Every year-end, Lao Wang conducts annual performance reviews with his subordinates. Through years of one-on-one communication, he finds this year's performance evaluations much harder to discuss than before. In the past year, due to the catalyst and impact of the pandemic, local market channels have undergone tremendous changes. Many new retail platforms don't even have mature measurement standards. What troubles Lao Wang even more is that during communication, he finds that most of his subordinates seem to hold a wait-and-see attitude towards new retail... In the current era of highly fragmented channels in new retail, frontline city managers have never been more important! In the past, before new retail and e-commerce, the market logic for most FMCG companies was: headquarters sets strategy, regions implement, and frontline executes. Although the external environment was changing before, even with sporadic new business formats, it was basically guided by headquarters and regions. The frontline sales teams in each city were more like an "execution contractor team," mainly responsible for execution, with no say in the "market design blueprint" (i.e., strategy formulation). But after the pandemic, the rapidly developing new retail formats accelerated by the internet have matured quickly, and their business share is increasingly significant. Therefore, brand headquarters have to re-examine their approach. Previously, they talked about a "big headquarters," then emphasized a "strong middle platform," but the reality is that a "strong middle platform" alone is useless because the final implementation is on the frontlines in hundreds of cities across the country. What is needed more urgently now is a "strong front desk"! In small city clusters and single prefecture-level cities, regional new business formats or city-based new platforms are emerging more and more. Some new retail formats and startups even have business scopes that don't cross a single prefecture-level city. In this context, not to mention headquarters, even regions find it difficult to respond quickly and provide guidance to the constantly emerging new retail formats. Without rapid response, strategic guidance is out of the question. With the normalization of the pandemic, new retail can no longer be called truly "new" retail; it has become another form of normalized retail, gradually evolving into the new infrastructure of FMCG distribution. It is no longer a novelty or optional. In this context, the importance of frontline city managers is unprecedented. They are not only the representatives who best understand the market and the brand, but also the insiders who best understand the changes in local retail formats. Therefore, under the new situation of new retail, the upgrade and reconstruction of frontline city managers' capability systems is urgent. Facing the new environment, what mindset should city managers adopt, and what capabilities should they equip themselves with? In the complex new retail landscape, what should we do and what should we not do? Trade-offs, balance, and judgment are even more testing for every city manager who manages a market. In this article, I stand from the perspective of frontline city managers to discuss how current frontline city managers should upgrade and reconstruct their capability systems. I will roughly divide this into three dimensions, and I will elaborate on each dimension below. 1. Inner Core 2. Outer Core 3. Two Basics and Two Capabilities -01- Inner Core Upgrade for Frontline City Managers (Internal Core Skills) What is the inner core? Simply put, it is the psychological and mental state of the city manager. Although invisible and intangible, as a market salesperson, doing market work is like fighting a battle. Morale is crucial when two armies face off. Whether the city manager has strong morale, fighting spirit, and a strong desire to improve is very important. In the FMCG industry, whether it's the new retail that has emerged in recent years or the traditional retail of the past, we are fighting on a battlefield without visible smoke. Facing the overlapping old and new battlefields, what specific inner cores do frontline city managers need to upgrade? 1. Strong Willingness to Change With the arrival of new retail, the biggest challenge we face is that the original rules and gameplay no longer work. The more first- and second-tier cities or provincial capitals, the more you can feel the strong changes in the market, because the germination and incubation of new retail and new channels usually start from core and leading cities. Although this shock may not have reached fourth- and fifth-tier cities, or relatively less, every city manager must have a strong awareness and willingness to change. It's not just that city managers in first- and second-tier cities are forced to change; all city managers must build a new capability map. What does change bring? There is much more to do now than before. At the same time, doing more doesn't necessarily lead to more sales. Because the current channel landscape redistributes the sales of the previous two or three traditional channels. Therefore, you do more, but what you get may not be more than before, yet you must do it. In this context, the first step is the willingness to change; the second step is to change strategically and systematically. You can't do community group buying today, live streaming tomorrow, and O2O the day after. You can't be like the blind men and the elephant, hitting one thing here and another there. A strong willingness to change is based on a comprehensive understanding of the entire channel. No matter how difficult or busy, city managers must lead by example, actively lead the team to learn, and the primary learner must be the city manager themselves. Because with the emergence of new retail, no one understands it. You must first understand it yourself and have sufficient awareness. There used to be a saying: "If the general is incompetent, the entire army is exhausted." Now it seems: "If the general doesn't understand, the entire army is led astray." Therefore, as a city manager, if you don't change, the entire team's cognition is likely to collapse. Frankly speaking, the