the organizational issues in this kind of cooperation, as well as financial costs, falls on the shoulders of the supplier.

Most often, the manufacturer uses a standard set of measures that were once successful. From the popular: a gift for a purchase, tastings, participation in a chain leaflet or, less often, your sales assistant. For Western companies, this process is more or less established, but since they use the services of Russian marketing and promotion agencies, everything is not going smoothly for them either.

In many Russian companies have long understood that advertising is the engine of trade, and the engine should always have fuel. Advertising budgets for promotion are growing year by year, but is the money being spent efficiently? In theory, injections into the brand, strengthening its position and attractiveness in the eyes of customers reduce the costs of its passage through the distribution channels. Dealers large and small should be more eager to take it, stores should also welcome such an attractive product on their shelves. But today, large investments in brand promotion do not lead directly to such a result. Many companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their product, push their limits, and the improvements are out of proportion to the costs. And okay, if it was only about financial losses, main resource, which is lost in the process, is time, the loss of which is irreplaceable.

Let's analyze the reasons for this and think about how such miscalculations can be prevented. In this section, I will not talk about the basics of building a brand, about choosing a target audience, about researching a portrait of your buyer, about choosing channels for the most convenient and quick communication with him. Here I would like to talk about trade marketing: carrying out various activities aimed at stimulating all distribution channels and increasing the speed of goods passing through them.

If you go to any chain store at almost any time, we will see several companies conducting various promotions. Any event held at a retail outlet with the involvement of promoters is in itself a rather costly action. The promoter's rate starts at $7 per hour on the Moscow market, plus there is a fee for holding the promotion of the network itself, as a result, the amount of expenses for the event can be impressive.

The final goal of promotions is to increase sales and strengthen the position of the company and brand in the network. The manufacturer hopes that all investments in this action will pay off: the product will have a new buyer, sales will increase, which in turn will positively affect the rating of the product in the store, and other criteria that are of interest to the supplier will change. But, unfortunately, in practice, most incentive measures use their potential not even half, but much less, without bringing the expected results. This applies to almost all promotions used by companies to promote their product today. It's not even about the people directly involved in the events in the store, and not about the quality of their work, although this, of course, is also the case, as usual, it's about the practice of using these tools and their organization.

The main mistake of today's marketers of the FMCG market and their colleagues from sales departments is that almost all promotions held throughout the year, even if they are planned for at least half a year, which is far from always the case, are extremely rarely coordinated with each other. I mean the absence of a monolithic information flow and interconnected actions to promote your product, which could be noticed by the client and the end buyer.

Most Russian companies do not have multi-million dollar marketing budgets and are forced to save money, but, alas, often such cuts and counting every ruble leads to even greater inefficiency in spending money. One of the common mistakes in this case is the lack of understanding of your buyer: who is he, how old is he, what is his gender, income, what are his interests and passions, what magazines does he read and whether he reads at all. Ignorance of all of the above leads to the fact that instead of targeted work with their target audience, companies are sprayed immediately on the entire population of our country. Often a portrait of a buyer emerges at a desk meeting of the company's top managers, and such an image is always gaping with gaps and inaccuracies, if at all somehow correlates with reality.

Most manufacturers enter the market, motivated by the following strategy: "... put the product on the shelves," shake it ", it will go, and when we start making a profit, then we'll see what to research and why." And it would be fine if this was done only when a new product was launched, although this in itself is already absurd. The same thing happens when developing an action plan to promote a product that is already on the market. Such a mistake is fraught with senseless spending of funds, so necessary for development. However, the series of miscalculations does not end with this global error.

The second major miscalculation when promoting a product in retail networks and creating a supporting advertising company is “reverse” financing, that is, not allocating all the funds planned for the year for marketing support, but issuing them depending on current financial indicators. The logic of actions is clear, less money comes, so you need to spend less. It is not without meaning, but following this path leads the development of the product to a dead end. With a reduction in funding, sales incentives decrease, they decrease, profits fall, therefore, the advertising budget is cut again, and so on in a circle until the product dies under pressure from competitors. This error, like the first one, is systemic; it leads to a cyclical reaction in the entire marketing plan, if it exists, of course. If a brand or trademark development plan is scheduled for a year, then cost reduction either reduces the effect, or completely levels it to mediocre.

The third systemic mistake in the marketing support of the product is the inconsistency and lack of coordination of actions and events among themselves. Very often one can observe in the example of retail chains how manufacturing firms simply throw money away.

Let me give you an example: a certain grocery company participates in a leaflet in May, does tastings in August, and palletizes in November. Even if these events coincide with seasonal fluctuations, such a gap between stocks is a big mistake. A single image of the product is not created for the buyer, his consciousness is not affected in any way, if he purchased the goods of this company today, succumbing to a discount on a leaflet, then it is not at all a fact that he will buy it later, but during the tasting it may not fit at all to the counter. But if the same company ran all three promotions in concert, reinforcing one with the help of the other, the effect would be vastly different in terms of monetary value as well as brand recognition.

I often discuss this topic with various specialists, who are supporters of holding various promotions gradually, slowly accustoming buyers to their product. And as an argument, I often cite the example of election campaigns, when parties unknown to anyone become widely known. This is not done gradually, often they go to a predetermined failure in elections that are obviously not of their level, investing in their advertising so that every resident in the area that is important to them, one way or another, learns about their existence, their position, etc. And after that, using this acquired popularity, they go into another circle, and at this decisive time they need much less funds for their promotion. If they, following the example of many manufacturers, approached this gradually, then it would take a dozen years and several times more resources to achieve the same result.

It is rare for a product to have an infinite resource of time; today, at our speeds, a product is given two, three years at the most, and then it must go away or change significantly. And in the sector of high-tech goods, a year is the entire allotted period of the life of the name. Therefore, a complex of coordinated actions will bring a much greater effect both in the behavior in a single network and on a regional scale. In my opinion, with a limited budget, it is better to direct it to the development of a product in one strategically important network, rather than spread it in a thin layer throughout the city, this is the so-called raspberry jam rule, known in different variations: the larger the piece of bread, the thinner layer jams on each of its sections.

As an example of such a campaign, let's consider the following plan for the development and promotion of a product in a single network. Events are divided into two main blocks according to the principle of significance for brand promotion (Fig. 3 and 4).

Rice. 3. Scheme of the first block of brand promotion activities in the network

In this block - the introduction of goods into the distribution network, acquaintance of buyers with it, directing the focus of attention of potential consumers to this product.

These promotions are aimed at switching the attention of potential consumers when placing a position in the network. Their main goal is to reduce the consumer's addiction to a new product and encourage a person to make the first purchase. And also pay attention to the fact that this product can now be bought in this store. The most effective measures for this stage are the following.

1. Participation in the network leaflet. You need to strive to ensure that the leaflet contains not just an image of your product, but also short description his best qualities. This is not always possible, the saying “less is better” is irrelevant in this case: it makes sense to buy a large area.

2. Tastings and consultants. Conducting tastings (demonstrations) and the work of consultants in the store are very effective moves in themselves and bring both an increase in sales and attracting the attention of potential customers to your product. But, unfortunately, very often the implementation of this kind of action comes down to simply finding beautiful girls in the store. So I'll give you a few basic requirements and rules holding these events.

Consultants must be in branded clothing, with branded equipment. The level of their promoter training must be high, they must be able to answer any question about the product. They should also be prepared according to the sales technique, so that if the client is in doubt, the promoter can competently resolve them and complete the dialogue with a purchase. A promoter is not just a pretty young man or girl, he is first and foremost a salesperson. If a potential client is interested, they simply must be able to sell this product to him.

Another important rule that must be observed when conducting demonstrations and tastings is the creation of a flow towards the display areas of the promoted product. That is, a promoter is not a static figure attached to a dot in trading floor. While one is standing behind the counter, the other must by any means create a flow to it in order to try the product in a short time maximum amount customers visiting the store. Often, in fact, the opposite happens, buyers approached, asked, well, they were treated or shown. In this case, the potential of the shares is not used even by half. And, unfortunately, most of them go that way. And this applies to the holding of events both by small companies and national ones.

When promoting a product on the network after it has been launched, the “gift for purchase” promotion is effective.

3. Gift for purchase. In this context, this incentive tool is used to motivate the first purchase of a potential consumer. Most people are conservatives, according to statistics, only a little more than 5% of the population is prone to innovation in consumption. Therefore, before buying a new product, many go through an internal struggle: “Do I need this, and will I not lose?” Often a person simply lacks a little push in order to make a decision. And if for the purchase he is somehow “rewarded”, for example, with a small souvenir, then his caution can lose in this internal struggle. It is not necessary to make some valuable prizes an incentive, it can be a pen, a lighter, or an air freshener for a car. The main thing is that this gift should be the “feather” that will tip the choice in favor of your product.

