---
title: "Entrepreneur's Journal: A Brutal Battle in E-Cigarette Sales"
description: "This is a first-hand account from a frontline salesperson, chronicling their journey from late July 2019 when they joined the e-cigarette brand Snow+ (雪加). Su Xiaowen, a native of Jiangsu, and his team carried over 20 kilograms of materials daily, walking 40,000-50,000 steps to persuade thousands of mom-and-pop store owners to stock their products. Within two months, Snow+ became the top-selling e-cigarette brand in their city, which ranked among the top five in national sales."
author: "New Distribution"
publisher: "New Distribution"
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published: "2019-10-14"
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citation: "New Distribution. “Entrepreneur's Journal: A Brutal Battle in E-Cigarette Sales.” New Distribution, 2019-10-14. https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/entrepreneur-s-journal-a-brutal-battle-in-e-cigarette-sales-1e3b7fd6/"
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---

# Entrepreneur's Journal: A Brutal Battle in E-Cigarette Sales

> This is a first-hand account from a frontline salesperson, chronicling their journey from late July 2019 when they joined the e-cigarette brand Snow+ (雪加). Su Xiaowen, a native of Jiangsu, and his team carried over 20 kilograms of materials daily, walking 40,000-50,000 steps to persuade thousands of mom-and-pop store owners to stock their products. Within two months, Snow+ became the top-selling e-cigarette brand in their city, which ranked among the top five in national sales.

Editor's Note:
This is a first-hand account from a frontline salesperson, chronicling their journey from late July 2019 when they joined the e-cigarette brand Snow+ (雪加).
Su Xiaowen, a native of Jiangsu, is full of drive and quick-witted. To capture his hometown market, he and his partners carried over 20 kilograms of materials daily, "power-walking" 40,000 to 50,000 steps. The greater challenge was explaining to thousands of mom-and-pop store owners what e-cigarettes are and successfully placing this cigarette alternative in the most prominent positions in their small shops.
Two months later, Snow+ achieved the top offline sales volume in a city in Jiangsu, which ranks among the top five cities nationwide for e-cigarette sales. Su Xiaowen faced physical exhaustion, store owners' disdain, performance pressure, and a flood of negative publicity...

**July 21, 2019 - The Night Before Joining**
I tossed and turned at home. Meanwhile, Mr. Xiao was waiting for my answer. Tonight, I had to decide: whether to "cross over" from selling disposable e-cigarettes to a new pod-based brand, Snow+.
I first encountered disposable e-cigarettes in 2018. At that time, these "use-and-throw" vapor products were new, with few brands available.
The price was reasonable for smokers, around 35-45 yuan per unit. Through WeChat Moments and offline promotion, I earned a decent income, though not much. It seemed like a good business.
But this year, things changed. Several new e-cigarette brands were founded every month. The entry barrier for sales became very low; with just tens of thousands of yuan, you could become a distributor. To make money, we repeatedly lowered prices, whether by one yuan or fifty cents, even selling at a loss just to move inventory.
So, for us, big pod-based brands like Snow+, Flow, and RELX were disruptors. When Mr. Xiao, then Snow+'s sales manager, invited me, I was reluctant, feeling these brands had upset the balance of the disposable e-cigarette market.
But industry insiders think more deeply about the current situation. That night, Mr. Xiao talked at length about the market and industry status of disposable e-cigarettes. In this "fast era," pod-based e-cigarettes would become a trend due to their convenience.
When he mentioned Snow+, he simply handed me a device and told me to try it myself.
Most disposable e-cigarettes, being use-and-throw, have rough materials and workmanship—especially the "throat hit," which is hard to achieve. Snow+, as a pod-based product, had made many adjustments in craftsmanship, delivering a strong throat sensation upon inhalation, almost identical to traditional cigarettes.
Then, he explained Snow+'s sales model. Unlike many brands' blind expansion and unlimited distribution, Snow+ had a clear direction: offline channels, deeply cultivating every physical store.
Moreover, Snow+'s sales channel foundation differed from others. While many brands focused on e-cigarette-specific channels, Snow+ had already entered traditional FMCG channels: the TT channel (hypermarkets and wholesale) and the CVS channel (convenience stores). They also began setting up events at nightclubs, music festivals, and live houses, targeting a defined brand culture and core audience.
This candor made me feel trusted; secondly, with such clear policies and plans, Snow+ seemed promising; finally, my experience selling disposable e-cigarettes had earned me some reputation in the circle. So, I decided to join.

