Title from: Oriental IC
In 1944, the frontline war in Europe was severely intensified. The British commander Montgomery found that his casualties were accelerating and he was particularly anxious. How can we reduce casualties?
Mr.’s suggestion, because the German firepower is too fierce, the bombs flying over are not airtight, as long as the firepower of the other side is suppressed, the casualties can be reduced.
Soon, a large number of heavy weapons that the United States aided were put into the battlefield, and the German firepower was suppressed, but the British casualties did not ease.
The subordinates suggested again because the Germans were too tenacious and had a long-lasting high-frequency exchange of fire, so the casualties could not be reduced. Later, the British Air Force focused on combating the German supply line and consuming each other’s war potential. However, the situation of major casualties in the British army continues.
Afterwards, a field nurse suggested Montgomery that as long as the blood was transfused to the injured soldier in time, many casualties could be avoided. Churchill immediately mobilized the British people in the rear to donate blood and quickly sent them to the front line. Then he suggested that some of the ammunition aided by the United States be changed into food and cotton. The effect soon appeared, and even if the fierce battle continued to intensify, the British military’s death situation was greatly eased compared to before.
There is always a clear judgment in the harsh and chaotic battles—effectively doing one or two blood transfusions may be far more valuable than firepower ammunition.
A company’s mobile blood is the sales cash flow, pay attention to the sales cash flow (loans or attract new investment can also bring cash flow, but this is There are limits).
The essence of sales is not to sell the goods, but to take back the money.
US Securities Regulatory Commission(SEC)The data shows that for every four bankrupt US companies, Three of them are profitable, and only one is losing money.
Yes, you have not misunderstood, the profitable company will go bankrupt, and the probability is great.
During the 2008 financial crisis, some companies in the United States that appeared to be doing well did apply to the federal court for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Law. But from the income statement, these publicThe company has been profitable, the quality of the products is also good, and the customers have not lost.
I heard from a senior Internet entrepreneur: “Do you think that the competition between Internet companies is to fight AI technology, fight user experience, and fight business models? Fighting is the capital chain. Even, it is to approve the other funds. The weakness of the chain is on the attack.”
If you start your own business, you will understand that there are two kinds of profits in the world: One is the profit on the books, and the other is the profit on the bank account.
3/4 of the profitable companies are likely to go bankrupt because the profits on the books are very large, the profits on the bank accounts are very small, the things are sold very quickly, and the money is recovered very slowly.
In fact, this is a common phenomenon, as it is all over the world.
Because there is competition and things are not easy to sell, sellers often allow buyers to “pay” and allow buyers to pay after 30, 90 or even 180 days of purchase.
Singapore’s national credit rating and commercial credit environment index can rank at least in the top 5 in the world. However, Singapore enterprises have reached 90 days of accounts receivable, and more than 40% of them have not been able to recover as scheduled.
A very interesting survey found that a company’s sales department thinks more about performance growth every day, but the CEO’s more concern is the company’s life-and-death problem – how quickly it takes money back. .
So, the first core part of sales is collecting, and the second is selling things.
Why is it so difficult to sell back the money?
Fundamentally speaking, this is a question of bargaining power.
The dispute over the bargaining power of Internet commerce is more a dispute between the platform and the supplier. The platform is often in a strong position, but with the iterative application of blockchain technology, the traditional pattern may be broken.
Based on this perception, the dispute over bargaining power can be divided into three levels:
01 earning the account period is to make money
There is an e-commerce platform that has risen very fast today. The user scale has grown by 100% to 300% for several consecutive years. The things sold on the APP are incredibly cheap, almost the lowest retail price in China.
The outside world thinks this is a platform subsidy, but subsidizes tens of thousands of users.Yes, it is not that simple to subsidize millions or even billions of users. Many e-commerce platforms are mainly not selling things to make money, but “money earning money.” For example:
There is an e-commerce platform that purchases 500 million yuan of products. After 15 days of sale, most of the consumers are cash on delivery, which is 0.
But the agreed period between the supplier and the e-commerce platform is 60 days (may be longer), which is equivalent to 500 million yuan from the supplier The payment for 45 days is on the account of the e-commerce platform, and the e-commerce platform can invest the money and make money with money.
If the cash flow is well managed, even if the goods are lost, but the investment makes money, profits, money and money, can also make the overall profit, and even earn more.
The e-commerce platform “earnings money” is mainly three steps:
First Step: Subsidize users, increase user size and sales flow;
Step 2: The users of the platform are particularly large and growing rapidly, and the platform has stronger bargaining power. When negotiating with suppliers, it will lower the price and lengthen the billing period. ;
Step 3: Low-priced products attract more users, the platform sales flow increases, and the billing period is lengthened, there are more cash flow in the account, and the investment makes money. More.
Many years ago, Wal-Mart (WalMart), Costco (Costco ) More than 50% of the profits come from (funds chain water) investment earned, Jingdong Mall has already planned to increase investment The proportion of income.
The dispute over bargaining power at this level, the supplier was defeated.
02 Zero account period, let customers spend money as soon as possible
When the fund manager evaluates the listed company, he especially likes those listed with a lot of advance payment.