Hello everyone! The purpose of sharing this article is to improve my management level and ability through daily work summaries and reflections. Friends have given me some pertinent suggestions, for which I am very grateful. On the other hand, I hope these practical summaries can help new regional managers, so that we can progress and improve together. Indeed, following inherited experience in daily work can help us make fewer mistakes and provide convenient and expedient bases for decision-making. Some viewpoints and perspectives come from discussions and practical insights of previous teams and leaders, and I hope they can provide some help and opportunities for regional managers to complete current sales operations. This article mainly aims to discuss, from the perspective of a regional manager, how to view channel customer management, the positioning of different channel customers, and what kind of relationships to establish with important channel customers. From the order of sales volume contribution, it is: wholesale—MT—GT—catering—internet cafes—schools. From the perspective of cultivating consumer drinking habits and influence importance, it is exactly the opposite. Channel is king; competition is reflected in the battle for channel customers. Formulating strategies, balancing resources, and negotiating are comprehensive abilities combining intelligence, psychology, experience, and judgment. First, competition in schools has basically reached a settled state in U1 and U2 cities, and even in county town outlets. In the above regions, we may focus more on business personnel's service to school outlets, increasing SKU numbers, accelerating product turnover, brand display and influence, consumer activity promotion, and new product launches. Next, our services and product promotions will rapidly extend and sink to township middle and primary schools. We need to seize the first-mover advantage; the task is to let township children drink their first bottle of beverage. Many of our colleagues often say that they developed a positive understanding and evaluation of our brand during their school years. As a regional manager, you need to know that school channels, including outlets around schools, require 100% service. This is both strategic and a basic job responsibility. If township school outlets cannot be directly operated, we must deliver our services through partners or wholesalers. As a regional manager, you need to clearly know the service status of school outlets within your area. The number of large, medium, and small schools, the number of enrolled students (including boarders), and classify schools in the area according to standards. You need to clearly know the number of outlets within schools, historical sales, cafeteria situations, our SKUs sold, competitor SKUs sold, key selling prices, our freezer doors, competitor freezer doors, store signs, umbrellas, and visual merchandising materials. The purpose of understanding the above is to clearly understand and analyze our operating environment, our competitive position, and competitor strategies. With limited funds, how do we achieve 100% ownership and 100% SKU sales? These two 100% are also the main work directions for school channel outlets. Second, internet cafe channel outlets are also very important. For example: an internet cafe with 100 computers runs 24 hours a day. If one person drinks our product on one computer during the 24-hour period, then in a day, the 100-computer cafe will generate 100 bottles of sales, equivalent to 4 cases. In a month, this cafe will generate 120 cases of sales, no less than an MIT store's sales. This example illustrates the importance of internet cafes, not only as a source of sales, but also as a place to cultivate consumer drinking habits and promote new products. There are two common obstacles to serving internet cafes:

