Duty Laws Law 1: The duty of a sales manager is to make salespeople 'forced to be diligent.' In ordinary companies, diligence is a praiseworthy virtue; in excellent companies, diligence is a natural habit. Salespeople in excellent companies are initially 'forced to be diligent,' but later they become habitually diligent. Most salespeople are ordinary people. In the morning, they want to sleep in; at noon, they want to have a drink; in the evening, they want to chat online, maybe play a few rounds of mahjong or 'Dou Dizhu.' Time is wasted this way, especially since salespeople are 'far from the emperor' when they are out in the field. Excellent managers never let salespeople 'be out of reach of the emperor's command.' They have salespeople focus on the market and implement centralized management, with 'morning reports and evening reports.' Even if salespeople slack off, they can only slack for one day; even if they make mistakes, they only make one day's mistakes. If salespeople have to work alone, they must 'manage every person's every day's every task.' A strict reporting and supervision system makes salespeople feel that 'although they are far away, the law of management is everywhere.' Law 2: The duty of a sales manager is to make salespeople 'forced to succeed.' Excellent companies do not have a team of experts; instead, they can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary, making ordinary people 'forced to succeed.' Excellent companies have strict recruitment standards. Even if they cannot always recruit experts, they will never hire fools. If a newcomer cannot work independently after systematic training, they become a 'sales assistant' to an experienced salesperson, placed in a team to be 'watched over,' not giving them a chance to make mistakes. By the time the newcomer becomes experienced, good habits have been formed, and the experienced salesperson's knowledge has been learned, making it difficult to make mistakes. Even if they have a sudden impulse to do something out of line, the company's monitoring system will immediately detect it. Excellent companies basically have a 'paperwork' system, recording every day's tasks clearly in black and white, making it not easy to play tricks. Under the leadership of an excellent manager, you may not have the opportunity to make mistakes or slack off. In the end, it is difficult not to succeed. Law 3: The duty of a sales manager is not to cultivate a few marketing elites, but to 'let ordinary people achieve extraordinary results.' Successful management does not assume that employees are moral saints, but that they are ordinary people. They may not have malicious intentions, but they inevitably have selfish motives. Successful management does not plan to recruit a group of marketing experts or elites. Because they know that in ordinary positions, experts or elites have only two paths: one is to be promoted internally, otherwise they will be poached by competitors. The truly stable sales force is composed of ordinary people with average qualifications. Marketing management is about getting these people to produce results. The above two points are the premises of marketing management. Marketing management is to use institutional construction and effective supervision to make those who are 'inevitably selfish' find no opportunity to make mistakes, thus becoming 'moral models' in the result sense. Excellent managers never let salespeople 'cross the river by feeling the stones,' because in that case, many salespeople will definitely 'fall into the river.' They use training, standardization, modeling, and process optimization to give ordinary salespeople a platform to achieve results beyond their abilities. Law 4: The duty of a sales manager is not to rack their brains for innovation, but to discover and promote innovation. Marketing innovation does not come from brainstorming in the office, but from a flash of inspiration at the market frontline. This is the source of marketing innovation for salespeople. Marketing innovation cannot rely on the inspiration of a few individuals; it must become a process within the enterprise organization. This is the source of marketing innovation at the enterprise level. This is a dialectical understanding of two different levels of marketing innovation. Sales managers are far from the market frontline and may lack the innovative inspiration of salespeople. But sales managers must be good at discovering the individual innovations of salespeople and, through a certain process, turn them into enterprise-level innovations and promote them widely. Law 5: If distributors are managed