Specialization is the key to business success. This is especially true in the wholesale business.

The majority of wholesalers attempt to be everything to the retailers that they serve. While it might sound appealing to offer a wide assortment of products to your retail accounts, it can actually be counterproductive.

The reason that having too many different products is counterproductive is because your retail accounts will not have a sound grasp of the product lines that you carry.

In order to ensure that your retail accounts think of you first when they are ready to order, you need to ensure that they know what products you carry.

To achieve product recognition in the wholesale business you should focus on one specific area and follow it up by specializing in specific product lines within the categories that you will be serving.

For instance, if your wholesale business serves dollar stores you would want to then focus on specific product categories which dollar stores need.

The reason I am a firm believer in product specialization is because you need to be highly competitive in the product lines that you deal in.

Since you will need to keep track of market changes in the product categories that you deal in, it will be important for you to have the time and resources to follow market developments related to the product categories you carry.

The only efficient way to accomplish this is by having a small enough number of product categories that can be researched while still running your business.

For this reason it is imperative to deal with a smaller number of product categories, since you will then more easily be able to monitor market changes for those products.