KC | Chapter 16

The morning sky was a clear, washed blue. Chen Xi stood at the base of Lihua Building, gazing toward the distant horizon. The future was like a far-off place floating with mist, blurred and hard to make out.

Chen Xi did not know which client he would sign next, did not know whether the clients he signed would keep cooperating, and was unsure what would happen in the future. The only thing he could be certain of was: I have to keep working, I need money.

The aunt who pushed a breakfast cart downstairs from the company smiled broadly when she saw Chen Xi from a distance. “Young man, do you want a jianbing or a roujiamo?”

“Roujiamo, just make it the usual way.” Chen Xi walked up to the breakfast cart and scanned to pay.

“Alright!” The meat and eggs were already fried. The aunt worked quickly, and in less than half a minute it was done. She handed the finished roujiamo to Chen Xi and asked, “Young man, I haven’t seen you lately?”

“I was feeling a little unwell, but I’m better now.” Chen Xi smiled and went upstairs, holding the roujiamo.

Lanhai did not allow employees to eat at their desks. Chen Xi usually arrived 10 minutes early and took his breakfast to the conference room to eat, but today he had missed a subway train, and there were less than 5 minutes left.

Chen Xi quickly opened his computer, slipped into the conference room, and finished the roujiamo in just a few bites. By the time he left the conference room, the morning exercise music had just started. At the same time, the computer, which booted up agonizingly slowly, had finally reached the clock-in screen. Chen Xi clocked in and did the exercises in one smooth motion, and his timing was extremely precise. He thought: I got choked up enough by that roujiamo, if I had one more minute, it would be nice if I could drink a mouthful of water.

After the morning meeting, it was still Wang Shuang’s product knowledge training, and Lin Yiran, the absentee representative, still had not come to the company today.

“Today, let’s talk about the difference between display ads and performance conversion ads. First, from the literal meaning, display ads are high-exposure ads, which help the client build brand image. Performance ads are ads where, once launched, the effect has to be visible, helping the client obtain customer resources and achieve conversion.” Wang Shuang had 10 years of sales management experience, and she had long memorized product knowledge word for word, so her training was very solid.

“Display ads include elevator ads, bus wraps, taxi signs, building ads, and so on. Performance conversion ads include platform media ads, vertical media ads, mostly online platforms.” What Wang Shuang said was understood by all the KAs present, but none of them could explain it systematically. Because the client’s needs were often very single-minded, either they wanted strong brand focus, or they wanted to squeeze every operation method for results. Clients who needed a brand-and-performance integrated marketing solution were very rare.

“The company is now advocating selling display ads. Does anyone know why?” Wang Shuang liked interacting with the KAs during training, to narrow the distance between herself and the employees.

Li Hua said, “Because they can bring in big money!”

Ma Longfei added, “Because the clients who do display ads aren’t short of money!”

Zhang Yuanji cooperated enthusiastically, “Because clients discussing performance conversion are just too naggy!”

“What you all said is right,” Wang Shuang summed up. “Most clients who do display ads have brand marketing needs. They need a large amount of display advertising to strengthen consumers’ recognition of the brand, just like ‘No gifts for the holidays this year, if you give gifts, give Brain Platinum.'”

“The reason the company wants us to sell display ad products is because they can be sold at a premium, and the gross margin is high,” Wang Shuang said. “High gross margin means we can complete our performance assessment, and it can create results for Lanhai. So we should give clients ‘display’ ad products first.”

Before, Wang Shuang only assessed team completion in business, but in KA there were performance assessments, and management-level tasks would not be any lighter than frontline ones. Wang Shuang was obviously prepared to sign key clients together with the KAs. Even the way she addressed the KAs had changed from “you all” to “we.”

The KAs had all thought Wang Shuang was all show and no substance, but after a week of training, they deeply realized the new director’s product expertise and sincerely admired her.

Lin Yiran had never made hard demands on the KAs, but everyone would obey whatever he said, because the KAs admired strength. Lin Yiran had Wang Shuang train product knowledge, which not only raised the KAs’ professionalism, but also magnified Wang Shuang’s strengths, established authority among the KAs, and made it easier for her to manage them later.

