Supporting the rapid performance growth of distributors requires not only marketing strategies that fit the market but also a focus on the sales team that underpins these strategies. A cohesive wolf-like team will make strategy execution more effective, while a disunited mob will render any brilliant plan worthless. Understand Your Team, Target Your Efforts, and Avoid Detours To manage a team effectively, you must first understand the personality traits and needs of its members. Currently, frontline sales teams are mostly composed of individuals from the 80s and 90s generations. Those born in the 80s already have some work and management experience, with many having risen to middle and senior management roles; those born in the 90s are mostly backbone employees with 3-5 years of business experience, forming the majority of grassroots sales teams. Due to the rapid development of internet technology and the socio-economy in the 1990s, the personality differences between these two generations are quite significant. The 80s generation is conflicted, resilient, and individualistic; the "carrot and stick" approach is still an effective incentive, and they are mostly in the stage of marriage and raising children, under family life pressure. The 90s generation is willful, loves fun, pursues life enjoyment, rejects convention, has a stronger sense of individuality and spiritual pursuit, and is more flamboyant and casual; they "respect masters but fear no big shots," and heavy-handed preaching does not work well on them. Understanding the personality traits of team members of different ages helps us differentiate our daily communication and manage more precisely, hitting the mark. Based on years of experience, I have summarized the most core aspects of sales team management. Many companies are aware of these aspects, but there are biases in actual execution, which this article will also point out.
1. Grounded Team Vision, More Incentives for Team Contributions Those with the same desire win together; a team vision is essential. But it's crucial to understand that the primary purpose of setting a vision is to boost morale, not to shout slogans for self-praise. Phrases like "Be the most respected XX company" or "Create the No.1 brand in XX" can be printed in corporate brochures but are not suitable for grassroots sales teams. A sales team's vision must have a rogue spirit, dominance, and momentum, making people's blood boil at first glance. It's best if it's defined collectively by team members through brainstorming, making it more binding in daily advocacy and requirements. For example: "Invincible and victorious, show your dominance in the market"; "Only find methods for success, not excuses for failure"... Such vision slogans not only reflect the requirements for the sales team and remind them of their value, but more importantly, they provide a basis for subsequent management. Don't rely on seniority in the office; your market is where you demonstrate your dominance. When analyzing market issues, don't always talk about what competitors are doing or the economic situation; think of measures for your success. Additionally, after proposing the vision slogan, don't just hang it on the wall for photos. Be sure to advocate it in daily management, morning meetings, weekly meetings, market coaching, and other occasions, so the team fully feels that this vision is truly the starting point for all issues. With a common goal, a gang becomes a team, and each person's behavior begins to represent the team, reflecting team value. But is it enough for everyone to just focus on completing their own goals and doing their own market well? Obviously not! Doing your own job well is only the most basic requirement of team management. When other team members fail to complete their sales tasks, is there anyone in the team willing to step up and take responsibility for the shortfall? When a region has aged products, are there salespeople from other regions willing to take them and sell them through their fast-moving channels? When a channel has been difficult to break into, but one salesperson finds a breakthrough, are they willing to share it? These behaviors reflect a higher level of team cohesion. For these behaviors, three words: they need incentives! One is material incentives, another is spiritual incentives, and the third is development incentives. The first two are easy to understand—giving money and praise—but in execution, be sure to create a sense of ceremony. The entire team should be present, and higher-level leaders should be invited to award and encourage. This applies not only to the awardees but also to the whole team for exhibiting such behaviors. The third refers to listing them as reserve cadres for observation. A team leader must possess the quality of prioritizing the overall situation and team interests above all. With virtue in place, further cultivate their talent, and they will be entrusted with important tasks. 