Jinmailang is a company worth studying. It's not that its marketing strategy is particularly commendable, but rather that its "Four-in-One" channel management model is highly effective. The instant noodle industry as a whole is declining, and "Liangbai Kai" (cool boiled water) entered the fiercely competitive drinking water market. Yet, Jinmailang has managed to achieve astonishing growth in both industries. △Jinmailang Liangbai Kai Vehicles, personnel, regional contracts, terminal devices—four in one. The first three are nothing special; most companies do the same. The difference lies in the terminal device. It is the terminal device that makes salespeople's behavior controllable, makes terminals visible, and transforms emotional management into data-driven management. A friend who experienced the "Four-in-One" model said: When we first started recording terminal stores, it cost a lot of money. For each store with a qualified photo, we got a 1 yuan bonus, and one person could earn 50 yuan a day. I admire that Jinmailang started implementing "Four-in-One" in 2011, which was the era when SaaS was just beginning. Modern technology now offers simpler and more efficient tools to replace terminal devices. China's channels are entering an era driven by technology (digital). I wonder if everyone has realized the significance of Jinmailang's success. -01- Chinese business is unique, for example, community-based channels (social e-commerce) are hard to exist in the West. Business is business, life is life. To some extent, community means that business interference in life becomes the norm. Just as KA's terminal orientation, which interferes with customers' free choice, is extremely rare in the West. Business includes three major links: cognition, transaction, and relationship. The biggest difference between China and the West is the influence of relationships on cognition and transactions—"acquaintances become regular customers." This is a remnant of agricultural society in the industrial and information society. China's traditional channels are precisely the trinity of cognition, transaction, and relationship. Relationships play a crucial role in channels. Deep distribution, to some extent, can be seen as the "transfer of relationship value": terminal owners have "acquaintance" relationships with community users, and salespeople have "acquaintance" relationships with terminal owners. Thus, terminal owners "recommend" products, transferring their relationship with users to the manufacturer's salespeople. Because of this rapport, terminal product placement can be better, such as distribution, shelf restocking, replenishment, and merchandising. These tasks provide the basic conditions for product sales. I once summarized that the difference between KA and general trade in China is: KA follows the "preferred brand" logic, while general trade follows the "recommended brand" logic. Therefore, China's channel chain is first a human chain. The essence of the human chain is relationships, i.e., rapport. Unless it's a well-known brand, without relationships, there is no cognition; without product placement in terminals, there is no transaction. In KA, there is precisely a lack of relationship between salespeople and community consumers. So, brands send promoters to guide consumer cognition. Even famous brands lose many sales opportunities without promoters. -02- China's channel rapport now faces great difficulties. First, building rapport is hard. When all manufacturers engage in relationship-building, the threshold rises. I once asked a store owner at noon how many manufacturer salespeople had visited in half a day. The owner counted: 28. With 28 visitors in half a day, the owner was annoyed and instinctively wanted to "get rid of them quickly." So, the rapport that manufacturers value gradually fails at the owner's end. Additionally, resource-rich manufacturers simplify rapport by directly buying terminal resources, such as displays and end caps. Even if other manufacturers have good relationships, it's hard to turn relationships into cognition and cognition into sales. Second, terminal sales are declining, but manufacturers still try every means to generate sales at the terminal, creating a squeeze competition. Store owners see declining sales but still expect profit growth. It's extremely difficult to exchange "rapport" for the owner's "cooperation." -03- In the industry's downward channel, Jinmailang relies on "Four-in-One" to boost sales, and the core is the terminal data obtained from terminal devices. Is terminal data that powerful? Indeed, it is. During sales growth periods, as long as basic actions are done well, sales can grow. So, non-standard actions are not a big problem. During sales decline, a channel management paradox emerges: salespeople create problems in the channel, report them upward themselves, and then solve them themselves. If problems truly arise, this becomes a vicious cycle. No solution. Generally speaking, people are unaware of problems they create themselves and find it hard to propose effective solutions. The lower the skill level, the more they tend to blame external factors rather than themselves. They look for objective problems, not subjective ones. To break the above paradox, we need to break the vicious cycle. There are two methods: One is the intervention of other personnel, such as some companies establishing inspection systems; the other is digitizing channel and terminal scenarios, reporting to higher management levels for analysis, summary, and solutions. -04- Jinmailang's terminal device is a human chain plus a technology chain. It's a relatively simple technology chain. Problems that individuals cannot detect can be uploaded to higher levels via the terminal device. Now, there are more advanced technological means than terminal devices, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), which can provide real-time terminal data, then analyze via AI, infer processes from results, and identify problems from real-time changes in terminal displays and sales data, providing solutions. △Terminal AI item recognition device In fact, this is a technology chain, a technology-driven channel