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Freeing Salespeople from KPI Traps
At the 7th China FMCG Conference hosted by New Distribution, the former chairman of China Resources Beer proposed 'freeing distributors and salespeople,' which resonated deeply. Salespeople are trapped by endless visits and reports, unable to escape KPI constraints. The industry's KPI 'consensus' is actually counterintuitive, as most 'consensus' behaviors are contrary to common sense.
刘春雄“I'm an old hand born in the 1980s, still struggling in the FMCG sea of bitterness”
Lao Wang is truly a veteran in the FMCG industry, having joined right after graduation and now with 16 years of experience. "Lao Wang, your performance is lagging. What's going on? Can you still do this?" Just exiled to a remote market, Lao Wang was publicly questioned by his leader at the monthly meeting for poor performance. "I don't want your excuses; I want results. If you don't catch up next month, you can leave on your own," the leader said impatiently. This is a common tactic in the FMCG industry to force old employees to resign voluntarily: assigning them to remote markets, markets without customers, or markets where predecessors left big problems...
金名Zhao Bo of New Distribution: Moving Beyond the Wholesale Era, Reconstructing China's Commercial Circulation Industry
Starting from the 'Engel coefficient turning point,' this article examines the transformation of consumer society and its impact on retail and wholesale industries. It analyzes how developed markets have responded to retail restructuring and outlines four paths for China's wholesale sector to evolve from a relationship-based to a system-driven model.
赵波FMCG frontline salespeople are anxious
“Business is tough now; upstream manufacturers increase targets year by year, but downstream customers can't move goods. I don't know how long this consumption situation will last!” Last week, the author followed several FMCG salespeople on field visits to dozens of terminal stores, and on the way, salesperson Sister Liu lamented this. In the dealer team, salespeople are not only the vanguard of sales but also direct observers of market dynamics; their feelings directly reflect market conditions. This article will take the perspective of dealer salespeople, go deep into the frontline, analyze the internal and external factors causing their anxiety, and reveal the true state of the market.
何雯The FMCG Industry Has Completely Changed
If one word were to sum up this year's FMCG industry, it would be 'difficult.' Retail channel transformations have come one after another, with intense competition both online and offline, including supermarket overhauls and the aggressive expansion of snack stores. Brand owners are struggling with declining financial reports, having been held hostage by e-commerce in the past and now by new retail. Distributors face even greater hardship, squeezed by upstream and downstream players, and many are being abandoned, with the trend of big fish eating small fish becoming increasingly evident. However, 'difficult' is the current state, behind which lie changes in the underlying survival logic of retailers, the severe weakening of brand owners' market influence, and the need for distributors to redefine their roles.
周群Why Young Talent Is Leaving Front-Line FMCG Sales
The talent problem in FMCG sales is not only about pay. It reflects an outdated field-sales system that monitors people instead of equipping them to sell with greater precision and productivity.
New DistributionIn the FMCG Industry, the Answers to Market Problems Are on the Frontline
A beer distributor with over 20 years of experience shared his journey, emphasizing that market opportunities and solutions are found on the frontline. By staying close to the market, he successfully launched a new product, but later lost momentum after delegating to managers. The article argues that true insights come from direct market engagement, citing examples like Wahaha and Feihe, and concludes that adapting to new cycles requires rebuilding frontline connections.
金名Raising a Glass for Thirty Years: The 30th Anniversary Series of China Alcoholic Drinks Association Officially Launched
Thirty years marks the journey of an industry from infancy to maturity, and for China's alcoholic drinks circulation sector, it has been a profound transformation from chaos to order. In 2025, the China Alcoholic Drinks Association celebrates its 30th anniversary, having witnessed and driven the industry's shift from planned allocation to market allocation, and from channel dominance to consumer sovereignty. The association has been both a recorder and a promoter, guiding the industry onto a path of high-quality development.
杨玉琳Why Are FMCG Manufacturers Increasingly Preferring Female Sales Representatives?
