---
title: "Building Stronger Distributor Relationships Matters More Than Grabbing Terminals!"
description: "Good distributor relationships can generate greater sales! While it's important to seize sales terminals, it's even more crucial to strengthen distributor relationships. In fact, terminal relationships are more important than competing for terminals. First, without good terminal relationships, various terminal tasks are difficult to carry out smoothly. Second, without good terminal relationships, some terminal investments may not yield their full potential, whereas good relationships can maximize the benefits of such investments. Third, terminal relationships themselves have direct promotional power. Good relationships make it easier to achieve twice the results with half the effort: for example, in product recommendations, terminals are more willing to recommend your products to customers..."
author: "李成林"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2016-08-27"
language: "en"
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markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/building-stronger-distributor-relationships-matters-more-than-grabbing-t-840390fb.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/9cP4pO7NMVWVv1K1c3okfQ"
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---

# Building Stronger Distributor Relationships Matters More Than Grabbing Terminals!

> Good distributor relationships can generate greater sales! While it's important to seize sales terminals, it's even more crucial to strengthen distributor relationships. In fact, terminal relationships are more important than competing for terminals. First, without good terminal relationships, various terminal tasks are difficult to carry out smoothly. Second, without good terminal relationships, some terminal investments may not yield their full potential, whereas good relationships can maximize the benefits of such investments. Third, terminal relationships themselves have direct promotional power. Good relationships make it easier to achieve twice the results with half the effort: for example, in product recommendations, terminals are more willing to recommend your products to customers...

