How important are suppliers to our company? How much of our company would we put or are we putting in their hands? How safe do we find ourselves with the suppliers that appear at the doors of our business? These are questions that we must ask ourselves before selecting a provider.
How complicated can it be to select suppliers these days? The fact is that we have a lot to choose from, but the problem is choosing the right one that meets our needs, however we must consider that 100% of these will not be met. that this percentage does not exist in real life. To solve the above, an adequate number of suppliers must be obtained, which satisfy certain critical points, so the first thing is to identify these:
- Cost, although it is not a minor point, it is important to be careful as it is misleading, we cannot expect a low cost if this implies us not meeting other critical points Time, as we already know is money, can play against us or in favor.Guarantee, this is a point that is generally neglected enough, although we see it in products, it can also be negotiated for services. A guarantee assures us that what we are obtaining is of quality, since they will not sell us something that later they will have to change or fix and for our benefit also, in case of failure we reduce the time (money), since we will not have to be looking for new solutions to our old problem. Support contract, although we have the guarantee, it does not assure us of an immediate response about the problem we have,the support contract gives us a solution to this. In this we must specify well what are the response times and types of failure. Well, the above will depend on what we acquire, so it is up to your imagination.Project needs, these depend directly on what we are buying, but we must be realistic, we cannot expect that all of them will be met, since as we mentioned, 100% does not exist, we only have to ensure the most critical.100% does not exist, we only have to ensure the most critical.100% does not exist, we only have to ensure the most critical.
The previous points must be in balance, that is, that they satisfy us and give a real solution to our needs, we must not put aside any of these to improve the other.
The aforementioned is just a guide for us, we should never mention this to the provider.
Now, returning to the point of supplier selection, the idea is to make an appropriate selection before making a purchase, otherwise this would imply a bad decision, or an erroneous evaluation of the supplier. The main idea of this is to rule out providers in an effective way, to be left with a number that is easy to handle and that are almost reliable (we cannot trust them yet).
As a recommendation, we can start the negotiation by placing all the cards (needs) on the table and little by little guide them towards our area (critical points), this will facilitate the negotiation and they will see that they will obtain good results. In this way, our evaluation of the supplier, after the purchase, will be clear and easy to carry out, as well as fair.
If we take the critical points and tabulate them, we will have our first approximation for the selection: Provider V / S Critical Points.
Something that brings us closer to the goal is to know the "Mission" and "Vision" of the company (supplier) and if it is within our expectations. As already mentioned in a previous publication “Important aspects in business with suppliers”, the supplier does not work for us, but works with us, since it is a very important alloy within our company (Important aspects in business with suppliers). It is also important to know the experience he has within our area of work, that is, how much he knows about the business, how long he has been in the market, with whom he has worked and, as important information, we will always meet someone from the companies to those that the supplier refers to, it is valid and healthy to ask, we consider that we must take care of our business and our work,I am not saying it only because of a possible dismissal due to a bad decision, I am also saying it, because if the company loses we all lose, including the supplier. Therefore, it is always important as the supplier's first approach to our business, a letter of introduction from the company, which gives us an answer to the aforementioned. Well, it is also of great help that we show you the Mission and Vision of our company, to make known our objectives, our "North", the idea of a good supplier is not to use it and discard it, but to maintain a good relationship of business in time.to give us an answer to the aforementioned. Well, it is also of great help that we show you the Mission and Vision of our company, to make known our objectives, our "North", the idea of a good supplier is not to use it and discard it, but to maintain a good relationship of business in time.to give us an answer to the aforementioned. Well, it is also of great help that we show you the Mission and Vision of our company, to make known our objectives, our "North", the idea of a good supplier is not to use it and discard it, but to maintain a good relationship of business in time.
Another thing that we must take into consideration, although it is stepping on “difficult” ground, is to evaluate the supplier (the account executive), so far we have talked about the supplier company, but there is always a person who represents its interests. A bad deal is sometimes caused by a bad negotiator, that is why the first impression is always important, and the next thing is to see how much interest you have in solving our problems; For an evaluation of this type, we must have a capacity for analysis and knowledge of people, which is very difficult. But to facilitate this work, we must focus on the following:
The provider must:
- Knowing how to listen and understand our problems, we cannot afford to spend time and effort in making you understand what our needs are, but for this, we must be clear about what they are, otherwise, we are the bad negotiators. Let us guide you to our area. As we already mentioned, the idea is to provide a solution to those critical points that we mentioned, to find a solution to other things, it is not bad, but time is money. Give clear answers, ambiguous answers only cause loss of time, as well as disorientation, which leads us directly to a bad decision. Giving real solutions, although the solution can be a true wonder, it must be limited by the aforementioned critical points. Otherwise it would not be viable.
Finally create a small database where we will have our suppliers, identifying them by their best product and quality, this will help us to select them depending on our needs.
The selection of suppliers is nothing more than an orderly methodology and some knowledge about the people, one without the other works, but both working together could give an excellent result.