overall cultural quality of the FMCG industry is not particularly high. The lower the quality, the more resistant to change, the easier it is to stay in the comfort zone and not want to step out. A strong willingness to change is crucial both for individuals and for the team. 2. Hungry Curiosity and Desire for Knowledge This is about systematic design and thinking regarding curiosity and knowledge seeking. The learning ability of a city market leader determines the benchmark of the city team's marketing capabilities. Learning must avoid half-baked knowledge. Without in-depth learning and understanding, copying blindly can easily lead to dead ends. For example, when community group buying comes, if you just mechanically do some docking work according to headquarters' guidelines, but don't understand the underlying logic of the entire community group buying business, and are completely ignorant of the platform's core algorithms, you won't be able to dialogue with the platform using platform thinking, or connect with new retail using new retail tactics, and ultimately fail to adapt to new channels and formats. Besides embracing new retail, you need curiosity and a desire for knowledge. No one is a god or a genius. If someone is better at new retail than you, it's only because they delve deeper and more thoroughly than competitors. How to delve? Get involved personally. Go to the frontlines to negotiate, connect with group buying, connect with customer service, connect with partners, connect with users, connect with e-commerce. Only by truly negotiating, communicating, going to the frontlines, and practicing can you know the internal business tactics and logic. Curiosity and desire for knowledge are not just about comparing with your own past, but more about comparing with competitors. If competitors learn more and ahead of you, they will seize the track and opportunities first, which will have a huge impact on the final business. 3. Clear Innovation Path Besides having the willingness, knowledge, and curiosity, you also need a clear and specific innovation path. City managers can't just tell the team every day, "Brothers, we need to change and learn." That's a morale-boosting slogan that gives us confidence, but it's far from enough. What is a clear innovation path? Every city manager must continuously set short-term goals. This path must be the accumulation of short-term goals. For example, every week of each month, what specific innovation actions should the city manager lead the team to take on the new track of community group buying? "First, product selection plan: differentiate products listed on community group buying from traditional retail and online e-commerce, reach consensus with headquarters or regional resource departments, and gain their recognition and support; Second, set promotional plans suitable for the local mainstream community group buying platforms, whether discounts, buy-more-save-more, or flash sales. Third, marketing exposure: clearly know where the platform's exposure points are to ultimately achieve maximum business conversion; Fourth, in-depth communication and transmission with frontline group leaders, train them so they fully understand the brand, products, and promotions." At the same time, the next step is to transmit the incentive mechanism to group leaders, and finally, possibly conduct sales competitions. New retail changes too fast. The setting of innovation actions must be implemented in monthly plans; otherwise, quarterly and annual plans won't conform to the platform's rules and gameplay. The innovation path is not about holding a book or reading a few WeChat articles. For new retail changes, the innovation path should focus on short-term rather than long-term goals, because these new formats and platforms themselves may not survive in the medium to long term. Short-term goals: follow the platform, fight alongside them. If you can shorten it further, it's best to have a weekly goal and become their closest partner, so you can seize the opportunity. What I just mentioned is about following new retail and new channels. Traditional channels don't mean you don't need to do them; you also need a clear innovation path plan. There are more and more things to do now, and energy is always limited. It's unrealistic to work 10 hours a day before and 15 hours now. Improving work efficiency is the only way out. How to innovate traditional channels? Simple: to cope with new channels, improve the efficiency of old channels. The purpose of improving efficiency is also to free up more energy to lead on new tracks and gain market share in new channels. Here, a new problem may arise: city managers know they need to innovate, but there are too many things to innovate, and they often don't know where to start. They are busy every day, dealing with hypermarkets, small shops, wholesale business, E-RTM, community group buying, and home delivery channels... It's really tiring... What to do? For example, generally, Friday to Sunday sales are three times that of Monday to Thursday, making them key sales days in the FMCG industry. The past practice was to lead the team to "explode" (boost sales), hire more promoters, and grab weekend hypermarket sales. Can these be abandoned? No. So the advice to city managers is: the strategy for key sales days is fine, but the methods need to change. If you're still repeating methods from five or six years ago, you have no chance to embrace new retail. If you lose in new retail now, you might lose the future. At this point, try to think from the bottom up. For weekend offline hypermarket "explosion" activities, product selection is the first step: have you chosen the right products? After selecting products, is it possible to achieve sales without people, just with a one-square-meter secondary display? Is it possible that you don't need to be on-site, but by setting accurate processes, systems, and methods, you can still achieve perfect execution even without being there? Facing past business, the burden of existing stock cannot be let go easily, but city managers must set aside time to learn and practice new retail. Therefore, the innovation path is to make the existing market more efficient, and