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If the process is done well, the results will naturally be good. In sales—especially FMCG sales—you must do well at the terminal level; insiders all understand this.

Terminal work does not generate sales on the same day. Sales go left, terminal goes right—this is inherently a paradox. Sales insiders also know this.

Is terminal work difficult? Route planning, report design, standard visit steps... the technical aspects are no longer mysterious—just poach a regional manager from Coca-Cola or Master Kong. But after the technology becomes transparent, why do so many companies launch terminal systems only to either give up halfway (terminal work "unaccomplished") or end up with "heart in Tianshan, body dead in Cangzhou"?

Most are troubled by the paradox of wanting sales versus wanting terminals, and more often they are like blind men touching an elephant—doing terminal work with half-understanding, falling into terminal management traps.

The author joined the marketing industry over a decade ago, starting as the most grassroots position in Master Kong's route management—assistant sales representative (street runner). Later, he moved through roles as Master Kong office director, provincial manager, Coca-Cola, and private enterprises, serving as route assistant sales rep, route supervisor, terminal route management planning specialist, and director. He experienced the ups and downs of route management from three perspectives: execution, management, and planning. Later, as a consultant, he helped four companies, including Hualong Group, launch, coach, and even operate national sales offices, establishing route management system operation projects. Over a decade of marketing career, he formed an unbreakable bond with terminal route management.

During this period, every time he wanted to jump ship from a company or end a route management project as a consultant, he would feel proud, thinking he had gained more expertise in this field, even knowing everything. But each new attempt brought new problems that left him bruised and exhausted. Finally, he crossed the river by feeling the stones, trying carefully, and then made some progress.

Looking back after more than ten years, his biggest feelings are two phrases: "Looking at the mountain, the horse runs to death; the more you learn, the more afraid you become" and "Route management is fundamentally trap management (because there are too many traps on the road)." Now standing on the shore with scars all over, he looks back and sees some companies struggling in the trap (more amusingly, his old employers Master Kong and Coca-Cola are also playing in the well) or wandering around cluelessly even at death's door. On the other side of the trap, more companies are lining up with money ready to jump in. He feels compelled to speak out, writing down his personal lessons and thoughts for peers to avoid dangers on the road.

Trap 1: Loving the dragon superficially, lacking firm belief

Belief determines action: "If the terminal is good, the market will be good; the terminal decides the future." Everyone can say this, but do they really believe it? Are they just saying it, while secretly thinking, "Is it worth spending so much effort on terminals? Do we need to hire so many people to paste posters?"

Why have Coca-Cola and Master Kong unwaveringly done terminal work for so many years? Why is their terminal work good? Because it is their tradition; they have always done it this way. From top to bottom, they believe that "terminal construction brings sales; terminal construction is the right path to sales growth."

"Believe and it works; sincerity works." Saying this sounds like a charlatan. But actually, it is about psychology. If you truly believe terminals bring sales, you will mobilize all resources and be determined to go all out to win this game. If you are skeptical and wavering, then the decision of whether you win in this game is not in your hands. An unsettled heart will prevent you from acting on your decisions; you will retreat when faced with difficulties and start strong but end weak. But the market does not give you time to hesitate or wait and see.

Why do domestic companies always "fail" in terminal work? Because their tradition is not this. Their sales work has always been about grabbing distributors, holding ordering meetings, buying out market operation rights, and doing channel promotions with gifts! Doing terminals? Route visits? Route manuals? I understand the logic, but "I haven't done it this way for so many years, and goods are still selling like hotcakes." When I have time, I can do terminals; when I'm busy, I have to ensure sales first...

How to make everyone "believe"? It relies on repeated propaganda to brainwash, model markets to set examples, and coercive measures to guarantee.

The most important thing is the boss's determination—the boss must pass his own psychological test: "Terminals are a strategy, the lifeline for the company's future market stability and growth; we must do terminals well." Not like loving the dragon superficially, doing terminals for three and a half days, seeing that spending is high and sales haven't risen immediately, then giving up halfway and returning to the old ways.

