---
title: "The Eight Steps of FMCG Terminal Visits"
description: "This article breaks down the terminal visit process into ten detailed steps, emphasizing the importance of systematic execution over improvisation. It highlights key principles such as no-omission coverage, brand territory building, and professional customer relationship management."
author: "方刚"
publisher: "New Distribution"
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published: "2014-10-19"
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---

# The Eight Steps of FMCG Terminal Visits

> This article breaks down the terminal visit process into ten detailed steps, emphasizing the importance of systematic execution over improvisation. It highlights key principles such as no-omission coverage, brand territory building, and professional customer relationship management.

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Let's share with you: the eight steps of terminal visits.
Legend has it that this was created by Master Kong during their channel refinement days. However, as of now, it has become a basic skill in the FMCG industry.
Today, let's break it down into ten steps for a more detailed explanation:
**1. Is the terminal visit process a profound skill?**
Some might think of the fairy sister's escape technique for Duan Gongzi. If you don't get that reference, think of military drill: standing at attention. The visit steps teach a sales rep, like a new recruit, how to stand at attention, at ease, and stand in formation. Someone might ask: "I can defeat the enemy without knowing how to stand at attention!" Imagine a movie scene: a disciplined army is marching, suddenly there's an enemy, the commander shouts "Down!", and the troops drop flat in unison. If it were bandits, the leader shouts "Down!" and a bunch would just stand there, either because they don't understand or they'd yell: "The ground is full of dog poop, how can I kiss it!"
The regular army of marketers often breaks down a visit action into multiple steps, like Cola's eight visit steps.
The bandit army of marketers condenses multiple steps into one action, like shouting at the customer's door: "Ergouzi, I'm here!"
The bandit army believes: "White cat, black cat, as long as it catches mice, it's a good cat!"
The regular army believes: "A cat that performs the mouse-catching action correctly and can replicate it is a good cat!"
The bandit army salutes by kowtowing.
The regular army's first salute action is standing at attention: heels together, toes apart at about 60 degrees; legs straight; stomach slightly in, chest naturally out; body upright, leaning slightly forward; shoulders level, slightly back; arms hanging naturally, fingers together and slightly bent, thumbs touching the second joint of the index finger, middle fingers along the trouser seams; head straight, neck straight, mouth closed, chin slightly tucked, eyes looking forward. Think about it—isn't this the difference between the regular army and the bandit army?
**2. Before breaking down the steps, you must understand a few things:**
1: Is the terminal your lifeline?
2: Is the terminal your main battlefield for sales and performance?
3: What percentage of your sales is achieved through terminals?
4: Can you do without terminals?
5: Who controls the terminals?
6: Why can customers demand high prices from you? Why can they hold terminals hostage to make manufacturers miserable? Why can they turn the tables?
Where are the terminals?
Some answer: Terminals are in the market.
Question: In a specific market, say Shijiazhuang, how many terminals are there? What are their locations, owners, phone numbers, and product ranges?
Note: **Different categories and brands have different definitions of terminals;**
Keywords: **Suitable + Matching; Sweeping the streets OR Spot-checking.**
Use a standard template, follow the no-omission principle, inventory all terminals in your market, record them, classify and mark them on a map, and create terminal customer profile sheets—if this foundation isn't solid, the rest will be a mess.
Question: Do salespeople change often? Do they also change territories often? Do they sweep the streets each time? If the basic work of street sweeping, mapping, and form creation is solid, changing personnel is fine.
But someone might ask: My salespeople only visit customers, not terminals, or rarely visit terminals, and even then, just to go through the motions. Why? Because their salaries are not tied to terminals, or not significantly, but mainly to sales volume. So, note the division of roles: distribution reps and terminal reps are different, just as engineers and artillery are different.
Distribution (customer, channel) management is handled by the area supervisor or distribution rep, while terminal work is handled by terminal reps. If these are mixed together, terminal visits are doomed to fail!
Should we define how many terminals to visit per day and which ones?
Typically, 45 per day, once a week, totaling about 240 terminals.