This year, while visiting the market, I noticed an interesting phenomenon: in frontline FMCG sales roles, which were once teased as 'better suited for men due to sun and wind,' the proportion of women around 30 years old is increasing. These women, neither fresh graduates nor pre-retirement 'stable employees,' have become 'hot commodities' for manufacturers. Their emergence reflects the industry's changing talent demands. Amid poor performance, how should manufacturers correctly select and use talent? This article explores this topic.
邢仁宝The FMCG Industry Is in Chaos Right Now
Recent visits to multiple regional markets reveal widespread anxiety across the FMCG industry, affecting brand owners, retailers, and distributors alike. Since 2024, over half of listed food and beverage companies have seen declining revenues, while retail is being reshaped by new formats and online channels, forcing a fundamental redefinition of roles and collaboration.
周群Competing on Low Prices Is Not the Way Out
A veteran FMCG distributor in South China laments that prices have never been lower, yet sales have never been worse. This reflects a broader industry dilemma where price wars are failing, and the real need is to shift from competing on price to mastering the ability to aggregate consumer groups, understand their needs, and match supply precisely.
任文青AndyWhy Are Sales Representatives Increasingly Unwelcome?
Sales representatives are increasingly unwelcome in the channel, a norm for both small and large enterprises. This is not due to individual incompetence but because the role itself has become one that only God could perform, as Peter Drucker noted. The issue lies in the job design and the actions required, which have become ineffective in the era of shrinking volumes.
刘春雄“I'm a manufacturer's sales rep, and during the Dragon Boat Festival, I'm still doing promotions...”
During the Dragon Boat Festival, while others share family reunions on social media, I remain on the front lines. Setting up a tent at the supermarket entrance early in the morning, I sweat and shout through a megaphone... By noon, the sun is scorching and the crowd is sparse; in the evening, as it cools down, consumers pass by without being attracted by the 'buy one get one free' offer. Today's consumers seem more rational, caring about their immediate needs rather than being swayed by price. After a whole day, I sold less than 800 yuan...
金名Big KAs Fall, LKAs Stand Firm
The rise of new retail in China, whether warehouse clubs, hard discount, or instant retail, is diverting business from traditional retail and forcing supermarkets to reform. However, a fact often overlooked is that Pangdonglai, the most cited model for supermarket reform, is an LKA that opened in 1997. Moreover, Pangdonglai is not unique; many LKAs like Hebei Xinyu Lou, Northeast Beiyoute, and Xiamen Yuanchu have remained resilient by leveraging regional advantages.
张振宇Professor Chen Liping: From Retail Revolution to Circulation Revolution, How Can China's Supermarket Industry Cross the Cycle?
China's supermarket industry has shown clear phased development over the past 30 years, with major changes every decade. Currently, the industry is undergoing a new round of transformation, which can be called the second revolution in the circulation field. To achieve cross-cycle development, enterprises must adapt to environmental changes and survive by being fit. The article discusses the current changes, the shift from retail to circulation revolution, and predictions for the next decade.
CCFA10,000+ SKUs, Covering 4,000+ Outlets: Turning a Traditional Trading Company into a 'One-Stop Supply Platform' for Local Retail Stores!
In recent years, New Distribution has visited many distributor bosses who report that business is tough and revenue growth without profit growth is the norm. Many distributors are struggling to survive, being eliminated by the market, or acquired by competitors. The main difficulty for distributors today is the increased uncertainty in the downstream retail market. On one hand, the wave of traditional supermarket closures leads to customer loss, and mid-sized stores have weaker risk resistance. On the other hand, snack stores are expanding aggressively with low prices, followed by discount stores, and supermarket renovations require distributors to supply at bare prices. These channel changes have a huge impact on today's distributors.
