Manufacturing in the storm vortex
The winter of 2008 was particularly cold.
As the global financial crisis has escalated and began to spread to the real economy, the Chinese economy is also facing a severe test since the reform and development: the real estate industry has cooled sharply, the export enterprises have closed down a lot, and the chain has driven the equipment manufacturing industry downstream of the industrial chain. The basic industries such as the steel industry, the coal industry, the power industry, the petrochemical industry, and the building materials industry have experienced significant declines.
On October 30, 2008, the newer data released by the China Iron and Steel Association showed that the profitability of the entire Chinese steel industry in the third quarter fell by nearly 40% compared with the first half of the year, and some enterprises have lost money. In the fourth quarter, affected by the global financial crisis, the loss of the steel industry will also expand.
In 2008, the profitability of the cement industry continued to increase in the first eight months, but in the fourth quarter, there was a situation in which the peak season was not prosperous and prices did not rise and fall. At the same time, the gross profit margin of listed companies in the third quarter showed a significant decline year-on-year and month-on-month.
The statistics of the Nonferrous Metals Association show that in the first three quarters of 2008, the domestic listed companies of 10 aluminum companies realized a total operating profit of 11.661 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 40.63%; the accumulated net profit attributable to the parent company was 4.461 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 59.88%. . In the third quarter, 10 listed companies in the aluminum industry only achieved a main operating profit of 2.682 billion yuan, a net profit of only 540 million yuan, and 8 of the 10 listed companies had net profit of less than 100 million yuan. A loss has occurred. As domestic aluminum prices fell sharply after October, domestic aluminum listed companies will fall into a comprehensive loss in the fourth quarter.
The chemical industry was not spared from the storm of the global financial crisis. Since August, the prices of international chemical raw materials have fluctuated widely, making companies unprepared. In just over a month, the mainstream price of domestic concentrated nitric acid market dropped from an all-time high of 4,100 to 4,200 yuan / ton to 1,700 to 1,800 yuan / ton, and the monthly decline rate was as high as 42.86%. The price of sulfuric acid was 2400 yuan / ton fell to 400 yuan / ton at the beginning of October, the monthly decline rate was as high as 166.7%.
According to the data provided by the China Petrochemical Industry Association, the operating rate of alcohol ether enterprises is only 60%. Small methanol enterprises and enterprises that rely on the purchase of methanol to produce dimethyl ether have stopped production. Fertilizer enterprises in Shandong and Shanxi have stopped production in large areas. The operating rate of fertilizer enterprises is only 40%; the operating rate of chlor-alkali enterprises is only about 40%; the operating rate of other chemical sub-sectors is also generally below 70%. To make matters worse, the prices of international chemical products have shown signs of stabilizing, while China has plunged all the way.
Even thermal power, which has always been profitable, has suffered losses. The data shows that due to major changes in the domestic economic situation since 2008, the production and operation of power generation enterprises have been challenged and severely tested, and group losses have occurred. The loss of thermal power companies has reached 90%, which is a difficult period in history. The financial situation of each group deteriorated rapidly due to huge losses.
The economic crisis is not terrible
In the traditional Chinese concept, 8 is a more auspicious number. However, in the eyes of the economic community, 8 seems to be a curse. In the past two decades, the Chinese economy has had a Great Depression every 8: 1988, 1998, 2008, and everything has been fulfilled.
History proves that the economic crisis is always cyclical. It is not derived from theory, but actually manifested in the process of “crisis – depression – recovery – prosperity – crisisâ€. Just like the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, it is a natural law of objective existence.
The economic crisis is not terrible. The terrible thing is that there are no preparations and countermeasures for the crisis. As the famous saying of Warren Buffett said: "Only when the tide recedes, can we find out who is in the nude swimming."
Among the entrepreneurs, the concept of winter is more than the president of Huawei, Ren Zhengfei. From the beginning of 2000, he shouted "Huawei's winter is here", this shout is 8 years. Today, Huawei's sales have exceeded 110 billion, becoming the leader in the global communications equipment industry.
There is an old saying in China: a yin and a yang saying the way. "Danger" and "machine" are two aspects of contradiction, that is, opposition and unity. There are "machines" in "risk" and "risk" in "machines". Successful entrepreneurs are precisely those who have a strong sense of crisis and who can play a subjective initiative.
What should marketing in winter do?
When winter arrives, how to think about survival and development from the perspective of marketing is the homework that every marketing manager must do. By studying the development of several economic crises over the past 100 years, and reviewing the rise and fall of those who have survived and those who have fallen, we have come up with three rules for winter marketing.
Rule 1: Cash Flow Orientation
Cash flow is the lifeline of the company, and it is a cotton aphid in winter.
