KC | Chapter 10

Chapter 10, People Who Bullied Me, I Won’t Let You Have an Easy Time

Yesterday, she had not rested well. Chen Xi had eaten and originally wanted to take a nap, but as soon as she got to her desk, Wang Shuang asked for a meeting with her.

People in sales were very superstitious. Zhang Yuanji kept fish, Ma Longfei kept a money tree, Li Hua displayed a lucky cat… Every now and then, the KA big shots always had to change desks and adjust the feng shui. The desk of the KA top guy, Meng Hai, was right next to Lin Yiran’s office. It had excellent ventilation and lighting, and over these three years, it had drawn countless envious looks from the KA crowd, yet it had never been changed.

Because of Meng Hai’s status in KA, no one dared mention changing desks to him. Today, however, it was really something else. As soon as Meng Hai left, Wang Shuang took over the former KA top guy’s desk right after him. The speed was so fast it was astonishing.

Wang Shuang had come to KA full of excitement, but she did not expect to suffer a head-on blow. Her mood was very low. She urgently needed somewhere to vent and also could not tell the employees from before that she had been “bullied” in KA. At noon, she happened to see Chen Xi come back, and at last she had someone to talk to.

“Xiao Xi, have you been working at KA for one year, and it’s always like this?” KA did not make phone calls, the atmosphere was not as active and positive as business, and there were even people chatting while working, this was not the kind of state sales should have!

Chen Xi asked knowingly, “Like what?”

“Just, just not working at all.”

“If we didn’t work, how did we sign deals?” Chen Xi said with her arms folded, amused. “Our assessment targets are twice those of business. Could we still rely on making calls every day to grab customers from business? They make 80 calls a day, and we make 160 calls a day?”

Wang Shuang frowned and said, “Even so, you can’t not make a single call at all.”

In her fixed understanding, sales meant making calls, arranging visits, and discussing deals. If you did not make calls, how did you push customers forward?

Chen Xi had a very poor opinion of Wang Shuang, and now that she was about to resign anyway, she could not be bothered to explain to her. Once again, she unobtrusively shifted the topic, “If you have any suggestions for KA, you can give feedback to Mr. Lin. He set the rules.”

KA was a team formed by Zhang Guangming for Lin Yiran, and all the rules were set by Lin Yiran. If Lanhai ran into a problem at work, it could be fed back to higher-ups step by step, and Lin Yiran was Wang Shuang’s direct superior.

Chen Xi did not directly refuse to answer Wang Shuang, but instead led the topic toward Lin Yiran. Then, following this topic, she added what she really wanted to say, “Oh, right, I just filled out my resignation application. Please approve it. I’ll also have to trouble you to report it to Mr. Lin and ask him to approve it as soon as possible.”

After Lin Yiran had comforted the client’s execution team, he had lunch with the client’s higher management. In the afternoon, he had just returned to the company when he saw Wang Shuang blocking the entrance to his office. He thought to himself: A bunch of brats from KA already don’t let me have peace, and now there’s another one here specifically to complain.

Lin Yiran gave Wang Shuang a gentle smile. He stood up and picked a tea cake from under the tea table used for entertaining clients, then unhurriedly put some tea leaves into the teapot and boiled water to brew tea.

Wang Shuang had been holding it in for most of the day and could not wait to talk to her leader about KA’s “abnormal” way of working. Seeing Lin Yiran’s slow pace, half of her energy leaked away at once, and her rhythm immediately got messed up.

“Mr. Lin, after spending this half day interacting with the colleagues from KA, I have some small thoughts.” Wang Shuang chose her words carefully as she spoke.

“I’ve done sales in business for 5 years. We all came from business before, so Mr. Wang doesn’t need to be reserved. Just treat me like an older brother, you can tell me anything.” Lin Yiran remained as polite as ever.

“Mr. Lin, you’re really nice.” Wang Shuang was touched, but she did not dare call Lin Yiran “brother” like some of the KA people did. The fixed mindset of business management required her to be professional, and addressing superiors and subordinates as “older brother” and “younger sister” was indeed not professional enough.

