The time of distributors actively building account bases, selling programs or actively focusing on supplier goals for most brands has changed. Time was that distributors would help build brands, get in the street with supplier teams, spend time in the market and grow business together. They build relationships that lasted years with supplier partners and customers alike.
The world changed with contracted larger suppliers ( in general the top 15 revenue generated suppliers for any distributor) connecting with imbedded sales persons big suppliers partly paid to work inside the distributor. Sales teams were divided into divisions, each division responsible for a part of the portfolio and only that portfolio.
Smaller portfolio focus was diminished and the burden on sales became diluted. Sales calls, programming, support and driving goals became the small suppliers' responsibility. The Distributor basically became a warehousing and logistic (delivery) tool, and orders were only done when a certain amount of inventory was sold off. This was also impacted by the US laws requiring that a wine or spirit producer sell through a distributor or not sell at all...and in some states, once you pick a distributor you are locked in by law with no recourse unless the distributor trades your brand to another distributor in that state or county.
What is changing? Some suppliers have started to import or build their own brands and some even became distributors themselves. They also started bringing in smaller more family focused estate brands to build their image . Some suppliers banded together to gain more impact and critical mass. Others focused and invested more on sales than marketing, putting more people in key markets that sold as much or more than the distributor could. Many stopped trying to sell in all 50 states and focused only on key markets that they could impact to return a profit.
Now more than ever with larger distributors slashing sales teams, reducing inventory and focusing on only high revenue items plus utilizing online ordering vs. utilizing live sales teams to promote their brands, it is important for suppliers to pivot by generating sales themselves with targeted marketing programs in only the most robust markets and customers and build relationships one on one vs. letting the distributor make the sale. It's the only way a smaller supplier in this new environment can survive.
