--- title: "A Tribute to 30 Million Marketers Across China!" description: "This article is the preface to Yan Zhimin's new book, \"From Rookie to Director: Survival Rules for Marketers in the Mobile Internet Era.\" The author sincerely and down-to-earthly describes the hardships and challenges faced by frontline marketing personnel, dedicating this work to the millions of marketing warriors striving on the front lines." author: "闫治民" publisher: "New Distribution" email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com" telephone: "+8615854817671" published: "2016-08-17" language: "en" canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/a-tribute-to-30-million-marketers-across-china-135f0d9a/" markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/a-tribute-to-30-million-marketers-across-china-135f0d9a.md" original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/n6agt2Nag9bg95CtPWRXOQ" translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E5%90%91%E5%85%A8%E5%9B%BD3000%E4%B8%87%E8%90%A5%E9%94%80%E4%BA%BA%E8%87%B4%E6%95%AC-135f0d9a.md" attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/a-tribute-to-30-million-marketers-across-china-135f0d9a/" usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt" --- # A Tribute to 30 Million Marketers Across China! > This article is the preface to Yan Zhimin's new book, "From Rookie to Director: Survival Rules for Marketers in the Mobile Internet Era." The author sincerely and down-to-earthly describes the hardships and challenges faced by frontline marketing personnel, dedicating this work to the millions of marketing warriors striving on the front lines. **Editor's Note** This article is the preface to Yan Zhimin's new book, "From Rookie to Director: Survival Rules for Marketers in the Mobile Internet Era." The author's sincere attitude and down-to-earth language are deeply moving. We dedicate this article to the countless marketing warriors fighting on the front lines! **No Matter How Hard, I Must Be Strong: Understanding the Hardships of Frontline Marketers** Dear marketers, welcome to communicate with me through this book. Whether you are in marketing in any industry, whether you do online or offline marketing, whether you have been in marketing for a long or short time, I believe you will find many points of resonance in this book. Marketing is not easy; the pressure is immense, especially in today's Internet+ era. Marketing has entered a completely new environment with information fragmentation, personalized demands, market dominance, channel diversification, consumer sovereignty, brand fluidity, multi-polar competition, cross-industry disruption, and shrinking profits. These enormous external changes all create tremendous pressure and challenges for us marketers! Those who haven't done marketing don't know its bitterness! I remember a company chairman once said, "If you hate someone, make him do marketing!" That is, if you hate an employee and can't find a way to retaliate, let him do marketing. At least he will experience all kinds of unbearable ups and downs, which can be a form of punishment. But in many people's eyes, marketers lead a glamorous and carefree life! First, they have enviable high incomes. They eat well and drink well when interacting with clients, even accompanying clients to high-end entertainment venues, enjoying saunas, singing karaoke, and even having beautiful women around. It seems like a heavenly life. But this is a great misunderstanding and injustice to us marketers. **Marketing is a marginal discipline. Although the threshold is low, and anyone can do marketing, even someone who has never attended school or is illiterate, marketing is also the most difficult subject. Becoming a marketing expert or even a master is as hard as reaching the sky.** In the commodity economy era, the market was a seller's market, with severe supply shortages. Companies could sell products without even knowing what marketing was. However, with the continuous development of the market economy, competition has intensified, and the market has transformed into a buyer's market with severe oversupply. Marketing capability has increasingly become the most critical factor in a company's success. As more competitors enter the market, brands and products become increasingly diverse, competition intensifies, and consumers become increasingly scarce resources. Whoever can firmly control consumer loyalty will be the ultimate winner. **In the increasingly fierce market competition, marketers face growing work pressure and challenges.** In the seller's market era, customers treated salespeople like kings, offering them good faces, cigarettes, and alcohol, hoping that salespeople would give them priority shipments when products were scarce. But now, in the buyer's market era, generals have become slaves, and slaves have become generals. Salespeople must treat customers with good faces, cigarettes, and alcohol, even begging them, to secure more payments and orders under intense competition and enormous work pressure. But things often don't go as planned. Time passes, but tasks progress little. Every day, they live under the stern reprimands of their supervisors, and when they return to the company, they face leaders with "donkey faces" and "dog barks" (of course, not all companies are like this; maybe it's an isolated phenomenon, so