Zhu Xiaoqing recently discussed precise outlet distribution with a senior executive from a company's marketing management center. The executive reported: 1) Our outlet coverage has reached the company's expected plan, but the monthly activity rate of outlets cannot meet the target; 2) The monthly activity rate of this year's main new SKUs is even worse, and the low activity rate of new products has even caused some outlets to develop 'aversion' to the brand, resist the frontline sales team, and lead to outlet attrition. What good suggestions are there to improve this situation? I replied: In medicine, there is a targeted therapy, which is a treatment method aimed at specific carcinogenic sites at the cellular and molecular level. Corresponding therapeutic drugs can be designed. After entering the body, the drugs specifically combine with the carcinogenic sites to exert their effects, causing tumor cells to die specifically without affecting normal tissue cells around the tumor. Therefore, molecular targeted therapy is also called 'biological missile'. So, what target consumers' needs do our new products address? They should be placed in matching outlets like 'targeted therapy' to maximize economic benefits. Six Elements of Outlets That Must Be Familiar The implementation of brand operators ultimately comes down to outlet operations. How to operate outlets well is crucial for enterprises. However, when I visited many frontline brand executives, their understanding of outlets was far from adequate. They always think about 'strategic issues', becoming erratic and unable to stay grounded. The chairman of Nongfu Spring once said: 'Our core work is to study terminal outlets, gain insights into terminal store owners, and thoroughly research everything around the cash register. Our work always revolves around the cash register. If we persist in doing this well, we can succeed. Strategy is just icing on the cake...' Without achieving terminal dominance, everything is empty! To achieve terminal dominance, the following six elements must be implemented: 1. Outlet quantity and quality: The core of horizontal and vertical growth in product sales, and also the core of display investment. If the number of outlets is not up to standard, that is, the outlet coverage rate is not up to standard, the market cannot form a brand atmosphere, and market investment will be greatly discounted. If the quality of outlets is not up to standard, that is, the brand's share of shelf space, inventory share, display share, etc. in the outlet are not up to standard, the brand cannot form momentum in the store and cannot form consumer purchase behavior. 2. Outlet level: Generally, brand operators classify outlets into levels 1-5 based on quarterly sales and geographic location, with sales accounting for 80% and geographic location for 20%. Different levels have different cost investments and different visit frequencies. In terms of visits, they should be treated differently, 'kill the poor and enrich the rich' (reduce visit frequency for low-sales outlets). 3. Outlet rate: Market expenses are never enough; for those exceeding the rate, 'kill the rich to help the poor'. Some outlets have severely imbalanced input-output. Outlets with excessive rates must be stopped. In practice, if total market sales are fixed, total expenses are basically fixed. If outlets with excessive rates are left unchecked, there will not be enough expenses to invest in outlets with development opportunities, ultimately leading to a fault in the outlet upgrade mechanism and losing market growth opportunities. 4. Outlet SKU: Different products must match different outlets, not be forced. Returning to the question at the beginning of the article, why does the monthly activity rate of outlets fail to meet the target, and the monthly activity rate of main new SKUs is even worse? The main reason is the mismatch between outlets and product SKUs, failing to achieve targeted outlets and targeted distribution. In practice, manufacturers often provide store entry incentives for new product distribution, and this incentive is often the number of stores entering * single store incentive standard. In this case, salespeople, in order to get the incentive, sell the product to mismatched outlets, ultimately leading to the failure of new product promotion. There is a case: A bottled water company encouraged salespeople to promote 5L water and provided store entry incentives. As a result, some salespeople distributed 5L water to business districts and street-side outlets, and the subsequent sell-through can be imagined. 5. Outlet shelf age: Reasonably push inventory, prioritize internal nearby transfer based on sell-through. Fresh shelf age is one of the core competitiveness of brand operators. As consumers continue to pursue healthy living, they gradually form the habit of checking batch numbers before buying. The fresher the batch number, the more willing they are to buy. Therefore, the management of outlet shelf age must be a high priority for brand operators. 6. Outlet customer relations: Develop fortress customers, gas stations for your own sales, and intelligence stations for competitor information. In domestic business, customer relations is one of the factors that must be considered. Distributors should establish a customer relations maintenance mechanism. For example: Establish key customer profile cards. Distributor owners should personally visit these customers regularly at certain times, give preferential treatment in resource costs, and provide condolences on important matters (weddings, funerals, etc.). Summary: I hope more corporate executives focus on these marketing details, not daydreaming about achieving sales growth through some 'strategy' overnight. Always stay grounded and do the immediate work well, doing the basic unit of sales—outlets; otherwise, even if a mature strategic system is placed in front of you, you will not know where to start. Six Elements of Outlet Visits That Must Be Familiar If you are familiar with the six elements of outlets, without visits as support, everything returns to zero. Many brand operators, considering labor costs, want to achieve actions such as independent ordering and self-maintenance by outlets. Can this be achieved? My answer is that it can be achieved from the perspective of improving service quality, but from the perspective of reducing labor costs, there will not be a significant reduction in the short term. The reason is simple: normal business is based on the trinity of 'cognition', 'transaction', and 'relationship'. Independent ordering can only solve the 'transaction' link. The other two links must rely on personnel services, which are achieved through outlet visits. 1. Regular visits: Fixed time, forming a routine, giving terminal store owners a sense of security. This is very important. Regular visits can make grassroots sales personnel achieve twice the result with half the effort. For example: Salesperson Zhang San visits outlet A every Monday morning. Over time, the store owner habitually sees Zhang San on Mondays. At this time, whether it is new product entry, display cooperation, or in-store sales scene construction, it will be very smooth because the owner meets a partner who makes him 'feel at ease', not a product pusher. 2. In-depth communication: Thoroughly discuss products and policies to reduce misunderstandings and gaps. During visits, concisely convey the month's sales policy, product information, etc. to the outlet owner to avoid unpleasant cooperation due to misunderstandings. 3. Visit frequency: Determine frequency based on output, not egalitarianism. High-quality outlets can be visited once or twice a week; non-high-quality outlets can be visited once a month or once every two months. Visits take time, and time is money for manufacturers (the value of many manufacturers paying base salary is the buyout of salespeople's time). Focus labor costs on valuable outlets. 4. Number of visits per day: Reasonable, not aggressive, plan routes and in-store time. How many visits per day is appropriate? My view is that brand operators need to calculate it themselves. Travel time should be based on outlet coverage rate, and in-store time should be based on transaction time. Different regions of the same enterprise have different numbers of visits. For example: In mature regions, order transactions do not take much time, but in immature regions, order transactions require 'slow grinding' with the owner. 5. Visit quality: Use terminal systems to score visits and do key work well. The criterion for measuring visit quality is what specific work was done in the store? For example, in-store visual merchandising materials, shelf displays, cut-case displays, etc., are important indicators for checking salespeople's hands-on ability. 6. Visit success rate: Focus on transactions and steadily improve. The visit success rate should have indicators, and the minimum number of transactions per day should be set. Only by grasping the day's transaction indicators can you avoid pressure on the sales progress at the end of the month. Summary: Outlets without visits are almost worthless, and unreasonable visit settings are the biggest waste of resources. Final Words: The call to return offline is loud, but I have noticed a phenomenon: when I recently communicated with senior executives of frontline brands such as Carlsberg, Tsingtao Brewery, and Mengniu, they focus on effective display implementation, retention of key business personnel, improvement of outlet efficiency, and other essential offline issues. In their eyes, returning offline means solid market and sales fundamentals. This is quite different from some small and medium-sized enterprises. Here, I also want to shout to all corporate executives: Less fantasy, more down-to-earth work, only then can we truly return offline.