The same enquiry went to two other wholesalers. Cable, lighting, distribution boards, protection, sanitaryware and hardware, priced at the tier the account is actually on while the contractor is still on the phone. Being first only wins if being first is also being right.
The contractor has sent the same list to two other wholesalers. The list is read into priced lines against live stock, so first back is also right.
Cash, trade and wholesale are held against the part and applied by the account, so being quick at the counter never means being wrong on margin.
A walk-in collection and a standing project order draw on the same availability, so neither can promise the same reel of cable twice.
Counter wholesale is decided on turnaround and on price discipline at the same time. The contractor is shopping the same list around, so a slow quote loses, and a quote at the wrong tier wins the job and loses the margin.
This is what arrives. Not a form, not a structured order. An email written by somebody in a hurry.
Pricing please, out to three suppliers
Afternoon, Pricing on the below for a warehouse job. I have sent this to two other wholesalers as well so first back gets it. - 40x Surfix 2.5mm twin and earth, 100m - 12x LED panel 600x600, 40W, 4000K - 8x DB board 12 way, flush mount - 60x Earth leakage 63A 30mA Werner, Kruger Electrical Contractors
He has told you the terms of the race. The only two things that decide it are how fast you come back and what number is on the page.
Priced at the account's tier
Cash, trade and wholesale are held against the part itself and applied by the account being quoted, so a new person on the counter cannot pick the wrong one.
Quantity breaks applied
Forty drums of cable is not priced the same as four. The break applies at the quantity quoted rather than being remembered by whoever is at the desk.
One live stock figure
Counter sales and contract orders draw on the same availability, so neither oversells the other and the promise on the quote is one you can keep.
An expiry on the document
Validity is stated rather than assumed, so an order placed six weeks later is repriced deliberately instead of honoured by accident.
From a list of parts to money in the bank. Six steps, and nothing is typed twice. The quote becomes the order, the order becomes the invoice, and the figures cannot disagree.
The enquiry arrives as a list of parts
A customer sends a request, usually as prose with part numbers buried in it. It lands in one inbox and is read into lines the catalogue recognises, rather than retyped by whoever picks it up.
Priced against stock you actually hold
Each line is checked against the floor: what is available, what is already allocated to another order, and what is in transit. A quote does not promise a part that is spoken for.
What is short goes onto a purchase order
A shortfall raises a purchase order against the supplier who carries that part, with its lead time on it. The customer is told a real date rather than an optimistic one, and receiving closes the loop when it lands.
The quote goes out, and is chased
A quote that nobody follows up is a discount you already gave away. Quotations carry an expiry and sit on a follow-up list, so the ones going cold are visible while there is still something to save.
Accepted, it becomes an order to pick
The accepted quote turns into an order with the same lines and the same prices, stock is allocated against it, and it drops into the picking queue. Nothing is captured a second time.
Despatched, invoiced, and watched until paid
Proof of delivery closes the order and raises the invoice off the same lines. From there it sits on the aged debtor until it is settled, so what is owed and how long it has been owed is one number, not a spreadsheet.
One reel, four prices, none of them wrong. A wholesaler does not have a price list. It has a price per account, per quantity and per project, and the person at the counter has to get the right one while the contractor waits.
- Cash / walk-inR 1 890.0038%Retail, over the counter
- Trade accountR 1 607.0027%Held against the part
- WholesaleR 1 493.0021%Held against the part
- Volume break, 40+R 1 361.0013%Applied at the quantity quoted
- CostR 1 180.00On every line, so margin is never a guess
The tier decides the price
Retail, trade and wholesale are held against the part itself and applied by the account being quoted, so a new person on the counter cannot pick the wrong one.
Quantity breaks apply themselves
Forty rolls price differently to four, at the quantity being quoted, without anyone remembering that a break exists there.
Speed does not cost discipline
The contractor is shopping three wholesalers. Coming back first only wins the job if the number you came back with still has margin in it.
A quote expires on a date
Validity is stated on the document, so a project order placed six weeks later is repriced deliberately instead of honoured by accident.
Electrical Wholesale, Germiston. 27 catalogue lines, with the quotes, orders, purchase orders and debtor book behind them.
Quote turnaround against your own history, win rate, open orders on the floor, and what is below reorder point.
This trade does not lose money on one big thing. It loses it four small ways, every week, and none of them shows up until the year end.
The quote that went to three and came back to none
The contractor priced with everyone and bought from whoever answered first. Nobody chased, and the book that went cold is not a number anybody has.
Every quote out carries its value and its age, and the ones past your own average accept time surface while they can still be saved.
The counter price given to a trade account
Or worse, the other way around. A new person picks a number, and the job is won at a margin nobody would have agreed to.
The account carries its tier and the line prices itself against it, so whoever is quoting does not get to choose.
The reel promised twice
A counter sale and a project order both quoted off the same stock, and one of the two customers finds out the hard way.
One availability figure sits behind both channels, with what is already allocated taken off it.
The contractor who stretched to ninety days
Credit extended on a good relationship, then extended again, until the oldest bucket is the size of a month’s profit.
What is owed and how long it has been owed sits on one screen, current through ninety days, in rand.
Nothing runs out quietly. Reorder points are held against real movement, so a shortfall is raised as a purchase order before it becomes a lost order.
Held against actual movement, rather than a number somebody set two years ago and never revisited.
The date the customer is given comes from the supplier who carries that part, not from optimism.
Stock booked in lands against the order that was waiting for it, and the short line on that job clears itself.
The screens on this page are the live platform, captured as it renders. The company, its customers, suppliers and every figure are generated for demonstration. No client of ours appears anywhere on this page.
Nothing that already works has to move. The finance team keeps their ledger, the branches keep their stock, and the counter keeps its speed. This sits over the top of all of it.
Your accounting package
Sage, Pastel, Xero or whatever the year end runs on stays where it is. Invoices raised here reach it, and the bookkeeper is not asked to learn a new ledger.
Your branches
Stock sits per branch and is quoted per branch, with what is available at the counter separated from what is sitting at another store or already in transit.
Your part numbers
Your own code, the supplier's and the OEM number all sit on the same line, so nobody has to translate between them mid-enquiry.
Your terms
Credit limits, payment terms and settlement discounts are held against the account and enforced when the order is taken, not discovered at month end.
Your counter
A walk-in is served at the same speed as before. The system is behind the counter rather than in front of it.
Your reps
What a rep quoted, what it was worth and whether it landed is on the account rather than in their own notebook.
Other distribution industries. Different stock and different customers, on the same run from enquiry to invoice.
Industrial & MRO
Industrial supplies, PPE and safety equipment, Chemicals and lubricants, and 1 more
High-SKU parts
Auto parts and spares, IT hardware and print consumables, Electronics components
Made to spec
Packaging and labelling, Office furniture and stationery, Uniforms and workwear
Contract & tender
Medical and dental consumables, Laboratory and scientific supply, Mining consumables and spares, and 3 more
Or see the distribution overview.
What trade counter wholesalers ask.
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