What happened to Motorola?

I have read a lot of comments, almost all of which evaluate Motorola's product design and market positioning strategy, and think that the main mistakes are: 1). Products do not take into account the rapidly changing and rapidly differentiated consumer needs. 2). Only rely on V3 to conquer the world, the follow-up products can't get rid of the shadow of V3, and the whole line is out of date. 3). Excessive pursuit of share, in the case that the cost is not fully competitive, it is not profitable to engage in low-end products. I agree with this statement, just as I agree with 1+ 1=2. A company that locates the mass market, without sufficient product line width and good cost control, will naturally have problems in its performance. This truth is obvious. I used so many "senior experts" to make so many lengthy comments. I am a smelly salesman, and I can't comment on a company's product strategy because I can't influence it. What happens around us is trivial things in sales, which affects the performance of a company and is also the most difficult thing for a company to improve. These factors are very important. Motorola's channel strategy has been unclear and vacillating. The reason is a "lazy". In essence, Motorola simply believes that as long as there are good products, money will come. As long as there are "good products", money will keep flowing. The idea is that people in China couldn't make mobile phones many years ago, and the demand for mobile phones is far greater than the product of the supply era. In addition, the huge cash settlement requirements have led to only a few large companies being able to do business with Motorola, thus fostering a "big country package" like Yin Tian Equipment Company. Of course, Motorola is also very happy. There is a big shot in the factory, and everything will be fine. Mobile phones are not for sale anyway. Motorola is too lazy to talk business with many people. In fact, Nokia was the same at that time. No matter how many promoters and customer representatives you saw in the store and on the street, these people were not the protagonists. The real protagonists are the people at the headquarters. For example, the national sales director, the manager of the company's channel department, and the owner of the agent used to play mobile phones like this. Until around 2004, if you ask how many retail stores in Motorola market are selling mobile phones, where their mobile phones come from and how many mobile phones they can sell in a month, I will tell you an amazing answer: Motorola itself doesn't know. Because Motorola is used to letting several big agents handle everything, who the specific agents are sold to, Motorola is not clear, or didn't care at first. This reminds me of a saying that Carrefour often says, "Behind a huge brand, there is often an ignorant sales representative." At that time, Nokia was similar, but not much better. Unforeseen things happen. When foreign brands are lazily counting money, domestic machines rise in the first round, representing brands Bird, TCL, Konka, CECT and Amoi. The people of China have always been diligent. These brands began to operate their own retail stores and secondary markets. They didn't find a big agent to help them sell, but made it themselves. This move really worked, and the market share of foreign brands came down on the spot. Of course, domestic brands went downhill later, so I won't say much here. Faced with the same dilemma at that time, Motorola and Nokia chose different paths. Nokia realized that China is a retail-dominated market. Nokia China became independent and began to set up its own sales team, no longer relying on big agents in its bones. Motorola is "lucky". The decline of domestic brands and the sales growth of Motorola's follow-up products "helped" Motorola out of the predicament at that time. After the rain cleared, we saw the rainbow. V3 went on the market and sold well. So Motorola told itself, "We didn't have any products before. At the beginning, the domestic machine relied on a chord ringtone, color screen and flip screen, which just caught up with our products. Now you see, we have core technology and we will lead. " In this way, in China, a retail market, Nokia put on rubber shoes and went to the countryside, while Motorola adjusted its tie and fiddled with the coffee in the cup. Of course, in addition to agents, there is also a customer and operator that Motorola and Nokia attach great importance to. In foreign countries, mobile phone sales mainly rely on operators, who bundle communication fees into mobile phone sales to provide consumers with a package of services. The fundamental starting point is also the free competition of foreign operators, which leads operators to hope to gain profits from all aspects related to communication. In fact, in China, operators are far from reaching that level, and our operators don't care about the gross profit of selling mobile phones. Roaming short messages alone make their hands cramp, not to mention that the cost of building a network was