“I… I’ve been in KA for this half day, so why haven’t I seen anyone making calls?” Making calls was a hurdle Wang Shuang could not get past in her heart. Back when she had urged Chen Xi to make calls in business, after coming to KA she also wanted to urge KA to make calls.

Lin Yiran warmed the cups and teapot, led the tea into the palace, and moved with practiced ease, while performing the tea ceremony he said, “Some people spend tens of thousands to buy tea sets and learn tea art and perform the tea ceremony, while some people drink plain boiled water every day and do not understand tea art. Everyone has different hobbies and needs, so their behavioral characteristics are different. KA and business face different customer groups, so their work methods are different.”

“Then what do they rely on to contact customers, and how do they control customer progress and achieve signed deals?” Wang Shuang really did not understand.

She had been promoted from a former business manager to KA director, and only thought of it as a “promotion,” not understanding why the system had to be changed. It was fine enough that she did not get along well with her subordinates, but the new leader also made her have to guess at what he said. First he dug a pit for her to evaluate KA, then tried to get close to her and make her call him brother, and now there was a bunch of things she did not understand.

“We rely on circles, on connections, and on industry summits to accumulate customers.” Lin Yiran deliberately emphasized the word “we”. Since Wang Shuang had come to KA, she was one of them. Whether leaders or employees in KA, they were all assessed on contracts signed, and they all had to have their own key customers.

It was obvious that Wang Shuang still placed herself in the position of “leader.” No wonder she could not get along with that bunch of brats from KA.

Last month, Lin Yiran went to Beishi for a conference. After the meeting, Zhang Guangming asked him, “What do you think is the biggest problem with KA now?”

Lin Yiran met with Zhang Guangming every quarter to discuss KA’s development direction and adjust strategies. This time, Zhang Guangming did not wait for Lin Yiran’s report and instead asked first about KA’s problems, which meant this “problem” could no longer be covered up, and had already floated to the surface.

KA employees had strong personalities and hardened wings, and over the years they had gotten used to not following rules. When communicating with other systems, there were often conflicts over procedures and interests. Lin Yiran knew all of this, but every time he spoke with Zhang Guangming, he would avoid the topic, because he had no solution, so he did not want to bring it up.

This time, he had no choice but to bring it up.

“KA lacks rigid management.” Lin Yiran was frank.

He originally thought Zhang Guangming would guide him on how to manage it, but unexpectedly Zhang Guangming said, “You manage it very well, so I want to promote you.”

Even for a KA expert who had negotiated with the client side many times, his brain still did not turn properly for a moment. Lin Yiran looked at Zhang Guangming in surprise, thinking: Mr. Zhang’s thinking is really jumpy. We were just talking about KA management, how did it suddenly become a promotion for me?

Zhang Guangming smiled kindly. “After you are promoted, the director position will be empty. Do you want to promote a director from within KA, or transfer someone from business?”

Lin Yiran instantly understood Zhang Guangming’s intention, to transfer someone from business who could handle affairs and help him manage.

Fifty percent of KA were old employees, all of whom had followed Lin Yiran all the way here. Lin Yiran treated them like friends and had never strictly demanded anything from them. Zhang Guangming knew the bottleneck he had encountered in management, and transferring over a business manager who specialized in management would also make it easier to handle the old employees. Besides, the management person who parachuted in would be his subordinate, taking orders from him. Zhang Guangming was still handing KA over to him in full, trusting him without reservation.

Business managers followed rules and obeyed procedures, which was a huge help for managing KA. Zhang Guangming had deep foresight and killed two birds with one stone, not only not making things difficult for Lin Yiran, but also solving KA’s problems.

Lin Yiran made a decisive decision, “Use someone from business. Mr. Zhang, whoever you think is suitable, just let them come. I’m fine with anyone.”

And so, Wang Shuang took up the post of KA director.

