Key points of internal resource management in branch company
Branch management is the focus of the company's work, and the sales volume and payment of branches directly affect the completion of the company's overall sales volume. Therefore, the position of branch manager can be said to be decisive, and it is often called "a government official". However, under this attractive title, there is a heavy pressure: some branch managers don't know what their work includes, and they often catch this and throw it away, tired of dealing with all kinds of temporary things; Some people have no rational planning and have no idea of what should be done well. It seems that they are busy in their daily work, but the progress of their work is not obvious. They don't classify their work, don't know what to do, and don't know when to do it. They often have the phenomenon of "cramming for Buddha's feet", and the result can be imagined. ...
Sales managers are mostly promoted by excellent sales staff, who are often good at business, but after being promoted to sales manager, their role has changed from the original "business type" to "management type", and their main responsibility is to double the sales performance by improving the ability and enthusiasm of the sales team. However, in real life, many salespeople often fail to change their roles in time after being promoted to sales manager-although they are sales managers, they still do what salespeople should do. The sales manager still spends most of his time running customers and orders, still playing the role of an order master, ignoring the management, guidance, encouragement and control of salesmen. The result is often from "doing it yourself" to "doing it yourself", which is both "unable to let go" and "uneasy". Because of the limited energy and time, the sales manager has no energy to guide and motivate his subordinates while running around, which makes the continuous improvement of the branch's performance lack stamina; On the other hand, sales managers are often willing to do things beyond their power, and individuals are prone to stagnation and limited development. In the case of the above-mentioned role dislocation, the salesman can only engage in procedural work, and the morale of the salesman is easy to be low. In fact, the value of a sales manager lies not in how many achievements he has made, but in how many outstanding experts he has trained, and whether he has established a team that can fight well and manage the branch effectively.
So, how to ensure the completion of the branch's tasks? How can we "cultivate" into an excellent branch manager? Here, the author combines some of his own work experience and shares his experience with you.
First of all, the branch manager should have an overall concept of his work. Take a fast-moving consumer goods company as an example, branch managers should mainly manage sales and finance, in which sales are classified by region and channel, and can also be divided into regional managers, catering business executives, wholesale business executives, retail business executives and their subordinates. Generally speaking, the daily management of branches can be divided into three categories: internal management, basic business management and outreach management. Below, the author first puts forward some views on the internal resource management of the branch company.
If you want to do a good job in sales, there is no doubt that you need a group of excellent sales staff, and if you want to have a dynamic and effective team, you must first start from the internal management of the branch. The branch manager should keep in mind six words in management: "Honesty begets honesty, and strictness begets prestige". He should be honest with others, be strict with himself and pay equal attention to power and prestige. According to the author's many years of branch management experience, I found that branch managers must pay attention to the following two aspects in internal resource management:
First, pay attention to the waste of soft and hard resources and control the waste of mobile resources.
Waste of soft resources often leads to out-of-control situations:
Branch companies are often prone to out-of-control situations in soft resource management, such as business and travel expenses, logistics and transportation, and supermarket-related expenses deduction.
In terms of travel expenses, branch managers need to control the working route and efficiency of business personnel, reduce the waste of time on the way, strengthen the management and monitoring of business expenses standards and quotas through finance, make horizontal and vertical comparisons in time, and strictly control expenses.
As for logistics costs, some logistics costs are often invisible, especially when headquarters is transferred to branches and then to customers. Because there is no good monitoring or early warning management, it is easy to produce goods loss and other expenses in transportation. At this time, finance needs to use early warning management to effectively control the possibility of out-of-control expenses as soon as possible.
As for the expenses related to supermarkets and stores, when the branch company settles expenses with supermarkets and stores in modern channels, these supermarkets and stores usually set expenses (annual expenses, store celebrations, promotions, etc.) in the contract. ) and give a detailed cost list. Since the expenses occurred in the past, business personnel and financial personnel need to make timely statistics on the expenses incurred in the past and have clear expense vouchers to ensure that there is no "confused account".
The waste of hard resources often leads to the waste of weapons during vacation;
The hard resources given by the headquarters to the branch include promotion resources, the allocation of fixed assets of the branch and advertisements put on the market (store signs, main advertisements, etc.). ).
Headquarters and sales areas will have channel promotion expenses to support market sales. However, when promotional products enter the wholesale channel, business personnel will usually be placed at the dealer, who will distribute them to customers who buy goods offline according to the activity standards, which is easy to get out of control. When retail supermarkets cooperate with branches, although there are promotional shelves or stacking in the promotion, they often withdraw to other manufacturers in advance, or remote stores fail to meet the promotion requirements in time; When doing shop recruitment, business people can easily decide according to their own preferences.
