---
title: "How Much Is a Salesperson's Customer Relationship Worth?"
description: "Long ago, I categorized the skills of frontline salespeople into three types: attitude skills, customer relationship skills, and business skills. Among these, customer relationship skills are the most important, accounting for 80% of the factors in closing a deal. This article explores how to increase regional sales through stable customer relationships, using the example of a distributor in Henan who successfully captured market share by leveraging customer relationships when a competitor was in transition."
author: "高级研究员 海游"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2024-04-13"
language: "en"
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# How Much Is a Salesperson's Customer Relationship Worth?

> Long ago, I categorized the skills of frontline salespeople into three types: attitude skills, customer relationship skills, and business skills. Among these, customer relationship skills are the most important, accounting for 80% of the factors in closing a deal. This article explores how to increase regional sales through stable customer relationships, using the example of a distributor in Henan who successfully captured market share by leveraging customer relationships when a competitor was in transition.

Long ago, I categorized the skills of frontline salespeople into three types: **First, attitude skills.** A salesperson's attitude is the prerequisite for closing a deal. Experienced salespeople adjust their attitude to remain unaffected by external circumstances. **Second, customer relationship skills.** Customer relationships are the accumulation of personal connections. Some people are good at expressing themselves and naturally build rapport quickly, while others are slower. **Third, business skills.** Business skills include perceptive communication, describing product value, profit analysis, and so on. Frontline salespeople continuously hone these three skills in their daily work and can quickly become key personnel and core strength. However, among these three, I believe customer relationship skills are the most important, accounting for 80% of the factors in closing a deal. Common examples: when a regional veteran salesperson leaves and a new one takes over, sales typically decline, and terminal store owners stop stocking up; a salesperson with good customer relationships can get cash before delivery, have products placed in prime display positions, and even charge slightly higher prices that store owners accept. Today, we delve into a fundamental issue: **How to increase regional sales through stable customer relationships?**

Recently, I visited the instant noodle market in a prefecture-level city in Henan and met with General Manager Wang, the distributor for J brand instant noodles. Previously, in his region, the market structure was K holding about 40%, T barely visible, and he and B were in a stalemate, each holding about 20%. At the end of last year, B adjusted its distributor, and Wang seized this opportunity. After a series of actions, the market structure is now: K holds about 40%, J holds about 30%, and B holds less than 10%. I asked him, what is behind this achievement? Wang replied: just two words, customer relationships. Next, we break down Wang's specific actions in maintaining customer relationships.

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**Customer Relationship Maintenance Part 1:**
**Seize Opportunities, Win Over Terminals**
Wang is very dedicated. No matter how busy, he mandates that he must visit the market at least 2 days a week, coordinating with salespeople to communicate face-to-face with terminal store owners. During a visit at the end of last year, he noticed that terminal stores were reporting a significant decline in B's service, delayed display rewards, and irregular salesperson visits. Upon investigation, he learned that B was in the process of adjusting its distributor. This was a golden opportunity. Wang took the following actions.

**1. Recruit Excellent Sales Representatives from B's Distributor**
Wang knows the market very well, including which areas are B's strongholds and where B's salespeople are excellent. Now that B's distributor was switching, Wang personally visited B's salespeople and spared no expense to recruit them. In his words: an excellent sales representative brings not only business skills but, more importantly, customer relationship resources. You're not just getting one excellent salesperson; you're getting 150-200 quality terminal stores.

**2. Small Favors to Win Over Terminals**
With B's distributor lacking enthusiasm, service quality inevitably declined, and market issues surfaced, such as slow-moving or near-expiry products. At this point, Wang introduced a policy:
> a. Appropriately give more of his own promotional items to terminal stores to help them clear near-expiry products. b. During visits, salespeople could assist store owners in dealing with dust on B products and implementing first-in, first-out practices. c. For some quality terminal stores, especially those not selling his products, he offered a 1:1 exchange of B's near-expiry items (within 5 pieces) for his own products.

In his words: People's hearts are made of flesh. Most terminal store owners are grateful for what I do. Although I lose a little, I've won back 200-300 outlets. Customer relationships built through timely help are stronger than those built through adding flowers to brocade.

