Chapter 16 Ma Deqi's Chinese market layout

A red sun rose by the sea.The morning mist has not dissipated, and the clouds are steaming. Ma Deqi woke up. This is his first morning in Nanhai City. Our protagonist of the top ten Chinese business bestseller "Marketing in the Worst Situation" in 2003 is no longer a boss of a multinational company. District manager, starting today, Ma Deqi will serve as the national sales director of Nanhai Lixin Company.He no longer uses the English name Jeff Ma. From now on, he is just Ma Deqi. We can also call him "Director Ma Deqi" or simply "Mr. Ma" according to the practice of domestic companies.

Things started more than half a year ago. Lixin is a company engaged in the sales of daily chemical products. The owner is surnamed Chen, who is from Zhejiang. He started his business 10 years ago. By 2005, the turnover had reached 700 million yuan.More than half a year ago, Boss Chen asked Ma Deqi to give a one-day training for their company, mainly for the managers of their 27 branches across the country, and the content was channel and dealer management.The training was wonderful, and Boss Chen was quite satisfied with it.On the night when the training ended, Boss Chen hosted a banquet in honor of Ma Deqi. During the meeting, he repeatedly invited Ma Deqi to "come to Nanhai more often and come to Lixin Company for guidance."

Ma Deqi was used to such polite words, so he didn't take them too seriously.In fact, due to work, Ma Deqi does not go out to give lectures a lot, about 5-6 times a year, usually 1-2 days each time, and the fee is roughly 15,000 yuan a day.Most of the people who invited Ma Deji were large and medium-sized private enterprises. These enterprises usually do not have a complete training system, but they are very eager to learn.During these training courses, Ma Deqi also got to know many bosses of all kinds. Their entrepreneurial stories and behavior styles are very new to Ma Deqi, who was born in a foreign-funded enterprise.And from them, Ma Deqi did feel the power of the rapidly rising Chinese private enterprises. This is a kind of Chinese power, a kind of grassroots but tenacious and unyielding power.

But Boss Chen called Ma Deqi a lot, sometimes chatting like a friend, and sometimes talking about things about the company and the market.Three months ago, Boss Chen finally expressed his purpose, and wanted to invite Ma Deqi to work in Lixin Company as Marketing Director.The organizational structure of Lixin Company is relatively simple. Boss Chen himself serves as the general manager. Below are the managers of various departments. The marketing system is the department with the most personnel and the greatest say in the company. There is a deputy director, who is the only one in this company. A person with the title of Director.But in fact, the main job of the deputy director is to control the accounts of each region. Because it is a branch company, it has the power to deliver goods all over the country. The control of the branch by the headquarters is mainly reflected in the tracking and monitoring of overdue aging accounts Branch inventory control.Boss Chen offered a salary that Ma Deqi had to seriously consider: an annual salary of 700,000 yuan after tax.Among them, the monthly salary is 40,000, and the year-end bonus is 220,000.

The development of Lixin Company in the past two years has been very stable, with an average performance growth of about 15%, and its profitability is also very good.Boss Chen hoped that Ma Deqi's arrival would help him complete the entire marketing management work, but he did not make any special demands on Ma Deqi, nor did he even mention performance indicators. Ma Deqi has been thinking about it for more than a month. In fact, deep down in his heart, he has always hoped to continue his marketing career in a private company, and to focus on the whole country and even Asia.Although he did very well in the previous company, and this company also gave him a lot of honor and professional prestige.However, Ma Deqi's boss is a European in his early 50s. He himself said that he wants to work in China until he retires.Although the company's stable organizational and personnel structure has created a company with stable growth in performance, it has also virtually set a transparent ceiling for professional managers in China.Ma Deqi has been in the company for four years. Although the annual performance evaluation is the best grade, to be precise, if the European does not retire, it is difficult for him to have the opportunity to achieve a higher position.

