Just as the leap from division-level to bureau-level cadre is difficult, many marketing professionals at the regional manager level (especially provincial managers) find it hard to eventually reach the position of regional director (or sales director). Thus, the market challenge facing many regional managers is: how to stand out from dozens of peers and squeeze into the few regional director positions? In many people's view, this seems to be a matter of opportunity. But opportunity always favors the prepared mind. If regional managers are more proactive and thoughtful in their daily work, then when opportunity knocks, we may be able to seize it immediately and achieve another leap in our marketing career. The following are seven shortcuts for regional managers to stand out, summarized from numerous cases, for the reference of capable and ambitious peers.
Shortcut 1: Achieve Market Results with Thought Success Mechanism: An excellent regional manager may not necessarily be a qualified regional director, because regional managers emphasize execution, while regional directors focus more on overall market coordination. In other words, a qualified regional director should first be a person with correct marketing thinking. Therefore, when superiors evaluate candidates for regional director, besides sales performance indicators, they also consider whether the candidate has the correct guiding ideology and philosophy for developing and managing the market. So, under equal market performance, the regional manager with the most thought is likely to stand out. This form of thoughtful market performance is manifested by the continuous emergence of new marketing terms, new marketing models, new marketing insights, and new marketing tools in that market. Ask yourself: if a regional manager with considerable market performance (at least medium level) always shares new marketing ideas and viewpoints at the company's monthly meetings, would the executives attending the meeting turn a blind eye to him or her? Once a regional director position becomes vacant, who would the executives think of first?
Success Case: A friend of mine, Mr. Liu, graduated from university at 22, and by 26 became a regional director at a well-known company. His career development basically advanced one step each year. Even the threshold from regional manager to regional director took him only one and a half years. Summarizing his success, besides opportunity, personal ability was a very prominent factor. At every marketing meeting, he could always extract fresh marketing concepts and market experiences based on his market reality. As a result, the boss would always ask him for additional suggestions at the end of the meeting. His colleagues commented that he was mature beyond his years, always thinking more deeply and comprehensively than others. His market performance was not always first, but his market always became a positive model in some aspect of the company's marketing work. Senior management often visited his market for research. Therefore, when the company decided to establish a regional system, he became one of the first batch of regional directors.
Shortcut 2: Become the Leader of Informal Organizations Within the Company Success Mechanism: According to Chinese traditional culture, a regional director must be a person with authority among peer managers; otherwise, they cannot hold the position, or even if they do, they may not sit firmly. When superiors evaluate candidates for regional director, their personal influence among peers is also a factor that cannot be ignored. Therefore, if a regional manager can become the leader of informal organizations within the enterprise, especially within the sales system, the boss will pay close attention to his personal authority and influence. The usual practice is to let him transform from an informal leader to a formal leader—regional general manager. This personnel arrangement model is summarized by management experts after years of research, and it is the most suitable choice for enterprise bosses in terms of risk and return. Of course, informal organizations do not necessarily have strict names and boundaries; as long as the regional manager intentionally or unintentionally demonstrates his influence among peers in important occasions and in front of important people, it is enough. Of course, this demonstration must be within the tolerance of the leadership.
Success Case: Mr. Xu was slightly older among the regional managers at the same level in the company. His market performance was basically stable in the top 10. He was generous and loyal, and always liked to represent the market brothers to report problems and make suggestions to the company leaders. At every marketing meeting or when leaders came to inspect the market, he was always the first to stand up, talk about problems, express everyone's thoughts, and also put forward some good market suggestions, just like a people's representative from the market. After many times, everyone privately affectionately called him "boss." Eventually, even the boss learned of this nickname and conducted a private investigation, finding that he was indeed capable and had high prestige. Just then, a regional director resigned, and he was considered for the position.
Shortcut 3: Cultivate a Group of Excellent Subordinates as Successors Success Mechanism: There is a saying in the marketing circle: promoting others is liberating yourself. For a regional manager, only when there is a successor can he be promoted and leave. Because from the superior's perspective, promoting a regional director is important, but maintaining the stability of a regional market is even more important. Therefore, when a regional manager is promoted, there must be a suitable person to take over. Usually, that person is one of his subordinates. If the regional manager has not cultivated such a successor, then when the time comes, he cannot leave even if he wants to. From another perspective, an important role of a regional director is to be the coach and trainer within the region. If your subordinates are talented, then at least you let the enterprise boss know that you are good at cultivating and leading an excellent sales team. Then who else would be promoted if not you? Of course, the premise is to let the leadership appreciate you. Otherwise, what you cultivate may become the gravedigger of your own position.
