-01- How should FMCG manufacturers and distributors respond to changes in channel structure during the pandemic? Dong Yang: Everyone has felt the sudden failure of offline face-to-face connections, so they are turning to online connections, such as community group buying, social communities, and home delivery platforms, as well as food delivery platforms. These are actually new forms of channels. In such special circumstances, everyone needs to think of various ways to sell goods. I believe that after this period passes, people will still pay more attention to various online channels. For wholesalers, the core is to find out who the owners of these channels are. For example, previously it was offline stores; you found where the stores were and who the store owners were. For online channels, you need to find community group leaders, social group admins, home delivery platforms, and food delivery platforms. You need to find them, develop them into your customers, and operate them well.

-02- How can consumer goods companies achieve online and offline integration? Dong Yang: For consumer goods companies, online and offline are not separate; they will gradually integrate. Therefore, an online ordering platform is not just for ordering; it also connects to our entire business support CRM platform. As a professional CRM software provider, Waiqin 365 must help customers solve the problem of online and offline integration, so we launched the Ordering 365 platform. In cooperation with major clients, we have made many innovations. First, the ordering end should be a very diverse, multi-terminal scenario. Store owners, group leaders, or admins can use apps, mini-programs, or service accounts to support multiple terminals. Second, it must be closely connected to the backend CRM management software. When a store places an order, the salesperson must immediately receive a message. The salesperson is the store's account manager, so they need to communicate well with the store, and the internal order process should also be well coordinated, including logistics and delivery. Third, we can return store display fees to the ordering end in the form of vouchers, which stores can immediately use for ordering, thus forming a closed loop. This allows company expenses to reach the terminal directly, and the terminal can use them to complete orders. We have also introduced new interactive features, such as receiving red packets for placing orders and rewards for taking display photos, to engage stores more deeply. Additionally, we have a rating mechanism. For companies, we can evaluate whether our account managers serve customers well and whether our logistics delivery is timely. Customers can rate the various services we provide, and these ratings can be used to assess salespeople. Previously, there was no quantitative data to collect, but now we can collect it through this platform. We can also establish a complaint and feedback mechanism that bypasses salespeople, allowing customers to directly provide feedback to the company, thus truly connecting. Of course, this is not to punish salespeople; our goal is to serve customers well and let the company understand customer thoughts, so we can better serve them!

-03- How can companies use software to improve the efficiency of their entire operating system? Dong Yang: Previously, people thought they were buying a tool software, and even without using such management tools, they could achieve the same effect through offline communication and management systems at various levels. In reality, software is no longer just a management tool. Companies are now thinking about digitalization, and this process is not just about moving offline information online. It requires collecting various data from the entire business process to provide data for senior managers to make decisions, data for middle managers to assess performance, and real-time data for grassroots managers to guide work. These data truly help business operations. Let me give a few examples. Many distributor friends think they have a large number of customers. Without digitalization, they claim to have tens of thousands of stores. But when truly online, you will find a lot of duplicate data and zombie stores. Through this data, you can see how many real customers you have, which customers order frequently or infrequently, and the ordering frequency. We can give each customer an activity rating, whether they are active or not. We can build a model to evaluate customer activity. Inactive customers, those who haven't ordered for a period, need to be tracked. Every distributor owner should also pay attention to the activity of customers across different categories and items. This is all about operational thinking, which is not something a simple management software can do. We need to integrate operational thinking into the platform, turning the software platform into an enterprise operation support system.

-04- During the pandemic, how can companies increase product sales? Dong Yang: There are definitely category differences. For example, liquor sales are certainly affected, while instant noodle sales have surged. Apart from category differences, I've noticed that distributors who sell well recently have two characteristics: First, they adopt new things early; second, they know how to play. Whether it's expanding diverse marketing channels or buying information digitalization software, it's the same principle. First, you need to be early. If everyone has completed digitalization and it's mature, then your digitalization no longer constitutes a competitive advantage. When everyone is doing home delivery and group buying, and everyone can find all group leaders and admins, it becomes a red ocean. So you need to be early. This year, distributors who have laid out home delivery and social marketing will not have poor performance. Second, you need to know how to play. For example, if you know how to use Douyin, you can also sell some goods. You need to bring in people who know how to play. If you are older, you can let your children play, or hire young people to play. So being early and knowing how to play are my suggestions for any decision. I suggest we buy software early, expand modern channels early, including online and social channels, and study how to use them, how to interact with users, and how to sell goods. Moreover, the boundaries between B2B and B2C sales are becoming increasingly blurred. No one says wholesalers cannot do B2C. Wholesalers can directly develop member users and sell goods. I think as long as you can sell goods, you can try. That's my experience.

Final Thoughts: Using digital tools and platforms to help our entire enterprise achieve digital transformation is a problem all owners should consider. That's my understanding and suggestion. In fact, digitalization is not something that should only be paid attention to after the pandemic. Waiqin 365 has been doing this for seven or eight years. We have been working in the consumer goods industry, cooperating with many large brands and many distributors. We deeply realize that this system has gone beyond the tool level. That is, the enterprise management system, management ideas, and management methods have gradually integrated into the software. When you get this software, it comes with built-in beautification; no need for Photoshop. It comes with a management system, ideas, and methods. You can use it directly. For small and medium-sized enterprises, the cost of buying and using a software is now much lower than before, and the effect is much better.

Scan the QR code to register and experience immediately

Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan once adopted.