Through these days of training, Wang Shuang’s relationship with the KAs had become harmonious and pleasant, and Lin Yiran had indeed achieved his goal.

Although Wang Shuang did not get along with Chen Xi, she did not make things difficult for him either. Yesterday Chen Xi had made the mistake first, and Wang Shuang said he had done nothing wrong. Chen Xi now had no money, so he did not dare stir up trouble again and could only keep his head down.

After training ended, Chen Xi returned to his desk, ready to clear away distracting thoughts and settle down to work.

Yesterday had already been wasted, today he could not continue doing nothing. If the old clients were gone, then sign new ones. If there were no clients, then accumulate them. One day of work earned one day’s pay, and I have to make money properly.

Chen Xi opened his computer and started doing his old job, looking for clients by industry.

Every trade had its specialist. Each salesperson excelled in a different field. Lin Yiran was good at drawing pie-in-the-sky promises, Wang Shuang was good at talking about product knowledge, and Chen Xi was good at industry development.

Chen Xi easily found new clients from several industry websites in his computer bookmarks and selected a few client resources. After making several phone calls with a pitch he knew by heart, he successfully arranged a visit with one company, meeting in the afternoon.

The client was in the steel market in the northern part of Yucheng, where many customers had long-term cooperation with Lanhai. Although the clients in the steel market had advertising needs and were relatively easy to develop, these clients were smaller in scale and had very limited target groups, so they would not give high advertising budgets.

Chen Xi understood this, but after doing business sales for two years, he had already gotten used to this working mode, and it was hard to change. Besides, the key KA clients seemed to him “something you might run into by chance, not something you could go after,” and not something he could set foot in.

He wanted to first do what he could. A crab leg was still meat, so what did it matter? Sign first, then talk.

From Lihua Building to the steel market, he needed to transfer twice on the subway. After getting off the subway, he still had to take a bus. Chen Xi carried a shabby A-grade fake bag and got off at the Steel City stop. The steel market was about 500 meters from the stop, and Chen Xi walked forward under the blazing sun of July.

The client was a small storefront inside the steel market, and because the signboard was too old, Chen Xi had not noticed it at all. Following the navigation, Chen Xi wandered around nearby twice, and only on the second time back did he see this “Xinxin Door Factory.”

The bronze door stood wide open, and an old man was smashing the iron sheet at his feet. The sun was scorching hot, and big drops of sweat slid down the old man’s forehead. He was bare-chested and dark-skinned, clearly someone who often worked outdoors making rolling shutters.

“Hello, I’m from Lanhai Company. General Manager Pan asked me to come this afternoon to talk about advertising.” Chen Xi introduced himself and wanted to find “General Manager Pan.”

The old man put down the hammer in his hand, casually wiped the sweat from his forehead with his elbow, and called out to Chen Xi, “Come sit inside.”

The furnishings in the storefront room were no better than those outside. Scissors, hammers, and other tools for making rolling shutters were stacked on a low wooden cabinet. On the bed sat a woman in her thirties, holding a child and nursing. When the woman saw Chen Xi, she put down the baby in her hands, turned on the fan, and said, “Come sit inside, it’s cooler in here.”

In the summer heat of over 30 degrees, they even hated spending money on a fan, and this rolling shutter factory was living a very tight life.

The old man handed Chen Xi a bottle of mineral water and said, “I’m Pan Jie, this is my daughter.”

So, he was “General Manager Pan.”

“Hello, General Manager Pan, I’m Chen Xi, mainly providing advertising planning for local door factories.” Chen Xi began reciting the pitch he knew by heart. Coming to the door factory today, he was a “specialist who specifically planned for door factories”. Tomorrow, when he went to the stone materials market, he would be a “specialist who specifically planned for stone materials.” In order to win clients’ trust, a salesperson could become “any kind of specialist.”

“Ah, this morning on the phone you said that Changtai and Anyun cooperated with your company? I want to know, specifically how do they do it?” Pan Jie moved two small stools over, gave one to Chen Xi, and sat on one himself. He started asking about peer data.

“These two clients both run online ads, meaning they are targeted and pushed to precise target groups. Through the media, we lock onto people who have just renovated storefronts, who have recently been to rolling shutter factories, or who have searched ‘rolling shutter installation’ on search engines, and push to them, so that people with needs can find you at the first moment.” Chen Xi briefly explained the ad placement model.

