Warm Tip: Click the blue text above “FMCG Distributor Professional Consulting” to learn more about marketing and distributor internal management.

In China, there are about 80 million salespeople. Among this vast sales force, how to stand out in your industry, be exceptional, and reach the top of the pyramid is a topic worth deep study. Every soldier wants to be a general, but first you must strive to be an excellent soldier. If you can't even be a good soldier and talk about ideals with lofty ambitions, reality will be harsh. Only by honing your internal skills can you punch with power, defeat opponents with every move, and maintain flexibility. Traditional Chinese medicine emphasizes internal regulation and external treatment; only by treating from within can the medicine work and the butterfly emerge from its cocoon. Based on my practical marketing experience, I have summarized ten internal weaknesses that salespeople cannot afford to have.

1. The First Internal Weakness: Playing Hide-and-Seek with Your Boss Many salespeople have played cat and mouse while on the road. When your supervisor checks on you and asks where you are, you tell lie after lie about your whereabouts. When the leader arrives at your base, you haven't even had time to return from places like internet cafes or mobile service halls—those spots reserved for salespeople to rest—and the truth comes out.

Summary: Most supervisors have risen from the grassroots. Don't use your petty cleverness to challenge your leader's intelligence. People aren't machines. As long as you finish your daily tasks, you can relax, but be honest. Your leader will understand. Otherwise, you'll be exposed and embarrassed, becoming a classic negative example for your colleagues.

2. The Second Internal Weakness: Grand Promises, Lazy Execution At every meeting, when asked about confidence in tasks, new product promotions, or stocking, the answers are so enthusiastic they bring tears to your eyes. The responses are thunderous, morale is earth-shattering. When asked individually, salespeople clench their fists and answer forcefully, "Don't worry, boss, no excuses." The leader feels like a spring breeze. But later follow-up reveals: before the meeting, there's excitement; during the meeting, there's enthusiasm; after the meeting, there's no movement. At the meeting, there are lofty ambitions; after the meeting, there's hesitation. Thunder is loud, but rain is small.

Summary: When asked individually, be realistic, not high-profile. If your supervisor follows up later and your execution results differ greatly from your earlier claims, the leader will see you as flashy but not substantial. Similarly, being too high-profile initially is not conducive to the leader's correct market decisions.

3. The Third Internal Weakness: More Difficulties Than Solutions Every time you execute market work, such as setting tasks, launching new products, or restarting old markets, as soon as you set goals—whether high or low, with big or small promotions—a series of difficulties emerge: tasks are too high, competition is too fierce, customer profits are low, promotions are too small, customer strength is weak, customer enthusiasm is low, product packaging isn't up to standard, and so on. Instead of discussing methods in depth, they complain and find difficulties to reduce their own pressure or lay groundwork for failing to meet targets later.

Summary: Once a specific market plan is issued, it's okay to discuss difficulties objectively. But imagining difficulties subjectively before execution only affects your performance. First, it shows your attitude is wrong. If major obstacles arise during execution, you can discuss them then. From practical experience, execution is often less difficult than imagined.

4. The Fourth Internal Weakness: Never Doing What Isn't Assessed Companies usually assess things that align with their direction. For example, if this year the company plans to fully implement terminal visibility assessments, even if you don't want to do it, you must, because assessments are usually tied to benefits.

Summary: Doing assessed tasks is not wrong. The main point is that as the company develops and market competition changes, the assessment direction changes. But that doesn't mean unassessed tasks aren't important. To become a professional marketer, you must develop comprehensively at the grassroots level. Only by facing more market problems can you become proficient and lay a foundation for future promotion.

5. The Fifth Internal Weakness: Exploiting Company Loopholes Salespeople's income consists of legitimate and illegitimate parts. Illegitimate income, or gray income, comes from finding company loopholes, such as withholding promotions, submitting fake display or storefront photos, colluding with customers, etc. This income is relatively easy to get, but the risk is high. Many people rack their brains to find these gaps, but they also live in fear of being discovered and losing everything. As the old saying goes, "If you don't want others to know, don't do it." Don't think your scheme is flawless and you can rest easy.

