In 2011, the author conducted a questionnaire survey involving more than 500 marketers from nearly 100 companies. One of the questions was
Do you think it is more difficult to deal with customers or your own company in marketing work?
① Customer ②Company ③Same
As a result, % chose ② or ③, and those who had worked for more than three years reached %. Among them, those who thought it was difficult to deal with their own company accounted for %.
When talking about this result with the leaders of some companies, most of them said they could not understand that marketing is the top priority of the company. Every moment, the company is required to do a good job in marketing work. How can the front-line marketers do it? On the contrary, they think that dealing with companies is more difficult than dealing with customers? If so, wouldn’t the main energy of marketers be spent on internal consumption? How can marketing be done well? But they have learned through various methods of in-depth understanding The conclusion is that the results are similar to the above in my own company.
Not long ago, the author was invited to a company to train marketing personnel. When asked the above questions, I got the same answer, and most of them said that this is the most troublesome thing at work. The author then asked, since dealing with a company is more difficult than dealing with customers and you have to deal with a company, who has ever treated the company with as much enthusiasm as treating customers? No one gave an affirmative answer. Where is %?%?%?No one is sure until %. After a moment of silence, someone began to whisper to each other. The question was so obvious, simple and unavoidable, but no one had ever considered it.
Who do I work for? Confusion about sense of belonging
The development of the modern market has made marketers working on the front line of the market consciously or unconsciously adapt to the trend and pay more attention to the needs of the increasingly powerful market leaders. However, most of the formal salary is received from the supplier, and the supplier itself and the supplier are accustomed to taking it for granted as the supplier's employees. On the other hand, suppliers classify them as an alternative because of their uncontrollable particularities such as flexible working hours, unfixed locations, and diversified salaries. Marketers are generally willing to regard themselves as ordinary employees of the company, but they often find it difficult to accept the company's special treatment. This creates a sense of belonging confusion for marketers.
Formally, the employees of the supplier are mainly concerned about the different thinking styles of the demand side. Naturally, it is easy for them to create opposition and friction with the supplier. Treating all kinds of dissatisfaction as intentional difficulties on the part of the supplier, it has become inevitable that dealing with your own company will become more difficult than dealing with customers over time.
Although marketers receive salaries from suppliers, marketers are not equivalent to ordinary employees of the supplier. Most ordinary employees receive a fixed salary, while marketing staff receive remuneration based on performance on top of a basic salary (or even no basic salary). In a fundamental sense, this is profit sharing with suppliers. The workplace of ordinary employees is in their own company, while the workplace of marketers is in the market. Ordinary employees work on products and colleagues, while marketers work on products and customers. Ordinary employees have to work together with their own leadership groups all the time, while marketers often work independently away from their leaders, including objections to company policies, mainly on behalf of customers and themselves to propose updates to the company on issues such as profit distribution ratio, technical support, product quality, etc. High requirements. Ordinary employees are mainly obedient when working in the company, and the interests of both parties are fixed, while the work of marketers in the company is mainly based on representing customers or negotiating terms themselves, and the interests of both parties can fluctuate. So it's no surprise that companies are pushing marketers into other categories.
For marketers to define themselves as middlemen and freelancers in their work practice is one of the most basic ideological preparations for becoming a marketing elite. Because only in this way can you make work the first priority in your life and be your own boss at work. Life is your own work. You are in control of yourself. If you are the master of your own affairs, you will naturally devote yourself to your work. Externally, it represents the company and the company is one, but within the company, it is a supply and demand relationship. Once you realize this, the confusion will be solved.
If you correctly define your position, middlemen and freelancers can easily find their corresponding position in the company. They will naturally use the spirit and skills of serving customers to build a good relationship with the suppliers and their own company. Stop complaining like I don’t get enough help, support, and resources. Treat the supply side as your upline, treat the demand side as your downline, treat both supply and demand sides with the same enthusiasm, use the same services and skills, closely connect the supply and demand sides and unite around you. This is the normal job of marketers and it is successful. Necessary protection.
The multiple roles of marketers determine the multi-directional responsibility
Only when people keep their responsibilities in mind can they always remind themselves to take active precautions to achieve the purpose of making fewer or even no mistakes. As middlemen between supply and demand, marketers must be responsible for both supply and demand. The multiplicity of roles will inevitably lead to multi-directional responsibilities
1. Professional Responsibility Earn profits for the boss and supplier while creating sustainability for them The greatest value of development is the space that can be opened up in the market.
2. Social Responsibility Provide customers with high-quality products and services and strive to meet the greatest needs at the lowest cost while not only not harming public interests but also creating maximum benefits for society.
3. Self-responsibility, let yourself get the rewards you deserve in every business, and at the same time find your own comfort level at work so that you can be constantly motivated, learn and make progress consciously, and finally realize yourself in the process of serving others. value of life.
