---
title: "Dealer Bosses Focus on the Concrete, Not the Abstract—Is Selling Everything?"
description: "Dealer bosses, long immersed in frontline sales, tend to prioritize tangible results over abstract matters, often neglecting corporate culture. Yet, as history shows, seemingly abstract ideological alignment is crucial for organizational success. This article explores three practical steps for building dealer corporate culture: adopting memorable nicknames, sharing a good book, and establishing a historical symbol for cultural inheritance."
author: "黄润霖"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2018-09-27"
language: "en"
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markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/dealer-bosses-focus-on-the-concrete-not-the-abstractis-selling-everythin-0ae7f8f6.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/GOiR3x4juv_a7wFZZEcPBA"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E7%BB%8F%E9%94%80%E5%95%86%E8%80%81%E6%9D%BF%E6%8A%93%E5%AE%9E%E4%B8%8D%E6%8A%93%E8%99%9A-%E4%B8%80%E5%88%87%E4%BB%A5%E5%8D%96%E8%B4%A7%E4%B8%BA%E4%B8%BB-%E5%AF%B9%E5%90%97-0ae7f8f6.md"
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# Dealer Bosses Focus on the Concrete, Not the Abstract—Is Selling Everything?

> Dealer bosses, long immersed in frontline sales, tend to prioritize tangible results over abstract matters, often neglecting corporate culture. Yet, as history shows, seemingly abstract ideological alignment is crucial for organizational success. This article explores three practical steps for building dealer corporate culture: adopting memorable nicknames, sharing a good book, and establishing a historical symbol for cultural inheritance.

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Before starting the construction of cultural projects, dealer bosses, please first consider a question: What is culture?
Dealers are on the front lines year-round, dealing with stores and facing consumers, doing the work of selling goods. Is this a pragmatic or an abstract role?
Everyone knows it's a pragmatic role. Because we've been in a pragmatic state for so long, dealer bosses have gotten used to focusing on the concrete and ignoring the abstract, centering everything on selling—selling is the only truth. What's the result? The cultural construction of dealer enterprises has lagged behind for a long time, and they don't even take it seriously.
Who knows at which meeting the "Four Cardinal Principles" were first proposed? And where was "Reform and Opening Up" first proposed?
Many think it was the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee. Actually, these two policies that have influenced generations were both proposed at two famous "abstract meetings" (务虚会议) of the Central Committee and State Council in 1979. If thoughts aren't unified, actions won't be unified. Seemingly abstract, this subtle ideological influence is what truly determines the rise and fall of an organization.
Before formally explaining the operational points, let's think further: **What is the purpose of dealers building corporate culture?** Everyone has their own answer—some want the company to appear more competitive, some more standardized, some to foster a sense of belonging.
Are these purposes right? Both yes and no! **The most important level of cultural construction is to solve the problem of members' 'sense of identity'** . Alibaba's recruitment sets up "smell officers" (嗅味官) to address employees' cultural identity, which is the foundation of all cultural construction.
Today, I'll introduce dealer cultural construction from three operational levels.
**A Stage Name**
When explaining to salespeople how to deepen the impression they make on clients, I once proposed the "Three Ones" standard, one of which is to adopt a stage name. This stage name isn't random; it must be a name that clients can quickly remember. The names on our ID cards, because most of our elders, when naming their children, either focus on generational hierarchy or meaning. Family members remember, but for outsiders, remembering a name with no pattern or memory point is very difficult.
So, how to solve this? In the past, when traveling in the martial arts world, one needed a title—a nickname. In Gu Long's "The Sentimental Swordsman, Ruthless Sword," there's a classic line about nicknames: A person's name might be wrong, but their nickname never is. Look at the countless martial arts characters created by Jin Yong: Hu Yidao and Hu Fei's saber skills, the Golden Lion King Xie Xun's appearance, the lecherous Tian Boguang's despicable acts—a single nickname precisely captures the character type.
Names are meant to be remembered, not for self-appreciation. Why do Jackie Chan and Jack Ma both have the English name "Jack"? Their English proficiency is certainly better than most of us, and they know English culture much better; coming up with a unique English name would be easy. I estimate that abroad, there are tens of millions of people named "Jack." The biggest advantage of this name is that it's easy to remember. When a client has a need, will they rack their brains to recall a name with a rare character, or will they immediately decide and say offhandedly, "Let that young man called 'Huang Xiaoming' come over!"
A stage name isn't just about enhancing client memory; it also reflects corporate culture. At Alibaba, which admires martial arts culture, everyone's stage name is a character from Jin Yong or Gu Long novels; in joint ventures that admire foreign culture, everyone gives themselves an English name. The creation of a stage name can sometimes ease tension and resolve awkwardness better than directly calling someone by their real name.
In early 2017, I visited an e-commerce company. When introducing the team, the person in charge pointed to each person and introduced them with a hint of mystery: "This is 'Feng Jiu,' in charge of customer service. That one is 'Su Jin,' in charge of warehouse orders. This is 'Dong Hua,' mainly responsible for in-store operations, and that one is 'Qing Cang,' mainly responsible for product selection..." I saw they were all characters from "Eternal Love" (三生三世十里桃花)—they were all immortals. In this theatrical introduction atmosphere, everyone laughed, and the communication felt more harmonious. Later, the boss joked that he was a huge fan of Mark Chao, so his nickname was Ye Hua.
