At year-end, especially during the Spring Festival, it is the peak season for alcohol sales, and most distributors rely on this period to make a good profit and have a good year. In fact, sales during this period can affect the sales performance for the entire coming year. However, many distributors are unclear about how to proceed, often relying on intuition, which makes results dependent on luck. Here are five simple, direct, and effective methods summarized for your inspiration. -01- Lower Your Profile and Use "Emotion" to Drive Group Buying The alcohol category sees a surge at year-end, a good time to make money. However, due to the renewed tension of the epidemic this year, large-scale gatherings have been banned, and the food and beverage channel for alcohol has been hit hard again. This makes group buying even more important, as holiday benefits and gifts have not diminished in most regions. Whether group buying can be done well becomes the key point for distributors to fill the sales gap during this year-end period. A certain county-level distributor, Mr. Zhang, is a second-tier distributor in the local area. Under the pressure of the epidemic, he achieved sales of 800,000 yuan in just one month through group buying. How did he do it? Mr. Zhang first screened the phone numbers in his mobile phone contacts, grouping friends who had group-buying capabilities into one category. Most of these were small business owners or their children. Then, he "thick-skinned" visited them one by one. In the past, he would only personally visit major clients. After these visits, out of nearly 100 client friends, 15 directly chose his products as company benefits, 5 gave up their previous alcohol brands and accepted his products, and a dozen or so made symbolic small purchases. Mr. Zhang told the author: "Actually, some of these clients were really doing me a favor. If I hadn't visited, they might not have used my alcohol, including those who bought just to show appreciation." Summary: This method is very suitable for small and medium-sized distributors. Bosses should appropriately lower their profile to do group buying. During the year-end sales push, occasionally visiting in person, even if the other party may be a junior, can increase the probability of success if you can put aside your pride. But pay attention to seizing the opportunity node, visiting before the client has prepared their benefit products; otherwise, it becomes an opportunity for competitors. -02- Short-Term Credit Supply, I'll Bear the Risk On the terminal store side, at year-end, most terminals need to stock many categories of products, and their funds are relatively tight. At this time, distributors can adopt some aggressive methods for certain terminal stores they are confident about: first supply the goods to the terminal for sale, give them the profit, and if they don't sell, I'll take them back for free, and settle payment after the end. A distributor of Site liquor in Jiangxi, Mr. Liu, has been in the alcohol business for over a decade and has always had a good reputation at the terminal. At the end of last year, many terminals faced capital pressure and didn't want to stock too much. After discussing with department leaders, Mr. Liu decided to offer short-term credit supply. They selected terminals with more than 3 years of cooperation, good understanding, good credit, and good relationships, and signed agreements. The requirements were that the Site brand products be the first recommended product of the month, and unconditionally accept the core placement of Spring Festival promotional materials without paying any fees to the distributor. After the Spring Festival, settlement would be based on the policy. If the terminal chose to return goods, they would be transported back to the distributor's warehouse for free. As a result, even after the year due to the epidemic, some terminals had unsold goods, but almost no one chose to return them. In one month, the more than 100 terminals that signed agreements achieved sales of 750,000 yuan. Summary: This method is suitable for "bold" distributors and requires a good relationship with terminals and that the products are accepted by consumers; otherwise, there may be excessive unsold inventory, no sales, and additional transportation costs. Additionally, this method has a longer payment period, and there may even be cases of default or bad debts. -03- Bundle Promotions and Set Up Stalls to Create Atmosphere A certain county-level alcohol merchant in Henan has always done well in holiday gift consumption. In addition to baijiu, the company also operates categories such as snacks and pastries. During this year's Spring Festival, he bundled alcohol products with other food products and, through a short-term promotion policy of "reward 1,000 yuan for one and a half months," required all stores to place products in the most prominent position at the entrance. Not only that, he also temporarily hired his relatives as promoters for point-of-sale promotions, creating an excellent atmosphere for the brand products at various terminals. As soon as you entered the store, you could clearly feel that the brand he represented had the largest display. Through this, he achieves a double harvest in sales of alcohol and food products every year. Summary: This method is a form of cross-border sales, requiring the combination of multiple advantageous resources for joint and combined sales, combining and amplifying the influence of multiple first- and second-tier brands. It also requires certain terminal resources, especially gift-oriented terminal stores. -04- Liquidate Non-Main Products Through Clearance Sales For most distributors, there are always products in the warehouse that are unsellable or difficult to sell, and the Spring Festival is a good time to clear inventory and increase volume. A second-tier wholesaler in Hunan has more than 1,000 products in his warehouse. During the Spring Festival in recent years, he has continuously carried out various methods such as buy-one-get-one-free, buy baijiu get red wine free, give holiday supplies as gifts, limited-time discounts, and half-price for N items, always giving consumers the feeling of "getting a bargain," especially selling well in township markets. This move allowed him to quickly clear non-main products, even delisted products, for several consecutive years. Not only that, he also cooperated with hotels and utilized pre-Spring Festival township markets to effectively increase the speed of clearing these non-main products. Non-main products are usually hard to sell, even with discounts. They occupy funds and warehouse space. The Spring Festival is a good time to increase volume. Promotional policies such as gifts and limited-time heavy discounts give consumers the feeling of "getting a bargain." Using Spring Festival market scenes, you can also do "clearance sales" to turn hard-to-sell non-main products into cash. Summary: Non-main products are often difficult to sell in normal times. These products not only occupy a long capital cycle but also incur high storage costs if not disposed of for a long time. Taking advantage of the Spring Festival to quickly dispose of these products is a good way to free up warehouse space and recover funds. -05- Focus on Core Small Stores and Carry Out Zero-Risk Promotions With the implementation of policies such as China's new rural construction and poverty alleviation and agricultural assistance, great results have been achieved. Some developed rural markets have begun to see core small stores. These small stores basically have the functions of urban small supermarkets and are developing at a relatively fast pace. These core small stores have also become key channels for many merchants with deep channel penetration. A county-level distributor in the author's hometown, during the Spring Festival, cooperated with some small store owners in villages and towns with larger storefronts and good reputations for joint promotions. He also adopted a "zero-risk" cooperation model: sell first, pay after the Spring Festival. This method has a high probability of being accepted by rural small stores with limited funds. He had the small store owners place products and empty boxes in the store or at the entrance for display and publicity, along with some posters and banners hung at the door. The promotion methods were kept as simple and direct as possible, which was very popular with local villagers and returning migrants. As for the issue of default, this distributor told the author: "The stores we chose are all old stores with good reputations, and the storefronts are basically their own. It seems risky, but in reality, there are very few cases of 'running orders.' Apart from some payment delays, the actual risk is very small." Summary: This method is suitable for selling and promoting mid- to low-end alcohol in rural markets. It requires a certain channel depth and a grasp of the basic conditions and stability of the channel. The above are the five operational insights for boosting alcohol sales during the Spring Festival summarized by the author. They may not be applicable to all merchants and markets, but I hope they can bring some inspiration to everyone. In addition, there are many other forms, such as monthly volume rebates, New Year's Eve dinner promotions (which may not be very applicable in some regions this year), and gift promotions like Spring Festival couplets and lanterns, which are also relatively effective methods. I wonder if readers have other effective operations; you can leave a comment to share.