Text: Wang Huiying.
Edit Midnight.
Our goal is to upgrade the 6,000 internal partners of Yuanqi to the 60,000 internal and external partners, or even more, which is a protracted work. ”
On February 4, Tang Binsen, the founder of Yuanqi Forest, issued an internal letter, saying that in 2023, it will be "stable and rising", and the performance growth rate will be higher than that of vertical industries**. At the same time, Tang Binsen also reviewed the transformation of the Yuanqi Forest in the past year, and put "reflection" on his lips:
Recalling the stumbles and ups and downs of this journey, today I know better what it means to cherish;
At the beginning, innovation was for the sake of innovation, and even some did not respect the laws of the industry, accompanied by a lot of waste and false prosperity;
The rapid development and variable factors in the past seven years have made the company and some management members unable to control the situation and even excessively magnified their personal capabilities. ”
Source: Yuanqi Forest's official Weibo.
In 2023, Yuanqi Forest will pay more attention to and transform the sales side, from being dominated by Internet thinking to becoming "traditional" now.
The so-called tradition refers to the fact that Yuanqi Forest has begun to learn from traditional beverage companies. At the 2023 National Dealer Conference, Yuanqi Forest revealed that its performance in 2023 will achieve double-digit growth, but no specific figures have been announced. In the face of nearly 400 dealers in the audience, Tang Binsen repeatedly emphasized the words "return to tradition".
For example, in the distribution system, Yuanqi Forest has further consolidated the partnership between the dealer system and the first-class business system, and put forward the goal of achieving a win-win situation for partners; In terms of organizational structure, through more than a year of management framework combing, the goal of improving organizational efficiency has been basically achieved, and a new round of "building a team, boosting morale, and promoting growth" has been completed.
It is worth mentioning that Tang Binsen listed Huawei as a learning object. Huawei's founder, Ren Zhengfei, once put forward a request at the cadre conference, asking Huawei to cooperate with others openly in order to achieve a win-win situation.
Tang Binsen mentioned that he was deeply touched by Huawei's "black widow" principle of not being a "black widow" who "eats partners", and this is precisely for partners and distributors, "We must learn from Huawei seriously, be more humble in our hearts, and be more honest and open to the outside world." ”
In the past seven years, Yuanqi Forest has grown up with Internet genes and quickly became a leader in new consumption in the FMCG industry, but it has also experienced labor pains. The loopholes in the internal organization and the farewell to high growth in revenue are a lesson from the market to Yuanqi Forest. Today's Yuanqi Forest, after experiencing the "seven-year itch", has turned back as a prodigal son, and has adjusted in many ways to face a more complex market environment.
Judging from the style of his favorite songs, Tang Binsen, the founder of Yuanqi Forest, believes that he and Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei, are of the same generation.
Because he grew up with his grandparents since he was a child, Tang Binsen not only likes "On the Water Side", but even feels crying when his grandfather sings "Singing the Motherland".
As a junior, Tang Binsen has repeatedly expressed his admiration for Huawei and Ren Zhengfei. "I think Ren Zhengfei is a person who talks about the basic laws in the vernacular", he agrees with Ren Zhengfei's concept of enterprise development, "The company should not have too many parties, there is no reason, and some people buy tofu when it is grinded." ”
Tang Binsen and Ren Zhengfei, both of whom pay attention to the importance of products.
In 2016, Tang Binsen stepped into the beverage industry, which has not yet been transformed by the Internet industry, and founded Yuanqi Forest, which has become one of the hottest enterprises in China's consumer industry in the past five years.
In May 2018, Yuanqi Forest's first explosive product, "Sugar-free Sparkling Water", was launched, replacing the aspartame added to sugar-free drinks with the sugar substitute erythritol, thus further improving the taste of sugar-free sparkling water.
Since then, Genki Forest has single-handedly defined the "sparkling water track". Tang Binsen once publicly said, "I hope that everyone will think of Yuanqi Forest when they mention sparkling water, and it is Yuanqi Forest that brings concepts such as erythritol into the domestic beverage industry."
Source: Yuanqi Forest Little Red Book.
The Vitality Forest is marching all the way. In the three years of rapid development from 2018 to 2020, the sales growth rate of Yuanqi Forest reached % and 309% respectively.
