Click to read the original text for details The Chinese liquor industry is in a turbulent period of industrial transformation and development. The industry's evaluation of the development of baijiu is mixed: believers see future potential and hope, while skeptics are convinced of current difficulties and predicaments. The recent situation of many liquor enterprises mirrors this evaluation, and in addition, the vast majority of baijiu distributors are also facing severe tests. However, some frontline distributors hold a completely different view of the baijiu industry. They believe that although the industry is difficult, selling baijiu is not hard; the key is who does it and how. This simple statement forcefully and clearly articulates the essence of business operations: one cannot only look at external factors, but must also consider comprehensive conditions and the operators. But these optimistic and affirmative distributors do not represent all liquor distributors; more distributors are still enduring unprecedented suffering. Historically, baijiu agency has always been a mixed bag of joy and sorrow, which is unrelated to the industry environment but depends on how distributors operate in the market. This depends on how distributors set annual goals, plan overall operational strategies, and arrange the pace of work throughout the year, taking into account all factors that affect sales, so as to execute clearly and efficiently in a streamlined manner. A year's plan starts with spring. Distributors are not product producers but product movers; they do not need to bear the operational risks of liquor enterprises, only focus on product sales. Liquor enterprises have already made plans for the coming year at the end of the year, while distributors need to break down tasks at the beginning of the year according to the agency policies and requirements set by the liquor enterprises, especially when starting work. Effectively arranging the start-of-year work determines the maximum utilization of time, manpower, and material resources. Therefore, the start-of-year arrangement for baijiu distributors is particularly important, as it concerns the entire year's sales. Different distributors have different situations. As for how to arrange the start-of-year work, let us conduct an in-depth analysis with actual cases. Case 1: The New Task for a Small Distributor at the Start of the Year Boss Zhang is a distributor in Huai'an, Jiangsu, representing domestic A-brand baijiu. Based on his previous experience in sugar, tobacco, and alcohol, Boss Zhang only started as a county-level agent for A-brand at the beginning of 2016. With limited resources and capital, Boss Zhang can be considered a typical small baijiu distributor in China. But Boss Zhang's sales volume is truly impressive: he achieved 4 million yuan in sales for low-end products in one year. According to Boss Zhang's personal account, in 2016, he had only three people, one van, and a small county town with a population of 200,000. Initially, he did not stock much in the county; their operation was simple: every day, they drove around with a full load of products, going through streets and alleys. They went to various construction sites, crowded squares, and down to townships, doing only one thing each day—tasting. After a period, they slowly began to stock products, and then covered the entire county. Boss Zhang built the market bit by bit. By 2017, someone locally started B-brand, a competitor to A-brand. Considering long-term survival, at the beginning of the year, Boss Zhang had an urgent new task: to find other promising baijiu products to represent. Based on his analysis of the local market and observation of baijiu industry trends, he set his sights on small-bottle liquor products. Boss Zhang hopes to find mature brands with development potential and moderate agency policies, leveraging the foundation built in 2016 to expand his team and market. Case 2: The New Confusion for a Large Distributor at the Start of the Year Boss Yang is a distributor in Yanghe, Jiangsu, entering the baijiu industry in 2013, which can be said to be during a difficult period for the industry. Initially, he represented mature domestic brands, and through team efforts, he continuously expanded sales locally. By 2016, Boss Yang had reached a scale of 30 million yuan. Although compared to those distributors with billions in sales, his scale and volume are small, entering the market during the industry's winter and achieving such scale in a city-level region basically monopolized by Yanghe liquor, with sales growing year after year, he can be called a "large distributor." He has always had a brand dream, so in the past two years, he registered his own brand and developed mature products. To solidify the foundation of his own brand, Boss Yang also acquired a small distillery in Yanghe. Currently, Boss Yang is "walking on two legs": representing mature brands to generate sales while cultivating his own brand. After a year of practice, Boss Yang has experienced the difficulty of building a brand and increasing sales of his own brand products. After all, it is a new brand with low public awareness, unlike representing mature brands, which is relatively easier. Therefore, the issue facing Boss Yang at the start of the year is how to utilize various resources to promote his own brand and increase sales. Boss Yang has considered using the hottest self-media platforms and other methods, but he is still confused and has not found an ideal way. Insight: Implement Specific Plans That Lead to Results With so many years of domestic baijiu development, there are various types of distributors. Boss Zhang and Boss Yang are epitomes of two types of distributors in the current environment. The former represents small distributors who work hard on the market with mature brands; the latter represents large distributors who, after achieving certain strength and market foundation, begin to develop their own brands. Both are domestic baijiu distributors, but they are at different stages and adopt different business models. Facing the new year, it is time to arrange tasks at the start of the year. Children without umbrellas can only run desperately, while those with umbrellas must also plan how to use them well. Returning to the essence of the issue, for pure distributors representing mature brands, those who attended the liquor enterprise's year-end meeting know the new year's grand plan. Their primary task at the start of the year is to summarize the pros and cons of market operations in the past year and formulate clearer and more optimized operational plans based on the new policies and requirements. For distributors with their own brands, in addition to arranging work according to the enterprise's policies, they also need to allocate resources such as personnel, funds, and materials reasonably based on the current situation of their own brand to ensure maximum sales. Regardless of the type of distributor, the start-of-year work arrangement must ultimately be implemented into detailed plans with results. The core is to do the following three points well: First, distributors must set strict and clear annual sales task goals based on the enterprise's policies and the previous year's business performance. They must not be overly arrogant, especially regarding resource matching to achieve goals, nor should they be overly conservative. Once goals are set, tasks should be broken down monthly throughout the year and assigned to specific regions and teams. Second, distributor bosses must bear unlimited responsibility for tasks and maintain a keen market sense at all times. Why? Because tasks are static, and only the boss can inject life into them; others are executors. Whether sales tasks are completed smoothly and rhythmically depends on the boss's sense of responsibility and awareness infused into the entire year's operations. Third, although sales performance is important, distributor bosses must have a clear awareness to be good at motivating each salesperson and leveraging the team's maximum advantages. They should have firm awareness of differentiated assessment and work allocation for various tasks, providing stable guarantees for the sales team, so as to be responsible for results. No distributor can fight alone; they operate in the form of a company, regardless of size, and have a team. The products represented are fixed, and tasks are self-set. The arrangement of start-of-year work is nothing more than being responsible for results and implementing the use of personnel and materials throughout the year. Based on the actual local market situation, formulate top-level strategies, then divide the major work directions according to the annual cycle, and ultimately implement, revise, and re-implement unconditionally. -END-