Chapter 385: You Have to Make Them Compete

March skies, warm yet still chilly.

One moment the sun was gentle, the next fine rain wove like threads.

The copper bell at the eaves jangled wildly in the spring breeze, making a hurried sound; rainwater slid down the crenellations of the city wall, staining the bluestone slabs with layers of ink-black.

Pedestrians on the street hurriedly opened umbrellas; those without either strode quickly or ducked into roadside shops.

Wang Bin stood at the entrance of a beef soup restaurant, his mood as terrible as the weather outside.

Although Kuaipao was already a leader in the group-buying industry, in the small county town of Chunshen, it was still not well received.

He had made cold calls to over a dozen restaurants along Beijie, and the owners' responses were basically "never heard of it," "no cooperation," and "no interest."

In the years before group buying and food delivery became prevalent, almost all catering merchants relied on distributing flyers offline for promotion, maintaining their market position through food and beverage items and loyal customers.

What the hell is Kuaipao!

Wanting to take 5% of turnover right off the bat?

Pure wishful thinking!

Hiring a few part-time flyer distributors costs how much a day?

"Why is it completely different from what I imagined!"

Wang Bin, looking gloomy, took out a pack of Huangshan, lit one for himself, and took a hard drag.

"Young man, seeing your suit and polished leather shoes, you must be a real estate salesperson, right?"

The owner of the beef soup restaurant was a balding middle-aged man who smiled and initiated the conversation.

"No, I sell insurance," Wang Bin replied grumpily.

"Hehe, you kid are quite feisty!" The owner sensed the truth; this kid was clearly bluffing him.

"Big brother, just kidding," Wang Bin sighed, handed the owner a cigarette, and said weakly.

"Can't sell houses?" The owner took the cigarette but didn't smoke it, instead tucking it behind his ear.

Damn!

Wang Bin muttered to himself, glancing down at his outfit.

Did this outfit really look like a real estate salesperson's?

For this new job, he had specifically spent eight hundred yuan to buy a suit at Hai Lan Zhi Jia.

"Big brother, I'm a business manager for Kuaipao. com," Wang Bin couldn't hold back anymore, chose to lay his cards on the table, and revealed his true identity.

"Chen Yansen's company?" The owner's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly asked.

"You've heard of it?" Wang Bin's face brightened.

"Are you recruiting for group buying or food delivery services?" The owner nodded, looking very knowledgeable.

"Group buying services, big brother, you know your stuff!" Wang Bin grinned, stepped closer, and chatted warmly.

"Holy crap! What kind of look is that? Big brother here likes reading books and newspapers too!" The owner rolled his eyes and said.

"My apologies, my apologies! Big brother, I see your shop's business isn't great; are you interested in joining Kuaipao?" Wang Bin asked stiffly.

"Now I know why you were so dejected earlier; with your level of speech, you're lucky you didn't get beaten."

The owner frowned, replying in an annoyed tone.

Since Chunshen bordered Zhoulai, its most famous snack was beef soup; residents inside and outside the city only recognized time-honored brands, so a new shop like his naturally had few customers.

Wang Bin gave a sheepish smile; he realized he had misspoken and apologized repeatedly.

The owner waved his hand, seemingly not taking it to heart, and asked directly: "How do you charge?"

"A 5% commission; for example, if Kuaipao increases your sales by ten thousand yuan, the platform takes five hundred yuan as a technical service fee," Wang Bin said, holding up his right hand and spreading his fingers to gesture.

"Is it reliable? I've only seen news about Kuaipao on Toutiao," the owner asked again.

"There's a beef soup restaurant in Luzhou that had no business at first, selling only twenty or thirty bowls a day; guess how many bowls the owner sells a day after joining Kuaipao?" Wang Bin rolled his eyes and made up a story on the spot.

"Fifty bowls?" the owner guessed a number offhand.

"Five hundred!" Wang Bin shouted loudly.

He could only join Kuaipao thanks to his mouth; lacking emotional intelligence, he made up for it with bragging.

During the interview, he had bragged to Wang Tianming that he was the head of the student union and president of the college student entrepreneurship alliance.

In Big Lao Wang's opinion, this guy's skin was too thick; not doing sales was a waste of talent.

"Pure nonsense!" The owner didn't believe it, but the corners of his mouth involuntarily turned up, obviously tempted.

"There are over a hundred thousand Kuaipao users inside and outside Chunshen, but only a few dozen merchants have joined; once we go live, I guarantee your business will explode," Wang Bin continued to hype.

"My shop mainly sells beef soup and beef noodles; a big bowl is eight yuan, a small bowl is six yuan, and handmade sesame cakes are one yuan each," the owner rubbed his hands together and asked with a beaming face.

Selling five hundred bowls a day!

