BY JADE MOLDAE & KENYON GLEASON DISTRIBUTING THE KEYS TO SUCCESS E ntering the 2020s, it doesn’t take a lot of detective work to notice the significant amount of change the two-step distri ution model experienced over the previous decade especially in our industry What hasn’t changed, however, is engaged, responsive wholesalers continue to e powerful partners for the storefront dealer Here, we’ll take a closer look at this sym iotic relationship from the perspectives of oth groups THE DEALER PERSPECTIVE ohn hillips founder and president of Poway Weapons & Gear ange in oway alif shared an emerging trend has formed y forward thinking distri utors “ efore Acu port went out of usiness they started something that has een continued through companies like roup and ports outh working for the dealer rather than working for themselves he stated “ hey put the dealer at the center of the distri ution wheel instead of picking things off them as the wheel turned hillips explained this mentality reinforces the entire retail channel “ f we want the marketplace to get stronger we have to make the dealer stronger t s not a out strengthening the wholesalers or manufacturers that s the end result of a stronger dealer network he said “ f the people who sell and promote the goods and have the consultative relationship with the end user are strong then the distri utors and manufacturers are going to e strong too eremy all general manager of harp hooting ndoor ange un hop in pokane ash has established partnerships with national entities like roup ports outh ig ock ports and row hooting upply as well as smaller regional distri utors like unarama holesale “ wo step distri ution is the standard purchasing model for the firearms industry and overall it works pretty well he o served “ istri utors tend to have more straightforward price structures than manufacturers and typically require lower purchasing amounts to meet shipping minimums TAP INTO A LARGER NETWORK One asset of working closely with a distri utor partner is access to real time data hillips relayed “Understanding what a distri utor s top sellers are across the product line is very helpful ince we re ased in alifornia what’s trending nationally doesn’t necessarily apply to our state so where do get the data to tell me what s popular here? t s helpful to have the reporting capabilities from distri ution which in the past distri utors were unwilling or una le to extrapolate this data he said “ he larger more progressive distri utors are driving this change hillips continued “ he easier people make my usiness the more loyal am to them istri utors help take out some of the guesswork on what product lines are stocked at “ ome distri utors like our rep at will look at our product catalogs and share why we should carry more of or get rid of e ve seen a lot of great ideas come across using their knowledge instead of us trying to guess what the next ig thing is hillips added urther hillips says distri utors have recently helped take some of the risk out of running extensive 30 FEBRUARY 2020 Subscribe to SI DIGITAL www.shootingindustry.com
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