As the year draws to a close, it's time for review and reflection. Annual reports, next year's work plans, and budget forecasts have become routine. Beyond these, as a regional manager, you should also engage in deeper thinking—a self-audit of your market management:
Market problems are ever-changing, and most are people-related, so market management is an art. At the same time, it is a science, because within the myriad market phenomena, there are always certain patterns to follow. A regional manager is effectively the "general manager" of their own region, independently responsible for market development, channel management, personnel management, and cost control. This nature of work dictates that they must establish a rational thinking method when facing the market, learn to see through the complex market phenomena, discover the underlying patterns, and grasp the key points of market work.
At this time of year-end summary, regional managers should conduct a self-audit of the key points of market management, identify gaps and loopholes in their work, and reflect in order to improve in the coming year.
Self-Audit Steps:
I. Initial Stage: Avoid Low-Level Mistakes
1. Are there large blank areas in key markets (e.g., office locations, major cities in the region) with no visits, no deliveries, and no coverage?
Explanation: The premise of sales is logistics coverage. If terminals are not stocked, and even secondary distributors have many blank spots with no service, how can you achieve good sales? If the self-audit reveals large blank areas in the region, solutions are as follows:
a) If there is a large blank area worth adding a customer—add a distributor to cover it.
b) If the blank area is small and the existing distributor can provide adequate service with effort—persuade and guide the existing distributor to increase manpower and transport capacity to improve service and cover the blank area.
c) If the original customer is weak, has outdated concepts, cannot provide necessary market services, and is unwilling to cooperate, and cannot improve in the short term—replace the distributor and find a customer with stronger service and delivery capabilities.
d) If the local general distributor has good cooperation willingness, strength, and market network, and plays an important role in the company's market development, but cannot cover this blank area or the cost of coverage is too high—add a secondary distributor. Find a wholesaler with good coverage of this blank area to serve as the general distributor's secondary distributor, supply at factory price (the old distributor earns a rebate), and use the secondary distributor to fill the market gap.
2. Are there any malicious operations by distributors, such as price undercutting, price gouging, payment delays, or interception of promotional policies, that go unchecked?
Explanation: Distributors and manufacturers are economic entities with fundamentally different interests. "Shared boat, win-win for both" is just a concept, an ideal state. In real life, distributors cannot be absolutely loyal to manufacturers. They may delay payments, occupy the manufacturer's funds; intercept promotional policies; inflate prices of new items to reap excessive profits, causing the product to lose channel profit push and terminal price advantage; or they may undercut prices to chase sales volume (actually to get higher year-end rebates), disrupting market order, and even sell your product at low prices to build relationships and clear channels to drive sales of competing products (because competing products have higher margins)...
The regional manager is the manufacturer's business representative and interest representative, exercising distributor management authority on behalf of the manufacturer. Their mission is to ensure the manufacturer's policies are effectively implemented at the distributor level, and to guide and restrain the distributor's resources (people, vehicles, money, goods, warehouse, attention) toward the development of the manufacturer's product sales. Therefore, proactively stopping the above malicious operations is the most basic action for a regional manager in distributor management. Otherwise, the title "manufacturer's business representative" loses its meaning.
Methods to handle malicious distributor operations are summarized as follows:
a) Tell them you already have evidence of their "crimes."
b) Appeal to emotion, offer incentives, and threaten with consequences; set a deadline for correction.
c) Use threats such as stopping supply, stopping promotions, reporting to the company, replacing the distributor, shrinking their distribution area, or developing a secondary distributor to replace them.
d) Coordinate with other regional managers to allow controlled cross-dumping into the market where the distributor has maliciously raised prices, to bring prices down (note: this is a premeditated, controlled cross-dumping between two managers).
e) Gather evidence of their price undercutting, interception of promotional items, or selling competing products (e.g., delivery orders), and have the company issue a written warning letter and penalty notice, stating the reasons for the warning/penalty, the amount of this penalty, and the penalty for recurrence.
f) For customers who maliciously disrupt market order and ignore advice, consider stopping supply, cultivating a second customer to prepare for replacement, or directly replacing them. (Note: This customer may have large sales volume, but their growth comes at the cost of many smaller customers being hit by price undercutting and losing willingness to distribute. Comparing this customer's sales growth with the decline of other "small customers," the manufacturer is actually losing market. Such customers, despite large sales, often have a negative contribution to the manufacturer's market. Tolerating them repeatedly will further deteriorate market order, often accompanied by abnormal increases in overdue payments, ultimately raising a tiger that will bite back—when the customer becomes too big, they bully the manufacturer.)
