---
title: "How to Make Sales Staff Complete Sales Tasks Like Playing Games and Leveling Up!"
description: "Recruiting, retaining, and managing staff are almost daily headaches for every distributor. However, one trading company abolished the salesperson role and replaced it with a merchandiser role, solving these problems. How did they do it? What are the staffing and management logics behind this simple change in job title and responsibilities? Recently, I saw Qiang Huitao, founder of Dunjie Supply Chain, posting on his Moments: recruiting merchandisers. At first I didn't pay much attention, but after seeing it repeatedly, I clicked in: 'High salary for merchandisers, monthly salary 3000-5000 yuan, work location arranged nearby.' This piqued my curiosity."
author: "袁来"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2019-04-07"
language: "en"
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# How to Make Sales Staff Complete Sales Tasks Like Playing Games and Leveling Up!

> Recruiting, retaining, and managing staff are almost daily headaches for every distributor. However, one trading company abolished the salesperson role and replaced it with a merchandiser role, solving these problems. How did they do it? What are the staffing and management logics behind this simple change in job title and responsibilities? Recently, I saw Qiang Huitao, founder of Dunjie Supply Chain, posting on his Moments: recruiting merchandisers. At first I didn't pay much attention, but after seeing it repeatedly, I clicked in: 'High salary for merchandisers, monthly salary 3000-5000 yuan, work location arranged nearby.' This piqued my curiosity.

**Introduction:** Recruiting, retaining, and managing staff are almost daily headaches for every distributor. However, one trading company abolished the salesperson role and replaced it with a merchandiser role, solving these problems. How did they do it? What are the staffing and management logics behind this simple change in job title and responsibilities?

Recently, I saw Qiang Huitao, founder of Dunjie Supply Chain, posting on his Moments: recruiting merchandisers. At first I didn't pay much attention, but after seeing it repeatedly, I clicked in: "High salary for merchandisers, monthly salary 3000-5000 yuan, work location arranged nearby." This piqued my curiosity. Logically, distributors need salespeople the most, but here they need merchandisers the most?

With this question, I called him to ask why they do this. During this time, I also consulted other distributor friends, repeatedly thinking about the logic behind Dunjie using merchandisers instead of salespeople, and also considering whether this model is replicable and scalable.

I define Dunjie's merchandiser model as the employee's "small boss project." Before explaining the "small boss project," let me clearly describe what the "merchandiser" role is, who becomes a merchandiser, what they do daily and how, and how their income and assessment are set.

**1. Merchandiser Profile:** Female, married, with children, under certain financial pressure, approachable, patient, good at communication, and preferably with some sales experience.

**2. Merchandiser Responsibilities:** Responsible for sales and promotion to about 50 traditional small stores within a 20-kilometer radius; at least 10 store visits per day, with at least 10 minutes between each store (managed via APP), and no specific visit plan is set.

**3. Merchandiser Income:** During the probation period, a guaranteed salary of 3000 yuan/month for 3 months; after 3 months, no base salary. Formal merchandiser income: product commission + store opening commission + task rewards.

**Product Commission:** Different tiers are set based on product popularity, with 10%-5% of sales revenue in different tiers (some famous brand products have no commission).

**Store Opening Commission:** 100 yuan reward for each new store opened.

**Task Rewards:** Individual product task rewards, product display rewards, new product store entry rewards, and periodic non-sales tasks such as freezer placement, recruitment referrals, material posting, etc. Tasks are divided into daily, weekly, and monthly. Different tasks correspond to different reward amounts.

Why recruit this way? Qiang Huitao told me that the merchandiser mechanism was set up in 2015. At that time, it was "forced" because they couldn't recruit experienced people, so they had to settle for second best. But looking back now, it has achieved unexpected results. Women are relatively more patient, meticulous, and more willing to chat with store owners.

At the same time, female merchandisers are less likely to change jobs because they need to take care of their children. In traditional channels, customer relationships are the most important, and they work near home, responsible for the surrounding traditional channels. They can even pick up and drop off their children to and from school during lunch breaks. Therefore, compared to male salespeople, female merchandisers have obvious advantages.

Before analyzing the logic behind the merchandiser role, let me briefly introduce Dunjie: Many distributors with over 100 million in sales have at least 1-2 well-known brands, relying on the popularity of famous products to eventually reach the billion-yuan distributor ranks. But Dunjie is not like that. They have almost no well-known brand agency, and the vast majority are non-famous products. It is not easy to achieve billion-level sales revenue with non-famous, multi-category products. Dunjie's ability to become a billion-yuan distributor is largely due to the design of the merchandiser role.

Why has the merchandiser role design been successful? Is it simply because they replaced men with women, work near home, and no base salary but commission? Obviously not. I have summarized four points for your understanding and consideration, hoping to bring you some inspiration.

**First: Downward Recruitment**

Recruit at a lower standard, let merchandisers do the work of salespeople, and use a similar income standard to increase merchandisers' work enthusiasm and attitude. There is a key logic here: Taking a week as a unit, assuming the same working hours: A regular grassroots salesperson covers 150 stores, with an average visit time of **a minutes** per store (distributing 1-3 brands); a merchandiser covers 50 stores, with an average visit time of **3a minutes** per store (distributing n products).

