I still hold the view that down-to-earth sales work is a tough and meticulous job. Some people find sales easy, perhaps only because of good timing, favorable trends, and luck. If you change location, time, or brand, you'll see if you can still make sales from home. So, those who are doing well in sales now shouldn't be too proud; maybe you're just lucky, like a pig in the wind. Those who are not doing well shouldn't be discouraged either; just take solid steps, do what you need to do, and have a clear conscience. If it really doesn't work out, you have to accept your fate; people can't fight against trends. As long as you have real skills, you won't starve anywhere else.
What is short-term sales boosting? To put it bluntly, it's a branch of channel stuffing, using any means to quickly inflate the sales figures on reports to meet sales targets. It has a wider application than channel stuffing, and the hidden dangers it brings later are more deceptive.
Although short-term sales boosting methods are not exactly a "glorious" cause, they are the most common tactics in practice. Is it despicable to use these methods? Not necessarily. Most companies are impatient with salespeople, giving them three months, six months, or at most a year to achieve targets, or else they're out. In such an atmosphere, is it a bit hypocritical for companies to ask salespeople to think long-term and consider the big picture? Moreover, nothing is absolute; short-term sales boosting is not entirely without merit.
The reason I'm introducing these 14 methods is not to teach you bad things, but because you're in the business world, and you need to know that besides the broad road, there are also single-plank bridges. The broad road is open, and the single-plank bridge is quiet; each has its own traps and scenery.
1. Exchange expenses for sales volume. This method sounds simple, but it's a bit complicated to implement. First, not all salespeople have a large budget to spend on boosting sales, so some can't even if they want to. Second, some companies adopt a lump-sum expense system or a system where salespeople get a commission on expense savings, turning expenses into "money from their own pockets," so they have to think twice before spending it. Finally, distributors are not fools; the days when giving them a little extra fee would make them stock up more are over. If the product doesn't sell, no matter what you say, no one will listen.
So, using expenses to exchange for sales volume, although it looks simple, is not a tactic every company can use. It's generally only suitable for companies that have leftover expenses at the end of the year or month and whose products sell reasonably well. Of course, salespeople who can use expenses to boost sales are at least trying to achieve their goals, not scheming to embezzle funds.
2. Borrowing from the future, placing orders without shipping. This usually happens at the end of the month or year when the sales target is just a little out of reach, and there's no other way, so borrowing from the future is common.
For example, a distributor is not in a hurry at the beginning of the month but is busy at the end, and by the end of the month, the warehouse is already full. If they order more, it will definitely overflow. But the regional sales target is still short by 200,000. What to do? This is where the salesperson's "maneuvering" comes in. Either they get the distributor to place an order for 200,000 of a best-selling SKU, and then the salesperson "handles" the warehouse staff to make a false shipment in the system after picking and storing the order, delaying the actual shipment for ten days or half a month to give the distributor time to clear inventory, but the sales are counted in the previous month's figures.
Or the salesperson "handles" the order clerk to check the system for out-of-stock items and have the distributor place orders for those out-of-stock items. Naturally, there's nothing to ship, but it creates a backorder. The salesperson takes this backorder and submits it to the boss along with a special request: "Due to severe warehouse shortages at the end of the month, the 200,000 order for this month could not be fulfilled, resulting in a 200,000 sales gap and failure to achieve 100% of the sales target. Therefore, please consider the actual warehouse shortage and assess this month's performance at 100%." The boss may or may not approve, and it might also shift the blame to the supply chain, so this method must be used sparingly.
3. Advance then retreat, after-sales cleanup. This method is even more insidious and brings more trouble to the company. The operation is: to meet the sales target, the salesperson first gets the distributor to stock up heavily, promising that once the year-end or month-end assessment is over, they can return the excess stock under the guise of after-sales issues. The distributor benefits by being able to resolve other after-sales problems, and in companies with lax management, distributors might even exchange old stock for new, which is more likely in regions with sub-warehouses.
4. Joint sales boosting, sharing rebates. This method is actually the salesperson using resources out of thin air. When the company's tiered rebates are too high, or the regional sales gap is too large, and most distributors can't meet their targets, the salesperson treats the resources as favors, combining the sales of several distributors onto one distributor's account so that one distributor gets the rebate or a higher rebate, and then they "divide the spoils" among the distributors. For the company, this method achieves the same sales volume but pays out more in rebates.
5. Project registration, higher volume for better price. This method is common in durable consumer goods, home building materials, and other products that involve project usage. The main approach is that when companies support project-based products, they often have special pricing policies. When a distributor applies for support for a project, to get more benefits, they usually inflate the quantity of products needed and submit a "yin-yang contract" to the company. Salespeople often know the truth or are involved, and some just turn a blind eye to earn more sales.
