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Harish Bijoor

IF a salesman is a Ferrari, the distribution system is his race track.

A salesman without a distribution system is a lost duck in the marketplace. If salesmen click and do well in their lives, they have a lot to thank the distribution system their forefathers laid out for them to operate within. And if salesmen sink, many do blame a faulty distribution system they were forced to swim in. with as a life jacket.

And distribution systems are many. Not too different in variety, but nevertheless different in the nuances of their efficiency. There are distribution systems that do a single task in many different ways. Most distribution systems are systems set up to perform the one single task of taking the product out there into the heart of the marketplace.

As we peek into the distribution systems set up from the days of yore of Indian marketing, there is little to pick from. The one and only distribution system we seem to know as a success is the one that takes stock out of a factory in a physical form and moves it across the hierarchies of the C&F, the re-distribution stockist, the wholesaler and retailer till the product is made ultimately available to the consumer! Shall we call it the alimentary canal system of distribution?

Distribution is, therefore, a route. A simple route that a product or service takes to typically reach a consumer waiting out there for the solace giving item on tout.

As we traverse down the years of Indian distribution, we find the route roads set up by our forefathers to be market-intensive. These routes have been laid out well nigh nearly as tracks that fight with the terrain to reach the remotest corners of the country. We have distribution routes today that follow the track of every motorable road and every tract of water that can take a boat with goods laden on it into the interiors of the land mass. Well. We are yet to see airdrops as possibilities, but the Indian pioneer in the realm of distribution has seen to it that nothing is left which could be called impossible!

Distribution is therefore, first about the track that is laid out. And a great distribution system is one which ensures that the largest mass of the land is catered to with ease and consistency.

But is that all? Not really. The route is important to lay out, just as it is important to ensure that it is laid out for the achievement of the three goals of a good distribution system — good width, good depth and good consistency. Consistency that offers reliability to the distribution reach of the product on sale every week. Add to all of this, evangelistic salesmen who have built efficiency as a hallmark of distinction. You have a great distribution system then. A system that reaches widest. Reaches with the depth that the market demands. And, most certainly with a consistency that leaves the market gasping in amazement.

I have worked with salesmen (may their souls rest in peace) who have nurtured the reputation of the mother distribution system with their own lives, literally. There have been salesmen who have skipped their lunch for decades together to get the reliability of the distribution system on track. There have been salesmen who have skipped their children's birthday parties, just as there have been salespersons who have seldom remembered the sickness of many in the family.

I remember my salesman, an old man called Raman in Trichur. Every retailer in the market could set his watch by the time the stately Raman walked into the specific outlet. For Raman, there was not only a route map of market working, there was a time-map of shop visit as well. And he did all this not for a week or two. He did it for 32 years. In the same market!

Distribution systems have their reputations set in place by salespersons of the calibre and merit of reliable Raman. Add an intensive route to the salesman of repute, and you have the building of a great distribution system.

And how many of these selling systems are around in the Indian market? Sadly, not many. Maybe just nine remaining solid systems. If I name them, I would be partial to the best in the land. I will therefore do no such thing.

The key issue to worry about is the worry of an endangered species of distribution system on the horizon ahead of us. If there are only nine surviving good ones, how will the rest of the country distribute in the future?

And there begins a story. India has only nine solid distribution streams to distribute thousands of SKUs from hundreds of companies. And is this a barrier to entry to many an aspiring brand wanting to create a need, want and desire within the Indian market? I think it is.

Good distribution systems are rare to come by. Reliable ones are even rarer. In the near and distant future ahead of us, brands will largely fail as they will progressively fail to reach the market. This will be the biggest failure of them all. While good brands will have equally deep pockets, and will simultaneously have men and women of equal calibre working on them, with creative merit of the advertising kind of a largely equal quality assisting them, the one big vacuum will be the one that will be left by a hollow distribution system.

Distribution systems that new brands will use in the future will lack width for a start. Lack depth for sure! And will lack the reliability factor in consistency of supply as well. Add to it the lack of a distribution heritage that men like Raman endowed systems with in the past. Is this a barrier to entry for new brands of the future that want to grace Indian shores?

Yes it is! How then will companies move forward? Will alliances help? Will holy matrimonies between a distribution major of repute from one among the nine surviving stalwart companies and a fledgling wannabe help? The issues are many, complex and full of points of debate.

In the meanwhile, if you are one of those nine, don't worry about your current points of pathos. Don't worry about those flat topline sales numbers. And worry not of the wafer-thin margins you make on your brand. You have set up the backbone of a good distribution system. Just hold on to it. Don't for heaven's sake dilute it. Hold on. Lagey raho! This is a great property you have built. Hold on for dear life to it. There is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!

(The author is a business-strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.)

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