Many financial services businesses deploy external intermediaries in one form or another. These B2B (business to business) relationships are typically between the financial institution and external salespeople, advisors, agents, brokers, wholesalers and such like.   In many cases, these businesses are then selling to other businesses, rather than the end consumer. Unfortunately, it can be easy to overlook people who don’t work directly for your firm, because you may not ‘see’ or have regular contact with them. However, as an extension of your firm, they represent your brand, products, and services. More importantly, their success has a significant impact on the success of your firm during challenging economic times. Mary DeBisschop and Jeff Repace, Senior Vice Presidents in our Ipsos US Customer Experience team, have recently published a paper called ‘Why empowering intermediaries can help financial services companies in a challenging economy’.  They join us on our Customer Perspective podcast to talk about helping businesses understand what it takes to maintain successful B2B relationships with their intermediaries. And if you’d like to hear more from Mary and Jeff, sign-up for their upcoming webinar on 7th June: [WEBINAR] Empowering B2B Intermediaries through Customer Experience | Ipsos. Ipsos’ latest CX and Channel Performance thinking may be found via these links.