In recent years, affected by factors such as overcapacity, consumption upgrading, channel fission, and stricter environmental protection, the building and ceramics industry has entered an unprecedented downturn. Enterprise suspensions, production restrictions, liquidations, bankruptcies, and closures have become the norm. It is not uncommon for dealers to be eliminated.
When exploring why dealers are eliminated, there may be many reasons behind them, but the most critical ones are the common “three major flaws.”
First, the channels are weak: the channels are single but not profound
In recent years, especially since 2018, the proportion of finely decorated houses has continued to increase, and the trend of complete decoration has emerged strongly, which has caused huge changes in the terminal channels of the building and ceramics industry, and the retail market has gradually shrunk. At the same time, under the combined effect of various factors, the reshuffle of the building ceramics industry has further intensified, and the Matthew Effect has begun to become prominent.
On the one hand, some leading ceramic companies rely on their strong comprehensive strength to sink channels, reduce dimensionality, acquire and merge, expand production, embrace the capital market, and cross-border alliances... not only in emerging channels such as finely decorated houses and complete decoration It has made rapid progress on the Internet and further expanded its market share in traditional channels. On the other hand, many dealers of waist and tail ceramic enterprises that mainly focus on retailing have a single channel and are not sophisticated enough. Their ability to adapt to the market and resist risks is very weak. The already squeezed retail market share is gradually declining. Being cannibalized by the dealers of large companies.
In recent years, affected by factors such as overcapacity, consumption upgrading, channel fission, and stricter environmental protection, the building and ceramics industry has entered an unprecedented downturn. Enterprise suspensions, production restrictions, liquidations, bankruptcies, and closures have become the norm. It is not uncommon for dealers to be eliminated.
When exploring why dealers are eliminated, there may be many reasons behind them, but the most critical ones are the common “three major flaws.”
The second is weak service: few services and lack of standards
As we all know, the concentration level of the building ceramics industry is very low. The number of companies has remained at around 500 a year for a long time, and the number of brands is tens of thousands. However, the ceramic tiles developed and produced by most companies are similar, and the phenomenon of homogeneity is very high. universal. In the era of incremental markets, as long as there is goods in the inventory, there is no need to worry about not being able to sell them. Therefore, both ceramic companies and dealers have always focused on products over services, and are unwilling to put too much effort into services.
With the era of stock marketWith the arrival of the epidemic, the problem of overcapacity in the building ceramics industry has gradually become serious, further intensifying competition among ceramics companies, brands and dealers. At the same time, the problem of homogenization of ceramic tiles has become increasingly serious. A variety of brands, uniform colors, and difficult-to-judge quality have confused and entangled consumers who already know little about ceramic tiles, which are low-profile products. Therefore, the brand's visibility, reputation, influence and dealer's service reputation often become important criteria for consumers to choose ceramic tiles.
Many ceramic companies and their dealers have seen this for a long time and have taken the lead in serving consumers. These ceramic companies and dealers use services to create differentiated competitiveness, or it is a bottom-up unconscious behavior. Starting from some powerful dealers, they are learned and referenced by the brand headquarters, and then to other dealers across the country. Promotion; or a top-down conscious behavior, where the brand headquarters sets standards and promotes them to dealers across the country. However, those ceramic enterprises and their dealers who have been weak in terms of service are still indifferent to this, or because they have been "boiling the frog in warm water" for too long, they are unable to change even if they see and actually encounter a crisis.
However, times are about to eliminate who never say hello in advance.
The era of demographic dividend has long passed, and the era of popular dividend has arrived. If you want to occupy a place in the ceramic tile market in the new era, providing good services with user thinking is an inevitable step for dealers to survive and develop.
Moreover, dealers must follow ceramic companies into engineering and assembly channels and transform from dealers to service providers. Service is an indispensable capability; and doing well in emerging channels such as engineering and assembly requires brand awareness, reputation and influence. As a backing, service is one of the important means to build brand reputation.
Third, the team is weak, with poor combat power or no one available
In the current building ceramics industry, dealers must make timely changes to cope with the crisis caused by channel fission and market reshuffle, so as to gain hope for survival and development. If the channel is single but not deep, it is possible to develop other channels or make existing channels more refined and deeper; if there are few services and lack of standards, there are still opportunities to expand service content, formulate service standards and implement them. However, without a team, nothing is possible.
So why was the team not so important to dealers before the huge changes in the ceramic tile market?
When the ceramic tile market is booming, dealers can make business even without a strong team.Did a great job. Because at that time, when selling ceramic tiles, you could achieve good results by relying only on traditional retail channels. All you had to do was sit in the store and wait for customers to come to your door. What attracts consumers to the door may be the high visibility, reputation and strong influence of the brand operated by the dealer, or the good location occupied by its store; there is no need for excessive sales skills and no need to do everything possible to open up store retail. Other channels such as communities, foremen, designers, home decoration, renovation, and engineering do not need to be customer-centered to provide refined services and value-added services.
Because of this, many dealers who opened "mom and pop shops" at that time were able to develop vigorously; and because of this, most dealers were intoxicated in the "simple and beautiful era" without knowing it.
After the ceramic tile market entered the stock era, the environment faced by dealers took a turn for the worse. At this time, those dealers with relatively weak channels and services were suddenly awakened. Without change and transformation, there would be no future; but at the same time, they also discovered that if the team is too weak, that is, the combat effectiveness is too low or even unavailable, any changes and changes must be made. Transformation is difficult, or there is no way out at all, let alone managing new species such as rock slabs and new multi-category integrated businesses that pay special attention to services. The so-called "performance is easy to come by, but a team is hard to find" refers to this kind of sadness.
Fighting alone is a thing of the past, only teamwork has a future. In the ever-changing ceramic tile market, without a team that is ready to fight and win, dealers will inevitably suffer. Abandonment of the times.
The "three major flaws" mentioned in this article mainly exist on dealers, but they are also closely related to ceramic companies and brands. When dealers are eliminated, the ceramic companies and brands they join are also to blame.
If you want to survive and develop through change and transformation, factories and businesses must work together to share weal and woe!
