March 2016 has arrived, and the Chinese market, having experienced the Spring Festival, is gradually recovering. Large-scale gift product sales have come to an end. Students are back in school, migrant workers have left, rural areas have returned to calm, and cities are bustling again. New business opportunities are approaching with the 94th Spring Sugar and Wine Fair. Distributors are again at the time of selecting products to sell. As the saying goes, a year's plan starts in spring, and a year's harvest depends on choosing the right products.

As the saying goes, to achieve quick success, one must master internal skills. For FMCG distributors, the core of internal skills is having the right talent. After the Spring Festival, staff turnover, the establishment of a system for selecting, training, and utilizing new employees, and the improvement of systems for developing, utilizing, and retaining existing employees need to be properly arranged by distributors. Only then can distributors go out and find more suitable products to operate and make money.

Regarding employee development, I offer the following suggestions, hoping to help distributor friends.

A. Suggestions on selecting, training, and utilizing new personnel

Distributors must face the most realistic problem: the limitations and constraints of our work platform. If you represent small brands, you need salespeople who are articulate and also can move, unload, stack, display goods, collect payments, do accounting, and drive... The key is that you don't know how much they can sell, and income is uncertain. If you represent big brands, besides acting as laborers and drivers, they face tedious tasks from manufacturers regarding displays, end caps, and various account executions. Problems lead to penalties, and stability is poor, with long or unpredictable working hours. Why would capable people work on such a platform? Why don't they seek a marketing job at a manufacturer or start their own delivery business? They don't want to work for you! Those with weaker abilities we don't fancy, or we think training them takes too long and the investment exceeds our tolerance, so you don't want them to work for you!

There are many other issues in between. For example, a distributor in Shangqiu assigns one person per delivery truck, handling driving, sales promotion, invoicing, payment collection, loading and unloading, negotiation, and all other tasks. Several problems need consideration:

  1. Human physiological and psychological endurance is limited; continuous mental and physical work is hard to bear.
  2. If this person leaves for objective or subjective reasons, who will take over your market? How?
  3. Negotiating new products is not a one-person job; it requires 2-3 people to cooperate. If you use this approach for new products, it's basically a death sentence, with very low chances of success.
  4. If they do well, such an excellent person will surely fly solo within a short time.

So, to succeed, you must plan ahead; without planning, you will fail. Here are the methods:

First, when selecting people, choose those from rural families, preferably the eldest child. Only children are generally hard to recruit and retain. Choose those from rural areas, with calloused hands preferred; those with soft hands need not be considered. Also, have a detailed understanding of their family situation. You hire them to do specific work, not to build a network. So, if the person's uncles or aunts are leaders in units or have good economic conditions and their own businesses, they are basically not your employees, because people raised in such families are influenced, have active minds, and may go do what they like at any time. It might be better to choose a single-minded person. I am one such person; I've worked in the FMCG circle for 13 years, selling instant noodles for 8 years and then running vermicelli marketing for 5 years. I don't detour when hitting a wall; I'd rather break my head than give up. So, my marketing work has been vibrant.

Also, analyze their birth date and time, including zodiac signs and blood types. Although these are not decisive factors, they help you judge a person's character more accurately, understand them better, and place them in more suitable positions.

B. Methods for training people

First, roughly set job positions. Generally, we want versatile talents, emphasizing multi-skilling. This is basically idealistic training. Distributors should divide your operations into segments. A driver's main duty is to drive well, protect the vehicle and goods, and ensure safe operation, while also assisting salespeople in promoting products and moving goods. Salespeople should explain product knowledge, competitor situations, market environment, and other information, get data accurate, and drive product sales. At the same time, different positions must have assessment and reward/punishment standards, as well as monthly fixed training and rest. Currently, distributors generally allow employees to take leave whenever they have something to do. This is not good; it lacks a sense of collective and work atmosphere. It is recommended to designate one day a week as a public rest day (it can be designated internally; Tuesday is also a good day). Consider employees more, avoid fatigue battles, and cultivate not only efficient but also effective employees.

C. Methods for utilizing people

Know people and use them well. Read books, read events, read people; the most important is the use of people. Use people's strengths, tolerate their shortcomings, and be mutually tolerant.

  1. Institutional requirements

People are inherently lazy and selfish. Distributors need to establish strict income and expenditure processes and supervise them. This is not about trusting or not trusting someone; it's about reminding them constantly and pulling employees back to the right track when they deviate. For drivers, there should be quantitative requirements for vehicle washing and maintenance. For salespeople, there should be reward and punishment requirements for distribution rate, sell-through rate, and reorder rate. For warehouse managers, there should be "three-line" requirements: "red, yellow, green" lines. Products within the red line are unsellable; within the yellow line are warning products that need to be sold quickly; within the green line are fast-moving goods. There should be requirements for goods stacking, ideally: in a 500-square-meter warehouse, a person with at least high school education can check inventory within 30 minutes. Once such a standard is established, you succeed.

  1. Humanistic education

Organize study sessions, internal life meetings for employees, regularly visit employees' parents, and for outstanding employees, push them to better platforms at manufacturers. Every three months, re-evaluate employees and leverage their strengths.

D. Methods for retaining people

The people you want to retain are basically those who can create profits for you. If you want long-term, shed the subordinate relationship and form a cooperative one. No one wants to work for you forever, and there is no banquet that doesn't end.

  1. Take the road of crowdfunding cooperation. When representing new products, explain the factory price and profits clearly, and you can share risks and development together.
  2. Introduce them to manufacturers as salespeople, preferably to serve your market again. Second cooperation is both managing your market and serving it.
  3. Most importantly, pay them appropriately.

While writing this, I kept thinking these methods are effective. Only by building a good team can the chances of successfully operating products in the market be higher. Here is a core: talk about fate, emotion, and money. Talking about money doesn't hurt feelings. Every employee has a family and responsibilities. Distributors are businessmen, and although they value profits and costs, sometimes they cannot only look at immediate costs and profits. At least look at one to three months. If you don't have the financial support, don't shout about recruiting. People who make money for you immediately are unlikely to come to work for you. Whether it's high salary plus low commission or low base salary plus high commission, you must let employees choose work they are familiar with. If the ox doesn't go to the field, how can it plow? If you want the horse to run fast, you must feed it well.

We must distinguish: being idealistic is emotional, being pragmatic is rational. Talk about dreams and reality. Employees think about taking money home.

If it's an ox, do the ox's work; if it's a wolf, do the wolf's work. A team is made up of various people. Only with cooperation and tolerance can you go far.

In 2016, if you want to continue being the boss, you have to fight and endure!

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