I wrote a lot, but I guess it's the third job I found during the time I was leaving. Thanks to a friend's recommendation, this is a well-known IT company in China, when I entered the company was only more than 2,000 people, now it is more than 20,000 people. At Huawei, I have the habit of arranging qualifications according to the number of the work plate, so from the time I joined the company to the time I went back to school, to the time I returned to this company, I had two work license numbers, and I felt a lot of feelings. To this company, my main job is to be responsible for the regional sales of a government industry line, many sales friends must have the concept of region, that is, a few provinces or a few cities are under your responsibility, you have to be responsible for the project orders in these regions, so I finally officially entered the sales industry.

When I joined the company, I immediately felt the pressure of working differently. This pressure is invisible, solidified into work habits through mature systems. For example, quarterly performance accounting, accounting for the contract amount of sales, just entered the company can have a 6-month activity period, that is, you are allowed to have no contract within half a year, but you need to see the hope of the third quarter according to your sales tracking matrix, there is no hope or through the evaluation that the hope is not big, directly fired. I've experienced this atmosphere since my first day on the job, and I didn't have the habit of writing a daily newspaper before, but I've developed it here, even though I now read someone else's daily newspaper. In the past, there was no way of working to formulate a sales plan, but here to accept and become a part of the daily work, we comprehensively analyze, discuss at the meeting, from discovering project opportunities, to beginning to systematically evaluate the probability of project orders, and then allocate project sales resources, track project progress, analyze project risks, formulate risk prevention measures, etc., or a professional sales habit began to develop here, and began to bid farewell to the past scattered sales thinking, with a strategic vision to look at each project.

Describe the market situation I faced when I entered the company. At that time, we were one of the winning bidders for the construction of the national IT system of a central government department of the country, and in that year, a total of four winning bidders in the country were awarded. According to normal reasoning, our market is easy to develop. The reason is that although we are the winning bidders of the central departments, the central government only has a guiding relationship with the localities, and the right to build the system still lies with the localities, and the central authorities do not give money. This is what we call the central government to guide the localities, and at that time, unlike now, many units were vertically managed, which means that the central government has absolute power to appoint and dismiss the leaders of provinces, prefectures and cities, and prefectures and cities to counties and districts.

Although you win the bid, it is up to you how much market share you can get. At that time, our sales resources were very tight, a province is equipped with a sales, a province of more than 10 cities, what is the concept? If you are in one city for 2 days a month, plus the distance in between, all you can do is that you can only go to each city once a month, once a month, and you want to be alone at such a frequency??? Even now, I don't think I have that ability.

So, when you're faced with a bunch of opportunities to choose from, you must know what you want most. For example, for relationships, there are many goals for you to choose, so what kind of talent is what you want the most, which is the most suitable for you?

I remember that after I arrived at the new company, I received several trainings, but I didn't have sales skills. The reason is very simple, recruiting you in, it means that your own sales skills have been recognized, those are not within the scope of training, what is the training? Business knowledge, training market situation, there are many students who feel that sales do not need to understand business. Big mistake, if you want to do well, if you want to be evergreen in the sales industry, then start with the business. Business knowledge is the foundation and key to establishing a relationship between you and customers, I do not deny, there are many sales who do not understand the business can still take orders, because you can through other methods and means, or happen to be the same hobby as customers, playing tennis, playing golf or something, but that is simply sales for the sake of sales, it is difficult to take another step and go to the next realm, because you have not yet contacted the core of your customers, that is the core of a person's survival value, and only at this step, you can become real friends with customers.

Our market positioning determines that we are dealing with cadres at or above the department level of government agencies, and often the top decision-maker of this project will rise to the level of deputy mayor. The age gap determines the difference in thinking, and if we can find a common language from this difference? Business knowledge is the first step to the beginning, you understand the business, you have a topic, you understand the business, you can tell your technical staff where to start writing a plan to cut to the customer's point, in order to help them solve the problem. Because the technical staff's specialty is not communication, especially before the contract is signed, they have more information from the sales staff.

