Wei Qing will launch the industry's first live video training on September 10 via WeChat public platform, and this platform is honored to be one of the first to broadcast it. For those who want to improve their sales skills but cannot attend on-site training, this is an opportunity not to be missed. Details are at the bottom of this article.

Out of 100 terminal sales reps, about 10-20 are "fools" who work from the morning meeting at 8:30 until 6 PM without a break. About 60-70 are "normal" who finish all work before lunch and fabricate reports at the restaurant. About 10-20 "smart" ones finish their daily visits within an hour, even just calling on a few key accounts.

Personnel management is a huge topic with a vast amount of literature. Here, we simplify it by extracting the common "internal skills" used by large enterprises to manage terminal sales teams, condensed into a few core tools for self-check.

Core Tool 1: Fix Employees' Work to Facilitate Supervisors' Follow-up Checks the Next Day.

"Route manual management" is the most common and popular team management method in the FMCG industry. It involves creating a "route manual" that plans each employee's daily customer visits into fixed routes (see Figure 1). The manual contains one map and two tables: the first page is the "daily visit route map" (see Figure 2), the second page is the "daily visit customer list" (see Figure 3), and from the third page onward is the "daily visit customer order registration file" (see Figure 4). Sales reps carry the manual daily, recording visits, transactions, inventory, and visit times. The next day, supervisors use the previous day's manual to check the effectiveness of the visits (see Figure 1).

"Route manual management" has been popular in the FMCG industry for nearly two decades. Despite its complexity and high management costs, it is widely practiced by large FMCG companies. Its charm lies not only in providing periodic service to terminal customers but also in fixing the daily work of thousands of employees, making it possible for supervisors to check the next day.

The difficulty in managing sales teams is that it is not on-site management. When a sales manager looks up, there is no one around. Where are they? They are in the market. What are they doing? Only heaven knows! Sales management is remote control, which often leads to loss of control. To avoid this, remote control must become visible control. One ideal method is to record employees' work from the previous day and play it back the next day—obviously impossible. Hence, the route manual records employees' behavior, trajectory, and work content. Supervisors can then check the next day. Everyone knows that if checks are thorough, violations like absenteeism, skipping work, withholding promotions, false reports, and visiting only big stores are easily found. Only with daily checks and rewards/punishments can these "illegal behaviors" be curbed.

Fixing employees' work and having supervisors review daily is not distrust but management logic, especially for frontline teams. Otherwise, it becomes tunnel management—enter one end, exit the other, with darkness in between, unable to monitor, waiting for results, which is frightening.

What if some positions cannot have fixed work?

For example, sales reps covering hypermarkets cannot have fully fixed routes—they plan to visit Trust-Mart, but if a RT-Mart manager calls or an emergency arises, they usually must go. In such cases, have them fill out a weekly visit plan and report any changes daily, with supervisors checking the next day.

For regional reps visiting distributors, routes cannot be fully fixed? Have them fill out a next-week work plan and a daily work report (see Figure 5). Some companies also use mobile phone positioning to verify the authenticity of their reports.

For resident office managers or branch managers who are the local bosses with no supervision, require transparent management: they must post their daily work reports on the office wall for all employees to see. When regional managers visit, they can pull down the previous day's report and check.

Regardless of the form, the principle is to fix employees' work and leave traces for supervisors to check. Under this principle, methods vary: "route manuals," "mobile positioning," "salesperson work diaries," "supermarket rep daily performance reports," "terminal visit point readers" (devices that show rep locations and allow uploading inventory/sales data), "having reps call the company from customer sites to report whereabouts," and even "requiring reps to use multimedia phones to photograph their surroundings and send to headquarters to prove their whereabouts." Many methods have flaws or cause resistance, but the principle is correct: fix employees' work, record what is done, and enable supervisors to check. This is the beginning and foundation of frontline management.

Tool usage tip: Reflect—is your employees' work location, content, and time from yesterday fixed and recorded? Management cannot rely on employee self-discipline. Start with this step, regardless of the reporting tool, even if it's sending text messages or using a simple notebook. First, fix the routes and work records of key staff, then extend to all levels. Beware of making reports too complex; the less writing required, the better.

Core Tool 2: Standardize Key Links for Easier Management and Experience Transfer.

Foreign companies emphasize standardized management: merchandising standards, terminal visit standards, promotion application and summary standards, etc., permeating every detail of operations.

  1. From a management perspective, standardization reduces difficulty and increases efficiency.

Chinese martial arts are profound, but why does the PLA practice bayonet drills with everyone doing the same move—"kill!"—rather than different styles? Is it rigid? Stupid? Simple but easy to learn and practical (kill—white blade in, red blade out). If thousands of troops all do this one move well, that's execution!

