This series talks about marketing concept, talent selection, sales mentality, professionalism and so on. , but mainly based on the "strategic level". The following is mainly about the specific operational level, that is, we must see both "forests" and "trees". Such "management" will have more practical significance and value for marketers and enterprises.

First, list two scenarios:

The first clip. I remember an interview a few years ago. The resume shows that a business person with many years of sales experience came to interview for the position of sales director of an office. This guy has good eloquence and thinking. After he came up, he introduced his own experience, which was also clear. I can see that he has made full preparations, and he has indeed carefully prepared for this interview. He listed a lot of achievements from brand promotion, activity planning, implementation to results. At first glance, the problem is not big, and there are data and results.

But there is always a puzzle, how to do it? He never said that he was responsible for the organizational structure, staffing and team situation of the region. I only asked one question: Did you do it all by yourself? He was speechless for a moment. I know he didn't do most of this. If a real market trader, he won't talk about strategic planning, brand, piling up data and so on from the beginning. In other words, he has no overall control ability and experience in managing an office and developing one or several regional markets.

Any marketing (sales) or regional sales work is based on a platform, that is, a "sales organization" to integrate resources. It is not that this experienced business person is not good or not, but that he is not suitable to be the manager of the whole regional market, and he does not have the overall management ability and experience.

The second clip. A friend for many years, very capable, very strong, from a salesman to the vice president in charge of sales, but from then on, he hit a wall everywhere and had to start a business. But a few years later, he is still "starting a business" and his business has hardly developed. Actually, the problem is not complicated. Mainly did not form a strong team. The start-up of a company needs the ability and strength of the leader, so as to control the development direction and situation of the company, but if it is too strong, no one wants to work with you, let alone "difficult" with you. And what can a person's ability do? !

This is a complicated issue, which needs to be balanced between the mentality and interests of leaders at all levels. Many times, it is difficult to guarantee a stable development only by articles of association and systems.

Organizational structure: how to make the organization efficient

In the book "The Function of Managers", Barnard started with the simplest human cooperation, revealing the essence of organizations and their most universal laws. Barnard defines an organization as "a system that consciously coordinates the activities and strengths of more than two people". He further demonstrated the three elements of an organization, namely, common goals, willingness to cooperate and good communication, and solved the essence of the organization on the issue of information communication. It is a pioneering work of an era to reveal the essence of organization and management through information exchange.

There are several principles for establishing the marketing organization structure:

According to the needs of sales management and the target characteristics of sales organizations, the following principles must be followed when designing sales organizations.

Principles of achieving goals

Why do you want to establish a sales organization is to ensure the realization of sales goals. The establishment of the sales organization must adapt to the development of the enterprise, be ahead of time, and support the realization of the development goal of the enterprise in the next 2-3 years. In order to achieve an efficient organizational form, enterprises need to strike a balance in two aspects: one is efficiency; One is the cost.

B. The principle of setting up posts according to events

The goal of the sales organization is to realize the enterprise's goal by arranging the activities of the sales staff, and realize that the overall effect is greater than the sum of the local effects. Because both enterprises and marketing need certain posts, it is a basic principle that we should not lower the standards because the existing personnel can't meet the requirements, but should recruit, select and train according to the post requirements.

Customer-oriented principle

When designing a sales organization, managers should first pay attention to the market, consider meeting market demand and serving consumers. On this basis, establish a market-oriented sales team. In fact, this is also the essence of marketing, and organizations can only reflect their own values around this essence.

Simple and efficient principle

Simplification and efficiency are the relationship between means and ends, and improving efficiency is the purpose of organizational design. To improve the operational efficiency of an organization, it is necessary to streamline the organization. Specifically, streamlining and high efficiency has three meanings:

First, the organization should have high-quality people and a reasonable talent structure, so that human resources can be reasonably and fully utilized;

Second, we should set posts by posts, not by people, and there should be no idle people in the organization;

Third, the organizational structure should be conducive to the formation of group synergy and reduce internal friction.

E. principle of reasonable scope

The management scope is the number of subordinates who report directly to the manager. Whether the management scope is reasonable depends on the nature of subordinates' work and the working ability of managers and subordinates. Under normal circumstances, the management scope is as small as possible, generally 6 ~ 8 people. However, with the change of enterprise organizational structure, there is a trend of flattening organizational structure, which requires fewer management levels and wider management scope.

Principle of stability and elasticity

Organizations should maintain the relative stability of personnel, which is necessary to enhance organizational cohesion and improve staff morale, just as every tree has a solid root system. At the same time, the organization should be elastic to ensure that it will not be broken by strong winds. In the short term, organizational flexibility refers to maintaining the mobility of labor force due to economic fluctuations or seasonality of business.

Several models of marketing organization

Organizational structure reflects the relationship between various departments of marketing organization, and it is the overall framework or system that reflects the division of labor and power distribution among departments. Linear system, functional system and linear functional system are three typical organizational structures.

A. Straight-line functional system: the direction of authority and command is a straight line, which runs through the whole organization. Each subordinate has only one direct superior, and only accepts the command and report of one superior.