I am very grateful for my work experience in the subordinate company of the Radio and Television Department, and during that time, I often dealt with the leaders in the department, so that I was familiar with their daily work methods, work points, and work concerns, and they all said that China's elites are in two places, one is the government and the other is the army. Students, if you start dealing with government officials one day, then you must learn the thinking of government officials, otherwise, you are very likely to make mistakes.

The region I was responsible for at the time was my province, and the localization of sales force was a strategy for many companies. This allows you to reuse your own resources.

We have selected a few projects from the project opportunities in the province, and when I write here, the names of these cities clearly appear in my mind. It's a pity that it can't be written, so let's change the name, aren't TV series often filmed like this? Baoxin, Qinghe, Qitai, Yongxin, Taiwu, the projects in these cities are more important to us, in other words, the project opportunities are relatively large.

When I joined the company, the project in Qinghe City had already passed the preliminary stage of communication and was ready to be tendered, and the previous salesperson in charge of the work had also left. Our company attaches great importance to this project, because Qinghe City is relatively rich, and what is the concept of money, that is, we can allocate a large amount of money from the finance, and we can make the project bigger.

Some students will say that this is to dislike the poor and love the rich. Wrong, this is a virtuous circle, until now I give lectures to some of our users will also talk about the investment in information construction: the user side fully attaches importance to the investment, the investment is more, then the perspective of the winning bidder will also attach great importance to it, invest a lot of manpower and material resources, which is supported by the contract amount, no matter what problems are encountered, the two sides will work together to solve, the final result is that the project is completed and put into production, and the business problems are solved for customers, and business support is completed, and a boutique project is made for manufacturers. On the contrary, if the user investment is less and the manufacturer's resource investment is less, then it is not the problem that becomes the problem, and the project is a mess. It has become a three-dissatisfaction project, that is, the user is not satisfied, because the purpose of business information support has not been achieved, the company is not satisfied, no money has been made, the employees are not satisfied, and there is no project bonus to take.

Some people may say, it's too realistic, you can't do a good project without money. It's not this concept, the company is talking about business, the company wants profits, how can you survive without profits, so many people's salaries have to be paid, so many daily expenses need cash flow, these are not blown. The company's resources are also limited, and between the two projects with low profits and high profits, the project with high profits will definitely be chosen, which is also the way the company operates.

We are one of the 4 manufacturers participating in the project in Qinghe City. Unfortunately, our early business relationship didn't go well, and another company had already taken the lead. In retrospect, the company worked the entire project process without a single leak:

First of all, this company is not a shortlisted software vendor in the central department, and it doesn't matter. They directly advised the client to separate the hardware and software tenders.

For example, if our unit wants to complete the construction of an informatization project, then it needs two major parts, one is the purchase of computers, servers, etc., which are called hardware. There are only a few hardware manufacturers, and the construction of a national information system, unless it is a secret-related unit, will not make too many restrictions on the hardware. At most, due to some commercial reasons, the performance indicators of hardware will be limited in tenders and bids. The second is to purchase application software, which is to help you support the existing manual business process software, these are called software, in the process of building a national system, in order to ensure the unity of the data format, the future business process up and down, the central department will often make relevant restrictions, such as technical specifications, shortlisted manufacturers and so on. And we are one of the shortlisted vendors of central sector software.

This part may be too professionally written, so I try to describe it in few words, so as not to affect everyone's interest in reading. We can see that if the software and hardware bidding are put together, then this company will definitely not be able to participate, the reason is very simple, it does not have the qualifications to be shortlisted. Well, since this is the case, they will circumvent this problem, take it apart, the hardware is the standard of hardware, and the software is the standard of software.

These methods are relatively common now, but at that time it was quite difficult for me, and when I learned that their software and hardware were bidding separately, I didn't even understand what it meant, after all, this was the first project that I had to bid for independently.

I wrote a weekly report on the progress of the project and sent it to the industry line personnel and the person in charge of the platform at the headquarters, and everyone replied with some comments, from which some people have mentioned that I should pay attention to the relationship between other manufacturers and customers, especially the relationship between the non-shortlisted company and the customer. With the guidance of experts, growth will be faster. If you want to get the inside scoop, reach out to customers.

Our customers are divided into several levels, the technical leader, we call him Hegong. The person in charge of the business, we call it Forestry Engineer here, the director in charge of the business, we call Director Qi, and the director in charge is the director on the upper floor, and we call Director Liu. And then there is the deputy mayor in charge, we call it Mayor Dou. Faced with such a list, I began to contact them.