A characteristic feature of the events of the first block is that they are held before the appearance of any sales history, they themselves create it. Therefore, it is quite difficult to calculate the effectiveness of these events, for this you need to conduct research aimed at determining the level of recognition of your product before the start of promotions, as well as the level of sales in adjacent retail outlets, since very often with the active promotion of goods in supermarkets, its sale in the neighborhoods adjacent to this store is also increasing.

Thus, evaluating the effectiveness of the shares of this block is a rather difficult matter, suffering from a large amount of error. Therefore, the main analysis tool here is sales monitoring, the ratio of real indicators and expected sales.

Rice. 4. Scheme of the second block of brand promotion activities in the network

The activities of this block have a fairly clear and tangible goal - to increase sales. They are aimed at increasing the sale of goods in retail outlets through the use of additional display areas, promotions that stimulate an increase in the number of purchases, an increase in the average check amount, etc. A direct indicator of the effectiveness of actions is the quantitative indicator of sold units of goods. And, as a result, an increase in trade turnover with this client, an increase in the rating of the company and product in this network. When carrying out these events, almost the same tools are used as when placing goods on the network, but there are some differences.

1. Tools become important media support: participation in printing products networks, placement of audio and video clips, etc.

Participation in the flyer should not be a separate promotion, as is usually the case, it should precede a large-scale promotion to increase sales. That is, the advertising module must contain some meaning and inform the buyer about something, creating in him a desire to make a purchase or at least visit this store during the specified period. The placement of information in this way should begin a month before the massive action and also continue during it. A good addition to the leaflet are promotions jointly with the network, such as margin reduction, announcement of the price of the day, additional display in the best places for the promotion period, etc.

Radio spots. They are scrolled in many networks. They are not always effective, but nevertheless can have a significant supportive effect.

Placement of video materials. More recently, another platform for advertising support for goods in the store has become videos that are shown on monitors at the checkout. If the network has such an opportunity, it is necessary to use it.

In addition, it is necessary to agree with the network administration on the placement of additional POS materials both your own and standard network, indicating your product. For the duration of the promotion, you need to be sure that the buyer will definitely see your product, and for this you can use all the opportunities that the partner offers: pallet, end display, racks. Agree on a cross-layout for the duration of the action. For example, wines with cheeses, beer with fish or crackers, etc.

2. Tastings should be used not as a gastronomic experiment, but as a selling tool, that is, in this case, the main task of promoters is not only “missionary educational activity”, but also, for the most part, increasing sales. They should harmoniously complement and enhance the “gift for purchase” campaign.

Let me repeat myself and remind you that all consultants-promoters must have a good level of training in sales techniques in order to competently and effectively communicate with customers, and also work not only on a completed sale, but also actively provoke it themselves. That is, not only to serve a customer who has already decided to purchase, but also to actively bring to it everyone who paid attention to the product.

3. Gift for purchase. In this context, this action should be aimed at increasing sales and motivating repeat purchases. If in the first block these were just souvenirs for the purchase of any amount of goods, then here they should motivate them to consume more products than usual. That is, for the purchase of double or triple in relation to the usual volume of goods, the buyer receives a significant prize. These are costly shares. The gift can be different - an additional product, or some valuable souvenir. In any case, it should be such an item that can remind you of the purchase for a long time. For example, T-shirts, good key rings. Thus, you not only advertise the product, but also increase sales.

An interesting move is the delivery purchase certificate or coupon to a significant discount on subsequent purchases of the same item. In 90% of cases, the right to a discount or certificate for a free product will be realized. With this technique, you not only increase sales, but create customer loyalty to your product.

I will give an example from the alcohol industry, one company, when promoting its products - a fairly expensive brand of whiskey, at a price of more than 2,500 rubles per bottle, implemented the following promotion: for the purchase of two bottles, the buyer was awarded a certificate for the third, but with one condition - the validity of the certificate did not begin earlier than 30 days, that is, you could receive your gift only after a month.

As a result, at the end of the action period, 98% of the certificates were cashed. But the main thing is different, this whiskey is usually not drunk in glasses, it is consumed little by little, enjoying the taste. With such consumption, 2 bottles are enough for 1–1.5 months, a person is already getting used to this product, and he is given a third bottle to “fix” in order to completely entice, thus getting a regular customer.

The shares of this block must be cost-effective. Their economic profitability it is much easier to calculate as they are based on the sales history already available, and the increase in volume during the promotion and the continued high sales after it ends should justify the money spent. That is, if in the first block money is invested in the future, and since the product is new, the return is expected in the future, then in the second block, sales should increase significantly. And the amount of additional profit received should not be less than the funds spent.

You should pay special attention to the quality of all events, because these are all actions that increase the cost of goods. It is necessary to make sure that each of the spent rubles comes back and brings a dozen other of his brothers with him.

When I visit chain stores, I always watch promotions, and two years ago, and today, companies make the same mistakes, despite articles and speeches, mine and my colleagues, talking about how to avoid fatal miscalculations. If you go to a point of sale and take a closer look at the promoters, you will almost always notice a dozen or two mistakes, due to which money simply becomes thrown out. You can list the miscalculations of consultants for a long time, but this is the topic of another book, which will be devoted to trade marketing, and not to networks.

In carrying out promotional events, activity planning plays no less a role than in other aspects of working with retail chains. This activity, like no other, should be based on deep technology and be focused on results, and not on the “creativity” that is fashionable today. IN modern world the cost of a mistake when working with trading networks, when interacting with them in all aspects, it grows literally by the hour.

Summarizing everything that has been said in this section, I want to say that the events listed above are carried out in one form or another by many companies of various levels, from small companies to national giants. But the mistakes listed in this article are made by almost everyone. If you observe the holding of promotions in large stores and chains, then almost all of the listed shortcomings can be seen even with a cursory examination. The same companies that have already ruled out such mistakes successfully develop their sales at a much lower cost per ruble of profit. And the higher the efficiency, the higher the profit and the level of profitability when working with customers.

How to organize merchandising

In the last decade, the concept of "merchandising" has firmly entered our everyday life. Literally, it means "the ability to sell." More precisely, perhaps merchandising should be defined as a set of events held on the trading floor and aimed at increasing sales of both a single product and a group of goods, or, in other words, it is a system of events held in a store and aimed at making it convenient, pleasant and profitable for the buyer to make purchases.

The store owners think about the comfort for the consumer at the project stage. Location of shop equipment, lighting, layout of product groups - all these are the most important components of merchandising.

There are several equipment layouts in the trading floor. The most optimal, in my opinion, is when store-forming goods are located along the perimeter of the outlet, in the center - racks perpendicular to the checkout line; At the same time, the aisles between the rows should be left wide enough so that buyers do not crowd in narrow corridors. The inconvenience of moving around in a shopping pavilion can make you opt for a more comfortable store.

Today, there are still suppliers who are confident that their work is finished as soon as the assortment has been delivered to the door of the chain store. But along with the saturation of the market with goods and services, the ability to sell the product even after the conclusion of a retail deal becomes vital for every manufacturer. Over the current decade, we have experienced several stages of merchandising:

¦ spontaneous, when the products were exhibited, anyhow and anywhere;

¦ "supplier stage", when store shelves were farmed out to the supplier (it is this period that can also be described as the stage of “merchandising wars”);

¦ transitional, when there was a gradual transition to category merchandising;

¦ category merchandising– when the management of as-sortment comes to a system and the assortment of the network is not considered as a set of separate trademarks, but as a single category, the results of which are taken into account.

CATEGORY MANAGEMENT- this is such an assortment management process in which a product category is considered as a separate business unit with corresponding requirements for efficiency, profitability, etc. Today, most retail chains strive for this, building their processes and those of their suppliers accordingly. Already now, in most retail chains, the category manager is responsible for the assortment for his group, although not everywhere he has the opportunity to deal with only one category, managing two, and sometimes three groups of goods at once, only partly similar to each other.

Merchandising is a big deep topic, in fact a separate direction of marketing, and the format of this book does not imply a lengthy discussion on this topic, there are other authors with good articles and books on the subject. I will not consider the rules of merchandising themselves, but the rules of its organization.

Now merchandising in stores is carried out in three main ways, which, of course, are mixed in various combinations.

Method one- the work of its own merchandising service, when the company seeks to serve each outlet to which its goods are supplied. This approach is used by many international and large Russian companies.

Method two- the implementation of the calculation by the forces of special agencies that take on the responsibility of promoting products in networks, for a certain, often hourly fee.

Method three- laying out and performing all the functions of accompanying the goods is carried out by the retail network itself, or rather, its special division.