  1. Due to the location of internet cafes, direct delivery may be less convenient compared to other outlets.
  2. Since the daily manager of an internet cafe is the network administrator, payment collection after delivery requires business personnel to follow up. For example, communication with a distributor specializing in internet cafes revealed the following: this distributor currently has one delivery person. Based on his capital and delivery capacity, the maximum number of internet cafe outlets he can serve is 80. The distributor's monthly sales are about 15,000 cases, with an average gross profit of 2.5 yuan per case, resulting in a monthly gross profit of about 37,500 yuan. After deducting labor and warehouse transportation costs, the monthly profit is about 30,000 yuan. Therefore, for specialized distributors, the internet cafe business is relatively stable, with an annual return on investment of 50%, so there is a basis for willingness to serve. For manufacturers, continuously developing internet cafe distributors is also a path worth trying. The regional manager's strategy for internet cafes is 100% development service and 100% freezer investment. With service in place, investing freezers in internet cafes can, on one hand, enhance customer relationships and increase per-store VPO; on the other hand, as long as there is a freezer at the outlet, competitors will find it difficult to enter. Third, stations/airports/service areas/accommodation/scenic spots/business districts—a one-stop tourism chain. The tourism economy is part of the national economy and is the leading industry of the tertiary sector. It provides consumers with an integrated service model covering food, accommodation, transportation, travel, shopping, and entertainment. For regional managers, building a one-stop tourism outlet chain is a systematic project that requires a professional development, negotiation, and execution team, establishing different execution standards and executing them precisely. Perfect service is how outlet customer relationships are maintained and preserved. For transportation outlets, it is necessary to conduct detailed surveys, clear negotiations, precise imaging, and rapid execution. Understand the competitive situation between us and competitors, clarify in-store sales and fee investments of similar products, map out the distribution of outlets within the station, and obtain accurate customer information. Clarify in-store execution standards and negotiation bottom lines, calculate input-output ratios and our support limits, and achieve win-win goals. According to the different situations of outlets, formulate the order of attack, playing a demonstrative role and driving other outlets. Based on different investments, formulate corresponding success images and supervise implementation. Once negotiations are confirmed, the execution team must quickly implement according to contract terms, including customer information, freezer management, customer contact cards, and visual merchandising. Through service, visits, delivery, and handling objections, gain customer recognition and trust, and establish solid customer relationships. Scenic area outlets are a special channel outlet in terms of both delivery and selling prices. For scenic area outlet services, it is necessary to rely on local distributors to serve. The local team needs to help complete customer development, identify target outlets, and regularly organize market attacks to help maintain and establish outlet service and customer relationships. As a regional manager, you need to clearly know the distribution of each scenic area and the location of outlets within your area, visit regularly, maximize distribution of immediate consumption packaging and water, increase appropriate brand visibility, identify opportunities, and realize them. With the rapid development of tourism, the hotel industry has also developed, especially star-rated and chain budget hotels that have settled locally. Regional managers need to clarify the local hotel list and formulate negotiation and sell-in plans. Once annual agreement negotiations with hotels are completed, this will be a stable source of sales. Different packaged water is the door opener; develop direct hotel customers and conduct regular special promotions. Soda, juice, milk drinks, and Monster in different packaging combinations have significant advantages over competitors. For hotels with more than 100 rooms, establish projects and incorporate them into business personnel's visit routes. Establish business contacts through visiting key personnel to achieve entry opportunities. To facilitate negotiations, you can leverage cooperation opportunities with the Meituan platform to establish consumer promotions. For example, designated hotels on Meituan offer free drinks of designated products; follow the official WeChat account to receive hotel vouchers, or our official WeChat interactions can give away vouchers for designated hotels. A business district is a one-stop shopping center with a super shopping mall, where a management organization organizes, coordinates, and plans a series of retail stores and service organizations in an adjacent building complex or a large building, providing shopping, leisure, entertainment, dining, and other services. Different business formats require different service standards. For mid-to-high-end restaurants, ensure SKU distribution, and at the same time do secondary displays and brand image displays to stimulate consumer purchase impulse. For cinemas, ensure 100% freezer or post-mix machine placement! Achieve full coverage of movie package deals! For business districts, you can establish exclusive agreements, guarantee freezer placement, create visual merchandising, cultural displays, and brand specials, establish solid customer relationships and multi-dimensional cooperation, build outlets, and achieve the success image of products and brands everywhere. As a sales team, to achieve sales targets, the instinctive thinking habit is: what packaging do I want to sell, then where to sell it, and finally what brand can maximize sales. As a marketing person, the thinking habit is: what brand do I want to promote, where to promote it, and through what packaging can the brand's influence be maximized. Among these, where to sell? Where to promote? Refers to the occasion. The common need of sales and marketing personnel is the occasion—channel outlets. For channel work, if you achieve standards and establish benchmarks, you are the highlight! Source: Lao Zhang Talks (ID: gh_f3fc2377ca20) Author: Lao Zhang Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan once the tip is adopted.