Ma Deji is not unaware of the turmoil in private enterprises. The bosses of most private enterprises always hope that a manager from a multinational company can save their company, or quickly improve their performance to a very high level. .But they often overlook that the success of foreign companies does not depend on individuals, but on the entire system.In the past few years, there have been many cases of paratroopers from foreign companies joining private enterprises, but few of them have succeeded. These paratroopers were either overwhelmed by extremely high performance indicators, or "died" by the corporate politics of private enterprises.While these managers are carrying out drastic reforms, the crisis has often come. For the purpose of self-protection or simply can't understand new things, many old employees regard these paratroopers as "political enemies" and carry out open and covert reforms. crowd out.In fact, the paratroopers often have the arrogance of foreign companies, despise these "old-fashioned" from the bottom of their hearts, and offend these people intentionally or unintentionally.The contradictions tend to get worse and worse. In the end, the paratroopers often come with hope and return with disappointment.

Ma Deqi has never positioned himself as a so-called "professional manager". In fact, he has always thought of himself as a "marketer". For him, his professional background in a foreign company is just a coincidence.When he just stepped out of school, he devoted his youth to the marketing career he loves-for the past ten years, it was his youth, but Ma Deqi knew that on the road of no return in marketing , what he wants to insist on is probably his whole life. What impresses Ma Deqi is not the salary of 700,000 yuan, but a platform promised by Boss Chen.Here, he can spread his career dream all over the country and even the whole of Asia in the future, and practice his marketing experience and ideas on a broad stage.Ma Deqi finally signed the work agreement. Although the company retained him and promised to promote him to be the national training manager, Ma Deqi didn't care about these empty positions and titles. His heart was always in the market. And complex market.

Ma Deqi came to the office early that day.But Boss Chen came earlier. When Ma Deqi walked to Boss Chen's office, he saw that there were already two or three cigarette butts in the ashtray on his desk.This is almost the usual work habit of Boss Chen. He is the first one to come to the office and the last one to leave. "Mr. Ma, good morning!" Boss Chen saw Ma Deqi coming, and left the big desk full of documents, "Just in time, we have a business meeting in the morning, and I'm going to push you out grandly! Did you sleep well yesterday? I hope you like the city of Nanhai, the scenery here is pretty good, you can go to the beach if you have time."

Ma Deqi smoked a cigarette with Boss Chen: "Mr. Chen, what kind of business meeting is this morning? Is there any theme?" "There is no theme. We meet every Monday morning to talk about the affairs of each department, and the theme is still discussed by each department." Boss Chen patted Ma Deqi on the shoulder: "I'm really glad you can come Glad, I hope our branch managers can learn more from you, and you must teach them well!" "Did they all report to you before?" Ma Deqi asked. "Yes, they have been responsible to me before. There are 41 branches in all. I have an assessment of their contracting tasks every year, and they are basically able to complete the tasks."

"The 41 branches, can you manage them?" Ma Deqi was very surprised by this reporting method. The 41 managers were directly led by the general manager, which was almost like a sheep-herding management. "To tell you the truth, Mr. Ma, this is one of the reasons why I invited you here!" Boss Chen lit another cigarette, and it was obvious that the heavy work pressure greatly stimulated his cigarette addiction. "These 41 points The company is indeed managed in a sheep-herding style, I lead them to the grass and tell them that there is grass to eat, and it’s up to them to eat more.” Boss Chen smiled as he said this.