Success Case: I once worked for a period beside the boss of a certain company, during which I received several phone calls from the front line. It turned out that when the front-line staff heard that the provincial manager A of that market intended to resign, they called one after another to express that if their leader left, they would collectively quit, because it was unfair for the company to drive away such a good person. Later, even distributors called to question why the company wanted to remove this regional manager. So the boss sent people to investigate and found that the regional manager's previous performance was not bad (because the market was in the northwest), but in the last two months, due to personal family reasons, he could not devote all his energy to work, leading to a decline in market performance. He was given a yellow card warning by the headquarters, and the manager began to prepare for resignation. At this time, there happened to be a vacancy for a regional director position. Someone suggested that the boss let this manager take it. But the boss ultimately chose not A, but another regional manager B, with the reason that A could only do things, not manage people; once he was absent, the market would decline. Manager B, on the other hand, had subordinates who could each handle their own responsibilities, indicating that he could lead a good team, meeting the requirements of a regional director.
Shortcut 4: Become the Company's Renowned Chart Management Expert Success Mechanism: A qualified regional director not only needs market performance to speak for him, but also needs strong management ability. For a regional manager to stand out, he must demonstrate this ability to his superiors. The concrete manifestation of management ability is the ability to design a set of scientific, reasonable, and effective management systems, and the execution process of management systems is largely displayed through charts. For example, meeting written speech forms, market action assessment forms, supermarket promotion follow-up forms, etc. These charts are actually a comprehensive reflection of the regional manager's management thinking and a comprehensive display of management effectiveness. Therefore, a small window can let the boss discover his management ability. Of course, too many charts can only have a negative effect.
Success Case: A friend of mine, Mr. Chang, was a man of few words and concise style. He spent most of his time in the market summarizing experiences and discovering problems. He often designed some management forms based on market reality and applied them in his regional market. Later, during an accidental inspection by the boss, these practical forms were discovered, greatly praised, and immediately promoted throughout the company. Chang also became a well-known chart management expert in the company. In the assessment of candidates for regional director, he received the appointment notice because of his outstanding management ability.
Shortcut 5: Persist in Writing a Market Diary and Proactively Share It Within the Company Success Mechanism: The power of example is infinite, and the power of an example's diary is also infinite. Lei Feng demonstrated his excellent quality of serving the people through his thick stack of diaries. Not long ago, the CCTV military channel reported the advanced deeds of a squad leader of the People's Liberation Army in the northwest. The gist was to praise his effective leadership of soldiers, and the commendation was based on his work diary over the three years as squad leader. The diary recorded the details of training and daily life of the squad, reflecting his simple management thinking and keen military insight. For regional managers, this method can be borrowed. Another benefit of persisting in writing a market diary is that it forces you to summarize experiences, refine ideas, discover problems, and cultivate market observation and problem analysis abilities. In this way, when the boss suddenly checks the market work, you can be confident and respond calmly. But what if the boss doesn't see it? Then proactively share it within the company. Ask yourself: if a regional manager's diary (or an important marketing article) can be widely circulated on the company's website, would he still worry about his development space?
Success Case: A regional manager at M Company was good at thinking about market issues. No matter how busy he was every day, he would record a few notes on the computer. At first, it was just a review of his work, but later it gradually improved and became marketing essays one after another. Later, he participated in the company's internal online forum discussions and posted his articles, which received a flood of praise. This greatly increased his interest, so he insisted on posting a market diary every week. By the end of the year, he had a thick stack, and the company's internal publication even reprinted some of the articles. The company boss attached great importance to this. Just as a new region was being established, he was the first to be considered.
