Introduction: Recently, while providing consulting services to distributors, I encountered this case: Lao Li is a distributor of daily chemical products in Hebei. Ten years ago, he left a secure government job to go into business. After ten years of ups and downs, his business is neither big nor small. At its peak, his annual turnover reached over 100 million yuan, and currently, his annual turnover is nearly 20 million yuan. Four years ago, when his company's turnover was at its highest, Lao Li was particularly worried: the company's scale had increased, but how could he ensure steady growth and become a 'true' 'big distributor'? His concerns were not unfounded. The following year, a major brand he had cooperated with well, citing his insufficient market management capabilities, downgraded his agency from city-level general agent to regional general agent. After this lesson, Lao Li felt that to become a true 'big distributor,' his company needed to make changes and could no longer rely on 'an old gun' like him to charge ahead. Lao Li made a firm resolution: he bought many books on company management and marketing management and frequently participated in training sessions held by manufacturers. But he remains very confused. Not doing it is 'waiting to die,' doing it is 'still dying'—the biggest confusion in distributors' second entrepreneurship. Recently, due to work, I had the opportunity to discuss the topic of 'second entrepreneurship' with many distributors. Many distributors who are now somewhat famous went through a 'blood-and-tears' entrepreneurial history: tossing and turning before diving into business, personally handling everything in the early days, braving wind and rain, carrying the responsibility for their families and self-expectations, and in battles against the market, they successfully reaped rich rewards. Indeed, many distributors have left their solid footprints in China's rapidly developing commodity economy. Compared with distributors in any developed country, they have encountered the most loneliness. Because they have no mentors, no textbooks, only opponents and risks. Only through their unremitting efforts and China's increasingly prosperous commodity economy have they achieved today's brilliant accomplishments. But the market is cruel. We often see the metabolism of 'the waves behind drive on those before, and the front waves die on the beach.' What causes such a cruel outcome? They can start a business but cannot maintain it! When it comes to this topic, many distributors have something to say: As a distributor in Hangzhou said: 'In the current circulation industry, competition is undoubtedly becoming increasingly fierce, but due to the rapid development of the industry, the prospects remain promising. However, when I want to expand my business, I feel powerless. So I thought of conducting a second entrepreneurship within the company, but after some effort, the employees did not share my workload as I imagined. As a result, I became increasingly tired, and I had to pull my wife and relatives into management.' Many distributors have the idea of 'second entrepreneurship,' but the reality is that 'change gives distributors a bump on the head.' Starting a business is easy; maintaining it is hard! Isn't it? The rules of the market are becoming more standardized, and the intensity of market competition is increasing. Facing such a market environment, many distributors are in a dilemma of being unable to cope. So some have withdrawn, and others are still struggling! Where is the problem? This is a problem of distributors' lack of follow-up development, a problem of transforming the development model, and a problem of 'second entrepreneurship'! Speaking of this, many distributors say that second entrepreneurship belongs not only to the distributor himself but also to the entire company. Yes, because they strongly feel the need to step out of the individual, single-handed entrepreneurial model! But their ideas are good, yet practice is extremely hard. Because they have tried various means: To motivate employees, they proposed commission schemes, but in the end, employees did not feel that commissions increased their income much, and the incentive effect was not great; To standardize operations, they formulated company management regulations, but in the end, few knew what the regulations were, and even fewer strictly followed them; To effectively divide work, they promoted employees who performed well and hired professional managers from outside, but business growth and the standardization of business departments did not improve as imagined. Things remained the same, at most with more hands. ...... So many distributors are confused, and they have bought many books and attended many trainings, but they have never found satisfactory answers. Yes, the biggest confusion in distributors' second entrepreneurship is: if you don't do it, you 'wait to die'; if you do it, you 'still die.' Change and innovation have completely failed to achieve the expected results. Two common mistakes in second entrepreneurship Many distributors' second entrepreneurship has not succeeded. The main reason is that in most cases, distributors' second entrepreneurship often makes two major mistakes: The first mistake is that although distributors propose second entrepreneurship, they have not actually thought clearly about the purpose and goals of second entrepreneurship; the second mistake is that distributors ignore the huge gap between their own mindset and abilities and those of their employees. Why say that distributors do not think clearly about the purpose and goals when undertaking second entrepreneurship? Some distributors say: 'When I started second entrepreneurship, I set a goal to increase sales by 20% that year. How can you say I didn't think clearly about the purpose and goals?' Others say: 'At that time, I formulated management systems and employee assessment systems, planning to transform the company from single-handed to group assault within a year. Such goals are both reasonable and achievable. How can you say I didn't think clearly about the purpose and goals?' Yes, these distributors are not wrong. Some goals are to increase sales, some are to improve internal management efficiency, but many distributors, when undertaking second entrepreneurship, have not thought clearly about the development goals of the business. Why do distributors set sales goals? Because it is the foundation of survival. But what proportion of sales completion is due to the efforts of salespeople? Market factors, competitive factors, product factors, corporate support factors, etc., all affect whether distributors and their sales teams can ultimately achieve sales goals. Therefore, completing sales goals must involve the distributor boss's own responsibility. He is responsible for maintaining and developing relationships with cooperative manufacturers, selecting and ultimately choosing products suitable for market sales, and guiding salespeople in market development. Only then comes the responsibility of the distributor's sales team for market development and maintenance. If distributors do not think clearly about their own responsibilities and goals and directly transfer sales tasks to their teams, it is normal that they cannot achieve the goals, because the sales team does not have the authority to do certain things. What is the development goal of distributors' second entrepreneurship? It is for distributors to clearly understand the future shape of their company and think clearly about their role and responsibility in this new shape. Undoubtedly, the first entrepreneurship of distributors relies on personal effort and the opportunities of the times, but the second entrepreneurship, from the perspective of business management goals, needs to achieve 'enterprise-style operation.' Originally, distributors