  1. From a training perspective, standardization transfers the experience of predecessors, helping newcomers and successors avoid detours.

Coca-Cola's merchandising standards are not just for uniform management or aesthetics but are based on tests showing that certain displays are safer, more eye-catching, and drive purchases. For example, "strive for positions beyond the fifth facing on the shelf aisle" (people often pass the first four facings without buying, like the first restaurant on a food street often has poor business). "Island displays should not exceed 1.4 meters, and trapezoid displays not exceed 1.6 meters" (tests show floor displays must be over one meter to attract attention; trapezoid displays can be higher because one side leans against a wall or shelf; island displays too high may topple). "For floor displays, cut open all boxes except the bottom layer to reveal the Chinese trademark" (to prompt purchases; the bottom layer must remain intact for weight-bearing, otherwise the stack collapses).

Coca-Cola's "Eight Steps for Standardized Store Visits" is not for management convenience or to "look professional." Outsiders may see it as superficial, but it is the accumulated experience of generations, with almost every step generating sales. For example, the detail "front-line and back-line display transfer": each visit, take the full boxes of Coca-Cola stored under the owner's stool or behind the door (small terminals often lack full warehouses; we call this the back line) and put them on the shelf (front line). First, more products on the shelf means more display space. Second, owners decide whether to reorder based on full-box inventory; if you move the back line to the front line, they may order next time.

Again, standardization is not just for unified management but for transferring experience and skills.

Central leaders say "cross the river by feeling the stones," but many misunderstand it as following intuition. That is irresponsible—if everyone feels for stones, many will fall into the river. The meaning is that predecessors mark the way for successors, setting standards—"do it this way"—so successors cross safely and easily. When successors find new stones, they update the standards.

Sales work changes with the environment, but most sales tasks are repetitive. Whether regional market planning, distributor management, customer negotiation, or promotion planning, there are patterns, and wisdom can be standardized. Saying "war has no constant form" or "sales changes too much to standardize" is an excuse for laziness. If an experience cannot be concretized and standardized, it will be lost when you die.

Similarly, among salespeople, there are juniors and seniors. A junior asks a senior, "How are you so good? You enter a store and they order two boxes; I enter and they say 'get out.' How do you sell?" If the senior answers, "It's about insight," "Hard to explain," or "It's a skill!" the junior will be frustrated.

At Coca-Cola, they don't say "insight"; they say "Eight Steps for Standardized Store Visits"!

Tool usage tip: If your company lacks a standardization foundation, don't try to standardize everything at once. Identify the business link with the most problems, gather key staff to discuss experiences and skills, reference foreign company training materials, simplify, and fix a few management actions to implement. Once stable, move to another link. Over several years, you will develop your own standardized management. Standardization is built, not copied. It must be cultivated like crops—plant seeds, water, fertilize—gradually from surface to core. Copying others' standards will backfire.

Core Tool 3: Leaders Must Conduct Daily Checks.

Why daily checks? Salespeople commonly fill false reports, skip work (finish visits quickly in the morning, play cards in the afternoon, or even absent), miss visits (skip small customers), miss orders (the day after a rep visits a customer, the supervisor finds the customer orders more, indicating the rep didn't take all orders), place false orders (to obtain promotional items), underperform (the rep visited a distributor yesterday, but the supervisor finds the distributor is out of stock and the rep didn't report it), and fail to execute standards (after a rep's visit, competitor posters are not removed, new products are not unboxed and shelved). These behaviors are only discovered through checks, which also correct them and create a management atmosphere.

Supervisors must find time daily to check employees' previous day's work. This is not distrust but management ethics and the most important rule in frontline management. If time allows, check two employees (one good, one poor) for comparison and rewards/punishments. If not, check one person, half a day's work, three stores visited yesterday, or even one store, or make a one-minute phone call. Always check! Only after checking can supervisors be confident and "scold" (broadly meaning praise or punish) at the next morning's meeting. The purpose is not to punish or reward individuals but to create an atmosphere of "you work in front, I watch behind; if you slack, I'll make you pay." Then employees will truly "fear" you.

As an important management technique, companies have developed many check forms, processes, techniques, and tools (e.g., pre-check data analysis to target specific people and locations, in-store check techniques and key content menus, various check recording tools and tracking forms). The core techniques are:

  1. Increase the number of checks and make checking a company culture and mechanism.

Most supervisors are lazy about checking; they prefer sitting in the office or chatting at distributor dinners, or scolding at meetings. So companies must enforce check systems, requiring all supervisors to include check records, findings, and follow-up rewards/punishments in their daily reports—first increase the quantity of checks.

