A quote from Mao Zedong Thought provides us with strategic and tactical guidance: our strategy is to 'fight one against ten,' and our tactics are to 'fight ten against one,' which is one of the fundamental laws for defeating the enemy. This tells enterprises how to divide forces and how to concentrate them when competing for markets, and when to divide and when to concentrate, which is the principle for cultivating marketing organizations and teams. From this perspective, it determines what marketing platform to build and what organizational model to construct during the process of dividing and concentrating forces. The marketing teams of the vast majority of enterprises operate as lone wolves, with sales regions as units, each salesperson having their own territory that is not to be infringed upon. Customers and networks become the personal assets of sales personnel, making it difficult for the company to control them. Even in many industrial product fields, sales personnel become industry-specific salespeople. When the company wants to control these resources, sales personnel believe that these customers were acquired through their hard work, and the network was built bit by bit by them, so why should they hand it over to the company? This is the crux of many enterprises' marketing teams: there is only decentralization without centralization. Therefore, it is necessary to build a first-class marketing team from two aspects. 1. Build a marketing support platform When marketing personnel encounter difficulties, if the company's marketing organization does not provide corresponding support, or when marketing personnel in trouble are about to give up, the company's marketing organization only just learns about it, or even after learning, does not respond accordingly. Such enterprises have not established a corporate marketing support platform. Therefore, the enterprise cannot control the market or customers. The marketing support platform should consist of two parts: a standardization platform and a backend support system. The standardization support platform is to prevent sales personnel from crossing the river by feeling the stones. For some basic, common, and simple marketing actions, the company formulates a series of action standards based on successful experience, providing a reference during operations. The backend support system mainly refers to the headquarters' information collection and decision-making system. Based on the collection, organization, and analysis of sales team behavior and market information, the headquarters issues instructions and provides operational plans for each market. For example, when the author's company provides services to industrial enterprises, it establishes an information support system and decision-making plan for key accounts. The company's marketing organization provides convenience for regional key account business development from a higher level. 2. Break down actions to turn complexity into simplicity As is well known, all-around sales elites are difficult to cultivate and recruit, so relying entirely on sales elites is not conducive to building an efficient marketing team. Therefore, it is necessary to start from the enterprise's existing resources, break down sales actions, and have several ordinary people complete the full set of actions that originally relied on all-around sales personnel. This is the establishment of the marketing organization model. The Qi family army's organizational model provides a reference. Qi Jiguang invented a formation called the Mandarin Duck Formation, which formed team combat power and achieved specialized division of labor. He replaced martial arts experts such as boxers and instructors with simple farmers, and equipped them with a reward and punishment mechanism for the team, forming an invincible anti-Japanese army with mutual support and cooperation. For marketing teams, the same principle applies. The lone wolf business model is not conducive to the coordinated operations of the marketing team. This method may have brought development to the enterprise for a period, but it is not conducive to the enterprise's intensive cultivation of the market or the establishment of a base market. In marketing, especially in the sales process, operational models are established based on industry characteristics to simplify procedures and standardize marketing actions. As long as marketing personnel do the basic actions solidly, performance will naturally be good. For example, in the FMCG field, many predecessors have summarized the eight-point terminal inspection model: 1. Check location, 2. Check inventory, 3. Check display, 4. Check price, 5. Check customer relations, 6. Check store owner's first recommendation, 7. Check competitors, 8. Check distribution rate. The eight-step terminal visit process also standardizes and actionizes complex, unassessable visits, allowing many newly recruited sales personnel to execute according to these basic actions and ensure results. Specifically:

  1. Pre-visit preparation (visit route, merchandising tools, unfinished matters, etc.);
  2. Outside-store operations (check outdoor advertising, approach customers);
  3. Inventory counting (special display points, stock of own and competitor products, inventory quality);
  4. Sales and distribution (state policies, handle objections, new product extension);
  5. Order transaction;
  6. Product display (normal shelves, multiple displays);
  7. Administrative operations (fill in customer information cards, confirm orders);
  8. Evaluation and improvement. Of course, marketing actions vary by industry. Enterprises must establish standardized marketing actions that match their own resources and capabilities to use ordinary people to achieve extraordinary results. Special announcement: (The book "Marketing Common Sense That Every Move Increases Sales" has been published by Enterprise Management Publishing House and is available for purchase on Dangdang, Amazon, and JD.com, currently at a discounted price of around 30 yuan) Liu Wenxin, founder of Qibing Marketing Consulting Company. -END- Selected content Click on the title below to read directly: [Line Sales Representative Practical Operation Guide (with full set of PPT download attached)]