One day, after a monthly sales meeting dinner at a company, a regional supervisor got drunk and composed a poem: "Lonely peak, carrying a briefcase, a toothbrush kit and a razor, lost in confusion, two truckloads of goods a month, drifting yet proud, over three thousand yuan, carefree and at ease." When I heard this from the sales manager and was asked for analysis, I saw a broader crisis beyond the drinking culture—the hidden worries and dangers beneath the surface prosperity of marketing. Field salespeople stationed away from the company are far from supervision. How do they actually work? What are the drawbacks of this herding-style marketing? Are there entrenched habits or tricks that make them complacent and coast along? Therefore, I have summarized some content from my past work and discussions with industry peers, which we call the tricks and formulas for meeting monthly targets, using this as a starting point to explore the quality of salespeople's work.
Heavy stocking in off-season, cautious replenishment in peak season. This is a common tactic among salespeople in companies where compensation is based on the percentage of monthly target completion. For example, a beverage company sets bonus tiers based on completion percentage: 80% completion yields 200 yuan, 90% yields 400 yuan, and so on. Some companies design salaries as base salary × completion percentage, with a fixed base. In such companies, monthly targets are low in off-season months (1, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11) and high in peak months (2, 5, 6, 7, 8). In the off-season, targets are low, so salespeople use all means to push stock to earn more bonuses—the lower the target, the more aggressive the stocking. Conversely, in peak season when sales are high but targets are also high, motivation drops significantly; they sell whatever they can, knowing it's hard to reach the next tier. This phenomenon is extremely harmful to product sales, often ignoring dealers' operational status, leading to dull market reactions and lagging policies, and preventing sales from reaching optimal levels, especially harming new product launches and distribution. Therefore, such companies should either set a scientifically reasonable compensation system or strengthen supervision and assessment of sales personnel.
Swapping goods and secretly diverting stock. These salespeople or regional supervisors typically manage large market areas with uneven development, including growing, mature, and newly opened markets. They often apply for preferential policies for new markets, then divert the goods to mature markets for sale. This not only completes sales targets but also pleases dealers, who eagerly stock up, allowing salespeople to earn high commissions and gain face, and even get treated to high-end seafood. However, over time, this erodes normal business mentality, squanders company resources, disrupts strategic deployment, and forms a vicious sales cycle, laying the groundwork for further cross-region dumping.
Two truckloads a month, no faults to find. In many industries, seasonal differences are not obvious, and companies have strict minimum sales limits. The comfortable idle life kills ambition, leading to the phenomenon of "old eight tons" or "two truckloads a month." The base salary plus commissions from two truckloads is enough for them, so the ambitious ones start thinking about side jobs or a second career; the lazy ones just loaf around. This phenomenon stems from the company's loose marketing model and flawed compensation system. The best solution is to strengthen management, use zero-based or incremental sales, or new product promotion to force them to be proactive and unleash the subjective initiative and passion expected of marketing personnel.
Wherever it sells well, there my goods go—my goods accompany you forever. Many companies with poor management or that don't take cross-region dumping seriously see the speculative skills of opportunistic salespeople and supervisors fully displayed, often better than basic marketing efforts like distribution and display. They apply for promotions, exploit price differences, misappropriate funds to subsidize dealer freight, or even exploit loopholes in the company's logistics system to sell goods to other regions. This phenomenon is very common. I believe 80% of cross-region dumping is related to the manufacturer's marketing personnel, either knowing about it, providing convenience, or even orchestrating it themselves. Every marketer knows the harm of cross-region dumping to the market and products. If this unhealthy trend isn't curbed, companies will struggle to foster healthy competition and active market operations. After the warlord-like chaos, the outcome of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs or drinking poison to quench thirst awaits.
Aggressive stocking and piling, preparing to transfer or resign. Some marketing personnel see limited company resources and mediocre salaries, relying entirely on commissions, so a sense of drifting arises. They adopt a "scorched earth" policy. Using various means and resources—promotions, changing dealers, cross-region dumping, partial credit, rebates in goods—they make dealers stock up as much as possible, with no thought for the future. After squeezing the last drop of market resources, they scheme to transfer, or if unsuccessful, resign and leave, leaving endless troubles for their successors, who often struggle to establish a foothold. This is how a half-baked market is cultivated. Companies may have once regarded the initial salesperson as a sales elite, but later they will always resent: "It was so-and-so who killed the market!" But it's too late to regret. Early detection, early treatment, early health—this is the advice for such unfortunate companies.
Frequent calls and reports, desperately requesting promotions. Many salespeople complain at the beginning of the year that the targets are set too high, comparing to last year, but companies insist that once set, targets cannot be easily changed. So pragmatic veteran salespeople use various channels—reports, calls, personal relationship investments—to demand more marketing resources for dealer policy temptations to hoard goods. After completing one month, they repeat the same tactic next month, month after month asking for policies and stockpiling. If one month lacks resources, even stocking becomes a problem.
Year-end staged promotions, amortized across years. Living beyond one's means is common in sales, often seen as a sign of wisdom and planning. For example, many companies cut off sales expenses by the Gregorian calendar year, and salespeople and even regional managers exploit this gap. In December, they run aggressive staged promotions that extend into mid-January or longer, so rebates and expenses can't be settled until after the year ends, thus consuming next year's market and sales expenses. But sales, especially for regional managers whose annual salary depends on it, do benefit—not exceeding expenses while overfulfilling targets is a joy for marketers, isn't it? Among these common tricks, this one is barely acceptable, as its negative impact on the market is controllable, and it can be continued with remedial measures.
Diverting funds for market image and new product promotion to boost sales. Many companies have weak marketing departments, or even only a sales department that takes on marketing functions, creating a gap. Bold marketing personnel use all controlled funds for dealer or channel promotions, focusing solely on sales volume, regardless of old or new products, using funds wherever volume is generated, as if all good steel is used on the blade. But over time, the market will dry up and lose vitality. Only by fully utilizing and scientifically integrating distribution, new product promotion, display, advertising, and image display can a coordinated, combat-effective unit be formed, just as all parts and organs of a human body must coordinate; any part that deviates from normal size will hinder movement. It's like cooking: oil, salt, vinegar, and ginger are essential seasonings, and they must be reasonably matched according to the dish's quantity, characteristics, and eating habits. Adding too much of any seasoning ruins the dish, and if too heavy, it becomes inedible. So this practice is extremely harmful and may breed marketing corruption at any time. It must be fundamentally cured, or the company will be mercilessly eliminated by the market.
So, companies and individuals exhibiting these phenomena share many common traits: they are stingy in human resources, understaffed, even lacking supervision; they rely heavily on dealer agency systems; they focus only on immediate interests, ignoring long-term market expansion and lacking planning; they lack understanding of market price management and have few effective solutions; on the personnel side, they don't understand or even hate distribution, staying away from terminals; they don't do basic work, only half of marketing; they hate new product promotion, seeing it as wasting resources without generating sales; they prefer using price differences to entice dealers and the market. They have abandoned the root of marketing and forgotten the essence of sales, so fundamentally they are wrong.
Listing and analyzing these common practices and tricks of field salespeople and supervisors aims to help companies nip problems in the bud, standardize management, promote healthy market development, and allow marketing personnel to grow healthily. I think we should use a "three-ization" prescription to treat these chronic ailments: scientific compensation design, market monitorability, and personnel competition. To put it plainly, I hope companies standardize management and professionalize personnel, and then good markets and impressive sales will be within reach.
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