Chapter 254: Unable to Fight

Humans are animals that seek benefits and avoid harm. When faced with sudden pressure, they will always appear uncomfortable, silent, or even resist, and may even turn around and resign. Needless to say, this was the first time Zhang Yunqi had convened a separate meeting of the Marketing Division. Under such circumstances, Zhang Yunqi did not expect his employees to applaud his performance requirements.

That's hypocrisy, or stupidity.

Many years ago, when he was an ordinary worker, what he hated most was the boss's empty promises and what he resisted most was the boss's seemingly unrealistic performance requirements. He was under great pressure and felt that nothing could be done. He remembered that he once worked in the business department of a company. The company was in the land business and also adopted an agency franchise model, similar to New Environment. It opened franchise stores all over the country, and he was responsible for recruiting franchisees. However, the company received very few potential customers by phone consultation every day. It was impossible to achieve the boss's performance goals by answering those dozens of calls alone. However, if the performance was not achieved, performance deductions would be made, and he only received a basic salary of more than 2,000 yuan. He could not even support himself, let alone buy a house, a car, and get a wife.

He had no choice but to develop channels by himself, running around the country to attend markets and exhibitions, and he was far away from home. What happened in the end? He exceeded the task, ranked first in annual performance, and received more than 500,000 yuan in commissions. He was also given options at the end of the year. This made him understand a truth at that time: sometimes, if you don't push yourself, you will never know how strong you are.

Of course, more often than not, some companies are simply hopeless, with backward services, inferior products, and marketing channels that are better than nothing. They rely entirely on selling feelings, concepts, and personalities. Those exaggerated performance targets are simply not something that employees can achieve through personal efforts. In short, consider the problem from the perspective of employees and give them as much support as you ask of them.

Zhang Yunqi glanced at the employees in the meeting room. Perhaps due to the pressure of performance, none of them said a word. In fact, sometimes, he also wanted to interact with the employees at the meeting to discuss some issues happily, but in fact it was not easy. He came to the company very few times, and the employees below rarely saw him, which naturally created a sense of mystery and authority. Of course, there are always two sides to everything. Sometimes he also needs this kind of authority to ensure that the company's policies can be absolutely obeyed and implemented. If you are happy and cheerful with the employees below all day long, they are likely to treat your words as shit.

Managing a company is never an easy task.

Zhang Yunqi said: "Now let's talk about our marketing at the head office level. Our marketing channels should be divided into four categories. The first category is ground promotion, the second category is paper media, the third category is TV and radio, and the fourth category is marketing promotion activities in major shopping malls and stores. According to these four channels, the employees of the marketing promotion department should readjust the structure and divide them into four groups: ground promotion group, paper media group, telemarketing group, and event planning group."

"As for the specific promotion methods and content, our colleagues in the Marketing and Promotion Department are either elite soldiers transferred from Lianzhong or highly paid talents hired by the company. They are definitely more professional than me, so I won't limit your imagination. However, I also know that it is not easy to plan an influential marketing event, so the company will definitely support you with all its strength. Zhou Lin, how much budget do you need and which departments of the company do you need to coordinate with you? Just tell me. Use your imagination and courage. You can't accomplish this if you are timid."

Zhou Lin quickly stood up and said yes.

He was the new operations and promotion manager hired after Longjingyuan resumed work. He was in his early thirties and had a rich resume. However, he had not met Zhang Yunqi many times. To be honest, the young age of this boss was beyond his expectations, but he was full of courage. The boss's statement also excited him. He considered issues practically and decisively, had clear ideas, was reasonable, and was not pretentious. With such a pragmatic and insightful boss, his work was much easier to carry out and it was also much easier to arrange work for the employees below.

In fact, what do grassroots employees fear the most? They eat grass but do the work of wolves. The boss brags and makes empty promises every day. The company makes hundreds of millions of dollars, but always finds ways to deduct wages and benefits. He talks about feelings all day long, but never talks about money. He can't even approve a budget of a few hundred yuan for a marketing campaign, but always wants to achieve an effect of hundreds of thousands of yuan.

Zhang Yunqi waved his hand to signal Zhou Lin to sit down, and continued: "In a word, you can do marketing and promotion with confidence. I will not restrict you. I will give you a space to fully display your talents. I will give you money and people, but here, I only want one thing, the result! This result does not mean that you have made a few news reports, distributed a lot of flyers, and placed advertisements in which newspapers and TV stations, and then listed them one by one in the work weekly report to show that you have done a lot of things. Yes, you have done a lot of things, but what is the value and significance of the company spending tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars to do these things for you? How many cans did your marketing activities help the company sell? What standards should I use to give you a promotion and salary increase?"

"I believe that the new employees in our marketing department should be able to feel that the marketing problems I mentioned are common to most companies in China, and there is no rule of law at present. Some bosses advocate marketization every day, shouting about marketing promotion and brand packaging, throwing some money, but have no idea what effect the money has achieved. At present, China's marketing industry is not mature enough and lacks standards. There is no long-term project tracking mechanism and result feedback mechanism. The value of you marketers is difficult to reflect, which frustrates your enthusiasm and turns an IQ job into hard labor, allowing some incompetent people to fish in troubled waters."

