Is The Clothing Agency Born Naturally?

An interview with MS. Zou Yu, the consultant of the China international brand consulting company, has experienced such experience. When their scale is small, their days are very moist, but with the strength and scale expanding, the days become more and more intense.

Many agents do not understand the reason for this. They think that there is only a difference between the size and form of agents, and there is no essential distinction. Some even come to the conclusion that "clothing agents are naturally not big enough".

But is this really the case?

In order to explore the answer, the reporter recently interviewed Ms. Zou Yu, the consultant of the Sino research international brand consultancy company. Her interpretation of the concept of "agent company operation" may inspire most of the clothing agency franchisees.

Where does "bottleneck" come from?

Reporter: at present, many agents are developed from self-employed families. Compared with brand dealers, most of them do not have a perfect organizational structure and management system. Will this have an impact on the development of agents? Zou Yu: when the agents are in the initial stage, the boss is always the general manager, the salesman, the buyer, the cashier, the accountant, and the big and minor matters must be done in person. Such agents need only one facade, plus two couples.

But with the expansion of scale, agents expand from one shop to many stores, from running a brand to running multiple brands, when the boss starts to invite people to do it, there will be warehouse management, finance, cashier and salesman.

But the problem is that such a simple organization can not get systematic cohesion in all links, and the staff can not complete the task according to the system process step by step, thus resulting in various problems, such as personnel setup errors, conflict of functions, team communication and collaboration.

Reporter: in recent years, many agents in the regional market, regardless of financial strength, or local resources are very strong, the more open stores, but they always feel business day by day, why?

Zou Yu: most agents only want to make money, and think that the more brands they have, the more franchisees, the more opportunities to make money.

But in fact, the process and result of many agents choosing agents and franchisees are often "messy" because of the weak management ability of agents, but the business is easy to get out of control.

Therefore, when the agent finds a good brand, but suddenly opens ten or even twenty stores, it will find that its profit is not as good as that of 5 stores. The root of this problem lies in the fact that all the funds are confined to the cost of stock and storefront.

"Management" must keep up with the scale of reporters: indeed, we also found that many agents worked well when they were small, but the scale was rather chaotic.

But the question is, how can we solve this bottleneck?

Zou Yu: I think the bottleneck that restricts the development of enterprises is mainly in management.

In other words, agents can not adjust their management according to their own scale.

When it is small, it assumes many roles such as purchasing, keeping, accounting, and salesmen. But when it is large, it can not meet the needs of development.

Therefore, the problem that the expanding agent should solve as soon as possible is the upgrading of management and the pformation of roles.

In fact, many agents have reached the stage of company operation. It is absolutely necessary to set up relevant departments to operate according to needs.

Many dealers do not want to set up relevant management departments because their consciousness has not changed, and they are worried about increasing their labor costs. But they do not know that the confusion of management has already engulfed a lot of profits and lost many opportunities.

Reporter: however, the pformation of agents can not be operated solely on the basis of their own experience.

Zou Yu: you are quite right.

Generally speaking, the experience of agent franchisee is mostly the experience of opening a store and running a brand. These experiences are the experience of agent franchisee in purchasing, selling, store service and so on.

However, if agents want to be bigger, they must have management experience.

Large scale agency business and operation of multiple brands must establish a complete terminal marketing management system, which includes personnel classification management system, company organization process, marketing planning, etc.

The majority of agents in the market want to grow stronger and do not want to be reduced to the "two way vendors" of brand enterprises. They have a dream of realizing their own business and being an entrepreneur.

So what kind of role pformation do agents need to do in the process of pformation?

Zou Yu: I always think, "how big a boss is, how much business there is."

Many agents do not do much, mainly because they are not "managers".

Therefore, if agents want to pform and expand, they must change their roles. They must change from the operation mode of individual businesses to the operation mode of corporatization, and only change the concept of "porters" of brand enterprises.

With the resources advantage of the local market, agents can create "gold lettered signboards" as well as brand enterprises, and become the model enterprises in the industry.

After the expansion of business scale, the organizational structure of agents will start to change. On the one hand, we should set up corresponding organization, set up the operation process, establish a perfect company system, and recruit and train more talents on the other hand.

In addition, the establishment of a sound corporate system is much easier to manage.

Reporter: then, what conditions do agents need to have in the process of pformation and implementation of corporatization?

Zou Yu: indeed, as you say, not all agents can achieve this pformation. Only when they have passed the survival period, can agents in the development stage overcome this upgrading threshold.

I think this mainly depends on several aspects. First, agents want to have the desire of sustainable development and career; two, their original accumulation of funds has ended, the market infrastructure has been completed, they have certain operational strength, and have stable downstream channel members; three, agents managers must have a positive learning attitude in management.

What needs to be explained is that when the agent is small, the market decision is relatively simple. However, after the implementation of the company operation, the decision-making process needs to be investigated, investigated, demonstrated, and implemented in a complex process. It is not a "shouting of positions," it can attract millions of revolutionary teams.

Therefore, agents should not be troublesome in the process of implementing the corporatization operation.

For example, the agent's investment promotion will be planned, and many agents have made great efforts to invite two hundred or three hundred franchisees, but few will be able to sign the contract after the meeting.

We do business planning for agents, usually through research, investment planning, personnel training and other procedures.

This year, the China Research Group planned to invest in the new world of Hangzhou. Although it invited fewer than one hundred franchisees, it signed an agreement with 39 franchisees.

Reporter: what competition do you think the franchisee will face in the future market development?

Zou Yu: I think the future clothing market will be the two camps, one is the clothing brand camp, the other is the agent franchisee camp.

Why do I say so?

I think, with the development of free trade, foreign brands are gradually spreading into the Chinese market. Many large scale international brand agents have appeared in the market. In the next two or three years, international brands will come in full swing, which will bring great impact on China's apparel industry agents.

Because the entry of international brands makes it necessary to choose agents with strong operation and standardized operation when selecting partners.

If an enterprise has standardized operation, it will seize the market opportunity at that time and occupy the right to speak in the cooperation of international brands.

Therefore, agents should have the ability of sustainable development, seize the opportunities of market pformation and strive to catch up with them, and accomplish the mission of becoming bigger and stronger as soon as possible.

Yang Jing: editor in charge