--- title: "Terminal Visits: How to Quickly Build Trust with Small Shops" description: "Small shops are one of the most troublesome customer groups for frontline salespeople in FMCG. This article provides practical advice on how to turn these 'troublesome' customers into 'easy' ones by building trust through three key steps: making customers remember you, understand you, and trust you." author: "思动营销" publisher: "New Distribution" email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com" telephone: "+8615854817671" published: "2015-03-02" language: "en" canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/terminal-visits-how-to-quickly-build-trust-with-small-shops-346c1d80/" markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/terminal-visits-how-to-quickly-build-trust-with-small-shops-346c1d80.md" original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/9t6M035fjbHCBhOYvp79PA" translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E7%BB%88%E7%AB%AF%E6%8B%9C%E8%AE%BF-%E5%A6%82%E4%BD%95%E4%B8%8E%E5%B0%8F%E5%BA%97%E5%BF%AB%E9%80%9F%E5%BB%BA%E7%AB%8B%E4%BF%A1%E4%BB%BB-346c1d80.md" attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/terminal-visits-how-to-quickly-build-trust-with-small-shops-346c1d80/" usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt" --- # Terminal Visits: How to Quickly Build Trust with Small Shops > Small shops are one of the most troublesome customer groups for frontline salespeople in FMCG. This article provides practical advice on how to turn these 'troublesome' customers into 'easy' ones by building trust through three key steps: making customers remember you, understand you, and trust you. **Tip: Click the link above to follow 'FMCG Distributor Professional Consulting' for more marketing and distributor internal management content.** Small shops are one of the most troublesome customer groups for frontline salespeople in FMCG practice. They are often grumpy, picky, and haggle over every penny. They are the 'losers' of the FMCG customer base, summed up in two words: 'troublesome'! So, how can we turn 'troublesome' into 'easy'? **1. Make the customer remember you** Some books emphasize the importance of 'image'. So, as a new salesperson, I followed the book's advice, dressed up in a suit and tie, and went to see terminal customers, but it backfired. Later, I found out the reason through communication with customers. 'When you first came, you were all dressed up like a general manager, talking about your company and products. Do you know what I thought then?' 'What did you think?' 'I thought you were crazy! I meet hundreds of salespeople like you every day, all saying the same things. I'm tired of hearing it. Besides, look at my shop—it's busy all day. I don't have time to listen to your spiel. You come in talking about your company and products without knowing anything about me or my situation. Why would I listen? So I sent you away so I could get back to business!' 'Then why was your attitude better the next time I came?' 'Wasn't it because you helped me move goods when there were no customers?' Hearing this, I suddenly woke up! He was absolutely right. How do I make customers remember me? How can a customer remember me among so many salespeople? Later, I summarized a few points: 1. Dress neatly and cleanly. If there is a uniform, wear it to make the customer feel you are professional. Avoid overly unique styles; they may make you seem unreliable. Also, don't dress like a general manager—it will create distance and might even lead to insults behind your back. 2. Don't talk too much. Briefly introduce yourself. Instead of rambling on and rushing to sell, observe the customer's environment. Use your eyes, remember, and think! 3. Find opportunities to help the customer. On the first visit, eliminating strangeness is key. The best way is not through words but through actions. In offline sales training, salespeople often ask me: How can I quickly get familiar with a small shop? What if I can't find a topic for small talk? What scripts can quickly build trust? My answer: Instead of talking nonsense, do something practical. If there's a chance, find something to help the customer with! **2. Let the customer understand you** When the customer realizes that the salesperson in front of them is eager to learn, professional, effective, communicative, and genuinely concerned about their business, they may consider cooperating with you. Therefore, the premise for the customer to understand you is that you first understand the customer. **1. Personnel situation** a/ Family-run shop: boss, wife, children (children's role cannot be underestimated), and other staff. The boss's wife: In family-run shops, the wife usually manages money. If you build a good relationship with her, settling accounts will be easy. Children are a window for emotional connection; sometimes praising the child or buying them an ice cream can change the boss's attitude immediately. The hardest to deal with among distributors are not the bosses but the staff below, remember that! Because more work is executed by the staff. For example, when you go to settle accounts, even if the boss agrees, if you have a bad relationship with the accountant, you won't get paid; if you have a bad relationship with the sales staff, even if the boss approves your product, they won't push it, and it won't sell. Eventually, you'll have to take it back to the factory, and