---
title: "The Rules of Product Sell-Through"
description: "This article explains the key rules and logic behind successful new product sell-through in the FMCG market, emphasizing the importance of distribution rate, recommendation rate, visit rate, activation, promotion, and customer relationship. It provides practical strategies for each factor to ensure efficient and effective sell-through."
author: "朱志明"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2014-11-22"
language: "en"
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---

# The Rules of Product Sell-Through

> This article explains the key rules and logic behind successful new product sell-through in the FMCG market, emphasizing the importance of distribution rate, recommendation rate, visit rate, activation, promotion, and customer relationship. It provides practical strategies for each factor to ensure efficient and effective sell-through.

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Distribution requires strategy, while sell-through requires rules. The same tactics, when executed by different people at different times with different rhythms, can yield vastly different results.

For a regional market operator, it is essential to deeply understand the rules of new product sell-through and the logical relationships within those rules to ensure successful sell-through after a new product launch. By mastering the nuances behind the "three rates and three degrees" of sell-through, product sell-through can be precise and efficient, avoiding detours.

Sell-through = Distribution Rate × Recommendation Rate × Visit Rate × Activation Degree × Promotion Degree × Customer Relationship Degree

**1. Distribution Rate**

Distribution emphasizes the distribution rate, which refers to the number of outlets that match the product's sales profile, ensuring that most suitable outlets can sell the product.

The distribution rate builds the product's sales momentum. It creates market atmosphere and increases the product's exposure to consumers. The fundamental purpose of marketing is to create momentum; the greater the momentum, the more effective the effort. Sell-through requires momentum. The distribution rate determines the product's visibility in the market and its market momentum strength.

**2. Recommendation Rate**

The recommendation rate refers to the quality of recommendations from sales outlets. It builds the product's kinetic energy. By developing leader outlets, leveraging their enthusiasm for recommending new products, creating a demonstration effect, and establishing consumer influence and confidence among follower outlets, it drives sales across other outlets. "Leader outlets" are those with strong new product recommendation capabilities, larger scale, longer operating history, and influence over other outlets and consumers.

Therefore, to achieve rapid sell-through of new products, while pursuing distribution rate, it is also crucial to pursue recommendation rate. Identify those leader outlets that can both "guide" consumption and "control" prices in the early stage, focus resources on them, and rely on their recommendations to quickly drive sell-through. Only when momentum and kinetic energy are effectively combined can a perfect sell-through combination be formed.

A new product can only sell well if someone is willing to sell it. Solving the "willingness" issue means solving the terminal push problem. The reasons for terminals to "bother" promoting new products are simple: better customer relationships and higher profits. They feel valued and have no worries.

A new product should generally ensure terminal profit is 1.5 times that of popular competing products to fully stimulate the terminal's initiative to push it. Terminal profit should not be directly reflected in product price, otherwise it becomes low-price selling, but rather through channel promotion activities and cooperative forms.

**3. Visit Rate**

The visit rate is not just about visit frequency, but more importantly about visit quality and effectiveness. Quantity without quality is unproductive work; it creates costs, not value.

The main value of terminal visits lies in clarifying the purpose of the visit and the desired outcomes (e.g., improving product display position from poor to good, getting customers to accept the product, or moving from mere display to active promotion), identifying problems (e.g., product not selling because the store's consumer base doesn't match the product, or sales information not communicated, or customers not trying to sell the product), and solving problems (e.g., bringing the tasting sample promised last time, helping customers build confidence in selling the product through on-site sales, or getting the terminal advertising space that was previously refused).

Terminal visits must never become a formality. If only quantity and process are emphasized, all efforts are in vain. The company's guidelines are just standards and steps; the depth and value of the work done by sales personnel are what truly contribute to product sell-through.

**4. Activation Degree**

Activation degree mainly creates a sell-through atmosphere, induces consumers, and changes their acceptance psychology.

Activation stems from four levels: 1) product display; 2) stack display; 3) material atmosphere; 4) city activation.

**1) Product Display:**

The quality of product display is mainly reflected in three aspects: First, for the leading core products, the display effect and value must be strengthened. For example, for Gujing Gongjiu Year Original Pulp, the gift version, 5-year, and 8-year versions should have both quantity and position superior to the 16-year and 20-year versions of the same category. Second, the quantity of display: core stores generally use 3×4 or 3×5 (variety × quantity), ordinary stores use 3×2 or 3×3, and large displays are secured through separate agreements for larger quantities or dedicated counters, requiring a minimum of 24 bottles for the best display surface. Third, the display method: based on product grade, arrange from high to low on shelves or racks, or in a row with the highest-priced product in the middle and others arranged sequentially. Price tags must be present on the display surface.