Trap 2: The master works, the servant is idle; the manufacturer plays a solo show

Structure determines function: Establish a terminal visit personnel team, a terminal distribution distributor/dealer team, and establish a division of labor and cooperation model between the manufacturer and distributor teams.

The most problematic part in this link is the cooperation/division of labor between the manufacturer and the dealer. Why do some companies see sales decline after doing terminal work? Often they stumble here—

  • Manufacturer plays a solo show: If the manufacturer's assessment and incentives for distributors only include sales targets, without involving terminal performance rewards or penalties, distributors will not make efforts on terminal performance, leaving the manufacturer to fight alone.
  • Distributor's self-selling ability shrinks: If the manufacturer's terminal sales reps are assessed on sales targets, they will desperately take orders, even telling retail stores, "Call me for goods in the future, not the distributor." Eventually, the distributor will withdraw the people and vehicles originally invested in this product to sell other products—since the manufacturer has sent people, fine! You sell your goods; I'll just deliver according to the orders.
  • Distributor resistance: Some distributors even think the manufacturer is doing terminal work to take their rice bowl and take over their market.
  • Secondary wholesalers' enthusiasm declines: Wholesalers are angry; the orders are all taken by your sales reps, what do we sell? Wholesalers stop selling!
  • ...

Sales and the market ultimately depend on distributors. If the channel does not cooperate and distributors do not exert effort, the result will be the master working and the servant idle, doing more but achieving less. The manufacturer invests a lot of resources in terminal work, exhausted, while the distributor calculates behind the scenes and lets the chain slip.

& Solutions:

  1. Add terminal performance reward indicators to the distributor's rebate and incentive policies. Part of the rebate becomes a reward. To get the reward, distributors must have their people paste posters (at least tear down competitor posters), improve distribution rate and visual merchandising performance.
  2. Choose selective distribution instead of intensive distribution. In a city (especially prefecture-level and above) with 5,000 outlets, the manufacturer's terminal sales reps do not need to cover all; visiting and controlling 50% of outlets is enough. Even fishing has seasons; don't kill them all—leave room for wholesalers to survive, and the manufacturer's costs won't be so high.
  3. Ensure wholesaler channel enthusiasm: If the manufacturer is determined, it can also cover terminals extensively, but the orders taken by terminal sales reps should not all be given to the distributor. According to the terminal's inherent supply channel, transfer the orders to its upstream wholesaler, trying not to excessively disrupt the ecological environment—don't disrupt the original logistics food chain. Of course, this involves a series of detailed difficulties: confirming each retail store's upstream supplier, eliminating wholesalers who deliver untimely, handling disputes when multiple wholesalers compete for one terminal, etc. But in fact, after overcoming these details, the results are really good. Some companies in the marketing industry are already doing this and succeeding.
  4. The manufacturer's terminal work should grasp the scale: do market work, not sales volume—
    • The manufacturer's terminal sales reps should not be assessed only on sales volume; don't force them to desperately sell goods, duplicating the distributor's existing sales visit work. Otherwise, the distributor's employees and the manufacturer's sales reps will conflict (if you take the order, it doesn't count as my sales, affecting my bonus).
    • Terminal sales reps should be assessed on terminal indicators (distribution rate, number of SKUs, visual merchandising, etc.). Their duty is to take new product orders to improve distribution rate and visual merchandising level (and do community promotions and brand promotion on weekends), not for the manufacturer to take orders and the distributor to deliver. In my experience, when distributors clearly know the manufacturer's terminal team is positioned this way, they not only won't be angry but will "breathe a sigh of relief, put their hearts at ease," and sell goods more diligently.
  5. Closely monitor the distributor's self-selling ratio
    • Tell the distributor: Our terminal sales reps are here to help you distribute new products, increase sales SKUs, and increase distributor profits. Old products are still sold by the distributor's team; the manufacturer's reps do not take old product orders. So you cannot withdraw any of your people or vehicles—make the distributor clear that the manufacturer is here to do market work, not to do sales for him, nor to replace his original self-selling function.
    • Regularly provide the distributor with data analysis: this month, how many new outlets our terminal team developed, how many new products promoted, how much money we helped you earn—make the distributor truly feel the benefits brought by the manufacturer's terminal construction.
    • If a distributor reduces his personnel and vehicle investment in our product? The manufacturer should bring a pile of evidence of his delivery failures and too-low self-selling ratio to negotiate, using threats and inducements, torment and ravage—until he increases his personnel and vehicle investment.
    • If the orders taken by the manufacturer's reps account for more than 30% of the distributor's shipments? The distributor and the regional manager in that area should be disciplined...

