---
title: "How to Build a High-Performance Marketing Team from a Practical Perspective?"
description: "Improving team combat effectiveness requires training, and as the FMCG industry enters a shrinking market, the value of human efficiency is amplified, prompting many manufacturers to gradually improve their training teams. Having participated in numerous corporate trainings, I've found a common issue: brands often resort to last-minute information cramming in the face of urgent matters, and despite the trainer's best efforts, results fall short of expectations."
author: "高级研究员 海游"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2022-05-18"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/how-to-build-a-high-performance-marketing-team-from-a-practical-perspect-e7b1e11e/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/how-to-build-a-high-performance-marketing-team-from-a-practical-perspect-e7b1e11e.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/o2i4ql6n2NNnDlhvGaes6A"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E4%BB%8E%E5%AE%9E%E6%88%98%E7%9A%84%E8%A7%92%E5%BA%A6-%E5%A6%82%E4%BD%95%E6%89%93%E9%80%A0%E4%B8%80%E6%94%AF%E6%88%98%E6%96%97%E5%8A%9B%E5%BC%BA%E7%9A%84%E8%90%A5%E9%94%80%E5%9B%A2%E9%98%9F-e7b1e11e.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/how-to-build-a-high-performance-marketing-team-from-a-practical-perspect-e7b1e11e/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# How to Build a High-Performance Marketing Team from a Practical Perspective?

> Improving team combat effectiveness requires training, and as the FMCG industry enters a shrinking market, the value of human efficiency is amplified, prompting many manufacturers to gradually improve their training teams. Having participated in numerous corporate trainings, I've found a common issue: brands often resort to last-minute information cramming in the face of urgent matters, and despite the trainer's best efforts, results fall short of expectations.

