---
title: "12 Illusions of Unsellable Products That Could Fool Distributors for a Lifetime!!"
description: "Products that don't sell at the terminal simply mean 'God doesn't pay.' Why doesn't God pay, or why does God pay someone else instead of buying your product? Our research found that under the following 12 circumstances, products are likely to fail to sell: 1. Customers are 'captured' by competitors. 2. Your brand is not in the customer's consideration set. 3. Customers don't see your product. 4. Customers think your product can't meet their needs. 5. Customers think your product has defects. 6. Customers think your product's price is not worth it or too low."
author: "New Distribution"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2017-11-19"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/12-illusions-of-unsellable-products-that-could-fool-distributors-for-a-l-d1962bbb/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/12-illusions-of-unsellable-products-that-could-fool-distributors-for-a-l-d1962bbb.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/giD9XJjDG5kdj_UU7s5-rQ"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/12%E7%A7%8D%E4%B8%8D%E5%8A%A8%E9%94%80%E5%81%87%E8%B1%A1-%E5%B7%AE%E7%82%B9%E9%AA%97%E7%BB%8F%E9%94%80%E5%95%86%E4%B8%80%E8%BE%88%E5%AD%90-d1962bbb.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/12-illusions-of-unsellable-products-that-could-fool-distributors-for-a-l-d1962bbb/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# 12 Illusions of Unsellable Products That Could Fool Distributors for a Lifetime!!

> Products that don't sell at the terminal simply mean 'God doesn't pay.' Why doesn't God pay, or why does God pay someone else instead of buying your product? Our research found that under the following 12 circumstances, products are likely to fail to sell: 1. Customers are 'captured' by competitors. 2. Your brand is not in the customer's consideration set. 3. Customers don't see your product. 4. Customers think your product can't meet their needs. 5. Customers think your product has defects. 6. Customers think your product's price is not worth it or too low.

