Rebirth of Siheyuan starts in the 1980s

Cao Zhiqiang swore that he really didn't want to touch Xiang Dongfang's little hand to take advantage of others.

He really just cared too much about the sales data of "Red Flag Flying", so he subconsciously grabbed it.

But no matter what Cao Zhiqiang thought, the result was that he really grabbed her little hand, and it was a relatively sensitive part like the back of the hand.

Even if Cao Zhiqiang took his hand away as soon as he realized something was wrong, the thing had already been done and the embarrassment had already occurred.

"Ahem!" Cao Zhiqiang coughed and touched his nose again. After forcibly relieving the embarrassment, he said seriously, "Secretary Xiang, come in front of me. There is no need to press my head."

"Yes." Xiang Dongfang pursed his lips, put down his hand, and gently came to the opposite side of Cao Zhiqiang. There was a desk between them.

"No need to stand." Cao Zhiqiang smiled slightly, "Sit down, sit down and say, if you stand like this, I have to look up at you, how uncomfortable it is."

Xiang Dongfang smiled and then sat down on a chair in front of the desk.

There is also a chair in front of the desk, which was specifically requested by Cao Zhiqiang.

Because during this period, there were generally no chairs in front of the leadership desks in China, and everyone who came had to stand and report to the leadership.

But from the perspective of Cao Zhiqiang, who comes from a later generation, placing a chair in front of the desk can make it more convenient to chat with people.

In this case, visitors don’t have to stand and report work, but can sit down and report work to themselves, and everyone is comfortable.

After Xiang Dongfang sat down, Cao Zhiqiang asked Xiang Dongfang to give him the sales data of "Red Flag Flying" again.

Xiang Dongfang did not hesitate, and decisively took out a small notebook from his pocket, opened it and flipped through a few pages before handing it to Cao Zhiqiang.

"President, this is the data summary I made. The parts underlined in red are the parts that I think are more important. Please read it carefully."

"Yes." Cao Zhiqiang nodded while looking at it, "I understand, thank you for your hard work."

Cao Zhiqiang's words of hard work were not just polite words, but sincere.

Because Xiang Dongfang’s sales data collection was really hard work.

The reason is that his publishing house is too small and has just been established. There are no relevant sales statisticians who can make accurate sales statistics.

Even though Hongguang Machinery Factory has sent a lot of back-office staff, those people are mainly responsible for accounting and cashier services, as well as general back-office work such as security and administration. They don't understand at all, and they don't want to understand, like statistical sales data.

.

When Cao Zhiqiang was selling "Journey to Jianghu", he sent all the people from the publishing house to various Xinhua bookstores and used this stupid method to collect data.

But now and then, the stupid methods in the past can no longer be used.

The fundamental reason is that the publishing house is expanding too fast and is short of manpower.

The group of people who used to work on statistical data are now focused on preparing for the magazine.

Next month, that is, in July, "Friends" magazine will be officially launched. They are busy making content now, so how can they have time to go out and do statistics.

Of course, if you just do rough statistics, it's not difficult, but it's a little troublesome.

Because of the release of the album "Red Flag Fluttering", there are currently two main lines.

One is to go to formal state-owned enterprises such as Xinhua Bookstore, supply and marketing cooperatives, department stores, hardware stores, electrical appliance stores, post office sales departments, etc.

The other line is the sales department managed by Li Youfu, that is, the group of self-employed people who were recruited by the publishing house and only occupy a quota but do not receive wages.

In addition, the data needs to be verified with the tape manufacturer.

In other words, we need to count the tape factory's shipment data and the actual sales data at the same time, and then compare the two data.

In theory, the two data should be easy to match, but in actual operation, they basically cannot match, and there must be some discrepancy.

In addition to problems such as calculation errors, there are also various human-induced internal frictions.

Among them, state-owned sales units such as Xinhua Bookstore and Supply and Marketing Cooperatives are relatively simple, because they are wholesale purchases and sales, and they provide goods first and then pay, so there is a certain lag.

In other words, state-owned units such as Xinhua Bookstore can only judge the approximate sales data based on the amount of payment after one month. Therefore, these state-owned sales units currently only have shipment data but no sales data.

However, the sales department managed by Li Youfu is a group of self-employed contract workers who do not pay wages but only share profits, so they can provide sales feedback in a timely manner.

But the problem is that Li Youfu, the sales manager, is just busy dealing with wine parties or opening up new markets every day, and he doesn't understand statistics at all, or he doesn't do statistics at all.

As for other self-employed people, they will only keep their own data, such as how many goods they purchased and how much they sold, and will not care about anything else.

With this flat management method, those self-employed businesses are currently nominally managed by Li Youfu and are employees of the sales department. However, in fact, they only have a cooperative relationship with the publishing house, similar to the relationship between a manufacturer and a wholesaler.