well, they are 'angels'; otherwise, they are 'devils.' Some people say high-sounding words: 'Manufacturers and distributors are one family.' It can be said that the people who say this do not believe it themselves. But when someone says this insincerely in public, you should not embarrass them. Manufacturers and merchants are close, but they are like lines that are difficult to intersect. Some say: 'Distributors are not gods.' Consumers are gods, and distributors are not even the spokespersons of gods. Anyway, Chinese people do not have religious sentiments like Westerners; 'god' is just a phrase. The reality is 'the big store bullies the customer, and the big customer bullies the store.' Whoever holds the dominant power is the god. Some say: 'Manufacturers and merchants are game opponents.' That is, manufacturers and merchants are like two sides in a chess game, both interdependent and opposing each other. When making money from consumers, they are highly consistent; when 'dividing the spoils,' they are inconsistent. Distributors' demands are always: better quality, lower prices, bigger promotions, and more advertising. Some say: 'Manufacturers and merchants are couples in the same bed with different dreams.' Couples are in a contractual relationship, while father and son are in a blood relationship. Manufacturers and merchants are also in a contractual relationship, and often a contractual relationship that does not take the 'contract' seriously. What maintains the couple relationship is 'love,' and love is shared by both parties. What maintains the manufacturer-merchant relationship is 'interest,' and interest cannot be shared—therefore, manufacturers and merchants are couples in the same bed with different dreams. Some say: 'Manufacturers and merchants are tools for each other.' Tools are thrown away once the goal is achieved. The development of an enterprise is actually a process of continuously eliminating and replacing distributors. Every marketing reform will target distributors. The so-called channel flattening is impossible without the determination to 'kill the big households.' The realistic understanding of distributors should be: if managed well, distributors are 'angels.' If managed poorly, they are 'devils.' Law: Many salespeople are 'model workers turned politicians,' but be sure not to leave the 'post-model worker syndrome.' Many salespeople are promoted to sales managers not because of outstanding management ability, but because of outstanding performance. Salespeople achieve results by themselves; sales managers guide others to achieve results. The post-model worker syndrome is that sales managers have too much of a salesperson complex, always treating themselves as 'big salespeople.' Whenever they encounter a salesperson who does not understand their intentions, they become anxious and want to set the salesperson aside and do it themselves, acting as the 'big salesperson' and treating the salesperson as just a helper.
Human Nature Laws Law 6: For excellent people, management is trust. For ordinary people, trust is management. For those who are self-disciplined and capable, management is to give them the boundaries of freedom and let them play to their heart's content. The larger the boundary, the more space for full play, and the more unexpected results. For ordinary people, management is to constrain their behavior within the boundaries acceptable to the enterprise, making their behavior conform to corporate norms. Law 7: Human nature management is not favor management. The greatest humanity is to make the other party successful. Human nature management is not about indulging the other party and spoiling them with bad habits. The greatest humanity is to force the opponent to succeed. Therefore, when punishing employees, you must not be soft, and tell the other party: 'When I punish you, I have a kind heart.' Perhaps at the time, the other party will resent you, but soon they will thank you. Ten years later, they may still remember you. If you do not believe it, recall your student days. The teachers who indulged us are long forgotten, but we remember the strict teachers. Law 8: A successful state is an irrational state and the most dangerous state. People have the lowest IQ and are most prone to making mistakes in three states: the state of being in love, the state of success, and the state of being rich. The low IQ in the state of being in love is widely recognized. Mistakes made in this state will affect happiness in life. The state of success exposes the weaknesses of human nature. Mistakes made in this state will affect career success.
