---
title: "When Business Slows, Manufacturers Need to Guide Distributors in Winning Every City Battle"
description: "When sales decline, frontline teams often blame the market or the environment, but the real issue is organizational capability. Manufacturers must guide distributors and sales teams to fight city-by-city battles, using short-term incremental channels to relieve pressure and long-term city business model iteration to enhance organizational efficiency."
author: "许翔 Ryan Xu"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2024-09-14"
language: "en"
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# When Business Slows, Manufacturers Need to Guide Distributors in Winning Every City Battle

> When sales decline, frontline teams often blame the market or the environment, but the real issue is organizational capability. Manufacturers must guide distributors and sales teams to fight city-by-city battles, using short-term incremental channels to relieve pressure and long-term city business model iteration to enhance organizational efficiency.

"Everyone is down, so if we're not down, it would be embarrassing..." Excuses, more excuses finally find an outlet—market contraction. Reasons, more reasons thus become reasonable—the overall environment is bad! Is the overall environment really that bad? Even if it is a bit worse, can it directly cause sales to decline? Not necessarily! Facing the most frequent negative-energy excuses and reasons from frontline sales teams, we need to respond with objective and practical positive energy. Reviewing the main issues that grassroots teams often complain about, on the surface they appear to be channel conflicts, but in essence, they are organizational capability problems!

Offline business is essentially about clearing channel barriers. Whether it's manufacturers or distributor salespeople, most of their time and energy is spent trying to clear these barriers. This effort essentially only solves the B2B problem, but the actual B2C action of selling goods to consumers is undertaken by terminal retailers and final channel customers. Under this value chain, the sales teams of manufacturers and distributors actually have less control over the business than we imagine. Business growth relies more on whether downstream terminal social sales are smooth. Once terminal retail customers and channel customers (C-end) experience a sales decline, it will affect upstream distributors and manufacturers (B-end). This is the reality of offline business—manufacturers and distributors are not the ones who "sell" goods to consumers at the last mile; they essentially play the role of "moving goods" for these entities. So once the C-end is sluggish, it inevitably leads to slower B-end turnover! When the pressure from B2B exceeds the actual consumption at the C-end, problems arise—external social sales weakness squeezes channel distributors, and internal management pressure also habitually squeezes them! Consequently, the sales teams managing distributors can't have an easy time, right? Life goes on, so they find excuses and explanations, but these "negative-energy" excuses don't actually change anything. Because the harsh results are already a reality, we must face it head-on—channels will inevitably become blocked and congested!

During this process, various complications arise, and complaints from frontline sales are inevitable. Moreover, the reality is that most brand owners overemphasize the impact of "channel conflicts" on business, ignoring the root causes of these conflicts! Returning to the essence of "channel conflicts," channel chaos is a result of choices, not conflicts! The core of offline channel power is organizational capability. When our grassroots sales organizations spend too much energy on B2B sell-in without thinking about and promoting B2C sell-out, the channels will turn against us, and business will be tough, at least in terms of the morale and mindset of distributors and sales teams! So the harder the times, the more we need spirit and positive guidance. Otherwise, once negative emotions spread, they will transmit to distributors and retailers, and a "vicious cycle" without morale is a major taboo for manufacturer sales teams!

So what should we do? I offer two practical suggestions!—In the short term, use incremental volume to solve existing inventory problems; in the medium to long term, solve organizational capability issues by iterating the city business model.

The blockage of distribution channels and traditional terminal circulation is an urgent problem. In the short term, if there were any way, we wouldn't be so anxious. At this juncture, the key is to find new channels, such as small supermarket platforms (like Xiaochao Supermarket), regional B2B, group-buying platforms, and new discount chain stores, to transfer sales volume and relieve pressure on old channels and circulation. Of course, this is a short-term action. The medium to long-term solution to core problems is to enhance organizational capability through city model iteration. In the short term, we aim to survive; in the medium to long term, we aim to thrive! This way, we avoid suffering at this time every year.

The author previously summarized a methodology for city business model iteration, which has been published as a book. Interested peers can scan the QR code below to purchase it, enabling frontline sales teams to work more efficiently, shifting from a channel mindset of "how to push inventory in" to a retail mindset of "how to sell goods out." The more business slows down, the more manufacturers need to guide distributors and their own sales teams to fight every city battle!

