The world is so big, everyone wants to go see it. If they all leave, what are you, as a distributor, supposed to do?
Recently, distributor Mr. Li has been particularly troubled. In April, three of the five key business staff he had always valued suddenly resigned, leaving him feeling as if he had lost his right and left hands. This not only affected the business operations of some sales channels but also shook the morale of the team, leaving the remaining staff unsettled.
Mr. Li is very puzzled. He always believed that his compensation was not low, so why can't he retain people? Since he established his trading company, this is already the second time that core business staff have left en masse. Mr. Li is now very confused: why can't he keep his business staff?
Many distributors have likely encountered the same situation as Mr. Li in the case. It is a common phenomenon for distributors to be unable to retain people, and the turnover rate of core backbone staff is high. The frequent occurrence of such situations not only affects the rapid development of the entire distributor team but also, to a certain extent, impacts the establishment and improvement of the distributor's employment mechanism, bringing certain resistance and harm to the rapid growth of distributors. Therefore, we need to focus on how distributors should retain their subordinate employees, especially excellent professional managers.
I. Main Reasons Why Distributors Can't Retain Professional Managers
1. Boss's Personality The distributor and the professional manager may not have complementary personalities. For example, some distributors have a hot temper, scold others at the slightest provocation, and are easily angered, making people want to stay away. If the professional manager is also of this type, then it's like fire and ice—mutually incompatible.
2. Boss's Work Style Some distributors have built their business from scratch with their own hands. After the company reaches a certain scale, they still follow the management style from the early days of entrepreneurship, often monopolizing power, relying on commands and orders, staying aloof, refusing to listen to professional managers' opinions, and even failing to delegate tasks appropriately.
3. Company Development Speed Some distributor companies, after surviving the initial and risky stages, become complacent due to personal vision, self-positioning, and magnanimity, resulting in slow development. The "cage is too small" to accommodate fast-growing professional managers.
4. Corporate Employment Environment Many distributor companies are family businesses, with many departments composed of relatives and friends. In such an environment, many "outsiders" are afraid to speak up, work cautiously, and dare not express their opinions for fear of being reported. The work atmosphere is very oppressive.
5. Corporate Compensation System Some distributor companies' compensation systems cannot be adjusted or changed in a timely manner. This is reflected in: first, compensation is not based on individual contribution to the company, leading to unfair phenomena such as unequal pay for equal work or equal positions; second, professional managers' abilities improve quickly, but salary increases are too slow, and some bosses even think that since they trained and promoted the employees, the amount of salary doesn't matter much. This leaves employees with the impression that "the boss is too stingy."
Of course, aside from the professional managers' own factors, the distributor's lack of ambition and moral cultivation are also reasons why distributors and professional managers cannot "be compatible."
II. Self-Improvement for Distributors
So, how can distributors retain excellent professional managers and make them follow wholeheartedly? Here are a few suggestions for distributor friends:
1. Distributors Should Engage in Self-Improvement Many distributors have earned their first pot of gold and achieved development through their own methods. However, as the market environment changes, competition among distributors has become a contest of "soft power." At this point, distributors must undergo transformation and self-improvement, including the following aspects:
(1) Personal moral cultivation. Regardless of how the distributor originally made their fortune, to become stronger and bigger, they must focus on personal moral cultivation. The old "big talk" tactics must be abandoned. They must become upright, honest, trustworthy, and true to their word. Those who say one thing and do another, or do things without saying, will not grow big and will find it difficult to attract excellent professional managers.
(2) Personal conduct cultivation. Distributors should be strict with themselves, practice what they preach, understand the principle of "do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself," pay attention to their own image, and change bad habits such as procrastination, sloppy dressing, sneaky behavior, and using vulgar language. They should become civilized, polite, pragmatic, open, and kind bosses.
2. Achieve the Transformation from Individual Business Owner to Merchant Many distributors have registered companies and nominally operate as corporations, but deep down, they still have the mindset and practices of individual business owners. For example, they don't adhere to principles, change decisions frequently, boast, haggle over every detail, and pursue short-term interests. The transformation from individual business owner to merchant includes the following:
(1) Follow rules in doing things. The biggest difference between an individual business owner and a merchant is that one relies solely on price differences for profit, even resorting to unscrupulous means for greater profit without considering long-term interests; the other earns money by following rules, achieving long-term and substantial profits by adhering to mutually agreed game rules, focusing on sustainable development.
(2) Be adept at seizing bigger business opportunities. Individual business owners pursue petty gains, while merchants are more enthusiastic about capturing larger business opportunities. Individual business owners dive into any profit, while merchants pay more attention to timing and understand the principle of giving and taking, knowing that "big giving leads to big gains, small giving leads to small gains, and no giving leads to no gains." Only by striving to become an excellent and outstanding merchant can a distributor attract more professional managers to join.
3. Distributors Should Have Ambitious Aspirations and Ideals Some distributors cannot retain "talented people" because they are short-sighted, content with the status quo, and lack ambition. Excellent professional managers hope to find a "wise master" with grand aspirations and "ambition." Following such a boss, they can often reach the peak of their careers, just like Niu Gensheng with the Mengniu team, or Wu Xiangdong with the Jinliufu team. What kind of boss creates what kind of employees. "One bad apple spoils the whole barrel." Professional managers prefer to "stand under a big tree to enjoy the shade."
(1) Distributors should have grand strategic plans. Excellent distributors often have three-year, five-year, and ten-year strategic plans. They know what they want to become in the future, what they can do, what they can do well, and what goals they want to achieve within a certain period, such as industry status and regional status.
(2) Distributors should have concrete market actions. Around their strategic plans, they should have clear market action paths, know which marketing mix strategies to use to achieve their phased goals, and be able to execute them without compromise. Just like Niu Gensheng did back then, changing methods but not goals, motivating the team to achieve set objectives.
4. Distributors Should Retain People Skillfully The story of "Lord Xinling Steals the Tally to Rescue Zhao" is well known. The reason why so many wise and virtuous people gathered around Lord Xinling, Wei Wuji, to help him was that "Wei Wuji was benevolent, generous, and respectful to the wise, so scholars rushed to join him," to the extent that various vassal states did not dare to invade Wei for over ten years.
The most important success factor for Lord Xinling was his respect for the wise. Therefore, if distributors want to retain excellent professional managers, they must use unique retention methods.
(1) Establish a relationship of friend plus subordinate. If it's only a subordinate relationship, it's unstable or fragile. But if a relationship of subordinate plus friend is established, professional managers will find it hard to be poached or easily switch jobs. Therefore, distributors should learn to make friends with subordinates—true friends, not fair-weather friends—friends who share the same aspirations and can conquer the world together.
(2) Use both material and spiritual incentives. Material incentives come first. Besides regular wages, distributors can offer excellent professional managers some shares, year-end dividends, etc., to "tie" their bodies. At the same time, don't forget spiritual comfort. Regular communication and exchanges, showing care and concern for subordinates, may move them and thus "capture" their hearts.
In summary, if distributors want to have a high-quality professional manager team, they must adjust and change their concepts, improve through multiple channels and angles, establish and perfect corporate mechanisms and systems, and better retain excellent talent. After all, future market competition is competition for talent, competition for the number of talents.
Editor's PS: The editor has selected 1,067 excellent articles from nearly 1,900 published on this official account, categorized them into 14 major categories and 57 knowledge points, and systematically compiled frontline marketing management content into a library for everyone's learning. From market to customers, covering practical combat and management, all are valuable. After following the official account, reply with the number "1" to browse and view related content.