Lin Yiran remembered that when Chen Xi had first come to KA, her face-to-face visiting skills had been a complete mess. It was obvious that no one had guided him. Relying only on making more calls to cover contract clients, he had to put in more effort than others over these two years. Lin Yiran recognized Chen Xi’s diligence, and he also felt sorry for him.

In the morning, when Chen Xi saw Wang Shuang’s expression, it looked like she had swallowed a fly, and Lin Yiran saw it in his eyes and remembered it in his heart.

Wang Shuang was someone Zhang Guangming had picked. Lin Yiran would not make things difficult for her.

But the person who bullied me, I also would not let you have too easy a time.

His slender fingers shook the incense and washed the tea. Lin Yiran was still smiling on the surface as he said, “Different systems have different management methods. KA is not telemarketing.”

Wang Shuang stared at those magical hands of his, and was half understanding and half confused about the customer accumulation methods he talked about.

“KA has its own strengths. Liu Xueying has resources in the real estate industry, Brother Ma has 15 years of accumulation and old customer connections, Li Hua is ruthless in digging competitor resources. These are their advantages in the industry and circles, and business can completely copy them, but if business focused on studying circles, then it would not be able to complete the KPI of 80 calls every day.”

Lin Yiran smiled as he sealed the teapot, divided the cups, and offered tea to Wang Shuang. Although Wang Shuang could not understand what he was doing, for some reason she just felt that the new leader was pretty damn impressive. Business had once done circle coverage, and the results were not very ideal. Not everyone could take root in the real estate industry, take root in Lanhai for 15 years, or take root in competitor resources. It seemed that the KA big shots each had their own strengths.

“What I mentioned above were replicable ways of accumulating customers, but KA also has non-replicable ways. Yang Bin has the identity of vice chairman in Yucheng Chamber of Commerce, Zhang Yuanji has connections in the tax and education sectors, and Meng Hai is one of the leading advertisers in the North China region.” Lin Yiran paused here and continued, “Zhang Yuanji really was not hired at Lanhai as a salesperson, and his social habits are a bit heavier. Mr. Wang, please bear with that.”

Wang Shuang thought to herself: No wonder Zhang Yuanji spoke so harshly, so he was actually a connections expert. A genuine “relationship person,” purely eating off connections, with a lot of confidence.

“Meng Hai’s resignation was not aimed at you. He told me about it last month, and the customers were basically already handed over. Just help him with the procedures.” Lin Yiran took a sip of tea, thinking: Those two bastards only know how to stir up trouble all day, and I still have to smooth things over for you two.

“Leader, these are all small things. I didn’t take it to heart.” Wang Shuang had held this in for most of the day because she just wanted to hear a few words of comfort.

“This tea is good!” Wang Shuang took a sip of tea and decided to let bygones be bygones with a smile when they met again. Although she did not understand tea, she subconsciously felt that after Lin Yiran had been busy for so long, this tea ought to be good.

Lin Yiran smiled without speaking, thinking: The road ahead is still long. This bunch of brats will make you suffer.

“Uh, leader, you also told me about Chen Xi’s resignation, right?”

“He’s resigning?” Lin Yiran’s smile instantly faded. He had not expected yesterday’s matter to affect Chen Xi so much, to the point of making him want to resign.

KA, you’re the least worry-free. You alone are more worry-free than all those brats combined!

Wang Shuang said, “Yes, he said to have you approve it as soon as possible.”

Lanhai, like most companies, only required employees to submit a resignation letter when leaving, but sales resignations involved performance commissions, so they needed approval from leaders step by step.

Lin Yiran put away the teacup, his expression still calm and unruffled, and said in feigned composure, “Have you approved it?”

If you had approved it, I would not be able to handle it. If he resigned, you could forget about having an easy quarter.

“Not yet.”

“Reject it.” Lin Yiran let out a sigh of relief, thinking: You finally did something good.

“Ah?” Wang Shuang was a little confused, and carefully said, “Then how should I tell him?”

Lin Yiran smiled brightly, his smile warm, polite, and graceful, “You just took office, and he already applied to resign. Obviously, he has a pretty deep opinion of you.”