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Regional managers are the grassroots managers in the marketing team. They are managers who are also managed, and they are the 'non-detached' managers and executors closest to the frontline. For most regional managers, the following 'Ten Elimination Rules' and 'Ten Success Rules' are survival guidelines they will experience.
Ten 'Elimination Rules' for Regional Managers
1. Regional managers who always say 'no way' are easily eliminated
When a product is priced too high and doesn't sell, a regional manager might say 'no way'; when a month's promotion is weak and distributors don't stock up, they might say 'no way'; when monthly sales targets aren't met, they might say 'no way'; when 'we've done everything we can, but sales still aren't rising,' they might say 'no way'; when new market development is blocked or new product launches fail, they might say 'no way'...
For marketing personnel, the phrase 'no way' is more common among grassroots managers and executors. While it's true that superiors may not provide actionable 'solutions,' when a regional manager constantly has 'no way' in mind, it indicates they have closed off their thinking and are no longer proactively considering new solutions. In regional market operations, most specific solutions need to be proposed by the regional manager based on company resources and market conditions. Therefore, if a regional manager always says 'no way' to various market problems, they will soon be eliminated.
2. Regional managers who can't 'charge with me' are easily eliminated
During the revolutionary war, Red Army company commanders and squad leaders always charged at the forefront, shouting 'Comrades, charge with me!' In contrast, Kuomintang leaders often falsely or threateningly said, 'Men, go up for me!' (If you don't, I'll kill you!)
Similar phenomena occur in regional market work: excellent regional managers are on the frontline conducting on-site inspections, guidance, demonstrations, and adjustments, working alongside sales staff in research, distribution, display, and terminal promotions, leading by example. But some regional managers are 'riding in cars, looking through glass, sleeping in hotels, enjoying saunas, drinking in bars, singing with hostesses, and patting sales reps on the shoulder saying—'Brother, work hard, and you'll be rewarded' (If you don't work hard, don't blame me for getting rid of you!).'
The difference in combat effectiveness between the Red Army and the Kuomintang army lies significantly in whether company-level cadres can 'charge with me.' This was also a key achievement of Comrade Mao Zedong after establishing the Jinggangshan revolutionary base, by building party branches at the company level. A regional manager is a 'non-detached' manager and executor. One who only wants to command others, or cannot get down to the frontline to experience and guide, and eventually doesn't do it themselves, can't do it, or does it poorly, is destined to be eliminated by the company.
3. Regional managers who don't 'follow the Party' are easily eliminated
A regional manager is more of a frontline executor than a regional manager; or rather, a regional manager is first an executor, then a regional manager.
What must a regional manager execute?
A regional manager must effectively execute and implement the company's overall goals in their region, effectively execute the company's overall marketing thinking and strategy, effectively execute monthly work plans and progress, and execute the company's work processes and management systems. To do this effectively, they must unwaveringly 'follow the Party.'
The 'Party' represents the overall thought and requirements. Deviating from the 'Party's' leadership leads in the opposite direction. A regional manager who doesn't 'follow the Party' cannot win the trust of superiors and the company, and thus cannot keep up with the company's development needs, leading to elimination.
4. Regional managers who can't be 'good brothers' (with distributors) are easily eliminated
A market without distributors is often a blank market; a market without good distributors is often a weak market; without a group of first-class distributors, there won't be a first-class regional market.
The company's function of developing and managing distributors is often concentrated at the regional manager level. For example, regional managers often sign distribution contracts with distributors on behalf of the company; without the regional manager's consent, the company generally won't replace distributors (information doesn't get passed up); regional managers have significant influence on promotional policies for their markets and provide specific guidance.
The management responsibilities and authority of regional managers over distributors determine that they must serve, build, and manage their distributor team well, making distributors recognize and obey their management—not just 'good brothers' at the dinner table, but genuinely feeling like brothers. With strong support from the distributor team, superiors and the company will see you as having considerable influence. But if a regional manager can't gain the recognition of the distributor team, the company won't replace all distributors; instead, they'll likely 'dismiss' you.
5. Regional managers who always 'reject others' are easily eliminated
People who 'reject others' are self-centered, constantly excluding those who differ from them while failing to integrate into a larger team. They forcibly drive away those they dislike within their jurisdiction and sneer at, mock, and refuse to cooperate with those outside their jurisdiction who hold different views.
