KC | Chapter 31

Chapter 31 Public Recruitment

The outdoor parking lot in summer was scorching hot at noon, and bone-chillingly cold in the early morning and late evening.

After handling the client-side entertaining, Lin Yiran drove the car from the ground level down to the underground with a body full of alcohol. The sensor lights on the canopy ceiling followed the Cadillac all the way. In the early hours of the morning, there were only three or five cars in that huge parking lot, silent and empty.

At this hour, calling a designated driver to drive the car home was not impossible, it was just that Lin Yiran hated trouble. A year ago, someone had been waiting for him, and he had no choice but to go home. Now there was no one at home, and he had already not gone home for almost a week.

Lin Yiran adjusted the gap in his ride, leaning the seat almost all the way back into a flat position. His two long legs propped against the steering wheel, and his slender fingers skillfully pulled a blanket out from the front-seat drawer and covered himself with it. Before sleeping, he lit up his phone to set an alarm for 6:30 tomorrow morning, then went into the group work chat to check unread messages.

“Zhang Guangming: Beishi Lanhai and SN Company reached a strategic cooperation this month. SN Company is very satisfied with the ad planning our company provided, and is gifting our company 50 laptops. Starting today, for those in the KA system whose signed contracts and collected payment exceed 30W, first come, first served.”

Lanhai had branches in Beishi, Yucheng, and Jicheng. Beishi was a first-tier city, and its business volume was even larger than Yucheng and Jicheng combined.

The average monthly collected payment per person in Beishi was 30W, while in Yucheng it was less than 10W. It looked like if he wanted to get the incentive, he would have to use a little strategy.

Lin Yiran already had a plan in mind. He lowered the car window a little, put on an eye mask, and went to sleep.

The next morning, Lin Yiran was woken by the alarm. He picked up a razor from the front seat and shaved his beard in a dazed state. Just from the sound, he could tell the razor’s battery was not very full. Lin Yiran half-awake and half-asleep scraped at his beard for a long time. After using it, he very thoughtfully charged the razor, touched his not-too-stubbly chin, and moved the car from the lower level up to the ground.

Lin Yiran went to the bathroom and washed his face, then examined himself in the mirror, his looks were still holding up, but his mental state was terrible.

After drinking continuously for a week, if his mental state still had no problems, that would be the ghost of it.

Lin Yiran went back into the car and typed up the statistics report. He decided that after getting busy during the day, he would not attend any entertaining at night, and would properly go home and sleep, he could not let the signboard of “making a living off his face” get smashed.

For a lot of work, Lin Yiran insisted on doing it himself in pursuit of perfection. Zhang Guangming said he had “no room in his eyes for sand,” and Lin Yiran smiled and took it.

Pursuing perfection was human nature, while an extreme pursuit of perfection was pathological psychology. Lin Yiran thought he was the latter.

When Lin Yiran had just started as a salesperson, he had already set two goals for himself:

Work goal: reach management in 5 years, reach upper management in 10 years, sign 20 key clients, and earn 100W.

In order to present the most perfect solution to the client side, he constantly overturned and revised the plan, repeatedly torturing himself. In the end, with a nearly cruel method toward himself, he far exceeded the plan and completed the work goal.

Life goal: have a house in 3 years, have a car in 5 years, marry a wife in 10 years, have good looks and a good figure, and be in good health.

He had indeed completed the life goal, only there was a huge deviation. The house changed, the car was not one he wanted to drive himself, the wife got divorced, he smoked and drank, and exercised excessively, although right now his body did not have much of a problem.

Lin Yiran had high demands on himself, but he often fell short of them.

He had originally wanted to behave himself and find a gentle and virtuous wife to live a good life, preferably have three chubby sons, and after a few years of work, come home from work and bully his sons. But he could not stay well-behaved, and because he was busy with work, he delayed the golden years of his twenties for finding a partner. By the time he was in his thirties and finally got married and decided to settle down, his wife ran off again.

Lin Yiran did not want to live this badly, but life was not the same as work. Some things were not something he could make happen just because he wanted them to. Every time he failed to complete his life plan, he completely gave up and started to hate himself.

At the end of the month, it was an important time node for project settlement. Lin Yiran had originally planned to drive straight to another city to ask the client side for money, but just as he was about to get on the highway, he received a call from Zhang Guangming: “Gulin Decoration and an advertising company from another province are about to sign a 30 million framework for ad placement.”

Gulin Decoration was the first key client Lin Yiran signed ten years ago, and also the first client LanHai ever cooperated with that exceeded one million. Gulin Decoration had very important meaning for both LanHai and Lin Yiran.

