First piece of advice: The first thing you do every day as a boss is to increase revenue or cut costs. Here are two key points: First, the fundamental mission of a boss is to generate profit. Management meetings are always data-driven, focusing on sales revenue, costs, profit, and gross margin. It's clear that the mission of managers' daily work is profit, and profit determines your success or failure: the winner takes all, the loser is forgotten. Second, the most important thing for a boss is time management—how to allocate time to marketing, cost control, team development, understanding consumers, and understanding competitors. Second piece of advice: Add value, don't lower prices. For brand companies, there are two issues: First, your price has nothing to do with cost. Brands have added value; consumers buy the brand, they buy trust in product quality, not the cost. Second, build brand value and focus on amplifying value, not lowering prices. Price is critical to whom? Instead, you should increase brand value and added brand equity. For non-brand companies, there are three issues (also applicable to brand companies): Resolve the three levels of product value: First, the basic functional benefit: what problem does the product solve for the consumer? Second, use value: including convenience of purchase, packaging, style, and product differentiation—what we usually call the buying point and selling point. Third, the true core value lies in added value. To gain more profit, you must increase added product value. The key is to use the above two points to elevate to a brand company, and then view the above two points from a brand perspective, which becomes easier. Third piece of advice: Every 10% reduction in costs can create 100% profit. Two sciences a boss must learn: The first is marketing, which determines the source of revenue. The second is financial management, which determines cost control. You must grasp both; once you have these, profit comes easily. How to control costs efficiently and effectively? First, bosses must increase financial knowledge and awareness. When you don't know something, it becomes an obstacle; all failures are related to ignorance. Only by improving your knowledge can you devise methods to enhance management. Always remind yourself to treat every cost as a demon that must be killed. If you can't kill it, and the expense is unavoidable—for productivity, development, after-sales service, or to better meet customer needs—then convert it into an investment mindset. What is the return on investment? Who is responsible for this expense? If the expense doesn't achieve its goal, who is penalized? You must control every cent of cost and find ways to reduce it. Second, establish processes and have excellent people in the financial system. First, the boss should start learning financial knowledge. Second, find an excellent CFO. There must be systems, processes, and methods to guide every profit. Third, have a very strict and scientific financial management system. Fourth piece of advice: Continuously reduce procurement costs. How to control costs? First, use bidding and price comparison; source from the source. Second, continuously develop suppliers to ensure survival of the fittest. Third, for major products and materials, have at least five suppliers, and add one each year. Fourth, outsource as much as possible and cultivate specialized manufacturers. The biggest cost saving is to have a unique skill: become the national number one in your field. Cooperate with others and make your core competitiveness irreplaceable. Fifth, submit unit cost analysis. Fifth piece of advice: Continuously reduce expenses. Revenue minus costs is gross profit. Expenses are highly flexible, including travel, entertainment, hospitality, management fees, bank loan interest, etc. All these expenses need a system to control them. These are leaks, and leaks have two problems: one is losing the boss's investment, the other is losing value borne by consumers. Four direct ways to reduce expenses: First, result-oriented model. This is a reverse thinking model: before doing anything, I first think about what result I want. Then, if the result is right and worth doing, I do it. If it doesn't make money, it's a betrayal of mission and a desecration of the soul. Second, item-by-item control. For each customer, each transaction, and each employee, control their costs and profits individually. This helps you understand your financial situation thoroughly—how every cent comes in and how it leaks out. As a boss, this is the lifeblood of your business and your core focus. Third, budget review. Can you review each expense against the budget? The CFO should compare each expense with past expenses, last month, and next month's budget. Most importantly, compare with competitors. You can get their data from public announcements. Why are competitors' profits so high? Why is their labor unit output so high? You'll immediately think there's a problem, indicating we have a problem. We produce the same thing, so why this difference? We'll find the cause and fix it immediately. Fourth, appoint a price-cutting expert and an audit expert. This expert reports only to the general manager and audits all procurement contracts; all contracts must be audited and signed by them. They must have a database and a secretary, and compile all raw materials and major products into the database. They must be principled. Such an expert can save the company a year's worth of money. They understand your finances and business, and the cost savings they bring far outweigh their compensation. Sixth piece of advice: Have elite soldiers and strong generals; don't keep useless people. Even if you pay someone a salary, if they can't help you and don't learn anything, they desecrate their soul, and you are an accomplice. Use people's strengths, and there are no useless people; use their weaknesses, and there are no useful people. Understand this: if you can't use people, you're not fit to be a boss. People come and go; it's not about your charisma, but many criticize you. Listen to everyone's opinions and their solutions. If they have an opinion, they have a solution. Follow their advice, and execution will be 200%. First, simplify the organization and streamline personnel. Make the organization flat, delegate authority to employees, let them dare to try and make decisions, and unleash their potential. Streamline staff and implement a last-place elimination system. Employees must flow; everything is measured by performance numbers. Second, manage by objectives and independent responsibility. Every task and job is a quantified indicator. Everyone knows what to do next, what the future holds, where they are now, and where they will be. Third, strengthen training. Training has a 30x return. But how to ensure training becomes a return and investment? We require all participants to add up their training fees and all expenses. If I spend 10,000 yuan on a conference for eight hours, upon returning, the person must teach the team for eight hours. If they can't teach eight hours, only four, then only half of the expenses are reimbursed. The purpose is to force sharing; after learning, they must train and summarize. Fourth, reward and punish employees based on profit. In the team, there is no