In today's ultra-competitive display industry, more than 95% of the global supply chain is concentrated. Companies are no longer just competing domestically—they're expanding aggressively across international markets. In this intense landscape, breaking through the noise, building a resilient brand, and securing market share have become Absen's ongoing priorities. Below is a personal reflection by Absen's Sales Director.

A Two-Way Journey Between Management and Business: Unlocking CRM's Real Value

1. A Shift in the Understanding of Sales Management

When I first returned from a business region to headquarters in 2020 to take charge of sales management, I was initially resistant. As someone who had long led sales teams on the front lines, I had always felt that sales management departments often made impractical demands, adding burdens rather than support. But after more than four years of experience, I gradually came to understand the deeper value and meaning of this role.

Sales management spans far more than expected—it includes strategic planning, budget breakdown, performance assessment, sales strategy formulation, process development, organizational structure building, incentive design, and even cultural atmosphere. Different companies define it differently: it can be a command center, a diagnostic hub, an operational engine, or a support platform. Some focus on basic business support; others manage the entire process; the most capable teams align directly with corporate strategy. Ultimately, its role evolves with a company's development stage.

2. Digital Transformation and the Systemic Logic of Sales Management

Digital transformation is a complex, interconnected system-wide initiative, and sales management is just one crucial component. The transformation process must closely align with the business model, market environment, customer characteristics, competitor dynamics, and internal company DNA to define a clear direction and methodology. From strategy anchoring, process optimization, and organizational structure adaptation to capacity building, each link must work in concert to realize full-chain, coordinated transformation.

A common question we hear: “Where should we start if we want to implement a new system?” Absen's experience suggests the first step must be clarifying the business plan. Only with a clearly defined business direction can the system roadmap be aligned. If all you need is basic customer and opportunity tracking, a lightweight system may suffice. But if the goal is to manage all operations through the system, then the business strategy must be solid—without it, the system becomes a castle in the air. Absen has always followed the logic of “institutionalize management, formalize policies into workflows, and systemize the workflows.” This sequence must not be reversed, and no system should be built by backfitting policy.

Taking Absen's Sales Management Department as an example: It first aligns with the company's strategic direction and breaks that down into actionable strategies, driving departments and systems to act accordingly. The Sales Management team must then assess whether existing workflows can support those strategies. If gaps are found, processes are optimized or rebuilt, and business rules are updated accordingly—with full monitoring throughout execution. If execution issues arise, the problem is either a loophole in the system or a skills gap in the sales team. In such cases, job qualification evaluations and targeted enablement programs are launched. This closed-loop management ensures operations are both streamlined and effective.

3. Sales Management and Digital Adaptation Across Different Business Stages

In the process of digitalization—especially for sales management—sales systems and priorities vary significantly across different stages of business development:

• Blue Ocean or Boom Periods: When the business model is simple and direct, there is little need for complex workflows or management systems. The core focus is on fast deal-closing and profitability. Sales management at this stage centers on efficiency in closing deals, often through a rough-and-ready approach. In boom periods, opportunities far outweigh risks, so speed is everything.
• Growth Phase: This is a turning point from quantity to quality. At this stage, a structured sales management mindset must be established, and the organization should begin building systems and accumulating experience. A complete sales management system should be formed with clearly defined support, enablement, and risk control roles across functions. Goal-setting and process management must be promoted, and the team's capabilities enhanced through organizational development.
  As competitors start to emerge, the company must rely on organizational strength to break through. Sales management at this point should focus on solidifying replicable business experience. The mechanisms and processes built during this phase will serve as a foundation for the future, preventing a disconnect between business practices and system design.
• Maturity Phase: Once industry competition becomes intense, like the BLM model emphasizes, business leadership depends on outpacing competitors in every detail. Major breakthroughs are rare—victory lies in the efficiency of every workflow node.
  The focus now is to optimize organizational efficiency, avoid bureaucracy that slows down operations, and improve team maturity and agility. Sales management should fully leverage process advantages, instill process awareness across the team, and continue iterating processes in response to market shifts.

Though the focus may shift, all three stages share a common goal: to empower frontline teams through refined sales management and enhance overall combat strength. Therefore, digitalization must follow a gradual path:

• → In the early stage, don't rush to invest;
• → In the mid-stage, focus on process and rule development;
• → Once business and workflows mature, invest in digitalization to boost efficiency.

This is a more secure approach—otherwise, the company risks falling into a vicious cycle of “building, reworking, and discarding” systems repeatedly.

4. Trial, Error, and Lessons in Digital Transformation

Absen's path toward digital transformation has not been smooth. There were setbacks and hard lessons learned along the way. Since 2007, the company began introducing systems to replace manual tasks in basic functions. This phase was entirely driven by business operations—paper-based processes became too inefficient and risky as the workforce grew, so adopting systems became a necessity.

From 2015 to 2017, the company entered a function-driven stage. Departments began requesting system support to boost their efficiency. Thanks to Absen's strong IT capabilities, many systems were launched, either developed in-house or via external partners. However, by 2018, problems surfaced: serious silos between systems were limiting collaboration. In 2019, when the team attempted to map strategy to digital processes, they discovered that many systems were fundamentally incompatible. That's because early development hadn't accounted for data integration or process alignment between systems, making later consolidation extremely difficult. As a result, during the 2019 restructuring, they had to scrap and rebuild—most of the early investment was wasted.

