Three Contradiction Highlighted by Excavator Manufacturers in Market Competition

Since 2012, the domestic construction machinery market has entered a stage of steady growth (herein referred to as "smooth growth" refers to the overall trend of annual sales in a period of time tends to be stable, but during the period does not rule out annual sales are flat or year-on-year Slightly reduced situation). Combining the current market situation, Mr. Zeng Xiang, Chief Consultant of Beijing Elite Marketing Consultant Co., Ltd. summed up some outstanding problems in the current marketing management of some excavator manufacturers, and summed up these issues into the following four major contradictions:

On the one hand, it emphasizes the decline in market demand, on the one hand, it ignores the current situation of low participation in the long-term.

On the one hand, it stresses the pressure of creditors' rights, on the one hand, it does not attach importance to the management of risk and the handling of creditor's rights.

On the one hand, it emphasizes the strong combat effectiveness of competing products. On the one hand, it does not study specific strategies and tactics of competing products.

On the one hand, they are envious of the best brands in the industry. On the other hand, they are not willing to seriously learn advanced experience and put it into practice.

The first major contradiction

While emphasizing the decline in market demand, on the one hand and the long-term ignorance of the low status of participation in the past two years, excavator brands have clearly felt that customers are much less, and sales are not as hot as they were two years ago. This is indeed the case. Starting in May 2011, the impact of “4 trillion investment” came to an abrupt end and market demand fell in a straight line from a high level. As can be seen from Figure 1, sales in the first quarter of 2013 have approached the same period in the first quarter of 2009.

It is precisely because the market demand has soared in the past few years, and sales are not difficult. We do not need to do anything about management and capacity enhancement. Now that the market demand is relatively shrinking, many manufacturers do not know how to sell. Many brands of manufacturers are complaining about “less customers,” “bad markets,” and “the car is not selling well.” However, few people are concerned that sales in 2013 were an increase compared to sales in the first quarter of 2009. , and the increase was 27.5%. This just shows that the market is not bad, but it gradually returned to normal, no longer ups and downs.

Some manufacturers only focus on the reduction of market demand, and did not think about how to deal with this big market; or know how to deal with this problem, but still not down to earth and do it seriously. At this point, we need to take a hard look at each of our vendors. How do we market now?

Raising market movements and increasing market participation is the best way to cope with the current shrinking demand.

When the market demand decreases, what we should do is to increase the market run in order to find more demand, not to wait in the company, or to run only a few places that used to go before, not to complain about the market all day long. Demand fell and customers could not be found. In fact, there is still a lot of market demand. In the first quarter of 2013, 30,000 excavators were sold nationwide. The agents should make statistics. How many of these are sold by themselves? And of these 30,000 excavators, how many are Known customers; From these two data, we can see that the problem is not insufficient demand, but insufficient participation.

According to rough statistics, the market participation of excavator first-line brands is above 35%, while the market participation of second- and third-tier brands is below 20%, and some even below 10%. Even without the above data, I believe that many vendors, especially agents, know that their sales staff are running. Some agents introduced sales process management (including SMS platforms, work logs, traffic logs, etc.), but most of them were in the form; while more agents did not take any measures, or they traditionally issued sales tasks to sales personnel. , and then at the end of each month, statistics will be sold again.

Why do I know that participation is not enough and I still don't improve it? The author summarizes several points: 1 There is no sense of management, I do not know that sales can affect sales; 2 I want to improve, but I do not know the method, but urge sales staff to run more customers; 3 No Systemically learn how to effectively manage the sales process; 4 introduce process management, but it will not be applied, and neglect monitoring and assessment.

The second major contradiction

On the one hand, the emphasis on debt pressure is high, and on the other hand, the management of risk and the handling of credit events are not emphasized. Since the introduction of credit sales, the management of risk and the recovery of funds have plagued the excavator industry. Especially in recent years, the surge in sales has also brought about greater pressure on creditors. The big reason for this is that due to soaring demand, many new customers have entered the industry. Its strength and experience in the industry are seriously inadequate, and the capital turnover is not good, and it is impossible to guarantee timely repayment, but these problems have been overshadowed by strong market demand.

In order to compete for more customers, various manufacturers almost completely stopped or relaxed the preliminary credit investigation. Even some manufacturers have relaxed the creditor's rights collection work for existing credit customers in order to expand sales volume, causing irreversible debt pressure.

Risk control includes both pre-sales inspections and audits, as well as post-sales tracking and collection, and which aspects are not done well, all of which may result in claims. At present, ten of the ten vendor managers that the writer has encountered have all suffered from debt claims. However, they have not handled the creditor's rights in a timely manner. The key to risk control is to start the process early and tighten the credit review of the purchase customers before the sale, especially for new customers. After the sale, we must keep a close eye on the customer's operations and funds, and cultivate the habit of repayment; We must negotiate with each other or take urgent measures to deal with it without delay.

In addition, a declaration mechanism for creditor’s rights issues should be established. When a customer has just experienced problems or disputes, front-line units such as branches and offices should promptly report the causes, developments, etc. of the problem to the headquarters, and give processing advice or conduct research together with the headquarters. Unify ideas and resolve them in a timely manner. Kill the credit risk in the bud, instead of telling the headquarters after the conflict has become irreconcilable. At this time, the headquarters did not have a better way to deal with it. Eventually it could only become a problem debt. It may not be solved for a long period of time or even become a dead debt.

The third major contradiction

On the one hand, it is emphasized that competitive products have a strong combat capability. On the one hand, they do not study the specific strategies and tactics of competing products. They often hear responses from manufacturers. "A's salesman is of high quality," "B is well managed," and "C has carried out a number of signatures. "Ten cars", but they never think about why competing products have such a performance. They don't study the competitive strategies adopted by competing products and the different tactics of competing products for different brands. They only pay attention to the commercial conditions of competing products. Promotion policy. Business conditions and promotional policies are just one aspect of sales. At the same time, they are not the only reason for customers to purchase. The same business conditions and promotional policies, change a brand, change an agent, change a sales person, may have a different effect. Therefore, the premise of competition is to understand the tactics and tactics of competing products, and then make corresponding adjustments on their own, rather than blindly imitating.

The fourth major contradiction

On the one hand, they are envious of the excellent brands in the industry. On the other hand, they are reluctant to seriously learn advanced experience and put it into practice. Such voices often appear in the market. “The XX brand is good, the customers all agree,” “They only make high-end customers,” “They are big. Digging higher than the proportion, good profits, "our brand is normal, products are generally not good to do." After many years of accumulation, excellent brands have summed up a great deal of successful management experience. However, these experiences are in fact not esoteric and difficult to implement. The key is whether or not everyone is willing to learn; to use others' successful experience to improve their own management skills, Improve marketing capabilities and soft power instead of focusing on the hard power of competing products. After many years of development, excellent brands will certainly have a lot of outstanding brands, products and technologies. In the short term, they cannot be surpassed. Therefore, as latecomers, we must start by learning from their advanced management experience and improve ourselves. Soft power.

The four major contradictions mentioned above by excavator manufacturers are common in many brands, not individual phenomena. Only if everyone truly understands the importance of the problem and actively improves and improves it, will it develop steadily in the current stage of market competition. Use the present time to do a good job of cultivation, to win the future development space for yourself - use time, change space.