As the saying goes, 'It takes ten years to share a boat, and a hundred years to share a bed.' Though manufacturers and distributors may not reach the 'sharing a bed' stage, they should at least cultivate a bond deeper than mere boat-sharing. In their journey together, mutual reminders and support at critical moments can make them joyful partners.

With intensifying competition in the business environment, the marketing mindset of moving the terminal forward by one meter and extending promotions to residential areas has taken root in most distributors' minds. Some distributors have attended more training, seen more of the world, and know more principles than the enterprises themselves, yet the pain for enterprises is that while distributors seem to understand the principles, their actions often amount to 'loud thunder but small raindrops,' or even no thunder at all.

This leads to a common issue in our daily distributor service: Marketing creates more sales opportunities—distributors understand this, but why don't they act?

Every household has its own difficult scripture, and one key cannot open all locks. The thorny problem of distributors knowing the truth but not acting requires tailored solutions.

1 The 'Don't Know How' Type: They know they should promote outside the store and attract traffic, but they don't know where to start.

In fact, the proportion of distributors who completely don't know how to do outside promotion and traffic attraction is shrinking. Most distributors know the general methods, but because they've heard about it from the sidelines or have dabbled in it themselves, they feel the results aren't that great. So they stop and wait for manufacturers or experts to teach them a one-hit-wonder secret technique, planning to try it once they've mastered it. But many distributors wait until their stores close down without ever finding that person who can teach them the ultimate move.

We often say, 'A third-rate plan with first-rate execution can achieve second-rate results.' Especially today, consumers have developed strong immunity to various flashy promotional formats. Creating a groundbreaking promotion that requires little investment and yields high returns is like looking for a needle in a haystack—it requires both inspiration and timing. So when a promotion plan lacks explosiveness and strong virality, it needs to be compensated by another aspect: systematicity.

For example, we all recognize that when we say someone's thinking is impressive, it either means their depth of thought reaches levels we haven't touched, or their breadth of thinking—the systematic way they consider a problem—is thorough and orderly. The essence of designing a promotion plan lies in this.

Most distributors know that distributing flyers and buy-one-get-one offers are becoming less effective, but few know that a single event, from the initial water-storage phase to the final return visit, involves over twenty links and steps that can be artificially designed and controlled to expand the customer base and increase the probability of closing deals. I've tested this in classes: distributors who know eight or more control points in event design are rare. In practice, each additional controlled link increases the chance of a deal, and most of these links and procedures don't add extra costs. Whether an event can systematically consider and effectively intervene in all these twenty-plus links is the key to turning an ordinary promotion into a 'thirteen orphans' winning hand.

For distributors who don't know how, the enterprise's approach is simply two words: invest people.

Enterprise personnel should lead by example, guiding distributors through the process, setting benchmarks and models. They should lead distributors through the four stages: 'You listen to me, you watch me do it, I listen to you, I watch you do it.' This breaks down distributors' fear of difficulty, shatters unrealistic fantasies, and lets results and numbers speak for themselves. Distributors will see that doing promotion and execution solidly and systematically can also make every event a full house.

2 The 'Dare Not' Type: They know how to do it, but they feel the risk is uncertain.

Distributors who dare not act usually believe the input-output ratio isn't worth it. The worst part is that this risk is a subjective feeling—indescribable yet wonderful. If enterprises probe deeply, distributors tend to be evasive, with shifty eyes and a tendency to change the subject. After some verbal sparring, you still can't find the root cause.

There's a simple way to determine if a distributor belongs to this category: discuss the promotion plan with them. You'll find that among the many promotional actions, this type of distributor prefers actions where customers come to the store voluntarily, like referral programs for old customers bringing new ones. Their interest in other customer acquisition actions is noticeably lower. This can be considered a key characteristic of the 'dare not' type.

For distributors who dare not act, the enterprise's strategy is also two words: invest money.

A large promotional event has over twenty links and steps that can be controlled, each with different costs and effects that vary by time, place, and people. Some links only require adjustments in actions without extra costs, such as shifting the focus of invitation targets, which only involves changing scripts. But some links, like the return visit, require giving consumers extra sweeteners to be effective.