  1. Manage check records to improve quality.

Review the quality of supervisors' check records level by level. For example, a record like "Checked ten stores, customer relations okay, new product orders confirmed, but new product distribution poor, counter display needs improvement" is perfunctory, possibly fabricated by the supervisor or rep. A serious check record will show:

  • Customer complaints or issues needing resolution: e.g., a store's light box needs repair, a store needs a KT board.
  • Assignments to the checked person: e.g., handle a complaint, sign a display incentive for a good location, track rebate payment.
  • Rewards or punishments for individual extreme events: e.g., missed visits or false reports.
  • New systems or market actions for common issues: e.g., prohibit employees from gathering for lunch across regions, require self-check and correction of customer data with fines for wrong phone numbers from next week, recall all near-expiry products next week.
  1. Train, drill, and teach by example: Checking is not just to punish but to improve market work.

One purpose of checking is team management, but not solely to "punish." More importantly, it drives the market. Remember: "What the market management focuses on, employees are assessed on, and supervisors check." Suppose the company is distributing new products; checks should focus on distribution points, identify problems, and solve them to promote new product distribution and sales. For example:

  • Use checks to analyze why new products aren't moving: Is training needed? Should distributors sell on credit? Should distribution policies be revised? Are there terminal issues?
  • Check if employees distributed new products to unsuitable outlets. If so, emphasize target stores; non-target stores don't earn rewards.
  • Check for missed orders. Punish and publicize to motivate full distribution.
  • Check new product displays. Punish those who distribute but don't shelve; emphasize "not only distribute but also display to drive sell-through," with follow-up rewards/punishments.
  • Check for price anomalies. Require employees to hang price tags in stores to guide market prices.
  • Check promotion execution. Require promotional posters and samples at every distribution point.

Tool usage tip:

Companies should self-check:

Does the company require level-by-level checks? Are check records required in every supervisor's daily report? Is there higher-level review and comment on each supervisor's check records? Have supervisors received training on effective checking? Is there a check model? Are there templates for check records? Is there consensus that effective checks should focus on recent market priorities, with assignments, rewards/punishments, system revisions, or market projects after checks?

If any of these are lacking, improve immediately. Details can be flexible, but major items cannot be missing. Layer-by-layer, daily checks are the most side-effect-free, risk-free, and effective method to improve sales team management, applicable to all companies regardless of size.

Core Tool 4: Shorten Settlement Cycles, Rank Performance Daily, and Manage the Process to Improve Results.

Is it better to have a long or short settlement cycle for employee rewards/punishments? Definitely shorter. Think about why we did winter homework on the last day (with predictable results)—because homework wasn't checked during the break. Teachers made us return mid-break to check the first half's homework (so we had to work in bursts).

Routine | Performance Hotel rep gets statement at month-end | Collected 100,000 yuan overdue payment and negotiated with store owner to shorten payment terms from 30 to 10 days Regional manager places orders for distributor, replenishes old product inventory | Regional manager persuaded distributor to replenish according to safety stock and ordered 200 cases each of two new products Regional manager visits XX market to communicate with distributor | Regional manager visited XX market, assisted regional manager in persuading distributor to abandon competing products and exclusively sell our products, and added two delivery vehicles. Also checked the progress of the township distributor development task assigned last month and set a schedule with rewards/punishments for next month's tasks.

Similarly, why do salespeople act like "princes at the beginning of the month and beggars at the end"? Because the company only assesses monthly sales at month-end, so they relax early and scheme to push inventory at the end. If you assess weekly, they scheme weekly. If every three days? If daily? They'd become ghosts themselves! This is not a joke. Month-end assessment is "post-mortem management." By the time monthly sales come out, the month is over; punishing the rep is useless. Shortening the settlement cycle and assessing during the process is "controlling the process to improve results." Many companies use this principle in various ways: e.g., Huarong Company had supervisors register sales every three days; a decline from last year's period earned a yellow card, and three yellow cards in a month meant dismissal. Coca-Cola changed monthly salary assessment to period-based rewards/punishments—calculate sales with monthly targets, but also set weekly progress requirements with extra rewards or penalties. Master Kong, during new product distribution, set daily store visit quotas with rewards for exceeding and penalties for falling short. Yinmai Beer held "What if today is month-end" activities mid-month, simulating salaries based on half-month performance doubled, with supervisors talking to the lowest performers to provide support and pressure.

Tool usage tip:

"Shorten settlement cycles, manage during the process, improve results" is a universal management idea. Start with gentle methods: e.g., change month-end assessment to "month-end plus weekly period achievement project" or "mid-month salary simulation." Then gradually intensify based on employees' stress tolerance. Be careful not to push too hard and drive employees crazy, which would backfire.

Core Tool 5: Run Effective Morning Meetings.

