KC | Chapter 5

Lin Yiran was not the kind of person who stayed put.

When he was in university, it was all right. He only had one girlfriend, and after graduation, the two of them went their separate ways.

After he started working, Lin Yiran gradually became restless.

When he first got into sales, his mood fluctuated a lot. Lin Yiran enjoyed the joy of closing a deal, and also endured the disappointment of losing one. As the quota for closed deals and the number of orders he landed kept rising, the repetitive work that never changed made him numb. Only larger orders would make him feel that long-missed excitement again.

So he took the initiative to volunteer for signing key clients, becoming the pioneer of Lanhai’s KA system. Five years ago, Lanhai had no concept of customer segmentation. It was Lin Yiran who took the initiative to ask for key clients to be divided by list-based management, to set up a professional team, so that key clients could receive better service and thus get more budget.

Zhang Guangming overruled everyone’s objections and adopted Lin Yiran’s suggestion, building a KA team for him. Before Lin Yiran took office, Zhang Guangming said, “For all of Lanhai’s customer resources, KA has priority in development. For all talent, KA has priority in choosing. I’ll give you money and people if you want them. But if there’s no profit in six months, the team will be disbanded, and you’ll go back to business and do frontline work.”

Lin Yiran had spent 5 years in frontline sales at Lanhai, 3 years in management, and 2 years in senior management. When he was appointed to KA, his original rank was business director. If he did badly in KA and went back to business to do frontline work, it would be the same as wasting the accumulation of his previous 10 years.

This was a betting match, Zhang Guangming had set up the table for him and laid out the hand. Lanhai did indeed have a rich customer base, but it did not have the kind of people Lin Yiran wanted.

KA and business were both sales, but they were two different professions. Developing key clients required a salesperson to have extremely high overall qualities, professional product knowledge, and rich marketing concepts. KA had to be able to play against key clients, have conversation topics that could match them, have abundant connections, and be able to maintain the circles they moved in continuously… It was not the business team’s brainwashing telemarketing model.

Faced with heavy performance pressure, Lin Yiran had no choice but to keep pumping himself up at all times. This was the road he had chosen himself, ahead was the abyss, and also the supreme honor. The only chip Lin Yiran had in his hand was himself.

He did not want people from business. In social recruitment, he took in a batch of “newcomers” who had never done sales before, and his only requirement was this, they had to have connections. At that time, aside from Zhang Guangming, all of Lanhai’s managers thought he was crazy. People who had never done sales did not even know basic scripts or product knowledge, so how could they sign key clients?

Lin Yiran did not need them to know how to talk about products. He only needed them to smooth relationships, to be able to get in touch with bosses and build a bridge, and to win him a chance to speak.

The bosses of listed companies, central state-owned enterprises, and state-owned enterprises had very fine-grained time schedules, packed very full. Getting 10 to 15 minutes to speak with the other side was already pretty good. What Lin Yiran had to do was, in those few short minutes, make the client’s boss remember him. The difficulty of key client development was how to build a relationship with the boss, not how to talk about the product.

At that time, all the clients of KA newcomers were handled by Lin Yiran. He was busy with socializing from early morning until late at night, frequently appearing at major industry summits. In the end, he pried open cooperation opportunities with key clients, and in just the second month after KA was formed, it became profitable.

Key clients were few in number, difficult to develop, and even harder to maintain. Lin Yiran had to fight with dozens of competing media companies for schedule budgets, and it was very important to handle the middlemen who made the plans. For those who liked money, he gave luxury goods, and kept the shopping receipts so returns and exchanges would be convenient. For those who liked pomp and show, he arranged drinking gatherings, and after drinking for a month, he could always talk about some heart-to-heart topics. For those who were lustful, he booked high-end clubs and found a few good-looking male and female escorts to accompany them for a few rounds… As long as everything started from the key client’s needs, he could always find the right way to maintain the relationship.

Once, while negotiating business with a client at a private club, after signing the contract, the client, with plenty of money to throw around, called in a few escorts with hot figures. Lin Yiran could not refuse and embarrass the other side because of work, so after three rounds of drinking, he took the people upstairs.

The beautiful escort had a curvy body, and as soon as she entered the room she took off her clothes. Lin Yiran had been single for too long, and for a moment his head was hot, so he did it. Afterward, he thought that as long as he took proper precautions and did not get sick, fooling around was no big deal.

Once something like this happened the first time, there would be countless more times. After that, Lin Yiran often went in and out of all kinds of business clubs with different clients and partners. Facts proved that “escorts” were an effective means of promoting cooperation. Lin Yiran refused same-sex, refused kissing, refused biting, refused all sex acts involving saliva or anything else that might spread disease. He valued health very much, and let his body go very freely.

He did not date people, he only went to clubs, because he did not want to waste time with a boring app accompanying women. At clubs, as long as you paid, you could do it. Simple, rough, direct. Lin Yiran never left contact information, and he would never do it with the same escort twice. He was only solving a physiological need, and did not want to get entangled too much.

It was not until after marriage that he settled down.

Five years ago, Wang Jingjing pursued him, and she had pursued him for two years.

Lin Yiran had a very clear position on himself, giving in to impulse and indulging desire, naturally promiscuous. He felt that he was not suitable for marriage, and he had rejected Wang Jingjing many times, both openly and secretly. But he had underestimated the endurance and determination of a career woman. Wang Jingjing pursued him very high-profile and very flamboyantly. Everyone at Lanhai knew that Wang Jingjing liked him. That “like” came with such a huge show of force, with quite a sales-like style of forcing a deal.

Lin Yiran did not want to delay her, so he compromised himself.

