As a distributor, you’re constantly dodging between choices. Thousands of SKUs in your catalog. Hundreds of cities and towns on your radar.
You want it all. You want every product available in every outlet in every region.
But you know the actuality. You have limited capital, limited manpower, and limited time. Every rupee you spend supplying a new product is a rupee not spent expanding delivery. Every hour spent in a remote outlet is an hour ruined in a high-volume market.
This is the classic dilemma: Range vs. Reach. It’s a choice every distributor must face to grow beneficially.
Range: The “What” of Your Business
Range is your product portfolio, what you sell.
It includes every brand, every SKU, every classification you offer.
Two Ways to Think About Range:
- High Range:
You’re a one-stop shop with every product in every category. - Low Range:
You’re a specialist with a slender, high-performing product list.
The Charm of High Range:
- More products means more reasons for a retailer to buy from you
- Better “share of wallet” from each customer
- Potential to meet varied end-consumer needs
The Hidden Costs of High Range:
1. Inventory Bloat
Every supplemental SKU ties up working capital.
Slow-moving SKUs sit on shelves and don’t earn their keep.
2. Warehouse Complexity
More SKUs equals more bins, more confusion, more space.
Operations slow down. Mistakes go up.
3. Sales Team Surplus
Your team can’t pitch 5,000 products productively.
They lose focus. Productivity drops.
This is where the 80/20 Rule kicks in. Most of your sales come from a small fraction of products. The rest drain resources.
Reach: The “Where” of Your Business
Reach is your geographic and channel spread. It’s about where you sell, and who you sell to.
Two Reach Strategies:
- High Reach:
Your products are found in every city, town, and village corner. - Low Reach:
You concentrate efforts on high-value markets or select channels.
The Promise of High Reach:
- Greater availability builds brand visibility
- Potential to outpace competitors across regions
- Volume growth from penetration into the market
The Drawbacks of High Reach:
1. Logistics Cost Surge
Serving distant, low-volume areas eats into margins fast. The “last-mile” gets more expensive.
2. Execution Gaps
It’s difficult to maintain standards across thousands of outlets. Stock-outs, poor visibility, and inconsistent service follow.
3. Time Drain
Sales and delivery teams spend hours on tiny accounts. Your best people burn out serving low-yield clients. High reach looks great on a map. But not always on a P&L.
Smart Distribution = Balanced Strategy
The best distributors don’t chase everything. They focus, measure, and prioritize. They build a Range-Reach strategy that aligns their brand, market, and business capacity.
Step 1: Let Data Guide You
Your ERP and POS data are goldmines. Start with the 80/20 Analysis.
➤ Product Pruning:
- Identify bottom 20% of SKUs by sales
- Calculate inventory with dead cost
- If they don’t move, delist or restrict their distribution
Note: Don’t cut a product unless you’ve tried exploiting its market.
➤ Customer Segmentation:
- Sort customers by profitability, not just earnings
- Find clusters with high throughput
- Focus on areas that deliver the highest margin per kilometre
Step 2: Build a Tiered Approach
One-size-fits-all doesn’t work. Instead, tier your products and geographies.
Product Tiering:
- Core Range: Your top 50 to 100 products
- Push them everywhere
- Ensure wide availability
- Automate reordering
- Extended Range: Niche or premium SKUs
- Offer only to large-volume clients
- Limit to easy-to-serve cities
Territory Tiering:
- Tier 1 Markets:
- Full range, full service
- Top sales team focus
- Tier 2 Markets:
- Core products only
- Route optimization needed
- Remote Markets:
- Digital-only presence or limited cycles
- Partner via wholesalers
Step 3: Align with Brand Strategy
Your Range and Reach must support your market positioning.
Examples:
- Are you a premium brand distributor?
- Limited range & limited reach equals to exclusivity
- Focus on high-end retail and malls
- Are you an FMCG mass player?
- Maximum reach is essential
- But that means a tight, lean product range to maintain margin
Your distribution strategy must mirror your identity. Clarity here drives consistent growth.
Step 4: Exploit Before You Expand
Most distributors expand too soon. They launch new products or new territories without exhausting the old ones.
Ask:
- Have we maximized sales in our existing markets?
- Are we selling enough of our current range to current customers?
Growth doesn’t always mean “more”. Sometimes, it means doing a lot better with what you already have.
From Dilemma to Deliberate Strategy
Range vs. Reach is not a war. It’s a balance.
You don’t need more products or more areas. You need better positioning between the two.
Ask These Questions Regularly:
- Which products give us the best return on warehouse space?
- Which markets give us the best return on delivery effort?
- How can we deepen existing demand before adding new lines?
- Are we chasing sales… or building a scalable, profitable engine?
Profound Consulting Can Help
At Profound Consulting, we help distributors:
- Analyze product and territory versions
- Create segmentation models
- Build high-margin, low-waste strategies
- Align operations with brand vision
- Execute scalable development using real business levers
We work with businesses across Pune and Mumbai, helping them move from instinct to insight.
You don’t need more chaos. You need clarity.
Ready to Redesign Your Distribution Model?
Whether you’re overloaded with SKUs or stretched too thin across markets, we can help in every way.
Visit ProfoundConsulting.in
Book a free consultation. Let’s convert intricacy into performance.