At the business meeting in the morning, Boss Chen introduced Ma Deqi to everyone.Many people here have also listened to Ma Deqi's class last time, especially Zheng Xiaochuan, the manager in charge of national K/A, kept smiling at Ma Deqi.Ma Deqi remembered Zheng Xiaochuan. During that training session, he listened carefully and asked Ma Deqi many questions.Although that course was mainly aimed at dealer management, he remembered Zheng Xiaochuan's questions very deeply. From the questions he asked, he could tell that Zheng Xiaochuan was a K/A manager with considerable industry experience. In the business meeting, each department will introduce the situation.However, unlike Ma Deqi's work habits, Lixin's employees seldom use numbers to express a thing. Vague words such as "I feel", "like", and "look" are used very frequently. Deqi is not used to it, but he knows that this is the culture of most private enterprises, and maybe it is more inclined to the traditional Chinese culture-accustomed to abstract thinking rather than logical thinking. At noon, Zheng Xiaochuan invited Ma Deqi to the staff restaurant for dinner, and it happened that Ma Deqi also wanted to talk to some employees.The restaurant is located on the basement floor of the office building, and it is the exclusive staff restaurant of Lixin Company.It can be seen that Lixin has a lot of employees. Zheng Xiaochuan told Ma Deqi that there are more than 200 employees in the headquarters. Zheng Xiaochuan obviously welcomed Ma Deqi's arrival very much, and ordered a few more stir fry during the meal: "Mr. Ma Deqi's usual style is very different. In Ma Deqi's original company, the unwritten rule has always been that whoever has a higher position pays the bill, or everyone works together as an AA system.But Ma Deqi knows that the style of these foreign companies is not necessarily suitable for Lixin.Let's do as the Romans do, Ma Deqi did not insist on who should pay the bill, but accepted Zheng Xiaochuan's invitation. Zheng Xiaochuan is an old employee of the company for 7 years. In fact, he is still the nephew of Boss Chen. From sales representative to branch manager to today's position, this is the growth trajectory of Zheng Xiaochuan in Lixin. Ma Deqi is very curious about Zheng Xiaochuan's work: "Xiaochuan, how does your work connect with the branch? Direct leadership or dotted line leadership?" The K/A channel is a new thing that has emerged with channel changes over the years. , they mainly refer to national and international chain hypermarkets. Although they do not account for the main proportion in terms of the number of stores, the cost of this channel has been rising steadily in recent years, and the difficulty of operation is also greatly increased. in traditional distribution channels. "It's the leader of the dotted line, hey, it's not really a leader!" Zheng Xiaochuan stopped his meal, "My main job is actually to help various places negotiate. Although there are people in charge of K/A in the local area, they all It is under the jurisdiction of the branch manager, and I am helping to put out fires everywhere." "Is the cost of operating K/A high now?" Ma Deqi asked. "Very high! Mr. Ma, but I am also in a dilemma. The terms and conditions in various places are all strange. How busy do you think I am here alone? I made contact with you for the first time, and the people below are still very busy in the next negotiation." It is easy to lose shape. We lack a lot of price data on the national network, but these K/A do exist, and we often only give them the lowest conditions. This is the same as the wooden barrel theory. Wherever the water is put, we have to follow the water The other side has dealt with it." Zheng Xiaochuan used the barrel theory to explain the difficulties in price and fee negotiations.Ma Deqi understood that Lixin as a whole should be very weak in the operation of the K/A channel. The K/A channel is rising rapidly, but Lixin cannot systematically operate the entire channel. In emergency work rather than in system planning and management. "Then how much of our sales volume does the K/A channel account for?" "About 100 million." Zheng Xiaochuan thought for a while and said, "This is the data I asked all over the country to collect at the beginning of the year, and it is basically reliable." After lunch, Ma Deqi went to the various departments of the headquarters, and then learned about the company's products and prices in the product showroom.The day passed quickly, and when I returned to my place of residence, it was already past 7 o'clock in the evening. After staying in the headquarters for three days, Ma Deqi went on a business trip to various places, South China, East China, North China, Central China, and West China... Ma Deqi spent two weeks quickly looking at the markets in various places. The situation in different regions is very different. In East China and North China, Lixin's market share is relatively high, while in South China, Central China, and West China, it is slightly worse.But what Ma Deqi feels most urgent is not the issue of market share. In fact, the quality and features of Lixin products are very high-quality, and the intensity of advertising and promotion is relatively large. The problem. The first problem is that there are good and bad people.Most of the branch managers in various places are old people who follow the boss to fight the world. Although they are all