Pan Jie nodded and said, “I heard about your company before, and I had always wanted to do advertising too, but our factory is just like this, as you can see.”

Chen Xi had previously signed several clients in the steel market, and their conditions were indeed a bit better than Xinxin Door Industry’s. Chen Xi looked around and carefully examined the items in the room. The most valuable thing was the shrine to Buddha placed directly facing the entrance. Aside from that, there was not much new furniture.

Chen Xi felt that the client mostly wanted to learn about advertising, but could not come up with the ad fee, so this trip was probably going to be for nothing.

“I…” Pan Jie paused in tone, took the big enamel mug on the table, and went to the water vat beside it to scoop some water to drink.

Chen Xi had indeed been thirsty from riding the bus, so he unscrewed the mineral water bottle and drank more than half of it. Then he thought again: He gave me mineral water to drink, while he drank water from the vat. He gave me the good stuff, which meant he respected me and wanted to cooperate. But this money…

“We don’t have much cash on hand. Do you think this advertising fee could be a bit cheaper?” Pan Jie’s daughter, worried the child might cry and make a fuss, rocked the child while speaking softly to Chen Xi.

“Advertising fees are all credited into your account. You deposit however much you want to spend. We just have a minimum starting investment threshold. If it’s below this threshold, we really can’t open an account.” Chen Xi explained. Online advertising had a minimum launch amount, and budgets under 10,000 yuan could not be placed.

Pan Jie said, “We accept paying the money. It’s just that we don’t know whether the results can be good.”

“Online ads are all renewed only after there is conversion. If your peers keep renewing and can continue cooperating with us, then the results are definitely good. Otherwise, if you lose money by running ads, who would still renew? Am I right?”

“I understand the reasoning. But our factory is small, and it’s easy to lose out in competition against others.” Pan Jie opened the bedside cabinet, found the business license, seal, and other account-opening paperwork, and then pulled out a red cloth bundle. Inside the bundle was cash, two stacks.

Chen Xi was dumbfounded. Before, when he talked to clients, he had to circle around for at least an hour no matter what he said, but today, he had been in the room for less than 10 minutes, and the client had already taken the money out. This deal was far too easy.

“Young man, before, many people from your company called me, and I refused all of them. The reason I let you come today is because you sounded professional and said you had done advertising for our line of work.” Pan Jie handed the two thick stacks of Renminbi to Chen Xi, his eyes flickering. “I’ll top up the ad fee for you a bit more. You tell me how to place the ads so I can compete with my peers, and we’ll do it that way.”

Chen Xi’s first reaction when he took the money was: I didn’t expect this small factory to be able to pull out such a high ad fee. This money could be split half into performance conversion ads and half into brand ads, and then my sales gross margin would be high.

But in the next instant he thought again: This door factory is having a hard life. This money was squeezed out of what they couldn’t even bear to spend on electricity. Pan Jie gave me this money, and I can’t let down that trust!

With the old clients gone, Chen Xi was especially short on performance right now, and he was desperately craving sales gross margin. There was a voice in his heart constantly telling him: Place display ads, display ads have more gross margin, put it all into display ads, and then you’ll have at least 15,000 yuan in gross margin!

But his conscience and morality would not allow him to do that.

He could not squander the final savings of a door factory that was on the verge of closing down, and he could not betray the trust of a sincere client who truly wanted to cooperate.

“I…” Chen Xi held the old man’s rough hand and said solemnly, “We only place online targeted ads. Don’t worry, General Manager Pan, leave this to me.”

In the scorching summer heat, with fire burning his heart, Chen Xi carried his shabby A-grade fake bag and two hundred thousand in cash in his arms, waiting for the bus by the dusty roadside.

Chen Xi gazed toward the distant fields, and as the sun set in the west, it gilded his fair face with a layer of gold.

Thinking back to the original reason he had joined Lanhai, Chen Xi only felt joy.

“I won’t let the client’s trust down, I want to create value for the client, I want to be a good salesperson.”

Life was not easy, and he lived very hard, but there were still people living even harder than him.

So, be kinder, everyone was fighting a hard battle with life.