Introduction: Terminals are the end where products form sales, the port where products reach consumers, and where various brand products engage in close combat. A market's healthy growth depends not only on team building and network channel development but also on terminal development and management. The 12-character mantra of Chinese-style terminal sales management—"vertical penetration, intensive cultivation, decisive terminal"—still echoes in our minds. Especially in recent years of oversupply, ever-changing sales terminals have become a battleground for enterprises, with various promotional activities flooding the market. This "last meter" battlefield is exceptionally lively, even with flashing blades and clashing spears. Terminal development and construction are crucial; they are the end where products form sales and the port where products reach consumers, such as supermarkets, convenience stores, internet cafes, restaurants, liquor stores, and JD.com. Consumers buy their beloved products through this port. Terminals are highly competitive and decisive; various brand products engage in close combat here. How to grasp the terminal rhythm, attract consumers' attention, and influence their purchasing psychology is key to terminal work, just like a tree—only with developed roots can it flourish. To be honest, Wahaha's practices in this area were not very good before, but after multiple explorations following market changes, Wahaha formed its own unique management methods, quite different from other manufacturers, yet very effective. Terminal Price Difference Management Wahaha's management of terminal price differences is based on mutual benefit, trust, and win-win, implementing guiding prices. To ensure price system stability, Wahaha implements a hierarchical price difference management system, clearly defining the ex-factory price and retail price for each product at first-level wholesalers, special second-level wholesalers, second-level wholesalers, third-level wholesalers, and supermarkets. All levels must strictly implement price markups: the per-unit profit of first-level wholesalers should be less than that of second-level wholesalers, and second-level wholesalers' per-unit profit should be less than that of third-level wholesalers. For example, in 2009, when Luoyang innovatively developed a second network, for wholesalers who could order full truckloads, Wahaha stipulated that first-level wholesalers add 0.5 yuan per piece and deliver directly to wholesalers' warehouses; wholesalers then add 2 yuan per piece and deliver to terminal retail stores; retail stores uniformly sell to consumers at the retail guide price of 2.5 yuan per bottle. That is, first-level wholesalers profit from volume and sales rewards given by the company, while wholesalers closest to the end are key to terminal management but have smaller volumes, so their price differences are relatively higher. Thus, those with large volumes increase profits through volume, while those with small volumes rely on slightly higher price differences. At the same time, retail prices at various outlets must be unified, ensuring the enthusiasm of terminal retail stores and the stability of terminal sales prices. How to Suppress Cross-Regional Sales (Diversion) To protect dealers' interests and maintain regional price system stability, Wahaha requires all links to strictly implement company regulations. The most effective method is to crack down on cross-regional sales. To quickly investigate and handle diversion, Wahaha has done the following meticulous work:

  1. Set up an Anti-Diversion Supervision Department. The group company has a supervision department dedicated to investigating diversion and other behaviors detrimental to market sales; each province also has internal supervisors who can quickly verify and handle cross-regional sales. For example, the Yubei Market Supervision Group was established early and once became a model for Wahaha.
  2. Product Identity Information Management. Every product produced by Wahaha is marked with production date, time period, shift, and serial number at the time of production. According to planned orders, when shipping to various regions and customers, each product's packaging is marked with the corresponding customer's code. At the factory, staff enter product identity information into the Wahaha sales management system, just like each person's ID card—input the system and you know who it is. Additionally, when first-level wholesalers deliver to second-level wholesalers or wholesalers in their area, they must also print hidden codes and marks on relevant product positions as required by the company, both to protect themselves and to prevent second-level wholesalers from cross-regional sales.
  3. Accepting Reports and Quick Verification. Whether business personnel, first-level wholesalers, or second-level wholesalers, if they find suspicious goods in their area, they only need to fill out a report form with the product packaging code or production date and promptly report to the head office supervisor or provincial supervisor. Supervisors will lock onto the source based on product system information and quickly go to the suspected source to collect evidence and verify, while notifying the relevant business supervisor to confirm. The basic process is: discovery → report → verification and reporting → handling. Display Management Techniques The battle for terminals is the inevitable gateway for products to reach consumers, and display activity management is a must-use secret for all. However, terminal vivid display management is not just for looks, nor just for selling goods, nor for display's sake. There's a saying: "80% of advertising costs are wasted, but you don't know where." All merchants believe "terminal momentum comes from effective attraction or interception of customer flow," so many conventional practices—such as displays, stack displays, special prices, buy-one-get-one, lotteries, points, free tasting, sample distribution, bundle sales, POP ads, DM ads, stack canopies, product manuals, salesperson recommendations, limited-time flash sales, clown performances, joint promotions—have reached the point of exhaustion. The problem of "terminal promotions being hard to promote" is increasingly prominent. Behind the bustle and busyness, there is always suspicion of "excess" and "waste." Many promotional scenes are lively, but actual results are often not optimistic; often more is invested, less is produced, or even only input with no output. So, how can terminal promotions still be done? How to break out of the terminal trap?