What is obvious here is that the daily work of each marketer is easy to see and can be seen at a glance in various marketing performance tables of the company. Then there are the potentials, which are difficult to quantify, but they represent the nature of the marketer's work and moral bottom line. The former work can be dealt with passively, but the later work can only be achieved by exerting subjective initiative and having the courage to take on the responsibility. It is the watershed between ordinary marketers (or salesmen) and marketing elites. These three responsibilities are inseparable and tell marketers what they are doing and why they are doing it in today's market environment. It is the basic demand of enterprises for marketers and the basic condition that determines whether a marketer can be recognized in the market and be active in the market for a long time.
Profit is the basic criterion for all behaviors in the market. Therefore, all participants in the market should have clear responsibilities, rights and interests. The responsibility of the supplier is to produce products that are marketable and of reliable quality and are sold by marketers to earn profits, which means exchanging goods for money. The demander hopes to meet their greatest needs at the lowest cost, which means exchanging money for goods. It is not difficult to see that the value trends of both supply and demand are one-way. However, as important members of the market, marketers are responsible for connecting both ends of the supply and demand sides and shouldering the trust of both parties. This determines that their value trends are also two-way. We must be responsible for both supply and demand parties, otherwise a little carelessness will cause harm to all three parties, including ourselves. The multiplicity of marketers' roles determines the multi-directionality of responsibilities.
Due to the particularity of marketing work, no matter what the subjective wishes of marketers are, in every business, they will consciously or unconsciously calculate their own interests from the perspective of a businessman. If things go on like this, it will leave people with nothing but marketers. Impression marketers who don't recognize money will slowly become paralyzed and regard robbing material benefits as the sole purpose of their work. If a marketing elite wants to make their life rich and colorful, they must find fun in their work, constantly give themselves new stimulation, constantly improve their own value trends through summarization and learning, and constantly satisfy their own needs while meeting the spiritual and material needs of customers. Spiritual and material needs. The process of marketing is also a process in which marketers create their own brands and continuously add value. In the market, it is common to hear of cases of people leaving due to falling out with their own companies to safeguard the normal interests of customers. Real marketers know very well that their value comes from the market and must not destroy their market value for a small profit. In order to pursue the continuous improvement of their own value, they will not hesitate to give up products they have been familiar with for many years.
The concern of the company manager is that his son will grow up soon
Parents are looking forward to their sons growing up as soon as possible, and they have been working hard for this. When the child grows up, arrangements will be made to find a wife and a family for him. However, once a daughter-in-law enters the family and becomes a parent, she often finds that her son, whom she raised with one hand, spends more and more time with her daughter-in-law, and becomes further and further away from her. She even listens to her daughter-in-law's protection of everything big and small, and becomes the wife's control. Yan suddenly felt disappointed that his son had been taken away by someone else, and he sighed.
Is the relationship between company managers and marketers somewhat similar to this relationship? Company managers strive to train every new person, hoping that they will go to the market as soon as possible and establish close friendship with customers. But once the marketers mature Now I am able to take on work independently, but I increasingly disobey the company. I always speak for my customers and even threaten to fight against the company. The manager couldn't help but feel furious. Boy, have you forgotten who raised you up? Are you disobedient when your wings become stiff? Have you forgotten your roots? But no matter how you shout at the marketers, they still act according to the wishes of the customers, overtly or covertly, and throw the company's interests at the mercy of others. Beyond the sky. After all, he was trained by himself. How could he be kicked out and let people laugh at him? Besides, wouldn’t it be more troublesome to kick him out and join another company to fight against us? We racked our brains and set various policies and regulations to control them. Extra income, but what about the result? One word is difficult! And once they are pushed into a hurry, they will act recklessly and even run away from home to join forces with others to fight against them.
Who has the final say between the mother and the daughter-in-law? Who should the son listen to? Who is the real master of marketers in the market, the company or the customers? It is often difficult for marketers and companies to unify their understanding of this issue. became the main cause of conflicts. The biggest contradiction in most companies now is that the company requires marketers to do corporate behavior. The subtext is that you are my people and I will pay you a salary. If you don't obey, marketers, especially marketing elites, often like to do things for the sake of customers, consciously or unconsciously. The subtext of personal behavior: I have customers, who am I afraid of? It gives people the feeling of spending the company's money to build their own market. The two seem to be unable to find a point of union and become in opposition and difficult to coordinate.
Faced with conflicts, many company management not only do not actively resolve conflicts, but treat marketers as their opposites. They get angry when they hear marketers speak for customers. I will do whatever I tell you to do, and you must do it. If you don’t obey, you will be punished. Your awareness is so strong that the commanders of the eight major military regions have mobilized to frequently change the territory of marketing personnel to prevent marketing personnel from personally controlling the market and raising the banner to take advantage of customers to bargain with the company. This extreme approach of controlling marketers is a subconscious attempt to control the market and customers. The rebound in desire is a sign of increasing helplessness in channel management. In fact, this is a conceptually backward problem. Most of the problems that arise in channels reflect the wishes of customers. Today, when customer hegemony is increasingly evident, customers cannot be managed and can only serve and communicate through channels. Dayu controls water, whether it is sparse or not blocked. This is how an enterprise can do. Serving customer-oriented issues. In fact, frequent changes of territory are only suitable for a very small number of very powerful companies, because such companies are either in a certain monopoly position or have strong brand advantages. The change of marketing personnel will have little impact on the company.
