Growing a product-based wholesale business is hard work that often requires tough negotiating skills. Along the way, you've probably had customers ask for across-the-board discounts, custom prices on specific products, and other special incentives.
When you run a product-based business, it's critical that you have a firm grasp on supply and demand: your inventory levels plus purchase orders to your supplier and/or work orders to your production floor are your supply, while sales orders plus sales forecast are your demand. It's easy to make errors when you don't have an accurate view into your inventory. You could sell products that you don't have in stock or fail to order or produce products in a timely manner. You can also make errors if you don’t have an accurate view into your current and future sales.
The effort can be further complicated if you run a wholesale product-based business. You may have different pricing structures for different clients. You may mix in direct-to-consumer sales with wholesale distribution. You may also vary your products depending on the client, or be in a seasonal industry.