Regional managers who always 'reject others' are busy 'forming cliques' rather than understanding 'unity.' Without 'unity' and 'inclusiveness,' a regional manager can neither build an excellent regional team nor create a good external environment, ultimately achieving nothing and causing trouble, leading the company to get rid of them.
6. Regional managers who blame 'the moon' are easily eliminated
There's a riddle: 'The sun gave birth to a little star,' and the answer is the song title 'It's All the Moon's Fault.'
Regional managers often rise to this level after several years in business. Having 'seen more pigs and eaten more pork,' when superiors ask questions, they can often answer fluently with a 'It's all the moon's fault' type of excuse. For example: 'The product doesn't sell because our brand isn't as well-known as competitor X, the price is higher than brand Y, and the promotion isn't as strong as brand Z's.'
Such mistakes are often unconscious, but they prevent the regional manager from developing the ability to analyze the market beyond surface phenomena. When these unconscious conclusions are reinforced in the mind, the regional manager's work becomes increasingly negative and full of complaints.
7. Regional managers who constantly 'annoy' their superiors are easily eliminated
No one likes troublesome or annoying things. A regional manager who constantly brings annoyance to their superiors will find it hard to win their favor.
These annoyances are usually not major issues, but trivial matters. For example, if a superior tells you to arrive at a place at a certain time, and you're 15 minutes late, or you can't find the location after several calls. Though small, such waiting makes the superior 'annoyed,' leading them to think you lack time awareness, are slow to respond, don't respect superiors, and that details determine success.
When you repeatedly annoy your superior, this annoyance turns into resentment, which leads them to seize on one mistake and not let go, forcing you to leave.
8. Regional managers who engage in 'marketing corruption' are easily eliminated
Where there are officials, there is corruption; because officials hold power, power can allocate resources, and resources can be exchanged for money and women. Thus, with marketing managers, there is 'marketing corruption.'
Corruption cannot be completely eradicated; it can only be prevented and severely punished. Ten years ago, marketing personnel at a certain instant noodle company used company resources for personal gain. As market competition intensified, distributors left, leading to a large-scale market contraction, and many regional managers found it hard to find new jobs. A few years ago, a Henan instant noodle company, to punish 'marketing corruption,' directly sent two regional managers to prison despite their outstanding performance, making an example of them. Severe punishment is necessary to prevent marketing corruption.
Since regional managers bear most distributor management functions and have corresponding authority, this provides opportunities for marketing corruption. For distributors, besides making profits through market operations, many like to exploit company loopholes to earn abnormal profits from manufacturers, creating 'demand alignment' for regional managers to engage in corruption. Thus, marketing corruption is most common at the regional manager level, most hidden, and most damaging to the company. Therefore, when companies discover regional managers engaged in corruption, superiors will not be lenient.
9. Regional managers who leak 'state secrets' are easily eliminated
At the regional manager level, they have access to many company secrets, which can be directly traded for money in the industry. We can see that different companies in the same industry can easily obtain each other's sales data, product prices, sales policies, etc. Do these come from senior managers? No; a large amount of information leaks from the regional manager level.
Some regional managers, for personal development, engage in 'secret-for-secret' exchanges, swapping their company's information with regional managers from other companies. Though not money, the consequences are the same as 'secret-for-money' transactions. Once discovered, companies and superiors will not show mercy and will quickly cut them off.
10. Regional managers who don't 'progress year by year' are easily eliminated
For a region to develop, the regional manager must progress; those who can't keep up with regional development needs will also fail to keep up with company development. At the end of each year, many old regional managers are eliminated. Why? Many are not eliminated for failing to meet sales targets.
For a regional manager, even if they complete the year's sales tasks, when a new sales year arrives, the company has new development goals, new marketing strategies, and new management teams. When the new management team assesses that this person hasn't progressed much and won't progress much in the new year, they'd rather give the opportunity to a new regional manager, or even promote a subordinate to replace them.
Regional managers should focus not only on whether their sales targets are met but also reflect on what improvements they've made compared to the past, the magnitude of those improvements, and how they've helped achieve goals. When the new year comes, they should consider how to further improve to better challenge new goals. If they seriously do this at year-end, even if not done well, leaders will be lenient; if they don't take the summary seriously, it will affect superiors' evaluations, and they'll be treated harshly during eliminations.
