Your organization cannot run without them. Vendors and suppliers, whether couriers, banks, professional services or suppliers of raw materials, make up a complex network that helps you get the job done.
These are people and organizations you pay and rely on, but far too often I hear people describe the relationship with disdain. Whether the feeling is that they cost too much, are unreliable or are apathetic, the all too unfortunate consensus is that they’re a necessary evil. The best that can be done is to endure, yell when you have to and always be on the lookout for a better option.
If this is where you are, whether with one or many of your vendors or suppliers, the real problem is not them. I suggest it’s you. More precisely, it’s your selection criteria and process for the partners you chose.
Consider your hiring process for a moment. What if you sent out a request for proposal, did a few reference checks and ultimately hired whoever was most popular or willing to work for the least. Would you expect to assemble a motivated and capable team? No.
What if you started interviewing prospective vendors and suppliers similar to how you interview potential employees? If you focused on alignment with your core mission and values, their character and motivations, would you be more likely to end up with partners that were genuinely interested in your business and attentive to the impact of their work? My experience has been that the answer is overwhelmingly yes. You’ll enjoy business more, be frustrated less and spend fewer hours entertaining alternatives when you know your vendors and suppliers are as well aligned as that new employee you just hired.
What’s been your experience? Do you agree?
2 Comments
I think in most markets the number of choices for vendors is limited. I’m in the restaurant business and sourcing china, glass and silver leaves me with three basic choices for vendors in my area. All of them have their advantages and disadvantages, but the bottom line is what kind of relationship you’ve cultivated with the rep from that company. I would guess I’m like most managers in that I entered an environment where our wares were chosen already. That means I have to either convince my owners to change wares and align our business with a supplier I believe in, ask my existing supplier to provide me with a more helpful rep, or cultivate a healthier relationship with my existing rep. I think the healthiest thing to do is pursue that last option by setting up an interview type encounter with the existing rep to define goals and expectations early on. If you’re the new manager on the scene responsible for dealing with vendors, you owe it to your business to define those relationships quickly, because there is not an unlimited supply of them waiting to service your account.
Good advice for those who for whatever reason cannot simply switch to better aligned vendors.