We know this is well covered territory, people. What is there to say about vendor partnerships that hasn’t been said in a dozen other blogs or on any number of other websites or in any salesperson’s schtick?
Well, here goes.
A relationship with your vendor today must be about more than just honesty and integrity, it must be about authenticity. What does the word authenticity mean to you? To us, it means REAL. It means GENUINE. The organizations that you’re partnering with should demonstrate these concepts to you. Here’s the tricky part. Sometimes, detecting authenticity in another person or in an organization can be a matter of instinct. To us it has everything to do with how we approach our work, how we convey our expertise to our valued customers, and how we interact with our own supply chain from the materials to the delivery team.
And yes, it does mean being honest. But it also means being responsive and reacting to conditions on a dime. It’s about taking a deadline as seriously as you do. It’s about understanding the impact of time and quality on the overall bottom line of your products. Getting there first. Being as close to perfect as possible. Every time.
Dovetailing right into that, or as a subset of it, a quality vendor should be able to articulate their sweet spot. What they excel at and what is maybe not so much in their wheelhouse. Anybody who tells you they are an expert in absolutely everything is almost surely not being totally honest with you.
When your project fits us well, we will tell you. And when we might need to sub contract out some or all of a project, we will tell you that, too. We would never want you to feel that you have been mislead or that you expected something to be in house that was not. We are not hesitant to be honest, because see above.
Finally, we see a lot of value in the personality of our team. It can be hard to differentiate one company from another today. So, if given the choice between two relatively similar providers, why not choose the one who you feel more comfortable with personally? If one salesperson kind of creeps you out and the other one is someone you would love to grab a beer with, take the beer! Always, take the beer.
In all seriousness though, we know it’s not easy. You have a lot of choices, and sometimes it can be hard to select between entities that appear the same.
In fact, in the vetting process, it is always a great idea to ask your potential suppliers, “How are you different from your competition?” And pay very close attention to their answer.
We will never bad mouth any other companies. We will give you a great answer to that question though.
We can’t wait to answer your question(s)