3. Are there large quantities of soon-to-expire or damaged products in various channels that have not been handled in a timely manner?
Explanation: The principle for handling soon-to-expire products is:
a) Control normal shipment volumes; do not overstock. Regularly monitor product batch numbers in the market to minimize the occurrence of soon-to-expire products.
b) Once soon-to-expire products appear, handle them as early as possible (delayed handling of soon-to-expire/defective products will eventually lead to expiration).
If a large quantity of soon-to-expire/expired products cannot be properly handled, it will cause resistance throughout the channel. The hostility of channel owners due to "losses" from expired/damaged products and the word-of-mouth that "this product doesn't sell well" can destroy your entire market (especially for new products).
Specific methods for handling soon-to-expire products:
a) Closely monitor the distributor's safety stock to minimize the occurrence of soon-to-expire products.
b) Warn sales staff "do not overstock customers," make them understand that "overstocking is just inventory transfer, not actual sales," and "whoever overstocks to meet sales targets will be penalized."
c) Warn sales staff that "inspecting the market is not like a county magistrate's tour, waiting for people to block the road and cry out for justice before getting off the sedan." When visiting customers, proactively check product batch numbers to avoid dealing with soon-to-expire products only when they are already at risk.
d) Once soon-to-expire products appear, handle them as quickly as possible:
· Transfer to other booming areas for quick consumption.
· Transfer to high-volume outlets like supermarkets for bundle gifts or special prices.
· Transfer to residential areas for exhibition sales.
· Use for sampling or free tasting to consume.
e) The costs incurred during the consumption of soon-to-expire products should be traced to responsible parties:
· Generally, require distributors and manufacturers to share the costs of handling soon-to-expire products.
· Hold the responsible sales representative accountable, imposing a certain percentage penalty to warn everyone to pay attention to customer safety stock and resolve soon-to-expire issues early, avoiding greater losses the longer they are delayed.
f) Soon-to-expire products during new product launch:
When launching a new product and forcing distribution to small retailers, due to immature brand power, it often leads to slow sales and soon-to-expire products (especially for products with short shelf life). A suggested method is to promise retailers that new stock will be exchanged after one month, and at the end of the month, transfer the old stock to booming areas for consumption. Although the company bears some transportation and damage losses, it ensures smooth new product distribution, retailers are more willing to exchange and stock, and it prevents the market from being paralyzed due to terminal expiration caused by insufficient pull in the early stages of new product launch.
4. Are there any blind spots in your own visits to key customers and key channels (e.g., large supermarkets, hotels, large secondary distributors) and major townships?
Explanation: In market management, on-the-ground observation and action are more important than desk work. If the self-audit reveals that the regional manager has blind spots in visiting key areas (e.g., key townships, special channels) and key customers (e.g., large hotels, large secondary distributors, large supermarkets), that is "committing a low-level mistake." Regional managers should maintain high-frequency visits to all levels of the market and maintain good relationships with key customers. This allows you to promptly discover competitor information and market dynamics, formulate response plans, and when you are familiar with the distributor's downstream network, you will also be more proactive in distributor management.
5. Have the promotional plans arranged by the company been effectively supervised and implemented by subordinates? Have they been checked and tracked in a timely manner to ensure execution effectiveness?
Explanation: Promotional formats are widely imitated; few manufacturers can innovate in promotional formats. The effectiveness of promotions depends on whether the timing is precise, whether the format suits the current market conditions, and more importantly, whether execution is thorough.
As the "general manager" of the regional market, the regional manager has an unshirkable responsibility to control market expenses, strive to reduce per-case sales costs, and ensure the authenticity and effectiveness of promotional resources.
To ensure promotional activities are executed thoroughly, the following key points must be grasped:
a) Break down objectives, assign responsibilities, and set schedules.
Promotional tasks should be broken down into steps, people, places, times, and resources.