But a key question: How to solve: 1, Did we visit the terminals? 2, What do we do during visits?
**First: No-omission principle. Second: Territory brand principle.**
No-omission principle: Every store must be visited; if not, like closed stores, it requires supervisor approval!
Territory brand principle: Only with territory do you have a brand! Territory = control rate = number of stores stocked / target number of stores.
So, should terminals be visited selectively? Should they be skipped? Can they be visited repeatedly? No, they must be visited! What's the purpose of visiting terminals? To increase sales?
I believe the purpose is to grab territory!
**1, Grab territory. 2, Build relationships. 3, Merchandising. 4, Attack and block competitors.**
**3. After understanding the above, enter the ten visit steps:**
**Step 1: Outside the store!**
Some might say, preparation before the visit, grooming, showing eight teeth, etc.
I think the keywords for outside the store are: call, need, and lack.
What's the owner's name? How do you know? What does the store need? How do you know? What is the store missing? How do you know?
Note: **Check the visit manual! It should have records: owner's name, last visit's product display and competitor situation, order details, customer complaints, etc.**
Key actions: **Review the manual (electronic or paper), think about scripts, handle competitor posters, merchandising—tear down.**
**Step 2: Greeting**
Find the right person: **Identify key people, scripts, titles, ice-breaking techniques.**
Note: **Newbies often feel lost and tongue-tied when entering a store.**
Key actions: **Greet everyone in the store. Introduce yourself (scripts, techniques).**
Handling customer complaints is the first step to closing a sale; service is the foundation of relationship building.
Three stages of customer relationships: Initial: the customer knows you and can call your name; Intermediate: the customer trusts you, can place orders after checking inventory, and signs off; Advanced: the customer depends on you, you can provide management advice and help them make money.
**Step 3: Inside the store**
Keywords: **Professional, dedicated!**
What is professional? What is dedicated? Professionalism is often visible at a glance! For example, a professionally trained soldier. You can tell if a salesperson is professional by how they put up a poster—some smoothly and effectively remove the competitor's poster and put up their own, including shelf-stocking and display maintenance actions.
Merchandising standards, shelf-stocking standards, display maintenance standards—all omitted here.
Note: **Professionalism is trained, and it's also managed. Train from each action.**
**Step 4: Product display**
Principles: **1: Make your product visible, make competitors' products invisible. 2: Display is fought for. 3: Display is a habit.**
Note: **Spending money is instinct; anyone can do it. Doing market work is a skill; not everyone can.**
**Step 5: Inventory management**
Alcohol is special; it rarely requires standard inventory management at terminals because it doesn't expire.
**Keywords for FMCG inventory management:**
1: First in, first out; near-expiry products. Expired products, near-expiry = half of shelf life. If near-expiry is managed well, there will be no expired products, or fewer. Near-expiry management is standard in beverages, food, especially milk. Key actions: check barcodes, dates, observe flow, restock, record near-expiry, notify customers to handle, warn the store, prevent expiration; monitor the ratio of your inventory to competitors'.
**Step 6: Suggested orders**
1.5 times safety stock principle: (Previous stock - Previous sales - Current stock) * 1.5 = Safety stock. Previous stock and sales come from visit records (electronic systems, mobile systems make this hard). Current stock is actual inventory.
Key actions: Suggest orders to customers, scripts, safety stock and flow judgment, master the scale, scripts, don't push too hard in one order, introduce new products—timing, scripts, techniques, continuous closing.
New product points: **Positioning, Gap**
Positioning: Position against competitors, on price bands; Gap: recommend price bands the store lacks.
**Step 7: Policy communication**
Policy scripts, calculate thoroughly, store-specific policies, communicate content, sign agreements, etc.
**Step 8: Understand market dynamics**
Keywords: **Write it down (professional behavior)**
Key actions: **Gather competitor information**
**Listen to customer complaints and opinions**
**Listen to terminal suggestions**
**Step 9: Form work**
Keywords: **Accurate, truthful**
Key actions: **Complete forms (electronic, paper), market information feedback forms, undelivered order records with customers, etc.**
**Step 10: Reconfirm appointment, thank and leave**
Keywords: **Name, visit cycle, order details**
Key actions: **Avoid starting strong and ending weak, or being forgetful.**
Note that in the FMCG industry, brands with strong terminal management skills are powerful.
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