It's common to see this scenario: many companies blindly imitate the terminal route visit models of well-known enterprises, compile terminal outlet customer data, establish route manuals, and have salespeople visit 30-40 terminal stores on fixed routes every day, cycling weekly. But after copying mechanically, companies find this visit model yields few orders and little sales, wasting manpower and resources, ultimately leading to failure. So how can you quickly cycle distribution? Today, we bring you 10 tips for accelerating terminal distribution, summarized from 14 years of experience by a certain awesome salesperson. Let's learn them now! Tip 1: Find Opportunity Stores When launching new products, it's always the case that even if 100 stores sell poorly, a few will sell well. Sales supervisors should target these high-moving outlets during the new product distribution phase. Walk through these stores, chat with the owners, observe what characteristics these stores have, and see what methods they use for product display, promotion, pricing, etc. As long as you observe, ask, and feel with intention, you'll find patterns. Then you'll have an epiphany: "Ah, I see! The stores that aren't selling are too low-end; we need to focus on A and B class stores." "Ha, I found the trick! I'll have salespeople walk through all terminals, build customer profiles, and identify stores with unresolved issues, complaints, or customer grievances about competitors—these are easier to break into." "Ha, I understand! My first step is to target surrounding township markets. Competitors are strong in urban areas, but their distributors have poor delivery capabilities and bad service there." Tip 2: Concentrated Visits to Opportunity Stores In areas where brand appeal isn't strong, don't follow the traditional weekly route visits—weak brands rarely get orders from broad visits. First, screen your opportunity stores and arrange salespeople to visit them intensively. Design promotional policies for these stores, win them over, and establish a "revolutionary base" for the new product. After the new product is distributed, moves, and "gains a foothold" in these outlets, expand the visit scope. Tip 3: Free Tiered Visit Model This is the most extensive model. Assign salespeople a visit area, establish basic customer profiles, then set order targets and let them decide which customers to visit daily. Salespeople know best which stores need more visits and which need fewer. At the same time, set a minimum visit frequency for all terminals: let salespeople decide which key accounts to visit more often and which smaller ones less, but all terminal customers must be visited at least once a month. Otherwise, it's considered a missed visit or absenteeism, and penalties apply—this method suits small and medium liquor companies and distributors with loose management. Note that this model gives employees high autonomy daily, meaning high variability. High variability can lead to laziness and skipping work. So, require employees to visit a fixed number of stores daily, e.g., choose 30 stores, and record details. Supervisors should spot-check workloads to see if they're missing visits or falsifying reports. Tip 4: 5+1 Tiered Visit Model Weekly 6-day visit routes: 5 days for normal visits, e.g., visit 30 customers in route order daily. On Saturday, take one day for a second visit to opportunity outlets, large stores, or key stores. For example:

  • Stores with new product distribution where competitors enter need high-frequency visits—to squeeze out their displays and increase our terminal relationships and movement opportunities.
  • Our new product distribution stores need high-frequency visits—to increase displays, execute promotions well, and boost movement opportunities.
  • Stores with our display agreements, exclusive agreements, or promotion agreements need high-frequency visits to maintain agreement compliance. Tip 5: 20+10 Tiered Visit Model Classify terminals into A, B, C grades based on area, sales volume, etc. A-grade stores are large stores; it's best to separate them and establish a route manual with dedicated personnel visiting every two days at high frequency. The quality requirements for salespeople covering KA supermarkets and large restaurants differ from those covering small stores; it's best to separate them for visits. For B and C stores, establish a tiered terminal visit route manual. For example, if a salesperson visits 30 stores daily, 20 C-class stores are visited once a week, and 10 B-class stores are visited twice a week. That means B-class store names might appear twice in the same route manual. This method is similar to the 5+1 model, but 5+1 concentrates repeat visits on one day, while 20+10 first separates A stores for dedicated visits, then B stores get a normal visit and a repeat visit on another day's route, and C stores are visited weekly per route. Tip 6: Terminal Visit Route Optimization Establishing basic terminal visit data is to help salespeople visit terminal customers systematically, continuously converting blank stores into stocked stores, single-product stores, multi-product stores, and model stores. Supervisors can analyze terminal structure indicators like blank stores and single-product stores from the basic data, assess market space, and set targeted sales and distribution goals for salespeople, thereby locking down the target outlet list. However, improper use of terminal route data can also affect distribution performance, so continuous optimization is needed. Route Manual Updates Every year, 20%-30% of restaurants and small tobacco/alcohol stores close or open. Not updating terminal