Other companies adjust distribution policies once they discover that the income of marketers has reached a certain limit in order to control their income within a reasonable range, which is also a great harm to the enthusiasm of marketers. In the modern market, the vast majority of companies are still on the same starting line. There is not much difference in strength and they need to survive in the competition. The key to the market performance of broadly similar products and services often lies in how well marketers sell them.
How the overall quality of marketing personnel exerts their subjective initiative is an important factor affecting the company's quality of existence. The company uses various methods to control marketing personnel. The theoretical basis of these executives is that you are the wife of my son and I have the final say! Tough control will only intensify conflicts and affect the enthusiasm of marketing personnel, causing work decline in quality. Even if marketers actively accept adjustments and re-find customers for marketing, it still requires a process that can easily lead to customer churn. This is why even within a strong company it is taboo to force marketers to change their territory. Can I allow my son to change his wife at every turn? Besides, if you ask him to divorce, he can get divorced easily?
The hot topic in the market now is customer loyalty. Imagine a person who is transferred around and policies are changing. How can company marketers have a sense of stability? How can there be loyalty without stability? How can marketers be loyal and how can they be loyal to customers? The author summarizes the three happiness theories in the market. Happy marketers bring happy customers. Happy customers bring happy customers. boss. This order must not be reversed, otherwise everyone will be disappointed and all participants will be harmed.
As company and marketing managers and people in other positions, it is often difficult to tell who the high remuneration in the books of marketers is for? The money is not for him personally but for the market in his hands, and the market is the company. The basis of operations is also the source of wages for other positions. The vague understanding on this issue has led to pink eye for marketers and has become an inducement for marketers to feel confused about their sense of belonging. The particularity of the work of marketers is that they are the ones who achieve the ultimate goal of profit in all production and business activities. When they return home to their company after working hard outside, they deserve the right to rest and relax. All departments at the top and bottom of the company should give them the greatest support and enthusiastic service. They must not be jealous of their freedom of working hours, the sharing of salary and other factors, or even make things difficult for them. Try to give them a good working atmosphere.
Dialectically treat yourself as an outsider and don’t treat yourself as an outsider
Marketers often adopt a passive confrontation approach after conflicts with the company. Most of them are focused on building relationships with customers to maximize control of the market and compete with the company. If conflicts cannot be resolved and coordinated for a long time, they may unite with customers or even competitors to protect their own interests. Some may even sacrifice the company's interests or simply change jobs and take away customers.
The special status of marketers determines that he represents the company to customers and the company represents customers. In particular, marketing elites have established various personal relationships in their long-term interactions with customers, causing many customers to recognize the person but not the company.
In some cases, marketers may make promises beyond the scope of the company's permission in order to obtain contracts and comply with customer requirements. As long as there are no ulterior motives, the company should regard them as a source of information for improving products and services and pay attention to them. Of course, marketers should also clarify their own uniqueness and show their enthusiasm for treating customers to persuade the company to accept their approach. In fact, this skill of dealing with all aspects is itself a special skill of marketers. However, the way of thinking of treating oneself as an outsider makes marketers rarely treat the company as a customer and use communication skills. The question mentioned at the beginning of the article about whether marketers treat the company with enthusiasm for customers? It is excellent proof that no one answered in the affirmative or even thought about it at all. As a middleman, marketers are your downline customers, aren't your upline customers also?
The management of a company not only relies on various systems but also has a ruthless system and the spirit of compassionate management. Marketers should be treated with the same requirements as ordinary employees and treat customers with a bit of customer kindness. Similarly, marketers should not treat themselves as outsiders when they are at a customer's office, but they should not treat themselves like outsiders when they return to the company. They should not only feel at home, but also have the enthusiasm and communication skills to treat customers. Because the final completion of a marketing work must be the result of the concerted efforts of the company, as a pioneer officer, he should be grateful for the strong support from the rear. Therefore, the principle for resolving conflicts is to understand and support each other, both internally and externally, from top to bottom. Companies should welcome marketers the same way parents send their children off to college and college students come home. Let the happy marketers use their hard work to bring happiness to everyone at the top and bottom. Making money by being harmonious should not only be for customers, but also a principle that should be followed in maintaining the relationship between marketers and companies. Huang Guangyu, the new richest man in Mainland China, has a saying: Never regard a company as belonging to your own family, otherwise you will never make it big. The key to business management issues is revealed from another perspective.
In short, although marketing work is complicated, there are still rules to follow. The first step to do a good job in marketing is to understand the particularity of this work, fully understand yourself and define the particularity of the work you are doing, and master the principles of resolving various contradictions.
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