That would mean making a fortune!

"We can start with two set meals: a big bowl of beef soup plus one sesame cake for 6.9 yuan; a small bowl of beef soup plus one sesame cake for 4.9 yuan," Wang Bin tentatively offered a suggestion.

"No, no, that's too much of a loss," the owner shook his head.

"Then forget it; there's another beef soup restaurant ahead anyway," Wang Bin said calmly, showing no panic.

Hearing this, the owner's brows immediately knitted together; fearing competitors would steal his business after joining group buying, he cautiously asked, "How about raising it by one yuan?"

"How about lowering it by one yuan, and I'll also list you for a flash sale for free?" Wang Bin continued to bargain.

"..." The owner fell silent, then turned his head to look at the thirty-square-meter dining area; could he handle it himself?

"The event isn't urgent; let's try it first, but I can only serve three hundred group-buying customers a day," the owner said after thinking for a moment.

It was a husband-and-wife shop; even if he worked himself to death, he couldn't make five hundred bowls of beef soup a day.

"No problem, we can set a verification limit in the backend," Wang Bin grinned, feeling relieved, and thought to himself: finally secured the first order.

Next, he took a standard contract out of his bag and had the owner sign to confirm first.

After finishing these tasks, Wang Bin helped the owner activate the merchant backend, briefly introduced the various functions of the menu section, and explained the process for withdrawing payments.

"Boss Zhou, our Kuai Pao staff will come to your door this afternoon to photograph your products." Wang Bin, before leaving, reminded the other party.

"Manager Wang, thanks for the trouble. How about I feed you? It's already noon; eat first, then leave." Boss Zhou warmly invited.

"No, the company has rules; I still have to go back to stamp the contract and arrange the launch process." Wang Bin decisively refused.

At this moment, the rain also stopped, and the road surface was wet.

"Alright, then you get busy." Boss Zhou saw him off to the door.

Wang Bin, clutching the contract in his hand, hurried to Times Square; just as he walked into a rice bowl food stall, he saw Wu Xingyu with a gloomy face and Wang Tianming who was calm and composed.

"Brother Wang, A-Yu." Wang Bin walked over, sat down heavily, then shouted at the boss: "One pork head meat rice bowl, with extra meat and green peppers."

"Okay, wait a moment, it'll be ready soon." The boss replied.

"Brother Bin, how many did you close?" Wu Xingyu asked with full expectation. "One." Wang Bin raised his index finger and replied.

"Big Head, you lost; you're treating for lunch! Boss, add two chicken legs for me." Wang Tianming said triumphantly.

"Did you bet on whether I'd make a sale?" Wang Bin asked with a dark face.

"Don't worry, brother won't forget your contribution; I'll give you one of the chicken legs." Wang Tianming said with a smile.

"A-Yu, what about you?" Wang Bin looked at Wu Xingyu and asked.

"Zero, of course." Wang Tianming teased with a wicked smile.

"Brother Wang, I used all the scripts the company taught me; why won't those bosses sign up for group buying?" Wu Xingyu scratched his head, revealing a distressed expression.

"Which shops did you find?" Wang Tianming asked.

"Wuyuanzi Old Goose, Zhuangyuan Snack Shop, Ju Hong Sheng, and Tong Yi Ge Ge." Wu Xingyu replied.

"A-Bin, what do you think?" Wang Tianming ignored Wu Xingyu but turned to ask Wang Bin.

On the way, Wang Bin also slowly figured it out: the dozen or so restaurants, internet cafes, and KTVs he found were all old shops operating for many years; relying solely on regular customers, they could live very comfortably; why would they need extra customers?

Therefore, when telling those bosses about online traffic, customer acquisition costs, reputation accumulation, and management efficiency improvements, others just thought it was nonsense.

Only merchants whose business is lukewarm or even in poor operating condition will actively seek cooperation.

"The business at these few shops is very good." Wang Bin said concisely.

"Is there a problem with good business?" Wu Xingyu's brain hadn't turned yet; he reflexively countered.

"If we were in Luzhou or Jin Ling, of course we would talk to big merchants and merchants with good business first, but the model in small counties is different; many merchants' business relies mainly on old customers to sustain them; we have to make them compete fiercely." Wang Tianming analyzed calmly.

"Compete fiercely?" Wu Xingyu frowned slightly, not quite understanding.

"For example, there are 17 KTVs in the city; as long as the merchants sign up for Kuai Pao, daily orders will definitely increase by thirty to forty percent.

There are only so many customers; they aren't falling from the sky; the business of other KTVs will definitely be affected; by then, even if they don't want to do group buying, they will have to; wait until all KTV merchants are on group buying, then make them compete on price."

Wang Tianming said in a sinister tone.

