Click for details Adjusting the product structure is more about increasing the proportion of high-margin products, especially new and premium products, to achieve an overall improvement in profitability. In simple terms, it means that on the basis of being full, you also need to eat well; you can't just sell old products that don't make money, but should put more effort into selling products that can generate high gross margins. The ideal is beautiful, but reality is harsh. Although everyone knows the necessity and benefits of product structure optimization, implementing this structural adjustment is extremely difficult. Sales staff always emphasize various difficulties: poor market environment, economic downturn, restrictions on public consumption, new products not selling well, premium products not moving, insufficient company investment, limited consumer purchasing power, and lack of cooperation from retailers. To this end, the boss has also spent a lot of effort, holding various motivational rallies, pumping up morale, building wolf-like teams, and offering heavy incentives. However, even after all the hype and even negative incentives like "if you don't meet the target, you'll be taken out and shot," the actual effect is still minimal. The actual sell-through rate of premium and new products remains worrying, and the adjustment of product structure is talked about every year, but the actual adjustment effect has not fundamentally changed. China's market is vast, with a huge consumer base, more wealthy people, and even more people willing to spend. Any product, at any price, has opportunities. The product structure can be changed, and many difficulties can be resolved. The current problem is that the process of adjusting the product structure is too simplistic. The boss hopes to achieve product structure adjustment through some simple actions or incentive-driven measures, which is too idealistic. Product structure adjustment should be a systematic project involving multiple internal and external links, and the relevant rectification measures should be arranged in a certain order, advancing gradually. The brief description is as follows: 1 Main Reasons for Current Difficulties

  1. Internal reasons: employee reasons, either they don't know how to sell or they don't want to sell.
  2. External reasons: customer non-cooperation, meaning customer relationships are not in place, the other party doesn't give face, and won't even give a chance to try. 2 Basic Principles for Advancement
  3. Employees can be replaced, but customers cannot.
  4. The cost of changing employees is often higher than recruiting and training new employees.
  5. Things beyond the employee's capability are not solved by incentives or negative incentives, but require the company to step in.
  6. Employees' willingness, ambition, and ability to overcome difficulties are limited. When customers are unwilling to sell premium products, the vast majority of sales staff will not rise to the challenge. No one wants to drive a broken car; unless the boss fixes the car first, employees will be willing to drive it. 3 Start with External Customers Customers' unwillingness to sell premium products often stems from inadequate company-customer relationships. Problems generally lie in the following aspects:
  7. The company's understanding of customers is insufficient (incomplete files), and contact is not close (no customer service specialist).
  8. There are unresolved historical issues, leaving customers with resentment.
  9. Poor service attitude of sales staff leads to customers' overall denial of the company.
  10. The company lacks systematic customer relationship management measures, and interpersonal relationships are cold.
  11. Sales staff take advantage of the loose connection between the company and customers to do private business and sell private goods. 4 Technical Training for Sales Staff
  12. Employee issues are twofold: don't want to do it and don't know how to do it.
  13. First, solve the technical problem of not knowing how through technical training. The boss cannot subjectively assume everyone knows how, or try to solve technical problems through simple mentoring.
  14. Of course, those who resist learning, emphasize the uselessness of learning, or don't apply what they learn can basically be classified as not wanting to do it. 5 Emotional Management of Sales Staff So-called emotional management refers to whether employees are willing to work well. Of course, when employees first join the company, they also want to work well, but often due to the boss's lack of ability in personnel management, employees become resentful. The solutions mainly include the following:
  15. Clarify employees' entry orientation, i.e., why they come to work; it's not always for money.
  16. Publish local salary information to avoid employees comparing and feeling their income is low.
  17. The boss should proactively repair trust with employees.
  18. Avoid unintentionally offending employees.
  19. Clarify future development direction with employees; employees need a goal to work towards. 6 Job Rotation
  20. Rotate sales staff, swapping their assigned customers, which can also serve as internal blood transfusion.
  21. The smoothness of the rotation process directly reveals the actual work ability and leftover problems of sales staff.
  22. After two or three rotations, the standardization requirements of related work can clearly emerge.
  23. Continuous rotation also weakens the relationship between individual employees and customers to a certain extent, while highlighting the establishment of company-customer relationships.
  24. Rotation, for individual employees, to a certain extent dispels their self-inflation; after you're replaced, business still goes on. 7 New Employees and Blood Transfusion
  25. While rotating, recruitment of new employees should begin.
  26. For premium products and new products, more hope should be placed on new employees.
  27. After rotation, employees who maintain good work performance can be retained. Those who resist rotation, have many problems during rotation, or experience a serious decline in performance after rotation should be considered for dismissal. 8 Specific Measures for Product Structure Adjustment
  28. On the basis of external customer rectification and internal blood transfusion, consider measures for product structure adjustment.
  29. Consider a specialist system for premium products.
  30. Independent assessment for premium products, or a linked assessment mechanism for old products. This article's author: Pan Wenfu Born from a private business owner background, he managed a family-owned distribution company for many years, during which he also served as a business manager and trainer in several production enterprises. His research focuses on internal management of small and medium-sized private enterprises, with main topics including personnel management, cost control, management backend construction, and veterans entering private enterprises. He has continuously broken down over 400 topics related to internal management of private enterprises and maintains collection of materials and updates of solutions. 1 Click here to register in one click