In order to prevent the waste of hard resources, branch managers need to strengthen the monitoring of every link of approval and implementation, and control through spot checks and financial checks to ensure the market support of business personnel and avoid expanding unnecessary waste of resources.
Waste of mobile resources usually leads to high working expenses:
Employee compensation is a higher part of the branch's expenses, and this resource is a two-way resource: if human resources are used properly, employee compensation is an important guarantee to stimulate work development and work efficiency; On the contrary, not only the cost of all kinds of work rises, but also people walk slowly and the efficiency of the whole work decreases.
As a manager, sometimes you don't necessarily see these expenses. For example, when a salesman is engaged in business outside, he is inefficient when he is emotional and can't deal with specific market problems in time, which will increase additional expenses. Therefore, poor personnel management will not only bring sales to branches, but also increase a high cost invisibly.
Branch managers should establish a good internal communication mechanism, build a branch culture and training mechanism, and use the assessment system to control the waste of mobile resources.
Second, pay attention to financial management, control is the core.
The financial management of the branch is different from that of the headquarters. The focus of the branch is on operating expenses, accounts receivable and warehouse control.
In the operating expenses of branch companies, general marketing expenses and variable distribution expenses account for a large proportion, so special attention should be paid to rational use and control.
As retail stores, supermarket chains and some large restaurants are all direct selling, the accounts receivable increase with the increase of retail stores and restaurants, and the branch cannot effectively control the accounts receivable. The proportion of bad debts left by the branch over the years is also increasing year by year, which is easy to affect the cash flow of the branch. These are all problems that branch managers need to seriously consider and solve.
All branches have logistics warehouses, so we must strictly control the turnover and storage of products and the losses caused by return and exchange; Branch managers can improve the reuse rate of materials by strengthening the effective management of materials for market activities.
Branch Management Series (II): Soft Culture Strategy of Branch Managers
In addition to strict control, branch managers should also take into account sales and finance, and creating a soft culture atmosphere is also an essential management skill for branch managers. How to build branch culture and training system, how to establish communication mechanism and leadership skills are the necessary know-how to become an excellent branch manager.
Trick 1: a suitable branch culture
The culture of the branch should be suitable and the atmosphere should be adapted to local conditions.
Arrange the office environment to ensure a good working atmosphere, for example, establish a "wall culture", that is, run a "learning garden", "task time card", "dragon and tiger list" and "corporate culture card block" and so on. This not only fully reflects the working environment and cultural atmosphere of employees, but also enables employees to give full play to their personal uniqueness, thus achieving the same values and business objectives as the branch.
It is necessary to ensure the communication of monthly marketing meetings, at the same time, ensure that the morning meeting, regular meeting and weekly meeting are held on time, ensure that the monthly tasks are clear, the objectives are clear, and how to solve some problems that arise. In the meeting, we should adhere to three objections: opposing the meeting and not discussing, discussing and not deciding, and deciding not to act. Everyone must know several formulas for meeting: "Meeting+non-implementation = 0; Layout work+not implemented = 0; Things that can't be implemented+people who can't be implemented = implementation. " In addition to the above work, the branch manager should also carry out process management, regularly check the progress or make the next plan, analyze and check the performance of salesmen in specific sales actions, and point out the areas that need improvement. Only by constantly improving the follow-up cycle can the overall sales ability of the sales team be continuously improved. At the same time, managers and salespeople should maintain good and effective communication, formulate effective incentive policies, strengthen team spirit, and ensure that salespeople maintain strong fighting spirit and enterprising spirit.
Trick 2: training, training and retraining
To make employees think in one direction and work hard in one place, it is necessary to establish a systematic and perfect training system. Therefore, our goal is: training, training and retraining!
There are all kinds of training to make employees learn hard, practical and effective. Lectures, substitute training, simulation training, discussion training and on-site training can be adopted. Training knowledge should be catering, product knowledge training (product knowledge and follow-up training)+corporate culture training (enhancing employees' sense of responsibility and loyalty, so that employees have a sense of belonging)+sales skills training (all aspects of training at the event site, improving everyone's business skills, marketing skills and mental model through meeting summary and examples)+management skills training (targeted phased training on management methods for growing business executives and salesmen), which can be packaged.
