Worksheet: Split distributor pay into service and pull

This sheet applies only where wholesalers or distributors sit between you and the stores for a material share of your volume.

Money paid to distributors to take stock in often buys a demand spike, not shelf sales. This sheet separates the logistics service you buy from the pull you want. The pull is then paid only for sell-out data you can see. It builds the Competent step of the check:

Distributor terms separate the logistics service we buy (a handling or inventory allowance) from any pull spend, and we get sell-out data in return for the pull.

Step 1. Everything you pay each distributor

Push money moves stock into the distributor. Pull money moves stock out to stores and shoppers.

Payment	Distributor	Dollars last year	Push or pull	Service it buys (storage, delivery, handling)	Conditional on anything?
e.g. Pre-promotion volume deal	Distributor A	$400k	Push	None	No

Step 2. Price the service

Service	What a third party would charge us	Allowance we will pay	Service level required (fill rate, delivery days, stock cover)	Measured how
Storage
Delivery to store
Order handling

The service allowance is paid for the service. It is not tied to how much the distributor buys before a promotion.

Step 3. Buy data with the pull

Pull payment	Data required in return	Detail (by store, by week, by product)	Due when	Paid only when the data arrives?	Owner

Step 4. Check for loading and paying twice

Promotion	Distributor orders in the 4 weeks before (units)	Normal orders for 4 weeks (units)	Loading (units)	Did we also fund the retailer on the same cases?

Where loading and a second payment show up, fix those terms first.

Done when: each distributor's terms pay a priced logistics allowance separately from any pull spend, and every pull payment depends on sell-out data you receive.

Adapted from our own impulse channel trade spend discussion (PSP, 2014).