2. Quantified Assessments with Focus, Elite Soldiers Value Development Sales cannot be separated from assessments; indeed, many sales companies have daily assessments. But two phenomena need attention. The first is overly comprehensive assessments, where every item is finely divided, from sales achievement, visit counts, in-store execution, to system usage, terminal sell-out, new product distribution, etc. This assessment standard is like a manual for salespeople's actions, covering everything. Salespeople work hard to complete one item and barely earn a few hundred yuan, and when they achieve that, they usually neglect another because time and energy are limited. The result is that everyone tends to choose the easiest items with higher bonus ratios based on their market situation, directly giving up other assessment indicators. The other situation is too simple and direct, only assessing sales volume or payment collection. This sales-first assessment method causes salespeople to focus only on secondary wholesalers or large terminal customers in their area, spending every day in customer offices chatting and "building relationships." When performance pressure comes, they quickly become an "interest community," colluding to find ways to do promotions and defraud company funds; or they think about "one source of goods supplying the whole country," dumping goods at low prices everywhere, harming the brand. A reasonable assessment indicator should achieve the following four points: No more than four assessment items;
Process assessments must focus on the most important sales behaviors of the current period;
Result indicators and process indicators should be split 60/40 or 70/30;
Routine basic action assessments (such as system operation/visit completion rate) should be reflected as deduction items. For example, in March when new products are launched, the assessment for terminal salespeople that month can be set as: distribution target 60%, new product distribution (must complete target outlet inventory with supervisors in advance to avoid blind pursuit of quantity over quality) 15%, current month outlet activity rate 15%, core terminal merchandising 10%. This setting ensures sales volume remains the foundation of performance while focusing on the core actions during the new product launch period. Assessment targets are consistent for every team member; if individuals do well, they earn more, and team tasks are not a worry. But as a means of team management, assessments must fully mobilize everyone's work enthusiasm, unleash the potential of each member, and match their inner expectations for themselves. This allows everyone to truly integrate into the team and feel the development the team brings. This situation occurs with elite soldiers in the team who have high self-expectations. They can easily handle current assessment targets and complete them effortlessly, hoping for faster and better promotion and development within the organization. In such cases, timely attention is essential; otherwise, there may be sudden loss due to emotional instability. By setting self-determined assessment targets, without affecting the team's overall achievement, let them set semi-annual or annual plans, give them flexibility to independently manage the market, or let them lead additional sales projects, such as model market creation, multi-product linkage community store plans, township MIT promotion plans, or buyout distributor pilots. Based on project execution progress, have them regularly share stage summaries with the team, satisfying personal development needs and fostering a learning and sharing culture within the team. When the market stabilizes or projects achieve stage results, priority can be given to redeemable employee development plans, such as training and promotion, but still in formal settings with ceremony, speeches, and reflections, conveying positive energy to every member at all times. 3. Process Progress Rankings, Star of Tomorrow Sets the Benchmark Sales without tracking leads to nothing. No sales performance can be achieved overnight, especially in the FMCG industry. It requires the team to visit and maintain relationships one by one, persuade terminals one box at a time, and carefully place products on shelves to squeeze out competitors. Opportunistic tactics can complete sales, but sustained and stable sales must be supported by good relationships and regional consumer demand. Therefore, never evaluate a salesperson's qualification solely by month-end sales performance. Gradual process follow-up is crucial for the team. Many sales companies know about performance dashboards, but few actually use them. I suggest you start using them from today. Based on the current quarter's assessment indicators, break them down to weekly, daily, and individual levels. Require everyone to know daily how far they are from their goals, where they stand in the team, who is ahead, and who is behind... People have a sense of comparison, shame, and ambition. Letting everyone run on their own is far more effective than preaching every day. Moreover, for evaluating salespeople, always use data and their market performance, which is also the best embodiment of the team vision. Having rankings is not enough; there is a more important step: analyze data to find problems and brainstorm solutions. If conditions permit, it is recommended to analyze and comment on team ranking data daily, understanding the reasons behind the data in detail, with a minimum frequency of once a week. Generally, you can analyze from several dimensions: For indicators where overall achievement is not ideal, how is everyone doing? (Common issues) What are the reasons for individual salespeople with low or high