KC | Chapter 2

KA (KEY ACCOUNT), translated as key customer, refers to the most important and most valuable customers. The KA customers handled by KA managers were the main source of Lanhai’s sales and profit. So, KA was an important position for receiving and maintaining key customers. (1)

There were not even 20 KA people in Yucheng Lanhai altogether. These 20 people created 80% of Yucheng Lanhai’s sales profit. Every KA could be said to be brave and skilled in battle, each with their own strengths, Chen Xi excluded.

In terms of seniority, Chen Xi could not really be called old. KA Ma Longfei had been with Lanhai for 15 years, while Chen Xi only had 3;

In terms of connections, Chen Xi could not really be called broad. KA Zhang Yuanji’s father had been the top director of Yucheng’s tax bureau, and his mother was a retired backbone staff member of the Education Bureau. Zhang Yuanji could easily call people up in local state-owned enterprises and the education industry, while Chen Xi only had a few customers he was somewhat familiar with;

In terms of professionalism, Chen Xi could not really be called strong. KA Liu Xueying had talked about no fewer than 10 bids, and she was proficient in all of Lanhai’s product lines, while Chen Xi only knew how to buy products related to online effect conversion.

The KA system could be said to be full of hidden talents. Although there were not many people, every marketing big shot had outstanding solo combat ability. Faced with the vast customer public sea, all kinds of KA immortals crossed the sea and showed off their divine skills. Chen Xi was not an immortal, and he had no magic treasure, only a shabby little bamboo raft. He simply could not cross the sea. He had forced himself to come to KA entirely because of Lin Yiran’s words from a year ago: “Come work with me.”

In July 2020, Chen Xi graduated from college. His university was not 211/985, but it could barely count as a first-tier undergraduate. Normally, finding a job would not have been a big problem, but the bad thing was that Chen Xi’s college entrance exam preference for his chosen major had dropped three ranks, and in the end he was assigned to the environmental engineering major. Damn environmental engineering, besides the Environmental Bureau, there were almost no matching jobs.

Out of more than 150 people in the same department, maybe only about 10 could get employed after graduation, and the employment rate was under 10%. Environmental engineering sounded high-end and impressive, and its only practical value was letting his mother brag to the neighbors for 4 years with that high-end and impressive major name.

Chen Xi knew this major was hard to find a job in, so when he was a senior, he started an internship with his doctoral supervisor, did several projects without taking a cent, and had originally thought he could keep following him after graduation. He never expected to be betrayed after crossing the river and having the bridge demolished, the doctoral supervisor only wanted free labor!

Chen Xi failed to stay at the school. Graduation was just around the corner, and for the establishment positions in his major, he had to take the civil service exam. It was held once a year, with several thousand people competing for 1 or 2 positions, and the probability of passing was extremely low. Even if he passed the written exam, he would still have to spend money to smooth things over for the interview. Chen Xi thought about it and decided forget it. It was not that he was afraid of failing the exam, it was that he could not afford to be delayed. He could not bring himself to go home after graduation, sponge off his parents, and study for the exam. Besides, he believed that work was for making money, so what was there to say about spending money to find a job?

Chen Xi’s family was not wealthy. His parents were both proletarians, with no connections to introduce him to a job, so he could only rely on himself.

Jobs in his major were basically blocked off, and he was not professional in other majors either, so he could only do those kinds of jobs that “anyone can do.” For example: restaurant server, delivery rider, carrying bricks at a construction site… Jobs like these, those “labor work” jobs, were quick to pick up and quick to earn money. Chen Xi felt he could do them, but considering his mother’s pride, he had to let it go.

His mother had bragged to the neighbors about his major for 4 years, and in the end her son went to a construction site to carry bricks. Where was her face supposed to go if word got out?

So Chen Xi had to engage in a career that sounded high-end and impressive, such as: computer science, construction engineering, certified public accounting, survey analysis… He knew none of them.

Since he could not find a high-end and impressive career, then only one last road remained: find a high-end and impressive company.

Chen Xi had wandered through all kinds of job fairs for nearly a month, and he had become familiar with a “famous enterprise” that often came to job fairs. Every time, the area around this company’s booth was packed with young people filling out resumes. Chen Xi could not help wondering: every job fair they recruited so many people, was this company raising the hiring bar and casting a wide net, or was there always a shortage and they could never fill the positions?

