Click to read the original text for details Five years ago, I wrote an article titled "Without the Courage to Slash Your Own Wrist, What's the Point of Transformation?" The core viewpoint was to abolish the pig teammate marketing department in traditional enterprises, then reorganize and revive it, renaming it as the Communications Department (or IP Department). Now, it seems that most enterprises have completed this transformation. The Marshal Tianpeng of the marketing department has been able to ride the clouds (master the internet) and go up to heaven and down to earth. So, what is the current state of the sales department, which has tens of thousands of troops and is extremely capable? 1 The Troubles of the All-Powerful Sales Department A while ago, a meme went viral on social media: nationwide, 60,000 graduate students and 170,000 undergraduates are delivering food. This only counts those with high education in food delivery, not including those in express delivery or rider industries. If you include couriers, the number would be even more terrifying. And just Meituan alone has about 4 million delivery riders. From another perspective, many HR and sales executives are sighing: there are no successors, and it's increasingly difficult to find grassroots sales representatives. Looking at domestic FMCG brands with billions in revenue, almost all have a huge sales department, with tens of thousands of sales reps galloping across the battlefield, using ant-like soldiers to maintain channel operations. Go to the front lines of these enterprises, and you'll see these large teams shuttling through streets and alleys every day. Some are diligent, some are just going through the motions, and some even work part-time for other brands, or even engage in corruption and embezzlement of funds! Reports fly everywhere daily, data is fabricated, meetings are endless, and WeChat groups are one after another... The once all-capable "kamikaze team" sales department is beginning to show fatigue. On one hand, there are no successors and wages are soaring; on the other hand, management is inefficient and bloated! If we look back, the marketing process in the past was a process of connection, and the connection methods varied across different periods and industries. In the era of material scarcity, enterprises could do without salespeople; whatever was produced was bought, so the sales department was still sleeping in the womb. Later, as competition intensified, enterprises needed to go out and find people to help sell, which led to distributors. Because there were financial transactions and reconciliation needs, there were also salespeople whose main functions were to handle customer contact and accounting. As customers increased, so did the number of salespeople. Thirty years ago, it was enough for enterprises to solve the problem of B (distributors). Later, they had to manage the secondary distribution of distributors because if manufacturers didn't control the secondary distributors to pressure the primary distributors, they could be strangled by the primary distributors, who might become congested or even disobedient! Later, solving only the secondary distribution problem wasn't enough because the b-end (terminals) rose and gained voice, prompting manufacturers to launch vigorous deep distribution campaigns. The ultimate goal of deep distribution is to control the terminals. Manufacturers establish terminal control organizations through two control models:

  1. Centralized control model: Manufacturers form sales teams to take orders and maintain terminals, while distributors become delivery workers.
  2. Distributed control model: Manufacturers output the model, driving distributors to build teams to control terminals and cooperate with the implementation of manufacturer targets. The former is mostly called deep distribution, and the latter is also called deep co-marketing. Some have proposed the concept of deep marketing, which generally means strengthening promotion and communication, making consumer work an important means, and coordinating with terminal operations to achieve air-sea-land warfare. This concept is mostly seen in industries with higher added value, such as the liquor industry. The common industry saying is that every 200 terminals are equipped with one salesperson, plus a distributor's delivery person. If promotional activities are needed, there may also be promotion staff... The sales department has grown step by step, and it's normal for many big brands to have teams of over 10,000 people. But should this team continue to operate inefficiently and in an aging manner? 2 What Has Made the Sales Department Live as Its Own Disliked Self? Where people are, sales must go; that's the duty of the sales department brothers. As long as there are distributors (later terminals), the sales department's engineers will spare no effort to build channels and bring the product's water. After bringing it, they can't just relax; they must regularly inspect to see the flow speed (sell-through), check for leaks (channel order), and also do everything possible to destroy competitors' channels, slowing their water flow and making their channels inefficient... In this operating system, what does the boss care most about?
  3. Where does the water flow? That is, the flow direction of the product in the channel. If it can't be tracked and managed in time, the water can't be scientifically distributed, leading to uneven distribution—some areas dry, some flooded.
  4. The number and total cross-sectional area of the channels. This is directly related to the water flow (sales volume). The more channels, the greater the flow; the larger the total cross-sectional area, the higher the sales. The boss must track the number of channels built, their size, and even inspect them on-site to see if they are obedient; if not, rebuild them.
