Recently, many distributors of instant noodles, liquor, biscuits, and other products have contacted the author to discuss how to increase sales volume and profits during the peak selling season. They face many misconceptions and confusions regarding balancing sales and profits, as well as planning for the peak season market, which are common issues among FMCG distributors.

Indeed, the peak season is the last 'bet' distributors can make in a year, often the last chance to turn around after a loss-making off-season. But the peak season is short-lived. How to seize the hand of the 'goddess of wealth' to boost sales and profits is not only a topic for manufacturers but also for distributors who have worked hard all year.

So, what should distributors do during the peak season to better increase sales and profits? The author summarizes it as the 'Twenty-Four Character Formula' for distributors' reference.

Rationalize Brands

Many FMCG distributors often represent products from multiple manufacturers, both large and small. When the peak season arrives, distributors must first distinguish the primary and secondary focus of their operations and make trade-offs. If they continue to sell all brands indiscriminately, as usual, the short peak season may lead to trying to grab everything but failing to achieve anything, resulting in neither volume nor profit—like 'drawing water with a bamboo basket.'

Rationalizing brands involves two aspects:

1. Skillful trade-offs. Boldly abandon brands that are low-volume, low-profit, and consume resources. For example, some products have average profits but are bulky and take up space during transportation. In the peak season when 'time is money' and 'every inch of space is precious,' decisively abandon 'dog' and 'problem' products, and vigorously promote 'star' and 'cash cow' products that can increase volume and profit.

2. Focus on the middle. Among the rationalized brands, prioritize: promote high-end products but not as the main focus; reduce the volume of low-end products but do not completely abandon them. Spend 80% of the time on mid-range products that can increase volume and profit, as these are the main source of profit and the foundation for increasing volume and profit during the peak season.

Case: Mr. Zhao, a distributor of a certain instant noodle brand in eastern Henan, follows the principle of 'only by giving up can you gain' every peak season. He rationalizes his product portfolio, temporarily abandoning small snacks and beer that takes up warehouse space during the off-season. He decisively cuts products from small manufacturers that account for less than 10% of total sales, while vigorously promoting the main products that were already distributed and promoted during the off-season. As a result, he always aligns with trends, seizes opportunities, and achieves both volume and profit.

Shorten Transport Distance

Shortening transport distance is also a form of operational trade-off. During the off-season, many distributors, to increase volume or spread daily operating costs, distribute products over long distances, even across regions or markets. When the peak season arrives, distributors should review this behavior to see if it aligns with immediate interests and maximizes profit.

1. Do not go far for what is near. In the peak season, opportunities are fleeting. Therefore, plan the transport radius reasonably, avoid going far for what is near, and avoid unnecessary increases in transport and labor costs, preventing the phenomenon of volume without profit. For example, instant noodles and beer have large sales volumes, but their reasonable transport radius is between 100-150 kilometers. Beyond this distance, distributors may not profit or even incur losses. Thus, during the peak season, do not sell 'externally' without purpose or cost considerations; instead, sell from inside out and selectively.

2. Sales areas should be within controllable range. The controllable range means areas where you can deliver and cover within the customer's required time. Some remote places may have sales but in small quantities. At this time, distributors should consider comprehensively, possibly through bulk delivery or reasonable combination with high-end profit products, to cleverly avoid the phenomenon of scale without economy due to transport distance.

Case: Mr. Li, a county-level distributor of a certain beer brand, starts focusing on his 'sphere of influence' every May when the product enters the peak season. During the off-season, his distribution was like 'scattering flowers,' with small sales but covering every corner of the county and even neighboring counties. But when the peak season arrives and products are in short supply, he focuses on areas that are convenient to deliver and have higher product tiers, ensuring both sales volume and product profit. Therefore, every summer, he earns a lot.

Launch New Products

Launching new products is a shortcut for distributors to seek volume and profit during the peak season. Good sales of new products not only attack competitors and stabilize the market but also become a new profit growth point. The fundamental significance of launching new products in the peak season is to break the 'aesthetic fatigue' and 'market weakness' of old products, activate the 'shocked' market and downstream channels, and keep the market fresh and dynamic.