seniority, tenure, or education level. The company is profit-oriented. Whoever contributes most should be honored and set an example. Everyone makes way for them; they are our role model. Employees who can't generate profit are not acceptable and are subject to last-place elimination, called voluntary resignation. Seventh piece of advice: Increase customer purchase frequency. Each additional purchase doubles sales. If we get consumers to buy one more time, our profit triples. Find ways to provide more services and products: First, innovate products. Second, improve old products. Third, develop new customer needs. Fourth, bundle all your products for joint sales. Eighth piece of advice: The more you focus on high-profit products, the more money you make. Because high profits attract followers, your network expands infinitely. Different products and services have different profit margins. Calculate the profit ratio and focus your goals, energy, and time on the most profitable products. In the past, you might have averaged sales, but that won't work. A high-profit company focuses on high-profit products, making its sales team emphasize high-profit services and promotions. This changes profit and creates gaps in sales volume. Sales revenue may not change, but profit will. Remember: all operations are profit-oriented. Ninth piece of advice: Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is the golden rule for big profits. This concept has illuminated marketing worldwide. USP has four key conditions: First, provide benefits to customers. Second, have obvious differences from competitors. Identify your product's features to differentiate from competitors. Third, have strong support points for your product. Fourth, persuade customers to buy. Different products can be sold in different markets because they have unique selling propositions—this is the unique selling point. To stand out in the market and earn high profits, you must find differentiation and buying points. Tenth piece of advice: 20% of customers bring 80% of profits. The economic law of the world, even the law of the universe, is that 20% of things determine 80% of outcomes. In a company, 20% of employees create 80% of value. This concept shows two points: First, bosses should value the 80/20 principle. They know what is most critical and productive—the 20% that matters. The highest level of the enterprise is when the boss can grasp this. Second, classify customers: first are golden customers, second are major customers, third are small customers. You must distinguish golden customers and focus on the 20% major customers. Ensure the 20% generate maximum value in your team. Upgrade small customers to major customers, and major customers to golden customers. Never let a single customer leave. Eleventh piece of advice: The speed of learning is proportional to the speed of making money. Your learning speed is proportional to your success speed. Build a learning team. In this team, it's not about how much money you earn, but— First, what do you learn? Second, what improvements do you make after learning? Third, what are your next steps at work? How long will it take to use what I learned in the first half to complete the brilliance of the second half of my life? Twelfth piece of advice: Strive to be the number one in your industry, and do business with number ones in other industries. Consumers only remember seven brands in a category: the first is remembered by 40%, the second by 20%, the third by 10%, the fourth by 5%, and so on. The number one gets added value and a halo effect. Many investors choose the number one, and consumers have a herd mentality. If you segment the market and become number one in your industry, added value emerges. Find ways to do business with number ones in other industries. Thirteenth piece of advice: Don't just sell from a store; go out and sell. Build a performance-oriented sales team:

  1. Determine the break-even point;
  2. Don't have fixed good treatment; link compensation to performance;
  3. Don't cap income;
  4. Hold morning meetings, evening meetings, weekly reviews, and monthly reviews;
  5. Make lots of calls and visits; you must sell actively, even walking to customers. Acquiring new customers costs five times more than serving existing ones. Not only acquire new customers, but most importantly retain old ones, as they bring new customers. Fourteenth piece of advice: Own the market, not the factory. Own the brand and customers; sense first, then respond; customers first, then products. Own customers, so don't spend money on factories, because equipment and land depreciate and need replacement. Only by owning a brand do you have the upper hand. If you own consumers and the market and understand their needs, you win the market. Manufacturing is at the low end of the value chain, where you work for others. The high ends are R&D and marketing, like the smile curve: the two ends have the highest value. Understand customers first; whatever you do, understand the market first, then respond with product development to meet consumer needs. Today's market focuses on the market, consumers, and changing needs. With their needs, your products won't rot in the warehouse. With customers, you must value after-sales service, as service brings new profit points but can also lose them. Remember, service must be standardized. Fifteenth piece of advice: A good model is half the success. A good model must be simple and easy to implement. The power of example is infinite. A good model must also have a system; without a system, the model is temporary. You might be a winner, but you'll also be a loser. Sixteenth piece of advice: Making big money is easier than making small money. Big money relies on others; small money relies on yourself. Making money must rely on a team, and you need the largest and best team to serve you to make the most money. There are three money-making models in the world. The first is working for money, working for others. 98% of people are workers, working for money, getting up early and working late. These people, regardless of skin color, don't make money. The second is having others work for you—building a team. The third is using money to work for you—investors use capital to make money. The most successful bosses use two levers: people and teams (networks of people). Finally, I'll summarize the advice with two true stories. First, the dolphin's perspective. My conclusion: There is no perfect individual, only a perfect team; team strength is invincible; without rules, nothing can be accomplished; a successful team creates countless successful individuals! Second, the lesson of geese. If we move toward common goals like geese, interdependent and sharing team strength, we will follow the leader to our destination. We accept help from others and help others. Difficult tasks require shared effort; we must respect each other, share resources, and unleash everyone's potential. If we support each other in both adversity and prosperity, no journey is too far. Even if we face setbacks and failures, as long as the team encourages each other and stays firm, we will eventually succeed! -END- Excerpt from "General Model for Terminal Sales Visits" September 10, 2015 20:00--21:00 Long press the QR code below to register for the course for 9.9 yuan.