[Xiaofei] Kong Chao from Anhui – Transform Yourself, Pivot and Break Through

Never try to change someone, for you can never wake a person who is only pretending to sleep. Changing others is the hardest thing of all; rather than wasting your energy on it, focus on changing yourself first.

Leveraging the company’s product strengths and guided by a “stability‑plus‑transformation‑plus‑expansion” strategy, the company swiftly captured the small‑fertilizer market and secured a commanding position. Throughout this transformation, numerous success stories have emerged. In this issue, we join in exploring the inspiring journey of Kong Chao from Linquan County, Anhui, as he successfully navigated his business transformation.

Kong Chao is one of Nongda Fertilizer’s strategic partners and a member of the company’s Strategic Development Advisory Committee. He has collaborated with the company for over ten years, with annual sales exceeding 3,000 tons.

For a long time, General Manager Kong believed that the Linquan region was dominated by field crops and lacked a market for small‑volume fertilizers, so he showed little interest in this segment. However, in recent years, competition in the bulk fertilizer market has intensified, putting mounting pressure on yield guarantees and driving profit margins ever lower—challenges that have posed significant difficulties for General Manager Kong.

General Manager Kong’s concern is a shared challenge among all distributors who have long adhered to the traditional large‑field, high‑fertilizer model—and it also aligns with Nongda Fertilizer Industry’s ongoing pursuit of transformation. After numerous discussions and strategic deployments across multiple locations, the company launched, starting in 2019, an initiative to pivot toward cash‑crop regions, adopting a strategy that integrates R&D, production, and marketing while fostering joint growth between the product team and customers. Acting at just the right moment, General Manager Kong saw this as an exceptional opportunity to reinvent himself. He proactively reached out to the company’s sales representatives, visiting every field in Linquan. The findings left him both frustrated and hopeful: frustrated that he hadn’t ventured into the market sooner, instead “secluding himself at home to brew trouble”; yet hopeful, because witnessing these cash crops convinced him that there was still tremendous potential for success. It turned out that a significant portion of Linquan is dedicated to cultivating ginger, scallions, and grapes.

Following a thorough review of market resources and a careful assessment of the Xiaofei product line, General Manager Kong recognized the substantial future benefits that Xiaofei could deliver, solidified his resolve to pivot toward Xiaofei, and rekindled his passion for a “second entrepreneurial journey.”

Since October 2019, he has been visiting farmers in the production areas and conducting outreach every day. In just two months, by December 2019, he had already brought more than 50 large-scale growers to the company for on-site visits and inspections, deepening their understanding of the firm and bolstering their confidence in its products. During that visit, they placed orders totaling RMB 200,000 for small‑size fertilizers and over 300 tons of large‑size fertilizers. Having tasted the early rewards of this transformation, General Manager Kong seems like a different person—more enthusiastic about his work and noticeably younger and more energetic. As he puts it, “Now when I see cash crops, my eyes light up.”

When it comes to selling small‑size fertilizers, products and services are paramount. To further strengthen the Nongda brand’s presence in the Linquan small‑fertilizer market, General Manager Kong personally leads his sales team and agricultural‑chemistry experts in daily sessions to deepen their knowledge of small‑fertilizer formulations and their benefits. In March 2020, he even hired a seasoned marketing professional from a leading agrochemical company to help jointly develop this niche market. Breaking with conventional employment models, General Manager Kong adopted a partnership approach: he pays salaries, provides a company vehicle free of charge, and splits the profits from each sale evenly—a strategy that has earned widespread admiration. By April, one of his sales representatives had already earned over RMB 10,000 in profit-sharing from small‑fertilizer sales alone. Meanwhile, the Nongda brand has significantly expanded its influence within the small‑fertilizer segment.

As of now, Kong Chao’s small‑fat sales have already reached RMB 300,000, making the annual target of RMB 800,000 well within reach.

As General Manager Kong put it, “If you want to succeed in the small‑fertilizer business, you’ve got to partner with a company like China Agricultural University—one that offers a comprehensive product lineup, a steady stream of new innovations, and proven, reliable results. Only then can you stay on the right track, move forward steadily, and build a lasting future!”

We all look forward to seeing one “President Kong” after another thrive in the small‑fat market, swiftly capture key footholds, and achieve a breakthrough in their lives.