management. Jinmailang's technology system was not developed by itself. However, this system did not succeed in peer companies. The reason is not the system itself, but the management system built around it. Data itself has no value; management based on data has value. In China, the value of people in channels is hard to replace, so the human chain remains very important for a long time. However, the existence of a technology chain helps break the "vicious cycle" of channel problems, enabling salespeople to solve problems more precisely and break through their own capability ceiling. Some people often question the term "empowerment," but Jinmailang empowers through data management. △Terminal AI photo review -05- For traditional enterprises, channels remain the main battlefield for sales. In the past few years, the internet has stolen the limelight from channels because growth was on the internet. Now, both channels and the internet face traffic exhaustion. The internet is already eyeing channels, driving offline traffic online. Many traditional enterprises have found growth paths in channels: One is entering the C-end from the terminal (B-end), guiding traffic from online to offline, and bringing incremental growth through new customer acquisition; the other is more refined terminal operations driven by technology, breaking the salesperson capability ceiling and squeezing competitor sales. Both paths are equally important. The "2020 New Marketing Opening Course" will spend half a day teaching "Technology-Driven Channel Growth." This is the new direction of growth.

Extended Reading: Without vehicles, there are no outlets; without outlets, there is no sales. Controlling outlets can make sales land. To help distributors improve their control over outlets and achieve stable sales growth, Jinmailang Chairman Fan Xianguo proposed as early as 2011 that "Four-in-One" would become the highest corporate decision as a prerequisite for cooperation between Jinmailang and distributors. Four-in-One is the market weapon for Jinmailang distributors in their daily work. It includes: vehicles, personnel, regional contracts, and terminal devices. The essence of implementing Four-in-One is to let distributors use reasonable and scientific configurations to establish a new management model for doing business and seeking reasonable profits. Chairman Fan clearly stated that Four-in-One is the guarantee of distributor profitability: 1. Without vehicles, there are no outlets; without outlets, there is no sales: The number of outlets determines the distributor's sales. To serve more outlets, it is necessary to equip sufficient and reasonable vehicles to ensure work efficiency. 2. Vehicles alone are not enough; effective visits by personnel are needed to lock in sales: Personnel management refers to relying on real and fair incentive measures to implement the combat effectiveness of each salesperson at terminal outlets. Actively maintain rapport with terminal stores, seize competitors' display positions, and demand sales from competitors. 3. Let workers become partners through contracts, especially contracts for distributor delivery vehicles, essentially forming initiative in sales work. 4. Through terminal devices, intelligently manage vehicles/personnel/contract system, establishing a new management system: Jinmailang's terminal device is essentially an integrated brain for the entire supply chain process and scenarios, including personnel, channels, products, inventory, orders, stores, logistics, finance, ERP, etc. The uniqueness of Jinmailang's terminal device lies in: it can quantify and standardize all work content of personnel in the market, and build a complete incentive evaluation system around consumer purchases, truly achieving process management for frontline employees. -01- What is the logic of this incentive system centered on consumer purchases? I. Quantification: All work content of salespeople at terminals related to sales is decomposed and quantified into each action, for example: Today's visits must reach 15 stores, get * points; each store must have posters of a certain standard, get * points; each shelf must have a certain number of facings and thickness for each flavor, get * points; price tags and cut cases must meet certain standards, get * points; end caps must meet certain standards, get * points; freezer displays, get * points. Through quantification, the quality of the salesperson's work at that store can be clearly known. Based on the number of work scores, corresponding rewards are given. The salesperson's score for the day is converted into Jinmailang coins the next day. Through timely rewards, the salesperson's enthusiasm for work is greatly improved, laying the foundation for Four-in-One standard management. II. Traceability: Because salespeople are very lazy, since work evaluation is quantified, there must be a corresponding tracking and assessment mechanism. Without timely follow-up, inspection, and tracking, it is difficult for salespeople to maintain enthusiasm for long-term work. All distributors implementing Four-in-One must have a complete tracking management system. For example, the time the salesperson visited the first store that day, the time spent in the store, the score in the store, the actual situation of terminal work, the number of visits that day, whether the visit route was optimal, the number of visits to that store that month, and whether the store has signs of fraud can all be effectively tracked through the terminal system combined with management, thereby achieving efficient and standard work at terminals. Not just ideas, Jinmailang has detailed work standards for all aspects of Four-in-One promotion: 1. Supporting facilities for operations: War room: Establish an independent meeting room with corresponding work tools: projector, printer, broadband, office chairs, etc. Billboard maps on the wall: "Commission Standards," "Daily Performance Commission Board," "Regional Strategy Map," "Operation Route Map." 2. Supporting facilities for small bosses:

  1. Vehicles: One vehicle for every 60,000 people in a district, dedicated to Jinmailang product sales (one vehicle per 100,000 people in weak markets).
