Interview advice needed from convenience shop owners please.

Hi,

I wonder if anyone would be willing to help, I have an interview lined up early next week with a large brewery, the role involves speaking to local shop and convenience store owners who stock their range of beers and ciders, building relationships with them and also trying to increase sales. It's basically a sales role. I have been asked to put together a presentation for the interview, rather than just doing some PowerPoint display I want to speak to shop owners and get a feel for what they want and expect. I ideally want to pop in and speak to you in person, I'm happy to do this at a time to suit, if not please feel free to message me on here. I know I'm asking a lot of people when I'm sure they have more important things to do but any pointers are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

This is a business to business sales role; something I spent 20 years doing in multi tier distribution in IT.

Some basics for you (no particular order):

1. Treat all your customers equally (based on the commercial terms and policies implemented by the employer); don't offer 1 customer terms different to another on a 'en par' basis; they do talk to one another and any trust you develop will be destroyed

2. Gain their trust and 'sell' to them why displaying your products and services in the most favourable location in their store will make them more money than displaying your competitors

3. Say what you will do for them, make sure you do it and then tell them what you've done for them

4. Ensure they are kept aware of your company's promotion plans in advance; it will allow them to plan their store lay out as well as build trust between you and them

5. Never be afraid to say no to them; but make sure you can justify why you might say no; they will respect you for it and it will help you to build trust

6. Always be on time for an appointment

7. Always dress smart (suited and booted unless your employer is running a campaign where they want you to wear promotional items)

8. Find out something personal about them (for example they may have a son who is good at football. When you next visit them, ask the owner how his son is getting on. Customers love it when you take a personal interest in them as well as their business)

9. Learn their business motives. Some customers are happy with the life style they have, some might be ambitious and looking for growth. With the former it is much more a personal hands off relationship. With the latter, you might want to spend more time supporting them as they are likely to bring you more growth

10. Remember you are your customers advocate with your employer. Make sure you use your customers to find out valuable information about the market and your competitors so you can feed that back to your employer

Hope it goes well.

In my experience of working in said shop - offer to supply them a fridge