for incremental new channels, new retail, and new omni-channel, seize opportunities and be more aggressive. If you don't understand new retail, there's no innovation to speak of. 4. Extreme Resilience and Adversity Quotient What is extreme resilience and adversity quotient? When facing huge environmental changes, many people are unwilling to change. When others are unwilling or don't understand, you will encounter setbacks. Not only does your team not understand, distributors don't understand, and even some company regions and headquarters are hesitant. Everyone's determination to change is different, and often steps are not unified. Many new retail formats are often regional, not national. So when you set plans based on local retail formats, many people don't understand. You must constantly communicate and face their doubts, questions, and blows from finance, logistics, and superiors. Therefore, in such a state, frontline city managers must have strong self-regulation and resilience, i.e., resilience and adversity quotient. Some frontline city managers often have a strong willingness to change, curiosity, and knowledge, and have designed good paths and methods. But when functional departments ask a few more questions, the boss asks a few more, or distributors complain a bit, the city manager can't withstand the pressure and backs out. "Forget it, let's not do it! Follow the boss and everyone's pace." The so-called "the bird that sticks its head out gets shot." Being a frontline leader is not easy; wanting to do something is sometimes quite difficult. So when facing conflicts between old and new, frontline city managers must have the ability to recover quickly mentally. -02- Outer Core Upgrade for Frontline City Managers (External Core Skills) What I just mentioned is the cultivation of internal skills for city managers, more about upgrades in awareness and thinking. This part focuses on the upgrade of external core skills. 1. Focus on Core Product Determination (Distribution) Careful city managers will notice that although there are more channels, most sell best-selling hot products. Focusing on core products doesn't mean focusing on just a few products or selling hot products on all platforms and then engaging in price wars. Rather, when facing the reality of more platforms and more concentrated hot products, frontline city managers should return to the product itself. Products are the ultimate carrier for consumers to make purchases. At this point, what should frontline city managers do? Understand each channel in the city according to local conditions, fully understand the user's shopping decision tree behind each channel in the local market, and match different products accordingly. For example, for community group buying, what is the target customer's purchase decision tree on the platform? How is it different from hypermarkets or convenience stores? Based on this, research what products each channel truly needs. An excellent city manager's external core skill first includes being an excellent product expert. In the inherent independent local market, clearly understand the consumption pattern under the category you are responsible for, and match corresponding channels based on each product. This is the foundation of everything. 2. Focus on Core Users Determination (Sales Promotion) The core of sales is basically distribution and sales promotion. Products matching channels is distribution. Products matching the users behind channels is sales promotion. Frontline city managers must clearly grasp the shopping habits and purchase decision paths of consumers in each channel in the city. This cannot be provided by headquarters marketing and strategy department leaders. City managers should be attentive and clearly know what the user profile is. For example, in community group buying, the user profile is housewives and older women aged 35-65; in hypermarkets, it's housewives and young mothers aged 25-45; in convenience stores, it's white-collar workers, college students, and migrant workers aged 18-35, etc. This is crucial. When you clearly know the users behind each channel, you can then design promotional activities, decide where to display products, and what selling points to show in the corresponding channels. 3. Focus on Communication Efficiency (Internal and External) After the emergence of new retail, the original internal system has undergone significant changes. Many companies are restructuring and upgrading, or setting up new departments to cope with new changes. Although internet tools enable instant feedback, it is precisely because of the internet that communication efficiency has decreased. In the past, communication was via email, with careful wording. Now, WeChat allows sending anytime, without repeated deliberation, leading to many details and loopholes. Don't communicate blindly for the sake of communication, don't communicate blindly for emergencies, and don't be forced to communicate because of many demands. First, prioritize communication, prepare fully, and polish your "sales story." Every time you meet a client, even if you meet fewer, make each one count. Especially with new retail platforms now, they don't have much time for repeated communication. Plan ahead and communicate to the point. In terms of priority, hypermarket contracts are signed annually, so a month or two doesn't matter. But with community group buying, entering one day earlier means one more day of sales. Entering a month later might mean completely missing out, as competitors have already established strategic cooperation with the platform. Therefore, polishing communication efficiency is not just about prioritization, but also about the accuracy of communication content. Don't be ambiguous, and don't have details full of loopholes. Plan well and design a "sales story" for each communication. 4. Focus on Omni-Channel Distribution (Direction) Intensive omni-channel distribution is something I have always emphasized. Undoubtedly, the diversification and fragmentation of channels is unstoppable. Frontline city managers, don't overthink. The layout in a city must be omni-channel, with both online and offline efforts. From product to pricing to marketing to promotion, everything should be designed based on omni-channel. The specific omni-channel tactics have been detailed in previous chapters. Interested readers can refer to relevant past articles. 