Products that don't sell at the terminal simply mean 'God doesn't pay.' Why doesn't God pay, or why does God pay someone else instead of buying your product?
**Our research found that under the following 12 circumstances,**
**products are likely to fail to sell:**
> 1. Customers are 'captured' by competitors.
>
>
>
>
>
> 2. Your brand is not in the customer's consideration set.
>
>
>
>
> 3. Customers don't see your product.
>
>
>
>
> 4. Customers think your product can't meet their needs.
>
>
>
>
> 5. Customers think your product has defects.
>
>
>
>
> 6. Customers think your product's price is not worth it or too low.
>
>
>
>
> 7. Customers don't like your product's packaging or style.
>
>
>
>
> 8. Customers think your product is a generic brand.
>
>
>
>
> 9. Customers think your product is outdated.
>
>
>
>
> 10. Customers see that your product is nearing its expiration date.
>
>
>
>
> 11. Customers think your promotional activities are not attractive.
>
>
>
>
> 12. Customers think your promotional activities are not credible.
>
>
>
To solve the above problems, we need to see through the appearance to the essence and find solutions. Based on the 'phenomena' and 'products' that don't sell at the terminal, **we conducted a classified study and summarized the following solutions:**
**I. 10 Types of Unsellable Phenomena and Solutions**
**1. Few people come to buy this product, and occasionally a little is sold**
Solution: Review the correspondence between the product and the needs of the target consumer group. If the correspondence is high, it indicates that consumers have insufficient awareness of the product, so strengthen terminal promotion by adding sales guides and stimulating the enthusiasm of small retailers. If the correspondence is low, it indicates that the product lacks appeal to consumers, so enhance its correspondence by lowering prices or conducting consumer promotions to encourage impulse buying.
**2. Slow product turnover; those who bought it don't come back**
Solution: First, expand the new consumer base to increase the initial purchase rate. Second, find out the reasons for slow turnover. If quality is poor, improve quality; if packaging is poor, change packaging; if price is too high, lower it. If the company cannot improve based on the above reasons, consider eliminating the product.
**3. Products don't sell at all at the terminal, and the market demands returns**
Solution: This phenomenon indicates that the product cannot meet consumer needs. First, select specific regions for concentrated 'clearance sales.' Second, 'recall' products that are difficult to handle in some markets back to the company.
**4. New products entering the market, new market development, or competitors using short-term heavy promotions to suppress, causing temporary unsellable phenomena**
Solution: This type of phenomenon is a normal unsellable situation. Marketing personnel should not be too hasty, to avoid using promotional methods like special prices, buy-one-get-one, or other vicious competitive methods like 'closely following competitors, mutual destruction' that could damage the product's brand image and life cycle.
**5. Products show a non-temporary unsellable phenomenon for a longer period**
Solution: Systematically check the product's core strength, sales push, and brand pull, identify the weak links in each force, and comprehensively adjust and improve them.
**6. Products don't sell in all markets**
Solution: This phenomenon mostly indicates that the product itself has significant problems. Lock down regions and concentrate on digesting existing channel inventory.
**7. Products don't sell in some regional markets**
Solution: Review the differences between the product and the consumption habits of consumers in that region. If the product does not adapt to local consumption habits, temporarily withdraw from the region. If it does adapt, investigate the promotion methods and sales work in that region, and adjust and improve them.
**8. Products don't sell in individual markets**
Solution: This phenomenon is mainly due to insufficient sales push in that market. Therefore, review the work of sales representatives and distributors, introduce advanced experience and promotion methods from other markets, and adjust sales personnel or distributors if necessary.
**9. Products don't sell at terminals in different channels within the same market**
Solution: Different channels cover different consumer group characteristics, and the same product may not be suitable for different channels within the same market. First, reposition and classify the product's sales channels. Second, promotion methods should differ for different channels.
**10. Products don't sell at terminals in different areas within the same market**
Solution: These areas are mostly weak areas for the company in that market. The reason for unsellable phenomena in these areas is not the product but mainly the combination of push and pull forces and operational rhythm. Analyze the promotion difficulties in these areas one by one, and formulate special promotion plans for the area based on its competitive landscape, competitor characteristics, consumption characteristics, and channel characteristics.
**II. 6 Types of Unsellable Products and Solutions**
**1. New products don't sell**
Case: A food company organized world-class technical experts and domestic first-class marketing consultants to develop a high-end new product. After the product concept was determined, the project leader believed it was '20% successful and 80% failed,' but most others thought it was successful, and the product was eventually awarded the '2004 Product Innovation Award.' However, after launch, it didn't sell at the terminal, confirming the original project leader's judgment. After losing tens of millions of yuan in R&D and material costs, the company had to stop promoting the product.
Solution: First, investigate the correspondence between category positioning, brand personality, product function, product form, product price, product packaging, etc., and the needs of target consumers, and diagnose whether it is a temporary normal unsellable situation or a non-temporary abnormal unsellable situation. If it is the former, just follow the established promotion plan. If it is the latter, first adjust the product's price and promotion methods, second reposition and improve the product, and if necessary, stop promoting the new product.
**2. Old products don't sell**
Case: A leading puffed food company's flagship product had been selling well for 10 years without even changing its packaging. Although its quality was still excellent, the product became increasingly unpopular in the terminal market.
Solution: The main reason for unsellable old products is that the product is in the decline stage. Besides low channel profits and poor promotion enthusiasm, consumers have also lost interest in the product. The solution is to replace old products with new ones, even if the new product is 'new bottle, old wine' or 'same soup, different medicine,' which may solve the problem of old products not selling.
**3. Well-known products don't sell**
Case: During SARS, Yake V9 leveraged people's brief panic and desire for health during the 'SARS' period, launched the new concept of 'vitamin candy,' and simultaneously launched a star-endorsed advertisement on CCTV, rapidly increasing product awareness and significantly increasing channel orders. After SARS, calmer consumers no longer felt the freshness and cleverness of 'Yake V9,' so the phenomenon of well-known products not selling became increasingly evident in some markets.
Solution: Many products' awareness is quickly built through event marketing or strong media communication. For such products, the most important method is to continuously update and enrich the product line, allowing the company to quickly transition from the 'well-known product' stage to the 'well-known brand' stage.
**4. Unknown products don't sell**
Solution: Unknown products are not necessarily bad products; well-known products all started as unknown products. For unknown products, first find a marketing model that leverages market and external resources to achieve successful product sales under the condition of low awareness.
**5. Price-increased products don't sell**
Solution: Price increases should occur under two conditions: first, when the industry trend dictates it, and second, when the company has the ability to lead the market. Under these conditions, unsellable price-increased products are temporary and normal. Outside these conditions, companies should try to maintain price stability, and even if they increase prices, they should only 'increase nominally but not actually.'
**6. Growth products don't sell**
Solution: Growth products may experience short-term unsellable phenomena when heavily suppressed by competitors. At this time, growth products should be good at 'avoiding the strong and attacking the weak' and 'leveraging force,' rather than 'fighting hard,' thereby finding their own advantages and development space in sales promotion methods.
Case: A company launched a city product with strong growth momentum. In response, the industry leader launched a series of promotional suppressions and terminal interception activities, causing the growth product to fail to sell in A and B class terminals. The company quickly adjusted its channel focus, specializing in C and D class stores, and ultimately succeeded.
Source: Agent Micro Journal
-END-


---

## Copyright and AI use

This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL.

Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671