---
title: "The Know-How of Distribution and Sales"
description: "For many liquor distributors, product distribution can be done quickly, but market activation after distribution is slow. Once a product fails to move, it leaves a bad impression on retail outlets, affecting customer relationships and making it difficult to distribute new products in the future. This article analyzes the reasons for slow sales and provides strategies to improve terminal sales."
author: "New Distribution"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2014-11-03"
language: "en"
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# The Know-How of Distribution and Sales

> For many liquor distributors, product distribution can be done quickly, but market activation after distribution is slow. Once a product fails to move, it leaves a bad impression on retail outlets, affecting customer relationships and making it difficult to distribute new products in the future. This article analyzes the reasons for slow sales and provides strategies to improve terminal sales.

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Judging the quality of a distributor's product operation, the terminal sales after distribution becomes the most direct and important indicator.

For many liquor distributors, product distribution can be done quickly, but after distribution, market activation is slow. Once a product "does not move," it leaves a bad impression on the terminal stores, not only affecting the customer relationships accumulated over the years, but also making it difficult for the distributor to distribute other new products in the future.

Judging the quality of a distributor's product operation, the terminal sales after distribution becomes the most direct and important indicator. Because the terminal is the last step where consumers decide to purchase, and it is the final realization of the distributor's profit. If the distributor operates well, the terminal can guide consumption, enhance brand image, increase product flow, and win better and more living space and resources for the distributor. With the intensifying competition in the liquor industry, terminal sales have become the core lifeline of the distributor's market sales. Therefore, solving the problem of terminal sales is the top priority for increasing sales. So, how can distributors solve the problem of product sales after distribution?

Li Qiang is a county-level market distributor who has been operating liquor for many years. With years of accumulated relationships and customer resources, he achieved good development. However, with the arrival of the adjustment period in the liquor industry and intensified market competition, pressure from upstream enterprises, increasing competition costs from peers, and higher demands from downstream customers caused Li Qiang's company's sales and profits to plummet. To ensure the company's sustainable development, combined with the 2013 liquor situation, Li Qiang conducted a careful market survey and chose a mass-market liquor brand to operate.

**Reasons for Poor Sales**

Regarding the slow sales of new products, Manager Li personally went to the market and found the following main reasons for the slow sales of new products:

**Low Overall Distribution Quality**
Sales personnel purely pursue distribution rate, only focusing on completing the number of stores within the specified time, without in-depth understanding of the target terminals for the product, leading to a mismatch between the target group and the purchase location. For example, some stores are not suitable for the product at all, and some stores are in a half-dead state. This leads to slow product sales and a decline in product and brand image.

**Distribution Without Management**
After distribution, terminal management is equally important, requiring follow-up management and close service. Distributing without managing is worse than not distributing at all. During market visits, Manager Li found that the phenomenon of distributing without managing is everywhere. For example, some terminal stores have the product distributed, but it is placed in an inconspicuous position, so customers do not notice it; some products are placed in the warehouse, and the shelves are empty. The terminal network has width but lacks depth. Another situation is that the market distribution rate is good, but there are only many outlets, and very few core outlets that can actually create sales.

**Weak Terminal Merchandising**
Sales personnel go through the motions, appearing busy but actually just running to outlets, simply focusing on delivery, payment collection, and other routine business tasks. The sales volume of distributed products becomes the only goal, and they do not seriously solve problems. Their daily work is just to see if the store has goods and whether they need goods. It seems everyone is busy doing business, but they only do superficial work and do not fully take responsibility to achieve true channel smoothness. For example, some salespeople forget about product display and terminal merchandising (such as promotional materials, price tags, POP, shrink wrap, KT boards supported by the company for brand promotion, which are almost invisible in the market), and some forget to introduce the product's unique selling points and personality.

**Clever Strategies to Attack Targets**

**Plan Event Marketing to Attract Attention**
To open a good market entry, create a sensational event that attracts social attention, especially the attention of liquor drinkers. These easily become news hotspots and hot topics on the street, quickly increasing brand awareness, making consumers think of the brand and have a desire to buy. Manager Li planned the promotional activity "Drink XX Fine Wine and Win an Electric Bicycle," placing the electric bicycle grand prize in a targeted manner, and then combined with local media to report on the electric bicycle. This attracted high attention from target consumers, quickly increasing product awareness, thus solving the problem of sales.

**Strengthen the Quality of Terminal Promoters**
Nowadays, liquor distributors adopt the method of sending promoters to large hotels, supermarkets, and core famous cigarette and liquor stores where liquor sales are high and customer traffic is large, for on-site recommendation and promotion. Although similar promotion methods are adopted, due to different brand influences and promotion skills, the promotion effects are quite different. In addition to ensuring that the taste of the liquor they operate meets local consumer preferences, distributors should also train promoters in liquor culture knowledge and consumer psychology. Because the quality of promoters and appropriate promotion methods will greatly improve promotion efficiency.

To improve the quality of terminal promoters and effectively enhance brand terminal performance, Manager Li established a strict management system to regulate and constrain the behavior of terminal promoters: First, require terminal promoters to submit work information reports based on daily sales; Second, sales managers regularly go deep into the market frontline to fully grasp the real situation of terminals, objectively evaluate the performance of terminal staff, and implement established reward and punishment policies; Third, systematically train promoters in both theoretical knowledge and practical skills, provide targeted supervision and guidance, and enhance their sense of responsibility and belonging.

**Product Display Has Its Tricks**
Terminal product display is silent advertising, which can have a strong visual impact and attraction on consumers. It is the most intuitive interpretation of brand image and an important reason for impulsive purchases. Combining the company's existing problems, Li Qiang standardized terminal display from the following three aspects to effectively enhance brand terminal performance.

**1. Set Appropriate Display Positions**
Based on first-hand market research data, Li Qiang found that the more customers who come into contact with the product, the greater the chance of purchase. Therefore, the company formulated specific display standards, such as the principle of prominent position (the position where consumers can see the product at first glance when entering the store); the principle of brand concentration (to highlight brand strength, enable consumers to obtain related and holistic brand associations, and deepen the product's impression in their minds).

**2. Conduct Vivid Displays**
Vivid terminal displays can not only attract consumers' attention and stimulate purchase desire, but also shape a distinct brand image, which is the direct scene for enhancing brand terminal performance. For example, set up reminder signs and notice boards in large hotels; post advertising posters in low-end stores, hang banners inside the store, hang lanterns under the eaves outside the door, and arrange POP posters and embroidered balls on the bar counter in hotels: table cards, menus, tablecloths, ashtrays, magazine racks, clothing covers, etc., with brand advertisements printed on them.

**3. Create a Hot Sales Atmosphere at Display Points**
Research results show that about 70% of consumer goods customers make impulsive purchases at the terminal, so a good sales atmosphere can help enterprises increase sales by 30% to 50%. Therefore, Li Qiang comprehensively used scenes, stack displays, display cabinets, store POP displays, DM display racks, model displays, promotional videos, and the performance of shopping guides to attract customer attention and enhance the hot sales atmosphere at the terminal.

To obtain the best terminal performance, Li Qiang's company's terminal display also combined industry and product characteristics, marketing strategies, and the location and structure of terminal stores, consistent with the advertising image and promotional activities, selecting appropriate timing for creation, and unifying the detailed operational standards for placement, in order to create the desired hot sales atmosphere.

According to the dynamic strategy combination of "points" and "areas" in the regional market, adopt the strategy of "using points to drive lines, and lines to drive areas," strengthen customer relationships and vivid advertising to achieve outlet sales, and research with terminals on how to quickly sell products.

(This article is reprinted from Sales and Market)


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