Step: Break the promotional activity into indivisible steps.
People: Each step should have an executor and a responsible person.
Place: Specify the location and target customers for execution.
Time: Set completion times for each step, check times, and reward/punishment rules.
Resources: Allocate materials and resources needed for each task.
b) Establish and implement operating standards.
· Business standards:
For example:
□ For small retailer distribution promotions, establish standard sales scripts and small retailer merchandising standards.
□ For wholesale market stack-box rewards, establish standard agreements, standard display methods, and standard check methods.
□ For supermarket exhibitions, establish standard poster writing, gift storage and bundling methods, standard promotional girl scripts, and standard display booth arrangements.
· System standards:
For example: labor discipline, dress and appearance, report filling requirements, and reward/punishment regulations for promotional staff.
c) Track progress.
· Grasp promotional results daily, and immediately explore improvement plans upon discovering anomalies.
For example:
□ Outdoor exhibition sales are poor (due to a sandstorm)—consider postponing or switching to indoor supermarket promotions.
□ Small retailer distribution is poor—consider changing promotional policies or having the manager train distribution staff on-site.
· Spot-check execution results.
For example:
□ The manager personally checks whether wholesale market stack-box promotions are ongoing.
□ Check supermarket promotional staff labor discipline, whether the promotional booth layout meets standards, whether forms are filled truthfully, and punish those who neglect their duties.
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d) Reimbursement review.
· Clear reimbursement vouchers.
For example:
□ For distribution rewards, require the store name, address, phone number, purchase quantity, gifts, and owner's signature.
□ For supermarket promotions, require retaining customer shopping receipts.
□ For free samples, require recipients to fill out a simple market survey form as a receipt.
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· Signatures of handlers.
Require all personnel involved in the promotional activity (drivers, sales reps, promotional girls, etc.) to sign collectively, creating obstacles for individual employees who want to fish in troubled waters.
· Re-inspection.
Let employees know that the manager will definitely spot-check reimbursement vouchers, and anyone found maliciously embezzling company promotional resources will be severely punished.
6. Guide distributors in designing a reasonable channel price system to avoid market chaos caused by price system design errors.
Explanation: Especially for the consumer goods industry, channel profit determines the product's market competitiveness. When a product's channel profit begins to bottom out, it often signals the arrival of the product's decline phase.
A regional manager should first be intimately familiar with the various levels of distributor selling prices in their area, and provide guidance and correction for abnormal distributor pricing to ensure that every layer of the channel makes money.
Key points for price design:
a) If the distributor directly serves small retailers (very good, indicating the distributor has terminal awareness), note that the price for small retailers must be higher than the wholesale price, leaving room for wholesalers to sell. Help the distributor understand the significance of direct retail service—"promoting new items and flavors, quickly increasing distribution rate within a certain range; direct retail service is by no means competing with secondary distributors." The idea of "bypassing secondary distributors to directly serve small retailers to flatten the channel" is unrealistic. The Chinese market is vast, sales points are scattered, per capita purchasing power is low, and single-store sales are small. No manufacturer or distributor can fully control small retailers (cost is too high). Mainstream sales still rely on secondary distributors, and most small retailers still need secondary distributor coverage. Even large-scale distribution rates are achieved through secondary distributor radiation to small retailers. The purpose of direct retail service is to guide consumption, promote new products, smooth the secondary distributor's sales channels, and better serve secondary distributors. If there is no price difference between small retailers and wholesalers, secondary distributors will lose willingness to cooperate, and if they don't help cover small retailers, you will eventually "lose the small retailer market because you tried to serve them directly."
b) Wholesale price tiers.
Should the distributor supply all secondary and tertiary wholesalers directly, or set up a large primary wholesaler who then supplies secondary and tertiary wholesalers? Both methods have pros and cons.
Direct supply to secondary and tertiary wholesalers: higher delivery costs, easier to trigger price undercutting, but finer market work, stronger control over wholesale channels, easier execution of secondary distributor promotions, and faster improvement in wholesale distribution rate and sales. Using a large primary wholesaler to supply secondary and tertiary wholesalers: lower delivery costs, less likelihood of price undercutting, but coarser market management and weaker control over secondary distributors.
