A former student called me for help, saying that after a company HR adjustment, he was to become the marketing manager for the company's largest municipal regional market. Since he had long been in customer service, he didn't know how to face this specific market. He envisioned a work plan that was both creative and practical, but with so many threads, he didn't know where to start. This kind of request is the most troublesome. Reasons are as follows:

  1. When someone asks for help, it means they are truly in difficulty. If you help, the solution isn't something you can just talk through in a few sentences; you have to invest effort, but in reality, you are very busy.
  2. From the perspective of everything requiring a return, without seeing a clearly priced benefit, I naturally don't want to do it from the bottom of my heart.
  3. Because I am busy and there is no benefit, I cannot spend too much time on it. The plan I produce might not be rigorous, and if so, it would damage my reputation. That result is not worth it. But I am a soft-hearted person. Most people who are willing to trouble me assume that if I don't help, no one else in the world will. So the final result is: I have to spend extra energy, either racking my brains and putting myself in their shoes, or using my own resources and reducing my sleep to do it for them, ultimately ending up harming myself. Since I promised, I have to do it. Thinking that this student has this question, and that other unknown working professionals might also lack this practical knowledge, I might as well proactively turn this into a standard template so that more people in need can use it themselves. It's a contribution from someone who has been through it. A regional market manager taking over a new market needs three preparations, do two tasks well, and strive for five standards of excellence. Only then can they be considered a qualified regional manager. Here, I focus on the three preparations for a regional manager taking over a new market:
  4. Preparation of logical thinking; This means that when thinking about problems, you must follow the principle from big to small, including both macro thinking about the enterprise and macro research on the market environment. Macro thinking about your enterprise: (1) What does your region mean to the company's overall strategy? (2) Why did the company entrust you with this important task? Is it because your predecessor succeeded, or because your predecessor's performance dissatisfied the leadership, so they replaced him with you and have high expectations? This is a question you must consider, and it is the most macro basis for handling people and affairs. Because in China's humanistic culture, sometimes doing market work also has strategic characteristics. Just as the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta regions emphasize development, while Xinjiang and Tibet emphasize stability above all else. The principle is the same, so you must understand this clearly and never forget it! Next is the macro understanding of your jurisdiction: (1) Research on local chronicles: Generally includes historical evolution, culture, economy, population, beliefs, development plans, successive leaders, development prospects, urban distribution, industry characteristics, household income, community distribution, and other humanistic information. You can obtain relevant data through the internet, local chronicles, or the statistics bureau. It may be difficult for prefecture-level cities, counties, and towns, but you must fully understand them to prepare for the details of your work. (2) Research on the competitive environment of your industry: You need to understand the situation of competing companies and similar products in your jurisdiction, including their corporate resources, market resources, marketing models, marketing results, market performance, product positioning, and consumer groups. Before systematic research methods are tested, the most effective way is to walk with your feet, think with your brain, and use diligence to compensate for lack of skill. (3) Research on the distribution channels of your products: What are the sales channels? For example, for liquor sales, channels include first-level distributors, second-level distributors, large supermarkets and hypermarkets, small and medium supermarket stores, famous tobacco and liquor stores, community mom-and-pop shops, and special channels such as buyouts by large hotels, direct supply to small and medium hotels, group purchases, special enterprise supply, special supply, and car trunk projects. For agricultural cities, it also includes direct sales to townships, groups, and villages. The purpose of understanding these channels is to serve the business plan. For a regional manager taking over a new market, besides having the historical sales data of the market, the most direct data comes from the capacity of similar products at frontline sales points. When you know the terminals thoroughly, the business plan you formulate will be targeted.
