---
title: "How a Regional Manager Views the Market"
description: "This article explains how a regional manager in the FMCG industry should analyze the market. It covers preparation before visiting the market, conducting store visits, holding distributor meetings, and creating improvement plans, emphasizing the use of data and professional management."
author: "方刚"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2015-11-29"
language: "en"
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---

# How a Regional Manager Views the Market

> This article explains how a regional manager in the FMCG industry should analyze the market. It covers preparation before visiting the market, conducting store visits, holding distributor meetings, and creating improvement plans, emphasizing the use of data and professional management.

**I. First, clarify a few basic concepts:**
**1. What exactly is a regional manager?**
1) Different companies define their sales organizations differently, so first clarify the basic definition of a regional manager.
2) Some regional managers report to the sales director and oversee office directors, managing business in one or several provinces.
3) Others report to the provincial general manager and oversee office directors, managing a prefecture-level city.
4) In practice, regardless of how each company defines it, we hope to use the regional manager position to see how mid-to-senior sales management views the market.
**2. What does a regional manager do every day? Set off, attend meetings, visit markets, meet clients...**
Many regional managers are like fire chiefs, rushing to wherever there is a problem. They are also like community aunties, dealing with all sorts of trivial matters.
When clients are difficult, markets have issues, or functional departments cause trouble, regional managers are always running around.
In a month of 31 days, a regional manager may travel for more than 26 days.
Check yourself: is this the case?
**3. What does a regional manager rely on to earn a living?**
A mouth, a stomach, and two legs.
What indicators does the company use to pay the regional manager's salary?
The simplest indicators: 1. Sales volume (sales amount, tonnage, pieces). 2. Profit.
Measurement units: yuan, tons (pieces).
For many companies, performance is a "life-saving card."
Whether your performance is stolen or grabbed, it doesn't matter.
**4. Who does a regional manager lead?**
Office managers (directors), sales representatives (business managers), distributors, sub-distributors, etc.
Many companies deploy team-based offices in base markets, where the office director leads a group of sales reps (often middle-aged women) to visit clients and terminals.
Some office managers are lone commanders.
In reality, they are just big sales reps carrying a bag and circling around clients every day.
Does the above description of a regional manager match your current situation?
"Alcohol capacity equals sales volume; courage equals output." This type of regional manager may be formidable, but not necessarily professional!
As the middle level of the enterprise's marketing system, the regional manager is the waist of the management chain. If the waist cannot exert force, the whole body may struggle or even become paralyzed. To help regional managers break free from inefficient firefighting in the market, avoid skimming the surface, and eliminate the habit of "walking on water," they need to form a tightly interlocking management cycle. This requires effort.
Now, let's get to the point: How should a regional manager in the FMCG industry view the market?
**II. Preparation before going to the market.**
**1: Look at the charts.**
Review sales data reports to identify which region, which client, and which business has abnormal performance this month. Identify which product has anomalies in which region this month.
Review the office manager's recent work logs, analyze their work points and trajectory, check their attendance and positioning patterns for any anomalies.
List a travel plan. Which markets to visit, how long to spend, and what main problems to solve?
**2: Travel**
Keyword: "The Japanese troops enter the village."
If subordinates know your whereabouts, they may arrange a carefully prepared "encirclement," and the information and data may be distorted.
Arrive at the office door 5 minutes before the morning meeting.
Check office management: whether there are late arrivals, whether the office is managed according to standards, including meeting procedures and content, and office housekeeping.
Check whether there are empty positions, whether rules are posted on the wall, and whether sales rep management is effective.
Review sales rep assessment indicators, policy familiarity, scripts, and spot-check skills.
After the sales reps leave, communicate with the office director.
Key points for communication: sales data, management tips, etc.
**3: Store visits**
Determine the visit area, route, number of stores, time, and the forms for recording visit data.
Decide whether to have sales reps accompany you, confirm the accompanying targets, and prepare forms.
Eight things to check during terminal visits:
1) Check the distribution rate. Record the varieties and inventory of our product and competitors in each store. Record the price bands of our product and competitors.
2) Check merchandising. Record merchandising elements and use the merchandising scoring form.
3) Check the age of stock. Check the production dates of our product and competitors, whether first-in-first-out is followed, and whether there are expired or near-expiry defective products.
Check whether inventory is reasonable, and whether there are stockouts or overstocking.
4) Check abnormal dynamics. Check for counterfeit products and cross-regional sales of our product. Check for price anomalies, whether promotional policies are implemented properly, and whether competitors have any movements.
5) Check visit quality: whether there are missed stores, skipped visits, fake orders, missed orders, and whether there are customer complaints (record them). Whether terminal owners (waitresses) know our product policies (e.g., cap-opening fees).
6) Check customer relationships. Whether terminals know the sales rep's visit cycle and name, and whether there are complaints or grievances about the sales rep.
7) Check service quality. Whether terminals know the delivery phone number, delivery time after calling, and order thresholds. Whether it is van sales or pre-sales. Whether promotional items are withheld, whether prices are in place, and whether it is net pricing.
8) Check customer terminal influence: whether terminals know the customer's name or company name.
**Summary keyword: Record**
**Question: What to do after the visit?**
**Hold a distributor meeting, use Excel, PPT, photos, and other tools to objectively analyze sales data, trends, and visit materials.**
**III. Hold a distributor meeting**
Through sales reports and market visits, the regional manager will clearly know which client and which product's sales trend is, and be confident.
Suppose at the distributor meeting, a distributor raises a question:
A certain product is not selling. How do you answer?
At this point, you can immediately open the sales report: This client has not shipped this product for three months.
Ask the office manager: Why no shipment for three months? (Actually, this is a rebuke to the client.)
The office manager replies: It's not selling!
Immediately open the visit records for this client's area:
The distribution rate of this product is less than 10%, 5 stores are out of stock, 6 stores have near-expiry products, and 3 stores have requested delivery for a week without receiving it...
Immediately question the office manager: What was the distribution target for this product last month?
The office manager replies: ...50%
Follow up: What if the target is not met?
The office manager: ...
At this moment, what color will the client's face be?
Special tip: When disciplining a client, you must prepare in advance, let data speak, and be reasonable and well-founded.
Clients are not afraid of tough people, but they are afraid of professional people, and even more afraid of encountering someone who is both professional and dedicated.
Disciplining a client does not rely on the drinking table, the card table, or banging the table!
**IV. Develop an improvement schedule.**
Based on visit information and sales data, develop an improvement plan, communicate and confirm it on the spot. Set rewards and penalties, and have the client and office director sign on the spot. Then forward the improvement plan to the assessment and inspection department and the regional internal affairs, with dedicated personnel tracking and assessing.
**V. Resource follow-up and continuous tracking.**
According to the schedule, provide relevant resource support, such as promotional support.
Require the office manager to reflect the achievement of key indicators in the daily report every day.
At this point, is the market viewing complete?
That's all for how a regional manager views the market.
However, it seems we forgot something very important.
If the regional manager completes all these tasks, it will probably be 10 PM.
Don't forget to have a meal with the client and the office.
At this time, the meal will be enjoyable.
Over
**-END-**
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