2024

Wholesale
Distribution
Selling Starter Kit
Mid-market

You are a sales AE or GAM at SAP, you are going to meet a NNN customer in the
wholesale Distribution Industry. This Quick learning Deck is for you ! Telling you what
is wholesale, suggesting key questions to your prospects and giving you an
extensive sales bag ---
INTERNAL This is a 6 slides Deck -15 minutes reading in total
 Wholesale Distribution | 16 Key facts
From suppliers
Wholesale Distributor
1. A wholesale distributor is a company who buys products in bulk, stores
the products and sells the products in smaller quantities to another
business . The business customer could be a trader, a contractor, an
industry plant, a retailer, an hospital ,a school, a restaurant, an office
building manager, and more.
2. In a nutshell the process is Buy – Stock- Sell but not so simple.
3. They have sales Rep on the road,, assisted by inside sales/ counter
sales or tele-sales and also provide a channel of E-commerce that
can represent up to 50% of selling. This is typical Omni-channel
industry.
4. A wholesale distributor may have thousands to millions of product in
their catalog and thousands to hundreds of thousands of customers.
5. Creating a new product or a new customer has to be reliable , easy and
fast.
6. In wholesale each customer have his own invoice, rather than in retail
they have consumers (instead of customer) who get only a ticket.
7. Each customer of a wholesale distributor may have his own price,
through a cascade of price condition this is the big difference with
retail where price is more a catalog price
8. When a counter in branches exists ,it has to be very effective as
customers having no time to loose in queue.
INTERNAL – SAP and Partners Only
to btb Customers
9. increasing the number of lines per order is a key topic and a win win
value ( more turn over for wholesaler / less suppliers-invoices for the
customer )
10. Many wholesale distributors use what we call off invoice rebates that we
name also Charge back or Cash back contract. Typically, these off
invoice amount are depending of the sales volume and are claimed
periodically by quarter or end of the year.
11. The distribution centers are vital and the volumes are huge. A wholesale
distributor can have hundreds of thousands of order line items
processed each day with expected delivery from 24 to 48 hours from the
time the order was placed.
12. Wholesale distributors are starting to make real planning of stock –
but they still face a lot of over stock and understock
13. The nightmare of wholesale distributors is to see a AMAZON BTB or
ALIBABA market place disrupting them
14. In order to fight that disruption they innovate, propose new
services like phygitalization
15. They have millions of data because for each sales they record an
invoice but most of time they donot use the value of their data
16. Young talent are reluctant to go to Wholesale as they see them as a
laggards in terms of technology. Nevertheless new recruitment is
key for their survival.
2
Executive Summary | Industry Top Trends | Market & Competition | Strategic Priorities & Growth Levers | Vision, Investments, & GTM Strategy | Focus Market Units (Regions, LOBs)

Wholesale Distribution | 12 Key industry questions when you meet your customer

1. What is the volume you maintain in terms of data (Product/ customers/ pricing
conditions/ sales line per day) ?
2. What is the process to create a new product/ customer ?
3. How is organized the pricing – how do you maintain it ?Do you face challenges when
updating/ maintaining your pricing model, when a customer connect to e-commerce
does he see his specific price ?
4. How are organized your sales channels – Are you happy with E-commerce/EDI ?
5. What is your number of days stock in average / your quality of service ? ( kpi number of
lines-orders completely delivered on time/ total number of lines order ), what do you
plan to improve it even more ?
6. Do you see Amazon BTB or Alibababa as dangerous competitors, if yes, how do you
compete them ?
7. Are you using cash back/ charge back contract ( off invoice ) with your Customers/
suppliers ?
8. How is organized your distribution to customers, do you face challenges here ?
9. Do you provide services to your customers ? Which ones ? Do you think to create new
ones ?
10. Do you use the data you have collected over the years ?
11. How Covid has changed your way of working ? Your commerce channel ? Your supply
chain ?
12. What are the process you would like to focus and improve?

