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Last year, the distribution contract amounts for Hua’an City were as follows:
Hongtu Liquor Industry 4 million, Sifang Construction 2 million, Wenxiu Grand Hotel 1 million, Huaqian City’s circulation channels 500,000, Weipu City’s circulation channels 500,000.
Total: 8 million.
The actual payment amounts corresponded as follows:
Hongtu Liquor Industry 3.2 million, including group purchases 700,000, catering 700,000, supermarkets 400,000, circulation 600,000, premium tobacco and alcohol 800,000;
Sifang Construction, a single group purchase channel, paid back 1.5 million;
Wenxiu Grand Hotel, a single catering channel, paid back 800,000;
Both circulation distributors fully paid back the amount.
Total payment: 6.5 million.
This is real data that Lu Nan had already memorized even before she took her position in Hua’an City.
To ordinary people, hundreds of thousands or even millions may seem like a lot, but for the liquor industry, in a developed southeastern coastal province, the sales of just a single prefecture-level city being this low is simply “poor.”
Although, compared to this, Hailin City, the provincial capital, didn’t fare much better either.
It’s somewhat like a situation where everyone is in a bind.
More importantly, all the city managers in the province did not feel that such sales were unacceptable. Their established mindset constantly told them that, although this province has a developed economy, the alcohol atmosphere has never been very good. While Yuan Chuan may not be able to compare with the national liquor brands, its sales within the province are still decent.
It seemed as though just saying that the atmosphere was bad made it acceptable for a city to have only sales in the low millions or even just hundreds of thousands.
However, Lu Nan, being from the future, knew the direction the industry was heading in the next few years.
Due to the influence of government anti-corruption measures, even national liquor brands would need to strengthen their channel strategies. If Yuan Chuan Liquor Sales Company’s staff still believed that being associated with a well-known brand would keep them safe, they were very much mistaken.
This year, Lu Nan had a plan, and even Chen Xiao’s offhand remark pointed to her plan’s timeframe: two years.
She needed two years to reshape the white liquor market in Hua’an City.
If successful, Hua’an would be a standout achievement on her resume.
If not—Lu Nan would not allow such a possibility!
This was why she actively leveraged Chen Xiao’s influence and made sure to leave a good impression in front of Director Wu of the current management, not just an impression of “outstanding drinking ability.”
In this case, she could not be vague like Zhang Fei.
As fellow salespeople, who couldn’t tell the difference between empty words and genuine commitments? No matter how sincere it sounded, vague promises were still just empty talk.
Lu Nan did not regard Zhang Fei highly. After a moment’s consideration, she turned to Wu Chuan and said, “Director Wu, I have a preliminary plan. I intend to increase the total contract amount and total payment amount for Hua’an City by over 50% this year.”
Wu Chuan repeated, “50%? You’re talking about both the contract amount and the payment amount?”
“Yes,” Lu Nan answered firmly.
When she said this, the city managers in the meeting room were still present, and the room instantly buzzed with discussions.
After the New Year, these old city managers had attended the headquarters’ annual meeting, where the new year’s tasks roughly required: a 40% increase in distribution contract amounts and a 20% increase in payment amounts compared to the previous year—of course, these were not hard rules, and some special markets were allowed to slow down a little.
However, this province was not on the list of “special exceptions,” and Wu Chuan had previously asked everyone to make annual plans for the province. These seasoned managers were familiar with their cities, and they only slightly adjusted the figures from the headquarters’ targets, not daring to raise them too much—just a small increase, mainly as a favor to the new provincial general director.
It is widely known that increasing the contract amount is never as difficult as increasing the actual payment amount.
After all, the contract amount is just paper figures, but it’s the actual payments from distributors that reflect a city manager’s true abilities.
After hearing the third point in the red-headed file, some people even considered privately speaking with Wu Chuan to lower the figures they had reported earlier.
After all, who in sales hasn’t had to push distributors to stock up?
The former city manager of Hua’an, Old Liu, didn’t he give a hard push to Sifang Construction, a distributor in another industry, just before leaving?
Now, Wang Xinglong of Hailin City is also using tricks to get payments back from the cross-industry liquor distributor, Green Trading.
If inventory pressure is strictly enforced this year, everyone here must focus on clearing stock.
After all, unsold stock means no payments.
Now, with this new manager Lu Nan carrying the new file, is she genuinely capable, or perhaps a bit too eager to prove herself? Or maybe she’s just a newcomer who’s too eager to make an impression?
In any case, the veteran city managers were not very optimistic, and even Wang Xinglong, who knew Lu Nan’s abilities, raised an eyebrow.
Zhang Fei chuckled, “Manager Lu is making such a bold move; it’s really adding pressure on me.”
