Click the image to learn more Whether in the baijiu industry, FMCG industry, or other industries, what is the most critical factor for a product to succeed, grow, and quickly gain volume? Some might say it's the product's appeal, others might say it's a good operational strategy, and still others might say it's finding a good distributor or having significant manufacturer investment, or even high-altitude advertising. All these factors are related to product success, but they are not the core factor. In my opinion, the core factor is people—specifically, frontline salespeople. If a salesperson's individual combat capability is strong, they can achieve tenfold results and win through surprise. So how can we enhance a salesperson's individual combat capability? I will explain from the following aspects.
1. Build "Foolproof" Templates for Standardization: For those who have never done sales, sales often seems complex and profound, creating an invisible sense of fear. The most typical example is new salespeople being afraid to enter stores, and when they do, they don't know how to communicate with the store owner, resulting in a state of panic. What is the main reason for this panic? It's that the salesperson doesn't know what to communicate with the store owner and how to communicate to close the deal. As a manager, you can summarize the daily work of employees into a model or fixed template. For instance, for product introduction, managers can write a written version of "Product Selling Points Introduction." For opening new stores, managers can write "How to Introduce Products and Handle Terminal Questions." For terminal visits, managers can write "Eight Steps or Five Steps for Terminal Visits." By forming fixed templates and training salespeople, you turn many intangible things into tangible ones, giving salespeople a guide to follow and preventing them from being lost (this method is most suitable for new employees without sales experience). This will fundamentally improve the level and ability of salespeople, at least enabling them to conduct terminal visits independently without being left speechless by store owners or failing to introduce products.
2. Use the "Pass-On, Help, Lead" Mindset to Build a Learning Culture: You become like the people you associate with, which fully demonstrates that people are easily influenced by those around them. Sales managers and supervisors have rich practical experience. The main purpose of mentoring new employees is to pass on good habits and practical experience, enabling new employees to truly understand how to do the job. Sales managers and supervisors should pay attention to the following issues or achieve the following points when mentoring new employees:
1. Sweep-style store visits: Regardless of store size, visit every store, truly not skipping or missing any, and inform each store of policies. This is also the most important criterion for a good salesperson, and this habit should be passed on to basic salespeople.
2. Always convey positive energy: Managers and supervisors are not gods; they also encounter difficult and harsh terminal store owners, which is normal. In such cases, managers and supervisors should not complain, because your emotions constantly affect salespeople. Tell salespeople that this situation is normal; the owner has this personality and treats every salesperson the same. Keep visiting persistently; one day they will cooperate with you. Persistence pays off. If you say this, salespeople will think this way, because salespeople are like blank slates, and in their eyes, you are currently the expert.
3. On-site teaching: After negotiating with each store, analyze the sales pitch with the salesperson outside: how you opened the conversation, in what order, how you responded to the owner's questions, whether the store opening succeeded, where the success points were, and if it failed, why. Explain the key points to the salesperson, providing on-site teaching.
4. Visual merchandising: Terminal visual merchandising is actually a technical job and a daily task for FMCG salespeople. The principle of visual merchandising is: beautiful, effective, and impactful. Managers and supervisors must lead by example in terminal visual merchandising and teach salespeople why to do it and how to do it well.
5. Give salespeople opportunities for hands-on practice: You never learn to swim without getting in the water. So find stores for salespeople to practice in person, and as managers and supervisors, provide on-site guidance. Salespeople will definitely improve quickly.
6. Break salespeople's mindset; don't limit themselves: If a salesperson has never had a single terminal order exceed 10 cases, or more, that itself is a problem, indicating that the salesperson's single-store transaction volume has not broken through. But the number of core stores a salesperson has is fixed in the short term, so total sales cannot have a major breakthrough. How to solve this? As managers, we must set large-tier policies, such as 50-case or 100-case policies, because only by setting large policies can they be achieved, and once achieved, salespeople's mindsets can break through. At the same time, managers should not only guide salespeople to negotiate large orders but also take them to negotiate large orders. Even if one deal is closed, the salesperson's mindset will break, and they will know how to negotiate large orders. With this knowledge, how can sales not increase?
3. Summarize "Successful Cases" into Models: Doing business and studying have commonalities. Learning to summarize is crucial for improving one's abilities. If you close a deal, summarize the key points that led to the transaction. Negotiating activities definitely requires skill, and regular summarization will help you find these skills, greatly enhancing your capabilities.
1. Negotiate from high to low: Many salespeople have heard this phrase but don't practice it because they don't understand it deeply. First, negotiating from high to low ensures you don't miss big customers. Second, it's psychological: if you buy clothes and the store owner quotes 50 yuan per piece, how much can you bargain down to? Getting to 30 is good. But if the same clothes are quoted at 800 yuan, would you dare ask if they'd sell for 30? Certainly not. Similarly, when negotiating activities, if you start by asking for 3 cases, you might close 1. If you start by asking for 10 cases, think about it—could you close 5 or 8? It's not just possible; it's definitely possible.
