Distributors have long faced difficulties in recruiting and retaining talent. Building a business team that is adept at winning battles and daring to fight hard is a dream for every distributor boss. Sometimes, after painstakingly cultivating a few outstanding individuals, they still cannot be retained. What should be done? In my training practice with sugar, alcohol, and food distributors, one of the most frequently discussed issues is: how to use and retain people, and especially how to build an excellent sales team.
If we compare a distributor company to a bus speeding on a highway, the boss is the driver, with the authority to decide who stays or leaves, who sits, stands, or even lies down. In other words, the boss holds the ultimate personnel power.
No company's sales team is uniformly excellent. The key to an excellent sales team is not that every member is as versatile as a special forces soldier, but that each person contributes their strengths and complements each other, allowing the company's performance to thrive.
The question is: how can a team be assembled to achieve such synergy?
Boss Li from Fuyang, Anhui, has a company with 10 salespeople, 1 box truck, 3 vans, and 7 electric tricycles. He represents three products: Niulanshan Erguotou, Mingguang liquor, and a third-tier winery's wine, with an annual turnover of 23 million yuan.
He categorizes his 10 sales staff into five types:
Type 1: The Bellwether.
Boss Li said: "To build a sales team, you must first establish a sales performance benchmark. In our company, this benchmark achieves annual sales of 5 million yuan, accounting for a quarter of the company's total. It's essential to set a benchmark because Chinese people have a common trait of comparison—if others can do it, I can too through effort. I made him my sales manager, and others respect that."
There is a saying: "A soldier is cowardly, but a general is cowardly; a whole nest is affected." Everyone understands this principle, but when selecting this leader, different managers have vastly different requirements. A sales team must have a performance benchmark who not only has impressive results but also has a certain appeal. A sales team is first a management team; without a qualified team manager, good performance and development prospects are impossible.
What qualities should a standard sales manager possess? First, rich market operation experience—this is a basic quality for any salesperson. Second, the ability to organize and coordinate, motivate salespeople, and cultivate subordinates.
Type 2: Sales Elites.
Boss Li's company has three sales elites.
Boss Li said: "They are the guarantee of team performance. Basically, a sales team's performance distribution follows the Pareto principle: 20% of the elites generate 80% of the results. Over the years, I've found that sales elites share a common trait: they have a positive attitude toward tasks and proactively seek solutions when encountering market problems."
With the right attitude and methods, things get done. I often hear distributor bosses complain that during morning meetings, when summarizing the previous day's work, some employees always complain: "Boss, you don't know, their company's product promotion is strong; Boss, you don't know, that store owner has already taken on their product, saying our product is no good; Boss, you don't know, they say our goods don't sell." The morning meeting becomes a complaint session, spreading negativity. In contrast, sales elites, when facing problems, first identify the root cause, then draw conclusions based on analysis and seek solutions, presenting a plan to the boss for support, ultimately resolving the issue.
They don't shift all problems to the boss, causing the boss to work hard while subordinates are idle.
Type 3: Average Salespeople.
Boss Li's company has three average salespeople.
Boss Li said: "These salespeople are very ordinary, with mediocre performance and average abilities, but I never ignore them. Each has their own personality and rich market experience. Their average performance is due to unclear goals or lack of proper motivation, not fully leveraging their strengths."
These average salespeople, although not given much attention in terms of performance, seek recognition through other means, such as taking on more logistical work, actively reporting employee morale to management, and participating in company cultural activities. From a long-term perspective, their contributions should not be underestimated.
Type 4: Eager-to-Grow Salespeople.
Boss Li has two such employees.
Boss Li said: "Two of my employees are new hires or newcomers to the industry, with less-than-ideal performance and abilities. They have an urgent need for growth, both in performance and professional qualities. They generally don't conflict with my or the sales manager's decisions. These two are my key focus for support; I will personally mentor them because I believe in the saying: 'It is always newcomers who create miracles.'"
Based on my understanding of distributor sales groups and my experience leading teams, I would like to supplement the cultivation of newcomers with the following three aspects:
First, people are creatures of habit; help new employees break bad habits. Especially for campus recruits, when they first join the company, pay attention to correcting their bad habits, such as lack of communication, poor teamwork, and failure to report promptly. We should establish a standard code of conduct for employees, have new employees follow it, and help them adapt to the new standards and environment from the start, better integrating into daily work.
Second, help new employees improve skills and techniques. This is specific operational work, mainly at the technical level, such as how salespeople communicate with customers in the market, how to promote new products, how to do effective advertising and display, and how to run promotional activities. These need to be taught to new employees step by step until they are capable of independently developing and maintaining customers.
Third, cultivate a good work attitude in new employees. A good mindset and work attitude not only improve efficiency and quality but also set a positive example, continuously injecting positive energy into the team.
For example, some employees, when encountering a problem, ask "What should I do?" instead of seeking methods first; some start work without any plan, make decisions on a whim, and fail to summarize after failure. As a boss, you need to pay attention to this. New employees need more help and support; encourage them and help them build confidence.
Until one day, you will be pleasantly surprised to find that it is the new employees who create miracles. As long as such employees are cultivated scientifically and reasonably, they can deliver satisfactory results.
Type 5: Flexible Roles.
Boss Li has one such employee.
Boss Li said: "Every six months, I eliminate one such employee. The eliminated person is not necessarily the worst performer, but often one who fails to execute or spreads negative emotions about company management."
I quite agree with this approach. For those who repeatedly refuse to change or frequently violate company rules, severe punishment is necessary, often producing a deterrent effect. Managers can use this person to enforce strict management on the team. Handling this person can be done silently but effectively, stimulating other team members to firmly implement decisions.
After analyzing and understanding these five types of employees, we should realize that not all employees will become elites. As long as we use each type well, we can make them play better roles at different levels.
Market competition ultimately boils down to talent competition. Employees are the company's greatest asset. As long as managers are good at using people and leveraging each person's strengths, they will bring unexpected surprises.
Source: Businessman (ID: htsxy88)
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