During a training icebreaker, a dealer boss introduced his team members, and the salespeople's names were astonishing. A Mr. Kang was called Kangxi, a Mr. Zhang was Zhang Wuji, a young man surnamed Wang was Wang Youcai, and even a plump young woman surnamed Bao was called Bao Butong... At first glance, it seemed like a joke—wasn't this an all-star lineup?! But then everyone took out their business cards, and the names printed on them matched the introductions exactly.
The boss of this team said: **A name is a symbol. In today's information explosion, how hard and costly is it to make people remember a new term? Our salespeople, when visiting a store, must find a way to make people remember them each time. Leveraging the big IP of celebrities is the simplest and most efficient way.**
**A Good Book**
What is the purpose of corporate training? It's certainly to convey the boss's intentions through the trainer's words. The larger the company, the more it relies on this form to build internal consensus. That's why bigger companies pay more attention to training.
For small and medium-sized organizations, relying on training to implement a certain idea or method in a specific period may be unrealistic. But when a boss identifies a problem and needs to correct and unify thoughts promptly, is there a lower-cost yet equally effective method?
Yes, of course—**organize members to share insights from a common book.**
There are so many books now, but each book has a central theme. As long as that theme aligns with the problems we need to solve at this stage, it can be a sharing subject. For example, the once-popular "A Message to Garcia" and "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" became famous nationwide because of such characteristics. Of course, this cultural sharing can also be a specific article, such as Ren Zhengfei's early "The Winter of Huawei" or Zhou Zhanggui's 2017 article "The People's War of OPPO and VIVO," both very representative.
There's a company in Shanxi that provides channel expansion services for dealers. In cultural construction, it insists on using book culture instead of external training.
Every month, the boss selects a currently popular book and recommends it to key management cadres. Within a set time, they must finish reading and write their reflections. Both reading and reflections are assessed. Through regular monthly meetings, cadres from branches across the country are unified through online book-sharing sessions.
The viewpoints in each book are actually the issues the boss is currently pondering. When management cadres rethink, share, and discuss these issues, it also promotes the boss's own depth of thinking.
**A Historical Symbol**
A company lacking historical depth always seems to lack a sense of weight; a company whose culture cannot be passed down is just spinning its wheels in cultural construction, doing useless work. Dealer cultural construction isn't just about building; more importantly, it's about passing down—the inheritance.
Why does many dealers' cultural construction seem like a passing fad, waving sleeves and leaving no cloud behind? The key is that many dealer bosses, when it comes to culture, like to act on a whim and go all out! The formal cultural elements are set up, the surface is covered, and culture becomes words on the wall—just words on the wall.
Culture cannot spread automatically, nor can it be inherited, because dealers lack an inheritance mechanism for cultural self-replication.
What is an inheritance mechanism? For example, the continuation of surnames is an effective inheritance mechanism. Our eighteenth-generation descendants, seeing their surname and checking the family tree, know which branch they come from. Look at Deyun She's generational culture: Guo Degang's disciples are ranked by "Yun He Jiu Xiao, Long Teng Si Hai" (云鹤九霄,龙腾四海). The character you're given tells you your generation. Even after Guo Degang passes away, in the crosstalk circle, mentioning "Yun He Jiu Xiao, Long Teng Si Hai" tells everyone whose disciple you are and your rank. These eight characters are the historical symbol that Deyun She can automatically inherit.
Not just in crosstalk circles; companies also have inheritance symbols. At Huawei and Tencent, it's the employee number culture. Looking at the size of the employee number, you can roughly tell a person's position and tenure.
At Alibaba, it's the flower name (花名). It's said that Alibaba employees' flower names are mostly two characters; three-character ones are mostly big shots, like Jack Ma's Feng Qingyang, Daniel Zhang's Xiao Yaozi, and Lu Zhaoxi's Temujin. Anyone wanting to join Alibaba is required to give themselves a martial arts flower name.
When Chiang Kai-shek founded the Whampoa Military Academy, the class number of cadets was also an automatic inheritance symbol. For example, Song Xilian was from the first class, Lin Biao from the fourth. During the KMT-CCP cooperation, six classes were held, which trained numerous pivotal military talents for modern China.
So, dealer bosses need to think clearly: among the cultural systems we establish today, is there a symbol that won't be outdated even ten years later? It could be an interesting employee number or flower name; it could also be an idol organization, like the "Huang Jiguang Hero Company" or the "Dong Cunrui Combat Hero Squad," which are symbols that can guide later generations to continue forward.
**On October 23-24, during the Autumn Sugar and Wine Fair, the "2018 FMCG City Distribution Logistics Conference" hosted by New Distribution will be held.** We will invite industry experts, FMCG warehousing and distribution specialists, and dealers who have transformed into unified warehousing and distribution platforms to discuss and answer questions around the theme of "New Distribution, New City Distribution," focusing on future trends in FMCG city distribution logistics and practical cases of dealer transformation. We hope it brings you different inspiration and thoughts!
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