Trading company salespeople or manufacturer salespeople often handle 1-3 brands, with limited SKUs and relatively fixed average transaction value. At this time, the variable is the number of orders, so they pursue maximizing the number of orders per unit time. Dunjie has over a thousand products, so the average transaction value or number of SKUs is the variable, and merchandisers pursue maximizing output per store per unit time. **"Exchange time for per-store output."**

So Dunjie pursues the number of SKUs or average transaction value per store, while regular grassroots salespeople pursue maximizing the number of orders. When the goal is the number of SKUs or average transaction value per store, the salesperson's stay time per store determines the sales amount.

**Insight:** The 50-store visit radius and the visit duration per store can make up for the lack of sales skills. **Customer relationships > skills.** When a distributor operates multiple categories, especially mainly non-famous products, the merchandiser mechanism is worth learning from. At the same time, it is also applicable to distributors transforming into regional B2B platforms.

**Second: Task-Driven**

**Driven by detailed tasks rather than sales volume.** Looking closely at the merchandiser's work content, there are two core parts: First, product sales; second, completing tasks. In fact, for merchandisers, **the key motivation for visiting stores is to complete the clear tasks given by the company, because tasks are the current assessment items with corresponding rewards.** At the same time, they complete product sales as a byproduct.

Where do tasks come from? The company's business department sets periodic indicators, such as pursuing the distribution rate of a new product or the periodic sales task of a certain product. The company sets overall strategic goals, which are transmitted to grassroots staff not as goals and strategies, but as specific, clear tasks with incentives. Merchandisers only need to follow the tasks published on the APP and complete them simply and directly.

**Insight:** Recently, Xu Yuren, Deputy General Manager of Shangrui Marketing, the TPO1 operator of Alibaba Retail Link, shared at the FMCG + Internet Conference about how Shangrui does sales management, which left a deep impression on me. **Focus on three points: First, periodic key indicators; Second, core data tracking; Third, marketing activity ROI.**

Periodic key indicators are set according to different stages of the company, products, and brands. For distributors doing distribution business, the two core points are: distribution + sell-through. Variables affecting distribution: stores (existing and new); products (SKU count) + price (product mix, promotional policies, rebates); variables affecting sell-through: display, promotion (material display), consumer promotions, etc. **Break down sell-through and distribution indicators into more detailed sub-items, setting different task items for each product and each store.**

The setting of various tasks is to complete periodic goals, while also paying attention to core data (single product distribution rate, repurchase rate, average transaction value). Qiang Huitao told me that he only focuses on one point: comprehensive gross margin. Behind focusing on core data is to see whether the product or business is operating healthily.

To summarize task-driven: **Top management focuses on core data to judge whether it is healthy; at the same time, they set periodic development goals; middle management breaks down development goals into small goals, and based on variables affecting the goals, turns small goals into specific, clear, and simple tasks, thereby driving grassroots staff to implement.**

**Third: Timely Feedback**

**After having clear and detailed tasks, in order to promote merchandisers' implementation, a corresponding feedback system must be configured.** For sales workers, the most direct feedback is rewards. Dunjie designs daily, weekly, and monthly rewards for merchandisers according to different types of tasks.

Why is timely reward feedback so important? Luo Zhenyu, CEO of Dedao, gave an example in a video episode of "Knowledge is Power": Why do many people like to eat sunflower seeds? Because every time you crack a seed, every bit of effort you put in gives you feedback—the seed you eat and the aroma around you. So you unconsciously eat half a kilo.

Li Bin, Supply Chain Director of Dunjie, told New Distribution, "We publish tasks every month, every week, and even every day. When one task is completed, another task is released, and completing tasks brings rewards. This makes merchandisers' work like playing games, fighting monsters. Every time you defeat a monster, you get corresponding gold coin rewards."

Many distributors assign tasks to salespeople and set assessment indicators, but why is the effect minimal? **The core reason is delayed feedback. They have to complete the day's or week's work, but the reward feedback comes next month. Sometimes the delayed reward temptation is not enough to drive the current work of salespeople.**

Another small example: You earnestly tell your child to study hard to get into a good university in the future, but the goal of getting into university is something that will happen in more than ten years. The child cannot feel the current feedback, so the child cannot love the current thing.

**Fourth: Small Boss Mentality**

The "small boss mentality" is from the perspective of the merchandiser. The typical small boss mentality is "more work, more reward." The company provides products, tools, rewards, tasks, and sets basic management standards. Merchandisers work more and earn more within the set scope.

Sales work is inherently relatively free and flexible. If distributors use a "manage, watch, and monitor" mentality to command salespeople, it will backfire. Fully understand the nature of sales, let salespeople play freely within the set circle, and believe you will gain more. Many distributors like to say: "You are not working for me; the salary is not given by me; you earn it yourselves." I agree with this statement, but distributors often restrict and monitor in actual management.

In the past, I have been thinking about whether Dunjie's merchandiser mechanism is scalable. I also asked other distributors. Since many distributors deal with single or few categories, there may be certain limitations, but for points 2, 3, and 4 (task-driven, timely feedback, and small boss mentality), New Distribution believes they are worth learning from and considering for every distributor.

**-END-**


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