When Brokers can Offer a Low Cost Merchandising Service

23 Jun 09

The smaller food suppliers seem to swap their own sales force for a broker service, only to go back to a direct force a few years later. Sometimes they then return to a broker yet again. Brokers naturally present themselves as an efficient and experienced alternative. Even large grocery companies sometimes go with a broker service – Kelloggs did that here in Australia. The question that has puzzled many a Sales Director is ‘How can you decide whether a broker would be less expensive?’ (The question of better I leave to another day!) And why should a broker be able to offer a better service that is lower in cost?

A couple of years ago I was able to compare the merchandising costs of a number of Australian Food suppliers. These companies differed in size, and indeed differed in the objectives they set for their field force. Nevertheless I was intrigued to discover that costs can be predicted with relative ease.

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