INTERNAL – SAP and Partners Only 3

 The components of a successful GROW package
Executive
Team-signed off Successful
Growth Plan Reference

Solution Partnership

Partner

Deployment Methodology & Tools

enhancements

Procurement

Supply Chain
Finance

Service

Sales
Migration Value-driven
Accelerators business case

Database and Data Management

IT Management
Application Platform and Architecture

INTERNAL – SAP and Partners Only 4

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Approach: Standardized Processes relevant for WD
Human Sourcing &
Sales & Service Supply Chain Finance Cross
Resources Procurement

Recruit to Retire Source to Pay Lead to Cash Plan to Fulfill Finance Governance

Enterprise
Core HR & Time Sourcing And Order and Contract Accounting and
Inventory Information
Recording Contract Mgmt. Mgmt. Financial Close
Management

Service Master Process

Employee Master Operational Financial
Data and Warehousing Management and
Data Procurement Operations
Agreement Mgmt. Integration

Central Service Operations Cost Mgmt. and Administration and

Core HR & Payroll Order Promising
Procurement and Processes Profitability Analysis Usability

Procurement Commerce Delivery and Treasury Security and Data

Analytics Management Transportation Management Protection

Augmented
Quote, Order and Advanced Order Subscription Billing
Invoice Mgmt. Business
Contract Mgmt. Promising and Rev. Mgmt.
Intelligence

Supplier Billing & Revenue Logistics Material Enterprise Risk and

Management Innovation Mgmt. Identification Compliance

Operational Customer Advanced Real Estate

Procurement - SAP Attribution Warehousing Management
®
Ariba® Guided
Buying Available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Advanced Environment,
Field Service Available examples in SAP portfolio
Transportation Health and Safety
Contract
Management
Environmental
Footprint
Management

INTERNAL – SAP and Partners Only 5

Why SAP uniquely addresses wholesale
distribution requirements
Wholesale Distribution Facts SAP Solutions

 Wholesale distribution is a volume

business  SAP is uniquely positioned to process huge data and transaction volumes in real time

 Thin margins require flawless

execution.  SAP is a proven transactional system, with over 40 years of experience running the largest
and smallest of companies across the globe

 One single source of truth across

all channels of sales  SAP provides a fully integrated system that ensures consistent data with no redundancy,
with a common foundation across all channels of sales

SAP’s solution S/4 addresses this requirement by providing complete visibility into
 Chargebacks and rebates are
complex and numerous  contracts, customer specific pricing, chargebacks and rebates throughout the
quote/order/invoice lifecycle.

 Over stock and out of stocks

 SAP S/4 public Cloud enables running Material Requirement Planning ( MRP) allowing to
have the right stock at the right time with also an option to DDMRP.

 Digital Internet of things can

enable new wholesale markets
INTERNAL – SAP and Partners Only
 SAP BTP is a platform that enables thousands of new business processes to developp and
new services to their customers 6
 S/4HANA Public Cloud Success in Wholesale Distribution

Topcon Positioning Systems, Inc. distributes precise
positioning products and offers solutions for surveying,
construction, agriculture, civil engineering, BIM, mapping
and geographic information system (GIS), asset
management, and mobile control markets. Topcon
Positioning Group is headquartered in Livermore,
California, USA.
Topcon is using S4/HANA Public Cloud in a 2-tier
scenario since March of 2023.
Horng En is operating from Taiwan and focuses on
sales of recycled plastic such as PP, PE, ABS, PS, PC,
PET… etc. In addition they also trade both virgin and
recycled plastic.
Horng En is operating on S/4HANA Cloud since
January 2020
Headquartered in Seoul, Boryung exports since 1977 a
series of prescription and cancer drugs as well as
antibiotics and different active pharmaceutical ingredients
(API) to almost 50 countries on six continents.
After a 5 month project, Boryung is live on S/4HANA
Public Cloud since March 2019 in a 2-tier scenario.

Neuroth's traditional family business has become Austria's
market leader and a Europe-wide successful hearing
acoustics company. High quality, trusted advice, and
comprehensive service are the central components of the
Neuroth philosophy.
Neuroth is using S/4HANA Public Cloud since June 2021
for its 1200 employees
A.M.P.E.R.E., a family owned company active in the
trading of metals and chemicals, has become the top
leading European supplier to industries, with a very
well-known name in the distribution to the plating
industry.
a.m.p.e.r.e is running S/4HANA Public Cloud since
March 2022.

INTERNAL – SAP and Partners Only 7

Wholesale Distribution | Customer Examples by Business Model : all SAP Products

hybrid Business Models Standalone Distribution Business Models

Traditional Wholesale Distribution
Trend
Vertical Business Master Distributor Wholesale Distributor

Member Business Networks

Franchising Model Group (Purchasing/Sales) Organization (Purchasing/Sales) Co-operative

Trade Management
Cash & Carry Wholesale Importer/Exporter/Trader Marketplace/Agent/Broker/Reseller

INTERNAL – SAP and Partners Only 8

Wholesale Distribution | IBU team contact

Magnus Meier Mark.Moyer Frank Marguier Werner Baumbach

Chicago Philadelphia Paris Walldorf
Susanne Adam

St. Ingbert

Planet wholesale Distribution

INTERNAL – SAP and Partners Only 9