"Brother Wang, you're a master!" Wu Xingyu suddenly understood, his mind cleared, and he raised his thumb to praise.

Wang Bin also understood; in the afternoon, focus on small and medium merchants, make the businessmen in Chun Shen understand that joining Kuai Pao can earn big money; get the platform's reputation out first.

Wang Tianming squinted his eyes, listening to the two's flattery; a smile unconsciously appeared on his face, and he enjoyed it immensely in his heart.

On the third day morning, Chun Shen's first batch of merchants who joined successively welcomed the first batch of group-buying customers.

In front of the Zhou's Beef Soup Restaurant on Beijie, a long queue formed.

In front of Tongxing Cake House on South Street, it was similarly crowded with customers; the inside and outside of the shop were packed with a sea of people.

A KTV named 'Ali Baba' at the crossroads had business that never stopped from noon twelve o'clock to one thirty in the morning.

Although the user volume in a single county is not large, the population density cannot be underestimated.

Moreover, the vast majority of people in the county, first, have no car loans, and second, have no mortgage loans; they spend money more generously than white-collar workers in first-tier cities.

Once Kuai Pao's group buying went online, due to few merchants and many users, every shop's business was exceptionally booming.

Wang Bin gradually discovered that the bosses who previously ignored him were now much more polite.

These people began to seriously listen to his analysis of group-buying data, even actively asking about the preferential policies for joining Kuai Pao network; their eyes flickered with a desire for money, completely different from the attitude of shutting them out at the door initially.

On the other side.

Pei Yi, holding the first-day data from ten county stations, initiated a video conference invitation to Chen Yansen.

"Old Pei, you underestimated the spending power of county users." Chen Yansen teased.

Previously, Pei Yi led the team to expand recklessly across the country but was reluctant to enter the county-level market for a long time; it was simply because he felt county users' income was low and insufficient to support group-buying and food delivery businesses.

"Boss, this data indeed exceeded my imagination."

Pei Yi gave a dry laugh and replied, slightly embarrassed.

"Regarding the county-level market spending power data for East China, North China, Central China, and South China regions, you can ask Liao Wei for a copy; Yun Su did sufficient research preparation when building express service stations in the early stage." Chen Yansen put away his smile and said seriously.

"Okay, Boss, I understand." Pei Yi nodded and agreed.

"By the way, your application to appoint Zhang Xuhao as General Manager of the Food Delivery Department, I approved. Tell him; bonuses and stock options won't be less for him." Chen Yansen added.

"Mm, okay." Pei Yi immediately agreed.

After giving clear instructions, Chen Yansen hung up the phone.

In his eyes, although Kuai Pao's development speed was fast, it was not fast enough.

The potential of the group-buying and food delivery markets is astonishing; it should create more jobs.

"Knock, knock, knock—!" A knocking sound rang out.

"Boss, the monthly video conference for the Eastern European market is at three o'clock; it starts in ten minutes; President Zhou is in conference room A4 on the eighth floor."

Chen Jie pushed the door open and walked in; she wore a houndstooth-patterned bodycon skirt, a light gray small blazer on top, and a beige chiffon inner lining; the pale skin under the clothes was faintly visible.

Chen Yansen nodded slightly, stood up, and walked out.

Seeing this, Chen Jie followed closely behind President Chen's butt; as an assistant, writing meeting minutes was also one of her daily jobs.

One minute later, Chen Yansen took the elevator to the eighth floor and walked into conference room A4.

"Boss!" A round of greetings sounded in the room.

Chen Yansen glanced over; besides Zhou Shouzhi, there were also the Marketing Director, After-Sales Manager, and Channel Director for the Eastern European region.

"Begin."

After taking his seat, Chen Yansen instructed Zhou Shouzhi.

The overhead strip lights illuminated the LED screen brightly; as the video conference connected, the market heads from seven countries—Poland, Ukraine, Romania, and Northern Ice, among others—appeared one by one on the screen.

"First, each of you will review market performance; you have three minutes each," Zhou Shouzhi spoke first.

He knew the boss's personality and disliked subordinates speaking at length.

"Northern Ice's total sales volume in February was 159,000 units, with a target completion rate of 106%; of these, 27,000 were online and 132,000 offline, with a market share of 8.9%.

The best-selling model is the Qingcheng D1S (hardware and application ecosystem adaptation completed); Orange D1, Orange C2, and Orange C3 account for 26.1% of sales volume; main competitors are Apple, Mountain Star, Fly, and Nokia..."

The business head of Northern Ice reported slowly.

Do not look down on a monthly sales volume of only 159,000 units; it has already climbed to fourth place in local market sales, with only Mountain Star, Fly, and Nokia ahead, while Apple trails behind Sister Chengzi.

(End of this chapter)