Since the launch of terminal research at the Nanjing station in May this year to the Shandong station that just ended in December, China Ceramics Network has sent teams after teams to explore the terminal market. In 2019, the terminal research team visited 10 cities including Nanjing, Xuzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Qingdao, Yantai, and Jinan. From low-end wholesale markets to high-end home furnishing stores, we interviewed a variety of Ceramic tile distributor. Weird things happen every year, especially this year. So this article would like to talk about the strange people, strange things, and strange phenomena we encountered during the terminal research process in 2019 - all living things in the ceramic tile terminal market.
(Disclaimer in advance, I am just sharing stories, not slandering or flattering.
If there are similar plots, yes, it’s just you)
PART1 City
Suzhou, Xiamen, Qingdao: We are more prestigious than provincial capital cities
China has 23 provinces, there are always a few of themAlthough Huicheng is a familiar city, its status is very embarrassing. In terms of per capita income, urban construction and popularity, it is surpassed by other cities in the same province. In the East China region visited by this year's terminal survey, the three cities of Suzhou, Xiamen, and Qingdao are particularly outstanding. I don’t know if it’s because they are too exclusive, but these cities have a very high proportion of furnished houses, and the housing prices are even scarier. For example, in Suzhou, its real estate market is so crazy that it implemented three real estate market controls within three months from June to August this year; in Xiamen, for example, the proportion of refined decoration of real estate on the island has already reached 99%, and the proportion of renovation of old houses by some ceramic tile dealers has reached the total throughout the year. The performance is 80%; for example, in Qingdao, real estate companies have launched a decoration standard of 3-5,000 yuan/㎡ for finely decorated houses, and the cost may be less than 1,000 yuan/㎡. Disputes have occurred frequently. Citizens have written letters to the mayor to complain, hoping to stop it. Finely decorated room.
Nanjing: Tensions among manufacturers, can the branch model save the day?
There are many fairly good Foshan brands, but they are blank in the local Nanjing market. Could it be that this provincial capital city, a battleground for military strategists, would be short of dealers? After doing some research, the reporter found that it was probably related to the failure to handle the relationship with the "previous" dealer. In the terminal market, do you think that dealers are all competitors? In fact, they are one (Fujian) gang and one (Wenzhou) faction. Once the manufacturer relationship is not handled well and enters the local blacklist, it will be difficult for the brand to gain new customers in the local area. Some dealers said that based on the strategic significance of the Nanjing market to brand manufacturers and the current situation of high operating cost pressure in the Nanjing market, the branch system may be more suitable for development in Nanjing. The best model among the branch companies is for manufacturers and agents to join forces and perform their respective duties on the basis of balancing the interests of both parties. However, according to the reporter's understanding, currently in the minds of dealers in Nanjing, no company's branch system is successful.
Fuzhou: It is better to learn from the Fujian people to sell bricks than to learn from their self-improvement spirit
There is a saying circulating in the industry: "Guangdong people make bricks, and Fujian people sell bricks." When they went to Fuzhou, the research team clearly felt the confidence, optimism and calmness of this group of Fujian people selling bricks. During the business process, it is rare to hear them complain about the general environment orDissatisfied with upstream manufacturers, more dealers said: "We don't pay much attention to the general environment, we are only responsible for selling our own bricks." If you can't sell bricks well, you can only say that you are not capable enough. ""..." Fuzhou dealers are not dependent on manufacturers and have strong ability to solve problems independently. This should be what is called "subjective initiative" in philosophy. . No wonder some people sayFuzhou ceramic tile market is a model worth learning from across the country.
Jinan: Whoever buys the bricks will be responsible for the construction
As the saying goes, professionals do professional things. When it comes to selling bricks, no one is more professional than the terminal dealer. What I never expected is that in Jinan, brick sellers are also very professional in tiling. Many dealers in Jinan told reporters: "We are all like this, whoever sells the tiles will do the construction. On the contrary, if the owner finds someone else to lay the tiles, we will not guarantee any problems with the tiles." In order to do a good job in tile laying. Services, almost all ceramic tile dealers in Jinan have established close cooperative relationships with ceramic tile laying construction teams. Most of them are also equipped with construction supervision positions, and some have simply established their own construction teams, and even formulated construction specifications, supervision systems, Progress reporting and scoring system. Sure enough, the brick seller put up the bricks, and his professionalism surpassed that of the decoration company in minutes.
PART2 Phenomenon
First-line brands have two general agents within a ten-mile radius
When the research team visited the market in a southern city this year, they discovered somethingA confusing phenomenon: the main brand A and sub-brand B of a certain first-line brand have general agents in this city. Later, sub-brand B was withdrawn and reorganized into main brand A, and the dealers of brand B also "justifiably" became the brand A's general agent. According to the reporter's understanding, the headquarters did not mediate this conflict. Instead, it sat back and watched the fight between tigers and tigers. It is conceivable that the original dealer of brand A will definitely quit. In the end, this brand also successfully "made" away the family members who had been in love for more than ten years. Although the brand is currently operated by dealer B, when it changed hands, it was dealer A. The merchant's inventory of up to 8 million is still not good. There are more than one similar case in the local area, and the dealer himself insists that he signed a general agency contract with the headquarters. Seeing this, I can only say:If profit is the first priority in everything, the brand and people's hearts will be sacrificed.
