Selling your products online can be a headache, particularly when you rely on distributors to do that task. While you both agreed on policies to prevent brand loss and protect your prices, frequently, they commit infringements. But, sometimes, your products show up on pages you have never heard of before. When you discover your products are displayed on unauthorized sellers' pages, that is a real threat to your business. But you can handle it. 

The big deal is when you discover that one of your authorized distributors is failing to comply with your pricing policy, like the minimum advertised price (MAP). So, what are the reasons your distributors aren’t following your agreements? Let’s find out!    

1- Your staff is not monitoring your policy 

One of the problems comes from your company, believe it or not! Many employees enforce the MAP policy and leave it there. They do not monitor it to see if it is working or if it needs changes. You have to check if your distributors follow your guidelines and check the status of your products.    

When you do not do this, your pricing policy will not work. To prevent this, you must tell everybody in your company (especially your sales team) to monitor the policies. A program like PriceTweakers helps you with this because, with our MAP Module, sellers get notified every time a distributor does not comply with the MAP policy. 

2- Your distributors don’t know how the policy works 

Many companies make the same mistake. They go online and grab the first template they find. They copy it and send it to distributors. Naturally, when they receive it, they do not understand it. Do you want to know why? Because it does not have your company’s input and it is full of words they do not understand.  

What you need to do is rewrite it and add your touch. Also, do not make it complicated to understand. Make it clear and straightforward. Tell your distributors what you want from them and what they cannot do, and the consequences.    

3- Distributors don’t have internal control 

Sometimes, your distributors don’t have internal control or a program to monitor policy infringements. Or, occasionally, they hire new people, and they don’t know the policies the company implements for your dealers. To prevent this, you probably have to train your distributors. You can set up a short training course or a conference call to show them the clauses and how your distribution agreement should look. 

Conclusion 

Distributors break MAP agreements intentionally or unintentionally. The second one happens when sellers and distributors make small mistakes. But there are ways to prevent these errors, and the solution is to use PriceTweakers. We offer your company the MAP Module, where you can track what is happening to your products. Anytime one of your clients sells below the MSRP and MAP, you will immediately see this in your dashboard. From our MAP action management tab, you can see which products suffered MAP infringement and contact the vendor to change the price. Also, you can track the status of the breach. From the first contact with the distributor or vendor to the case being resolved. 

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