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(This article is excerpted from Wei Qing's Sina Weibo)
Case: A distributor's key employee had some savings and was thinking about starting his own business. The boss talked to him: "How much money do you have? 200,000? 200,000 can't start a damn business. Give it to me, and I'll give you an IOU for a 5-year loan. As long as you work for me for 5 years, I'll give you 30% annual dividend. How about that?" The employee did the math: annual salary of 80,000-90,000, plus dividends of 60,000, he'd earn over 100,000 a year. Going out to be a small boss might not be as good.
Case: A company recruited eight sales managers and bought eight villas with a down payment. The managers paid the monthly mortgage themselves, and if they worked for 10 years, the houses would be transferred to them! This trick was too harsh, and others envied them! But these managers themselves cried: "I'm paying the mortgage, but if I don't work for 10 years, the house isn't mine, and all these years of mortgage payments are wasted." "The monthly mortgage is over 8,000 yuan, and my monthly salary is just over 10,000. I live in a villa but eat boxed meals. I have no money and dare not change jobs..."
Back when I was an employee, I was trained into illusions! There was a class called "How to Promote a Brand in a New Country." The teacher said: "Coca-Cola sells in hundreds of countries worldwide. Wherever the sun rises, there are sales opportunities. Everyone here is a company elite. In the future, some of you may be sent to new countries to develop new markets." My goodness, it was so exciting! After the class, I even had chills when going to the bathroom. Later...
Salespeople say: "Supermarket buyers only care about money," "Company policies are problematic; we can't do the job." Tobacco manufacturers say: "There's no other way except to win over the leaders of the tobacco company." This is like the resentful wife's saying: "No man is good." Which supermarket buyer's KPI is only about money? Impossible! If the policy isn't good, can't you still do it? Do what you can. Complaining is useless. Many problems are definitely not solved only with money.
Everyone thinks others have a better life, but in reality, "outwardly triumphant, inwardly hurt." The "evil state-owned monopoly enterprises" also complain. Moutai is impressive, but they also say the pressure of new product sales is high. Tobacco companies say performance pressure is huge, and their unique system makes it hard for tobacco manufacturers to exert force in the market. People from PetroChina are also looking for training courses everywhere. I think the happiest now are retired old men and women.
I gave training to a tobacco company, and after a day, my voice was hoarse. Why? Because dozens of cigarettes were burning in the classroom all the time. I had to lecture in the smoke for two days. I estimate that in these three days, I've smoked enough for next year. But I'm already gratified. In 2004, when I lectured for Furong Wang (a cigarette brand), there were over 300 cigarettes lit simultaneously in a classroom. A single spark can start a prairie fire, but 300 cigarettes can smoke a person like meat. Even I, a seasoned smoker, was in tears.
When a sales rep visits a terminal and sees that our product has added new SKUs: 1. Understand when the terminal stocked our new product and who delivered it. 2. Focus on shelf management for the new SKUs. 3. Reflect: Why didn't I get the order for this product during my last visit? 4. Understand why the terminal stocked our new product (e.g., due to distributor or secondary wholesaler relationships, handling customer complaints, or providing a light box, etc.)
When a sales rep visits a terminal and sees that our product has reduced SKUs: 1. Understand if it's due to stockouts or slow sales... what caused it? 2. Try to restore the SKUs. 3. For outlets unwilling to stock, fill in the reason in the "Remarks" column of the visit record card, and inform the distributor to assist with restocking and public relations. 4. Reflect: Did this leave a price gap for competitors? Take orders for other SKUs at the same price point to fill the gap in that store.
When a sales rep visits a terminal and sees that a competitor has reduced SKUs: 1. Understand if it's due to competitor stockouts, slow sales, or our sales actions for corresponding SKUs... what caused the competitor to reduce SKUs? 2. Press the advantage and take orders for our products in the corresponding price range! Increase our orders and inventory to occupy the terminal's funds. 3. For outlets unwilling to stock, fill in the reason in the "Remarks" column of the visit record card, and inform the distributor to assist with restocking and public relations.
When a sales rep visits a terminal and sees that a competitor has added new SKUs: 1. Understand when the terminal stocked the competitor's product and who delivered it, and fill it in the "Remarks" column (if it's our distributor switching sides, mark it specially). 2. Check if our product has a corresponding SKU to the competitor's new SKU. 3. Counter the competitor's display and strengthen our display. 4. Reflect: Is the reason for the competitor's SKU increase due to our product gap, inventory gap, or other reasons?
During training, I often encounter company bosses who lament: "Our products and policies are fine; it's just that our employees' execution is poor." Their tone implies "I am not a king who lost the country; all my ministers are ministers who lost the country." In fact, execution is not the employees' ability; it's the result of the company's management system, including "the feasibility of the boss's orders, the standards given to employees before execution, authorization and monitoring, training and incentives..." The responsibility for execution still lies with the leaders.
