A terrible market is not the customer's fault; first look at your own team's problems. Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. The same goes for frontline terminal markets! Even if you visit an excellent market in person, you'll find: salespeople full of vigor, market order as stable as a peaceful nation, regional management in perfect order... We often say, to judge an excellent market, look at the details! Details! Details! Important things said three times! Markets that are excellent and stable over the long term owe it to details! So, what does a terrible market look like? I roughly divide terrible markets into five categories. The predecessor dug a pit, the successor takes the blame There's a saying: "One generation plants the trees, the next enjoys the shade." These are fine words from books, but in reality, in sales work? I think few people can achieve the virtue of "planting trees for future generations"—what a noble spirit! Frontline terminal sales work only cares about the "present continuous," not the "future tense"! As for future strategy and development, that's for high-level leaders in offices to ponder! It has nothing to do with grassroots salespeople! What kind of pits do predecessors typically dig? Chaotic price systems, serious cross-region selling and dumping, a fragmented team, and a mess of customer expense reimbursements... I once saw a manufacturer where every regional sales director, after a 3-year term, would swap regions with each other. Interestingly, during those 3 years, the sales directors basically worked like this: Year 1: Fill the pit (the predecessor's pit, making it hard to improve performance); Year 2: Level the pit (after leveling, you can catch your breath and do some work); Year 3: Dig a pit (term ending, dig a pit to boost performance, then retire gracefully—perfect) The "fall guys" below keep the same formation, playing dominoes. For the legacy issues left by predecessors—employee issues, market issues, expense issues—only a few truly have the ability to solve them. For manufacturers and customers, solving problems is more important than finding them. No manufacturer can tolerate a stumbling block left in place, and no customer will spend extra money because of problems. Vague product positioning, impenetrable to water A product cannot appeal to all levels. Everyone understands that a product fits a certain market, but many still make this mistake. Take the mobile phone sales industry. iPhones are high-end, but iPhone buyers aren't necessarily high-income; to a large extent, it's brand effect and personal face value. Some say iPhones are user-friendly, but only if you're used to them—you've been educated by the iPhone brand. Consumer mindsets and preferences sometimes need to be developed and guided by manufacturers. How to lead trends and ignite fads is something salespeople must think about. People's subconscious needs to be activated; everyone has consumption habits, but habits can be cultivated. So, we often say, a great brand has the right to educate consumers on usage habits! Another example. Take the depth of T1-T4 markets. Generally, T4 markets are suburban and township markets. By common sense, they're areas for budget phones. On the contrary, with China's consumption upgrade, T4 markets represented by Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, and the Pearl River Delta have spending power comparable to T2 markets. These areas have labor-intensive factories, almost all staffed by young migrant workers, with high immediate consumption potential, plus installment payment for phones—what a bonus! Market promotion strategies should be tailored to market characteristics, adapting channel strategies to consumption structure, habits, and demographics. Warlord chaos, destitute and blank A chaotic market ultimately stems from market order issues, and more so from regional managers. A traffic cop at an intersection is responsible for directing traffic. A regional manager in their own territory has the basic duty to maintain market order; otherwise, how can you talk about sales? In fact, competitors can't wait for your market order to collapse. I often say the best way to snipe at competitors is to wait until their market order has problems, then pursue and attack relentlessly, and in one go, leave them unable to recover. Warlord chaos in regional markets often starts with price issues as the trigger, then cross-region selling and dumping, and finally spreads to the entire channel system. Some regional managers only start panicking when the channel collapses. We've all played the game "Eagle Catches Chicks." The mother hen moves just a small step, but for the chicks at the back, it's a big swing. The same goes for the market: a small problem you ignore for long will become a big swing. As the saying goes, better to take a blank, destitute market than a second-hand terrible one—you know what I mean! With a blank market, you use the "shoe-sole stitching" approach: visit customers step by step, lead the team wholeheartedly, gradually increase brand influence in the region, and form market consumption habits. Fierce competition, nowhere to hide When it comes to fierce competition, the mobile phone industry is a prime example. No manufacturer burns money slower than printing money! Whether past or present, the phone market is a red ocean; everyone wants a piece. A few years ago, foreign brands took their share, some overate and died, then broke up and sold off. Then local brands fought back, like cornered beasts, with brutal competition. Suddenly, internet-based phone brands appeared out of nowhere. Other brands were stunned—can phones be played this way? Local brands thought they couldn't just play on the ground; let's go online too, maybe we'll get lucky! After searching around online, they realized something was off: online is the "spider's" domain. Better put on shoes and get back to work on the ground—that's our real business. So, we often say, in the phone industry, it's easy to enter but hard to survive! Easy to marry a wife, but hard to live together! Besieged on all sides, half-paralyzed No matter how good the product, if customers don't get real benefits and don't cooperate, it's all in vain—unless you set up your own stall! Why don't customers cooperate with you?
