---
title: "Nine Things Salespeople Must Understand Before Going Out"
description: "Many salespeople use the phrase 'success depends on heaven' to express their attitude towards market development, but they overlook the next line: 'planning depends on people.' This article outlines nine key considerations for salespeople to improve their effectiveness in developing new markets and recruiting distributors."
author: "New Distribution"
publisher: "New Distribution"
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published: "2014-06-09"
language: "en"
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# Nine Things Salespeople Must Understand Before Going Out

> Many salespeople use the phrase 'success depends on heaven' to express their attitude towards market development, but they overlook the next line: 'planning depends on people.' This article outlines nine key considerations for salespeople to improve their effectiveness in developing new markets and recruiting distributors.

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Many salespeople like to use the phrase "success depends on heaven" to express their attitude towards market development. They think they have covered the entire market, but no customer wants to add brand operations, leaving them frustrated and helpless. Faced with the company's monthly hard targets for new customers, they have been fined so much that they have lost their temper. In fact, we all overlook the next line of "success depends on heaven"—"planning depends on people." "Forewarned is forearmed; without preparation, you will fail." "Plan before acting," and you will achieve twice the result with half the effort. Let me take some time to summarize some fragmented thoughts on market development for discussion.

1. **What is the brand positioning of your brand?**
Why is it important to understand your brand's positioning? Because it not only saves you time in market development but also helps you find the right distributor who can achieve a virtuous cycle of sales most quickly. If your brand is positioned for mid-to-high-end consumers, then you should visit distributors in the local mid-to-high-end market. Few people in the low-end market dare to operate a mid-to-high-end positioned brand. If your brand is mixed in the low-end market, it is difficult to achieve significant growth. When you want to switch to a better distributor, the low-end market distributor's low price operations will make it difficult for mid-to-high-end distributors to take over. This is why we see some brands that perform well in other regions but no one dares to represent them in a particular place. When you find a distributor whose resources (such as store location, personnel structure, channel advantages) do not match your brand positioning, you will not generate effective performance, ultimately affecting your overall sales performance in the company and harming yourself.

2. **Product knowledge: What are the advantages and disadvantages of the product?**
Product knowledge is certainly important for salespeople. When facing potential distributors, you need strong analytical skills to articulate your product's advantages clearly, highlighting strengths and hiding weaknesses—this is the shrewdness of an excellent salesperson. Similarly, understanding your product's strengths and weaknesses helps in selecting the right distributor. When your product's advantages are best suited for home improvement and retail channels, you should look for distributors who excel in or are actively working on these channels. When your product's advantages are best for engineering and wholesale, you should target distributors who are strong in or striving for these channels. Only then can you maximize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. Approaching a wholesale distributor with a product suited for home improvement is like putting a square peg in a round hole—a waste of effort.

3. **What are the advantages and disadvantages of competitors?**
Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated. The question is: when you are looking for distributors, have you identified who your competitors are? I believe there are two types. First, brands with the same positioning as yours that are also seeking distributors—like bidding, you face an open interview in front of potential distributors. Second, brands with the same positioning that already have distributors. This requires you to think one step ahead for the potential distributor. You need to convince them that after representing your brand, they will have a competitive advantage over other similar-positioned brands in various channels. For example, in the home improvement channel, is your brand more diverse in patterns or more flexible in matching? Therefore, to win this battle, you must understand the strengths and weaknesses of these competitors, find their firepower points, and then devise ways to suppress them.

4. **What are the deficiencies of the target distributor?**
Some distributors do well in retail but poorly in the home improvement channel. Why? Because the brands they represent lack characteristics like "trendy," "leading," and "individualistic." Designers are a group with personality; when your product cannot express their design individuality, they will disdain it. Moreover, without these characteristics, how can designers convince their wealthy villa-owning clients to accept your product?

