This article shares insights from Mr. Zhu Zhiming during a WeChat group discussion in the "365 Business School". If you are interested in participating in learning and interacting with industry experts and teachers, please long-press the 365 Business School QR code at the bottom of the article to follow.

Today, I want to share several questions that sales professionals often raise. When we think about these issues, we must focus on the essence to grasp the root of the problem and find the key points and true methods for solving them.

1. Why do consumers buy your product?

We need to put ourselves in the consumer's shoes, seeing our own consumption psychology and behavior. Think carefully: under what circumstances do we make purchases? The premise of consumption is demand, which must exist because it is the driving force. But besides demand, what other factors influence our consumption? Some might say brand influence, but what if the product we buy is not a brand? In fact, brand is a result, built over time; no product is born a brand, but is created through our efforts in the market. Others might say advertising, promotions, or friend recommendations create the motivation; when there is a need, they recall the product. Some say product differentiation attracts them at the point of purchase, making them want to try it.

In short, it is always external factors (forces) that create influence. Whether you are a brand or not, only with influence can there be consumption power and sales power.

So how do we create influence? How do we make consumers see, hear, and experience our product? Different companies have different resources and adopt different methods; different product categories and price points require different core influence tactics. But at the very least, we must ensure that at the moment of consumption, the product stands out, that others recommend it, or that consumers feel it is popular and easy to choose.

First, A=Attention. Do everything possible to make consumers notice your product and put it in front of them.

Second, once noticed, the product's appearance, packaging, cost-effectiveness, etc., generate interest and impulse, creating desire and leading to action.

In summary, it is always external factors that create influence, leading to consumer awareness, interest, and purchase desire. This is why consumers buy your product.

2. Why do consumers continue to buy your product?

There must be internal reasons. The product satisfies consumers' needs (Maslow's hierarchy) at one or more levels: physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization. Consumers typically progress from lower to higher needs, but in reality, multiple needs are combined.

Additionally, they have economic capacity. Beyond appearance and cost-effectiveness, a key factor may be a psychological need, such as face or value. Your product must be popular, either broadly or within their social circle.

Sustained consumption stems from popularity; without popularity, there is no sustained consumption, and no true brand.

How do you create popularity? Popularity doesn't start on a large scale; it erupts from a specific point. Grasp the product positioning, target group, core channels, and breakthrough points. Use opinion leaders, core channel promotion, terminal sales interception, and diversified market actions in small areas, then radiate to other regions. For alcohol, it must first be consumed by a small group or in a specific region, at certain occasions or channels, before large-scale popularity emerges. To ensure continuous consumption, you must create popularity, starting from a single point.

3. Why do terminals sell your product?

High profit? Good relationships? Brand? These are not the obvious reasons. From another angle, what is the real reason terminals reject your product? Some say poor relationships, profit not compelling, or uncertainty about new products. Ultimately, it comes down to one word: "fear"—fear of poor sales, occupying space, capital, and energy. So why do terminals accept your product? They feel good about the product and the people, approve of the market operation methods, and believe the product can bring value—selling well and selling fast. This is the internal reason terminals accept your product. So if we only consider high profit and good relationships without thinking about how to help terminals sell quickly and well, they will naturally reject it. If they accept due to good relationships, how long will that last?

Thus, terminals accept our product because they accept the solution and the salesperson; profit is just a basic motivator. The key is a plan to help terminals sell quickly. Promotions, market operation plans, helping stores with sell-through, creating market atmosphere to attract consumers, and activities to drive traffic—these are the core reasons terminals accept a product.

4. What is the real job of a salesperson? How can it help sales?

Is it just distribution, boasting, visits, collecting basic information, terminal atmosphere, inventory, and ordering? That would be a big mistake. These are just basic actions and standard processes.

The essence of a salesperson's job is to help terminals generate sales and do things that produce results, not just routine tasks. Many salespeople say they do everything but the product doesn't move. Yes, they work hard, but without effective market and terminal actions, there is no real solution.

For example, if the terminal owner thinks your product has high profit and good relationships, and he promotes it, but doesn't know how to sell it, how do you teach him the reasons and methods? If consumers reject it, how do you help the owner? Could you bring in his regular customers for a tasting event or consumer pull activities? We don't work for the terminal owner or the company; we work for ourselves. If the product can't surpass competitors, it won't attract consumers' attention. Routine tasks don't generate sales.

Another example: I often see salespeople who, when the company requires at least five posters, only put up five. That's just routine, not for creating sales, material coverage, or advertising atmosphere. Some salespeople prefer visiting terminals where the owner is easygoing, but those don't generate sales. When they face rejection at high-potential terminals, they stop going.

5. Why does your sales volume keep shrinking? Why does your market get smaller?

If you just sell every day, why do you lose one terminal after another? Because the product moves slowly. If a product doesn't sell in three months, the terminal loses confidence and stops ordering. You keep developing new stores, using policies or even sacrificing commissions to stimulate orders, until there are no new stores left. Then you go back to the owner, hoping for another order, but he is furious—the product doesn't sell, and you're increasing the policy, worsening the relationship. Salespeople change companies, but the same problem persists.

It's not about having many stores or regions; sustained sales are key. Based on the terminal situation—actual sales, influence, product fit, competition—you should tackle them one by one, with targeted activities to make the market more dynamic. Only then can you avoid the dilemma of products becoming harder to sell and markets shrinking.

6. Why does the market not improve even after doing everything?

Doing everything means doing nothing. Resources are too scattered to create impact or influence. Excluding small areas, in large regions, doing everything is equivalent to doing nothing. This brings up the concept of focus. Only by concentrating forces can you create distinctiveness and momentum. Focus, excellence, and single-point breakthroughs create highlights. In the marketing 4Ps (price, product, promotion, place), it's a cone formed by 1P+3P; true market explosion comes from focused effort, not simultaneous action. Unless resources are extremely strong, the market won't achieve much.

Here are seven areas of focus:

  1. Product focus: Create a super single product, using the leading product as a breakthrough to make a deep impression.
  2. Regional focus: Choose one region to explode and then replicate.
  3. Promotion focus: Core store atmosphere, consumer tasting experiences, and pull activities.
  4. Channel focus: Based on product positioning and market differences, choose the main channel and do it to the extreme—deep, thorough, and explosive.
  5. Resource focus: Concentrate on limited regions and core outlets.
  6. Personnel focus: Assign top talent to core outlets, focusing on a small area to achieve rapid sell-through.
  7. Consumer focus: Select and target opinion leader groups with specific actions.

So to quickly improve your market, it's not about doing everything, but doing things selectively and purposefully. Focus on leading regions for models, leading channels for breakthroughs, leading terminals for leadership, leading consumer groups for marketing, a single promotion method for momentum, and leading salespeople as examples.

Long-press the QR code and reply "朱志明" to join the group.

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