  5. Preparation of knowledge and skills; With the preparation of logical thinking, to turn these ideas into reality, you need knowledge and work skills to execute. So for a qualified regional manager, there are three necessary business abilities: (1) Market research and analysis ability; You should learn some market research and analysis methods and use them to grasp the market more scientifically. Some say a good business manager should have three abilities: "can eat, can drink, can talk." This summary has some truth. "Can eat" means good health, able to withstand the market's trials, and able to collect more market information and opportunities through market visits. "Can drink" means good social skills; the purpose of socializing is also an important way to collect information and solve problems, especially referring to a business manager's public relations (or attack) ability. "Can talk" is a management and command ability; you should be able to form your own marketing viewpoints and experience through actual market operations, so that later generations can learn from them, and you can advance to higher career planning. (2) Marketing planning ability; Initially analyze and process the marketing information obtained, and form matching strategies. This is a problem-solving ability and also reflects the regional manager's adaptability. From a practical market perspective, marketing planning ability is how to reasonably use your own resources to do things that suit local conditions. A salesperson for male functional drugs, through full analysis of customers, believed that white-collar males aged 35-55 were the main users of the product. How to advertise to this group? By chance, while learning about the city's cultural characteristics online, he found that white-collar males aged 35-55 were concentrated in higher-end residential areas. Inspired, he researched the city's relevant communities and indeed identified the communities where 35-55-year-old white-collar workers concentrated. He then carried out effective targeted publicity in these communities, achieving the effect of fishing in a pond with fish. The sales results were naturally very good. (3) Market organization and execution ability. Many companies' regional managers are also called execution managers. This is true. For strong companies, the market path is designed by the marketing department in the annual business plan. For regional managers, they only need to follow the established policy and execute according to standards without compromise. As long as they execute 60% of the standard, the company can achieve substantial development. But in actual work, regional managers often clash with the marketing department. Either they believe the marketing department is far from the market, building cars behind closed doors, lacking frontline market experience, so the work standards they set are unsatisfactory or even ridiculous; or the work standards set by the marketing department are too far from the basic quality of regional managers, and regional managers don't realize the importance of the work required by the marketing department, so they resist. An excellent regional manager should fully understand the company's culture and working methods, combine the company's overall plan and execution plan, use their own initiative to maximize the use of the company's overall marketing resources, and execute the established policy to the end without excuses. This ability is the noblest quality of marketing personnel.
  6. Preparation of empathy. What can you do for consumers? What can you do for distributors? From the consumer's perspective, how would they think of us? (1) Think: If I were a consumer, why would I buy this product? (2) Think: If I were a consumer, where would I buy this product? (3) Think: Consumers who buy other brands of similar products, why don't they buy my product? (4) Think: Consumers who haven't tried this type of product, under what circumstances would they buy my product? (5) Think: If I were a distributor, how would I demand from suppliers? (6) Think: Why do these distributors treat other suppliers that way, but treat me this way? The results of this thinking have two benefits: (1) You can blame yourself to achieve self-clarity, self-awareness, and self-improvement; (2) You can use the other party as a mirror to understand your own shortcomings. People often say that doing market work is about character. In fact, doing market work ultimately is about interests. Only by thinking about your actions from the other's perspective, and also guiding customers to think from your perspective, can any matter be discussed successfully. Everyone understands the principle; the key lies in practice. Calmly require yourself to think more for the other party every day, and your market will be more open. -END- Content Selection Reply with the following keywords to search and read related articles: Sales Supervisor, Second-tier Management, Regional Manager, Distributor Management, New Channels, City Manager, Competition, 2015, Manufacturer-Dealer Game, Product Slow-moving, Terminal Visit Management, Route Management, Deep Distribution, Internal Management, Sales Skills, Profit Improvement, Recruitment, Distribution, Daily Management, Team Motivation, Channel Promotion, Sales Misconceptions, New Product Launch, Township Market, New Product Pricing, Sales Target Achievement, Closing, Market Visit Inspection, Liquor, Beer, Sales Increase, Agency Products, Cross-region Sales, KA, Terminal Vividness, New Market, Market Operation, Learning, Book Recommendations, Inventory Management, Sales Novice, Consumer Promotion, Execution, Old Products, Expired Product Handling, Model Market, Investment Attraction, New Media, Distributor Development, Performance Appraisal, Assessment, Annual Planning, Shopping Guide, Morning Meeting, Display, Transformation, Stock Pressure, Festival, Distributor Cost Control, Channel Operation, Marketing Theory and Laws, Brand Truth, Order Meeting, Team Management, Training, Work Report, Work Report.