Having problems dealing with Distributors!

XLNC · 22-01-2009, 05:29 PM

I'm having difficulty sourcing products as every distributors website I go to either ask for a VAT number, company no., references from previous distributors etc.

Question is how can you get the ball rolling if all distributors tend to ask the same questions and don't want to trade with new businesses?

**Pete** · 22-01-2009, 10:09 PM

Distributors are looking for large accounts. They want to move goods by pallets or cartons, not pieces. You have to convince them you have that sort of business. You have to sell them the idea of selling to you.
.

XLNC · 22-01-2009, 10:55 PM

How can I convince them that I'm going to order millions of items when I don't have that kind of capital, or are distributors really for the big players and not so much the start up guy.

**hardwareheroes** · 22-01-2009, 11:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XLNC

How can I convince them that I'm going to order millions of items when I don't have that kind of capital, or are distributors really for the big players and not so much the start up guy.

Got it in one - you need a middle man or a buying group!

or even use guys in our very own marketplace

**AdamSilveston** · 23-01-2009, 12:05 AM

I have contacts all over the worldwide. Some are picky and require you to provide references or buy a certain amount, but I do have many suppliers that will allow you to buy small quantities down to even one unit. One of my suppliers has a turnover of 150 Million USD per year, so they are very trustworthy. There are good distributers out there, let me know if you need any help. I work in the consumer electronics market.

**truereddevil** · 23-01-2009, 02:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XLNC

How can I convince them that I'm going to order millions of items when I don't have that kind of capital, or are distributors really for the big players and not so much the start up guy.

Here is the trick i was in your position and im only just starting to deal with the big boys now its took me over a year n a half to get here basically first you have got to get yourself a middle man to start off with check the trader mag this is how i started off i dealt with my middle man for 8 months and he could see from when i started off buying small from 5-10 items a week to over 2000 items a month he started asking me questions if i could get him more business and was asking where i was listing stuff i said i will get you more business n tell you if you would give me a few of your suppliers which he did but basically i befriended him and got him some more business to get what i wanted which was his contacts some of these big companys will not deal with you if you don,t spend like 10k with them thats the truth they want to know that you mean business companys wont even deal with you if you have a free email account like hotmail.com they wont deal with you if you don,t have a website up n running so you need to try and make sure you get these things in place and then maybe they will deal with you hope this helps a little