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Recently, I dined at Wang Group's iKKi restaurant with friends from the business community and the Institute for Information Industry. A few weeks earlier, I heard Chairman Tai Shen-Yi say that they allocate a fixed percentage of revenue to employee salaries, and bonuses are not paid at year-end or month-end, but weekly.

We asked the Sagittarius shift leader on duty if that was true. They laughed happily and said, "Yes!"

It was evident their smiles came from the heart, and the busier they were, the brighter their smiles, because after the weekend, they would receive their bonuses.

I recalled the bestseller "The 88 Business Lessons I Learned in the Mafia" by Ferrante. The author, a former mobster who turned straight and earned an MBA, found that what business school teachers taught was similar to what his former boss taught. One lesson was profit sharing, but white-collar companies distribute bonuses uniformly at year-end, favoring planning and delayed rewards, while the mafia distributes immediately after each action. The mafia understands human nature better.

Also, mafia members rarely take notes like white-collar workers do. Have you ever seen mob underlings taking notes when the boss gives instructions?

Because mob underlings must train their memory, as reactions from memory are fastest and leave no evidence (though they often cut the wrong person, perhaps related to not taking notes?).

Moreover, if you act immediately upon hearing, you don't need notes. Often, I wonder if students who take copious notes actually review them outside of exams.

And how many things are done immediately? Sometimes taking notes makes you lazy to memorize, and you forget after the exam. Because students are white-collar, they like studying but are not good at execution.

Furthermore, the mafia typically goes on missions for specific targets and purposes. They are instructed to maintain good relations with the community, like helping an old lady cross the street, checking on someone who falls, or helping someone carry heavy items. They know to maintain good social relations and community responsibility to avoid being ostracized.

The topic of social responsibility has been discussed in the white-collar world for a long time with many theories, but people always hesitate to execute. The principle is simple: maintain good relations with your community. In business, being liked and not ostracized is important. Yet white-collar folks prefer meetings and discussions, and only that, without execution.

More interestingly, the author says their bosses rarely truly retire because they enjoy working, while white-collar workers overthink and often complain. Also, they rarely speak ill of their boss behind their back, probably because they'd get cut, whereas white-collar workers are more likely to criticize their boss behind their back. Perhaps intellectuals love to talk, while mobsters excel at action.

Of course, we view this book humorously. The mafia is certainly bad, but their execution-focused spirit is worth learning for the meeting-focused white-collar world. Many opportunities and turning points are not planned but discovered through execution.

Meetings are important, but don't forget to leave more time for execution.

Turns out, I am also white-collar.

Daonong's PS:

I once explained the "Sunflower Seed Theory" in the group, which essentially refers to the timely rewards mentioned above.

Regarding the application of the "Sunflower Seed Theory" in actual management:

Distributors often face this dilemma: salespeople go out in the morning and return at night. No one knows how they spent the day. Only when they return in the evening to settle accounts and submit photos do you know what they did. Some may use more advanced management, like tracking via WeChat photos, but some salespeople still fake it by pre-storing photos on their phones. You can't follow them around all day, so you only know their performance when they return at night.

What is this called? It's post-mortem examination. The salesperson's day is wasted. You only know at night if they did well, and it's too late to manage. But with so many salespeople, you can't watch them every day. So we must use available tools for on-site management. What is effective management? It's when salespeople work autonomously, not forced by you! So how to manage on-site without supervision, when photo management is lagging? How to make salespeople work autonomously? Before explaining, let me share the sunflower seed theory.

Do you know why you can't stop once you start eating sunflower seeds? Because eating seeds is a simple task. Through your action, you quickly get a "reward"—the seed kernel. When you get the kernel, your cerebellum's pituitary gland secretes a small amount of dopamine to encourage you. Once your behavior is encouraged, you immediately crack another seed, get encouraged again, and repeat.

Through this sunflower seed theory, I want to convey: set up salespeople's work to be phased, easy to complete, monitorable, and with timely rewards. How to get rewards? Monthly salary? No! Still post-mortem? The truly effective method is: do it on the spot, reward on the spot! How to reward on the spot is the real challenge for managers.

Let me share a case: A distributor I know has annual sales of around 200 million RMB and over 110 employees. Managing a large team is troublesome, but his internal management system has evolved from chaos to being very standardized.

His assessment plan for salespeople is:

First: Each salesperson has a digital camera. Every day, they must do terminal merchandising, arrange shelves, and unload goods according to requirements. For each store, at least 3 POPs posted, reward 0.25 yuan. Next time, if the 3 POPs are still there, take a photo and get rewarded again. If not, or covered, no reward.

Second: After entering the store, unload the entire shipment, then do a door display. If over 30 items, reward 0.5 yuan. Of course, take photos.

Third: If there is a display stack in the store, according to standard, not less than 10 items, reward 0.25 yuan. Fourth: Unpack and put products on shelves. If each SKU has more than 3 facings, reward 0.25 yuan. Price tag + shelf talker, 0.25 yuan.

Inventory: Depending on the product, if it meets the standard, reward 0.25 yuan. Full shelf display without other products: 1 yuan per shelf. Items, flavors, key items, shelf display: 0.5 yuan per group.

When a salesperson completes all these standards at a store, they typically earn 3-5 yuan in rewards. But the prerequisite is they must visit according to the planned route.

With 25 stores a day, a salesperson can earn 40-70 yuan in rewards daily. This distributor's salespeople have a very low base salary of only 800 yuan. To earn more, they must do well in sales and merchandising. Their morning meetings are solely for daily sales and photo rankings. The previous day's terminal behavior is rewarded the next morning. So salespeople leave happily every morning with a handful of change from the boss.

Lastly, some might say, what if a salesperson just takes photos all day without working? No problem. Their ranking works like this: There's a minimum sales standard of 4,500 yuan per day. Below this, the bottom two salespeople do push-ups. Reaching 6,000 yuan a day, the top two get 30 and 20 yuan respectively. All rewards are given in cash on the spot. This method is very effective.

You might ask, you didn't set up monitoring, so how do you manage the process? The core of my timely process management is: dopamine. Salespeople manage themselves. Through incentives, they clearly realize that as soon as they act, money comes, like cracking sunflower seeds. They drive themselves to work. When they return at night, clerks check:

A: Number of visits;

B: Photo authenticity and validity. The day's photos are deleted from the camera by the clerk. Salespeople get empty cameras every morning.

I hope Daonong's sunflower seed theory helps distributor friends facing difficulties in sales team management.

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