---
title: "Distributors Are Finding It Harder and Harder—At Least Half Are Driven by Anxiety"
description: "At the 11th CFC Conference in Chengdu from March 16-18, attendance surpassed 3,500, but the author felt deeply uneasy. A distributor, Gao Jingjing, expressed that dealers in her circle are universally anxious, constantly chasing new models and making hasty changes, leading to losses and more anxiety. The author reflects on the industry's role in amplifying this anxiety and urges dealers to calm down, think clearly, and consider a second battlefield in asset management."
author: "陈思廷"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2026-04-01"
categories: "Dealer Operations"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/distributors-are-finding-it-harder-and-harderat-least-half-are-driven-by-d2841872/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/distributors-are-finding-it-harder-and-harderat-least-half-are-driven-by-d2841872.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/JVwGKNFda1hnXBcuaxKHOA"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E7%BB%8F%E9%94%80%E5%95%86%E8%B6%8A%E5%81%9A%E8%B6%8A%E9%9A%BE-%E8%87%B3%E5%B0%91%E6%9C%89%E4%B8%80%E5%8D%8A%E9%83%BD%E6%98%AF%E8%A2%AB%E7%84%A6%E8%99%91%E9%80%BC%E7%9A%84-d2841872.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/distributors-are-finding-it-harder-and-harderat-least-half-are-driven-by-d2841872/"
citation: "陈思廷. “Distributors Are Finding It Harder and Harder—At Least Half Are Driven by Anxiety.” New Distribution, 2026-04-01. https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/distributors-are-finding-it-harder-and-harderat-least-half-are-driven-by-d2841872/"
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---

# Distributors Are Finding It Harder and Harder—At Least Half Are Driven by Anxiety

> At the 11th CFC Conference in Chengdu from March 16-18, attendance surpassed 3,500, but the author felt deeply uneasy. A distributor, Gao Jingjing, expressed that dealers in her circle are universally anxious, constantly chasing new models and making hasty changes, leading to losses and more anxiety. The author reflects on the industry's role in amplifying this anxiety and urges dealers to calm down, think clearly, and consider a second battlefield in asset management.

