Some salespeople are frustrated: they have worked on the front line for many years, with good customer relationships and seniority, yet have never been promoted or improved. What causes this? The author summarizes the following reasons:

First, lack of ambition. Among salespeople, there are those who lack goals and direction. They muddle along, doing the minimum required. Besides completing tasks, they spend their time playing cards, drinking, playing mahjong, and flirting. They drift from one thing to another, ultimately achieving nothing and being eliminated from the sales force.

In contrast, ambitious salespeople plan their future and then take step-by-step actions with plans, measures, and methods to achieve their goals. A former sales manager under my supervision was a person with very clear goals. He told me that his first job was as a salesperson at Uni-President, where he worked for four years. From the day he left Uni-President, he had very clear life and career goals. His life goal for the first three years was to return to his hometown in Sanming, Fujian, and build a house for his parents. His career goals were to become a manager at a private enterprise in the first year, a regional manager in the second year, and a director in the third year. He indeed achieved all his goals.

He told me that he most admired a famous quote by Rong Guotuan: "Life is a few moments of struggle." To achieve his goals, he spared no effort to find time to learn, constantly sought opportunities, and communicated with leaders, bosses, and customers. Thus, he always gave more than others. I met him during a business trip to Zhejiang. He was then a sales manager in charge of the Ningbo region. The general manager of his branch said that he had prepared for five whole nights to welcome me to his regular meeting. Every day after others left, he was still writing plans and practicing his presentation. Others thought he was foolish, but they didn't realize that this was his wisdom: he knew that to be appreciated by leaders, he had to be fully prepared. He deeply understood that opportunities for employees often hide in leadership inspections and performance reports, which is the most Chinese way to be discovered and promoted. Those who lack ambition cannot see such opportunities. Therefore, "preparedness ensures success, unpreparedness ensures failure," and success always favors those who are prepared.

In fact, everyone should have two major goals: one is a life goal, and the other is a career or professional goal. Many articles have discussed how to break down and achieve goals, so I won't elaborate. In short, salespeople without goals are easily eliminated, just like a ship without a destination is the first to be pushed onto the beach by a big wave.

Second, unwillingness to learn. Who will be eliminated in the 21st century? Those with low emotional intelligence, those without plans, those who don't know how to cooperate, and especially those who don't like learning, particularly those who don't study outside of working hours. Mr. Hu Shi once said: "The difference between people lies in how they use their time outside of eight working hours." Those who have time cannot succeed; those who squeeze time can. Eight hours inside determine the present; eight hours outside determine the future.

What kind of thoughts you have determines what kind of life you live. Only by learning do you have choices. If you lack knowledge, you should have common sense; if you lack common sense, go to school or attend classes. It's not that society is developing too fast, but that our thinking reacts too slowly. Why is our thinking slow? Because we haven't kept up with the pace of learning. Refusing to learn is refusing to grow. If parents don't learn, they will be looked down upon by their children and have a generation gap; if one spouse doesn't learn, there will be estrangement; if salespeople don't learn, they will be eliminated. If anyone doesn't learn, they will be disconnected from society and fall behind the times, living in the 21st century but thinking in the 20th. I was born in the 1960s, but I still learn every day. Many people ask me, "Is it still necessary for you to learn?" I smile and say, "If I don't learn, I'll go crazy!" Of course, I wouldn't really go crazy. The real reason is that I don't want to have a generation gap in communication, so I am forced to learn.

In the era of knowledge explosion, if you are still hesitating or thinking knowledge is useless, you are greatly mistaken. You will soon be eliminated by society. What is the purpose of learning? Why learn? It is to avoid being eliminated by society and to improve your competitiveness. No one can say they can keep up with the times without learning. We are usually not eliminated by others, but by our own unwillingness to learn and keep up with trends. In the PC era, if you didn't master computer applications, and in the mobile internet era, if you didn't learn mobile apps, you can only be called a laggard. In the future, with the intelligent era, IoT era, robot era, and 3D printing era, can you still keep up?

In the information age, "a day without learning is like three autumns." Yesterday it was "+Internet," today it's "Internet+," and tomorrow it might be "IoT+Intelligence+Robots+" or something else. In such an era, can you afford not to learn? Absolutely not.

There are two great sorrows in life: one is not dating your spouse after marriage, and the other is not willing to learn after graduation. The former is eliminated by marriage, the latter by the times.

Third, poor thinking skills. We don't learn just for the sake of learning. More importantly, learning is about analyzing problems, making judgments, and solving problems. Problems are often solved through thinking.

In the mobile internet era, I estimate there is no shortage of people who spend every day staring at their phones reading news and absorbing fast-food culture, but there is a great shortage of people who think independently, especially those who deeply analyze and think about others' opinions. Many people just follow the crowd and forget what they read.

Learning without thinking is not much different from not learning. Not learning at least avoids being disturbed by new information, but learning without thinking means that knowledge is not transformed into your own, not effectively absorbed, but randomly stuffed into your head, causing it to become bloated and unhealthy. Naturally, such people lack competitiveness, and without competitiveness, they cannot stand firm in the era.