you'll lose the opportunity forever. b/ Competitors: You need to know who the competitor's personnel are that have a good relationship with the boss. This may not be accomplished in one visit, but always keep it in mind, observe carefully, and ask and listen more. **2. Product situation** a/ Competitive products: You can see some issues with the products in the customer's environment with your eyes. On your first visit, they won't tell you much, so use your eyes. Note them down and research them when you return. If you are a frontline manager, ask your salespeople what competitors they saw. If they can't even name the competitor products, educate them! Recording competitor products is for homework, to understand more relevant information so you have something to talk about on the next visit. Many friends don't know what to say when meeting customers because they don't understand. So, to what extent should you understand competitor products? a/1 Brand: Besides the products you see, also consider other products from the same manufacturer that the customer doesn't carry. Immediately ask yourself why. Why does the customer only stock this item and not others? a/2 Price: Of course, not every customer's purchase price is the same. You need to know the approximate market price and compare it with your own product's price. Remember, don't just look at price because price is not the only factor! a/3 Manufacturer: Learn more about competitor manufacturers from your company. Generally, small and medium customers don't know much about manufacturers, and they are eager to know more. If you can share some insider information, that would be very valuable to them! (This is also an opportunity to show your leaders that you are eager to learn and serious, haha) b/ Related products: You might ask: What's the use of knowing those? They're not related to us; we don't sell them? Haha... Well, that makes sense. But let me tell you a truth: any product the customer sells is related to your sales! For example, if you sell 'Bull' switches, but you understand the 'light bulbs' the customer sells. They seem unrelated, but they aren't. If you appropriately discuss products unrelated to yours, offer advice and opinions, what will the customer think? They'll think: 'This guy, unlike other salespeople who only talk about their own products, actually cares about my other products and knows quite a bit. Interesting!' c/ In-store promotions and information: Promotions and information help you understand what competitors are doing, but make sure it's accurate. Because many promotions are not updated promptly, and salespeople tend to be lazy. **3. Customer flow situation** a/ Busy vs. quiet times: When there are few customers, the boss has time to chat with you; when it's busy, your visit is useless—not noticing the situation is minor, but delaying their business is major. b/ Main customer group: I once had a salesperson who followed a customer for a long time and had a good relationship, but the customer never ordered. So I accompanied him on a visit. The customer was located on a university campus, and the copy paper they bought was for students to print review materials, with only a few cents per page, so the product grade was low. Because the salesperson didn't pay attention to the customer group, he kept pushing mid-range products, which not only failed to reduce costs but increased the purchase cost. No matter how good the relationship, it was in vain. Many sales colleagues often overlook the customer group, leading to poor sales. **3. Let the customer trust you** 1. Sincerity: I put sincerity first because many customers have been deceived by salespeople. Before ordering, everything is fine; after payment, everything changes. So, a sincere salesperson is the foundation for customer recognition. 2. Professionalism: A good salesperson must be proficient in their field, know all relevant knowledge, and have unique insights different from peers. 3. Consider the customer's interests: Salespeople who only think about how much to sell and how much commission to earn, regardless of whether the product suits the customer, will stuff it into the customer's warehouse. This is the most detested behavior. There was a colleague who, to meet targets, forced 200 boxes of copy paper on a customer who could only sell 50 boxes a month. Then raw material prices suddenly dropped, causing huge losses to the customer. From then on, no one trusted him, and he and his product left the market! 4. Learn to refuse: Friends must be surprised—usually customers refuse us. Refusing a business opportunity would be crazy, right? Wrong! When a customer makes unreasonable demands, you must learn to refuse! Business is equal; both parties must benefit. There is no one-sided deal. At the same time, refusing unreasonable demands is also a sign of self-respect! 5. Keep your word: Always fulfill promises to customers. If you can't, say so clearly. Don't make empty promises. Customers remember every promise you make. 6. Be loyal and righteous: Treat customers with loyalty and righteousness, not ingratitude. Help whenever you can within your principles, and don't be petty. Also, when talking with customers, don't always talk business; talk about family and emotions to build a connection beyond business. OK, if you want to quickly build trust with customers, do the above work seriously! 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