6. Direct to retail, buyback to boost sales. This method is often used by home appliance companies in big-box retailers. The main purpose is sometimes to demoralize competitors and gain a first-mover advantage, and the salesperson just takes the credit. Since big-box retailer data relies on IT systems and is monitored by professional agencies, to achieve a sales breakthrough in a particular SKU, salespeople organize distributors to buy back the products delivered to the store at retail prices. The various costs incurred are reimbursed through special subsidies.
Under this operation, the company's retail sales in the store will see a significant short-term increase, creating a false impression of a hot product, similar to online click farming.
7. Wave-style sales boosting. Wave-style boosting is another breakthrough after the "sales boosting theory" hit a bottleneck. This is what we often call some regional salespeople have mastered the art of "splashing water" when stuffing channels. There are two types: one is that you shouldn't stuff a distributor continuously, but rather stuff one month and rest the next, ensuring at least 6 months of target completion and bonus; the other is that you shouldn't stuff all distributors at the same time, but rather stuff A, B, C, D, E, F, G this month, and H, I, J, K, L, M, N next month. This alternating pattern gives everyone some relief and prevents excessive pressure and channel overflow.
8. Sell on credit. This method is mainly for companies with credit policies, meaning goods are delivered first and payment comes later. In this case, the salesperson's most common line to the distributor is: "Since it's free, just order more!" If there's no accountability mechanism for credit sales, it will definitely lead to a pile of bad debts.
9. Adding new outlets and levels. One of the functions of channels is water storage capacity, and many salespeople are well aware of this. When the sales target seems far off, widening and deepening the reservoir is one option. Specifically, a region with one distributor becomes four, or a county with one outlet becomes ten. Even more impressive, if large companies strictly control distribution levels and outlets, salespeople will secretly add new levels below retailers, encouraging county retailers to ship to townships and remote areas. These areas, due to poor logistics and information, can still generate orders for retailers at a markup. Of course, this method can sometimes bring unexpected channel innovation to the company.
10. Conference marketing. More than 10 years ago, I worked in the health products industry and thought conference marketing had been overused and tarnished. It wasn't until I saw Philips Home Appliances executives lead us in conference marketing, completing several hundred million in sales in one conference, that I realized there was still huge potential in the home building materials industry, and distributors there really respond to it. Since then, there are national ordering conferences at the headquarters level and various regional ordering meetings, until orders are flying everywhere but never materialize. It's common for distributors to place orders but not pick up the goods, which becomes one of the causes of production-sales conflicts.
11. Stuffing new products. Most distributors are reluctant to sell new products, so stuffing new products doesn't always work. But for companies with real plans, new product launches usually come with a budget, and that budget becomes the best helper for salespeople to stuff channels. Some salespeople at large companies love to stuff new products. When I asked why, they chuckled: "We've already stuffed too many old products!"
12. Stuffing best-sellers. Stuffing best-sellers is the reason many best-sellers go from hot to cold. Initially, because there are policies, resources, and budgets, when you need to stuff, the simple and crude choice is to stuff best-sellers into the distributor's warehouse. Since they need to stock up anyway and will sell eventually, stuffing best-sellers is the easiest compromise. But as best-sellers pile up, to digest them, prices naturally drop, and the company's former hit product becomes a common product, eventually leading to price inversion and everyone being reluctant to sell.
13. Cross-region dumping. This method involves the salesperson colluding with distributors to either maliciously dump goods into other regions to clear inventory, or discovering large blank markets in other regions and thinking, "Why not? It's free sales." As long as they meet their own targets, they don't care about the consequences. So, when such dumping occurs, the salesperson either helps cover it up or pays lip service to complaints from other regions.
14. Channel transfer boosting. What is channel transfer boosting? It's another great invention in the sales boosting world. Many companies now develop multiple channels, and each channel develops unevenly. In the home building materials industry, to reduce production costs, many products are shared across channels, and IT systems are not yet advanced enough to support one-to-one control by category, channel, and distributor. A distributor can have multiple channel qualifications, and an SKU can correspond to multiple channels. Each channel is assessed separately, and rebates have tier differences. Distributors are not fools, and salespeople are not fools either. In this game where report results directly reflect people's intentions, it's understandable and normal for salespeople and distributors to report more sales on channels with higher rebates.
Huang Runlin, a full-time marketing consultant, focuses on improving salespeople's skills and upgrading distributor operations. The related series of articles are being compiled into a book; please stay tuned. Personal WeChat: hrlandhyx
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