---
title: "Products Not Moving, Teams Hard to Manage: What Should a Regional Manager Do?"
description: "This article is excerpted from Mr. Fang Gang's book \"FMCG Veterans All Do This: Regional Manager Playbook.\" It addresses two common problems: products not selling and teams being difficult to manage, offering self-check tools and management strategies."
author: "方刚"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2016-06-02"
language: "en"
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# Products Not Moving, Teams Hard to Manage: What Should a Regional Manager Do?

> This article is excerpted from Mr. Fang Gang's book "FMCG Veterans All Do This: Regional Manager Playbook." It addresses two common problems: products not selling and teams being difficult to manage, offering self-check tools and management strategies.

This article is excerpted from Mr. Fang Gang's book "FMCG Veterans All Do This: Regional Manager Playbook."
To purchase this book, click "**Read Original**".
**1. Products Not Moving**
"Products aren't selling; consumers aren't clicking."
"There's a problem in the market; sales are declining, and I can't find the reason. So frustrating!"
"I've been working in this market for years, but performance just doesn't improve. If there's no progress, I'll be replaced. What should I do..."
Self-check Tool 1
(1) How many outlets have been stocked with the new product? How many were planned? How many have been completed?
(2) What is the total number of units distributed? What is the current total terminal inventory?
(3) As of today, how many outlets have replenished? How many other terminals have started to move volume? How many haven't moved a single unit?
Self-check Tool 2
(1) In which channel is the product not selling?
(2) Can you open all channels and review sales in each, such as restaurants, convenience stores, large supermarkets, specialty tobacco and liquor stores, nightclubs, and food stalls?
Self-check Tool 3
(1) What is the current terminal status of the existing product?
(2) Is terminal merchandising executed according to standards, such as POP and price tags?
(3) Have merchandising standards been set for the new product? Is the product in the primary display position at the terminal? Is it being suppressed or covered by competitors?
Self-check Tool 4
(1) Have sales scripts for the new product been developed and implemented effectively?
(2) Are sales representatives and distributors visiting effectively and adequately? Do they meet customer relationship standards?
(3) Do key terminal personnel clearly understand the product's price and policies?
Self-check Tool 5
(1) Have the leading stores and high-ground points in the area been secured?
(2) Are the image streets up to standard?
(3) Have advantageous areas been established?
(4) Is there a dedicated person responsible for communicating with consumer opinion leaders?
(5) Are there standard procedures and implementation actions for model community roadshows and promotional events?
Summary
**(1) If these tools are not used or not fully used, it's normal for products not to sell!**
**(2) If these tools are used to the fullest and products still don't sell, then something is definitely wrong!**
**2. Two Teams, Hard to Manage**
"What if customers are small and unmotivated, and they cut prices or divert goods? What if large customers dominate their territories and withhold expenses?"
"Teams are hard to manage! Nowadays, the post-90s kids can't endure hardship; even coaxing them to work doesn't help. So frustrating!"
"Terminal owners (or their wives) are 'big eaters'—they ask for the sky, demanding policies that go beyond reason. If they're not satisfied, they give you a cold shoulder and refuse to sell!"
Management Tool 1: Set Up a Strong Camp with Thunderbolt Tactics
A regional supervisor has two teams: the direct team (sales reps, promoters, etc. under the company's office or workstation) and the local team (distributors and their subordinates, secondary wholesalers, etc.). Management methods include:
(1) Office management standards, internal affairs systems, morning meeting procedures, daily checks, performance reviews, target tracking, sales rep joint visits...
(2) Distributor and secondary wholesaler delivery service management systems (including territory, pricing, cross-region sales, and price-cutting management), exclusive delivery system for outlet allocation, distributor delivery personnel assessment and commission management processes, sales rep visits and fixed delivery management systems...
"Vajra's angry eyes subdue all demons; Bodhisattva's lowered brows show compassion to all beings!"
Thunderbolt tactics mean applying "thunderbolt and angry eyes" to violations and behaviors detrimental to the market. Vajra protects the Dharma, so strong generals are often "tough characters," selfless and fearless; sunlight is the greatest weapon against evil.
