Common problems with small outlets:

  1. Individual small outlets generate too little revenue and have high service costs;
  2. Salespeople who are skilled at visiting these small outlets are difficult to manage;
  3. Owners of small and medium outlets often have low education, making them seem difficult to deal with. New salespeople often have strong fear of these small owners. Not to mention training a salesperson to visit outlets, even recruiting one for small outlets is not easy; These three factors severely restrict distributors' enthusiasm for developing small and medium outlets. Manufacturers' salespeople, mostly with higher education, may have less experience visiting small outlets than distributors' salespeople. Moreover, college graduates visiting streets can't stand the taunts of small supermarket owners, and their fear is even greater than that of distributors' salespeople, so they can't help much. So, how can we help distributors develop small outlets? First, you need to understand the distribution of small outlets. Finding each small outlet is much harder than finding large supermarkets or chain convenience stores. Large supermarkets are big and everyone knows where they are. Chain convenience stores, though small, provide addresses and phone numbers, making them easy to find. But small outlets scattered in communities and streets are easy to get lost in. The above image is a customer distribution map drawn by a colleague from Guangzhou Huiling Wuhan Branch (red arrows are added by me to indicate direction, not part of the original). The location is around Jianshe 7th Road, Qingshan District, Wuhan. The map marks all battery retail stores. In this small map, there are 54 retail stores. Red dots indicate successfully developed customers, totaling 8. The ">" indicates the route of visits. Drawing this customer distribution map is simple; follow these principles:
  4. First, find the four boundary roads on the map, mark them as north, south, east, west. For example, in the above map, north is Linjiang Avenue, south is Heping Avenue, west is Jianshe 7th Road, east is Jianshe 10th Road.
  5. Start from the southwest corner, mark "S" on the map.
  6. Walk from south to north. At intersections, do not cross the road; turn right and continue until you return to the original S point. The route forms a loop; draw it on the map with ">" indicating the direction.
  7. Continue north to the next intersection, walk forward, and at the next intersection, do not cross; turn right as before, and complete a full circle back to the starting point.
  8. Repeat this method until you reach the northernmost point, then turn back and do a second round going south, finally ending at the northeast corner, completing all loops.
  9. While walking, if you see a store on your right selling batteries (ignore those on the left), mark its location in the loop starting from 001, continuing to the last. If the store is already a customer, mark it with a red dot; if not, mark it with a black dot.
  10. Within the loop, mark the names and locations of famous local buildings, such as banks, markets, schools, hotels.
  11. If a street can accommodate a car, mark the street names between loops. We usually draw with a pencil during visits. After completing all walks and verifying accuracy, we trace over with a pen, then add notes on the right side. A customer distribution map is complete! However, this is not the final step. Since the customers above only have numbers, we need one more step: customer information backing, which we call customer running records. The customer distribution map generally should not have more than 100 customers. If it exceeds 100, the area should be reduced; if fewer than 30, the area should be expanded. If it takes two days to visit all customers on the map, mark "S2" at the starting point of the second day. The above map has several errors that salespeople often make when drawing:
  12. Confusing roads, streets, and alleys: Streets and alleys are primarily for walking. If two cars can pass each other, it's a street; if not, but two people can walk side by side, it's an alley; if only one person can pass, it's considered closed. Roads are for motor vehicles. When walking the pattern, streets take priority over roads, so you must finish all streets within a block before going to the road. Alleys take priority over streets, so you must finish all alleys in the same block before moving to the next block. For example, in the above map, if the distance between CD-EF allows two cars to pass, the order is A, C, B, D for the first round, then E, G, F, H. But if the road between CD-EF cannot accommodate two cars, it's not a street division, and the order is A, C, E, G, B, D, F, H, which is quite different. Therefore, in the above map, the salesperson's markings of 004 and 003 are wrong; 004 should be 003. The second common mistake is using eyes to see the road. The map should draw the path you walk, not the roads you see. Don't treat what you see as what you've walked. For example, in the above map, many salespeople saw places but didn't walk there, and they drew many boxes. The method for customer information backing is as follows: (1) Number: Fill in according to the serial number on the map. If the customer has already been closed, underline in red to indicate it's our customer. (2) Customer name: The name on the store's signboard. Note: some customers' business licenses differ from their store signs; in that case, write the store sign name and note the license name. If the store has no sign, write "No Name" and do not invent one. (3) Detailed address: If the store has a house number, write it. Note: [1] If the left is No. 16 and the right is No. 18, do not assume this is No. 17. If the house has no number, do not write one. [2] If no house number, use a famous building + direction + distance, e.g., 009: 20 meters east of Wugang Third Primary School. [3] For stores in different units of the same building with the same house number, write the same house number, e.g., 001 and 002 have the same detailed address. [4] Look at the above map; many addresses are marked incorrectly and do not follow the three principles. Which ones? 001 and 002 have the same house number, indicating they are in the same unit, so the unit part should be marked. 003 and 004 are clearly wrong; they only have road names with no other markings. 011 and 012 are more standard. (4) Store category: For FMCG, there are only 8 choices: [1] Department store; [2] Supermarket; [3] Convenience store; [4] Stationery store; [5] Photo printing store; [6] Hardware store; [7] Mom-and-pop store; [8] Other. Manufacturers of other products can classify customer categories according to their own characteristics. The customer distribution map helps salespeople in their work. The customer distribution map is very useful in practice: (6) Helps determine the best visit route. For example, in the above map, the following order gives the shortest path, fastest time, and highest efficiency: First visit 001-002, then detour to 004-007-006-005 out of Wugang Second Section, visit 010-011-012-013-014-008 into Jianshe 7th Road, visit 015-009-037 and turn back, visit 034-035-036-029-028-018-017-016, and return to Heping Avenue after visiting 20 customers! And the distance is just a small circle. (7) Eliminates easily overlooked dead corners. Since we use the right-hand rule, when you reach the northeast corner, you can be sure you've walked all roads twice, so no dead corners exist. (8) Helps complete reasonable point placement. Generally, reaching 70% market coverage in an area is equivalent to full coverage, so we will give up 30% of stores. With the map, it's clear which areas to focus on and which to give up. For example, 014, 004, 050 are important points, so focus on them. 010-013 is too dense; focus on developing two of them, etc. (9) Gives salespeople a macro-to-micro understanding of the responsible block. (10) During drawing, salespeople have initial contact with customers, which can preliminarily reduce customers' unfamiliarity and increase visit success. For distributor salespeople, it can increase success rates and overcome psychological barriers: Many salespeople visit small outlets, and store owners often have some aversion to salespeople, so first-visit success is low. But salespeople who draw maps have higher success rates: When drawing, the owner sees you writing and drawing, initially thinking you're another salesperson, but later realizes you're not. They are curious about your drawing and more likely to remember you. When you visit next time, their guard is lowered, so success rates increase. For manufacturer salespeople, the customer distribution map helps them fully understand small and medium outlets, giving them confidence. Distributors can't fool you, management difficulty decreases, and you can better manage small and medium outlets. -END- Content Selection Click the title below to read directly: [Line Salesperson Practical Operation Guide (with full PPT download)]