---
title: "Deep Cultivation of Offline Channels, Covering 6,000+ Restaurant Outlets and 4,000+ Traditional Stores: The 26-Year Business Wisdom of a Traditional Distributor!"
description: "From the 1990s to today, the trading and distribution business has undergone tremendous changes, from the early dividends of information asymmetry to the rise of hypermarkets, the impact of internet e-commerce, and now the proliferation of fragmented channels. Distributors have continuously evolved with these changes; those who adapt grow larger, while those who don't are gradually eliminated. Recently, New Distribution interviewed Huang Silong, chairman of Guiyang Lingyun Trading Co., Ltd., who has been in the trading business for 26 years. Starting his business in 1997, he has grown from wholesale to a regional leading distributor, covering over 10,000 stores."
author: "周群"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2023-09-06"
language: "en"
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original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/CKryi3Ea-JkfvroKAe6bZw"
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# Deep Cultivation of Offline Channels, Covering 6,000+ Restaurant Outlets and 4,000+ Traditional Stores: The 26-Year Business Wisdom of a Traditional Distributor!

> From the 1990s to today, the trading and distribution business has undergone tremendous changes, from the early dividends of information asymmetry to the rise of hypermarkets, the impact of internet e-commerce, and now the proliferation of fragmented channels. Distributors have continuously evolved with these changes; those who adapt grow larger, while those who don't are gradually eliminated. Recently, New Distribution interviewed Huang Silong, chairman of Guiyang Lingyun Trading Co., Ltd., who has been in the trading business for 26 years. Starting his business in 1997, he has grown from wholesale to a regional leading distributor, covering over 10,000 stores.

From the 1990s to today, the entire trading and distribution business has undergone tremendous changes. From the early dividends of information asymmetry to the rise of hypermarkets, the impact of internet e-commerce, and now the proliferation of fragmented channels.
Distributors, as a group, have continuously transformed alongside these changes. Those who adapt grow larger, while those who don't are gradually eliminated, disappearing into the annals of history. Recently, New Distribution conducted an exclusive interview with Huang Silong, chairman of Guiyang Lingyun Trading Co., Ltd., who has been in the trading business for 26 years. Starting his business in 1997, he has grown from wholesale to a regional leading distributor, representing dozens of brands including Bingfeng, Weiyi, the full Nongfu Spring series, Ganten, JDB, Green Orchard, Orion, and Loacker Wafers, covering over 10,000 stores. After in-depth communication, the author found that Huang Silong, despite over 20 years of experience in the trading field, continues to learn new ideas and methods, holding unique insights into market operations. His thoughts are sure to inspire other distributors.

**26 Years of Entrepreneurship: Innovation is the Norm**
After graduating from a vocational college, Huang Silong entered the railway system, working in logistics. In an era when the average monthly salary was only 200-300 yuan, he earned over 1,000 yuan. "An iron rice bowl with high wages" was a job many envied. But being young, Huang Silong wanted to carve out his own career. Despite family opposition, he resigned from the railway system in 1997 and started his own business. Due to his logistics background, he was familiar with the FMCG industry, so after resigning, he secured a counter in a wholesale market and began a water and beverage wholesale business. At that time, the market was relatively easy; as long as you had goods, they sold, but the challenge was that Huang Silong initially had no supply sources. Purchasing from local distributors offered no price advantage. For example, distributors sold to stores at 24 yuan per case, and they gave him the same price, with no so-called second-tier wholesale price. With no price advantage, Huang Silong came up with an idea: change the packaging specification. He changed 24 bottles per case to 10 bottles per pack, selling each pack for 11 yuan. By breaking cases and repacking, he earned 2.4 yuan per case, achieving good sales while ensuring profits.

After establishing a foothold in the wholesale market, Huang Silong began thinking about how to stand out. He noticed a phenomenon: **the wholesale market had fixed business hours, closing promptly at 5:30 PM. But at that time, many small shop owners were mom-and-pop operations, where one person watched the store while the other had a regular job, leaving no time to stock up during the day.** So, Huang Silong rented a storefront outside the wholesale stall and stayed open until after 10 PM. He also **actively transformed from a passive seller to an active one, delivering goods directly to stores that ordered.** Through this leading approach, Guiyang Lingyun Trading gradually established a foothold in Guiyang. By 2002, many brands, such as Nongfu and Master Kong, were proactively seeking Huang Silong as their distributor. However, transitioning from wholesale to distribution brought new problems. Major brands were powerful; despite his large volume, when the brand issued "channel flattening" directives, they would carve up the market without reason, causing significant business losses. Huang Silong realized that **brands belong to others; only channels are the distributor's moat. If you do well in channels, business naturally thrives.** But at that time, Lingyun Trading's core distribution channel was still second-tier wholesalers, which was unhealthy. Starting in 2015, Lingyun Trading's core strategy shifted to **channel construction as the center.** They first acquired two snack food distributors and one distributor specializing in restaurant channels, achieving deep coverage across all channels in Guiyang. After three years of integration and cultivation, they covered 6,000+ restaurant outlets and 4,000+ traditional stores. **With strong channels, brands naturally come.** Lingyun Trading gradually represented brands such as Bingfeng, Weiyi, the full Nongfu series, Ganten, JDB, Green Orchard, Huabin Red Bull, Dongpeng Special Drink, Orion, and Loacker Wafers.