Trick 3: be good at communication
Only by good communication can the branch manager keep abreast of market trends, issue instructions and do a good job of uploading and issuing. The purpose of communication is to ensure the collection, sending and accurate transmission of information and avoid communication obstacles;
Did you make an appointment in advance before the communication? Is there hierarchical communication? In order to make communication more efficient and truly make each market a United, pragmatic and efficient team, the branch manager had better explain the communication content in advance. At the same time, communication with superiors should learn to give positive feedback on some problems existing in the work; Communicate and exchange experiences with colleagues; When communicating with subordinates, feedback and deal with problems in time.
Is communication just verbal communication? Communication is not just a verbal communication, so we should pay attention to other forms of communication.
Have you established a learning organization? Branch managers should be friends in life, superiors and subordinates in work, and partners among employees. Branch managers and employees can share, exchange and supplement their internal experience and act in a unified way to achieve the same goal. Personally, every participant will be the beneficiary of this process, and eventually the branch itself will become the biggest beneficiary. As shown in the figure below, the employees of the branch can learn and communicate through the resolution of the incident, thus forming the strength of the team and achieving mutual benefit. This circular learning diagram is similar to pdsa in total quality management, which gradually forms the cohesion of the team through continuous circulation and establishes a real learning organization.
Do you insist on regular communication? See table 1 for the daily communication requirements of personnel at all levels in the branch. The branch manager should check whether the communication of all kinds of personnel meets the requirements in time according to the requirements in the table, and form a convention and culture.
Tip 4: Develop leadership skills
After the branch manager takes over, he should realize that solving the problems left over from the previous period is also part of his work. At the same time, remember that exaggerating the previous problems will be understood as making excuses or expressing yourself, because your superiors are also responsible for many problems that have appeared in front. The best performance is to prioritize, cut the gordian knot, and deal with the remaining problems fairly and quickly.
There are four leadership modes in the management department. There is no difference between these four leadership models, but they need to be used for different subordinates. If the branch manager can combine these four basic leadership models with the characteristics and work experience of employees, his management level will be by going up one flight of stairs. For example, if you want to finish an extremely complicated job, and your employees are inexperienced, inactive and pressed for time, but you have to finish it, then it is most suitable for imperative leadership mode. If the employees are more active and have rich work experience, you are suitable to choose the guided leadership model. If employees are proficient in the required technology and you have a close relationship with employees, you are suitable to choose the supportive leadership model. When you have a very close relationship with employees and they are fully qualified for the job, you can rest assured that they are qualified, so choose the entrusted leadership model.
Branch managers also need to master leadership skills, which can be simply called three E's: Envision (drawing blueprint), Enthusiast (mobilizing enthusiasm) and Enable (teaching method). In other words, publicity, encouragement and training should be done well. Only by practicing these three basic skills can we basically meet the requirements of an excellent branch manager.
Trick 5: Insist on grading assessment and promote work.
To establish a routine assessment system, we should do three things: adhere to the principle of combining daily assessment with month-end assessment and quarterly assessment; Adhere to the timeliness of the assessment work, so that the assessment work is linked to the reward, promotion and selection of employees; Adhere to the combination of qualitative assessment and quantitative assessment. In other words, in addition to market performance, management ability, business ability, behavior mode, thinking mode and professionalism also participate in the assessment. On the other hand, it is necessary to establish a branch task schedule, according to the expected time, task implementation, number of meetings and activities; Establish the training schedule of this month's branch, and form a learning atmosphere in the branch; List sales histogram (comparison between planned quantity and actual quantity) and sales curve (comparison between completed last month and completed this month), and compare the specific data of market and sales through the embodiment of the curve, so as to get rid of the previous feeling, simply collect sales data, and more analyze and find new problems and sales directions.
Branch management series (3): branch management and expansion management strategy
I: business management
As a branch company, there is no doubt that various channels and terminals are an important source of sales returns for the branch company, and this part of resources must be used reasonably.
I. Sales Channel Management
1, market planning
(1) marketing planning purpose
Establish and improve the sales network to form the best coverage of the target groups in the regional market.
(2) the basic procedures of market research
I. Market survey
Investigate basic data and consumption characteristics. Basic information includes population, administrative divisions, market characteristics of each district and market capacity; Consumption characteristics include which products are easily accepted by local customers, or which competing products sell well here, their characteristics, customers' psychological price of such products, and their views and dissatisfaction with the products on the market now.
I. Interview survey
Main wholesale markets and their characteristics, details of key distributors, information of key customers and purchase resistance (e.g. distributors have signed exclusive sales agreements with competing products); What are the expected sales policies, promotion methods and profits of such products through various channels? It is difficult to cut into the market from which channel and which seller, and the effect is quick.
