---
title: "Eight Strategies to Solve the Problem of Poor Execution"
description: "Whether in traditional marketing management or new media and internet management, employee execution is a key driver. Without efficient execution, even the best strategies are just wishful thinking. The problem of execution must be traced back to its roots, and the entire process from start to finish requires systematic implementation and monitoring. Today, we address the issue of poor execution through eight effective strategies."
author: "刘雷"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2016-06-28"
language: "en"
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# Eight Strategies to Solve the Problem of Poor Execution

> Whether in traditional marketing management or new media and internet management, employee execution is a key driver. Without efficient execution, even the best strategies are just wishful thinking. The problem of execution must be traced back to its roots, and the entire process from start to finish requires systematic implementation and monitoring. Today, we address the issue of poor execution through eight effective strategies.

Whether in traditional marketing management or new media and internet management, employee execution is a key driver. Without efficient execution, even the best strategies are just wishful thinking.
The problem of execution must be traced back to its roots, and the entire process from start to finish requires systematic implementation and monitoring. Today, we address the issue of poor execution through eight effective strategies.

**Problem 1: Weak Leadership, Team Like Loose Sand**
**Strategy 1: Leaders Self-Reflect and Strengthen Leadership**
The classic story in marketing circles: the lion and the antelope. As a team leader, are you a lion or an antelope? The team leader needs to deeply reflect on their own situation and work style. If you are a lion-type leader, your leadership style will infect team members, your presence will awe your team, and you will command respect without anger. Such a leader leading the team in the market is almost half successful; the team is first convinced and willing to follow such a strong leader to conquer new territories. Being with such a strong leader gives them confidence. When it comes to execution, they will naturally look to the leader, either following or fearing, which drives the pace and results in high execution. Conversely, if you are an antelope-type leader, the result is obvious: the team lacks confidence in you, you have no authority or weight in their eyes, and your words and arrangements are discounted from the start, and execution is even more discounted. Therefore, as the core leader of the team, building your own authority and leadership is the prerequisite for improving team execution. For those lacking in this area, they need to work on building their authority early on, such as demonstrating successful market operations, leading by example in tackling a typical difficult task, solving practical problems for employees, and gradually building leadership and increasing team cohesion. This will improve execution. At the same time, establishing reward and punishment assessment systems, setting up model employees, and stimulating the team to strive for excellence are also effective ways to improve execution. In short, leadership is crucial.

**Problem 2: Weak Team Responsibility, Everything Is Meaningless**
**Strategy 2: Mind Management, Give Execution a Soul**
Mind management means cultivating the team's sense of responsibility and dedication to work. Transform your sales team from passive resistance to understanding work and actively identifying with it. In plain terms, it's often called "brainwashing"—washing away incorrect, negative life and work values, and letting passionate and upward new thoughts influence them. Explain why we are here in this team, what kind of team this is, what grand blueprint we need to achieve, and what efforts each of us needs to make. Conduct mind management and advocacy to let them recognize the sense of responsibility and achievement in the sales team, and identify with the same values and growth perspectives. These are prerequisites for having an execution mindset. Then tell them the team's driving forces: growth opportunities—learning practical sales knowledge, promotion opportunities—becoming team leaders, salary increase plans—outstanding team members will get raises, and assessment warnings—those with poor execution and learning ability will be demoted, have pay cuts, or even be asked to leave. This advance mind management advocacy and communication will make the subsequent process management smoother. It will shift from "I want you to do it" to "they are willing to do it" through interest-driven transformation, psychological acceptance, and value change. Combined with supervision and correction in other aspects of the overall process, this will lead to good sales execution improvement.

**Problem 3: Complex Execution Plans, Team Members Can't Understand Clearly**
**Strategy 3: Simplify Plans, Make Them Clear and Understandable**
One way to improve execution is to ensure that the activity plan or assigned tasks can be implemented. This means the task is practical and operable. Some enterprise leaders seem to showcase their high-level planning skills by turning a simple plan into a large report with many items, details, tables, and strategies, covering everything. As a result, the activity feels like everything is a priority, but with too many priorities, it feels like there are no priorities. With too many issues to execute, the sales staff first feel overwhelmed: "It's so complicated?" Then they are required to fill out various reports and details daily. I'm not denying this approach; for first-tier brand companies with experienced sales staff, it might work well. But for second-tier brand companies in the early stages of market development, such complex things add burden and make it hard to find the focus. If the distributor team is not well-established, the activity ends up being a mishmash, achieving neither sales nor image effects, even though everything requested was done. The execution result is poor. As for report filling, if your reports are very complex, you might be rushing for them, but are the submitted data real? Do you believe them? I don't quite believe it. So, is the purpose of such a complex plan to show off or to get good results? Someone will jump out and say, "I made it complex to get good results and pay attention to details." Yes, but if the sales staff can do such complex things perfectly, they might have already left the terminal. Sales teams, especially terminal sales teams, do need to do detailed work, but their abilities are limited, and improvement takes time and levels. If complex things require "fabrication" to complete, I'd rather have them do the real things well. This problem requires leaders to consider two aspects: First, simplify the plan as much as possible, extract the complex parts, and don't "scare subordinates" with unnecessary complexity. Simple things are more likely to be executed well. Second, if the plan is truly important and strategic, and must be comprehensive, then break it down reasonably for the team. For example, one person is mainly responsible for terminal construction, another for report information collection and processing. This appropriately distributes pressure and lets team members do their best, because one person's ability and energy are limited. Emphasizing comprehensiveness is not something one person can execute well; breaking it down will yield better results. This will also give execution a new boost.