That is to say, Hongguang Publishing House provides those former self-employed individuals with identity protection as contract workers of state-owned enterprises, but does not pay wages. They use this identity protection to set up stalls and sell goods more confidently, but they have to give priority to Hongguang Publishing House.

Just goods.

Therefore, it is quite troublesome to compile sales statistics for these people. You need to call them one by one to verify, otherwise they will not take the initiative to explain.

This makes doing sales data statistics a troublesome task that no one is willing to do.

Xiang Dongfang, on the other hand, came to the publishing house as the secretary to the president. He immediately volunteered to take over the job and started running back and forth, doing statistics. It was really hard work.

Cao Zhiqiang also knew that Xiang Dongfang was working hard, but unfortunately he was short of manpower for the time being, so he could only let Xiang Dongfang do it by himself first, and then add more manpower to her later.

In the final analysis, the establishment time of the publishing house is too short, the running-in time is too short, and the products are too single.

To change all this, it takes time.

Thinking of this, Cao Zhiqiang carefully looked at the records in the small book and quickly frowned.

The reason is very simple. He is very dissatisfied with the total tape sales in the past half month.

Of course, Xiang Dongfang cannot be blamed for this. She is just a statistician, so if we want to blame, we have to blame Cao Zhiqiang, the instigator.

Because so far, the sales data only belongs to those distributors in the sales department.

But because those distributors are self-employed, they have not established cooperation with Hongguang Publishing House for a long time. Everyone just takes what they need and still lacks enough trust.

To be more precise, the publisher's ability to restrain its subordinate distributors is very weak, so it cannot do what it wants.

If the publishing house hadn't provided those self-employed people with the status of state-owned enterprise contractors, they probably wouldn't have been able to obtain this sales data.

It is precisely because of this weak restraint ability that the trust between both parties is not high.

The result is that those self-employed distributors who work as contract workers for the sales department of Hongguang Publishing House are nominally employees of the sales department of the publishing house. However, when purchasing goods from the publishing house, they still have to pay and deliver the goods first, instead of delivering the goods first.

, and then pay the publisher one month later.

The only advantage is that when they purchase the goods, they can pay half of the money upfront and the other half a month later.

But the consequence of this kind of one-hand payment and one-hand delivery is that these self-employed distributors are very cautious. They will not just sell whatever product you give them.

Previously, they were willing to come over and take cash to buy "Journey to Jianghu" because "Journey to Jianghu" was already a bestseller in short supply, and they didn't have to worry about selling it.

But they were very worried about Cao Zhiqiang's newly released album "Red Flag Flying", and most people only paid a little attention to it.

Is it because the song "Red Flag Fluttering" is not popular?

Not really.

The reason is still Cao Zhiqiang's own fault.

What pot?

That's the batch of audio tapes made by Cao Zhiqiang. They are singles, and the entire tape has only one song - "Red Flag Fluttering".

In this era, there are indeed many singers releasing singles, but the so-called singles generally refer to vinyl records, not audio tapes.

Vinyl records have a unique sound, but they store very little content. Usually a vinyl record can only record two songs, one on the front and one on the back.

Therefore, when most singers release singles, they all refer to the release of vinyl records.

The audio tape is different. The storage capacity of this audio tape is greatly increased. An ordinary audio tape can usually store ten songs.

But as for Cao Zhiqiang, the "Red Flag Fluttering" he released was mainly stored on domestic audio tapes, and the entire audio tape only contained this song.

There is only one song in the whole tape. The key point is that the tape is very expensive. The retail price is six yuan per box, and the purchase price from the distributors under the sales department is four yuan per box.

This is just a joke.

You know, an imported Panasonic blank tape on the market costs four yuan per box, while a domestic blank tape usually costs two yuan and five per box.

The tape released by Cao Zhiqiang has only one song in it, which is almost the same as a blank tape. Moreover, it is a domestic tape, but the price is six yuan per box, which is simply outrageous.

Ordinary people during this period were still very sensitive to the price of audio tapes. There was only one domestic tape of one song, and it was a little-known singer, so it was difficult to buy it.

that's the truth.

The result of Cao Zhiqiang's doing this is that he is high-minded and low-key.

To put it simply, the song "Flowing Red Flag" has indeed become popular because of its beautiful melody, catchy lyrics, and the first MTV of a new CCTV program called "Guanger Advertising".

However, the release of the original audio tape of the song did not lead to a huge sales.

The reason is that the price is too high, there are too few songs, and Cao Zhiqiang uses the new vest of singer Aqiang, which is not connected with the poet Qiangzi, which makes ordinary people feel that buying this thing is not cost-effective, that is, only some literary and artistic young people are willing to spend money

purchase.

However, the song "Red Flag Fluttering" is indeed very popular. On the contrary, it has stimulated some self-employed people who have imported tape recorders that can not only play but also record. They began to use blank tapes privately to steal the genuine "Red Flag Fluttering" and sell them.

.

