Whoever controls the cold cabinet controls the market; the cold cabinet is the absolute core of summer sales. Cold cabinet display space equals sales!

Is there a problem with pushing so much inventory into the market? Potential issues exist:

First, if retailers can't sell through, it may leave many aftereffects; Second, salespeople can't use this product to hit their short-term targets!

Can this product still be pushed up? In summer, the cold cabinet is the best position for sales; whoever secures the cold cabinet becomes the leader. According to market research, cold cabinets typically have no more than three shelves, and there's a lot of strategy involved! Should we spend display fees to secure cold cabinets? That's not how we play anymore.

The distributor's warehouse had over 3,000 cases of water, which the manufacturer had shipped along with other products. The distributor was frustrated. Okay, let's use the water to play the game.

After all, the distributor had already made money; 3,000 cases of water cost only about 30,000 yuan. I can play it however I want, but I have to make it interesting.

Use this water as a fee to sign cold cabinets? No, regular displays are passive; many retailers will give your space to someone else the day after you leave. Only when retailers proactively display the product does it truly matter. But that's easier said than done! Not easy doesn't mean impossible. With the same budget, a different approach or mindset can make a world of difference. For example, if you offer a small price difference as a display fee, they won't be interested! They care about immediate gains, just like FMCG products are impulsive.

They don't care about a monthly display fee, but they're thrilled to grab a few products two or three yuan cheaper on e-commerce platforms. Isn't that the case? With a mix of real and fake moves, we can make the water sacrifice worthwhile.

The salesperson first notified retailers half a month in advance that the manufacturer would be inspecting, and that in other places, for every bottle of M beverage in the cold cabinet, they'd give a bottle of water. But the exact time was uncertain. Of course, most retailers didn't take it seriously.

We hired someone to pose as a manufacturer's market supervisor, who suddenly inspected and counted how many M products were in the cold cabinets, giving one bottle of water for each bottle, on the spot. The first batch gave out over 300 cases of water. We inspected over 800 terminal cold cabinets, with an average of about 10 bottles per cabinet, about 1.5 shelves.

When the salesperson followed up, many retailers regretted not listening to the salesperson! The salesperson casually said: "This manager is quirky; he might come back for a surprise check in a few days."

Twenty days later, he came back. Retailers had increased their stock, but not by much, and they regretted it again. This time, the effect was better, with over 400 cases given out. Because retailers never believed there would be a second visit, the increase was just a conditioned response from the previous stimulus when they stocked up. But that wasn't my ultimate goal.

When the salesperson visited again: "This manager is quirky; no one knows when he'll come or who he'll send. I think he's targeting this area. I'd better help you display more, especially in the front; one bottle there counts as two. Our product is small, so it won't block the ones behind!"

But retailers generally wouldn't allow products to be placed in front of other products! This time, we increased the shelf space. After two visits, more than half of one shelf in the cold cabinet was our product.

Then the so-called manager made his move. He didn't bring a sales vehicle; he just came to take photos, count, and register, with the distributor delivering later. He promised that if someone came to check the cold cabinet next time and one shelf was fully stocked, they'd get an extra case of water. When the salesperson came to tidy up next time, after some conversation, not only was one shelf fully stocked, but the front rows of other shelves were also replaced with our product. Another person came to check, and the retailers who listened made a killing!

Two more visits followed, totaling five surprise checks over three months. Over 4,000 cases of water were given away. After that, without the salesperson's prompting, retailers would voluntarily fill a whole shelf with our product and even place it in front of taller bottles! With this arrangement, the entire cold cabinet looked like it was filled with our product from two shelves up. The salesperson just negotiated restocking, expanded vertically, and did some advertising. Sales were phenomenal; in two months, the inventory from the ordering meeting was basically sold out. Everywhere you looked, if someone was holding a bottled drink, it was likely L product!

Using less than 50,000 yuan worth of water, not only did we sell through a four-month inventory in two months, but we also motivated retailers to actively sell our product, turning it into a super bestseller that surpassed mineral water! In every store, you could see dozens of cases stacked, just like Yibao in Guangzhou, if not more. Display fees? We just changed the game. But since we've cultivated the retailers' habit, using water to raid cold cabinets isn't a long-term solution.

In the end, we chose to sign cold cabinet agreements: one shelf for a case of tea per month, and the company checks that the cold cabinet has water. If you tried to give a retailer a case of tea as a fee to use one shelf for your single product, forget it!

Later, we developed channels related to cars: car washes, repair shops, private gas stations, and parking lots. It was fun!

For repair shops, we aimed to cultivate their consumption habits. We negotiated, then sent three cases of product as a display, with one case per month, no upfront payment, and payment only after they sold. We also did advertising for the repair shops, with no intention of collecting the money. Because a few small shops near repair shops had strong sales; some mechanics drank two or three bottles a day. We improved advertising and product image in the small shops around repair shops. Some might think this is crazy; would the distributor agree? If you're the boss, with a profit of over 10 yuan per case, and the overall business is profitable, as long as there's market to expand, wouldn't you be willing to spend a little?

For 4S stores, we directly sponsored M product events, with various advertising and a large display of 50 cases. For every car sold, we gave a case to the customer, and we also gave five cases per month to the company, covering all 4S stores. 4S stores don't generate much sales volume; they don't rely on this for profit, so low fees aren't attractive, but it's crucial for brand building! Once sales rise, you must build the brand, otherwise it's dangerous. In this closed small county town, it's entirely possible to create a paradise. Because information is isolated and population mobility is low.

In the three months after the ordering meeting, sales accelerated day by day, but my salary didn't rise; it fell. With the market in such shape, the expense-to-sales ratio was so low that I couldn't spend all the budget. With enough budget, anyone could pull it off and make it look good. In this small place, there's only so much vision; at best, they see you as a hired hand, not a second boss. I don't care about running a small business in that mountain valley! Retire after success; that's the way of heaven!

At the group company, I had no clients; for two months, sales were zero! Then the critics attacked me, and the manager questioned me. So I directly opened a distributor account and shipped 150,000 yuan worth of goods from the factory. Then I fought back against the critics: I sent red envelopes during lunch.

"Congratulations, everyone! I finally made a sale yesterday, a 150,000 yuan order. I got a taste of being the company's top salesperson; it felt great! As for those critics who taught me 'salespeople are judged by performance,' you can see it in the daily reports. My two buddies here have been in the top three of the regional sales team for the past two months. Isn't our per-capita shipment volume the highest in the region? Do you know what comprehensive data analysis means? You can't let one person make all the money; you have to take care of the team! And you dare to flaunt your seniority? With your sesame-sized performance, I could do it in a week!"

The distributor's vision was limited, and the company side wasn't progressing either. So I resigned at the end of June. Looking back, I was too young and naive! A regional manager's monthly sales of a mere million or so is nothing. Even if they lost a capable person like me, at most they'd lose two or three million in annual sales. That's no big deal; such sales can't compare to authority and stability.

My supervisor had also told me about retiring after success. When the company promoted him to regional manager, the big boss tried hard to keep him and promised shares. Now that the market is doing well, his commission dropped from 1% to 0.5%. And the shares promised years ago? Well, we all know better than to mention it. Distributors have small vision; if you get the chance, you should develop toward the manufacturer side. I'm young, so I won't wait for the boss; it's wise to part as friends. The market is mature, so I resigned! Where should I go next?

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