We know that life requires doubt, and even more, thinking after doubt. Descartes said well: "Doubt often leaves me in a state of confusion, but thinking ultimately helps me discover that 'I am real,' I think, therefore I am." Our cognition of the unknown world begins with doubt. As children, we doubted that many things were edible, so we put them in our mouths and discovered that fingers are salty and bitter and not edible, and mother's hair has a fragrant smell but is not edible... With doubt, we explore and think, and thus we come to know this colorful and vast world.

But as we grow up, we lose this ability to explore and think. Han Yu said in "On Teachers": "People are not born with knowledge; who can be without doubts? If one has doubts but does not learn from a teacher, they remain doubts and are never resolved." Doubt without thinking, exploring, or seeking guidance will remain doubt and confuse us. Thinking, on the other hand, allows us to gain new knowledge and truth from doubt. Thinking produces true knowledge; it is the great thinking ability of humans that has created this complex world.

Many salespeople are not good at thinking. For example, how to increase sales volume, how to get support from the company's general manager, and how to get effective help from distributor customers? These are all issues closely related to business, but they often don't think deeply about them. In fact, if you are good at thinking, you will get results. For example, how to increase sales volume? A thoughtful salesperson or manager might think like this: first, increase in a certain region; second, increase from a single customer; third, increase from a single store; fourth, increase from a single product; fifth, increase in a certain time period. By breaking it down one by one, you will be surprised to find that increasing sales is not that difficult.

Fourth, unwillingness to change. Times have changed, the environment has changed, the marketing environment has changed, and marketing methods have changed. If you don't change, you will be ruthlessly eliminated by the situation. We cannot change the environment, but we can change ourselves; we cannot change others, but we can adapt to others.

If you change, you will see a different world; if you change, you will get another world. Change is progress, and change is an ability. Everyone needs to make appropriate changes in the face of the times.

Do you know what limits your abilities and what restricts your development?

First, negative thinking. For example, we often hear some people say "impossible," "no way," "how could that be," "never thought of it," "don't know," etc., when faced with problems. These words stop your brain from thinking and prevent you from finding answers for results. In fact, having no method is equivalent to having no ability.

Second, shirking responsibility. For example, some people often say "didn't see," "don't know," "not my fault," "because... so..." These words allow a person to feel justified and at ease that the matter has nothing to do with them. In reality, you lose many opportunities for growth. The more problems you solve, the stronger your abilities become.

Third, attitude towards money. Money can lock a person's abilities. For example, some people don't work if they aren't paid, don't do things if the pay is too little, and always calculate gains and losses. Over time, they lose their own abilities.

Fourth, setting limits on responsibilities. "This is not my department," "that is not my responsibility," "not in my position, not in my affairs." They forget that opportunities are always reserved for those who are prepared.

Fifth, constant complaining. They always see themselves as victims, and everything that happens is always someone else's fault. They complain all day, gradually losing the ability to solve problems, and happiness and joy leave them.

Sixth, being self-righteous and complacent. These people refuse to listen to anyone's opinions, always thinking they are right. Gradually, no one gives them advice anymore, and they can no longer hear the truth, so they can only grow slowly on their own.

Therefore, only by changing these ways of thinking can your world change; otherwise, you can only wait for elimination! Remember, change yourself, adapt to the environment, and influence others. Everything in the world is because "change leads to smoothness, and smoothness leads to success."

About the author: Liang Shengwei, with 12 years of marketing management and 11 years of corporate consulting experience; formerly Marketing Director of Guangdong C&S Paper Group and Assistant General Manager of Guangdong Huihailong Group; published over 200 management and marketing articles in various management and marketing magazines and websites; author of the book "Building a Quasi-Listed Company Management Model"; marketing expert, management expert, and marketing and management consultant for multiple companies. Currently engaged in professional marketing and management training and consulting.

The 3rd (CFIC) China FMCG + Internet Conference will be held in Chongqing in November 2017. The conference will closely focus on the theme "New Forces, New Ecology," inviting 1,000+ distributors, 500+ brand owners, 200+ B2B platform founders, and 100+ investment and financing institutions to jointly explore a new chapter of cross-border integration!

Core topics of this conference:

  • How can the FMCG industry leverage B2B to achieve new growth opportunities?
  • How should the new supply chain behind new retail be built?
  • How can intra-city logistics help B2B achieve leapfrog development?

Highlights of this conference:

  • The industry's first "2017 China FMCG B2B Industry Competitiveness White Paper"
  • Case sharing of excellent transformation and upgrading distributors
  • Upgraded conference + exhibition, with Hall 6 Internet Technology Exhibition strengthening connections
  • Leaders from well-known enterprises such as Alibaba Retail Link, ProLogis Finance, Eternal Asia Supply Chain, Best Store Plus, Yijiupai, and Haiding will deliver speeches on-site, presenting pioneering viewpoints.

November 8-9, 2017 Xinyue Hall, Chongqing Yuelai International Convention Center Registration is now open. Long press the QR code below or click "Read Original" to register. Add friend and note "Conference Registration".

Click the link below to review the highlights of the 1st and 2nd FMCG + Internet Conferences:

2016 "FMCG + Internet" High-Level Forum

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