Engineering agents are extremely popular, how do retail agents handle themselves?
In order to increase market share, engineering channels are a necessary step. In recent years, ceramic companies have established engineering strategy departments. However, to do engineering projects, you need to have connections, resources, and funds, so many companies adopt a reporting mechanism, and whoever can get the cake eats it. Nowadays, building materials dealers who specialize in project procurement are very popular in the terminal market, and ceramic companies are also very willing to cooperate with these people. In terms of how to balance the relationship between engineering agents and retail agents, the reporter found that there is a brand that handles it very well. When the brand's retail agent builds a store decoration showroom, the engineering agent will also contribute part of the money, which is treated as a shareholding cooperation, so that engineering customers can also bring it to the showroom to select materials, and at the same time, they operate independently without interfering with each other. Facts have proved: The era of fighting alone is over, and the way to stay warm is to stay together as a team.
Is the price war in the terminal market so bad?
Price war is definitely a major headache in the terminal market. In recent years, "good building materials" have been sold at unparalleled low prices, destroying a large number of ceramic tile wholesalers wherever they go across the country. This is true for foreign wholesale bricks at special prices, as well as for local brand bricks. In the rounds of price shopping, big brand manufacturers reduce product costs through OEM, and non-Guangdong production areasBrand manufacturers ship products at low prices, and dealers of various ceramic tile brands compete for customers regardless of cost, further intensifying the vicious competition in the market. A dealer told us very helplessly: "Some customers have made a purchase with us, and the salespersons of other brands have found the customer to encourage them to refund, and promised to give the customer a 20% discount on the price that is better than ours. This is a kind of self-harm." Competitive means!" Dealers put all their efforts and costs into marketing to promote their brands, but in the end they were defeated by the weapon of "using price shopping as a way to attract customers to pay." It is inevitable that some people will follow suit with envy. But in fact, the essence of a price war is to hurt each other. In the end, neither consumers nor dealers will benefit.
As difficult as the construction and ceramics industry is, there is also the home decoration industry
A person in charge of a decoration company said: "Only 4,000 rough houses were delivered this year, but there are as many as 5,000 home decoration design companies registered here including decoration. You can imagine how fierce the competition is. We made a decision before The project list cannot be changed by the customer, but now as long as the customer wants to change the size of the product, we will immediately take them to the material showroom to make a new choice. As the number of orders becomes less and less, seeing the owner is like meeting a relative. Just as enthusiastic. ”The downturn in the property market and the increase in the proportion of finely decorated houses have not only affected ceramic tile dealers, but also the home decoration industry. The above is actually the current situation of most home decoration design companies. Someone joked: "Nowadays, as soon as a house is delivered, more than 10 decoration companies will call the owner, and 8 decoration companies will come to the house to measure the room for free and provide design plans, but in the end, the owner may not have any I won’t choose.”
PART3 Characters
From landlord to dealer owner
There is such a boss, we call him Mr. L. Mr. L had his own store on the roadside. A dealer of brand D rented his store as a showroom. Later, the tenant gave up and stopped doing this business. The salesman at the headquarters of brand D thought, he must quickly find someone to take over the business. , so he coaxed and tricked Mr. L, who was the landlord at the time, into the trap. Mr. L told us that he was originally in the wood flooring industry, and he thought he would invest some money to make ceramic tiles. As a result, the amount of money invested in the ceramic tiles sector is ten times higher than expected, and he also spends the most energy. It can be seen that there are risks in crossing the industry, so you need to be cautious when entering the industry.
From selling ceramic tiles to a boss selling new materials
C Jun is a ceramic tile dealer who has been in the industry for nearly 20 years. He initially came into contact with some public space projects by making thick tiles, which allowed him to see the competitiveness of new materials in the market. So Mr. C cooperated with a composite material processing company and established his own construction team. In a building's exterior wall dry-hanging project, Mr. C used foam ceramic tiles with a short construction period, low cost, and good thermal insulation and fire protection properties. He successfully eliminated the stone supplier. Now he is making more and more orders. The bigger. Although Mr. C still calls himself a ceramic tile dealer, he is actually already in the ranks of new materials.