At the 11th CFC Conference in Chengdu from March 16-18, attendance historically exceeded 3,500, but I felt deeply oppressed.
During a break, Gao Jingjing, the owner of Beijing Guoyingjian Economic and Trade, approached me and spoke directly, leaving me unsettled for a long time.
She said that distributors in her circle are now generally very anxious.
Some frequently attend training sessions, and upon seeing a new model, they return and disrupt their companies—from B2b to instant retail, to opening discount supermarkets, to implementing the Amoeba management model. The more they lose money, the more they churn; the more they churn, the more anxious they become.
Her final words struck me directly: "This industry really needs someone to set things right, to help distributors let go of anxiety from a cognitive perspective, rather than continuing to amplify and spread anxiety."
I was silent for a long time.
Because what she called "amplifying anxiety" also includes us.
Another beverage distributor from Shanxi also left a lasting impression on me.
His first words to me were: "In our prefecture-level city, I want to do B2b. Is it feasible?" His eager and anxious gaze left me momentarily speechless.
Not because the answer was complex, but because he was asking the wrong question—a boss who hasn't yet figured out how many resources and how much team capability he has should not first ask "Should I do B2b?" but rather "What is the most important thing for me right now?"
The emotion of "anxiety" is like the flu, continuously and systematically harming distributors.
So today, I want to seriously discuss this matter.
Where does anxiety come from? It's not your fault.
In recent years, media, conferences, and consulting firms have been outputting the same message daily: channels are collapsing, deep distribution is gone, transform or die.
These judgments are not false; the industry has indeed changed.
But there's a problem no one mentions—it only tells you "you must change," but often doesn't clarify "do you have the ability to change, and do you need to change immediately?"
I must admit that "New Distribution" is also part of this voice.
We have written many articles about industry decline and transformation cases. These contents are true and valuable, but objectively they add fuel to the fire, amplifying and transmitting anxiety.
Gao Jingjing said we need to set things right. This statement is for the entire industry, and also for ourselves.
If a person hears every day "you're doomed, you need to act quickly," how can they stay calm over time?
Anxiety doesn't fall from the sky; it is blown up by media and experts repeatedly.
Anxiety grows bigger the more it's blown, the bigger it gets the more chaotic, and the more chaotic the harder it is to make correct judgments.
Anxiety makes bad things worse.
The distributors Gao Jingjing described—frequent learning, returning to churn—are by no means isolated cases nationwide.
I know a food distributor in Central China who has undergone three "transformations" in the past two years:
  * First, he followed the trend and implemented a B2b system, investing nearly one million yuan in software, hardware, and personnel costs. Six months later, the system was shelved;
  * Then, seeing the instant retail trend, he signed a lightning warehouse contract, but his product structure and fulfillment capabilities couldn't keep up, leading to losses and exit;
  * After that, he brought in a consulting firm for Amoeba organizational reform, but internal chaos led to the loss of several core team members.
Three disruptions in two years turned a previously stable business situation into a mess.
The fundamental problem is not his ability, but that every choice was made under anxiety.
In an anxious state, people cannot see clearly.
You think you're analyzing the situation, but you're actually just looking for an outlet to reassure yourself.
Seeing B2b become popular, you think it's a way out; seeing instant retail rise, you feel you must follow; hearing others succeed with Amoeba, you want to learn—behind every action, the driver is not clear judgment but anxiety.
What's worse, a boss's anxiety doesn't stop at the boss. If you panic, the team becomes chaotic.
The direction changes every three months, employees don't know where to focus, core people leave, and the rest start to wait and see.
After all the churning, you find that the biggest loss is not just money, but the team is gone.
Anxiety always makes people rush to find answers, but at this time, they haven't even thought about the right questions.
Calming down is the hardest first step.
In the "Great Learning," there is a saying that I consider the most practical management wisdom in traditional Chinese thought: "Know where to stop, then you can be settled; being settled, you can be calm; being calm, you can be at ease; being at ease, you can deliberate; deliberating, you can achieve."
> First know your boundaries, then your mind can be settled;
>
> With a settled mind, you can truly be calm;
>
> With calmness, you can think things through;
>
> With clarity, you know what to do.
Many distributors are not lacking in ability; their minds are too chaotic. Decisions made when the mind is chaotic are not truly thought-out decisions; they are decisions pushed by anxiety.
Calming down doesn't mean doing nothing; it means that everything you do is done after truly thinking it through.
After calming down, how should you think?
Many bosses in困境 have a common mindset: they completely bind themselves to the company.
If the company has problems, they feel it's their own problem; if the company fails, they feel their life is over. Under this mindset, no one can make correct judgments because they've backed themselves into a corner.
Therefore, the first thing I want to say is: first "pull" yourself out of the company.
You can try to seriously think: if the company really fails, what is the worst-case scenario?
Think it through, make it specific.
You'll find that the worst-case scenario is not as unbearable as you imagined.
Often, what immobilizes us is not the difficulty of the matter itself, but our unwillingness to think about it.
Once you dare to think about it, the weight pressing on you lightens by half. Allowing the worst to happen is the first step to calming yourself down.
The second thing is: before making any decision, ask yourself—if this fails, can I still stand up?
If the answer is yes, then you can do it; even if you lose, it's experience. If the answer is no, then no matter how promising it looks, you must not do it by staking everything you have.
There's an old saying in business: "As long as the green hills remain, there's no shortage of firewood."
The assets you've accumulated over twenty years of business are your ultimate confidence, not a bet.
Allow yourself to lose, but only make choices you can afford to lose. Leaving gracefully sometimes requires more courage and wisdom than holding on to the bitter end.
Below are the words I most want to say to bosses:
> Trade is a boss's career, but a career is not only trade;
>
> A career is part of life, but life has many more important things besides a career;
>
> Except for living your life well, there is nothing you must win.
Once you settle down, you can think about your second battlefield.
In fact, many distributors already have a foundational condition that many people lack: the possibility of opening a second battlefield in asset management.
Trade business competes on energy, channels, and connections, requiring high-intensity frontline operations; asset management competes on cognition, judgment, and patience.
These two abilities not only don't conflict but can complement each other—the understanding of the market you've accumulated on the frontline is precisely your underlying advantage for asset judgment.
Instead of going all in and over-consuming yourself on an increasingly difficult old track, consider opening a second battlefield simultaneously, allowing your accumulated wealth to create a more stable future under professional management.
Of course, this requires every distributor boss to seriously ask themselves a few questions:
  * Are my current assets still operating in the most reasonable way?
  * Is this trade battlefield, where I'm investing all my energy to hold on, truly the optimal allocation of resources right now?
  * If one day the trade path comes to an end, do I have other confidence?
Thinking through these questions before considering action is itself a form of calmness and a wisdom of being responsible for oneself.
Final Thoughts
The anxiety I saw at the CFC Conference made me feel distressed and also made me feel responsible to say these things.
The most scarce ability in this industry now is not transformation, but calmness. Anxiety makes people act hastily; calmness makes people do the right things.
Business can lose, but life cannot.
Only by leaving gracefully can you start anew; only by preserving your principal can you qualify for the next round.
At a time when distributors face their greatest challenges, "New Distribution" will not ignore everyone's anxiety, we will not shy away from our responsibility, and we will not remain silent.
May all distributor bosses no longer be anxious, first calm down, and then seriously think about life and the future.
Editor's note: In 2026, "New Distribution" & "Tower Alliance" will launch a series of in-depth research and exploration to find feasible transformation paths for Chinese FMCG distributors. Please stay tuned.


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## Citation metadata

- Publisher: New Distribution
- Author: 陈思廷
- Published: 2026-04-01
- Canonical: https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/distributors-are-finding-it-harder-and-harderat-least-half-are-driven-by-d2841872/
- Original source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/JVwGKNFda1hnXBcuaxKHOA

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