---
title: "Starting Your Business with Ten 'Ones'"
description: "This article provides guidance for new salespeople in the FMCG industry, outlining ten practical steps—from making a plan to writing a summary—to help them navigate their early career and achieve success."
author: "New Distribution"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2015-01-07"
language: "en"
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# Starting Your Business with Ten 'Ones'

> This article provides guidance for new salespeople in the FMCG industry, outlining ten practical steps—from making a plan to writing a summary—to help them navigate their early career and achieve success.

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Because the entry barrier for salespeople is relatively low, many people's first job after entering the workforce is in sales. Nowadays, many companies simply recruit a large number of salespeople but neglect training for newcomers, essentially adopting a "shepherd-style" management approach. This leaves new salespeople with few learning channels and often leads to confusion.

**Essential Qualities for New Salespeople**

Although the entry barrier for sales is low, not everyone is suited for a career in sales. To establish yourself in the sales world and become a qualified marketing professional, you need to possess some basic qualities:

1. **Diligence.** Many young people choose sales because they see it as a job that doesn't require sitting in an office or punching a clock. They imagine traveling to various places, meeting clients, dining, drinking, and chatting with them—a glamorous lifestyle. In reality, the work of a true salesperson is not so easy; it is actually quite demanding. Only diligent salespeople can achieve good results; those who seek only ease and pleasure will quickly be eliminated.

2. **Passion.** Many college students end up in sales because they have no other choice when selecting a career. They treat sales as just a means to make a living, without any real liking, let alone passion. I suggest that college graduates, unless they genuinely love sales, should not choose it merely for employment. It wastes time and leaves you physically and mentally exhausted.

3. **Execution.** Sales, especially FMCG sales, does not require much creativity from salespeople, but it places high demands on execution. Mature companies have a complete sales process; salespeople only need to diligently implement the company's various sales policies, and generally, this is enough to do well in the market.

4. **Mindset.** As the saying goes, "Attitude determines everything." For new salespeople, mindset is especially important. Newcomers must maintain a proper attitude—neither aiming too high nor underestimating themselves. Every salesperson starts from the grassroots, doing the simplest and most trivial tasks. Without a correct mindset, it's hard to persevere.

The work of a new salesperson is not difficult per se, but without proper guidance, it can become overwhelming and confusing. If you are feeling lost, start with the following ten "ones"!

**1. A Plan**

Sales work is trivial and messy. Many new salespeople face these miscellaneous tasks and don't know where to start, easily becoming careless and disorganized. To effectively avoid this, salespeople must formulate a work plan before starting. With a reasonable plan, newcomers can avoid neglecting one thing while attending to another.

It is often difficult for new salespeople to create an annual plan, and annual plans are harder to control. I suggest that new salespeople first make weekly and daily plans, prioritizing tasks based on urgency and importance. The plan must be actionable, and the tasks in it should be achievable through your own efforts. At the same time, the plan should have some flexibility to accommodate unexpected events.

**2. A Map**

When a new salesperson arrives in a regional market, they should first buy a local map. From the map, learn about the administrative divisions, transportation, population distribution, local customs, etc. With this information, the salesperson gains a general understanding of the region and can quickly determine the market operation strategy, such as identifying key markets, planning the hierarchy of market development, and determining driving routes.

**3. A Flyer**

When visiting the market, salespeople should always carry product flyers. When visiting clients, take out your flyer and explain the product. When entering a store of an existing client, place your flyer in a prominent position. When you encounter customers entering the store, hand them a flyer promptly. When you have nothing to do in the store, stand at the door and distribute flyers to promote your product. When you see scattered or dirty flyers on the floor at the store entrance or inside, pick them up and throw them in the trash. When you see creative and interesting flyer displays elsewhere that attract customers' attention, try them in your own store to see the effect. If it works, mobilize your promoters and store salesclerks to do the same.

**4. A Poster**

Terminal image building is one of the main tasks for FMCG salespeople. Besides using flyers for image building, posters are also the most important resource at hand. When you go to a store and see faded, worn, or falling posters, replace them with new ones promptly. When a product series has been discontinued but the promotional poster hasn't been changed, replace it immediately. When you have new products about to launch, put up new product posters in advance to create momentum. When you have promotional activities, post relevant promotional posters and POP in various places in the store as early as possible. When you see scattered promotional DM materials, tidy them up.

**5. A Cloth**

I remember my former boss once asked us salespeople during a meeting: "Raise your hand if you've put up more than 10 posters this week." Most raised their hands. "Raise your hand if you've written POP yourself." Fewer raised their hands. "Raise your hand if you've picked up flyers or DM from the floor." Even fewer. "Raise your hand if you carry a cloth in your bag." Only a handful did. In that meeting, my hand was raised the entire time.

