By Yuanjing Consulting, Zhou Pingjian
Market difficulties, consumer rejection of products, terminal salespeople unsure how to work effectively, and products not moving—these are common phenomena manufacturers and distributors face in terminal channels. So how can we effectively solve the problem of terminal sell-through? This requires a deep understanding of the seven key strategies for terminal sell-through.
First Sword: Refined Management of the Marketing Team
Refined management of the marketing team is a key component of refined market operations. Its core is to closely follow the two major indicators of quantification and qualification, strengthening management of execution efficiency and quality to enhance team execution and build an elite marketing force. Specifically, it includes the following aspects:
1. Goal Module: The foundation of performance management, including sales target decomposition, process target decomposition, dynamic indicator management, backend data management, and daily benchmarking.
2. Structure Module: The basic guarantee for execution, including primary and secondary organizational structure design, staffing standards, position responsibilities, position staffing, and personnel assignment.
3. Recruitment Module: Improving the selection of marketing personnel, including recruitment channel establishment, recruitment information standardization, interview processes, and hiring procedures.
4. Training Module: Key to improving personnel skills, including training needs surveys, annual training plans, training organization and implementation, and training follow-up and tracking.
5. Performance Module: Addressing the motivation of marketing personnel, including salary design, performance appraisal, and daily incentives.
6. Reporting Module: Testing organizational execution, including daily, weekly, and monthly work reports, and weekly and monthly meeting systems.
Second Sword: Six Golden Rules for Distribution
Strictly control the ratio of cash to credit sales, ideally maintaining an 8:2 ratio, and avoid large-scale credit sales.
Adhere to the development route from advantageous markets to balanced markets to disadvantageous markets.
Grasp the point-line-plane principle:
- First, plan regions, sub-regions, streets, and core stores;
- Second, do well in one core store, then expand to the street, then to small sub-regions, link sub-regions, and occupy the region.
Flexibly use the Pareto principle (80/20 rule).
Match products with terminals, build effective outlets, pursue effective distribution rate, and clean up "zombie" terminals.
Regularly "brainwash" terminals by explaining sales actions.
Third Sword: The Unignorable Terminal Recommendation Rate
The recommendation rate refers to the quality of recommendations from sales terminals, including two aspects:
Build leader terminals, leverage their enthusiasm for product recommendation, create a demonstration effect, lead other terminals to follow and gain confidence, and achieve a point-to-area effect;
Maintain terminal profit (for a new product, terminal profit should generally be at least 1.5 times that of best-selling competing products to fully stimulate terminal enthusiasm for main promotion), and strengthen terminal services.
Fourth Sword: Four Dimensions of Visits
Visit Frequency: Differentiate visit frequencies for different terminals;
Visit Quantity: Quality can only be discussed based on quantity;
Visit Process: Define areas, routes, sales targets, and the eight-step visit procedure;
Visit Depth (Effective Visits): The depth or effectiveness of visits lies in clearly understanding the purpose of the visit, what results to achieve, what problems to discover, what problems to solve, how to secure sales orders, the reasons for winning or losing orders, and how to improve next time—avoiding ineffective "meter-reading" visits.
Fifth Sword: Terminal Activation Project
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Terminal Merchandising:
Product Display:
- Displayed products: For leading core products, the display effect and value must be strengthened;
- Display quantity: The quantity for general stores, core stores, and large displays should be weighted according to local competition; the same applies to main and auxiliary products—the two dimensions need to achieve a balance;
- Display method: Based on product grade, arrange from high to low on shelves or racks, or place in a row with the highest-priced product in the middle and others arranged sequentially; price tags must be present on the display.
Stack Display: "Stack goods like a mountain" is an efficient product display method in any era. Generally, in-store stack displays should have at least 10 cases of wine, supplemented by standardized materials such as large L-shaped display boards, shopping bag displays, and case stickers.
Terminal Atmosphere Creation: Whether it's wall painting inside or outside the store, counter production, or the use of merchandising materials like posters, price stickers, plastic signs, or banners, you must go to the extreme to surpass competitors to have a chance. If you cannot surpass competitors in quantity or variety of atmosphere forms, you must perfect one form to strongly attract consumers' eyes and minds.
2
City Activation:
City activation means embedding product advertisements into consumers' daily lives, making them visible everywhere. Common forms include TV, newspapers, radio, outdoor, highway billboards, storefronts, and walls. If the advertising budget is relatively insufficient, you must choose one form and perfect it, using minimal resources to maximize influence and effect. For example, choose a specific area or street and focus only on painted storefront ads or painted wall ads to create a model area or model street.
Sixth Sword: Promotions
Channel Promotions: For the Baijiu industry, at least 6 channel promotions should be conducted within a year, such as once in early March, once at the end of April, once in July, once for Mid-Autumn Festival, once for New Year's Day, and once for Spring Festival.
Consumer Promotions: Examples include scratch cards attached to the product, buy-give promotions for terminals, tasting experiences, lucky draws, buying to participate in smashing golden eggs, community events, buying to participate in other entertainment activities, and PR gifts for core consumers.
Core Store Promotions: Choose terminals with high foot traffic, strong radiation, and matching product sales, especially catering terminals. Jointly conduct a series of consumer promotions in-store and fully disseminate the promotion information, such as buy large get small free, buy two get one free, buy wine get food, dine get wine, limited-time wine gifts, limited-table wine gifts (for the first few tables), lucky draws, etc.
Core Area Promotions: For areas or streets with concentrated terminal outlets and a large target consumer base, such as low-end Baijiu for food stall clusters, concentrate sales personnel, promotion staff, and market personnel to conduct continuous, cyclical consumer promotions until target consumers in that area can self-select the product when buying wine at that price point. If such activities can be sustained for about 20 days, the effect is quite significant, and then you can move to another area or district to develop a second model area.
Seventh Sword: Continuous Relationship Maintenance
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Material Level: Additional support beyond regular channel purchase promotions, such as free wine, small gifts, consumer tasting support, and even promotion staff support;
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Spiritual Level: Such as showing care and attention to customers, sharing common hobbies or language, and providing constructive guidance and advice on each visit—not necessarily about the product but about the customer's business or personal life.
3
Specific Examples:
- Tasting events: new product evaluation, small sample tastings, circle gatherings, outing tastings, etc.;
- Alliances and associations: The more off-season, the more you cannot ignore the tribal power of core large accounts; regularly organize learning and alliance activities.
- Routine relationship maintenance: periodic phone and field visits, and maintenance during major holidays;
- Maintenance for terminal customers' marketing events: such as new store openings, anniversaries, promotional activities, etc.;
- Personal relationship maintenance for customers: such as birthdays, anniversaries, etc.