B, competitor survey
Price and performance comparison between competitive products and this product; To what level do competing brands reach out? How much manpower does the manufacturer invest? What is the seller's ability? What is the current price and channel profit of competitive brands? Current promotion methods, sales volume and new product trends of competitive brands.
2. Analyze and output the market development plan.
According to the distance of the region, the size of its own strength, the investment of competing products and the advantages of this product, determine its own market model: promotion, promotion, channel marketing or sales assistance. The following table shows these pattern pairs:
Promotion: Regional agents promote the second batch of merchants, fully mobilize the channel capacity and gradually distribute products. The application conditions are: the product has just entered the market, and it is urgent to expand the product with the help of channels; Regional agents in foreign markets are beyond their power; Promotion: regional agents promote sales to customers, stimulate customers' desire to buy and stimulate market demand. Stimulate the willingness to cooperate, and then seek the cooperation of dealers. The application conditions are: the product is very strong, easy to be accepted by customers, creating tension, starting from the terminal, and then negotiating with the second batch; When looking for online stores and distributors in other places, there is a phenomenon that "you love him, but he doesn't love you". Dealers have no confidence in the distribution of this product, so they do it backwards, creating a great momentum and promoting dealers' willingness to cooperate; Channel marketing: firstly, establish the sales network of products in the second batch to expand the product radiation, and at the same time send a direct sales team to improve the product market rate and promote the commodity flow rate as soon as possible, and then directly cut into key customers; Marketing assistance: delimit the area, hand over the distribution rights of this area to the second batch of merchants, and visit them regularly to help them manage the market and develop the terminal network. If the regional market is too large, regional agents can't fully implement the channel marketing strategy, and they need to use the power of several offline batches to intensively cultivate the market. If the network of regional agents in some specific channels (such as restaurants) in the regional market is insufficient, we can not directly cut in, and the second batch of merchants with certain network strength can cover the market with this channel.
Dealer Taitaile Company
The most fundamental purpose of profitable customer management is profitability, and all other activities are carried out around this purpose. As an economic entity, Taitai Le Company needs to create benefits for shareholders, employees and society.
Long-term development of business Dealers hope to have a long-term and stable source of profits, and hope to get the guarantee of long-term development provided by Taitai Le Company. The development of Taitai Music Company comes from the development of customers, and Taitai Music Company hopes to win the victory of both parties through business planning and customer support.
The basic factor of expanding sales channels and sales development is the development of the market. Dealers hope to develop more markets and occupy wholesale and retail channels, so as to keep the logistics smooth. In order to ensure the sales of products, the company hopes to have strong distributors and many smooth channels. Taitai Le dealer network is Taitai Le Company's sales network.
All business planning ideas of developers/organizations are ultimately completed by business personnel. Customers get high-quality talents to work for them, which ensures the development of water conservancy. Taitai Le Company has always attached importance to the development and training of talents. At the same time, Taitai Le Company also hopes to ensure the common development of both businesses by assisting dealers to develop personnel.
Perfecting the internal system of efficient operation of sales service system is the basis of business development and profit realization. Dealers hope to improve the competitiveness of enterprises in the market by reducing internal friction. The improvement of the efficiency of customer sales service system is the improvement of the efficiency of Taitai Le sales team. The company hopes to improve its functions through customer support training and cooperation.
Next, according to the local market scale and competitive strength (product, sales volume, business investment and promotion investment), it is necessary to determine the market sales targets-target sales volume, target sales channels, target coverage areas, key sellers and key customers.
According to the price, performance comparison and local consumption characteristics of this product and competing products, we should find our own superior products and determine the product structure, which variety should we take first? What model do you offer?
In addition, we should also consider whether it is necessary to expand the external market and increase sales opportunities, and when to launch new products and increase sales opportunities.
3. Channel type
Generally speaking, sales networks can be divided into two categories: conventional sales networks and flat sales networks.
(1) traditional sales network
Conventional sales network from manufacturers to wholesale to retail sales network, the advantage of this sales network is that it penetrates the market quickly; Reduce the workload of manufacturers; High issuance rate; The risk borne by the manufacturer is small; The price can be guaranteed; Easy to manage. The disadvantage is that the first push rate is low; The work cannot be implemented concretely; The soft and hard packaging of the terminal is not in place, so it is necessary to set up a special customer maintenance department.
2. Plane sales network
The advantage of flat sales network from manufacturers directly to retail supermarkets is that there are few links; The profits of the merchants are rich; The flow of goods is easy to manage. The disadvantage is that management is difficult; Easy to cause dormant account; The price is unstable.
Branch managers should choose the most suitable channel mode according to their own situation.
