---
title: "Is Bigger Sales Volume Always Better? Wrong! Beware These Traps!"
description: "This article is excerpted from Mr. Fang Gang's book \"What FMCG Veterans Do: Regional Manager Playbook\". Sales volume is the most basic indicator of a market, but it's not everything. The article categorizes sales into four types (drug, waste, defective, and premium), explains how sales are generated, and warns against common sales traps."
author: "方刚"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2016-06-03"
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# Is Bigger Sales Volume Always Better? Wrong! Beware These Traps!

> This article is excerpted from Mr. Fang Gang's book "What FMCG Veterans Do: Regional Manager Playbook". Sales volume is the most basic indicator of a market, but it's not everything. The article categorizes sales into four types (drug, waste, defective, and premium), explains how sales are generated, and warns against common sales traps.

This article is excerpted from Mr. Fang Gang's book "What FMCG Veterans Do: Regional Manager Playbook".
To purchase this book, click "**Read Original**".
The most basic indicator of a market is sales volume, but we often say that sales volume is not everything, but without sales volume, nothing is possible!
### 1. Various Types of Sales Volume
**Drug sales: high volume, low price.**
**Waste sales: low volume, low price.**
**Defective sales: low volume, high price.**
**Premium sales: high volume, high price.**
For example, in many manufacturers' base markets, sales volume is high, but profit contribution is low, which is a drug market. The typical characteristic of these markets is that a single product supports more than half of the sales volume, unchanged for several years or even a decade or more, with both product and channel aging. The basic feature of product aging is long existence, low price, and low profit. The basic feature of channel aging is that major customers sit and sell, over-reliance on distribution, or over-flattened channels with numerous but small customers.
Waste markets are mostly remote new markets. If these markets cannot be developed with high-profile strategies, it's better not to do them at all. Supplying low-priced products to distant new markets is not only a waste of effort but also a waste product. Even if the market is captured, at best it becomes a drug market.
Defective sales mostly occur in remote areas, belonging to latent markets. Similar to being in enemy-occupied territory, the purpose of high-profile strategies is to cultivate consumers and accumulate market presence, watch for competitors' weaknesses, and wait for opportunities to attack. In these markets, maintain a top-down layout, avoid the misconception of small profits and quick turnover, accumulate market momentum to a certain level, then gradually penetrate, from points to lines to surfaces. Once competitors show weaknesses, you can strike decisively, turning it into a base market and achieving premium sales.
Behind premium sales is an excellent base market. A base market is the company's stronghold, meant to provide supplies and blood transfusion for the company. If the base market cannot provide blood but only sucks blood, the company's end is near.
### 2. How Does Sales Volume Come About?
How does sales volume come about? In many training courses, the answers are varied: some say sales are sold, promoted, brand-driven...
#### (1) Sales Volume Is Often Cruel
For grassroots sales personnel, sales volume is "soaked" out. After blisters on feet, hands, and mouth, sales volume will surely come.
Visiting door-to-door, when the effort is enough, blisters appear on feet.
Arranging products and displays in each store, moving things around, blisters appear on hands.
Introducing products, policies, and selling to each store owner repeatedly, blisters appear on mouth.
For market supervisors, when sales have problems, they should be the first to "soak", then lead the sales reps and customer teams to collectively "blister". Promotional resources are important, but people are the foundation of sales. Over-reliance on promotions is like drinking poison to quench thirst. Strengthen the foundation, only when people move, sales are safe.
#### (2) Sales Formulas
Sales Formula 1: Sales = Number of Outlets.
This is a distribution rate formula. The more outlets, the greater the sales, a direct proportion. When sales have problems, self-check: Are sales concentrated on old outlets? Are old outlets lost? Is new outlet development slow? Unlimited and unplanned distribution rates are also terrible. When setting distribution target outlets, consider the brand support of the product. Placing Moutai in roadside stalls not only fails to generate sales but also harms the brand. Appropriate outlet distribution rate control is a test of a supervisor's or even a company's marketing skills.
Sales Formula 2: Sales = Number of Outlets × Turnover Rate
The theory that sales is proportional to the number of outlets must be based on turnover. If a single store cannot turn over, the more distribution, the greater the loss, because expired and near-expiry products will increase, just like eating without digesting!
So, how to solve the turnover problem?
The best way to drive turnover is "air force support". Advertising, buy-one-get-one, price reductions, free samples, etc., can be considered routine air force methods. But regional supervisors are often only infantry commanders, and air force resources are not in their hands. Therefore, they must consider how to solve turnover problems without air force.
Facing this problem, many supervisors complain and lament about the company's brand power and air combat level, but forget one thing: if there were enough air combat capability, infantry could be omitted entirely.