5. Focus on Developing Top Talent (Engine) The more fragmented the business, the more you need diligent, smart, and efficient people, not those who stick to old rules. Whether or not new retail emerges, developing top talent has always been a key matter for frontline city managers. Top talent can solve problems; they don't put problems on your shoulders or throw monkeys onto you. Those who always complain, hand problems to leaders, and ask how to do things are the lowest-level talent, possibly "old white rabbits"—seemingly meaningful but never producing results or progress, just having a good attitude, which is dangerous. The market changes too fast. Besides personal learning and practice, you also need to build a talent pipeline and cultivate more top talent. Once trained, they can win battles. People who win battles have common characteristics. After winning on one platform, they switch to another track and still have a high probability of winning. New retail rises and falls one after another, with a big change every year and small iterations every month and week. Top talent means their learning ability is far stronger than their peers in the middle and bottom tiers. We can't change the external environment, but city managers should cultivate unchanging talent to respond to the changing environment. Generally, the efficiency and contribution of top talent is equivalent to two or three middle and bottom employees, or even more! 6. Focus on Cultivating Omni-Channel Partners (Infrastructure) This is infrastructure. Frontline city managers should proactively promote the transformation of traditional distributors and retailers. As a city manager, you have the opportunity to look outward, to view the market from a higher dimension, and to learn industry trends. When you learn good things, learn to empower your partners, guide and educate downstream distributors and retailers, and help them improve more business opportunities. In the future, when they achieve this and benefit from it, they will definitely be grateful to you. At the same time, this gratitude will turn into trust, becoming the cornerstone of lasting cooperation between you and your clients. -03- The "Two Basics" and "Two Capabilities" for Frontline City Managers When frontline city managers truly embrace and practice new retail, after a period of time, they will increasingly find that, in fact, whether new retail or traditional retail, all changes are within the same framework; they all solve the problems of distribution and sales promotion. Therefore, in the end, city managers only need to continuously cultivate two core algorithms—distribution and sales promotion. The goal has never changed; only the methods and paths have changed. Once we master the underlying logic of distribution and sales promotion, everything else is just learning and practicing new methods, tools, and models. Finally, from the perspective of frontline city managers, to continuously do well in the market, lead the market, and expand market share, continuously cultivating the underlying logic of management actually only requires two capabilities: First, business capability; Second, leadership capability. In the past, in traditional retail, channels were relatively fixed and stable. City managers were used to slight annual growth, sitting in the office drinking tea, not going to the market for a month, and business still grew. What they did each year was similar: hold ordering meetings, drink with distributors, talk JBP with retailers, and run promotions. Business capability was accumulated through years of experience, slowly internalized. But now it's different. Even the strongest negotiation skills have become ineffective. Do you understand eRTM? Do you understand O2O? Do you understand community group buying? If not, sorry, you can't fight. If you don't even know how to fight, how can you lead troops? In the current situation, I believe business capability is more important than leadership. The current new retail formats are developing too fast. The FMCG industry has never seen a time like today—a small iteration every month, a medium change every quarter, and a big trend every year. In rapid change, only by iterating your business capability accordingly can you rally your team to charge forward with you! They may not understand the underlying logic and algorithms of new retail, but they deeply trust the leader's business judgment. They believe that following an excellent city manager will bring rewards, so they will be willing to try, change, and execute perfectly! Lao Wang feels that the one-on-one year-end performance communications over the past two days haven't had much impact. Fully committing to new retail and new channels requires not only raising the importance of mindset but also improving the precision of execution actions. So he plans to hold an internal small-team workshop to review, sort out, and reinforce all the core actions of omni-channel business. Only then can they gradually make everyone understand why they must do it, how to do it, and how to keep doing it. Only when internal meeting discussions are extremely thorough, and all doubts and concerns are cleared, can the meeting's conclusions and action plans maximize the solution to core problems. Once core issues reach a high degree of consensus, external execution will definitely improve! Thinking of this, a smile spreads across Lao Wang's face. A group of young colleagues following him to fight for the market is truly not easy. He must be responsible for them, leading them every day with shining eyes, walking with style, and being a sparkling team every day! Bio: Xu Xiang, currently the Sales Director of Unilever South China, with 20 years of experience in FMCG daily chemicals, dairy, and condiments, deeply involved in regional market management and customer marketing, willing to exchange and learn with peers for mutual progress. The above article represents only personal views. Tips: Once adopted, a reward of 400-2000 yuan will be paid.