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The special channel is a channel that distributors both love and hate. What they love is the relatively closed channel environment, which gives distributors less external pressure. What they hate is that because the special channel is relatively closed, many marketing methods fail in front of it. Therefore, there are not many distributors specializing in special channels, and even fewer who do well.

However, in Chongqing, a distributor specializing in the tourism special channel grew sales from zero to 70 million yuan in three years, and is expected to exceed 100 million in sales in 2020. He is Ran Lei, general manager of Chongqing Jinshengshui Trading Co., Ltd.

At first sight, Ran Lei, from his clothing and appearance, does not look like a distributor boss, but more like a seasoned salesperson. This distributor, who specializes in Chongqing's tourism channel, has achieved such results in just three years. Behind him, there must be a different methodology.

Chongqing, as an important tourist city in China, attracts many tourists from home and abroad. In recent years, with the popularity of internet-famous attractions like Hongya Cave, the tourists coming to Chongqing are getting younger and have higher spending power. This made Ran Lei, who had been in traditional channels for many years, see a business opportunity.

Covering 289 stores with 700 products and annual sales of 70 million yuan is the result of the efforts of Ran Lei and his team over the past few years. This achievement is based on Ran Lei's unique management of four major areas: customer relationship maintenance, product selection, display, and team management.

Customer Relationship Maintenance: Salespeople + Promoters Empower Stores

Putting 700 products in 289 stores and generating 70 million yuan in sales, with an average annual sales of nearly 240,000 yuan per store, is not impressive whether in traditional channels or KA hypermarket channels. But in the special channel, achieving such results is truly difficult.

The tourism channel has its unique advantages: low costs, high traffic, and low competition. Although the payment period is longer, the risk is low, and more importantly, the profit in the tourism channel is relatively high. However, entering it is not easy.

Ran Lei was able to secure 289 tourism channel stores in Chongqing thanks to customer relationships. The customer relationship maintenance he talks about is not just simple visits and orders, but more about helping stores sell products.

Ran Lei's company has 5 salespeople, each visiting 15 customers daily. What they need to do is not just simple product organization and new product promotions, but from the moment they enter the store, they become a member of the store, organizing shelves, checking inventory, reconciling accounts, etc., as part of the visit process. Helping store owners sell products is a must-do for every salesperson on each visit, and this is Ran Lei's secret weapon to capture these terminals.

To better help stores move inventory, in addition to the 5 salespeople, Ran Lei also deployed 45 promoters. Based on sales data analysis of hundreds of stores, these 45 promoters are assigned to stores with slow-moving products, high foot traffic, and many competitors. Their only task is to sell products.

The combination of salespeople and promoters helped terminal stores increase sales in a short time. Additionally, promoters are deployed based on the needs of different stores. According to statistics, Ran Lei found that stores with promoters can increase sales by 5%. Making store owners money is the best customer relationship maintenance.

Product Selection Strategy: Time-Honored Brands + Specialty Products

The customer relationship maintenance model of salespeople + promoters allowed Ran Lei to quickly secure important stores in Chongqing's tourism channel. For Ran Lei, this is just the beginning.

Making store owners money not only requires the help of promoters but also tests the product selection ability of Ran Lei's team. Ran Lei told New Distribution that his product selection secret is time-honored brands + specialty products. Currently, Ran Lei mainly represents brands with Chongqing characteristics, such as De Zhuang, Chen Changyin, Ming Yang, Hao Ren Jia, Qiu Xia, Yangjiao Dried Tofu, Zhongzhou Shibaozhai, Die Hua, among which many are time-honored brands.

As the vice president of the Chongqing Time-Honored Brand Association, Ran Lei knows that shopping in tourism consumption channels is mainly experiential and impulsive. Therefore, consumers are not particularly sensitive to the price of tourism products; they value experience and product characteristics more.

Based on the advantage of the number of stores in the tourism channel, some first-tier brands' new products will proactively come to Ran Lei. In addition, Ran Lei also proactively seeks products with beautiful packaging and excellent quality to update his product library.

In terms of new product promotion, Ran Lei and his team also have their uniqueness.

For distributors, new product distribution usually follows the logic of terminal store visits - new product introduction - certain promotional policies - building a model market. But Ran Lei and his team have a different approach.

In July 2019, Ran Lei's team took over the Peidu Memory brand (including dried beef with sesame and chili, and spicy chicken), and they did not follow the traditional distribution method.

Ran Lei's team first promoted it on WeChat Moments, focusing on showcasing the product's packaging style. In a short time, some store owners were attracted by the product images and proactively contacted the relevant salespeople. After a brief introduction of the product features by the salespeople, based on trust in the salespeople, many store owners proactively requested to stock the product.

Secondly, before stocking the terminal stores, the salespeople would give store owners samples and trial products from the manufacturer. Only after the store owners were satisfied with the packaging and taste would they stock the product in their stores.

Therefore, within just two days, the Peidu Memory products in the stocked stores were completely sold out.

It can be seen that products chosen proactively by store owners will definitely be given the best display positions. Moreover, products that have been personally tasted and approved by store owners are definitely the main promoted products in the store.

