Click to read the original text for details When a distributor company is highly profitable, what comes to mind first? Is it the strong brands they represent, the boss's marketing savvy, or their financial strength and smooth channels? I've asked many distributors, and answers vary, but no boss has ever said it's because their salespeople are excellent—professional, clear, and articulate. Sales personnel capabilities are often overlooked.

In reality, every distributor hopes their team is a pack of tigers and wolves, but when the word "training" is mentioned, they instinctively think, "I hired people to sell goods for me directly; why do they need training? The company is not a school." At the same time, distributors also understand that a sales team that spends 100,000 to 200,000 yuan annually on training and development will show a completely different level of combat effectiveness compared to an ordinary "free-range" team. Even an experienced sales "veteran" has huge room for improvement after professional training.

A distributor's profitability depends on selling goods, and ultimately, every box is sold by salespeople. Therefore, the capability of sales personnel directly affects sales volume and revenue, yet distributors often overlook this and lack empowerment training for their salespeople. Today, we'll discuss four aspects of how distributors can enhance the personal capabilities of their sales team members.

-01- Focus on Training to Enhance Team Professional Skills As a salesperson, you must first possess basic professional skills: learn product knowledge, memorize company promotional policies, and make customers see you as an expert. Gaining customers' professional recognition makes subsequent negotiations easier. Many bosses complain that new hires are inadequate, but the truth is that most distributors don't even provide basic skills training before sending them out to sell. If they don't know product selling points, promotional policies, or pricing systems, how can you expect them to generate sales?

Moreover, salesperson assessments are tied to compensation, so generally, employees do what the boss evaluates. We can have the clerk responsible for promotions create a product selling points manual and teach it to all sales personnel. Then, conduct exams monthly or quarterly, with rewards and penalties based on results, and take it seriously.

Once salespeople master professional skills, we can use them to convey product selling points to every store. Only when the terminal can articulate selling points can consumers receive the information and boost sales. All products now are in oversupply; selling upgraded, high-end products requires selling points, emphasizing nutrition, health, and other value-driven aspects. Without improving sales personnel's professional skills, adjusting your product structure is impossible.

Professional skills cover a lot. Basic skills can be trained in-house, or you can regularly purchase sales technique books, CDs, or use online videos, live streams, WeChat groups, etc., to provide a learning platform. After learning, organize sharing sessions where randomly selected members speak and share.

What about content that is highly specialized and that even we bosses don't fully understand or can't teach through example? This requires distributors to lead the team out for training. You must be willing to spend this money on courses, not waste it in the market.

In our company, we take the team out for training every year. As early as 2013, I led department managers out, spending over 10,000 yuan per person. Now we allocate about 200,000 yuan annually for team training. Growing from 86 million to 300 million in scale is thanks to such a sales team.

Some distributors learn themselves but don't bring the team along, so when they return, the team doesn't listen, wasting the effort. Learning is for application, so after training, organize the team to create action plans on the spot, share them, then apply them in the market for validation, continuously improve, and after validation, hold meetings to summarize and share.

Additionally, leverage upstream manufacturer resources by having brand professionals train sales personnel periodically.

I suggest that many companies currently work 6 days a week; I think adjusting to 5 days is feasible. Use the extra day for data analysis, discussions, and research to enhance the sales team's capabilities. As the saying goes, "sharpening the axe won't delay the wood cutting." Once the team's capabilities improve, even working 5 days can yield better results. As distributors, we must understand that the sales team is our most important "asset." Our products rely on them for promotion and sales, and terminals and customers rely on them for maintenance and communication. Therefore, the team's capabilities directly affect our business. Some distributor bosses complain about their salespeople's incompetence, but they often overlook the importance of professional skills training.

-02- Develop Presentation Skills to Make Salespeople "Coaches" Besides professional sales skills, I believe another crucial skill is presentation ability.

If you don't realize its importance, compare your salespeople with brand manufacturers' salespeople. You'll find that regional managers from brand companies communicate without issues, train your staff with clear thinking, and create excellent PPTs. What about your own team? Department managers may be illogical in communication, can't even make PPTs for meetings, and their training is often incomplete. Salespeople may stutter when talking to customers and turn red on stage, unable to speak. This is the gap in presentation skills.

In our company, we organize presentation competitions. This stage is not for the boss but for salespeople and department managers, and the boss should watch from below to train the entire team. I often tell my department managers that without presentation skills, you can't be a leader, because leaders are often coaches for salespeople, and the first thing they need is presentation ability. The same applies to salespeople. As distributors, you must equip your team with presentation skills to better convey products and strategies to customers. Make every salesperson a "coach." Why can all brand salespeople, sales managers, and regional managers systematically explain product features and strategies and present analytical content? Because brand teams hold monthly meetings where they present on stage, and the sales director asks them to make market plans. That's why brand salespeople grow faster.