Ten years ago, Lin Yiran was about the same as Chen Xi now, fiery temper, impatient, easily flammable and explosive, the WeChat name came from that time. As his experience increased, Lin Yiran added a lot of key clients on WeChat one after another. By the time he wanted to change the name, he was afraid that if the client side had not made a note, they would not be able to find him. So this extremely “burial love Shamate” WeChat name had been used all the way until now.

The signing process with Gulin Decoration was not smooth.

Lin Yiran had nobody to guide him, so all negotiation strategies had to be explored by himself. In order to sign the contract, Lin Yiran deliberately exaggerated the advertising effect, and promised the client side that only by giving more advertising fees and doing full-case integrated marketing with both online and offline efforts could such good results be achieved.

At that time, Lin Yiran only considered his own needs and did not plan by combining the client’s placement timing. Gulin Decoration paid a million in marketing expenses, all for the effect Lin Yiran had promised.

Gulin had an advertising budget, and sooner or later they would cooperate with LanHai. KA had to nurture client relationships, understand the client side’s structure, and see through the client side’s needs, instead of acting rashly for personal desires.

If it were now, Lin Yiran would definitely not be so reckless and impulsive, but it was too late to regret it now.

Lin Yiran used all his abilities, exhausted every possible effort, and worked nonstop for a whole month. He revised no fewer than dozens of versions of the placement plan, and in the end used sincerity to move the client, and the general manager of Gulin Marketing finally agreed to sign.

After Gulin Decoration signed the contract, the results did not meet expectations.

The Gulin marketing director submitted Lin Yiran’s plan to headquarters for approval, and as a result, got dragged down and downgraded. On the day he was demoted, he came to Lihua Building to confront Lin Yiran. The other party’s job appointment and removal had already become an established fact, coming to find Lin Yiran was nothing more than asking for an explanation, or cursing a couple of times for some psychological comfort. Lin Yiran held the data report and checked it line by line, wanting to call black white and refusing to admit his own fault.

Lin Yiran’s quibbling was undoubtedly adding fuel to the fire. The Gulin marketing general manager was not feeling good, and he cursed loudly, saying many unpleasant things. Lin Yiran at that time had a fiery temper and got into an argument with the other side, almost coming to blows.

The result was self-evident.

Gulin and LanHai parted on bad terms, and that parting lasted ten years.

Zhang Guangming had asked about the reason Gulin was not cooperating. Lin Yiran could only brace himself and make up an excuse: “Gulin Decoration Group’s strategic direction has adjusted, they are developing channels and no longer placing ads.”

Gulin had a demand for brand promotion and public image, it was impossible for them not to place ads. Bus body ads, highway pillars, airport standees… the streets and alleys of Yucheng were filled with Gulin Decoration’s advertisements, and Lin Yiran knew paper could not wrap up fire.

Zhang Guangming could not possibly have not seen Gulin ads over these ten years. He had kept silent all along, but today he suddenly brought this up to me, there could only be two possibilities:

1. The competing media company that Gulin was about to cooperate with did not get along with Zhang Guangming;

2. Gulin had a super large budget this year, and LanHai wanted to get a piece of the pie.

Since they could sign a 30 million framework with the competing media, it meant the other side had already completely read Gulin’s people. LanHai already had a strained relationship with Gulin, and signing in the short term was almost impossible.

It seemed that Zhang Guangming calling me was the first possibility, he needed me to “ruin the competing media deal,” rather than “sign Gulin.”

So Zhang Guangming should have learned that the money LanHai failed to get was taken by the competing media he did not get along with. He felt stifled in his heart and wanted to wreck this job, but he was too embarrassed to say it to me directly.

The pit dug ten years ago had buried himself today, this job really was disgustingly dirty.

The former emperor Zhang Guangming was angry, and the puppet emperor Lin Yiran had to work.

Lin Yiran promised Zhang Guangming: “This deal will definitely fall apart!”

Gulin, who could barely cooperate with me and get 100W, actually signed 30 million with the competing media?

The marketing big shot’s self-esteem was heavily frustrated, and he could only comfort himself with the fact that the purchasing power of RMB was different in different periods.

But it was useless.

The more he thought, the angrier he got.

Lin Yiran yanked the steering wheel hard, turned around, and drove straight back to LanHai. He sped through the city at 80 mph, ran three yellow lights, and used less than 20 minutes for a half-hour drive.

Just after KA finished their morning exercises, Wang Shuang was about to organize training when he saw Lin Yiran back at LanHai and quickly sent everyone away, preparing to report work.