There's a ghost story in terminal sales: there's a "Ghost Street," and the salespeople covering this street have all "died" one after another: some resigned after just three days, some were fired for filling false reports or poor performance... Supervisors, don't be afraid. There's a reason for everything. "Bring a peach wood sword and go see, to catch ghosts and demons": maybe the road is too far and you need to solve transportation issues, maybe there are too many stores and the sales rep can't cover them all, so they have to fill false reports, or maybe a competitor's distributor dominates this street and our salespeople are always scolded and threatened...
A common disease of sales bosses: gasoline allergy. After seeing the market, they fly into a rage and arrange a bunch of tasks, but then no one follows up, and these things die. Subordinates learn the pattern: "This boss has a gasoline allergy. When it flares up, it looks serious, but after two days, it's fine." Sales bosses going out to see the market should bring an assistant to record the tasks assigned locally, and then schedule the audit department to check and report, tracking the results.
Barbers are divided into director level, technician level, etc., with different prices. I asked the barber how these levels are determined. He replied: "It's based on our store's KPI assessment, including how long without taking leave, years of work, customer praise, customer appointments, etc." I asked: "Is it unrelated to sales targets?" He replied: "The boss said we must never tie it to sales. If we push sales on customers and annoy them, the store's business will be ruined." Bravo! Broadband incentives, small business, big philosophy!
At the end of the year, when making annual plans, many companies get it backwards: they make it a financial plan—market, task volume, expense ratio, over-quota expense rewards and penalties... The reports are perfect but constrain sales. You should first review this year's sales data to understand which products and which distributors contributed to the growth. Then determine next year's opportunity products, strategic growth regions, opportunity channels... After determining the sales growth model, then match it with financial control measures.
At the end of the year, the most common problem in distributor contracts is the tiered rebate based on sales volume—monthly rebate, quarterly rebate, annual rebate... Once this contract is signed, the manufacturer is naked, showing all their cards to the distributor, forcing the distributor to cut prices and divert goods, and exploit loopholes (e.g., overstocking this month to get rebates, then taking a break next month). The manufacturer and distributor become purely a transactional relationship of sales and rebates. This old, outdated mistake is still being repeated.
I've been doing deep distribution for over a decade and have witnessed too many failures. My insight: reform should minimize costs. Deep distribution is process management-oriented, but for private enterprises, this project must be sales-oriented. From regional selection, distributor cooperation, staffing, terminal visit methods, product price management... all links should adhere to this principle. There are too many details, and if you're not careful, you fall into traps. It's a trivial but intricate task.
"Chicken restaurant," dozens of square meters, shabby, but the dishes are distinctive, and foodies come by reputation. The cheapest beer sold in this tiny shop is 7 to 10 yuan per bottle. This kind of shop may not look impressive from the outside, but it actually sells high-priced liquor very well and is easy to push new products—the diners come for the food, so they'll drink whatever you give them. In the winter off-season, you should find these "specialty stores" as opportunity stores and "be more aggressive."
Winter is here. Reminder: The colder the weather, the less adhesive the back of posters and POP materials stick to walls. This season, you should use "hanging flags, wrap films" and other visual merchandising items for indoor visual promotion. For outdoor POP, if you put it up in front, the wind will blow it off later. Waste!
It's cold, and in the beer industry, the sell-through speed in small supermarkets will slow down. Hot pot restaurants and restaurants with heating or air conditioning are the "opportunity stores" this season. Are terminal sales reps still visiting terminals periodically by route? Forget it. Some small supermarkets won't even sell a case of beer in a month this season. Adjust the route: visit stores that don't sell well once every two weeks just to maintain visual merchandising. This season, visit "opportunity stores" two or three times a week.
Bosses always care about assessment, thinking that if they do the assessment well, the matter will be handled well. Professional managers always care about reports, thinking that if they make sales reps fill in correct reports, the team can be managed well. How easy is that? They always want to take shortcuts. If you're unwilling to go through the necessary trivial processes, you'll eventually pay the price. It's admirable to want a "Great Leap Forward," but remember, the cost of learning common sense is far less than the tuition you pay by "feeling the stones yourself."
Learn from Master Kong or Coca-Cola? You see their sales reps visit 30 stores a day by route, so you do the same? Their brand pull is strong, and their management and monitoring systems are mature. A sales rep can come back with dozens of orders and do good visual merchandising. What about you? Your brand pull is weak, there are a bunch of legacy market problems, and your distributor network isn't effective... Your sales rep visits 28 stores a day and gets scolded out of each one, selling only two orders. What do you do? Learning the form without the spirit is a loss.
From today, the editor will regularly compile the "dry goods" from the Weibo of well-known domestic salespeople to share with readers, so you can enjoy them all at once!
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