Click 'Read Original' for details. When a new product is launched, no matter how scientific and comprehensive the marketing plan, or how intense the advertising bombardment, if the product lacks distribution coverage, everything is empty talk. To increase sales, you must first increase distribution coverage; to increase coverage, you must first formulate reasonable promotion policies and cultivate a first-class sales team to execute them. Many marketers today confuse distribution with merchandising. The standard for a good salesperson is often the 'three diligences': diligent eyes, diligent legs, and diligent mouth. They believe that as long as frontline salespeople are hardworking and capable, skills are secondary—diligence can compensate for lack of skill! But is that really the case? One day, I accompanied the distributor's salespeople on a distribution run while conducting market research. By the end of the day, I identified the root causes of low distribution coverage:

  1. The distributor had a poor after-sales service reputation, basically not handling exchanges or returns, failing to keep promises, and having long market maintenance cycles. Since our product had a short shelf life, most supermarkets were afraid to stock it.
  2. The distribution price in this market was far higher than the manufacturer's suggested price, leaving little profit for retailers, so they were unwilling to sell.
  3. The salespeople's selling skills were indeed too mediocre. Back at the distributor's office, I summarized my years of frontline distribution experience and trained the distributor's sales team. The content is as follows: First: Know Yourself and Know Your Enemy
  4. Understand competitors' selling points, advantages, distribution coverage, wholesale prices, retail prices, and promotional activities.
  5. Understand the characteristics of the business district, business conditions, business direction, the personality of the factory's person in charge, existing competing brands, and their sales performance.
  6. Clearly understand your own product's competitive advantages and disadvantages, and play to strengths while avoiding weaknesses during sales pitches.
  7. Communicate frequently with superiors, report problems found in work, offer good suggestions, and seek support. Second: Entice with Profit The purpose of business is to make a profit. When a person in charge considers stocking any new product, the first consideration is whether it can bring benefits. The main points are four:
  8. Higher profit margins than similar products.
  9. If profits are similar, the known market sales volume is far greater than similar products.
  10. Promotional expense support.
  11. The product has unique selling points or strong brand appeal; even if not profitable, it can attract foot traffic. As a salesperson, you must clearly identify which advantage your product has. If you cannot explain what returns the product will bring to the customer, no matter how much you say, it is in vain! Third: Eliminate Concerns The second consideration for a business when choosing a new product is sales risk.
  12. What is the product quality? Is it produced by a legitimate enterprise?
  13. What if it sells poorly? What if inventory piles up?
  14. Is the supply stable? Can market maintenance keep up? What if supply cannot meet demand once the product sells well?
  15. What is the supplier's reputation? Will promises be fulfilled?
  16. Market management: Is the brand long-term? This requires salespeople to make thorough preparations:
  17. State in advance whether exchanges and returns are handled, and make commitments on exchange cycles, merchandising cycles, delivery times, etc., according to company requirements.
  18. Introduce the distributor's operational strength and credibility to customers, and if necessary, sign sales agreements or promotion agreements. If you gain the customer's trust, you have already succeeded halfway. Fourth: Move with Emotion Humans are emotional creatures, and Chinese people especially value face and relationships. If the boss is as close as a brother or is introduced by friends or relatives, even if selling your product is not very profitable, they will still stock it. Therefore, a good salesperson should learn to fully utilize various complex interpersonal relationships, which will make distribution efforts twice as effective with half the effort. Learn to build and expand your network, use relationships to remove obstacles, and your distribution work will become easier. Fifth: Bargaining The third consideration for a business is how to gain greater benefits and resources from the supplier. Hence, salespeople encounter 'difficult customers,' whose tactics generally include:
  19. Taking advantage of small favors—'Why didn't you give me my promotional items? Did you embezzle them?' (In reality, there are no promotional items!)
  20. Bullying with size—'My store sells a large volume of such products, so you must give me a lower price than the normal supply price, or I'll sell other brands.'
