Five Ways to Keep Products Moving in the Off-Season

The off-season often makes many baijiu companies feel uncomfortable, like arthritis patients facing rainy days. In this long and helpless season, should we rest and recuperate, or strive to do something to save the market? Striving to do something is to make the 'off-season not off,' and almost all companies are aware of this issue, but many think more and do less, merely making some sales adjustments, holding insignificant meetings, or repeating annual new product development, waiting for the sales season; or formally doing some perfunctory training courses, just going through the motions.

How to achieve 'off-season not off'? Both effort and method are equally important, but the indicators for measuring 'off-season not off' should not be limited to 'sales volume'; we should analyze the various ways companies face the off-season from a comprehensive effect perspective.

In response to the off-season, companies should take more practical actions and make them produce quick results, rather than spending too much time thinking and passively dealing with the 'off-season problem.'

Below, we share five ways for baijiu companies to deal with the off-season.

Way 1: Keep Sales Not Off

In the sales off-season, do a good job in market segmentation.

Summer is the season for beer, which offsets most of the baijiu market, including yellow wine and health wine. The irresistible consumption habits force us to abandon mainstream consumption channels and find niche markets for off-season survival.

Focus on the catering channel. Baijiu, as the mainstream for government and business consumption, still maintains a relatively stable consumption share in the catering channel (hotels), especially for mid-to-high-end liquor consumption in mid-to-high-end hotels. Companies should focus on the catering channel in the off-season and strengthen hotel consumption.
Expand the group purchase market. For the baijiu market, although group purchase consumption is also affected by summer, it is relatively stable compared to the circulation market. Government and institutional receptions still mainly promote baijiu, with beer as a supplement, and other alcoholic beverages. Therefore, group purchase consumption is a good support point for maintaining off-season sales, and good customers also have a certain ability to stock up.
Special channels. On happy occasions, companies with conditions should seriously consider or plan wedding banquet liquor, cooperate with wedding companies, photo studios, hotels, women's federations, and other related sales links, focus on developing the wedding channel, and even plan large-scale collective weddings. This also includes Olympic celebration liquor, government meeting or event special liquor, etc.

Way 2: Keep the Market Not Off

The off-season is the off-season for sales, not for the market.

Doing market work and doing sales work can show strong differences in the off-season, but we must believe that the market is the foundation of sales, and sales are just the tip of the iceberg. In the off-season, companies should consider the market more than sales.

Provide good service to distributors. In the peak season, what companies can think of is to press distributors for stock and payment. In the off-season, companies should not ignore service to distributors, otherwise, there will be no more enthusiasm in the next peak season. In the off-season, companies can organize more distributor meetings, where manufacturers and distributors can talk like friends, use communication to enhance feelings, use systematic training to improve each other, and use other services such as tourism to pave the way for peak season sales. In the off-season, when providing services to distributors, companies must avoid going through the motions.
Strengthen market research. In the peak season, there is no more time to understand the market. Only in the off-season can companies (senior management) take more time to understand the market thoroughly and in detail, or rely on professional research companies to assist, providing detailed data analysis for business decisions, ensuring the feasibility and effectiveness of sales policies. This is often the most easily overlooked work in the off-season.
New product development. This is one of the essential tasks for baijiu companies facing the off-season. New products are developed every year, but the death rate of products is getting faster, and the difficulty of launching new products is increasing. Here, I just want to remind companies that when developing new products, they must clearly understand why they are developing new products, and the positioning, selling points, packaging, price, channel strategy, etc., must be very clear. Remember, costly new product development does not necessarily guarantee success. If new product development succeeds, consider giving free samples to distributor customers, group purchase customers, and opinion leaders in various forms during the off-season to increase the contact rate of new product consumption.

Way 3: Keep the Brand Not Off

Brand building is a long-term task, with no distinction between peak and off seasons, and cannot be measured by the amount of advertising.

In the traditional off-season, the goal of brand building is not to directly drive sales, but to focus on enhancing brand awareness and reputation, and the promotional forms can be diversified.

Combining brand advertising and public relations activities is a very good model. For example, companies participate in or sponsor various activities organized by industry media in the off-season, such as industry seminars, distributor forums, excellent distributor selection activities, etc. Some companies actively cooperate with the Olympic torch relay activities, while placing a certain proportion of advertisements in industry magazines, TV, outdoor, and online to jointly pull the brand image in the air, creating an atmosphere of brand not off in the off-season market.

Through long-term observation and research, as well as assisting some companies with network services, I am convinced that diverse, content-rich, low-cost online advertising is a communication form worth trying for baijiu companies.

Way 4: Keep the Team Not Off

In the off-season, where is our team, and what are they doing?

Selling baijiu is not a one-time effort; the fading of enthusiasm is a sign of the team's off-season.

Train for a thousand days to use for a moment. If companies do not have the courage and patience to cultivate the team, they should not expect too much from the team. Train, train, and train again. When knowledge and skills are repeated ten times with intermittent thinking, they will penetrate into the team's behavior, activating the team's enthusiasm and fighting spirit.

Companies can organize internal training in the off-season, with senior management training middle management, middle management training grassroots, and continuous follow-up learning; or attend public courses, invite professional trainers for systematic training; or conduct internal knowledge competitions, sales skill drills, outward bound training, military training, etc., to stimulate the team's potential and enthusiasm.

Way 5: Keep the Mindset Not Off

If people's hearts are scattered, the team is hard to lead.

In the off-season, we need to continuously shape a solid camp, gather soldiers like flowing water, attract talent to supplement the loss of talent, and strengthen talent to maintain a good sales mindset. If we find that many salespeople in the team have a 'gnawing at the bed leg' mentality, then our company is doomed.

Sales volume is not the only indicator for assessing business. We can create more performance appraisal methods to win the team's sense of belonging and ambition, such as establishing a scientific, effective, simple, and easy-to-implement performance appraisal method to solve the off-season management problems of the sales team.

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