Think: The good defender hides in the depths of the earth; the good attacker moves from the heights of heaven. This article is excerpted from Mr. Fang Gang's book "What FMCG Veterans Do: Regional Manager Playbook". To purchase this book, click "Read Original"
Offense For a company to grow and expand, it must have strong market development capabilities. For regional managers, market development is almost a required course. So how to do a good job of "offense"?
First, let's look at some troubles encountered by frontline regional managers in attacks: (1) Facing the market to attack, hesitating, not knowing which "city gate" to attack. (2) The market is hard to conquer after a long time, and expenses become a bottomless pit. (3) The market is invested year after year, blooming every year, but never bearing fruit. (4) In a multi-brand competitive market, after defeating one competitor, another appears. While busy and flustered, competitors often create an "unkillable" myth in local markets!
Most of these are caused by bravery without strategy, rushing into battle, and confusion.
Therefore, before attacking, regional managers must master the following principles: (1) Plan the "momentum". Planning momentum means understanding the competitive landscape of similar brands in the entire market and the trends affecting the consumer market. Taking the beer industry as an example, such as taste changes, consumption habit changes, and consumption upgrades in the entire market. (2) Plan the "situation". The choice of entry point in the local market determines the success or failure of the "campaign". For example, whether to attack the target market from top to bottom, or to use rural areas to encircle cities, the "setup" must be firm and accurate! (3) Plan the "rules". Every market has a leading brand. In the instant noodle market, Master Kong's Braised Beef Noodles is the first brand in the high-end price segment, whether in cups or bags. This brand almost determines some "rules" in the market, such as terminal prices and promotion methods. For these rules, whether to follow, break, or re-establish, regional managers must make an accurate choice!
So, how should regional managers do a good job of "planning"? Plan then act—first "plan" yourself, then "plan" the opponent.
How to "plan" yourself first? (1) Must first set a clear combat goal and obtain support from the company's strategic resources. (2) Unify the opinions of subordinate troops and boost their morale. (3) Understand whether your product is suitable for the attack market. (4) Choose the right "vanguard" and prepare enough troops and ammunition for him. (5) Formulate a complete reward and punishment system and timetable, personally supervise the battle, and coordinate various friendly forces in the company, such as vehicles, personnel, visual merchandising props, and product appearance preparation.
How to "plan" the opponent? (1) Prepare sufficient time for market research and data collection, mainly including the opponent's product structure, channel members, profit distribution, promotion methods, and mainstream terminal control models. During data collection, subordinates can be arranged to conduct sample visits with fixed forms and samples. Regional managers must set aside dedicated time to visit the market personally, and based on reports, conduct follow-up spot checks. Criticize those with inaccurate information, and "kill without mercy" those who fabricate! (2) Organize subordinates for simulation exercises based on relevant information. The key is to analyze the opponent's "troop deployment", find the opponent's weaknesses while identifying their strengths, and in comparison with your own product and resource strength, continuously correct and improve. During the exercises, find your "vanguard". (3) "Capture prisoners". In today's market economy, job-hopping has become fashionable. If you can capture the highest-ranking officer of the opponent's region, the gains will be even greater, and there is even the wonder of the opponent collapsing without a fight. But it is not easy. Consider capturing an old soldier to your camp, and after "squeezing him dry", you might give him a gun to fight as a guide. Of course, this seems like an "unfair" act. If you are a "fair" person, you may not consider doing this.
When these preparations are complete, you can consider entering the attack state. (1) Choose the right attack season. Products generally have off-peak and peak seasons. If you attack in the off-season, not only may there be poor distribution, but morale may also be dampened. Generally, prepare in the off-season and start attacking about a month before the peak season arrives for better results. (2) Aim at the opponent's weaknesses, formulate a battle plan, and communicate it up and down to achieve unity of purpose. While clarifying the attack steps, establish combat principles, such as blitzkrieg, attrition warfare, stalemate, or city-breaking warfare... (3) Timely grasp the progress of the battle. In the early stage, focus on distribution rate assessment, and based on customer vehicles, personnel, and funds, evaluate whether the distributor's delivery capability is sufficient. Formulate distributor delivery areas and standards, "cook according to the amount of rice", and timely choose distribution layout to ensure smooth channels while minimizing terminal service customer complaints! While mastering your own data, also analyze changes in opponent data, predict and judge the opponent's moves as much as possible, and block them in time. (4) Reasonably use your own resources. While planning expenditures, fully understand the essence of "Tian Ji's horse racing", play to your strengths and avoid weaknesses. In the attack phase, avoid outdated tactics like "flooding the gold mountain" and "parallel advancement" in promotions. Concentrate resources to hit the opponent's soft spots, focus the attack, and tear open a gap in the market like a dagger. (5) Several principles during the attack process. First, do something and not do something. Not every market can be attacked. For example, when the distance from the home base is too far, the transportation radius is too large, and the company cannot set up a branch factory, even if the opponent has loopholes, you must learn to "give up". Otherwise, after huge expenditures, even if you take the market, you will retreat without being attacked! Second, know yourself and know your enemy. The biggest consequence of blind attack is a huge waste of resources. The purpose of marketing is to maximize corporate resources, and waste is a desecration of marketing! Third, stay orthodox and surprise. The so-called orthodox, for a company, means resource plundering and accumulation. That is to say, any "war" has a purpose, and there are few things in the world like "losing money to make a name". The purpose of corporate marketing is profit. A phased "loss-leading promotion" is acceptable to the company, but once it falls into a long-term "promotion quagmire", the market will collapse without being attacked. The so-called surprise is the marketing behavior adopted by the company to achieve the above goals. The purpose of marketing is to maintain the survival and development of the enterprise. Fourth, go all out in one breath. When facing competitors, once you launch an attack, you must draw blood with every move, and even "kill" the opponent! Try to avoid "stalemate" in the attack, otherwise, there will be a war of attrition where "you lose 800 to wound 1,000". For competitors of similar strength, the purpose of attacking in a local market is to lock in the position of "first brand" and seize the right to formulate market rules!
