Suppliers are essential to your business because without them, daily tasks or projects you have, might not be so successful. It’s important that your suppliers are performing to the standards you expect so that your business doesn’t suffer as a result. Here are four tips for creating a good relationship with suppliers.
Keep Up With Communication On Your End
Firstly, it’s good to keep up with communication, especially when you’re trying to establish the relationship, to begin with. Whether it’s making sure you have an account manager that you can speak to directly or just being active in contacting them regularly, it’s good to put in the effort from the start. When you’re communicating, it means that if anything goes wrong or you feel like the service isn’t as good on their part, you have proof that you’ve been putting in the leg work from your side of the working relationship. Keep the relationship formal when it comes to your suppliers as they are providing you a service, and that can be different from the relationships you have with your clients or customers.
Be Flexible With Your Expectations
Your expectations are valid and important when it comes to your business and what you expect from a supplier, but you also have to be flexible. For the supplier, you are not likely to be the only business they have, and that means that you might need to be patient in times where they’re very busy dealing with other clients. Whether you’re getting wholesale chemicals from the supplier or waiting on the manufacturing of products, it’s good to have flexibility in when you need your products delivering. Try to give them a bit of extra time to meet deadlines where possible, and you’ll find that the relationship is less intense.
Complain When It’s Needed
Complaining is effective, but it’s important to only complain when it’s needed. A lot of suppliers that you might work with will have challenges of their own, and not everything will always go according to plan. However, there might be times where complaining speeds up the process of something you’re trying to get done or it’s valid in that they’re really messed up, and it’s impacted the running of your business too. It’s good to complain sometimes because that can reinforce the formality of the relationship, and it can stop suppliers from sometimes slacking, which can sometimes happen.
Pay Them On Time
Just like anyone who’s needing to earn money and pay their bills, suppliers won’t like to be delayed on payment. The standard thirty-day payment agreement is long enough, and it shouldn’t really be any longer. To delay payments and regularly miss payment deadlines, it can hinder your relationship with the supplier and cause a lot of frustration. Try to pay on time and set reminders if your financial team is busy and perhaps sometimes put those invoices to the bottom of the pile.
Creating good relationships with your suppliers is important, so put in the effort where you can.