  5. Where is the water? How much is there? In other words, where is the product located—at the best position in the terminal or sleeping in the distributor's warehouse? Which variety, how many cases, and for how long have they been in a certain place? These issues are the core of sales management. Because the country is vast, even if the boss has piercing eyes and the ability to somersault 108,000 miles, he can't see clearly with his own eyes. Even if he sees clearly, counting would make his head spin and eyes blur. So, reports are layered, reported level by level. Over time, these table brothers (professional form-fillers) and monkey cubs, to please the boss, specifically report good-looking data, even fabricating at every level. Even if the boss sends imperial envoys to inspect openly and secretly, it's of little effect... The channel embankment gets higher and higher, and after a few years, the enterprise's channel "above-ground river" starts to not sell without promotion, or even with promotion. The enterprise must desperately maintain it, or it will flood and cause disaster. Holding the above-ground river to command the boss, the sales department with tens of thousands of troops takes the highest wages and enjoys dragon-head treatment, but its color becomes increasingly dark until gray spreads. "Once dreamed of wielding a sword to travel the world / To see the world's prosperity / Youthful hearts are always a bit arrogant / Now you are very fake." The deep distribution system driven by traditional organizations can no longer clearly see the product's channel status and flow speed, and cases of overstocking and collapse are common. If there were an automated system that could connect all terminal owners and accurately reflect the position, variety, and quantity of this product and competitors in the channel, how much would the sales department's role be? This system is the marketing digitalization system, and the place that can see the overall situation is the middle platform, a scheduling center built on digitalization for data filtering and analysis. Here, no power is needed, only data. 3 First Half 2B, Second Half 2C The role of B(b) is magical; it can change your longing for a brand without you noticing. For example, when you're thirsty and want water, you won't stop drinking just because a certain brand isn't available, nor will you drive from the east to the west of the city for a two-yuan bottle of water. Most likely, you'll grab a bottle from the nearest terminal and drink it in one go. Another point: if you make a shopping list and go to the supermarket, you'll find that after checking out, you've bought N more unplanned items compared to your list. This magic attracts massive resources and almost all troops and arms from many manufacturers. Even though offline now has less than three-quarters of the cake, they don't give up. The first half was an era of relative material scarcity, with the serve in the hands of manufacturers, so in the first half, 2B (including b) tactics were fully utilized. The characteristic of this era was: the contradiction between people's ever-growing material and cultural needs and backward production! In the second half, the serve changed; it's no longer the manufacturer's serve. When consumers serve, many manufacturers can't receive it. Especially today, when e-commerce accounts for a quarter of the total, the community convenience stores that used to exist in every neighborhood are about to be replaced by express delivery stations. In 2020, the total express delivery volume is expected to reach 74 billion items. Unfortunately, the sales department, which thrived in the 2B era, has no 2C factor in its genes; in the channel's Tianhe, the C-end is naturally disconnected. Questionnaires are hard to get, but everyone knows whether they are reliable. E-commerce is naturally 2C, but for most enterprises, the e-commerce department is like a teacup dog versus a Tibetan mastiff in front of the sales department. Although both are canines, the level gap is huge. The teacup dog has no say in front of the mastiff except for being cute. To give the sales department C-end capabilities, the WeChat ecosystem's communities were once glorious and made great contributions, giving terminal sales reps the ability to build groups, manage, or infiltrate groups, with one foot in terminals and the other in communities. This hybrid play between offline and online brought dividends to many small and medium brands, but for big brands with millions of troops, it's like putting an elephant in a refrigerator—it can't stretch out. Adding communities to the front line is a tactical micro-action. Even if you master it, you'll find that these brothers are still practicing B-end products. These products can compete offline with strong muscles, but online they are silent and can't exert force. The root of this problem is that the boss's butt is sitting crooked, watching the 2B mastiff wolf down food with a smile, despising the e-commerce department's teacup dog's pitiful sales, even finding someone to foster it. Knowing that the serve is in the consumer's hands, they still play the 2B game with their ears covered... 4 Use Digitalization to Abolish the Sales Department The sales department likes data the most but also fears it the most; truth and falsehood mix, and muddy water is good for fishing. Transparency is the biggest feature of marketing digitalization; it's a bit cute and a bit bad. In traditional offline marketing, some places are fragmented. From the perspective of enterprise management and connection theory, some places are naturally impossible to connect. For example: many enterprises push hard on channel inventory management, but because distributors' systems are diverse, enterprises find it hard to control the product's status in the channel, leading to an inability to see the product's state in the channel or its flow speed, which can easily become a barrier lake... C-end data roughly refers to consumer data; e-commerce naturally achieves C-end connection and data capture. B-end data roughly refers to channel (distributor and terminal) data, which is the basic skill and basic data of traditional offline marketing, F2B data. Most brand owners can capture data mainly based on their own product's inventory management data. For 2b data, it's basically hitting across mountains—that is, capturing data through distributors or terminals. For 2c data, it's basically disconnected; the most traditional method of capturing C-end data is research, with the classic representative being questionnaires! BC associated data is the most critical. If technology can achieve real-time monitoring of the product's status in the channel and clearly see the product's state and flow speed, then the highest level of marketing digitalization is basically achieved! Data can enrich profiles, profiles drive intelligent decisions, and the enterprise's "marketing" is guaranteed! BC associated data can strengthen management and promote the implementation of "sales"! To achieve BC association, there must be an overall operation logic of BC integration. Sowing online and harvesting offline is the ideal model for brand owners. If any enterprise's online share is below the industry average, the boss should hit the wall and reflect: if your butt is sitting crooked, you'll fall! Doing C is marketing, doing B is sales; marketing is sowing, sales is harvesting. Four years ago, we emphasized abolishing the marketing department because it was seriously acting as a sales support department that didn't know how to seed. Today, we have to face an inefficient, gray, bloated sales department that is too lazy to harvest and can't do it well. Abolish the sales department, then arm it with digitalization, replacing the fire stick with a sniper rifle that automatically aims and automatically headshots... The war in the next decade will not be a war of human waves. Drones start the battle, various automated weapons follow, and special forces finish the final battle. That's how this war should be fought! Source: New Beer (ID: newbeer_BJ) Author: Fang Gang