Each of the methods has its advantages and disadvantages, the first one is very costly as in financial plan, and by the amount of time and administrative costs for management. The second is very unreliable, since you have to constantly monitor the level of execution, and besides, it is also quite expensive. My experience of cooperation with specialized companies shows that without sufficient control it is quite difficult to get any worthwhile result for your money. The third method generally has an unpredictable result, from good to such that your product will be gathering dust in the warehouse for months. One of my clients, in the warehouse of a well-known large Russian chain, had a pallet of products for three months, and, accordingly, orders were not made due to poor sales. From a warehouse, everything is usually sold poorly.

Merchandising, while improving sales by helping the product move through the distribution channels, remains a very costly business because it requires significant resources. Therefore, when organizing it, the efficiency of its processes is very important, how much each ruble spent increases the overall turnover.

It is quite difficult to calculate clearly and directly the impact of merchandising on the total sales volume; you will always have to take into account subjective evaluative factors. But you can always and should try to make the processes as efficient as you can. There is a simple way, terribly difficult to execute, that goes like this: Strive for efficiency, continuously improve. I think everyone knows how difficult it is to implement it.

Where does the path to efficient processes begin? From the usual mathematical calculations, however, it is necessary to count not the diggers, but your money.

¦ How much does one merchandiser cost your company?

And taking into account administrative expenses: taxes, UST and others; shares in the office lease; executive salaries, mobile communications, travel, etc., you know?

¦ Do you know how much your company costs merchandising services for all customers in the segment of retail chains? And taking into account administrative expenses: taxes, UST and others; shares in the office lease; expenses for executive salaries, mobile communications, travel, etc., you know?

¦ How much does the merchandising service of each particular chain cost you? And one store of this network?

¦ How much time does a merchandiser spend on servicing one SKU? How much time does he spend on average per store? How much to move between them?

¦ How much does maintenance of one SKU cost for you?

¦ Do you have a developed merchandising concept for each network format? Does it take into account the position of competitors and your strategic goals for developing the brand and the distribution channel itself?

By answering various questions with specific numbers and phrases, you yourself will be able to understand whether you have organized merchandising or is it just some kind of support for your products, which has little to do with efficiency and, of course, does not improve your profitability.

I offer all the questions asked in the box to the participants of conferences, seminars and forums where the problems of working with retail chains are discussed. Only a few respond positively to at least some of them. What does it say? The fact that your company still has a lot of resources and “free money”, since you still don’t count them. But with the calculation of such indicators, the organization of an effective merchandising department begins.

A few words about the basics of the organization. I'll start with the main thing - the concept of merchandising - these are your goals and a description of the tools to achieve them in the field of product display. A Chinese proverb says: “If you don’t have a goal, you double your efforts.” And efforts are always resources: financial, temporary, human. Without defining the exact parameters of the goal, work turns into a run in circles, the company cannot determine the effectiveness of its work and the work of employees. In order not to waste the strength of the company, it is necessary to clearly prescribe the criteria for the result. In merchandising, these criteria are its concept and standards, designed and formulated for specific product and market conditions.

The merchandising concept prescribes the desired place on the shelf, oriented in the space of the store, the places and location of the desired additional display, a description of the preferred neighborhood with other brands of your group, and other factors that should be the result of competent and intensive work of the merchandising service. Without such a concept, the work of merchandisers almost does not make sense, since for them the bottom shelf is an acceptable result; it is impossible to check the work of employees - the products will still stand, the store employees will put them up somehow, but then it will also be sold somehow. Without presence goals, any actions and expenses become aimless, that is, your money will simply burn out!

Today, when managing merchandisers in a company, there are several main ways to control them and stimulate their activities. The issue of audit is quite complicated, especially if there were no clear answers to many questions about financial costs: it is difficult to control without knowing what you want to receive. In order to organize effective control, you need to answer all questions, and have a strong desire to get things done.

In my practice, there was a case when I "found" 12 merchandisers in my client's company. Before training for network managers, I ran diagnostics and interviewed them one at a time. In fact, I always conduct research in order to be able to adjust the training program to the tasks of the company. So, at the first interview, I asked the manager:

– How many merchandisers do you have under your control?

"Three," some thoughtfulness, "actually five," he answered me.

Well, I think it happens, then I talked with several more managers, each of whom was mistaken in the number of his merchandisers in the range of two to three people. I was greatly surprised by the manager of the METRO network, who made a mistake by six (!!!) employees.

When I asked how many times a week merchandisers come for a report, they answered me: “Twice a month.” I didn’t even ask what dates, I think you guessed it already - on the day of payment of salaries and advance payments. There was no concept of merchandising in this company, and, of course, there was no way to control their employees.

The question of verification of work is always technical. If you have calculated all the parameters that describe the work of this specialist - the schedule of the working day, the issuance of tasks for every hour - it will not be difficult to establish control, for this you can use both administrative and technical methods. Administrative - a system of reports, collection of checks and the organization of a special service of "checkers" who check the work of merchandisers directly in the store. The technical ones are presented from special programs for PDAs with the possibility of a photo report to services for determining the location of employees from cellular operators MegaFon and MTS.

As they say, there would be a desire, and you can always come up with ways to look after employees. I would like to note that control is needed not so much for the sake of control itself, but to increase the efficiency of work, and for this total surveillance is not at all necessary, it is too expensive, it takes a lot of time. The main task of a manager is to create the illusion of a thorough check, when everyone believes that management knows more about each employee, about his actions and inactions than he wants. This is usually more than enough, and it turns out to be quite effective.

Merchandising is not a service, it is a process, and like any process, no one needs it by itself. All he needs is a good result. Work on improving the quality of this activity constantly, every day, and success will not be long in coming.

How to avoid recruiting mistakes

Today, probably, more than ever in recent years, there is a shortage of personnel in Russia, especially for sellers, especially good ones. Companies spend huge amounts of money to find the right staff, to train them, but often remain dissatisfied with the results. At conferences on almost any topic of sales, the question is: “Where to get good sellers? With regard to the selection of managers to work with chain stores, such a question does not sound, he just screams about himself. And I would like to talk not so much about training, but about the organization of recruitment for work in the network department.

In my opinion, the personnel issue is decisive for the successful organization of the network department and its subsequent work. It is precisely in the mistakes made during the selection of this personnel that the mass of problems and difficulties that arise later during the work of these divisions with retail chains lies. Currently, there are often vacancies in the personnel search press for the position of network manager. With a good compensation package, this is often well over $2,000.

And always in the job description there is a condition that I mentioned earlier: “experience with networks is required, and personal connections are also desirable.” For the sake of experiment, my colleague and I visited several companies as applicants for this position; Everywhere the interview was surprisingly the same. Each time we were asked about the period of work with networks, they asked us to name the networks with which we cooperated - this is understandable and normal. But a successful seller is not determined by knowledge of the network or experience with it! Managers of bankrupt companies also know the buyers and have a decent amount of experience interacting with them, they will apply all their experience in the new company, but do you need it?

Where the experience of working with retail chains comes from and where merchandisers go can be seen from a cursory analysis of Fig. 5.

Each company has one or two employees who conclude contracts, improve conditions with chain stores, that is, the main sellers that companies value and pay them a good salary, reaching 5-10 thousand USD. e. After the conclusion of an agreement with retail conglomerates, cooperation is usually carried out by network managers, whose functions include collecting orders and maintaining the network; their compensation package is 1.5–2 thousand USD. e. Then there are sales representatives who collect orders from stores, carry out layout and control the work of merchandisers, these are low-paid employees, their package is up to 1200 USD. Merchandisers go even lower, they are engaged in laying out, working with several networks, and their package is up to 1000 USD.

Many in this pyramid want to rise higher, and this desire is understandable. If we proceed from the requirements set by companies for applicants for the position of chain store managers, then each of this pyramid has the required qualities: they all know the network and have experience working with it. The only thing that most of them do not have is sales experience, negotiation skills. And that doesn't work in a week.

Rice. 5. Scheme of the department for working with retail chains

Very often, companies invite people to maintain and develop already signed contracts. This happens approximately as follows: first, some strong manager with extensive experience in concluding contracts is invited, for a certain period he “opens” several networks, then he is unable to afford the rapidly increasing amount of work, and less significant networks are invited new employee. Usually they are looking for him on the side, with experience working with this kind of clients. By the method already described above. Often these are former merchandisers different levels or managers who were engaged in the maintenance of already operating networks. As a result, the department is formed, but the quality of the staff leaves much to be desired. Indeed, sometimes it happens that in the unit there are almost no employees with good experience in sales and negotiations. What does it threaten? The fact that in negotiations with buyers, such sellers often lose, make concessions, accepting the conditions of networks. And this is fraught with a decrease in the profitability of the business. This is largely due to the fact that a “manager with experience”, who already knows well that networks are the dominant segment, squeezes out his management, and an experienced salesman - his customers.