At this time, Wynn came back and brought me a suit and some ties, and a bottle of perfume, I don't like to use perfume, I think it's too feminine, especially unmasculine, even if it's a men's perfume. When we met at the café, she found out that I had changed jobs, and asked me in surprise why I didn't tell her. "It's not a big deal, I'm afraid of wasting your phone bill." When she heard my words, she looked at me very strangely. "Actually, it's good to leave that company, you can't make any money, you have no future." This is her evaluation, I said I didn't do it for money, she said, what are you doing if it's not for money? I didn't answer again, because I really didn't leave for money at that time, and the salary of my current company is still less than that of my old company, and I probably wouldn't have made such a choice for the sake of money. ”

"Actually, you should tell me that you work to make money, and I don't know anything about the company you went to, how can I help you in the future?" She broke the silence just now, "I originally wanted to talk to you when I came back, but this time I went out to figure out some things, and I think you should have a better development, such as going to Hainan for our branch, or Hong Kong." "This time it was my turn to be surprised, we rarely asked each other about their work." You mean you want me to go to your company? "Yes, you are someone I trust, and your abilities can be cultivated slowly." "You mean I'm incapable?" I was a little enraged.

"It's not that you don't have the ability, it's that you're still too simple and don't understand many things." She felt the smell of gunpowder, "Since you think I'm innocent, there's no need for me to mix things that aren't pure. "I suppressed the anger in my heart." Alas... Let's talk about it then! When she sighed, I looked at her face, I don't know why, I felt a big change from before, why didn't I feel it just now. It feels very melancholy, very vicissitudes, and the maturity in her eyes is completely out of line with her age.

"How about you work over there?" "It's just getting started, and it's a lot of pressure." "What exactly?" I told her in detail about the work I was responsible for and the difficulties I faced, and finally she said that she remembered to tell me when she encountered difficulties.

As she walked out of the café, she suddenly said, "If I have time on the weekend, I can have a meal with my parents." "I saw her parents before, it was an occasional opportunity, when we were together, her mother called her and asked her to send something over, I also went together, and we met in a hurry, I remember very well, that place is the general's building in our provincial capital, similar to the provincial military district guest house or something. Her father seems to be a typical government official, and after her introduction, her father said "Xiaoxiang, Lili's good friend, good" without politeness, which made me feel very angry, thinking that my father is also in the government, why do you feel so different? Her mother felt very different, and took my hand and asked for a long time, as if checking the household registration.

I said, "Look." Recently, that project was very troublesome, and I worked overtime for two weeks in a row. She stopped, looked at me and said, "You can give me a letter of approval, do I still have to make an appointment to eat with you?" Don't you even have 2 hours to spare? "It was still a discussion just now, forget it, don't put up a fight, just eat, I can't eat it.

I was depressed at that meal, and I felt very restrained, and I had never felt this kind of restraint before. In the past, when I was at home, I often interacted with government officials, some of my father's colleagues, and some of my friends' family, but I never felt so constrained. Her father must have heard her say that I worked in a company affiliated with the Radio and Television Department, so he kept talking to me about some things in the hall and asking me about some of the current company, and her mother kept asking me to eat more vegetables, and the result was that the plates were almost piled up into a hill, and I held chopsticks, in a fixed state, listening to her father's speech attentively, and finally her father said a few points when he summed up the wine, and there was some taste of making a report.

After that meal, her mother would call me a lot, shushing me and asking for warmth, and I didn't seem used to the change. In fact, even now that I think about it, her parents are very good people, I am out of private perception of the evaluation, even later, there are some people from all aspects to understand my feelings, I still say that, I don't know what happened in the middle, even if it is hearsay, I don't want to evaluate, everyone is human, even if there is a mistake, there is always a good side, from the beginning to the end, her mother has always been very concerned about me, I remember three years ago on the first day of the new year, I also unexpectedly received a call from her, I don't know where she got her phone number, though. Later, her mother answered the phone, and the feeling was really poignant. Some people, some things, will be put in memory, the grade is so old, people always want to return to their roots, how bleak it feels to look at their hometown and not return. Think about it, between me and her, from the first meeting to the last phone call, looking back, it was like a dream of Nanke...