nationwide at the beginning, and users also paid a lot of access fees. Therefore, it will take a long time for operators to fully grasp the mobile phone market in China. Facing the opening of WTO, it is urgent for operators not to monopolize mobile phone sales. But Motorola doesn't think so. Americans always stand on the head of people all over the world to educate everyone. The "advanced model" of the United States and Europe is bound to be copied to developing countries like China soon. Now I have a big agent in Motorola to help me, and the operator will help me soon. At present, these "piecemeal" retail stores on the market will not live long. It is not worth building a sales team for this retail store. Buying and selling at a loss is a foolish thing. I won't do it. Therefore, in Motorola's bones, it is important for big agents and operators, and the retail market will perish sooner or later. Unexpectedly, those who "should perish" did not die, but thrived and hung the banner of Nokia one by one. It never rains but it pours. Bad news came from the broker. I'm here to simulate a dialogue, and everyone should entertain with cross talk. Motorcycles: We need to pick up 400,000 sets this month. Let's get the money ready tomorrow, shall we? Agent: 400,000 sets, no, no, no, that's what I came here to tell you today. I don't have much money in my account now Motorcycle: Did you bring all your money to Nokia? ! ! Agent: Business is not good now. I can't live on a motorcycle. You see, I have 700,000 sets in stock now. When can I sell them out? Motorcycles: No, these 400,000 sets are the task of the company. Don't ask me how to work. Agent: If I can't clear my inventory, I can't turn over money. You have to help me clear the inventory, otherwise I really can't lift the motorcycle. How can I help you if you act as an agent and don't take the initiative to sell? ! ! Agent: Wrong. Who said I wouldn't take the initiative to sell it? I sacrificed all the rebates you gave me and my own gross profit. Now we lose 300 yuan for each set. If I don't sell it like this, it will be even worse. Now that my money has not been settled, you will bet me 400 thousand sets this month. There's really no way. "Motorcycle what did you say? ! ! Agent: Let's adjust the price. The company will lower the retail price, and the sales will be better, so that we can deliver the goods. Motorcycle: You know the market better, so it is appropriate to lower the retail price. Agent: Let's reduce the retail price by 450, so I expect to digest 300,000 more motorcycles this month. I'm working hard myself, otherwise I really can't lift the 400 thousand motorcycle you mentioned. Ok, the retail price will be reduced by 4.5 million from tomorrow. Agent: That's good. The difference of 700 thousand machines in my warehouse is 450. When will you supply me? Motorcycle: Deduct it from your shipment of 400,000 units this month. If you don't pick up the goods, you won't get the deduction agent: Yes, we will try our best to push it. Now the price is reduced by 450. We are confident that you can understand why motorcycle machines dive so fast and hate it. I don't know if there are so many agents in stock, and I don't know how much Motorola pays the agents to make up the difference. I only know that Motorola lost money in the end, and big agents like Yin Tian Equipment went public. Maybe someone in Motorola is reading this article, ready to refute it, saying that Motorola attaches importance to retail stores and has developed many direct supply stores, which are directly managed by Motorola. I admit that there are many such stores, but they are essentially different from Nokia's direct stores. In Motorola, these direct supply stores are forced to come into being, but these stores have developed sufficiently, and the big agents can no longer negotiate on an equal footing, and they can not meet the requirements in terms of system and price. In addition, Nokia's direct supply is the first, and it has made great advantages in stores. Motorola has to take over, instead of developing retail, and it is unwilling to take care of itself. Today, Motorola's performance and cooperation in these stores are far less than Nokia's. Therefore, Motorola's channel policy has not been clearly defined. For a long time, the purpose of Motorola's development of new channels is to make up for its blind pursuit of share without the support of stable retail volume. For example, if Motorola takes out 100 units and the agent can produce 700,000 units, then the remaining 300,000 units will be made up by others. Therefore, in Motorola's channel system, there has been a direct supply from the country to the province, and even a new FD channel has been added today. Everyone takes several machines, and a retail store faces many "Motorola people". Various promotion models and implementation mechanisms have begun to suppress each other. Retail stores are often confused, and the retail foundation is naturally weak, leaving an unstable reputation in the industry. Do you think such a machine can sell well? The food is