As the year draws to a close, distributors must not only follow the pace of their companies, handling product ordering, stocking, and Spring Festival promotion schedules, but also summarize their business performance over the past year and look forward to new plans and goals for the coming year, bridging the past and future to lay a solid foundation for a better start. So, what should distributors be busy with? Have you achieved these goals by year-end?

  1. Sales targets Have the annual sales targets set at the beginning of the year been met? Have the sales targets assigned by the manufacturers you distribute or represent been met, and at what completion rate? Specifically, for each manufacturer's annual sales volume and revenue, compared to the previous year, have they increased or decreased? Of course, you can further analyze the proportion of each manufacturer's sales in your overall sales, and also check whether the new product promotion targets for the past year have been achieved.
  2. Profit targets Some distributors are often more sensitive to sales volume; seeing large sales figures makes them very happy, as if they have earned a lot of money. Sales and profit are indeed related, but as a distributor boss, you must clearly understand the gross profit margin that each manufacturer's products bring you, and what the annual gross profit is. Do not be vague, because if a distributor boss cannot have a clear profit target of how much money was earned in a year, they will not know how to build a team, expand the market, or how much to invest in the market in the coming year. Therefore, checking whether the annual profit target has been achieved and by how much is crucial for the second year's market operations. Analysis of the Reasons for Target Achievement Many distributors repeatedly repeat "past stories" on some business issues, ultimately because they have not identified the key reasons or core problems affecting performance achievement, leading to repeated mistakes. Analyzing target achievement can be done from the following aspects: 1. Macro and micro economic and market environment These are external factors, but they affect the achievement of goals. For example, the introduction of new national laws and regulations, food safety incidents, increasingly fierce market competition, etc. Have you avoided or found breakthrough ideas and methods to better cater to the overall trend, especially market demand? 2. Analysis from multiple perspectives In terms of products, are the products you distribute suitable for the market? Are categories and specifications complete? Is product updating timely? Are market performance and competitiveness strong? From the price perspective, do you have the authority to add a second markup or operate? How does the manufacturer control price order? How effective are your price policies and their implementation? In terms of channels, have you adopted flat, diversified, and composite channel models? What are the sales and profit contributions of each channel? Which channels have seen sluggish growth? Which channels need to be redeveloped? In terms of promotion, have you adhered to differentiation? Are promotion forms attractive to downstream channels and customers? Is the timing of promotions appropriate? 3. Market support and investment status To do a market well, it must be the result of joint efforts by the manufacturer and distributor. In addition to checking the manufacturer's market investment, support, and effectiveness, you should also review from your own perspective whether you have proactively invested in market operations for the year based on market research and understanding, in what areas you have invested, the impact on market pull and sales growth, the form of investment, and the degree of cooperation from the manufacturer. 4. Team performance Team member composition, including source, education, job experience, skills, and techniques, affects sales. How is the team's combat effectiveness, execution, and collaboration? Also, focus on checking the per-capita output of sales personnel and the per-capita output of the markets they manage. Only by increasing per-capita output and market output can a distributor company enter a virtuous cycle and create greater benefits. Develop a Marketing Plan for the Coming Year Summarizing and reviewing is to reflect on past mistakes and promote excellent experiences, but the marketing plan for the coming year is what will implement the summary and review in a timely manner and continuously improve, ultimately better achieving the marketing goals for the coming year. The annual marketing plan should cover the following: 1. Formulation and breakdown of marketing goals Combine the sales targets assigned by each manufacturer and your own development plan for the new year to formulate your company's sales targets, including sales revenue, profit targets, product structure targets, new product promotion targets, etc. This target can be 20-30% higher than the targets assigned by manufacturers, which will help the company better complete the sales tasks of each manufacturer, especially key cooperative manufacturers. Goals must be set scientifically and reasonably with reference to the market, previous years, product performance, market investment, etc. The "fake, empty, and boastful" goals made by "slapping the forehead" based on feelings are not advisable. After setting goals, they must be quantified and broken down into each month, each salesperson, each distributor and their personnel, and each market. The finer the breakdown, the more conducive to achieving the goals. 2. Marketing 4P strategy Product: What new products to represent? Which new categories from which manufacturers to introduce? Which unprofitable manufacturers or products to compress or eliminate? Price: Based on the manufacturer's product positioning, what price levels should be set or implemented? Products should have their own price bands or levels to avoid self-competition. Channel strategy: Which new channels to develop? Which model customers or markets to establish? How to implement standardized and refined operations? To what level to go down? For example, some distributors, when formulating their new year marketing plan, explicitly decide to sink channels to rural areas and redesign and optimize the channel system accordingly. Promotion strategy: Based on the holidays throughout the year, arrange promotional activities with different content and forms, including promotion budgets and execution times. Some distributors also separate advertising from promotion, adding applicable products, time, location, advertising forms, and budget for advertising. Others focus on after-sales service, adding service strategies, and clarifying service processes, standards, implementation, and assessment. 3. Team building This is also very important. Around the marketing goals for the new year, set up or optimize the organizational structure and staffing, personnel recruitment and training plans: recruitment time, onboarding time, responsible department, assisting department. For training plans, include: training schedule, content, instructor selection, training format, and budgets for all the above. 4. System construction According to the new year's marketing plan and market needs, revise or formulate rules and regulations in a timely manner. For example, some distributors are troubled by the difficulty of collecting debts from downstream channels, affecting capital turnover, and have formulated "Distributor Credit Evaluation and Credit Standards." Some distributors, based on market cross-selling and price chaos, have formulated "Management Regulations on Strict Market Order." In addition to these behavioral systems, it also includes compensation and assessment systems. Based on your own development stage, flexibly adopt a compensation system that suits you, whether it is a commission system or a performance assessment system; everything should be determined according to actual conditions. Finally, distributors must not forget to seize the biggest peak season for food sales at year-end. The Spring Festival best reflects Chinese people's expression of nostalgia and family affection. Therefore, actively stock up, especially gift-packaged products, strengthen distribution, increase distribution rate and coverage, design promotions well, develop group purchase channels such as key accounts, and kick the "final kick" of Spring Festival sales to bring a good start to the new year.