**July 22, 2019 - First Day on the Job**
**"We are starting a business, not playing house. Be prepared for a Long March of 25,000 li."** This was the most repeated phrase I heard all day.
A startup gives you no time to ease in—on day one, as a regular salesperson, my task was to visit at least 30 stores daily and get them to stock Snow+ products.
E-cigarettes are a race against time. Visiting 30 stores is no easy feat for a new salesperson. But to win this territory, everyone had to move faster. Snow+ had incorporated this battle into its company-wide "acceleration" plan.
By the end of the day, I had successfully convinced only half of the stores.
In this city, many store owners rejected us with the excuse that "e-cigarettes are toxic." They feared that stocking e-cigarettes would tarnish their store's reputation, requiring us to explain repeatedly, though some remained adamant.
The health effects of e-cigarettes were something I only understood much later. Eventually, our leaders showed us a report with the World Health Organization's five-year research findings.
In short, qualified e-cigarettes are less harmful to health than cigarettes. More importantly, they don't expose bystanders to secondhand smoke.
So, e-cigarettes are a "harm reduction" product and the best substitute for cigarettes.
(Note: As early as 2014, the WHO synthesized existing research and expert opinions, submitting a report to the Sixth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, summarizing the academic debate on e-cigarettes and the limited nature of evidence. Five years later, the WHO's 2019 Global Tobacco Epidemic Report retained many conclusions from that 2014 report. The study indicated that e-cigarettes produce less harm than traditional cigarettes; if regular smokers switch completely to well-regulated e-cigarettes, they may experience less toxic impact, though not zero harm. Another WHO survey showed: cigarettes are more harmful than heated tobacco products (IQOS), which are more harmful than vaporized e-cigarettes.)
In some convenience stores in this city, employees know as much about e-cigarettes as professional salespeople.

**July 23, 2019 - "Power-Walking" 50,000 Steps**
**For store owners familiar with e-cigarettes, the hardest part is convincing them to stock Snow+ amid competition from many brands.**
Snow+ was not the first e-cigarette brand in this city; over 30 pod-based brands had already developed here.
This city is a must-win in East China, ranking in the top five nationally in sales! It's well known that a single brand's disposable e-cigarette sales in this city in one month can sometimes exceed those of an entire province.
First, we'd let owners know that switching to Snow+ wouldn't reduce their profits: once a device is sold, pods have a market, and monthly cumulative sales would rival any disposable e-cigarette.
Second, we made detailed comparisons with competitors to persuade them. For example, compared to a brand claiming the largest national market share, we had fewer leakage issues, better atomizer feel, and a throat hit they lacked.
Finally, after successful placement, every salesperson had to regularly visit and maintain their stores, build relationships, and conduct surveys.
**All this took a huge toll—besides losing my voice, I power-walked nearly 50,000 steps that day, topping the "WeChat Sports" leaderboard. I thought, this must be Snow+'s "acceleration" culture!**
Yet, by day's end, nearly half the stores I visited still rejected me.

**July 26, 2019 - Waiting in 40-Degree Heat**
**I visited a convenience store owner at the hottest time of day. After introducing the product, he remained indifferent. But this store was near four bars, making it a prime location for sales.**
So, in the scorching summer, around 40 degrees, I waited by the roadside. After half an hour, the owner came out to throw away trash, saw me still there, and said, "Come in and enjoy the air conditioning, you stubborn fool."
I said I'd wait until he was free to introduce our product again. He waved his hand and said, "I've seen many salespeople, but none as persistent as you. Come in, put your products on the shelf."
**A good product and a salesperson's effort are both indispensable for a startup. Of course, what ultimately convinced him was the potential profit from the four nearby bars. Later, this store's sales were indeed good.**
However, in most cases, we wouldn't waste too much time in one place. Snow+'s goal was clear: to become the strongest brand in the shortest time, and we knew the rejection rate for store placement was typically around 40% or higher. We preferred to spend more time placing products in more stores.
One encouraging thing was that to quickly penetrate traditional FMCG channels, Snow+ recruited elites from various FMCG sectors and attracted many leading national FMCG distributors.
For example, in East China, many salespeople were former Heineken employees with mature supply chains and sales experience. When given the "acceleration" task, they could quickly get up to speed.
The most prominent e-cigarette display. Previously, condoms occupied this spot.