Weighing the pros and cons, the suggested strategy is "befriend the distant, attack the near; combine long and short." Specific methods:
· For key wholesale markets in the urban area, close to the distributor's warehouse, do not set a primary wholesale price; have the distributor directly visit secondary and tertiary wholesalers. These areas are close, important, and the distributor can afford high-frequency visits and thorough service, thus can control prices to some extent (e.g., cutting off supply to secondary/tertiary wholesalers who maliciously undercut). The sooner you intensively cultivate these key areas, the sooner you gain initiative; delay and you may be passively beaten—because if you don't do it, others (your competitors) will.
· For remote areas and even outer townships, adopt the "borrow shell to list" method: set up a large primary wholesaler to cover these areas on behalf of the distributor, saving transport and sales costs.
c) Special channel prices.
Special channels such as supermarkets and hotels often require credit sales, and the supplier bears the risk of accounts receivable, so supply prices must be higher. Especially for supermarket channels, the supply price must be higher than the wholesale market price (for consumer goods, the supermarket supply price generally maintains a 10-15% markup). Otherwise, supermarkets may offer special prices even lower than wholesale market purchase prices, thereby "killing" the wholesale channel.
d) Group purchase prices.
· Group purchase prices should be divided into two types: with invoice and without invoice.
· Group purchase prices should be higher than supermarket supply prices, because many organizations first inquire at large supermarkets when arranging group purchases (some supermarkets keep records), then negotiate with manufacturers and distributors. If supermarkets find your group purchase price is lower than theirs, "stealing their group purchase customers," it may lead to fines or being removed from the store.
· The contradiction of group purchase prices being higher than wholesale market prices can be resolved with free gifts.
· Generally, group purchase prices should include a gift voucher for the person in charge at the buyer's organization.
II. Intermediate Stage—Proactively Maintain Market Order and Improve Market Performance:
1. Are there serious cross-dumping activities in your area? As a regional manager, have you actively investigated and controlled cross-dumping?
Self-reflection:
a. Are there cross-dumping phenomena in my area? How serious?
b. Do I know where the cross-dumping originates? What is the volume? What is the price?
c. Do I do my best to investigate and control cross-dumping, or do I think "cross-dumping cannot be eradicated, so why bother? Let it be, as long as sales are met."
Explanation: Cross-dumping is a chronic marketing disease that seriously harms market order. To date, no marketing expert or manufacturer has fundamentally solved cross-dumping! But in many regional managers' and distributors' areas, cross-dumping has been solved—"everywhere has cross-dumping, but here they dare not."
To solve the cross-dumping problem, a regional manager must first have the right attitude—cross-dumping is indeed difficult to eradicate, but you must not give up "resistance." Ignore objective difficulties, make every subjective effort to control cross-dumping, and strive to reduce its negative effects from 80 points to 60, then to 40, then to 20...
Regional managers have no method to cure cross-dumping (impossible to eradicate), only means (to reduce its malignant spread).
For example:
a) Try to take photos of cross-dumped products or vehicles, or obtain delivery orders for cross-dumped goods, trace the source, and use this as evidence to report to the manufacturer or negotiate directly with the cross-dumper.
b) Negotiate with large local customers who can take full truckloads of a single item to form a supply alliance. Have the local distributor provide priority supply, promotions, and service to these large customers, and require them not to accept cross-dumped goods, cutting off the sales channels for cross-dumping (cross-dumping is usually volume-based; they won't ship half a truckload, especially in markets below prefecture level. If large customers don't accept cross-dumped goods, cross-dumping has nowhere to go).
c) For repeat offenders who cross-dump or secondary wholesalers who accept cross-dumped goods and undercut prices with local distributors, "fight fire with fire"—find out the products they distribute or mainly sell (non-competing products) and their downstream customers, then buy a small quantity of that product and sell at ultra-low prices (at a loss) to make them taste the bitterness, then negotiate with them.
d) Coordinate with local health and industry and commerce departments to crack down on cross-dumping—check the "Food Industry Employee Health Certificate" on cross-dumping vehicles, and the "Hygiene License" and "Quality Certificate" for each batch of each product (they certainly don't have them), then impose penalties.