Because each city market is an independent variable! Even if the national and regional markets are as severe as grassroots complaints suggest, the business status and opportunities in each city are completely different! There are nearly 300 prefecture-level cities in the domestic market, which for manufacturers means 300 business opportunities. The geographical division between cities is a natural "geographical protection." You might perform poorly in City A, but in neighboring City B, you could be the industry leader! The resources your team and distributors invest, the effort and dedication they pour in, will ultimately yield different business results in each independent prefecture-level city market! In a nutshell—there are no shortcuts in FMCG business; only excellent processes lead to excellent results! One word to emphasize—there are no shortcuts in FMCG business; only excellent systematic processes lead to the best results! How to understand "systematic"? It means a replicable, high-efficiency operational process that is systematic, with no redundant actions; all systematic actions serve growth goals.

A sales organization with systematic process thinking can, on one hand, use the system to ensure that most people's actions do not deviate. On the other hand, it ensures that it doesn't matter who is missing, thus maintaining continuous high-efficiency operations. This systematic process system includes six major modules, each with 3-4 standard action guidelines, totaling 20 action breakdowns. It systematically guides our frontline sales representatives, office directors, and city managers to develop and expand each target market, achieving sustainable business growth. Even if you are a newcomer to FMCG sales, you don't need to worry about understanding and absorbing it. As long as you study and execute seriously, you can master all 20 actions across the six modules in about half a year (i.e., 24 weeks). As shown in the table above, these six modules and 20 actions are interlinked in a linear development logic, designed to "hand-hold" grassroots sales supervisors step by step, from dissecting the target city to strategically selecting target battlefields, filtering channels and customers layer by layer, matching corresponding product portfolios, and turning all strategic actions into the team's habitual "muscle memory," ultimately achieving healthy and sustainable growth in the target market.

The first major module—"Set Goals"! Through the standard execution of four actions—"physical examination, diagnosis, planning, and internal training"—we truly "see clearly" and "understand" our target market! Without identifying the root problems and core obstacles of the market, we cannot set the right goals, and naturally all subsequent plans will be wrong. So "setting goals" requires honest analysis and dissection of the real opportunities and problems both internally and externally, with no room for hypocrisy!

The second major module—"Set the Battlefield"! Each prefecture-level city has many counties. We cannot simultaneously promote breakthroughs and growth in all counties. Under the premise of necessary trade-offs, choosing the target county markets with the most breakthrough potential and probability is crucial.

The third major module—"Set the Trenches"! Due to channel diversification and iteration, even an ordinary county market has many emerging channels. Which channels are "pitfalls"? Which are opportunities? Sales supervisors need a clear understanding! Fragmented and numerous channels are not scary; the more fragmented the channels, the more opportunities for overtaking. Think about it: years ago, leading brands could conquer a city by dominating the main aisle shelves of hypermarkets. Now, the new channels that have emerged and separated offer many brands the chance to "overtake on curves" or "change lanes." If not now, when?

The fourth major module—"Set Customers"! The customer structure of each channel determines the difficulty of the business attack! Understanding each customer's historical background, development evolution, and existing opportunities is a required course for every city sales supervisor. Remember that offline sales teams bear the responsibility of "clearing barriers." If you can't win over quality customers, your products won't even have the chance to face consumers, let alone talk about performance growth...

The fifth major module—"Set Single Products"! Many grassroots salespeople have a misconception: "Win the customer, and you win the order!" This old thinking doesn't fit new competition. Extending the "clearing barriers" logic, even if you win over the buyer and get your products on the shelf, they may not sell! Because the shelf at a retail terminal is just a physical display; it only presents the product to consumers, but what truly drives the final purchase is the product itself. A good product on the shelf is a "good" display; conversely, an unsuitable product on the shelf is a "bad" display!

The sixth major module—"Set Tracking"! Need I say more? Doing business is a job that requires "pushing." Without tracking and close supervision, who will execute diligently on scorching summer days, stormy days, or freezing winter days? Only close supervision and tracking can turn your business opportunities into action. "He works ahead, you check behind!" Grassroots sales supervisors must spend a lot of time repeating this action; only then will there be results!

The city business model iteration methodology I summarized has been published as a book in May this year. Interested peers can open the purchase link below. Of course, iterating offline FMCG business is difficult! Even a "micro-iteration" with minimal changes requires human involvement because in the current FMCG organizational structure, any "micro-iteration" needs people—either more headcount or better human efficiency. The reality is that our own business teams and distributor salespeople are a year older... There is only one way out: let grassroots sales organizations do fewer but more precise and efficient actions. "No redundant actions" is the core manifestation of the most efficient organizational capability. To achieve this, a strong system is needed to guide, and this city development model is such a solution. It may not be applicable to all categories, but it will certainly provide inspiration and reference for all categories.

Finally, a high-concentration chicken soup for fellow FMCG salespeople in difficult times—Choice is greater than effort, but choice itself requires the greatest effort!

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