**Problem 4: Tight Execution Time, No Flexibility, Poor Time Management**
**Strategy 4: Time Is the Lifeline, Set Internal Flexible Time**
The time limit for execution is also a key issue. If tasks are not completed within the specified time, team leaders will use strict assessments to push execution efficiency. Assessment is indeed a good management tool; fines are tangible and usually work quickly. But for important execution activities that need good results within a deadline, the result is crucial. It's not just about strict assessment; you also need to find flexibility in execution time. For activities that need to be completed within a week, the supervisor can assign the task in advance so they can start early. If some people don't meet the standard during the actual period, give them an extra 2 days to strengthen. The final result of such an activity might be better. The problem is when leaders rush to notify a task with a very short deadline, making it almost impossible to complete. Excluding the capable ones who work hard and barely finish, what about the Sha Seng and Zhu Bajie in the team? If they fail, being assessed and criticized doesn't help; the task wasn't done well. Supervisors need to transmit information quickly and with quality, arrange tasks with foresight, and track them promptly. Give yourself flexibility for corrections and give some employees with weaker abilities time flexibility. This way, tasks can be completed within the deadline, and execution is actually high and of high quality.

**Problem 5: No Guidance During Execution, Tracking Gaps**
**Strategy 5: Guide While Doing, Stay Connected with the Team**
A good execution activity is not just about assigning tasks and being done. Employees generally don't have the leader's mindset; they don't know exactly how to do it, what to do first, what to do last, and what time periods to complete. Not many have clear plans, and even if they do, they may not be scientific or efficient. When a plan is released, it's also an opportunity for the leader to give a small training session, guiding them on how to do it and how to do it well. This is also key to high execution. Showing them a clear path is more important than letting them explore blindly. Next is the issue of tracking. Some leaders, due to many tasks, have tracking gaps after assigning activities. For tasks that need to be completed in half a month, they might remind at the start and then track again near the deadline. Some even trust the team too much; when the team is mature, two reminders might be enough. But most teams have people with unclear plans and poor prioritization. In fact, if the supervisor doesn't have time, they should arrange someone to monitor progress, apply pressure, track multiple times, speed up employees' progress, and understand the execution progress. This also helps with their own next steps and ensures efficient completion of activities. If tracking is interrupted, many members might forget the deadline or request extensions for incomplete goals. So timely tracking is also an aspect of improving execution. Improving execution is not just about employees; team leaders also need to examine their own shortcomings and management gaps, correct hidden management issues, and naturally promote effective execution improvement. Improving management level and ability also adds points to execution.

Sales managers should track the process during execution to get feedback. To understand execution effects, you can use phone follow-ups and market visits to track things like the number of customer visits by salespeople, store counts, time, and effects. This gives you real visit results and first-hand market information. By having the sales team fill out daily itineraries (sales visit forms), you can understand their daily work. The gift usage form feedback shows when and where gifts were distributed, who signed for them, and their contact numbers. Such process management helps verify the salespeople's work process and serves a supervisory purpose, improving execution. Various market sales process report feedback and market visits can check execution effects, provide correction suggestions, and improve execution accuracy and level. Next is holding sales meetings—morning, noon, and evening meetings. Morning meetings set goals, noon meetings review initial progress, and evening meetings provide execution feedback, evaluating and correcting the day's work to improve execution effects. This is not about having requirements without process management, letting execution go unchecked, and ending up with poor market results while being kept in the dark. Process tracking management during execution ensures feedback and correction.