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There are many similar means; each cannot completely eliminate cross-dumping, but each can set obstacles. If there is a method to cure cross-dumping, it should be: sensitive information, act swiftly, strike hard, and use tough measures. If they repeatedly cross-dump, repeatedly prohibit. Make cross-dumpers feel that dumping into your area is too risky and that you are not to be trifled with; they will naturally restrain themselves. Perhaps they will just turn to other areas—but at least your area will have better days. This may sound selfish, but if every regional manager treated cross-dumping this way, cross-dumping would have nowhere to escape!
2. Can you effectively control secondary wholesaler price undercutting?
Self-reflection:
a. Do I know the secondary wholesaler purchase/sale prices and profit margins for this product?
b. Are there serious price undercutting and price inversion phenomena among secondary wholesalers in my area?
c. Do I actively control secondary wholesaler price undercutting or let it go unchecked?
Explanation: Secondary wholesaler price undercutting will cause the entire channel profit to decline, prices to bottom out, and eventually easily kill the product.
Secondary wholesaler price undercutting, like cross-dumping, is a chronic marketing disease with no cure. The trick to solving it is also to establish the right attitude—ignore objective difficulties, make every subjective effort to repeatedly prohibit and repeatedly undercut, and then repeatedly undercut and prohibit. Use various means to set obstacles for secondary wholesaler price undercutting, striving to reduce negative effects.
Common means are as follows:
a) Keep information sensitive. For customers who maliciously undercut, adopt the method of warning → stop supply → fight fire with fire (undercut their other products) → negotiate.
b) Supply appropriate quantities to secondary wholesalers; do not overstock. Most secondary wholesalers with small inventories will not maliciously undercut.
c) Set up a ledger for secondary wholesaler purchase volumes. Investigate any sudden increase in purchases to see if they are undercutting and dumping.
d) Use more gifts and fewer products for secondary wholesaler rewards. Moreover, gifts should not be given on the spot—use display reward activities as an "excuse" (e.g., purchase 30 cases, stack 10 cases at the door daily, reward at month-end...) and defer gift redemption, making secondary wholesalers afraid to undercut easily.
e) Have the regional manager mediate for distributors and secondary wholesalers to sign agreements: secondary wholesalers purchase from the distributor, sell at the same price they buy, making no profit at the time. At month-end, the distributor calculates the secondary wholesaler's purchase volume and gives rebates according to the agreement.
f) For products where price inversion has already occurred due to long-term secondary wholesaler undercutting, use the method of raising prices → high-price promotions (actually no price increase) → gradually reducing promotional allowances (gradually disguised price increases, while stopping supply to secondary wholesalers who continue undercutting) to gradually pull prices back up.
3. Have you fully utilized the manpower allocated by the company to directly visit important terminal outlets, improving distribution rate and merchandising effects?
Self-reflection:
a. As a regional manager, have you attached sufficient importance to terminal work ideologically?
b. Is the manpower allocated by the company revolving around various distributors, or are they doing some terminal sales work within their capabilities? (For example, if the company allocates only 2 people, do a good job with local large supermarket model stores and key wholesale markets. If 15 people are allocated, consider periodic visits to downtown retail stores, wholesale markets, and A/B-class supermarkets.)
Explanation: Actual product sales are realized at terminal sales points.
Doing terminal work well, improving terminal distribution rate and merchandising effects can:
· Communicate with consumers at the closest distance, increasing brand reminder and publicity effects.
· Promote impulsive consumer purchases, increasing sales opportunities.
· Suppress competitors through rapid feedback on terminal market information and squeezing terminal display space.
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The more terminal outlets the manufacturer controls, the greater the initiative in promoting new products and stabilizing prices. Although terminal work does not directly generate sales, it can guide secondary wholesalers to sell the full range, stabilize prices, and promote secondary wholesaler volume.
Terminal work is the only way to win in the market (especially for the consumer goods industry).
However, terminal work requires significant manpower investment. Regional managers should do terminal work within their capabilities according to the manpower allocated by the company. Based on the product's market conditions, set the importance ranking of various terminal outlets, concentrate forces to capture the commanding heights, and first do the important terminal outlets well.