achievement? Is there anything to share with the team? (Individual issues) Are there new situations from competitors in the market, and how should we respond? (Market environment) What is the improvement plan for the next day's work? (Implementation actions) In this process, it is recommended to set relevant evaluation criteria based on the team's stage assessment goals and actual conditions, and conduct "model worker" selection. Recognize and commend members who are ambitious, have strong execution, are good at analysis and thinking, and have team collaboration spirit, creating a competitive and learning atmosphere. Given the current situation with many post-90s in sales teams, we can use "gamified follow-up" to make this process more interesting. For example, use the popular "League of Legends tier system" for evaluation and incentives, setting seven levels: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Master, and Challenger. Each member starts from Bronze, with daily business actions and assessment KPIs refined and matched with different points. Conduct weekly summary evaluations, and quarterly distribute "equipment" (attractive gifts) to members at each level. If tier certificates are also issued, it will be even more fun. 4. Lazy and Low-Performing Can Be Cultivated, Negative and Pretentious Should Be Eliminated Early Entrepreneur Mr. Niu Gensheng has a famous viewpoint: "Those with both virtue and talent should be promoted exceptionally; those with virtue but no talent should be cultivated; those with talent but no virtue should be restricted; those with neither virtue nor talent should never be used." Not everyone in the team needs to be a superstar; allow for individual shortcomings. It's okay if ability is poor; strengthen coaching. It's okay if they are lazy; strengthen supervision. A team witnessing the growth of its members is a process of transmitting positive energy, and this tolerance makes other team members feel cared for and warm. Even if it doesn't happen to them, the infection is more real and intense. But note that in the process of cultivating change, encouragement must outweigh punishment, praise in public and criticize in private, use data and cases in communication, and focus on the issue, not the person. For members who are chronically passive-aggressive without justifiable reasons, challenge leaders, form cliques, spread negative energy, and act as if "no one dares to touch me," they must be promptly removed. Especially in teams with new members, never let such people serve as mentors. Achieve early detection, early confirmation, early decision, and early removal; this is the bottom line for any team's healthy development. Many team leaders feel these people hold important clients or are good at achieving performance, so they delay decisive action. This results in chaos in team management, advocacy of vision, issuance of management requirements, and even instability in team performance. "Inequality is more to be feared than scarcity." If your requirements are not fair, the team faces a crisis. The leader may be strong, and subordinates dare not speak up, but gradually, outside the team, everyone will start looking for like-minded partners to share their thoughts, forming their own small groups. On the surface, work seems calm, but crises are everywhere, and the team is becoming a gang. One principle: Whether the personality essence behind behavior aligns with the team vision; if aligned, cultivate; if contrary, eliminate immediately. 5. Consensus Drives Execution, Collective Wisdom Shared The importance of "consensus" in team management is increasingly evident. Traditional command-and-control management is less respected, especially among the post-90s and post-00s. If they are not involved in the decision-making process and the background is not explained, their enthusiasm for work will not be fully mobilized. The harder you press, the stronger their rebound, seriously affecting team execution. This is the growth demand of this generation; everyone's personality must be fully expressed. The process of reaching consensus is the process of satisfying their personality expression. Guide them through case analysis and market discussions to gradually find the rules of business expansion, identify their shortcomings, discover their strengths, and establish their position in the team. "Reaching consensus" is also an important means to enhance team execution. It greatly increases everyone's enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity in execution. Although it increases upfront communication costs, the result is definitely twice the result with half the effort. "Collective wisdom" was an important measure in the management mechanism reform during the Welch era, advocating full participation of frontline teams in management, fully leveraging individual strengths, and uniting everyone to achieve team goals. Brainstorm to remove "unnecessary work," reduce redundant process links, break down departmental barriers, and make organizational capabilities more dynamic. This process is the process of the team growing together, sharing together, and enhancing cohesion. Success is always defined by the team, but it requires everyone to interlock like gears and push each other forward. Pay attention to your team, and it will give your marketing strategies wings. -END-