---
title: "Be True to Yourself, Play Your Role, and Strive to Be a First-Class Distributor!"
description: "This article explores the direction, plans, and methods of FMCG operations, analyzes development trends, and discusses how distributors can seize favorable opportunities to break through in the current market economy. It categorizes distributors into different types based on their stage of development, offering advice on self-positioning, avoiding being influenced by employees or retailers, product selection, and building a robust distribution system."
author: "文玉食品赵正强"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2016-04-11"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/be-true-to-yourself-play-your-role-and-strive-to-be-a-first-class-distri-8bdf3ea9/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/be-true-to-yourself-play-your-role-and-strive-to-be-a-first-class-distri-8bdf3ea9.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/s2eqiLnCxyLK8zAXI5hgsg"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E6%9C%AC%E8%89%B2%E5%81%9A%E4%BA%BA%E8%A7%92%E8%89%B2%E5%81%9A%E4%BA%8B-%E4%BA%89%E5%BD%93%E4%B8%80%E6%B5%81%E7%BB%8F%E9%94%80%E5%95%86-8bdf3ea9.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/be-true-to-yourself-play-your-role-and-strive-to-be-a-first-class-distri-8bdf3ea9/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# Be True to Yourself, Play Your Role, and Strive to Be a First-Class Distributor!

> This article explores the direction, plans, and methods of FMCG operations, analyzes development trends, and discusses how distributors can seize favorable opportunities to break through in the current market economy. It categorizes distributors into different types based on their stage of development, offering advice on self-positioning, avoiding being influenced by employees or retailers, product selection, and building a robust distribution system.

