KC | Chapter 20

Chen Xi chatted with Chen Bin about a few unimportant things, and after about another 10 minutes, Sun Xingshun arrived.

“Manager Chen, sorry to keep you waiting. I had a meeting come up temporarily, I really do apologize.” Compared with Chen Bin, Sun Xingshun seemed very polite. He held a glass of freshly squeezed juice and handed it to Chen Xi, saying with a smile, “Come on, try the new product our R&D made, lemon and starfruit flavor.”

“President Sun, you’re being too formal.” Chen Xi took the juice and drank a sip. The icy hex-tech stimulation hit his taste buds, and a smell of pigment, flavoring, and preservatives rushed straight to the top of his head. Chen Xi’s face wrinkled into a ball as he thought, This damn thing absolutely was not meant for normal people to drink. It’s so sour it could knock your teeth out. This smiling tiger was definitely doing it on purpose.

“This taste is pretty unique. One sip and you’ll definitely remember the brand, haha.” Chen Xi forcibly pulled a smile out of a crying face, smiling worse than crying.

Facing Sun Xingshun, Chen Bin did not dare put on airs at all. He lowered his brows and eyes and said, “Leader, I’ll head back first.” After saying that, he walked out of the reception room and casually pulled the door shut behind him.

In Shanyao, the office worker who worked like a “dog” was acting all high and mighty, while the leader was instead “welcoming with a smile”. One played the black face, the other the white face.

Sun Xingshun wore a suit and tie, dressed like a professional manager. Chen Xi wore a casual suit with white sneakers on his feet. From the outside, his status and bearing were indeed a notch lower.

Chen Xi secretly regretted it, The way you look on the outside really matters after all. I should have borrowed a pair of leather shoes before coming.

“President Sun, Shanyao’s development over the past year has really been rapid. When I came before, there were only two offices, and now we’ve taken the whole floor. That’s amazing.” Chen Xi took the initiative to get close to Sun Xingshun.

Lin Yiran had taught him, “Three parts sales, seven parts licking, only if you lick well can you close the deal.”

He had licked Lin Yiran before, but he had never licked a client. As long as he could save Hailan, this quarter’s performance would be done. This time he had to lick properly and lick this smiling tiger up to the sky.

“Actually, before you, a salesperson from Lanhai came to see me. Back then Shanyao still hadn’t moved into the Innovation Center, and we were in a small street-facing storefront by the roadside.” Recalling the past, Sun Xingshun could not help feeling emotional. “Out of the people who founded Shanyao five years ago, only me and the boss are left now. I witnessed Shanyao’s development with my own eyes. It really wasn’t easy all the way here.”

“Yes, yes. Especially the first two years, the overall environment wasn’t good, and many franchisees wouldn’t invest in projects. There were quite a few peers who couldn’t hold on.” Chen Xi could not figure out what he was up to, so he could only go along with him.

“Indeed, Yucheng originally had three companies on the same scale as us, and they all went bankrupt during the epidemic. This year our development speed has been rapid, and employees who used to be at our competitors have all come to work here.” Sun Xingshun said, “Our business is pretty good now, but it should not be as busy as yours. Manager Chen, once you get busy, you disappear for a whole year.”

Chen Xi heard the hidden meaning in his words, This was a complaint that I hadn’t come around for a whole year of cooperation, and also a way of telling me, in Yucheng’s investment and franchise industry, Shanyao is now the boss. Before, Shanyao listened to Lanhai, now Lanhai has to listen to Shanyao.

“President Sun, you’re being too formal. Although I didn’t show up before, I was always thinking about us. Every time there was any platform policy in the franchise industry, I would send it to Chen Bin first thing.” Chen Xi tried hard to smooth things over and kept licking him. “Shanyao cooperated with Lanhai at the time when it was developing the fastest, so I can also count as a witness to our business’s rapid growth, haha!”

After a few back-and-forth lines, Sun Xingshun heard the changes in Chen Xi over this year. Before, Chen Xi had spoken straight to the point and closed the deal when he came. This time, his opening small talk was all this roundabout chatter.

