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Price and margin pressure apply to Los Angeles distributors just like any other. Ways to stay in good shape business-wise include boosting internal efficiency and adding value to products and services provided to your market.
Each of the following suggestions does at least one or the other, and in some cases both.
1. Playing to Your Strengths
Who is best positioned to serve resellers in the Los Angeles area? Los Angeles distributors, of course. Your head start in location can be further enhanced by leveraging specific staff skills. For instance, if you distribute automotive parts, and your staff includes experts on engine tuning, suspension modifications, or underbody protection, promote those experts and their skills as part of your offering.
2. Supply Chain Visibility
Inventory in a supply chain is significantly more expensive than delivery. Visibility of what your market wants and what your resellers need lets you optimize inventory levels to hold enough to meet demand without unnecessarily tying up capital. An inventory management software application with secure access for authorized users can help everyone lower costs and improve margins.
3. Speedy Supply from Vendors
The same inventory management system that helps you and your resellers can also trigger alerts and purchase orders for fast replenishment from your vendors. A transport management software module could also help you better control your logistics and save you money on inbound shipping costs from vendors into the bargain.
4. Correct Credit Management
Resellers know the value of credit and won’t hesitate to ask you for it. However, credit levels need to be appropriately monitored and managed to avoid undue exposure and risk. This is another opportunity for IT to step in and automate the management process, only flagging for attention those cases that have or are likely to exceed acceptable credit limits.
5. Strong Reseller and Customer Relationships
Los Angeles distributors that add value with local market knowledge and relevant services can build reseller loyalty. It costs ten times less to serve an existing reseller or customer than to acquire a new one.
6. Using Dashboards to Your Advantage
Your IT systems generate data about your business. That data can be used to produce straightforward, meaningful dashboards to show you how well your company is doing compared to its goals and key performance indicators. You can see those dashboards as graphics on your PC, your tablet or your smartphone, and take any necessary actions immediately.
7. Staying Close to the Market
The more you know about the trends, the better you can shape your offering to meet requirements now and into the future. Distributors in Los Angeles can glean precious information from resellers themselves and also from social networks, on which customers and resellers talk about what they like, dislike or want.
8. Attracting Talent
Growing distribution companies need the right people. Hiring talent is an important first step, but that talent has to find your company to be an attractive place to work as well. Employees increasingly judge the quality of a workplace by the leading edge technology it uses and the digital tools it offers to help employees to work better.
Which of these eight factors has most recently contributed to helping your distribution company stay competitive? Tell us about it in the Comments space underneath.
If you own or manage a distribution company in Los Angeles, and you’re looking to stay up to date on the latest technology, be sure to download your free guide, How COOs at Los Angeles Distributors and Manufacturers Get More Done: A Guide to Productivity, Data, Staffing, Delegation, and Making It Home for Dinner Most Nights.
