---
title: "What Skills Do Frontline Sales Personnel (Including Frontline Supervisors) Need?"
description: "A reminder: click the blue text above to follow \"FMCG Distributor Professional Consulting\" for more insights on marketing and distributor internal management. Someone told me to just give salespeople a set of \"rules\" and let them do it themselves, why bother so much? I couldn't explain it to him, nor did I want to. In fact, they are right, but their thinking stems from the management mindset of large enterprises with formalized and mature markets. For many small and medium-sized enterprises, this approach of immediately implementing institutional reform and process optimization is clearly unworkable. After a period of operation, it turned out that my judgment was basically correct."
author: "蒋军"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2015-01-11"
language: "en"
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# What Skills Do Frontline Sales Personnel (Including Frontline Supervisors) Need?

> A reminder: click the blue text above to follow "FMCG Distributor Professional Consulting" for more insights on marketing and distributor internal management. Someone told me to just give salespeople a set of "rules" and let them do it themselves, why bother so much? I couldn't explain it to him, nor did I want to. In fact, they are right, but their thinking stems from the management mindset of large enterprises with formalized and mature markets. For many small and medium-sized enterprises, this approach of immediately implementing institutional reform and process optimization is clearly unworkable. After a period of operation, it turned out that my judgment was basically correct.

A reminder: click the blue text above to follow "FMCG Distributor Professional Consulting" for more insights on marketing and distributor internal management.
Someone told me to just provide a set of "rules" to salespeople and let them do it themselves, why bother so much! Hmm?????? I couldn't explain it to him, nor did I want to. In fact, they are right, but their thinking stems from the management mindset of large enterprises with formalized and mature markets. For many small and medium-sized enterprises, this approach of immediately implementing institutional reform and process optimization is clearly unworkable.
After a period of operation, it turned out that my judgment was basically correct.
Whoever said that jumping straight into institutional reform is a sign of incompetence, I don't know, but I strongly agree.
What do frontline sales personnel (including frontline supervisors) need?
These days, I visited many supermarkets, second-tier wholesalers, and small shops with Mr. Chen, the sales manager of a client company. We found many problems, especially in supermarkets, almost to the point of being intolerable. But we can't blame them because we lack understanding and guidance for their work; there are no norms, no standards, and everything is done by instinct.
Some supervisors themselves don't know what they should do in a day, what the requirements and standards are. Therefore, we adopted a method of guidance first, inspection second.
I believe that for a salesperson to do a good job, first, they need a good attitude. Don't always think that you are working for the manufacturer or distributor; I always believe that everything you do is for yourself. No one wants to be a salesperson forever; everyone hopes for more space. If you think about this, no one will be lazy or play tricks. Second, if you can't do well here, you won't do well in another company either. Don't try to escape problems; break through bottlenecks and achieve self-fulfillment. Third, calm down, accept new things, discover new thinking, find new methods. As long as you think of ways, you will always find some patterns in sales. Finally, the highest level of sales must come down to human nature. Only by understanding human nature can you take sales to the extreme.
The above is the macro level. If you can achieve two of the above, you are a qualified salesperson; three, excellent; all, outstanding.
Concepts are hard to change, but they can be gradually adjusted. If you find it hard to integrate with the company and products, it's difficult to do your job well. So you must cultivate identification with the company's values; otherwise, it's hard to last. This involves the criteria for selecting salespeople, which I won't elaborate on here.
Once concepts change, the next step is skills and methods, i.e., technical issues. As for skills, I think they are relatively easy to solve. You might wonder: sales is a discipline, how can skills be easy to solve? In fact, precisely because sales is a science, there are patterns to follow, standards and norms to discuss, and it can be quantified and digitized. Therefore, skills are easy to solve. But concepts, we need to change them, which takes a long time because they are hard to quantify and standardize. We can only judge from behavior and methods, that is, use behavior to influence concepts and ultimately change them.
Frontline sales personnel, especially those in some distributors (including frontline salespeople in companies), lack systematic training and basic sales skills. Based on specific situations, I divide this into three parts. Below are the three aspects that salespeople most need to improve. If truly achieved, they will definitely be excellent salespeople.