Even if ancient emperors were dissolute at night, they held court in the morning. Once they stopped, they were close to ruin. Similarly, morning meetings are crucial for sales teams. As discussed earlier, sales management is remote control; the only times employees are with you are morning and evening. If you miss these, you truly have remote control.

I have detailed the morning meeting model in "Terminal Salesperson Morning Meeting Model." Here, I emphasize a few points:

  1. At the morning meeting, supervisors must announce their own schedule from the previous day: "You work hard, and I, as your leader, haven't been idle. I'm sharing my schedule for your supervision." This applies the principle of "fix employees' work."

  2. Supervisors must emphasize yesterday's check results and rewards/punishments, creating an atmosphere of "I'm far away, but my eyes are everywhere," letting employees know you watch behind them. Check results are announced at the next morning meeting, with immediate rewards/punishments for violations and non-compliance with standards—applying the principles of "standardize key links" and "leaders check daily."

  3. Morning meetings must include performance reviews and form a performance cycle around recent priorities. If the priority is new product distribution, review historical achievements, analyze progress gaps, and identify weak performers—review yesterday's "dragon and rat list" for new product distribution, then the month-to-date cumulative list. For the "rats," ask reasons, provide pressure and support. Then set daily targets—clarify how many stores they must visit daily to catch up, even set specific store targets for individuals—forming a performance cycle. This applies the principle of "shorten settlement cycles, rank performance daily, manage the process to improve results."

  4. Morning meetings should be performance-oriented, not problem-oriented.

Definition: The opposite of performance is routine—repetitive daily work. Performance means that after today, the state and results have broken through and differ from before. For example:

Supervisors often ask, "Does anyone have problems to discuss?" This turns the meeting into a complaint session, with everyone rushing to present problems and difficulties: "Our prices are high, our product taste isn't accepted locally, our budget is small, we lack staff..." It seems whoever stumps the leader wins.

Don't ask for problems; have them report yesterday's performance one by one! If you ask for problems, everyone finds problems and excuses. If you ask for performance, everyone thinks about their performance. Performance-oriented meetings are positive.

  1. Morning meetings should form a management cycle around recent priorities. If the priority is new product distribution, then "assessment," "checking," "performance review," "employee reports," and "target setting" should all revolve around new product distribution: KPI indicators highlight new product assessment, check results announced focus on new product shipments and market performance, employee reports cover new product sales and distribution, performance reviews highlight yesterday's new product performance and cumulative "dragon and rat list," and daily targets emphasize new products.

Tool usage tip:

First, promote the concept of performance in the company, helping everyone understand the difference between performance and routine, and create an atmosphere of managing performance rather than routine. Set morning meeting templates for branches and offices, starting with the key points above, from the simplest.

Train managers on the template, have supervisors attend subordinate meetings to score and coach. Once proficient, gradually upgrade the template with new content.

Don't underestimate morning meetings. A complete morning meeting systematically uses the five core tools. If a company can truly master morning meeting skills and use them to manage employees and drive performance, it will be a huge improvement.

Conclusion: Use the Way to Govern Techniques; Lift the Net by Its Main Cord

Business wisdom is about "seizing trends, understanding the Way, and optimizing techniques." At the team management execution level, "seizing trends" is not applicable; it's all about "understanding the Way" and "optimizing techniques." What is the "Way" of sales team management?

Is employees' work relatively fixed? Are work records kept? Are records checked? Is performance ranked daily? Are check results and rankings announced at morning meetings with rewards/punishments? These simple methods are the basic laws of personnel management, called the "Way." The five core tools are the concrete embodiment of the "Way."

Tool 1: Fix employees' work to facilitate supervisors' follow-up checks.

Tool 2: Standardize key links for easier management and experience transfer.

Tool 3: Checking is a routine duty for managers; leaders check daily to manage people and solve problems to drive the market.

Tool 4: Rank performance daily; the shorter the settlement cycle, the higher the efficiency. Settling accounts after the fact is "post-mortem examination"; short-cycle assessment enables "managing the process to improve results."

Tool 5: Run effective morning meetings; a complete morning meeting is a summary and full application of the five core tools.

With these five tools as the foundation, "techniques"—the myriad forms, processes, systems, and execution details of various companies—branch out. But all details are superficial; returning to common sense clarifies the main threads of management.

This is "using the Way to govern techniques; lifting the net by its main cord." If you cannot "understand the Way" and obsess over forms and details like reports and processes, you will have a small plan with big ambitions; techniques will not serve you but will torment you.

Block out the noise of details and forms, and look at the fundamental laws in the sales team management system. You'll find things can be so simple.

-END-

Excerpt from "Terminal Visit and Sales General Model"

September 10, 2015 20:00--21:00

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