Click to read the original article for details For FMCG, although the impact from online channels is relatively small, the distribution business is getting harder year by year. Despite this, manufacturers still require distributors to grow at least 10-30% annually. Where does this growth come from? The demand from small retail stores is fixed, and the existing market is limited. Finding growth internally might achieve 10%, but more is difficult. Therefore, to achieve a significant improvement on the existing base, you must seek growth externally by capturing market share from competitors. If you can't do this, sales growth will be hard to come by. Because retail stores are not short of products; for the same category, there are now four or five brands, plus some second- and third-tier brands, and each category has over a dozen suppliers. With such intense brand competition and stores not lacking products to sell, distributors can only grow by taking sales from competitors.

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Identify customers with high competitor sales and focus on breaking through! How to effectively attack competitors and capture market share? The first step is to identify outlets with high competitor sales and make breakthroughs there. Many distributors have encountered this problem: for example, in the mineral water market, there are many cheap generic brands, and small stores sell them. When a salesperson sees a generic brand at a low price, they rush back and ask the boss for a policy, claiming competitors are cheaper. This is a typical case of not correctly identifying the competitor. There are many competitors in the market, and most outlets sell competitor products. So salespeople need to position correctly and clarify who the real competitors are. Generally, competitors should be positioned as the top three in the industry, including for second- and third-tier brands; the positioning should be the leading brands. Only by identifying the right competitors and locking onto them can you avoid choosing the wrong direction when formulating plans, ensuring accuracy and effectiveness. After clarifying the competitors, the first step is to identify customers with high competitor sales and focus on tracking and negotiating with them. For the core customers of competitors, you should clearly record their monthly sales, how much they sell of competitor products, how much of your products, which specific products, which specifications, and price ranges, all in a table. With this data, you can formulate targeted strategies and focus on tracking these customers. Understand what benefits competitors have given to the outlets, what agreements they have signed, and what promotional policies they have used. Only after clarity can you provide solutions. For example, last year I took over a new market and spent a week doing market research. I visited all the core customers of every competitor in each area. One customer sold 30,000 yuan of competitor products per month and 6,000 yuan of my products. Through communication, I learned that he had signed an agreement with the competitor: if he sold 360,000 yuan of goods in a year, he would get a TV. For this reward, he was unwilling to sell my products, otherwise he couldn't complete the task. After the research, I knew where the problem was: the store had signed an agreement with the competitor. With the root cause clear, I could solve the problem specifically. This customer was doing distribution, delivering to nearby villages and schools. So I had my salesperson give him a good three-wheeled vehicle. I told the customer, "It's okay if we don't cooperate, but for your business to grow, you'll need a vehicle. Use this tricycle for deliveries for now, and we can cooperate later." After that, the customer gradually started stocking my products. At a recent ordering meeting, he directly paid a 200,000 yuan advance. From a business perspective, all terminal customers focus on benefits. There are only long-term interests, not long-term friends! If your benefits meet the customer's requirements, they will naturally sell your products. In other words, as long as the benefits are sufficient, you can achieve comprehensive cooperation! Of course, this also involves the issue of upfront investment. Distributors must adopt the mindset of looking at long-term benefits. If this customer can indeed sell goods, how to get them to sell your products? You must first invest resources, and after a period of operation, the results will definitely be significant. In fact, sales business is a replacement process: switching from selling brand A to selling brand B. It's a simple process. The key is how to get customers to switch, and the answer is definitely key resource support. One point to emphasize: when talking with customers, don't disparage competitors. Everyone is in a benefit relationship, and the store is also a beneficiary. In short, as long as you can attack competitors and take their volume, you should do it at all costs, because the volume you take is additional volume.

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Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of competitors and seize opportunities! As the saying goes, "Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated." While paying attention to competitors' customers, you should also analyze competitors. Use SWOT analysis to identify competitors' strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. When attacking competitors, these preparatory tasks must be done thoroughly. You should clearly understand competitors' channels, number of salespeople, number of customers, well-selling items, and operational strategies, and then combine them with your own products to find opportunities. For example, if a competitor does well in special channel procurement but doesn't focus on fine channel management, that's an opportunity. Seize the opponent's weakness, do channel construction and channel sinking, and attack the competitor at this point. Or if a competitor does well in traditional channels and one salesperson can handle it, but you can't, then use two salespeople to handle one task. In addition to analyzing competitors, you must also keep an eye on them and seize special time nodes. For example, when a salesperson changes their area, the original salesperson leaves, and the new salesperson hasn't established good relationships yet. This is an opportunity. At this time, strengthen service and investment, and you can quickly enhance your influence. Another example is when an upstream manufacturer changes distributors. This is a major change, not just for one area but for all business. The handover period is the biggest opportunity. For example, a trading company used the three months when a competitor changed distributors to increase resource investment and market support, covering all the market share originally held by the old distributor. The new distributor took over and saw a significant decline in market share after a few months. The brand owner changed personnel again, and after repeated changes, the market was completely lost. For customers where both competitor sales and your product sales are high, if you are confident, you can sign an exclusive agreement. For example, in the beer industry, if they sell 300 cases, they get a rebate, but they cannot sell competitor products. Once such an exclusive agreement is signed, it can effectively block competitors. Then, with regular follow-up by salespeople, it can achieve very good results.

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Use differentiated plans to conquer core customers! Attacking competitors must target their weaknesses, lock onto key personnel, regions, and core products of competing brands. Use differentiated methods to focus on breakthroughs, sign target sales volumes, show sincerity, provide strong support policies, invest special funds to attack competitors' main market areas, and follow up monthly. For example, in areas where competitors are strong, use excellent salespeople to cover these areas, make key resource investments, and use core products to attack them. For similar products, if the competitor's product earns 5 yuan, let your customer earn 8 yuan. Or introduce a differentiated specification to attack the competitor's price system. Additionally, you can adopt a dimensionality reduction attack, learn to stir the pot, muddy the waters, and use your non-main products to attack competitors' core products, reducing their profits! For example, offer a product with a lower price than the competitor, similar in category, and run promotions, telling the competitor that your product is not only cheaper but also more profitable. When the competitor, to protect their main product, engages in a price war, their price system will be disrupted, and their decisions will go wrong. There are many such methods. The key is to summarize well and break down all products to each item. Another way to attack competitors is to analyze their POS data and use data analysis to guide how to attack. For example, if the competitor's main product specification is 10 kg packaging, priced at 55 yuan, and the type is Panjin rice, with these three data points, you can fight around these three aspects: same specification and type, but lower price. Of course, while attacking competitors, you should also learn from them. Learn from their innovations and strengths, and apply them to your business.