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Except for companies with products in oversupply, many enterprises face significant sales pressure and high sales targets, resulting in month-end or year-end sales pushes. Many frontline salespeople now suffer from "settlement day terror." If they fail to meet sales targets by the last month or day of the year (at which point even collecting payments may seem secondary), they risk bonus deductions, demotion, or even dismissal. No matter how hard they work during the year, they won't gain recognition from leadership at this critical time; even if their usual sales performance is excellent, failing to achieve the overall target will still invite harsh criticism and blame from superiors.
I have personally worked with subordinates until six or seven in the morning on settlement day to deliver goods or secure orders; I have also, under a leader's command, carefully directed five branches with over thirty vehicles and more than a hundred salespeople to accomplish the year's sales; and I have witnessed the "glorious" achievement of shipping over a hundred thousand cases of beverages on the last day of the year. All these are manifestations of successful sales pushes. The successful completion of a sales push should be attributed to the systematic approach and strong execution of the entire company's sales push initiative!
In summary, a sales push is not a simple sales activity but a full-fledged sales campaign! Regardless, when leadership issues the command for a sales push, we must successfully fight this battle at the right time, in the right place, with the right team.
Due to the "reservoir" effect of distribution channels, it is acceptable for companies to engage in appropriate sales push activities during the sales process, reflecting their proficiency in leveraging effective channel functions. In execution, compared to ordinary sales activities, the most important aspect of a sales push is to execute every link thoroughly and without compromise!
1. Execution Time—"The World Has an End": Many companies, when executing sales pushes, often extend the policy because they fail to fully achieve the desired results within the scheduled time. Sometimes they give special treatment to large accounts or "special customers" with limited pickup or storage capacity, allowing delayed pickup. Some companies issue orders first, but since customers cannot actually take that much, they deliver the goods in the next year while counting the sales in the current year. Some customers pay in advance and pick up goods in two or three installments over two or three months. Some companies give certain customers a longer execution period and secretly offer more favorable policies, while other customers are not so fortunate... All these are manifestations of serious disregard for execution time in current sales push practices!
Many companies not only fail to recognize their planning mistakes or inadequate time consideration but also euphemistically call it "timely adaptive adjustment." In reality, a closer analysis reveals that this is largely a form of corporate marketing fraud! The book sales figures far exceed actual sales, taking the opportunity to secure more favorable policies from key or related customers, and when sales tasks are not actually completed, they fabricate a false success to report to the board or boss... Disregarding or desecrating execution time inevitably leads to severe destructive effects on subsequent sales.
There is now a very serious approach to execution time management: an increasing number of companies are using computerized order systems. Once the sales push policy expires, the order system is immediately shut down, leaving no room for manual adjustment or modification. However, in China, a country that values personal connections, relationships, coordination, and flexibility, when will time management for sales pushes become more scientific and controllable? It seems that only when manufacturers and channels treat the policy deadline as the end of the world can the current situation be changed?
2. Execution Location (Region, Channel) Segmentation and Balance—"All Roads Lead to Rome": Many companies, when executing sales pushes, only push inventory to a few particularly large distributors or a single channel (e.g., wholesale or supermarket), completely ignoring balance among regions, channels, or customers. Some companies skip the sales push in regions where sales are already good, while giving exclusive inventory-pushing policies to regions lagging far behind. Others give policies to one neighboring distributor but not the next... All these, if not handled well, can ultimately lead to "flooding the Dragon King's temple—family not recognizing family," meaning goods will flow freely between channels without ever reaching the end consumer!
Of course, focusing investment on key markets and key customers is understandable, but we find that companies' segmentation capabilities are still very limited, so it's better to focus on achieving balance.
Moreover, the issue here is that companies fail to realize that sales targets should be an overall goal, a company-wide objective, not just targets for individual channels or regions. China's hierarchical management concepts and departmental structures often lead us into the trap of isolated sales pushes, but marketing is truly an integrated whole that cannot be divided. Therefore, executing inventory-pushing policies based on the overall company sales target may require fewer resources, have fewer side effects, and be more effective.
If company leaders can only see pushing inventory in a single region, channel, or customer, rather than planning the overall "sales push map" as in a battle, they will likely spend more resources later to clean up the mess caused by market chaos! If you don't believe it, try it!
3. Execution Personnel—"Upper and Lower Levels in Harmony, No Coughing": Often we only see grassroots managers and executors worrying: "What should we do? If we don't take measures to push sales, this year's target definitely won't be met!" Meanwhile, regional managers, directors, vice presidents of sales, or general managers don't feel that the sales push process has much to do with them. They just acknowledge the severity of the situation, hold a meeting, issue the policy, and wait for the salespeople to execute it well, then sit back and wait for good news.
This is a big mistake! The "quantity" of the sales push—the results—should be the responsibility of the salespeople, but the "quality" of the sales push should be the full responsibility of leadership! Salespeople are only responsible for their own customers, channels, or regions, but company leaders should be responsible for the sustainable development of the market, which requires close attention from marketing management.
In fact, at this time, leaders have more to do than grassroots executors: monitoring progress, feedback, market visits, supervision, coordination, command, timely adjustments, etc. Leaders, as executives, must touch the deepest parts of the sales push. Since this is a sales push campaign, how can the commander not be present, leaving only salespeople and distributors to charge ahead?
