--- title: "Not That I'm Teaching You to Be Bad – Alternative Principles for Sales Managers" description: "Sales managers should follow seven unconventional principles: choose the right company, choose the right boss, squeeze every last resource from the boss, manage your boss more than your subordinates, treat every department head as important, be skeptical of dealer claims, and be ruthless in achieving targets." author: "俞雷" publisher: "New Distribution" email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com" telephone: "+8615854817671" published: "2016-05-07" language: "en" canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/not-that-i-m-teaching-you-to-be-bad-alternative-principles-for-sales-man-74ccd89c/" markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/not-that-i-m-teaching-you-to-be-bad-alternative-principles-for-sales-man-74ccd89c.md" original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/KLKHWbthI_DsDWgMmvhznA" translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E4%B8%8D%E6%98%AF%E6%88%91%E6%95%99%E4%BD%A0%E5%9D%8F-%E9%94%80%E5%94%AE%E7%BB%8F%E7%90%86%E7%9A%84%E5%8F%A6%E7%B1%BB%E5%8E%9F%E5%88%99-74ccd89c.md" attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/not-that-i-m-teaching-you-to-be-bad-alternative-principles-for-sales-man-74ccd89c/" usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt" --- # Not That I'm Teaching You to Be Bad – Alternative Principles for Sales Managers > Sales managers should follow seven unconventional principles: choose the right company, choose the right boss, squeeze every last resource from the boss, manage your boss more than your subordinates, treat every department head as important, be skeptical of dealer claims, and be ruthless in achieving targets. 1. The first principle for a sales manager: choose the right company Everyone knows the benefits of graduating from a prestigious school, but few realize that working for a prestigious company is even more important than a prestigious school. Looking at the resumes of successful sales managers, almost all of them have experience working for outstanding companies. What can an outstanding company give you? First, confidence. Outstanding companies select the most outstanding talent, and being able to enter such a company already proves your excellence. Confidence is not entirely innate; it is built up through such experiences. Mars' tough, even arrogant style is also related to their claim of having the strictest interview process in the FMCG industry. After rounds of eliminating competitors—even face-to-face eliminations—a sense of pride and arrogance naturally arises. Only in an outstanding company can you quickly learn the best and most successful sales techniques. Only at Coca-Cola can you deeply understand what impactful merchandising is; only at Procter & Gamble can you deeply understand what rigorous logical thinking is; only at L'Oréal can you deeply understand what truly building a brand means. With the same effort and time, at Master Kong you merely change your language habits, calling Chinese channels "tonglu" and marketing planning "qihua." Outstanding companies may not offer the highest salaries, but this experience will deeply influence you, change your thinking patterns, and leave a profound mark on your career path. 2. The second principle for a sales manager: choose the right boss Just like choosing the right company, choosing the right boss is also important. A good boss not only provides guidance and encouragement within the company but also, as your boss gets promoted, you get more promotion opportunities. When Yan Aijie switched to Langjiu, many who followed him were his former subordinates from Mars North. Now he is the "number one in baijiu terminal sales," and many of his former subordinates have gained more opportunities; some regional managers' salaries are astronomical in the FMCG industry. However, a bad boss is like a roadblock: when performance is good, he takes all the credit; when performance is bad, he shifts all the blame to his subordinates. He can't teach you anything, he doesn't get promoted, and his lack of promotion means your future is bleak, at least within that company. 3. The third principle for a sales manager: squeeze every last penny from the boss's pocket We often discuss a very practical question: what is the biggest factor affecting performance? Many excellent sales managers unanimously say two words: resources. Whose pocket are the resources in? The boss's pocket! What to do? Squeeze every last penny out of it! Most companies are not profit-center based; they mostly use a quota system. In a quota system, all your resources—personnel, promotions, expenses, etc.—are allocated by the boss. But is the boss always fair when allocating resources? Obviously not. So what to do? Shout! When calculating performance, no one will ever ask about your resource allocation. If you fail to meet targets and blame insufficient resources, people often see it as making excuses. But think deeper: if you knew from the start that resources were insufficient, why didn't you fight for them from the boss? If you can't convince the boss, isn't that your own problem? Knowing how to fight for resources is definitely not a sign of poor ability; on the contrary, those who know how to fight are often capable people. No matter how capable a sales manager is, you can't make bricks without straw. Resources are not everything, but without resources, you can't do anything. The Chinese saying is always right: the squeaky wheel gets the grease. 