B. business division system: an organizational structure generally adopted by large western enterprises. It is produced on the basis of product or regional departmentalization. Each division has independent products and markets, implements independent accounting, and has independent responsibilities and interests.

C matrix system: combine functional departments with product (project) groups to form a matrix. A manager should not only keep in touch with the original functional department in organization and business, but also participate in the work of the project team. Functional departments are fixed organizations, and project teams are temporary organizations. After completing the task, it will be dissolved automatically, and the members will return to their original departments.

Organizational Structure and Marketing Team (2)

How to be efficient?

First, unity of purpose is the premise. Marketing is inseparable from goals. The goal should be determined according to the company's marketing strategy and regional market conditions. The most important thing is to ask members to have a unified understanding of the direction of marketing strategy. Only in this way can they unite and persevere, which is the premise of the existence of the organization.

Second, clear standards are the foundation. Nothing can be done without rules. After the organization has set goals and won the approval of team members, it is necessary to establish management standards according to the organizational structure, and the requirements are very clear. Specifically, it is job responsibilities and skills, and various reward and punishment measures, means, methods, resources and so on to achieve the goal.

Third, the overall quality of the team is the guarantee. The overall quality of the team is the guarantee to ensure the high efficiency of the organization. First, we must rely on selection and choose the most suitable person to set up posts. The second is to carry out training, so that members who enter this organization know the prescribed actions, but not limited to the prescribed actions. Managers should be good coaches of the team. Mainly from the aspects of special training, skills, routine training and field counseling, and constantly improve the overall professional quality of the team.

Fourth, teamwork is the key. It is impossible for a salesperson who makes fast-selling products to complete all the channels and terminals by himself, which involves the cooperation and cooperation of the team; Moreover, the cooperation of the relevant functional parts of the company should not be underestimated. As a member of the organization, we should make full use of the company's resources and integrate them to achieve the best results.

Fifth, effective communication is the core. Communication is something we do every day, but not everyone can communicate effectively. In fact, effective communication is to discuss problems and solve them. In fact, it is building a kind of contact and trust between the two sides. Including communication within the marketing organization; There is also the communication between the relevant functional departments of the company. Especially for those who are struggling in the regional market, getting the support of the company's functional departments can reduce a lot of resistance.

Marketing team: how to achieve the goal

Team management means that in an organization, various groups are formed according to the working nature and ability of members, and they participate in organizational decision-making and problem solving, thus improving organizational productivity and achieving organizational goals.

The main contents of team management are:

Set up a sales team, select the right sales staff according to the sales target, formulate a set of standards and indicators of sales level, and quickly identify the sales staff;

Make a clear and targeted sales strength promotion plan, determine the incentive and reward scheme for team members, standardize sales personnel from two aspects of ideology and practical operation skills, build an excellent sales team, and achieve short, medium and long-term sales goals.

The essence of team management is: how to achieve enterprise goals.

Clear evaluation criteria and indicators

Assessment criteria is a very important content of team management. As the saying goes, Fiona Fang cannot be made without rules. The management of the general sales team mainly formulates the assessment standards from the following aspects.

I. Quantitative indicators

B, delimit the ability index

C, process management indicators

D, the administrative department work indicators

E, strength and attitude indicators

Generally speaking, the weight of sales evaluation indicators of sales representatives accounts for about 60%, while department managers may only account for about 20%. Of course, specific enterprises will be different due to different levels of market development, but first-line implementation will definitely be results-oriented.

The determination of assessment indicators should be combined with the development of enterprises, and an index system that conforms to the moderate advancement of enterprise marketing system should be formulated. Generally, medium-sized enterprises can use KPI as the key index of assessment. If it is a large enterprise, you can use BSC (Balanced Scorecard) to set key indicators. For the set weight, if the regional market foundation is good, the weight of sales growth indicators can be appropriately lower; If it is to develop the market, the weight of growth indicators can be set higher; For the new market, the assessment of sales volume should be reasonable, and the unreasonable design of indicators should not affect the market health and dampen the enthusiasm of the team.

1, improve sales skills

Although sales skills are technical, they will directly affect the performance of business people. This is especially true for products sold directly to customers without intermediaries.

The key to improving sales skills is to be familiar with your own products and turn your selling points into interests that customers care about. At the same time, we should be clear about the advantages and disadvantages of competing brands' products, be able to communicate very effectively, and show the main advantages of our products or the greatest advantages relative to competing products.

First, improve your product knowledge and be familiar with the market, competition and main competitors of your industry.

Second, show your good occupation and professionalism and consider the problem from the customer's point of view.

Third, deeply understand the real needs of customers and provide and deliver value.

Fourth, have confidence in yourself and your career.

Fifth, communication skills and affinity.

2. Strengthen sales incentives

Why is there a situation that "people are scattered and the team is not easy to bring"? Because there is something wrong with incentives. According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, people's needs are divided into five levels from low to high, namely, physiological needs, security needs, social needs, respect needs and self-realization needs. If the basic survival problems of business personnel are not solved, it is obviously not exciting and enlightening for you to talk to him about how to realize the value of life.