  4. Time Effect Innovation Since 2005, Wahaha's Yubei market has been specifically researching terminal display activities through applied trial-and-error methods. First, displays must be standardized, with before-and-after comparisons each time. Second, focus on input-output ratio, such as spending the same amount of money with different implementation methods, then comparing data changes to maximize input-output benefits. Take the use of display duration as an example: the Yubei market studied it as the "staggered time effect." Maybe you've never heard of it; see how it differs from your approach and how much benefit Wahaha gains. Look at the following example: Whose plan would you choose? The best plan is Xiao Wang's. He grasped several key points of display activity duration: 1. Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day. 2. Maintain a minimum of 30 boxes daily; if insufficient, immediately replenish, because the activity requires 50 boxes for centralized display. 3. The start and end times include National Day, and the final check time is 2 days before the end. If 30 boxes can still be displayed prominently 2 days before the activity ends, what does that mean? 4. He captured the psychology of businesspeople. Which businessperson wouldn't want to sell more and earn more during holidays? Even without display fees, store owners would put goods on the street; at least 10 to 15 days, the owner is displaying for Xiao Wang for free. Xiao Zhang's plan didn't utilize businesspeople's holiday habits. During festivals, even without display fees, terminal owners will proactively display goods. Also, Xiao Zhang's supervision of effects, especially the final check, was half a month later—too long an interval. Xiao Ma's plan had a slightly early start, but the main issue was that the supervision and follow-up intervals were too long at the beginning, and the final follow-up ended too early. Unreasonable time application in display activities causes sales losses and resource waste. After data comparison, the research group found that Xiao Wang's plan could increase Wahaha's benefits by 16%. After 5 years of data tracking by the Yubei Supervision and Training Groups, it was found that a non-standard display activity with unreasonable time periods causes huge losses. When formulating display activity policies, you must consider terminal store sales profitability and competitor activity policies; otherwise, your activity is a waste of resources. For example, as shown in the right figure, if you don't consider competitors' sales and profits in stores when formulating display policies, and blindly make policies behind closed doors, you lose at least 50% to competitors before the activity even starts. According to our statistics, due to non-standard displays, each activity loses 15.58% of sales opportunities, and resource waste reaches 11.84%. If your company invests 10 million yuan annually in product display activities, ignoring other factors, and based on research results, discounting your company's sales loss by half, it's equivalent to losing a county with an annual task of 7 million yuan.
  5. Innovating Display Traditions Why don't consumers act? The answer is product homogeneity. Why don't display activities yield benefits? The answer is exhaustion and rigid models. To break out of tradition, you must pay the price, continuously innovate, trial and error, revolutionize traditional methods, and find a method that maximizes benefits. After years of research, the Yubei Market Training Group summarized a set of display methods that maximize benefits. Due to the diversity and complexity of terminal structures, any terminal management activity must first conduct market research and current situation analysis, then make corresponding adjustments based on actual structures, and implement flexibly, not one-size-fits-all. For example, for beverage display types, conventional choices include loose bottles, end caps, shelves, stack boxes, stack boxes plus loose bottles, and buyouts. So which terminals are suitable for loose bottle displays, which for end cap displays, which for stack box displays, and which for buyout displays? How to display to maximize input-output benefits? Yubei chooses as follows: if terminal points are concentrated in kiosks, ice cream stalls, etc., loose bottle displays are best; if concentrated in small supermarkets, community convenience stores, etc., end cap displays are suitable; if concentrated in wholesale stores, grocery wholesale-retail stores, etc., stack box displays are suitable; for stores with particularly high traffic like bus station entrances, park entrances, loose bottle and end cap displays are suitable; for special channels like cinemas, KTVs, internet cafes, high-end business leisure clubs, gyms, buyout displays are suitable. Once, the Wahaha Yubei Training Group was training grassroots salespeople in Jiaozuo market. When the teacher mentioned that end cap display activities in a certain area were effective, a salesperson stood up and said he had done end cap displays last month but with poor results. When the teacher mentioned that sales work must follow company regulations, another salesperson stood up and said his supervisor said loose bottle displays in a certain area were effective and arranged for them to do loose bottle displays last month; he followed the requirements but results were poor, and the supervisor scolded him. He looked wronged. After the training, we decided to visit the market to see what was going on. After visiting the two areas, we found that the first salesperson's problem was that his area's terminal structure was mostly wholesale departments, which were not suitable for end cap displays. The second salesperson also had terminal structure issues in his area. Additionally, we found that this salesperson strictly followed the company's requirements for loose bottle displays (Wahaha's activity product loose bottle display specification is 8 facings), while competitors' loose bottle displays had 10 facings, so they lost to competitors in momentum. Through these two real cases, on one hand, it reflects that salespeople did not analyze their terminal structure when conducting activities, nor did they consider whether the policy was suitable. On the other hand, salespeople lacked flexibility. For example, our loose bottle display regulation is 8 facings, but when competitors reach 10 facings, shouldn't we analyze the specific situation?