Improving team combat effectiveness requires training, and as the FMCG industry enters a shrinking market, the value of human efficiency is amplified, prompting many manufacturers to gradually improve their training teams.
I have participated in many corporate trainings, including team execution training, investment promotion training, market routine maintenance training, distributor management training, and distributor operation training. I found a common issue: brands often resort to last-minute information cramming in the face of urgent matters, and despite the trainer's best efforts, results fall short of expectations.
The reason is simple: marketing is a system composed of different modules. Training any single module in isolation cannot solve the fundamental problem. Today, we will **discuss from a practical perspective how marketing teams can structure their training system to enhance overall combat effectiveness.**
**Grassroots Training Focuses on Execution**
For enterprises, the word "execution" is constantly mentioned from top to bottom. How can training improve grassroots team execution? My definition of execution is:
**Execution = Knowledge × Attitude × Skills × Tracking and Inspection**
**1. Knowledge Affects Execution**
Those familiar with Nongfu Spring know that every employee must pass the "Water Knowledge" exam. Those who fail must take time off for study. I left Nongfu years ago, but I still remember the difference between natural water and purified water, the functions of various minerals in water, the standard testing procedures, and parts of "Water and Life."
What does this show? Nongfu Spring places great emphasis on product knowledge.
Later, I worked in marketing at Jinmailang Beverage. To strictly implement the company's "No Water on the Ground" project, I still remember how many packs of water make up a ton.
Based on the warehouse area, inventory size, and access roads of a retail point, I can easily determine whether to dispatch a 4.2-meter truck, a 9.6-meter truck, or a 13-meter semi-trailer. I can also easily predict freight costs and logistics times from factory to retail point, and can direct vehicles to avoid local traffic restrictions. These knowledge points are not difficult for logistics personnel, but they are not easy for most marketing staff in many companies.
What does this show? Jinmailang Beverage places great emphasis on logistics knowledge.
Summary: Product knowledge, logistics knowledge, channel knowledge, etc., are all basic knowledge reserves for every marketing worker. To improve grassroots team execution, basic knowledge is absolutely essential. **This is the first step in marketing team training and the most easily overlooked step. Knowledge training requires memory, understanding, recitation, and examination to verify.**
**2. Attitude Affects Execution**
Attitude is a difficult indicator to quantify. What is a good attitude? What is a bad attitude? Does mood affect attitude? Does assessment affect attitude? What basis does a leader use to judge whether someone's attitude is good or bad? This is not a pragmatic indicator; it requires "virtual" (conceptual) guidance and training.
Generally, people are wary of those who only engage in "virtual" work and cannot be pragmatic, but they are less likely to see the drawbacks of those who only focus on pragmatism without "virtual" work.
Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, was a wise ruler highly praised by Chairman Mao, and his achievements are celebrated through the ages. His Minister of Rites, Li Baiyao, said that after court sessions, Li Shimin would discuss right and wrong with his ministers with sincerity; at night, he would discuss classics and literature with others. Chairman Mao summarized these two "working methods" as "virtual" (conceptual) work.
Attitude is like air: invisible, intangible, indispensable, and it truly affects the execution of grassroots marketing teams. Regarding "virtual" work, enterprises should conduct more training on corporate culture and team cohesion, allowing the team to feel positive attitudes, confidence, effort, and gratitude towards the company, colleagues, and customers through these trainings.
Summary: In today's "money-first" era, many people say, "Don't talk to me about ideals at work; my ideal is not to work," or "I'm just a worker, simply earning a salary." These are largely sensationalist remarks by online trolls.
**Grassroots teams are first and foremost human beings. Humans have emotions, and emotions can correct attitudes. Recently, during the Shanghai epidemic, as long as your mindset is positive enough, you can understand how many "big whites" (medical workers in protective suits) transformed from naive youths into steel warriors, sacrificing themselves for a greater cause. Attitude also requires training.**
**3. Skills Affect Execution**
What are skills? Communication skills, negotiation skills, display skills, outlet development skills, visitation skills, and product sell-through skills are all essential skills for grassroots operations. Can these skills be improved through learning?
Boxers commonly train fast punching skills by hitting a heavy bag for one minute, continuously improving punch speed. A professional boxer typically throws 7-10 punches per second. The highest record for punching speed is 14 punches per second, set by Muhammad Ali.
Take Muhammad Ali, for example. Did he achieve such fast punch speed just by learning? Of course not. The coach only told him how to do it; his skill improvement relied entirely on his relentless practice day and night.
Summary: **Skill training cannot be limited to learning alone. The master leads you to the door, but practice is up to the individual. Skill improvement requires trainers to continuously guide grassroots workers to practice, ideally forming muscle memory.** So my suggestion is: train first, then test, then role-play, then implement in the market, and finally summarize, correct, and replicate.
**4. Tracking and Inspection Affect Execution**
Self-disciplined people are truly rare; otherwise, society would not have so many regulatory bodies. Tracking and inspection aim to train grassroots teams to develop habits close to "self-discipline," learn self-reflection, and work under leadership supervision.
Summary: I have undertaken many corporate training projects on team execution and have coordinated with many corporate training departments. Execution training is truly not a one-day affair. Enterprises need their own training plans, and when external help is needed, they can find teachers with years of frontline management experience.
But remember: when the boss says the team's execution is poor recently, do not suggest "team building?" "outward bound?" "training?" This is irresponsible. Understand that **execution is a system.**
**Middle-Level Training Focuses on Tactics**
What are tactics? For example, a medium-sized enterprise's strategic goal this year is to achieve full regional and full-channel distributor coverage. For middle-level managers, they need to plan how many blank regions they have.
How many blank channels? How to deploy personnel and layout distributors to achieve the company's strategic indicators? These methods need to be executed by middle-level managers, i.e., middle-level tactics. If middle-level execution is weak, the company's strategy cannot be implemented.
**Enterprises with a "big head and thin waist" cannot form competitiveness in the market, so middle-level managers need tactical training.**
Let me give an example from my training experience: A company felt the time was ripe to expand product market share in most regions, requiring city managers to learn offensive warfare and attack the main competitor. My approach was as follows:
**1. Middle-Level Teams Believe Because They See**
**First, conduct offensive warfare step training:**
**A. Establish a Base Market** : The core operation is: establishing a base is the foundation for launching an attack. The base is a resource output point, allowing both offense and defense, sustaining the war, and radiating expansion.
In short, war requires capital. Where does capital come from? Without a base to generate resources, do not launch an attack. Battles without logistical support are hard to win.
**B. Continuous Strikes** : The core operation is: define boundaries, advance step by step, and encircle and annihilate. After establishing a base, seek target areas for continuous strikes (target areas can be defined by channel, area, or competitor weak spots; regardless of division, there must be clear boundaries).
For example: A instant noodle brand's base is a township market with sufficient share. The next offensive target is an adjacent township. The method is to define geographic boundaries, not cross borders, and can start from the center, first capturing the township center market, then steadily expanding outward; or penetrate from border villages toward the center, encircling and eroding.
**C. Demolish the Watchtowers** : Market attacks are never smooth sailing. Even a broken ship has three thousand nails. Any brand will have its core customers. If these core customers do not switch, they may restore the old order at any time, wasting previous investments.
The operation method is: first identify these core customers, understand the competitor's interest output, understand the product's competitive advantages and disadvantages, and concentrate resources to quickly eliminate them.
For example: Competitor core customers in the market usually exist as wholesale and retail stores, with displays, rebates, and even personnel support. When launching an offensive, as long as you understand their cooperation situation and increase the stakes, the likelihood of betrayal is high. After all, in the market, there are only eternal interests, rarely eternal friends.
**D. Precision Strikes** : The core operation is: when the target market has made certain progress, execute precision strikes, concentrate forces, focus resources, and achieve total monopoly to ensure an absolute competitive advantage.
For example: Within a certain channel, the product has gained a foothold and formed a competitive landscape. At this point, the offensive is to find ways to implement exclusive sales and drive out competitors.
**The core idea of offensive warfare is to focus resources and seize target market share.**
**Then lead the team for field operations:**
The classroom and the market are completely different concepts. What is taught in the classroom is half forgotten by middle-level managers when they reach the market. When execution encounters difficulties, they immediately retreat and find objective excuses. At this time, without a successful image, the training value is greatly diminished. Therefore, to implement the course in the market, the trainer must personally lead the team in practical operations and establish a standardized model market (this can also filter out some fake and empty trainers).
**2. Model Market Study Tours and On-Site Teaching**
After establishing a model, take the middle-level management team on a study tour, summarize successes and failures, record the execution steps, and form a manual. This way, they learn and comprehend while doing, making it easier to replicate when they return.
**3. Replication and Follow-Up, Striving for Perfection**
Will they definitely know how to do it after returning? Of course not. There are no identical markets, so there are no identical problems and solutions. At this time, interactive training is needed to ensure the main direction is correct and to ensure progress without unresolved issues.
Summary: Back to the initial question: What are tactics? Tactics are the methods and implementation that truly achieve the company's strategic goals, the confidence and determination to achieve them, and the basic skills of the enterprise's "waist."
It is worth emphasizing: Middle-level managers are people with thoughts. For people with thoughts, you cannot use cramming training, coercion, or violence, especially for post-90s managers. Tactical training must first guide their thinking, then follow up on execution.
**Senior-Level Training Focuses on Strategy**
**What exactly is strategy?**
**Strategy is choice. If a choice helps you achieve your goal faster and better, it is a good choice.**
For example: A brand's growth has hit a bottleneck. Research finds the main problem lies with the distributor team. The current channel coverage model no longer matches the current market's incremental demand, nor can it effectively activate distributors' initiative, so an upgrade is needed.
At this point, senior executives must consider an alternative channel coverage model that can better and faster achieve sales growth. After research, they find that contracting the market to distributors is feasible, so the strategic direction is set. What are the key directions for senior executive training? Let me give a few examples.
**1. Leveraging Strengths and Avoiding Weaknesses is the Primary Strategy**
As the saying goes, "Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated." The foundation of strategy is having sufficient understanding of the enterprise or individual.
For example: A friend of mine wanted to start a business. He majored in computer science in college and worked in the internet industry for many years, proficient in networking. He planned to start a coffee business. My advice was not to easily touch offline; first do what you are best at online, survive first, then develop. This is strategy: in the process of achieving your goals, focus and fully leverage your greatest competitive advantage.
**2. Total Cost Leadership is an Important Strategy**
The concept of total cost is the cost to reach the consumer, including production costs, supply chain costs, marketing costs, and all other factors affecting the consumer's purchase price. It requires meticulous improvement in all aspects to achieve cost advantages.
For example, McDonald's strategic advantage lies in the total cost leadership brought by extremely high operational efficiency. So McDonald's can achieve: if you taste as good as me, you must be more expensive; if you are at the same price, you must not taste as good as me. This is the strategic advantage brought by total cost leadership.
**3. Differentiation is a Competitive Strategy**
There are many types of differentiation: product raw material differentiation; price band differentiation; brand communication differentiation; marketing model differentiation, etc. Senior executives need to choose the core of differentiation to quickly gain competitive advantage. For example: The core of Genki Forest's product differentiation is choosing erythritol as a sugar substitute, quickly shaping the product's core competitiveness in the context of the health and low-sugar era. This is a differentiation competitive strategy.
**Summary:**
The core of senior executive strategy training is to broaden horizons and answer questions. We can show them more successful cases, analyze the conditions for each case's success, and the specific work at various historical periods, so they can gain insights.
Every enterprise's path to success is different. Do not try to teach them how to do it; instead, continuously influence them to make the best strategic choices in areas such as innovation and time dimensions.


---

## Copyright and AI use

This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL.

Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671