**Problem 6: Weak Goal Awareness, Weak Data Awareness**
**Strategy 6: Clear Quantified Goals, Use Data to Verify Execution**
Some salespeople have unclear task concepts, no decomposition awareness, just bury their heads in work without planning data. For process management, it starts with goal setting. What specific work to do, to what extent, and our goals must be quantified. For example, if the annual sales target is 2 million, then the quantified monthly target is divided accordingly. Similarly, if new product sales target is 800,000 and old product is 1.2 million, what is the monthly task proportion? New customer development tasks are the same: how many new customers to develop? How many outlets to develop per month? With quantified goals, tracking is more intuitive, not blind. This, combined with regular tracking and monitoring, makes it easier to ensure sales targets are achieved. For example, new outlet development, if requirements are vague, problems arise and execution is discounted.
If goals are not quantified and there is no process tracking or supervision, it's "shepherd-style" management—no time management limits, just saying "next time I'll check" without deadlines. Salespeople find it hard to break down their goals and don't feel much pressure to strive for them, so execution results are less than satisfactory.

**Problem 7: Weak Individual Ability, Poor Work Skills**
**Strategy 7: Create Models, Replicate Execution, Enhance Atmosphere Influence**
First, to improve execution, you need to clearly communicate the execution content. The distributor's execution manager should deeply understand the activity content and key points to convey. The manager must first clearly know the importance and stakes of the execution activity to thoroughly communicate the activity information to subordinates, making them take it seriously. If the manager is careless, and the salespeople are careless in listening, the activity will definitely not be executed. This is especially true for old teams accustomed to traditional order-taking and shipping, who don't understand the new market competition. They tend to be empirical and do things their own way. The execution manager should personally lead the team to operate a few stores to set the standard, working alongside the team on the front line. At the same time, team unity and cohesion are crucial. In daily work, the execution manager should care about and understand subordinates: what they're thinking, doing, where they are, and their family situations. Ideological work should keep up, unite people, provide reasonable and satisfactory compensation, and use both spiritual and material incentives to maintain team stability. Emphasize that all company work must be executed to standard, and that detail work is for completing sales and must be taken seriously. Each work requirement should not be "one big pot"—clearly record division of labor, assign responsibility to individuals, and if problems arise, directly find the first responsible person, creating a sense of urgency and responsibility.
The execution manager or supervisor can lead a team to establish the most standard display or activity standard at a store or point, reflecting every detail and emphasizing the "indispensable" nature. Immature teams often create "mishmash" activities with misplaced materials, unreasonable combinations, disordered sequences, and inconsistent activity information. At this point, they need to see a standard to know how to do it.
Establish a model store, learn the model execution standard on-site, and strictly replicate it. Take photos of the standard for a themed activity, print the operation points as text, and have the sales team carry them to the market to execute according to the standard. This is a last resort, but it's proven effective. For aging teams with lower quality, who have poor ability to absorb new things, many activities are explained many times but they still forget and end up confused. Using images and text to replace language intuitively, they can bring the necessary materials to the store and "copy the gourd" to complete many details and meet execution standards. Over time, they will develop good habits of following standards.

**Problem 8: Unclear Rewards and Punishments, Low Pressure, Insufficient Motivation**
**Strategy 8: Survival of the Fittest, Clear Rewards and Punishments, Good Summaries, Enhanced Training**
Distributor teams need to bring in fresh blood to activate previously immature teams. Old teams with a group of old salespeople each controlling their own territory, acting independently, and accustomed to "being high and mighty" with a "the market can't do without me" mentality. Such people, because no one can replace them in the distributor team, cut corners on sales visits, activity execution, and other details without endangering themselves. At this time, the distributor team needs to regularly absorb new blood into such teams, even if it's a symbolic recruitment drive to knock the team and create urgency. The distributor can effectively assess. Fresh blood executing tasks properly will subtly impact the old team's traditional thinking, forcing them to change their mindset. Only by doing better can they maintain their position. After any sales activity ends and is checked, hold a special meeting to summarize, analyze the key success and failure factors, and implement the pre-established rewards and punishments for the pros and cons of the activity. This gives everyone a satisfactory conclusion after the "heated" activity, stabilizing morale and cohesion, and adding leverage and strength for future activities and execution. It also allows learning from successes and failures to conduct each themed promotion more professionally.
Employee training is a concrete manifestation of cultivating common values and increasing cohesion. Effective training combined with daily activity practice, concepts, and work methods can improve employee awareness and strengthen effective execution.
Strengthen circular tracking, quick rectification, implementation campaigns, and form good habits.
The purpose of circular tracking is to check execution, discover problems in time, inform about problems, rectify and improve. In actual operation, check the shortcomings of activities and respond quickly. The purpose of the cycle is to repeatedly track teams with execution problems, effectively pressure them, combat laxity, and push them onto the right track and normalize.
The implementation campaign is about making market standards at the terminal and market front, using hands, being diligent in moving, changing, and running, forming self-conscious terminal maintenance habits. Ultimately, build self-conscious execution and effective execution.
In summary: The distributor leader's attention and communication of activities, combined with on-site guidance, replication, checking, rectification, pressure, summary, and incentives—a systematic chain of punches—can build an efficient execution iron army.
The above eight strategies, if effectively used, can greatly improve team execution.

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