Although most manufacturers are confident in their products, this confidence alone is not enough; it cannot be directly converted into cash. It also depends on whether others have confidence. The first to consider is whether distributors have confidence, after all, distributors are the first consumers of the manufacturer's products. Of course, there are many ways to increase distributor confidence, such as increasing brand advertising investment, increasing market-pull promotional activities, innovating marketing strategies, establishing model markets, and spending money to directly eliminate competitors... However, these approaches also have several problems, the most prominent being high costs, long time requirements, and easy imitation by competitors... Objectively speaking, in most cases, many manufacturers' product advantages are not so obvious, and manufacturers cannot immediately invest a large sum of money for early market development, nor do they have enough time to work slowly. In this context, how can manufacturers face distributors? The core purpose of all business is profit, and the core of operation is naturally people; any business must be operated by people. Manufacturers do not sell goods personally; those who truly work on the front line, facing distributors and consumers daily, are the manufacturer's sales personnel. That is, the manufacturer's sales team truly represents the manufacturer in business operations. If the manufacturer's products cannot quickly attract customers and the initial market investment is not large, then consider this direction: breaking through from the quality of the manufacturer's sales personnel. That is, first sell the people to distributors, then sell the products. Everyone knows the principle of "be a person first, then do things," but in actual manufacturer-distributor relationships, very few manufacturers truly achieve this. Most manufacturers still try to attract distributors with product features, profit margins, market investment, market development space, cooperation prospects, and even purchase incentives. In fact, these methods are highly homogenized among manufacturers, and with changes in distributor needs, these conventional measures are becoming less attractive to distributors. Next, consider converting the advantages of sales personnel into advantages for distributors, using human advantages as an entry point and as a foundation for subsequent product introduction. The human advantage mentioned here refers to the quality of sales personnel themselves, specifically their personal qualities, grooming, excellent communication skills, good education and professional foundation, excellent professional ethics, and understanding of the market and distributors. Treat these high-quality sales personnel as a new brand for the manufacturer, promote them to the market and distributors, so that when distributors mention a certain manufacturer, they first think of that manufacturer's high-quality sales team. It should be noted that these high-quality sales personnel are not directly recruited or self-cultivated, but "poached." To attract such talents, the prerequisite is the boss's view on talent, benefits, and the internal environment of the enterprise... The key point is the manufacturer's view on talent. They say talent is important, but deep down they look down on sales personnel, thinking they are just workers seeking short-term benefits, not as smart as the boss, and they require sales personnel to achieve results first before giving rewards. Many manufacturers still adopt the "whale recruitment method," hiring many sales personnel at once and sending them to the market to develop distributors. Those who develop distributors or achieve some performance stay, while others leave, left to fend for themselves. Some manufacturers call this natural selection, but this approach directly brings two problems: the manufacturer's disrespect for sales personnel, treating them as cheap labor. Those who leave are not to mention, but even those who stay feel disheartened. Thus, it is impossible for them to contribute their talents persistently. More seriously, this large-scale recruitment without selection, training, or proper treatment releases incompetent sales personnel into the market, representing the manufacturer in contacting the market and customers. It doesn't matter if business fails, but it leaves a very bad impression on local customers. The impression of the sales personnel is also the impression of the manufacturer, and it will spread among local distributor groups. In the future, even if the manufacturer sends more senior sales personnel to develop the market, it will be very difficult. There are too many cases where an incompetent salesperson ruins a market. If you can truly respect employees, have a compensation system with upfront investment, and a relaxed internal environment, high-quality sales personnel are not hard to find, and a team can be formed in a short time. At least, the time to recruit excellent employees is much shorter than cultivating products or waiting for excellent distributors to cooperate. The manufacturer's products, market investment, marketing model, and sales team are all aimed at distributors. After all, distributors are the first consumers of the manufacturer's products. So, how do distributors view this issue?

  1. In the eyes of distributors, there is no product that cannot be sold; the key is how to sell it and who sells it. The core of business operation lies in people. Currently, distributors lack nothing more than products; there are too many new manufacturers and new products. The key is the lack of methods and people to sell products. Now, more and more distributors are starting to choose based on the manufacturer's people first, and then consider specific products and cooperation policies. That is, distributors are more about selecting people rather than just selecting products.
  2. On the surface, sales personnel with a bit of a "streetwise" demeanor seem to get along better with distributor bosses, but this is only superficial, or it's just the distributor boss's socializing. From the perspective of the distributor boss's own development, they hope their company can move towards standardization and normalization. Even if the boss can have a streetwise demeanor, they don't want their employees to have too much of it, but rather hope employees have a certain basic quality and professional ethics. They also hope the manufacturer's sales personnel can set an example. From this perspective, distributor bosses welcome manufacturer sales personnel with higher personal quality and professional level to appear frequently in their companies. For manufacturers, there are several issues to consider when facing distributors:
  3. Sell the person first, then sell the goods. Most sales work can be simplified into three steps: build relationships, discover needs, and make the sale. The primary task is to establish a relationship with the distributor, that is, to establish a communication system between people. Only when the personal communication between the manufacturer's salesperson and the distributor boss is smooth and effective can a good foundation be laid for later cooperation. Especially in the current stage where product advantages are difficult to show in the short term, strengthen the interpersonal communication skills of sales personnel, and establish the personal brand image of sales personnel in front of distributor bosses before the product brand position is established.