relied on interpersonal relationships and connections to make money, but after second entrepreneurship, distributors rely on resources and manpower to make money. All management has costs, but the purpose of management is to make resources and capabilities create greater value! Many distributors have outstanding abilities, but compared with some excellent enterprises, there is still a big gap. The reason is that they cannot materialize tangible or intangible resources, nor can they use stable organizational structures and human resources to earn money. In plain terms, the bottleneck that prevents many distributors from becoming stronger and bigger is that they cannot use 'money' to make money, nor can they use 'people' to make money. They have to do everything themselves, and as a result, they cannot deploy their abilities to where they are most needed. The second mistake distributors often make in second entrepreneurship is that they ignore the huge gap between their own mindset and abilities and those of their employees. Many distributors delegate some authority and affairs to their subordinates, but soon the distributor bosses feel uneasy. First, they fear that after fully letting go, employees will grow and then jump ship or start their own businesses. Second, they turn a blind eye to employees' efforts but remember their mistakes and criticize them from time to time. In such an environment and management style, it is hard to imagine that distributor employees can truly grow. As a result, distributors can only think that their subordinates have limited abilities and cannot bear heavy responsibilities. Facing this situation, the main reason is that distributors have not clearly divided the relationship between authority and responsibility. The biggest difference between distributor bosses and their employees when facing direct customers is authority. When a major customer of the distributor comes to the distributor, the boss can immediately determine preferential prices and settlement terms, but usually, employees do not have this authority. So when customers have issues, they always think of finding the boss first. This is similar to how distributors always want to talk to the general manager of the enterprise when cooperating with them. Before the authority at the customer interface is effectively distributed, distributors' accusations of employee incompetence are, in many cases, overgeneralizations. 'You can't even handle this; I have to do it myself!' If distributors often encounter such situations, it indicates that they are still in the first entrepreneurship stage, still fighting for the survival and cash flow of their companies, and it also shows that such distributors cannot achieve significant development. But on the other hand, some distributors delegate authority, and employees still do not achieve good results. Why is that? It should be said that all people are lazy. When distributor employees encounter problems and difficulties, many think of handing the problem to the boss first, and few actively seek solutions themselves. This is partly due to habitual thinking, partly because there is a gap between employees and bosses in their desire for development, and partly because many distributor companies lack corporate culture and shared values. Therefore, although many distributor companies are small, communication problems are still serious. At the same time, after many distributor employees receive authority, due to their lack of prior ability training, it is quite difficult for them to suddenly meet the requirements of distributor bosses. Mindset gaps and insufficient abilities—these various reasons cause many distributors to still not achieve significant results after delegating authority. 'You can't get fat by eating one mouthful'—everyone understands this saying, but when it comes to practice, many distributors forget it. How to successfully cross the second entrepreneurship What is called distributor enterprise-ization is not as simple as many distributors imagine: setting up a team, establishing a system, and providing a reward and punishment plan can achieve second entrepreneurship? The content is not wrong; the mistake is that many distributors do not pursue the next question: 'Is this suit of clothes fitting? To what extent does it fit? How long will it fit?' Yes, but we must also see that for a commercial enterprise to grow rapidly, the necessary condition is 'simple and replicable.' Many distributors face complex market competition and employee abilities that are difficult to improve. Even if distributor bosses have good ideas, they are hard to realize. Many distributors require employees to: be familiar with products, understand marketing, know the status of network customers, be good at developing customers, work proactively... Then a problem arises: how many years of work experience, how much work ability, and how broad social connections does such an employee need to be competent? If a distributor needs to train an ordinary employee for 5 years to turn them into an excellent employee, then the distributor's development speed will definitely not be fast. If another distributor can quickly get employees up to speed through short-term training plus departmental internships, then that distributor's development speed will definitely be fast. The difference in employee competence between these two distributors is actually the huge difference in employee management between distributors who have successfully completed second entrepreneurship and those who have not. The former's turnover may exceed 10 million yuan, but it is absolutely impossible to exceed 100 million; the latter has much more room for development. On the surface, the difference between the two is the speed at which new employees get up to speed, but in reality, the real difference comes from the two distributors' profit models, organizational structures, business processes, authority division, informatization of network resources, employee performance assessment, etc. Wanting to solidify the value of network resources through systems, improve the enthusiasm and operational standardization of sales personnel, etc., is the dream of many distributors, but in fact, it is difficult to achieve. The key obstacle lies in the institutionalization, simplification, and standardization of internal management such as business processes. Combined with effective corporate culture, distributors can form a company group that can be continuously replicated and expanded. 'Foolproof operation' is the execution goal that distributors should pursue in second entrepreneurship. Distributor bosses should look at key indicators and monitor company operations in a 'foolproof' manner; financial managers should look at cash flow and capital turnover efficiency to control business risks and profit returns in a 'foolproof' way; sales managers should look at the 'market development map' and the completion rate of sales plans to control business operations in a 'foolproof' way; warehouse managers should look at product turnover rate indicators and inventory indicators to control shortages, overstock, and losses. Only by achieving 'foolproof' daily operations can distributors free themselves from busy daily affairs and have the energy to handle matters that can create greater performance and more profits, such as public relations with key manufacturers, product updates, acceptance of new products, deepening cooperation with manufacturers, integration of terminal resources, integration of network resources, etc. Only by achieving 'foolproof' daily operations can distributors materialize tangible or intangible resources, establish a business model with stable performance growth, and truly make their companies stronger, bigger, and longer-lasting. 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