In recent years, it is an indisputable fact that many major brands in the food and beverage industry have encountered bottlenecks in their development. Many distributors feel that "business is not easy lately." Looking beyond the surface, it is not difficult to see that behind these phenomena lies the downturn in the economic situation of the food industry. So, how should distributors respond to the sluggish market environment? This article will base its discussion on changes in the market landscape, focus on efficient management strategies for distributors, and explore effective countermeasures in the downturn.

Standardized Market Management

It is understood that almost all companies now channel down to the county-level market, so distributors should treat the county market as the basic sales unit. A standard county should have a population of 400,000 to 500,000 and 15 townships. In China, roughly every 400 to 500 people require one outlet. A simple calculation shows that a county-level market has approximately 1,000 outlets, which is also the actual situation in most counties. Thus, the county-level market has vast development space. How to reasonably and efficiently manage these 1,000 outlets is particularly important for the development of distributors.

Clear Objective Management

Objective management means that distributors must learn to effectively break down sales tasks and reasonably allocate the secondary objectives derived from them. Wahaha is one of the best companies in China at planning objectives. How does it achieve an annual sales growth of 30%? The answer is that Wahaha completes its set goals every year. Similarly, learning effective objective management is crucial for the growth of distributors.

For example, if a company's sales target this year is an average sales increase of 200,000 yuan per distributor, if you only look at the 200,000 yuan increase, everyone would think that in the current sluggish market, not having negative growth is already good. But that is not the case.

Specifically, based on 1,000 stores in a county, each distributor's annual sales increase of 200,000 yuan is equivalent to each store selling an additional 17 yuan per month, which should be very simple for each distributor. Even according to the Pareto principle, concentrating the 200,000 yuan on 200 stores means each store's monthly sales increase by 83 yuan. At current product prices, that means each store sells 2 to 3 more cases. After reasonably breaking down the objectives, salespeople have clear sales targets and can communicate effectively with outlets, thereby completing this year's sales tasks.

Scientific Route Management

Route management requires distributors to effectively sort out customer visit routes and arrange reasonable visit cycles according to needs.

First, reasonably determine the visit cycle. According to market feedback, in the FMCG industry, especially for beverages, visiting once a week is the optimal frequency. If the visit interval exceeds one week, many outlets will experience stockouts. For example, most terminal stores in Fujian are reluctant to stock more goods. To ensure these stores do not run out of stock, a weekly visit is necessary.

Second, reasonably plan visit routes and vehicle arrangements. To ensure maximum vehicle utilization and optimal sales personnel allocation, distributors can plan corresponding route deployments based on the specific conditions of outlets, and arrange one vehicle to visit one route per day, visiting about 30 outlets per day. If the vehicle visits 6 days a week, one vehicle can visit 180 outlets per week, cycling once a week. If the county is divided into four routes for visits, distributors can cover about 80% of the county's outlets. If distributors can achieve scientific route planning and adhere to reasonable visit cycles, they will definitely achieve twice the results with half the effort.

Strategic Market Competition

Market competition is necessary for the growth and development of distributors, and effective methods are indispensable.

First, if the product has obvious peak and off-seasons, it is essential to use the off-season to make efforts to seize the market. In a certain industry or category, everyone thinks that the off-season is a time to catch one's breath, while in the peak season, one should compete for displays and promotions. However, if you want to distribute faster than others and have higher sales than competitors, you must learn to make efforts in the off-season, to work while others rest. Only then can you fight a beautiful battle in the peak season. The so-called "do market in off-season, do sales in peak season" is this principle.

Second, use competitors' mistakes to your advantage. In the milk industry, whenever there is a problematic product, new products emerge. In the bottled water industry, Evergrande Spring is recognized as the "tycoon" of the water industry. Some brands, when doing mobile marketing or WeChat marketing, mention Evergrande Spring to borrow its popularity and increase their own awareness. This is a successful micro-marketing strategy. "Hitching a ride on a big name" is actually a good marketing method.

Third, seize major opportunities. As I mentioned earlier, after major food safety incidents in history, large categories have emerged. At such times, everyone must seize the opportunity. When a network hot word has the highest attention, whether you can grasp that hot word also determines your sales to a certain extent.

