---
title: "Regional Manager Market Inspection: Look, Walk, Meet, Improve, Follow Up, Support"
description: "This article is excerpted from Mr. Fang Gang's book \"FMCG Veterans All Do This: Regional Manager Playbook\". It redefines the role of regional managers and outlines a systematic approach to market inspection, including preparation, field visits, dealer meetings, improvement plans, and follow-up support."
author: "方刚"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2016-05-31"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/regional-manager-market-inspection-look-walk-meet-improve-follow-up-supp-e572004f/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/regional-manager-market-inspection-look-walk-meet-improve-follow-up-supp-e572004f.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/T00h8yul6pIYs-S5Pxdbdw"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E5%8C%BA%E5%9F%9F%E7%BB%8F%E7%90%86%E6%8A%93%E5%B8%82%E5%9C%BA-%E4%B8%80%E7%9C%8B%E4%BA%8C%E8%B5%B0%E4%B8%89%E5%BC%80%E4%BC%9A-%E5%9B%9B%E6%94%B9%E4%BA%94%E8%BF%BD%E5%85%AD%E6%94%AF%E6%8C%81-e572004f.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/regional-manager-market-inspection-look-walk-meet-improve-follow-up-supp-e572004f/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# Regional Manager Market Inspection: Look, Walk, Meet, Improve, Follow Up, Support

> This article is excerpted from Mr. Fang Gang's book "FMCG Veterans All Do This: Regional Manager Playbook". It redefines the role of regional managers and outlines a systematic approach to market inspection, including preparation, field visits, dealer meetings, improvement plans, and follow-up support.

