Author｜Zhang Nianchao
Original title｜Teaching a man to fish is the pain of the fish
“It is better to teach a man to fish than to teach him a fish.” This is an ancient saying from sages and a philosophy of life. Although there are new explanations for this - for example, someone in a TV show said that if you choose "fish" between "fish" and "fishing", then sell the fish, buy a lot of fishing rods, and then rent out the fishing rods to make money, then There is a steady stream of money to buy fish - the explanation is perfect, but people who really have this logical ability have already developed.
In the current market, sellers in various industries are facing a big baptism, and it is even more difficult for sellers in some industries that have no brands, no channels, and no value-preserving assets. Today, with the rapid iteration of information and consumption, the market has developed from product dividends, time difference dividends, and brand dividends to service dividends, efficiency dividends, and value dividends. The era of profit by product price increases has passed, because product profits should not belong to the new consumption era. In the middle layer, circulation profits are the most important, so there are changes in the names of agents, dealers and distributors. This is not a simple name change, but a model upgrade.
In 2008, due to the financial crisis, the consumer market completed the transformation of upstream brands. Products changed from practicality to life-oriented, and a round of manufacturing upgrades and reshuffles were carried out. In 2012, channel changes occurred, and the market completed the transformation of distribution channels. From product profits to operating profits, the sales model and the status of sellers in the regional market were basically established. This year is another adjustment of business models for sellers, and it is also a rapid reshuffle of those without business capabilities. Today's market is the same for every brand, but different for every dealer. What the market tests is not the future and profitability of your agency brand, nor the competitiveness of your products and channels, but your business system and Operational efficiency. In the future, dealers in these models will basically have more difficulties:
First, it relies on opportunities and does not have basic market conditions;
The second is to rely on the brand and have no operating capabilities;
The third one relies on channels and has no customer base;
The fourth is to rely on products to make profits and cannot form circulation and service profits;
The fifth is a universal type and cannot gather talents;
Sixth, investment drives growth and does not have its own platform effect and model.
As a product seller, from product profits and channel profits to circulation profits, whether you can complete the transformation depends entirely on your own definition and planning of circulation. In this round of adjustments, the position of distributors will determine how far the future will go. The difference between product companies and product distributors is not reflected in the packaging of products, technologies and brands, but in the brand. education and operator training methods. As far as the large home furnishing industry is concerned, some brand products used to be excellent, profitable, and had large distribution groups. Today, they have entered the competition in the secondary camp. Why so many excellences cannot last is worth pondering and learning from. The author once conducted a survey and found that they have one thing in common. Most of what they provide is market plunder, product changes, and investment pull. They teach dealers to sell products, but they do not teach dealers how to survive, especially in the face of pessimistic times. market environment.
When an industry is on the rise, some people say that as long as you are not a fool, you can make money. If the market demand is too big, everyone can find their own customer base. If you really can't find it, you can still survive by using the market to "break the rules" , such as imitating low prices, channel poaching, deal destruction, poaching people and blocking customers, etc. Although they achieved survival through these short-term behaviors, they lost their ability to survive when market habits changed. In the end, some people suspected that the brands they represented were not good enough and started to change brands. This did not solve the fundamental problem. In the process of the market evolving to a higher stage, a lot of discomfort followed, which also resulted in the differentiation of dealers:
First, withdraw from the industry and develop into higher industries;
The second is to rely on the original accumulation to integrate related products, most of which are to supplement the competitive personalized products of peers, expand professional categories, and ultimately realize the combination of several professional categories on one brand platform;
Third, the risk of abandoning one brand and replacing it with another during the market shift period is very high, unless there is a better model or you are forced to adjust;
The fourth is to develop from product brand to service brand and expand the service chain.
The Ceramics Expo is coming again, and another group of dealers want to choose brands. What to choose? Price, product, brand! In fact, each brand has its own positioning and characteristics. Especially in the era of brand convergence, self-consumption, and service first, all differences are shrinking. The only difference is the education concept of the channel and the idea of teaching people to fish. In the future, success will not lie in differences in products and brands, but in the differences in concepts cultivated by sellers.
When teaching people how to teach, it is a fish or a fish. The truth is very important; the characteristics of the times and industrial differences are also very important. Facing the current situation, as a seller, you may need to shift your focus from brand and product to the essence of distribution. Product brand owners may also want to consider the transition from selling products to sellers to selling models to sellers. The inventory transfer model is no longer suitable for future needs. After all, if sellers have no viability, it will be difficult to expand the market.