What kind of magic was in the Yuanqi Forest became a major mystery in the consumer industry at that time.
The answer may be rebellion. The continuous successful entrepreneurship in the Internet industry has brought Tang Binsen and Yuanqi Forest a rebellion from the new generation. Tang Binsen has repeatedly mentioned the difference between Yuanqi Forest and the traditional beverage industry, believing that the two are completely two worlds.
For example, after the launch of popular products, Yuanqi Forest began to exert efforts in marketing. On the one hand, it improves its brand influence by signing top celebrity endorsements and sponsoring popular variety shows, and on the other hand, on social networks such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin, "planting notes" are placed to form a closed marketing loop from top to bottom.
At the same time, based on Internet thinking, Yuanqi Forest uses real gold ** to develop and launch retail smart containers. When there is no stock, the smart freezer can take the initiative to remind the salesman**. These smart freezers have cameras embedded in the doors to monitor and count product purchases, while also ensuring that private label beverages are placed in the first three floors.
Yuanqi Forest Smart Freezer, picture source: Yuanqi Forest official website
Whether it's marketing strategy or Internet thinking, Yuanqi Forest is overturning the rules of the traditional beverage industry. But "rebellion" is not a long-term panacea, and in the face of the attack of traditional beverage companies, Genki Forest's creativity is challenged.
The turning point came in 2022. At that time, the sales growth rate of Yuanqi Forest was only about 20%, and a series of channel problems were exposed.
Yuanqi Forest relied on retail smart cabinets to try to snatch the spot of the offline channel mom-and-pop store, but after the real gold ** was smashed, the channel was chaotic for a while; In order to achieve the goal of sustained high growth, on the product side, the steps are too big and too fast, and many new products are launched in one go; In the distribution system, dealers under the pressure of inventory, try their best to dump goods, which leads to problems such as "fleeing goods and indiscriminate prices".
Thinking like a product manager at a game company, Tang Binsen ignores the importance of the traditional reseller model. In this year's internal letter, Tang Binsen once again mentioned learning from Huawei.
He mentioned that Huawei has also experienced a period of rapid market development, and there have been problems in communication with partners, resulting in some partners not daring to "have a heart-to-heart" with Huawei, and even partners who have cooperated for a year or two, Huawei has slowly eaten or dumped these companies. Over time, Huawei's reputation in the industry is not very good.
After seeing the problem, Ren Zhengfei made a request at the cadre meeting: "Huawei must be open to others to achieve a win-win situation. We should keep more difficulties to ourselves and more benefits to others. ”
This touched Tang Binsen a lot, "We must learn from Huawei seriously, be more humble in our hearts, and be more honest and open to the outside world." ”
At the Yuanqi Forest Dealer Conference at the end of 2023, Tang Binsen has already mentioned, "What Yuanqi has established with dealers and businessmen is not only a business relationship, but a deep partnership based on common experience and trust." ”
Now, Tang Binsen re-mentioned the word "believe", which is also a signal to reconcile with dealers and traditional channels. After all, in the beverage industry today, an open and win-win mindset is more important than an Internet mindset.
When we Internet people come to the FMCG industry, don't float, we all have to go to the market and learn from the front line of the market. At the beginning of 2023, Tang Binsen said bluntly to the senior management at the annual meeting of Yuanqi Forest.
Tang Binsen leads by example, visiting dealers, merchants and customers is his norm in 2023, and his office is often empty because of business trips.
On the contrary, in the dealer market across the country, Tang Binsen can often be seen behindIt is the "prodigal son" of the Genki Forest and is learning from the traditional world.
The background to this change is the "Great Leap Forward" of Yuanqi Forest in 2022. At that time, in order to grow, Yuanqi Forest frequently released new products and let dealers sell them.
At the beginning of 2022, Yuanqi Forest misjudged the changes in the market. In that year, the "total number of new products of the year" launched and launched within Yuanqi Forest reached the highest level in the past year; In terms of categories, Yuanqi Forest has launched products in more than 8 new categories.
In addition, according to ** report, in the first three quarters of 2022, the "regional" system was canceled in the dealer system of Yuanqi Forest, and the provincial and regional heads of each province reported directly to the company's channel leaders. Under the "provincial system" model, Yuanqi Forest adopted a "one-way order model" at that time.
