Many say sales personnel have little say over products, unable to decide development ideas or make decisions, selling whatever is available. On the surface, this seems true, but in reality, product updates, new product launches, and mix are largely influenced by regional sales personnel. Once a new product launch fails or product mix and updates go awry, the market can face major or even fatal problems. A market I often cite is a case in point: when products have issues, other efforts are futile. The importance of products needs no elaboration here, as marketing without good products is a castle in the air and cannot be sustainable. Products can be a powerful "sales force," one of the key factors in appealing to consumers, stabilizing customer groups, and driving repeat purchases. For a long time, the marketing world was obsessed with creating concepts and mystifying, thinking that by crafting a "differentiated" concept, packaging it, and forming a so-called "business model," sales could be achieved and a brand built. What was the result? The answer is clear: many such products vanished within a year or two. Decades ago, advertising giant David Ogilvy said something similar: selling points and differentiation must be real—good products are the fundamental condition for advertising. In short, good products are the foundation of all marketing; discussing marketing and sales without products and product mix is putting the cart before the horse. So, how should regional sales personnel select products and product mix, and adjust when products are about to have problems? Before addressing this, let's look at a case. There was a market that grew at over 50% annually for the first few years, but after four years, growth stalled. The sales team was puzzled and found many reasons: distributor issues, salesperson market maintenance, cost investment, brand loyalty, etc. Most were plausible but not the real cause; they tried to solve them intermittently with little effect. Eventually, the situation became dangerous and unsustainable: the secondary wholesaler network was on the brink of collapse, the distribution network was shattered by competitors, shipments relied on salesperson push and promotions, natural sales and distribution were nearly impossible, and products wouldn't sell without activities. Sales personnel found it exhausting and hopeless, and distributors were the first to complain. After detailed investigation and analysis, the main problem was found to be product issues (single, aging, thin margins), not primarily distributor or team issues. Although various problems existed, the core issue was the products. Aging products and no channel profits caused the distribution system to collapse; it wasn't that no one wanted to buy, but that no one wanted to sell. By focusing on product issues, they mobilized resources to replace with a new product, then solved other related problems, curbing the sales decline and improving sales. Selecting products and product mix is a technical skill. Sales personnel must not only know how to sell products but also how to discover, select, cultivate, and replace products—this is the path to long-term market success. A good product speaks for itself. A good product needs not only good packaging and name but also a sufficient consumer base and market foundation. Cultivating a market from scratch is difficult and risky, often beyond small companies. Assess the competitive landscape, the performance of high-, mid-, and low-end products, and choose the right tier for market breakthrough. Initially, one or two products are enough to start a regional market; too many products can cause conflicts and disperse resources. But as operations mature, a product mix is needed to cover different tiers and consumer groups. Additionally, channel conflicts can be managed by using different products for channel segmentation. A complete market product classification typically includes: image products, profit products, volume products, and blocking products. Sales personnel should analyze whether this mix is reasonable and can stabilize the market. Not all markets have such a full range, but market considerations should be comprehensive and scientific. Image products are strategic, not necessarily for high volume, but to enhance brand image in the high-end market and add value to mid-tier products. Profit products are crucial for supporting market operations, ensuring distributor enthusiasm and stable development, though not high in volume. Volume products are the core for market stability, scale, brand influence, and channel control; their unit margins are low but volume is high, vital for the company's regional position. Blocking products are used to attack competitors, serve as cannon fodder for promotions and specials, and act as channel lubricants, protecting profit and volume products. Even best-selling products have a life cycle. Some say Coca-Cola has no life cycle, selling one product for over a century, but that's not true; Coca-Cola innovates annually through packaging changes and advertising angles. Both cola giants introduced sugar-free versions, driven by product innovation. If you notice sales are hard to increase and keep declining, distributors lack enthusiasm, distribution networks shrink, and team efforts are unsustainable; if sales rise with secondary wholesaler or terminal activities but drop immediately when they stop, it's time to think about product issues. These include single or aging products, channel profit margins shrinking to unprofitable levels, and your products not being indispensable to channels. Also, if there's a gap in product succession and insufficient backup cultivation, problems arise. In summary, products must adapt to the market. Find your product's relative advantages—taste, packaging, bottle shape, price differentials—find a breakthrough, cultivate it, achieve scale sales, and form a tiered product mix (high, mid, low) to build base sales. Once a certain market scale is reached, channel-specific operations become feasible. 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