Missing out on claiming manufacturer’s rebates is like negotiating a higher price with your suppliers. It simply shouldn’t happen! There are many examples in the building industry where, instead of agreeing an up-front discount, discounts are given in the form of rebates based on actual volumes purchased. For the supplier, this fosters brand loyalty and means that margins are given away only in return for true purchase volume. For the buyer this gives the potential to drive up margins — but only if their sales forecasts can be achieved. Having agreed to a contract that includes a rebate for volume purchases, the buyer (eg the builders merchant) has a number of things to keep track of, including:
We can see just from the examples above, that there are at least three different parties within the builders merchant who need to work together in order that the company profits from the agreements they have in place:
Added to that, is a layer of complexity in terms of the variety of rebate agreements that can be in place at any one time.
The number and complexity of different deal types is limited only by the imagination of those who negotiate contracts.
But the ability to replicate all of those different types of agreement within your contract management system or ERP system may in fact be limited. As a result, many building materials businesses we have spoken to resort to monitoring sales and rebates in spreadsheets. In a multi-channel, multi-site business collating and acting on information in spreadsheets is clearly a huge challenge, open to error and reconciliation problems.
Is there an alternative for builders merchants to manage their rebates?
Builders’ merchants Wolseley and Grafton found their existing systems let them down. Having missed opportunities to achieve better margins, and grappled with the administrative burden involved in their old processes, both companies decided to look for an alternative. They both chose Enable Rebate Management Software. This software manages contracts, automates processes and handles all the complexities involved in tiered discounts and retrospective trade agreements.
Enable rebate management software meets the needs of builder’s merchants where other contract management modules and systems can fall short: