How to sell to everyone and not step on market players toes..

[ggg]

Hello Everyone,

I've been wondering about something for some time and am debating the entire approach in my head for how to tackle my new product launch.

1. I am the manufacturer / source of this product which is unique, new and exciting in a stagnant industry. It is not going to be replicated for at least a few years.
2. I want to take a piece of pie from the consumer market, retail market as well as the big boys and large wholesalers..

The Problem? Politics... I don't want the retailers to be annoyed or put off I'm selling to consumers, the wholesalers annoyed that I'm selling to the retailers, etc.. etc..

My plan is this...

Have a clear price structure with discounts for volume that allows for a decent markup for wholesalers to compete with me and sell to retailers. Or allow retailers to sell and compete with me to sell to the end consumers.. And tell them they are able to compete with me, you just need the volume. Don't ask for retail prices if you spend as much as a consumer per order!

Is this possible, or an oversimplification? Should I stick to one area of the market and not gain the benefit of the rest, or have a piece of every pie and annoy people and loose sales.

Please give me your suggestions or ideas on how to get around this, or how you have perhaps solved this kind of problem before.

Many thanks in advance,

G

[Parvaze]

Absent more detail about the market, product and end user for this, my inclination would be that you will be better off having x number of wholesalers selling for you rather than directly competing with them. My approach would be to get market share and once dominant THEN make a decision if it was worth annoying my wholesalers by going directly to the retailer.

Then again, if you already have a corner on your particular market you don't have much to lose by establishing a pricing structure for both wholesale and retail and let the chips fall where they may! :-)

Good luck!

[guidemesingapore]

Well there is a fine balance trying to please both distributors and retailers if you are directly selling to all - distributor, retailer and end consumer - it could get very tricky as you could end up losing a big distributor who would have otherwise given you good volumes. You need to study your market, the type of product, what competitors are doing thoroughly before finalizing your plan.

[Anthony Tori]

Why not sell online on your own at first. Get proven results and then you have leverage over the bigger companies when THEY want to carry your product. Have you thought about putting your product online as an affiliate program?