As the saying goes, "One autumn rain brings one chill." With the autumn wind and the first autumn rain in the north since the start of autumn, the off-season for beer is approaching. During recent market visits and surveys, I noticed many salespeople either staying in hotels without going out or sitting in distributors' shops chatting with them. I found this strange—has the off-season really arrived? Are salespeople truly idle? When I asked why they weren't developing and visiting wholesalers and retail outlets, the answers were strikingly similar: with the rain and cooler weather, the beer off-season is coming, and distributors, secondary wholesalers, and retail outlets still have inventory. As the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, they're focusing on baijiu brands, selling only a few cases a day, so they're not very welcoming.
Every year, starting in October, most small and medium-sized beer companies see a continuous decline in sales. Poor product sales and shrinking cash flow are unavoidable issues. Is it really impossible to boost sales in the off-season? Is there really nothing to do? Is the off-season really that slow? Not necessarily. Let me use beer as an example to analyze the common mistakes seasonal product companies make in sales:
Mistake 1: Lax Management of the Sales Team
There's a saying in sales: "In the off-season, build the market; in the peak season, build sales." But many small and medium-sized enterprises' marketing teams, when operating in the off-season, "put their weapons away and let the horses roam," thinking the market has entered the off-season and thus relaxing their vigilance and reducing their market efforts. They fail to strengthen off-season market operations with a positive attitude and effective measures. Even some sales executives think: after the hard work of the peak season, the team deserves a break; lower sales targets and let them rest and recuperate for the next peak season. When management is lax, the team becomes like scattered sheep. The crisis may not be obvious in the off-season, but when the peak season arrives, the harm from this laxity will surface:
Entering the peak season requires a warm-up period. Reduced visit frequency in the off-season makes salespeople and customers unfamiliar with each other, weakening market control. In today's increasingly competitive market, this gives competitors an opportunity. If competitors make even a small move, they can easily break down the market fortresses that were hard to conquer in the peak season, and your customers and market share will quickly change hands. When the peak season comes, trying to win them back from competitors is like snatching a piece of meat from a tiger's mouth—extremely difficult.
Lowered sales requirements and reduced market infrastructure targets lead to out-of-stocks in some channels and retail outlets, and a lack of promotional materials at image outlets. Customers and consumers may feel a sense of unfamiliarity with the product, and when the peak season arrives, they need a period of re-familiarization. Moreover, the fixed consumer base in those channels or outlets might change their consumption habits.
Long-term laziness becomes a habit, and salespeople may not adapt when the peak season comes. It's like a rubber band: if it's always stretched and relaxed, it stays resilient, but if it's always loose and suddenly pulled tight, it might snap. The same goes for salespeople.
Mistake 2: Over-Cutting Marketing Expenses
Since FMCG products have relatively small profit margins, many companies believe that profits mainly come from sales volume. It seems an unwritten rule that all companies follow the principle of "input proportional to output" when doing market work. This is correct in principle, but over-cutting expenses in the off-season puts more pressure on sales and brand communication, making the off-season even slower! Over-cutting expenses often means reduced advertising and promotion budgets, lower promotion frequency and intensity, and a serious loss of salespeople. For example, reducing advertising investment leads to lower product exposure and brand awareness, causing some consumers to change their habits. Losing good salespeople means that when the peak season arrives, you can't find suitable staff, affecting market operation quality and sales.
Mistake 3: Unlimited Price Promotions
Entering the off-season, many companies, under inventory or sales pressure, often resort to price promotions to maintain sales. We often say, "Price is a double-edged sword." Moderate price promotions help sales, but unlimited price promotions are tantamount to suicide!
Imagine a loyal consumer who buys your product during the peak season. In the off-season, they see their favorite beer brand drop from 5 yuan to 4.5 yuan per bottle at a retail outlet. They'll happily buy a few bottles (thinking it's a temporary promotion). A few days later, they see the price drop to 4 yuan per bottle; they'll hesitate but still buy a few. If the price drops again later, they might stop buying that beer altogether. They'll think, "Maybe it'll be cheaper tomorrow, or this beer isn't worth 5 yuan at all," feeling ripped off. This is the harm unlimited price promotions cause to consumers, and it casts a dark shadow over the product's fate!
To achieve sales targets, unlimited price promotions are even more deadly for channel inventory. A large amount of product piles up in the middle of the channel and can't be digested, causing a "bowel obstruction," which indirectly affects next year's sales. Customers become annoyed with constant price cuts, feel deceived, lose confidence, and thus damage the company's brand image. To meet sales targets, customers disrupt the price system, affecting channel profits and product vitality.
Mistake 4: Untimely Resolution of Legacy Issues
In reality, many beer companies enter their second marketing year in September or October, but due to capital constraints or a desire to hold customer funds, they haven't paid out previous sales rebates, and they've also left a batch of bottles unrecovered. To continue cooperation next year, they haven't done solid off-season work to pave the way for the coming year and provide favorable conditions for off-season marketing. For example, companies withhold distributor rebates, and many distributors withhold secondary wholesalers' rebates, causing distributors and secondary wholesalers to be unwilling to cooperate with manufacturers in the off-season. This also gives competitors a chance to poach, creating pressure for next year's market competition. Many retail outlets and secondary wholesalers have no place to store beer bottles, and bottles are easily lost, causing losses to the channel and dampening channel partners' enthusiasm.
