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The author will share a real case study to encourage marketing professionals!
At that time, I had just joined a pesticide manufacturer that mainly produced and sold herbicides. Given my previous experience in the FMCG industry and my solid marketing skills and planning abilities, I had no problem being hired as the promotion manager. I successfully got the job, but with a precondition: I had to spend two to three months in the market to familiarize myself with it, so I could better adapt to the agrochemical market. Obviously, the regional manager wanted to test whether I had real marketing skills, so I was "sent down" to the Yuncheng market in Shanxi!
Actually, I didn't know the real situation of the market at that time. As soon as I arrived, the client said, "You can't leave this time. Even if you do, you have to handle my expenses first. I'm currently stuck with over 200,000 yuan worth of inventory, and the company owes me nearly 100,000 yuan in expenses. The market has been unattended for four months now, and we can't even sell 30,000 yuan per month. In other words, with the current sales rate, the inventory and the company's expenses would last for a year!" I remained silent and said, "Let me tour the market for the next two days, and then we'll talk."
After two days of touring the market, my conclusion was: "The market has indeed been paralyzed for four months. The client is telling the truth. There are four salespeople, but they've been idle for months, sleeping at home!" There were 85 retail outlets in total, but fewer than 20 were effective. The rest were facing returns due to long-term neglect.
The situation was clear: the previous city manager had left five months ago, and since then, a new person came each month, saw the market condition, and left. No one paid attention anymore. The client was an outsider with no operational ideas, and the salespeople thought it was fine to just collect salaries without working. The agrochemical retailers complained about the lack of promotional items and delayed wages, and they were full of grievances.
Facing this market, I felt deceived. I suddenly realized that the leadership didn't bring me in as a promotion manager but to clean up the mess. In other words, if I did well, I might be transferred to another market for a trial; if not, I'd be out. My first thought was that this market was hopeless, especially since the regional manager had already given up mentally. What could I do? I could leave now, but it would be embarrassing. If I left, others would think I was picky about markets, and the regional manager would think, "Damn, another fraud." After a sleepless night, I decided I had to stay. Even if I left, it would only be after the market showed improvement. So, the next morning, I went to the client and asked to tour the market again. The client said, "Didn't we already tour it? You need to solve my expense problem; you can't keep dragging it out." I repeated, "After the tour, we'll talk!" The client reluctantly agreed!
Now, let me focus on how I turned this market around.
1. Personally Visiting Retail Counters
On the first day, I personally visited all product sales outlets in Hejin County's towns and villages, totaling 11 counters. The schedule was: 3 hours driving round trip, 1 hour for lunch, 40-60 minutes per counter visit, and the remaining time for travel between counters. The next day, I visited Pinglu and Ruicheng markets, which had 28 outlets in total. On the third day, I visited Yuncheng city and Yanhu District towns, with 22 outlets.
After visiting the counters, I concluded:
A. Weaknesses:
- Our product's highest sales in Hejin had reached 60,000 yuan, but the market collapsed because the city manager never fulfilled the promised rebates, so the retailers collectively decided to stop selling.
- The salespeople in each county did not step in to coordinate during the market turmoil, resulting in four months without a single visit from our salespeople to the retailers.
- The client had promised to exchange stock but never did, leading to expired or near-expiry products. Due to the lack of promotional items and no visits from our salespeople, many staff resigned, leaving only six people.
B. Strengths:
- Our product quality was stable, with no quality complaints.
- The store owners were willing to sell our products, but they were concerned about after-sales service. Although the market was full of complaints, no store owner said, "I will never cooperate with you." They only said they could continue cooperating if past issues were resolved.
From this, I concluded: I could achieve 200,000 yuan in sales within five months and then change the distributor. The market was still viable, but the question was how. I also predicted the market's fate for the next six months to a year: I had to find a way to make the current client continue, because with the current situation, no new distributor would come. The market needed a hard push for three months, find a breakthrough point, start with one market, and use it as bait to attract a new, powerful distributor. The prerequisite was to achieve 200,000 yuan in sales within the less than five months before year-end.