Summary: A gentleman loves wealth but obtains it in a proper way. There are things you shouldn't do to achieve something. Ill-gotten gains come quickly and go quickly. Don't ruin your career for a small profit. Wounds heal, but scars remain forever.

6. The Sixth Internal Weakness: Misusing Social Tools: Smoking, Drinking, Gambling, etc. I'm not against using social tools like smoking, drinking, gambling, or bathing. Used appropriately, they can indeed build good relationships with customers and bring you closer, which helps sales. But think again: the purpose of hard work is to improve quality of life and bring happiness to your family. As an ad says, "A 30-year-old with a 60-year-old heart." Many salespeople have poor stomachs, lungs, livers, and kidneys. Many use the excuse "I have no choice." I've observed that many salespeople who smoke don't actually smoke much during business negotiations; they smoke a lot on their own.

Summary: Use social tools correctly, not excessively. Achieving sales at the cost of health is a failed sale. Similarly, customers always care about profit. Social tools are like Viagra—they satisfy temporarily, not long-term. Correctly understand the customer's focus: profit.

7. The Seventh Internal Weakness: Poor Time Management Many salespeople have more ineffective working hours than effective ones. There's a saying to describe salespeople's hard work: "Rise earlier than chickens, sleep later than dogs." But how much effective time is there in a day? I once did a test: I gathered salespeople in the evening and asked each to write quantifiable work on the blackboard. The results were disappointing—each wrote only a few items. But they felt they were more wronged than Dou E (a legendary figure). They hadn't been lazy; they'd been running around the market. As for why, they couldn't say.

Summary: Running the market can't be like "Let the bullets fly." You must plan and manage time well, handle the relationship between "urgent and important, urgent but not important, not urgent and not important, not urgent but important," and divide tasks clearly with customers.

8. The Eighth Internal Weakness: Reporting Only Good News This is very common. The reason is simple: reporting good news avoids criticism; reporting bad news invites criticism. What's more interesting is that good news is exaggerated, and bad news is downplayed. Much of the good news is inflated, deceiving superiors and subordinates.

Summary: Provide accurate market information to help leaders make correct judgments. Similarly, reporting bad news objectively and with evidence won't result in negative incentives. On the contrary, if exaggeration is exposed, the criticism will be worse.

9. The Ninth Internal Weakness: Not Being Reflective "Think in action, act in thought." Only through continuous practice, thinking, practice, and thinking—a repeated process—can you grow and elevate your practice. Many salespeople are not good at reflecting. When they encounter problems, they ask their supervisors for answers without thinking. Some don't adapt; they know only one aspect, not the other. Some don't know where success or failure lies and just work blindly. As a result, many are still at the grassroots level even at an older age.

Summary: Be good at thinking, diligent in thinking. The mind always runs faster than the legs.

10. The Tenth Internal Weakness: A Half-Full Mentality Many salespeople sigh about their lack of success. They think they're already very OK, so why haven't they been promoted? They're always "on the road," encouraging themselves with the line, "Laughing to the sky, I go out the door; how could I be a mere commoner?" But if you analyze carefully, is that really true? The most obvious example: during company training, the lecturer speaks with passion, spittle flying, while the audience is drowsy. After class, they comment, "What was that lecturer talking about?" Setting aside the content, did you even listen? When others get promoted, they lament, "He's not as good as me; I just had worse luck."

Summary: If you're gold, you don't need to worry about being buried. If your achievements are great enough, you'll shine like the sun. Are you worried the sunlight won't reach the company leaders' eyes? Analyze yourself thoroughly. Those who know themselves are wise. If you've mastered all sales skills, persist. Man proposes, God disposes. Wait for the opportunity.

The road is long and winding; I will search high and low. Only by taking the essence and discarding the dross can you keep growing, step by step, to realize yourself and achieve the career path you pursue.

Like this article? Click the top right corner to share it to your Moments.

About us: WeChat Name: FMCG Distributor Professional Consulting Management Account Introduction: 20 years of FMCG distributor operation and management experience, specializing in distributor internal management: We understand distributors better than manufacturers, and we understand internal management better than distributors. Senior marketing experts help your business grow.

Click "Read Original" below to enter our micro-community for interactive communication and questions.

Learning and Exchange QQ Group: 344257092

Reply 1 to enter the micro-official website to view historical messages.