Finally, directly cut into competitors' channels. Competitors' channels are relatively mature. If you can cut into their channels through efforts, it will have a multiplier effect on seizing the market.

Systematic Personnel Management

Personnel management includes mindset management, performance management, and strategic skills management. Effective personnel management is also related to the long-term development of the company. The most important is mindset management. Employees' mindset not only determines sales performance but also their stability. Salespeople often change jobs when sales performance is good, which is a common problem for many distributors. In this regard, distributors must not only manage the mindset of salespeople well but also adjust their own mindset.

Facing employee turnover, distributors should abandon the conservative idea of "only I am the boss," transform their business methods, and achieve management upgrades. Distributors can adopt a partnership system, taking out part of the shares as rewards to distribute to salespeople, or converting year-end bonuses into shares. Under the partnership system, everyone is their own boss, so they will not only do their own work better but also actively contribute ideas for the company's development. After implementing the partnership system, share distribution should be adjusted regularly based on specific sales conditions.

In addition, distributors must change their traditional thinking about wages. In fact, the higher the wages of salespeople, the greater the benefits they bring to the company. When wages are too low, some salespeople will choose to change jobs. The direct consequence of employee turnover is that they may take away certain terminal customers, which may be the biggest loss for distributors. Conversely, if wages are higher, excellent salespeople will be attracted, and sales efficiency will greatly improve, thereby cultivating a lean sales team. The benefits brought by increased efficiency will be many times the wages of salespeople.

Rational Promotion Methods

Every distributor should organize 3 to 4 "campaigns" within a year to seize the market and control the sales rhythm. In my sales experience, breaking sales into campaigns gives salespeople clear goals and accurate direction, leading to good sales performance. This can balance the peak and off-seasons relatively. In the promotion process, distributors should avoid channel gift promotions at terminals, because gift promotions at terminals are relatively troublesome and prices become chaotic. Instead, seasonal materials can be used to seize the sales rhythm.

If the product has obvious peak and off-seasons, the campaign method is very important. For example, before the Spring Festival, to seize the market, distributors usually carry out a lot of promotions. If sales are large, capital storage and flow are relatively high. When in the off-season, to attract capital, distributors can increase sales and attract capital by holding ordering meetings. If the campaign is fought well, distributors can finance through second-tier distributors and terminals and achieve good sales results. Conversely, they will be financed by terminal credit sales. Therefore, distributors must learn how to effectively play games with terminals and second-tier distributors, and learn to finance through channels.

Additionally, points management can be implemented. Points management is a membership-style management for customers, where they earn corresponding points based on sales volume. Customers can use these points to obtain corresponding benefits, such as overseas travel. As for the setting of benefits, customer opinions can be widely solicited to mobilize their participation enthusiasm. For customers with poor sales, a cumulative points system can be implemented to mobilize their enthusiasm in the long term. Points management is a bond. Through this bond, it will not only mobilize customers' sales enthusiasm but also effectively increase the number of distributors and cooperative terminals.

Imposing Terminal Management

There is a saying: "If you want to sell products well, you need to have good momentum!" This momentum should be reflected in terminal sales. When distributing new products, if you don't distribute, don't distribute at all; if you distribute, do it with momentum. For stores you want to cover, distribute 30 to 50 cases. After observation, you will find that during the sales process of new products, the ones with poor sales are mainly terminal stores that stock less. Because the quantity is small, terminal stores won't make an effort to promote. But when a store has 30 to 50 cases, the owner will work hard to sell. On the other hand, the momentum of the product will infect consumers, and the sell-through effect will be very good.

Conversely, if a store only stocks one or two cases, the sell-through effect will be very poor because consumers simply cannot see it. Consumers entering a store will not specifically look for a certain product, so new product distribution must emphasize momentum. I think it is enough for a county-level distributor to do 100 stores. First, build up the momentum of these 100 stores. When the product's momentum is established, other terminal stores will take the initiative to stock. We should manage through momentum.

In the future, successful distributors will definitely win with products and succeed with efficient management. Facing the sluggish market environment, as long as you carefully select products and manage with heart, I believe you will be the successful one in the future.

-END-

Content Selection

Click on the title below to read directly:

[Line Sales Representative Practical Operation Guide (with full PPT download attached)]