Lin Yiran pushed open the office door and said to everyone, “Come in and have a meeting.”

The KA crowd surged into the office. The not-so-spacious room held 20 people, making it a little crowded. Fortunately, Lin Yiran did not have many miscellaneous things, and everyone could find their own place in the office.

“Today I’m calling everyone in for an impromptu meeting, there are only two things.” Lin Yiran had not opened his voice yet in the morning, and on top of being poked in the spine by Zhang Guangming just now, he was in a bad mood, so his already low voice was even eight degrees lower than usual.

In the sweltering summer, Lin Yiran’s face, however, was like a lake frozen stiff in winter, gloomy and cold. The entire office was filled with a heavy low pressure, and the KA members who were still laughing and chatting during morning exercises were now dull and tense.

The light gray shirt fit closely to his sturdy build, the hem tucked into the LV belt. His waistline was more than a full stretch higher than the desk. Lin Yiran looked like a piece of art made specifically for suits, with broad shoulders and long legs. The deep eyes were no longer calm as still water, replaced by gloominess before a storm.

Previously, meetings had mostly been in a relaxed and cheerful atmosphere. Lin Yiran rarely used a serious tone to command or request KA. Zhang Guangming had fire in his heart and could vent it on him, because this deal was the root of the problem he had left behind ten years ago. But he could not vent it on KA, because KA had done nothing wrong.

“First thing, I’ll announce a group incentive policy to everyone.” Lin Yiran quickly adjusted his state, put on the skin of a perfect leader, and pulled out his signature smile, “The group incentive is 50 laptops, and for those in the KA system whose signed contracts and collected payment exceed 30W, first come, first served.”

Although LanHai had high work pressure, it had many benefits. Holiday benefits were no worse than anyone else’s, and every so often there were also “gifts from competitors.” The last competitor was Lin Yiran’s client. Lin Yiran gave the client side a kickback, and the client side gave Yucheng 10W in consolation money. It was split among all frontline staff, and Chen Xi got more than 300 yuan.

Compared to laptops, Chen Xi needed money more, but Chen Xi felt she could not get this incentive. The Shenyao deal had been talked about with such difficulty, and they only got 10W as the first payment. They had not even touched the doors of the other key clients, let alone signed.

KA should have felt happy and delighted upon hearing the incentive policy, but the atmosphere in the office was still heavy, because there were not many people in Yucheng who could get the incentive.

Every time the group incentive was taken by Beishi, while the team incentive was mostly taken by Yucheng. Group incentives depended on the salesperson’s personal ability, while team incentives depended on the completion ratio of each local team. The reason Yucheng could get team incentives was entirely thanks to Lin Yiran. What Lin Yiran alone completed was more than the sum of the other 19 people combined.

Lin Yiran seemed to have predicted everyone’s reaction in advance, and said slowly and unhurriedly: “I have a project in hand that just got signed, but I don’t have time to do it, so I need someone to assist with pushing execution. The project starts in September, and payment will be received based on the closing report. The contract amount is 58W, the estimated gross profit is 70%, and the person assisting me can split 50% of the performance.”

Splitting 58W means 29W performance, which would definitely get the laptop incentive, and the 20W gross profit they would get was enough for any KA present to complete the assessment. The projects that Lin Yiran did not have time for or looked down on were all beyond the reach of the KA present.

The office’s gloom vanished in an instant. The eyes of all the KA members glowed green, and they stared at Lin Yiran intently, holding their breath, all wanting the pie to fall on their heads.

“The reason I’m bringing this project up today is that I want to publicly recruit.”

In order to prevent salespeople from snatching orders, LanHai established a complete client protection system. Salespeople could only follow up on customers under their own client protection, but there were exceptions.

“Public recruitment” was the special exception Lin Yiran had opened for KA.

The condition for initiating public recruitment was: the key client had a budget over 500,000.

When he clearly learned that a certain key client was about to cooperate with a competing media company, or when a certain key client was about to be poached by a competing media company, Lin Yiran would abolish the client protection for the client side and openly recruit to all KA.

Today’s recruitment was based on the premise that he would lose his own interests, in order to let Yucheng KA get the incentive.

Lin Yiran really had so many projects in his hands that he could not finish them all. After getting Wang Shuang’s help, things had become a little easier, but at the end of the month he had to urge all kinds of clients for payment, and he really had no ability to split himself into many parts.

By initiating public recruitment, on one hand he could make himself a little more relaxed, and on the other hand he could let KA get the incentive.

The helmsman of KA had always been escorting Yucheng KA safely forward.