2. Visiting the Distributor
The next morning, I visited the distributor. As soon as I arrived, the client said, "Can this market be done? If not, quickly pay me the money the company owes." I smiled and said, "This market can reach 250,000 yuan within six months, depending on how you cooperate." He said, "Really? Are you kidding? If we can reach 150,000, I'd be grateful, just enough to recover the inventory and the company's debt." I said, "You can't ask the company for money now. If you return the goods, they'll be at 70% of the value, a direct loss of at least 80,000 yuan (including goods in the market). If you cooperate well, you won't lose money; you'll make money!" Then I explained how to restart the market and how to operate it. After almost half a day, he finally stopped pressing for the company's money.
3. Restructuring All Sales Staff
I told the client that all salespeople had to be let go at once. The client disagreed, saying, "If we cut all staff, who will do the market? Hiring takes time. Why not keep them and guide them?" I firmly opposed: If a salesperson is diligent, they should do their job regardless of changes above. But for four months, they've been sleeping at home and never went to the market. Changing their mindset would take at least three months, but by then the market would be dead. The client still wanted to keep them. Finally, I said, "Let's have a meeting tomorrow and decide." Actually, I already had a plan: "First, these four salespeople are definitely united. They think I'll give up and leave, and they'll continue sleeping until the next person comes. Second, I'll openly give each of them a 200 yuan raise, but I'll reassign their territories. Those from a certain area can't work there; they'll be swapped to other markets. This will definitely cause objections, and they'll unite and threaten to resign. But since all four will threaten to resign, I won't touch them." The next day, the meeting went as expected. They first listed many complaints about the company, then firmly opposed my personnel changes, threatening collective resignation. In reality, they had long lost their value. I called the meeting just to give them a way out.
4. Finding the Market Breakthrough Point
A new day began. I met with the client along with two new employees. Today's topic was: "How to operate this market next?" Actually, everything was already in my plan. I first asked the client to share his ideas, but he couldn't come up with any. My purpose was to prove that he was incapable, and since he couldn't do it, he had to listen to us.
- Creating Momentum
Because the market had some foundation before, but four months of mismanagement had caused consumer loss, and the retailers were uncertain. Although they knew the products could sell, after-sales service was not guaranteed, so they were wary. So, I thought of creating momentum first, showing that the company was investing heavily in this market, so that the retailers and farmers in Hejin could see it. After two days of promotion, many farmers were asking which agrochemical stores carried our products, and the retailers were asking about current promotions. The two-day promotion was very effective because no one had ever done this before! Then, in the following two days, some store owners called the distributor to order goods, saying, "Send the products first; we'll solve the previous issues gradually!" This showed that our promotional goal was achieved.
- Free Trials – Directly Intercepting End Consumers
With the market heating up, consumers were also excited, and retailers were stocking up. We had the bargaining power. To push the market to a climax, we next intercepted end consumers.
The method was:
- In Hejin City, Longmen, Senlou, and Fancun, where population and consumption were concentrated, we used market gatherings to select a weedy test field in each village or town, applied our product, and invited farmers to see the results after three days.
- Influence
After three months of effort, Hejin's sales exceeded 120,000 yuan by the end of November! The sales growth had a significant impact on competitors, the client, and the retailers. Competitors felt overwhelmed by our promotional activities, and their clients even arranged for their salespeople to contact ours to probe for information.
5. Summary
In less than five months, we turned a market that was about to be abandoned and had been paralyzed for four months into one with sales of 250,000 yuan. Within less than a year, sales exceeded 300,000 yuan, creating a myth of the first customer payment of 500,000 yuan in the Northwest region.
From this case, we can learn:
- There is no market that can't be built; only people who can't build it.
- Team is crucial; personnel adjustments must be fast, accurate, and decisive.
- Find a suitable reason for the client to follow you even if they lose money initially.
- Thinking determines a market's way out; do what others dare not do, and think outside the box.
- Only by revitalizing a bad market does your marketing value become more powerful!
Perhaps when the market is doing well, your promotion isn't just because of your ability, but more because you can inject new blood into the team and bring new vitality and passion!
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