Problem Laws Law 9: Problems that have been discovered are no longer problems; problems that have not been discovered are the most important problems. When you find a problem, you usually also find the answer. The key point is: is the problem you found the real problem? For example, when a new product fails to launch, the problem often summarized is 'the new product does not meet consumer needs.' This may be a false problem. The real problem may be that 'the new product was vetoed by the sales force before it even entered the market.' For example, people usually think that 'new product development is to meet consumer needs.' In fact, in channel sales, new product development is more about meeting the profit needs of distributors. Therefore, when you are racking your brains for the answer to a problem, it is better to spend more effort thinking about what the real problem is. Law 10: The instinctive reaction when encountering a problem, even if not wrong, is usually ineffective. There is no simple answer without thinking; truly effective answers are often at the turning point of thought. For example, when summarizing the reasons why a product is not selling, people often say 'the brand is not famous,' as if once the brand is famous, sales will be solved. This is simple instinctive thinking. With a slight turn of thought, you know this answer is questionable: all well-known brands came from unknown brands. How did they sell when their brands were not famous? Further thinking will reveal that the most worth learning from excellent companies is not how they do things after success, but how they did things before success. That is, how they went from not succeeding to succeeding. For example, if a person is not doing well in a certain position, the instinctive thinking is to replace the person. In fact, the real problem may not be the person, but the design of the position, because this position may be an 'impossible position,' a 'position that only God can handle.' For example, what to do when sales decline? The instinctive reaction is usually to cut prices, promote, and advertise. So, sales managers might as well think: who does not know to do this? Any normal adult can think of it, and such instinctive reactions are usually ineffective. Law 11: Admitting a problem requires courage; solving a problem requires wisdom. Finding a problem is not difficult, but because behind the problem are responsibility and ability, admitting the problem becomes difficult. Having a problem without admitting it is the biggest problem. When a problem is discovered, people's first reaction is to cover it up rather than solve it. People tend to solve problems themselves rather than make them public. At this time, the problem may be worsening. When admitting a problem means denying oneself, the problem is no longer just a simple problem. Whether one dares to admit a problem is a true test of self-confidence. It is precisely because many people lack the courage to admit problems that the following phenomenon occurs repeatedly: only when a manager is transferred does the problem become fully exposed. Law 12: The process for handling problems should be 'first save the urgent, then hold accountable.' It is common to see that when a market problem is already serious, no department or individual in the enterprise steps forward to solve it. Because everyone is thinking: whoever steps forward may mean they admit they are responsible for the problem. To avoid responsibility, the best way is to 'not stick your neck out.' Some enterprises have a problem-handling procedure: first find the responsible person, and whoever has the problem is responsible for solving it. Because some problems are not easy to find a responsible person, or a problem has multiple responsible persons, the process of finding the responsible person worsens the problem. The correct process should be 'first save the urgent, then hold accountable.' 'First save the urgent' means implementing customer priority and market priority, and not delaying 'saving the urgent' because of 'holding accountable.' Case: Most hotels have regulations that guests must compensate for damaged room items, and if the waiter does not discover it, the waiter must compensate. As a result, we often see this phenomenon: when the hotel asks the guest to compensate, the guest firmly denies it, and the waiter insists that the guest damaged it, ultimately leading to a strained relationship between the hotel and the guest. According to the customer priority principle, as long as there is no conclusive evidence and the guest firmly denies it, the lobby manager should sign off. Because the waiter's thinking is: if the guest does not compensate, I have to compensate. Offending the guest is not my responsibility; not discovering the problem is my responsibility. Therefore, even without complete evidence that the item was damaged by the guest, they must insist, because this is the best way to avoid their own responsibility.
Team Laws Law 13: A team is a new substance generated by the chemical reaction of members merging and sublimating with each other. If your team members do not have division of labor and cooperation, and each fights alone, even if they are all extremely excellent, they are not an excellent team. A true team must have each person 'in need of' others and able to 'contribute to' others. That is, team members 'must cooperate' and 'no one can do without the other.' The combination of a team forms a chemical reaction, not a physical reaction. A volleyball team of six spikers is not a team, and a football team of eleven forwards is not a team. Similarly, a group of salespeople fighting alone is not a team. A team is not a simple aggregation of people. An effective team must have four elements: common goals (team goals take precedence over personal goals, and personal behavior helps achieve team goals), organizational identity (psychologically identify with the team, and obey the team in action), effective organization (mutual division of labor and cooperation), and team leader (making team members submit). Only such a team can achieve the effect of '1+1>2,' and the goal of the team is precisely to achieve 'the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.' Law 14: An effective team can achieve 'one Zhuge Liang leading three cobblers is better than four Zhuge Liangs.' Three cobblers will always be cobblers, never Zhuge Liangs. Zhuge Liang represents a realm that even a group of cobblers cannot reach. One cobbler leading three Zhuge Liangs equals four cobblers. This is 'one soldier is a bear, one general is a bear's den.' Three Zhuge Liangs are not as good as one cobbler. If team members do not complement and cooperate, their strength may cancel out. One Zhuge Liang leading three cobblers is better than four Zhuge Liangs. A team's organizational structure can only achieve value multiplication if it meets the following conditions: first, division of labor. Second, complementarity. Third, pyramid structure. Law 15: Excellent teams always produce talent. Pay special attention to sending talent to excellent teams for training and selecting talent from excellent teams. The best training is team assimilation. In an excellent team, what you see and hear is better than a carefully designed training course. The team leader's personal guidance is the best training method.