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**Re-examining the Regional Manager**
**What is a Regional Manager?**
(1) Different companies define their sales structures differently, so first clarify the basic definition of a regional manager.
(2) Some regional managers report to a sales director and oversee office directors, managing business in one or several provinces.
(3) Others report to a provincial general manager and oversee office directors, managing a prefecture-level city.
In reality, regardless of how each company defines it, we hope to use the regional manager position to see how mid-to-senior sales management views the market.
**What Does a Regional Manager Do Daily?**
Depart, meet, visit markets, see clients...
Many regional managers are like fire chiefs, rushing to wherever there's a fire; they're also like community aunties, handling all sorts of trivial matters. When clients can't be managed, markets have problems, or functional departments cause trouble, regional managers are always scurrying around.
In a 30-day month, regional managers travel more than 26 days.
Check yourself: is this the case?
**What Does a Regional Manager Rely On for a Living?**
A mouth, a stomach, and two legs.
What metrics does the company use to pay regional managers?
The simplest metrics: one is sales volume (sales amount, tonnage, pieces), and the other is profit.
Units of measurement: yuan, tons (pieces).
For many companies, performance is a get-out-of-jail-free card. Whether your performance is stolen or grabbed, it doesn't matter.
**Who Does a Regional Manager Lead?**
Office managers (directors), sales representatives (business managers), distributors, sub-distributors, etc.
Many companies deploy team-based offices in base markets, where office directors lead a group of sales reps (often middle-aged women) to visit clients and retail outlets.
Some office managers are lone commanders, essentially just big sales reps with a backpack, circling around clients every day.
**Do the above four descriptions of regional managers match your current situation?**
Alcohol capacity equals sales volume, boldness equals output. This type of regional manager might be formidable, but not necessarily professional! As the middle level of the enterprise marketing system, the regional manager is the waist of the management chain. Once the waist fails to exert force, the whole body may strain or even become paralyzed. How to get regional managers to break free from the inefficient firefighting work in the market, avoid skimming the surface, and eliminate the habit of floating on water, while forming a tightly interlocking management cycle, requires effort.
**Now, let's get to the point: How do regional managers in the FMCG industry view the market?**
1**Preparation Before Going to Market**
**(A) Review Reports**
(1) Look at sales data reports to identify which region, client, or business has abnormal performance this month, and which product has anomalies in which region.
(2) Review the office manager's recent work logs, analyze their work focus and trajectory, check attendance and positioning patterns, and see if there are any anomalies.
(3) List a travel plan. Which markets to visit, how long to spend, and what main problems to solve.
**(B) Travel**
Keyword: sneak in like the enemy.
If subordinates know your whereabouts, you might be arranged into a carefully prepared "encirclement," and information and data may be distorted.
(1) Arrive at the office door 5 minutes before the morning meeting.
(2) Check if anyone is late, whether the office is managed according to standards, including meeting procedures, content, and office housekeeping.
(3) Check for vacant positions, whether rules are posted, and whether sales rep management is effective.
(4) Review sales rep assessment indicators, policy familiarity, scripts, and spot-check skills.
(5) After sales reps leave, communicate with the office director.
Communication points: sales data, management tips, etc.
**(C) Field Visits**
(1) Determine the visit area, route, number of stores, time, and forms for recording visit data.
(2) Decide whether to have sales reps accompany you, and determine the accompanying targets and form preparation.
Terminal visits "Eight Looks": Look at distribution rate. Record competitor's single-store variety, inventory, and price bands. Look at merchandising. Record merchandising elements and use a merchandising scoring form. Look at shelf age. Check production dates of our products and competitors, whether first-in-first-out is followed, whether there are expired or soon-to-expire defective products, whether inventory is reasonable, and whether there are stockouts or overstocking. Look at abnormal dynamics. Check for counterfeit or transshipment of our products, price anomalies, whether promotional policies are implemented, and competitor movements. Look at visit quality. Check for missed stores, skipped visits, fake orders, missed orders, and customer complaints (record them). Check if terminal owners (waitstaff) know our product policies (e.g., cap-opening fees). Look at customer relationships. Check if terminals know the sales rep's visit cycle and name, and whether they have complaints or grievances. Look at service quality. Check if terminals know the delivery phone number, delivery time, and order thresholds, whether it's van selling or pre-selling, whether promotional items are withheld, whether prices are in place, and whether it's net pricing. Look at customer terminal influence. Check if terminals know the customer's name or company name.
Summary keyword: **Record**.
What to do after the visit?
Hold a dealer meeting, use Excel, PPT, photos, and other tools to objectively analyze sales data, trends, and visit materials.
3**Holding a Dealer Meeting**
Through sales reports and market visits, the regional manager will clearly know which client and which product's sales trend is, and be confident.
Suppose at a dealer meeting, a dealer raises an issue: "This product isn't selling." How do you respond?
At that moment, you can open the sales report on the spot and check that this client hasn't ordered this product for three months.
Ask the office manager: Why no orders for three months? (Actually, this is a rebuke to the client)
The office manager replies: It's not selling!
Immediately open the visit records for this client's area: distribution rate for this product is below 10%, 5 stores are out of stock, 6 have soon-to-expire products, and 3 stores have been waiting for delivery for a week...
On the spot, ask the office manager: What was the distribution target for this product last month?
The office manager replies: ...50%
Follow up: What if the target isn't met?
The office manager: ...
At this point, what color will the client's face be?
Special tip: When disciplining a client, be well-prepared, use data, and be reasonable.
Clients are not afraid of toughness; they fear professionalism, and even more so, professionalism plus dedication.
Disciplining clients is not done at the dinner table, the card table, or by pounding the table!
4**Formulate Improvement Schedule**
Based on visit information and sales data, formulate an improvement plan and confirm it on the spot. Set rewards and penalties, have the client and office director sign on the spot, and forward the improvement plan to the assessment, inspection, and regional internal affairs departments, with dedicated personnel tracking and assessing.
5**Resource Follow-up, Continuous Follow-up**
According to the schedule, provide relevant resource support, such as promotional support.
Require the office manager to reflect key indicator achievement in daily reports.
Is the market inspection complete now?
That's all for regional manager market inspection, but it seems something important is forgotten. If the regional manager does all these things, it will probably be 10 PM.
Don't forget to have a meal with the client and office staff. At this time, the meal will be more enjoyable.
**On June 1 at 8 PM, Mr. Zhuang, CEO of Yunbao Shangmeng, will share: "Pitfalls We've Stepped Into in the Colorful Market" via live stream. Interested friends can long-press the QR code below to register for free participation. When adding, reply with the keyword: Learning**
-END-
The best FMCG dealer learning platform in China
Dedicated to providing professional, practical, and actionable tutorials for enterprises and dealers
Committed to helping Chinese FMCG dealers grow rapidly
**The most professional and practical knowledge base in the FMCG industry**
Reply with the red number below to get corresponding content
Reply with number 1 to view the complete knowledge base
| **001** Excellent Article Selection | **002** Dealer Market Operations | **003** Terminal Visit Management | **004** Sales Supervisor Skills | **005** Sales Improvement Techniques | **006** Channel Expansion | **007** Managing Dealers | **008** Dealer Development | **009** Dealer Internal Operations Management | **010** Team Management | **011** Efficient Distribution Techniques | **012** Sales Manager's 18 Skills | **013** KA Operation Methods and Strategies | **014** First Lesson for New Sales | **015** Internet, Brand | **016** Dealer B2B Transformation |
[Long-press QR code to follow]


---

## Copyright and AI use

This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL.

Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671