Looking at the development history of the ceramic industry, it is no exaggeration to position the last ten years as a year of transformation.
As we all know, from around 2009 to the present: the overall economy has declined, the industry has entered an era of meager profits, iterative upgrades in consumption, the emergence of bottlenecks in the homogenization of ceramic tile products, changes in distribution channels, terminal The competition is fierce... Therefore, transformation has become an unavoidable theme in the ceramic industry.
Especially in the past three years, due to the impact of channel fission, this situation of the entire industry being unable to find its way has become increasingly serious. Many companies and brands that have achieved fruitful results in the earlier round of development have repeatedly suffered misfortunes after environmental changes. After several struggles, they found that they could not find a way out for transformation and failed to maintain success! Similar phenomena are widespread in the industry, not only among manufacturers, but also among large-volume dealers.
Case 1
Zhang Lei (pseudonym) is the Nanjing agent of a certain brand and has been in the ceramic tile sales business for 20 years.
In his glorious days, his annual income exceeded 10 million, and he was an out-and-out winner among his family and friends. But in recent years, he has become quite negative: he is afraid of factories urging shipments, and dare not easily renovate stores. He even reduced the stores in Jinsheng Home Store and Kamenzi Red Star Macalline and other areas, and demolished them within 2 years. There are 6 stores, and one of the large stores is in Hongyang Decoration City.
"Business is too difficult to do, and I keep losing money." Zhang Lei was obviously worried, "I am discussing with my friends to make other investments, and I definitely don't plan to invest in ceramic tiles anymore. Now you just do it if you have to do it, and if you don’t have to do it, you don’t have to worry about it - you can’t rush it.” Zhang Lei told reporters that the brand he currently represents is a brand he changed two years ago, and he was actually doing another one two years ago. Foshan A brand agent, but because AUnable to reach a consensus with the manufacturer on the issue of brand transformation, we switched to agent brand B.
Regarding the change of brand, Zhang Lei said: Brand A was developing rapidly before, and he also made his fortune from this brand. However, five or six years ago, Brand A manufacturers underwent transformation and upgrading. , from brand image to sales model to channels, agents are required to follow the pace.
"At that time, I still believed in the manufacturers. After all, I made money by following the manufacturers. So, I remember that I renovated more than a dozen of my stores as required. In a short time The investment was huge in just one or two years. Not only that, the manufacturer asked me to operate the designer channel, so I did so and held several designer salon events in a row - but later I found out that there was no output in sight! At first, there were customers who came to visit out of curiosity, but then there was no one around. As for designers, I don’t want to mention it. I am a rough guy, and I don’t have any culture or appreciation. I can’t get along with the designer, right? For two years, I lost money, even my old customers ran away, and I lost nothing! Fortunately, I stopped in time. If I continue to work with brand A manufacturer, I will lose all the money I made before. Empty! ”
As Zhang Lei talked, he was obviously very upset about the losses over the years. Due to conducting research at the terminal, the author has encountered more than one boss like Zhang Lei.
So, what are the core actions in the transformation of ceramic enterprises? What lessons do a large number of failed companies teach us? How to avoid it?
As an industry media person, the author is always exploring, thinking and summarizing this.
In fact, the answer has already been announced by cross-border experts.
"The more successful a company or group is in the past, the greater and more glorious its success in the past, the more likely it is that it will fail after the times and circumstances change.The worse the defeat! ”——Wang Shuo, the 2016 Yale World Scholar, the 2012 World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, the Editor-in-Chief of Caixin Media, and the APP columnist, has particularly emphasized this point in his masterpiece.
Why? Since successful companies and groups have achieved brilliant results in the past, it stands to reason that they will have more experience and a higher probability of success in the future, right?
Wang Shuo believes that this is actually wrong. Because companies and groups that have been successful in the past have been successful before, then all their factors and advantages are shaped by the market environment and continue to match this inherent environment. Including customers, markets, channels, culture, team behavior patterns, etc., once the environment changes, the company and group will face inevitable failure! After all, it is very difficult to change an entire system.
This is also what we say: the reason why transformation and upgrading often fails.
Case 2
Xiao Qin (pseudonym) is the regional manager of an old brand company in Foshan and one of the elites in the sales industry. I met the author at an industry event and later became good friends. I often chat with the author in private and exchange industry information.
Not long ago, Xiao Qin expressed that he was ready to switch jobs to a new brand - the brand has only been established for more than a year. Her current brand has a history of 19 years.
"What conditions will I give you? Are you going to abandon a powerful brand like this?" I was half joking and half serious.
"The conditions haven't been discussed in detail. They should be slightly worse or comparable to what they are now. I'm not here for the treatment, I'd better look at the overall situation." Xiao Qin The answer was serious, not like a joke.
She told the author: The old brand has been clamoring for transformation in recent years, and has also found a third-party company to assist in comprehensive system upgrades, but the fact is - the boss did it with great fanfare change! I personally brought a third-party company to assist, and all the program tools and systems were renovated and implemented. But as soon as the third party left, everyone's execution and everything went back to the past, right under the boss's nose.
What's the reason? People haven’t changed! The habits of thought and behavior have returned inertia! In this last upgrade, apart from the change in the appearance of the brand, nothing seems to have changed in essence.
"It would be fine if it didn't change at all, but with all the upgrading and upgrading, it annoyed several of my big customers. The factory was very aggressive during the transformation. Ask customers to follow, change, and change. If they don’t follow, they will be replaced! Later, this reform did not succeed, so there were many customers who insisted on not following, and they were not replaced. It seems that there are two sets of standards - the customer is heartbroken. "Xiao Qin said, "As a salesperson, the key is to have customer resources, right? After all this, I have offended all my customers. Think about it, I might as well change it. Good place.”
"Then why do you want to switch to a new brand that is only one year old? This brand has not yet gained popularity and reputation?" The author broke the casserole and asked the question.
"You don't know, this brand is reliable. It is a new brand invested by Boss Wang (a powerful boss). Boss Wang is a wise man. He As long as the funds are matched, new professional managers and team building will be used. The entire new brand will operate independently. He and his previous team members will not interfere in the operation of the brand at all - not even the dealers will overlap, "Xiao Qin said. I think this is more reliable than upgrading old-fashioned personnel and systems.”
Xiao Qin’s company is not an isolated case. Looking back at the ceramic industry, how many successive upgraders have ended in failure? It is because they always hope that upgrading and transformation will be based on past successes.Complete, the perfect blend of old and new to succeed.
But obviously this is a paradox.
Because all your past successes are based on the past environment. When you succeed, the environment will continue to strengthen your successful actions. In the end, the relationship between the enterprise organization and the environment There is a high degree of matching between them. This high degree of matching has even developed into a habitual action. When the environment changes, it is even more difficult to change these inertial actions.
So, if this kind of enterprise wants to transform successfully, is there a way?
Wang Shuo said in the book: Yes!
The only feasible way is to use only the strong funds accumulated after the first success to reinvest in a team and re-based on the current environment to build a new system and resources, including customers, including products, teams, operating models and channels, etc.
Completely separate the old from the new, and don’t try to use the old team to solve new problems - because the mature system in the past will help you at all levels New directions set up inertial barriers.
The author has recently seen the above views, combined with the examples he has experienced, the above analysis hopes to inspire the industry.
