Channel Construction (already updated 12,000 words, seeking votes)

  "Old bear, your task is to quickly establish a foothold in Shanghai Station and set up the Shanghai sales office of Hanhua Industrial Company. In the future, our product sales in Shanghai will depend entirely on you." Lin Zhenhua said to Xiong Lijun.

  This was a meeting of the management team of Hanhua Industrial Company held at Lin Zhenhua's home, attended by Lin Zhenhua, Chu Hongyang, Peng Shaozhe, Zhao Yongqun, Xiong Lijun and Lan Wufeng. Tao Hui and An Yan also came along, and were currently in the inner room having a small meeting with Yang Xin. Tao Hui was already married, while Yang Xin and An Yan were both unmarried, and had many things to ask for advice from Tao Hui about.

  The men were all sitting in the living room, each with a cigarette in hand except for Lin Zhenhua. The site of Hanhua Industrial Company was only four mu, and after setting aside the workshop, material warehouse, financial office and so on, there was not enough space left for the manager's office and conference room. Therefore, when middle and senior leaders needed to hold meetings, they could only run to Lin Zhenhua's home to do so. Now that Xiaofang had gone off to college, Lin Zhenhua was the only one left at home, with plenty of space.

  This is the first time that Lin Zhenhua's two teams, one open and one hidden, have worked together in a joint office. However, everyone on both sides are Lin Zhenhua's own people, so gathering together doesn't feel out of place.

  "Old bear, next time we go to Shanghai, we'll look for you." Chu Hongyang patted Xiong Lijun's shoulder and said with a smile. In the past, when Xiong Lijun worked in the factory, he didn't have much contact with Chu Hongyang and others, but after going out to do business, because of Lin Zhenhua as a link, everyone felt more intimate.

  "No problem, after I go, I'll try all the restaurants in Shanghai and then recommend them to you when you come." Xiong Lijun said confidently.

  Lin Zhenhua said: "Old bear, I'm not letting you go to eat, drink and have fun. Building a sales office is a complicated matter, you'll probably be too busy to handle it."

  Xiong Lidao said, "Boss, you're inexperienced. It's just selling things, send the order forms to various department stores and the problem is solved. They'll come to pick up the goods in a hurry."

  Lin Zhenhua shook his head and said, "Old Bear, you can't think like that. I let you build a sales office, not just to sell things, but to build channels. Selling things and building channels are two different things."

  "What is a channel?"

  "Channels are relationships. Selling things is not a one-time deal, but rather something that needs to be sustained over time. What I hope you can achieve is to establish good connections in Shanghai's home appliance sales circle and build a good brand image for Hanhua Industrial Company. Also, we need to cultivate trust and loyalty towards the Hanhua Industrial Company brand among consumers in Shanghai. None of these things can be simply described by the three words 'selling things'." Lin Zhenhua said with emphasis.

  Zhao Yongqun retorted disdainfully, "Xiao Hua, you're also talking nonsense. What trust and loyalty? Don't you see how ordinary people buy things? Like the electric fans we're about to produce, as many as we make is as many as we can sell. Who cares about what brand?"

  Chu Hongyang also said: "It's really like that, I think the old bear is mainly responsible for receiving and sending goods, contacting Shanghai freight companies and so on. As for what connections, it doesn't need to be considered at all, with goods, are you afraid of not selling them?"

  Lin Zhenhua asked gloomily: "What's going on? Does everyone think so?"

  "I also agree with Yongqun and Hongyang's views." Peng Shaozhe has also defected.

  "How can I say you're good? We're running a company, not just for one or two days, but to be a century-old shop. Will the current shortage phenomenon in China last forever? Let me tell you, just looking at the electric fan manufacturing industry, I haven't fully counted, but our Jiangnan Province alone has over a dozen companies, and if we count nationwide, there must be many more! Right now, everyone is just starting out, with insufficient production capacity. If they develop for another year or two, update their equipment, and increase production capacity, the supply and demand situation in the market will reverse, and at that time, everyone will be competing on channels and brands."

  Lan Wufeng said, "I don't quite understand what Lin Ge is saying. But I do have some feelings about it. We started selling electronic watches and other things last year, and at that time, there were no other sellers in Fenghua County, so our business was very good. Later on, more and more individual households emerged, and our business wasn't as good as before. Now, there are some things on the market that just can't be sold. Like our Xinxin Store, because we started early and Lin Ge always required us to make the environment look a bit better, so sales were better than other stores. Does this count as what Lin Ge said about loyalty?"

  "That's right," Lin Zhenhua replied.

  Xiong Liming said: "Since it's like this, Lin Lao Da, what do you plan on having me do?"

  Lin Zhenhua said, "Old bear, your market experience is richer than mine. You see many things more clearly than I do. I only want to say one thing to you: service is more important than sales. Your task first and foremost is to serve, then comes sales."

  "Is service more important than sales?" Xiong Lijun asked in confusion: "We're just selling an electric fan, what kind of service is there?"

  "Of course," said Lin Zhenhua. "First of all, you have to do a good job serving our distributors. No matter which store sells our products, you must build a good relationship with them and absolutely cannot be arrogant. No matter how popular our goods are, you must welcome purchasing personnel with a smile and remember their names, positions, phone numbers, and even their home addresses, social relationships, and when it's the birthday of their wives, children, or relatives, you should send flowers and greeting cards."