Some distributors do well in the home improvement channel but poorly in retail. Why? Because their product line and price chain are not attractive to retail customers. When competitors have more than twenty series, the brand they represent has only ten very "trendy," "leading," and "individualistic" series to cater to the home improvement channel. When competitors' price chains cover from mass consumption to villa consumption, their price chain only stays at the villa consumption level. A distributor cannot just rely on their own advantageous channel while allowing other distributors to gradually erode their share in other channels. Therefore, using your brand and product advantages to complement the target distributor's channel competitive disadvantages is a win-win outcome.

5. **Can you bring confidence to the distributor?**
The center of this rule is "you." Do you fully understand the company's brand positioning? Do you truly understand the company's product advantages? Can you amplify your brand's strengths and hide its weaknesses? Do you have enough arguments to convince the distributor that your brand's advantages can translate into their competitive edge in the market? Are you sure your language is firm enough? Are you sure your expression is calm enough? Are you sure your body language is appropriate? ......

6. **"Diligence"**
Why put "diligence" here? I believe that before clarifying the above questions, blind diligence is counterproductive and may even cause you to lose confidence gradually. After negotiating with several distributors and finding none interested in your brand, you may start doubting your brand and even your abilities, which can be fatal at this stage of market development. After clarifying the above questions, you should start visiting target distributors tirelessly, braving the scorching sun or storms, continuously analyzing problems, expressing advantages, and presenting the future, making distributors rethink and re-evaluate their local market situation, thereby finding a breakthrough.

7. **How is your responsible area divided?**
I remember when I was young taking exams, teachers or parents would always tell us to do the easy questions first, skip the difficult ones, and then return to them after finishing the easy ones. Market development is the same: develop the easy areas first, leave the "stubborn" markets aside. Once cities around the "stubborn" market have established specialty stores, sales develop healthily, and the brand gains some influence, you will find that your brand is increasingly known and discussed in the "stubborn" market. Then, when you return to negotiate with the target distributor, they will have a more concrete and three-dimensional understanding of your brand. They will open the door a crack, making it easier for you to enter.

8. **When should you cut through the Gordian knot and make the final push?**
When the customer shows strong interest and after a period of contact and mutual understanding, the distributor fully agrees with the company's brand positioning, product mix, product pricing, product advantages, and innovation direction, and they are constantly asking about and testing the details and bottom lines of cooperation—such as whether the specialty store support policy can be more favorable, whether the first shipment can have a larger rebate, whether advertising support can be increased, etc.—then you can basically confirm that the distributor has an initial intention to operate your brand. At this point, you should throw out some "final push" questions to the distributor, such as: "Can you confirm the final decoration area of the specialty store? That way I can apply for the policy." "Can you increase the first shipment by 300,000? If so, I will apply for a better rebate with the company." "How many bus ads or outdoor lightbox ads do you plan to invest in? That will help me convince the company." After receiving affirmative answers, call your leader in the evening to request maximum support within company policy, and the next day bring the contract to the distributor's place for final negotiation.

9. **Can your leader help you?**
Who are the most capable salespeople in China? When you watch the news, every time the President or Premier visits abroad, they bring many entrepreneurs, and you know the answer. Each visit can sign project contracts worth billions or even hundreds of billions of dollars. Which entrepreneur can achieve such results in negotiations with foreign countries? So, when you invite a distributor who is truly influential in the local market to visit the company, you should also invite them to your boss's or owner's office for tea. Perhaps you think it is a hard nut to crack, but your leader might loosen the policy slightly, or the leader might talk eloquently about the company's development direction, and you might easily crack the nut. Of course, before bringing the target distributor to the boss's office, you should first communicate with your leader, such as the distributor's strength, their specific thoughts, and why the deal hasn't been closed yet, so the leader has a clear picture before the meeting. Otherwise, the leader might be confused and unable to make a decision, and there might be a misunderstanding between you and the leader on policy. For example, if you promised the distributor a 5% rebate on the first shipment, but the leader says the maximum is 3%, wouldn't that be counterproductive?

There is no magic formula in the world; the best magic is to accumulate experience, learn from others' successful experiences, overcome yourself, and develop your greatest potential.

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