Chapter 8 Three, do not play cards according to common sense

Brand cultivation is a long process, but in the fast-growing Chinese market with disorderly competition, it is easy to be overwhelmed by competitors if you participate in competition in a conventional way.Anyone who knows Dong Mingzhu knows that this is a woman who does not play cards according to common sense.To this day, many old conventions in the air-conditioning industry have been broken and new ones established, all of which are directly or indirectly related to Dong Mingzhu.Whether breaking old rules or establishing new ones, they all face the same difficulties.Compared with new things, people prefer to live in inertia.Since Dong Mingzhu entered the air-conditioning industry, whether it is Gree Electric Appliances where she works, or the entire air-conditioning industry, earth-shaking changes have taken place in some places.The change of Gree's marketing model is probably the topic that people are most willing to talk about, and this change is directly from the hands of Dong Mingzhu. In addition, Dong Mingzhu also uses her personal ability and charm to make Gree's Profound changes have taken place in every aspect.Dong Mingzhu's marketing experience is undoubtedly very successful. It is for this reason that people have given her various praises such as "marketing phoenix", "marketing legend" and "business woman". For these titles, Dong Mingzhu is well-deserved.However, if people analyze carefully, they will have doubts, does this real marketing expert really have any unique tricks?Why are there many people who have read a lot of books and learned so much marketing experience, but still can't become a successful marketer like her?China pays most attention to the work style of "being a person first and doing things later", but it is a miracle that there is no such phenomenon in Gree, a state-owned enterprise with more than 30,000 employees.The creator of this miracle is Dong Mingzhu.In most enterprises in China, whether they are state-owned or private, it is much more difficult to sever all kinds of interpersonal relationships than to capture the market.What's more, Dong Mingzhu did this with the middle-level cadres of the company, not the top position.At the beginning of his tenure, Dong Mingzhu stipulated that Gree employees "are not allowed to eat during working hours. Once found, they will be fined 50 for the first time, 100 for the second time, and leave for the third time."Everyone thought it was just talking again.One day, Dong Mingzhu walked into the office and found 8 employees eating. After only 10 seconds, the off-duty bell rang.Dong Mingzhu was not polite and charged 50 yuan each.Everyone was dumbfounded.Dong Mingzhu said that as long as the principle is violated, no matter how small it is, it is a major matter, and it must be dealt with to the end.

As soon as she became the head of the business department, Dong Mingzhu dealt with a big dealer who was extremely hindering her work and no one dared to touch it before——fired a large dealer with annual sales of over 100 million yuan, which made everyone gasp.At that time, Dong Mingzhu was facing a very complicated personnel relationship.Because many people in the operation department came in through the relationship of the boss, even the leaders in charge dare not touch these people.Dong Mingzhu doesn't care about these, she not only wants to rectify these people, but also specifically finds hard nails to touch.There is a related employee who makes plans at work and needs to issue bills. Relatively speaking, Dong Mingzhu has a lot of power. Dong Mingzhu stared at him, only to find that he had sent out millions of goods but could not match the account.Dong Mingzhu caught the evidence, punished him severely, notified the whole company, and lowered his salary.Dong Mingzhu's consideration at the time was that as long as this person is dealt with, everyone will know that this person can be dealt with, and no one cannot be dealt with, and must work according to the system.Unexpectedly, Dong Mingzhu was unlucky the next day.A call from upstairs asked her to go up and asked her how much power she had, and she was fined and wages were deducted.Since Dong Mingzhu has already done it, she will not back down, let alone she is still on the right side.She said to the leader: "Excuse me, if he took away five million yuan from my company, is it too much for me to deduct one hundred yuan from his salary? If I become more powerful, I will fire him." Dong Mingzhu clearly knew this employee She must have found this leader through her family relationship. In her words, "When the wind blows on my wife's bedside, the problem comes."The leader was a little helpless, so he had to say that you should punish and give a warning.Unexpectedly, Dong Mingzhu would not take the hard way, but told the leader more bluntly that I only dealt with him because of his relationship with you.From a personal point of view, everyone is a colleague, so I can turn a blind eye and be a good person, but from a corporate point of view, I have to deal with him, because this is not only related to his personal problems, but also involves your image.The boss had nothing to say after hearing Dong Mingzhu's words, so he had to let it go.Dong Mingzhu thought that this was the end of the matter.Unexpectedly, the boss in charge of personnel called her over again and told her to pay more attention to her work in the future, and the work of personnel relations should not be rushed, but take her time.Dong Mingzhu's upright character was revealed again, and she directly asked the boss in charge of personnel affairs: "If I want to build a good relationship and cause the company to fail to develop well, so that the company loses several million, do you think I am trying to build a good relationship?" How about sticking to the principle?" Seeing that Dong Mingzhu is so stubborn, the boss in charge of personnel could only hint to her that if things go on like this, her position will be affected. This obviously has no threat to Dong Mingzhu, because Dong Mingzhu is the manager of the business department. Minister, it's not for the money.