2. Leave enough room for flexibility in negotiations: Most store owners will bargain. As salespeople, you know this well, but some salespeople still can't respond flexibly, ultimately losing deals that should have been closed. If the company stipulates 10 cases gets a free barrel of oil, experienced salespeople negotiate 12 cases for a barrel, eventually closing at 10. Inexperienced salespeople strictly follow the company rule of 10 cases for a barrel, and when the owner asks for 8 cases, you're stuck: if you close, you might not even make commission and could lose money; if you don't close, it's a pity, creating an awkward situation of "tasteless to eat, a pity to discard."
3. Learn to flexibly combine activities: If the company stipulates 10 cases gets an induction cooker, and 20 cases gets a microwave, a skilled salesperson would promote that 35 cases gets both an induction cooker and a microwave. This is a mindset. Sales is flexible and ever-changing, not static. As a salesperson, you should be adaptable without violating company principles.
There are many more such experiential tips. As a salesperson, you should regularly summarize; as a manager, you should summarize all successful experiences of salespeople and train everyone to enhance individual combat capability.
4. Cultivate "Correct Mindsets" to Create Benchmarks: The term "mindset" sounds a bit mystical and might seem vague, but it's not. A correct mindset is crucial for improving sales performance and forming good habits.
Example: Negative mindset: "I get a headache when I see this store." Positive mindset: "I want the store owner to get a headache when they see me." You'll find that with a positive mindset, there's no store you can't conquer, because your goal is to make the owner dread seeing you. You've let go of fear and so-called face, ready to accept all rejections. With such a mindset, you'll be invincible.
Another example: Negative mindset: "I think this store won't order." Correct mindset: "Never rely on 'I think'; let facts speak. I will inform every household of the activity policy." In sales, the phrase "I think" is harmful and can lose many customers. So first, establish the correct mindset: "Never say 'I think'" and "Drink only to slight intoxication, life is joyful; sell liquor with effort, and you'll earn more!" As managers, post these correct mindsets on the wall and read them every morning. This will greatly improve daily work efficiency, and performance will naturally rise.
Use positive mindsets to set benchmark salespeople: The power of example is infinite. The role of a benchmark is not just to sell more but to show others through action: "If I can do it, you can too," boosting team confidence. Invisibly, they lead the team forward, proving nothing is impossible. As senior managers, you must spare no expense to cultivate benchmark salespeople. For outstanding salespeople in your team, help them find incremental growth opportunities to make the excellent even better. Also, identify exceptionally talented salespeople in the same industry or among competitors and poach them at high cost.
5. Build "Mechanism Culture" to Achieve Emotional Connection: Heavy rewards will always attract brave men. Don't just spend heavily on promotions, displays, and advertising while neglecting the most critical point: frontline salespeople.
Only when salespeople are willing to work with passion can the above actions be executed and take effect in the market. Therefore, competition between products and between manufacturers should prioritize talent competition—the competition of sales teams' individual combat capability. Excellent salespeople can sell well whether they sell famous brands or generic products, while weak salespeople can't sell even the biggest brands. So whether you're a manufacturer or a distributor, you must achieve win-win with those who strive, and make significant investments in motivating salespeople.
At the same time, don't neglect spiritual motivation alongside material incentives. Everyone has dreams; no one wants to be a salesperson forever; everyone has aspirations to become executives. So companies must set up employee promotion mechanisms and increase training and learning opportunities to help employees realize their dreams.
It's often said that sales management should be like the military, with iron discipline, to build a wolf-like team. But after all, we are not the military; we can't shoot salespeople for being lazy. Even if we punish according to rules, salespeople might not accept it, which puzzles many managers. In reality, managers need to think more about management methods. Salespeople now don't obey the management system but the manager themselves. So managers must pay attention to methods.
For example, if you plan to punish an employee at the morning meeting, communicate with them the day before and inform them in advance. If employees feel respected, will they still complain or have negative emotions when you criticize and punish them the next day? Won't they respect you? People are empathetic; they respond to kindness, not force. If managers can do this, the team's hearts will gradually move toward you. At the same time, managers should lead from the front, genuinely solve difficulties for salespeople, work with them to improve performance, treat everyone equally, and sincerely care about their lives and growth. If you can achieve all this, the team will become more united, stable, and combat-effective.
These five points are shared in hopes of helping you improve the individual combat capability of salespeople, making each one a special forces operator in the industry.
Text by Xu Tao, Deputy General Manager of Heige Consulting (Beijing) Co., Ltd., and Lü Songqiang, Channel Manager of Heige Consulting. Source: Jiuyejia (ID: jiuyejia360)