Click the image for details. What were manufacturer sales personnel like more than ten years ago? What are they like now? What exactly has caused the decline in the capability and quality of manufacturer sales personnel?
Salespeople Ten Years Ago In the past, the capability and quality of manufacturer sales personnel, especially those from large manufacturers, remained at a relatively good level. Overall, they had the following characteristics:
Current Status of Manufacturer Salespeople The above describes the situation ten years ago. What is the situation now?
Analysis of the Causes of This Situation The above lists the current status of some manufacturer salespeople. Compared to those from ten years ago, their overall quality and ability have significantly declined. However, over the past decade, marketing theory and technology have made great progress, and salespeople's theoretical level has also improved. So why is there such a big gap in practical operation?
Everything has a reason. The decline in salespeople's capability and quality is primarily the responsibility of the manufacturer's management and even the boss.
As the saying goes, "Problems are in the front rows, but the root is on the podium." The manufacturer boss's concepts and practices are key factors leading to the decline in salesperson capability. After all, as the company grows, there are more flatterers around the boss. More and more bosses believe that they built the market with their own hands. These distributors are just following the manufacturer to get rich; the manufacturer gave them the opportunity to make money, so they should listen now. Moreover, many manufacturer bosses look down on distributors, considering them a bunch of uneducated nouveau riche who deserve to be fooled. Even when designing training programs for distributors, they openly say they want to "brainwash" the distributors. "When the upper beam is crooked, the lower beams are askew."
The boss's attitude toward distributors naturally directly affects how salespeople treat distributors. At the same time, after the manufacturer grows, the boss becomes keen on handling government relations, entering new investment directions, and focusing on new fields—doing bigger things. They pay less attention to sales (often delegating to vice presidents or marketing directors), become distant from frontline employees and distributor clients, and thus have less awareness of market changes. Additionally, the reduced frequency of meetings between the boss and distributors gives some ill-intentioned salespeople more opportunities.
Besides these reasons, there are also problems in the manufacturer's management philosophy and systems for salespeople. Of course, salespeople themselves also have many issues. Here, the author provides some analysis:
1. The company develops too fast, and employee recruitment is too rapid, but the corresponding management systems lag behind. Especially, there is a shortage of managers. Many managers only put pressure on subordinates without providing methods, leading salespeople to use simple or even crude approaches with distributors.
2. To gain government support, go public, etc., company bosses expand the enterprise scale beyond normal limits and increase production capacity, which naturally increases market sales pressure. To achieve the boss's goals, the sales management department only evaluates based on sales volume, issuing related rewards and promotion policies that force salespeople to focus only on short-term sales increases. Work that is constructive for the market but doesn't show immediate sales returns is suppressed.
3. As the company grows, there are more departments and managers, and bureaucracy emerges. Internal friction and infighting increase, especially in joint-stock companies. During the founding period, shareholders worked together; now that the situation is stable, it's time to enjoy the fruits. Each shareholder believes their contribution is the greatest, leading to power struggles and factionalism. Many salespeople have to consider which leader to follow. If they follow the wrong person or choose the wrong side, even excellent performance is in vain, and they naturally have no time to focus on market work and distributor management.
4. Veteran employees in the manufacturer now have some positions and power, some even reaching middle management or above. They think it's time to enjoy themselves and show off their seniority to new employees. Going to the market becomes a pleasure trip, and promotions become opportunities to enrich themselves. Of course, according to the boss's wishes, they may hold internal competitions, but in essence, it's just a formality to please the boss. At the same time, to stabilize their positions, veteran employees emphasize the value of their experience and ideas, naturally suppressing newcomers and rejecting new ideas and thoughts. This also leads to salespeople losing enthusiasm for creative work.
5. Some salespeople are overly eager for quick success and instant benefits. They think hard work is not as good as building relationships, and sales bonuses are not as fast as directly making money. They change jobs after a short time, so they have no intention of studying business. Once they open their minds, they find ways to make money, not only alone but also by colluding with superiors, subordinates, and distributors in corruption.
6. The manufacturer boss's management ideas are exploited by some ill-intentioned employees. For example, the supervision system becomes the company's "Eastern Factory" (a secret police agency), making employees feel insecure. The corporate culture that bosses are keen on is used by middle management as a tool to exclude dissidents, suppress subordinates, and promote themselves.
7. Some manufacturers' salaries and benefits remain unchanged for years. The author once worked for a famous grain and oil company where the salary standard was still from 2000. Some companies are under pressure to reduce operating costs, but instead of optimizing systems, they directly cut employee salaries, lowering income. Low income naturally leads to the loss of excellent salespeople and, to some extent, forces salespeople to find ways to increase their own salaries.
8. Regarding stocking pressure on distributors, many manufacturer bosses now hold the view that as long as they push goods to distributors and drain their funds, the distributors will be forced to find ways to digest inventory. This also avoids competitive brands putting stocking pressure on distributors. This is another reason why salespeople try every means to force distributors to stock up.
9. Although every manufacturer boss talks about brand, innovation, and strategy, in daily work, they focus on promotions, sales volume, and costs. That is, they only consider hard indicators like sales volume and rarely consider soft indicators like distributor satisfaction. If the boss doesn't consider it, subordinates naturally won't either.
Source: Internet
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