There are two classic theories about motivation. One is Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory; The other is the two-factor theory. Maslow's hierarchy of needs mainly tells the rise of human needs from high to low, including physiological needs, security needs, social needs, respect needs and self-realization needs. Only when the low-level needs are met can the higher-level needs be involved. Herzberg's two-factor theory, like Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory and McLelland's achievement motivation theory, focuses on trying to persuade employees to pay attention to some reasons for job-related performance.

First of all, this theory emphasizes that some work factors can lead to satisfaction, while others can only prevent dissatisfaction; Secondly, there is no single continuum between job satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Two-factor theory mainly expounds two aspects, health care factor and incentive factor.

The first kind of factors are incentive factors, including work itself, recognition, achievement and responsibility. These factors involve the positive feelings about the work and the content of the work itself. These positive feelings are related to personal past achievements, recognition and responsibility, and they are based on lasting rather than short-term achievements in the work environment.

The second kind of factors are health care factors, including company policies and management, technical supervision, salary, working conditions and interpersonal relationships. In other words, these factors are external factors of work and work itself, while the incentive factors are internal, or internal factors related to work.

Organizational Structure and Marketing Team (3)

Without motivation, the team must be ineffective and muddle along. So how should we strengthen the incentives for sales staff?

At present, the main method is basic salary plus commission.

For enterprises with good sales and mature market, the basic salary can be higher and the promotion coefficient is lower. Because the market is mature, the sales volume is large, and the base is large, the growth rate will be low, and efficiency and fairness will be taken into account. If most of the sales come from mature markets, and the business personnel in mature markets can't get much bonus because of the low growth rate, it will dampen their enthusiasm.

For the development of the market, the growth rate can be appropriately set higher, and the commission coefficient is also high, which will encourage business personnel to explore the market and complete the layout and control of the market.

The assessment of new market sales should not be too heavy, mainly the combination of target and process assessment, so as to promote the rational layout of new markets and also have a buffer. Only in this way can we ensure the development and health of the market, as well as the cultivation and formation of team fighting capacity.

3. Strengthen daily management.

Daily management can be summarized as the "eight steps of terminal visit" for sales staff. It can also be called institutionalized visit mode or refined marketing mode.

At present, many FMCG industries are region-centered, and the implementation of this model greatly supports the team management of enterprises. Daily management mainly solves the efficiency of the whole process of business personnel's work and realizes enterprise goals. The daily management of business personnel is manifested in everyone's problems, what time to do every day, to what extent, what problems are there and how to solve them.

The eight steps of the terminal visit are the whole process from the preparation of the visit to the completion of the visit to leave the customer.

Including preparation, store information inspection, greeting, display tally, inventory inspection, sales call, order, thank you for leaving. The process is for the efficiency and standardization of access, and the purpose is to reach a stable and good relationship with the terminal. Of course, the process does not require business people to say the same sentence every time they go to a terminal, but to complete the process completely and not to miss important content. Of course, it doesn't mean that there is a system that doesn't want human feelings. As a supervisor, we must do a good job in the ideological work and logistics support of employees. "Why did the Kuomintang fail because they had no political commissar?" This sentence is good, because the unity of ideas is the guarantee of efficient action. As a sales manager, we should care about and take care of the daily life and study of business personnel, so that this team can glow with strong combat effectiveness with the cooperation of specialty and system.

Everyone is talking about execution, and execution has become the "last step" of all strategies and tactics. To ensure the execution, we need to do a good job in three aspects: first, clear the goal; Second, a sound system; Third, excellent overall team quality.

The goal is clear. The goal mentioned here is not a strategic goal, and grassroots employees and front-line managers don't care. They are exposed to phased goals and small goals, such as the number of stores, distribution rate, sales completion, cost control, formulation, implementation and effect of promotional activities, etc.

Perfect system. It is not only a punishment measure, but also a system of reward, help, guidance and cooperation. Many enterprise systems and forms are numerous. Everyone fills out forms every day and becomes a "writer", but in fact, many forms are useless and can only play a psychological comfort role. They are pure self-deception and superficial. When things came up, everyone shirked, unwilling to take responsibility, and did as little as possible. Some functional departments think that marketing means eating, drinking and having fun: you are comfortable outside, you want this and that! When I go back for reimbursement, I will see some financial personnel's forms, which can only be understood but not described. No wonder a friend who is a sales director said: I will take some logistics personnel and administrative personnel of the company to the market to engage in activities from time to time, so that they can experience how sales are done and how money is earned back!

The overall quality of the team. Everyone's comprehensive quality is different. We are all similar people, but we need to complement each other and have our own strengths. Under its leadership, there will be fighting capacity. If everyone is the same, I don't know who to listen to. Where does the fighting power come from?

To ensure the overall quality of the team, first, the team should have a consistent understanding and sense of identity on the overall goal, and second, it should have enough professional skills and skills; The third is to have enough self-confidence, high fighting spirit and passion for the cause; The fourth is to devote yourself wholeheartedly. If we can do the above, this is an efficient team that can fight hard, is full of "execution" and can ensure execution.

Further reading: How to buy insurance, which is good, and teach you how to avoid these "pits" of insurance.