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At the morning meeting, Manager Wang lost his temper again, losing count of how many times he had done so. The employees seemed accustomed to it, enduring the ten-plus minutes of the meeting, then continuing to act as they pleased, still working without efficiency as usual. It was no wonder Manager Wang was angry; for several consecutive months, old terminal problems recurred monthly, new problems increased daily: missing items, out-of-stocks, no price tags, poor display positions, insufficient visit frequency, promotions without sales... These issues always troubled him. There were few stores that gave him peace of mind; there were always more or less problems. When the director inspected the market, he would scold Manager Wang harshly every time, and as a regional manager, he could hardly bear it.
Manager Wang began to reflect deeply. The products were well-known brands, promotional efforts were greater than competitors, staffing was reasonable, and expenses were sufficient. Why were there so many problems at the terminal? It must be a problem of execution. Without execution, even the best strategies are empty talk!
How could he improve staff execution and change the long-standing situation at the terminal?
Manager Wang began to adjust his management approach.
1. If Staff Lack Execution, First Look for Management Reasons
He often blamed employees for being wrong, but had he reflected on himself? Manager Wang carefully reviewed the past few months' work content and methods. Every day, he only demanded sales and results from employees, without seriously summarizing gains and losses or providing timely guidance. When work pressure came, he simply distributed it to employees and considered it done. He did not clearly grasp what employees did at the terminal every day, did not seriously study customer cards and visit routes, and did not track problems. He had not seriously summarized customer development and network expansion...
Manager Wang felt ashamed. Without solid basic work, how could there be work efficiency? Every day revolved around sales, and sales revolved around promotions. There was work but no efficiency. After all the busyness, if the foundation was not solid, where would growth space come from? At the end of the year, he would still complain to the company about market difficulties and arduous tasks, needing strong company support.
To require execution from employees, he must first establish his own execution. Everything fears the word "seriousness." As long as he treats every matter more seriously than employees, employees would not dare to be careless.
2. Put the Right People in the Right Positions
How to change the status quo and strengthen execution? After careful consideration, Manager Wang decided to start with personnel!
After detailed personnel analysis, Manager Wang divided sales staff into categories: one type good at attacking, one good at defending, and one good at muddling through. Some salespeople were good at negotiating with customers, handling customer relationships like a fish in water, but not good at visiting small shops daily according to visit routes; he would let them develop special channels and group purchases, manage distributors and secondary wholesalers, leveraging their strengths. Some salespeople were good at following established routes to take orders and inspecting stores carefully; he would let them consolidate development results and perform daily store maintenance. Some salespeople had become slick, with no outstanding highlights, committing minor errors frequently but not major ones, muddling through each day. They were familiar with the market and business but lacked initiative. Eliminating them would be a pity since they had been trained for a long time; they had become "chicken ribs" among the sales staff!
The salespeople good at attacking would lead the charge, developing new customers in weak channels and tapping the potential of special channels and group purchases. Those good at defending would consolidate development results, strengthen maintenance, and improve service. Those good at muddling through, if still unmotivated after full incentives, would be eliminated in due course.
A new sales organizational structure emerged in Manager Wang's mind. Under the new competitive landscape, putting the right people in the right positions is particularly important. As long as personnel deployment is reasonable, execution requirements can achieve twice the result with half the effort.
3. Focus on Teaching Employees Thinking, Not Just Methods
After the personnel redeployment was completed, Manager Wang thought of another question: Why was he so tired every day? There were always endless things to solve. Some things were simple, and a little thought could yield a solution, but salespeople were unwilling to think more, always thinking of going to the leader when something came up.
In management, there are situations where some leaders tell you nothing and only demand results, while others tell too much, making subordinates afraid to draw conclusions on their own and overly dependent on the leader. Manager Wang reflected and realized this was true. Every morning meeting, as long as one salesperson took the lead, others would chime in, bringing up trivial matters for the leader to solve. If they could stump the leader on the spot, they would secretly rejoice. If the leader gave answers to all problems, salespeople would develop laziness, working around the leader all day, solving everything through the leader, not using their own brains, truly becoming the leader's clairvoyant eyes and ears.
What to do? Manager Wang thought for a long time and had an idea.