please don't take it personally). There are also difficult customers. If you speak and act according to principles from the company's standpoint, some customers will complain to company leaders that you don't support their work or that you lack business capability, even falsely accusing you of taking bribes and threatening to replace you. If you consider market realities and long-term development and apply for special policies for customers, the company will say you are siding with customers and harming company interests, disregarding your identity and the bigger picture. You feel like a mouse in a bellows, getting squeezed from both ends. However, the golden mean of impartiality is not always easy to maintain. We know that marketing starts with rejection. The marketing process is a communication process, and communication is about eliminating objections and closing deals. But when we confidently try to overcome each rejection, we often face ruthless refusals, even from individual customers or even the security guard at the door who might say unpleasant things. At such times, especially for new marketers, how much confidence is washed away by tears, potentially causing lifelong damage. Let's look at our working hours and living conditions. Some say we "eat worse than pigs, sleep later than prostitutes, and get up earlier than roosters," and it's not an exaggeration. In many companies, people in our line of work have no holidays, not even weekends. Those are just memories from our student days. Because holidays and weekends are when consumption is at its peak, and we are busiest. Not to mention, every day, while many are still dreaming, we are already up for morning meetings and starting the day's work. Most people in our line have occupational diseases. First, stomach problems from irregular meals, alternating hunger and fullness, hot and cold, and often having to drink a lot. Second, insomnia from long nights and enormous work pressure. Third, lumbar muscle strain and rheumatism from long business trips, long walks, and long rides. To put it bluntly, we are trading our lives for money now, and later we may use money to buy our lives back, but it might be too late. Many of us are married and have families, with elderly parents, beautiful wives, and lovely children. But most of us are away from home all year round, with little time to enjoy family happiness and the beauty of life. For the sake of life and career, our loved ones have sacrificed so much. If we have their understanding and support, we can endure any hardship. But what if our loved ones don't understand? For example, a spouse at home has to be both father and mother, taking care of children and elderly parents, enduring lonely nights, and since many marketers are too busy to visit home or even call, emotional rifts can develop, leading to family tragedies. Some marketers have elderly parents who are sick or bedridden, and they cannot fulfill their filial duties. When the parents pass away, what use is crying? When I was in charge of marketing at a company, a regional manager once told me that a few days ago, his wife brought their daughter, who was not yet three, to visit him. The daughter saw her long-lost father from afar, happily called out "Daddy," and ran over. But she tripped and fell. He rushed over and picked her up. Her knee and elbow were scraped, and her leg was slightly bleeding. But she didn't cry. She snuggled into his arms, hugged his neck tightly, kissed his face, and said, "Daddy, I miss you so much. Why don't you come home to see me?" He asked if it hurt, and she said, "It hurts, but when I see you, I don't think about the pain, and I won't cry!" At that moment, he was speechless and tears flowed. So much heartache surged! The family happily spent a few days together. When the mother and daughter were about to leave, the daughter didn't want to go, saying there was no daddy at home. As they got on the bus, she cried and wanted her daddy, wanting to go to school where her father worked. He told this story calmly, as it might not be the first or last time, but I felt sad. Another colleague from Xinjiang worked in Zhengzhou and hadn't been home for almost a year. He said when he missed home, he could only call and listen to his wife and child's voices. He was almost forgetting what they looked like. Although he said it half-jokingly, I couldn't laugh. Some colleagues of dating age dare not fall in love because they don't know where they will be in the future. Some have had several relationships but none worked out because their girlfriends either disliked their unstable jobs, long-distance separation, or low income. In short, they found N reasons to break up. This is not a portrayal of all marketers (because many in telemarketing, online marketing, and store marketing don't travel often, but I believe those in consumer goods channel sales and industrial key account sales can relate! Salute to you and your families!). I believe you, like me, might enjoy listening to songs like "Start Over" and "Believe in Yourself" that provide spiritual healing when we are down. Let us lick our wounds like wolves, lift our spirits, and fight again. Because we are not content with our current situation; we have undying dreams in our hearts! On the long road, we have no retreat, because we are marketers. We are marketing our careers