354: Chapter 353 Sliding to the Knees, Distributor Gathering

After the press conference ended, Li Qing ran over excitedly, his face full of smiles.

"Boss, the current orders have exceeded 37,000 units. The entry-level model accounts for sixty percent, the intermediate model for thirty percent, and the luxury model for ten percent."

"Custom orders and individual product sales are still being tallied, but at a rough estimate, today's sales revenue should break through 3 billion."

Shen Fei nodded. Compared to the assets he had been fined and forfeited, 3 billion was still a drop in the bucket.

"Expand the after-sales team by another factor of two. With so many people buying, we can't let them wait too long. Besides, it's impossible for there to be no issues at all; if a problem arises, it must be resolved immediately."

"Boss, rest assured, our publicity department has already coordinated with the after-sales team on President Wang's side. Currently, the after-sales team has added another 500 people, and they are still in training."

Shen Fei nodded and prepared to head home, but at that moment his phone rang; the caller was Deputy General Counsel Zhao Mingyuan.

"President Shen, after these days of effort, there is news from the United States. They have withdrawn the administrative order freezing the assets. They even specifically found an excuse, saying that the legal basis was insufficient, and as the most democratic country in the world, they have withdrawn the relevant..."

Deputy General Counsel Zhao Mingyuan didn't finish his sentence, and Shen Fei curled his lips. "They're admitting defeat?"

"You could understand it that way. They discovered that the administrative order freezing Huaxin's assets had caused panic in the Chinese business community. At the same time, President Huang hadn't been sparing in causing trouble for them these past two days, and there has been constant pressure from below as well. To prevent triggering a larger scale of retaliation, they withdrew it quietly. There was no public announcement, but the document has already been revoked. Perhaps in a couple of days, they will issue an official announcement."

After Shen Fei hung up the phone, he still felt that the speed of the United States' kneeling and surrendering was a bit fast... Why didn't they hold out for a few more days? After all, Huaxin Investment's secondary accounts were still harvesting some high-quality assets...

... Just when the United States and Transsion were both keeping a low profile, a clubhouse in the South China region was filled with smoke.

A large round table that could seat 20 people was fully occupied by 15 people. They were all distributors of white goods. Gree, Midea, Haier, Hisense, Aux—every brand was represented, and they were from all regions. It wasn't because a certain brand had broken the rules, but because of a common opponent: Transsion.

As the initiator of this meeting, the South China region's general agent, Zhang Zhiqiang, sat at the head of the table. He was 56 years old and had been grinding in the home appliance industry for over 30 years. He started as a salesperson in a state-run department store, then moved on to contracting counters, then opened specialty stores, and finally became the largest home appliance distributor in the South China region, bar none.

He had seen countless brands rise and fall, and had seen countless new brands attempt to disrupt the industry. But every time, he felt that those new brands wouldn't last more than three years; this time, he couldn't say for sure. Transsion's smart home products had been on sale for 5 days, and sales revenue in the South China region had already exceeded 800 million.

This number wasn't huge—they could reach this target in monthly turnover—but what was terrifying was that Transsion was bypassing distributors. Orders were placed directly on the official website, and Transsion's own installation team provided door-to-door service. The distributors didn't even get to sip the soup.

Originally, they thought this was a little trick by Transsion, intended to make them pay a visit and then lower agency prices... As it turned out, the first batch of users had already had their products installed, and they still hadn't received any news from Transsion; instead, they received news that their own engineers were being poached.

Seeing everyone in the conference room with their own thoughts, Zhang Zhiqiang stubbed his cigar into the ashtray. "Gentlemen, you should all be very clear about why I invited you here today."

Quite a few people in the conference room coughed and looked off into the distance again, not taking the bait... After all, Transsion was no ordinary opponent.

"There's no need to be afraid. He's just a newcomer, the advantage lies with us."

"I've heard. 7 billion sold in 5 days, all online plus offline stores. We haven't even managed to scoop up a drop of profit here." The person who spoke up was the general manager of the Fujian region, Chen Guoliang, who was over 50 and wore a gold chain around his chubby neck.

"Hundreds of my distributors called me asking if they could get stock from Transsion. I said they couldn't, and since they weren't going through us distributors, they just kept cursing there, saying we were useless. What the hell can I do? They won't play with me."

"It's not just you." The general agent for the East China region, Sun Minghui, also spread his hands and then handed his phone to everyone. "It's the same here; in Shanghai, it seems like Nanjing and Suzhou as well, the installation volume for Transsion Homes is rising every day. The customer traffic in our specialty stores has dropped significantly; customers look at Gree air conditioners today, then take out their phones and immediately search for Transsion. They say the smart features next door are better and cheaper, and then they turn around and leave."

"They broke the rules!" The general manager of the Central China region, Liu Jianguo, was so angry that he kept pounding the table. "For decades in the home appliance industry, it's always been manufacturers shipping to distributors, and distributors selling to users, so everyone makes money together. Transsion just kicked the distributors out, ate the meat themselves, and didn't even leave us the soup."

"Rules?" Zhang Zhiqiang laughed. "President Liu, who talks about rules these days? When they started making mobile phones, they didn't go through distributors, and now that they're making home appliances, of course they aren't going through them either. They don't care about us at all."

Speaking of mobile phones, everyone's anger flared up a bit more. As kings who controlled downstream channels, they were actually all one big family. Of course, they had thought about becoming agents for Transsion mobile phones, but the result... Transsion opened one self-operated store after another.

Chen Guoliang and the others all exchanged glances, then smiled. "President Zhang, you must have an idea since you called us here. Tell us, what do we do? The brothers will absolutely listen to you." After saying that, they each patted their chests in assurance, saying that everyone was truly like brothers.

Zhang Zhiqiang leaned back in his chair, observing everyone's attitude to avoid any moles in their midst. After confirming for a long time, he finally spoke: "We can't let them be this smooth, can we?"

"What about specifics? Do you have any operational methods? If we just talk big here, it won't have any effect!"

"That is indeed an important question; I have been thinking about it non-stop these days." Zhang Zhiqiang lit his cigar again, took a fierce puff, and then exhaled a smoke ring. "I think we should start from where we are most skilled. No matter how well Transsion sells, someone has to install them. Their own installation team has so few people; with so many orders nationwide, they simply can't keep up. They will definitely look for outsourcing. The boss of the largest installation outsourcing company in the South China region is my brother-in-law, and I've already told him not to take any Transsion orders."

Liu Jianguo's eyes also lit up. "The boss of the largest installation company in East China is my classmate; I'll give him a heads-up too." Sun Minghui also nodded. "I can handle Central China."

Watching everyone express their stance, Zhang Zhiqiang also started to smile. Although he knew they all had their own little schemes, when faced with profit... everyone was a grasshopper on the same rope. As long as they joined forces to make Transsion open up offline channels, wouldn't that be simple?