Do not rush to give answers; instead, ask employees what they should do. For correct solutions, fully affirm and authorize execution, encouraging employees to think actively. For incorrect solutions, guide employees' thinking, correct their approach from the perspective of thinking, and always give employees the solution at the last moment. This both fully mobilizes employees' potential and keeps the situation under control.
4. Results and Process Are Equally Important
Previously, he only focused on results and did not value the process. Not valuing the process would not lead to good results. Manager Wang thought carefully and realized this was true. Let me give two simple examples:
End-of-month sales rush. At the end of each month, he would worry about achieving sales targets, which affected every employee's salary. At that time, he would desperately pressure customers and terminals. When customers stocked too much, it led to channel conflict and price undercutting. When stores stocked too much, it took half a month to consume, creating a vicious cycle. If he had paid close attention to customer inventory and network development, focused on single-store visual merchandising and selling power, paid attention to growth rates in different channels to allocate resources reasonably, and focused on business contribution rates and daily work performance, the results would not have been so bad!
Coping with company report management tools. Many salespeople hated various reports the most. As long as sales targets were achieved, everything else was secondary. Some reports were even identical, with a template used by everyone, and a few edits were enough to submit. Managers did not seriously review them, making them a mere formality. Good management tools were not utilized and did not guide market work; instead, they became a burden. If reports were taken seriously, through monthly comparisons, patterns could be found, and they could guide daily work. For example, customer cards could reveal ordering patterns for single stores, guiding salespeople to break habitual visits and switch to key visits, providing key services to key customers, using the 80/20 rule: 20% of stores generate sales, and 80% of stores focus on visual merchandising and penetration sales.
Indeed, details determine success or failure. Grassroots marketing units focus on details and execution. The neglect of one detail after another led to a chaotic market situation. Everyone was busy, but no one achieved results. Manager Wang decided to establish a special supervision team to comprehensively monitor and assess every detail of the process, incorporating it into the monthly salary rewards and penalties. The supervision team would report directly to the manager, ensuring timely communication of market information.
5. Create a Competitive Atmosphere to Stimulate Employee Morale
To stimulate employee morale, it is necessary to create an internal competition mechanism.
Manager Wang fully utilized incentive tools to create an internal competitive atmosphere. He formulated a monthly performance record card for employees, which included comprehensive indicators such as sales achievement, network development, item achievement, customer relationships, monthly growth rate, year-on-year sales comparison, and channel contribution rate. He objectively evaluated employees and conducted monthly assessments as a basis for promotion. He set up an employee performance board in the meeting room, ranking employees by monthly sales, implementing last-place elimination, and setting up a sales achievement warning board to remind employees of their progress daily. He established monthly sales champion and market development champion titles, selecting outstanding employees and posting their names. He set up channel supervisor positions: employees ranking first in performance for three consecutive months would be selected as supervisors for that channel, responsible for coordination and management of the entire channel, cultivating their team leadership abilities. He set up sales competitions between channels, established team rewards, and mobilized the competitive enthusiasm of channel teams. Through a series of internal competition mechanisms, he mobilized the enthusiasm of all participants, stimulated team vitality, and changed the previous dull and boring atmosphere of the team.
6. Regular Training and Summaries
To maintain the team's overall forward pace, it is necessary to conduct regular training and work summaries to achieve unified thinking and consistent pace across the team.
Every Saturday, Manager Wang organized all salespeople together for training and experience summaries. The training adopted an interactive approach: on one hand, various training materials were shared; on the other hand, the week's work gains and losses were widely discussed, with everyone expressing their views. Watching the lively discussion, Manager Wang was delighted. From the debates, he not only sorted out market ideas but also discovered some potential personnel. Successful cases inspired everyone, and failure examples increased business experience. At the same time, based on weekly training and experience summaries, Manager Wang timely adjusted various work processes to match the market status quo, maximizing each person's subjective initiative.
After implementing the above ideas for a period, Manager Wang found that the team's spirit improved day by day. Many salespeople continued to work at the front-line terminals after work. Everyone was quietly competing, comparing performance, customer relationships, and honors. Sales also increased significantly compared to before. The visual merchandising of stores became increasingly standardized. Manager Wang's mood improved day by day. To sustain and effectively grow regional performance, execution must be carried out to the end!
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