Affiliated School;
Choose a small company with at least 20 employees as your prospect, then prepare yourself for the sales call.
The company that I choose is a small supply and distribution company locally based. The company is made up of 25 employees including the permanent workers and the occasional casual workers at any one point. The total number of employees is inclusive of the top management team which is made up of the partners, where one is in charge of operations while the other one handles the supply chain.
The company distributes house hold non perishable consumables to the retail stores locally. In this case the company offers a service to the local retailers and in house manufacturers; by distributing their stock in a scheduled manner. The company’s main clients are the local retailers and the individual manufacturers who are able to make goods from their houses and need them to be distributed to the retail centres.
Research
Before the company was started a small research was conducted on the retailing business. The research was both quantitative and qualitative in nature. This is because it came out with the numbers required to make calculations on determining the viability of the starting the company (McCrea, 2006). Qualitatively it determined the level of satisfaction that retailers would derive from the weekly implicit and explicit costs encountered due to lack of delivery of their stock to their premises.
Locally there are about 80 retail shops which include mini markets, filling station shops, self service mini stores and institutional canteens. The research revealed that there was an opportunity presented by the fact that the large distributors and suppliers worked in partnership with the manufacturers. The manufacturing companies cannot supply and transport the stock unless it gets to a specific quantity, which most of the small size retailers cannot be able to order at a single time. This meant that the retail owners had to go and get their stock directly from the manufacturers go down and deliver it themselves and in case they wanted it delivered they were charged exuberantly.
This created an opportunity to come up with a small sized distribution and supply company that would save the retailers all the hustle of getting to get their stocks without having it delivered. The company establishment was based on the conclusion of the research, this was because it was discovered that retailers experience both explicit and implicit costs because they had to close their shops for several hours in a day as they went out to get their stock. This would cost them loyal customers who felt they could not depend on them, at the same time the transport was another cost. They confessed that they would like to have some of their supplies delivered to them. A pilot start of the company was established. It was to deal with non-perishable goods so minimize the chances of experiencing losses as a result of bad stock. The company plans to expand into dealing with electronics as well. The stock for electronics is quite a lot and there is need to seek more investors into the business.
Competition
The current competition that the company is facing is from two points. Currently there is a large distribution and supply company that has been in operating for the last 15 years. The main advantage it has is that it has customer loyalty that has been established over time (Cooper, 2011). It also commands a significant part of the market especially the bigger retail stores like big supermarkets. The other competition that is experienced is from personal delivery by home producers of goods and services. It was discovered from the research that one in every 15homes in the area produce a non perishable good that is sold in the minimarkets however the producers choose to distribute and supply their products themselves.
The one advantage that the company has over the large distribution company is that it offers a low market penetration price for the service and it is willing to supply even the smallest quantity over a short deadline at no extra cost. For the home producers who deliver their products, the advantage the company offers is that it is willing to supply their products to many retailers increasing the market that the goods can be able to reach. Increase in market accessed leads to increase in demand and consequently increase in revenue earned.
The challenges are creating a good rapport with the clients; this is because they are small retailers that are used to having a particular pattern of doing things. The other challenge is getting the required funds for the company so that it can expand into serving even more clients. At the same time the market is limited to the local retailers because outside the local area there are other small supply and distribution companies.
In order to determine the client’s needs there is need to establish a client centred process where their stock and what they would like to sell is determined. The client centred process, allows for the needs of the clients to be met first as a way to increasing the services offered. In this case the clients will always get what they deserve (Langley, 2008).
The quantity demanded by their customers will determine the quantity that the clients will have delivered. The company will also market the consumables to different markets; this will increase the sales of the consumables.
Recommendations
- Expansion of the company in terms of the resources and inputs. The company should get a go-down so that it can be able to expand into the wholesale sale and distribution of household consumables. This will increase the market that will be served by the company.
- Increase in the number of items that the company is willing to distribute, this will mean that the means of transportation will be increased from the use of mini cars to the use of mini vans.
Objective
The objective of the company is to fill in the gap that lies between the manufacturers and the small size retailers. At the same time, another objective is to create job opportunities for employees and the resources available locally. Increase in the availability and distribution of income will increase the living standards of the people.
The other objective is to create a link between home manufacturers of household consumables and their market in various places locally. Increase in their distribution in various places will increase their clients and aid in the expansion of the home manufacturing industries that they may end up increasing in capacity of production.
The other objective was to create employment opportunities where young people in the society can easily find casual jobs as carriers in the company. This is because locally, there has been a decrease in the job opportunities while the labourers are increasing. Decrease in recreation facilities has presented a problem of increase in crime rate and some level of normlessness. The company aids in giving the young people a chance to offer their labour which requires no prior experience.
The company currently has 25 employees divided as per the following roles
The drivers are expected to be licensed with an experience of at least 3 years. The carriers are the casual workers who are paid on a weekly rate and are not maintained long as many work on a casual basis. However at every point, there has to be at least 12 of them. The company has a small office that is supposed to cater for all the operational activities and the necessary filing of documents. It is also at this point where the required meetings with potential clients are made and booked. There is a secretary who caters for the inquiries and bookings and records all the necessary information.
Conclusion
The small company was based on a need that emerged; retailers required having their stock delivered while the manufacturers were not willing to offer that service to them. This was an opportunity that required response accordingly. Before any action could be taken, there was need to establish that the retailers did indeed require the service, for this reason the company conducted a research that was qualitative and quantitatively. The research revealed that the retailers were willing to pay for the service and the company was established. The service is offered on a weekly basis for all the clients.
References
Cooper, L. C. Burke, J. R. (2011). Human Resource Management in Small Businesses: Achieving the Peak Point, Columbia Publishers
Langley, C. J. Gibson, J. B. Novack, A. R. (2008). Supply Chain Management: A Logistics Management, Orthodox Print Press, New York
McCrea, B. (2006). Start Your Own Wholesale Distribution Business, McGraw Hill Publishers