and our lives! We firmly believe that only with dreams and perseverance can we succeed! Let us bless and cheer for our brilliant future, dear people! Like you, I entered the marketing industry with beautiful dreams and enthusiasm, starting as an ordinary salesperson, step by step rising to the position of national marketing vice president of a company once ranked among the top four in the country, and then moving into marketing consulting and training. Over the past 19 years, I have gained successful experiences and learned from failures, accumulated precious insights, and engaged in sincere reflection. I have written down my thoughts bit by bit, partly as a comprehensive career summary for myself, and partly as a spiritual dialogue with peers, hoping for more resonance and growth. I believe that after reading this book, you can avoid some of the detours I took, and perhaps you can quickly become an expert! Knowledge is not necessarily power! Ability and skill are the true power! Of course, I also invite all marketing colleagues, especially marketing experts, to offer guidance and corrections. I am a layman who switched to sales from finance, so I cannot claim theoretical depth. This is just a summary of my practice and insights, which may inevitably contain errors and biases! I often say that a top-notch salesperson is a top-notch actor! The sales process is a contest of acting skills and intelligence between buyer and seller! Especially in key account sales, which is the most charming and best reflects a salesperson's comprehensive qualities. If you have done or studied key account sales, then engaging in other types of sales may be easier. Therefore, in the main body of this book, I focus on key account sales. However, my students and readers come from various marketing positions in different industries, including industrial key account sales, retail store sales, and FMCG sales. Their levels vary, from newcomers to experienced experts, marketing managers, and marketing directors. I aim to highlight key points while covering all aspects. Hence, in "Appendix 1: Yan Zhimin Answers Questions from Students Nationwide," I have selected content focused on store retail and consumer goods channel sales for reference by salespeople in these industries. In recent years, I have been researching and practicing mobile internet marketing, especially the marketing upgrade and innovation for traditional enterprises in the mobile internet era. I previously considered including this content in the book, but I was concerned about focus. Moreover, in the mobile internet era, although the marketing environment has changed, the essence of marketing remains unchanged, and systematic marketing skills are even more important in this era! So I removed the mobile internet marketing content and will share it with you in a separate book later. Perhaps imperfection is also a form of beauty! This book is sincerely dedicated to the millions of marketers across the country, hoping that we can grow together and realize our dreams soon! It is also dedicated to my parents, who are nearly seventy, my beloved wife who has fallen ill from raising our child, and my daughter who is almost eight. I am sorry for owing you so much! For my so-called dreams, whether in sales or consulting and training, I am always away on business trips, rarely spending time with you. I see my parents at most two or three times a year, and when I return home, it's like a business trip, hurried. Whenever my daughter sees me off on a business trip, from crying as a baby to saying, "Daddy, I don't want your gifts from business trips; I just want you to play with me," I feel immense guilt and heartache. Thank you for your care and understanding. You are always my endless source of motivation. I love you forever! **I dedicate this preface to the 30 million marketers across the country, especially those who are fathers or will become fathers. I wish you rising performance and good luck every day! I also dedicate it to female marketers, who face more challenges than men and are true heroes! Looking good is not as good as doing well! I wish you eternal beauty and career advancement!** -END- The best learning platform for FMCG distributors in China Focusing on providing professional, practical, and applicable tutorials for enterprises and distributors Committed to helping Chinese FMCG distributors grow rapidly **The most professional and practical knowledge base in the FMCG industry** Reply with the red number below to get the corresponding content Reply with number 1 to view the complete knowledge base | **001** Excellent Article Selection | **002** Distributor Market Operations | **003** Terminal Visit Management | **004** Sales Supervisor Skills | **005** Sales Improvement Techniques | **006** Channel Expansion | **007** Managing Distributors | **008** Distributor Development | **009** Distributor Internal Operations Management | **010** Team Management | **011** Efficient Distribution Techniques | **012** Sales Manager's Eighteen Skills | **013** KA Operations Methods and Strategies | **014** First Lesson for New Salespeople | **015** Internet and Brand | **016** Distributor B2B Transformation | [Long press QR code to follow] --- ## Copyright and AI use This article is sourced from New Distribution. 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