First, work planning and scheduling.
Do salespeople (including frontline supervisors, same below) need work planning and scheduling? Of course they do. What is the situation in the regional market? Where does our product stand, what is the product line and structure? What about competitors? Price system, channel distribution, market performance; how are routes planned, how is the weekly work arranged, the number of visits to existing customers, and the number of new customer development. Instead of going wherever you end up, visiting familiar ones every day, and not showing up for unfamiliar ones for a week, to the point that your product is moved to a dead corner without you knowing, or the product is put on special offer at an ultra-low price, and a salesperson happily tells me: "Look, the supermarket did it themselves; low-price sales will definitely increase." I immediately got angry.
What is the purpose of making plans? First, to improve visit efficiency; second, to stabilize customer relationships; third, to enhance market maintenance; fourth, to keep salespeople's behavior under control, not in a "free-range" state.
Without a plan, you just run to those stores that are easy to maintain every day; as for new customers and difficult customers, no one will bother with them.
Second, specific work content.
Go to the market with problems, not just arrive and look; you must solve problems. Main aspects: for supermarkets, one is product display: pallet display, shelf display, use of promotional materials, price information accuracy, inventory, product mix, competitors, customer relationship communication, etc.
For pallets, which are usually paid for, they must be arranged according to display standards. For some small supermarkets or grocery stores, you can do a few simple things: the pallet must display products facing forward, be full, and not have too many products on one pallet—generally a maximum of 3 products, mainly in full boxes. The price and promotional materials above the pallet must be prominent, especially the price; without a price or inaccurate price, sales are difficult. Promotional products and special offer products must be on the pallet, as well as key promotion products. Some salespeople ask: How can we fit them all? For special offer products, you can apply for one or half a free pallet from BC-type supermarkets, mainly displaying full boxes; key products can be 2-3 as one pallet. The space below the pallet should be used reasonably and not be taken by competitors; if inventory is often insufficient, it's normal for others to take the position and space.
For shelves, some small supermarkets don't have shelf space for your products, so you must display single packs or single units on a pallet, and key products and special offer products should be displayed on another pallet. Shelf space is always fought for, not bought. This is a golden rule for many salespeople working in BC-type supermarkets.
Inventory: keep the pallet full and products clean. Many people can't do this; they don't have a tool kit with scissors, rags, tape... They don't bother to tidy up the pallet and shelf space; many salespeople are too gentlemanly.
What else? First-in, first-out, and many other things. Summarize according to your specific situation.
Third, work norms and standards.
Norms include the tool kit. The "tool kit" includes the basic tools mentioned above, plus POP, small gifts. Communicate and coordinate with the staff responsible for restocking in the mall; you'll save a lot of trouble. It only costs a small gift; who wouldn't give it? Adjusting a pallet and shelf space requires approval from mall staff above supervisor level according to regulations, but for many BC-type supermarkets, a stock clerk might be able to help you adjust it. That's what we did today, and it worked well.
There should be standards for how malls display products, small shops, model streets, second-tier wholesalers, etc. These standards don't need to be complex; simple and practical is fine. Generally, they are a few key elements, gradually moving from behavior to habit.
Finally, the reporting system. Several forms for salespeople: routine ones: route maps, visit forms, customer cards, information files, plus weekly plans, monthly plans, and finally, application and record forms for promotional activities. It seems like a lot, but in reality, the forms to fill out daily are not many: salespeople fill out one: the visit form; if there are activities, fill them out; supervisors: checklists, and if there are activities, fill out activity record forms. Many reports are filled out weekly, monthly, or only when there are activities.
If you do these three things well, congratulations, you have become an excellent salesperson. But to become an "outstanding" salesperson, sorry, I can't share experience with you. That depends on talent and insight into human nature; I really can't "guide" you because I also need to "cultivate" myself.
Daonong recently opened a public account specifically about how traditional enterprises can do WeChat marketing. If you are interested, you can follow it. Search for the WeChat ID above or scan the QR code below to follow.
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