Training Laws Law 16: Never scold your subordinates as 'a bunch of idiots'; otherwise, you are a 'big idiot.' If only a few subordinates are idiots, the responsibility may be on the subordinates. If all subordinates are idiots, the responsibility must be on the manager. Scolding subordinates as idiots only shows that you 'have eyes but cannot see,' and you do not know how to select talent. Scolding subordinates as idiots only shows that you do not know how to cultivate talent, and those subordinates who follow you are 'really unlucky.' Law 17: Training is not the responsibility of the human resources department, nor is it the responsibility of subordinates. The manager is the primary person responsible for training. Parents do not shirk the responsibility of raising their children, and managers should not shirk the responsibility of training employees. The human resources department is only the organizer of training, not the responsible department. Training is a basic function of every manager and is part of the manager's job. If training is not done well, do not blame the leadership or the HR department; reflect on yourself. Law 18: The most difficult part of training is not changing people's thoughts, but changing people's behavior. What determines people's behavior is not knowledge, but habit. 'Knowing is easy, doing is difficult' is always a difficult problem. Changing one person's habit is difficult; changing a group's habit is even more difficult. Habits cannot be solved through training; they can only be solved through day-to-day management correction. Therefore, trainers cannot solve the ultimate problem of training; only managers can 'turn training content into corporate behavior.' Law 19: Training does not increase employee loyalty; on the contrary, training may accelerate employee turnover. When enterprises use training as a reward for employees, employees may not appreciate it. If employees' growth after training exceeds the growth rate of their superiors and the enterprise, training will only accelerate employees' dissatisfaction with the enterprise and their superiors. Dissatisfaction will accelerate employee turnover. Managers are the ceiling for employee growth. When employees grow to the ceiling, they either stop growing or seek new growth space. Therefore, training should start with managers; before training employees, managers should be trained first. In the past, sales managers might say: employees' level is too low and needs training. Now, sales managers should say: employees' quality is too low, and managers need training.
Management Laws Law 20: Management has no 'let it go this time,' only 'take this as an example.' Chinese managers are mostly very merciful. For first-time violators, they generally do not punish or punish lightly. After criticism and education, they often say sternly: 'Let it go this time!' Little do they know that this is a very dangerous precedent. The correct approach should be: according to the enterprise's rules and regulations, punish without compromise, and set a rule: take this as an example. Those who are accustomed to 'let it go this time' mostly have the following three mindsets: first, who does not make mistakes? Punishing for one mistake is too impersonal; second, one should always give a chance to reform; third, perhaps the violator does not understand the rules and made an 'unintentional mistake.' With this lesson, they will remember it next time. The original intention of these mindsets may be good, but the consequences are terrible. The first violator is under the watchful eyes of everyone, and the handling of the first violator will inevitably have a demonstration effect. 'Let it go this time' is a demonstration that tells people: the system is flexible, do not take it too seriously, at least the first violation does not need to be afraid. 'Take this as an example' is also a demonstration that tells people: do not be lucky, seriously implement the system! Otherwise, you are next. Law 21: 'Use people without doubt, doubt people without using.' This is the view of employing people in an agricultural society. The view in modern commercial society is: 'Use people with doubt, and doubtful people can be used.' People are unreliable, no matter who, including God. Years ago, Americans wrote a book called 'The President Is Not Reliable,' which merely acknowledged a basic fact of a system-based society: people are unreliable, and a social mechanism must be used to limit and regulate people's unreliable behavior. 'Use people without doubt, doubt people without using' is essentially discussing morality and ability without considering systems and rules. In an agricultural society, this may be feasible. Because the survival radius in an agricultural society is extremely small, and moral and ability risks are high. Modern society is a migratory society with frequent personnel changes, and the cost of determining that a person is 'not doubtful' is extremely high. Therefore, use people with doubt. At the same time, as long as there is a good system as a guarantee, it can make it difficult for 'doubtful people' to find opportunities, and also limit the behavior of 'doubtful people' within the acceptable range of the enterprise. Law 22: 'No excuses' may be the excuse of incompetent managers. The phrase 'no excuses' implies a crucial premise: effective organizational support and effective leadership from superiors. Without this