---
title: "Is it that distributors and offices have lost the ability to launch new products, or is headquarters turning a blind eye?"
description: "The root of execution problems often lies with management, but blaming the team and its managers entirely is unfair. A case study of a leading FMCG company reveals that new product launches fail because regional offices and distributors lack the manpower and headquarters lacks oversight, compounded by a results-driven culture that prioritizes sales targets over new product initiatives."
author: "李政权"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2019-05-23"
language: "en"
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original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/MSYz42DG45hsdFfdbImYCQ"
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---

# Is it that distributors and offices have lost the ability to launch new products, or is headquarters turning a blind eye?

> The root of execution problems often lies with management, but blaming the team and its managers entirely is unfair. A case study of a leading FMCG company reveals that new product launches fail because regional offices and distributors lack the manpower and headquarters lacks oversight, compounded by a results-driven culture that prioritizes sales targets over new product initiatives.

Although I have always emphasized that the root of execution problems lies with managers, it is not entirely correct to attribute a team's execution problems solely to the team's managers and its members—even though the company's boss hired you to solve problems and contribute to performance.
For example, the topic we are about to discuss below.
**New plans and tasks keep coming, but there is no one to execute and check them**
Company C is an FMCG enterprise with multiple leading brands. Whether in terms of corporate strength, brand architecture, completeness of category and product clusters, or sales scale, market share, distribution network, etc., it is the undisputed leader in its market segment.
But even such an enterprise has not successfully launched a single new product in the last seven or eight years. Is the headquarters product department at fault? No! Its product departments in various categories are also the envy of peers. Whether it is products that failed in the past or reserve products planned for launch, their competitiveness in quality, concept, selling points, packaging, and even price is what peers follow. Is it a marketing promotion problem? Not entirely! With Company C's nationally influential brand endorsement, in-store promotion, consumer education, etc., it is not inferior to peers in terms of investment or methods.
So, where exactly is the problem? The core is that its various branches, offices, and even distributors have gradually lost the function of promoting new products. The symptoms are: new products are not launched in a timely manner—two to three months after new products arrive in regional markets, the distribution and shelf presence rate may be only 20%; the steps for new product promotion are not unified—some start moving as soon as new products arrive in the regional market, while others may not move even after three months; the use of new product launch expenses is slow—terminal expenses applied for months ago in regional markets may still be sitting idle in the branch's account, with no thought of using them.
The main reason for these problems is that **sales branches lack the execution manpower to push new product launches, and headquarters lacks a department for overall coordination and inspection.**
Below is a conversation between Li Zhengquan and Mr. Wang, the general manager of one of this company's sales branches:
"New categories and new products are very important sales growth points. But we found that the XX product (for well-known commercial confidentiality reasons, certain elements are blurred) that was launched three months ago is still basically invisible at the terminals. Where is the problem?" I asked Wang, who was busy making tea for me.
"We also want to promote new products," Wang said, leaning back on the sofa. "Our company is results-oriented, requiring over 20% growth every year, so we can only focus on promotional items, bestsellers, and key promoted items." Similar sentiments can be found in many companies struggling with new product promotion.
"Doesn't headquarters care or ask?" Li Zhengquan continued.
"Our headquarters doesn't have such a department. You know the pressure of our sales targets is high, and there is no dedicated department or person at the top to follow up on new product launches in each province. As a branch, we have limited staff, and everyone is busy with targets, so it's easy to forget about new products," Wang said, adjusting his posture to be more comfortable. "Two months ago, our branch applied for several hundred thousand yuan in promotion expenses for the XX product. Now that you mention it, I recall that this money hasn't been used yet." At this point, Wang laughed himself.
"Our branch has two to three hundred salespeople. Can't our customer managers and sales representatives do the distribution and shelf placement of new products while visiting distributors and terminal stores?" I continued to ask.
"Actually, we do it sometimes. Some of our distributors are even enthusiastic about promoting new products because they have high margins. But one bad thing about our company's new products is that, due to multiple product development departments lacking coordination, we basically have several new products every month. In the last three or four months, we've had twenty to thirty new products. We can't go to the buyer every few days to negotiate new product shelf placement, right?" Wang raised a very practical issue.