**August 1, 2019 - Another Resignation**
Some join, some leave. Today, another person left. The team finally settled at six people. When I first joined Snow+, there were only one or two salespeople; at its peak, there were over a dozen. Now, after comings and goings, six remain.
I saw an ad for "6renyou" (a private custom high-end travel service) in the elevator. As frontline salespeople, a spontaneous trip is still a dream for us.
I remember when I first joined Snow+, I was tasked with visiting 30 stores a day, and such tasks were the norm for every salesperson. Some couldn't endure the hardship; most were discouraged by repeated rejections or felt uncertain about the future of e-cigarettes.
At least 12 hours of work daily, at least 30,000-40,000 steps, and then possibly rejection from store owners... The pressure was immense, greater than when we sold any other FMCG product.
**But those who stayed were strong-willed.**
Our team had two women, Yueran and Xiaoxin. During the hottest days of late July, each carried 20-30 kilograms of materials—heavier than explosive packs—working 14 hours a day to place products in about 40 stores, crisscrossing the city until their electric scooters ran out of fuel.
Another teammate, Xiao Zhao, was also impressive. He handled store placement in the new district. After securing several stores, he even helped a store that had almost zero monthly sales reach several hundred boxes per month.
Xiao Zhao attributed this not only to his efforts but also to the store owner's existing knowledge of e-cigarettes and the profit points from Snow+'s sales policy.
**Fame and profit are always the most important motivators for people to move forward. But if you don't believe in what you're doing, you can never achieve good results.**

**August 6-14, 2019 - Snow+'s "Black Technology"**
"You always manage to surprise me." This was something I heard from store owners several times within 10 days.
The last surprise was Snow+'s new electronic coffee, launched on the 29th. We salespeople had never heard of "smoking coffee" before. When we got the products, everyone was curious; it seemed the company was "taking a different path."
We often talk about "acceleration," and indeed, Snow+ was far ahead of competitors in launching new products. This was our strong backing.
But most importantly for us, selling electronic coffee faced less resistance than selling e-cigarettes. For friends in our WeChat circles who wanted to try smoking just because of the "vapor," we strongly recommended this product, rather than creating more smokers.
For store owners, electronic coffee seemed much safer than cigarettes. It also effectively prevented enticing minors to smoke.
Our team moved quickly, visiting all previously contacted stores within a week and securing many new ones. In the CVS channel, which the company focused on, convenience store owners favored by younger people were more willing to accept this product, and rejections decreased significantly.
Within a week, Snow+ released another "black technology": invisible smoke. **E-cigarettes are already less harmful than cigarettes, but large vapor clouds can still be off-putting.**
**This invisible smoke minimizes secondhand smoke harm to non-smokers, making it a product of "harm reduction" squared.**
**(Note: Currently, 740 million people in China are threatened by secondhand smoke, including 180 million minors. Secondhand smoke contains 250 toxic substances, 69 of which are carcinogenic.)**

**August 15, 2019 - Review Meeting**
Seeing the published data, we were all delighted. After a month of intense selling, visiting over 30 stores daily, we had established 600 Snow+ stores in this city, with 40% achieving active sales.
Some might think 600 stores scattered across the city wouldn't make a splash, but among e-cigarette brands, our store count was already the highest.
It wasn't just the company's processes and potential profit points that convinced store owners; every team member also paid attention to whether each store owner smoked before placing products.
If they smoked, we'd even buy Snow+ pods ourselves and give them to the owners to try, just to let them know how our product performed.
In high-sales areas, we'd help store owners set up stalls and sell, sometimes staying all day, showing them tangible profits, which led to larger restocking orders.
Salespeople from other brands often described us as crazy.
Indeed, while they were still tapping away online, we were frantically laying down offline stores—perhaps another manifestation of "acceleration"!