premise, simply requiring subordinates to have 'no excuses' is just an excuse for incompetent leaders to shirk responsibility. Do what leaders should do first, and then you are qualified to require subordinates to have 'no excuses.' It is not about using 'no excuses' to fend off subordinates' objections after assigning tasks. Law 23: It is best not to use execution as a shield. If subordinates lack execution, it must be that the manager lacks management and control. Execution is first a goal management problem, that is, the problem of 'what to execute.' All work must have a plan, all people must have goals, and only do what the plan says. This is the beginning of execution. Otherwise, it is asking employees to have 'creative execution.' Execution is a management system problem. If people management can achieve 'manage every person's every day's every task,' and material management can achieve 'manage which product is sold to whom at what price,' marketing execution will naturally occur. Execution also involves work processes. Execution is not doing whatever you want, but following the predetermined process and standardized procedures. Execution requires a closed-loop feedback information system so that managers can know at any time whether they are in a good execution state. Otherwise, adjustment measures must be taken to ensure execution. Execution also needs to solve the problem of execution motivation. Those who execute effectively should be rewarded; those who do not execute or execute ineffectively should be punished. Execution has strict requirements for personnel quality. Employees must be willing to do it and know how to do it. Those who 'do not do' or 'cannot do' should either be trained to improve or be eliminated. Execution is a management style and a leadership quality. US Secretary of State Powell is called the most executive manager because he has firm will and indomitable spirit. Execution needs cultural atmosphere support. Haier advocates 'quick response, immediate action,' which is a good execution culture. Too many 'let it go this time' and 'do not pursue past mistakes' are bad execution cultures. From this perspective, the responsibility for poor execution is not on subordinates, but on managers themselves. Or, if a particular subordinate executes poorly, the responsibility may be on the subordinate. If subordinates collectively execute poorly, the responsibility must be on the manager. Law 24: The highest level of marketing management is standardization. Ordinary people think marketing is an art, only understood but not expressed, and difficult to replicate. Excellent managers regard marketing as a science and try to standardize it as much as possible. Only standardized things can be replicated. Standardized things can make more people succeed. 'Crossing the river by feeling the stones' is often misunderstood. In ordinary enterprises, everyone is crossing the river by feeling the stones, and as a result, most people fall into the river. Therefore, ordinary enterprises have more lessons than experiences. In excellent enterprises, ordinary people are never allowed to cross the river by feeling the stones; this is the work of a few excellent people. Once they cross, they turn the experience into standards, and others follow the standards to cross. Therefore, excellent enterprises have more standards. Excellent enterprises always have many 'standard operation manuals.' When encountering a problem, first look at the manual; if it is not in the manual, seek support from superiors. Things like Coca-Cola's '1.5 times safety stock' and 'visit customers in clockwise order' are not things that ordinary salespeople can figure out; they must be the crystallization of collective wisdom. In ordinary enterprises, experiences and lessons belong to individuals; in excellent enterprises, experiences and lessons belong to the enterprise's wealth. Law 25: Only with inheritance can there be accumulation; only with accumulation can one grow. Marketing and management need inheritance, and inheritance requires 'paperwork.' When you compete with Procter & Gamble, you will find that you are not competing with the current salespeople, but with P&G's 160 years of history. The marketing wealth accumulated over P&G's 160 years is incomparable to those young competitors. Everyone's marketing experience is the enterprise's wealth. Whether employees serve one enterprise for life or switch jobs, their experiences and lessons must be left behind. As long as predecessors have crossed the river, later generations should not have to cross by feeling the stones. What does marketing and management rely on for inheritance? The most common inheritance method is 'paperwork.' That is, all transaction processes and sales records should be recorded in the form of 'paperwork.' With 'paperwork,' market handover becomes simple, no longer relying on racking your brains to recall. With 'paperwork,' problems can be easily traced. With 'paperwork,' no one will say at the end of the year, 'I am busy every day, but I do not know what I was busy with.' Law 26: The ability that managers most lack is usually not planning ability, but control ability. Planning is the primary function of management, and control is the final function. Control is the guarantee for completing the plan. What is control? Control is when results deviate from the plan, take effective measures to ensure the implementation of the plan.