The project in Qinghe City has temporarily slowed down due to financial investment reasons, and I am still running between several key cities in the province, working extremely busy every day, and the red line of sales performance assessment for half a year is getting closer and closer.

It was this unconsciously ushered in the New Year's Day of 01, and the new year is about to begin. In 01, this changeable, weird, and full of ups and downs finally came into my life.

Past BLOGS

I started writing BLOG at the end of 05, and I wrote it for a year and a half, and then I stopped writing, closed the BLOG, and gradually forgot the password to log in, and a friend collected each of my blog posts, and later sent them to me. When I sorted out the hard disk today, I found out that the name of the BLOG is "Take the road you want to go, live the life you want", I just saw a text at the end of 2006, and I really want to post it. Actually, my current idea of writing memories is a bit fanciful, and it may make many friends lose the interest in reading it, but I know that only the words typed on the keyboard when my mental state is most real can give me some peace.

Written on November 8, 2006, a brother has just left for the United States.

"A long time ago, or completely by memory, I remember reading a book called a man's war, and I had forgotten the content, or there was no book at all, just a feeling. Now this feeling is getting stronger and stronger, in the eyes of ordinary people, I am still relatively smooth, and now it is relatively stable, but what about the hidden? I knew what it would be like, and I was cautious, walking on thin ice, and my brother said that he would like to know what I did when I lived abroad. After I came back, I rarely mentioned it to others, I kept it buried in my heart, it was a special time to a special place for special reasons, I was not like you, at that time, my only thought was to get out of that place quickly, I didn't think about getting a green card, and I even hated that place very much in the fragments of memory. Maybe a lot of small towns are like that. When I got there, it was already early autumn in the local area, and I drove through that road for the first time, the narrow two-lane road, very much of that rustic feeling, in fact, I liked that feeling, although there were a lot of annoying things, although I didn't call my relatives, but I was in a good mood at that moment, this was the first feeling, Canada in early autumn, began to have fallen leaves, and began to have a chill.

I remember that time, I especially like to walk on the streets of the town when I am alone at night, or more on the cobblestone path, let the cold wind blow on my face, to see the past life and days more clearly, it should be said that life in Canada is a turning point, in that place I began to completely reflect on and disgust the way of life in the past, I don't know if the Chinese proverb "the prodigal son does not change his money" is such a truth? It is a peaceful place, in addition to the discordant notes caused by their own state of mind, it is also a very good place to maintain health, you can look at yourself, look at life, look at your circle in the past, look at those friends in the past, look at the people around you before, think about what you have done, in fact, people every once in a while, it is a good thing to leave the place where you often live, you can look at many things more objectively, you can perceive some things more objectively, that is a kind of experience, It's a process.

Today, I really want to write something, so I start to open up my memories, suffering is really a good thing, he can make you understand that life is so good. Suffering is also a powerful weapon that can wipe out all your compassion overnight. “

For many administrative units, the end of the fiscal year is a time to spend money on a surprise basis, and this year's budget cannot be spent, and it will not be easy to get so much money from next year's budget.

Therefore, if the project related to the administrative unit is operated well, it can effectively solve the problem of too long the link of funding and signing the contract at this time, and realize the order. After the project came to an end, Qinghe began to restart. During the pause period of the project, I tried my best to reach out to the people in the entire decision-making chain on the customer's side, but I still couldn't make a breakthrough. Just had a good chat with He Gong, He Gong is a very honest person, and helped me a lot throughout the project, but he didn't take a penny from me, or even a decent gift, in his words, "I feel that your child is not easy" In fact, it is not easy to get his approval, and when I took over the project, the preliminary communication has ended. Internally, they began to write various specifications of the system in preparation for the tender. When I went to visit him, he was very casual. Indeed, it is estimated that such a unit in charge of government informatization construction will have sales visits every day.

