---
title: "Four Essential Business Skills for Regional Managers!"
description: "A qualified regional manager should possess four business skills: regional market planning, channel development, market dispute management, and marketing action planning. This article details each skill, including market analysis, channel strategies, conflict resolution, and sales process management."
author: "戈军珍"
publisher: "New Distribution"
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published: "2018-02-25"
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# Four Essential Business Skills for Regional Managers!

> A qualified regional manager should possess four business skills: regional market planning, channel development, market dispute management, and marketing action planning. This article details each skill, including market analysis, channel strategies, conflict resolution, and sales process management.

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A qualified regional manager should possess four business skills: regional market planning; channel development; market dispute management; and marketing action planning.
1. Regional Market Planning
First, regional market analysis, including target customer analysis, competitor analysis, competitive product analysis, market characteristics analysis, and enterprise advantage analysis.
**Target Customer Analysis.** First, clarify "who is your dish."
**Competitor Analysis.** Only when facing the same customers, with similar products, services, and even prices, can they be considered competitors. If customers differ, even with the same price and similar products, they are not competitors. Or, if customers are the same but products differ, or products are similar but prices differ greatly—for example, both sell a certain product, you sell it for 10 yuan, they sell it for 30 yuan—they are not competitors. If both sell bags, LV might not be our competitor because LV is positioned as high-end. Thus, product price is a very important differentiator. A seller of second-rate or even substandard veterinary drugs comparing itself to a first-class enterprise and insisting on treating it as a competitor is overestimating itself. Only those with similar strength to ours are competitors; those with much higher strength are not. Competitors must face the same customers, provide the same products and services, have similar prices, and use similar marketing methods.
**Competitive Product Analysis.** This refers to selling similar products that solve the same problems, with prices not differing too much.
**Market Characteristics Analysis.** Those in business or management are required by companies to conduct market characteristics analysis. Every company has various forms; the key is whether you do it thoroughly. Market characteristics analysis includes total breeding scale, average scale, breeding habits, average feeding management level, and other aspects.
**Enterprise Advantage Analysis.** Compared with competitors, in which aspects does the enterprise have advantages, such as R&D, production, cost, team professionalism, management level, marketing system, etc.
Second, regional marketing planning, including target market planning, key channel planning, core product planning, and promotion strategy planning.
**Target Market Planning.** Some might ask, why plan target markets within a region? Suppose your assigned region is Hebei Province, and you might need 8 people to cover it, but you only have 5. The question is where to place these 5 first. Isn't this regional planning? You can't say, "I have 5 people, let's split Hebei Province evenly." That won't work; it will lead to inadequate coverage where needed. If Hebei Province requires 8 people, but only 5 are available, these 5 should leave room for the other 3 positions. This is target market planning. What markets these 5 develop first and what principles they follow must be planned in advance. You can't just say, "The region is assigned to you, so you don't need to do regional planning."
Within the region, further planning is needed: which areas are key, which are non-key. For the market, clarify which are base areas, which are support areas (areas that could become base areas in the future), which are development areas, and which are marginal areas (risk areas). At least these four types should be clearly distinguished. Base areas are not necessarily concentrated breeding areas, but places where, given the company's current strength, we have an advantage over competitors and can more easily become the "leader." For base areas, concentrated development should be carried out, with success in the short term. Support areas have great potential; once done well, they can become base areas, requiring promotion and sales promotion. Development areas have market potential, but we are just starting; they need team marketing, conference marketing, and other methods. Marginal areas, or risk areas, are places where sending our own people poses high risk, possibly no results for half a year; in such cases, either temporarily abandon development or find a local agent. In summary, at least make a classification of your regional market.
**Key Channel Planning** refers to key distributors. For example, in poultry medicine, treat leading white-feathered broiler companies as key, and traditional distributors as non-key. For livestock medicine, if small-scale farms are the customers, traditional distributors are key; if large-scale farms are the focus, you might need to abandon channel dealers or cooperate with them to jointly develop farms.
**Core Product Planning.** Core products are those that align with industry trends, have certain advantages over competitors in some aspects, bring profits to the enterprise, and have usage costs acceptable to customers. Such products are the focus of promotion.
**Promotion Strategy Planning.** Adopt different promotion strategies in different markets: which to maintain, which to penetrate, which to develop, etc.
2. Channel Development
First, attract channel dealers, that is, how to make distributors follow you. This includes enterprise development planning, market development planning, channel dealer growth planning, profitability attraction, and effective terminal development.
**Enterprise Development Planning.** We need to communicate the company's development plan well, making distributors feel "we can't miss this train," and that following the company will lead to great prospects.
**Market Development Planning.** How we help distributors plan market development.
**Channel Dealer Growth Planning.** Tell distributors what they can become in the future by following our company. The company will do work on distributor growth, such as distributor business schools, various business skills training, and distributor team growth training. Of course, some enterprises also form joint ventures with excellent distributors to share the benefits of enterprise growth.
**Profitability Attraction.** Every regional manager should be able to calculate accounts, making distributors understand that cooperating with us will bring stronger profitability. Some single products have low profit but high sales volume, so total profitability is not low; some products have low sales volume but high markup rates, so absolute profitability is not low. In short, make distributors clear that we will help them earn more money.
**Effective Terminal Development.** Design a complete set of models to help distributors develop terminal farmers and sustain it. For example, some enterprises have distributors bring large farmers to visit the enterprise to enhance farmers' awareness of the enterprise; others help distributors hold terminal farm meetings for product promotion.
Second, how to develop channel dealers.
**Six Steps:**
> Step 1: Conduct thorough research, stay close to targets;
>
> Step 2: Create momentum, seize the initiative;
>
> Step 3: Strike while the iron is hot, use the opportunity to build momentum;
>
> Step 4: Lock in the main venue, use conference marketing;
>
> Step 5: Nail customers, reverse marketing;
>
> Step 6: Individual division of labor, team collaboration.
These are basic steps; they can be adjusted appropriately according to the enterprise's own characteristics.
3. Market Dispute Management
Market dispute management includes market conflict management, such as marginal markets, conflicts between Hebei and Henan markets, Handan and Anyang. Market conflicts generally occur when products are selling well, or when deep development of regional markets is done well and products are very popular. Moderate conflict is not a bad thing; it proves the market is well developed. If the market is not well developed, such conflicts wouldn't happen. Market dispute management also includes conflicts between distributors, conflicts between sales personnel, departmental conflicts, and superior-subordinate conflicts.
Common dispute management includes product performance disputes, policy intensity disputes, promotion method disputes, and annual task disputes.
4. Marketing Action Planning
**Marketing Action Planning: A regional manager must do four things:**
**Develop sales processes.** The company has its own processes, but in the regional market, they should be refined based on actual regional conditions while following the company's basic principles.
**Implement sales methods.** The company formulates methods; the regional manager must implement them and improve them based on regional actualities.
**Supervise the sales process.** Ensure the team's basic actions do not deviate.
**Do team interaction well.** Team management, or managing subordinates, requires interaction; it cannot be simple one-way reporting. It's not enough for salespeople to report and the regional manager to know; interaction is essential. Interaction means correcting or helping with salespeople's shortcomings, praising their strengths, etc.
This article is based on the recording of Mr. Ge Junzhen's lecture "Becoming a Qualified Regional Manager" at a certain enterprise, organized without his review.


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