Warm Reminder: Click the “↑” above for “FMCG Distributor Professional Consulting” to learn more about marketing and distributor internal management. Whether you are operating a product, managing a region, or even just forming a basic community work group, recruiting excellent and suitable talent has always been a manager's biggest headache. Through practice and observation in product operations, the author has found that when the marketing model does not deviate from the product's characteristics, whether the marketing team is excellent often determines the product's development prospects. At a national marketing meeting of a well-known enterprise, one of the most frequently discussed issues among many distributors and regional managers was: recruitment is difficult, and building an excellent sales team is especially difficult. In fact, the key to creating an excellent sales team is not whether there are enough talents in the market for us to choose from, but whether the manager has a correct concept of team building. Whether managers are experience-oriented, education-oriented, or image-oriented, they all hope that every member of the team is an elite who can handle tasks independently. This starting point is understandable; everyone hopes their subordinates are energetic and competitive in sales performance, so that results will flourish. However, no matter how excellent the enterprise or entrepreneur, no one has such a sales team. This is not only impossible but also unnecessary. Just like our fingers, we don't need all five to be the same length; even if they were, it would be less convenient and flexible than now. This principle may not be difficult to understand; team building also requires complementarity and mutual cooperation. The question is: how can a team be built to achieve complementary effects? Let's take a basic 9-person sales team as an example to analyze how to use the 12321 principle to build an excellent health product sales team. Simply put, 12321 means: one leader, two elites, three average performers, two trainees, and one flexible member. “1” – This one is indispensable; it is the leader. A sales team is first a management team. Without a qualified team manager, good performance and development prospects are impossible. There is a famous management fable: a lion leading a group of sheep can defeat a sheep leading a group of lions. Everyone understands this, but when selecting this leader, different managers have vastly different requirements, which is why some distributors and enterprises change project operators 5 or 6 times within two years. In fact, for a sales management practitioner, the most basic quality is: understanding the specific operational process of product sales. The most important quality is: execution ability that matches words with actions. Additional qualities for different positions are roughly as follows: the most basic community sales work supervisor should be able to lead by example, working early and late; regional managers of multiple small teams should have certain daily work incentive skills and training abilities; enterprise sales directors and sales managers should also have certain market coordination and planning abilities; product franchise sales managers should have the ability to analyze and guide the marketing model. Many business owners and distributors like to hire managers with experience in well-known enterprises in the industry, which is understandable, but they must not ignore the differences in the enterprise's product marketing model. Because different marketing models determine the basic quality, that is, the understanding of the specific sales operation process. “2” – These are the two elites, the guarantee of team performance. Basically, the performance distribution of a sales team follows the 80/20 principle, where 20% of the elites generate 80% of the performance. Sales elites often share common characteristics: they are proactive and good at finding methods. This has little to do with experience. Many enterprises emphasize the importance of experience when recruiting elites, which is a big misconception. For the frontline sales team, the leader may itself be a sales elite, such as the community supervisor and franchise manager mentioned above. These two positions are, to some extent, dual-function roles of management and sales. Just like the village committee director (village head) in China's government function setup, they are the leaders of the village and often also the village's wealth-making experts. Managers often hope that all frontline sales personnel are business experts, but this is unnecessary. If everyone were an elite, first, they would compete and undermine each other more. Second, it would be difficult to be fair in employee rewards and promotions, causing unrest. Excessive internal competition pressure would also force some to leave, leaving only one or two elites. “3” – Three average performers. These are not the pillars, but those with average performance and abilities. Managers often tend to overlook these employees, thinking they are not very important. However, the power of these employees should not be underestimated. These employees may be experienced, but due to unclear goals or lack of proper incentives, they do not fully utilize their strengths, but occasionally they can solve thorny problems and show performance rebounds. The weakening of opportunities for average performers to gain enterprise attention in terms of performance makes them seek attention through other means, such as more logistical work, actively reporting employee thoughts to managers, and actively participating in various cultural activities organized by the enterprise. In terms of immediate benefits, the enterprise may not gain significantly, but for long-term development, their overall contribution is something elites cannot achieve. Because these people are not sufficiently noticed by the enterprise, their horizontal development power is strengthened, and any positive or negative emotions often spread rapidly within the sales team and the enterprise. Performance breakthroughs come from elites, but stable development comes from the average performers. “2” – Two trainees are employees whose performance and abilities are not ideal. They are relatively self-aware and basically do not conflict with the enterprise or manager's decisions, but their actions may be a step slower. However, they do not care much about personal gains and losses when executing. In a team, there will always be miscellaneous trivial tasks that elites cannot do and average performers are unwilling to do. At this time, the role of the two trainees becomes prominent, such as occasionally moving tables and chairs or shifting materials, which are non-marketing tasks. The two trainees also have the most important role: managers can occasionally use them as negative examples to educate other employees, like killing the chicken to scare the monkey. When disciplining or educating these employees, they generally do not directly conflict with the manager, effectively maintaining the manager's authority. If managed well, these employees often have the highest loyalty. Without such employees, daily work and life may lack some fun, and managers may find it difficult to coordinate trivial matters. “1” – One flexible member is most commonly manifested in the elimination system, but the elimination is for the worst performer. Here, “1” is not necessarily the one with the worst performance or ability, but often the one who does not execute the manager's decisions effectively, or who creates negative emotions due to dissatisfaction with the enterprise or manager. This flexible member may be the most mobile in the sales team, sometimes even an elite. Although no manager wants this person to exist, if the team needs to stimulate sales performance to a higher level, or if the team's transformation decision is not implemented by employees, this person is key. Managers can use this person for iron-fisted management. Handling this person can be silent but effective, stimulating other team members to firmly implement decisions. The 12321 principle is based on a simple 9-person team analysis. In actual team building, the team may be less than 9 or more than 9, but the 12321 principle also applies to these teams. The idea that everyone should be an elite is a misconception for managers; it is impossible and unnecessary to build such a team. As long as you build the sales team according to the 12321 principle, managers will no longer have headaches over finding talent. Daily management will also go more smoothly. Team cohesion and stability will be strengthened. More importantly, with proper marketing methods, performance growth should not be a problem. -------------------------------------- Like this article? 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