 Your
Customers Are Saying, “Get to Know Me!”
By Ed Rigsbee, CSP
(710 Words)
It was at their
first-ever vendor summit, hosted by a large holding corporation of about
75 very successful companies. Mr. Big, the CEO, is speaking from the
lectern to the audience of several hundred, mostly suppliers and he says,
“Please, get to know us!”
His entire talk was
around this idea. He said to the vendors, in many different ways,
“Please, get to know us!” Why would such a large, successful, and
privately held organization put so much energy into simply saying,
“Please, get to know us!” to their vendors? Because they wanted to
even grow bigger and be even more profitable. That is what world-class
organizations do—get better.
What about your
organization? An interesting question for any business leader to ask of
their own organization is, “How well do our venders know our culture,
our mission, and our vision?” If your vendors do understand and
embrace your culture, mission and vision, they can be an unstoppable force
in helping you to get where you desire to go. This truly does serve the
vendors too, as the better you do, the more you’ll most likely buy from
them.
If your vendors do not
have a crystal-clear understanding of the above, the next logical question
to ask is, “What’s blocking them?” The answer could be as
simple as, “They do not want to be my partner in success.” Or, the
answer could be as complex as, “Unfortunately, my organization is
vendor-hostile.”
More than likely, the
issue is not that your vendors don’t want to partner, but rather how you
perceive and treat your vendors. If you want to move away from a
vendor-hostile culture, you’ll have to first ask, “How does my
organization reward the procurement people?” If they are rewarded
based on getting yet another five-cent/five-percent discount, you are
rewarding the wrong thing. To move away from vendor-hostile toward vendor
partnering, you must reward the total success of the buyer-seller
partnering relationship.
What can you do to help
your vendor’s see/enjoy the value of developing high-level partnering
relationships with your company? Explore the following:
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Express trust in your vendors
through both word and deed.
-
Communicate frequently both
your current and anticipated longer-term needs.
-
Include your vendors in
strategic planning and brainstorming sessions.
-
Regularly drive the
vendor-friendly paradigm, like a laser beam, into the hearts of your
employees, managers and executives.
-
Consider entering into
long-term contractual relationships with your stellar vendors.
-
Rather than squeeze your
vendors for discounts or concessions, help them to take costs out of
their product and the supply chain.
I know of no businesses
that prosper without the help, assistance, and support of their vendors.
Back to the Mr. Big mentioned earlier. I was invited to present the
opening keynote at the vendor summit. Interviewing Mr. Big weeks before
the summit, he mentioned to me that he wanted me to challenge both the
vendors and his people alike. He also wanted me to instruct them in new
and innovative reasons for building alliance relationships.
As I took the stage at
this summit, I could sense the tension and apprehension in the room. The
vendors were braced for a keynoter to tell them why it was in their best
interest to give bigger discounts and partner with the holding corporation
and their 75 plus units. Instead, they received a presentation where the
mirror was placed up close to both the sellers and buyers behaviors.
Following the presentation, there were a number of comments from the
vendors about the “balanced” presentation.
What has always been
clear to me and make so even more, following my keynote presentation was
this: Treat them fair and with integrity—and your vendors will bend over
backwards to try to help you. So why was this article
titled, Your Customers are Saying, Get to Know Me rather than
titled, Treat Your Vendors Well? I titled it with the latter; you
most likely would not have read the article. Your vendors can only get to
know you better if you let them. By the way, are your customers saying to
you, “Get to know me better?
To
access helpful additional information from Ed Rigsbee at no charge,
please visit www.rigsbee.com/downloadaccess.htm.
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Ed Rigsbee, CSP is the
author of three business relationship books: PartnerShift—How To
Profit From the Partnering Trend, Developing
Strategic Alliances and The Art of Partnering. He has over 1,000 published articles to his
credit and is a regular keynote presenter at corporate and trade
association conferences across North America. Rigsbee can be reached at
800-839-1520 or EdRigsbee@aol.com.
For additional related information, visit his Partnering University Web
Site at www.rigsbee.com.
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