  6. Mobile Ice Stall Management Every summer, a large number of mobile ice stalls operate—some in parks, some in squares, some on streets, some near stations; some don't come out in the morning but at night. They are highly mobile, making display management difficult. For such special terminals, what would you do? Wahaha adopts a surprise visit policy, which we call "pie in the sky." Take Wahaha black tea's reward display as an example: execution time is 1 day, random visits with on-the-spot rewards. For every bottle of Wahaha black tea frozen in the freezer, an equal number of green tea bottles are rewarded. After preparations, Wahaha sends salespeople in several groups following customer vehicles, pulling green tea to visit mobile ice stalls that day. As soon as they open the freezer and see how many bottles of frozen Wahaha black tea are inside, salespeople immediately reward the same number of Wahaha green tea bottles. Many mobile ice stall owners suddenly receive such free gifts from Wahaha, feeling like pie falling from the sky, grinning from ear to ear. Owners with fewer bottles or those who didn't receive gifts, upon hearing about Wahaha's activity, will proactively stuff Wahaha products into their freezers because they don't know what Wahaha's next policy will be or when they might visit suddenly. But Wahaha people know exactly what they are doing. Based on competitive atmosphere and market needs, activity policies won't be stingy; they might last 3-5 days or 7-8 days, usually with 2-3 consecutive surprise visits covering the entire summer season when ice stalls appear. Facing the complex problem of terminal homogeneity, as long as enterprises refer to cases, draw inferences, combine with their own actual situation, adapt management innovation to local conditions, and eliminate old thinking, they can successfully break out of terminal blind spots! Excellent Product Recommendation Reasons:
  7. Category innovation: The first DHA brain gold beverage in China, beneficial for adolescent brain development, opening a new blue ocean in the beverage market.
  8. Unique and eye-catching packaging: Patented dragon claw bottle design, the first sci-fi fashionable beverage bottle internationally, extremely outstanding in terminal displays. Advanced imported sports cap, first introduced domestically, fashionable and cool, with high technical barriers.
  9. Distinct selling points: China's first brain gold beverage, brain-health drink, with fun and fashionable bottle design, ensuring product popularity.
  10. Weak competition: Shanlong is a completely original category and appearance, with few competitors.
  11. Huge consumer group: Targeting students and adolescents, channels with concentrated young groups like schools and internet cafes can explode in sales quickly.
  12. Small investment, big profits. Can trial sell in small quantities; terminal retail price 5 yuan, with huge profits. (Please don't contact if you're an advertiser or without experience/channels) National blank market hot recruitment, no more after this opportunity. Long press the QR code below to directly add Manager Lin's WeChat: Guangdong Heyuan Fengsheng Food & Beverage Co., Ltd. Website: WWW.FOODSUN.CN -END- The best learning platform for FMCG distributors in China Focusing on providing professional, practical, and useful tutorials for enterprises and distributors Committed to helping Chinese FMCG distributors grow rapidly The most professional and practical knowledge base in the FMCG industry Reply with the red number below to get corresponding content Reply with number 1 to view the complete knowledge base | 001 Excellent article selection | 002 Distributor market operations | 003 Terminal visit management | 004 Sales supervisor skills | 005 Sales improvement techniques | 006 Channel expansion | 007 Managing distributors | 008 Distributor development | 009 Distributor internal operations management | 010 Team management | 011 Efficient distribution techniques | 012 Sales manager's eighteen skills | 013 KA operation methods and strategies | 014 First lesson for new salespeople | 015 Internet, brands | [Long press QR code to follow] To join QQ/WeChat groups, please click: Read original text