......
**What can we learn from this case?**
In many cases, managers face the awkward situation of being unable to attend to everything and having the will but not the power. After all, execution discounts sometimes truly come from the 'king who never errs' or the sacred, inviolable corporate 'constitution.'
Combining this case of Company C, if we were the heads of its sales branches, putting ourselves in their shoes, how could we do well in executing new product launches? Or, how can we cope with such constantly emerging new tasks and plans?
**1. Data determines heroes; new tasks and plans like new product launches take a back seat.**
Sales may not determine heroes by success or failure, but they certainly determine heroes by data. If we were the general managers of Company C's sales branches, our work focus and priorities would also revolve around how to achieve the company's set sales completion rate, sales growth rate, and other indicators.
As for new products, I believe no one understands their importance better than Li Zhengquan, but by the time their importance is reflected in our sales contributions, we might already be dismissed. Therefore, the importance of new product launches and cultivation, for frontline sales managers, is in no way comparable to the importance of meeting targets to 'survive.'
If the company's performance appraisal indicators do not even include new product assessment, then it is even less fair to blame the frontline managers, and even more so the grassroots office directors and sales representatives—who told our upper leaders not to guide our work direction through assessment?
In reality, many new plans and tasks are even less important than new product launches, and they cannot be included in KPIs as a fixed assessment item like new product launches and promotions. Thus, what we hope for may conflict with what we pursue, and we will place more hope on the sense of responsibility of managers responsible for execution.
But even if there are some highly responsible managers in our enterprise, they will also find it difficult to effectively push new product launches or other new plans and tasks down the layers because of the mismatch with the company's results-only management and assessment orientation, as this also cannot realistically help grassroots team members 'survive.' In that case, who would work hard without reward?
**2. Since headquarters has no dedicated department or person to follow up, I have the final say on how to push new tasks and plans like new product launches.**
For Company C, its new product launches do not even correspond to a dedicated department at headquarters for overall coordination and follow-up, nor can anyone be found specifically responsible for following up and promoting this matter. In this case, who has the final say on new product launches? The regional market directors and provincial managers! Further down, the office directors and sales representatives in prefecture and county markets!
In such an execution environment for new product launches, new products are like masterless ghosts, unable to find a place to take root. But can we completely shift the blame to our managers, accusing them of low awareness, narrow vision, and weak sense of responsibility? Obviously not!
For an enterprise that has not even established a top-level design, process design, and tracking and promotion system for new product promotion, from the day new products leave the headquarters' finished goods warehouse, the headquarters lacks the reins to rein in, guide direction, and action, because the discourse power to build the new product market brick by brick has already been handed over to the regional sales teams and their distributors. Behind them, we, holding the whip, drive them toward sales targets that may be unrelated to new product launches.
In other words, whether we promote new products, launch new plans, or issue new tasks, it is very necessary to link the 'new things' we consider important with the results-oriented indicators pursued by the sales team and ourselves. Relative to the pre-set sales targets, they must help complete, not hinder, completion.
**3. If you want me to do new tasks well, please provide better conditions first.**
Compared to most enterprises, Company C is obviously a special company. For example, it launched twenty to thirty single products in three to four months. Such high frequency and density of new product launches is naturally not something ordinary enterprises can do.
But precisely because of the lack of coordination in new product launches, the dense launch of new products in a short period has brought great trouble to regional sales teams:
First, with many new products launched at once, it is unclear which one or which ones are the key;
Second, the company releases a few new products tomorrow, and a few more the day after tomorrow. The stores don't complain, the sales guides don't get annoyed, but even we feel something is wrong, let alone 'the store isn't your own.'
On the other hand, even if 'the store were your own, you would carefully weigh which products to put on the shelves.'
What does this illustrate? Li Zhengquan believes that our regional managers, even with the intention to do well with new products, will delay the timing of new product launches because we have not provided relatively mature conditions. What is even more frustrating is that sales managers will feel they are 'delayed' in executing new product launches.
In other words, in the end, whether it is new products launched or new plans and tasks, there is no 'willing' promoter and responsible executor to be found.
Source: Business Trends (ID: lizhengquan02)
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