Ten 'Success Rules' for Regional Managers
1. 'Take root' in an industry or region
For a company to survive and develop, it shouldn't blindly diversify; it should first strengthen its main business. To strengthen the main business, the most effective strategy is to first make it strong in a specific region, becoming a strong regional brand.
For a regional manager, survival and development also require 'taking root' in an industry or region.
In practice, we see that regional managers who frequently change jobs and industries (cross-industry jumps), having done everything but not for long, often end up doing poorly in all industries and being unwelcome everywhere. In contrast, some regional managers first become skilled in one industry, then experts, becoming professionals in that industry. When they leave a company, another company will hire them the next day.
We also see some regional managers who, though not staying in one industry, switch across industries—from beverages to beer, from beer to instant noodles, from instant noodles to biscuits—but always remain regional managers in a specific region. They continuously accumulate comprehensive knowledge of that regional market, expanding their survival scope and space.
2. Use 'highlights' to illuminate the region
A regional market's success requires highlight markets. Through highlight markets, you can create momentum, leverage it, and follow it, using points to drive the whole area and quickly activate the entire region. Additionally, regional managers can summarize the region's 'highlights' into replicable models and operational methods, providing them to higher management to drive development in other regions.
Here, 'highlights' include not only sales performance and market performance but also team building, information communication, customer service, monthly work, and meeting speeches. By illuminating the region with highlights, you illuminate yourself.
3. Don't do 'soft sales'; only do 'hard sales'
Everyone knows the difference in sales volume size, but they often only see it as a 'quantity' and don't understand or can't 'qualify' sales. Just as we can't say a person over 1.8 meters is necessarily good, or someone under 1.6 meters is necessarily bad, sales volume's 'quantity' only reflects appearance. We must 'qualify' sales first, then 'quantify.' It's like a girl liking a young man: does she marry him just because he's tall, regardless of character, or does she first see if he's a 'good person' and then check if his height meets her requirements?
In practice, we notice many excellent regional managers pay attention to the distinction between 'gross sales' (manufacturer shipments) and 'net sales' (terminal shipments), and they master the difference between 'soft sales' (slow turnover, long gross-to-net cycle) and 'hard sales' (fast turnover, short gross-to-net cycle). Our conclusion: net sales are the true sales; hard sales are the real deal.
Regional managers who understand the 'soft/hard' distinction achieve more obvious results. Their market operations simplify to two types: First, 'strike eggs with stones'—use hard sales to attack competitors' soft sales and attack their weak markets. Second, 'wash stones with torrents'—when competitors' sales are also like stones, to take the market, you must invest three times more manpower, money, and materials, making your product spread like a waterfall, achieving both 'flow speed' and 'flow volume' at least double the competitor's, to wash away their stone-like sales.
4. Build a 'co-prosperity circle' across regions
In a company's development, marketing goes through stages: base building, hot spots to hot zones, hot zones to strategic regions, and strategic regions to national brand building.
For a regional manager, if they experience building hot spots in the region, turning the region into a hot zone, and then driving surrounding regions to become strategic regions for the company, they are the most successful. Strategic regions not only bring stable sales, huge profits, and unshakable regional market positions, but more importantly, their marketing models can be referenced and replicated by other regions, driving the company from regional to national markets.
Therefore, regional managers must not only be responsible for their own region but also act from the perspective of common development with surrounding regions, cooperating and coordinating to achieve overall development and strength.
5. Use the 'abacus' to impress the company and customers
Most regional managers don't understand financial knowledge or have a business mindset. They simply think they're in sales, only asking the company for promotions and pressing distributors to stock up, without knowing how to calculate accounts for the company or customers.
Operating a market and achieving goals requires a detailed plan to integrate resources, save resources, and maximize the value of each resource. If a regional manager doesn't know how to calculate, they won't understand the relationship between input and output, can't integrate resources between the company and distributors, and then feel the company doesn't support the market and distributors don't cooperate.
In reality, companies aren't afraid to spend money; they're afraid the money spent won't be recouped. Customers always say they're not making money because they want to make more from the company. Therefore, regional managers must, on one hand, calculate for the company, making superiors feel it's worth allocating resources to your region, believing that investing in your region will yield more than others. On the other hand, they must calculate for distributors, computing the output of their resource investment, using profit and benefits to impress and manage distributors.