Once I was wandering around his office, he asked his subordinates about the configuration of IBM servers, this model of servers I had been in contact with when I was in radio and television, and I was very familiar with that series of small machines. I saw that his subordinates were about to call and ask about the manufacturer, so I took over the topic and told him everything he knew, and he was surprised. "Aren't you a salesman?" "That's right!" "Know so much about this? Sold before? "No, I almost sold it," I joked, "yes?" What's going on? He immediately became interested, and then we started talking, talking about my original company, talking about our project at that time, talking about our information port, we talked a lot that day, and went to eat together at a snack bar next to the city hall at night, and after the meal he insisted on paying, saying, "My salary is more than yours!" "A very casual word.

From that day on, we kept in touch frequently, he didn't see me as a salesman, I didn't see him as a customer, he just wanted to make a phone call, and one night, he called me and asked me where I was, saying that there was something he wanted to talk to me about. I rushed to Qinghe overnight, we found a café, he looked at me, quite calmly said: "Today we issued a bid, hardware bid." "Huh? Is it? Then I should go buy the tender tomorrow. "Let's save you some money, your company doesn't need to buy this bid." "What? Why?" I really didn't understand what he meant, "Your company has been excluded from this tender." He was still calm, and I was stunned, "Why?" "In terms of software, there are people in the city who say hello, and it is likely to use Southern Information, they do not make hardware standards, but claim that if your company makes hardware, you will definitely not cooperate well." I know this company very well, and it is a shortlisted manufacturer like us, and if we follow this model, we will lose all the software and hardware, which is too much. This is too much. I was stunned for a moment, but he was still calm, looked at me and said, "Some things are not as simple as you think. "This seems familiar, Yongli also said it." Then we're completely out of play? "As long as you don't mess with the hardware, that's a possibility." I'm even more confused, the software is set, and the hardware is not involved, so we don't even have leftovers, and there is nothing to say. In fact, later when I knew the inside story, I had to admire the operation methods of that hardware manufacturer, high, really high. Maybe many of my friends haven't seen the clue yet, which was also quite difficult for me at that time, "I want to know what I should do next?" "Static braking." That's the way it is, it should be said that although He Gong is engaged in technology, he has become the first teacher in my sales career, "The hardware investment is relatively large, but the profit is not high, you can't go up and grab that project." He took a sip of water, "Don't even go around looking for people and asking why you weren't invited to bid." "In the clouds, that's how I felt at the time, and I still didn't understand the situation until we separated.

Back at the hotel, I called several people in charge of the industry line, and everyone had a lot of opinions, many of which were suggestions such as being sure to find someone to ask clearly, but after all, these are just suggestions, and I am standing on the front line of sales, and I am going to face customers, what should I do??? That day, I tasted insomnia again...

The next morning, the first thing I did was to run to the door of the city hall, and when it came time to register at the gate, I hesitated. What am I going to do? Why didn't we get a bid? Or ask why the bid was not issued. Should I listen to He Gong? If I don't go, how can I explain to the company, I wandered around the door several times, the eyes of the guards at the door are estimated to have been on me, my brain began to run non-stop, and my brain was full of sweat in the winter, go? Or not going? What am I going to do?

It must have been a full hour in front of the city hall that day, and finally I decided to throw a coin, which is hilarious. But it was decided at the time, and I still have that coin, and no matter how many miles I walked, it was always by my side. The result of the first coin toss was not going, and I was not very willing, so I told myself to do it again. As a result, I still don't go, forget it, since it's already like this, let's go back. Back to the hotel, along the way I was absent-minded, my mind was very messy, now I look back carefully, I went at that time, the biggest possibility is that the director asked the director, why did not give us a bid, because our business relationship has been on the surface at the decision-making level, so there can not be much substantive progress, and then it may fall into a "complaint everywhere" charge, this situation in other projects later I have personally experienced, more importantly, lost the trust of He Gong.

The next problem I have to face is how to explain to the company, at that time I didn't know how to make up stories, in fact, to do sales is to be able to make up stories, because you have to maneuver between your own leaders and customers, but there are many times, the actual work progress and the company's regulations will cause conflicts, such as when you are still a junior salesperson, ask customers to call their leaders, ask for instructions. I believe that the company's sales staff with strict financial regulations have experienced this situation, which requires you to tell stories to your leaders.