Off-Season Sales Strategies for FMCG Companies
We often say, "The whole year's work depends on a good start in spring." However, the year actually begins in winter. Winter is the true start of the cycle of growth for all things, and it's more important because everything must pass through winter's trials to continue and enter the spring world. Spring's brilliance comes from winter's accumulation and cultivation. Therefore, rather than emphasizing "the whole year's work depends on a good start in spring," it's better to highlight "the year begins in winter." A good start is half the battle! So, how can FMCG companies spend the winter of 2015 in a more meaningful and valuable way?
Strategy 1: Change the Sales Team's Mindset
Companies must recognize the profound changes in the off-season and establish the concept that "the market has off-seasons, but marketing and thinking have no off-seasons." They must overcome the off-season mentally and strengthen off-season market operations with a positive attitude and effective measures.
Strategy 2: Strengthen Goal Management for the Sales Team
As the Chinese saying goes, "Maintain an army for a thousand days to use it for a moment." When the off-season arrives, it's time to train the troops, but not "free-range"—rather, "cultivate." One way to cultivate is to shift assessment indicators. Salespeople's duty is to sell; in other words, they exist to achieve sales targets. So, while lowering sales targets in the off-season, companies can adjust the assessment indicators to keep salespeople in a fighting state and improve indicators often neglected during the peak season. For example:
Strengthen terminal market assessment to maintain a certain market coverage rate. Based on peak-season sales data, classify terminals by function and positioning to form a terminal classification table. Different terminals have different functions and purposes, so different strategies are needed. For sales-oriented terminals, design reasonable promotional policies to complete sales tasks. For advertising-oriented terminals, maintain the same level of product display, presentation, and POP advertising management as in the peak season, ensuring the product and brand influence continue in the off-season market.
Strengthen sales budget management. Sales growth generally consists of two parts: natural growth and opportunity growth. Natural growth comes from economic development, increased purchasing power, product maturity, and improved brand awareness and reputation within existing channels and distribution networks. Opportunity growth comes from launching new product varieties, exploring new market regions, new channels, and increasing distribution rates in existing areas. Are there opportunities in these areas? Based on last year's sales reports and market research, break down this year's sales targets by market, customer, and product, assess the natural and opportunity growth for these markets, customers, and products, and fill the gap with promotions. Of course, sales managers should help salespeople break down targets so they know where growth points are and how to seize them, alleviating any concerns and allowing them to fully devote themselves to sales.
Strategy 3: Strengthen Customer Relationship Management
Consolidate the strategic partnership between manufacturers and distributors. Settle customer rebates promptly, resolve legacy issues properly, and eliminate customer concerns. Hold customer symposiums to summarize last year's work, announce next year's marketing strategies and policies, and arrange and deploy next year's work. Actively visit distributors, secondary wholesalers, and retail outlets to strengthen communication. Use Mid-Autumn Festival, National Day, New Year's Day, and Spring Festival to visit customers and enhance relationships. Provide customers with better services, especially in the off-season when sales are low and customer enthusiasm is low; services should be further improved.
Strategy 4: Use Communication Expenses Wisely
Consumers need to be led, just like new lifestyles. So in the off-season, integrate various marketing resources to provide strong support for market consolidation and development. Most companies, following the principle of "input proportional to output," drastically cut expenses in the off-season, making the off-season even slower and leaving everyone feeling cold. When the next peak season comes and they do market work, they find everyone is using troops on the same battlefield at the same time, investing a lot but mostly canceling each other out, resulting in low input-output ratios. Therefore, using limited funds with effective communication strategies in the off-season can stand out and achieve better communication effects than in the peak season. However, consumers pay relatively less attention to product information in the off-season, so it's not suitable for large-scale media advertising; instead, targeted communication activities should be carried out.
Strategy 5: Persist in Market Aggression
Strengthen the plundering of competitors' markets. On a narrow road, the brave wins. In today's fierce market competition, if you don't attack others, they will attack you. Market competition is cruel and ruthless. So companies must adhere to the concept of market aggression, enhance market competition awareness, carefully study some competitors, identify their weak points, and attack with one go. For example, strengthen communication with competitors' secondary wholesalers and retail customers, accurately understand their credibility, strength, performance, and relationship with competitors. For customers with good credibility, certain strength, their own network systems, and especially those with conflicts with competitors, make every effort to win them over—treat them politely, move them with sincerity, convince them with facts, entice them with benefits, and skillfully use divisive tactics to make them lose confidence in competitors and come over to you.
In summary, after realizing the importance of off-season sales, FMCG companies should step out of the off-season marketing mistakes, adopt correct off-season sales strategies, truly achieve "the market has off-seasons, but marketing and thinking have no off-seasons," and create a market performance that is not slow in the off-season. This is of great significance for a company and will surely help it reach a new level.
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