Cut out the middlemen and earn more money from your sales!

 Smart Marketers Photograph from marketing land

After selling a product wholesale to a marketer who cleaned us out and hit the market to sell the same product to retailers at almost double the price, we were resolved to cut out the middlemen and earn more money from our business. We run a small cat fish farm in a semi rural area. Our business consists of buying fries, that is small tadpole like catfish, and feeding and keeping them till they mature to what is known as table size! Often the period of feeding fries till they mature goes over a four month period of changing feed, giving them antibiotics and changing water. In the first cycle we came up with selling over 750kg of fish to women who in turn supply the retailers in the markets. We discovered to our chagrin that the fish we sold costs double the amount we sold it in the market and immediately resolved that we would exploit the market at both ends by selling to wholesalers and the end user.  For the end user we raised our price to a level slightly below the market rate and started making tangible profits in the second cycle. Based on our experience we thought up some strategies that can help you cut out the middle men who often make a product more expensive than it really should be, by adding what they call their margin. Meanwhile, they have no risk whatsoever in the business, save buying the product from the producer and conveying it to the retailer.
When you are buying here are a few suggestions that would help you cut out the middle men and get the product for a relatively cheaper price:
1. Buy from the manufacturer or producer where possible, buy in bulk or at a bulk price, get the middle man's price for yourself instead of being exploited. Where you buy matters a lot.
2. If you buy to resell, situate your outlets as close to the manufacturer as possible, It will help you cut transport costs and usually the further away the product is from the manufacturer the more costly it would be/
3. Organize bond buying where groups come together they can influence lower costs. So get together with friends, associates and colleagues and agree on the buying schedule of anything you tend to buy in bulk. Bulk purchases always enable proper negotiation of price.
4. Insist on relationship pricing once you have bonded and you have done your research based on what obtains in the market.
5. Research prices at the various levels of the supply chain and decide which suits you best.

If you are selling the product you produce or a product you buy in bulk your strategy would be completely different.
1. Ask customers to bond to buy. Arranging purchase groups from the perspective of the seller enables you sell faster and at better prices per unit. If you make the arrangement you have a better strength of negotiation.
2. Organize warehouse sales for all manner of buyers at certain periods of the year. Let people see your stock and make a choice of the kind of products they wish to buy. Often, the site of bulk stock with no labels marking sales prices can be overwhelming and enticing.
3. Producers and manufacturers should seek a presence in major retail outlets, organize auctions and trade shows where they can reach out to customers directly.
4. Find out the prices that wholesalers fix and make sure that in direct sales you sell slightly below those 8in the market.
We have adopted many of the above strategies, some market sellers have black listed us, but who cares we are making a tidier profit than we did while selling to wholesalers who had no investment in the production but were reaping all the profits. 
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