In today's rapidly developing modern channels, the sales ratio and status of traditional versus modern channels have undergone earth-shaking changes. Modern channels are thriving in the market. Many dealers have noticed the importance of modern channels and have put great effort into managing them. A few days ago, the author visited a branch of a national large supermarket chain in a medium-sized city to check product displays and sales, and also went to see an old friend, the low-temperature purchasing manager of this supermarket. While chatting in the reception room, I ran into a former client, Boss Zhang, a local distributor for several national brands. We exchanged greetings and small talk. I learned that he had come to pay the promotional staff management fee to the supermarket. I knew this dealer's strength and style well: he had dozens of employees, and five staff members dedicated to the supermarket system. He had two department managers, one specifically responsible for the supermarket system, and he was willing to delegate authority, showing modern management awareness. As far as I knew, tasks like paying fees to supermarkets were usually handled by business managers or supervisors. I joked, "Boss Zhang, why did you come yourself? An old hand is worth two, but the money doesn't stretch twice, right?" The client saw me and said happily, "I've been wanting to talk to you for a long time, but you always say you're busy. Now I've caught you, what do you have to say?" I smiled and said, "My fault. I've indeed been busy with work issues recently. But I planned to visit you on this trip to ** city." "That's perfect, I do have something to ask your help with. Let's find a place to talk properly; I'll treat you to dinner today," the client said. In the evening, at a top restaurant in the city, the dealer told me about a problem that had been troubling him for a long time. After some communication, I finally understood the issue weighing on his mind. This client started as a wholesale dealer and became a brand distributor. In the early days, he handled all expense-related matters personally. As business grew, his strength increased, and social engagements multiplied, he gradually improved his management system and introduced advanced management ideas, establishing a sales team. The dealer had over a dozen salespeople and introduced a manager system, hiring an external business manager to handle sales. He himself made important decisions and dealt with functional departments. Previously, supermarket expenses like stack fees, promotional management fees, annual renewal fees, and store anniversary fees were all handled by the business manager. One or two years passed like this. On this basis, the client's business grew bigger and bigger. The business was thriving. The dealer just wandered around, looking here and there, living a comfortable life. Three months ago, the business manager applied for a 5,000 yuan stack fee for a *** supermarket. Since that store was indeed a key account for Boss Zhang, and the fee had not increased much compared to before, he readily approved the payment to the business manager. Later, when Boss Zhang had business in Shijiazhuang, he happened to meet the current purchasing manager of the supermarket's low-temperature section at the station. Since Boss Zhang had not been involved in specific sales for a long time, he had little contact with the terminal. He knew the purchaser's name and had met him a few times, but not deeply. This time, Boss Zhang politely exchanged pleasantries, and that conversation startled him. Due to regulations and policies, some supermarkets do not issue invoices for certain irregular fees. Moreover, some fees are not fixed and include elements of personal relationships. As a result, some supermarket system managers take advantage of this to embezzle. Even if the boss suspects, there is no evidence. In the case of Boss Zhang, the business manager applied for 5,000 yuan for stack fees, but the purchasing manager only received 3,000 yuan. Clearly, 2,000 yuan went into the business manager's pocket. In reality, the supply-retail relationship is such that many suppliers are afraid of offending the store and its purchasers. Although they are troubled by the numerous fees, they know that if they don't pay, someone else will, given the limited space, shelves, and stack positions. In this environment, the inequality between dealers and supermarkets creates communication barriers, preventing many problems from being discovered and corrected in time. After learning the truth, Boss Zhang remained calm on the surface and eventually gathered evidence of the business manager's embezzlement, recovering some losses. However, in subsequent work, he could not trust anyone, as the saying goes, "Once bitten, twice shy." Whenever supermarket expenses were involved, he had to handle them personally, making himself nervous and paranoid. Finally, Boss Zhang asked me dejectedly, "Manager Zhang, when I started my business, I didn't have to worry so much. Why is it so hard to find reliable and capable people now? Is there a good way to solve the embezzlement problem?" I can't help but ask: Is this really just a problem with business managers and supervisors? Of course, with the large-scale entry of international hypermarkets in recent years, domestic supermarkets have been influenced by their advanced management models and gradually realized how tempting non-operating income is. They have imitated the fee systems of international stores, even going further with more creative fees. Distributors of strong brands are better off, but for those with general products, they often sell at a loss to maintain their image. In such circumstances, if business staff also take a cut from supermarket expenses, the dealer's frustration is understandable. Such principled issues involving expenses are not limited to managers; even frontline