Good distributor relationships can generate greater sales! Sales terminals need to be seized, and sales relationships need to be strong. In fact, terminal relationships are even more important than competing for terminals.
First, without good terminal relationships, various terminal tasks are difficult to carry out smoothly.
Second, without good terminal relationships, some terminal investments may not yield their full potential, whereas good relationships can maximize the benefits of such investments.
Third, terminal relationships themselves have direct promotional power.
**Good relationships make it easier to achieve twice the results with half the effort:**
For example, in product recommendations, terminals are more willing to recommend your products to customers and actively sell your company's new products and new packaging.
In product display, terminals are more willing to let your products maintain good display positions and proactively do shelf management and maintenance.
In visual merchandising, terminals are more willing to let you post POP advertisements and prevent others from damaging or covering your POP ads.
In promotional activities, terminals are more willing to cooperate with your in-store promoters and store promotions.
In product sell-through, terminals are more willing to accept your sales suggestions and think of ways to sell your products.
In ordering and payment, terminals are more willing to pay on time and actively replenish stock to prevent stockouts or shortages. In information gathering, terminals are more willing to share market information and dynamics, especially about competitors. In customer service, terminals are more willing to proactively handle customer complaints about your products.
**Sometimes, emotional relationships can compensate for insufficient benefits and make it easier to forgive your momentary oversights and mistakes.**
Therefore, the weaker the market and the off-season, the more important relationship building becomes, even surpassing stocking pressure, because at such times, sales only happen with good relationships. Sales are grabbed, not forced.
**Relationships are built through visits; diligence compensates for lack of skill.**
Terminal relationships are built through visits. Terminal visits are the basic method for maintaining good relationships, and good terminal relationships always belong to diligent terminal salespeople.
Terminal customers will never decide whether to help you sell based on your position, but rather on how familiar you are and how good your relationship is.
Some company leaders go to the front line to inspect terminal work and personally do displays, but because they are not familiar with the terminal staff, they may be stopped or even scolded by store owners or staff. This happens quite often, and these situations are easily resolved by a junior salesperson.
**Therefore, to maintain good terminal relationships, it is essential to conduct daily terminal visits.** In addition to visits, terminal salespeople should gather personal information about key personnel at terminal stores, such as family situations, personalities, hobbies, and birthdays, and establish detailed customer profiles and files. They should give small gifts on holidays or irregularly, send gifts and greetings on birthdays, and help customers solve non-work-related problems whenever possible.
**Transform business relationships into personal friendships, building feelings of friendship.**
Terminal relationships are built through visits, but they cannot be achieved overnight. The key is to conduct terminal visits consistently and continuously. Terminal visits are a marathon without an end, a long-term, ongoing task that can never be relaxed.
**How can we ensure consistent and continuous terminal visits? Enterprises must establish a "store visit system" to manage and operate continuously.**
Follow the common steps of the "store visit system":
1. Establish detailed terminal files, including terminal name, address, business area, staff names, birthdays, etc.
2. Divide the market into several areas and assign corresponding terminal salespeople to each area.
3. Classify terminals into A, B, and C categories.
4. Reasonably determine visit cycles and frequencies based on terminal categories.
5. Draw a terminal distribution map.
6. Develop terminal visit route maps.
7. Also develop a "visit process" that specifies what work to do at each terminal, how to do it, and what standards to achieve.
Do not underestimate these basic processes and standards. Once you establish a routine and rhythm, you will feel both relaxed and immensely benefited, but these are not suitable for new product launch stages or promotional blitz stages.
**Activities and gatherings: meet often, sell and stock in a fun atmosphere.**
Activities are a great way to build terminal relationships. They provide a platform for communication and exchange between enterprises and terminals, increasing mutual contact and narrowing the distance.
Enterprises can adopt flexible and diverse methods, regularly holding various events such as symposiums, social gatherings, terminal celebration parties, trips, brewery visits, tasting sessions, lectures, ordering conferences, new product launches, etc. These activities can also include entertainment like lucky draws, cash grabs, and product or corporate culture elements. Through these activities, you can strengthen bonds, deepen understanding, and promote the company and its products.
**Provide terminal support to ensure relationships do not depreciate.**
Building terminal relationships cannot rely solely on material incentives or small emotional investments. To establish stable and lasting relationships, enterprises need to provide systematic support and good terminal services.
Helping terminals is helping the enterprise itself. Providing systematic support and services not only enhances terminal relationships and cooperation but also effectively secures promotional space and display resources, thereby promoting product sales and improving sales performance.
**First, provide sales support to terminals.**
As an enterprise, actively helping terminals improve sales performance is a duty. Sales support to retail terminals mainly includes:
1. Provide advertising support to terminals.
2. Provide product display, in-store advertising, and point-of-sale promotional support.
3. Personnel support: deploy promoters and in-store promoters (for certain stores).
4. Provide sales tools and equipment assistance, such as free shelves, freezers, and store signs.
5. Deliver goods promptly, ensure supply, keep track of reasonable inventory, and replenish in time.
6. Assist terminals in putting products on shelves and doing proper shelf management and maintenance.
7. Handle returns and exchanges promptly to adjust slow-moving inventory.
8. Provide after-sales service, handling customer complaints and claims promptly and proactively.
9. Communicate frequently with terminals to solve difficulties and problems they encounter in sales.
**Second, provide business guidance to retail terminals.**
In addition to sales support, enterprises should also provide guidance and coaching related to operations, offering reasonable suggestions to solve operational problems, helping terminals enhance sales power and competitiveness, and improve overall business levels. For example, provide guidance on store decoration, product display, reasonable inventory, sales increase, cost saving, profit enhancement, advertising planning, and promotions. Give a plum and return a peach; when terminals benefit from enterprise guidance, the enterprise gains more from terminals.
There are two different ways of thinking about how to build terminal relationships, and different ways of thinking produce completely different results.
Method 1: How can I solve my company's problems through terminal relationships?
Most enterprises think this way when building terminal relationships:
A. What problems do I need to solve?
B. How can I solve my company's problems by building good terminal relationships?
This is thinking from the enterprise's perspective. Of course, public relations plans designed this way can also achieve good results. However, merely starting from solving the enterprise's own problems to design terminal relationship plans is always passive and not the highest level of terminal relationship building.
Method 2: How can I solve my company's problems by solving terminal problems?
Enterprises have their problems, and terminals have theirs. If we can break through conventional thinking and consider whether we can solve our problems by solving terminal problems, and whether we can embed solving our problems into solving terminal problems, this is a reverse way of thinking, standing from the terminal's perspective.
This way of thinking is:
A. For terminals, what problems and difficulties do they encounter in operations? Or what problems have not been well solved?
B. If we leverage our company's resources and integrate the terminal's own resources, can we solve some of the terminal's problems?
C. What are my company's problems? Can we solve our problems by solving terminal problems?
In this way, enterprises and merchants integrate each other's resources for their own use, obtaining resources they lack from each other, thereby solving their respective problems in a more economical way.
**Profit assurance is the foundation for evergreen terminal relationships.**
Relationships can compensate for insufficient benefits, but they cannot replace benefit relationships. Without profit assurance, relationships are not solid and cannot last.
To make relationships solid and lasting, both profit assurance and emotional communication are indispensable, but profit assurance always comes first, and emotional communication second. Ultimately, the fit between enterprises and terminals is based on interests, and interests are the hard truth.
Enterprises must meet terminals' profit requirements, ensure reasonable and sustained profits. They should scientifically set price policies to ensure reasonable unit profits; promote product sales to increase volume and ensure total profits; and manage the price system to ensure sustained profits.
Additionally, enterprises can find ways to create new profit growth points for terminals.
-END-
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