As for having acquaintances with buyers, they do have some influence, but very often only on the length of time from the first call to the first meeting. If the manager knows the buyer, he will simply be able to arrange a meeting faster. In order for his relationship with him to affect the result of the work, he must be almost a relative of him, then, accordingly, the announcements should be of a slightly different kind: "... we take relatives of network buyers." Today, many buyers are well trained and experienced enough not to mix personal relationships with work.

So it's not worth it too much great importance to give the dating factor when hiring a new employee, the level of his connections is not always worth the money that he asks.

At one time I had an interesting opportunity to conduct a small experiment. When I was a sales director, two employees worked in the network department under my supervision, who were responsible for working with networks that were quite good at that time, bringing in a large volume of sales. Naturally, they took such a result solely to their credit, and this was partly the reason for the star disease, the guys refused to study, etc. Our company had a situation in which it was necessary to make changes in the composition of clients and redistribute the responsibility of managers, and these employees were left without much work for one month. Playing on their vanity, I suggested that they go to the retail department for this time to show all its employees how to work. To do this, they were "secretly" given the right to an additional discount. At that time, the average sales in the retail department were 450 thousand rubles. So, I gave them free territories, the whole package of documents, etc.

What do you think was the result?

The cumulative sales of both amounted to 78 thousand rubles for two. That is, less than 40 thousand per person, which was ten times less than the average figure for the department and 2 times less than the average sales to new customers per seller. After such a “chilling soul”, the stardust flew away and the guys began to study actively, because somehow they quickly realized their real possibilities.

I work a lot with companies from different sectors of the consumer goods industry, building work commercial services, and, unfortunately, I rarely come across good negotiators in network departments. I don't want to say anything bad about these guys at all, but the lack of special training in conducting business conversations prevents them from making more money.

At the same time, every company has retail sales departments, but people are taken from there with extreme reluctance - they have no experience working with networks, no acquaintances. To learn the algorithm of the network client is a matter of several days, to understand the intricacies of interaction - a few weeks. It takes several months to learn how to sell.

The experience of negotiation does not come suddenly from reading a book or listening to training. Such knowledge is obtained through a huge amount of work done, through many mistakes and failures, in the process of daily repetition. Such experience is sales representatives working with retail outlets, they are the quality personnel reserve to fill the vacancies of a retail network manager. It is they, with their experience and their bumps, that are the golden resource that most companies working with networks, for some reason, ignore. Having gone through hundreds of business meetings, in the first, second and further circles, working within the framework narrowly outlined by management, having a minimum of tools for sales development, especially recently, when most companies have fallen under the influence of "network fever" and all resources are directed to development of networks, making all conceivable and unimaginable mistakes, they gain invaluable sales experience, which is necessary in any negotiations. The merchandisers, and even the managers involved in maintaining the networks with which the company works, are not so well suited for this work, despite the seeming absurdity of such a statement.

Summing up all of the above, I believe that when recruiting personnel to work with networks, more attention should be paid to the level of training in sales techniques and the ability to negotiate, rather than simply knowing the buyers of the networks.

Entrance to the network, like negotiations with any company, begins with negotiations. Which, in turn, begins with identifying the needs of the client.

There are two types of customer needs:

Thus, any negotiator has two types of needs that he needs to satisfy, his own and the needs of the department. Before you start negotiations, you need to understand them, this is actually true for any sale. For each network, of course, they will be different, which is determined by the personality of the negotiator and the goals of the network.

But every buyer has a need for competent partners and saving working time.

Every day the buyer receives commercial offers about cooperation. Many companies want to put their products on store shelves, rightly believing that they should be there. The design of these proposals leaves much to be desired. These can be basic price lists, which indicate the price for 1 unit. products, 10 units, etc., that is, the buyer is invited to determine his own volume and choose the price.

There are also offers indicating the site where the product is described and the price for which they are ready to sell it.

Of course, these are also suggestions, but they are not very informative and do not help the partner in the network to make their choice.

On the other hand, there are proposals describing the history of the company from the dawn of perestroika, on 5 pages, and at the end a few words about how the company sees its cooperation with the network.

But there are proposals of a different plan, which are based on the needs of customers, taking into account their business processes.

For example:

• Product.
• Its benefits.
• Calculation table.
• Prospects for joint cooperation.

Table example.

Thus, the prepared proposal is more likely to be considered, since it satisfies an important requirement - saving working time and taking into account the needs of the client. Moreover, it offers almost turnkey solution and does not require additional effort to think.

Of course, the proposal also needs to indicate what are the benefits of working with your product, how it differs from competitors, and how it meets the goals of the network.

The further route of work in a network depends on what needs of the client you can satisfy. And in order to find out, you need to know your client in detail.

You need to find out the following points:

• Determine the main goals of the network and identify strategic needs based on this.
• Identify profitable processes, because it is clear that a discounter and a boutique have different actions.
• Identify opportunities to improve your group's shelf efficiency.
• Determine the structure of the network and contacts of key employees and departments.
• Identify the needs of these departments.
• Determine the decision-making mechanism in this network for your product.
• Identify your client's customers and their needs.
• Determine the buyer's dependence on other departments, and the level of this dependence.

Basically, find out everything you can about your client. The more you know about him, the easier it will be for you to negotiate.

Information sources:

• Employees of the client's company.
• Company's own website and information service.
• Companies already working with this network.
• Etc.

The collected customer information is a reduced percentage of your potential discount.

But this information is not just data that an employee should know, it is a plan for working with a client.

All departments in any company have their own internal relationships, which also play a significant role in networks. The most legendary purchaser, "holding in a fist" the city, must keep an account not only to his management, but also to the horizontal divisions of accounting, logistics, marketing, etc.

By analyzing the needs of these departments, especially in conjunction with the needs of the company as a whole and the purchasing department in particular, one can understand a lot about the decision-making mechanism in the company. Working with these needs, it is much easier to achieve the desired result.

Price policy when working with networks.

Chains are putting more and more pressure on suppliers, demanding low prices and marketing budgets, plus big entrance fees.

Many companies, in order to bring their products into the network matrix, are ready to make many concessions. Therefore, they agree to most of the conditions of the networks, and tired of long negotiations, but happy because they are in the matrix, they are even proud of it.

A couple of months pass, or even quarters, and the euphoria leaves, and the question arises, is it so good that they entered.

A common situation is when the prices of goods supplied to the network are disastrous for the company. That is, the more sales in this network, the more loss it brings. And, unfortunately, these are not isolated cases.

This is how the paradox turns out, the company wants to enter at any cost, enters, and then asks itself, what have we done, how can we get out of all this now.

After all, what is happening - an agreement is concluded with some large network, it requires discounts, luring the number of stores and the estimated sales volume. At the same time, buyers put pressure on the supplier by all available means, and besides, almost every business publication talks about the dominance of retail chains, about the dictates of chains and about the lack of shelf space for all manufacturers, as a result, sellers often conclude an agreement on the terms of the chain.

Let's imagine that a certain manufacturing company enters the market and considers the presence of its products in all networks of the region to be strategically important. Let's assume that the first network we contracted with simply requires a discount, and a marketing budget in the form of an entrance ticket and a small list of promotions that our supplier will have to participate in. And it’s good if during the negotiations it is possible to keep the discount within reasonable limits, because there are many examples of when a discount of 20% or more was given from the base price.

Let's go back to our manufacturer, we have an agreement with a large number of stores at once, albeit with a somewhat large discount, but still quite a profitable project. Negotiations are underway with the next retailer, but he already has higher sales volumes, and he himself is more interesting. Yes, that's bad luck, in his contract there is a now fashionable fad about prices no higher than those of competitors, otherwise problems cannot be avoided, in the form of fines for children. And everything would be fine, but here he also has a retro bonus of another 8-12%. And this is where the trouble comes in, you give him the same price as the previous one, but on top of that, also a retrobonus. And the company gets into a bad situation - profitability decreases, and much more. And then there is a chain reaction, marketing departments function well in the networks, and they closely monitor prices, and every negotiation is a struggle for a discount. Accordingly, if you enter networks from smaller to larger, then it is very likely that you will be squeezed down in price. And the larger the client, the worse the conditions will be for you.

But this is not the whole problem, if the company also operates in the regions, an additional problem arises with the regional expansion of networks. It's no secret that, for example, in Auchan, today for most goods, prices are low, and this network plans to develop rapidly in the regions, and prices there will be Moscow. How then to be with regional partners? For many companies, the expansion of Auchan to the regions will be a significant problem, and they will have to make a choice. Since it is extremely difficult to raise prices in this network. The situation is the same for other large networks - Metro, Perekrestok, etc. And the choice will have to be made, since the networks require constant price reductions, as well as uniform prices throughout Russia.