4. The fourth principle for a sales manager: managing your boss is more important than managing your subordinates But how do we convince our boss to willingly hand over the last penny from his pocket? Generally, you are not the boss's only subordinate, and asking for resources requires skill. We all know the importance of managing subordinates, but few mention the importance of managing the boss. The boss also needs management. If he gets information about you mostly not from you directly but from your colleagues or subordinates, your situation won't be good. The boss's time is precious, so when communicating with him, don't be long-winded. Use concise language to state your views, but also have solid reasons—without them, you're just asking to be scolded. Most importantly, be very confident. If you lack confidence, your boss will lack confidence in you, and lacking confidence in you means lacking confidence in your plan (which is to get resources to achieve your sales targets). A friend once asked me this question: at a sales meeting, his boss proposed a sales plan and set targets. When it was time for everyone to "show determination," his boss asked him, "Do you have confidence?" But my friend felt the boss's plan had some flaws, so he replied, "Um... ah..." As a result, the meeting atmosphere was quite tense. His question was: how should you handle the boss in such a situation? In reality, at such a "united and victorious" meeting, the boss mainly wants a good atmosphere. He is smarter than you and knows that plans can't keep up with changes. Plans can be revised, but if you ruin the meeting atmosphere, your credibility with the boss will suffer greatly. You need to help the boss create the atmosphere, and you can raise issues privately afterward. First, gather enough information, propose complete solutions, and provide at least two options with your personal preference. Remember, never give the boss a question without an answer. The boss only does multiple-choice questions, not open-ended ones. If you need the boss to solve everything and have no opinions of your own, why are you being paid? 5. The fifth principle for a sales manager: don't treat the village head as not an official In any company—big or small—sales is always just one department, now and in the future. Sales managers cannot achieve sales targets without the cooperation of other departments. No matter how skilled you are, without the cooperation of finance, operations, transportation, and production, you can't do anything. Where there are people, there is "class struggle." Sales managers must face this fact and navigate complex interpersonal relationships with ease. Salespeople like to think they are the most important department, but that's not true. The bigger the company, the more bureaucratic, and the more restrictions sales faces. The order-processing department knows orders guarantee their salaries, but they often prefer fewer orders so they can work less. Building interpersonal relationships within the organization is crucial. Treat these "village heads" like your customers. Learn to say "thank you"—even if it's their job—and learn to say "my plan is..."—even if it's supposed to be their plan. These "village heads" can help you a lot. In a bureaucratic system, we must learn to find loopholes to counteract the negative effects of bureaucracy on sales. Otherwise, these village heads will say things like: "Well, according to procedure, it's like this..." "Well, this isn't our department's business..." 6. The sixth principle for a sales manager: dealers speak nonsense Is the customer God? Oh? In the dealer sales field, unlike direct sales where you only sell products, through the dealer channel you sell not only products but also benefits. China's dealers are still in a transitional stage, with poor credit and a tendency to "stir the paste" (be evasive or dishonest). If you treat them all as gods without distinction, you'll be carved up like fat meat. What do dealers like to do? They like to repeatedly apply for entry fees from your company, getting approval from one and then another; they like to attribute all personnel costs to you and then get expenses from other companies; they like to inflate inventory price-difference claims, saying one is two and two is four, to get more compensation from your company. Are they still gods then? Sales managers walk a tightrope, balancing company interests on one side and dealers' "paste-stirring" on the other. If you are completely rigid and don't adapt, that's also wrong. Company policies are often products of bureaucracy and may not fit reality, but you can't use that to justify dealers' "paste-stirring" or believe their nonsense. Distinguishing between human words and nonsense requires accumulated experience. But you should assume everything they say is nonsense, then use that as a basis to see which parts have a hint of human words, and those with a hint can be considered further... 7. The seventh principle for a sales manager: ruthless! ruthless! ruthless! Sales targets are a gun. Would you rather have your boss point the gun at you, or you point the gun at your team and your dealers? No one wants a gun pointed at them, right? Don't give your sales team or your dealers any excuse for not meeting targets. "Successful people find methods, failures find excuses." What you need to do is ruthlessly dissect their excuses. The word "serious" is key. If they stubbornly make excuses, you stubbornly get to the bottom of it, to see if there's a real problem or if it's your sales team or dealers that have the problem. Sales managers need good professional instincts to spot the essence of sales performance problems at a glance. If heads need to roll, roll them; if issues need handling, handle them. If you hesitate, the market will kick you out. All these principles shape the personality of an excellent sales manager: decisive, sharp, knowing how to persuade the boss, how to handle interpersonal relationships, manage colleagues, and fight for resources. Knowing how to analyze the essence of problems. Most importantly, knowing how to achieve 100% of your targets. I wish you success too! You can definitely do it! This platform will soon organize several experience-sharing salons titled "How Dealers Should Operate B2B." We will invite some domestic dealers who have already been operating for a while to share their experiences and how they operate in their local markets. 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