When launching new products in the peak season, note the following:

1. Products should be launched timely and quickly. Pre-heat and create momentum in advance. Although the peak season is suitable for new products, the timing must be appropriate—not too early or too late. It is best to launch a month before the peak season. At the same time, the launch should be fast, covering various channels and terminals with overwhelming force to create a hot-selling atmosphere.

2. Use skimming pricing for new products. New products bear the responsibility of 'seeking profit,' so they can adopt a 'skimming' pricing strategy, high-profile and high-priced. Skimming pricing means operating the market with a high pricing strategy, of course, on the premise of product differentiation, allowing for larger operational space, including product profit.

3. Adhere to the 'two differences and two highs' principle. That is, 'product differentiation, high price, high promotion, and promotion differentiation.' Product differentiation means the product can be improved, or a new specification, new flavor, or new category. High promotion means the promotion intensity should be large and the forms flexible. Promotion should also be differentiated, novel, and eye-catching to attract channel partners and consumers.

Case: Mr. Ding, a distributor of a certain instant noodle brand in Yongcheng, implements his 'two axes' plan every peak season: launching new products and holding ordering conferences, which complement each other and yield substantial profits. Every August, when instant noodles enter the peak season, Mr. Ding launches a differentiated new product, such as the recently launched braised lamb noodles, and then holds a new product launch event with high price and high promotion design; simultaneously, he bundles old products and holds an ordering conference. The combination of new and old not only significantly increases sales but also yields substantial profits from new products or bundled profits. Thus, through new product launches and ordering conferences, he achieves a win-win situation of both sales and profits.

Adjust Structure

Scale spreads costs, structure generates profit. When the peak season arrives, distributors should also position products reasonably and adjust product structure in a timely manner, ultimately achieving both volume and profit. However, the premise of adjusting structure is not to significantly affect sales; otherwise, although profit is sought, market share is lost and customers are gone, which is not worth the gain.

Key points for adjusting product structure:

1. Reasonable product positioning. Clarify the roles and positioning of the brands you represent: which manufacturer's products are for image and high profit, requiring long-term promotion; which are both volume and profit, can be seized now; which serve as 'cannons' to attack competitors, seize market share, and even drive sales. Thus, rank your products and plan the peak season product line.

2. Innovative marketing strategies. When adjusting product structure, promotion methods should not be too rigid, otherwise, it may seem 'profit-seeking.' Use innovative methods to transition smoothly, such as using best-selling low-margin brands to 'carry' non-best-selling high-margin brands; implement joint promotions with non-competing industries; use ARS marketing strategies to establish market benchmarks and models, roll out sales regionally, and eventually ignite the entire regional market.

Case: Guohua Instant Noodles, one of the top ten in the industry, launched a 'Six Plus One' combination promotion package before the Mid-Autumn Festival. They combined high-end cup noodles, mid-range bagged noodles, and low-end crispy noodles in a certain proportion, with 500 or 1000 boxes as the 'starting quantity,' providing promotional support of 0.6 yuan and 0.7 yuan per box respectively. Through this method, they adjusted the product structure subtly and achieved good results.

Build a Team

Increasing volume and profit in the peak season is a systematic project. Besides quality products and effective peak season strategies, distributors must also build a hardworking and capable sales team. Because even the best marketing strategies are implemented by them, they rely on them for execution. Therefore, building a 'wolf-like' sales team is crucial for peak season battles and winning the final victory.

1. Win in the middle management. Sales managers and supervisors, as middle-level cadres, have a say in strategy formulation, implementation, supervision, and control during the peak season. Therefore, distributors can invite manufacturer sales managers to provide training on industry trends, marketing development, management skills, communication skills, and key account management. By 'brainwashing' them, they align with the distributor's thoughts and pace, ensuring better implementation of strategies and preventing sales targets from stagnating at the middle level.

