Recently, many FMCG salespeople complain that the market environment is poor, business is hard, sales can't increase, and income is too low. Some blame strict company management, saying commissions and travel expenses are calculated too precisely, leaving no room for tips. Others say marketing management is too rigid, with satellite tracking, daily reports to headquarters, and work logs. The central theme is low income and strict management, making sales jobs seem unprofitable.

According to industry reports, salesperson incomes are declining, careers are shortening, and only a small minority truly profit, while most barely maintain a subsistence living.

As the saying goes, "A hundred precautions are not as good as one oversight." Despite companies' marketing rules and regulations, there are still marketing black holes. "No man grows rich without a windfall, no horse grows fat without night grass." Many salespeople exploit these management flaws to get rich, some even amassing millions.

Today, let's review ten common tricks used by FMCG salespeople to profit from company loopholes.

1. Playing Both Ends: Taking Company Policies and Dealer Kickbacks

"The crying child gets the milk" is a common phenomenon in sales team management. To achieve personal goals, FMCG salespeople often complain to their superiors about fierce competition, uncooperative customers, and strong rivals, claiming that without more market investment, the market will be lost. They paint a bleak picture, portraying themselves as suffering lambs. Sometimes, their tearful pleas win sympathy, leading superiors to approve extra discounts for dealers or increase terminal expenses by tens of thousands. The salesperson secretly rejoices, calculating personal gains from these policies.

With these policies, the salesperson confidently approaches dealers, vividly describing the great effort to secure these benefits, emphasizing that other regions don't have them, implying the dealer should give a kickback. Some dealers, seeing the benefits, willingly give a few hundred or thousand yuan as a tip. However, if a dealer is stingy and gives nothing, they may never receive such policies again.

2. Deceiving Both Sides: Faking Reports and Drawing Salaries Without Working

Managing FMCG salespeople is like herding horses on a plain—easy to let go, hard to rein in. In front of superiors, they appear obedient, but in the field, they act like feudal lords, doing as they please. They spend days sightseeing and nights in entertainment venues. Their performance is terrible, but they have many women. At month's end, they pressure dealers for payments, using threats and promises, like warning that the dealership might be taken away or promising overseas trips.

This is common among big-brand salespeople. For small companies, salespeople find it hard to deceive customers due to weak market foundations, but they have their own tricks: they skip the market, enjoy themselves, and submit a pile of fake travel and accommodation receipts for reimbursement, collecting salary and expenses without any sales.

3. Colluding with Superiors: Acting as Middlemen for Personal Gain

Every company has marketing management systems, but systems are made by people. Smart salespeople know "to take, you must first give," so they flatter superiors and befriend customers, creating conditions for bold fraud. When loopholes appear, they exploit them, and superiors turn a blind eye because they've received benefits, making them accomplices. Salespeople require dealers to pay according to the price list but divert payments to personal accounts, earning the difference. If there's no price difference, they pocket dealer rebates, crediting them to a compliant puppet customer, then cash out when that customer next orders.

For small companies, salespeople are even bolder: with fewer customers and larger territories, customers may never meet company leaders, and poor communication makes them local warlords, taking all profits, rebates, and gifts for themselves.

4. Passing Off Inferior Goods: Embezzling Terminal Expenses

Marketing experts know that besides price differences and rebates, terminal promotion expenses are a major loophole. These funds are for promotional activities and terminal image creation. Once a plan is approved, funds are allocated to the salesperson, who can inflate prices for promotional materials, fake temporary promoter lists with relatives' names, and create fake posters and flyers to profit.

Terminal image creation is frequent, especially for big brands, which invest heavily to maintain brand image. This is another source of kickbacks: salespeople can use inferior materials or fake photos and invoices (fake ones) for reimbursement. If superiors don't manage strictly, this becomes a goldmine. Some salespeople openly say their salary and commission aren't enough, so they must skim from terminal expenses to get rich.

