---
title: "How Can FMCG Companies Achieve a Second Takeoff Through Channel Digitalization?"
description: "In the past two years, my consulting projects have all been related to channel digitalization. Brand owners have put great effort into digital transformation, often switching system suppliers. I have participated in several bidding projects and have deep insights. The main reasons for switching are not price but the marketing team's bottom-up disapproval, often due to misuse of the system and decreased efficiency, leading to misunderstandings. This article discusses how to achieve a 'soft landing' for system implementation through business scenario research, system adaptation, and step-by-step planning."
author: "海游"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2023-09-03"
language: "en"
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# How Can FMCG Companies Achieve a Second Takeoff Through Channel Digitalization?

> In the past two years, my consulting projects have all been related to channel digitalization. Brand owners have put great effort into digital transformation, often switching system suppliers. I have participated in several bidding projects and have deep insights. The main reasons for switching are not price but the marketing team's bottom-up disapproval, often due to misuse of the system and decreased efficiency, leading to misunderstandings. This article discusses how to achieve a 'soft landing' for system implementation through business scenario research, system adaptation, and step-by-step planning.

In the past two years, my consulting projects have all been related to channel digitalization. Brand owners have put great effort into digital transformation, and all have experienced switching system suppliers. I have participated in several bidding projects and have deep insights. First, brand owners rarely switch systems due to price; more often it is the marketing team's bottom-up disapproval. Second, the reasons are not usually missing system functions, but rather the brand's personnel not using the system properly, incomplete use of functions, and failure to fully accept and adapt to new things, leading to decreased work efficiency and resulting 'misunderstandings.' To put it bluntly: they don't know how they died. This includes many internet giants that are also constantly 'falling.'

What is a hard landing? A common situation is that brand owners urgently want to achieve channel digital transformation, so they set up a working group and exert pressure from top to bottom, requiring the channel team to execute unconditionally. Once the system supplier connects with the brand owner, they get a 'sword of Damocles'—whoever doesn't obey is removed. Their work becomes simple: create materials to meet the brand's needs and package the system for the channel team to execute (ignoring the channel team's subjective wishes, at most doing a few training sessions). Where there is pressure, there is resistance. Initially, no one wants to be the first to speak out, so they let the bullet fly. After about six months, conflicts erupt, and opposition rises from bottom to top. They don't vent their anger on the brand owner; the system supplier becomes the perfect scapegoat. Under pressure, the brand owner soon terminates the cooperation. That's a hard landing!

What is a soft landing? How can a manufacturer's marketing system achieve a soft landing? Today, let's discuss this topic.

**Research and Restoration of Business Scenarios**

Many system suppliers take this step before system implementation, but often it's just a formality. Why do I say this? Not to deny their work attitude, but to question their research and restoration capabilities. First, the researchers are mostly system implementers who know the system functions well and understand the brand's needs, but they are unfamiliar with business scenarios. The reason is simple: they haven't worked in FMCG, so they don't understand the underlying logic behind phenomena, making it impossible to effectively restore scenarios and gain the channel team's approval. This plants the seed of failure. Second, all matters have priorities, requiring a detailed insight into current operational issues and initial ideas for solutions, and a consensus must be reached to proceed orderly. This is the prerequisite for a soft landing.

Finally, the research and restoration of business scenarios, combined with the channel team's willingness, should provide implementation suggestions that better fit the current situation, proceeding steadily and step by step. This is the foundation of a soft landing.

So what parts should the research and restoration of business scenarios include? Let me give three examples.

1. **Business Scenario**: Grassroots salespeople are a key link in channel data collection. If this link goes wrong, false and missing data will emerge endlessly, so it must be taken seriously. The business scenario should record the salesperson's daily work in a running account, from morning meetings to first store visits; from travel time to in-store time; from the start of the in-store visit to in-store execution to suggested orders to the end of the visit (the eight-step visit); from route planning to visit frequency; from the number of stores visited to the last store visit; from evening meeting participation to daily work summary to end of work. All should be recorded in detail. The purpose is to analyze methods to improve business work efficiency and identify entry points for system needs. For example, if it is found that after finishing visits, salespeople still need to spend a lot of time in the office compiling daily statistics such as visit success rate, order SKUs, and display execution, then the system entry point emerges: a 'one-click' function to complete all statistics, allowing salespeople to go home earlier. They would then be happy to use the system. At the business level, the system's value is more about empowerment than management; salespeople don't like being managed, they like being noticed.