汪海The Second Half of the FMCG Industry: Retailers Lead a New Circulation Revolution, Entering the Era of 'Integrated Production, Supply, and Sales'
From last year to the first half of this year, several major events have occurred: 1. Retail enterprises have begun to build their own supply chain companies. On March 31, Jiangsu regional retailer Hongxin Supermarket listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. According to its prospectus, wholesale business accounted for about 56% of revenue in the first nine months of 2024, and its wholesale business grew much faster than retail. Traditional retailers are no longer limited to a single retail business; the model of wholesale + retail + regional deep cultivation has begun to enter the public eye. In addition, since the second half of last year, Metro...
戚特"Where There Are Scenes, There Is Sales": Brands Need a Scene 'Roadmap' for Sustained Growth
Coca-Cola's sustained growth is attributed to its consistent practice of scene marketing, which involves discovering new consumption scenes. The article introduces a scene marketing roadmap for new brands, comprising four types of scenes: source scenes, lead scenes, mainline scenes, and branch scenes, guiding brands from initial user education to sales expansion.
刘春雄Annual Sales of $54 Billion, Covering Over 100,000 Outlets: The Business Logic of McLane as a 'Middleman'
China's current retail transformation, whether it's membership warehouses, discount retail, or instant retail, as well as the forced adjustments in supermarkets and convenience stores, is all about improving supply chain efficiency. Improving industry efficiency inevitably involves supply chain adjustments, and distributors, as a key intermediate link, are the hardest hit. Many distributors are confused about their future business positioning. However, this cycle of industry chain adjustment has been experienced in the retail development history of all developed countries. Naturally, the solution for the 'middleman' business can also be found in global retail history.
张振宇Is Deep Distribution Dead? Who Will Save Millions of FMCG Distributors?
Deep distribution, once the golden strategy of the FMCG industry, is now facing an unprecedented survival crisis as market growth slows and store closures surge. However, an innovative solution called 'Spark of Thought' is leveraging data and AI to help distributors achieve growth and navigate the new market landscape.
墨廷Digital Empowerment, Reconstructing People-Goods-Places: Rebuilding Deep Distribution
At the 10th China FMCG Innovation Conference, Gao Bo, CFO of C&S Paper, delivered a keynote on how digital tools can rebuild deep distribution. He identified three reasons why deep distribution is struggling in 2024—slowing retail growth, high store closure rates, and product abundance—and proposed solutions: selecting the right stores using AI models, choosing the right product categories, and targeting specific consumer segments.
高波New Distributors Shape a New Order in FMCG Distribution
The theme of this conference is 'New Order, Symbiosis.' In the FMCG distribution chain, brand owners and distributors are the most critical links. Today, they face a severe challenge: in an era of shrinking volumes, can traditional joint business plans still work? In the past, leading brand owners typically set growth targets and guided distributors to build capabilities, but as growth becomes harder, the old order may collapse, requiring a shift from a planned economy to a market economy, with both sides achieving symbiosis through data-driven channel services.
周震重磅 I 首届中国快消“金柏奖·数字化服务商奖”获奖企业名单发布！
On February 13, 2025, New Distribution officially announced the first China FMCG 'Golden Cypress Award' selection. The awards include three major honors: Supply Chain Service Provider, Digital Service Provider, and Distributor. The winners were unveiled at the 10th China FMCG Innovation Conference and the 4th China FMCG Hard Discount Conference & 4th China FMCG Distributor Conference, held from March 17 to 19, 2025. Among them, 12 companies won the 'Golden Cypress Award · Digital Service Provider'.
New DistributionJapan's Three Distribution Revolutions and China's Three Distribution Revolutions
The concept of "distribution revolution" was first proposed by Japanese scholar Shuji Hayashi in the 1960s. He used it to describe the transformation of the distribution industry through modernization, efficiency improvements, and business model innovations, involving systematic changes in Japan's wholesale and retail sectors. This article systematically reviews Japan's four stages and three revolutions in distribution, and applies the same framework to analyze China's current FMCG market, which is transitioning from a manufacturer-dominated to a retailer-dominated market.
戚特