---
title: "Getting Close to 'Her' Is the Only Way"
description: "For some manufacturers, the terminal promotion formula q=vs (total volume equals cross-sectional area times flow rate per unit time) suggests that to increase overall sales, one must continuously raise distribution rate or per-store sales. Developing new markets (breadth) is easier than increasing regional sales (depth), so many manufacturers aggressively recruit salespeople to blanket new markets, as any shipment counts as sales—direct, simple, and effective. But the result is often that products are sent to distributors, and at best, promotions and support work; at worst, distributors order once and never reorder, and the market fails to turn over, harming future efforts."
author: "张势之"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2015-04-09"
language: "en"
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original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/KhXOYj6mE69Nhuq6e1OZ2A"
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# Getting Close to 'Her' Is the Only Way

> For some manufacturers, the terminal promotion formula q=vs (total volume equals cross-sectional area times flow rate per unit time) suggests that to increase overall sales, one must continuously raise distribution rate or per-store sales. Developing new markets (breadth) is easier than increasing regional sales (depth), so many manufacturers aggressively recruit salespeople to blanket new markets, as any shipment counts as sales—direct, simple, and effective. But the result is often that products are sent to distributors, and at best, promotions and support work; at worst, distributors order once and never reorder, and the market fails to turn over, harming future efforts.

For some manufacturers, the terminal promotion formula q=vs (total volume equals cross-sectional area times flow rate per unit time) is often used—meaning to increase overall sales, one must continuously raise distribution rate or per-store sales. This principle also applies to overall operational strategy. In comparison, developing new markets (breadth) is much easier than increasing regional sales (depth), so many manufacturers spare no effort in recruiting salespeople to cast a wide net and develop new markets. As long as goods are shipped, sales are recorded—truly direct, simple, and effective. But the result is that products are sent to distributors; in the best case, company promotions, support, or even just a promotion plan are effectively implemented, creating market turnover and a virtuous cycle. However, in most cases, distributors order only once and never reorder. The market doesn't just stagnate; failing to win the first battle affects future market promotion.

The real difficulty in a product's market promotion is not how to distribute, but how to make the product turn over at the terminal and gradually build terminal sales confidence, thereby generating maximum market response and increasing sales with minimal investment. The foundation of a company's survival and growth is continuously meeting consumer needs. For a new market, to be accepted, it must satisfy consumer needs. But when consumers have enough choices and your product isn't perfect, you should first satisfy partial market needs, letting a portion of people accept it first.

So, where does the partial market come from? And how to choose it? The author has summarized several recently successful cases and will briefly explain the approach:

1. Investigation and Analysis
Chairman Mao once said, "No investigation, no right to speak." Of course, the investigation I refer to here is not the lengthy treatises of consulting firms or professional market research agencies, but relatively simple channel and competitor information surveys. As a new product, attacking the competitor's market defense line by avoiding their strengths and striking their weaknesses often yields twice the result with half the effort.

Generally, for food and beverage channels, based on consumer groups, they can be divided into: supermarkets, wholesale markets, convenience stores, schools, internet cafes, stations, hospitals, and other systems. Fully segment channels and investigate by channel to ensure accuracy. Main survey contents include: number of channel points, average daily sales of similar products (e.g., dairy beverages) per point, average daily sales of beverage products per point, average daily sales of main competitors per point, and overall channel daily sales.

2. Channel Selection
No powerful opponent can make the market seamless and impenetrable. Attacking the competitor's weak links is particularly prominent here. For new product distribution, q=vs becomes a major taboo. Displaying product image and creating a hot-selling atmosphere can indeed be achieved by increasing distribution rate. But without sustained, strong financial support, it will only accelerate demise. Reasons:
1. Large-scale distribution will attract competitors' attention. If competitors counterattack while your product is not yet established, it is very dangerous.
2. Terminal digestion capabilities vary. Large-scale distribution during the stage when product awareness is low and no fixed consumer group has formed, even with flexible dynamic inventory management, will generate a large amount of near-expiry products. To digest these near-expiry products and create a virtuous cycle at the terminal, significant expenses are needed, testing your budget.

3. Service: The service commitments made at the beginning of distribution need to be fulfilled by someone. In actual new market development, high staff turnover leads to loss of customer resources, even with good customer records. Salespeople and even the company will eventually abandon customers who fundamentally do not digest the product. Blindly developing junk terminals to achieve early results and market sales will ultimately become a burden to the company. So start from the basics, abandon surface work, and switch to line work—that is, break through a single channel and gradually form absolute channel advantage.

4. Selecting Consumer Groups and Identifying Terminal Points with Good Base Traffic. A network is woven from lines, and lines are composed of points. Within a single channel, there are also junk customers. But time will prove that; we cannot control that, but we can first select high-performing points to operate and gradually penetrate the entire channel. For example, when a certain dairy beverage brand was in the early stage of distribution, it chose school channels and internet cafe systems where competitors were relatively weak. Schools are further divided into universities, middle schools, primary schools, boarding and non-boarding schools, closed and open schools. Internet cafes can be divided into commercial, residential, and campus areas. With reasonable resource allocation, within only three months, this dairy beverage brand overtook competitors in these two channels and dominated. Although there is still a gap with competitors in the overall market, it has gained a foothold and established its own bridgehead, giving it enough time and resources to compete with rivals.

To make a not-so-accurate analogy: doing market work is like finding a partner. If a girl is not satisfied with you, there must be a reason—too many suitors. Then you need to find ways to be better than others. If you can't be better, find ways to meet her needs. If you can't satisfy her visual sense, try to satisfy her stomach, vanity, sympathy, etc. If you can't meet her financial requirements, satisfy her need to be cared for. In short, success is not guaranteed, but only by satisfying her in some material or spiritual aspect will you have the chance to get close to her. Getting close to her is the only way to make it possible!

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