Why can't we distributors adopt this method? It's entirely feasible.

-03- Cultivate Logical Thinking Skills to Solve Problems Efficiently Speaking of presentation, we must also mention logical thinking. What is logical thinking?

For example, when my sales manager reports to me, he does it like this: He knocks on my office door and says, "Mr. Li, I need to report an issue." First, he explains the background and situation. Then he says, "Mr. Li, based on this situation, I've made a plan," and clearly lists points 1, 2, 3. Then he asks, "Mr. Li, based on my plan, do you have any additions or adjustments?" This kind of logical thinking is lacking in many distributor teams. In reality, many sales teams are used to directly barging in and saying, "Mr. Li, something went wrong today. How should we solve it?" throwing the problem to the boss. And many bosses are used to directly instructing subordinates on what to do.

Over time, the distributor boss becomes a conductor, and the sales team can't exercise initiative or develop problem-solving thinking. In comparison, I only need to answer "yes" or "no," at most give some supplementary suggestions, while you need to solve the entire problem. A team with logical thinking can solve problems independently, making the whole team more efficient, capable of doing more, and improving communication significantly. As the boss, you'll also handle company issues faster, right? That's the importance of cultivating logical thinking in your sales team.

So, next time your department manager reports, tell him, "Don't ask me what to do; come back with a concrete plan." Your salespeople's logical thinking will immediately improve.

-04- Design Communication Scripts to Make Customers More "Obedient" Finally, I want to discuss practical skills that salespeople can apply directly on the front line: designing communication scripts.

"A true master can perfectly unify various problems and contradictions"—this has been my WeChat signature for 7 years. Communication scripts are the best way to unify and solve problems and contradictions. When salespeople visit the market, they face issues like customer returns, customer structure, cross-regional sales, promotional policies, etc. How to solve these on the front line? That's the ultimate goal of designing communication scripts.

Some bosses always ignore communication issues, thinking they're trivial. As a result, salespeople ramble during customer interactions, missing the point and direction, and have no other means than using costs and prices to negotiate.

So, what kind of communication is most effective?

First, we must clarify the purpose of communication: to sell products. Communicating with customers is the process of persuading them to agree with your ideas.

After clarifying the purpose, we design the communication script. The design has four elements:

1. Say what customers want to hear In my team, salespeople are required to start with praise when visiting customers. Praise is the lubricant of communication. For example, if a store is run by a female boss, the salesperson should first compliment, "Boss lady, you've become more beautiful," "Boss lady, you've lost weight recently," etc. Everyone likes to hear good things, and this praise builds a bridge for subsequent communication, making it smoother.

2. Say what customers can take in "Boss, it's mid-March now, and beer is about to enter its peak season. Many customers are rushing orders. Once the peak season hits, all manufacturers reduce promotions. So, I suggest you start stocking up on beer now." Such words are beneficial to the boss, so they are what he can take in.

3. Say what you should say "Boss, since you should stock up on beer, we have promotional policies until the end of this month, which will be canceled on April 1st." Remind the dealer to seize the opportunity.

4. Say what you want to say Finally, what you want to say is your ultimate goal: getting the order. "Boss, with our current promotion of 100 boxes for 10 free, will you take 300 boxes or 500 boxes?" This last sentence is what you want, so the first three parts serve the last.

Here, we give the customer a choice. Even if he had no idea how much to order, he might be guided by your options. "500 boxes is too many; let's go with 300." The customer might answer. At this point, the salesperson can continue to seize the opportunity: "Boss, you should seize the opportunity. 500 boxes is no problem. Beer sells too well in peak season. Remember last year? You ordered a few hundred boxes and sold out quickly. Later, when you asked me for more, I couldn't even get approval from my boss, let alone with promotional policies." After this, the customer will likely happily decide on 500 boxes.

This is the importance of communication script design.

Additionally, there are some techniques in communication:

For example, tell customers about successful cases: "Mr. Wang over there ran a promotion and increased sales by this much." Through professional product explanations and successful case introductions, the boss will see you as an expert and gradually trust you.

Or when a customer asks, "What promotional policy did you give Mr. Wang? Is his price different from mine?" You should learn to blur the answer and say, "Do you think I'd give Lao Wang a better policy than yours? Impossible. Don't worry, you're our core customer." Although this doesn't directly answer the customer, it resolves his doubts.

There are many more, but I won't list them all here. This article aims to tell distributor bosses not to underestimate team development and improvement; take it seriously. The core of any company is talent; people and teams should be the priority, and the sales team's capabilities are enhanced through training. The growth of salespeople determines the size of orders, and the improvement of their capabilities determines the speed of the distributor company's development and whether you can capture a larger market in the future. If your sales team is not a strong wolf-like team, your business development will inevitably be difficult.