When the economy is booming, we hope that the company can have a larger market share and more sales, because the market banks at this time often make large loans, excess liquidity, and sales can basically be all in cash. achieve.
In times of economic crisis, money has been stranded in investment, or has become steel and concrete, or turned into commodity inventories, resulting in scarcity of money supply, insufficient customer payment capacity, and triangular debt has become inevitable. Many SMEs are being dragged down by the triangular debt.
At this time, the more important thing for the marketing manager is to adjust the sales policy to cash flow guidance, and guide the sales staff, customers and channel agents to speak in cash.
For internal sales staff, we must adjust the sales policy. The assessment indicator is no longer the original sales and market share, but should be the amount of return and the rate of return.
For channel agents, we must adjust the channel policy and price policy: First, we should adjust the credit limit according to the actual payment ability of the agent to reduce the risk of receivables; second, we must increase the price discount of cash purchases and encourage cash buyouts.
For large customers, credit management is required, and the credit line is strictly determined according to the credit rating, and the risk of arrears is reduced to a low level. Customers who have been assessed and confirmed that their ability to pay are not up to standard are determined not to do so.
Rule 2: Marketing Strategy Transformation
When talking with the marketing bosses of many multinational companies about the economic crisis, most of them think that there are more opportunities in the crisis, because many opponents may have operational difficulties during this period, and they can take the opportunity to occupy the market and even make big acquisitions.
This is the case. Many domestic enterprise managers do not have the concept of marketing strategy. Their success is largely based on the long-term accumulation of industry customer relationships and a single business model. It lacks the ability to innovate products and lacks new markets and marketing models. The ability to innovate, so once the industry that the company relies on is low or the original marketing model can not adapt to market changes, it can only wait for death.
Darwin's theory of evolution tells us that the survival of the fittest, natural selection is an unchangeable natural law, and business enterprises must evolve and adjust as the environment changes. Therefore, in the process of business management, the transformation of marketing strategy has become an inevitable choice for those successful enterprises.
We have noticed that many hundred-year-old enterprises have not seen the traces of the business that they started from today. For example, Nokia was originally a papermaking company. General Electric (GE) used to produce TV sets and light bulbs, while IBM produced copiers.
The ultimate goal of the company's marketing strategy transformation is to enable the company to find itself again when the external environment changes dramatically through market research, market segmentation, target market positioning, SWOT analysis and marketing mix strategy. A new space for survival and development. It can be said that the planning and execution ability of the marketing strategy is a necessary and important capability for the enterprise to continue to develop and even achieve a hundred years of foundation.
Rule 3: Fine Marketing Management
For a long time, most domestic companies have been extensive in marketing management. The high liquidity of sales personnel, the out-of-control sales expenses, the old salespersons taking customers, the slow growth of sales organizations, and the heavy sales of light markets have become a common phenomenon. Everyone has long been eccentric.
When the market is good, there are projects everywhere, and there are demand everywhere. These problems will not affect the profitability of the company. However, when the market is not good, these problems will be exposed and even endanger the survival of the company.
Marketing is both an art and a science. Marketing requires scientific and comprehensive fine management. Refined marketing management is a kind of all-round management. It emphasizes the perfect combination of science and art at the strategic level, and emphasizes execution at the implementation level, emphasizing standardization and reproducibility.
As an example, many corporate managers are faced with a shortage of sales staff, constantly recruiting, and constantly losing, and repeating. The survey shows that the actual loss caused by the loss of a salesperson (including the company's brand image is impaired) is four times its salary.
The problem of sales staff turnover has also led to a series of other problems, such as weak market competitiveness, rising sales costs, old salesmen who want to smash companies, slow organization development, and so on.
The reason is that these companies are unconscious in the sales recruitment process, sales staff selection criteria, sales staff training system construction, sales reserve cadre training, etc. People who manage human resources do not understand sales management, and sales executives do not understand human resources. . The recruitment of the front step did not attract the right person, and the follow-up things could not be discussed at all.
We believe that the problems reflected in marketing are often not the problems of marketing itself. Modern marketing management science has always emphasized the integration of knowledge in marketing, management, human resource management, project management and other disciplines. Only by studying the intersection of these disciplines can we really find a solution to the problem.
There is a saying on "Historical Records, Lusheng Lujia Biography" that is worthy of our deep thought: "Is it right away, can I cure it right away?", which means: You can ride in the world right away, can you ride in the immediate rule? The world?
The economic crisis will certainly cause a decline in the sales performance of enterprises, but it will also leave managers with more space to find problems and find ideas. I hope that those marketing managers who have been through the war can seriously reflect on the mistakes and immaturity in the past marketing management, gradually give up the extensive management behavior, and become a handsome talent who can get the world right away and can rule the world.
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