2. Win in execution. Three parts planning, seven parts execution. No matter how good the marketing plan, if no one executes it, it is zero. Therefore, when the peak season comes, strengthen training for grassroots sales personnel, set requirements for their work standards and steps, and provide training on customer development, negotiation communication, order processing, and customer service. Build a marketing iron army with strong execution to better implement peak season strategies and policies.

Case: In May of a certain year, while training a beer brand distributor in Changsha, the largest sales distributor invited the author to train their sales staff in the evening. He told the author that the training venue was already chosen—a nearby café—and the staff were assembled, earnestly hoping the author would come. Moved by his enthusiasm, the author decided to 'work overtime for free.' The training session, titled 'Fight for the Terminal, Win the Terminal, Succeed at the Terminal,' did not end until 10 PM. Afterwards, the distributor called the author to say that this training was actually their pre-peak season mobilization and brainwashing meeting. It made many sales staff understand the importance of terminals, the significance of 'details determine success or failure' in the beer market, and that service is also productivity, the foundation for enhancing customer loyalty and core competitiveness.

Emphasize Assessment

In the peak season, as a period of 'short supply,' increasing volume is easy, but increasing profit is difficult. To guide sales staff to better promote new and profitable products, distributors need to start with the marketing orientation—assessment. Sales staff only do what you assess, not what you want. Management guru Peter Drucker said, 'Doing the right thing (effectiveness) is more important than doing things right (efficiency),' which speaks to the dialectical relationship between direction and method, effectiveness and efficiency. Therefore, to maximize sales volume and obtain corresponding profits in the peak season, distributors must provide directional guidance and assessment to sales staff.

1. Assess key indicators. Distributors should also learn from large brand manufacturers and assess key indicators related to profit, i.e., KPI indicators, such as product structure ratio and expense rate. In addition, design monthly single-item assessments, such as new product promotion and new outlet development. Those who perform well can receive material and spiritual rewards; those who exceed expense budgets or fall below minimum assessment standards should face corresponding economic penalties or elimination. Through positive and negative incentives, guide goal achievement.

2. The key to assessment is execution. To successfully meet targets in the peak season, the implementation of assessments must be strictly enforced, following established rules meticulously. The key to management is assessment, the key to assessment is implementation, and the key to implementation is execution. Only by keeping promises can you gain the trust of sales staff and make them seriously follow the plan to achieve goals.

Case: A biscuit distributor previously only verbally required sales staff to sell high-end profit products during the peak season, but despite his efforts, sales staff still 'only sold what was easy (cheap and easy to sell), not what was expensive (profit products),' causing him frustration. In the second half of 2007, he had a new profit-oriented compensation and performance assessment plan designed, adopting a 'low base salary + commission on mid-to-high-end products + monthly assessment' model. Based on peak season market characteristics, he changed monthly assessment focuses, such as new product promotion, new customer development, and the proportion of mid-to-high-end products. Monthly assessments were settled on the spot without delay. After such adjustments, sales began to develop in the predetermined direction, with satisfactory results.

Focus on Key Points

80% of sales come from 20% of customers; similarly, 20% of customers create 80% of profits. This is the '80/20 rule' in economics. In the peak season, besides 'casting a wide net,' distributors should also be good at 'catching key fish,' that is, grasping the core links in channels that can influence sales and profits. If the core is grasped, the peak season will not be chaotic, and the sales situation can be effectively controlled. It includes:

1. Focus on key distributors. Key distributors here refer to those with the ability to cover and drive a network, capable of product distribution and delivery. These distributors are often 'local lords,' so they need to be managed through certain means, such as establishing distribution alliances, clarifying distribution scope and responsibilities, jointly formulating 'game rules,' and severely cracking down on those who 'cross the line.' The purpose of focusing on key distributors is to use their distribution networks to quickly reach the end of the channel and effectively intercept competitors.