**2) Stack Display:**

"Goods sell like a mountain" – this is an efficient product display method in any era. Generally, in-store stack displays should not be less than 10 cases of wine, supplemented with standardized materials such as large L-shaped display boards, shopping bag displays, and full-case stickers.

**3) Terminal Atmosphere:**

Whether it's wall painting atmosphere inside or outside the store, cabinet eyebrow production, or vivid material use (posters, price stickers, plastic paintings, banners), all must be done to the extreme to surpass competitors. If you cannot surpass competitors in quantity or variety of atmosphere forms, you must excel in one form to strongly attract consumers' eyes and minds.

**4) City Activation:**

City activation means embedding product advertisements into consumers' daily lives, making them visible everywhere. Common forms include TV, newspapers, radio, outdoor, highway billboards, storefronts, and walls. If the advertising budget is relatively insufficient, choose one form and do it to the extreme, maximizing impact and effect with minimal resources. For example, select a specific area or street and focus only on painted storefront or wall advertisements to create a model area or model street.

**5. Promotion Degree**

Public relations and promotion are indispensable core components for Baijiu sell-through. Develop strategies to help core terminals capture core consumer groups and consumption venues, using a combination of promotions, experiences, and tastings to drive sales of new products and get consumers to accept them quickly.

Generally, within one year, plan 4 waves of channel promotions and frequent consumer promotions to make terminals and consumers feel the product is moving, help terminal sales, build terminal sales confidence, and stimulate terminal push enthusiasm and consumer consumption passion.

**1) Channel Promotions:** For the Baijiu industry, at least 4 channel promotions should be conducted within a year. Options include: early March (pre-off-season promotion), end of April (May Day wedding peak), July (teacher appreciation banquets), Mid-Autumn Festival (pre-peak season), New Year's Day, and Spring Festival. Activity formats must be flexible and varied: purchase rewards with goods, purchase rewards with travel, display rewards, purchase lucky draws, cumulative sales rewards, etc. But timing must be controlled; activities must end on time and the next wave launched. Do not extend the same activity cycle.

**2) Consumer Promotions:** In addition to the product's own scratch cards, there must be buy-give promotions, tasting experiences, lucky draws, golden egg smashing with purchase, community events, and other entertainment activities with purchase, as well as public relations gifts for core consumers.

**3) Core Store Promotions:** Select stores with high foot traffic, strong radiation, and matching product sales outlets, especially catering terminals. Jointly conduct a series of consumer promotions in-store and fully disseminate the promotion information, such as buy large get small, buy two get one, buy wine get food, dine get wine, limited-time wine gifts, limited-table wine gifts (first few tables), and lucky draws.

**4) Core Area Promotions:** For areas or streets with concentrated outlets and large target consumer groups, such as low-end Baijiu in food stall clusters, concentrate sales, promotion, and marketing personnel to conduct continuous, cyclical consumer promotions until target consumers in the area can order the product on their own when consuming at that price point. If such activities can last about 20 days, the effect is quite significant, and then you can move to another area or district to develop a second model area.

**5) Core Consumer Leader PR:** When resources allow, build a group of opinion leader consumers who have formed initial impressions through trials. Use them to influence ordinary consumers and expand market sales. Use wine gift PR activities for opinion leaders to continuously expand the core consumer group, help terminal sales, and create a market sell-through atmosphere.

Among all consumer activities, nothing starts the market faster, more cost-effectively, and more quickly than giving away wine to get consumers drinking. But generally, companies would rather slowly consume resources than do this, which actually results in higher investment.

A rule: if a terminal can reorder three or more times in a short period, your product easily becomes their main push product, and they find it easy to sell because they have mastered the tricks. If a consumer can consume your product three or more times in a short period, they have fully accepted your product's quality, taste, and other selling points.

**6. Customer Relationship Degree**

Building channel customer relationships is not about the number of visits, but about the actual value brought to terminal customers. This is mainly reflected in two levels: First, the material level, such as additional support beyond regular channel purchase promotions, like wine gifts, small gifts, consumer tastings, and even promoter support. Second, the spiritual level, such as care and attention to customers, shared hobbies or language, and providing constructive guidance and advice on each visit, not necessarily about the product but about the customer's business or life. Efficient customer relationships are not just about material benefits, but about the depth of value the customer perceives in your existence.

Source: Zhizhuo Wine Marketing Lecture Hall

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