The reason why she accepted this position was because she wanted to make a career. If she couldn't make a career, then she might as well make more money as a salesman.In any case, this incident had a great impact on Dong Mingzhu. Afterwards, she summed up the reason why the former minister couldn't handle it well. It was that he was always watching all directions like this, and usually didn't think about how to be strict about discipline , but thinking about how not to offend others, how to make the leader say good things about himself.This is also the reason why many companies with strong nepotism always fail to do well.The final result is that Dong Mingzhu achieved her goal by "killing chickens to scare monkeys" this time. All the employees knew her strength for a while, and the work style of the operation department soon took on a new look.At that time, Dong Mingzhu insisted on adopting the sales rule of "pay first and then ship". She may not have thought that this payment method saved Gree a lot of troubles in the later development process, and also obtained a large amount of sufficient cash flow.At that time, she just thought it was a strategy to put the villain before the gentleman. She didn't want to deceive others, nor did she want to be deceived by others. The rules were used to prevent scams from happening.As a salesperson and businessman, she believes that the main energy should be placed on sales rather than debt collection and litigation.No payment, no delivery is a game rule created by Dong Mingzhu. Before that, the practice in shopping malls was just the opposite, which was to pay after delivery.Many people believe that Gree's success is firstly due to the management method of receiving payment first and then delivering goods, and secondly, Gree's unique marketing model. Dong Mingzhu disagrees with this view. Seeing more and more Air-conditioning manufacturers are interested in Gree's management and marketing model. She pointed out bluntly: "Even if everyone is imitating Gree, it is impossible to surpass Gree. The reason for Gree's success lies not in the model, but in its innovative ideas. Gree's current The model was applicable in the past, but it may not be applicable in the future. They can try my model, but they can’t learn my thinking.” The poet Schiller once said that among the creatures in the world, only people can play games, and only those who can play games can play games. will become real people.So, how to explain the game play?In the commercial society, those who abide by the established rules of the game are not considered to be able to play games. Those who really know how to play games are those who can formulate the rules of the game themselves and can control the situation at any time.There is no doubt that Dong Mingzhu is such a person. She has dominated the shopping malls for decades, and I am the master of my territory. Dong Mingzhu is always faster than others, and she can make others follow her. This reflects her brilliance place.

The company does not have a penny of bank loans, which is also a major feature of Gree.It is a common practice for many companies to borrow money from the bank and operate in debt.Funds are the preconditions for enterprises to organize production and operation.Any enterprise must have a certain amount of funds in order to ensure the normal production and operation.In addition, due to the needs of temporary production or to adapt to changes in market demand, to expand the production scale of marketable products and develop new products, in the case of insufficient internal funds, enterprises also need to raise funds to enhance their own economic strength. remain invincible in the market competition.In contrast, although enterprises have various financing channels, debt financing has its relative advantages, so it is mostly adopted by enterprises.It can be said that debt management with specific repayment obligations as the guarantee and the purpose of obtaining profits has been regarded as an important financial management strategy by modern enterprise operators.But on the issue of "whether or not to borrow from the bank", Dong Mingzhu and Yin Mingshan, chairman of Chongqing Lifan, had a dispute on a TV program.Yin Mingshan believes that the cost of borrowing money from Chinese banks is one of the lowest in the world, so it is less stressful and more cost-effective; while Dong Mingzhu emphasizes that "even if it is lower, as long as your company borrows money, you will have costs."In desperation, Yin Mingshan said frankly, "Enterprises that don't get bank loans are a bit dull, and borrowing too much money from banks are a bit crazy."In fact, the issues discussed by Yin Mingshan and Dong Mingzhu are not at the same starting point.The source of liabilities is not only bank loans and other methods that need to pay interest. Using successful financial measures, it is absolutely possible to raise a large amount of interest-free funds for enterprise development.When Dong Mingzhu bluntly said that "even low-cost bank loans also have costs", Gree Electric Appliances under her leadership has found a "zero-cost" source of funds, that is, the payables and advance receipts from upstream and downstream enterprises have become the most important thing for Gree Electric Appliances. debt.Don't think that Dong Mingzhu is an entrepreneur who can't borrow money. She is a master of debt management who is good at "borrowing chickens to lay eggs".Over the years, one of the great features of Gree Electric Appliances is that it does not engage in price wars.When Dong Mingzhu was a salesman, she did not advocate price wars. Later, she became the head of the operation department and became the general manager. She has more power to decide the company's attitude on price wars.Not fighting a price war reflects Dong Mingzhu's thinking in doing things. Price reduction sales are only good for the operation department. If it is for his own benefit, Dong Mingzhu can completely encourage the company to participate in the price war.But Dong Mingzhu didn't think so. The first thing she thought of was corporate interests.In the long run, price wars are not good for companies.You know, in the fierce market competition, the price issue is often a focus.Especially in recent years, it is not uncommon for air-conditioning manufacturers to make a fuss about prices, or sell at reduced prices, or sell at low prices, and finally step into vicious competition.Besides, price is a comprehensive index, including cost, service, profit, etc. Every air conditioner is produced with great effort by technicians and workers, and reasonable pricing should not be changed easily.Furthermore, Dong Mingzhu was promoted from the front line of sales. Years of marketing experience told her that for consumers, it is not that the cheaper the product, the easier it is to sell. Every price has a demand group at every price. , if the price is easily lowered, consumers will become suspicious and worry about whether there is a problem with the quality of the product. If so, the product will not be easy to sell.Moreover, if the price is too low, in order to save some money, the specialty store will inevitably drink poison to quench thirst, sacrifice installation and maintenance, and then give customers inferior products.