Thinking Laws Law 27: Successful managers usually 'think like outsiders, act like insiders.' The basic meaning of this sentence is: in thinking mode and decision-making, dare to break through and innovate, not constrained by traditional thinking; when doing specific things, do them professionally and meticulously. Decision-making requires judgment rather than professionalism. Even if the decision-maker is an outsider, as long as they have sufficient judgment, they can effectively judge and make decisions on the proposals put forward by insiders. When first entering an unfamiliar industry, you may not be an insider or understand the situation. But as long as the decision-making process is not wrong and you have sufficient judgment, relying on the decision-making process to judge, you can make correct decisions. As long as there are no preconceptions and you dare to ask 'why' for childish questions, it is easy to make innovative decisions. After being immersed in an industry for 3-4 years, you may feel that you can handle all problems with ease, decisions are made quickly under habitual thinking, and you may lose the courage to ask 'why' for childish questions. Previously, it was 'think like an outsider, act like an insider.' Now it is 'think like an insider, act like an insider.' The efficiency of doing things has undoubtedly improved, but the effectiveness has decreased, and innovation points have decreased. If the environment changes, the behavior of an insider in the original environment becomes the behavior of an outsider in the new environment. Because of this, Chen Yuxin, general manager of Huaxi Hope Group, proposed to 'always maintain an outsider mentality.' What a thought-provoking statement! Law 28: Successful people may not have profound knowledge, but they must have a unique thinking mode. Successful people are always in the minority, so the thinking of successful people is definitely not the thinking of the masses. Whenever you think of a solution, ask yourself: 'Would others think the same way?' If the answer is yes, then the feasibility of this solution is questionable. Because effective solutions are usually 'unexpected but reasonable.' Marketing is a competition, and competitive thinking is 'opponent thinking,' that is, the primary consideration is not how you think, but how the opponent thinks. Zhuge Liang always won by a trick because his thinking mode was not self-centered, but 'opponent thinking,' that is, deciding his strategy based on the opponent's thinking. Law 29: To secure your position as a sales manager, instead of trying to figure out what others think, let others figure out what you think. If a sales manager tries to 'please both sides' between the boss and the salespeople, the final result will be pleasing neither side. Sales managers bear the pressure of two opposing forces from the boss and the frontline salespeople. The boss's expectations and requirements for the sales manager are mainly in work aspects, such as implementing company policies and systems, supervising and inspecting the work of frontline salespeople, and not being too lenient with salespeople. Salespeople's expectations for the sales manager are mostly in emotional and feeling aspects, that is, caring for people's needs and psychological satisfaction. Salespeople hope that the sales manager is their spokesperson, can reflect their grievances and wishes to higher management, and cover up their misbehavior. The focus of contradictions from both upper and lower levels ultimately falls on the sales manager, placing them between two opposing pressures, the so-called 'mouse in the bellows, bullied from both ends.' If the sales manager plays the role of 'smoothing things over' and 'peacemaker,' having to deal with both superiors and subordinates, maneuvering between them, and sometimes even having to give up principles, the final result is usually that no one is satisfied. Anyone who survives by 'pleasing' usually ends up not being 'pleased.' As long as you are irreplaceable, your superiors may even 'please' you in return. The consolidation of a sales manager's position is not because they are liked, but because they are the most suitable for the position and can perform the duties better than others. Therefore, instead of trying to figure out what others think, let others figure out what you think. Final advice: If you do not have enough charisma, you should be professional enough; if you are not professional enough, you should lead by example; if you cannot even lead by example, do not be a sales manager.
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