What is the purpose of carrying a cloth in your bag?

When you see that the counter in a terminal store (especially your dedicated counter) is a bit dirty, wipe it clean, because customers may be reluctant to approach if they see a dirty counter. When you see your products on the counter covered with dust, wipe them clean immediately, because customers may think the product hasn't been bought for a long time and has been sitting there, or they may not want to touch or learn about your product due to the dust, let alone consider buying it. Every time you do these things at a terminal store, the store owner will notice and remember. When you help the owner with these chores, you are also helping yourself.

**6. A Counter**

A counter is a place to display products, promote them, and provide a selection area for consumers. Therefore, salespeople should pay attention to their counters during routine work. When you see broken glass on the counter, replace it if possible; if not, find a way to tape it with transparent tape. When you see sharp edges on the counter, try to smooth them out. If a customer accidentally gets a minor injury, it leaves a bad impression, and they may no longer buy products from that counter area.

Some products are not sold on counters but on shelves. Whether on a counter or shelf, every time you visit your counter (or shelf), don't forget to tidy up your product display. If permitted (and try to get permission), arrange your products in a prominent position that is easy for customers (or staff) to access. Generally, the middle position of a counter is a good spot. A shelf level at about the eye level of the target customers is ideal. Salespeople should find ways to place their products in these ideal positions.

**7. A Sweet Tongue**

As a salesperson, the most important part is dealing with people and communicating. Effective communication is a big topic. Regardless of the communication method, one thing is essential: a sweet tongue. Everyone has a common weakness—they like to hear good words and sweet talk. So, salespeople should be sweet-tongued when addressing clients, when receiving customers, and when guiding promoters and salesclerks. Of course, being sweet-tongued does not mean being unprincipled.

With a sweet tongue, both parties in communication feel happier. Only in a pleasant mood are people likely to accept the other's viewpoint and reach an agreement.

**8. A Promotion**

All the daily tasks of a salesperson ultimately aim to sell products and achieve effective sales. In FMCG sales, a large proportion is natural sales; the daily work of salespeople is to ensure that natural sales volume steadily increases. However, to achieve a significant boost in sales during peak seasons or in the short term, it is generally necessary to plan promotions.

Whether a promotional activity succeeds depends not only on the on-site execution but also on the preparatory work. To conduct a successful promotion, new salespeople should have in-depth communication with their supervisors and experienced salespeople, and prepare in advance in terms of personnel, promotional materials, advertising, promotional items, gifts, delivery vehicles, and store coordination. Fill these preparations into a Gantt chart and send it to everyone involved in the activity. Only when all aspects are fully prepared can the effectiveness of the activity be ensured.

**9. A Report**

In sales, ultimately, data speaks. Salespeople should use various reports to analyze their market situation and report their work to superiors. Many new salespeople are proactive in their work and their sales performance steadily rises. However, they can't understand why their leaders don't see their work, don't value them, and why opportunities for promotion and salary increases never come their way. Eventually, they become discouraged, do their work half-heartedly, and finally leave the team. An important reason for this phenomenon is that new salespeople don't know how to use reports to present their work.

Salespeople should reasonably use reports to highlight their achievements. For salespeople, recognition from leaders is the best external motivation besides promotion and salary increases. If reports are well done, leaders can see at a glance, promptly identify problems in the salesperson's work and provide guidance, and give encouragement and affirmation for achievements. These are all beneficial to the salesperson.

**10. A Summary**

Anyone who does anything can only improve by being good at summarizing. Salespeople should continuously summarize their experiences and lessons to improve their business capabilities. Many companies require salespeople to summarize in a timely manner. However, many salespeople treat summaries as a mere formality. Such summaries, written to complete tasks and pass inspections, are not true summaries and have no effect. For their own growth, salespeople should seriously summarize their business experiences and deeply analyze themselves.

Generally, it is easier to summarize one's successes. Summarizing one's lessons may be harder. Some lessons may be things you don't want others or your superiors to know. But that is not an excuse for not summarizing. If you really don't want others to know, you can write a private journal.

FMCG sales work is very tedious. Many fresh graduates from prestigious universities disdain doing tasks like distributing flyers, putting up posters, and wiping counters. They are ambitious and dream of doing something earth-shattering. Throughout history, those who have accomplished great things are those who can bend and stretch, and who can do small things. There is a saying: "Details determine success or failure." Without the mindset and ability to handle details, one cannot achieve great things.

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