In places where it is difficult to guarantee quality and after-sales service, Gree would rather give up the market, which is also one of Gree's attitudes as an enterprise.As a kind of "alternative", the success of the model has a lot to do with the entrepreneurial spirit of doing things.For the off-season of the sales industry, Dong Mingzhu always believes that "there is no off-season market, only off-season thinking." Many manufacturers and marketing personnel generally adopt the strategy of "quiet braking" in the off-season of sales, that is, to minimize business trips to save money , At the end of each month, the sales staff will negotiate some marketing policies with the customers who have a strong relationship with them.But Dong Mingzhu is able to think in reverse, play cards not according to common sense, actively adjust and optimize, and take the initiative to attack. Even in the off-season, the market still has a lot to do.In the middle of winter, she signed a large order of 2 million yuan for air conditioners in a blank Nanjing market.Within a year, her sales reached 36.5 million yuan.The reason why many marketers do nothing in the off-season has a lot to do with their deep-rooted off-season thinking. In their ideology, the off-season means that the sales volume is small, and it is useless to work hard. It is better to give yourself a holiday, relax, and Prepare to fight again in peak season.Therefore, in the off-season of sales, more marketers choose to wait until the long peak season arrives; Needs, policies, rebates, and promotions, so that you can easily sell goods. This is a typical off-season negative thinking.Under the control of this kind of thinking, as a market that is already in the off-season, it is impossible to proactively come up with ideas and find ways to make the off-season not short and the peak season more prosperous.However, Dong Mingzhu is so smart, she can see any business opportunities hidden in the market, and she has to find ways to create conditions if there is no condition.The more I know about Dong Mingzhu, the more I feel: she seems to be a woman who was accidentally involved in the business world.Whether she is a salesperson, an operation manager or now the president of Gree, her thinking is always beyond the limitation of her position.In other words, although she is in the business world, her thinking does not belong to the thinking of a businessman, or in other words, does not belong to the usual thinking of a businessman.We know that the authorities are obsessed, but the bystanders are clear.In the market, the more professionals in the industry, the more difficult it is to overcome the dilemma of inertial thinking in innovation.Sometimes, it is precisely because we are so familiar with the rules and status quo in the industry that even if we have fresh ideas and ideas, we dare not act rashly.Because we are so aware of the current state of the industry, we are also more aware of the difficulties that certain ideas may encounter.At this time, if you are an outsider, you will be able to propose a solution to the problem based on your own understanding because you don't know anything.To an insider, the layman's proposed solution may seem naive and unrealistic, but who is sure that these unrealistic solutions cannot become realistic.This is what Dong Mingzhu gives people. Of course, she is not a layman in the air-conditioning industry. On the contrary, she can be said to be a "professional" in the air-conditioning industry.However, Dong Mingzhu's behavior makes people believe that she is an industry person who exceeds the industry rules.

She is like a thinker who actively "joins the world" in order to practice her ideas, and constantly uses her own methods to verify the correctness of her ideas. This may be the reason why she was able to win the title of "Beauty Strong".