2. **Management Scenario**: Grassroots managers are a barrier to the authenticity of channel data collection and an important guarantee for improving operational efficiency, so they must also be taken seriously. Restoring the management scenario first requires researchers to have a basic framework of FMCG management and to understand managers' logic quickly. This includes detailed understanding of organizing morning meetings, classifying subordinates by attitude and ability, summarizing different competitive strategies in different regions, tracking subordinates' performance and identifying opportunities with annotations, and continuous checking and tracking of team members. The purpose is to analyze methods to improve management efficiency and identify system entry points. For example, the biggest pain point for managers is the overall restoration of the day's work of subordinate salespeople. To clearly reward and punish, they need to do a lot of preparation before the morning meeting. Here, the system entry point emerges: through route visit maps and data reports, they can 'one-click' complete all restoration work, improving management efficiency and giving managers more time to think about other issues. They would then be happy to use the system.

3. **Inspection Scenario**: Inspection is an important part of the business scenario, involving the standardization of market work and the compliance and rationality of market expense usage. Often, inspection is the last barrier to the authenticity of channel data collection. Inspection work is the most contentious part of business projects, as rewards and punishments inevitably lead to disputes. There are high requirements for the timing, content, and channel types of inspections, especially for projects involving period comparisons, requiring long-term data retention. The pain points of auditors are clear, and the system entry points are also clear.

Summary: Research and restoration of business scenarios are necessary conditions for a soft landing. If these are not clarified and you simply rely on the 'sword' to cut through obstacles, you are close to failure.

**System Adaptation and Consensus**

After restoring business scenarios, the first task is to configure the system. The system implementation team and channel team members will have various opinions and suggestions, but the general principle must not change: seek common ground while reserving differences, and plan step by step!

1. **Seek Common Ground While Reserving Differences**: After restoring business scenarios, the first thing the two teams should communicate about is the basic framework of system configuration. This is the 'big picture' and the general direction for later execution. This must reach a three-party consensus (brand owner, distributor, system supplier). Details can be polished later. For example, the basic framework for a manufacturer's system implementation is the online execution of grassroots business outlets, online grassroots management, and online grassroots inspection. These three macro frameworks cannot be shaken; as for how to promote details, the three parties can co-create.

2. **Step-by-Step Planning**: System implementation must fully consider the understanding and acceptance ability of the executors, with gradual adaptation as the basic logic. Do not implement a 'quick and fast' strategy due to tight deadlines or other factors, as it will backfire. For example, system functions should be opened gradually, not all at once. If a dozen functions are introduced at once, the execution team will be overwhelmed, focusing on system operations rather than market execution. What was meant to reduce workload and improve efficiency becomes an addition to work, and over time, it will be despised.

**Principles in Mind, Methods in Action**

System implementers must have principles in mind and methods in action.

What are the principles? Simply put, they are the deliverables specified in the client's contract; more complexly, they are the necessary guarantees for the success of the client's channel digitalization. First, keep the principles in mind and start implementation with the end in mind. Second, all roads lead to Rome; principles cannot be changed, but the paths to achieve them can. Have clear paths and goals.

Methods in action: Many things, what to do first and what to do later, directly determine success or failure. For example, the effective and precise implementation of expenses and the basic sales unit's distribution and sell-through are two core contents of brand channel data. To achieve these data, salespeople must be proficient in using the sales force automation (SFA) system, distributor management system (DMS), and trade promotion management (TPM) system. The implementation team should design, based on actual conditions, what the channel execution team should do first, what next, when, and under what conditions. Only when these are clear will the later promotion go smoothly.

**Tracking, Inspection, and Precautions**

During system implementation, brand owners usually first seek a pilot. At this time, the implementation team must not be careless. First, in the first week of implementation, they must accompany the relevant personnel while they use the system and conduct market operations. The purpose is to deeply experience user feelings and discover areas for improvement, especially details, including the time ratio of market operations to system operations; the phone battery consumption, network speed requirements, and data usage during system use; and how many times a user needs to click the screen when visiting or inspecting a store. Every detail may determine the success or failure of the project. Second, regarding precautions, they should continuously reflect on the smoothness of system use and the satisfaction of personnel at all levels. If problems are found, fix them immediately. Even if your optimization reduces the number of screen clicks by 5%, it is a huge success for the project.

**Final Thoughts**

The above is my personal summary of channel digitalization implementation. It is worth reminding that the system itself is difficult to build a technical competitive barrier; the details of implementation services are an effective way to build a competitive barrier. Especially for major internet brands, do not let the reason for being eliminated by brand owners be not product R&D and iteration issues, not pre-sales and business issues, but implementation-side service and soft landing issues. That would be a total failure and regret! From October 9 to 11, the 5th China FMCG Conference will be grandly held in Shenzhen. The author of this article, Mr. Haiyou, a channel marketing expert and partner of New Distribution, will share 'From Strategy to Tactics: How to Implement Seven Channel Marketing Strategies' at the Digital Innovation and Practice Forum. Interested friends should not miss it!


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