**August 21, 2019 - "Bro Isn't Smoking Nightmare; Bro Is Smoking Loneliness"**
**Snow+'s new product, Nightmare (夜魔), achieved impressive results on e-commerce platforms: it sold out on the first day, much faster than we expected.**
**This product would become our main push for the next week. When Mr. Xiao first talked to me about Snow+, he had already clearly defined our target audience and planned a series of nightclub and bar events. We were surprised that Nightmare, precisely targeting nightlife crowds, could be launched so quickly.**
**Perhaps those who seek out noisy environments are the loneliest at heart. "Bro isn't smoking Nightmare; bro is smoking loneliness."**
Here, we held nightlife events 3-4 times a month, giving away several hundred e-cigarettes each time. Though not yet profitable, it laid a solid foundation for reputation and future pod sales.
This time, we intended to use the new Nightmare as another "acceleration" point.
In bars, for many trendsetters, only alcohol and Snow+ are indispensable.

**September 1, 2019 - I Got Promoted**
From salesperson to sales supervisor, then to city manager, it took me less than two months. But I felt I deserved it because I not only met my sales target ahead of time but also exceeded it significantly, selling 120,000 units in one month.
**This was the key criterion for promotion. For a startup, playing the "emotional card" is useless; without good performance, nothing else matters.**
I believe this is the right value system.
But improving performance is easier said than done. E-cigarettes are different from other traditional FMCG products; they haven't yet opened their full market. Every e-cigarette salesperson must first fall in love with e-cigarettes to achieve the best sales state.
In the past month, some wanted to give up, and some actually left the team. Because they communicated with store owners repeatedly but couldn't convince themselves to believe in the product, and they couldn't withstand the pressure of repeated rejections under such high work intensity.
After my promotion, I took charge of the current team. I could see that everyone who remained had the basic qualities for e-cigarette sales: understanding of the product, sales, Snow+, and the usage scenarios of e-cigarettes.
But ultimately, everything comes down to understanding people.

**September 2, 2019 - Negative News Haunts Frontline Sales**
Today, I learned that Tsinghua University had released the "first blue book on the e-cigarette industry" a few days ago. The company printed it out and distributed it to us salespeople to learn about industry knowledge.
But I wasn't too stirred. Over the past month, there had been many news stories about e-cigarettes in the US, which affected sales progress, with claims like "e-cigarettes kill people."
As the saying goes, "Bad news travels fast."
We all know that even though the blue book is authoritative, these store owners will always believe what they want to believe. "See, TV says e-cigarettes killed people in the US," "E-cigarettes are toxic; several people died," we hear such things every day.
Some people even use these negative stories to push down purchase prices. We can understand: when interests are at stake, people have all sorts of ideas.
We adjusted our mindset and continued placing products. Honestly, we frontline salespeople are the most attuned to consumer sentiment. Facing such public opinion, we could only explain repeatedly: US e-cigarettes are different from China's; what killed people was marijuana, not products like ours.
But the company didn't respond immediately, and the industry as a whole remained largely silent. We were anxious.

**September 7, 2019 - Feeling Down, but Still Fighting with Competitors**
**Despite the bad news, we had to keep working.**
We frontline staff often interact with salespeople from other brands, and there's a sense of rivalry among different brands' sales teams.
Those sitting in offices might not see our war without smoke—my most memorable moment was when we tried to place products in a store, but a leading brand had already gotten there first. No matter how we tried to persuade the owner, he wouldn't budge.
Since you won't let us place our products here, we'll surround your store with Snow+ products on all sides, biting hard and not letting go!
This is the kind of war we frontline salespeople often engage in; all our store counts, volumes, and speed are forged in such battles.
This rivalry also drives us to keep placing products. Compared to placement, walking tens of thousands of steps daily, taking multiple subway and bus transfers from downtown to suburbs, seems trivial.
Because legs are under our control; but placement requires communicating with others and persuading them. Many times, I feel powerless.
**But perhaps everyone in the world feels powerless at times, whether strong or weak.**
"Snow+ Wall"

**September 10, 2019 - No Sales to Minors**
With negative news about e-cigarettes frequent, we saw headlines about US bans and President Trump opposing e-cigarettes... This made us all feel down.
If this continues, is the industry heading into a winter?
Under these negative influences, sales pressure grew. Nevertheless, we did what we had to do.
During every placement and follow-up visit, we emphasized to store owners that they must not sell to minors; if discovered, we'd immediately terminate the contract. Also, we never placed products near any high schools or middle schools.
**I want to make money, but not money that goes against my conscience.**
The setbacks hit us, but they didn't slow down our entire sales team. After all, under Snow+'s sales strategy, decent returns still attracted many like-minded store owners and distributors.
Invisible smoke, as a "harm reduction" squared product, was placed at the front by most stores.