And many make such a decision, stop working with networks that are out of the price range. Many companies are trying to solve this problem, someone simply reduces the quality of products, seeking to reduce costs. Others are working to cut costs. Someone cuts the staff serving this network, reduces the cost of merchandising, but all these ways are inefficient, because they lead to the loss of a distribution channel or even a loss of sales due to a decrease in the quality and reputation of the product.

Where did this problem even come from? Why is it so painful for many companies?

From the history of the market in Russia! For a very long time, the main tool for marketing promotion and the fight against competitors was a discount. The bigger the discount, the more competitive you are. Then there were no marketing budgets for a network of a hundred thousand dollars, which, with such a discount, impose an unbearable burden on the sales economy.

And those companies that managed to understand this no longer suffer from the price traps that they set for themselves.

Now it is very important to build a pricing strategy for a product, this is a criterion for the survival of a brand and even a company. To do this, it is necessary to take into account in the cost of the product how much money will be needed to promote and develop it on the market, and based on this, and determine the minimum price.

And no need to flaunt low prices, low price - poor competitive advantage. The money that you give in the form of a discount, no one will consider as a marketing budget! And even if you give the lowest possible price, then with low marketing activity, your rating in the eyes of buyers will be low! They want real money.

That is why today the price must be defended to the end, the most competent thing would be to give one price for all network customers in general - the retail price for the region, winning back the client's status with marketing budgets and retro bonuses. A single price removes the issues of price equality for customers, and also removes the issue of discounts, since if a company presents one price for everyone, then everyone agrees with this.

In this case, you will have the resources to strengthen the brand, and you will always be a welcome supplier! And most importantly, by showing marketing activity, you strengthen your brand, and this, in turn, will give additional trump cards in negotiations for the next year. The stronger the brand, the more accommodating customers.

In principle, for the buyer today the price is not the main parameter, the value is significant. Therefore, you need to work on this, increasing the value of your product for the consumer. And in this case, you can easily get away from long negotiations about the price. Because the value is not calculated: cost + markup.

The value of the product is increased by strengthening the brand through marketing activities, through an advertising campaign and PR. Therefore, the money that can be given in the form of a discount is better spent on promotion.

It must be remembered that after you have put your product on the shelves of the store, this is still not over, it needs to be promoted further, and this requires funds, and with large discounts there will be nowhere to take them.

Take this into account when developing a pricing policy, especially when working with large chains.

How to deal with fines in networks.

One of the most common questions asked is "How to reduce fines when working with networks?".

This question is as complex as it is easy to answer.

How to get rid of penalties from your business partner? The answer is simple - do not violate the terms of the contract. As the saying goes, “If you don’t give a word, be strong, but if you give it, hold on!”.

There are two options here, either you do not sign an agreement with onerous conditions, and fight to the last, sometimes at the cost of cooperation with this client, or having already concluded an agreement, fulfill the terms of the agreement in such a way as not to give a reason to apply penalties to you.

“How can you keep it!” - many will say, there are such conditions that any misconduct is immediately imposed, sanctions are often not commensurate with the violation.

But before proceeding to the main topic of this section, let's try to understand more deeply what penalties are in network contracts.

To do this, it is worth going a little deeper into the history of retail in Russia.

When chain stores first appeared, they were still weak, and many wholesalers and manufacturing companies were unwilling to work with them. This was partly justified - a small number of stores, small sales volumes and, at the same time, complex contracts, which even then prescribed entrance tickets, albeit small at first, and fines for violation of deliveries, then also still ridiculous.

Some companies nevertheless started working with networks and faced both fines and lower profitability in this market sector. These factors forcibly began to force companies to work with their processes and improve them. But while the networks were small, and their sales volumes were also small, some companies did not think about such trifles, noting that networks are not income, but an image. And today, many more companies are rushing to the shelves of chain stores, because, in their opinion, it increases the rating of their product.

Over time, networks began to give more and more momentum and become an increasingly important distribution channel. And as their importance grew, they began to fight more and more strongly for the stability of their business, requiring suppliers to fulfill contractual obligations, the basis of which to this day is the stability of supplies and price equality from suppliers in their region. And if it is still possible to work with the price, then there is an uncompromising struggle under the conditions of stability and liquidity of the assortment, since the basis of the activity of any network is turnover, and it is possible only with stable supplies.

Thus, fines will increase, and they will be taken more and more often. If today there are often situations when networks do not require their partners to pay fines, only pointing out their presence and the unworthiness of such work, then every day this situation will worsen and retailers will “train” their suppliers more.

What to do, what technologies can be used to still reduce penalty payments, if they cannot be completely avoided.

To do this, I suggest using the following techniques:

1. Agreement. The contract itself is a good tool, and it has a lot of moves and opportunities for working with representatives of the network.

Using them, many companies work quite calmly, without undue stress and losses. But how can the contract be used? The first rule is to know it very well. When I was a sales director, I made network managers memorize the text of the contract. This made it possible for the employee to easily operate with the provisions of this document during negotiations.

I will not be much mistaken if I say that the vast majority of chain store managers are very poorly versed in these documents. This statement is almost as true in relation to buyers, they also know their contract not by heart. And “juggling” the provisions of the contract involuntarily inspires respect for the seriousness of preparing for negotiations, and reduces the desire to “rip off” the company whose managers understand the situation, this is much easier to do with those who, apart from their sales plan, do not read other documents.

2.Conclusion of additional agreements. Like any Contract work, any additional agreements are born in the process of negotiations. If at the first stage of negotiations it was not possible to remove penalties completely or reduce their size. And their appearance is quite possible, for example, due to a shortage of goods or in the event of an explosive growth in sales in the network. Agreements are concluded on the volume of supply, which indicate the volume of sales and the price of supplies, as well as all the possible nuances of their changes. Often they are oral, but no less effective. It is clear that it is not worth putting your technical shortcomings into such agreements, and the partners will not agree, and this will not help you either - you need to fight against inefficiency.

Advertising and marketing support of the product in chain stores.

Today, all companies supplying their product to these customers have to spend serious money on various events. Moreover, their organization and holding become the subject of bargaining when concluding a cooperation agreement. The manufacturer has the choice between independently conducting various marketing activities in support of his product or simply transferring a larger amount of money to the buyer's account.

Many Russian companies have long understood that advertising is the engine of trade, and the engine must always have fuel, advertising budgets for promotion are growing year by year, but does this improve the overall situation?

In theory, infusion into the brand, strengthening its position and attractiveness in the eyes of customers reduces the costs of its passage through the distribution channels. Dealers large and small should be more eager to take it, stores should also welcome such an attractive product on their shelves. But for some reason, this does not happen in all cases of large investments in promotion.

Many companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their product, push their limits, and the improvements are out of proportion to the costs. And okay, if it were only about financial losses, the main resource that is lost in the process is time, its losses are irreplaceable.

It's not even about the people directly involved in the store, and not about the quality of their work, it's, as usual, about technology.

The main mistake is that almost all promotions held during the year, even if they are planned in time for at least half a year, which is extremely rare, are almost always poorly coordinated with each other.

I mean the lack of a monolithic information flow and coordinated actions to promote your product.

Most Russian companies do not have enough resources and are forced to save. But, alas, often these savings lead to even greater inefficiency in spending money. One of the common mistakes is the lack of understanding of your buyer - who he is, how old he is, his gender, income, what magazines he reads, etc. Often a portrait of a buyer emerges at a desk meeting of the company's top managers, and such an image is always gaping with gaps and inaccuracies.

This leads to the fact that instead of targeted work with their target audience, companies work with the entire population of our country.

Most of the manufacturers bring the product to the market, motivated by the following strategy: “... put it on the shelves, “shake it”, it will go, and when we start making a profit, then we’ll see what to research and why.”

But the series of miscalculations does not end with this global error.

The second major mistake in building a brand and an advertising company is “reverse” financing, that is, not allocating all the funds planned for the year for marketing support, but issuing them depending on current financial performance. The logic of such actions is clear, less money comes, so you need to spend less. This logic is not without meaning, but following this path leads the development of the product to a dead end, with a reduction in funding, sales decrease, therefore, support is reduced, and so on in a circle until the product dies under pressure from competitors. This error, like the first one, is systemic; it leads to a cyclical reaction in the entire marketing plan, if it exists, of course.

The third systemic mistake in carrying out marketing and advertising support of the product is the inconsistency and lack of coordination of actions and events among themselves. Very often you can see in the networks how manufacturing companies simply throw away money.