**Summary: Distributors must always pay attention to competitors' market status. Once a competitor makes a mistake, immediately adjust, seize the opportunity, and launch an attack.**

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**Customer Relationship Maintenance Part 2:**
**Strike While the Iron Is Hot, Improve Service**
Market competition doesn't allow you to sit back and enjoy the fruits when one player has problems. When one player has issues, other brand distributors are eyeing the market share. You must follow up promptly and carve up the market as soon as possible. Wang first organized his team to identify B's quality terminal stores as targets and took the following actions:

**1. Increase In-Store Time at Target Terminals, Reward for Success**
Salespeople were required to spend no less than 15 minutes in target terminal stores, engaging in more patient and sincere conversations with store owners, understanding their needs and preferences, and making a deep impression. The check method was: in-store time on the terminal phone plus field visits to assess mutual familiarity.

**2. Strengthen Product Knowledge, Build a Professional Image**
Customer relationships must be built on professionalism. Salespeople must be familiar with their own and competitors' products, such as weight, flavor, policies, profit comparisons, and market support comparisons. Convey a positive signal to terminals: I have all the advantages others have, and I also have advantages others don't. When communicating, describe product features in colloquial, concise, short, and memorable terms.

**3. Use Tools Well, Be Hands-On and Ask for Permission**
> a. Wear work uniforms, keep clean and tidy, and pay attention to image. b. Bring all visual merchandising materials, and when posting, always ask the store owner for permission, being polite. c. Prepare rags, tape, knives, etc., and work efficiently. d. Help store owners with tasks like moving goods, sweeping floors, and organizing the warehouse.

These tasks are not only an important part of daily work but also help terminal store owners get to know company personnel more directly and increase trust.

**4. Regular Visits and In-Depth Communication**
Whether or not a cooperative relationship is established, persist in regular visits to target outlets and maintain in-depth communication. Regularity leaves a deep impression and is a sign of good credibility. In the FMCG industry, it generally takes 4-11 visits to go from stranger to cooperation. Sincerity can move even the most distrustful store owner eventually.

**Summary: Improve the quality of terminal service through regular visits, in-depth communication, and meeting needs, to quickly accumulate customer relationships.**

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**Customer Relationship Maintenance Part 3:**
**Brand Promotion, Expand Brand Influence**
There is no love without reason, and no hate without reason. The customer relationship between salespeople and terminal stores must be based on the cooperative brand. Therefore, salespeople should combine online advertising and offline brand image promotion. The stronger the brand, the stronger the customer relationship.

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**Customer Relationship Maintenance Part 4:**
**Empathize, Retain Key Staff**
If customer relationships are the carrier of sales, then salespeople are the carrier of customer relationships. Retaining key sales representatives means retaining customer relationships. We often see that many veteran distributors have several key sales representatives who have worked for over 5 years, and their business is thriving. Conversely, some distributors with declining business frequently change personnel, falling into a vicious cycle of staff turnover, customer relationship loss, sales decline, market shrinkage, more staff turnover, and more customer relationship loss. Wang does this well:

> **1. Hold quarterly meetings (all-staff meetings) to commend outstanding employees**, awarding trophies and bonuses, with special rewards for those who contribute significantly to quarterly growth. **2. Establish an employee travel incentive mechanism**: one year of service earns a domestic solo trip for 3 days; two years, a domestic trip for two (including family) for 4 days; three years, a domestic trip for three (including family) for 5 days; five years, a domestic family trip for a week. 3. **Establish a home visit mechanism for outstanding employees**: during Mid-Autumn Festival and Spring Festival, organize management to visit employees' homes to express condolences and deliver benefits.

**Summary: Retaining talent means retaining customer relationships and terminal stores. You must invest thought and empathize with employees' material and spiritual needs.** As Wang said: For a distributor to make money, they must let salespeople make more money. Only then can they retain good salespeople. Frequent changes in salespeople inevitably affect customer relationships and profits.

**Final Thoughts**
Wang's success is inevitable. Salespeople and customer relationships are inseparable, and customer relationships and outlets are inseparable. In China's cultural and market environment, customer relationships can be said to be the primary productive force of sales. If good customer relationships can last, it is due to the persistence of quality daily service. Stable, long-term customer relationships are the guarantee and foundation of company profits. The customer relationships with terminal store owners and the loyalty of salespeople both depend on the most basic integrity and sincerity between people.


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