Respect Your Vendors
By Mohnish Nair
Are
you one of those who believe your vendors are available a dime a dozen? Do you
take your suppliers for granted? Do you think that they will run to you no
matter how badly you treat them? If yes, then you are in for a shock!! Nobody
wants to work with an ego-master anymore.
YOUR
ATTITUDE TOWARDS YOUR VENDORS SHOWS YOUR TRUE CHARACTER AS A PERSON.
When
dealing with your customers you are at your sweetest best. You want to please
the client and make sure you don’t lose that order or your payments are not
stuck and hence you are ready to take any kind of trash from these customers.
However, with your vendors, it’s the other way round. You believe that they
need you and hence you start ignoring their reminders, you squeeze them for
their price and you have 100 more ways of arm twisting since you believe they
need your business and that they will tolerate any kind of un-professionalism
from you.
WIN-WIN
Well,
its time you wake up and smell the coffee mister!
Gone
are those days. Today the world is coming closer and business opportunities are
multiplying manifold. Business relationships today are about balance of
benefits and about building WIN-WIN relationships. You have to ensure you stick
to the agreements and contracts with your vendors if you expect them to
reciprocate the same towards you.
TIMELY
COMMUNICATION
If
you want your business to improve then you must ensure you treat your vendors respectfully.
Vendors are also business people. They depend heavily on your responses to
manage their operations and cash flow, the same way you do on your customers.
You must reply to their communication via email or phone in a disciplined
manner, the same way you do with your customers. One weak link can damage the
entire value chain. If you expect your vendors to reply to your 2 am calls, you
must be ready to do the same for them too.
CONTRACTS
AND AGREEMENTS
Respect
comes from adherence to contracts and being timely in payments and
communication. Respect can also be shown by not arm twisting the vendors when
they are vulnerable.
VENDOR
EDUCATION PROGRAM
Build
a Vendor education program in your company where you educate your vendors on
your philosophies, vision, expectations and work ethics. This way you and your
vendors will be on the same page most of the times thus avoiding many of the
communication and operational hassles.
Remember, if you deal with your
vendors respectfully, they can turn into your BUSINESS PARTNERS helping you
grow your business.
This article is written by
Mohnish Nair. Mohnish is a business coach specialized in small and medium size
enterprise coaching in India
Contact Mohnish by visiting
his blogsite http://www.mapledreamsindia.com or
write to him at mapledreams22@yahoo.com
Visit our facebook page – www.facebook.com/mapledreamsindia