When distributors are uncertain about the results of investing in certain links, enterprises should share the cost with them. This tests the effectiveness and appropriate intensity of actions, builds a data foundation for future events, and helps distributors develop a systematic understanding of events. Using money to help distributors build intuitive knowledge at key steps is truly spending money where it counts.

3 The 'Unwilling' Type: They know how to do it and have some risk tolerance, but they don't think it's necessary.

Unwilling distributors fall into two categories: one is in mature industries where the enterprise is already large, and the distributor has reached a certain scale—'money makes you change'—so they have more options, like investing in real estate or other ventures, and no longer want to earn hard-earned money. The other is in emerging industries or categories where the enterprise is growing rapidly, and distributors have sufficient channel profits, so business is booming and they're too busy, or they operate on a 'three years without a sale, then three years of feast' basis, so they don't need to endure the hardships of outdoor promotion. Such distributors have neither the will nor the motivation for storefront outreach.

When such distributors appear, the root cause often lies with the enterprise itself. For example, in channel profit distribution, some enterprises, to quickly expand the market, adopt so-called 'bare prices,' packaging the regional market entirely to distributors and then washing their hands of it, or lacking resources to motivate distributors to do what they want. This is common among SMEs in rapidly developing industries.

Or enterprises keep their eyes on the market but turn a blind eye to bottlenecks in backend supply capabilities. Normal shipping is already as painful as constipation, and during large events, goods may not be fully shipped even after three months. Seeing this, how can distributors be motivated to run events? When you ask the enterprise boss why they don't keep some inventory, they confidently say: 'We aim for zero inventory.' This is a key reason many SMEs in emerging industries miss growth opportunities. Of course, we're not debating the merits of zero inventory today; I just want to say that many enterprises in high-growth industries aren't fully prepared.

For unwilling distributors, solving this problem is more complex and may require re-examining the marketing and supply systems, especially pricing and supply chain systems.

Generally, my experience is that in emerging industries and categories, the gross margin should be at least over 50% to support the industry's rapid advancement. If enterprises blindly engage in price wars instead of channeling sufficient profits into improving products and services to grow the industry and raise barriers, such industries struggle to expand, and such enterprises are likely to fail.

4 The 'Can't Do' Type: They know how to do it, are willing to take risks, and see the necessity of outdoor promotion, but their manpower structure can't support it.

I once did an incomplete survey: at least half of distributors face the challenge of retaining core staff. The issue is that distributors' platforms aren't large, and even with a certain sales volume, they can't completely shake off the shadow of being a middleman. Capable people are hard to recruit, and when they finally cultivate a core staff member, they constantly worry: Are my words too harsh? Am I paying too little? Is the pressure too high? They fear the core staff will push back or quit. They often turn a blind eye to subpar performance, settling for 80% and saying 'Amitabha.' In the end, they console themselves, saying they need to be tolerant and use people's strengths. The worry of being a distributor boss rivals that of a premier. Of course, I'm not mocking distributors; I'm just expressing the real predicament most distributors face.

Running promotional activities, especially large ones, is like an intense cross-country training exercise in a short period, requiring strong execution beyond the norm. Whether each action and link is done properly directly or indirectly affects the final result. Most distributors don't separate sales and promotion staff, partly for cost reasons and partly because it's unnecessary. When activities are periodic or temporary, having a dedicated promotion team is redundant. But precisely because sales and promotion functions aren't separated, it's easy for salespeople who lead the charge to slack off during promotions, and even if distributors notice, they let it slide. Especially when distributors feel the pressure of job requirements exceeds the compensation paid, problems like distorted actions, non-standard procedures, and leaks abound.

So many distributors, when faced with an event, first assess whether they have enough manpower. If no one can fully execute the plan, it's better to maintain the status quo and avoid turning their human resources into chaos and losing more than they gain.

Of course, for 'can't do' distributors, the solution must come from the root: institutional design.

Many distributors have the idea of turning core backbone staff into shareholders, but they lack clear plans and actions, often just paying lip service. Enterprises should follow this trend, turning individual distributor plans into company-wide plans through policy and resource investment, giving core staff a sense of purpose and allowing distributors to maximize and prolong the 'exploitation' of core staff's surplus value. In my consulting work, I've proposed the 'Boss Lady Plan' and 'Boss Plan,' which have yielded good results, all aimed at solving the 'can't do' problem.

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