supermarket maintenance staff sometimes have ideas. When I was responsible for KA systems at a company, I went to the frontline to inspect the market and found multiple cases where supermarket business staff or stock clerks embezzled promotional staff wages. Since promotional staff usually only have meetings once a week or even once a month, daily management falls on the dealer or supermarket business staff, and weekly and daily reports are usually compiled by the business staff. So it is very easy to underreport promotional staff rest days or absences and then deduct wages for those days. Although some companies have changed to paying promotional staff wages directly to their bank cards, under the dealer system, this still happens. The above situations are quite serious. I believe that any business staff responsible for supermarkets has, at home, more or less some promotional gifts from the company. Some are taken directly from the company, which is a warehouse issue, but more often they are intercepted from the terminal, or obtained through collusion in various promotional activities. Some even collude with the section chief to extract kickbacks, not much each time, but it adds up over time. This is also a headache for dealers in terms of expense loss. After discussing internal issues, I want to ask: Which FMCG dealer hasn't returned damaged goods to the supermarket or made up for inventory shortages? Even if the contract doesn't specify, or even if it says settlement based on actual sales, when the section chief calls and says, "The inventory count is short by two items; can you make it up?" Do you make it up? If you do, it's a loss, and there may be more next time. If you don't, your display space will be ruthlessly squeezed by competitors, and you'll have no one to complain to. Now that we understand the several ways supermarket expenses are lost, let's look back at Boss Zhang's problem and consider how to prevent or reduce unnecessary expense losses in business, including both normal and abnormal losses. In my opinion, the possibility of completely eliminating such losses is almost zero. As long as supermarkets operate behind closed doors and fees remain opaque, and as long as national regulations to eliminate unreasonable supermarket fees are not enforced, embezzlement cannot be eradicated. But expense management ultimately comes down to personnel management. Therefore, effective supervision is the most direct means. Based on this, I gave Boss Zhang the following suggestions:

  1. Regarding the supermarket system, you don't need to handle everything personally, but you also can't let go completely. Irregularly communicate with supermarket functional departments and operations departments to better understand the terminal and deter employees with intentions to stray.
  2. The work of sales promoters is crucial in the sales process. Protecting their interests is protecting sales. Usually, there are multiple layers between the boss and the promoter, such as stock clerks, business staff, supervisors, or managers. Few dealer bosses have deep communication with promoters. So strengthen the weekly meeting system for promoters, and have the boss attend the promoters' summary meetings (not necessarily the training parts), communicating with each promoter individually. This not only helps objectively understand the supermarket's own and competitors' sales but also prevents fraud caused by "the emperor not seeing his ministers for three years."
  3. Regarding product loss during cooperation with supermarkets, it is essential to prevent loss during inspection and before entering the warehouse. I have personally seen delivery drivers, when no one was looking, load two boxes of someone else's products onto their trucks and leave. Once products are in the warehouse and the supermarket, the probability of loss drops significantly. So strengthen the awareness of drivers and promoters: when the promoter is in the store, the promoter is responsible; when the promoter is absent, the driver is responsible. Products must be fully accounted for in the warehouse. Marketing has developed to a point where there are no problems without answers; only differences in suitability and effectiveness. Persistently implementing simple management measures may be more effective than flashy ones. Any answer to a problem has right and wrong, but for management, right or wrong is not too important; what matters is effectiveness. I believe many friends have encountered Boss Zhang's situation, or perhaps just haven't discovered it yet. If this article can make everyone vigilant about the devil in the details and start plugging the loopholes now, then whatever the answer is, it will be effective. Reply with the following keywords to search and read related professional articles: Sales Supervisor, Second-tier Management, Regional Manager, Dealer Management, New Channels, City Manager, Competition, 2015, Manufacturer-Dealer Game, Product Stagnation, Terminal Visit Management, Route Management, Deep Distribution, Internal Management, Sales Skills, Profit Improvement, Recruitment, Distribution, Daily Management, Team Motivation, Trade Promotion, Sales Misconceptions, New Product Launch, Township Market, New Product Pricing, Sales Target Achievement, Closing Orders, Market Visit Inspection, Baijiu, Beer, Sales Increase, Agency Products, Cross-region Sales, KA, Terminal Merchandising, New Market, Market Operation, Learning, Book Recommendations, Inventory Management, New Salespeople, Consumer Promotion, Execution, Old Products, Expired Product Handling, Model Market, Franchise Recruitment, New Media, Dealer Development, Performance Appraisal, Assessment, Annual Planning, Sales Promotion, Morning Meeting, Display, Transformation, Stock Pressure, Holidays, Dealer Cost Control, Channel Operation, Marketing Theory and Laws, Brand Truth, Order Meeting, Team Management, Training, Debriefing, Work Report.