For example, a certain grocery company participates in a leaflet in May, does tastings in August, and palletizes in November. Even if these events coincide with seasonal fluctuations, such a gap between stocks is a big mistake. A single image of the product is not created for the buyer, this does not affect his consciousness in any way, if he purchased the goods of this company today, succumbing to a discount on a leaflet, then it is not at all a fact that he will buy it later, but during the tasting it may not fit at all to the counter. But if the same company ran all three campaigns in unison, reinforcing one with the other, the effect would be vastly different in terms of monetary value as well as brand awareness.

As an example, let's consider the following plan for the development and promotion of a product in a single network,

Events are divided into three main blocks according to the principle of significance for brand promotion.

I block.

Introduction of goods into the distribution network, acquaintance of buyers with the goods, directing the focus of attention of potential consumers to this product.

These promotions are aimed at switching the attention of potential consumers when introducing goods to the network. The main goal of these events is to shorten the consumer's addiction to a new product and encourage him to make the first purchase. And also pay attention to the fact that this product can now be bought in this store. The most effective measures at this stage are the following:

• Participation in the network leaflet. Moreover, you need to strive to ensure that the leaflet contains not just an image of your product, but also a brief description of its best qualities.
• Tastings or consultants.

Conducting tastings and the work of consultants in the store are very effective activities in themselves, and bring both an increase in sales and attracting the attention of potential customers to your product. But, unfortunately, very often their implementation comes down to simply finding beautiful girls in the store. Although for both the promoter and the consultant, the primary appearance, but the ability to sell, the technique of selling. Are your promoters worthy sellers?

• Purchase gift. In this context, a gift for a purchase is used to motivate a potential buyer's first purchase.

A characteristic feature of the events of this block is that they are held before the appearance of any sales history, they themselves create it. Therefore, it is quite difficult to calculate the effectiveness of these events, for this you need to conduct research aimed at finding out the level of recognition of your product before the start of promotions and the level of sales in adjacent retail outlets.

II Block

The activities of this block have a fairly clear and tangible goal - to increase sales.

These are trade marketing activities aimed at increasing sales in retail outlets through the use of additional display areas, promotions that stimulate an increase in the number of purchases, an increase in the average check amount, etc. A direct indicator of the effectiveness of shares is a quantitative indicator of units of goods sold. And as a result, an increase in trade turnover with this client, an increase in the rating of the company and product in this network. When carrying out these events, almost the same tools are used as when placing goods on the network, but there are some differences.

• Participation in the flyer should not be a separate action, as is usually the case. The flyer should precede a large-scale promotion to increase sales. Those. it must contain some meaning and something to inform the buyer. By creating a desire in him to make a purchase or at least visit this store during the specified period. Participation in the leaflet must begin one month before the massive action and also continue during the action. A good addition to the leaflet are promotions jointly with the network, such as a joint markup reduction, announcement of the price of the day, additional display in the best places for the promotion period, etc.
• Video and radio. The second part of the campaign's media support can be radio spots that are played on many networks. They are not always effective, but they can still have a significant supportive effect. Another important feature of media support is monitors at the checkouts - if they are, they must be used. It is also necessary to agree with the network administration on the placement of additional POS materials, both your own and standard network ones, indicating your product.
• Additional display. At the time of the promotion, you need to be sure that the buyer will see your product for sure, for this you can use all the possibilities offered by the partner, and pallet, end display. Racks. Agree on a cross-layout for the duration of the action. For example, wines for cheeses, etc.
• Tastings should be used not as a gastronomic experiment, but as a selling tool, that is, in this case, the main task of promoters is not only “missionary activity”, but for the most part to increase sales. They should harmoniously complement and enhance the “gift for purchase” campaign.

Let me repeat myself and remind you that all promoters must have a good level of training in sales techniques in order to competently and effectively communicate with customers, and also work not only on a completed sale, but also actively provoke it themselves. That is, not only to serve a customer who has already decided to purchase, but also to actively bring to it everyone who paid attention to the product.

• Purchase gift. In this context, this action should be aimed at increasing sales and motivating repeat purchases. If in the first block these were just souvenirs for the purchase of any amount of goods, then here they should motivate them to buy more than usual. That is, for the purchase of double or triple in relation to the usual volume of goods, the buyer receives a substantial prize. These are costly shares. The prize may be different, but in any case, it should be an item that should remind you of the purchase for a long time. For example, T-shirts, good key rings.

III Block

Long-term strategic actions aimed at building a brand and increasing its awareness. The direct result is brand capitalization.

Events of such a plan are planned and calculated in such a way as to cover the maximum share of the target audience. Their duration should be at least 1.5 quarters. This period must take into account life cycle and the frequency of consumption of the product, as well as the inertia of the majority of the audience. Within 3-5 months, there is a high probability that you will reach your entire audience and remind your customers about the product more than once.

Today, such long-term promotions are represented to a greater extent by various kinds of drawings and lotteries.

The planning of these actions should be carried out long before they start and they should be supported and preceded by all the above activities of the two blocks. In this case, the effect of each block and each event will be incommensurably higher than with the standard accepted scheme.

All of the above events in one form or another are held by many companies of various levels, from small to national giants. But the mistakes listed in this article are made by almost everyone.

The same companies that have already carefully studied such mistakes, on their own or on other people's mistakes, successfully develop their brands at a much lower cost per ruble of profit. Although at first glance, due to the scale and integrated implementation promotional activities give the impression of multi-million dollar budgets. So it is, however, it is, because the ability to correctly plan and calculate your work costs many millions.

Summarizing this article, I want to note that all the nuances listed here, in relation to network operators and working with them, are as specific as working with any other client, here you also need to identify and take into account the needs of the client, you also need to have high level internal and client technologies.

By working to improve the efficiency of all its technologies, any company simplifies the interaction with all types of its customers, both network and any other.

Retail chains are one of the most successful distribution channels today, so they continue to dictate their rules to suppliers, especially if they do not back up promotion with multimillion-dollar advertising budgets. To pave the way for your products on the shelf, you need to explain to the network the benefits of cooperation with you.

In this article you will read:

• How to prepare for cooperation with retail chains
• How to make sure of the mutual benefit of cooperation with a retail network

Cooperation with retail chains is one of the most effective sales channels in retail, but it is quite difficult to establish strong and profitable relationships. Even for us, a company with more than 20 years of experience in the market, entering retail chains was not easy. Now our goods are presented on the shelves of most retail operators, and we can already summarize the existing experience of cooperation with retail chains.

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The main thing I would like to say to the commercial directors of enterprises preparing to cooperate with retail chains is that when searching for distribution channels, carefully collect all available information and analyze it before making decisions. Entering the trading network opens up new opportunities for the manufacturer. However, before jumping into the fight for the shelf, you need to seriously assess whether your company will be able to maintain a stable supply of goods for a long time, and understand what possible risk when working with the network.

1. Search for distribution channels: choose a reliable

The food retail industry in Russia is not yet as strongly consolidated as in the US or Europe. Therefore, in major cities, millionaires and half-millionaires, the manufacturer can choose which network is more profitable to enter in the first place. In this case, I would recommend that beginners choose to cooperate with a trading network on the basis of solvency and reliability for suppliers.

2. Big or small

When evaluating future cooperation with a retail chain, we also took into account such factors as the size of the chain, the breadth of its geographical presence, and the area of ​​stores, because we strive to present the maximum number of positions in our assortment. Large federal networks provide the main share of the company's gross revenue, and it is their orders and cooperation with them that bring us the main income.

But they also threaten manufacturers with a big risk: at any time, the network has the right to stop ordering goods due to low demand, and the manufacturer, who has launched production at full capacity, will be at a loss, having lost a distribution channel. This is especially true for manufacturers of perishable products (dairy, meat or, in our case, biscuit-cream), but it makes sense to take into account when trading goods with a long shelf life. Release more items than can be sold through retail means to incur significant losses.

Surely not all manufacturers need to immediately strive for the shelves of a large network. It might be better to find a place for your product on the shelves local networks which, as practice shows, are more accommodating in contacts with suppliers and predictable in financial expectations from such cooperation.

Trade network cooperation requirements

Elena Asanova, Head of PR Department, Real, Moscow

Cooperation with a retail network is beneficial for a supplier for many reasons. We give the opportunity to scale the business, stabilize it, ensure the growth of turnover and remove many organizational problems. A retail network is a so-called one-stop service, when a supplier resolves operational issues with one or several large networks, and not with dozens of small players.

The main criterion for selecting suppliers to Real stores is the demand for products from buyers. If their goods are not stale on the shelf, then they are of interest to us. It can be a popular, well-recognized brand, including in the local market, or a high-quality novelty. We collect information about the reliability of the supplier with whom we want to conclude an agreement. The most unpleasant situation is when the manufacturer suddenly removes certain positions in the assortment and drastically changes the prices of his product without warning us.