eaten bit by bit, and the goods are sold one by one. I think Motorola should be aware of the problems existing in the past channels. Since 2005, Motorola's local sales staff began to increase, and began to timidly talk about business with retail stores. You may wonder why it is timid. I tell you, of course, because these sales representatives who want to talk business with retail stores used to stand at the counter and sell mobile phone shopping guides, or they didn't sell goods at all. They are just assistants who are responsible for putting up posters, distributing promotional gifts and counting sales data. Today, I suddenly asked them to talk business with the retail store owner. These bosses did it today, and they all climbed out of the crowd. Maybe people who can eat more or less in the local black and white road can not be timid. People are trained, so am I at first, but Motorola did something out of line and was extremely naive in the process of establishing this sales team. The construction process lasted for almost two years, and the process is as follows: 1) As mentioned above, the feedback from letting shopping guides and assistants do things that they are unable to do well is naturally very disappointing, but Motorola does not think so. Motorola thinks that these people's sense of ownership is not enough, so they turn a large number of shopping guides and assistants into direct employees of Motorola from the employment relationship entrusted by the talent exchange center, thinking that this can stimulate their enterprising spirit, stabilize the team and wait for better performance. But in fact, it didn't work. If you used to do odd jobs, you are still worried that you may be dismissed at any time because of poor performance. Now, with a contract in hand, Motorola has become a full-time employee, stable, relieved and not afraid. 2) With the first round of expansion and customized management, the structure has changed. In this change, the team's mentality is worth pondering. No matter in which structure, the regional managers (full-time employees, director level) have not changed. Hehe, it has been leading the revolutionary masses since ancient times, and so has Motorola. The original provincial manager position (formal employee, sales manager level) disappeared, and neither did the city manager (informal employee) nor the position previously led by the provincial manager. Instead, there are two formal employee positions at the same level, account manager and retail manager. So you see that the original provincial manager was "demoted", and the original city manager not only changed his position, but also became brothers with the original leader, and everyone had the same level. Do you think the city manager who is guided by the counter still has the motivation to climb up to the regional manager? If so, the reality shattered their dreams, because almost no provincial managers came up, all of them were airborne soldiers or "high-level people" recruited from other departments within the company. If the former provincial manager still had a dream of striving for the position of regional manager, it has now been completely shattered, and foreign recruitment is not considered. Now you should be careful when you talk to your former subordinates. People are on the same level as you. What is more unbalanced is that these provincial managers are also recruited from outside. In such a strange and mixed "manager-level" team, can you imagine whether people with such different educational backgrounds, professional qualities, enterprising spirit and cultural qualities are consistent in their original intentions and performances in the face of tremendous pressure and tedious daily work, and whether they can achieve tacit teamwork? What is more amazing about Motorola is the idea of this mixed management team, not the two new positions we just mentioned, namely, account manager and retail manager. They are two people at the same level, except that the account manager is responsible for talking with the customer about the purchase order, and the retail manager is responsible for holding the counter guide in his hand to do daily in-store sales-related things. According to Motorola, we are forming a professional team. Some people just sell their products to customers, while others just sell all the products in the store to consumers. Moreover, the performance measurement indicators of the two people are different. Motorola said: "No, there will be team spirit between them, and we Motorola also ask them to do so. This is Motorola's "professional retail" team in the process of turning to retail. For this reason, the whole sales team has expanded enrollment, and many newcomers have neither been fully trained nor know the ins and outs. They are at a loss in such an undercurrent team. A large number of enrollment expansion has brought a lot of cost increases, but the actual business has been declining rapidly, which simply cannot support such a team size. Therefore, large-scale layoffs began, less than eight months before and after.