Markets are built, hence the difference between strong and weak markets. Weakness indicates problems in the market, and problems must be solved. However, facing reality, one must neither blindly seek remedies nor give up in despair, nor rush for quick results. A formula must be remembered: the four-step problem-solving rule.

  1. What is the problem?
  2. Why does it occur?
  3. What can solve it?
  4. Is the solution reasonable? For example, if your product has long struggled to gain traction in the market, possible reasons include the following four:
  5. Inadequate market development (1) Incomplete sales network; (2) Limited distributor resources, resulting in insufficient market coverage, service, and maintenance capabilities; (3) Distributors lack value recognition and identification with your product, do not prioritize it, and there are serious deficiencies in channel push; (4) Incomplete terminal outlet coverage; (5) Poor channel cohesion, high volatility, and low stability.
  6. Weak consumer pull Low product awareness and low consumer acceptance. Although customers push sales, terminal products move slowly over time, goods accumulate in warehouses, dampening customer enthusiasm and confidence.
  7. Inadequate sales execution Poor execution of market sales policies, chaotic pricing systems, no profit for channel members, poor customer relationship maintenance, and ineffective market promotion and consumer promotions. This results in no improvement in key factors driving sales, such as product distribution rate, display quality, and image building. Once we identify the problem and analyze why it occurs, it is easy to find solutions. However, the headache is: what can solve it? There are multiple solutions, but the key is which one or which combination is most suitable. Based on the above analysis, there are five ways to solve the problem.
  8. Strengthen your own sales force Dispatch sales backbone or recruit sales elites to fill gaps in weak markets, eliminate the weak and retain the strong for market development and product distribution. Assist distributors in developing downstream markets, enhancing their enthusiasm and identification. Alternatively, collaborate with distributors to organize a controllable team dedicated to your product, addressing shortcomings that affect sales improvement: distribution rate, sample rate, promotion rate, visit rate, delivery rate, training rate, etc. Improve these sales-affecting shortcomings through enhanced human quality to boost sales and stimulate the initiative and enthusiasm of upstream and downstream customers.
  9. Adjust channel operation limitations Break the limitation of a distributor's exclusive distribution rights. Based on product characteristics and category differences, assign different distributors to operate, allowing them to leverage their strengths or channel advantages, and also enabling mutual checks and balances. Alternatively, divide the market into smaller sub-regions based on area size, set up multiple distributors, and use their competitive forces to quickly fill gaps and boost sales. This is just a method to solve the problem; the detailed tactics of manufacturer-distributor games and checks in actual operations depend on the salesperson's control and skills.
  10. Layout terminals based on product characteristics Based on product positioning and consumer needs, plan suitable and effective terminals for your product; this is the foundation for product movement. Do not greedily desire to dominate all terminals: wanting both what is in hand and what is in the pot. Do not overly confine the product to hypermarkets and chain supermarkets. Based on your product type, grade, company strength, resource conditions, suitable consumer groups, and consumption habits, plan and grade terminals reasonably. This ensures orderly and effective distribution, sampling, and maintenance at each terminal, optimizing resource investment and strengthening terminal construction.
  11. Strengthen sales performance assessment Whether a market is strong or weak is related not only to corporate-level strategic and tactical operations but also to the quality of sales personnel in that market. The key to enhancing sales personnel quality, besides training and learning, is better process supervision and assessment of their practical work. Change the traditional assessment method that emphasizes results over process, and use performance indicators as the benchmark to ensure balanced, stable, and healthy market development. If salespeople are evaluated solely by results, it is difficult to ensure that product distribution, display, promotion, maintenance, and expense support are effectively and reasonably implemented at each stage, leading to skill or focus shortcomings during the sales process. This is also one of the factors affecting the trend of market strength or weakness.
  12. Enhance terminal promotion and publicity The purposes of promotion or sales promotion are threefold: 1. Promote the brand, 2. Boost sales, 3. Counter competitors. When a product is in a weak market, relying on promotion and publicity to increase product awareness, enhance consumer acceptance, and expand brand competitiveness is one of the methods to quickly pull or push the market: a dramatic turnaround. By reasonably planning the methods, steps, and locations of promotion and publicity, carry out brand and product publicity purposefully and systematically to enhance terminal sales, expand the consumer purchase group, smooth the flow from top to bottom, and activate the channel. Only then is the market truly built. It is easy to come up with plans to change the market, but which method is most suitable for your enterprise and your current situation? Suitability is the most perfect, and even imitation is not wrong. Because innovation comes from recombining, subverting, and changing old things, but these combinations, changes, and subversions must be decided based on your own circumstances. Therefore, you must adjust, change, and subvert your product's market position based on the links that most need adjustment, your enterprise's strength, and your most adept operational methods. Long press the QR code below, follow, and reply with number 1 to browse related articles by category.