This article is excerpted from Mr. Fang Gang's newly published book: 'Regional Manager's Playbook'. The Lazy 'Mercenaries'

  1. Playing hide-and-seek with work. In the morning, after loading goods, salespeople and drivers head out with the vehicles, but several vehicles gather to chat and play cards. Morning tasks are done in the afternoon, and half-day tasks take all day!
  2. Prioritizing big stores over small ones. Large stores order large quantities and concentrate sales volume. Salespeople don't visit stores street by street; instead, based on experience or phone orders, they head directly to target stores, ignoring potential outlets that need to be conquered or outlets that have suddenly run out of stock.
  3. Favoring fast-moving stores. Stores with fast turnover have higher chances of closing deals and stable customer relationships, so salespeople love to visit them. Slow-moving stores order less, have lower deal closure rates, and require less frequent deliveries. Salespeople face more rejections and unstable relationships, so they simply pass by these stores without a glance.
  4. Skipping and missing stores. Missing stores during visits is common in the vehicle sales model. Salespeople ride along for deliveries, but the driver controls the wheel. If the driver speeds up or the salesperson gets distracted, target outlets are passed by. Turning a large vehicle around is troublesome, causing many missed sales opportunities.
  5. Low efficiency and high costs. While delivering in the east of the city, a store in the west calls to order. So they drive dozens of kilometers to deliver, then drive back to the west for other deliveries. The delivery truck becomes a sightseeing bus.
  6. Wide sowing, thin harvest. During new product distribution, with manufacturer support and salesperson commission incentives, they successfully distribute to hundreds of stores. Two months later, only dozens of stores remain with effective turnover. Visiting the stores, the initially distributed products are either sold out with store owners complaining, or they sit in warehouses covered in dust.
  7. Dependence on old products. Distributors hold grand mobilization meetings for new product distribution, pleading earnestly at the meeting and making vows afterward, but results are often unsatisfactory. Why? Because delivering old products is simple, payment collection is easy, no persuasion is needed, and there's no need to go door-to-door relying on luck.
  8. Doing private work, padding expenses, and intercepting promotions. Salespeople have endless tricks. Even if distributors discover them, they often dare not speak up because these are their key salespeople! The Commission System: The Root of the Problem The main root of the above problems lies in the commission system commonly used by distributors: base salary accounts for more than half of salespeople's income, so as long as they show up, their base salary is guaranteed; commissions on best-selling products account for the other half. With best-selling old products as a safety net, everyone earns similar wages regardless of effort, so working more or less makes no difference. For distributors, improving the status quo is not difficult; first, they must use assessment as a 'command flag'.
  9. Initial commission model: base salary + sales commission. This is the most common method when building a sales team, so no need to elaborate.
  10. Intermediate commission model: base salary + category commission + new product special project. Once the team is stable, if the base salary proportion is high, it will inevitably breed laziness and a 'big pot' mentality, and create dependence on old products. At this point, distributors should promptly introduce category-based commissions, increase commission rates for new products, and guide salespeople to focus on new product promotion. In new product promotion, commissions are usually reflected in wages at the end of the month. Distributors can consider adding a 'new product special project + weekly (daily) category commission' payout method, such as tallying each salesperson's weekly or daily new product achievements, converting them into bonuses, and cashing them out publicly that week or day.
  11. Advanced commission model: sales commission + category commission + performance improvement rewards. At this stage, commissions are sufficient to support the majority of salespeople's income. Distributors should then set up annual performance growth commissions, add a 1,000 yuan bonus for the top few salespeople with the fastest monthly performance improvement, and a 2,000 yuan bonus for the top few with the fastest half-year improvement... Various methods, with rewards in place, first mobilize salespeople's enthusiasm, clarify reward standards, and assess daily so everyone has the desire to strive for progress. In the vehicle sales model, the driver and salesperson form a combat unit. Without unified coordination, efficiency drops and internal friction increases. When setting assessment indicators, distributors should consider the integrity of this combat unit, such as clarifying the superior-subordinate relationship and linking the driver's wages to the salesperson's wages, so the driver's wage level depends on the salesperson's earnings. From Commission to Contracting However, even after reaching the advanced commission model, distributors have not fully solved the initial problems, such as fuel waste and low efficiency. Once distributor management matures, they can introduce a 'contracting system', where vehicles and markets are contracted to subordinates for independent accounting. The distributor simply owns the warehouse, handles manufacturer relations, and collects 'rent'. This avoids the 'spending grandpa's money without feeling pain' mentality, and they understand that 'if the person is diligent, the land is not lazy' and that effort brings rewards! But the premise is that distributors must firmly hold sovereignty, not delegate all market rights, and not turn salespeople into 'mountain kings', while strengthening management of the contractor. Therefore, to implement contracting, three preparations are needed, and five precautions must be taken long-term: Three Preparations:
  12. A mature financial information system that can accurately and timely classify daily and monthly data. A mature financial information system means calculating detailed accounts. But many small and medium distributors are often 'Sun Wukong' types, capable of anything: warehouse management, finance, delivery, negotiation, even loading and unloading themselves! They work hard for a meager profit, but it's like 'meat rotting in the pot'—they only know if they're making or losing money, but not where the profit or loss comes from! They don't even know annual vehicle costs, let alone provide timely and accurate support for internal management!
  13. Strict regional division. Early distributor management is often 'bandit-style': with a wave of the hand, salespeople scatter in all directions, with no distinction between east and west. After the initial distribution, they fight each other for territory, stealing each other's customers. Several vehicles fly around, and the money earned isn't even enough for gas! After regional division, not only are these problems solved, but distributors can also let their subordinates show their talents.
  14. Not only focus on product commissions but also pay attention to service-related assessments. For example, in the beer industry, bottle recycling occupies an important position in the business process. If distributors don't work on the bottle return link, there will be 'one-shot deals': terminals accept the goods, but bottles are either unwanted or sold as scrap glass. If distributors set inappropriate bottle return commissions, salespeople may only deliver without returning bottles, leading to increasing terminal complaints, gradual loss of outlets, and inevitably declining sales. Five Precautions:
  15. Substitution. The famous 'Master Kong' earns less than the counterfeit 'Master Kang's Wife', so they secretly sell the counterfeit to make extra money. The distributor's land was meant for growing millet, but tenants may secretly plant sorghum!
  16. Mutual destruction. Delivering goods to someone else's territory will earn more money. Not satisfied with that, they even dump goods at low prices into other regions.
  17. Overdrawing resources. Contractors always consider profit maximization; sustainable market development is not their primary concern. Intercepting, diverting, altering promotions, raising prices on new products, or clearance sales are common tactics.
  18. Setting up their own mountain. After market contracting, terminal customer relationship maintenance is fully transferred to the contractor. Salespeople inevitably face the temptation of becoming bosses. Once the opportunity arises, they will eat from their bowl while looking at the pot, find a brand, and become bosses themselves.
  19. Eating away at the mountain. Distributors can successfully contract out because the territory is already conquered, and there is usually a best-selling product supporting it, which is why contractors dare to take it on. But due to fighting separately, price systems gradually become chaotic, outlets are lost one by one, and with competitor encroachment, advantages will be completely lost. Taking five precautions is to avoid distributors going down the wrong path of becoming 'hands-off bosses' and ending up with beans when they planted melons. 'Regional Manager's Playbook' To purchase, please click: Read the original text