Riding along with delivery vehicles is a fundamental task that frontline sales personnel must perform, serving as an excellent channel for customer service and relationship building. It not only helps better understand the market, find solutions, and act as a consultant and advisor to clients, but more importantly, it deepens the emotional connection between sales staff and clients, greatly enhancing client enthusiasm and cooperation. Vehicle operations are also the most arduous work, enduring scorching heat in summer and bitter cold in winter. Some sales staff, through a day's work, gather a wealth of information, summarize experiences, and identify methods and strategies to boost market sales, significantly contributing to sales growth. However, most sales staff end up being mere porters for clients, ending the day drenched in sweat, with aching backs and exhaustion, collapsing into bed upon returning to the hotel. Imagine such sales staff, though the hardest working and most diligent, what are the results? Their market performance does not necessarily improve, nor do their sales skills advance. So, what should grassroots sales staff do during vehicle operations? Below, we break down the actions for vehicle operations, hoping to provide some assistance to frontline staff.
Action 1: "Communicate" Communicate policies and strengthen relationships. Typically, clients are busy with business and have little time to sit down and communicate. If you accompany them on rural distribution trips, that is the perfect opportunity to discuss promotional policies, formulate market plans, understand market information, and strengthen bonds.
Action 2: "Check" Verify the implementation of company promotional policies. Since the company has corresponding promotional policies each month, and due to varying market conditions and client cooperation levels, there may be instances where policies are not fully implemented or expenses are withheld, severely impacting the advancement of marketing policies and product sales. Market checks can help avoid such issues.
Action 3: "Discover" Identify blank outlets, understand why terminal outlets do not stock products, find problems and solutions, and increase sales opportunities. No matter how mature a product is, its coverage rate rarely reaches 100%; there are always blank outlets that have not been developed. Sales staff can easily spot these blank outlets during vehicle operations, identify the reasons for non-stocking, and combine relevant promotional policies to help clients successfully develop these outlets, thereby increasing sales opportunities.
Action 4: "Open Box" Open boxes and place products on shelves, cultivating the habit of stocking downstream clients' shelves among clients or their sales staff. When clients or their sales staff deliver goods, they often unload, collect payment, and drive off. However, this loses many sales opportunities. Terminal clients may be too busy to restock shelves promptly. At such times, sales staff should check whether products on the shelves are out of stock; if so, open boxes and place products to ensure adequate product variety on the shelves, preventing sales losses due to delayed stocking.
Action 5: "Seize" Seize the best selling spots to increase product visibility and sales opportunities. Statistics show that products with higher visibility have greater sales opportunities. Therefore, companies with promotional assistants often require them to follow planned areas and routes, regularly maintain products, and seize the best selling spots. As sales staff, you should also do this work, placing your products in positions where consumers can see, take, and obtain them most easily, making it convenient for consumers and thereby increasing sales opportunities for the company.
Action 6: "Tidy" Since terminal store clients are busy, products on shelves are often not carefully maintained. Over time, products may accumulate dust and be arranged haphazardly, reducing consumers' desire to purchase. Tidying the shelf display and keeping products clean can better attract consumer purchase intent. Grasp customer psychology and seize opportunities to facilitate sales.
Action 7: "Position Near" Position near well-known competing products to leverage sales. Due to consumers' herd mentality, most believe that products placed near well-known products are also among the best sellers. Therefore, placing your products next to well-known brands can undoubtedly enhance your product's visibility. Additionally, most well-known products are placed in prime positions at terminals; positioning nearby can also secure better selling spots, thereby increasing sales opportunities.
Action 8: "Seize" Seize terminal customer psychology to close orders. Through face-to-face communication with terminal customers, you can better grasp their needs, understand more market information, and identify more sales opportunities. Combine relevant company policies to maximize sales orders.
In summary, grassroots sales work is the most arduous in any company. As sales personnel, you must first understand your work content to progress gradually and continuously improve yourself. The above eight actions may seem independent, but they are actually interconnected and complementary. By demonstrating these eight actions, the main purpose is to act as a coach, teaching clients or their sales staff how to do market work and how to make products more appealing. Only when clients' market operation capabilities improve can market sales be better enhanced.