Overview of Indirect Sales Management

Indirect Sales Management is the process by which a manufacturer validates requests, and manages trade promotion activities are executed indirectly through retailers and wholesalers (or dealers and distributors).

Special Price Agreement

Manufacturers and distributors use channels to move products and services to their end customers. To compete in these channels, distributors offer retailers retrospective discounts wherein the retailer pays the distributor for products at selling price and afterward the distributor pays the retailer some of it back in the form of rebates upon meeting certain conditions. In addition to promoting products through channels, distributors can also request special pricing. There are 3 types of distributor requests:

1. Bid Request: Use this request type to set up this program when a partner wants to win a deal for a specific customer. In this case, the end customer information must be specified. After the request is approved, the manufacturer or vendor can create a Special Price Request program.
2. Blanket Request: Use this request type to set up this program when partners have inventory in the warehouse and haven't been able to sell it, they can ask for a discount to clear the unsold inventory. The partners might want a special price to increase sales and offer new discounts to the customers. In this case, neither the Competitor’s information nor the End Customer’s information is required. These requests are shipped from stock by default.
3. Meet Competitor Price: Use this request type to set up this program when partners want to match a competitor's price and ask you to reduce the price to complete a sale. In this case, the competitor’s information can be tracked and the end-customer information must be specified. After the request is approved, the vendor can create a Special Price Agreement program.

Special price agreements enable you to manage special price requests from partners to support competitive sales deals, specific end-customer deals, and to clear existing inventory in the partner's warehouse. You can review and approve the special price request, import POS data, and validate partner claims. You can also settle claims using a check or credit memo.

The distributor may request a special price or discount for items they have already purchased. The request is reviewed and approved by the manufacturer or the entity that sold the products to the distributor. Once approved, the distributor sells the products to their customers and then submits a claim for the discount amount by providing proof of sale.

Special price agreements enable you to:

• Increase efficiency and reduce administrative costs of receiving, reviewing, and managing special pricing requests.
• Increase partner loyalty by helping them win more deals thereby increasing their revenue.
• Increase vendor revenue by responding more quickly and intelligently to special pricing situations than your competitors therefore closing more sales.
• Enable the vendor to ensure legal compliance with regulations governing special pricing activity (applicable in the U.S.).
• Optimize product pricing analysis and strategy by gaining visibility into competitive selling situations.