2. Focus on key terminals. This is an era of channel victory and terminal kingship. In future market competition, whoever controls terminals controls the market and has a say in the market. Therefore, manufacturers need to control terminals to control channels, and distributors also need to control terminals to influence manufacturers and distributors. By focusing on key terminals, distributors can control the overall sales situation and will not fear that a distributor's 'defection' will leave them helpless and severely impact sales during the peak season.

Case: A liquor distributor, before the Spring Festival, operated in a county market by setting up a distributor in each township through bidding. These distributors not only had distribution and service capabilities but also had to have the ability to expand the market, i.e., distribute products to various retail terminals. At the same time, the distributor implemented deep collaborative sales with these distributors, assigning a salesperson to each distributor to implement a 'resident township' plan, helping them expand the market and better serve terminal customers. After operating this way for a period, sales not only increased significantly but also ensured stable channel profits and good market order. Through the stationed salespeople, the distributor also firmly controlled terminal merchants, mastering their monthly sales, product flow rates, and volumes.

Fast Turnover

In the peak season, since products sell quickly, why do some distributors still not make money? In the final analysis, it is likely a problem with product turnover, such as product shortages, stockouts, or insufficient inventory capacity at the time of sale, thus wasting good sales opportunities. Therefore, to increase volume and profit in the peak season, distributors must plan carefully and do well in product sales processes and forecasting.

1. Place orders in advance. The peak season is a period of 'shortage' economy. At this time, avoiding product shortages and stockouts in the market is the top priority for distributors. By placing orders in advance, distributors can reasonably plan the product sales cycle and try to avoid product shortages during the peak season.

2. Increase inventory levels. Since product shortages are prone to occur in the peak season, to avoid affecting smooth sales and peak season regrets, distributors should increase product inventory during this period. They can set up temporary warehouses, apply for manufacturer subsidies, and increase the 'throughput' of products to ensure peak season supply.

3. Reasonable sales forecasting. To achieve an ideal state of purchase-sale-stock, distributors must also do a good job of sales forecasting. Based on historical same-period sales, recent months' sales volumes, and sales trends, reasonably plan product purchase-sale-stock quantities. Do not blindly be overconfident and overstock, nor be timid and not dare to stock appropriately. At this time, on the basis of the original 1.5 times inventory rule, appropriately increase inventory levels, and do dynamic inventory control to prevent product shortages. In addition, to avoid excessive product accumulation after the peak season, distributors should also know when to stop, based on sales trends, and appropriately ship and stock at the end of the peak season to avoid large amounts of product piling up in warehouses, preventing profit from being realized.

Case: Mr. Chen, a distributor of a certain instant noodle manufacturer in Xuchang, before the Spring Festival peak season, not only rented an additional 50 square meters of warehouse to prevent insufficient inventory but also ordered a truckload of goods from the manufacturer every two days based on his daily sales volume. During the fastest sales period from the second day of the first lunar month to the tenth, he had the manufacturer and his own vehicles unload goods directly from the manufacturer's warehouse to distributors' or even terminals' warehouses, saving warehouse space, shortening delivery time, improving delivery efficiency, and saving some loading and unloading costs. He seized the sales opportunity well and earned more than 100,000 yuan in just one Spring Festival.

In summary, to achieve the goal of increasing volume and profit in the peak season, distributors must grasp the core key elements that affect peak season volume and profit. Through brand integration, focusing and optimizing goals, around new product launches, product structure adjustment, team building, emphasis on assessment and incentives, and reasonable sales forecasting, they can achieve systematic and coordinated operations in the peak season, ultimately achieving the marketing goal of both sales and profit.

Introduction: Cui Zisan, master's degree in senior business administration, renowned marketing practical training expert, expert in distributor strategic development research, with over ten years of frontline marketing practical experience. He has served as planning director and marketing director in several large enterprise groups, including the national marketing director of Jinxing Beer Group, one of the top four in China's beer industry, and senior consultant at Shanghai Lianzhong Zhida Consulting Agency.

Source: Cui Zisan's Marketing Vision

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