Compared with competitors, what are the customer's profit margins with your product?
Does your product give customers peace of mind?
How strong is your brand influence? How high is the order rate?
Have you filled the pit your predecessor dug?
Have you ever dug pits for customers? Poor communication, verbal promises, delays, etc.? What to do with a terrible market? Ask 10 people, and you'll get 100 opinions. You can't use all 100 methods, can you? Here are a few points: For a terrible market, don't blame customers first; look for problems in your own team. A regional manager should maintain a positive and optimistic attitude. If a market scores 90, and you take over, no matter how hard you try, you won't improve much! If a terrible market scores 30, and you take over, even if you only reach 60, that's a 100% increase—totally possible! So, we often say, being able to grow crops in saline-alkali soil makes you a farming expert! If you can strike oil in black soil, you're the "Wang Jinxi" of sales. Don't make excuses or complain, don't face the market with resistance; have the spirit to make the market rise again. Besides, leaders surely know this is a terrible market. They sent you to the saline-alkali land; they know better than you it's barren. Besides, you're the officers and soldiers sent by leaders. Do leaders want everyone to be wiped out in the saline-alkali land? I believe no leader is that foolish. If you do well, you become the "model representative of saline-alkali land." Which leader doesn't want a "model representative" on their team? At the same time, you should convey to leaders: "I'm willing to accept organizational treatment, but you need to give me health supplements." In other words, I fully accept the challenge of the "saline-alkali land" and am confident in rising. But I need policy support, resource backing, sales subsidies, and other benefits. At this moment, don't let leaders feel you're bargaining or threatening. Convey your determination to make this saline-alkali land a benchmark. With manufacturer support, organizational cooperation, and leader attention, you will surely rise! Then, turning to face the saline-alkali land, what should you do? 1. Internal communication meetings Tell everyone: "From today on, the past is history. The market was a mess, and no one's hands are clean. We can let bygones be bygones, but today we draw a line. Those who want to continue, let's roll up our sleeves and work hard to make something of ourselves. Those who want to leave can talk to me privately; I fully support you flying away!" Then let everyone speak freely, don't hold onto past mistakes, and encourage suggestions. 2. Establish an assessment mechanism Make up for previous assessment loopholes. How to assess customers? List each item, avoid excessive taxes and levies, don't kill the goose that lays golden eggs, and aim to boost customer enthusiasm with tailored assessment plans! How to assess salespeople? What are the standards? Aim for more work, more rewards, and more grain. Avoid judging heroes solely by numbers; strengthen process guidance. 3. Actively visit customers Visit customers with your team, openly explain the original market situation, how you'll operate now, the support from headquarters, and clear up legacy issues one by one to reassure customers. Recommend visiting core customers 3-5 times, and small customers 2 times. After visiting all customers in the region, performance will start to recover, and customers will begin to enjoy the "reform and opening up" benefits! At this point, hold a "customer consultation meeting," talk about win-win and glory, fill the glasses, and toast. Build customer confidence and make them feel they've "entered a new era." 4. Don't blindly believe in "humanization" Humanization is a trendy word; employees talk about it constantly. My understanding is that humanized management is built on sound and complete systems. Sleeping at home during work hours is not humanization. So, talk about systems and rules first, then your humanization. Only when the company is thriving can you afford the cost, energy, and space to develop humanization. Our market is already in such a mess; the market's punishment is not "humanized." Under reasonable systems, do the market well, then "humanize management." Finally: Since you're here, make the best of it. To develop the market better, running away is not the solution. Only by building customer and employee confidence, uniting team strength, leveraging manufacturer advantages, bringing all existing problems to light, solving them as quickly as possible, clearing away stumbling blocks, and winning market and customer trust.