Although I can tell the story now, I didn't know how to tell a story back then. After thinking about it, I decided to send an e-mail, and wrote the situation in general, basically the situation that He Gong told me yesterday, I didn't write who told me, so that the people who read the email felt as if they got the news from other channels, there was no way, so I wrote an email over and over again for more than an hour.

At that time, I didn't think of Yongli, but now that I think about it, if she had intervened at that time or through some of her father's connections, it would have been able to achieve a peak and turn around, and "fighting relationships" has become a theme in many project bidding. Strictly speaking, I couldn't be considered a qualified salesperson at that time, and in the face of that situation, my first thought was not to solve the problem, how to resolve the crisis, but how to explain to the company, which is not the thinking mode of an excellent salesperson.

From a sales point of view, even if the project is still likely to turn around, even if the project has entered the implementation stage, if you know how to "do everything", then you may turn defeat into victory. This is the mall, this is the blade of the sword.

In the afternoon, someone replied to the email, there were directly in the email to my work criticized, indeed, sales is not the process, is the result, look at not the cause, is the consequence, no matter what the situation is when you take over, no matter how you do, but as long as you do, the result comes out, then the result determines the evaluation of the surrounding people, that time, there should be more than 3 months. I have thought of a lot of ways to contact the customer side of the personnel, our company in the local customer relationship is still a relatively blank state, there is no systematic customer network, although the company's agents have some relationships, but the industry distance is too large, reusable ingredients are too few, the only thing that can bring us good news is that we are the central department of the shortlisted manufacturers.

I have sent something, I was rejected by someone, I touched the user's home, and I was deported. Looking back now, it can be regarded as exhaustive at that time, and the donkey skills were exhausted. Therefore, when facing the end customer, it is not easy at the beginning, and this stage is also the most difficult, there are many accidental factors that may appear, because at this time your ability to control the project is very weak, if the opponent happens to be very strong, and you lack an overall network support, then your situation will be quite difficult. At the same time, because you are a newcomer, the mutual trust with the company is still in the run-in period, and it is difficult to win support in all aspects such as expenses. I remember that at that time, my sales expenses were also quite limited, I forgot how much, my memory seemed to be 2K per month, fortunately, there was more turnover funds in my hands at that time, the reason was some income from other aspects, and these income came from the cooperation with the agents of Yongli Company.

During that time, the demand for laptops in the provincial capital entered an explosive period, which had a lot to do with the improvement of the country's overall economic situation at that time. It's a seller's market, and it's hard to find. As we all know, south of the Yangtze River, notebooks in many places come from a large market in BJ, and some brands of notebooks that Yongli can supply can be much cheaper than the bulk purchase price from BJ, which is about 20% lower in my impression, and the quality is also very guaranteed. One day, Jiale (mentioned above) came to me and said that he wanted to buy a batch of notebooks from Yongli Company, because I had been mixed with Jiale during that time, and I was too embarrassed to refuse.

After telling Yongli, she asked me to tell her the brand, model, and quantity of the notebook that Jiale needed, and a day later, she told me the price, and told me that the price was 10% lower than the price given to other agents, and I could add 10% to Jiale. I didn't hesitate to get the price, I just gave Jiale the price by adding 10%, Jiale the next day to pay the full amount to my account, that day when I inquired about the account, I felt a little not quite believe my eyes, that is also the largest amount of money I have seen as of that day, I carefully counted the zero behind, counted several times.

The transaction went very happily, one day at dinner, Jiale gave me a card and envelope, told me the password in the envelope, said thank you for helping him so much, I felt very guilty at the time, because I had taken a 10%, so repeatedly shirked, it was a sincere shirk. Although I don't know how much money is in it, but I don't think it can exceed the 10%, Jiale was very moved, and said, "Brother, you are a person who has seen a big scene, if you can afford me, this is a gift for you to recognize me as my brother, my greeting." If you look down on me, just throw this out on the street. "When it comes to this, there is nothing more to talk about, the next thing is to stagger, you come and go, brother and brother are not affectionate. That's really to the point where if anyone dares to get along with my brother, it's a realm that can't get along with me. If there were no later events, maybe it would be perfect, but unfortunately life is often not perfect.

I heard that Jiale later went to the south, went there to start from scratch again, and now he is working hard in another industry.