Example of terminal outlet importance ranking (using consumer goods as an example):
Local landmark large supermarkets/hypermarkets
Local major wholesale market outlets
Local A-class supermarkets
Retail stores on busy streets
B/C-class supermarkets
Special outlets such as schools and residential areas
Downtown wholesale, retail, and special channel outlets
Urban wholesale, retail, and special channel outlets
III. Qualified Stage—Possess a Certain Planning Mindset and Face the Market Rationally.
1. Is full-item sales and new product promotion work orderly and effective?
Self-reflection:
a. Is my area's sales overly concentrated on a single item?
b. Has the current main-selling item in my area already shown price bottoming out?
c. Am I systematically promoting new products to achieve full-item sales?
Explanation: Most regions have their own main-selling products, but often a product selling too well is not a good thing—the hotter the product, the higher the distribution rate, the more transparent the price, the lower the channel profit, and competitors will also launch substitutes for low-price competition. Eventually, the product may "decline after prosperity."
If a regional manager wants long-term healthy sales, they must treat new product promotion as a routine task.
From a macro perspective: new product promotion perfects the company's product line and implements a brand diversification protection strategy.
From the company's interest perspective: the company invests a lot in R&D, production, and promotion of new products; if sales are blocked, it wastes resources.
From the perspective of the regional manager's work performance: why can other managers promote new products, but you cannot?
When new product promotion performance is poor, many regional managers have excuses: the product is bad, the taste is not good, the packaging is too large, the price is too high, etc. But before complaining, ask yourself—have I done all that I can subjectively do?
If new product promotion is ineffective, regional managers should look for gaps in the following areas:
a. Does the distributor have reasonable inventory of the product?
b. Have you guided the distributor to design a reasonable price system for the product, ensuring every layer of the channel makes money?
c. During the new product launch, did you let the distributor operate independently and fight alone, or did you actively guide, assist, and participate in the distributor's new product distribution and promotions?
d. Does the product occupy a favorable position, favorable shelf space, favorable promotion, and price in supermarkets?
e. What is the distribution rate of the product in wholesale markets? (Has "availability" been achieved for retail stores?) Are there sufficient stack-box displays, banners, and POP arrangements?
f. According to the manpower allocated by the company, how is the distribution rate and merchandising of the product in the terminal outlets you can control?
g. During the new product promotion period, does the bonus system for subordinate employees reflect the principle of promoting new product sales?
2. Do you fully grasp the local basic data, usage/sales information of this product/competitors, and can you promptly and accurately propose plans to attack competitors?
Self-reflection:
a. Do I know the local population, administrative divisions, and consumption capacity of each district?
b. Do I know the data on special consumer groups such as local residential areas, colleges, and large enterprises?
c. Do I know the special channels suitable for this product (e.g., milk can be sold in cake shops, instant noodles can be sold in construction site canteens)?
d. Do I know the data on special channel outlets and their supply networks (stations, airports, schools, etc., usually have their own dedicated suppliers)?
e. Do I know the competitor's manpower investment, prices at various levels, best-selling items, and strong channels in the local area?
f. Do I know the local prices at various levels, best-selling items, strong channels, and market blank spots for this product?
g. Do I know the distributor's manpower, transport capacity, and true network coverage (in which areas and channels can they fully cover, and in which areas and channels do they lack coverage)?
Explanation: Many regional managers' first reaction to sales pressure is to ask the company for promotions, special prices, and policies. In fact, if you always rely on price advantages to sell, what is the use of you as a sales manager? Promotions are a means to promote sales; if you ignore basic sales work and unilaterally use promotions, you will turn promotions into morphine—the more you use, the greater the addiction and the more obvious the side effects.
It is not required that regional managers do not apply for promotions (competition is so fierce that many promotions are forced by circumstances), but promotion applications should be made after rational thinking.
First, conduct the market management self-audit mentioned earlier to find low-level mistakes and weak links in your market foundation work and improve them.
Second, be fully familiar with various information about the regional market (as in this section's self-reflection), make rational judgments based on market conditions, and propose effective and accurate promotional plans.
For example:
· Know the distributor's network coverage—so apply for company promotional support for indirect first-tier distributors or add customers, because some channels and areas cannot be covered by the original distributor.
· Know that local consumers have the habit of buying whole boxes (found competitors with large box-purchase displays in supermarkets)—so request the company to customize small-box products to attack the supermarket box-purchase market.