The retail price of pirated tapes is only three yuan per tape. The key point is that the pirated tapes are not just a piece of music, but also contain many popular songs from Hong Kong and Taiwan, making them very cost-effective.

In this case, everyone will buy the pirated tapes, and who will buy the genuine ones?

However, because there were not many blank tapes on the market during this period, it was difficult for ordinary people to buy them in large quantities, so the number of pirated tapes was still too small. Overall, in the short term, the impact of piracy was not significant.

It's too big, but in the long run, it's hard to say.

"Well, in more than half a month, not counting Xinhua Bookstore and other state-owned units, the distributors in the sales department only sold a total of more than 32,000 tapes. This sales volume is too small."

Hearing Cao Zhiqiang frowning and complaining, Xiang Dongfang couldn't help but said: "President, count the time, it's only a little over half a month, and it's only seventeen days in total.

In seventeen days, more than 32,000 units were sold, which is already very good.

This is only the data for self-employed individuals, and does not include data from state-owned entities such as Xinhua Bookstore and Supply and Marketing Cooperatives."

Cao Zhiqiang sighed: "You don't understand. These self-employed people are more flexible in their sales methods and prices. Usually their retail prices are lower than state-owned units such as Xinhua Bookstore, and their sales locations are closer to residential areas."

,More convenient.

[To be honest, I have been using Yeguo to read and catch up on books recently. I can switch sources and read aloud with many sounds. www. Android and Apple are available.]

Based on past experience, the short-term sales of these self-employed businesses are higher than those of Xinhua Bookstore.

So this time, the sales volume of these self-employed people is only more than 32,000, which shows that the sales volume of Xinhua Bookstore is not much better.

Also, this kind of thing has the best sales when it is first launched. As time goes by, the sales volume will become lower and lower.

Don't forget, there are also pirated tapes.

As time goes by, there will be more and more pirated tapes, and we will become even less competitive.

Judging from this situation, the final sales volume will not be high. I don't expect a good start this time. It will be good if I can not lose money.

No, it’s not a matter of losing money anymore.

I currently have a stockpile of half a million tapes, including the unreleased "Blood-Stained Style" single, which makes the total a million tapes.

According to the cost price of one tape, one dollar and one tape, this is a cost of 1.3 million, not counting the labor cost.

So far, more than 32,000 plates have been sold...

Alas, if we continue, it would be nice to lose less money, let alone protect our capital."

Xiang Dongfang said: "President, I don't think you need to worry so much. In fact, there may not be a turning point."

"Oh?" Cao Zhiqiang put down the hand pinching his forehead, "What's the turning point?"

Xiang Dongfang said: "President, during the investigation, I found that the song "Flowing Red Flag" sung by you yourself was really popular. Everyone loved listening to it and singing it.

Records and tapes are not selling well, mainly because the content and pricing are wrong.

In my opinion, it’s not selling well now anyway, so we shouldn’t sell the large inventory of singles in our warehouse yet.

We can temporarily stop supplying single cassettes and only sell some vinyl records as collector's editions.

As for the batch of tapes in stock, you can directly return them to the factory, add some money, repackage them, and add some pop songs instead of singles.

For example, add some patriotic songs and form an album with your song, which is similar to the contents of the pirated tapes on the market.

Then the price of the new album is also lowered. Don’t sell it as high as six yuan. The retail price should be three yuan, or even two and eighty yuan.

Our purchase cost is far lower than that of those self-employed pirates. The cost price is no more than 1.5 yuan, which is far beyond the comparison of self-employed individuals.

In addition, we have a large number of tapes, wide channels, and good sound quality. As long as we are willing to make small profits but quick turnover, we can still become popular."

"Huh?" Cao Zhiqiang's eyes lit up.

"It makes sense. Audio tapes are not disposable CDs. Once you record once, you cannot record it again. You can also wash it out and re-record it.

So, those overstocked goods that have not been sold for the time being can be returned to the factory for re-recording and re-packaging? Oops, why didn’t I think of this?”

Xiang Dongfang smiled: "The president usually has a lot of things to do, and he has to think hard about all aspects of things every day. The so-called wise man will make mistakes after thinking a lot. It's normal that he didn't think of this for a while. But even if I don't remind you, you will think of it sooner or later.

.”

Cao Zhiqiang laughed: "Secretary Xiang, you are really good at talking."

Just as I said this, the phone at my desk suddenly rang.

Cao Zhiqiang picked up the phone and listened, then his face suddenly became overjoyed.

"Haha!" Cao Zhiqiang put down the phone and said to Xiang Dongfang, "Secretary Xiang, are you busy now? If not, come with me somewhere."

"What's wrong?" Xiang Dongfang asked with a smile, "Looking at your face, is there any happy event? It's not about the record, right?"

"That's not true." Cao Zhiqiang shook his head with a smile, "It's my book... Oh, come with me to the machinery factory. You will know what a happy event it is when we get there."