For trading companies, salespeople are one of the most important assets, and excellent salespeople are especially valuable. Bosses often treat them with great care, unsure how to handle them. Boss P is the owner of a trading company that started from scratch. Now the company has a certain reputation in the local FMCG (alcohol and beverages) circle, with the sales team growing from a few to dozens, and holding exclusive regional agency rights for multiple well-known brands, which can be considered a small achievement. In 2017, during business supervision, he suddenly discovered that a large amount of 'accounts receivable' had become uncollectible bad debts. Boss P began to reflect: Why have these business brothers, who once drank and ate together, become so unreliable? What exactly went wrong? General Manager Z is the owner of a trading firm with a storefront and a rented warehouse that also serves as an office. He represents local liquor, beer from other regions, and various beverages. Despite the overall difficult business environment, through his careful management and the efforts of his team, business volume has been rising. Last year, he successfully signed a regional exclusive agency for a very strong local brand. In communication with him, he revealed that all his sales staff have been with him for over ten years, and the company's development is inseparable from his sales team. How can an individual business owner keep a group of people loyal, following him for over a decade without leaving? General Manager H, a few years ago, 'married' a local liquor dark horse and quickly rose to the top three liquor distributors in the region, with sales exceeding 100 million yuan. Just as General Manager H was about to accelerate and strike while the iron was hot, the sales director he had personally cultivated left, and even more infuriatingly, he took a group of salespeople to start his own business. 'We agreed to grow old together, but you secretly dyed your hair.' How bosses should treat their salespeople is a century-old question that every trading boss must seriously answer. To answer this question, one must first honestly acknowledge one's own concerns, understand the needs of salespeople, and prescribe the right remedy. Bosses' concerns about salespeople generally fall into two categories: few (or no) orders, and strong dependence on orders. Analyzing salespeople's needs inevitably involves: more money, a comfortable work environment, and career development. Bosses who have good relationships with their salespeople must have provided wise and effective answers in these five aspects, satisfying both parties. How to handle situations with few (or no) orders Few orders from salespeople may be due to poor sales ability, inability to close deals; salespeople not working hard, loafing on the job; salespeople just collecting basic salary; or salespeople being disloyal, 'using the boss's ox to plow their own field.' For salespeople with poor ability, the company needs to address this through recruitment screening, self-training, internal training, mentoring, and other methods. For those who don't work hard or just collect basic salary, the company should first review its own assessment mechanism, give them a chance to correct, and if they don't improve, immediately remove them from the team. For disloyal behavior such as poaching clients, set clear rules in advance, and once discovered, immediately remove them from the team, and reflect afterwards. How to handle strong dependence on orders If a large portion of the company's orders come from individual salespeople, and they hold a lot of customer relationships, then changes in sales staff can significantly impact the stability of the company's operations. In such cases, the company should introduce CRM (Customer Relationship Management) to lock downstream customers under the company's name, mitigating the risk of salespeople taking customers away. On the other hand, the company should output advantageous products and services to form a win-win interest community with customers. Additionally, the company should build its own brand within the industry, create a brand business card, and generate cooperation premiums. Finally, for excellent salespeople, the company should abandon the employer-employee relationship and boss mentality, providing a more relaxed and developmental platform. How to meet salespeople's need for more money Many bosses still have a zero-sum game mentality, viewing salespeople as business costs, thinking that if they give more to employees, they will get less themselves. But that's not the case. For sales, 'high wages equal high output.' If you want the cow to produce more milk, you need to feed it well. Due to work, we often come into contact with companies that, when designing salespeople's income, always refer to the local average income level, afraid of giving too much. The salespeople they recruit are always lacking in combat effectiveness, not seeking methods for success but always making excuses for failure, full of negative energy. The salespeople who stay are either there for the salary or for the insurance. So the company's performance gets worse and worse, and confidence wanes. For salespeople, giving a bit more money is not a bad thing. How to meet salespeople's need for a comfortable work environment A comfortable work environment does not mean letting salespeople do whatever they want. A comfortable work environment means fewer distractions outside of work, allowing salespeople to focus on business, less office politics, more fairness and justice; less muddling through, more responsibility, each doing their own job and getting what they deserve. H Group is a beer company with annual sales of around 50 million yuan. It has a low retention rate for excellent salespeople, high turnover among new employees, and many legacy businesses. After in-depth contact, we found that there are endless meaningless meetings, numerous ineffective reports, complex processes, logistics as the boss, the capable doing more but not benefiting, and a serious disconnect between responsibility, rights, and benefits... Imagine such a work environment, would you dare to come? How to meet salespeople's need for career development Work is for earning a living, but work is definitely not just for earning a living. Excellent salespeople, or those who strive to excel, place more importance on their future development and whether the company can provide opportunities for growth. A career path that is predictable and has no future is unbearable for excellent salespeople. The company must consider the development channels for salespeople. To this end, the company can consider offering excellent employees a stake in the company through equity incentives, allowing them to become partners and work together. It can also consider introducing the Amoeba model internally, opening independent business units, making the company a platform, and encouraging employees who desire development to shine on the platform, maximizing their potential. Looking back at the three cases at the beginning of this article: Boss P's business developed, but the management of salespeople is still in its infancy. In the future, he must consider improving internal management mechanisms and raising higher requirements in terms of material incentives and work development. General Manager Z's business has maintained stable growth, largely due to his efforts in meeting the needs of his salespeople. General Manager H's company developed, but core salespeople left, mainly due to a lack of planning in meeting personnel needs. It's never too late to mend the fold after a sheep is lost. If General Manager H can quickly conceive and implement a concrete plan, he will surely turn the crisis around. Source: Liquor Distributor Academy -END-