The Role of Relationship Selling in Retail Distribution

The relationship between humans is at the core of our society. It’s what helps us progress, makes us compete, and leads us to places we didn’t know existed. With trade being a fundamental part of that reality, it’s a no-brainer that good trade comes from strong connections between people.

Relationship selling is the kind of edge that will never go out of style, even with the age of artificial intelligence upon us. Instead, there will be a melding of human-AI operations, delivering incredible results in the departments of communication, information, and transparency. This will develop trust, the foundation of long-term associations. B2B customers, be it retailers or dealers, put tremendous stock in the trust they have for a brand.

This kind of trust is formed out of considerable efforts and the commitment of the sales team. A sales rep and dealer preoccupied with determining order statuses or credit notes will not have much time for other matters such as new product intros or the benefits of larger order baskets or even lucrative schemes associated with the former.

With today’s commerce being marked by fierce competition and fast evolving consumer preferences, lasting brand-channel partner relationships are crucial to all forms of trading. This article is written with the express purpose of educating all readers on the concept and importance of meaningful connections between brands and B2B customers.

Building Trust is a Powerful Solution

As mentioned above, sales teams are not formed with the sole purpose of taking orders and feedback. They are also trained on the brand’s products, its USP, differentiators, issue resolution (when possible), and educating the retailer or dealer on any new offerings. A B2B customer who gets to talk with a sales rep on this level will naturally form a rapport that will immediately uplift relationship selling efforts. However, this kind of wide scope of work across numerous customers is near impossible for a sales rep to accomplish without support. 

Let’s consider a case study where a leading paints company experienced lost sales due to ineffective payment collection and lack of collaboration on the statement of account. We deployed multiple tech-based solutions such as a sales team app, a dealer app, SAP integration for order fulfilment, Freshdesk integration for quick issue resolution across multiple teams – a complete goal-driven solution.

We helped transform the brand’s operations with targeted visits, smooth onboarding, and seamless order execution for both sales reps and dealers. Our omnichannel management system enhanced communication, while gamification encouraged healthy competition, driving overall growth.

The above case study makes it abundantly clear that we provided actionable benefits to the paints company, enhancing and at times changing their process for the better. This helped them generate trust among their B2B customers and create an environment of trust.

To be blunt, it’s not simply the give and take dynamics between buyer and seller that brands must adhere to but they must also do much more to make B2B customers feel taken care of. A collaborative environment promotes trust like nothing else and allows both parties – sales reps and customers – time to focus on more important things like issue resolution and product education.

What is Relationship Selling?

When a brand fosters trust and reliability beyond transactional limits, customers get more value in the long run. Empathy and personalised engagement are both drivers of relationship selling. Instead of focusing solely on closing immediate sales, relationship selling prioritises the long-term value of customer relationships.

Remember, it’s not just the product that you are selling to a retailer but also your brand. This builds long-term associations as opposed to short-term gains that are not good for business operations.

So how do you do that? 

Your sales reps are the face of your company as far as B2B customers are concerned. The traditional role of sales reps, for example, is to take orders, note down feedback and check for planogram compliance (secondary role). But what if technology could be harnessed to cut down unnecessary work and allow sales reps to have more free time for constructive discussions with customers.

BeatRoute offers collaborative automation whereby retailers and dealers get easy access to information such as order status, credit note and debit notes, and even the option of digital ordering so that when sales reps visit a retailer’s or dealer’s, they can focus on more qualitative activities such as issue resolution, customer education and finding ways to grow business together.

Your sales rep always starts from scratch, as they introduce your brand, its products, and your USP, building rapport to then push schemes and bigger order volumes, all of which stem from familiarity, and therefore, trust. 

The following points aim to elucidate this topic further.

Customer Experience for Relationship Selling

Every retailer has potentially unique needs and expectations. Geography, demography, and store size all play crucial roles in determining what kind and how many products go up on their shelves. By recognising this, your sales reps run a better chance at helping your cause.

In an era of personalised experiences, relationship selling shines. By taking the time to understand each customer’s unique preferences, needs, and pain points, sales professionals can tailor their approach and recommendations accordingly.

Consider how we helped Colgate Philippines in seamlessly executing their business initiatives, resulting in improved performance with their B2B efforts. Colgate Philippines sought ways to enhance retailer engagement and foster stronger relationships within its retailer network. Their objective was to leverage technology to enhance penetration, optimise range selling, and conduct impactful educational campaigns.

Our support involved equipping Colgate’s retailers with our Retailer App, integrated with Viber and FB Messenger alongside our DMS module. 

The results were: 

• Colgate Philippines established its own eB2B channel 
• Direct digital engagement with retailers that complemented the efforts of its frontline sales reps
• Highly accurate outcomes via trade schemes

Colgate Philippines was able to see better market penetration with these results. Customers got to see more of Colgate not only during ordering but also to discuss any concerns, making them feel valued while Colgate experienced better sales and potentially long-term relationships with channel partners.

Beyond the Sale: Relationship Selling is Adding Value

The most important thing that you can offer apart from the quality of your product is its value. This readily extends beyond the point of sale. It involves every touchpoint along the customer journey. Brands can strongly promote their commitment to customers through elements like proactive customer support or exclusive loyalty programs, further deepening the relationship. In essence, prioritising value creation is not just a business strategy; it’s the cornerstone of building enduring and meaningful connections with your B2B customers or retailers. 

One of the main differentiators that makes you stand out from your competitors is how quickly you are documenting and resolving customer concerns. This is the kind of value that’s much more than the traditional buyer-seller relationship because it streamlines operations on both sides by getting rid of hurdles, clearing the path for more business.

B2B transactions are generally more complex than B2C because in B2B, reliability, mutual benefit and trust are more at play than individual preferences. It involves building enduring partnerships founded on understanding, collaboration, and shared goals. Loyalty here isn’t merely a byproduct of satisfaction but a strategic imperative. Don’t look at loyal B2B customers as just repeat buyers but as also advocates and even unofficial influencers of your brand.

Technology is a Tool, Not The Sole Answer

Although technology has the potential to answer a lot of questions, the primary question in relationship selling remains – is trust the primary ingredient in your association with retailers? Only a human representative, a sales representative, can answer that. That is to say, once a powerful sales enablement application promotes collaboration between brand and customer, where the latter gets easy access to vital details such as credit status or statement of account or order history, the customer stops asking the same things to the sales rep. 

As a result, what technology allows the brand is a bigger opening to push new products and lucrative schemes that inevitably helps in revenue generation. Relationship selling, albeit with the help of AI and software, remains a primarily human undertaking.

Final Words

The essence of successful B2B trade is rooted in the depth of human connections, building precious connections and loyalty, even amidst a growing dependence on artificial intelligence and all that it entails. At BeatRoute,we have always considered AI to be extremely useful but never a replacement for human ingenuity. Trust and collaboration between brands and B2B customers requires multifaceted efforts from the brands and their sales reps to build rapport, educate, and provide effective issue resolutions. We believe that planting the seeds of trust in your customers is crucial enough for them to keep buying from you. Such a dynamic will remain in play for as long as trade exists or as long as humans remain empathetic beings.

Want to see what BeatRoute can do? Try our free demo today!