The Power of Audit, Coaching, and Restructuring Marketing and Sales in China
Navigating the complex Business landscape of China’s market requires more than just a “conventional” approach to marketing and sales.
As businesses expand their footprint in this dynamic market, many find themselves partnered with marketing agencies and bolstered by robust internal teams. However, when anticipated results falter and strategic gaps widen, a reevaluation of marketing and sales infrastructure becomes imperative. This article explores the transformative approach of auditing, coaching, and restructuring marketing and sales strategies to realign with the overarching business objectives and market dynamics.
The Prevailing Challenges Many international companies in China face a common set of challenges that impede their growth and effectiveness:
- Existing Agency Relationships: Companies often stick with their existing marketing agencies, even when the results are suboptimal, due to the comfort and familiarity of established relationships.
- Internal Team Limitations: Internal teams, while knowledgeable about the brand, may lack local market insights or the flexibility needed to adapt quickly to the changing Chinese consumer landscape.
- Financial Constraints: The high costs associated with maintaining or expanding internal teams can strain budgets, particularly when results don’t justify the investment.
- Past Disappointments: Previous unsatisfactory experiences with marketing agencies can deter firms from seeking external help, fearing a repeat of poor outcomes.
A Strategic Solution To overcome these challenges, businesses must consider a structured approach encompassing audit, coaching, and restructuring:
- Comprehensive Audit: Begin with a thorough audit of existing marketing and sales strategies. This diagnostic phase will help identify the disconnects between current practices and the targeted outcomes. An audit also provides a benchmark against industry standards and competitive practices.
- Expert Coaching: Post-audit, engaging in expert coaching sessions for your internal team can bridge knowledge gaps, particularly in areas requiring nuanced understanding of the Chinese market. Coaching by seasoned professionals can rejuvenate your team’s approach and infuse new thinking and tactics aligned with local preferences and behaviors.
- Restructuring Strategies: Based on insights derived from the audit and coaching phases, restructuring your marketing and sales strategy is a natural progression. This may involve realigning goals, introducing new marketing technologies, overhauling campaign strategies, or streamlining processes to enhance agility and responsiveness.
Implementation and Integration Successfully implementing these changes requires careful integration with your company’s culture and operational framework. Change management practices should be employed to ensure smooth adoption and minimal disruption. Furthermore, continuous monitoring and adjustment of new strategies will be crucial to maintaining relevance and effectiveness in an evolving market.
Conclusion In the face of unsatisfactory results and challenging market dynamics, simply adjusting old methods is not sufficient. Companies must boldly reassess their marketing and sales blueprint through comprehensive audits, targeted coaching, and strategic restructuring. By doing so, businesses can achieve alignment with the unique demands of the Chinese market, leading to improved performance and sustained growth.
Remember, the landscape of marketing and sales in China is perpetually evolving.
Staying ahead means being ready to rethink, relearn, and revamp strategies continually. Your journey towards marketing excellence in China isn’t just about adaptation; it’s about transformation.
GMA can help them optimize their costs and results via:
Audit:
– Business Performance :
– Point out obvious dysfunctions
– Point out areas for improving results
– Education/awareness of the KPIs to be achieved / budget spent
– Point out the disparity in the budget spent on ads (employee under commission by chosen provider)
– Recommendation on the choice of platforms to favour / budget allocation
– Analyzing and making recommendations on their relations with external providers (KOL / Tmall / Dianping …)
– HR Audit:
– Point out the dysfunctions distribution of tasks/responsibilities (we can find roles for each task but not tasks assigned to roles)
– Recommendation dismissal of non-performing employees
– Internal reorganization of marketing teams
Coaching / Training:
Recover the shortcomings seen in the audit to train the teams in different possible formats:
– Full-time: 2 weeks (for example)
– 1 day per week (over a month or two)
If you are interested , Feel free to contact us