  2. Terminal devices: Contracted small bosses must be equipped with mobile terminal devices for evidence-based work.
  3. Outlet division: Contracted areas are divided according to 6.0 zones, with one store per 400 people; every 60,000 people need to control 150 outlets.
  4. Routes: The 150 outlets in the jurisdiction are entered into 6 routes, forming periodic visits. 3. Daily work process for small bosses—Morning meeting: Jinmailang has fixed a relatively effective tracking system for the most important morning meeting each day: 1. Morning meeting: Usually scheduled between 7:00-8:00. Before the meeting, it is generally required to sing the "Jinmailang Marketing Song" together and read Chairman Fan's marketing spirit to boost morale. 2. Data analysis: Through analysis of yesterday's sales data, track the visit quality and performance achievement of sales personnel. 1 Outlets: How many stores should be visited that day? How many were actually visited? How many were missed? Reasons for missing? 2 Scores: Average score per store? Did they take action? How many stack displays or cut-case displays were done? 3 Sales: Sales ranking, who is first? Who is worst? Find out the reasons? 4 Income: Income ranking, who is first? Who has the worst income? How to increase income? 3. Work review: Enter the backend system to review and analyze key cases or common problems. 4. Emphasize key matters: Emphasize the key matters of the day, not too many, then end the morning meeting. 4. Route visits:
  5. Enter the 150 outlets in the jurisdiction into the terminal device in 6 routes, strictly following periodic visits.
  6. Plan routes reasonably, ensure outlets are solid, prevent duplicate recording of one store, and prevent photographing store A's head with store B's display. 5. Photo evidence: After completing terminal displays, use the mobile system to take photos as evidence, earning scores and Jin coins, which is also a considerable income. Photos must include a selfie. After taking photos, the terminal store enters the mobile system, and the backend can aggregate and analyze data to find shortcomings and improve promptly. 6. Replenish inventory: After opening the full boxes and placing products on shelves, count inventory to see which items are insufficient or out of stock, suggest orders to replenish inventory, so that the store's sales items reach safety stock levels, avoiding stockouts that affect sales. 7. Summary and settlement: After visiting 25 stores a day, return to the distributor's warehouse in the evening for summary and settlement, do profit sharing, calculate the small boss's sales and profit contribution daily, and clarify the respective profits of the distributor and small boss, which helps the healthy operation of Four-in-One. 8. One-on-one communication:
  7. Communicate one by one in the order of the small bosses' return (10-15 minutes per person), understand and coordinate abnormal issues, and provide answers at the next morning meeting.
  8. Fill in the performance board: After the small boss returns to the office, the county-level manager reviews sales and fills in the performance board. 9. Loading and replenishment:
  9. Always implement the evening loading system. After the evening meeting communication, prepare for loading, and get off work after loading.
  10. Loading qualification: Vehicles contracted under Four-in-One must be fully loaded with this product to be considered qualified. No competitor or other products are allowed.
