Case: Li Bin, a sales supervisor at an FMCG company producing instant noodles and beverages, was promoted to regional supervisor after turning a struggling market into a company model market through three years of hard work and strategic thinking. However, his new region was a blank market with huge potential but required organizational development. Li Bin quickly developed the market, even signing three clients in one month, and his monthly achievement rate often doubled. But problems soon emerged. Li Bin had a habit of mentoring newcomers. The two vocational college graduates he initially trained quickly learned to operate in his developed markets by imitation. He then devoted most of his energy to developing new markets. Since he was responsible for two large regional markets, as new markets were developed, his subordinates increased to twelve people. At this point, problems arose: the increase in newcomers did not lead to a significant rise in sales, and after all markets were developed, sales became unstable, sometimes declining in certain months. Some markets were like a bear breaking corn—while he developed new ones, the inexperienced newcomers caused sales to decline or even stop shipments. Li Bin fell into confusion and frustration.
In the above case, why did Li Bin encounter a "Waterloo" in performance growth? What factors led to stagnant or declining sales? Let's analyze.
Why were performance unstable and difficult to continue growing? In the case, Li Bin was undoubtedly excellent; he dared to challenge, feared no hardship, and developed new markets step by step. But the case also shows that due to the heavy responsibility of market development, Li Bin neglected the training and improvement of newcomers, that is, he ignored organizational development, leading to him "fighting alone." This "lonely struggle" or even "individual heroism" ultimately resulted in a lack of successors and weak sales growth. Therefore, performance growth cannot rely on one person; only organizational growth is sustainable.
Is it wrong to focus on business growth? In the case, Li Bin prioritized new market development, which reflects a business-oriented mindset. Is it wrong to focus on business growth? No, but it is wrong to neglect organizational development, i.e., team building. Business growth must be based on people. Having markets without capable marketing personnel is like water without a source or a tree without roots; markets will eventually have problems. Li Bin focused only on developing markets without training new personnel to better adapt, which was the key to his confusion.
Without an organization, the market lacks core competitiveness. Although Li Bin painstakingly developed the market, he did not build an efficient and high-performing organization, resulting in a mismatch between market development and organizational development. This caused the market to "limp" and ultimately hindered its development, dragging it down. This is something sales supervisors, especially new ones, must pay attention to. Only when business growth and team building develop in tandem can the market accumulate strength and achieve sustained growth.
So, how can a sales supervisor manage both market and organizational development to achieve coordinated growth? Here are some suggestions from the author:
Both organizational development and market performance are indispensable. For a sales team, which is more important, market or organization? It's like asking for a tree, which is more important, roots or trunk? Actually, both are important. As a sales supervisor, you must handle both organizational development and market performance with equal vigor. A team without sales performance has no value; performance is the team's value embodiment. Similarly, without an efficient organization, a sales region lacks the foundation to maintain and improve market performance, making it difficult to withstand competitors' pressure and impact.
Build a disciplined and complementary organization. Organization is the guarantee of sales performance, and systems and norms are the premise of organizational existence. The discipline of an organization will be the cornerstone of long-term team development. Therefore, to have a good market, you must first build a strong team. This requires establishing strict team rules and regulations, ensuring orders are followed and actions are unified. Secondly, pay attention to the layering of team building, combining experienced veterans, energetic "middle-level" members, and enthusiastic but inexperienced newcomers, such as college graduates or career changers. Also, strive for complementary abilities, such as having people suited for market development, market maintenance, market planning, etc. At the same time, as a sales supervisor, you must dare to employ people more capable than yourself. Only by promoting talent and appointing the capable can the organization remain vibrant and have stamina.
Personal transformation and management capability improvement. To strengthen team building, sales supervisors, especially those newly promoted from sales roles, must do two things well. First, personal transformation: shift from a sales-oriented to a management-oriented role. Don't be a "big salesperson" or forget you are a manager. Do your own duties, which refer to major regional market matters, such as regional market planning, model market creation, market and customer development, new product promotion, promotional activity design, and training for salespeople, distributors, and their staff. As for the specific methods salespeople and distributors use to achieve targets, do not interfere excessively. Second, sales supervisors should devote more energy and time to management, such as managing subordinates to ensure they do their daily work according to organizational requirements, and managing the market to ensure reasonable product structure, proper promotion execution, and good market order. This reflects the principle of professionals doing professional work and ensures the organization operates smoothly.
Emphasize training and internal mentoring. Whether an organization can grow healthily and progress depends first on whether it is a learning organization and whether there is a learning atmosphere within it. Therefore, as a sales supervisor, you should focus on internal training. This includes two levels: one is enterprise-organized training, often with external lecturers. The supervisor should genuinely organize subordinates to listen carefully, as professional lecturers with cross-industry experience can inspire the team. The second is to establish a training system within the organization, which can be conducted by internal trainers, the supervisor himself, or high-performing team members. This is not only an effective mentoring model but also an effective incentive mechanism. Through training and internal promotion, you can improve the quality and skills of team members. Only when their overall abilities are improved will market performance improve naturally. Market performance and organizational development can then go hand in hand, complement each other, and promote each other, forming a virtuous cycle.
In summary, sales supervisors should treat performance improvement and organizational development equally and not neglect either. Only by handling both organizational development and market improvement can sales supervisors grasp the essence of things, focus on key points, achieve both organizational and performance success, gain a larger market share, and obtain a bigger platform for advancement, thereby becoming senior marketing managers who understand management and operations.
Original title: How can a sales supervisor manage both business growth and organizational development?
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