Zhang Yunqi said: "Liansheng can't do this. Before doing marketing promotion, we must consider the input and output, make a feasibility analysis plan, and have results, quantified results! For example, the ground promotion team, you contact the passenger transport company to advertise on taxis and buses, or mobilize a large number of part-time workers to distribute flyers. Perhaps it is difficult to count the potential canned consumer users, but our distribution system's intended customers and terminal sellers can be counted. There is a separate phone number on the advertising flyer. When the company's sales receive this phone number, we will have a record of how many return calls from potential customers, how many dealers have joined us, how many orders have been completed, and how much goods the dealers and terminal sellers have purchased. This is the quantitative result I want. We will calculate the performance and commission for the employees of the ground promotion team based on this quantitative result. Those who do not meet the standards will be eliminated at the bottom, and those who do well will be promoted and given a salary increase."

At this point, Zhang Yunqi said to his employees: "All departments in our company should do this. Don't always emphasize how much you have paid for a job. We should only judge by results, be value-oriented, and judge heroes by performance. There are a lot of vacancies in Liansheng now, and anyone can earn a promotion. I think our company's personnel system is still relatively humane and flat, and can pay attention to the personal career growth of most employees. Of course, if one day you think that your position and salary are not worthy of the value you have created for the company, please don't keep your dissatisfaction in your heart, please be sure to bring your transcript to me, and I will definitely solve it for you. Do you think this is fair? Is it feasible?"

"It works! It works!"

This was the most consistent and resounding answer Zhang Yunqi had heard in the conference room today. He smiled and said, "Since everyone agrees, let's do this and try to implement the relevant rules and regulations as soon as possible. Let me make one last point here, regarding the marketing and promotion issues in the dealer area. To be honest, it is difficult to cover Liansheng's marketing network with only our headquarters, so we have to activate our distribution system. All potential dealers who want to join us must meet one condition and pay a marketing and promotion fee in the area he represents every year. Our marketing and promotion team and channel operation team are responsible for assisting them in local marketing and publicity, regularly holding various forms of product ordering meetings, and developing terminal sales dealers. In this way, we can quickly spread the entire Liansheng marketing network to towns and villages and create a four-level marketing system of province-city-county-township."

At this time, the sales manager Long Teng stood up, adjusted his glasses and said: "Chairman, I have a question here. I am worried that if we do this, the threshold for dealers to join the agency of the company's products will be raised, which will affect the company's performance." Zhang Yunqi said: "That's right. Of course, the threshold has been raised, which will have a negative impact on your sales department's investment, but I don't want you to be resistant to the company's policy. Distributors hope that all marketing expenses will be borne by the company, but the company hopes that dealers will also invest in part of the marketing expenses. This contradiction will definitely exist for a long time. What everyone here needs to understand is that the core reason why dealers are willing to act as agents for our canned food is that our canned food can make them money. If they can't make money, they will not be willing to do it even if you give them money. So you don't need to think about canceling the marketing promotion fee to lower the franchise threshold and increase the franchise rate. What you need to think about is how to bring them better products, better services, and better marketing plans so that they can make more money. To put it bluntly, there must be a threshold. If there are potential dealers who can't even pay a few thousand yuan for regional marketing promotion fees or are reluctant to pay, Liansheng doesn't want them."

Zhang Yunqi reached out and knocked on the table. "Sales managers and channel operation specialists present here, remember this: don't let dealers ride on your head and shit and piss just to get high commissions for performance. Those who, in order to get performance, do not examine the strength of the intended dealers, privately agree to various unreasonable requests from the other party, or even accept money, will be severely punished if they are found! Of course, I believe that our company currently has no such employees."

Zhang Yunqi concluded, "That's all I have to say about the recent work plan of the Market Operations Division. This week, the four teams of the Marketing and Promotion Department must come up with their own marketing plans, which must include feasibility analysis and budget tables. In addition, the Customer Service Department must come up with a script table and a customer problem feedback mechanism plan. The Sales Department, Channel Operations Department, and Marketing and Promotion Department must develop annual, quarterly, monthly, and individual performance plans and sign a performance responsibility letter. Let's have a meal together in the evening, go to Nanhai Fishing Village to eat seafood, relax, and prepare for the next battle."

The meeting ended amid applause that came under some inexplicable pressure.

Zhang Yunqi and Li Jilin were the last to leave the meeting room. They chatted for a while before getting up and leaving.

Zhang Yunqi went to his office.

When passing by Zhang Qiulan's office, he met an employee from the marketing operations department holding a form in his hand.

Zhang Yunqi didn't know this employee, but he had just seen him in the conference room, sitting at the back. Zhang Yunqi glanced at the watch in his hand and called him: "Are you looking for Ms. Zhang Qiulan?"

The employee turned his head and saw Zhang Yunqi, subconsciously put the watch in his hand behind him and nodded.

"What position do you hold?"

"It's not decided yet, from the marketing department."

"Want to quit?"

The employee hesitated and nodded.

"why?"

"Boss, this is just a small matter. I didn't mean to alarm you, but since you have come across it, I will tell you straight away. In fact, the company's salary, benefits and incentive system are all very good. It's just that what you said at the meeting today, that the performance pressure may be too great, and according to your requirements, our department will also have to travel all over the country. I am not in good health and cannot fight. It is not suitable for my current situation. I don't want this. It just so happens that I have just joined the company and don't want to waste time, so I came directly to see Mr. Zhang."

Zhang Yunqi nodded: "Okay, go and handle the formalities. You still have to attend the dinner tonight. I also wish you to find a satisfactory job in advance."

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(End of this chapter)