· Know that the competitor's secondary wholesaler profit is 0.5 yuan per box higher than ours—so apply for secondary wholesaler purchase rewards plus stack-box rewards.
· Know that the competitor has more manpower in this area and has begun periodic visits to small retailers, wholesale, and supermarket channels, but they invest little in internet cafes and school channels—so apply for promotional policies to concentrate on attacking these two channels.
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IV. Advanced Stage—Master the Principle That "Marketing Is a Cause-and-Effect Behavior," Possess a Global Vision, and Proactively Develop Reasonable Incremental Opportunities.
Reflection:
a. Is my current thinking on increasing sales still stuck at "discounting existing best-selling products, running promotions, and relying on price to drive volume"?
b. Do I have a clear idea for the incremental tasks assigned by headquarters—in which channel, which area, and which new product will I achieve this volume?
Explanation: For a regional manager, the generation (increase) of sales volume comes from the following aspects:
a) Rationalization of the price system. Ensure every layer of the channel makes money, eliminate price undercutting and malicious price gouging, and leverage the role of each channel layer to actively distribute products.
b) Improvement of terminal effectiveness for mature products.
An increase in distribution rate means more outlets help generate actual sales.
Improved merchandising means an increase in single-store sales at each terminal outlet.
c) Improvement of logistics:
As mentioned earlier, the premise of sales is logistics improvement; cleaning up blank areas and developing new areas will directly bring incremental sales (of existing mature products).
d) Launch of new channels:
Innovative thinking: find new sales channels and opportunities for products currently being sold.
Examples:
· Mid-to-low-priced instant noodles can try developing factory and construction site canteen channels, and grain and oil stores.
· Mid-to-low-priced food can try the rural market's unique grain exchange points (outlets where grains are exchanged for instant noodles or food).
· Cup/bowl noodles, beverages, etc., can try highway service stations, internet cafes, hotels, hotpot restaurants, and roadside water supply stations in mountainous areas.
· Red wine can start gift shops, boutique stores, even tea houses, and gold/jewelry stores.
· Milk can try cake shops and pastry shops.
· Use the candy stalls that fill the streets before the New Year to sell gift-appropriate foods, such as small-box gift packs of milk, instant noodles, and beverages.
· Use seasoning wholesalers in farmers' markets to sell ham sausages.
· Use morning market channels to launch new products.
· Use vegetable, grain, oil, and seafood suppliers to enterprise canteens to promote alcoholic beverages and secure group purchase orders.
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e) Promote new items.
In the early stages of new item promotion, investment may be high and volume low, but once it takes off, it is like opening a "branch store," bringing stable sales.
It is worth mentioning that promoting new items does not necessarily mean promoting new brands. Promoting a second flavor or second specification of a mature product is easier and faster to gain volume, and should be the first choice for seeking incremental sales through new item promotion.
Marketing is absolutely a cause-and-effect behavior. When a regional manager learns to examine their market with a rational eye, you will discover:
Because the secondary wholesaler prices in your market are too chaotic and secondary wholesalers are not actively distributing, you lose 10,000 cases per month.
Because there is a large blank area in the eastern suburbs of the city with no visits, you lose another 1,000 cases.
Because you only did small retailers and wholesale, and did not launch school and group purchase channels, you lose more sales.
Because the dozens of townships on the periphery have not been entered, low-priced products have never sold well.
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The practice of clinging to a mature product, desperately running promotions, overstocking, and seeking incremental sales is the most unwise. Overdrawing the market resources of a single item will eventually lead to price bottoming out and decline after prosperity—such a regional manager cannot be called a salesperson; at best, they are a delivery manager.
A mature regional manager should learn to see the overall market, grasp the cause-and-effect relationships of marketing behaviors, plan before acting, and proactively develop appropriate incremental opportunities. They will plan where this increment will come from—which channel, which product, which area. How much sales will terminal activation achieve, how much will price adjustments achieve, how much will new channels achieve, how much will new products achieve, how much will new areas achieve...
Introduction: Wei Qing, senior marketing expert, has provided practical marketing training services to nearly a hundred domestic enterprises, and created the "from concept to action" training style.
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