Mr. Zhao is a veteran distributor whose trading company has a certain influence locally, having operated in FMCG for over a decade. However, in the past two years, he has faced market shrinkage, frequent resignations of sales staff, and pressure from brand owners' sales targets. Deeply puzzled, he invited me to inspect his operations to find a way to turn things around.
Upon meeting Mr. Zhao, I asked him to fill out a simple form:
Once completed, the data spoke for itself: the increase in resignations indicated unstable outlet service and declining service quality; the decrease in cooperative outlets showed that basic sales and market fundamentals had slackened; the drop in water stack displays indicated abandonment of Nongfu's core competitiveness—'big stores with big water stacks, small stores with small water stacks'; and the loss of wholesale and fortress customers showed Mr. Zhao's own lack of attention.
Mr. Zhao is a forward-thinking boss, born in the 80s, with a business scale of 80 million yuan. In the past two years, to catch the trend, he has continuously invested in B2B, losing a considerable amount of money.
My advice was: There is no one-size-fits-all tactic in market operations; exploring new things should be done in moderation—follow but don't become obsessed. Focus on Nongfu Spring, pick up deep distribution again, and live in the present.
However, Mr. Zhao didn't see it that way. He wondered: Deep distribution first requires complete staffing and vehicle configuration, then regional outlet research, route planning, and business channel operation models. That was a decade ago. What era are we in now? Doing these clichéd things is too outdated.
So, we visited the market together, going from the city center to the suburbs, visiting a total of twenty stores.
The results were obvious: small stores were almost unserved, with no water stacks or consumer communication; display stores had non-standard water stacks and poor positioning; wholesale stores were well-stocked but lacked FIFO, and freezers were not prominent. Overall, the market atmosphere was worse than that of a local small beverage factory.
At this point, Mr. Zhao had concerns, but his instinct was: doing these things is time-consuming and labor-intensive. It's better to run a big online (mini-program) campaign to pull consumers back, or use the B2B platform combined with offline to launch a policy to suppress competitors.
I said: You've become obsessed with new market methods, putting the cart before the horse. Does Nongfu Spring's brand power really need you to do too many online consumer pull activities? You can't even do a small store well, and you talk about competing with rivals?
For you, the unique consumption scenarios of the products you operate are more suitable for offline distribution. For example, when a consumer drinks a beverage, their need is random—they might get thirsty at any time and buy one. It's unlikely they'd buy online for home delivery or carry it with them, nor would it be iced.
Technology is advancing, and deep distribution needs to be iterated. A decade ago, deep distribution mainly relied on manual data analysis with weak data capabilities. Today, deep distribution plus terminal mobile systems allows for in-depth market supervision, visualized business operations, and real-time monitoring of terminal conditions. So pick up terminal tools and redo deep distribution.
The specific planning steps for deep distribution are as follows:
Step 1: In-depth analysis to increase manufacturers' and distributors' confidence in deep distribution
1. Calculate the numbers based on the current actual situation.
Expenses: sales staff wages, market losses, logistics and warehousing costs allocated per person.
Income: Based on one salesperson serving 150 outlets, calculate total sales, total profit, and the profit increase after deep distribution optimization. If income exceeds expenses, implement unswervingly; if expenses exceed income, implement after refining all aspects.
2. Strengthen fundamentals, assess both increases and decreases.
Undoubtedly, deep distribution can strengthen basic sales and market work, leading to sales growth. Secondly, any brand owner has its own regulations for market expense support; non-compliance means no reimbursement. Deep distribution can greatly reduce such assessments from brand owners.
3. Effectively prevent cross-regional selling (parallel imports). When service is in place, customer relationships are in place, and cross-regional selling decreases.
4. Effectively increase sales of high-margin products, better adjusting the profit structure.
Step 2: Clarify the purpose of deep distribution
1. Use digital tools to sort out outlets: number of outlets, outlet sales levels, development of blank outlets, outlet quality, etc.
2. Route planning: maximize service coverage, make visits convenient and efficient.
3. Standardize personnel operations: create a successful terminal operation image, replicate it, form execution standards, and unify.
Step 3: Terminal outlet research
1. Estimate the number of outlets: For beverages, the number of outlets can be estimated as local population / 400.
2. Staffing: Estimate as estimated outlets / 150, with each person serving 150 outlets.
3. Outlet inventory: Set collection standards, channel standards, daily collection targets, and joint visit standards. The goal is a carpet-style collection, not missing a street or a store.
4. Brand owner assistance: Distributors can negotiate with local sales heads to organize centralized meetings, with manufacturer and distributor personnel providing 1-on-1 support and replication.
5. Time: Collection work lasts 6 days, with nightly collection summaries and area locking, while reinforcing the eight-step visit process and standardized operations.
Step 4: Analyze collected outlet data
Conduct multi-dimensional analysis by business, area, and outlet for traditional channel research results:
1. By business: visit frequency, operation time, travel time, in-store time for subordinate outlets.
2. By area: clarify responsible market boundaries, precise to street descriptions.
3. By outlet: outlet level, outlet channel type, whether cost investment is involved, etc.
Step 5: From points to lines, determine routes
Set visit order, plan routes reasonably.
While visiting, verify whether route planning is reasonable and whether fine-tuning is needed.
When setting routes, note that different types of outlets require different service policies, and mark them specially in the day's route.
Step 6: Implementation and quantified follow-up
Unswervingly follow routes, achieve high-quality visits and in-depth communication, increase customer relationships, and clarify visit frequency; key outlets can be visited once a day.
Standardize market operations, continuously train and correct, and cultivate good work habits among salespeople.
Develop blank target outlets, set development goals, from easy to difficult, and provide incentives.
Increase SKUs in cooperative outlets, set in-store SKU numbers for main and auxiliary products, and establish assessments.
Step 7: Data-driven follow-up, continuous improvement, ensure results
At this point, deep distribution is initially complete. What follows is a long-term battle. Use terminal data systems to standardize sales personnel's actions and strengthen process management of market operations to ensure set goals are achieved.
1. Continuous performance assessment: Data ensures the achievement of quantified indicators in Step 6. Untruthful incentives are more frightening than no incentives. All incentives must be conducted openly and transparently to ensure the implementation of deep distribution.
2. Continuous inspection mechanism: Execution is uninterrupted tracking and inspection. Office staff and supervisors cooperate; office clerks handle backend system checks, and upon finding anomalies, inform supervisors to verify on-site, forming a set of inspection and incentive standards.
3. Outlet monitoring mechanism: Through the terminal system, continuously monitor outlet display, inventory, product age, competitor performance, etc., to ensure the purpose of strengthening market operation standards and improving terminal service.
Result feedback: Mr. Zhao redid deep distribution in one week, adding more than 500 outlets, 20 new routes, and 3 new salespeople. Terminal execution gradually became standardized, and sales at points of sale steadily increased. More importantly, the market atmosphere and team morale improved significantly. I believe that in the near future, Mr. Zhao's business will return to its peak.
The purpose of writing this article is not to exclude new marketing models, but to tell manufacturers and distributors that given the current domestic market situation, no model can completely replace deep distribution. Manufacturers and distributors should embrace new things and live in the present.
For distributors operating first-line brands, products have strong brand power and sell-through. Do deep distribution well, and sales need not be worried about. For those operating non-first-line brands, do deep distribution well, extend to deep sell-through, and sales need not be worried about either (I will share the logic of deep sell-through in my next article).
Finally, if any distributor needs terminal mobile system support for frontline salespeople, you can add me as a friend, and I can help recommend one.