It was once said that "mindset determines everything, and skills and abilities determine victory or defeat." This not only highlights the importance of mindset but also reveals the crucial role that skills and abilities play in the final push for marketing personnel. So, in actual work, what kind of abilities should marketers possess to meet the increasingly complex demands of market conditions? Different people will have different insights and opinions on this issue. However, I believe that salespeople who want to become top experts in the marketing field must possess the following five abilities.
1. Adaptability: "Iron company, flowing marketers" is a common saying in our marketing world, reflecting from one side the uncertainty and instability of marketing personnel. In fact, even when working in the same company, marketing personnel often exhibit strong mobility due to frequent changes in workplace and environment. All these require marketers to have adaptability. Chairman Mao was able to found a new China and become a great leader because he could still write poetry gracefully after losing six family members and enduring 28 years of pain. Can marketing personnel face new environments, encounter new setbacks, and endure new challenges with composure and deal with them calmly? In real work life, facing the ever-changing market, marketing personnel often have to endure countless hardships, travel thousands of mountains and rivers, and say countless words. Choosing marketing as a career is equivalent to choosing a lifestyle of constant movement. As good marketers, they must have the ability to adapt. A well-said phrase goes like this: if you cannot change the environment, then you must adapt to it. From the internal environment of the enterprise, marketing personnel must first be able to adapt to the company, its corporate culture, operational philosophy, marketing strategy, humanistic environment, etc. From the external environment of the enterprise, marketing personnel should also be able to adapt to market needs, the development needs of distributors, local customs, etc. Only by adapting to the marketing profession, marketing life, and the internal and external environment of the enterprise can salespeople better position themselves, find their place, and thus discover the direction suitable for their own development.
2. Learning Ability: Marketing guru Jack Trout said in "The Marketing War": "The essence of today's marketing is not customer service, but winning in competition with intelligence, skill, and strength." Where does intelligence, skill, and strength come from? I believe it comes from learning, accumulating day by day, and "releasing accumulated energy."
In daily work, marketing personnel should "reflect on oneself three times a day" to grow faster. So, how can marketing personnel better reflect on themselves and continuously improve? An effective way is that marketing personnel must have the ability to "learn."
What to learn? On a large scale, they should learn national policies, relevant economic laws, macro and microeconomic policies to "arm" themselves strategically. On a smaller scale, marketing personnel should understand industry environments, market situations, future trends, etc., by continuously learning from books, practice, experience, and competitors, thereby knowing both oneself and others, ensuring invincibility in hundreds of battles. Moreover, marketing personnel should systematically learn management, marketing, psychology, public relations, etc., with an empty cup and zero mindset, improving their knowledge structure to transition from specialists to generalists and eventually to versatile talents, adapting to the increasingly complex market situation and achieving a stunning transformation from a cocoon to a butterfly.
3. Comprehension Ability: There was a salesperson who couldn't find customers, thinking they couldn't continue, so they submitted their resignation to the manager. The manager pulled them to a window facing the street and asked what they saw. They replied, "People," and nothing else. The manager asked again, "Still people?" The salesperson answered, "Yes." The manager said, "Among these people, don't you see our potential customers?" The salesperson suddenly realized and immediately withdrew their resignation. In real sales work, we need this comprehension ability.
Many marketing people have read "A Letter to Garcia." The reason Lieutenant Rowan was able to successfully deliver the letter to General Garcia, I believe, besides his hardworking and self-challenging spirit, was due to his extraordinary comprehension ability. Outstanding marketing personnel, in addition to having superlative learning abilities, must also possess exceptional comprehension abilities.
Confucius once said in "The Analects," "Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous." It means that good scholars not only learn but also think and comprehend. In practical work, marketing personnel should integrate what they've learned, apply theory to practice, refine theory through practice, and finally transform theory and practice into their own understanding. Through continuous comprehension and improvement, let their experience and theory become increasingly perfect and mature, elevating themselves fundamentally and intrinsically.
4. Flexibility: A classic saying goes well, "The only thing that never changes is change," which reflects the dialectical materialist view. Looking at the history of marketing evolution, from McCarthy's 4P (product, price, channel, promotion) proposed in 1960 to today's popular integrated marketing 4C (customer, cost, convenience, communication), all demonstrate the characteristic of "change." In reality, when times and markets change, the thinking of marketing personnel must change accordingly.
So, how to cultivate the flexibility of marketing personnel so they can remain unchanged amidst myriad changes? I believe the shaping of marketing personnel's flexibility should be based on a detailed understanding and grasp of market conditions. By observing the "clues" left by competitors in the market, insight into their movements, speculate on their psychology, see the big picture from small signs, plan carefully before acting, and guide strategies to avoid sharp edges, find flaws, and hit weak points, using "their methods against them" to achieve strategic goals of planning in the tent and deciding battles miles away.
5. Innovation Ability: Everyone has heard the story of "Selling Combs to Monks." In the story, four different salespersons achieved four completely different sales results through four different operational methods. From selling the least amount of more than ten combs to selling several thousand and even getting orders, why are the outcomes so vastly different? It's due to innovation ability.
Future trends in the marketing industry will manifest in three aspects: channel innovation, decisive terminal, and human share. Among these, channel innovation takes precedence.
Nowadays, market conditions are ever-changing, yet marketing models are becoming increasingly similar. Therefore, as excellent marketing personnel who want to remain undefeated in future markets, they must possess innovation capabilities. Through innovation, create distance from competitors, highlight their characteristics and individuality, find unique selling propositions (USP), making their products, channels, ideas, strategies, etc., stand out individually and emerge prominently. At the same time, marketing personnel should promptly convert their good ideas into "productivity," showcasing excellent performance in the market, distinguishing their operational model from other competing products, thereby achieving rapid and efficient development.
These five abilities complement each other and enhance each other. Only by possessing these five abilities can marketing personnel be flexible and versatile in future market competitions, win every battle, always stay ahead of the times, become the tide-riders of the new era and the strongest players in the market, and truly deserve the honorable title of marketer.