customer data in time wastes terminal resources, leads to incomplete visits, and causes employee downtime. For example, a route might have 30 stores today, but due to demolition, 9 have closed. So, salespeople should note new store openings and old store closures in their areas. Supervisors should reward reporting of new stores and penalize missing reports. Temporarily Stop Normal Route Visits for Focused Visits to Key Areas Weekly route visits are the standard method. But what about exceptional situations? For example, when competitors aggressively distribute to attack our market, or before Chinese New Year when we need to push inventory? Then, temporarily stop route visits and concentrate on visiting competitor distribution outlets to counter them, or focus on accompanying trucks to push inventory. Tip 7: Exploit Time Differences in Visits Even tigers nap; during their nap, you can snatch food from their mouths. Most companies give 7 days off for Chinese New Year. What do they do on the 8th day? Many hold annual meetings, group拜年 meetings, training, and assign annual targets, still immersed in festive atmosphere. They usually don't hit the market until after the Lantern Festival (15th day). Then they'll drink with distributors, and before you know it, it's the 20th day. Think about it: In the north, there's the tradition of "破五开业" (opening on the 5th day). Many terminals open with firecrackers on the 5th. Do they have money? Yes, they've sold lots of New Year goods. Do they have stock? No, they've sold out. They have money but no goods, and competitors aren't working yet. This is the hunger period for terminal restocking—a paradise for salespeople! Once, a company started work on the 4th day (requiring distributors' staff to open on the 5th). On the 5th, company leaders personally led teams to distribute. It was amazing! It wasn't selling; it was unloading! Customers who usually took 1-2 boxes now dared to take 10 boxes. The first year, we felt a bit cruel to employees. But that month's performance nearly doubled year-on-year, without spending an extra cent on promotions. At month-end, we held a celebration, gave bonuses, triple overtime pay, selected performance champions, and arranged compensatory time off for employees. Everyone was enthusiastic, and morale wasn't affected. I've used this method for years, but competitors' bigwigs still sleep through the New Year. Tip 8: Improve Efficiency of Truck Distribution and Loading/Unloading This method suits truck distribution and can improve efficiency. Save Empty Run Time Before departure, call key accounts, big bosses, and customers often away from home to pre-inform them of our distribution policy and approximate arrival time, asking them to wait and prepare payment to avoid wasted trips. Save On-site Picking Time At the distribution site, arrange goods in the truck by category neatly to save time finding and picking goods. Save Return Loading Time For long-distance truck distribution, e.g., to townships, if a certain item runs short, it affects distribution results, and returning to load wastes time. Use several small box trucks for distribution ahead, with a truck following as a transfer warehouse to save return loading time. Tip 9: Team Distribution A single salesperson might be rejected by terminals. For key routes and stores, switch to team distribution: 3-5 people on a truck. Upon arrival, one person shows samples, sells, delivers, collects money, and records; one helps the owner organize shelves and displays; one puts up posters and does visual merchandising; one outside promotes and delivers to other stores; one watches the truck and goods. With strength in numbers, distribution results are often better than solo efforts. Tip 10: Improve Order Delivery Rate Standardize Orders Especially when route visits just start and the distributor's order delivery process isn't smooth, first clarify with the distributor what constitutes a valid order, e.g., whether orders must exceed one case, or if the distributor agrees to split cases. Clear Addresses On the first day, salespeople must write customer addresses clearly, even with sketches, and get supervisor approval before handing to the distributor for delivery. Feedback on Abnormal Deliveries When distributor drivers encounter undeliverable addresses or refused orders, they should report to the supervisor. After verification, the supervisor should inform the driver whether to cancel or redeliver. Salesperson Tracks Delivery Rate During new product distribution, require salespeople to call on the third day after taking an order to check if it was delivered. If not, immediately report to the supervisor to track why the distributor's driver didn't deliver. Weekly Meeting Review Supervisors should meet weekly with distributors and their drivers to review orders not delivered on time. Both sides confront, explain reasons, decide whether to cancel or redeliver, and define responsibility. Penalize distributors per agreement, deducting delivery subsidies or rebates. -END- The best FMCG distributor learning platform in China Focusing on providing professional, practical, and actionable 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 corresponding content Reply with number 1 to view the full knowledge base | 001 Excellent Article Selection | 002 Distributor Market Operations | 003 Terminal Visit Management | 004 Sales Supervisor Skills | 005 Sales Boost Techniques | 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 18 Skills | 013 KA Operation Methods and Strategies | 014 First Lesson for New Salespeople | 015 Internet, Brand | 016 Distributor B2B Transformation | [Long press QR code to follow]