loyal, it seems that not everyone can keep up with the changes in the market.Some managers are very airy. Apart from socializing with dealers for dinner, it is difficult to visit the terminal outlets. The "entertainment expenses" reported by managers in Jiangsu Province this month are as high as more than 9,000 yuan, and most of them are actually The cost of inviting dealers to eat and entertain.Ma Deqi is well aware that in the rules and regulations of the consumer goods industry, the interaction between the factory and the dealer is rarely paid by the factory's personnel, even for ordinary small companies.Although the dealers are the customers of the factory, for Lixin, a brand with a sales volume of 700 million, the factory is the god of the dealers, because the brand of Lixin is profit and money for them.In a foreign company, the Jiangsu manager should have submitted a resignation report at the same time as submitting such absurd reimbursement, because these abnormal expenses mean that he is either corrupt or a drunkard.Can you believe that a person who spends an average of 450 yuan per working day on food and drink can do a good job in business?This person is actually a relative of Boss Chen.Ma Deqi temporarily suppressed the anger in his heart, because he found that this was a common phenomenon.In this Lixin company, which has 41 branches and more than 600 sales staff, not only the hospitality expenses in each place are ridiculously high, but also the marketing expenses and sales expenses are also extremely high. Generally speaking, Ma Deqi estimates that these will exceed About 50%-100% of the industry standard. Ma Deqi and Boss Chen also talked about this matter.In fact, Boss Chen's attitude is also within his expectation. He is not unaware that the company's expenses are very high, but he can't stop these expenses from rising. Every branch manager told him that it takes money to do business. money, otherwise the sales target cannot be achieved.Moreover, these expenses are indeed controlled within the performance and expense budget of the branch company contracted at the beginning of the year. If it is forced, I am afraid that there will be great opinions from all over the country. "Ma Deqi, what do you think is better?" Boss Chen finally handed over the problem to Ma Deqi. After visiting the market for two weeks, Ma Deqi has discovered that Lixin has great business growth opportunities. The maintenance and operation of the K/A channel in various places is very messy, but in fact Lixin's products, K/A It should be the main channel, regardless of price, quality and packaging, it is suitable for sales in this channel, and the volume can be made larger.The 15% growth figure of Lixin in recent years also illustrates this point. The growth rate of competitors in the same period is mostly higher than this figure, especially some multinational companies. The amount also mostly achieved more than 30% growth. "There may be room for improvement in the control and organizational structure of the headquarters." When Ma Deqi said this, he seemed to be speaking to Boss Chen, as well as himself. Boss Chen didn't speak, just looked at Ma Deqi, but it seemed that he wanted to say something again. "Mr. Chen, I want to give you a report in a few days, mainly about the relationship between various branches and headquarters in the country. I think our first improvement may start from the inside." Boss Chen was silent for 5 seconds, nodded slightly, and only said one word: "Okay." In the evening of this day, the first typhoon of summer came. Ma Deqi received a call from the general manager's office at 11 o'clock in the middle of the night, saying that a typhoon of level 12 would hit the South China Sea in the early morning, and it would last until tomorrow. The company arranged that he would not have to go to work during the day tomorrow. Yes, but tomorrow night, Boss Chen will ask Ma Deqi to have a meeting alone. Ma Deqi knew that what Boss Chen wanted to discuss with him was yesterday's topic. Ma Deqi hadn't slept all night, the typhoon was howling outside the window, and the overwhelming rain waves had toppled many trees on the roadside. There was a power outage in the room. Ma Deqi sat alone on the sofa in the living room and lit a cigarette. His thoughts were on the 41 branches and a map of China. Ma Deqi believes that the reason for the out-of-control expenses may lie in the management level. The 41 branches report directly to the boss is the main reason for the sheep-herding management.But will the 41 branch companies report directly to themselves from now on as well?If the regional system is to be implemented, what should we do with this year's contracting indicators?Will drastic changes cause turmoil throughout the interior?In this sales team, many are relatives of Boss Chen, including the Jiangsu branch manager who reimbursed more than 9,000 yuan in entertainment expenses a month. If they disagree, what will the boss think of Ma Deqi? A team whose business ability is far from being professional, some intricate relationships, a K/A channel that needs to be revitalized...Ma Deqi, who has been in the company for almost a month, finds that the problem is far more complicated than when he first came up. Ma Deqi lit a few candles, turned on his IBM laptop, and started writing the report. I wonder if the typhoon will pass tomorrow, and will the electricity come tomorrow night?