Lu Nan turned and smiled, “Manager Zhang, your view seems a bit narrow. We’re all colleagues. Healthy competition between cities is a good thing. The more goods sold and payments collected, the better it is for the provincial office. At the end of the year, our performance scores won’t just be based on sales and payments from our cities; part of the score is also related to the overall completion of the provincial office’s tasks. So, we should compete with the products of our competing companies in the regions we oversee. After all, the white liquor market in a city is limited. Ignoring natural growth and inflation, the market share for white liquor sales in a prefecture-level city every year is fixed.”
“Manager Lu…” Zhang Fei seemed like he wanted to say something.
“No need to thank me. I believe, with your many years as a city manager, you understand such simple reasoning,” Lu Nan said politely, always with a smile, yet her words carried a hidden sting.
Zhang Fei’s nostrils flared as he struggled to maintain his image of being straightforward and generous: “What I mean is, Manager Lu, don’t you think your target plan might be a bit too high? If you do this, it’ll be hard for the senior managers to save face.”
Whether it’s high or low, Lu Nan didn’t feel the need to explain herself to someone of the same rank.
However, Zhang Fei’s obvious attempt to stir up conflict was quite effective.
Lu Nan, who preferred not to make enemies, still gave people like Old Wang some face: “I’m new here, and I want to achieve results faster. To expand the market, I may have a more aggressive approach. The other city managers have been deeply involved in their local markets for years, so their approach is more cautious, starting from a ‘stable’ position, which is just a different style of doing things. Does having a different style mean we’re not giving each other face? Manager Zhang often says things I don’t quite agree with, but perhaps it’s because I’m still young, and there’s a generational gap between us.”
You’re joking, I’m joking—if you take it seriously, you lose.
After Lu Nan said this, the expressions of the city managers in the room improved. They quickly supported her words, reclaiming their dignity: that’s right, they were all experienced workers, and of course, they valued stability. Unlike Manager Lu, who’s burning with ambition like a new official, especially since she’s the only female city manager in the province, so the pressure is considerable.
Some people even started jokingly mocking Zhang Fei: “Manager Zhang, did you hear that? You and Manager Lu have a generation gap!”
It was clear to everyone that Zhang Fei had been trying to stir things up earlier.
They had stayed silent earlier, but now they were fueling the situation.
It wasn’t that they were fence-sitters; it was just that after Manager Lu had given them a cover, they felt emboldened and were now waiting to see a clash between the two new city managers for some entertainment.
Lu Nan quickly stopped the flattery from the city managers and turned to Wu Chuan: “Director Wu, I have some preliminary ideas. Would it be possible to discuss them in your office?”
The meeting room was noisy, and a group of seasoned veterans seemed intent on causing trouble, making it really not the right place for discussions. Wu Chuan nodded: “Okay.”
Once they were in Wu Chuan’s office, Lu Nan closed the door and took out a set of documents from her bag. Inside, there was:
Each sales report came with line charts, making the data not only clear but visually easy to compare.
Wu Chuan took the file and read it seriously for ten minutes. After finishing, he looked up and said to Lu Nan, “Manager Lu, you’ve put a lot of thought into this. It’s well done.”
Gathering this data wasn’t just time-consuming—it also required her team’s genuine cooperation. Otherwise, as a newly appointed city manager with no subordinates, she couldn’t have pulled together such comprehensive stats in just three days.
Lu Nan only smiled, waiting for her superior to continue.
As expected, Wu Chuan continued: “I’ve looked at your conclusions and the key focus areas for this year. Don’t you think some of them are a bit too decisive? The company has always placed the greatest emphasis on promoting the classic wines.”
Lu Nan’s conclusion was that markets like Hua’an should focus on promoting Yuan Chuan Tequ and small-circulation liquors. She also suggested slightly relaxing requirements for recruiting partners and encouraging healthy competition within the same city and channel.
This wasn’t exactly in line with the mainstream marketing philosophy of Yuan Chuan, but when Lu Nan heard Wu Chuan’s words, she wasn’t impatient. It was simply a matter of objective questioning.
I think I can still persuade him.
After all, she had worked under him in her previous life.
To put it this way: If Wu Chuan lacked innovation or courage, the headquarters wouldn’t have sent him to “rescue” the almost hopeless Qianjiang Province.
“Director Wu, I believe my idea is worth trying. After all, in just one month, Hua’an’s sales increased by more than 20% compared to the same period last year. Among them, the sales of Tequ and small circulation bottles saw even larger growth, exceeding 33%. Given these results, I think it’s entirely reasonable to request increased funding for Tequ and small-circulation. I hope you can approve this. This is also the prerequisite for the sales contract and payment return targets I mentioned in the meeting—both increasing by over 50%,” Lu Nan said seriously.
Fifty percent.
Wu Chuan pondered: “Is the data authentic?”
Lu Nan nodded seriously.
“Let me think about it… I’ll keep this data for now,” Wu Chuan sighed. “Manager Lu, you’ve really given me a tough one.”
xiaocaojade[Translator]
Kindly refer to the synopsis in the comment section of the book for the unlocking schedule. Thank you! 😊