KC | Chapter 11

Chen Xi opened his desktop computer, and it was still the familiar 5-minute startup speed, beating 99% of computers nationwide.

In the past, Chen Xi had always been the first in KA to arrive and turn on his machine. Today, he had not touched the computer in the morning, and only in the afternoon did he slowly start organizing customer information.

At the beginning of the month, they had to do quarterly work reports, summing up the completion status of the last quarter, the annual achievement status, the progress of key client development, this quarter’s plan, and this month’s key tasks, and so on. Lanhai did not allow people to write work reports during working hours, and Lin Yiran turned a blind eye to this matter, so KA tacitly wrote their work reports quietly at their desks, after all, no one wanted to go home and “do homework.”

Normally, the beginning and end of each quarter were the busiest periods. The KA keyboards clattered away. Chen Xi listened to music while sorting out the customer list. He had to list the customers he had accumulated over these years into a table and take away all of the resources.

Looking at it now, after two years in business, he still did not have as many key clients as KA had accumulated in one year, but if judged by KA’s standards, his “key clients” were all not up to standard.

Key clients did not refer entirely to listed famous companies, Fortune 500 companies, central state-owned enterprises, and other powerful clients. Rather, they referred to brand companies that could create value for Lanhai, that could cooperate continuously and deeply, and that had advertising budgets year after year, or certain industry clients that relied on advertising to survive year after year.

For example: State Grid and China Mobile, both companies were state-owned enterprises, but State Grid was in a sector that guaranteed supply and did not need publicity, while China Mobile needed brand marketing awareness, so State Grid had no advertising budget, while China Mobile’s annual advertising budget was over ten million.

It was impossible to get advertising budget from a company that had no budget, so the prerequisite for the key clients Lanhai developed was that the client side had budget.

The higher the budget scale on the client side, the higher the amount allocated to different media would be, and the sales amount KA got would also be higher, and vice versa. So the higher the budget scale of the client side, the fiercer the media’s scramble for the budget, and the harder KA’s development would be.

For small and medium-sized clients in business, as long as you strengthened coverage, did the basic work well, and worked hard, you could sign the deal, but KA was different. KA clients advertised year after year on buses, subways, television, and other media, and almost every salesperson in every advertising company knew these clients, so KA’s difficulty lay in breaking the ice and doing public relations, in competing with rival media for budget, and in maintaining cooperation continuously.

Chen Xi sorted through his existing client resources and found that there really were not many that could be shown off. Otherwise, he would not have needed to “borrow” Lin Yiran’s key clients to write his resume.

The key clients Lin Yiran had signed over the past year, Chen Xi could almost all describe their signing process in detail, because Lin Yiran was not stingy at all with him and shared his signing experience with him without holding anything back.

Chen Xi had been doing business sales for 2 years. The negotiation thinking for small and medium clients was not suitable for major clients. When he had just arrived, he did not know how to negotiate with key clients. Chen Xi had no connections and no resources, and his first quarter was very hard. Lin Yiran took him on client visits in person, taught him how to explore client needs, accurately judge client intentions, and tailor marketing solutions for clients, and only then did he barely make it through the assessment.

At the beginning, Chen Xi was very reserved, and every time he spoke with Lin Yiran, he would get nervous. Because Lin Yiran had a very strong insight into clients, Chen Xi was afraid that he would discover his “abnormal” emotions, so every time he tried his best to end the conversation as quickly as possible. This caused Lin Yiran to have the illusion that he was “putting in a warm face for a cold butt.”

After Chen Xi finished organizing the customer list, he glanced toward Lin Yiran’s office. Light spilled in through the floor-to-ceiling window, and through the glass partition, Wang Shuang and Lin Yiran sat facing each other on either side of the wooden negotiation table. On the table were two bright glass cups, the teapot was boiling water, and steam rose up. Lin Yiran bent down to choose a tea cake under the table, picked out one wrapped in red paper, and Chen Xi recognized that the package contained ripe Pu’er tea.

Once when Chen Xi had a client come to the company, he borrowed Lin Yiran’s office to discuss a deal. Just as he was about to make tea for the client, Lin Yiran pushed the door open and came in, replacing his tea cake. Only afterward did he tell him, “Ripe Pu’er tea is not suitable for entertaining the client side, drinking too much easily causes internal heat.”

At that time, Chen Xi had thought: if it is not suitable for entertaining them, then why did you buy it? Today he finally understood the use of ripe Pu’er tea.

Wang Shuang would have a hard time working under Lin Yiran later.

Seeing Lin Yiran reveal his signature business smile, Chen Xi thought again: Wang Shuang was about to have bad luck. As expected, less than a quarter of an hour later, Wang Shuang’s face had turned green.

KA were all sharp people. They seemed to be concentrating on writing work reports, but in fact they were glancing toward the office with the corners of their eyes, and the sound of keyboard tapping gradually weakened. Zhang Yuanji gloated and egged him on from the side, “Xiao Chen, look, Wang Shuang got scolded by Brother Lin until her face turned green!”

Chen Xi rested his chin in his hand and glanced sideways at the office, just in time to run into Lin Yiran’s gaze.

It met for a moment, then parted.

Chen Xi sent the customer list to his own WeChat as a backup, lowered his head and played Match-3, thinking: there was nothing at the workstation that needed to be taken home, just like 3 years ago, he would leave the way he came. In a while, when Wang Shuang came out, he could leave.

With 10 minutes left until off work, Wang Shuang walked out of Lin Yiran’s office and went straight to Chen Xi’s workstation.