5. Diverting Rebates: Using Fake Seals to Transfer Rebates

Some salespeople not only exploit sales but also financial loopholes. After learning dealer details, they privately carve fake seals and forge signatures. When tasks require confirmation, they stamp documents in hotels, completing tasks and submitting various receipts for reimbursement. The main purpose is to obtain rebates and price adjustments. When prices change, companies compensate dealers for inventory, but salespeople claim it's a routine inventory check. They transfer one customer's compensation to another, then use that customer's name to pick up goods, receiving cash at a discount.

Rebates are more common: monthly, quarterly, or yearly. Salespeople consolidate rebates, use fake seals, and cash them out through a controllable customer, sharing some benefits. This "rebate diversion" is a common, unspoken quick-rich method.

6. Embezzling Bribes: Making the Company Suffer in Silence

In China, news of bribery is common. Where there's power, there's bribery, especially in state-owned and large chain businesses. Salespeople bribe those with power to approve payments and promote products. The bribes come from the company, and these transactions are secret, following unspoken rules. Salespeople, seeing large sums, get tempted. Their months of hard work may earn less than one bribe. These bribes are often off-book, and recipients don't sign, so only the salesperson knows if they were delivered. Some salespeople simply keep the money. Company leaders can't call to ask if the bribe was received, fearing recording or impersonation, and recipients deny it to avoid corruption charges.

Salespeople weigh whether to deliver. Those dealing with large chains may handle hundreds of thousands annually; if they keep it, they get rich. Even if leaders know, they can't take legal action, only fire the salesperson, suffering in silence.

7. Moonlighting: Working for Two Companies

Small companies with limited products often hire part-time salespeople to save costs, offering only a base price and letting them add a markup as commission. Experienced salespeople with local market knowledge and customer resources often take part-time jobs with small companies, using company travel expenses to sell other products, earning from both sides. This is a fast way to wealth.

The author has chatted with experienced salespeople who say they'd take such part-time jobs if the product is good and the price is right, sometimes earning more than their full-time income.

8. Group Pressure: Forcing Superiors to Concede

Sales teams often show strange unity, sharing market information. If one deviates, they become a target of criticism. The goal is to pressure superiors for better sales policies and expenses. Some leaders, unable to discern truth or seeking short-term results, concede. With these policies, salespeople achieve good results easily and may skim from them, boosting their income.

The author once worked at a large company with annual sales near 10 billion. At a sales meeting, dozens of provincial managers collectively demanded better policies. The boss replied, "Don't think I don't know the market. If it's as bad as you say, you can quit. There are many talented people under overpasses; I can hire thousands of managers in days. Dealers follow products, not you." After that, no such pressure occurred. Group pressure sometimes fails but often succeeds.

9. Dual Identity: Being Both Salesperson and Boss

After a few years, salespeople have savings and seek future paths. Some use current opportunities to start businesses, using savings to represent products their existing customers can accept. Customers, driven by interest or personal ties, help. Salespeople complete tasks and build a foundation for entrepreneurship.

Bolder ones, especially with big brands, become agents for their own company's products. To the company, they're salespeople; to customers, they're bosses. They may use their own or customers' money, earning the difference.

Some smart ones use a customer as a front, secretly controlling the market. A big-brand salesperson's territory may have annual sales of millions or tens of millions; with a 10% margin, income could be around a million. A former deputy director at Kelon once remarked, "Smart salespeople earn hundreds of thousands a year." The author didn't understand then but later realized.

10. Stirring Up Trouble: Deliberately Disrupting the Market for Profit

Some markets are stable after generations of salespeople, but to profit, salespeople may deliberately disrupt by changing dealers or sales models, then rebuild networks to control and profit. "Without destroying a world, how can you create a new one?" is a common tactic. Capable salespeople aren't satisfied with the status quo and stir up trouble to establish new structures.

This is risky: if the old market is broken and the new one fails, the salesperson gains nothing and may be fired. So, this method requires caution.

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