  4. Highlight differentiation. Theoretically, differentiation is necessary in today's market, for example, in products and marketing models, there should be some differentiation. From the product perspective, even if the product itself has some differentiation, no matter how good the product or how differentiated it is, it needs to be communicated. Communication requires cost, especially when based on traditional communication platforms (media, events, etc.). What if the communication platform is based on sales personnel? If the sales personnel have good quality and effective communication with distributors, then when promoting the product to distributors, first gaining recognition for the person, then recognition for the product, the effect will naturally be much better. Most importantly, using the sales team as a communication carrier costs much less than traditional product promotion models.
  5. Differentiate from competitors. When facing distributors, manufacturers naturally compete with each other, including brand competition, product competition, marketing strategy competition, and sales team competition. In the early stages of market launch, it is unlikely for manufacturers to make large-scale market investments or implement innovative marketing strategies on a large scale, and the product's characteristics need time for distributors to understand. Therefore, manufacturers can fully use the sales team as a competitive advantage, presenting a high-quality sales team to distributors, guiding them to compare with other manufacturers' sales personnel, and highlighting the manufacturer's positive image and advantages from this angle. At the same time, through third-party side work, promote distributors to further strengthen the idea of judging the manufacturer's quality by employee quality, confirming the approach of selecting people first, then products. At this level, guide distributors to compare the manufacturer's sales personnel horizontally with those of other manufacturers. Distributor Internal Management Course Introduction: Instructor: Pan Wenfu Course Target Audience 1. Distributor company owners or senior management; Note: Ordinary employees are not recommended to attend. 2. Personnel responsible for designing distributor management systems in manufacturing companies. Course Background Business development first requires safety, controllability, clear goal planning, and then the organic combination of internal management and external operations to ensure healthy and sustainable growth. In the early stages of a trading company, the focus is mainly on sales work, with relatively weak backend construction. When the business scale develops to a certain extent, constraints from the backend begin to emerge, especially in personnel management, work efficiency, business effectiveness, customer management, warehouse vehicles, cost control, internal waste, and even employee misconduct. Of course, bosses have been trying to solve these problems, whether by exploring methods themselves or introducing external technologies, such as incentives, shareholding systems, point systems, corporate culture, team spirit, corporate vision, performance appraisal, standard quantification, corporate self-rotation, etc. However, after these rectification measures are introduced, the actual effect is often poor, employee acceptance is low, or they start strong and end weak, quickly returning to the original state, or even having adverse effects. Perhaps the problem is not with the solutions themselves. Moreover, the management and operation of distributor companies are not high-tech. The poor effect of solutions is more due to the lack of fit between the solutions and the actual characteristics of distributors, and the lack of groundwork and strategy in introducing external solutions. Direct introduction without considering employees' acceptance habits leads to conflicts. After all, strictly speaking, most distributor companies are not enterprises, nor are they simple individual businesses, but rather a state in between. As the saying goes, they have the shell of a company but the heart of an individual business, with their own independent operation and development models. In terms of backend management and employee teams, there are certain characteristics, and it is not necessarily true that management models from advanced enterprises can adapt. This course is designed based on the actual characteristics of distributor companies, analyzing the root causes behind the various problems that currently arise, especially the actual situation of the employee group, and then proposing corresponding solutions. This is not a traditional lecture-style course, but provides specific execution manuals for specific solutions, accompanied by physical execution tools. More importantly, during the actual implementation process at the distributor, our staff will follow up, providing timely technical guidance for technical issues that arise during implementation. Course Outline: Please click: Read the original text to view specific content Course Fees and Payment: -----2800 yuan (without supporting technical manual toolkit and follow-up) -----6500 yuan (including supporting technical manual toolkit and follow-up) Fee Description: Pure course fee, excluding tax, not including travel, accommodation, meals, etc.
  6. Bank transfer: China Construction Bank Wuhan Echeng Dun Branch 6217002870005966914 Payee: Huang Qi (our financial staff) Registration Method: Email: ff@senpan.net Wuhan: 027—8396 8132 / 83968251 Shanghai: 021—5235 3796 / 52353769 Address: Room 2305, 23rd Floor (note: not 23A), Building 1, Times Square, 159 Yanjiang Avenue, Jiangan District, Wuhan, Hubei Province, Hongchunhui Red Wine Club To learn about the course, please click read the original text.