“Come talk.” Wang Shuang headed aggressively straight for the discussion room. Chen Xi sighed and slowly stood up, because if he stood up too fast, his waist could not take it, and his butt would hurt too.

Just after entering the discussion room, a murderous pressure came at him head-on. Wang Shuang folded her arms and stared fiercely at Chen Xi. Chen Xi was made creepy by her look and thought: I don’t owe her money either.

Wang Shuang got straight to the point: “Chen Xi, why do you suddenly want to resign?”

Fine, she did not call him “Xiao Xi,” she called his name. It seemed she was really angry.

“I’m just tired.” Chen Xi thought: Meng Hai resigned and left directly. You don’t ask him and come ask me, isn’t it just because you want to hear me say something nice? Back when I was in business, you caused trouble for me everywhere, and now I want to resign, and you’re still coming to lecture me?

Wang Shuang asked, “Why weren’t you tired before, and now you’re suddenly tired?”

Chen Xi said sarcastically, “This is just like running a marathon, you don’t get tired after 10 kilometers, but you get tired at the 11th kilometer. There are not that many whys.”

You want to hear nice words, but I just won’t say them. If I want to resign, can you still stop me?

Wang Shuang continued to press on, asking relentlessly, “If you’re tired, you can rest, but once the job is gone, it’s really gone.”

Mm? That really did remind me. Taking annual leave these few days means I can look for a job with pay. You finally did one good thing!

“Oh, then I’ll take a few days of annual leave first.” I still have 5 days of annual leave this year that I haven’t used yet.

Wang Shuang frowned and said, “You want to finish your annual leave and then leave?”

Ha? Did she even need to ask that? Some things are better seen through than spoken through. Your emotional intelligence is worrying. In the future, working under that old fox Lin Yiran, you will definitely be messed with badly. Good luck to yourself.

“Manager, taking annual leave or resigning are both my rights. Starting tomorrow, I want to take annual leave, 5 days, and come back to work next Tuesday.” On working days the base salary was 200 yuan a day, 5 days of annual leave meant 1,000 yuan in hand, awesome!

“What’s the reason for the leave?”

“Physical discomfort.”

“What exactly is uncomfortable?” Wang Shuang finally could not hold it in anymore, and she said with a sour, ugly expression, “Do you have a problem with me?”

Chen Xi had not grown hard wings after only one year apart, it seemed Mr. Lin was right, he really did have a problem with me. Luckily I did not let him leave, otherwise if the news that “Chen Xi resigned because he was dissatisfied with the new director” spread, how would I make a living in KA in the future!

Usually, when he could not get an appointment with a client, Chen Xi would ask, “Do you have time today, or do you have time tomorrow? Are you maybe not free tomorrow, then I will go today. Are you maybe not convenient to talk in the company, then let’s find a coffee shop nearby?”

This kind of “selective” way of asking could reduce the client’s refusal rate by 50%, and of course that was also taught to him by Lin Yiran.

Chen Xi could not help laughing out loud, thinking: is your brain full of water? This kind of question-and-answer format only gives me two choices, answer “yes” or “no.”

By asking this, are you trying to bring humiliation on yourself?

Every time he later recalled this experience of angrily criticizing Wang Shuang, Chen Xi regretted it deeply. If at that time he could have restrained himself a little, if he had not been so impulsive, if he had not made his words so absolute, perhaps that quarter would have been easier. He also would not have been forced to give up more principles when going to beg Lin Yiran during the quarter-end performance push.

But Chen Xi was determined to resign at the moment, firmly believing that there would be no more intersections with Wang Shuang in the future, and he was not afraid of a complete falling out. The resentment he had suppressed for 2 years in business finally exploded.

“You want a well-behaved little white rabbit, a phone-calling machine that cannot think. You don’t allow me to have client development strategies, you want to smooth off my edges and make me into trash that can only sign small deals,” Chen Xi said. “In 2 years in business, did you ever accompany me on client visits? Did you ever explain client signing skills to me? Did you fulfill even one duty a business manager should have?”

“You’ve worked at Lanhai for 10 years and all you can do is stand there watching people make calls, you can’t even sign deals yourself? Lanhai has assessments every month, salespeople who don’t make the grade just leave on their own, so what the hell are you dragging your feet for? The business methods you used in business are useless for KA. You don’t even have a single key client and you dare come to KA?”

Wang Shuang, encouraged by Lin Yiran, had originally wanted to persuade Chen Xi to “return from his lost path” and work properly. She had not expected Chen Xi to have such a deep opinion of her, saying it in a way that made her lose all face and all dignity.

First came Lin Yiran’s ripe Pu’er tea, storing up hidden fire, then came Chen Xi’s barbed words adding fuel to the flames, and Wang Shuang was completely irritated.

Looking at Wang Shuang’s half-open mouth from surprise, her shocked expression, and her dumbfounded look of being unable to speak, Chen Xi only felt that his great revenge had been avenged, and his old grievance had been cleared away. His heart was full of pleasure.

“Not only do I look down on the things you do, I also find you annoying as a person. You babble all day long without end, urging people to make calls. With your personality, you’re very suitable for debt collection. If anyone owes you money, you would definitely chase them and dig up their ancestors’ graves. You coming to KA as my superior would only intensify the conflict and make me have even greater opinions of you. So, just hurry up and let me resign.”

Chen Xi had originally just been a barrel, and Wang Shuang had been continuously pouring gunpowder into the barrel before. The barrel did not want to blow itself up, so it had stayed quiet all along.

Today, the fuse of “resignation” was mixed into the gunpowder that had been packed for two years, and the powder keg exploded.