  11. For hitchhiking mode, loading this product must reach at least 50% to be considered qualified. -02- Key points for promoting work standards at each stage Stage 1: Preparation Understanding stage: Conduct a preliminary understanding of the market, distributor's personal situation, team, current product sales status, and market competitor situation, while improving supporting facilities and office materials. Stage 2: Introduction Intervention stage: Based on the preliminary understanding, develop personalized solutions. Try to communicate with customers, gain their support, and through morning meeting training, incentives, and standardized processes, make the sales team recognize the professionalism, authority, and trust of the interveners. Morning meeting rituals: Morning meeting time, slogans, rituals, and process; Rules and regulations: Tardiness, early departure, mobile phone ringtones, office management requirements; Terminal device usage: Photo distance, store entry, photo upload, new store development; Morning meeting and evening loading: Warehouse management system, loading standards, return/loading times, loading process sorting. At the same time, this stage should also let the sales team gradually survey and take stock of the market, preparing for the next stage of channel expansion. Stage 3: Expansion According to the method of area, line, and point, gradually develop outlets in the region through penetration. At this stage, require distributors to cooperate in introducing corresponding store development promotional policies and assessment incentives, introduce internal competition, and eliminate unsuitable personnel. A: New outlet development process
  12. Set outlet development goals: Break down the total goal into daily/person targets.
  13. Develop outlet development package policies: single store, small amount, small quantity, more display rewards.
  14. Develop target reward and punishment policies (both rewards and punishments): ranking, progress, bottom.
  15. Solidify daily reward and punishment processes: verbal praise, cash distribution at morning meetings, applause.
  16. Auxiliary training follow-up: terminal ice-breaking skills. B: Route division process: Three stages of route division: area, line, point Area: Based on the actual market situation, let distributors divide the vehicle's responsible area according to routes. Line: After outlet development reaches a certain stage, re-divide visit routes based on outlet distribution. Point: Based on actual terminal sales and outlet classification, divide the most economical visit routes. Stage 4: Sorting When outlet development reaches a certain number, gradually sort and divide routes, requiring distributor personnel to cooperate in visiting terminal outlets according to the divided routes. At this stage, sales enter a platform period. Timely expand SKUs in stores, introduce high-margin products, and supplement distributor profit gaps. Internal data must be strictly followed up and tracked, standards must be strictly implemented, and through highly solidified and rigid work content, the team develops muscle memory. Stage 5: Contracting After a period of standardized execution, market sales begin to surge, and employee enthusiasm greatly improves. At this time, through contracting, further consolidate previous market achievements.

Ten necessary requirements for doing Four-in-One well: 1. Goals must be broken down to individuals. 2. Routes must be clear, outlets must be implemented, and outlets must be printed on the wall. 3. The war room must be standardized, with battle maps, route divisions, area divisions, profit-sharing tables, banners, and morning meeting projectors. 4. Four-in-One managers must be trained before taking office. 5. Profit sharing must be clear; the core value is profit distribution. 6. There must be single-store sales (clarify single-store sales). 7. Vehicles must be fully equipped, one vehicle per 100,000 people, and start second-tier distribution in weak remote areas. 8. Loading must be done in the evening. 9. There must be a basic salary. 10. The price system must be high and stable. By strictly implementing Four-in-One, there are four major benefits for distributors: First. Internal affairs standardization: In the standardization stage, many non-standard contents are standardized, forming processes for meetings, work standards, discipline, incentives, assessments, inspections, etc. Second. Market standardization: Standardize multiple contents such as original sales personnel work, service, visit frequency, etc. Visits become stable, displays are solidified, merchandising standards are set, and service is in place. Employee income increases significantly. Sales grow notably. Third. Distributors benefit: Through standardized management, focus on outlets, enhance channel competitiveness, and both sales volume and profit increase, boosting distributor enthusiasm. Jinmailang began implementing the Four-in-One management policy in its distributor system in 2012. From 28 distributor pilots in 2012 to nearly 1,000 distributors participating in 2015, Four-in-One has proven to be a disruptive new sales management tool for the instant noodle industry and even the entire traditional FMCG food industry. Its power is increasingly evident: distributors implementing Four-in-One saw an average net profit increase of 127%, and a large number of instant noodle sales giants with annual profits exceeding one million yuan emerged. Some distributors even said: Chairman Fan thought of everything, even considering our company's succession issue. Previously, children were unwilling to inherit our business because selling noodles was too hard, tiring, and worrying. But with the terminal device, they can easily manage hundreds or thousands of stores from the office, with higher efficiency and better profits, and the younger generation can quickly get started. If a tip is adopted, a reward of 400-2000 yuan will be paid. China FMCG + Internet Professional New Media Dedicated to FMCG manufacturer and distributor transformation and channel digital solutions Copyright | Business Cooperation | Project Consulting | Reader Submissions