Second, the terminal management:
1, terminal classification and management
The branch manager shall manage the terminals in a classified way, which are mainly divided into soft terminals and hard terminals. The construction of soft terminal mainly refers to the maintenance of customer relationship. The construction of soft terminal mainly includes convening fraternity (consumers, chefs); Promoter training; Competition for points in sales; Gifts of small gifts; Brand promotion; Community activities. The construction of hard terminal mainly includes display; Setting of exhibition boards; Poster POP posting; Hanging banners; Manufacture and maintenance of light boxes; Shop recruitment.
2. Type of delivery settlement
The branch manager should also distinguish the types of delivery payment, such as payment in advance, cash spot, or consignment, and so on. In order to control the sales model and strengthen the control and demand of accounts through finance, and reduce the loss of sales links.
3. How to manage terminals in practice
Terminal maintenance is a very important link in terminal problems. As the saying goes, "it is easy to attack a city, but difficult to defend it." Terminal maintenance is a long-term and arduous task. In the "simple" persistent work, let your products always be different and bright, which is the core of terminal maintenance.
(1) Terminal maintenance content
① Daily maintenance: during the daily visit to the terminal, maintain the product display and publicity.
(2) Key maintenance: Daily maintenance of "problem terminals" that are easily damaged by competitors. But take necessary measures to do a good job of customer satisfaction. For the docks with heavy passenger flow on weekends, such docks should be maintained on Friday.
③ Product maintenance: If the number of displayed products decreases or there is room on both sides, the number of products should be increased. If the implantation position is not ideal, try to adjust it.
④ Sales: Replenish the goods in time to prevent out-of-stock and escape goods. Promotion: carry out various promotion activities in the store from time to time to drive sales.
⑤ Maintenance of promotional materials: The promotional materials are placed neatly and in place. The more kinds of publicity materials, the better, and the three-dimensional integration of land, sea and air. Publicity materials are the most easily damaged parts, so they should be supplemented and sorted out frequently.
(2) Do a good job in terminal maintenance, and be sure to visit at a fixed point, at a fixed time and on a fixed line.
The branch manager must require each salesman to be responsible for multiple terminal outlets and visit each terminal regularly according to the visit route and visit efficiency. All business personnel should fully understand and investigate the situation in their own area, determine the distribution of various outlets, then determine the efficiency of different types of visits, and design the visit route according to the optimal traffic route.
(3) Make a good plan
The basis for the branch manager to do the above work well is to formulate the standards of each work. How many times a week and a day should the branch manager plan his subordinates to visit? What level of safety stock should different types of terminals maintain? (One or two weeks, which directly affects the access efficiency) How do different types of terminals display products? What kind of packaging publicity should the terminal do in different situations? According to the actual situation of each store, make the customer relationship public relations plan of each store.
Second, outreach management
Outreach is the focus of a branch, which directly affects whether the work and activities can be carried out normally. Whether it can create a good business environment for the company is an important test for the branch manager.
Many branch managers have just taken office, only paying attention to sales volume, ignoring outreach construction, and outreach work and marketing work have not been promoted simultaneously. When outreach occurs, because there is no awareness and mental preparation for outreach, it creates a very passive situation for the work. Managers can't take measures to lead to market decline, leading to management confusion, and managers lose confidence in the market and do nothing. Therefore, we must attach great importance to outreach management.
The general law of outreach visits is:
1, say hello in advance
Before publicizing some areas, as a supervisor, first of all, don't worry, stabilize the situation and avoid the expansion of the incident. First, report the incident, carry out the work of the office as usual, visit more and then analyze some plans to deal with the incident. For example, analyze it first. First of all, analyze this matter; Analyze the social management department, and then make corresponding solutions through the nature of the incident and the personality of the supervisor.
2. Come and see more in the future
Afterwards, I visited the departments that often intervened (social management departments mainly include: industrial and commercial management, taxation, labor departments, justice, community management and other departments or institutions) and main leaders. Before the visit, according to the personality and hobbies of the person in charge of the department, the communication content was drawn up; Visit the office during working hours, consult modestly and consult in advance; Visit his home during the holiday; According to the situation, make emotional contact with the staff of relevant departments
The sales management of branch companies mainly consists of three parts: resource management; Internal communication sales management; Outreach management. Whether the enterprise's products can be finally sold and whether the sales strategy can be correctly implemented depends on the management of the sales team. People are the core strength of sales, and establishing a sales team that can recruit good fighters and implement effective management is the fundamental guarantee for enterprises to remain invincible in the fierce market competition forever.