4. Execution Departments—"All Hands on Deck": A sales push is absolutely not just the sales department's affair; it requires the entire company to "mobilize." Although we often say that the sales department's selling goods and making profits is the foundation of the company's existence, at this critical moment, it's truly "an arrow on the string," and the whole company must exert effort. Many times, we see the finance department not cooperating, so customers' credit or acceptance cannot be met; the warehouse department not cooperating, so products or gifts shipped with goods arrive months later; the production department suddenly running out of a critical product; the marketing department's new posters not being ready, and gifts being despised by customers... All these make frontline salespeople furious, but they have no solution!
Sometimes, a shortage can hype up products with weaker brand power, but during a critical sales push, if the production department suddenly runs out of stock, finance is rigid, transportation lacks vehicles, and marketing is leisurely waiting to write reports like "market response is good" without providing market resources to the sales department, the sales push will always end in failure.
Once, during a sales push, due to a shortage of vehicles, many regional managers hired trucks from logistics companies on their own. Unexpectedly, the hired driver hit someone in the snow and damaged the vehicle. The company's warehouse manager arrived at the scene near midnight and resolved the matter smoothly. The sales manager nearby breathed a sigh of relief because such insurance, claims, and handling matters were something he had never encountered, and if he had to handle it, how long would it take? Some company leaders elevated sales push meetings to management meetings, summoning department directors to solve problems on the spot. Some financial directors stationed personnel at branches to review customers' financial status in real time. Some transportation managers became temporary delivery personnel. Some production managers vowed: "We will ensure your bullets to the market are fully supplied!"... When your company conducts a sales push, have you had such "once upon a time" experiences?
5. Execution Agreement—"Say the Ugly Words First": A sales push is essentially like taking temporary medication; it works immediately but can easily cause side effects. In particular, large amounts of customer stockpiling may lead to price chaos, cross-region or cross-channel diversion, low-price dumping, expired goods, and even market collapse! Some companies have anticipated this and, before the sales push, establish rules with customers, strictly enforce market discipline, and prevent these terrible market problems from occurring.
Often, after pushing inventory to customers, due to weak market monitoring and lack of customer constraints, the company ends up paying for the disposal of the goods, while customers reap the special policies from the push without selling a single case. Therefore, companies should sign agreements with customers, stipulating that after the goods are pushed into their warehouses, they must comply with certain mutual agreements, such as distributing within a specified period, selling at a certain price, not engaging in cross-region price undercutting, not conducting unauthorized promotions... Otherwise, strict penalties will be imposed. In other words, after customers purchase goods, all subsequent matters must follow the rules, or the customer bears full responsibility.
Of course, companies can specify in the sales push agreement the rights, obligations, and responsibilities of both parties in more detail, including execution steps, reward and punishment methods, and even assign salespeople for on-site supervision. This minimizes the negative impact of the sales push.
6. Execution Tracking, Supervision, and Feedback—"Everything Under Control": When the execution team implements the sales push, they are not only executors but also part of the supervision team. Of course, some companies have dedicated tracking teams, which is even better.
A sales push is an extreme sales activity. Since it is fully exposed to the market and usually accompanied by preferential policies, it is the time when market problems are most likely to occur. For example, some customers may unite to form a large account to obtain greater policies, or customers may divert goods to other regions to sell quickly... If these situations occur, the sales push is no longer a "sales push" but a "market disruption" operation, which is dangerous!
Sometimes, when a company implements a sales push, competitors are also doing the same. At this time, it is even more important to closely monitor market conditions, have frontline salespeople provide "real-time reports" on the market, closely track distributors, and search for the flow of both our products and competitors' products.
Of course, for large and more standardized companies, using management reports to systematize and standardize market information, and even inputting this information into computers for comprehensive analysis through software to identify market opportunities or improvement measures, would be even more ideal!
7. Coordination of Sales Push with Other Sales Activities—Avoid "Chaos as the Root of All Evil": I believe that when many companies conduct sales pushes, customers may already be enjoying other sales policies. Salespeople pretend not to know, and the company may be unaware, wasting resources and not knowing how to adjust the situation where the same customer enjoys multiple policies simultaneously. Sometimes, customers, due to enjoying several policies at once, either can't handle it or simply ignore it because they don't know what the company wants. Sometimes, distributors lack the capability to run multiple sales policies simultaneously and become confused. Sometimes, policies conflict, and the company doesn't know how to settle rebates, etc., with contradictory policies mixed together... All these make the sales push the culprit for disrupting the market!
A company's sales activities are actually organic sales behaviors that can be effectively integrated. By finding a main thread among the various sales policies being implemented and then organically complementing each policy, market operations will not only appear orderly but also save limited sales resources.
8. Sales Push and Next Phase Execution—"Tomorrow Must Continue": Incomplete execution will definitely affect the smooth operation of the next phase. Many companies completely ignore this, always claiming, "Let's meet this fixed target first; who can guarantee the future?" This may be why many companies, during sales pushes, disregard consequences, resulting in products not moving for months after the push, sales not improving, and the market becoming increasingly difficult. At this point, companies not only fail to utilize the "reservoir" function of distribution channels but also turn the sales push into a black hand impacting the market, pushing it into an abyss of "diminishing sales"!
If the sales push only serves to report satisfactory data to superiors while deteriorating the market, can this short-sighted sales behavior of "only today, not tomorrow" lead Chinese marketing to a better tomorrow?
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