****Exploring the direction, plans, and methods of FMCG operations, analyzing development trends, and discussing how distributors can seize favorable opportunities to break through in the current market economy. Currently, some are doing poorly and preparing to leave the FMCG industry to find other paths; some are doing average, earning tens of thousands of yuan a year, just maintaining; some are doing well, and there are even outstanding big distributors!
**I. Self-Awareness Must Be Clear**
1. Entrepreneurial type: within 2 years in the industry
**Advantages**: Young, with drive and momentum, have some customer relationships, mostly employees or manufacturer salespeople who have been delivering goods for a while, can endure hardship, and understand sales;
**Disadvantages**: Insufficient funds, no good products in hand, weak patience, confidence easily affected by short-term unfavorable market conditions, and lack of experience in managing channels, warehouses, vehicles, and personnel.
2. Pragmatic type: 2-4 years in the industry, mostly husband-and-wife teams, with 1-3 vehicles
**Advantages**: The products they represent have a certain reputation, they have a good local reputation, the market operation is relatively healthy, they have stable customer relationships, and profitability is good;
**Disadvantages**: They are slow to act when good products appear, they discuss too much between the two, communication with manufacturer personnel is inefficient, and in employee management, they often give different instructions simultaneously, causing employees to feel confused.
3. Management type: over 5 years of operation, with 3-6 or more vehicles
**Advantages**: They have high prestige and influence locally, represent well-known brands, have strong appeal in market channels, possess certain management experience and team members, and have relatively sufficient funds;
**Disadvantages**: When new products are slow to move in the market, they are easily influenced by employee feedback, they rarely visit terminal stores on the front line, they rely on experience to do business, and their control over the front-line market is insufficient.
**In summary, it is recommended to position yourself according to your stage of development, gradually build your own brand, and maintain the right mindset and methods for the "upper, middle, and lower" levels: upper to manufacturers (personnel, policy support), middle to employees (products, warehousing, vehicles, funds), and lower to sales channels (KA, circulation, schools, internet cafes, restaurants, hotels, KTV, industrial and mining, etc.) for effective management.**
**II. Don't Be "Brainwashed" by Employees or Terminal Store Owners**
For example: When accepting a new product, you feel you can do it, but you're not sure, so you continue to communicate with employees and listen to suggestions from some small shops. This is not bad, but when there are many opinions, one person must make the final decision. In business, there is no right or wrong, only win or lose results.
Why are they your employees and downstream channel partners?
**Explanation:**
**1. Your height and perspective are different, so you see things differently in the long term;**
**2. Working for others, with a worker's mentality, is the true portrayal of some employees: they want to do less and get more. But you are in business, with an entrepreneurial mindset. You need to have the mentality that you'll see results in half a year, small success in a year, and great success in three years;**
**3. Your vision, insight, information breadth, and analytical ability are definitely greater than those of employees and small channel owners.**
Therefore, excellent distributors only brainwash their employees and channel partners, and must never be brainwashed by them. Vision + execution + persistence will bring rewards.
**III. Searching for Products Every Year, Sometimes the Products You Currently Represent Are Treasures**
A few years ago, when Six Walnuts was first entering the market, some distributors didn't dare to try even when offered 500 cases. In Henan, there were two distributors representing the Wen Yumi line. One was approached by Six Walnuts' personnel multiple times but remained unmoved. The other, Mr. Chen, did it and worked steadily. After hard work, his annual sales now exceed ten million yuan, and he has made a lot of money.
Every manufacturer has strong markets and weak markets. The products you currently represent may also be future big-market products. Since you've chosen them, do the work of distribution, consumer activities, employee motivation, and maintaining a firm mindset. Persist for over a year, and you'll see results. Business is fought, done, and endured.
**The standard for a successful distributor: either you have represented a famous product for more than three years with good profits and volume, or you have turned a small or medium enterprise's product into a regional brand. This will accumulate valuable business experience.**
**IV. Don't Overly Rely on Manufacturer Personnel or Support**
Distributors often ask manufacturers: If I sell your product and it expires, will you take it back? How many salespeople will you send to sell? How much will you give for supermarket entry fees, barcode fees, promoter wages, and handling of near-expiry products? Before even stocking, tens of thousands of yuan in costs are gone. Would you do that as a manufacturer? Moreover, can you trust the promises of manufacturer personnel? Without sales volume support, some salespeople will resign and shirk responsibility. Who will handle the "steamed bun bigger than the steamer" costs? Think about it: what manufacturers can give are "shells," but the frontline fighters are the distributors.
Only when a "shell" makes a crater will the manufacturer continue. What does the manufacturer want from the distributor, and what does the distributor want from the manufacturer? Clarify this to manage the manufacturer well. Calmly analyze, **strengthen your own network, funds, team, warehousing, vehicles, and services, and shift from asking the manufacturer for fees to seeking benefits from the market, from blood transfusion (getting fees) to hematopoiesis (profit products)!**
**V. Scientific Product Portfolio**
Manufacturers have systematic plans for product structure: high-end products build image, mid-range products seek profits, and mass products ensure sales volume. This ensures the manufacturer's reputation and vitality. Distributors should also improve by categorizing products: profit-type, volume-type, long-term type, short-term seasonal type, as well as sacrificial products and customer relationship maintenance products, to ensure business stability.
In the current market, there is no product that has both "volume and profit." If the entire category volume is not large, you must ensure a certain level of profit. With profit support, service is guaranteed. Such products can serve as profit-type products, with annual sales of 700,000 yuan and profits of 150,000-200,000 yuan. They are also trend products with potential for big volume in the future. You should persist with such products.
**VI. Do More Product-Consumer Interaction Activities**
Under normal circumstances, market construction is divided into outbound rate, distribution rate, and sell-through rate. Outbound rate does not mean high distribution rate; it may just be transfer to second-tier wholesalers, merely moving inventory. Similarly, distribution rate does not mean sell-through rate. Among the "three rates," the most important is sell-through rate. In the modern market, with abundant materials and even severe surplus in some categories, the entire FMCG industry has shifted from expansion growth to structural growth to squeeze growth, showing increasing difficulty. When are consumers most loyal?
This is a question often asked in over a decade of marketing work, and there are many answers. Personally, I think consumers are most loyal when they have no choice. But now there are many channels, making monopoly difficult, and consumers rarely have long-term loyalty to a product. Therefore, distributors need to do more consumer-product interaction work. Most distributors, after distribution, wait for reorders and watch sell-through, resulting in "wait, see, and fail." Think about it: in the channel, who doesn't have liquor, instant noodles, or beverages in their store? Why should consumers buy your product among the dazzling array of goods? **So, you must do tasting, buy-one-get-one, and other promotional activities. It is recommended that distributors set up a promotional team, conduct 8 activities per month, rotating at vegetable markets, supermarket entrances, schools, and gatherings. After three months, the effect will be obvious.**
**VII. Build a Distribution System Monthly**
When doing products, the enthusiasm of employees and the willingness of channel partners must be thoroughly addressed. Focus on distribution: divide responsibilities, rights, profits, and risks. Let employees focus on actual sell-through as the assessment key, design channel profits well, hold mobilization meetings, and set slogans to remind yourself daily. During the Liberation War, there was a slogan: "Capture Menglianggu, capture Zhang Lingfu." Although just a sentence, its power was immense.
**Persist in building the distribution system, and it will have good results.**
**VIII. Incomplete Process Standards**
In market promotion, how do you do the "Eight Steps" when entering a store? Step 1: Greet and introduce; Step 2: Establish common language; Step 3... Systematize these tasks into standards, so that those who want to do things can do them, and those who can do things can accomplish them. Establish standards for product promotion, display (including single pack, full box, cut case, floor display), and also standards for loading, dispatching, and routes without skipping stores, so there are rules to follow.
**IX. Persist in What Should Be Persisted, Give Up Early on What Should Not**
Principles must be upheld, methods must be flexible; prices should be rigid, promotions flexible. What should be adhered to is the price system, what should be flexible is promotional items, what should be defended is sell-through, what should be changed is service. The only constant is change; seek constancy in change, and seek change in constancy.
All actions should be guided by consumer needs and channel construction to establish your own position and build your own product model team.
**In summary, suggestions for distributors:**
1. Do what you can with what you have
2. Don't seek completeness, but stability and precision
3. Be able to accept temporary failure
4. Business is a life, not a revolution
5. Only by surviving can you talk about development and planning
There are three stages in a distributor's development: The first stage is doing everything, even if it means temporary channel crossing or dumping, to ensure survival; the second stage is doing some things and not others, choosing matching products to operate, looking a bit further; the third stage is not doing some things but must do others, needing to understand giving up, seizing trend products, and building both soft and hard strength to reach the next level!
Source: FMCG Marketing Expert
************************-************************ END-
The best FMCG distributor learning platform 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 Operation | **003** Terminal Visit Management | **004** Sales Supervisor Skills | **005** Sales Volume Improvement Tips | **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 Operation Methods and Strategies | **014** First Lesson for New Salespeople | **015** Internet, Brand |
[Long press QR code to follow]


---

## Copyright and AI use

This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL.

Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671