It’s an age old question: who owns the customer relationship? Manufacturers? Brokers? Distributors?

From Kevin Wilson’s LinkedIn Video Blog: Connect and comment here https://bit.ly/2OxR8D6

Full Transcript

What’s new in food?

This week, IFDA announced its 2018 award winners for Distributors of the Year. And I’d like to give a special shout-out to the folks at Sysco and Performance Foodservice for their well-deserved victory. Great job, guys. And it got me thinking about the supply chain in the food industry and the whole sales funnel and how we can be doing a much better job for our customers, right?

Comment below if you’ve ever heard this question: Who owns the relationship with the customer? I know I’ve heard it a million times at almost every sales meeting I’ve ever been to. “We’re the manufacturer, and we should own this customer.” “We’re the broker, and we have to own the customer.” “We’re the distributor, and we’re the ones touching the customer every day, so that relationship is ours.” Throw in dealers and consultants on the equipment side of the world, and you’ve got a massive cluster of people who are trying to own the customer. And what that question does and has done for decades is slow down our growth. It causes mistrust, it causes lack of communication, and just look at our numbers over the last decade. They are not growing, whereas other industries have really taken off, right?

It’s like one big game of tug of war with the customer, [dog growling] and guess what, guys. It’s 2018, Q3, and no one owns the customer, and they never will own the customer. You know what the customer wants? The customer wants inside data, consumer information, and new product information, and you know whom they want it from? They want it from the person who knows what they’re really looking for. So what’s new in food? I hope we’re all a little bit smarter about what the customer’s looking for and what the supply chain can do when we all work together.