Determined to learn from failure, the company officially began its process architecture in 2019. The top priority: build out the LTC (Lead to Cash) process while advancing IPD (Integrated Product Development) and IT system integration. In the manufacturing industry, these two core processes are business lifelines. A total of 16 key workflows were planned, with varying implementation timelines. The LTC process saw initial success by 2020.

This process design gave Absen a clear direction: don't optimize just one link or department—create full-chain integration. Understand how information and approvals connect across workflows. In late 2019, over 60 Huawei experts were brought in to assist, a massive investment. However, after 18 months, only 9 experts remained. Not due to incompetence—but because Absen differs from Huawei in company size, customer tiers, and project scale. The processes had to be tailored accordingly.

For instance, Huawei's project initiation process is rigorous and complex—but for Absen's typical $300,000 projects, spending a week preparing documentation and two days reporting was not realistic. So Absen refined the model: business leaders became process “owners,” while experts provided technical support. Leaders not only used the processes daily but understood the details and held execution responsibility—helping ensure processes were actually followed.

Most enterprise business frameworks share common structures—focused on R&D, customer engagement, service, delivery, supply chain, logistics, and warehousing. Absen's synchronization of 16 major business workflows and 18 interconnected systems dramatically boosted efficiency—achieving speeds four to five times faster than peers. This leap was made possible by the solid foundation of integrated processes and systems.

The Evolution and Maturity of Digital Transformation

Absen's journey of digital transformation has been a long exploration—from fragmented efforts to a structured and holistic system. Its continued leadership in the display industry is largely attributed to the forward-looking push by CEO Ding Chongbin. He previously led the company's IT department, and since joining in 2007, has been actively driving Absen's digital vision.

At the beginning, the team questioned the need for digitalization, believing paper-based contracts were sufficient. Although multiple systems were later launched, they lacked a unified perspective. Not until 2019 did the organization truly develop a systematic understanding.

That same year, Absen invited a consulting firm to guide its strategic planning and set a bold three-year revenue target of USD $1.3 billion. It was at this moment that the entire organization realized: digital transformation was no longer optional—it had become the core pillar to support future growth. This catalyzed the shift into a fast-track phase of structured, company-wide transformation.

Looking back at Absen's digitalization journey, it clearly evolved in three stages:

• Initial Stage (2007–2014): Driven by operational needs. The company introduced foundational systems like OA and ERP to eliminate inefficient paper-based processes and reduce risk, achieving a leap from “manual” to “online.”
• Functional Stage (2015–2017): Driven by departmental needs. Each function developed its own systems to improve local efficiency. However, this unintentionally created data silos—CRM, PDM, ERP, WMS, HCM systems all operated independently, lacking collaboration and building new management barriers.
• Process Stage (2018–present): Driven by workflows and data. Absen built out 16 end-to-end core processes, launched 18 major systems, and achieved full-chain digital collaboration and high efficiency.

LTC Transformation: From Process Breakthrough to Value Reconstruction

1. Background: Growing Business Complexity and Fragmented Processes

Previously, Absen's business processes were severely fragmented. Quotation documents and product details were stored in one system, while customer and opportunity data were in another. Sales managers relied on independent reporting tools, approvals ran through the OA system, logistics had its own system, and service had a separate one too. This lack of integration led to inefficiencies, especially in approvals.

In 2021, when I took over sales management, the company was undergoing organizational restructuring and shifting its strategy to a “big platform, small frontend” model. Previously, six regional heads had long tenures, made independent decisions, and handled relatively simple business focused on end customers in advertising and stage industries.

However, after 2019, rapid industry growth brought greater business complexity. Project sizes grew from hundreds of thousands to tens or even hundreds of millions of RMB, and new customer types like system integrators and contractors emerged.

As a result, newly appointed regional heads often faced tough decisions—either relying on gut instinct or being paralyzed by insufficient information. The biggest business risks stemmed from this lack of structured process—when decisions depend solely on subjective judgment without clear rules. The most visible symptom was a sudden spike in accounts receivable and inventory, a direct consequence of missing or broken processes.

2. Core Approach and Objectives of the LTC Transformation

Faced with these challenges, the LTC transformation became a necessary move. LTC itself is a standard process framework, and Absen did not make major modifications to it—only adaptive adjustments tailored to the company's specific business needs. The core principle was to apply and tailor the framework based on real operational demands.

At the time, the company had a very clear goal: integrate sales and channel management to achieve end-to-end process control—from lead to opportunity to contract—through one unified system. The goal also included incorporating customer and channel information, streamlining order, installation, service, product management, and financial flows, and ultimately delivering real-time performance visibility.

Once the project went live, the results were significant: the win rate of major projects increased by 43%, and operational efficiencies in tasks such as partner self-service ordering, fast quoting (within 5 minutes), and contract approvals all improved substantially. Building on this, Absen set a new goal: since the company already had a leading process and a relatively mature business foundation, it should build on this to create an industry-leading, fully digital marketing and sales platform.

