"Each generation produces its own talents, and new faces replace old ones." Personnel changes in the marketing field are particularly rapid. So, what must a "new manager" do after taking office? Here, I summarize four key points; any shortcomings are welcome for your correction.
Stabilize the Team People are always the primary factor in social productivity. Modern marketing emphasizes systematic integration and teamwork; the era of relying solely on individual heroics to conquer the market is gone. For a "new manager," quickly stabilizing the team, maintaining its cohesion, and preserving its combat effectiveness is a critical issue.
Many new managers, at the start of their tenure, make large-scale adjustments to the existing organizational structure and team members, placing their confidants in key positions. On the surface, this establishes their authority and builds a new leadership team; however, in practice, this strategy leaves significant aftereffects and severely hampers short-term marketing efforts. Common symptoms include a fragmented team, unstable morale, perfunctory work, and constant troubles.
Wise leaders, at the beginning of their tenure, prioritize stabilizing the team. They gather all employees under their jurisdiction (or managers and key members if there are too many) for a meeting, publicly declaring that they will not arbitrarily fire or dismiss any employee, and welcome everyone to stay and work together for a better future. They also "confide" that their greatest wish in this position is to lead the existing team to new heights with fresh, unique, and effective business strategies. They aim to instill their concepts, ideas, and execution requirements into every team member, making the team act as one, "pointing in the same direction," and achieving brilliance. For the backbone and key members of the original team, the "new manager" will also communicate individually in a short time, both to understand the market situation and to articulate their business philosophy, earnestly persuading them to stay and achieve new results together.
These wise leaders understand that most team members are grassroots workers who simply want a good leader, a good working atmosphere, and the opportunity to earn more. If they can also gain a good platform or learn new knowledge, that is the greatest blessing. No one wants to leave the organization casually, even if they had a close relationship with the previous leader. Wise leaders recognize this and implement it well, thus winning the support and cooperation of the majority of the original team, enabling rapid and healthy marketing development.
In this regard, it aligns with a Chinese trait: the preference for "security." If a "new manager" fails to stabilize the team, they will inevitably suffer consequences sooner or later.
Understand the Basics If a head of state is unaware of the country's financial situation, they are certainly incompetent and cannot govern well. Similarly, a "new manager" who cannot quickly understand their "family background" (resources and situation) is not up to par.
Upon taking office, a "new manager" must quickly grasp their "family background." In this regard, we should learn from financial personnel or marketing professionals with a finance background, who have a deeper understanding of "assets" and "finances" than the average person, and are more rigorous, careful, and meticulous.
A friend of mine with a financial background was transferred to be the general manager of a branch company. At the start, he spent over half a month, almost forgetting to eat and sleep, to understand his "family background." He conducted a comprehensive review of the branch's market environment, channel relationships, network coverage, sales targets, gross margins, capital turnover, sample machine contribution, returned machines, rebates, price adjustments, profit and loss, operating expense overruns, taxes, market investment, and input-output ratios. This investigation proved immensely beneficial, revealing several hidden "black holes." Combining the company's audit report and the branch's financial report, he promptly reported these issues and submitted a special borrowing request, which allowed him to successfully launch his market and shine at year-end.
In short, understanding the basics is an urgent task for every "new manager" upon taking office; delay means missing the window to activate the market. If you invest heavily in market development before understanding the situation, the handover with your predecessor will become a quagmire, and you won't be able to explain yourself.
Establish Game Rules Modern marketing is a systematic project involving finance, business, service, logistics, supply, pricing, policies, materials, product display, advertising, brand communication, training, manufacturer-dealer relations, incentives, and assessments. To do marketing well, we must rely on teamwork. To unite the team, we must unify concepts, ideas, and actions, which involves team culture—in layman's terms, the team's "game rules."
"A new broom sweeps clean," and establishing internal game rules is definitely one of the "three fires" a new manager must ignite; it is also one of the three major tasks.
"The marketplace is like a battlefield," where strict discipline is a key principle. "Nothing can be accomplished without norms or standards." A new manager must quickly draft their "game rules," otherwise employees will have no direction and become idle.
From a marketing perspective, the "game rules" a new manager establishes should include: financial management system, business management system, organizational structure and personnel appointments, performance appraisal management measures, team culture, overall regional market strategy, talent pipeline development, and internal management systems (fixed expense reimbursement and attendance). These documents are akin to a national "constitution," sacred and inviolable; around them, the marketing organization can formulate other specific "laws" to interpret and enrich the constitution, ultimately making the team act as one, "move freely," and truly integrate team strength.
If a new manager does not establish suitable "game rules" for the region and instead follows old practices, there is certainly little room for growth. Of course, the "game rules" must align with market needs, and for previous documents, one should take the essence and discard the dross, not reject them outright—that would be "stubborn and self-opinionated," which is inappropriate.
Leverage and Create Momentum for Highlights Marketing emphasizes "leveraging momentum"; if there is no momentum to borrow, one must learn to "create momentum." Similarly, for a new manager, the "new" label only lasts for two or three months; after that, if they still use the "new" excuse to avoid responsibility for poor market performance, company leaders will certainly be displeased.
Therefore, a new manager must produce highlights shortly after taking office—commonly known as "achievements," which reflect the new manager's capability and value.
Since a new manager is not yet familiar with using the organization's resources to generate results, they must learn to "leverage and create momentum for highlights."
Leverage momentum—when the market or company provides such momentum to borrow. For example, if the market is hot on healthy home appliances and the company happens to launch a healthy appliance, the new manager can leverage this trend to mobilize resources, create a buzz, enhance brand awareness, boost sales, and generate "achievements," leaving a good impression on company leaders.
Create momentum—when the market or company lacks momentum to borrow, the new manager can artificially create it to "shine." For instance, upon initial market understanding, if a new manager finds that a high-end product is being promoted successfully in their area, they can intensify promotion efforts and report the experience and results to the company. Company leaders will then form a fresh, positive evaluation of the new manager, which will greatly benefit their subsequent "governance."
A word of caution: a new manager should not resort to extreme measures to "force-ripen the market" in pursuit of more brilliant highlights, as the consequences would be severe. When pursuing highlights, it is essential to steadily advance marketing work while naturally generating highlights along the way—this is the best approach!
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