**September 13-16, 2019 - A Long Road Ahead**
For many, it was the Mid-Autumn Festival, but for us, it was three busy days. After meeting August sales targets, our team immediately began a price chain test, very busy. The goal was to reach nearly 8,000 mom-and-pop stores in this city. Each of us had to walk over 30 kilometers daily carrying heavy loads to persuade every owner. To put it in perspective, the distance between this city and the neighboring city is only about 40 kilometers. We were essentially crossing the city.
But by the end of the Mid-Autumn Festival, our results were fewer than 300 stores.
This number can be attributed to the negative reports on e-cigarettes.
Although US President Trump shifted his focus from the e-cigarette industry to illicit e-cigarettes, and the company launched a strong public opinion counterattack, with every salesperson reading related reports and sharing them on WeChat Moments, for most "conservative" mom-and-pop stores, acceptance would take time.
For the few hundred that accepted, clear plans and profit points were key to convincing them.
As my role changed, I began working on data research in the back office, so these 8,000 stores were divided among five salespeople. If each visited 30 stores daily, it would take one and a half months to cover them all, but we did it in one month, relying on our legs.

**September 28, 2019 - Finally, Good News**
Headquarters relayed news that the US had begun investigating illegal e-cigarettes mixed with marijuana, which somewhat vindicated genuine e-cigarettes.
But as I said before, changing people's perceptions takes a long time. These news stories and the blue book deepened understanding among insiders, but for store owners and consumers, the true popularization of this new product will take much longer.
(Note: As of now, there is no definitive conclusion on the suspected e-cigarette-related deaths in the US. The latest statement came on September 28, when the CDC disclosed on its website that the latest investigation into lung injuries associated with e-cigarette use indicated that THC products played a role. According to a report in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 77% of those affected used THC-containing products or a combination of THC and nicotine products.)
**What we hope most is that journalists and media can report more objectively, rather than rushing in without understanding basic concepts. Worse, some media only report rumors to attract attention, ignoring subsequent clarifications.**
So for us frontline salespeople, what we need is not documents but practical action. We use our own methods to win over store owners: besides a systematic placement approach and attractive profits, we also pay attention to each store owner's hobbies, build long-term relationships, and convey the message of e-cigarettes as "cigarette substitutes and harm reduction."
These store owners, while selling, also explain to consumers on our behalf. During follow-ups, they give us feedback on which products are popular and which flavors are lackluster. For example, electronic coffee is popular among young people, while invisible smoke is mostly bought by white-collar workers.
But what worries me is that China now has so many e-cigarette brands. Companies like Snow+ will certainly strictly control quality, but what about the others?
Snow+ with a "Chinese Heart"

**September 30, 2019 - Snow+ and the Red Flag**
**On September 30, the day before the 70th anniversary of New China, a sales colleague initiated a "Snow+ + Red Flag" WeChat Moments campaign in our main group. The 500-person group quickly saw many responses.**
At the time, I was in a meeting with distributors. When I opened WeChat in the afternoon, my Moments were flooded with a sea of Chinese red nine-grid images, with Snow+'s red devices interspersed among the number "70." One salesperson wrote, "Pick up Snow+'s little red stick, and get red with the motherland."
When employees join, the company trains us, so we clearly know the three 90% of e-cigarettes: over 90% of global production, over 90% of exports, and 90% of patents. In the global e-cigarette market, China holds pricing power.
Moreover, e-cigarettes were invented by the Chinese.
In September, Juul's entry into China gave us a few days of anxiety. We've sold many products and can feel that many consumers rely more on foreign products than domestic ones. So those days, we placed products intensively, almost at the August pace, with 30 visits as a baseline and 12-hour workdays as the norm.
Although Juul quickly exited the market, the pressure it brought won't be forgotten.
So, when we saw Snow+ and the Red Flag flooding our screens, our hearts were stirred. E-cigarettes are a national industry, and Snow+, as a leader in China's e-cigarette sector, no matter how far or long it goes, will always hold a sincere Chinese heart.
(Note: Yueran is a pseudonym.)

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## Citation metadata

- Publisher: New Distribution
- Author: New Distribution
- Published: 2019-10-14
- Canonical: https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/entrepreneur-s-journal-a-brutal-battle-in-e-cigarette-sales-1e3b7fd6/
- Original source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/nxr0004k_uyGUSK7M_mgxQ

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