  21. Demanding consignment—'Just leave the goods here; I'll pay when I order next time.' If a customer bargains with you, you are almost successful. Do not think the customer is being unreasonable; stay calm. As an old Chinese saying goes: 'The one who haggles is the buyer.' This is where your negotiation skills come into play. Sixth: Compare and Provoke People have personalities; some are competitive. Salespeople should be adept at exploiting human weaknesses. For example, some businesses are doing well, and the boss is self-righteous. When you try to sell, they shoo you away before you finish. For such customers, sometimes a different approach can yield unexpected results. 'The XXX enterprise next door sells our product very well. Your store is smaller than theirs, but you have a better location. I dare say if you sell our product, you won't do worse than them.' Seventh: Impart Knowledge 'Impart knowledge' here means: not only rely on rich product knowledge to build your image and authority in the customer's mind, but more importantly, use your eloquence to persuade them. Related words: brainwashing, selling crutches, hustling. If you can talk persuasively and guide the customer's thoughts to follow you, you have succeeded. Eighth: Turn Guest into Host In many cases, our customers lack decisiveness and keep changing their minds—wanting it one moment, not wanting it the next, hesitating repeatedly. At this point, the salesperson must not relax. Make the decision for them and confidently say, 'Selling our product is absolutely safe; you will definitely make money.' Then, reasonably grasp their needs, fill out the order, and induce them to sign. Once signed, the customer will be too embarrassed to back out! Be bold and meticulous, grasp the customer's psychological changes, and close the deal in the final step. Ninth: Sincerity Can Move Mountains Even if you have used all your tricks and the customer remains unmoved, no problem. I have one last unbeatable secret. Three words:
  22. 'Grind': As an old Chinese saying goes, 'With enough effort, an iron rod can be ground into a needle.' If not today, I'll come again tomorrow.
  23. 'Soak': Use the spirit of courting a girl to court our customers.
  24. 'Love': In 'The Greatest Salesman in the World,' there is a classic quote: 'I will greet this day with love in my heart.' This is the greatest secret of all success. Force can split a shield, even destroy life, but only love has the power to open hearts. Until I master the art of love, I am but a nobody in the marketplace. I will make love my greatest weapon, and no one can resist its power. They may oppose my theories, doubt my words, disapprove of my dress, dislike my appearance, and even be skeptical of my cheap goods, but my love will surely warm them, just as the sun's rays melt frozen soil. If you can fully achieve the above nine points, I am certain no customer can resist your powerful sales offensive. Tenth: Transcend the Ordinary Achieving the above nine points makes you at most an excellent salesperson. If you can fully grasp market characteristics and current conditions, pay attention to expanding from points to areas during distribution, focus on key customers, create a batch of model stores to establish image, and do shelf displays while distributing, then reasonably plan your area based on product characteristics, and formulate corresponding market development plans and promotion schemes, maximizing manufacturer and distributor resources—by then, you are not far from becoming a sales manager. Source: Food Board From August 22-24, the '2018 China Digital Innovation Conference (2018FDIC)' with the theme 'Finding New Growth Engines' will be held in Shanghai, hosted by the China FMCG Industry Association and organized by New Distribution. The three-day conference will focus on two main themes: marketing and supply chain, with six parallel forums on brand, channel, communication, B2B, same-city logistics, and innovative retail. We will invite industry leaders, CEOs, and brand executives to deeply interpret the trends and drivers of digital transformation in the FMCG industry. We will gather over 500 FMCG enterprise executives, 200+ B2B industry CEOs, and 1000+ FMCG industry leaders to discuss how the FMCG industry can use digital tools to achieve rapid growth again in the digital era. This conference will build a bridge for brand owners, distributors, retail enterprises, and marketing agencies, helping FMCG manufacturers obtain the latest information, understand best practices, and master more transformation skills. Proposed Invited Companies Conference Time: August 22-24, 2018 Conference Venue: Shanghai Baohua Marriott Hotel Conference Content: 8.22 All-day check-in Afternoon 14:00-17:30: Distributor same-city logistics parallel forum Evening 18:30-21:00: New Distribution Night Gala Dinner 8.23 Theme: Marketing Digital Innovation Morning 9:00-12:00: Marketing Digital Innovation Main Forum Afternoon 14:00-17:30: Brand, Channel, Communication Parallel Forums 8.24 Theme: FMCG Supply Chain Digital Upgrade All day: FMCG Supply Chain Conference Registration Method: Registration is now open. Long press the QR code below or click 'Read Original' to register. 50% discount is available for the last day of early bird registration...! Registration Consultation: Ticket inquiries: Media cooperation inquiries: New Distribution Previous Conference Highlights Click the links below to review the highlights of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th FMCG + Internet Conferences: -END-