Solving turnover with infantry is a tough and tiring project. Like brutal street fighting, going door-to-door to sell, doing merchandising, suppressing competitors, working on store owners to push products, negotiating stock pressure stores, display stores, exclusive stores, and maintaining agreement stores according to standards.
Spring planting and autumn harvest are natural laws known to farmers. There is no myth of planting in the morning and harvesting in the afternoon. After sowing seeds (distribution), follow-up actions like watering, weeding, fertilizing, pest control, and loosening soil are needed. The principle that diligent people make fertile land applies.
Sales Formula 3: Sales = Number of Outlets × Turnover Rate × Number of Products
Once the number of outlets is solved and the turnover rate is fine, the market tends to mature, and market managers can sleep easy.
But often things go contrary to wishes: either exhausted by headquarters' sales targets or walking on thin ice due to competitor pursuit. In such markets, while outlet count and turnover rate cannot have problems, increasing the number of products is the only choice that is both offensive and defensive.
For a single store, a single product is weak in both sales contribution and defense. Adding new products on top of existing ones not only creates new sales but also effectively blocks and suppresses competitors.
The purpose of adding new products is to fill gaps, to repair the price band under brand planning and support, preventing blind spots and gaps.
The principle for adding new products is upward. Low-price attacks can hurt others but also harm oneself; harming others without benefiting oneself is a major taboo in marketing strategy. Therefore, when adding new products, while considering gap filling, follow the upward price route, considering terminal price, consumer pull, and trade profit to step up from the old product.
Using product count increases to drive sales is mostly applied in mature or semi-mature markets. Old products defend, new products attack, forming a wave-like rotation, creating a goose-shaped product line. Once this market rhythm is mastered, it often becomes a "meat grinder" for competitors. In this formation, old products protect the market, new products launch wave after wave of attacks, and competitors are often helpless.
But be sure to grasp the rhythm and manage the channel and team well. Management is about integrity. New products are about surprise. Only with integrity can surprise be achieved; otherwise, prolonged surprise becomes abnormal and causes self-disruption.
### 3. Sales Monitoring
How to view sales?
Sales is a result! Only when sales are achieved can we see the numbers, so we consider sales a result indicator.
If marketing management only stays at this level, it often falls into the helplessness of "post-mortem examination".
Regional supervisor sales information self-check:
(1) As of today, the monthly total, by region, by product, by customer sales achievement data, compared with the same period last year.
(2) As of today, the annual total, by region, by product, by customer sales achievement data, compared with last year.
(3) As of today, the monthly regional total, by region, by product, by customer sales achievement data, and the difference in progress compared with headquarters' overall data.
Being clear about sales avoids vague defeats. The success or failure of a market is not about the outcome of winning or losing, but about clearly knowing the reasons for failure. Data tracking is an important part of market management. After obtaining these data, regional supervisors must have data analysis and perception capabilities, predict market changes through data analysis, and avoid the tragedy of post-mortem examination.
### 4. Sales Traps
Sales is a treasure. Bosses like supervisors who create premium sales, so they fully exercise the traditional practice of whipping the fast ox. Thus, sales takes a large proportion in assessments.
Sales overdraft is a dangerous game. Over-pursuing sales is like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. For sales (eggs), the market (goose) is exhausted.
Let's look at some common unspoken rules market supervisors use to achieve sales:
**Pressuring customers**. That is, pressing customers, eating next year's grain this year. Overt pressure: near month-end, seeing sales not meeting targets, offering policy temptations for customers to pay more but not ship, or even just invoicing without shipping. Covert pressure: using relationships and other tactics to ask customers for help.
**Pressuring terminals**. Using the excuse of "the wolf is coming" (competitors) to apply for promotions, pushing large volumes to terminals. Ignoring whether terminals will accept goods next month after large-scale pressure. The key issue is that long-term promotional stimulation causes terminal price confusion and sluggish response.
**Channel diversion**. ...
How to avoid sales traps?
(1) Have a clear understanding of various types of sales.
(2) Monitor the increase or decrease of outlet numbers and competitor changes, pay attention to outlet management quality, and master the richness and replacement of product numbers.
(3) Establish a sales tracking and early warning system to detect and handle issues in advance.
(4) Classify market management, with different assessment focuses for different markets.
(5) Distinguish process indicators from result indicators, ensure assessment and tracking are in place, and avoid over-chasing a single indicator and one-size-fits-all assessment.
Sales traps are mostly caused by lazy management that emphasizes results over process and sales over market. Overdrafting sales leads to increasingly tiring management. We should firmly believe that good process leads to good results, do every bit of market work, practice the "basic skills" of marketing, start from the basics, forget about sales and focus on the market, and sales traps will naturally disappear.
-END-
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