An important condition for concluding a contract is loyalty and willingness to compromise. During the crisis, for example, it was important for us to support customers, we decided to offer them essential goods at reduced prices. We managed to negotiate with most of the suppliers and significantly reduce the final price. With some - no, we reduced the cost of the goods at our own expense.

Another guarantor of a successful agreement is when the supplier manufactures products under the network's own brand. For this, the production process final product must meet our quality requirements.

3. Premium or economy

The chains are designed for the interest of buyers with different incomes and consumption standards, so they practice different approaches to assortment management. And the manufacturer's task is to find stores where his product will be in the greatest demand. Now we are working with three categories of networks - hypermarkets, supermarkets and discounters. Their commercial conditions for us, manufacturers, are similar, the difference is in the range of our deliveries: in premium chains - premium products, in discounters - mass market.

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Moreover, the choice between expensive and cheap chain stores during the search for distribution channels should not be made by the commercial director of the company, and not even by its head or owner. The choice should dictate the product. If you are heavily promoting it as a premium product, for example, olive oil for 3000 rubles. for a 0.5 liter bottle, with appropriate packaging, price and a clearly understood target audience of buyers, it makes no sense to try to put it on the shelves of economy class stores. Its place is at least in the "ABC of taste" or " scarlet sails". But for sure, the supplier of this product also has inexpensive items in the assortment, which are appropriate to offer economy supermarkets.

The second important component of working with the assortment at the stage of preparing for entering the network is to maximize the list of positions that you can offer for regular deliveries. I emphasize: you must be convinced that your production cycle and logistics guarantee the counterparty a popular product in a wide and constant range. The network will enter your position, in terminology - SKU, only after making sure that its constant presence on the shelves is guaranteed, and for profitable retail trade you need to achieve the introduction of as many of these SKUs as possible into your assortment. For example, we have a minimum of 12 positions in different networks, and a maximum of 50–60. It is important for us that the entire product line hit the shelves, but this depends on the success of the negotiations.

4. Decide what to offer

Any, even a small manufacturer has best product. You need to go online with him. You can get information about the popularity of your products from the annual data on the dynamics of sales in retail stores, as well as using various marketing research.

We always test a new product before offering it to large customers. We do this in regional retail stores. There are several outlets in which we bear the least risk, these are the most loyal customers to us. We supply them with a new product, analyze sales within three months and decide whether we can recommend this product to retail chains. In doing so, we take into account key indicator- the volume of trade for a particular position.

• Cooperation proposal: write correctly

At the same time, be prepared to offer the network new products of the assortment as soon as it accepts and approves the ones that have already been tested! We, having begun cooperation with the network, are gradually connecting other, less popular positions, the promotion of which seems to us the most appropriate. The optimal ratio for the supplier is when 60% of the products shipped to the network have a high speed of sale and 40% - the speed of sales is below average. 40% are, as a rule, novelties and products to maintain the assortment. For example, we have a classic honey cake - this is one of the best positions in terms of sales, it is 60%. And the honey cake with halva and the honey cake with chocolate are positions for maintaining the assortment.

5. We prepare arguments for negotiations

One of the main arguments in negotiations is the characteristics of the product itself and its relationship with market trends. If possible, we focus on the fact that the demand for the product does not undergo seasonal changes, and this guarantees the client a stable profit. For long-term storage products, we emphasize the convenience of transportation and warehousing, the absence of returns and costs, the possibility of flexible inventory planning.

Consumers prefer natural products? Our products meet these requirements and we can prove it to the network. Growing popularity of ginger? Of course, we make gingerbread cookies, and they will surely be a bestseller. Are customers choosing less expensive brands? We have a large group of budget products.

• Dealer agreement: 4 critical mistakes

To confirm the data that you will operate with (high recognition of your brands, statistics on the frequency of purchases among products in this category), you must attach the results of marketing research. Yours, if possible. Specially made to your order. Or strangers, if you can find it in the public domain and the source is trustworthy.

As an additional argument for cooperation with you, the network may also consider the possibility of selling your product under a private label. Most retail chains have now created such brands, and such products receive great preferences from them.

6. Negotiators

If, despite carefully preparing your contact with the network, you are not sure that you will be noticed, look for an opportunity to involve an intermediary to lobby your interests in the network. This is especially true for companies that are really too small to generate interest, but the forecast for demand for their products online is good. It can be absolutely new product, successfully tested in focus groups of 1 consumers, or, conversely, a cheaper analogue of long-standing products, the popularity of which has been proven in online retail.

1 Qualitative research using the method of test focus groups is conducted to determine the motivations of buyers. The most effective group is considered to be a group of six to nine invited for a long and trial discussion. The discussion is led and directed in the right direction by a professional moderator, using a pre-designed scenario. An audio or video recording is kept all the time, allowing later to fully decipher and analyze the conversation.

Negotiations on the beginning of cooperation are conducted at various levels, ranging from commercial director network, category manager and buyer. Of course, ideally, it would be good to know in advance the list of possible negotiators. Try first to simply call the network's administrative center, then collect information on the retailer's suppliers that do not compete with you.

What should be done on your part and does not depend on anyone but you is a clear regulation of the powers of your own employees and network colleagues. All issues that arise during the negotiation process should be divided according to the level of significance (local level, contracting level, price negotiations, assortment management, etc.) and each level should be assigned to the appropriate competent manager.

7. Calculate costs

The cost of goods for the network is determined at the final stage of negotiations and, contrary to the prevailing point of view, is by no means their main subject, since when building relationships with the network, it is important to take into account the totality of all financial terms of the transaction.

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Before the conclusion of the contract, a calculation is necessarily made, and during the negotiation process it can change several times. It determines the impact on the size of the expected profit of such factors as rebate, deferred payment, delivery terms, marketing and advertising services, services for the most efficient display of goods, the cost of delivery of products.

The marginal yield obtained as a result of the calculation is compared with necessary level profitability (see table). The desired payback period for investments is three to four months. Unfortunately, sometimes forecasts for sales volume are not justified, which entails a decrease in the marginal profitability of the network and an increase in the payback period for input costs.

Supplier: organization effective work with online stores. Russian practice Ofitserov Petr

The specifics of working with retail networks

In my seminars, I often ask about specific manifestations of specificity in working with these clients. The answers are almost always vague, it seems that everyone knows about it, but they cannot articulate it clearly. The situation is exactly the same as the company's differences from competitors, it seems that everyone understands what the differences are, but sometimes it does not work out to generalize and express in words.

But precisely because of ignorance or, rather, a fuzzy understanding of the peculiarities of working with chain stores, many suppliers incur heavy losses.

Our company "Real Work Management" conducted a study on the specifics of working with retail chains in the FMCG sector. Hundreds of organizations from various sectors of the consumer market took part in it. Among them were companies supplying children's goods, household goods, and various products. This analysis led to many interesting conclusions and provided food for thought. More details can be found on our website. www.real-management.ru, in the Research section.

Considering the results of our research and our practical experience, we made the following conclusion: the complexity of working with networks manifests itself mainly in four points that lie on the surface, even partially intersecting with each other.

The first feature -complex contracts.

When a supplier company, especially a large federal company, works with small shops or small wholesalers, the contracts are always developed by the seller's own lawyers. It is extremely rare that contracts drawn up by the buyer are concluded. When we work with a network, then, of course, we must sign documents drawn up by specialists from the network with which we are collaborating. The difficulty lies in the fact that we are forced to agree to an agreement that was developed not for our company, but for the company of our partner, and the contract took into account his interests often at the expense of infringing the interests of the supplier, that is, ours. But this has to be put up with, because the network refuses to sign supplier contracts. The only thing that can be done in this case is to draw up a protocol of disagreements. And this is a field for work not only for lawyers, but also for sellers.

When starting cooperation with networks, it is necessary to carefully study the proposed documents, study all the provisions, articles and subparagraphs. Unfortunately, not all sales managers know how to do this. For most of them, a contract is a dark legal document in which a rearranged comma or period changes the whole meaning of the sentence. This impression is reinforced by many different professional legal terms that have little to do with ordinary life. That is why the contract is often immediately dumped to lawyers, and then there is a dispute between the parties over the wording and the main thing is completely lost sight of: the essence and meaning of the entire agreement.

It is necessary to work with contracts carefully even at the stage of their preliminary study. They prescribe a large number of points that significantly affect the relationship between these two counterparties:

Delivery time;

Payment period;

Building a pricing policy in relation to the network;

The relationship between the supplier and employees, the so-called anti-corruption measures.

And many other points that were never mentioned in standard supplier contracts.

