A distribution agreement is a contract between a company wishing to have its products distributed and a distributor. The distributor's role in such distribution agreements is to develop the largest possible market for a product or range of products through distribution, sales and marketing activities.

Companies sometimes make distribution agreements exclusively with only one company or entity that acts as the distributor. Such an arrangement is referred to as exclusive distribution. More often than not, multiple distributors are selected according to geographic reach or territory, market segmentation or some other niche criteria for distribution. A variation on this is having multiple distributors within the same territory or market niche. Any distributor agreement that is not exclusive is referred to as a nonexclusive agreement.

Yet again, a distribution agreement may also contain clauses that prohibit the distributor from representing competitive products in the defined territory or market. Overall, each type of agreement about the nature and mutual efforts on the part of both distributor and producer can be very important to the profitability and success of all parties.

The Business-in-a-Box distribution agreement template can help you compile the correct agreement that is optimized for your product-based business. The template is a 9-page document that covers all of the important aspects of setting up such an agreement for your business. It includes the following:

• A Definitions section that clarifies important terms within the document - Affiliate, Customer, Delivery Point, Goods and Products, Territory, Trademark and so on
• An Appointment of Distributor section to define who and what the distributor is
• A Referrals section to define how the company handles referrals
• A Sales of Products by Distributor section for the promotion of the company's products
• A Competing Products section if the distributor agrees to not represent other competing products
• Advertising for how advertising and marketing are handled
• New Products for bring additional products on board with the distributor
• . . . and more