Trap 3: Personnel management out of control

Management determines efficiency: Terminal construction requires adding people. Once a company starts doing terminals, the number of people inevitably multiplies. Rapid recruitment and training of talent becomes a tipping point for terminal sales.

In "Bright Sword," the Nationalist general Chu Yunfei sighed: "The Communist Party's speed of building a team is too terrifying." Yes! That's the effect we want.

Once people are recruited, they must be managed. If the management system cannot keep up, too many people will cause chaos, such as—

  • The terminal distributor's strength, network, and transportation capacity are severely insufficient. Terminal sales reps visit the market and take orders, but no one delivers, so they quickly spin their wheels.
  • The market foundation is poor, distribution rate is below 15%, market share is less than one-tenth, there are no strong promotional policies, and the distributor's network development capability is insufficient (e.g., hotels require credit sales, but the distributor cannot provide credit). As a result, terminal sales reps have too low a daily closing rate, run all day without getting an order, morale collapses, and they can't sell goods in stores, so they just paste posters every day.
  • Previously it was extreme right: sales reps were lone wolves, no reports at all. Once doing terminals, it becomes extreme left: they fill out route manuals daily, count distribution rates, and even write down how many posters they pasted today. Sales reps are exhausted, making reports every day, self-deprecatingly calling themselves "table cousins" (report makers), visiting stores as "reading electric meters" (checking distribution rates), and even cursing the company as a "biaozi" (whore) company—a good terminal sales system turns into a bureaucratic, corrupt report project.
  • A more common phenomenon is that supervisors' inspection and management are not strong enough, terminal sales reps fabricate reports, slack off, embezzle promotional items, skip small stores and only visit big stores, deceive superiors and subordinates... Eventually, the team collapses.

& Solutions:

  1. Ensure manpower supply
    • Once you decide to fully launch terminal work, you face a huge manpower gap. The company should have dedicated personnel and institutions for continuous recruitment (for terminal sales reps, the best talent channels are college entrance exam failures, demobilized rural soldiers, youth from poor mountainous areas, and factory workers). At the same time, start a "reserve cadre" training camp among existing staff.
  2. Establish and correct management standards
    • Find truly knowledgeable people to design the terminal sales report system, management manual, and meeting system. Make terminal visits a fixed, periodic, and process-oriented job.
    • Whatever the reason, if sales reps have to spend more than an hour a day filling out reports for several consecutive weeks, the report system definitely has problems—change it!
  3. Ensure promotion quality
    • Headquarters should have people monitor all regions that have established offices and started terminal visits, from both result data and process data. First, monitor result data—after adding people for terminal visits, sales still decline? There must be a problem! Second, monitor process data—after adding people for terminal visits, sales reps only close two stores a day? Selling only old products? There must be a problem! Immediately "fly" over, investigate on the front line, find out where the problem is. At the slightest sign of trouble, act immediately.
  4. Grasp key management points. Terminal personnel management is a system, but grasping two key points will prevent major chaos.
    • "Fabricating reports (especially employee daily work reports and route manuals) is unforgivable": Fake reports are contagious. Once fake reports become the norm, then absenteeism, embezzlement of promotional items, skipping small stores, deceiving superiors and subordinates all appear.
    • "Employees work in front, leaders check behind": Mandate that supervisors must check employees' previous day's visit routes daily and write inspection records. After checking, "scold" at the next morning's meeting to correct and encourage, ensuring personnel efficiency.