  "Boss, you're not kidding, are you?" Xiong Lijun's eyes widened in surprise.

  "Xiao Hua, Lao Xiong is an honest man, you shouldn't play tricks on him like that." Chu Hongyang also said with a smile.

  Zhao Yongqun was puzzled: "Is Lao Xiong being honest? I don't see it that way."

  Xiong Lidao said: "Compared to who? Compared to you, no one is honest. Compared to our boss, do I dare say that I'm smart?"

  "Is this praising Xiao Hua or scolding Xiao Hua?" Zhao Yongqun wondered.

  Lin Zhenhua waited for everyone to finish, then continued: "Old bear, what I'm saying is not a joke. Of course, we need to distinguish between people when it comes to building relationships, not everyone needs to do this, or else we'll be exhausted. Also, if we don't differentiate between important and unimportant relationships, our key clients won't feel valued."

  "This I naturally understand, who is useful and who is useless. My old bear can still tell them apart." said Xiong Lijun.

  "Second, we must emphasize service to consumers. We need to set up an after-sales service center in Shanghai and include the phone number of this center with every electric fan we sell. The phone line must be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."

  "What's 7 times 24 hours?" everyone asked in unison, knowing that Lin Zhenhua's new concepts were endless, and no one bothered to care about the origin of these concepts, maybe it was written in those American books he read?

  "It's 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, and the phone must be answered."

  "Isn't this unnecessary?" Xiong Lijun protested, "Sundays are always for rest, aren't they?"

  Lin Zhenhua said, "You're wrong, on Sundays everyone is at home resting, this is when air conditioners are used the most. If it breaks down at this time, how annoying would that be? You provide phone service at this time, even if it's just a few comforting words, customers will feel warm and fuzzy inside."

  Xiong Liming nodded: "That's also true, but it's not necessary for 24 hours, is it? Who would make a call in the middle of the night? Besides, where would they call?"

  Lin Zhenhua said: "24 hours, this is mainly written in promotional language, playing a eye-catching role. What if there are people like that, for example, just at the unit, with a convenient phone, try calling one, your customer service can provide services in such situations, what a great advertisement! If you feel inconvenient, you can put the phone on your customer service staff's bedside table, sleep and sleep, but if there is a call, you must get up to answer."

  "The customer service is me." Xiong Lijun sighed, "If I put the phone on my bedside table and it rings once in the middle of the night every day, Tao Hui will kick me out of bed?"

  Lin Zhenhua said, "This won't do. How many calls can one person answer? My consideration is that the Shanghai sales office should have at least 4 staff members in the initial stage, with 2 people responsible for telephone customer service and 2 people responsible for external maintenance services."

  "So many people, how much will it cost?" Xiong Lijun asked.

  "One person's salary and various expenses, the monthly cost is about 1,000 yuan. For four people, for 12 months, it's 50,000 yuan a year." Peng Shaozhe interjected, he was in charge of the company's administration and technology, and was more sensitive to this calculation.

  "It's not a lot of money, 5000 yuan." Xiong Lijun was practical, he is also a small shareholder now, and Lin Zhenhua had promised him earlier that for every electric fan sold in the Shanghai sales office, he could take 10 yuan. If they sell 100,000 units in a year, that's 1 million yuan. In comparison, the personnel cost of 5,000 yuan is nothing.

  "Shouldn't this customer service staff be a woman? It would be better to find two pretty ones, right?" Xiong Lijun had figured out the money issue and immediately began daydreaming.

  Lin Zhenhua smiled and warned: "Old bear, I'm warning you, if you dare to create a wicked atmosphere, beware of the iron fist of people's democratic dictatorship."

  Lan Wufeng's spirits lifted when he heard the two words "Iron Fist", and he raised his fist in front of Xiong Lijun, waving it a few times: "This Iron Fist business, no need for Lin to bother, I'll take care of it."

  Xiong Lijun stretched out his hand and patted Lan Wufeng's fist, but instead of opening his fist, he ended up slapping his own hand painfully. He blew on the sore spot while making a bitter face and said: "Two bosses, I was just talking big, how dare I really do anything crooked? Haven't you seen how fierce Tao Hui is? I have to have the guts for it too."

  Everyone burst out laughing, and Lan Wufeng said: "Lin Ge, we've been talking about this electric fan for so long, when can it be produced? Last time Auntie Han asked about it too, saying how our electric fans are doing in production, and asking us to give her a few units to sell."

  Several people from Hanhua Industrial Corporation smiled, Lin Zhenhua imitated the pose of those cool guys in the movies, raised his hand and clapped a few times, waiting for Yang Xin to come out and respond. Who knew that the women inside the house were chatting enthusiastically with the door closed, and couldn't hear the applause outside? Lin Zhenhua awkwardly put down his hand and shouted loudly towards the inner room: "Yang Xin!"

  This time there was a response. Yang Xin opened the door and stuck out her head, asking: "Hey, what's going on?"

  "Please welcome our Shui Lian brand electric fan, making a stunning debut!"