If it was the former, that would be easier to understand, a famous company selecting the best. But if it was the latter, it could only mean the company had too much staff turnover. Whatever number of people joined in a week would leave in a week. Then this job would be extremely hard to do.

Driven by curiosity, Chen Xi walked closer to the booth. On the display board it said: Lanhai.

Chen Xi thought that working for a black-hearted boss company was not a long-term plan, so he did not look at the job requirements first. He directly looked at the salary and benefits.

Salary: base pay starting from 3000 + commission

Weekend off, five social insurances and one housing fund, annual leave, trips, reimbursement, and other benefits.

Just based on the weekend off alone, that was rare in Yucheng. And there was a housing fund? Although the pay was not much, at least in Yucheng he would not starve to death! After looking for a job for a month, to be fair, Lanhai’s working conditions were the best.

Chen Xi became interested and started reading the job content.

Recruitment position: Sales Representative.

Since he had submitted his resume on a certain job-seeking platform, many companies had actively contacted Chen Xi for interviews. The most frequently invited position was “sales.” Financial sales, real estate sales, education course sales, imported car sales… almost all service industries could not do without sales, but only a small number of people were willing to do sales.

Sales work had high pressure, and performance assessments could come at any time; working hours were unstable, and overtime without customers was the norm; external expenses were not low, there were often client dinners, and one also had to know how to package oneself… The only advantage was that it paid a lot.

Sales was the only industry that did not require specific professional skills, had a low entry threshold, and paid a lot.

But Chen Xi did not consider it.

No wonder the pay was so good, so it was recruiting sales. Goodbye then, sir!

Chen Xi’s resistance to the sales position was not because he was afraid of pressure or hardship, but because last year his mother had been tricked by a sales person from some insurance company and used several tens of thousands of yuan in pension money to buy an insurance policy with less than a one in a thousand chance of paying out. His mother had worked for others all her life and had originally wanted to buy medical insurance to spend her old age in peace, but unexpectedly she was taken in by the insurance company’s sales pitch. On top of that, with the constant bombardment of promotional phone calls and various discounts, his mother did not ask him and directly paid.

When Chen Xi went home for the New Year and found out, he carefully read the payout instructions and discovered that the compensation conditions for the insurance were extremely harsh, so he requested to cancel it. The other side’s salesperson was eloquent and obstructed him in every possible way. First they said this kind of insurance was precious and hard to come by, then said if he was not satisfied he could switch to another insurance, and in the end, only after being unable to outargue Chen Xi, did they tell the truth: the long-term insurance product had already passed the insurance hesitation period, and after deducting various handling fees, they could only refund less than 50%.

Every year, his parents had to pay his college tuition and living expenses. The two elders lived frugally, and this expense made an already not wealthy family stretched to the limit. So Chen Xi believed sales was the same as a scammer selling insurance. He would rather do “labor work” than go into sales.

As the days passed one by one, it finally came to the point when he had to leave school. Chen Xi asked his family for the final sum of money, a quarter’s rent of 4000 yuan. He thought: he had to find a job within 3 months, and he could not ask his family for money again.

Chen Xi kept submitting resumes everywhere, only to hit wall after wall. Because he had browsed job information for a long time, the big data had accurately targeted him. One day, he happened to read an article: affected by the epidemic, 23% of companies in this city went bankrupt, and more than 100,000 people faced unemployment. Social employment pressure had increased significantly, and in 2020, the employment rate of Yucheng’s fresh college graduates was only 27%.

Environmental engineering was already hard to find a job in, and this year it had also run into an employment slump. It was truly a leak in the house compounded by a night of rain. A 27% employment rate meant that out of every 4 fresh college graduates, only 1 could find a job. Would that person be me?

Chen Xi had no confidence in himself.

When he was in college, Chen Xi’s credit ranking was in the middle upper range, not outstanding. The person on the upper bunk got their CPA, the person across from the desk got a health manager certificate, and the person diagonally opposite studied and double-majored in business administration with an MBA. Chen Xi had not taken any certificate at all, and now thinking about it, he regretted it terribly. If he had a certificate, he would still have more competitiveness in employment.