Under this model, without the knowledge of some dealers, Yuanqi Forest directly sends the goods to its warehouse according to the prediction of the headquarters, and when calculating the performance, these products that are sent to the dealer's warehouse are also counted as Yuanqi Forest sales.
The headquarters only cares about the continuous supply of new products to dealers, regardless of whether the products are really sold to consumers, as an intermediate link, most dealers can only bear the inventory pressure. Once the inventory appears, the dealer needs to digest it on his own, which makes it difficult for the dealer.
The dissatisfaction spread to social platforms and also reached Tang Binsen's ears, and he realized that the Yuanqi Forest was "floating". At the Yuanqi Forest Dealer Conference at the end of 2022, Tang Binsen calmed the dealers' emotions, and he used the word "prodigal son to turn back" to express his apology and sincerity to the dealers.
Tang Binsen, picture source: Yuanqi Forest Blackboard Newspaper***
Tang Binsen also mentioned that relying on dealers to develop the sales network of Yuanqi Forest is the right way. The so-called decentralization, the so-called "internet thinking" can be poison and not enough understanding of sales.
Indeed, in the face of a huge market, the Yuanqi Forest is still very small. Especially in the most complex distribution system of the beverage industry, Yuanqi Forest not only does not have an advantage, but also has no experience.
In 2022, the number of Yuanqi Forest dealers reached more than 1,300. For comparison, as of 2022, Nongfu Spring has more than 4,454 dealers; Wahaha has more than 5,000 dealers.
The road traveled by the traditional giants tells Yuanqi Forest that it takes time to build an "iron army" of dealers, visit the customer team in a down-to-earth manner, and strengthen the construction of the entire distribution system, not with money.
Starting at the end of 2023, the rebellious new consumption "prodigal son" will begin to learn from the "predecessors" of the traditional world.
In terms of distribution channels, Yuanqi Forest began to "build a business agency" with dealers, and the industry generation is the first business, which is specifically responsible for a series of specific work such as commodity shelves, material placement, and activity execution in the region.
This is the same way Nongfu Spring played when it opened up the market in the early days. At that time, local beverage brands adopted a similar "co-construction talent" model, rapidly expanded the terminal talent team, and optimized the overall sales by refining the terminal actions.
In November 2022, Fan Jun, the No. 1 sales player of Yuanqi Forest, led the launch of a project codenamed "Ark Co-construction" - Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and core provincial capitals, which are still deeply cultivated by Yuanqi as a channel; third- and fourth-tier cities subsidize dealers to recruit co-construction personnel; In fifth-tier cities and below, the package will be handed over to dealers for operation.
Under the "co-construction industry" model, not only does it maximize the efficiency of the team, but Yuanqi Forest and the distributor also share the salary of employees, and generally Yuanqi Forest will bear 60%-70% of the salary of the industry generation, and at the same time bear their social security.
In terms of organizational structure, learning from consumer companies, Yuanqi Forest restarted the regional model and shouted the slogan of "reducing costs and increasing efficiency, all in sales". The management reorganized the structure system of Yuanqi Forest sales, classified the provinces and regions into eight war zones, and changed the original "one-way order determination mode" to "two-way order determination mode" in the dealer delivery system.
It can be seen that with Tang Binsen's reflection, the Yuanqi Forest is shattering and rebuilding itself. In the past, Tang Binsen has repeatedly mentioned that it is a company with two worlds with traditional beverage manufacturers, but now, the words that have been on his lips many times have become to learn from giants and return to tradition.
Source: Yuanqi Forest Blackboard Newspaper WeChat***
According to ** reports, in 2023, Tang Binsen paid a special visit to He Boquan, the founder of Robust, and had a detailed conversation at his home for nearly 5 hours. He tried to hear more advice from the mouths of these traditional beverage world predecessors, and evolved it into a new connotation of the Genki Forest. A person close to Mr. Tang said.
In this internal letter, Tang Binsen reiterated his determination to "turn back". Perhaps they are giving an explanation to themselves and Yuanqi Forest seven years ago, when Yuanqi Forest was arrogant and entered the traditional industry, and they tried to overturn the rules and create new rules.
After thousands of sails, the successful experience of the traditional world proves what is the way to long-term development. However, if the "prodigal son" of the new era wants to catch up, it will take time, because there are many lessons to be made up.