Trap 4: Focusing on one thing and losing another, abandoning good traditions

Terminal construction is important and is the general trend, imperative.

But at different stages, companies have different needs for terminal construction.

For mature companies and mature regions, terminal construction and route visits are the top priority. But for some companies or some regions, the distributor network is a mess, the product line is incomplete, headquarters distribution logistics can't keep up, and the marketing department is dysfunctional... At this time, terminals are not the "principal contradiction."

Should terminals be done? Of course! Key markets cannot be slow (if slow, you get beaten). The overall market cannot be fast (if fast, the chain slips)—for example, if distributors are too weak to deliver, wholesalers slash prices and create chaos, then even if you put terminal sales reps on, they will spin their wheels.

Sales is a carriage that needs at least five horses to pull.

  1. Channel: distributor selection, incentives, management, price and profit management for distributors and secondary wholesalers.
  2. Sales volume management: headquarters' real-time monitoring of sales, inspection and improvement of weak regions, promotional plans at seasonal turning points, stocking policies before peak season...
  3. Terminal: route visits, deep distribution.
  4. Market: headquarters' overall planning, marketing planning, promotion control, new product launch management.
  5. Product: new product R&D, product line sorting.

When the trumpet for terminal sales sounds, if everyone's attention is focused solely on terminals, focusing on one thing and losing another, good things can turn into bad things.

& Solutions:

  1. Rationally choose intensive cultivation areas: Where should offices be established for terminal visits, and how should progress be controlled? The boss should evaluate existing market sales, distributor delivery capability and cooperation, and existing execution and management talent reserves, then give a schedule. Do not advance blindly.
  2. Manage terminal projects independently, use sales to buy time.
    • Treat terminal construction as an independent project, with a project manager responsible for executing the boss's terminal promotion schedule. The project manager is only responsible for terminal promotion progress, office management system, and terminal performance improvement.
    • The sales boss is independent of the terminal project, continuing to monitor sales data, find weak regions, launch turning-point promotional policies, and be responsible for sales. At the same time, the sales boss should be the project manager's backing, clearing obstacles in personnel execution and headquarters cooperation for the terminal project manager.
    • The boss focuses on sales, the project manager focuses on terminal schedule. On the basis of ensuring sales, optimize the company's market distribution model and terminal performance. This reduces company risk, reduces terminal promotion resistance, and buys time for the full rollout of terminal construction.
  3. Establish a global reflection model to ensure the integrity of overall work structure.
    • Each month, reflect on whether there has been any neglect in terminal construction? Are there any gaps in overall promotion? An example reflection model is as follows:
      • Has the terminal project progressed normally and been completed?
      • Have personnel recruitment and reserve cadre training been implemented as scheduled?
      • Is someone responsible for sales monitoring, inspection of weak regions, and improvement?
      • Is someone responsible for real-time market information feedback and quick promotional counterattacks against competitors?
      • Is someone responsible for promotional opportunities at seasonal turning points?
      • Have distributor contracts, incentives, communication, and management been carried out as always, with breakthroughs?
      • Is someone responsible for product line updates and supplements?
      • ...

& Special Note:

Why do some companies have booming sales before starting terminals, but after terminal construction, sales decline? Besides the "master works, servant idle" reason mentioned above, another common trap is "abandoning good traditions":

Previously, this company was entirely sales-oriented:

  • The boss watched data daily, and when he saw sales decline somewhere, he would "pounce" over to put out the fire...
  • When the off-season came, the boss took key business personnel on business trips across the country to visit markets, conceiving next year's new products, new flavors, and new bottle shapes.
  • The boss kept in touch with major distributors daily to understand frontline dynamics...
  • During Spring Festival, National Day, Mid-Autumn Festival, New Year's Day, and the transition between off-peak and peak seasons, he launched ordering meeting policies, promotional policies, and exclusive store lock-in policies...