Less than a month after the two of them confirmed their relationship, they got their marriage certificate.

But his one-sided compromise was not enough to support a marriage between two people.

Lanhai did not oppose employees dating, but the reason Wang Jingjing resigned was indeed Lin Yiran. Both of them worked in sales management, both had their own edges. When the KA system and the business system competed with each other for customers, neither side would give in. Lin Yiran could compromise in life, but he could not compromise at work, that was his bottom line.

Lanhai’s principle was to prioritize KA in developing clients, so Lin Yiran was always able to snatch the development rights for key clients from Wang Jingjing’s hands, and the two of them had plenty of arguments because of it.

At that time, the business system had more than 100 people, more than it does now. With too many wolves and too little meat, client development was difficult, sales efficiency was low, and after the business system kept losing money for half a year, Lanhai demanded that Wang Jingjing be demoted.

Wang Jingjing believed the main reason business did badly was that all the key clients had been given to KA. She used this reason to play the game with the group leaders, and Zhang Guangming’s reply was simple: “The sales system was originally meant to compete with each other, the strong survive, the weak are eliminated.”

The meaning was even more explicit, Lin Yiran was the strong one, she was the weak one.

Wang Jingjing’s self-esteem was hurt, and in a fit of anger she submitted her resignation.

So, the reason Wang Jingjing resigned really was Lin Yiran.

During that period, the two of them kept arguing without pause, and it also planted hidden dangers for their fragile marriage.

Lin Yiran had always been hard to talk to. He argued reasonably and refused to give even a hair’s breadth to customers, snatched budgets from competing media companies and left them no room at all, but toward Wang Jingjing, he was very easy to talk to.

Wang Jingjing said she wanted a Valentine’s Day gift, and Lin Yiran gave her an LV bag. Wang Jingjing said she did not want children, and Lin Yiran went along with her. When Wang Jingjing divorced him and did not want the house, only the money, Lin Yiran sold the house and gave it to her… In those two years of marriage, Lin Yiran was like a pet that came when called and was waved away when not needed, cheap and easy to deal with.

When Wang Jingjing proposed divorce, Lin Yiran turned down 80% of his social engagements and tried to salvage things, but Wang Jingjing said, “I can’t feel that you love me.”

Lin Yiran divorced last year.

During that period right after the divorce, he lived very badly.

Lin Yiran threw away his wedding ring, changed cars, and after 2 years once again frequently went in and out of business clubs. He had absolutely no intention of remarrying, and thought it was pretty good to just keep playing like this in wine and song forever. By day he was a polished and glamorous business elite, by night he became a morally degenerate refined scumbag.

He numbed himself with heavy work, actively accepted social engagements he had previously turned down, and every week there were 3 to 5 drinking gatherings. Just like that, he spent a few months half asleep and half awake.

For Lin Yiran, marriage was a kind of responsibility, and a man had to take on the role of taking care of the woman in marriage. He did not want to take care of people anymore, to accommodate people, to compromise step by step, to give in everywhere.

When Lin Yiran thought of this failed marriage, what he felt more was relief. If he could do it again, he would absolutely not compromise himself so easily.

Now Lin Yiran only wanted to drink while he could, and sign deals while they were there.

KA needed him, and he also needed KA. Only the excitement at the moment of signing a key client could truly make him feel the value of his own existence.

He wanted applause, he wanted money, he wanted a noble status, he wanted a good body… He wanted all the evil desires to corrode himself.

People who did sales all had strong pride. Wang Jingjing could not stand Zhang Guangming’s mockery and resigned, and Lin Yiran likewise could not accept the fact that he had been dumped. Wang Jingjing did not publicize their divorce everywhere like she had when she was pursuing him, and of course Lin Yiran could not say it out loud either, so the colleagues at Lanhai had always thought they were still together.

Chen Xi was no exception.

In Chen Xi’s drawer was a yellow bag from Meituan buying medicine, clearly something Lin Yiran had ordered after he got to work, not something he had specially gone to buy.

He limped as he poured himself a cup of water, swallowed roxithromycin and ibuprofen, and opened the computer to prepare his resignation request.

Like most companies, at Lanhai resignation only needed written notice, but because sales involved commissions, it required approval from a superior.

Lanhai had its own independently developed office system, and all approvals went through online workflows. After Chen Xi submitted his resignation, he found that it was not being reviewed by Lin Yiran. Between them, another person had appeared, Wang Shuang, the newly appointed director of KA and Chen Xi’s direct superior.

If it was not necessary, Chen Xi did not want any more interaction with Wang Shuang.

Why use “again”? Because when Chen Xi had just joined the company, he had been doing sales under Wang Shuang. Back then Wang Shuang watched him make calls every day and chased after him asking, “Why did you only make 40 calls today, why didn’t you go out to visit clients, when are you going to close a deal? …”

Everyone was working for Lanhai, so why the hell did you have so much crap to say?

Chen Xi had smashed the table several times and wanted to submit his resignation, but he had no money, so he could only swallow the words back down.

Today he finally submitted his resignation, and Wang Shuang came to “pinch” him again.

Lanhai’s efficiency really was high, before the director even arrived, the system had already been changed.

Wang Shuang was a leader with super strong control issues. If she came to KA and continued to be Chen Xi’s superior, even if yesterday’s incident had not happened, Chen Xi could not say for sure that he would not resign one day.

Lin Yiran’s management style was completely different from Wang Shuang’s. He would not ask about his subordinates’ process indicators, would not chase after them for performance, at most he would just ask about the progress of clients.

Before yesterday, Chen Xi had thought that Lin Yiran had no control issues.

Only when he got to bed did he realize that he had been terribly wrong.