An important component is the clause of the contract on the conditions under which the network operates, as well as punitive measures against the supplier if he fails to fulfill his obligations. It is necessary to pay attention to this small clause of the contract, which greatly complicates the work of the supplier already at the stage of preparing negotiations.

But working with a contract is not just working with a legal document, it is also a front for business technologists who will evaluate the company's ability to meet its obligations. Preparation for the signing of the document should take place in different directions, in which both the possibilities of fulfilling obligations and ways of legally avoiding them will be considered. This is a complex and interesting work on the analysis of possible options.

The main thing to remember: before signing this or that contract, you need to understand what responsibility the company that signs it takes on.

Feature two- derived from the previous one - high level of responsibility of the supplier for the undertaken obligations.

Here I want to quote the words of the requirements of Wal-Mart one of its former suppliers, John Marriotti, a board member of a company that sells kitchen goods: “They demand that you do what you say you are going to do.”

It is no secret that when working with non-chain stores or small wholesalers, in the absence of some product or failure to fulfill its obligations in terms of deliveries, quality or level of service, the supplier company, as a rule, does not bear any responsibility to its partners, as they say, “problems The Sheriff's Indians don't care."

When we conclude an agreement with the network, it contains a clause on the short delivery of goods, the so-called delivery coefficient, which the seller must comply with under the threat of penalties, and sometimes termination of the contract. And there are plenty of similar clauses in every agreement. Thus, working with the network, the supplier must ensure the uninterrupted availability of goods in it and in the network.

Prices are another aspect of commitment. What happens to them when the supplier works with small stores or small wholesalers? If the supplier company wants to raise prices, it simply raises them, without bothering to warn partners in advance about the upcoming change in pricing policy. When working with retail chains in most market sectors, it is simply impossible to change the terms of delivery in this way.

For example, in the alcohol industry, prices, according to agreements, can be changed once a quarter, or even less often. The only exception to this rule are companies operating in the sector of fast-moving goods with high price volatility. For example, the so-called commodities. On the home goods market, these are lining, plywood and many others that are sold directly “off the wheels”.

In the food sector, fruits and vegetables, which also have exchange prices, since these goods are purchased daily.

So, these and other conditions are spelled out in the contract, and the supplier cannot violate them. He is responsible for each of the obligations assumed. In any case, he is forced to fulfill his promises by the penalties specified in the contract with the networks, which strictly regulate the measures of influence on the supplier for each of his incorrect actions. This, of course, aggravates the work of the company, greatly reduces its profitability, because today, unfortunately, most of the supplier companies cannot work well, technologically, without serious failures. A very small amount Russian organizations such activities have well-established business processes, including customer service processes. Non-fulfillment of obligations due to internal failures: lack of goods, incorrect documentation, poor delivery, etc. all lead to penalties.

This "trains" companies, but it also develops them. As the saying goes, "...what doesn't kill us makes us stronger." Retail chains force suppliers to keep promises and commitments, and this is undoubtedly their peculiarity.

feature three- an organic continuation of the second: slow change in terms of cooperation.

When working with small clients, the supplier can change the terms of cooperation at a speed convenient for him and in the perspective he needs, but in the case of a large client, which is a network, this is almost impossible to do. The supplier company must notify the network 2-3 months in advance in case of a price increase, and then negotiate for a long, long time on the size of this very increase, because, as a rule, rarely anyone agrees immediately to the amount declared initially. The same thing happens when changing the terms of delivery or display of goods, and when transforming almost any clause of the contract.

A company cannot easily and quickly change an unsuccessful assortment if it has already brought it into the network. At the beginning of negotiations on this, the supplier is more likely to receive a counter offer to withdraw it from the range of chain stores.

Changing the range of products in the network is separate line negotiations, I would even say, a whole epic. In ordinary stores, it is much easier to do this, the supplier simply imports a different assortment, persuading the store merchandiser for a maximum of an hour. And when communicating with the network, he has to plan his assortment and his future work for a long period, because the retail networks themselves do not really like it when they arrange a drain channel for various kinds of illiquid assets.

Feature Four- very important: different role structure.

What is a role structure?

Imagine how a large federal-scale manufacturer behaves in relation to small or even large wholesalers, not to mention ordinary stores. He almost always dictates the terms. At this moment, he is in the role position "strong - weak", taking the place of a "strong" negotiator, because any wholesaler, any store needs the products of such powerful companies as Wimm Bill Dan, Mikoyan, Cherkizovsky Meat Processing Plant ”, “Crystal”, etc. That is why large companies in relation to wholesalers and retail stores are pursuing a rather tough policy. They can afford it, since it is difficult for their small partners to do without the products of giant companies, they need a well-promoted product in the assortment. And, of course, this cannot but affect the relationship between these clients. A large manufacturer of national brands simply dictates terms to its small partners.

But what happens when this large manufacturer offers its product to chain stores that are no smaller, and sometimes even larger, more influential than it?

If he tries to act in the same role, in the role of a dominant supplier, as he did with small customers, then he immediately loses. Because no better way"break off" the supplier than let him get bogged down in his dominant status. When working with retail networks, the role position of the supplier changes, here he no longer occupies the position of "strong".

Being a researcher in one of the networks that negotiated with a large manufacturer in the Central Federal District, I witnessed an interesting case. The supplier was a large distillery - the leader of the regional market, which determines the alcohol policy in its own and even neighboring regions, a distillery with a forty-year history, which forms a significant part of the budget of the city and region.

The head of this institution, not waiting for the contract concluded on the terms of the plant from his managers, decided to go there himself and show how to negotiate.

Imagine the situation: the director, who is one of the most important people in the city and region, who determines a significant part of the trade policy in his region, is already an established person over 45 years old, he cannot occupy any other position than the dominant one. And now, at the negotiations, a young man of about 30, of slender appearance, is sitting in front of him, who is a simple manager and, by definition, should not argue with such a “big man”. In practice, everything turns out completely differently.

This young manager, on the contrary, behaves aggressively enough to make it clear who decides the fate of the goods here. Arranges a real press for his opponent, and as a result, the director leaves with nothing. All negotiations lasted no more than 20 minutes. What happened?

The buyer, having let the director get bogged down in his dominant role, began to change the position of his opponent, from demanding to asking, demonstrating complete disinterest in the goods of this supplier and setting conditions that were initially unacceptable and unprofitable for the director, and ended the conversation exactly at that place and in exactly this way, as he needed it.

Leaving the negotiations, the director no longer taught his managers how to negotiate, at least by example.

I think many leaders large companies been in the situation described in the sidebar, this is the role position trap. This is where the network's problematic negotiation with its suppliers lies. And the complications are not so much in the networks and their representatives, but in the sellers themselves. Role positions must be correlated, even the largest regional plant is often much smaller than the network, and therefore forceful methods in this case will be ineffective. As they say, “there is no reception against scrap”, putting a block from it with your hand, you can simply lose it. However, there are many ways to win without the same scrap. We will talk more about this in the next chapters of the book, which will be completely devoted to negotiating with chain stores.

So, we have considered several points in which the “specific features” of working with retail chains are manifested.

FIRST feature– complex contracts that require deep, serious preparation and a good level of technological processes.

Second feature- a high level of responsibility for the obligations taken, which will have to be answered, which also requires confidence in one's own business processes.

Third feature- slow change in the terms of interaction and contracts. This requires the supplier to think deeply about every move, and requires the supplier to always bring his offerings to the ideal level.

Fourth Feature- a different role structure, as a result of which it is extremely difficult for the supplier to take a dominant position in relation to the network, because the network itself is trying to take the same position.

Where do you think the roots of these features lie? In what ways do they manifest themselves most of all: in the attitude of the network towards the supplier or in the actions of the supplier itself?

In my opinion, the reasons for the specifics lie precisely in the actions of the supplier himself, in his internal efficiency, in how well he can work with his customers. And it doesn't matter if it's a chain or a small store. Only the level of technology, the degree of responsibility of the supplier, the focus of its orientation on the market and on the client are important here. If we take the most famous companies in the world that have been able to advance and develop, receiving maximum income or hitherto unprecedented results in the economy, we will see that their success is not at all connected with a dominant position, not with the strength of all of them. famous brands. It lies on a different plane, based on efficient technologies, their quality of work and the use of innovations.

Such approaches to work, the way up through the constant improvement of technology, can be seen not only in the examples of Wal-Mart or Toyota, they are also clearly expressed in any of the leading companies. And they are just as important for any company that wants to take a strong position in the market.

As soon as you start building technologies, focusing on their maximum efficiency, on ensuring that their results satisfy your client the most, then gradually the “specific features” of working with retail networks begin to fade and disappear. If end customers want to buy your product, if every store in the region knows that you are a reliable supplier, then you simply will not have any problems.

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