Management Tool 2: Fight to the Death with a Bodhisattva's Heart
For example, post-90s sales reps are mostly new recruits just entering society, also only children who have just been weaned. They lack both social experience and self-care ability. At this time, if the supervisor only uses thunderbolt tactics, they can easily knock them down. Therefore, let this group live, eat, and work together; prepare hot meals for them in the morning and afternoon; if they do well, reward the group with a washing machine, etc.
A Bodhisattva's heart is compassionate and retains people to stabilize morale; thunderbolt tactics with stern eyes train people to learn skills. This is the basic mindset of a qualified supervisor who can lead troops to fight to the death!
Management Tool 3: Single-Minded Devotion
What makes subordinates follow is nothing more than "righteousness" and "benefit"! The character for righteousness (义) is understood as two crosses and a heart, coming from different directions but heading toward the same goal—fellow travelers!
Regional supervisors do not have strong say in the allocation of "benefits" and cannot offer subordinates high positions and salaries. However, the problem is not scarcity but unfair distribution. Transparent assessment methods and clear rewards and punishments are fundamental, such as face-to-face interviews on assessment indicators at the beginning of the month, a dashboard for achieving assessment indicators, ranking tracking, and follow-up coaching and resource support for underperforming sales reps.
What is a fellow traveler?
Those who achieve success by helping others and can turn their career into an interest are fellow travelers in fighting to the death! The essence of single-minded devotion is to correct the angle between career and interest. The larger the angle between the two lines of interest and career, the less likely they are to fight together to the death. A group of people who eat, drink, gamble, and engage in debauchery has no combat effectiveness; they will only collapse without a fight!
As the most basic combat unit of a company's fighting team, the regional supervisor is like the basic execution layer of a military company, platoon, or squad. Whether management is solid starts with individual training and team building. Whether the grassroots can "set up a strong camp, fight to the death, and be single-minded," and whether the decision-making layer can "win with the orthodox and surprise, and maintain integrity while innovating," is the fundamental key to a company's longevity!
Summary: **Set up a strong camp, fight to the death, and be single-minded!**
**3. Assessment Can Be Deadly**
What are result indicators? Answers vary at many training sessions.
From an overall company perspective, the balance between result indicators and process indicators is crucial. Macro-level strategy sets direction, micro-level operations focus on execution. The proportion of process indicators borne by grassroots combat units is far greater than that of senior management. This is like a pyramid structure: the tip represents results, and the base consists of process indicators and management. The company's strategic goals form result indicators, which are then broken down to various combat units, supported by process indicators.
Companies often fall into traps when balancing these: either everyone focuses on results, ignoring processes, leading to a flourishing start but a disastrous end; or everyone focuses on processes, ignoring results, leading to a chaotic, inefficient, and unclear division of labor. It's like raising chickens: if you focus too much on egg production and neglect the chickens, the chickens die and there are no eggs; if you focus on raising chickens and neglect egg production, the chickens get fat but egg production drops!
Since sales dominate assessments, supervisors, driven by the sales baton, rush toward results (result indicators include sales and profit) and are more likely to neglect process management (process indicators include distribution rate, merchandising, terminal maintenance, and customer development, mainly reflected in the first toolbox). Thus, under the cover of sales, a situation of superficial prosperity and complacency unconsciously forms.
Sales assessment is not a panacea; in many cases, excessive sales assessment can be highly destructive.
Marketing personnel love quick wins and prefer actions directly related to sales, such as promotions, buy-one-get-one-free, and channel stuffing. Everyone likes to pick up eggs, but no one can endure the long and arduous process of raising chickens. The result is bound to be terrible.
The fatal flaw of process assessment lies in assessing grassroots sales reps' sales volume. Once terminal sales reps' wages are overly linked to sales, the quality of terminal management will decline continuously. This is the root cause troubling many companies.
Summary: **If the process is done well, the results will naturally be good!**
-END-
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