One morning, Chen Xi still did as usual, brushed through resumes and went out to look for job opportunities. Seeing many middle-aged men riding bicycles under the overpass, hanging signs that said “plumbing, welding, bricklaying, electrician,” he could not help feeling sad. He thought: if I still cannot find a job this month, I should also get a bicycle, and sneak out while hiding from my parents to squat here and wait for work.

Chen Xi had eaten half a hand-grab pancake, had no appetite and could not bear to throw it away, so he put the remaining half into his backpack. He opened the mini program and checked today’s Aries fortune. Overall fortune 4 stars, career fortune 5 stars, love fortune 5 stars, health fortune 4 stars, wealth fortune 1 star.

The overall fortune was pretty good. He would definitely find a job today! If the love fortune could be swapped with the money fortune, that would be even more perfect.

Today’s job fair was being held on Yucheng’s bustling commercial street, and most of the participating companies were from other provinces. The companies with suitable positions in this province had almost all already been seen by Chen Xi.

After submitting resumes to several companies and briefly talking with HR, Chen Xi felt that he had probably come here for nothing again. Most companies from other provinces were in first-tier cities, and coming to Yucheng to recruit meant they were looking to pay Yucheng wages. In plain terms, it meant Chen Xi had to work in a first-tier city while holding a second-tier city’s salary.

Then why not just go directly to a first-tier city to look for a job? Seriously, you people, are you trying to fool idiots here?

Chen Xi was like a deflated leather ball, pitifully squatting by the roadside and gnawing on the half hand-grab pancake left over from breakfast, looking toward the colorful commercial street. The people coming and going on the street were wearing all kinds of clothes, and Chen Xi could not help thinking, what were they all busy with, having a job really was great.

A business elite walked toward him, carrying a briefcase in his left hand, stepping on shiny leather shoes, dressed in a suit and tie. His pace was very fast. The pitch-black suit cut through the noisy crowd and added a rich, dramatic stroke to the flashy city.

“President Wang, don’t worry, leave this to me, absolutely no problem!” He was talking on the phone to someone. Chen Xi heard the deep voice not far away, and it sounded very nice.

Seeing the man approaching, Chen Xi unconsciously pulled his feet back. He did not want to show the unpolished sneakers on his feet, and even less did he want that person to pay attention to him.

One was a glamorous business elite, one was a jobless drifter who kept hitting walls everywhere. Their temperament and status were comparable to heaven and earth.

That person walked with the wind, as if the rhythm of the whole commercial street had been sped up by him. As he drew nearer, Chen Xi’s heartbeat also gradually quickened.

“You are joking, aren’t you? Our profit margin is only 12 points, there is not that much room to maneuver, I already gave what I could.” The business elite walked past Chen Xi, his figure tall and sturdy, his sharp brows and sword-like eyes exceptionally handsome.

Chen Xi stared blankly, unable to look away.

“Mm, okay, the WeChat ID is this phone number, just add me.” There was always a smile on his face, his tie hanging lightly down to his chest, solemn yet still lively. All the various bright and noisy colors around him had become a backdrop board, and in Chen Xi’s eyes, he could only see the black ink-splashed suit.

“I am Lanhai KA Lin Yiran.”

Lin Yiran walked very fast, Chen Xi looked very slowly, and only after the person had gone far away did he take out his phone to search for “KA.”

So, he was sales.

He was sales!

Sales could also be this energetic?

So handsome.

So fucking handsome!!!

The phone rang, and Chen Xi answered.

“Hello, may I ask if this is Chen Xi? I am from Lanhai HR. We met at the job fair before. I want to ask if you have found a job, and are you still considering our company’s sales position? There just happens to be an interview this afternoon at two o’clock…” The HR person’s speaking speed was very fast, as if they did not want to be hung up on and had said everything in one breath.

“Lanhai sales, right? I’ll go for the interview.”

Just because of that stunning glimpse, Chen Xi did sales for 3 years.

He came to Lanhai, he came to KA, all for Lin Yiran.

Chen Xi walked out of the large conference room, turned left and right to enter the small conference room next to the workstations, and suddenly thought of Lin Yiran’s words from a year ago. He cursed in a low voice: “I’m here to work KA with you, not to work under you in bed.”

Author’s note:

(1) Taken from Baidu