Defense In any war, there is no scene of only attacking without defending. Marketing is the same. Only by standing undefeated can a company think of ways to "defeat" others. Therefore, a good regional manager must have the ability to "defend and counterattack". When a local market is attacked by competitors, the regional manager must strategize and "in the midst of laughter, the enemy vanishes into ashes".
(1) Clarify the nature of the attacked market. If it is the company's base market, then it must be highly valued tactically and strategically, just like the enemy has stepped into the territory, approaching the capital, and a life-and-death battle is inevitable! (2) Try to find out the enemy's intentions, troop deployment, and formation. If the opponent is a "big guy", then you must understand the opponent's product structure, personnel configuration, and even the commander's personality traits. If the opponent relies on distributors for channel warfare, then while fully analyzing the profit comparison of the two channels, assess the stability of your own channels. If the opponent uses deep distribution tactics, then pay attention to the following three aspects: First, the degree of control over the market's commanding heights. Second, the comparison of your personnel's execution with the competitor's troops. Third, the composition of the opponent's sales staff. Many in the beer industry have already skillfully used "deep distribution" and "channel intensive cultivation". In this system, the company's branch is the nerve center, and distributors are merely "delivery men" or "porters", because once the "nervous system" has problems, the entire army may collapse. There is a lot to do in disrupting the opponent's "nervous system", after all, it is "defending the homeland" at your own doorstep. (3) "Orthodox" defense, "surprise" attack. In defense, adapting to every move is a necessary skill. At the same time, you must have some "miraculous calculations" abilities, such as fully utilizing the advantages of the base market. When the opponent lays out an attack in the off-season, appropriately retreat, lure the opponent to ship goods and lay out in a short time, then suddenly strike out, block the channels, and suppress the competitor's terminal shipments to the minimum until large-scale expiration and returns occur. The key is to force the competitor's channel funds to be occupied on a large scale, profits to be damaged, morale to be greatly dampened, and thereby cause shock throughout the channel industry, making it difficult for them to take over for a long time. (4) Accurate blocking. In reality, many regional managers have experienced the story of "the wolf is coming", especially distributors who shout the loudest. Therefore, to accurately detect the wolf's tracks, a standard early warning system must be established, such as regularly detecting data on the competitor's sales personnel numbers, outlet numbers, product mix, and visual merchandising indicators. At the same time, prepare a mature market emergency plan. Once the early warning system alarms, act immediately. Blocking methods should emphasize "short, flat, fast", blocking the competitor outside the defense line in the shortest time, at least defeating the opponent in "morale". Strive to resolve the battle in a short time, concentrate superior forces, and annihilate the opponent. After all, the war is burning at your own doorstep, and you suffer the most. (5) Pay attention to brand aging, timely product upgrades, or adding product variants to supplement the product line. Keep your brand enriched while not giving the opponent opportunities.
When understanding that a regional manager is like leading troops into battle, not only will regional managers understand their job responsibilities, but companies will also understand the standard of a good regional manager: not only can they fight, but they can also lead troops.
Think In the ups and downs of the business sea, how many heroes have bent their backs! But where do they "die prematurely"? Is it because the army is not strong, the equipment is not good, or... In today's increasingly mature competition, the era of lone heroes has passed. The history of relying on one or two golden salesmen to support a company is increasingly distant. The basic components of a company's marketing system are "iron discipline + iron army". As for the brand, it is nothing more than the company's "political slogan + political behavior" (corporate strategy, product appeal, and market performance). To be precise, it is the support of the people! For example, a product that cannot even pass hygiene standards or is short in weight, even with the most beautiful advertising and the most advanced marketing in the world, cannot avoid failure! Because the "people's support" in the consumer market does not support it!
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