Now all good traditions are lost; everyone is doing terminals, focusing on one thing and losing another, going beyond the limit!

Trap 5: Internal game-playing, middle-level cadres become resistance.

From the company's internal perspective, the success or failure of terminals depends on the execution of middle-level cadres.

Middle-level cadres connect the upper and lower levels. Downward, they are the direct leaders of terminal sales reps—determining what hundreds or thousands of terminal sales reps actually do. Upward, they are the boss's eyes and ears—transmitting market information to the boss—and the boss's hands and feet—tools for executing the boss's intentions.

Unfortunately, middle-level cadres have brains; they are not just tools.

Most middle-level cadres consider their department their own territory, a sphere of influence, not a scope of responsibility. When receiving instructions, their first reaction is: Will my brothers and I have to do more work? Will we earn more money? Are the interests of me and my department harmed?

The promotion of the terminal system often breaks down here!

Doing terminals requires doing many, many things, but it doesn't immediately show sales.

If middle-level cadres are only assessed on sales, who will help you do terminals? In the end, the thousands of "terminal sales reps" you invest in the market will become "sales reps" under the management of middle-level cadres.

What to do?

While assessing regional directors/managers on sales, their wallets must also be linked to terminal performance. Common methods are:

  1. Terminal sales reps' bonuses are calculated entirely based on terminal work indicators like distribution and visual merchandising. Regional directors/managers carry sales targets while also carrying terminal indicators—use sales to calculate bonuses, and use terminal performance to calculate additional rewards and penalties.
  2. Senior leaders inspect the market, implementing terminal scoring and rewards/penalties level by level.
  3. Headquarters establishes an audit team, promoting terminal performance scoring standards (with specified weights and plus/minus criteria for distribution, visual merchandising, terminal visit rate, and finally quantifying the terminal performance of each store based on comprehensive scores).
  4. Each month, the boss circles regions on the roster, and the audit department is responsible for randomly checking designated market terminal performance according to the boss's intentions, with rewards and penalties based on results.

When all frontline supervisors know that "their income and promotion are directly related to terminal performance,"

When regional managers hear the boss is coming to inspect, they are so scared "like seeing a ghost, jumping up to rush and paste posters,"

When regional managers are all guessing, "Will the headquarters inspection come to me this month?"

Only then does terminal construction truly begin.

Trap 6: Public resentment boils, terminal audit becomes the target of everyone's criticism.

Problems arise! The headquarters' audit behavior has three subjects—headquarters/audit department/regional personnel—and their interests are inconsistent.

The audit team: only cares about terminal performance and terminal scoring.

Regional supervisors: care most about sales, and because they will be rewarded or penalized, they are forced to care about terminals.

Headquarters: verbally emphasizes terminals are important, but in reality, cares most about sales.

As learned in elementary school essays: A group of animals pull a cart together; the swan wants to go to the sky, the frog wants to go into the water, the rabbit wants to enter the forest...

When superiors and subordinates have different desires, internal game-playing begins, undercurrents surge, and rumors spread—

"My market has its characteristics; competition is too fierce. Posters don't stay up for three minutes before being torn down. Pasting posters is useless."

"Now competitors are very aggressive in townships, and the market is in crisis. This month I need to pull people to attack townships, but your headquarters sends people to check terminals and impose rewards/penalties. This doesn't match my market's actual situation, affects my work, and affects my sales."

"The headquarters audit department comes down every day to score terminals and calculate rewards/penalties, causing every director to apply for display rewards. Promotions have shifted from sales-oriented to terminal-performance-oriented. How can my region complete its sales target?"

"The auditors don't understand the market. As a regional manager, my six markets each have different priorities this month: some are pushing new products, some are doing townships, some are changing distributors, some are developing blank outlets, some are signing exclusive agreements. The audit team should come down to help me check the work priorities I've arranged, not take a one-size-fits-all approach to checking terminals. This will be disconnected from my market and drag me down. I'm trying to do sales while also dealing with headquarters inspections!"