6. Know how to 'cry' (request) and also 'smile' (summarize)
Many regional managers know how to 'cry'—they submit one request after another, with market background, purpose, promotion format, intensity, and effect estimates all looking professional, crying with reason and vivid detail. But when the request is approved and policies and support are obtained, they disappear during execution—no feedback, no work summaries. They cry but don't 'smile' (summarize).
'Smiling' means summarizing specific matters so superiors see the effect of their support. Only through work results and timely communication can you make superiors 'smile' with satisfaction. A regional manager must constantly make superiors 'smile' to ensure that when they 'cry' next time, they'll be the first to get 'milk.' Just as people like a child who smiles often and cries occasionally, an excellent regional manager not only combines 'crying' and 'smiling' but also does 'smile' before 'cry,' 'smile' more than 'cry,' and 'smile' louder than 'cry.'
7. Turn your people into a 'team'
Regional managers are the most grassroots team managers in the sales force, but many only lead a group of 'stragglers.' To build a team, simply put, you must do two things: 'create a circle' and 'obey.'
The character '团' (team) looks like a circle, and inside that circle are talents; or rather, it's because of this circle that talents gather. This circle represents the team's goals, culture, discipline, systems, and incentives. The regional manager must lead all team members to build and maintain this circle.
The character '队' (team) looks like ears standing up to listen to one person. That person is the regional manager. As the core of the regional team, the regional manager must enhance personal charisma, strengthen team cohesion and centripetal force, and make all members obey their command to achieve victory in unison.
8. 'Same desire from top to bottom' to work together
In team-building exercises, there's a 'blind formation' project: divide 10-20 people into 5 groups, each with a task. After the coach explains the rules, all members are blindfolded, and then everyone is 'blind,' 'busy,' and 'confused.'
The 'blind formation' phenomenon is common in regional work. 'Blindness' isn't because eyes are covered, but because the team's overall goals are unclear, members don't know how their goals serve the overall goal, and there's no accurate, comprehensive information collection and feedback, causing small teams and the big team to fail to coordinate.
Sun Tzu's Art of War says: 'Those who share the same desire from top to bottom will win.' To escape the 'blind formation' phenomenon, regional managers must ensure that superiors and subordinates have a consistent and clear goal. They need to integrate goals upward, using small goals to serve big goals; communicate goals horizontally to promote mutual cooperation; and break down goals downward into details and quantification, making each subordinate take responsibility. Only then can regional managers hope to achieve excellent results.
9. Be the 'first teacher' for distributor sales staff
Distributors need training, and they actively participate in various trainings. But despite learning a lot, they're still at a loss when returning to their specific work. Because they lack the ability to train their subordinates, can't effectively pass on what they've learned, and may even misinterpret the trainer's intentions. Currently, effectively training distributor sales staff has become a major need for distributors to drive their business development.
As the first person responsible for managing the regional distributor team, regional managers need to be the 'first teacher' for distributor sales staff. Whenever you visit a market, train the distributor's sales staff immediately, combining basic marketing theory with local market conditions so they can understand, apply, and see quick results. Only then will they sincerely greet you with 'Hello, teacher.' When distributor sales staff improve their sales skills, they can contribute more to your performance.
10. Connect with the 'boss's insider'
Managers have 'four deadly tricks' to ruin a boss: First, 'blind' the boss's eyes so they only see illusions; second, 'deafen' the boss's ears so they only hear lies; third, 'cut off' the boss's left and right arms so they can't directly intervene, command subordinates, and lose support; fourth, lift the boss high, and if the boss doesn't obey, drop them hard.
To prevent these 'four tricks,' bosses often cultivate or even plant 'secret agents' in various departments. We call these people 'boss's insiders.' Their main duty is to provide the boss with various departmental and grassroots information, feeding back work information from different angles. The boss uses both overt and covert information channels to collect information, analyze work, and make decisions and plans.
Due to the special status of the boss's insiders, their reports can significantly influence the boss. Even a word of praise from them can outweigh ten good deeds you've done, while a word of criticism could lead to your dismissal. Regional managers should identify who might be the boss's insiders, avoid conflicts and friction with them, and try to become friends with them. Through them, you can understand the company's and boss's intentions and thinking, providing unexpected gains for your work direction.