The turbulence of external markets such as channels and products is far less violent than the internal shock at the top of Yuanqi Forest.
Shortly after the beginning of 2023, Yuanqi Forest issued an announcement for all employees: Ye Licheng, the former head of the marketing center, was fired on suspicion of major corruption. And only a few months ago, in November 2022, Yuanqi Forest announced through the Yuanqi Blackboard that two employees of Yuanqi Forest in a war zone had been filed by the public security.
This is the biggest corruption case within the company in the past seven years, and it happened to the top management, and the impact on Yuanqi Forest is from top to bottom, from the inside to the outside.
As the No. 1 sales position at that time, Ye Licheng's promotion speed was very fast, and he was trusted by Tang Binsen. In 2021, Ye Licheng, as the sales leader of the southwest region of Yuanqi Forest, led the southwest region to become the fastest growing market in the company.
In 2021, the market share of products such as Yuanqi Forest Sparkling Water in third- and fourth-tier cities in southwest China reached twice the national average. At that time, Ye Licheng's southwest model was the "key experience" for the company-wide promotion and learning within Yuanqi Forest.
However, the rapid change in the direction of the wind made people have no time to react, and Tang Binsen, who pulled Ye Licheng up, was even more shocked. According to 36Kr reports, when the senior management team was invited to dinner during the Spring Festival in 2023, Tang Binsen scolded himself three times in a row, saying that "I chose the wrong person".
The exposure of corruption in the internal sales team has affected the direction of Yuanqi Forest.
After a year of pains and adjustments, Tang Binsen brought up this matter again. In this internal letter, Tang Binsen mentioned for the first time the anti-corruption incident involving Xie Danyang. Many colleagues and external partners knew about Ye Licheng, Xie Danyang and others, and the judicial results came out soon. ”
I can't believe that there is such a serious contempt for partners, trampling on friendship, and arrogance and profit-seeking in Ye Licheng and Xie Danyang. In several chats with my dealer partners, I confessed that this was a problem of me seeing the wrong person and choosing the wrong person, and I would take responsibility for everyone to the end. ”
It is worth mentioning that Tang Binsen said in an internal letter that the organizational restructuring of the past year has been basically completed, most of the problems have been solved, and many wastes have been greatly reduced.
Judging from the data, the Metaverse Forest is slowly recovering its "vitality".
According to ** report, as of the beginning of December, the annual sales of alien electrolyte water under Yuanqi Forest have exceeded 3.5 billion yuan, nearly three times the sales in 2022; The overall sales of sparkling water were flat compared to 2022, and the annual sales of the four core flavors increased year-on-year; Iced tea jumped to the third largest product line within Yuanqi Forest in 2023; In 2023, the sales volume of the Zizai aquatic product line has achieved a result from 0 to more than 100 million.
From the perspective of products, at the beginning of 2023, Yuanqi Forest determined the strategy of "narrowing the product line and slowing down the speed of new products". Up to now, Yuanqi Forest's product matrix covers carbonated drinks, sugar-free tea, dairy products, sports drinks and other fields, with Yuanqi Forest Sparkling Water, Alien Electrolyte Water, Yuanqi Forest Milk Tea, Burning Tea, Iced Tea and other products.
In this internal letter, Tang Binsen also specifically mentioned the transformation of milk tea and iced tea from the trough of the market to a steady increase, and more importantly, Tang Binsen congratulated the "Alien Electrolyte Water" team, and said that this is "a typical good product within the company that dares to sharpen a sword for a few years." ”
In the past 7 years, I have experienced from scratch, from one to many. I often say that 7 years is a cycle of reincarnation, the experience of the experience, the pain of the pain, after countless tossing and turning, sleepless nights, I see today that one of the valuable assets accumulated in the past 7 years is 'good partners, good products, good management'. Tang Binsen said at the end of the internal letter.
Seven years later, Yuanqi Forest has stood at a new node, it is facing a more fierce battlefield and a more tense table, it also recognizes its own insignificance in front of the big market, in the process of learning from the traditional world, it is destined to constantly adjust and self-spur, in the continuous trial and error, to find a new way of long-term development.
The header image of this article is on the official website of Yuanqi Forest. ）