"In terminal scoring, posters account for 15 points. These 15 points are easy to get; pasting posters is the simplest. Now sales reps go out every day to paste posters and get these 15 points. But more important are stack counts, displays, and price maintenance, which are hard to get. Now everyone picks the soft persimmon, all going to paste posters, and no one handles other issues."

...

Are they right?

Every sentence makes sense. Headquarters shouts terminals loudly, but ultimately wants sales. If a department must be disbanded, it would definitely be the audit department, not the sales department.

What you manage is what you check and audit. Different markets at different stages have different work priorities, so audit directions should differ—this logic is correct.

Everything should be sales-oriented. Whether it's financial reimbursement, market planning, or headquarters audit, they should be aids to sales, not separate from sales, each minding its own business, ultimately becoming resistance to sales. This is also the truth.

The frog wants to live, the snake wants to be full; Qin Xianglian and the imperial sister both have reasons; only Chen Shimei is the bastard—the audit department is caught in the middle, most awkward.

Should terminals be done? Yes! Why? Because if the process is done well, the results will naturally be good. Terminals decide future sales; without terminals, you die.

The logic is easy to explain.

But ask again: What if doing terminals causes public resentment and affects sales? I'm afraid entrepreneurs would shyly say, "Then I still want sales."

What to do?

& Solutions:

  1. Terminal scoring should also be sales-oriented.
    • In terminal scoring design, increase the weight of terminal indicators directly related to sales (such as stack counts, display space, display cabinet displays). Reduce the weight of pure visual merchandising indicators (such as posters, door stickers), making terminal audit standards closer to sales orientation.
  2. First audit regions capable of doing terminals
    • Initially, terminal audit focuses mainly on core markets and mature regions with established offices and workstations. After the terminal model gradually stabilizes, expand the audit scope.
  3. Develop targeted visual merchandising standards based on local conditions
    • On the basis of unified scoring standards, with proposals from regional managers and approval from headquarters, set special terminal performance targets for each region.
    • For example: In core markets, require the ratio of our posters/display space to competitors' to be greater than 10:1; in aggressive new markets, require monthly improvement in distribution rate.
  4. Reward and penalty standards should be comprehensive and moderate
    • Comprehensive: After terminal scoring, rewards and penalties should not be simply defined by high or low scores, but by horizontal and vertical improvement. Horizontal: comparison of scores among markets of the same level. Vertical: month-over-month progress in terminal scores for the same market.
    • Moderate: Terminal rewards and penalties mainly target the best and worst extreme cases; the scope should not be too large. For the vast majority of regions, the amount of terminal rewards/penalties should not exceed 20% of the regional supervisor's monthly income. Clearly inform everyone that sales calculate bonuses, and process calculates rewards/penalties. Promotion is based on both sales and terminal scores; grasp both hands, both must be hard, to avoid "movement expansion" where everyone focuses solely on terminals and no one cares about sales.
  5. Keep whereabouts confidential, don't disturb the people
    • The audit department's inspection whereabouts must be absolutely confidential. The target markets and schedules for audit are known only to the boss and the audit department manager. One reason is to ensure you see the real phenomenon; the more important significance is not to disturb the people—avoid regional personnel doing visual merchandising rushes to cope with inspections, disrupting normal work.
  6. Combine audit with market
    • After the audit department arrives at the target market according to the planned schedule, notify the regional manager. The regional manager tells the auditors the market's work priorities for the month (e.g., new product distribution). During the audit process, the auditors "help" the regional manager focus on checking this indicator and feed the results back to the regional manager—the audit becomes the regional manager's partner and ally, not just an inspection team looking for trouble.
  7. Give regional managers a voice
    • Require regions with established offices and workstations to strictly follow the company's required route visit guidelines for terminal coverage. Special situations requiring sales reps to temporarily adjust or stop route visits for special activities must be reported to the regional manager for approval, and the regional manager reports to headquarters for verification and filing. The audit department will consider this appropriately in terminal scoring rewards and penalties.
    • Regional managers have the right to make internal adjustments to terminal rewards and penalties in their regions. For example, if the Mengyin region inspected three markets, according to regulations, the audit department decides to reward Mengyin 300 yuan, penalize Yishui 200 yuan, penalize Yinan 200 yuan, and penalize Mengyin region 100 yuan. The regional manager, based on his region's market arrangements, can apply to headquarters for approval to adjust to: reward Mengyin 200 yuan, penalize Mengyin region 200 yuan, penalize Yishui 200 yuan, reward Yinan 100 yuan—because this month the regional manager required Yinan to do township attacks, so terminal decline is inevitable.