Shortcut 6: Build a Support Network of Relationships Inside and Outside the Company Success Mechanism: My research has found that the personal career development of regional managers is closely related to three types of relationships inside and outside the company: the first is power relationships, such as superior-subordinate relationships; the second is market relationships, such as relationships with key accounts and distributors; the third is trust relationships, such as non-power respect relationships among peers. The combination of these three types of relationships affects the promotion of regional managers. If all three types of relationships are positive, then the development of the regional manager is natural; if there are only power and market relationships, but no trust relationships, then the regional manager may be promoted, but not for long; but if there are only trust relationships, without power and market relationships, then even if the regional manager's ability and market performance are good, it is difficult to rise. According to this rule, if a regional manager wants to stand out, he needs to build a relationship network with support from both inside and outside. This network may not directly determine the promotion of the regional manager, but it can quickly provide important policy information to the regional manager and may also indirectly influence the appointment of market managers. As for how to build this network, it depends on the regional manager's personal understanding.
Success Case: Regional manager E at D Company had market performance at the upper-middle level. He usually paid attention to communicating with all parties (by the way, SMS communication played a big role; the classic text messages he wrote were widely circulated among the public). At the end of the year, an insider told him that the company planned to adjust the regional setup and intended to select two people from the existing 30+ regional market managers to serve as directors of the newly established regions. After the first round of screening, he and five other colleagues passed. However, in the impression of the headquarters leaders, he was only a person with strong personal work ability, lacking the ability to lead a market team. After learning this information, the battle-hardened Manager E compared himself with the five colleagues, found some shortcomings in himself, and, referring to suggestions from other friends, decided to plan a sales climax during the New Year's Day period to demonstrate his abilities and level in relevant aspects, thereby increasing the impression score of the superior leaders. The plan succeeded, and he got what he wanted.
Shortcut 7: Be the First to Enter a Foreign Enterprise in a Challenger Position in the Industry Success Mechanism: "When the orange tree is planted in Huainan, it produces oranges; when planted in Huaibei, it produces trifoliate oranges. The leaves look similar, but the taste is different. Why? Because the soil and water are different." This principle also applies to the personal development of regional managers. As the saying goes, "If this place doesn't keep people, there will be a place that does." "A tree moves and dies; a person moves and lives." When a regional manager finds that the company's marketing system is aging (an important manifestation is that most marketing personnel are old hands), and there is basically no room for promotion, for personal development, he can consider entering a challenger enterprise in the industry. Generally speaking, most regional directors are promoted from grassroots sales representatives and provincial managers, but some foreign enterprises are accustomed to bringing in external talent. These foreign enterprises already have a certain reputation in the international market, and their income and treatment are also considerable, but they entered the Chinese market a bit later. They urgently welcome regional managers who have worked in market-leading domestic enterprises and have years of industry experience to join them and help them quickly open up the market. This is a golden opportunity for regional managers who want to stand out. The reason not to consider private and state-owned enterprises first is that these enterprises generally have poor integrity, and if things go wrong, you may lose both people and money.
Success Case: Mr. Xi served as a regional manager at an international medical device company for 4 years. His market performance was generally at the upper-middle level among the provinces, and sometimes he ranked among the top in the country on certain sales indicators. However, he found that in the past 4 years, whether it was his immediate superior or other regional directors, they were all familiar faces. Even if he did well, there was not much room for promotion. At the end of the year, his original immediate superior finally resigned. Xi thought he could naturally take over his superior's position. But he was greatly disappointed. A regional manager from another province, a 40-something abnormal woman who had been a provincial manager for nearly 8 years, became his new superior. The first thing this female superior did after taking office was to target her former colleagues, constantly arranging her original subordinates to infiltrate Xi's market. Not familiar with the characteristics of Xi's market, she kept giving orders, which made Xi unbearable. In anger, he happened to discover that another international company had just entered the Chinese mainland market. Based on his understanding, this newly entered company's market position in the United States was no worse than Xi's own company. So, despite his loyalty to the company, he had to grit his teeth and defect to the competitor. Then, during the training process, the new company's boss observed and communicated with Xi, discovering his good comprehensive quality. At the end of the training, he directly appointed Xi as the regional director of one of the three major regions in the country, granting him greater market autonomy. Xi sighed, "If I had known this earlier, why would I have hung on to the original company?"
Rome was not built in a day. The above seven shortcuts for regional managers to stand out seem simple, but in reality, they are not. Perhaps in the famous writer Tian Dongzhao's novel "Running for Office," someone can use certain skills to climb the promotion ladder. But for every regional manager who truly wants to achieve a qualitative change in position, behind the shortcuts there must be two invisible words: "diligence"...
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