3. System Optimization and Operational Safeguards

To achieve the above goals, after the system went live, Absen focused on solving three core issues:

• Clarify system positioning: The LTC system is designed for sales reps and sales managers, with core functionalities aimed at directly supporting sales work. For example, although the finance team once proposed incorporating credit evaluation models into the LTC system, the company ultimately decided to only present the final credit result. Including all calculation processes would have made the system overly bloated. Therefore, the system retained only sales-related functions such as target management, lead management, customer management, opportunity management, project management, quoting, contract management, order tracking, billing & payments, and channel data analysis. Other functions like orders, finance, and product management remain in their own systems and are integrated through data connections and defined processes.
• Build an operational system: Operationally, Absen established a complete risk control and business management framework through mechanisms, authorization management, and process design. Each decision point in the process has a clearly defined decision-maker, scope of authorization, and resource constraints, ensuring all decisions are standardized and risk is well managed.

4. Transformation Outcomes and Value Realization

The value of LTC transformation is not only reflected in improved efficiency but also profoundly impacts the quality of operations. Although Absen ranks third in the industry in revenue, it leads in net profit—mainly due to having the lowest accounts receivable and inventory levels in the industry. This is the true value of sales management: a mature process can significantly reduce bad debt and excessive inventory.

The outcomes of the transformation are evident in two dimensions:

• Efficiency optimization: By designing differentiated workflows for different order types, standard orders with predefined product specs, payment terms, and delivery timelines can be directly converted from opportunities to contracts for review—greatly saving time. Statistics show that 60% of Absen's orders fall under standard orders, and this adjustment has significantly improved overall efficiency.
• Methodology standardization: Processes serve as carriers of enterprise know-how. For example, in managing major projects (over 5 million RMB), the sales management team has identified must-do checkpoints: decision-maker mapping, company presentations, demo showcases, factory visits, and executive engagements. These are set as mandatory steps in the system and are reviewed during project retrospectives to ensure operational quality. The same goes for customer management—key client strategies, objectives, and execution plans must be documented and reviewed monthly to keep progress aligned.

While systems can greatly enhance efficiency, the prerequisite is to clearly define how business strategy translates into operations, establish the right mechanisms and processes, and only then bring it to life through IT systems.

The Breakthroughs in Core Business

1. Product Management: Driving Development with an Investment Mindset

Absen introduced the IPD (Integrated Product Development) framework in product management. Its core philosophy is to develop products with an investment mindset rather than merely responding passively to customer demands. For the group, product development must be based on precise judgment of both current and future market needs, aligned with China's technology innovation trends. It proactively explores technological breakthroughs and ultimately fulfills customer needs through tangible product offerings. These needs include both explicit customer feedback and hidden demands uncovered through internal research, all presented through product form.

2. Supply Chain Management: From Quality Control to End-to-End Upgrades

Supply chain management is vital to Absen. Compared with the past focus on quality assurance during production and basic supplier management, today's supply chain management has evolved with richer meaning:

• Zero-defect quality goal: Absen elevated the Quality Department to a first-tier unit independent of the production system, emphasizing that quality control must be impartial—“the referee shouldn't also be the player.” Only by maintaining independence can quality supervision remain objective.
• Expanded quality control scope: Quality now encompasses not only production but also work quality and process quality across departments. The goal of “zero defects” drives continuous improvement; if the standard is set at 98%, the remaining 2% might become an excuse to stop optimizing. But aiming for zero defects compels every team to aim higher.
• Full-chain quality management: Quality issues no longer fall solely on the Quality Department. For example, a display product failure might trace back to incorrect early-stage demand assessment—like installing indoor equipment at a coastal site where harsh conditions lead to mismatched performance. Even if manufacturing was flawless, the product may still fail. That's why Absen's quality management now covers the entire chain—from demand intake and supplier management to manufacturing and R&D.

3. Service System: Building a Differentiated Moat

Given the engineering nature of its products, service is Absen's competitive moat. In the company's structure, the service unit operates as a standalone profit center—it must be strong enough to make customers willing to pay for its value. To achieve this, Absen productized every service offering, with clear pricing and value delivery. Differentiated service standards were first defined before pricing was set. A 3-tier service model ensures precise response time and all-scenario coverage, forming a service capability that's difficult to replicate.

4. Corporate Culture: Rooted in Truth, Powered by Values

“Self-illumination” is Absen's brand value proposition—just as its displays strive to present true colors, the company aims to operate with authenticity and integrity. This includes smart display, smart quality, smart branding, and smart service—all forming the spiritual foundation of the brand.

Absen adheres to three non-negotiable principles:

• No lying
• No fraud
• No bribery

These are red lines. Any salesperson who violates them is dismissed immediately. This is also why Absen chose to operate through channels instead of directly—doing so avoids violating its values. Being truthful enhances communication efficiency, fosters trust, lowers compliance risks, and helps filter customers. With aligned values, long-term partnerships can form; when values clash, the company walks away. This is how Absen protects its pursuit of “integrity as a cornerstone, building a city on the hill.”