Introduction: Remember, we are now facing a brand-new era. We have entered the "J-20 era." If I ask you how to fly a J-20, and you keep telling me about how you used to drive a tractor, what use is that? If the East is dark, will the West be bright? If the South is dark, will there be a North? One of the distributors' "old paths" in business strategy: The big market strategy. The so-called general distributors, provincial general distributors, and municipal general distributors—we (distributors) demand a large market scope. Distributors simply think that as long as the market scope is large, business will be easy and sales will be high. Some manufacturers also think this way: the whole company has only a few salespeople, yet they all cover the national market. Each salesperson is a "chief," even a "Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi" or a "Chairman of the Three Northeastern Provinces." Their titles are grand, but their sales performance is poor. So, originally we thought a big market had advantages—"If the East is dark, the West will be bright; if the South is dark, there will be a North"—"If this area doesn't work, that area will." Wrong! The result is that you are busy to death, but the East is dark and the West is not bright either; the South is dark and the North is even darker. There is no value, no team, and even if there is a team, you yourself are very busy. In the past, farmers planted everything, but they never became rich. The second "old path" in distributors' business strategy: The multi-variety strategy. So-called more products mean more opportunities? Traditional distributors, especially wholesalers, have always liked to operate a "diverse" range of products, thinking that the more product categories, the more complete the variety, the easier it is to do business. In reality, this is not the case. When there are more varieties, business performance actually declines. In the past, farmers had a peasant mentality: they did everything themselves, planting some wheat, some corn, some sweet potatoes, some soybeans—planting everything—but they never became rich. Now, either they plant only corn or only wheat, and they become rich. Why? Think about it. The third "old path" in distributors' business strategy: Show off skills in times of crisis? This is commonly used in our distributors' traditional business model, called "serious illness, miracle doctor, good medicine." The so-called "good medicine" is "a cure for all diseases, effective with one injection." We often encounter such things. The so-called "miracle doctor" is "able to cure all diseases, bringing the dead back to life." Later we found that so-called miracle doctors all use large prescriptions. When prescribing, in the morning A+B, at noon C+D, in the evening E+F—one of them is bound to work. That is the so-called miracle doctor. Another business mindset of distributors is "high profit": either don't sell, or make a killing. "No diagnosis needed, effective with one injection!" This is a product advertisement from a certain company. Surprisingly, many distributors believe such advertisements, even "worship" them. "No diagnosis needed, effective with one injection"—does such a medicine exist? Yes—poison. As for the rest, it's hard to say. "Wait for opportunities, rely on upstream, ask for policies"—if someone jumps off a building, will you jump too? The fourth "old path" in distributors' business strategy: Wait, rely, ask —wait for opportunities, rely on upstream, ask for policies. How many of our distributors focus their eyes on the manufacturer rather than on end customers? Because they think that if they can't win over the end market, they can just ask the manufacturer for a few rebates, and their profits will be enough. So day after day, they ask for rebates. Think about it: manufacturers also need to survive. When manufacturers hold meetings, they also spend money. Every day they talk about rebates and promotions with the manufacturer, so the meetings are all focused on the upstream, not the downstream. They don't think about how to get the manufacturer to help expand the market. No one proactively talks to the manufacturer, saying, "I have a plan; what can the manufacturer help me with? What will I do? Let's work together to grow this market." No. They just keep looking for salespeople and manufacturers. Ask yourself: if you can't win the downstream market, you can't increase sales. Without sales volume, how can the manufacturer always give you good policies? Ask for policies. Every day you scheme over those small policies, with no real work. Every day you keep saying, "That manufacturer gives 30 points, but you only give 10 points. How stingy you are!" That kind of talk. Manufacturers are different from each other. Some manufacturers give things away for free; they want to die early, so why care about them? If someone jumps off a building, will you jump too? There's no need to compare like that. So instead of relying on upstream and asking for policies, you'd better think hard about how to expand end users. Always thinking about asking the manufacturer for those 5 points is unambitious. Wait for opportunities. Every year I go around visiting distributors for research. When communicating with distributors, as soon as I hear a distributor say, "In those days..." I know this distributor is finished, definitely finished. If they keep talking about "in those days," think about it: can those days compare with now? Note: Enterprise development should use the future development of the industry to guide the present, not use the past to guide what we do now. Remember, we are now facing a brand-new era. We have entered the "J-20 era." If I ask you how to fly a J-20, and you keep telling me about how you used to drive a tractor, what use is that? In my research, any distributor who keeps talking about "in those days" almost has no potential. If you can't win customers, you sell on credit—this is called "seeking your own death." The fifth "old path" in distributors' business strategy: Selling on credit and promotions are rampant. Why sell on credit? Because you can't win customers, so you sell on credit. The result of selling on credit is tight cash flow and difficult turnover. This is called—seeking your own death. If products don't sell, you promote. This is the lazy behavior of distributors. For promotions, you call the manufacturer and say, "Give me some promotional items." It saves you trouble, and the manufacturer's salespeople are willing to cooperate. Why? Because some salespeople are even lazier than you. So, I say, constant promotions mean salespeople become lazy, distributors become bad, and end users become slippery ("If you don't promote, I won't buy"). So, selling on credit and promotions lead to a dead end! Welcome to leave your thoughts in the comments at the end of the article. Tomorrow we will continue to share the next article in this series: Where are the distributors' problems? -END-