“The salesperson who came to find me before seemed to have worked for many years. His mouth was really sharp, but I didn’t cooperate with him back then because I felt he was too smart, slippery and dishonest.” Sun Xingshun was implying something.

Chen Xi pretended not to understand while understanding perfectly. “I haven’t heard you mention the previous matter. I remember when we cooperated, you said that you and I had a ‘compatible magnetic field.'” Chen Xi secretly clenched his fist under the table, holding back his anger, thinking, This smiling tiger is scolding me for being slippery and dishonest.

He was angry that I hadn’t come before and didn’t value Shanyao. No problem. As long as I can sign the deal, he can curse all he wants. Being cursed won’t make me lose a piece of meat.

“What do you assess, gross profit?” Sun Xingshun changed the subject, still smiling.

“No, no, we assess consumption. Only if your side keeps cooperating can I complete my performance target.”

If I said we assess gross profit, then the interests of both sides would conflict, and cooperation would be hard to reach.

Chen Xi secretly broke out in a sweat, thinking, This smiling tiger was setting traps for me everywhere.

After the small talk, Sun Xingshun got straight to the point. “Manager Chen, how much rebate can you give me?”

Chen Xi had originally thought the two of them could circle around for a few rounds and get some more information out of each other, but he did not expect Sun Xingshun to change the topic so fast. He completely could not control the conversation. The other side asked what he said, forcing him to kick off with a big move.

He deliberately delayed meeting me, then after meeting me he invited me to drink sour fruit juice. Now he’s directly asking about the rebate. Is he trying to mess with my mentality!

Lin Yiran had said, “Before the other side shows their hand, whatever rebate you say is wrong.”

The rhythm of the earlier talk had all been controlled by Sun Xingshun. He asked what he said. I needed to regain the initiative in the conversation and make him follow my line of thinking. I had to first clarify with Sun Xingshun the advantages Lanhai had compared to local channel companies, then talk about operational data, and finally discuss rebate policy.

You have to know, the changes over this year were not only in your company, I had changed too.

Chen Xi took another sip of the deadly sour juice and smiled as warmly as spring wind. “I can give you something you wouldn’t expect.”

The more advantages Lanhai had, the harder it would be for Shanyao to ask for a policy.

It was just like going to the supermarket to buy apples. Different varieties of apples had different prices. If you only looked at the price and did not consider factors like taste, then the expensive apples in the supermarket would never sell at all. Sun Xingshun’s direct opening question about the rebate policy was equivalent to only considering the “apple price.” What Chen Xi had to do was explain clearly why the “apple” was expensive.

Chen Xi first deflected Sun Xingshun without answering him directly, then took back the initiative in the conversation. “It’s good that Lanhai is in Yucheng. If it were in another province, I wouldn’t even get to know you, brother. For example, when cooperating, if there was some part of the operation I wasn’t satisfied with, I probably wouldn’t even be able to fly over to visit, haha.”

Sun Xingshun’s expression froze slightly. He understood the hidden meaning in Chen Xi’s words, Local channel companies were not the same as Lanhai. Cooperating with Lanhai had a distance advantage, and communication would be more convenient.

Chen Xi pressed the advantage and continued, “I think the two of us really are pretty compatible. During this year of cooperation, the line cost has never gone over 200 yuan, and in the entire franchise investment industry, that’s really low.”

I know your line cost is 250 to 340, and Lanhai’s operating cost is 192, far lower than other channel companies.

Sun Xingshun nodded, but did not go along with Chen Xi. “Lanhai’s account operations are indeed pretty good. Chen Bin deserves credit for that. Did I tell you about Chen Bin before? He used to do investment promotion operations for the wooden door industry, taking 3D Wooden Door from a small factory to more than a hundred stores nationwide. In online ad optimization, Chen Bin is really quite impressive.”

When both sides were negotiating, the more advantages the second party had, the harder it was for the first party to squeeze the price and seek benefits.

“Chen Bin is indeed professional, but after all he doesn’t work at an ad company, so he can’t master the latest platform rules.” Chen Xi opened WeChat and showed Sun Xingshun the chat records between him and Chen Bin. They were all Chen Xi sending the latest market-wide data and platform industry data.