All Displays Are Consumer-Oriented

Product display is the key to whether a store moves inventory, so Ran Lei put a lot of effort into store displays. Ran Lei placed beautifully packaged gift boxes and large-pack products on the shelves at the back of the store facing the entrance, which can attract consumers entering the store. On the shelves in the middle of the store, small-pack foods and specialty foods are mainly placed. In addition, product tasting areas are added in the store to enhance customer experience.

Besides terminal shelves, Ran Lei also sets up end-cap displays in stores, mainly displaying local specialty snacks and promotional gift boxes. Use gift boxes to attract traffic, use specialty products to drive sales, and finally use the end-cap displays at the entrance to stimulate consumers' purchase desire and increase the average transaction value. Tasting activities can improve consumers' experience.

According to Ran Lei's statistics, stores that have undergone display upgrades have seen sales improvements. For example, a Chongqing-style noodle product supported by the company saw sales increase by 3 times after adjusting the display. The local brand Peidu Memory saw single-store sales increase by nearly 10 times through display and image end-cap creation.

How 5 Salespeople Manage Hundreds of Stores

If customer relationship maintenance, product selection, and display upgrades are external challenges, then team management is an internal challenge. For traditional distributors, they often require salespeople to follow the eight-step visit procedure for customer visits and determine employee performance based on order quantity.

Ran Lei seems to have his own unique insights into team management. With only 5 salespeople, they manage over 280 stores and have achieved excellent customer relationships with each store. What methods does he use?

Ran Lei told New Distribution that he does not have too many requirements for employees but gives them full opportunities to develop. In terms of customer relationship maintenance, he requires salespeople to visit stores regularly and quantitatively, first visiting stores with poor sales, then those with good sales. Secondly, salespeople should help stores with product display, help sell products, and provide product knowledge and sales skills training to store promoters and staff.

During store visits, Ran Lei's team does not use digital tools, including for store ordering, and they do not use the popular B2B systems. Ran Lei said that the tourism channel is relatively closed, with few distributors entering, and the categories are limited, mainly time-honored brands, specialty products, and some snacks and beverages. Therefore, at present, the tourism channel does not need digital tools, but they will be used in the future.

The reason for not having employees use digital visit tools is that Ran Lei believes the number of store visits is not the goal; quality is important. Building good relationships with stores is the foundation for stable product sales, and helping store owners provide good service is the key to increasing sales. Ran Lei told New Distribution that currently, store owners and salespeople have formed a great tacit understanding, and store owners even play a supervisory role. If a salesperson does not visit for a long time, the store owner will definitely call him to ask why.

Regarding employee KPI assessment, Ran Lei keeps it as simple as possible. He believes that doing business is result-oriented, focusing on profit and market share. Therefore, the KPIs for employees in different positions only revolve around these points.

  • Finance: Assessment targets are data accuracy and timeliness
  • Warehouse: Assessment targets are product inventory accuracy and order accuracy
  • Delivery: Assessment targets are delivery timeliness, accuracy, and after-sales service evaluation
  • Sales: Assessment targets are sales tasks, overachievement, payment collection rate, visit frequency, and service evaluation

In addition to hard KPI assessments, Ran Lei also set up a parent allowance for employees. As long as employees complete their monthly tasks, the money is directly transferred to their parents' accounts. Ran Lei said that the parent allowance is to remind employees to be filial to their parents.

If an employee's parents do not receive the money this month, they will definitely ask their child if they failed to complete the task. To a certain extent, the parent allowance also serves as a supervision mechanism for employees. And education from parents is far more effective than from the boss.

Team building is the most important thing for special channel distributors. Through customer relationship maintenance, employee management, and performance assessment, they build a team with strong execution. This is something that both special channel distributors and traditional distributors need to do.

The National Day Golden Week is coming, and for Ran Lei and his team, this is another challenge.

New Distribution Thoughts: With the saturation of traditional channels, many distributors are turning their attention to special channels. Although competition in special channels is relatively small, the closed nature of the channel places higher demands on distributors. Distributors need a highly competitive management team, products that meet consumer needs, and strong customer relationships. For distributor management, it should be soft internally and hard externally.

Soft internally means giving the team full opportunities to develop, providing achievable sales tasks, and simple KPI assessments.

Hard externally means having highly competitive products, meticulous customer service, and a sales team with strong execution.

Whether for special channel distributors or traditional channel distributors, terminal visits are crucial, but terminal visits are not just a quick tour. Whether or not digital tools are used, creating benefits is the fundamental goal, but many distributors have not recognized this.

Terminal visits are not just going to the store for a spin, organizing shelves, and placing orders. They should bring tangible sales to the store. The distributor's sales team is not the manager of the store but a participant in the store.

In addition, distributors need a reasonable performance assessment system to improve employee execution. Performance assessment is not a tool to squeeze employees but a tool to stimulate their creativity. For traditional distributors, assessing employees based on visit frequency and order quantity is not scientific. KPIs that focus on sales tasks, overachievement, payment collection rate, visit frequency, and service evaluation can truly motivate employees.

Finally, distributors should dare to put new employees in important positions, allowing them to learn through practice. This can both improve team cohesion and give every employee the opportunity to exercise.

Once the tip is adopted, a reward of 400-2000 yuan will be paid.