The importance of e-commerce for sales
Key account managers in foodservice are responsible for managing relationships with larger customers. More often than not, these key accounts are wholesalers. At least, that’s the case for nearly all the manufacturers we work with. This common situation forms the basis of this article, in which we explore the question: Why do key account managers need to be e-commerce experts today?
We’ve previously written an article on e-commerce in foodservice from the perspective of wholesalers. That piece focuses on improving visibility and findability in webshops.
The role of key account managers
The primary responsibility of key account managers is to retain top clients and nurture those key relationships over time. Ideally, they evolve into strategic partners and advisers to their clients, identifying new opportunities for mutual growth and collaboration.
What are the key skills of key account managers?
Successful key account managers are excellent communicators. While that’s a basic requirement, it’s just the start. Great key account managers are highly service-oriented and always willing to go the extra mile for their clients. But above all?
Empathy.
It’s essential for key account managers to deeply understand their clients’ goals, motivations, and needs.
But what if one of those clients is a wholesaler? On average in Europe, 70-80% of sales are come from their webshop. So it’s clear that collaboration in e-commerce is a crucial part of the relationship between wholesalers and manufacturers.
The buy-sell hierarchy
The buy-sell hierarchy is a key account management concept developed by Robert Miller and Stephen Heiman. In short, the model shows that relationships based purely on delivering products and services (levels 1 and 2) are the most vulnerable to competition. In these types of relationships, price tends to play a significant role—making it harder to build long-term loyalty or differentiate from other suppliers.
Once you start adding service and support (level 3), your position as a supplier becomes less vulnerable. But the ultimate goal is to make a meaningful contribution to the key challenges an organisation faces (levels 4 and 5). At that point, competition becomes almost irrelevant—and price takes a back seat.
In other words: key account managers create the most value when they help solve an organisation’s most critical issues.
When it comes to wholesalers, you can only contribute at that level if you truly understand their most important sales channel.
And that is precisely why e-commerce is such a vital focus for key account managers.
How do you prepare a customer strategy?
A strong customer strategy starts with understanding your client’s world, before looking at your own organization. You can build this in four straightforward steps:
- Trends: What developments are shaping your customer’s business?
- Opportunities: What chances can your customer seize in this changing landscape?
- Your Strengths: Where can you offer real value and support?
- Your Weaknesses: What are your limitations, and how might they impact collaboration?
Why Market and Food-Commerce Trends Matter
It’s essential for key account managers to stay on top of market trends. But in today’s world, food-commerce trends are just as important.
Take personalization, for example. An area that’s growing rapidly in e-commerce, including in foodservice wholesaling.
Data plays a key role here. Some real-life examples:
- The product range displayed in a webshop may vary by customer segment.
- The order of items depends on customer profiles.
- Search results are shaped by previous purchases.
- Promotions are tailored to individual customer histories.
- Even email content is personalized.
If you’re unaware of these developments—or only know them at a surface level—you’ll struggle to position yourself as a strategic partner for modern wholesalers.
The E-Commerce Guide for Sales – Become an E-Commerce Expert
E-commerce knowledge is becoming critical for sales and key account managers. Our new E-commerce Guide for Sales gives you everything you need to start impactful conversations with your wholesaler accounts.
Inside, you’ll learn:
- What topics matter most in e-commerce collaboration
- What to check and track in your accounts
- What talking points to bring to the table in regular meetings
In this guide, which is actually a short 12-page e-book, you will read about the key checkpoints for food commerce: availability, visibility, findability, activations, e-commerce trends and market knowledge. We actually run a short course on E-commerce for Sales especially for key account managers – completely free of charge
This guide will help make you a better partner for wholesalers. You will engage in discussions with more confidence.
Want to have a chat about your challenges without further obligations? I’m looking forward to an interesting exchange about the challenges you’re facing. Then please feel free to request a video call with me, Martin van Dam.