**Let Employees Make Money First**
**Then the Company Makes Money**
In external business management, Lingyun Trading adopts a regional responsibility system, where sales representatives are responsible for all channels in their area. However, with rapid channel expansion, new problems emerged: the team was not adapted to new channels. For example, those in circulation channels didn't understand restaurant channel operations, and vice versa. Lingyun Trading's solution was twofold: on one hand, they cross-deployed sales representatives so that adjacent areas had complementary expertise. For instance, if the representative in Area A previously focused on restaurant channels, the representative in adjacent Area B would be familiar with circulation or other channels, forming a complementary and mutually supportive system. On the other hand, through compensation and performance mechanisms, they encouraged representatives to quickly adapt to channel changes and learn new channel operation methods. Huang Silong told New Distribution, **"The core indicator of a company's success is whether the team has combat effectiveness. To make employees strong, first, they must be able to earn money at your company, and second, they must gain a sense of honor."** The core of Lingyun Trading's compensation and performance system is high incentives. First, in sales, they adopt a tiered cumulative incentive: the more you sell, the higher the commission rate. For example, selling 1 case earns 1 yuan, selling 10 cases earns 3 yuan per case, and selling 100 cases earns 5 yuan per case—a tiered high incentive. It's important to note that sales representatives can only sell within the company's price system; they are not allowed to offer special price discounts just because they sell more. In addition to individual incentives, Lingyun Trading also has team rewards. Under a team project system, if task indicators are met, each person receives a certain bonus. If all team members complete their tasks, the reward doubles. At the same time, honor is always synchronized with bonuses; representatives who complete targets ahead of schedule must receive commendation orders so that all employees see the recognition immediately. Furthermore, Huang Silong consciously cultivates employees' management skills by regularly purchasing books to enhance their abilities and organizing outstanding employees to attend training courses and industry conferences. Lingyun Trading's "wolf culture" fully leverages the initiative of sales representatives and effectively improves employee stability. At Lingyun Trading, one-third of employees have over 15 years of service, and two-thirds have over 5 years.

**To Build a Brand Well**
**Invest 3 Years for Sustained Profit**
**As a distributor, channels are the core competitiveness, but another important capability is the ability to operate brands in the regional market—whether you can sell goods well.** Huang Silong believes that **selling well-known national brands well is essentially not the distributor's capability but relies more on the brand's own influence. For a distributor, if you can take a locally lesser-known brand to the top of the region, that truly demonstrates brand operation capability.** At that time, in the Guiyang market, beverages were dominated by foreign brands. Because Orion's distributor annual meetings were often held in Xi'an, Huang Silong came across a beverage that sold very well in Xi'an—Xi'an Bingfeng. After some contact, at the end of 2018, Lingyun Trading became the distributor for Bingfeng. Although Bingfeng was well-known in Xi'an, consumers in Guiyang had little brand awareness. Huang Silong told New Distribution that there were two reasons for taking on Bingfeng: first, the channels were already built, and operating Bingfeng could serve as team training; second, domestic beverages were gradually rising, and in the future, domestic beverages would definitely have a place in the Guiyang market, and Bingfeng had that potential.

How did Lingyun Trading make Bingfeng strong in the Guiyang market? **First, they designed a complete price system to ensure profits at every level.** Bingfeng's price in Xi'an was not high, but Huang Silong considered that if they followed Xi'an's price system, it would fall into the mainstream product price band, which was not advantageous. Moreover, Bingfeng had low awareness in Guiyang at the time, so it had no competitiveness in that price band, and the profit was insufficient to open the market. Based on the Guiyang market situation, Lingyun Trading redesigned a complete price system. First, ensure sufficient profit for terminals; second, ensure the company has sufficient funds for market operations. On the issue of cross-regional selling (channel conflict), Lingyun Trading also made micro-innovations. Many distributors rely entirely on manufacturers to prevent cross-regional selling, but manufacturers have limited energy and complex management processes. Lingyun Trading's approach was to replace the original plastic baskets for glass bottles with custom-made cartons, affix self-made barcodes, and print hidden codes on all boxes. This made it easy to detect products from other regions in the market, then immediately audit and report to Bingfeng headquarters. **Second, in consumer pull, they fully utilized the characteristics of restaurant channel service, promoting purchases through scenario creation.** For example, offering free Bingfeng at class reunions not only lets consumers taste the product but also gives Bingfeng exposure when consumers share on social media. **Finally, and most importantly, continuously increase brand exposure to build strong consumer awareness of Bingfeng.**

**Internally, unify cognition and increase sales representatives' attention to Bingfeng.** In addition to compensation and performance incentives, more important is top-down guidance. Lingyun Trading specially established the "Guizhou Bingfeng" official account and video account, and cooperated with the boss's social media to increase publicity for Bingfeng, letting employees know the company's emphasis on Bingfeng. **Externally, increase exposure to enhance consumer awareness of Bingfeng.** In 2020, Lingyun Trading invested on its own to create a Bingfeng special train in Guiyang. Because in consumers' eyes, a brand that advertises on the subway must not be a small brand. Through this approach, they built strong awareness in consumers' minds. To this day, Lingyun Trading continues to seek exposure in crowded places. In 2023, when Guizhou Village Super League became popular, Huang Silong keenly sensed this was a great exposure opportunity and immediately sought cooperation, entering as a sponsor. As Huang Silong said, to operate a brand well, you must first invest 3 years to establish a basic market foundation before considering profitability. Through continuous proactive investment, Lingyun Trading has brought Bingfeng to the forefront of beverage market share in Guiyang.

**Final Thoughts**
New Distribution has previously shared that the core capabilities distributors need to develop in the future are **first, the ability to cover channel outlets, and second, market-based operational and promotional capabilities.** Channels are the core of a distributor's survival; with channels, you have corresponding bargaining power. The key to shifting from a brand-led market to a distributor-led market is strong control over channels.
Operational and promotional capabilities: In the past, many distributors existed merely as "porters," relying on brand dividends. But now, distributors need to possess operational and promotional capabilities to maintain sustained competitiveness in the market.


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