Pricing Strategies for The Future - Simplicity is Complex..
Far too often, pricing for distributors turns into a futile exercise in juggling. At any given moment you may be dealing with up to thousands of customers purchasing from your list of hundreds of thousands of products after intensely negotiating their contracts. Mixed with supplier prices, transportation, and other costs, this can lead to razor-thin margins. Add deliberations with your suppliers and wavering inventory turnover rates and it can become too much to handle. Now factor in the multiple technological solutions distributors tend to use to manage their various data elements, such as customer rebates, supplier programs, competitive cross reference files, etc. This creates a cycle of missed opportunities to improve margins and profit. One could make the point that it's likely that you need a real system to help you navigate the complexity of such a pricing model, but the reality is that when you think about it, Simplicity is complex. Most distributors still adhere to t...