Just relying on Chen Bin’s kind of operational method of making one plan and copying it to multiple accounts, a completely “fortune-telling-style” approach, there was absolutely no way he could operate a line cost within 200. Sun Xingshun wanted to deny Lanhai’s operations and put gold on his own face, dream on!

“Lanhai’s operations regularly inspect your accounts. Chen Bin’s operating method should be from more than ten years ago. Maybe before he did operations for 3D Wooden Door, he had worked at an ad company.” Chen Xi argued forcefully. “Online media developed rapidly. The platform policies ten years ago were completely different from now. Chen Bin can’t make every account’s line cost stay within 200, right?”

Strike at the snake’s seven-inch spot and hit a person’s weak point, Chen Xi seized the point of “poor line cost” and kept attacking hard.

“This is the data from account operations during our year of cooperation.” Chen Xi opened the iPad and continued showing Sun Xingshun the data.

Sun Xingshun looked carefully. Chen Xi thought, See, look all you want. The data is real, you can stare through the tablet and still won’t see any tricks.

He never expected that Sun Xingshun really did see the trick.

“Your line cost is indeed low, but it’s not just phone calls. You bundled phone calls, consultations, and forms together.” Sun Xingshun found the key. “We only run forms in other channels. If Lanhai is mixing them together, the line cost will definitely be low.”

Customer sources could be in the form of phone calls, forms, consultations, and so on, and the customer acquisition cost for each form was usually not quite the same.

Heh, I guessed long ago that you’d ask. Luckily, the data I prepared before coming was comprehensive. Today I’ll let you see what it means that one foot is higher while the devil is one zhang taller!

“Brother Sun, don’t rush. Look further back, the next page has the disclosed data for forms.” Chen Xi changed his address from “President Sun” to “Brother Sun,” took the initiative to turn the page for Sun Xingshun, and eagerly wanted to see his frustrated expression. “The form line cost is 188, even lower than the overall 192.”

This smiling tiger really would not stop until he reached the Yellow River. Now he had nothing to say, right.

“Can you send me a copy of this data report?”

“Of course, I’ll forward it to you now.” While forwarding the data on WeChat, Chen Xi continued speaking according to his own logic. “Brother Sun, we’ve cooperated for a year. Lanhai has always provided support, whether on the service level or the operational level. Although I didn’t come before, I was always monitoring our account data. You said before that the two of us had a ‘compatible magnetic field.’ I think people with a ‘compatible magnetic field’ don’t need to say too much. We just make money together and that’s it, right? Haha.”

Chen Xi always wanted to forcibly bring Sun Xingshun’s topic into his own negotiation thinking, deliberately speaking quickly and urgently, pouring everything out in one breath. Before Sun Xingshun had even laid his cards on the table, Chen Xi had already almost shown his own hand.

“We do need to make money together. To be honest, I also really want to continue cooperating with Lanhai, but other channel companies all give rebates. If Manager Chen doesn’t give a rebate, I can’t explain it to the boss.” Sun Xingshun could not pick out any fault with Lanhai, so he could only use the “boss” as a fig leaf and stubbornly demand a rebate.

Chen Xi thought Sun Xingshun was about to buckle and felt this was the right time to show his hand. “You just saw this year’s operational data for Shanyao. Under the condition that Lanhai gives no rebate, the operating line cost was 192 yuan. Suppose a channel company’s operating cost is 240 yuan, and it gives Shanyao a 20% rebate, then the final operating cost converted into cash would be 200 yuan. If it exceeds 240 yuan, that means the line cost still isn’t lower than Lanhai’s operations.”

We have regional advantages, good operations, and low line cost. A comprehensive evaluation of the cooperation advantages would definitely be higher than other channel companies. Now you have nothing to say, right.

Chen Xi said everything in one breath, feeling sure of victory and secretly delighted.

But unexpectedly, Sun Xingshun said, “The operating costs of other channels are also not below 200 yuan. So what do you think we should do about that?”

Chen Xi had only seen Shanyao’s advertising delivery potential and only thought about the performance he was missing, using what he believed was a sufficient solution, but his negotiation logic was not complete. Wanting to pry open an industry leader was no different from a mayfly shaking a tree.

Being eager for quick success was a major taboo in negotiations.