Emphasize being your own professional manager
The annual sales volume of the best ceramic tile brand in W city reaches 130 million yuan. The reporter wants to learn about the brand's operating experience by interviewing its trader P. Who would have thought? Mr. P just smiled calmly and said: "The best way to deal with market changes is to be yourself." This sentence reminds the author of what Li Dan complained about in the "Tucao Conference": "Successful people talk about it When asked about the secrets of success, they would say that if there is nothing else, just be yourself. But in fact, we learned that Mr. P can start a band, do charity, hold concerts, and clothing shows, and he has become very successful in circle marketing. It also provides free cleaning of glasses, special car transportation, borrowing umbrellas, thoughtful breakfast, etc. The service is comparable to Haidilao. And it is such a professional manager who emphasizes that success means being oneself, and seems to have nothing wrong with him.
The biggest winner in design marketing
Mr. G’s WeChat avatar marks himself as a ceramic tile space mentor. The young man represents 5 ceramic tile brands, many of which are imported brands. Mr. G told us: His team has a total of 27 people, including 9 designers, which shows that he attaches great importance to design and marketing. Mr. G’s ability to sell bricks based on his design ability is reflected in the fact that his unit value is very high. One order can equal the performance of others for a month; and customers often abandon the design plan of the design company and choose his design instead. Plan designed by the designer. Mr. G said: “We don’t need to please designers to bring us orders, because we are designers ourselves.” Therefore, he is the biggest winner in design marketing.
Manufacturer salesman who has a "fate" with the research team
A dealer once complained to us about the salesperson at the headquarters: "Before I started this brand, the salesperson would come to the store many times a month, promising various policies and describing the bright future of cooperation. Waiting for the signing After the agency agreement, the salesperson became indifferent, failed to deliver what he promised, and did not follow up on the help he needed. "What was very "fateful" was that the reporter was in another interviewed dealer's store the next day. I met this "legendary" salesman. At that time, he was "actively" looking for opportunities, trying to repeat his old tricks and "develop" a new customer. Later, some people in the industry commented on this matter: Some salesmen cannot do well in a sales area for several years, and bad salesmen can kill a sales area in minutes.
The material dealer who fell in love with the plasterer
After all, ceramic tiles are semi-finished products. In the construction process, material dealers are like being led by others. Therefore, there has always been an unspoken rule in the industry that ceramic tile material dealers must have a good relationship with the construction masters. In the past, dealers of several brands described going to the construction site and arguing with the cement foreman, sayingIt has to be vivid. Mr. J is different. As for the group of foremen, he confidently said that he attaches great importance to the channel of foremen and has been working hard... But after thinking about it, Mr. J said helplessly: "In fact, this group of people may not be able to do it. Give us sales orders, but I just hope that they will not always say that there is a problem with our products, and they will carefully lay the bricks for the owners.” The reporter here couldn’t help but guess that if the brick sellers were responsible for the construction like the dealers in Jinan, Mr. J, don’t you have to force yourself to say things that go against your will?
An "actor" who is better able to perform under high pressure?
High operating costs and fierce competition are the norm for dealers now. Under this pressure, some dealers have turned into "actors"? ! What's going on? Let's listen to what the dealers say: "There are many places with low operating costs. Why don't we just move there or stay in stores with high rents? In fact, I am also thinking about this myself. The problem, I figured it out later, is that under the fierce competition in the market, it is easier for us to "enter the show"! Under high pressure, pressure is transformed into motivation, and we are able to grow rapidly. ” In fact, this “actor” "The subtext should be:Born in sorrow and dying in happiness.
Reporters who don’t need to eat
During the terminal market research, one day the reporter got chatting with a C brand dealer, and the interview didn’t end until nearly 1:30 noon. Since we had an appointment with a dealer of another brand at two o'clock in the afternoon and needed to rush to another place, as soon as the interview ended, several reporters (female men) picked up the machines and ran to the store entrance. The C brand dealer hurriedly chased after him from the store. He came out and asked the reporter: "Wherever you go, don't you have lunch?" In front of punctuality, the reporter wanted to say: Eating? Yes, but not necessary.
Write at the end:
China Ceramics Network’s terminal market research project brings every reporter involved. In addition to realizing the value of the media itself, what is even more valuable is this experience;
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We have seen a boss who lost contact: he made an appointment with the dealer and showed up at the store but no one was there. The clerk said that he might not be awake yet, but he couldn't get through the phone for a whole day. (I really want to know if he is awake now);
We have encountered bosses who were in a bad mood: During the interview, the dealer said he was in a bad mood and did not want to be on camera or meet reporters. He also sent a police station location to prove himself. Something really happened? ! (What on earth are you talking about);
We interviewed a drunk boss: When he visited the store, he found that the lights were turned off in the exhibition hall, there were beer bottles under the table, and there was an unfinished beer on the table. Oyster, the somewhat "top" dealer is sitting on the sofa;
During the business trip, we also received a lot of care, help and support from enthusiastic colleagues and dealer friends, so we are grateful for every chance encounter during the research, and we are also grateful to everyone You who clicked on this article.
The short stories shared today may be interesting or boring; they may be light-hearted and funny, or they may make people feel heavy and angry... However, Everywhere we see darkness, there is a light of hope.
Finally, Taojun Zhong wishes everyone a Merry Christmas!