Note:

  1. Regional managers can only make internal allocation adjustments among regions; the total reward amount and total penalty amount cannot change. If you, as the regional manager, think the regional penalties cannot be adjusted, then bravely step forward and accept the penalty on behalf of your brothers.
  2. Penalties issued by headquarters to the regional manager personally cannot be transferred to subordinates.
  3. All penalty and reward amounts are handed over to headquarters. The regional manager's own rewards and penalties belong to the headquarters reward and penalty fund. The rewards and penalties for directors and supervisors within the region are recorded by headquarters as the region's internal reward and penalty fund.
  4. Regional managers bear responsibility, sharing the pain.
    • Terminal performance rewards and penalties should not only target regional supervisors but also jointly reward and penalize regional managers. Only when regional managers feel the pain will they urge supervisors to pay attention to terminals. Otherwise, they will jump out every day to plead for their subordinates and find special circumstances as excuses.
  5. Unify concepts: a) Superiors and subordinates share the same desire; terminals must be done.
    • The country wants family planning, but there are various special circumstances below—families with several daughters, families lacking strong labor, production teams distributing dividends per capita... If all are accommodated, China's population would definitely be more than 1.5 billion now! Similarly, which regional market doesn't have special circumstances? Everyone has a pile of urgent work to do. If every region's special circumstances are accommodated, terminals will never be done well.
    • Headquarters wants to grasp terminals; this is the basic national policy. Those who go against the way "kill without mercy," those who spread rumors "behead immediately." b) The regional manager's duty is to complete both sales and terminal indicators simultaneously.
    • The "stage work priorities" of each market are mostly directly related to sales. That's fine; do your work, and the results reflected in sales are your bonus—you didn't work for nothing!
    • The fairest assessment is not payment by volume but payment by work. Terminal construction is a work result—once done, there are results. Sales is a financial result—the work process reflected in finance is sales. Everyone's income should be linked to both indicators simultaneously.
    • Sales calculate bonuses, terminal performance calculates rewards/penalties. This makes regional managers carry the sales result indicator on their backs while also looking at process indicators for work direction guidance. Complete sales and do the process well; being able to do both is your ability, focusing on one and losing the other is your dereliction. c) Headquarters' terminal audit is not to disturb the people, but to get as close as possible to the actual market situation and promote sales.
    • In headquarters' terminal scoring, the heaviest weights are stack counts, display space, etc., which are directly related to sales. Improving terminal scores is improving sales.
    • Half of headquarters' terminal rewards/penalties are based on your score comparison with same-level markets, and half on your terminal score vertical growth. As long as your terminals are better than before, you will be rewarded. You don't have to abandon your sales orientation and stage work priorities to unilaterally chase terminal scores and cope with headquarters inspections.
    • Headquarters' terminal audit whereabouts are completely confidential; it checks real phenomena, not rushed performances. If you rush to cope with inspections and disrupt normal work, that's your problem.
    • Headquarters' terminal audit should cooperate with regional managers' work, checking important indicators for each area as specified by the region. From this perspective, headquarters audit is the region's assistant.
    • Allow regions to make internal adjustments to rewards/penalties based on regional work priorities, giving regions full voice to combine with actual market conditions.

This article is reprinted from Mr. Wei Qing's Sina Weibo.

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